News Catch-Up: Iran, Athletes and St. Pat-thique

[Music] Hello my friends and welcome to Cache Up with Louise McSharrie. This is the podcast where I do my best to keep you caught up with what's going on in the world. Whether indeed it is a news catch up on Monday and an entertainment catch up on Wednesday or a chat with someone interesting who's got something interesting going on on a Friday, I'm trying to just keep you looped in and entertained frankly. That's, you know, that's the main goal. Today is Monday so obviously we're catching up on the news. There is so much to talk about there. I don't even know where to begin. I mean you'll hear where we begin but obviously a lot has been happening over the course of the weekend in terms of global politics but we've also got a really, really fun story to wrap up with this week and in fact one of my favorite stories that we've talked about in quite some time so I hope you'll stick around for that. Here is Karl Kinsler. Good morning Karl Kinsler. I had chosen all of the stories for today's news episode and then things got immeasurably worse over the weekend and so let's start with global news because there's been a lot going on. What is happening with Iran, Lebanon and Israel? Yeah so about halfway through Saturday, Ireland time, the US and Israel began a wave of air strikes against Iran and this happened against the backdrop of what were ostensibly, you know, negotiations and talks between the US and Iran at the center of which was sort of Iran's supposed nuclear program which has kind of been, you know, certainly used as the, you know, I won't start by using the word pretense but I was sorting, you know, since 2015 really and since the US struck that landmark deal with Iran to sort of curtail their supposed nuclear program under Barack Obama, it's been sort of a central issue, you know, like Donald Trump in his first term he pulled the US out of that deal right away and that deal, you know, under Obama sort of seemed to be something that could have led to a normalization of relations between Iran and the United States and of course, Donald Trump doesn't want that and I mean we can talk in a few minutes about what impact this will have on the price of oil because ultimately oil is central to all of the things that the United States does in the Middle East but as far as what has happened in the last 48 hours, it has been extremely consequential, probably the op-ed line is that Air strikes on Saturday killed Iran's Supreme Leader Aitolakomane who has been the leader of Iran since 1989, he is the ecleric who heads a sort of theocracy in Iran, nothing really happens in Iran without his say so, he's hugely important figure in this hugely important country that has a population of about 19 million people, it produces a huge amount of oil, you know, it's really important, you know, as far as the Gulf goes kind of a superpower between themselves and Saudi Arabia. Also what has sort of flown around the radar slightly is that, you know, there's multiple figures in the Iranian leadership have been killed. I think Donald Trump put the number of 48 Iranian leaders, we know that Machuid Ahmed bin, Machuid Ahmed Ahmad Jad who was the elected president of Iran and I know he's elected in 2009, I can't remember if that was the first time he was elected in the second time, he was also, you know, people can remember 2009, he was sort of a pretty big figure back then and his election in 2009 sort of precipitated a wave of protests in Iran, I think he won with, you know, over 90% of the vote or something like that and people in Iran felt as though their democratic rights were being impinged upon because the thing with Iran is that while they do have this, you know, cancel of clerics that are the true leadership of the country, they do also elect a president, but the president can't really get much done without the say so of the of the chief Iatola. What Donald Trump has sort of demanded in the aftermath of these deaths is that Iran come back to the table and engage in peace talks and I would imagine that what Donald Trump is seeking to get out of that is some deal over oil. I think Donald Trump has also been explicit that he is looking for regime change in Iran. He has called on the people of Iran to sort of rise up and overthrow their leadership. He has also called on the Republican Guard, which is the military police of Iran. He has called on them to lay down their weapons for immunity and if they don't lay down their weapons, they will face what he has called certain death and indeed, I mean, the strikes are not only, you know, sort of intensifying, but they are also spreading across the region because Iran is responding by hitting US bases in Gulf States. The United States has a lot of bases across the Gulf. So Iran has launched retaliatory strikes in third-party countries. Like, for example, they have struck Doha, which is the capital of Qatar, the struck Manema, which is the capital of Bahrain, and they have also struck Dubai, obviously in the United Arab Emirates and a place where there would be a lot of Irish people, a lot of British people, so there's a lot of chaos in terms of people being stranded with their flights. So, as I say, it's a hugely consequential thing. Israel, of course, is also in on the act. They have dropped a lot of bombs on Iran. They have a huge regional interest in Iran being destabilized. The more unstable Iran is, the better Israel's position is in the Middle East. Unfortunately, for Lebanon, Lebanon is a country that sort of just geographically gets caught. These things, obviously, Hezbollah, which is a terrorist organization that operates out of Lebanon, is usually backed by Iran, so it means that the people in Iran are being struck by Israel. So, it really is a very intense conflict already that has pulled in a lot of different countries. Maybe one of the most disturbing things with people will have seen. And of course, at this point, where Hezbollah has used the phrase that we're used to it, but I mean, we're seeing essentially some of the terrible things that have happened in Gaza. We're now seeing those replicated in Iran. We know that a bomb was dropped on a girl's school, for example, and we know the death toll of that strike has already risen to 165 people, of course, many of whom are young girls, young student girls. So, we are looking at a really horrible set of circumstances, and one that, you know, the United States is really taking quite a lot of pride in. You know, Donald Trump is not, he's not speaking about this sort of solemnity or whatever, he is bragging about the amount of that is being done, and this idea of Iran being brought to heel. As of this morning, the Iranian leadership or what remains of it has said that they will not go to the table to talk with Donald Trump. They're not going to engage in peace talks while these airstrikes are continuing. So, what we have in that region at the minute is a lot of chaos and a lot of destruction and a lot of unpredictability. But, you know, as the bombs are falling and they are falling really all across the Middle East, six or seven countries involved, even as close a cypress, there's a UK airbase in Cyprus that was struck by Iran today, by a drone. Kirstaarmer has said that nobody was killed in that attack. We know that three United States soldiers have been killed in bases across the Middle East. So, it really is a moment of huge consequence and one that I think anybody would be sort of foolish to try to predict the outcome of this particular one. Yeah, it's kind of just betrays such a disrespect for human life via Israel and America. And, you know, to think about these three American