MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Nicole Gelinas, E. J. McMahon New York City’s Drop Dead Year A new film vividly revisits Gotham’s 1975 nadir.

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/drop-dead-city-documentary-new-york-city-fiscal-crisis

This year marks a half-century since the acute phase of New York City’s fiscal crisis. It began in February 1975, when a default by a state-backed housing authority alarmed the bankers who regularly lent to the city, prompting closer scrutiny of New York’s own finances. In April, the banks stopped extending credit to cover the city’s chronic deficits. That led to a state takeover of city finances in June and, finally, a federal guarantee of the state rescue plan in December.

The crisis still sparks both ideological and practical debate: Was it the banks’ fault—for lending too much, or for cutting off credit? Or was it the city’s fault, for borrowing beyond its means? Did the reforms that followed usher in an era of harmful austerity or broad-based prosperity? Was the outcome a bailout, a punishment, or both?

This year marks a half-century since the acute phase of New York City’s fiscal crisis. It began in February 1975, when a default by a state-backed housing authority alarmed the bankers who regularly lent to the city, prompting closer scrutiny of New York’s own finances. In April, the banks stopped extending credit to cover the city’s chronic deficits. That led to a state takeover of city finances in June and, finally, a federal guarantee of the state rescue plan in December.

The crisis still sparks both ideological and practical debate: Was it the banks’ fault—for lending too much, or for cutting off credit? Or was it the city’s fault, for borrowing beyond its means? Did the reforms that followed usher in an era of harmful austerity or broad-based prosperity? Was the outcome a bailout, a punishment, or both

We’ve both recently attended a screening of a new documentary on the crisis, Drop Dead City. The title comes from the famous Daily News headline paraphrasing President Gerald Ford’s initial refusal to rescue New York in October 1975: “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” As with many famous quotes, Ford never used those exact words—though what he did say was close enough. Directed by Michael Rohatyn and Peter Yost, Drop Dead City blends newly unearthed archival footage with clips and fresh interviews featuring key figures from 1975, including union leaders and financiers.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

President Trump Speaks with Bold Action We couldn’t afford to continue this theater of diplomacy. by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/president-trump-speaks-with-bold-action/

Last Saturday, Israel’s operation to eliminate the existential threat of a nuclear armed, genocidal regime reached a spectacular culmination with President Trump’s massive strike against three of Iran’s most important nuclear weapons facilities. The strikes settled the debate over whether Trump would, or should continue to pursue a diplomatic resolution to 46 years of the mullahs’ aggression and the West’s serial appeasement. Trump settled the debate with powerful, decisive action of a sort that our country has avoided for nearly five decades of “diplomatic engagement” and “preemptive cringing” that rationalized our failure of nerve.

But the existential danger of the Iranian theocrats’ nuclear ambitions has never been in question. That didn’t matter to a few Republican “no foreign entanglements” and “endless neocon wars” Congressmen and advisors, who have rejected the existence of the threat, mainly by saying Iran is not capable of, nor interested in possessing nuclear weapons. But that claim has been preposterously false. Just recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported, “Iran carried out multiple implosion tests, a key military skill necessary for developing the atomic bomb. Implosion tests do not have civilian nuclear uses.”

Additionally, according to The Straits Times, “At least until Israel’s attacks, Iran was enriching uranium up to 69 percent purity and had enough material at that level for nine weapons if enriched further, according to the IAEA yardstick. That means Iran’s so-called ‘breakout time’––the time it would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb––was close to zero, likely a matter of days or little more than a week, analysts say.”

Another argument from some Republicans of an isolationist bent deployed the neocon strawman of “forever wars” that do not directly serve our national interests and security, are poorly managed, and needlessly cost American lives and resources. But the conflicts these critics have in mind––the Afghanistan War, the second Gulf War against Iraq, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the Obama-Clinton NATO adventurism in Libya––are false analogies with Israel’s campaign to eliminate the threat of an apocalyptic, messianic genocidal regime that is the world’s most lethal state sponsor of terrorism, now on the brink of possessing nuclear weapons.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Trump Keeps His Promise on Iran. The World Is Safer for It.

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.thefp.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The president warned that he wouldn’t tolerate a nuclear Iran. He meant what he said.

President Trump promised he would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Last night, with seven B-2 bombers and a dozen 30,000-pound bombs, he made good on that vow. The world is better off for it.

