LAST UPDATE | 12 Oct 2023

GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.

Israel-Hamas war

1. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in contact with Hamas and Israel to try to negotiate the release of hostages taken into Gaza, the group said today.

At least 150 Israelis and foreigners – including soldiers, civilians, children and women – have been held hostage in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s surprise Saturday attack on Israel.

Kim Damti

2. An Irish-Israeli woman who was missing since Hamas militants launched an unprecedented series of surprise attacks on Saturday has died, the Tánaiste confirmed last night. 

22-year-old Kim Damti had remained unaccounted, having been attending a music festival when Hamas carried out a bloody mass-shooting on the event, which was attended by hundreds of young Israelis and foreigners near Kibbutz Reim, close to Gaza.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said in a statement this evening that “it is with immense sadness that I learnt this evening that Kim Damti’s death has been confirmed”.

Putin

3. Vladimir Putin arrived in Kyrgyzstan today, visiting abroad for the first time since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March.

President Putin is wanted by the court over the deportation of Ukrainian children.

Its ruling requires members of the ICC, which does not include Kyrgyzstan, to make the arrest if he sets foot on their territory.

Russian news agencies TASS, Interfax and RIA Novosti reported early this morning that Putin had arrived in Kyrgyzstan.

South Korea

4. A US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea today in a demonstration of strength against North Korea.

The USS Ronald Reagan and its battle group came to the southeastern South Korean port of Busan after participating in a trilateral South Korean-US-Japanese maritime exercise earlier this week, the South Korean defence ministry said.

PTSB Protect

5. Permanent TSB has launched a new feature of its banking app that will help prevent customers from falling victim to scams.

‘PTSB Protect’ will alert customers if they receive a text message containing a fraudulent link.

The in-app security feature will also block customers from clicking on a suspicious website on their mobile phone device.

It works by comparing links received or accessed on a customer’s phone against a known blocklist of scam links that pose as legitimate websites to fraudulently obtain someone’s personal or banking details. 

Artificial intellegence

6. In our Morning Lead, Trinity College professor Luke O’Neill says he encourages his science students to create – and critique – AI-generated essays.

“It’s a great invention,” O’Neill says.

“Did you know, when handwriting was invented, Plato, the famous Greek philosopher, criticised it and said, ‘we can’t have students writing things down, because it will stop them thinking’?

“So every time a new technology comes along, we worry about it. In the case of AI, it’s a fantastic teaching tool.”

Hadrain’s Wall

7. The famous Sycamore Gap tree in the UK that was wrongly chopped down two weeks ago is set to be removed from its site at Hadrian’s Wall.

A crane will lift the 50ft tree off the historic and delicate Roman wall and it is due to be removed today, the UK’s National Trust has said.

People have been urged to avoid the immediate area during the clearance.

The tree is too large to move in one piece but experts hope to keep the trunk in large sections to keep options open on what could be done with it in the future.

Hollywood Strike

8. Talks between Hollywood actors and studios over an ongoing strike were suspended yesterday, in a blow to hopes for a swift end to a crisis that has crippled the entertainment industry.

Heads of studios such as Disney and Netflix had been meeting regularly since last week with negotiators for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), whose members walked off film and TV sets in July.

But in a statement issued late last night, the studios said talks had ground to a halt and would be temporarily suspended.

Aertel

9. Last week, RTÉ announced the imminent demise of the Aertel service. 

Our reporter Carl Kinsella looks back on the service and asks: Will we miss Aertel?

For many years, Aertel’s value was beyond question, serving as the most immediate source of up-to-date information available to a public that did not carry the entire history of human knowledge around in its pocket.

Nobody was thinking about Aertel before RTÉ called its number earlier this month, but maybe there are things about it we should miss.