service members dying, you know, you have to wonder what impact that's going to have in domestic politics in the US. I mean, I'm just surely not going to win Donald Trump any favors. I think it's been pointed out that, you know, people are now really focused obviously on talking about this conflict, which has kind of taken the light away from the Epstein files and the conversation about Donald Trump's involvement there. It obviously comes after, you know, heavy groundwork was laid in terms of international politics via the action and inaction over what happened in Gaza, the allowance of Israel to just do whatever they want, clearly. And also be, this probably isn't the right word to use, but be in cahoots with the US. You know, they're obviously working in a very coordinated fashion on what's happening at the moment. So, obviously, Israel was never going to be called to task in any big way on Gaza by America when they're working together in this fashion. It's just all very worrying about the actual stability of world politics, isn't it? Very worrying. And it is, it's very interesting what you point out, the impact that this could have on the United States sort of domestic landscape because, yeah, I did see polling data that said only 27% of American citizens support the strikes that kill Liatoula Commune. And of course, a big part of what Donald Trump campaigned on, especially in 2016, just to a lesser extent in 2024. But I think one of the things that really appealed to Americans about Donald Trump in his first run was that he seemed to be a president who was really against military intervention in the Middle East because a huge thing, a huge part of his platform was that he wanted the government to spend less money. And of course, it was cost a tremendous amount of money. They kind of cost more money than anything else. The US spends money on the defense budget, which means now, you know, now that it's the Department of War, I suppose we should call it the war budget, which does feel like more. It's interesting I actually saw in the Guardian as well, polling data that there's less of a hesitancy among the Israeli population, which seems to have really sort of embraced militarism in the last three or four years. But in the United States, you could definitely see how this will backfire, you know, whether it's the deaths of American troops or whether it's the fact that people just don't believe this is where the US should be spending its time and energy. And indeed, you know, the inevitable increase in oil prices and gas prices. Yeah, like I mean, the US as of early 2026, according to the Google, the US Defense Budget is $880 to $900 billion annually. Like that is enormous. When you have a situation where Americans, many of them are struggling to get food. I heard one American calling into a radio show saying that she lost, I think, 28 pounds over the course of the last couple of months or a few months or maybe a year. Actually, the time period is important. But anyway, it was in a relatively short period of time. And she said that she wasn't someone who needed to lose weight, but she'd lost weight because she couldn't afford food. She was talking about her benefits, essentially, like her SNAP benefits. And she said that under Joe Biden, she would have had $100 a month left to spend on food and what she gets now, she has $12 a month to spend on food. You know, people are really suffering in America from the changes that Donald Trump has made, which is one of the reasons his approval rating is suffering so much. So when you've got people who are literally starving in your country, and then you hear that $900 billion is being spent on wars that you're not interested in. Like, that's got to lead to frustration. And also, people need to remember that, like, American people have war in their very recent consciousness. Like, there was the Gulf War, there was Vietnam, there was obviously World War II, you know, the loss of life in those conflicts was significant. And Americans remember that. I think that they're not flahulok for the most part about entering into new conflict, which could result in the loss of American life. You know, despite the fact that obviously Americans are very patriotic and they are, you know, the attitude towards veterans on service members is very positive. And it is seen to be very honorable career to be in the military. I don't think they're casual about Americans dying in wars that don't feel justified. No, and of course, you know, it really is, by the end of George W. Bush's second term, you know, his approval rating was through the floor. Yeah, it turned. Sort of the continuation of the war, the Iraq war and, you know, obviously the US's presence in Afghanistan, I suppose, the war won't fall back then. You know, so I definitely do think it's likely to have an impact on Donald Trump's popularity in the United States, because, you know, as you say, if it gets to the point where US troops need to be committed to around and they actually have boots on the ground, you know, I would imagine that the overwhelming majority of the US population will really hate that. I think it's not what they want. I mean, it's one of these things that it's, it reminds you of, you know, that the world is just sort of almost like a chess board for these ultra-powerful people, because nobody really wants this, you know, like it's very little, you know, it's not as if Donald Trump was elected because he was promising to bomb Iran. You know, and it is interesting to think like it has been a feature of, you know, the United States politics for years and years now. Like, I remember the John McCain when he ran in 2008, you know, a big part of his platform was that he planned to, you know, threaten military action against Iran. So it is something that you say that the groundwork has been laid for this for a very, very long time, sort of geopolitical. I think what as you say, it's something that will have enormous political consequences. And then, of course, in the Middle East itself, it's going to have huge humanitarian consequences because Iran is a country that has already suffered so much via US sanctions and via Iran's own approach, you know, the way it's run, it is a heavily-theocratic and very repressive society. So there's a lot of people in Iran, millions of people who are already suffering very badly. Of course, we saw in the last few months, there's been huge protests in Iran, which were very, very viciously by the regime there. We obviously remember a couple of years ago, there was huge protests after a young Iranian woman was arrested by the morality police over there for not wearing a hijab. And she dumped in police custody. There was huge protests there, as well, which were also put down brutally. So the people of Iran have suffered hugely. And what this really marks is just an extension or a modification of that suffering, whereby, rather than being sort of constrained and crushed by their own regime, now they are simply being bombed from the sky by regimes from abroad. So it's a hugely distressing moment in time. As I say, I think even if we were to imagine that there is some sort of peace talk or some sort of mediation that can happen in the coming days, we're still looking at just a very, very grim picture for the people of Iran, especially. I think it's worth bearing in mind that a lot of times when these things kick off, there can be a lot of social media commentary of like, oh no, it's World War III. And I think we can tend to reflect that anxiety maybe back on ourselves. But in actual fact, I think it's important to remember that the people who are going to suffer most are the people in the Middle