Newstalk Breakfast

Today, peace talks are set to take place in Abu Dhabi between the US, Ukraine and Russia in the hopes to bring an end to the war in Ukraine after nearly three years. We get the latest on this with Emmanuelle Chaze, Ukraine Correspondent for France 24.

Now it’s time for “Between the Lines”, where we take a closer look at some of the stories you may have missed in the news this morning. Joining Anton this morning was Sinéad O’Carroll, Editor of the Journal.ie. 

Metropolitan Police has launched a criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson following claims he passed market-sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein. It comes after the Cabinet Office referred material to police after reviewing Epstein file documents that suggest he forwarded internal government information to Epstein when he was business secretary in 2009.For the latest on this Anton spoke to Political Commentator Adam Boulton.

Junk food ads aimed at children should be banned. That’s one of a number of calls made by members of the public in conversations hosted by Safefood Ireland last year. This comes as Safe Food is today launching a new exhibition called an ‘Appetite for Change’, to start a dialogue on healthy eating in Ireland and to tell us more about this is Anna Taylor Executive Director, The Food Foundation.

Last night might have been weather warning-free, but we’re not yet free from heavy rain and flooding. The extremely wet conditions in recent weeks could be replaced by freezing weather and snow by the middle of February, according to some longer-term predictions. Here to tell us more was Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather.

68-year-old retired prison officer Paudie Maloney has had quite a year! After becoming a household name after his memorable run on The Traitors Ireland, he has now taken his talents to the ballroom on RTÉ’s Dancing with the Stars. Paudie spoke to Anton about life after The Traitors.

The bottle Re-turn scheme has kick-started a craze of “bin scavenging” across Dublin leaving the city like a bomb site according to Richard Shakespeare, the chief executive of Dublin City Council. For more on this Anton was joined on the show by Nial Ring Ind Councillor for Dublin North Inner City.

Babies as young as two-months-old can categorise objects in their brains, which is far younger than previously thought, according to new research by Trinity College Dublin, Queen's University Belfast and Stanford University.  To discuss these findings was Professor Rhodri Cusack from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and co-author of the research. 

Queen's University Belfast is to remove the name of former US Senator George Mitchell - one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement - from a peace centre following the emergence of new information contained in the Jeffrey Epstein files.Anton discusses this and more with Vinny McAvinney, Broadcaster and Journalist and Gina London, Former CNN White House Correspondent and Sunday Independent Columnist.

The National Emergency Co-ordination Group is warning that peak flooding is expected to hit towns across the east and southeast of the country.   Enniscorthy local Maureen Peare, who met with the Taoiseach after her home was destroyed during the flood spoke to Anton ahead of another flood warning. We also heard from  Independent Councillor for Enniscorthy, Jackser Owens.