Trump announced Saturday evening that the U.S. had completed a “spectacularly successful” strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites at Natanz, Esfahan, and Fordow. The last of those is a heavily fortified facility buried some 300 feet deep in a mountain in Iran’s Qom Province. Although Israel has bunker busting bombs, none have the size and destructive power of the most advanced American bombs, with the capability of destroying or severely damaging the site.

In a moment of political decisiveness and courage, Trump deployed those bombs, despite strenuous objections from the “restrainers” in his administration and parts of the MAGA coalition.

“There’s no military that could’ve done what we did,” Trump said during a brief speech to the nation Saturday night. He is correct. As Niall Ferguson and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant recently noted in these pages, Fordow was essentially impervious to assault. There was one bomb that could cut through its defenses: America’s GBU 57A/B Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP). And there was only one plane built to deliver that bomb: the American B-2 Spirit.

“With a single exertion of its unmatched military strength,” Ferguson and Gallant wrote, “the United States can shorten the war, prevent wider escalation, and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability. It can also send a signal to those other authoritarian powers who have been Iran’s enablers that American deterrence is back.”

That is exactly what this White House has done.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Donald Trump On The Iran Strikes: Pithy. Powerful. And To The Point. Bob Maistros

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/06/22/donald-trump-on-the-iran-strikes-pithy-powerful-and-to-the-point/

Let’s not beat around the bush: as a speechwriter at the highest levels of politics and business for 45 years – including the most successful presidential campaign in history – this commentator can present you an undeniable truth.

President Donald J. Trump’s remarks Saturday night in the wake of America’s “spectacular military success” striking Iran’s key nuclear facilities didn’t necessarily amount to an oration for the ages. But they did showcase a heroic man rising to a historic moment – and then some – with a pithy, powerful and pointed address.

Pithy: Your correspondent has in the past agonized over 45’s “every-which-way riff-apaloozas” and penchant for “detours and travelogues” in which he “double-covers every subject and theme.”

Not this time. With a declaration weighing in at a trim three minutes, 19 seconds, Trump didn’t waste one of his mere 525 words. He leaped into his literally earthshaking news, stating the clear objective of the attack – “the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror.” 

And then immediately and forcefully “pre-butted” any doubts about the achievement of that objective with a stout insistence that the pariah state’s “key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

The commander in chief crisply moved into a convincing and compelling defense of the actions he had ordered and graciously thanked the team that carried them out – including his Israeli partners, the “great American patriots” of the U.S. military and their leaders. Then segued smoothly into a plea for peace and a sharply, shockingly straightforward statement – given the namby-pamby double-speak in which matters of diplomacy are usually expressed – of the consequences should Iran not respond to his overture.

ANTI-SEMITISM, ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Attempted Erasure of an Ancient People – Part II by Nils A. Haug

Posted By on June 22nd, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21694/o-muslim-o-slave-of-allah-there-is-a-jew-behind

The fiction of a “Palstinian people” was admitted by a late Palestinian Authorly senior official Zuheir Mohsen in an interview for the Dutch Newspaper Trouw: “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons…..”
— Zuheir Mohsen to James Dorsey, “Wij zijn alleen Palestijn om politieke reden”, Trouw, March 31, 1977.

The Australian Jewish Association consequently issued a travel warning to Jews and Israelis wishing to visit Australia, advising that their visa may be cancelled at any time.

None of the nations that vehemently supported the irrationality of a Palestinian state ever mentioned the slaughter by Hamas of Israel’s innocents; the 54 hostages still held by Hamas, only 21 of whom remain alive, or that Hamas, not Israel, had started the war, or that the war could end immediately if Hamas returnd the hostages, which they had no business kidnapping in the first place, and laid down its arms.

The short reply of the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to Macron was: “No Palestinian state likely in our lifetime.”

“Britain is choosing to appease its own Islamists, while treating as an enemy the country that is not only fighting the same existential foe but is vital to help the United Kingdom defend itself against it.” — Melanie Phillips, jns.org , June 5, 2025

It is a choice: the West is allowing its hard-won freedoms, primacy of individual rights and freedom of expression to be compromised.

The mass campaign to “Globalize the intifada” essentially means ‘Globalize Jew-hate’ — a short step to the stated intent of some Islamists to ultimately eradicate Jews globally.