East, which is I mean, it's always the case. It's interesting, I think that the involvement of Dubai kind of escalates things in terms of people's attitudes and countries like Ireland, because we do have apparently there's about 20,000 Irish people in Dubai. And because people go on holidays to Dubai and people feel like connection to Dubai, it obviously makes it easier for people to access their kind of sympathy and fear in relation to what's going on. But yeah, I think it is really important to remember that every single one of these countries has citizens who are just trying to live their lives. And as you say, particularly somewhere like Iran, you know, the impact on Iranians lives over the last number of decades is insane. Like if you look at photographs of Iran from the 70s versus photographs of Iran, now the way that people are forced to live, the rules, as you say, the theocratic kind of rules on people's lives, it's they've been through a lot as it is. And you know, it's very worrying and distressing to think that they are heading into yet more instability, instability, excuse me, because of this. It really just feels like like I feel like Donald Trump did, like there definitely was a kind of feeling that Donald Trump is a good businessman. And Donald Trump will run America like a business. And it just feels like Donald Trump is running America like a business because it seems like all he really cares about is money. And you know, that's what oil is all about. Obviously, it's about money. So, you know, I kind of feel like he is doing even though he said that he wasn't interested in more international conflict. Like he is still kind of doing what he said he would do. I feel what do you think? Well, it feels like, yeah, I think what he's doing is sort of this enormously short termist plan to sort of seek the United States sort of oil reserves and to expand them by essentially tapping into countries that have previously played hardball with their oil supply like Venezuela. And of course, like Iran, you know, these are two of the biggest oil producing countries in the world. And Donald Trump has sort of very shamelessly and brazenly targeted them, you know, in a way that I think we can essentially, you know, it's not as if he will necessarily come out and say this, although in the case of Venezuela, he kind of came as close as possible as, you know, to admitting it that it really just is about oil. And it's about making sure that, you know, the United States has this easy access to the resources of other sovereign countries, you know, it's sort of being abandoned, you know. So as you say, yeah, it's not, it's it is in line with who say like the kind of person that you and I know Donald Trump to be, for example, you know, he he is a liar and a conniver and a very bad person. And in that sense, yeah, like he he has always shown himself to be totally amoral or immoral to the public. So I do imagine that there are plenty of people who voted for him who will be happy enough with this in the sense of yes, it could lead to the United States being in a much stronger position oil wise. And in word, obviously in many cases, not talking about people who care about, for example, the sovereignty of Venezuela or this is in Iran. I'm sure a lot of, I mean, you listen to the way Trump talks in order to vote for him, you obviously have to be a person who who doesn't care that much about other people. Yeah. It's just sort of par for the course. Yeah. Yeah. You know, in that sense, I very much agree with you that like, you know, Donald Trump, I think, showed himself always to be a very shameless, very brazen, very self-interested person who, you know, was always trying to get like steered the United States back towards fossil fuels and, you know, he's obviously gutted a lot of clean energy programs. He has, you know, signed off on drilling in Alaska. You know, it's been a total shift in how the US approaches energy like it's interesting on that front. You know, obviously, Joe Biden brought in sort of a not quite a green new deal, but like he did sign off on a lot of green projects. You know, also signed off on a lot of oil stuff as well. So like, let's not pretend he was like a climate warrior, but, you know, he was sort of taking the US in a different direction to what Donald Trump would and that is. And so, yeah, what we're looking at is someone who is essentially choosing to follow a path of, you know, using energy that's going to destroy the climate and the way he's going about it is to steal that energy, you know, by force from other countries. So, and, you know, I do think that you are right that a lot of Donald Trump voters probably this is somewhat in line with what they would have expected because that's the sort of, you know, he is a very warlike, very aggressive, very, you know, there's essentially America first, but it's, I think at first, people thought America first might just mean a domestic thing where Americans are put first within their own borders, whereas in actual fact, what we're looking at now is I think something just much more akin to aggressive expansion, you know, honestly, the closest historical parallel, you can really think of probably as Hitler. You know, Hitler's concept of labent rhyme, which is the idea that German people needed more space to live in. I think if you still have space for oil, it does feel like a very similar sort of approach to geopolitics. Yeah, and also obviously Donald Trump likes to talk about wars that he's won and wars that he's solved and, you know, this is all ego for him as well. It's, yeah, it's pretty disgusting. He gave the State of the Union, which is obviously an annual address to the American people over the course of the last week as well. It was the longest State of the Union in history. He beat his own record for the longest State of the Union in history and spoke for nearly two hours in a boring, very boring speech. I think that, you know, there was a lot of discourse and we were going to touch on this later. We want to just mention it now, around the American hockey teams. Basically, the US men's hockey teams on women's hockey teams, both one gold medals at the Olympics, but Donald Trump only made a phone call to the men's hockey team to congratulate them. And then it's been, it was recorded that he said that he wasn't good inviting them to the White House to watch the State of the Union on, but that he'd have to invite the women to ha ha ha. And there's a video of the men's hockey team laughing along with him. So he did invite the women as well, but the women were unable to attend. However, the men did attend the State of the Union. And I have to stay having to sit through a two-hour speech by Donald Trump feels like appropriate punishment for the disrespect that they showed their female compatriots. Yeah, that really was just so, I don't know what the word even for it is, just such a shit behavior. So, particularly given that, I mean, like not these two things are really conflated, but I know, like, you know, for example, that show he didn't rivalry has had such a moment. So I think there was actually quite a lot of interest in hockey at this moment. Yeah. People were mostly, you know, obviously it was time to go out with winter Olympics. People were really interested. So, you know, kind of with the eyes of the world on them, it's really crazy that the US men's hockey team would have sort of, first of all, agreed to sort of take the phone call, then agreed to film or like, just have someone film it. And then, you know, to be laughing along with this sort of misogynistic humor really is just kind of unbelievable. They were also partying with Cache Patel, the