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Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: the nineteenth of May. My name is Zara Seidler, and

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Speaker 1: helping me make sense of today's news is Sam Kazlowski.

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Speaker 1: Making news today, the federal government defends its rollout, new

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Speaker 1: cases in Taiwan, some good news about student debt in Delaware,

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Speaker 1: and a.

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Speaker 2: Chat about the Iron Dome. Here's today's Daily Digest.

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Speaker 1: Senior Federal government minister David little Proud has defended the

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Speaker 1: government's COVID nineteen vaccine rollout in disability care, saying it

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Speaker 1: is quote good enough despite less than four percent of

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Speaker 1: people living in disability care having received the vaccine. He

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Speaker 1: said yesterday, the fact that we haven't had cases here

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Speaker 1: in Australia to the extent of anywhere else in the world,

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Speaker 1: we can make sure that we can do this roll

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Speaker 1: out properly with confidence and instill confidence in the community

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Speaker 1: in every sector.

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Speaker 2: Taiwan has introduced restrictions after facing the biggest COVID nineteen

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Speaker 2: outbreak since the beginning of the pandema. Three hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty five new cases were reported on Monday, and all

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Speaker 2: but two were locally transmitted. Restrictions include social distancing, school

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Speaker 2: and kindergarten closures, mandatory outdoor mask wearing, indoor gathering restrictions,

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Speaker 2: and closures of bars, clubs and gyms.

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Speaker 1: It's terrific to now have to report more bad news

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Speaker 1: for India. At least sixteen people have died and over

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Speaker 1: two hundred thousand people have been evacuated from their homes

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Speaker 1: in India. As the most powerful cyclone in more than

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Speaker 1: two decades intensified on Monday, there have been reports of

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Speaker 1: several power outages as well as airport and port closures.

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Speaker 1: South Asia's head of delegation at the International Federation of

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Speaker 1: Red Cross said this cyclone is a terrible double blow

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Speaker 1: for millions of people in India whose families have been

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Speaker 1: struck down by record COVID infections and deaths.

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Speaker 2: And today's good news. Delaware State University will cancel over

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Speaker 2: seven hundred thousand dollars in student debt for recent graduates

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Speaker 2: who struggled financially through COVID nineteen. Over two hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty students are eligible to receive three two hundred US

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Speaker 2: dollars in aid. The university used the stimulus checks given

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Speaker 2: by the government for the pandemic after the Education Department

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Speaker 2: updated its guidance in March, allowing institutions to use that

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Speaker 2: money for different needs, and that included canceling some student debt.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was really interesting. I wouldn't have expected

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Speaker 1: stimulus checks to be able to go towards this sort

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Speaker 1: of stuff.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a slightly different use of funds than in Ohio,

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Speaker 2: where a million dollars is being awarded if you get

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Speaker 2: vaccinated in that next stimulus checks. That was yeah, So

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Speaker 2: there's a bit of controversy there about the use of

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Speaker 2: stimulus money and government grants for a Loto prize.

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Speaker 1: Before we jump into today's deep dive, we did just

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Speaker 1: want to add a bit of a disclaimer, and this

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Speaker 1: is something that also extends to our Instagram. At the moment,

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Speaker 1: there is a century's long conflict playing out in the

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Speaker 1: Middle East, specifically in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank,

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Speaker 1: and this is not something that can be encapsulated in

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Speaker 1: one Instagram carousel or in a snapshot podcast as we

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Speaker 1: try to deliver every day. That said, our mission is

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Speaker 1: to equip you with the tools to be able to

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Speaker 1: go out and read a bit more about the news

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Speaker 1: while understanding the key concepts. So today, we wanted to

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Speaker 1: introduce you to one of the concepts you might have

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Speaker 1: seen around, whether it be on those Instagram carousels or

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Speaker 1: in the news that you're reading online. Over the last

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks, as we've seen violence intensify in the region,

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Speaker 1: there have been some really striking photos coming out from

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Speaker 1: photojournalists and one of those was a photo of the

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Speaker 1: night sky lit up by missiles and something called the

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Speaker 1: Iron Dome.

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Speaker 2: And that's what we wanted to take you through today

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Speaker 2: because it's a term that's coming up in most of

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Speaker 2: the reports we're reading from that region of the world,

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Speaker 2: and we thought it would be a real value add

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Speaker 2: for you to understand what went into that technology and

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Speaker 2: how it works and how it plays into the news

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Speaker 2: this week. So what is the Iron Dome. Basically, it's

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Speaker 2: a missile defense system developed by scientists and technicians from

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Speaker 2: the US and Israel, and it's used by the Israeli

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Speaker 2: Defense Force to protect Israeli communities from rockets whether they

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Speaker 2: are coming from the north or from the south in Gaza.

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Speaker 2: And there's basically five key steps to understanding how the

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Speaker 2: Iron Dome works, So let's go through them slowly. Step

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Speaker 2: number one a rocket is fired into Israel. From there,

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Speaker 2: a radar system built into ten different units spread across

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Speaker 2: the country detects the rocket and tracks what it thinks

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Speaker 2: is going to be its trajectory into the Israeli airspace.