This outcome is what many demonstrators seem to seek when they use supporting the cause of the so-called Palestinian people as a subterfuge, a Trojan horse, to hide their homicidal aims against the Jews, starting with Israel.

Problematically, the Palestinian people do not actually exist. They are ordinary Arabs who happened to be on the land called Israel, who decided to flee during the 1948 war, but then, after the five Arab armies lost, were not allowed back. Israel considered them disloyal fifth-columnists who had left of their own free will and a potential risk, in contrast to the Arabs who remained in Israel during the war. The fiction of a “Palstinian people” was admitted by a late senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Zuheir Mohsen in an interview for the Dutch Newspaper Trouw:

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Confronting China’s Commercial Malign Influence in Africa The Trump Administration’s “trade, not aid” Africa strategy confronts China’s influence by empowering U.S. businesses and promoting fair, rules-based economic partnerships. By Peter Mihalick

Posted By on June 22nd, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/22/confronting-chinas-commercial-malign-influence-in-africa/

In another welcome sign of the Trump Administration’s focused prioritization of American interests in foreign policy, the State Department’s Senior Bureau Official for African Affairs recently rolled out a clear-eyed approach to U.S. engagement in Africa. As part of a long-overdue restructuring of the State Department, the Trump Administration articulated a directive to U.S. diplomats that puts enhanced trade and commercial diplomacy at the forefront of advancing U.S. interests, with the American private sector squarely in the lead as the engine of mutual prosperity and expansive growth. As highlighted throughout a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, threats from Chinese activities across Africa, especially commercial activities, directly undermine U.S. interests across the continent.

Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) laid out the challenge directly, calling China “the most significant long-term strategic threat to the United States” and highlighting that throughout Africa, “China is exercising its military, economic, and political power and advancing its authoritarian agenda, all while undermining the sovereignty of African nations and the strategic interests of the United States.” To help confront this harmful influence directly, the Trump Administration’s updated strategy prioritizes the need to reduce barriers to entry for U.S. companies and level the playing field for American businesses. Fair, clear, and equal rules of doing business, coupled with strengthened institutions and the rule of law to uphold those standards, are the opportunity the private sector seeks as it evaluates prospective markets. Coupled with broader Trump Administration reforms at trade promotion and enhanced prioritization ensuring American competitiveness in Africa, this strategic focus on “trade, not aid” is what both our African partners and the American people want.

The success of this strategy goes beyond the ongoing reorganization and strategic restructuring of the state. As Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) noted during another recent hearing focused on issues in East Africa, “There are countries where meaningful engagement is possible—but only with sober judgment and clear-eyed realism. We must stop building U.S. policy in Africa around individual leaders and instead focus on strengthening institutions, expanding private sector ties, and empowering the region’s young and dynamic populations.” That clear focus requires careful analysis of the various ways China’s coercive activities have been successful in the past to help inform what is needed to expand commercial relationships in Africa.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Decision That Will Define Trump Peter O’Brien

Posted By on June 22nd, 2025

https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/middle-east/the-decision-that-will-define-trump/

I can understand President Trump’s taking his time to decide whether or not to intervene in the Israel/Iran war, given the strength of the ‘no new wars’ sentiment of much of his base.  In deference to them he did not rush into a decision.

However, he was caught up by two considerations of his own devising.  Firstly, his firm and repeated assertion that Iran will never be allowed a nuclear weapon.  And, secondly, his demand that allies step up to the plate in defending themselves if they expect US help.  Implicit in that demand is that the US will help those friends and allies who help themselves.  Israel has done that in spades.  And, in doing so, it is rendering a great service to the rest of the world.

If Trump did not support Israel at this critical time, as he has now done, how seriously should, for example, the Albanese government take his demand to increase our own spending?  After all, the effective US contribution would not involve boots on the ground.  Just dropping two or three bunker busting bombs on selected sites from virtually uncontested airspace.  It would pose no risk of escalation from other state parties because they have not already intervened against Israel.

What is the downside?  There is a risk that Iran would strike US facilities in retaliation and that, undoubtedly, would hurt Trump domestically.   It would not, however, materially damage US power. There is a risk that the MOAB bomb might not have been able to penetrate the Fordow fortifications.  But two or three strikes would probably increase the chances.  It would be surprising if it did not do significant damage.  There is speculation the facility could be 100 metres or more below the surface.  But no matter how far underground it is, there must be surface level access points, and it would be strange if Israel did not know where they are.  With modern guidance systems a MOAB can be delivered straight through the front door — or any other door, for that matter.