director of the FBI. Like that really is just so head scratching. Like you just have this loser who's in charge of the FBI using his sort of position to go and party with people who have actually achieved something. Yeah. Or the idea that they would sort of welcome him in is again just so embarrassing. It's so spineless. It's so cowardly. Yeah. I'm also blown away by, you know, no offense to them, but like, male sports people in general and the level of cowardice, they seem to be capable of. Yeah. Like the level of silence, the level of the amount, the extent to which they can ignore terrible things, it blows my mind, you know, whether it's locker players at the World Cup in Qatar, and at the US and then Saudi Arabia, or the ice hockey team laughing along with Donald Trump, I'm just always stunned by, then to which male sports people who are usually very rich and very powerful in their own right seem to be totally incapable of standing up for anything besides themselves. It just, it bloke me away. Yeah, it's wild. And you know, this behavior from the men's hockey team, it's been talked about a lot. And I know that there are some people who are like, oh, come on, like they had no choice. You have to laugh along with a joke like that when it's said. And it's not even a big deal. And like, it is a big deal. And it's a big deal, especially because, you know, the male hockey players have come out and many of them, I saw one of them actually properly apologize. And he said, look, that was bad. We shouldn't have, you know, whatever. Most of them though have made excuses and talked about how there are no, we're like really close with the women's hockey team. We've trained together. We, you know, we've spent so much time supporting them. They've supported us like we're like one big team kind of vibe. And that makes it worse in my opinion because if you are out in public, you are supportive of your, you know, female friends, you know, all that what happened does is confirm that we can't trust men behind closed doors because they'll still be making gross jokes or they'll be laughing along with the gross jokes. And honestly, laughing along with the gross jokes is just as bad as making the gross jokes. And honestly, just shows you to be so incredibly spineless. And look, it's not fun to be the fun police. Like, I know Gordon has spoken to me about this before, but like occasionally he would find himself in it. I think we've talked about this before. He'd find himself in a kind of WhatsApp group of lads for whatever reason and someone might make a joke that's, you know, not unsavory to say the least. And, you know, not just not funny. And he's like, I don't like having to be the person who's like, hey, that's not okay or that's not cool. He's like, but I also, I'm not going to just let these things be said. I'm sorry, but that's how it needs to be. Like, if you are a quote unquote good man, and if you do respect and care about your, you know, these women who you could have trained beside, and who, you know, apparently you respect on the same level as yourself, and why would you laugh that that entirely disrespectful comment, whether it's a joke or not. Like, and I think, yeah, for women athletes, for female athletes, I just feel like so sorry for the women who are working, you know, many of them for their entire career, particularly I saw Abby Wombach, the American, she's retired soccer player, very successful soccer players, worked, done a lot for women in sport. Just speaking with such frustration, just the feeling of like, what is it going to take to get a little bit of respect? Like, when will we be seen as people? You know, and not the laughing stock of a sport. And, you know, it's just devastating to think that we're still at this point when, you know, we feel like we're making progress. Really is. And just to take it to the point you made about sort of being the phone police and the idea of sort of interjecting when someone makes a joke like this or a comment like this, is that in this case as well, it goes so far beyond simply being a joke when you're taken to a camp that like in Donald Trump, we're talking about a man who has been found liable in civil court for sexual assault, exactly. A man who features repeatedly thousands of times in the Epstein emails, a man who has made very, like, I mean, this is just talking about the public stuff. You know, he's made terrible comments about, for example, his own daughter about underage women. He used to be a geodged, you know, these misteen America pageants. This is a man whose reputation with women is violent. And, you know, in many cases would very much stretch into, you know, suspected criminal activity. So the idea that, you know, that for me is like, it's not just even a man making a joke. It's it's someone who himself is, you know, has found in court, has been found in court to be a predator. Why would you even talk to it? Let alone laugh at his joke. Literally. So like, that's kind of where I am. Like, it's sort of like, not only are they laughing at the joke, but to actually find this man acceptable in any way to me goes, like, because again, we're talking about people in the US men's eye socket team who are not perilous people. They're not, it's not like some trucker has been brought in to meet the president and doesn't know what to do. No, just respect to truckers. I mean, like, someone who has no experience or somebody who doesn't live in that sphere. Yeah. And they're brought into the overlauvers to maybe meet Trump on a once off. And so I understand someone like that may be laughing at everything he says because you are so shell-shocked by the situation. And you're like, God, what am I doing here? But with less men's eye socket team, you're talking about people who should have quite a lot of, they should be quite self-possessed. And they should be able to exercise some of the autonomy that they have. And that's why it's sort of it's really not good enough afterwards to come out and be like, oh, you got to laugh at what the president says. You got to party with the FBI director. It's like history is made up of like, changes in history, comb from people being brave enough to stand up. And it's going to be like, no, you're a fucking horrible person. I'm not going to laugh with you. I'm not going to, you know, share in this moment with you. And, you know, as I said earlier, it's just stunning to me how none of them are apparently brave enough or have the way with all to do that. Yeah. It's pathetic is what it is. Absolutely pathetic. And look, we'll stay with sports for a moment because obviously we've spoken before about the fact that Ireland and Israel were due to play each other in football. And there was a big question mark over where that would happen, whether it would happen in a neutral country. We know now that the match is due to take place in Ireland. There's been a lot of conversation around this. A lot of questions about boy costs. Where do you think stand at the moment? Yeah. There were a few updates last week updates in the sense of things that we already suspected being confirmed because I mean, we sort of speculated on the podcast ourselves that maybe, you know, there could be a neutral venue brought into the mix or that maybe it wouldn't even happen, even if it did happen in Ireland that maybe it wouldn't happen in the Aviva. But that has been confirmed now that it will take place in the Aviva. And not only that, but OOTE have confirmed that they will broadcast the match, which is typically of course, you know, it sort of almost goes that saying OOTE don't usually need to confirm that they will be broadcasting in Ireland match or not, you know, usually