In The News The Irish Times

A group of 400 Irish artists have signed an online petition calling on singer Bambie Thug to boycott the Eurovision. The Macroom performer was chosen to represent Ireland in the upcoming competition in Sweden. But there have been persistent calls to refuse to take part as long as Israel is included in the line-up. The middle eastern country's participation has been described by protesters as 'art-washing.' It echoes similar campaigns across Europe for their respective entrants to drop out, following months of relentless bombardment of the Gaza strip. Bambie has expressed solidarity with the protesters and believes the European Broadcasting Union has made the wrong decision to allow Israel perform - but like their fellow competitors, the 'ouija pop' singer won't be boycotting the event in May. Irish Times reporter and Eurovision superfan, Laura Slattery, talks about Bambie’s predicament, about the competition’s long history of political controversy and what will happen in Malmo.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan.

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Three decades ago, on April 7th 1994, the genocide and State-sponsored extermination of Rwanda’s minority Tutsi minority began. The country was gripped by a wave of unprecedented violence that lasted 100 days and resulted in the deaths of 500,000 men, women and children.
“Here you had neighbours killing neighbours, priests killing parishioners, doctors killing patients, teachers killing students,” recalls New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch, interviewed on today’s In The News podcast.
And while reports and images of these horrific atrocities filled newspapers around the world, the international community just stood by and watched.
“Everybody had pulled out and left them, other African countries had betrayed them, no one had come to their defence,” says Gourevitch, whose harrowing account of the genocide We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families was published in 1998. “The lesson of the Rwandan story at that moment in time, in a global sense, was the people who depend on the world for their protection are unprotected.”
Following the Rwandan genocide, and the Srebrenica massacre a year later, world leaders pledged never again to stand by and allow such atrocities to unfold. And yet, in the three decades since, millions of citizens have been murdered or starved in conflicts across Africa and the Middle East.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by John Casey.

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Convicted drug dealer, David Waldron, played a senior role in the Finglas-Cabra crime gang following the deaths of Martin 'Marlo' Hyland in 2006 and Eamon 'The Don' Dunne in 2010. But rather than attracting press attention in the way his associates had, Waldron flew under the radar to build his drugs empire out of the limelight. Last week, his lavish lifestyle was laid bare after he lost his four year High Court battle against the Criminal Assets Bureau. His 25 year run in the drugs trade extends beyond narcotics to feature luxury Celtic Tiger properties bought with the proceeds of crime, a sex shop-owning 'headshop czar' and a funeral business his wife, Charlene, claimed to found called 'Elegant Send-off.' Conor Lally explains who David Waldron is and how he managed to evade authorities for so long.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon and Aideen Finnegan.

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2024 had the hottest March ever recorded. And it was the 10th month in a row to break its record.
On one day in March, the Antarctic was 38.5 degrees warmer than the average. Climate change is a terrifying reality.
Even if that heat measure proves to be an anomaly we’re still in big trouble – because of the level of emissions we pump into the atmosphere.
As climatologist and director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies Gavin Schmidt tells In the News, we’re in uncharted waters because climate models can’t explain the huge heat anomaly in 2023 – and now 2024 with the impact of El Nino to be factored in, sure outcomes look even more difficult to predict.
We’re on course for catastrophic warming, one way or the other, unless radical changes are made.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

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Last weekend, the Amy Winehouse biopic ‘Back to Black’ jumped straight to the top of the Irish and UK box office. The release of the movie’s trailer earlier this year prompted immediate backlash from fans who argued the biopic had come too soon after the British singer’s death and risked exploiting her story.
However, in reality, most of the viewing public just can’t seem to get enough of musical biopics. Following the success of Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and the Elton John film Rocketman, studios are confident of a return-on-investment on these pictures. And audiences even love the satirical movies that mock the genre.
The problem is, they can be tricky to get right. You need great acting, singing or miming – and clever storytelling if you’re diverging from the truth.
Today, on In the News, Irish Times film correspondent Donald Clarke discusses why audiences love musical biopics and what separates a show-stopper from a bum note?
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan, Suzanne Brennan and John Casey.

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The jury in the Stardust inquests has returned a verdict of unlawful killing in the cases of each of the 48 young people who died in the fire at the Artane nightclub 43 years ago.
That means the survivors and the families of those who lost their lives have been vindicated in their long search for justice and accountability. But why did it take so long - and what happens next?
We hear from Stardust families, who spoke to Aideen Finnegan just after the verdict was read out.
And Irish Times social affairs correspondent Kitty Holland, who covered the inquest for the past year, talks about the meaning of the verdict and why this final official say on the tragedy was long coming.
Presented by Aideen Finnegan and Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon and Aideen Finnegan.

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