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March 2023

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Joe Biden’s Weak Defenses His budget isn’t close to adequate to meet the world’s growing threats.

By on March 23rd, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-defense-budget-fiscal-2024-pentagon-army-navy-air-force-china-russia-573e4bea?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

China’s Xi Jinping traveled to Moscow this week to commune with Vladimir Putin, cementing the new axis against the U.S. Compare that scene to President Biden’s proposed fiscal 2024 defense budget, which isn’t serious about matching American military power to growing threats.

To the extent the press is covering Mr. Biden’s $842 billion Pentagon budget, it is to note the number is large. Yet defense spending at 3% of the economy is low by historical standards. The Pentagon says the proposal is a 0.8% real increase over fiscal 2023, but that is based on an inflation fantasy. This is a defense cut, and not from an epiphany of fiscal restraint. Mr. Biden is choosing to put welfare entitlements over national security. The risks of his choice are worth examining:

• A Navy in shoal waters. The U.S. Navy is the beat cop for deterring bad behavior in the Pacific, but the U.S. fleet would shrink to 291 ships by 2028 from 297 now. The Biden Pentagon wants to retire ships prematurely, such as the cruiser USS Vicksburg, which taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade for longer service.

The Navy is also telling the U.S. Marines to find another ride to work, declining to buy any San Antonio-class amphibious warships. This will wreak havoc on the production line and make it harder to grow the Navy to 355 ships, as Congress says it wants.

The Navy failed to submit a shipbuilding plan, and an institution that can’t articulate its strategy or reason for existing won’t command public support to grow. The Navy is already struggling to buy and maintain enough of the best platforms for deterring China, such as the Virginia-class attack submarine.

• An under-powered Air Force. The Air Force deserves points for buying 72 fighters, which is the minimum needed to keep inventory stable. Meanwhile, the service asks to retire 310 aircraft, and some of this is inevitable. The F-15C/Ds leaving Okinawa with no permanent replacement are structurally exhausted; the A-10 is 40 years old and too rudimentary to operate against adversaries like China.

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ISRAEL, MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Israeli researchers discover breakthrough in pancreatic cancer treatment: Team of scientists led by researchers from Hebrew University discover way to prevent pancreatic cancers from metastasizing.

By on March 23rd, 2023

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369093?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

In a new study published today in the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem discovered that changes in the processing of RNA molecules – and not genetic changes in the DNA – drive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) tumors to become metastatic.

This multinational study was conducted in collaboration with Sheba Medical Center and Bar Ilan University in Israel, Cornell University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the United States, and Toronto University in Canada. The study was led by doctoral student Amina Jbara of Professor Rotem Karni’s research group at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine.

Evaluating roughly four hundred PDA tumor samples, both non-metastatic and metastatic, the researchers discovered that a central protein that controls RNA processing, RBFOX2, is degraded and present in much lower levels in metastases.

“Our unique findings demonstrate that the disappearance of RBFOX2 protein causes hundreds of genes to produce RNAs and proteins in a different way, which contributes to the invasive capabilities of the cancer cells,” Professor Rotem Karni explained. “We found that restoring RBFOX2 to PDA metastatic cells inhibits the formation of metastases, while the elimination of RBFOX2 in non-metastatic PDA cells stimulates the formation of pancreatic cancer metastases.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Anti-reform protests reveal police double standards The force responds differently depending on who is demonstrating, analysts tell JNS. By David Isaac

By on March 23rd, 2023

https://www.jns.org/anti-reform-protests-reveal-police-double-standards/

What began as Saturday evening mass protests against the government’s judicial reform program have morphed into “days of disruption” and increasingly extreme behavior as demonstrators block highways, clash with police, blockade Knesset members in their homes, refuse to show up for reserve duty, and, in one instance, barricade the prime minister’s wife in a hair salon.

This has raised questions about the limits of protest and eyebrows about how the police deal with the lawbreakers, suggesting different sets of rules apply for different citizens.

Itzhak Bam, an Israeli attorney specializing in freedom of expression, told JNS: “What is interesting in this case is the extreme tolerance of the police. From my experience as a criminal defense lawyer in cases of illegal assembly, and we have had a lot of such cases here in Jerusalem, I am pretty sure that if they were right-wing protesters, or haredim [ultra-Orthodox Jews], or Arabs—any of these groups—the police would be much more assertive, or maybe aggressive, in preventing them from blocking highways.

“Why softer tactics are being used now is a good question to ask the police,” Bam said, adding that rather than one rule for everyone, there are “good” and “bad” protests with the police taking a different tack depending on who is doing the protesting.

It’s not always about politics, said Bam, noting that police were tolerant of protests in 2021 by disability rights groups seeking more state benefits. Though few in number, they blocked major highways and even railroads.

The courts’ perspective

Ran Baratz, former head of public diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office and founder of MIDA, an online daily conservative magazine in Hebrew, echoed the view that police are acting less aggressively than they did against protesters who blocked roads during the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

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