you're not waiting like that. You know, usually those things are totally powerful the course. All of our home games are played in the Aviva. All of our games are broadcast by either OOTE or Sky Sports. So obviously people don't want that to happen. There has been a huge, you know, boycott, like the prospect of a boycott has been raised. The prospect of protests has been raised. One would imagine given that we see, you know, protests quite regularly through Dublin City Centre just other given weekend that if you actually have the Israeli national team and Israeli fans, you know, in Dublin, one would imagine that protests will be significantly intensified. I think things are going to feel really, really strange intense that weekend. Like I feel worried about it. Yeah, I think it would probably be naive if anyone to think that this whole as a match will pass off without incident because, you know, you are looking at a situation where I would say probably the majority of Irish people really do not want this game to be played in that way. I know they surveyed the players association of League of Ireland players. They surveyed a bunch of League of Ireland players. I think 67% of them said they didn't think the game should go ahead. And I mean, like football players tend to be pretty lazy fair about political stuff. So if you're 67% of the players thinking this match shouldn't happen, I think that's very indicative of the groundswell of backlash against this match taking place. You know, you obviously you have opposition politicians have all gotten quite heavily involved. They have all called, or you know, Sockdown, Sinn Fein, people for a profit, they have all called for the game not to happen. I mean, beyond that, they've all called for UEFA to kick Israel out of the competition, which is what should be happening. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, we did. We did. We did. Yeah. Right. Yeah, last week. Yeah. Yeah. So the game is scheduled for the 4th of October. That's when the home game is set to happen. You know, so it's still a ways down the line. And I think probably this conversation will intensify as the game gets closer and closer. And you know, obviously, Ireland have a lot of important games to play coming up. We've got, you know, this game against the Czech Republic this month, which if we win, we obviously have a playoff against Denmark, which could potentially see us qualify for the World Cup. So some really important games coming up. And you would imagine that the narrative around those games and when the players sit down in the press conferences before the matches, they're probably going to be asked quite a lot about this. It's going to be kind of topic number one, I would say. So this is a conversation that's really only going to grow. There's really no way for the FAA to avoid the sort of scrutiny that's going to come with it. And certainly the backlash that's going to come with it. And I think that's going to probably pull government in as well. So I think it's going to be a very, very tense standoff kind of situation. And, you know, I think it's very hard to predict what will happen before October 4th in terms of whether this game will go ahead as planned or whether it can go ahead safely, etc. But as it stands, you know, you have Ortee in the FAA and the Irish government trying to proceed as normal. I know Minister for the Arts Patrick Adelman came out and said the same thing that Meal Martin said, which is that you have to separate, you know, Israeli sports teams from the Israeli government. You know, I think saying something like that, you really do question like, God, how stupid do they think we are? You know what I mean? Yeah. Now, like, do you think I'm a child? Like, do you think it's crazy to have them come out and be like, you know, oh, these two things are entirely divorced from each other as if one thing doesn't cause another, one thing doesn't overlap with another. It's, you know, it just feels so insulting to our intelligence. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I think people are going to fall for that. And I think people are going to be probably keeping an intense level of pressure on the government and on the FAA all the way up until this game is played for as long as it is, you know, scheduled. Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously we'll be coming back to this because this is not the last time that it will make the news. Let's move on. So there are new rent rules coming in and there has been much discussion of these rent rules and the impact that they will have or won't have. Can you fill us in a little bit on that? Yeah. So the new rent rules come in from, well, they kicked into gear yesterday officially. The rent rules in terms of the government's perspective, they have been sort of touted as offering extra protection to rents. So under the new rent rules rent can still be raised annually by 2% or the rate of inflation and can be reset to market rent every six years. On like within that six years landlords will only be able to end a tendency in specific situations such as the tenant not meeting their obligations or the property no longer suiting the tenant's needs and smaller landlords, which is those with three or fewer tendencies will be allowed to terminate tenancy at any time in the following cases, which is financial hardship. The landlord or close family member needs to live in the property. And then at the end of each six year term, smaller landlords can end the tenancy on many existing legal grants. So it's not an actually like enormous overhaul of the rental rules. What has really sparked fear among the, and I mean, of course that's kind of a bad thing for renters because obviously the situation for renters is already very precarious and not very good. So you're talking about strengthening protections for renters. I'm sure where people would more like to see is for example a ban on no fault evictions like we had during COVID, something like that. I think that would really strengthen renters rights. But what I think has really spooked people is that the head of IRIS Rice, which is one of the biggest private landlords in Ireland and own huge amount of properties, they said that over the next period of years, they maybe said over the next ten years that they are expecting an increase in 25% rental income as a result of these changes. And that will be gradual. But ultimately if you're bringing in a bill that you're saying, we're bringing this into strength in renters rights. And then you hear that the landlord guys are going back to their investors and being like, hey, great news. Yeah. The rules are going to get us way more money than obviously people are going to be very, very nervous. And of course opposition politicians have have raised that issue in the doll. A pierced already pointed at that, you know, Simon Harris is really his only defense was that not every renter is going to be hit on day one. He said, oh cool. