NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran’s Military Capabilities Restored by No. Korea Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on November 2nd, 2025

 bit.ly/4oQA9tb

*The June 13-20, 2025 Israeli Air Force offensive against Iran devastated Iran’s ballistic capabilities, which are Chinese, Russian and North Korean-based. Israel also destroyed much of Iran’s Air Force and neutralized Iran’s Russia and China-based air defenses, paving the road to the June 21 US bombing of Iran’s 3 major nuclear facilities, unimpeded by Iran’s Air Force and air defenses.

*The Israeli offensive, which was carried out with advance US military systems, has had global implications – economically and militarily.  It eroded Russia’s, China’s and North Korea’s posture of deterrence, by exposing the critical vulnerabilities of their military systems, which are deployed throughout the globe. Thus, the Israeli offensive tilted the global balance of power in favor of the US, bolstering the strategic posture of the US, underscoring the superiority of US military systems (e.g., F-15, F-16 and F-35), inducing an increase of US export of defense and aerospace systems, and sharing with the US Armed Forces vital lessons derived from the June offensive, which was the largest and most complexed air force operation since WW2.

*Viewing the Ayatollah regime as a tool to undermine the US’ strategic posture, regionally and globally, China, North Korea and probably Russia are preoccupied 24/7 with reconstituting and upgrading Iran’s ballistic, air defense air force and nuclear capabilities. Iran’s Ayatollah regime has aligned itself, systematically, with adversaries and enemies of “The Great American Satan,” as highlighted by the FBI’s, Department of Homeland Security’s and Director of Intelligence’s Threat Assessment 2026, which underscore Iran’s collaboration with China and Russia in expanding terror sleeper cells on US soil.

*North Korea-Iran military cooperation was initiated during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Since then, the durable and adaptable cooperation has focused on ballistic technologies and missile components, shifting to a higher gear since the June Israel-US offensive against Iran. Thus, North Korea restores and upgrades Iran’s ballistic capabilities – including missile assembly plants – including design and production. Historically, much of Iran’s ballistic missile program has been a derivative of North Korean designs, involving intense intelligence exchange and technical cooperation in both missile and associated booster technologies, as well as missile reentry and solid-fuel technologies.​ In fact, Iranian missiles like the Shahab-3, Emad, and Ghadr are direct derivatives of North Korean designs such as the No Dong missile.​

*One of the lessons of the June 2025 war – and Israel’s war on the fortified underground terror state of Gaza – has been the Iranian strive for fortified underground ballistic and nuclear complexes, which has been North Korea’s claim to fame, especially in the area of designing and constructing underground deep tunneling systems.  Since the 1950-1953 Korean War, North Korea has fortified its own central military facilities in underground bases.

IMMIGRATION, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The murder in Derby: another victim of borderless Britain We cannot allow this to become the new normal. Georgina Mumford

Posted By on November 2nd, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/11/02/the-murder-in-derby-another-victim-of-borderless-britain/

This was a ‘brutal and callous act’, said Judge Shaun Smith on Wednesday, after sentencing Haybe Cabdiraxmaan Nur to life in prison for the murder of Gurvinder Singh Johal. Smith was not overstating it.

Nur, a Somali national who arrived in the UK illegally in October 2024 by small boat, had his asylum application rejected in January this year. Five months later, on 6 May, he walked into a branch of Lloyds bank in Derby, in the East Midlands. Johal, a complete stranger to Nur, happened to be waiting in a queue inside the bank. Nur pulled a knife from his trousers and forcefully stabbed Johal in the chest.

Nur was in and out of the bank in just 22 seconds. And just like that he had devastated the lives of Johal’s wife, his two children and his wider family and friends. The CCTV footage of the murder, replayed in court, drove several distressed family members from the room in tears. ‘Our lives didn’t just change’, read their impact statement. ‘They shattered… We are tormented by “what ifs.”’