I believe that Trump genuinely deplores war, as I do.  However, that does not make him a member of the kumbaya brigade, any more than it does me.  No military action comes without risk.  But sometimes the risk of inaction outweighs the alternative.

How, for example, would Taiwan – already in some doubt about US resolve to defend it – feel about a decision by Trump not to take all steps available to help Israel rid the world of the risk of Iran having a nuclear bomb?

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Shunned by Sanctitudinous Science Peter Smith

Posted By on June 22nd, 2025

https://quadrant.org.au/

When coffeeing with a group of conservative friends as I do on Fridays, one of our number, Professor Emeritus Ivan Kennedy, said something to the effect that there were no scientific alternative theories to the IPCC’s explanation of global warming except for his.

I was taken aback. Surely, even within my limited knowledge, William Happer (Princeton) and Richard Lindzen (MIT) hypothesise that the effect of CO2 on warming progressively declines. Nobel Prize winner Dr John Clauser hypothesises that reflective cumulus clouds created by water vapour, engendered by modest warming, act as a thermostat to keep global temperatures down. You can read about it here if you wish. So what is going on?

Let me start by dismissing the canard that global warming is an invention. Sure, maybe the so-called ‘homogenisation’ of past land and sea temperature data has artificially steepened the warming record since the 1940s. But, for all that, the NOAA satellite data since the end of 1979 shows that the temperature in the sub-troposphere has trended up by about 0.7⁰C between December 1979 and December 2024. As this data has been compiled by Roy Spencer and John Christie (sceptical scientists) at the University of Alamba in Huntsville, we can safely assume it is trustworthy.

So the climate has warmed. Now should come the scientific fun. Competing theories jostling to best explain the data. No such fun. Blaming exploitative Western man has proved to be a sacrosanct hypothesis.

Sacrosanctity and science don’t mix. Many past theories propounded by scientific giants have eventually failed the test: Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system; Aristotle’s theory of gravity, even Newton’s. Yet a tenuous theory of the climate concocted by relative mediocrities, which hasn’t come close to accurately predicting global temperatures, is holy writ. Risible, except that political and celebrity buy-in is undoing progress wherever it results in the replacement of reliable with unreliable energy.  Think of Australia as a quintessential case study.

Happily, despite powerful and well-funded forces out to cancel dissenters, maverick scientists keep on stirring the pot. Which brings me back to Prof. Kennedy and his collaborators. Their hypothesis can be found here. In lay terms it goes like this:

The increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since the 1960s has been caused by warming not the reverse. Other things equal, emissions by mankind of CO2 are all absorbed by the land (hence the greening) and by the oceans. Thus, on this account, there is no material net increase of CO2 in the atmosphere from fossil fuel emissions. Ergo, such emissions cannot be the cause of warming. It is true that warming has occurred, and that atmospheric CO2 has risen. The underlying chain of events is as follows.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Thank You Mr. President, Thank You America, Thank You Israel by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on June 22nd, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21693/thank-you-trump-america-israel

This tiny country [Israel], by itself, has begun putting an end to a “forever war” that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been waging on the West for 46 years. The potential success of such a David-vs-Goliath endeavor would not be possible without the strength, determination, and leadership of US President Donald J. Trump.

America finally has a president willing to act against terrorism.

This moment also makes clear that Trump’s actions are not provoking World War III, they are preventing World War III – which Iran has been threatening for almost half a century.

Now, once again, when Israel needs a true ally — not just someone to offer sympathetic words then threaten to withhold weapons — Trump has offered consistent support. “Israel has to do what they have to do,” he said.

This kind of Churchillian clarity does not cause chaos—it stops it, just as the allies stopped it in the last century in Germany and Japan. Trump and Netanyahu deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for taking one of the world’s greatest terrorist states off the table.

This kind of Churchillian clarity does not cause chaos — it stops it, as the WWII allies did in the last century in Germany and Japan. Trump and Netanyahu deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for taking one of the world’s greatest terrorist states off the table.

Strength does not invite war—it deters it. “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse,” observed the late esteemed psychologist, Osama bin Laden, “they will naturally want to side with the strong horse.” The Middle East is safer today not because of handshakes and summits and signed pieces of paper that usually one side disregards.