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So the direct quote here from pierced already is the fund made it clear in black and white to its investors in its conference called 25% increases. Yes, it said it will take a while for that to flow through. But do you not know that every single new renter from Monday on is going to be hit with these increases and use down there and justify it? What you need to do now is reverse it or defend what you think it's appropriate that rents would go up that high. And Simon Harris has accused pierced already of scare mongering, which, you know, just to I think zoom out is just such an outrageous accusation in the sense that rents have increased by so much over the last 10 years during Simon Harris's tenure as a TD and a minister and as T-Shock. So the idea that he would hear someone complaining that rents are about to increase further and accuse them of fear mongering is so outrageous. It's like this is all you've done for the last 10 years. There's nothing to suggest that you that this isn't exactly what you want because you know this is all you ever facilitate. So the idea that this would be cast as some kind of like boogie man like oh no like we're pretending that rents are going to go up for political point scoring. It's like no rents are just been going up catastrophically year by year. So of course we would expect that to happen and I think the only maybe shocking thing is that it's as high as 25% over 10 years but honestly even that might chop people because ultimately you know we've got a situation where you know rents have been out of control for so long and government and it does that into curtail us except for breeder and COVID when they seem to sort of accidentally stumble into the no fault eviction ban. I mean if you look at the last 10 years like I think I moved out of an apartment a really nice one bedroom apartment on Capel Street 11 years ago maybe and my rent there I think for the whole apartment I think was 950 was certainly a round of ground like you think that rent hasn't increased by more than 25% in those 11 years no way like I don't know what that apartment's going for but I would argue I mean it's definitely more than two grand I would think and I think rents have gone up by I think significantly over 100% in the last 10 years. And also there's the question sorry there's also the question of evictions like I know the Sun reported a few days ago that there were 36 families facing eviction from one estate in Wexford 36 families and in one single estate ahead of the new kind of laws coming in so like you know this isn't already impacting people in a horrendous fashion can you imagine six at her like that many families in one estate one woman in the Sun support on Marie Lam says I've lived here for years and for my family this isn't just a rental property this is our home and it's our community and that's the thing she said I'm a single mother working full time I have two children my eldest son has a disability and intends one of the best secondary schools locally where he settled and supported he cannot travel alone by both some moving away from this area would have a serious impact on his education and daily life like that's what we're talking about here and we have to remember that when we talk about these things we are talking about families who are trying to have lives like you know it's impossible to to feel in any way secure or confident about your life or your children's life when you have instability in terms of your home and it's really just disgraceful the impact that this is having on people's lives it really is and I think it's also worth bearing in mind that there are 35 landlords in dollar and and so those are 35 landlords who will benefit from these changes and I think it's worth pointing out as well that there are more landlords in dollar and then there are sort of you know if you were to group all the different TVs by their profession before they became TVs I think the highest number is former teachers there's about 19 of those so you know there's more landlord like landlords are sort of the biggest you know cohort that's represented in the doll which I think adds sort of another disturbing dimension to the whole thing yeah and I mean you would hope that obviously those people are able to think beyond their own interests but like it's it has to be a part of the conversation you know it absolutely has to be so I'm really like if you're someone who's being impacted by this or has already been impacted by this are you know I really feel for you and if you're one of those people who is trying to just have a life you know and feel in any way safe and is really struggling to do that like you know the impact of that cannot be overestimated you know you're really you're not just talking about people's homes here you're talking about their mental health you're talking about their stability you're talking about their ability to plan their ability to save their ability to be in any way financially secure like this impacts every area of people's lives and it's just heartbreaking to think about families impacted by this okay and let's talk about this story that came out of UCD over the last couple of weeks which has been discussed in the doll and it is I don't even know how to describe this it is disturbing it's distressing it could be potentially triggering so if you're not someone who is in a place where you can listen to a conversation about sexual assault and the treatment of people who experience sexual assault and maybe fast forward five or 10 minutes what's happened here Carl yeah this is a very disturbing situation I think it was raised first in the doll by socialist party to the Ruth Coppinger who was discussing the case of a medicine student in UCD who was raped and who as a result of the sexual assault became pregnant and had to have a termination and not only that but there appeared to be footage and photographs of the assault or the aftermath of the assault which were then circulated so it's really devastating and horrifying experience for any person to have to endure yeah multiple cases of abuse there yeah yes and so what has happened in the aftermath and what has obviously compounded this problem enormously was that this student sought a reset of her exams because obviously you know the her ability to perform the exams was hugely affected by this total trauma and UCD was not prepared to grant that and allow the reset and instead try to push the student back into a different year and as it transpires she would have been then in the same year and the same classes as the alleged assailant you know which is obviously and you know it's also been pointed out that the alleged assailant has been allowed to continue their studies in UCD so what we have is someone who is you know allegedly a victim of a truly terrible thing you know being forced to forego their studies and being pushed out of the career that they're pursuing when on the other hand we have someone who is being allowed to continue without any seemingly without any fetters or any problems and you know it just it seems truly horrifying so the student took UCD to court after they asked her to drop back a year and she actually lost the case before the high court so now it has sort of been raised in the doll because obviously this this young woman doesn't seem to be prepared to let this go and fair play tour so Ruth Carpenter raised the issue with Minister of Public Expanditure Jack Chambers and Jack Chambers has you know called on UCD to work with this student to allow her to complete her studies Jack Chambers has said she's gone through enough and I was shocked as indeed everyone in this house has been about what she has been subjected to in the recent period it's on government on every public institution to work with her so she can complete her studies because she's gone through enough as for what happens next is not necessarily clear there was a letter issued to staff and students of UCD you know which I I really didn't find particularly impressive at all given that UCD are the ones who have really sort of caused the amount of distress here you know they could have let the student sit a recent exam what or the feeling the president of UCD has said was the university acknowledges the deep distress and anguish that this shocking and abarring activity from an unknown