This is in danger of becoming an all too familiar story. Indeed, Nur was sentenced not two days after a triple stabbing in Uxbridge. Wayne Broadhurst, a 49-year-old refuse-collector, was stabbed to death while walking his dog around the block. A 45-year-old man was left with life-changing injuries, while a 14-year-old boy was also attacked.

Like Nur, Broadhurst’s alleged murderer had also entered the UK illegally. An Afghan national, he had arrived on the back of a lorry in 2020 before being granted leave to remain in 2022.

Families across the country are being forced to pay the price for a spineless government only too happy to play Russian Roulette with the public. Most asylum seekers do not threaten the safety and security of British citizens. But there are clearly far too many who do, and no serious attempt is being made to identify them and deport them.

It’s not even as if those who do pose a threat do so unexpectedly. Nur had police records in the four different European countries he’d landed in before reaching the UK. On the morning of the murder he reportedly guzzled three bottles of vodka and a box of beer, before calling a migrant charity helpline to say he was ‘going to kill 500 people… doctors, police or people working at the Home Office’. His police records and behaviour were huge red flags, and yet thanks to our chaotic asylum system, he was free to wander our streets.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

‘Innocent People Cowardly Killed’: The Persecution of Christians, September 2025 by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on November 2nd, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22030/persecution-of-christians-september

These atrocities are just part of a continuing wave of attacks by the Islamic State Mozambique (IS-M), which has been active in northern Mozambique since 2017, killing an estimated 1,800 Christians and displacing more than half a million people. The militants … establish roadblocks to intercept travelers, particularly Christians, who are charged “tolls” ranging from $150 to $460 to continue their journeys. IS-M continues to demand that Christians convert to Islam, submit to IS authority and pay jizya (“tribute”), or face death. — Barnabas Aid, September 14, 2025, Mozambique.

Organized by army officers and officials, these gatherings are presented to the public as “reconciliation,” but Christian survivors call them diversions “designed to mask atrocities, shield perpetrators, and convince foreign diplomats that progress is being made… They told us to forgive and move forward, but they never asked who committed the killings. They only wanted photographs of us sitting together in the hall, so they could show Abuja and the U.S. embassy that peace has been restored.” — A farmer whose brother was killed, persecution.org, September 3, 2025, Nigeria.

Human rights advocates say such kidnappings are common. Girls as young as 10 are abducted, converted, and raped under the guise of Islamic marriage, while courts routinely ignore evidence of age. The case highlights Pakistan’s failure to enforce child protection laws, while, under sharia law, Islamic authorities oppose raising the marriage age.

“These are not teachers. The government has hired clerics to preach Islam instead of teaching.” — A grandmother, persecution.org, September 24, 2025, Pakistan

“When even NGOs (non-governmental organisations) want to distribute food, the category of people who will receive this relief is controlled by Government. So, Government in these places doesn’t give it to minorities. Often Christians here have been told: ‘Unless you leave your Christianity, no food for you’…. For a long time now, they’re eating animal feed and grass. No wheat, no rice, nothing can get in. And, unfortunately now, no medicine – if you have just the flu it can kill you.” — Local church leader, GB News, September 17, 2025, Sudan.

“This is another tragic example of how Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are being misused. Thousands of innocent people are languishing in prisons under false charges, and many have been murdered by vigilantes before trial. Social media is increasingly weaponized to settle personal scores and inflame communal tensions. Urgent reforms are needed to protect minorities and prevent abuse of Section 295-C [mandatory death penalty for blasphemy].” —Nasir Saeed, director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance & Settlement UK, September 24, 2025, Pakistan.

[A] Christian pastor was denied access to a chapel at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport because Muslims were using it and unwilling to share their space with an infidel…. The chapel is dedicated to honoring U.S. military service members…. “Welcome to America, where we promote the Islam faith over all else in the name of inclusion,” wrote one commentator — and shared similar experiences from other airports, raising broader concerns for Christians and others about access to public chapels. — September 27, 2025, United States of America.