Russia disregarded the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Russia, the United States and Ukraine agreed that Ukraine’s borders would be respected in exchange for giving up the nuclear weapons it had at the time. And half a ton of documents showed that Iran had been cheating on its JCPOA “deal.”

The Middle East is safer today because Israel struck after… Israeli intelligence determined that Iran was on the brink of assembling a bomb — and because the United States stood behind Israel.

To those who still criticize, who still think diplomacy alone can solve everything, the answer is simple. As the great Secretary of State George Shultz noted, “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table” — in short, diplomacy works best when the enemy knows that it is backed up by force. Iran’s leaders did not take Trump’s 60-day warning seriously, probably because they did not believe he and Netanyahu had the courage to act. They also may be assuming that they can absorb a few blows and build back their nuclear weapons program after that – and precisely why it is crucial to destroy Fordow: to make sure no one can resuscitate it later.

The time for appeasement is over. For this, we owe our gratitude to three pillars: Trump, the USA under his leadership, and the brave people of Israel who refuse to be victims.

What the world witnessed this past week was not merely a military operation. It was the courageous act of a free nation — Israel — taking one of the bravest and most humane steps in recent memory to stop evil in its tracks. This tiny country, by itself, has begun putting an end to a “forever war” that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been waging on the West for 46 years. The potential success of such a David-vs-Goliath endeavor would not be possible without the strength, determination, and leadership of US President Donald J. Trump.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on June 22nd, 2025

Beyond breaking news and headlines and war, as Michael Ordman’s dazzling compendium shows, Israel’s researchers, scientists, and social institutions remain at work 24/7 to retain resiliency and continue vital development of technology that helps humanity from the Jordan River to distant seas in every continent. rsk

 

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Cutting off the head of the snake. By now most readers will have read how Israel caught Iran by surprise with the most audacious and successful preemptive strike since the six-day-war.  The awesome events of Fri 13 June 2025 will be written down in many future history books. See here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-857577
 
Air superiority in 48 hours. In just 48 hours, Israel achieved full air superiority over Iranian skies. In Israel’s preemptive military campaign operation “Rising Lion”, 200 Israeli jets struck critical Iranian targets and Israel now operates freely in Iranian airspace. https://israfan.com/p/israel-air-superiority-iran-operation-rising-lion
 
Baby saved after Iranian attack. A 3-month-old baby was pulled out alive and in good condition from the rubble in Rishon Letzion in the aftermath of the 3rd Iranian barrage of ballistic missiles fired indiscriminately at civilian residences in the greater Tel Aviv area. Shortly afterward, the infant’s parents were also rescued.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-rescue-team-pulls-baby-from-rubble-after-missile-barrage/
 
Advanced tech helps rescue Israelis. Police officers rescued a family from the rubble while searching the scene of a projectile impact in central Israel. The police stated that the rescue was conducted using special technological means, which allowed safe entry to the damaged area and removal of obstacles.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/410160
 
Puppies rescued. Israeli rescue forces retrieved two puppies from a Bat Yam home damaged by an Iranian missile strike. The Bat Yam Municipality took custody of the two mixed breed Labrador retrievers, and evacuated them for initial medical treatment while trying to locate the owners.
https://www.jns.org/two-puppies-rescued-from-rubble-in-bat-yam/
 
New Barak Magen destroys Iranian drones. For the first time, the Israeli Navy used its new “Barak Magen” air defense system to shoot down eight Iranian drones. In addition, it can intercept cruise missiles and high-trajectory missiles, thus protecting key infrastructure e.g. offshore gas platforms and cities along Israel’s coast.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-navys-new-barak-magen-shoots-down-uavs-1001512977
 
Repatriating Israelis. El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa are working to bring home thousands of Israelis each day who have been stranded abroad by the closure of Ben Gurion International airport. Israel is unique in that its citizens are desperate to travel from a relatively safe place to a country in the middle of a war.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-airlifts-start-bringing-home-stranded-citizens/
 
Haredi woman captains first repatriation flight. El Al operated the first repatriation flight from Larnaca to Israel, led by the haredi captain Nechama Spiegel from Beit Shemesh. Spiegel, a mother of seven and the first haredi captain in El Al, made the flight as part of a series of flights approved by the government.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/410229
 