source has caused the student I'm assuming that phrasing from an unknown source I think that's referring to the sharing of the image you know because I feel like that's the kind of phrase you would use in that case so I think that doesn't necessarily assault itself right but she has said that the she said in the email that the student was supported by the head of student advisory services of course I think it goes that saying that the student certainly didn't feel supported if she felt the need to take them to court and now to for the matter to be raised in the doll and wasn't to say that the head of the School of Medicine professor Paddy Mallen has offered to meet with the student over recent weeks and she's been invited to meet with Philly and the vice president for a quality diversity and inclusion professor Efe Arhren you know obviously those things I guess might sound like solutions are progress in steps but of course we all know that after someone has been sexually assaulted the level of trauma really is such that it's it's not really straightforward to just go in and have a meeting and and brush things under the rug and say yeah we can sort this out like that obviously UCD it seems has really violated this student's trust obviously now that it has become a national story it's it's sort of hard to see where it goes from here but you know awful like one one one definitely hopes that this student gets the outcome that they need and if they want to continue their studies in medicine I think you know it does hopefully there is a path by which they can do it whether they want to do it in UCD now I'm sure it's probably a huge question but one hopes that the the level of intention that has now been sort of given to this story one does really hope that that she is able to you know pursue the career that she wants and and you know hopefully get some sense of of Salas from that yeah and I think it's worth noting how absolutely impressive it is that she is still pursuing this because I think that there are many people who would experience something like this and the trauma of it and the compounded trauma the levels of trauma that this person has experienced you know that they would absolutely just give up and that would be completely understandable I mean I would completely understand it if you were like forget it like or even give up for a while but like you know the fact that she has continued to fight I just think it's so admirable and yeah I really hope she she gets to choose what the resolution is in the end I hope she is given the opportunity to continue her studies find it really just dressing as well to think about the perpetrator of this violence you know potentially becoming a doctor like that's not great you know it doesn't sound great and you know do we know anything about like legal action being taken like how was this person reported do we know yes the UCD president did confirm that the college reported the incidence of the guardian immediately after becoming aware of it and she has said that UCD is supporting law enforcement in their investigation and that that's ongoing what I mean in the context of for example a student's you know the course of a student studies you know investigations can take a long time yeah and should at what point where there is a court case you know that would take even longer again so you know that's the kind of thing that definitely wouldn't be sort of completed in in sort of enough time to sort of give justice before say either of these students sort of studies are out by guess yeah but I suppose yeah it is it certainly is a positive thing that the guardian are investigating it and you know possibly there will be justice to be found through that avenue yeah yeah I mean Loki would think that any university would be better at managing these situations given unfortunately the number of sexual assaults that take place in the course of university life like the statistics are genuinely shocking and anecdotally I know that their you know the statistics aren't even a realistic reflection of what actually happens so you know universities just need to do much better like much better and once again just fair play to this young woman and a best of luck to her I hope she she gets what she needs from this obviously I wish it had never happened in the first place and you know no woman should have to experience that and then to have to fight so hard to simply continue their education it's disgusting and okay finally we're gonna finish on something light because this story really I have to say took my heart on my imagination this week I'm talking about the absolutely enormous statue of St. Patrick that was erected and taken down in Temple Bar I love this statue I mean like I don't understand anything it's we should re-erect it or anything but it's so funny looking as well yeah I wish there's some visual component where I could you know show everybody this right now but it's you know a statue of St. Patrick 14 feet tall which is it's you really have to actually just like sit back and think about how tall that is yeah do you think really big Jim Larkin statue on O'Connell Street like that's 21 feet so it's two thirds of that so like really big and broad as well broad yeah like a chunky statue you know like he's thick he's thick St. Patrick St. Patrick if you will yeah it's it's funny like it's literally like if you look at it above you know the photos where it's above the Temple Bar it's it's the height of the whole bar on top of the bar if you get what I mean it's just enormous and yeah it seemed to appear out of nowhere a couple days ago just above and it was gone I think within like 24 hours so it's St. Patrick it's got a staff in one hand and I suppose regrettably and I'd say this is what really push it over the edge he's got a point of Guinness in the other which look I I don't have any special reverence for the traditions of the Catholic Church or whatever but it's definitely a risque model to put up a 14 foot statue with the patron saint of art with a point of Guinness in the middle of Temple Bar he's also got a snake underfoot I don't know if he's like crushing this snake with his foot but he was just like and obviously like you definitely I see where the Temple Bar were coming from because you would definitely have so many tourists coming and taking photos with that and if you look at cities around the world and you look at like the central bits of the series if you think about like Piccadilly Circus or Times Square or like you know that famous crossing in Tokyo like they do have these huge stupid awful novelty things it is kind of part of the course for a modern city yeah and if you and also if you sorry if you think about the Temple Bar at Christmas at the the Temple Bar anytime there's throngs of tourists taking photographs outside but at Christmas just in case you're not familiar it they light it up I mean like Christmas tree they put a lot of lights on it so clearly making it a visual spectacle is kind of part of their marketing totally and like Temple Bar no disrespect to them to my mind that is a pub solely for tourists yeah I don't really imagine the too many artists people are going into the Temple Bar to get a point of Guinness for probably going again no offense Temple Bar but you know what you are and you know I'm not like you know being unfair to them there I don't think I thought it was really funny the guy who owns a gave an interview on radio and he was like I just didn't think we need planning permission for it and like I just thought it's such a funny a funny approach to take but ultimately yeah Dublin City Council intervened they got a complaint we don't know who