Mount Sinai, the site where Moses received the Ten Commandments, is under threat from a state-backed luxury resort project that locals warn will irreparably disfigure one of the world’s most sacred Judeo-Christian landmarks. The Great Transfiguration Project reportedly aims to build five hotels, hundreds of villas, a 1.4-acre visitors’ center, and a shopping complex within the St. Catherine Protectorate, home to the 6th-century St. Catherine’s Monastery and countless ancient biblical sites. “I call it the Grand Disfiguration Project,” said John Grainger, the former manager of a European Union project to develop the area…. While the government frames the project as a “gift to the world,” locals and preservationists see it as an aggressive, top-down imposition, enforced by extensive security surveillance, that disrespects centuries of religious tradition and the sacredness of one of the Bible’s most hallowed sites. Any Egyptian who dares speak up is clamped down on by an intricate and omnipresent security network. In the words of Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer and former resident of St. Catherine, “If they say anything about it, they get a knock on the door [from Egyptian security services]. The secret police in St. Catherine monitor everything so closely — phone calls, we’ve had spyware on telephones. They follow people literally in the street. I’ve been followed many times.” — The New York Post, September 11, 2025.

The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of September 2025.

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Democratic Republic of the Congo: On Sept. 9, right before dawn, Muslim terrorists of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked and slaughtered more than 70 Christians gathered for a wake. What was meant to be a night of mourning for a deceased loved one became a bloodbath. Men, women and children were gunned down. After the carnage, the jihadists torched homes, trucks and motorcycles, leaving families without shelter or possessions. “That’s how they operate, that’s how they act,” a local administrator said:

“You know, it’s a terrorist group [the ADF]. And like all terrorist groups, their objective is often to instill fear in order to force the population to join their movement. That’s why they behave this way.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on November 2nd, 2025

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
Israelis have been enjoying watching the emotional return of released hostages to their families, friends, and even their pets. But there comes a time when a different kind of reality returns. It really sunk in when ex-hostage Eden Alexander returned to his IDF unit. And more so, when the traumatized members of Kibbutz Be’eri invested in an Israeli renewable energy company. Israelis are back in the real world – building a brighter future for Israel and the world. Michael Ordman
Here is another dazzling catalogue of Israel’s beneficence and outsize contributions to the safety, health, technology, succor in times of famine, drought, and natural disasters for the populations of every single continent in the world. Thank you, Michael Ordman!! rsk

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR

VR video becomes reality. Israeli pop star Yoni Bloch created the music video “Sof Tov” (Happy Ending) in Jan 2025 using AI & Virtual Reality to depict the hostages returning from Gaza. 9 months later, Bloch remade the viral video with real-life scenes of the hostages returning, to mirror the previous scenes of hope.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ai-becomes-reality-in-music-video-of-returning-gaza-hostages/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLAgHIP6UM (Original AI VR Jan 2025)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnAfCwA7skY (New real-life Oct 2025)

Discharged from hospital. (TY Hazel) Crowds across Israel waved flags and sang as ex-hostages Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Eitan Mor, Segev Kalfon and Bar Kuperstein made triumphant return to their homes after being discharged from hospital treatment, following their more than two years in captivity.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/so-good-youre-home-discharged-from-hospital-ex-hostages-welcomed-home-by-masses/

Eden returns to IDF. US-Israeli Eden Alexander, who survived Hamas captivity in Gaza, has returned to IDF service in the Golani Brigade. He was promoted to Sergeant 1st class in a moving ceremony attended by the Head of the IDF Personnel Directorate.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417018

Homecoming kits. The Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund is distributing homecoming kits to residents of southern Israel returning to kibbutzim. Their kits contain seeds for planting, symbolizing hope and renewal; calming herbal tea; a purification kit; and cards encouraging families to hold a homecoming ceremony.
https://www.jns.org/kibbutz-fund-distributes-homecoming-kits-amid-return-to-oct-7-ravaged-communities/

Freed hostage reunites with his dog. Ex-hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal was finally reunited with his loyal dog, who had waited faithfully for two years while his master was held captive by Hamas.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-freed-hostage-reunites-with-his-dog-after-two-years-in-captivity/

