The Army Ranger Wing (ARW), the most elite and secretive unit of the Defence Forces, is to undertake its largest restructuring in its 43-year history. 
The most visible change will be a new name: Ireland Special Operations Force or IRL-SOF for short. But as Irish Times crime and security correspondent Conor Gallagher explains, there will also be dramatic changes to its command-and-control structure, making it a central part of military decision-making and, as a result, more likely to be deployed on missions in Ireland and abroad. 
The changes mirror those in other western militaries which have increased the size of their special operations forces while also granting them more autonomy and status. 
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland’s elite soldiers get an upgrade

In The News is a daily podcast from The Irish Times that takes a close look at the stories that matter, in Ireland and around the world. Presented by Bernice Harrison and Sorcha Pollak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

News & Politics

A plan to reintroduce National Service in Britain has been roundly criticised by former military personnel and opposition parties alike. But serving your country militarily is an accepted part of life in many countries like Finland, Sweden and Israel. Security analyst, Declan Power, explains how people in Scandinavia are predisposed to the idea because it's woven into their life in the same way Gaelic games, our literary history and the 1916 Rising are in this country. The former Irish solder also explains how the same concept wouldn't fly in Ireland and what we need to do instead to beef up our Defence Forces. Power also posits how the military offensive in Gaza may well turn out to expose the flaws in Israel's national service model. 
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How countries make national service an accepted part of life

Young adolescents have “greater peer problems” and fewer friends than their counterparts a decade ago, with girls especially experiencing “increased emotional difficulties”, according to a new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
The study looks at changes in 13-year-olds’ relationships with their parents and peers, in their day-to-day activities and in their experiences of school.    Irish Times Social affairs Correspondent Kitty Holland joins us today to talk through some of the reports findings.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fewer friends and less TV: how life has changed for Ireland's 13-year-olds

Earlier this month, Google launched AI Overviews – software which uses artificial intelligence to answer people’s questions quickly, skipping the step of scrolling through links. The new search system has made headlines for generating hilariously incorrect answers, a glitch Google says it is taking swift action to remedy. But this bumpy start will quickly be ironed out, says Irish Times writer Hugh Linehan who wrote this week about the “Googlepocalypse” sweeping the United States. The introduction of this pilot version of Google’s AI Overviews tool has already “significantly harmed” small businesses and content creators who have seen a collapse in web site traffic, and has been described as an extinction-level event for news media. These “devastating effects” are heading quickly our way, says Linehan. So, what is the Googlepocalypse and how will it change how the average person searches the internet? And will a reliance on AI to answer our questions only further enhance the misinformation plaguing the online world?
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'Googlepocalypse' - the way you search the internet is about to change forever

In the past week, two incidences of severe air turbulence have made international headlines.
More than 100 people were injured and one man died last week when a Singapore Airlines plane flying from London to Singapore hit an unexpected air pocket, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
Five days later, on Sunday, six passengers and six crew members were injured following turbulence on a flight from Doha, Qatar to Ireland. Turbulence has always a been a risk factor in aviation, but the ferocity of the sudden extreme turbulence experience on the Singapore Airlines flight was out of the ordinary.
However, is this type of extreme, clear-air turbulence becoming more common? And are climate change and warming air currents making turbulence worse?
Irish Times environment and science editor Kevin O’Sullivan joins the podcast to discuss the impact of climate change on air travel, while flight attendant Paula Gahan reflects on why she thinks severe flight turbulence is becoming more common.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is flying more dangerous due to worsening turbulence?

Malachy Browne heads up the New York Times’s visual investigations unit where he and his team investigate key events, from breaking news at home to war atrocities abroad, to piece together second-by-second what really happened.
The work exposes the truth of events, particularly ones that are shrouded in misinformation, conspiracy theories and official denials. He and his team have won two Pulitzer Prizes.
Investigations, presented on the New York Times website, range from uncovering the devastating sequence of events of the atrocity at Bucha in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to plotting exactly happened in 2017 when a gunman opened fire at a concert in Las Vegas killing 60 people.
On In the News he talks about these projects and more while explaining just how his team works, from 3D modelling and AI to painstakingly exploring satellite images and mining phone records, and how the Limerick man who began his career in Dublin before moving to New York works to stay one step ahead in a media landscape flooded with fake news.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland’s elite soldiers get an upgrade

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