US preparing to intercept more Venezuelan ships, say sources
Video: ReutersThe US is preparing to intercept more ships transporting Venezuelan oil following the seizure of a tanker this week, as it increases pressure on Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, six sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro waves to a crowd during a rally in Caracas on Wednesday. A reduction or halt in Venezuelan oil exports, the main generator of revenue for the Venezuelan government, would strain the Maduro government’s finances. Meanwhile, Russia and its close ally Belarus contacted Mr Maduro on Thursday, raising the possibility he could seek refuge abroad. Mr Maduro told Mr Trump in a telephone call on November 21st that he was ready to leave Venezuela, provided that he and his family had full legal amnesty, sources have told Reuters.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 21:18 UTC
Glenveagh set to lodge plans to build 1,350 homes in north Dublin
Glenveagh Homes is to lodge plans in the coming days for 1,350 residential units on lands adjoining Belcamp Hall off the Malahide Road in north Dublin. The move by Glenveagh to lodge the Large Scale Residential (LRD) scheme with Fingal County Council follows the housebuilder purchasing €130 million of property from Gannon Homes that includes the Belcamp site earlier this year. [ Glenveagh Homes to seek big changes to 650-home Dublin developmentOpens in new window ]Glenveagh is seeking a 10-year planning permission from Fingal County Council. The overall scheme is made up of 685 two-bedroom units, 398 three-bedroom units, 212 one-bedroom units and 55 four-bedroom units. The firm is active elsewhere in the north Dublin with separate LRD plans currently before Fingal for 398 new residential units at Ballymastone, Donabate.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 21:15 UTC
Eli Lilly’s latest shot helped patients lose 29% of body weight in trials
Photograph: Cheng Xin/GettyEli Lilly’s latest weight-loss shot helped patients lose as much as 29 per cent of their body weight in trials, giving another boost to the US pharmaceutical company’s booming obesity business. Some patients dropped out of the trial because they were losing too much weight, the company said. Listen | 41:32Retatrutide is a next-generation GLP-1 weight-loss drug from Lilly. Previous trials of Lilly’s popular weight-loss drug Zepbound, which was approved in the US in 2023, showed average weight loss of about 15 per cent. Lilly’s trial results also lifted shares of rival Novo Nordisk, which rose 3.6 per cent in Denmark on Thursday.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 20:41 UTC
Have Irish property prices reached their peak? Five experts give their take
For those saving to put a deposit down on their first home, the goalposts keep moving, with property prices in the State rising year on year. With that in mind, The Irish Times has asked property experts where the market stands and whether house prices are close to reaching their peak. However, the dearth of supply is not the fault of under-building, McCartney says. “The excess demand comes from the weight of money chasing property,” he says. Mortgage adviser Michael DowlingMortgage adviser Michael Dowling also concurs that prices will continue to rise next year, at a rate of 3 per cent, he estimates.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 20:03 UTC
How far property prices have risen in nine Dublin areas since the crash
Oxmantown Road, Stoneybatter, Dublin 72012/2013: There were five sales registered on Oxmantown Road in 2012 and 2013 combined, with prices ranging from €91,000 to €195,000 with a median value of €164,000. (Average value of €448,656)Percentage increase of median value: 171 per centLennox Street, Portobello, Dublin 8Lennox Street, Portobello, Dublin. (Average value of €741,712)Percentage increase of median value: 71 per centLuttrellstown, Castleknock, Dublin 15Luttrellstown, Castleknock. (Average value of €651,217)Percentage increase of median value: 97 per centShrewsbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4Shrewsbury Road, Dublin. (Average value of €665,125)Percentage increase of median value: 68 per cent
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 19:36 UTC
€1.7bn Defence Forces plan announced amid ‘changing’ and ‘emerging’ threats – The Irish Times
Minister for Defence Helen McEntee is shown Irish military equipment during a visit to Curragh Camp in Co Kildare. Photograph: Gráinne Ní Aodha/PA WireIreland will have anti-drone technology in place by next summer, Minister for Defence Helen McEntee said. She said it was “essential” that Ireland’s defence continued to be funded amid “changing” and “emerging” threats. She was speaking at the Curragh Camp in Co Kildare as the €1.7 billion national development plan for the Defence Forces was published. “Again, that’s why we are investing, not just in the Defence Forces, but there’s been huge investment in An Garda Siochana to be able to respond to these types of threats.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 19:25 UTC
What happens when an AI joins the board of directors?