the complaint was from again the other Temple Bar since in the funny where he was like I'll leave you to work that out for yourself like as if there's some like obvious nemesis yeah like as if there's like some kind of snake man out there who's like no I don't want as much of a simpatric up there um but I really loved the footage of the truck wheeling the 14 foot statue away like the putt it looked like he was being carried off on a stretcher like a gigantic stretcher uh the putt I'm lying flat on the back of a truck and I like there's been no confirmation about where he's going next which I would love to know where he's going next um where is he yeah where is where is pint pot trick like where is he yeah because to me like there are places you could put that were it would quite quickly become like a whimsical thing you know like I think you know the way we have like art on the side of the motorway like the nice ball for example I didn't love him on the side of the motorway I think that's much funnier I think it's kind of more peaceful like because you know surely get the center of a roundabout yes exactly something like that because where he is now is sort of like or where he was you know above the temple bar it's like you know there's that element of like profiteering there and like encouraging people to come in and buy a pint whereas if you just put him on a roundabout there's it removes that profit incentive and then it's just kind of a funny statue you know maybe we like if he was on a road you'd probably have to take the point of Guinness out of the sand put something else out of the sand put something a bit more spice bag in a tatters yeah yeah I was gonna say because we still are in the situation where you know the point makes it to quote the Simpsons "sacrillicious" yeah totally and you know it's funny I think before they took it down one of the four things that it was they put a plastic bag over the point no they didn't yeah they did the awesome bag over the point which I was curious about I was sort of like oh I wonder is that something to do with like apohaladricard housing laws or something but again because you do see billboards for alcohol around I've never appeared on the old alcohol housing well I think that yeah I think there's a lot of kind of getting around the advertising rules as well with like non-alcoholic versions of yeah there's it's it's there's such strict guidelines around alcohol advertising maybe it was a zero zero Guinness that he was drinking exactly exactly if they had just thought to put the zero zero on the on the sculpture glass then it would probably still be up there imagine he popped up next week with a little zero point zero on the glass he's like you know I'm not I'm not I'm not necessarily opposed to this I'm not either I kind of think to know what as you say we know what the temple bar is you know what I mean there's nobody's under any illusions oh man the whole thing really gave me such a big laugh it also reminded me of remember there was that big giant granny that came to Ireland and hang on let me figure this out because it became you know how things become lines in your in your friendships beautiful granny became a line from the reporting of it so it was yeah the royal deluxe giant granny was a 7.5 meter one ton marionette that captured 230,000 visitors during a three day 2014 street theater event in Limerick operated by 70 lilappucian popeteers this spectacle featured the resting walking and traveling pensioner as I highlight in the city's culture year I'll never forget this because it was such a big deal this giant granny and yeah there was some reporting of it which included the line beautiful granny and my friends Emre McLeis at night have been saying beautiful granny to each other for the last apparently 12 years as a result I don't remember this granny at all and I I'm looking at her now and I can't believe oh she is spectacular there's also like a photo of her sort of being like airlifted by a crane yeah just like looking at this enormous granny in this vibe she looks I think what's really disturbing about her is that she is like very lifelike like you can imagine her walking on her own it's the eyes the eyes are like really freaky and like yeah they're very human how do they do that I don't know yeah she's gonna haunt your dreams that's your new sleep paralysis demon well Carl thank you so much for taking us through the week's stories you have played a blinder as always if you want more Carl and I know you do check out his columns to reading in the years it's in the journal.i.e every Saturday it is truly excellent you can also get them on social media Carl dot kinsla on instagram or Carl kinsla on blue sky Carl thank you so much thanks please there you have it my friends now I have a little recommendation for you I know we talk mostly about film and television over on the on screens obviously which is on patreon it's where Emre McLeis at my talk every four weeks about the film and television we've been watching but I watched a film that I just feel like didn't get talked about enough I heard a little bit of a buzz about it and I heard people chatting about it obviously it's been nominated for a couple of awards which I think meant that people were paying more attention to it but I watched song song blue which is this kind of crazy film when you hear about what it's about it's about and it's based on a true story it's about two singers who form a kind of Neil diamond tribute bond and it's about them and their lives it stars kade hudson and oh my god for a second all I could think of was wolverine Hugh jockman and it is so heartening and gorgeous and it is still in the cinema kind of the odd time because obviously it's nominated for awards it's not streaming anywhere yet but keep an eye out for it because it is just gorgeous it's really like it's not I mean it is funny at times but it's not an out-and-out comedy but it is a musical obviously because they are musical performers and they're both brilliant in it I have to say but it's just a really like nice film it's just a nice film it's about people try and think over adversity it's about ordinary people which is one of the things I love about it it's about dreams coming true and it's about the challenges that life can throw at you and yeah I just really recommend it if you can get your hands on it it'll definitely be streaming somewhere soon I'm so keep your eyes out for it song song blue also features music by Neil diamond obviously who is not someone I like had massively paid attention to and in fact one of the kind of running lines through it is Hugh jockman's character like is really annoyed that all anyone ever says about Neil diamond is sweet car line he's like he's got other songs and honestly I didn't realize how many brilliant other songs that Neil diamond had I've been listening to a lot of Neil diamonds since I watched it so yeah that's just a tiny little recommendation for you my friend and that's it from me for today if you want to access screens or indeed chronically online are two bonus episodes that come at every second week on patreon patreon is also the place just if you're like listen I listen this podcast three times a week maybe maybe I should pay a little bit for it you can do that that's that's your choice these episodes will continue to be free so that everybody can access them but if you're in a position to do so head over to patreon.com/catchup with Louise McShirey now my friend I'm going to go I really really hope you have a good next couple of days but of course they can't all be good so if not just put one foot in front of the other and we will be together again on Wednesday you