Behind the Story

Violent protests and looting spread across several cities in France over the weekend, as over a half a million people took to the streets on a wide variety of issues. The authorities plan to implement localised curfews in some areas to deal with the deteriorating situation. Senior lecturer in European Politics at UCC, Emmanuelle Schon Quinlivan joins Paul to explain the background to the crisis.
Later, Adam Maguire discusses the popularity of Chinese EVs and why the EU has security concerns around the increasing level of tech available in the cars.

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Award winning author Sally Rooney's books will no longer be available for sale in the UK due to her support for Palestine Action. Human rights lawyer, Caoilfhoinn Gallagher joins Fran to discuss the situation and why sweeping anti-terrorism legislation is having a far reaching impact on protest and culture.
Later, Arts and Media correspondent Evelyn O'Rourke goes behind the scenes of NBC's Today show and looks at the success of Tourism Ireland's strategy.

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Big Tech, Big Business and lots of politicians are attending the International AI Summit at the RDS. Fran and Paul are joined by Bloomberg's Tom MacKenzie to discuss AI in Europe.
Later, Liz Carolan of The Briefing.ie and Charlie Taylor of the Business Post chat about the ups and downs of AI, dress codes and bad merch!

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After five and a half years of illegal detention in Iraq, Robert Pether landed in Dublin airport on Monday morning. He was greeted by family and friends and spoke of his time in a Baghdad prison and subsequent struggle to survive before he was allowed leave the country.
His lawyer, Irish man Peter Griffin, took up his case, pro-bono in 2021 having heard about Robert's case in his son's school newsletter. Peter speaks to host Karen Creed about the legal fight to secure Robert's release.

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The decision by the US Defence Department to live stream the execution of a man convicted of murdering thirteen unarmed soldiers at a military post in Texas in 2009 has sparked global headlines.
The Pentagon announced earlier this week it would execute Nidal Hasan in December in the first military execution for more than 60 years.
On this episode of Behind The Story we talk to death row lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith who has represented hundreds of people sentenced to death over the past four decades.

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