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Speaker 2: It then passes that information into a central control system

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Speaker 2: which estimates an impact point, and that's a point where

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Speaker 2: the rocket sent by the Iron Dome will intercept the

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Speaker 2: said missile. Step number four is a launcher that actually

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Speaker 2: fires a missile along that trajectory, and step number five

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Speaker 2: is the collision of these two rockets in mid air,

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Speaker 2: destroying it. Now, one of the key aspects to understand

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Speaker 2: of the Iron Dome is this idea around predicting whether

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Speaker 2: rocket is going to land. Now, this is not an

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Speaker 2: infinite resource, and there's only so many missiles that it

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Speaker 2: itself can hold, and as a result, built into the

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Speaker 2: technology is the ability to work out whether the rocket

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Speaker 2: is actually destined to hit a populated area. So the

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Speaker 2: Iron Dome is designed to leave rockets that are going

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Speaker 2: straight into the middle of the desert, as it's not

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Speaker 2: seen to be an effective use of the defense mechanisms

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Speaker 2: which might run out when they're most needed.

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Speaker 1: From all accounts, this is one of the most sophisticated

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Speaker 1: defense technologies in the world. How accurate has it been

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Speaker 1: and how protective has it been? Is it doing its job? So?

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Speaker 2: One of the key differences that's been noted by experts

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Speaker 2: looking at the effectiveness of the Iron Dome is the

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Speaker 2: amount of rockets per day that have been launched into Israel,

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Speaker 2: and the key difference they've noticed is that this time around,

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Speaker 2: when compared to the last major conflict in twenty fourteen,

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Speaker 2: there's been a much higher concentration of rockets. Part of

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Speaker 2: the strategy behind that, they think, is to overwhelm the

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Speaker 2: capacity of the Iron Dome. So it's estimated that in

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Speaker 2: the last eight days, the Iron Dome has defended about

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Speaker 2: ninety percent of rockets that were destined for populated areas.

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Speaker 2: To put that into perspective, that's about as many rockets

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Speaker 2: as was fired in a three week period back in

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Speaker 2: twenty fourteen.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the commentary that surrounds conversation about the

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Speaker 1: Israeli Palestinian conflict goes to where the funding comes from.

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Speaker 1: So presumably technology like this is really really very expensive

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Speaker 1: given its sophistication. So was this only funded by the

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Speaker 1: US or what was the funding breakdown of the Iron Dome.

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Speaker 2: So if you go back a couple of decades, the

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Speaker 2: US and Israel started to cooperate on military spending with

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Speaker 2: air defense in about the eighties, and missile defense is

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Speaker 2: now a significant component of that investment. The Iron Dome

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Speaker 2: was developed after the conflict in the early two thousands

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Speaker 2: between Israel and Lebanon, as it was seen to be

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Speaker 2: a key way to stop damage inside Israel. That's where

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Speaker 2: a lot of the funding went until the Iron Dome

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Speaker 2: was launched in twenty eleven. Under the first term of

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Speaker 2: President Barack Obama, there was even more of an emphasis

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Speaker 2: on the Iron Dome in terms of budgeting, as it

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Speaker 2: was seen to be more of a defensive mechanism and

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Speaker 2: a way for America to spend money on Israel's defense

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Speaker 2: rather than offensive tactics.

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Speaker 1: Does this sort of technology exist anywhere else in the world?

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Speaker 1: Are there any other iterations of it? Perhaps less progress?

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Speaker 1: But is it anywhere else? It's surprising to think that

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Speaker 1: this technology hasn't been replicated anywhere except Israel.

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Speaker 2: The answer is yes and no. So Israel has extended

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Speaker 2: the technology to a number of allies, most notably India.

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Speaker 2: So they actually offered India a version of the technology

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Speaker 2: about ten years ago now, but that technology is called

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Speaker 2: David's Sling, and it's basically a mini version of the

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Speaker 2: Iron Dome with much less of a radius of hitting missiles.

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Speaker 2: The reasons for not offering up the full Iron Dome,

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Speaker 2: we expect is mainly lost and it's a major investment

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Speaker 2: for any country's military to make.

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Speaker 1: Don't want to sound like a broken record, but it

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Speaker 1: does need to be stated once more. We are not

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Speaker 1: here to discuss the origins or the length of this

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Speaker 1: century's long conflict. However, if there is another concept that

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Speaker 1: you want broken down, please let us know in our DMS.

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Speaker 1: We want to know what concepts are really sticking out

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Speaker 1: to you when you're reading more about this story, and

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Speaker 1: if there are resources that you would like us to provide,

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Speaker 1: please let us know. We can always send you some

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Speaker 1: good reports on this issue for wider reading, but in

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Speaker 1: the meantime, let us know what concepts you want explained.

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Speaker 2: We're definitely in this learning journey together, and we're really

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Speaker 2: passionate about giving you a helping hands to understand the

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Speaker 2: news reports you're reading. That's all we've got time for today, however,

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Speaker 2: but if you want to catch up with news throughout

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Speaker 2: the day, follow us on Instagram. It's where over one

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand Australians get their news throughout the day. And

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Speaker 2: we'd love you to leave a review for this podcast

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Speaker 2: if you enjoyed it, it really excelte

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Speaker 1: MHM