Back then, it simply crunched quantitative data and made recommendations that were then debated by the board members. The most popular ones for business use include: OpenAI, ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Google Gemini, Meta AI, Perplexity AI and Claude. So, should boards jump on the bandwagon and employ virtual AI board members? Board directors are responsible for every aspect of governance and compliance, including AI usageRisk and responsibilitiesBoard directors are responsible for every aspect of governance and compliance, including AI usage. Under the European Union AI Act directors have specific requirements including that staff operating AI systems have sufficient AI literacy and appropriate training.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 19:02 UTC
Cost of dealing with drug ship MV Matthew could rise to €20m
The MV Matthew, a Panamanian-registered bulk carrier, was seized in a joint Revenue, Naval Service, Army Ranger and Garda operation off the south coast in September 2023. On board was 2,253 kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated €157 million, amounting to the largest drugs seizure in Irish history. Mr Cody told the committee disposal of the vessel is a key priority for Revenue. The MV Matthew has been berthed in Co Cork since it was seized in September 2023. [ No firm timeline for sale of drug-smuggling ship costing €110,000 per week to detainOpens in new window ]
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 18:51 UTC
Harry Byrne to start for Leinster against Leicester as Leo Cullen rings changes
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has made seven changes from the side that beat Harlequins for Friday night’s Champions Cup clash with Leicester Tigers. Harry Byrne’s selection at outhalf and a first start for All Black Rieko Ioane will capture most of the headlines. Cullen explained: “Harry played in this game previously, so he’s experienced the atmosphere over there before and he knows what to expect. We weren’t quite sure at the start of the week how he would be. Leinster: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, R Ioane, R Henshaw, J Lowe; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; P McCarthy, R Kelleher, T Furlong; J McCarthy, J Ryan; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt).
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 18:42 UTC
What Taoiseach and Tánaiste told pharma sector amid lobbying efforts on EU reforms
Executives from the pharmaceutical industry were gathered around a table in the Italian Room inside Government Buildings. The motivation was to improve smaller or poorer EU states’ access to new drugs coming on to the market. Internal documents show key meetings with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Mr Harris earlier this year gave them their first indication that they had been heard. Shortly afterwards the Government came out and publicly opposed cutting the level of “protection” companies enjoyed over new drugs. The result is as close to a total victory as the pharmaceutical industry could have expected to get.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 18:41 UTC
Nobel Peace Prize winner urges world to cut flow of money to Venezuela’s repressive regime
María Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela's opposition, arrived in Oslo hours after her Nobel award was collected on her behalf by her daughter. Ms Machado also met Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store, who offered his support to her struggle. Reporters estimated several hundred people protested against Ms Machado’s prize in central Oslo on Thursday. Ms Machado said that the Maduro regime had been sustained by “a very powerful and strongly funded repression system. From drug trafficking, from the black market for oil, from arms trafficking, from human trafficking.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 18:35 UTC
Heated row in Dáil as Sinn Féin TD calls Labour Deputy a ‘muppet’
Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash hit out at Sinn Féin’s Mark Ward accusing him of using “unparliamentary language”. Accusing the Government of a “Scrooge-like response the week before Christmas” he said blister packs “are not a luxury. Pharmacists have written to patients proposing to charge a minimum of €20 to dispense blister packs from the beginning of January. Mr Carthy said the Government had found billions for developers, banks and landlords but with older people, dementia patients and disability payments “the approach suddenly becomes penny pinching”. He said to repeated interventions that if he had done that, Mr Carthy would be “in here today with the same cant as always that we’re not taxing enough”.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 18:18 UTC
‘Rising threat’ of synthetic opioids: State agency identifies 10 new drug substances
The State agency tasked with identifying illicit drugs has sounded a warning over “the rising threat” of synthetic opioids drugs here after identifying 10 new drug substances or unusual presentations of drugs last year. Dr O’Donnell said that between 2022 and 2023, FSI identified several nitazene (synthetic opioids) variants in small seizures of tablets and powders. Some of the new drug substances identified by the FSI last year included protonitazene, which is a synthetic opioid “significantly more potent than heroin”. The number of overall cases submitted to FSI by the Garda and other State agencies last year was 25,170, which included 10,595 drug and toxicology cases. The report says 997 cases were aided during 2024 by some 766 hits on the national DNA data base
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 18:08 UTC
Ireland’s vicious housing circle: high costs, high rents
According to the SCSI, the average cost of constructing a two-bedroom apartment ranges from €480,000 in suburban medium-rise schemes to €650,000 in an urban development. Photograph: Getty ImagesThe latest report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland (SCSI) on apartment costs here perfectly encapsulates the circular nature of Ireland’s housing problem. The only way we’ll get housing supply up to the 50,000 units-a-year mark, the Government’s target rate, is to build higher-density housing, including apartments. But it remains to be seen if building high-cost apartments will do anything to square the affordability circle at the heart of the country’s housing challenge. The declining rate of home ownership has created an oversubscribed rental market, which these new apartments will presumably feed, with rents seemingly on an inexorable path upwards.
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 18:03 UTC
Switching to EVs can reduce emissions for Irish businesses without breaking the bank
Irish businesses need to “urgently” prepare for making the switch to electric vehicles (EV). Electric cars have hit their highest-ever share of the new car market in 2025. This is a trend that Irish businesses have to catch up with. Photograph: Getty ImagesJohn Shiel, chief executive of GEV, told The Irish Times that the secret to charging anxiety for businesses is simple – flywheels. Will such innovation be enough to push more Irish businesses through the electric barrier?
Source:The Irish Times
December 11, 2025 17:34 UTC