Resilience domes. The Municipality of Sderot in southern Israel has launched a Resilience Accelerator to invest in resilience technologies and mental health. It comprises entrepreneurs working from within the crisis who are addressing trauma capacity issues, lack of accessibility, and waiting times.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-858049
 
Iranian state financial systems hacked. A cybersecurity attack has disabled Iran’s Sepah Bank, closely tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Also, Iran’s cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex, which reportedly has been used to bypass Iranian sanctions, has been hacked, with reported losses estimated at $80 million.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-linked-group-claims-cyberattack-on-iranian-bank/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rj118vge4el
 
From wedding to war. (TY Sharon) Not sure if this is good news, but it includes examples of how Israelis are accustomed to major changes of circumstances from one day to another.
https://rjstreets.com/2025/06/16/leaving-jerusalem-for-a-wedding-and-waking-to-war/
 
Thanks! (TY Yanky) Secular Boaz Golan is the lead presenter on Israel’s Channel 14. Viewers were in for an unexpected surprise when on live TV, Golan announced that the Jewish nation must give thanks to the Lord for the miracles we are witnessing. Donning a big kippah, he recited the gratitude Psalm 100 – Mizmor L’Todah.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1382423826363413
 
You did great. This newsletter editor signed up to be a “champion” in the MyIsrael campaign to raise funds for desperate Israeli families adversely impacted by the war.  The campaign raised over £1.1 million, of which over £12,000 was thanks to generous VeryGoodNewsIsrael readers.  If you still wish to donate, see link below.
https://www.charityextra.com/myisrael/michael-ordman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctVU58TNb6M (info about MyIsrael)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4-wKGM5es-4 (personal plea from MyIsrael CEO Danni Franks)
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Bioengineered skin to speed healing. Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Sheba Medical Center have developed replacement skin for grafting in burn victims. Bioengineered from the patient’s own cells, it is stable, robust, and flexible and can achieve wound closure in half the time of standard therapies.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-develops-bioengineered-skin-that-can-speed-healing/
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202501745
 
Huge EU grant to slow down aging. Prof Liat Ayalon, of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, is one of the United Nations’ Healthy Ageing 50: leaders transforming the world to be a better place to grow older. She has just been awarded a 2.5 million Euro grant from the European Research Council to advance her HALFLIFE project.
https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2025-06/erc-2024-adg-results-sh.pdf
https://cris.biu.ac.il/en/persons/liat-ayalon   https://liatayalon.com/
 
Israeli therapy cured 33% of “no-hope” myeloma patients. (TY Ron M) A third of 97 “terminal” myeloma patients are still alive after five years thanks to Car-T cancer treatment, originally invented by Israeli scientists. These were the findings of an international study, including Israel’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/s1wwwo11xgl
 
Trial success for delayed-release antibiotic. Israel’s PolyPid (see here previously) reported positive Phase III trial results on its delayed-release antibiotic treatment applied at the site of surgical infections. The reduction in the risk of infection after surgery was 58% in the 800-patient trial.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-polypid-reports-positive-phase-3-surgical-infection-drug-trial-1001512420
 
100,000 bacteria vs virus tests. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s MeMed (see here previously) reached a major milestone of more than 100,000 patients tested with its MeMed BV, the company’s flagship technology that accurately distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections in just 15 minutes.
https://www.ourcrowd.com/startup-news/memed-bv-surpasses-100000-patient-tests-underscoring-adoption-of-rapid-host-response-diagnostics
 
How paracetamol works. For decades, scientists believed that paracetamol relieved discomfort by working only in the brain and spinal cord. Now, Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists show that the AM404 active metabolite which it releases, shuts off sodium channels to stop pain signals while they are still at nerve endings.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-study-finds-acetaminophen-drug-works-by-first-blocking-pain-in-nerves/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2413811122
 
Doctors return on cargo ship. Dozens of doctors, who were at a European medical conference, have boarded a merchant ship on a special rescue voyage back to Israel. Among them are doctors from Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center, Rambam Health Care Campus, and Sheba Medical Center.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/syrcegjexg
 
BGU trains more doctors. Israel’s Ben-Gurion University has partnered with the Sagol Network to launch the Sagol Medical School for International Health. Its 4-year MD program, open to all Israeli citizens, uses hi-tech, global health, and AI to train Israel’s medical leaders. Currently, some 160 students are enrolled in the school.
https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/bgu-launches-sagol-medical-school-for-international-health/