Toys for children of ex-hostage. Elkana Bohbot, released in the latest hostage exchange, saw his children receive dozens of Jurassic Park dinosaur toys from a philanthropist. A touching gesture of love and support.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-children-of-freed-hostage-elkana-bohbot-receive-dozens-of-toys-from-philanthropist/

Devastated kibbutz invests in renewable energy. (TY UWI) Kibbutz Be’eri, almost totally destroyed by Hamas, has recovered sufficiently to invest NIS 20 million in Israeli renewable energy company Arava Power. Kibbutz Hatzerim, where most of Be’eri’s members temporarily reside, has also invested NIS 20 million.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/k3carulwk

OneFamily event for bereaved families. A special Sukkot event organized by OneFamily and its US sponsors brought together bereaved families from across Israel for a day of connection, comfort, and community. Among the participants were orphans, widows, and children who lost siblings or parents to terror and war.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417074

Former Syrian outpost. 58 years after Israel took control of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, mine clearance at the former Syrian army outpost of Ein Almin is complete. The public is invited to view 11 acres of trenches, underground bunkers and cool off in the “officers pool” of natural spring water.
https://www.jns.org/israel-to-open-former-syrian-military-outpost-to-public-during-sukkot/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A bio-adhesive for closing wounds. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed biomimetic hydrogel bio-adhesives that can seal wounds quickly and effectively even under extreme conditions and environments. The scientists were inspired by how mollusks / molluscs adhere to wet surfaces.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-871577
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.202502850

Brainwave helmet mends broken links. (TY Hazel) Detailed article about the magnetic field helmet invented by Yaron Segal and commercialized by Israel’s BrainQ (see here previously). It now has the CE mark – which means it’s safe to be sold and used across Europe – and has been approved by Israel’s ministry of health.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/brainwave-pioneer-time-is-running-out-for-my-son/

Unlocking the secrets of aging. Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University and at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered a new subset of T helper cells – CD4-Eomes cells – are prominent in people well over 100 years old. these T helper cells act to clean out the system of senescence cells that accelerate aging.
https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/bgu-scientists-one-step-closer-to-understanding-aging/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-025-00953-8

Test for suicide risk. (TY Nevet) Researchers from University of Haifa’s Sagol Department of Neurobiology have combined genetics and AI to detect suicidal tendencies in bipolar patients with near-perfect precision, offering a new hope for early intervention. They identified distinctive molecular signatures in high-risk patients.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-scientists-develop-blood-test-that-predicts-suicide-risk-in-bipolar-disorder/

UK trials virus vs bacteria blood test. The UK’s National Health Service in Liverpool, London and Newcastle is using the BV test from Israel’s MeMed to decide whether a patient is suffering from a bacterial or viral infection. It speeds up treatment of sepsis, meningitis, etc., and prevents unnecessary use of antibiotics.
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/nhs-trials-israeli-founded-blood-test-to-spot-deadly-infections-in-children/

Addressing UK mental health. The UK Embassy in Israel has launched the 2nd cohort of the Dangoor Health-Tech Academy, a joint initiative by the UK-Israel Tech Hub and the Dangoor Foundation. The 8-week program connects Israeli health-tech start-ups with the UK healthcare ecosystem, focusing on mental-health innovation.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-872003

100 medics at first Medex Australia. Nefesh B’Nefesh, in cooperation with The Jewish Agency for Israel, hosted the first-ever MedEx events in Australia, for over 100 Jewish doctors in Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the International Medical Aliyah Program (IMAP), streamlining the process for doctors making Aliyah.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416950 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417076

80 ambu-cycles to celebrate Dr Miriam Adelson’s 80th. Israel’s national emergency volunteer organization, United Hatzalah, proudly announced the dedication of 80 new emergency motorcycles (“Ambu-cycles”) to celebrate the 80th birthday of philanthropist and friend Dr. Miriam Adelson.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-871691

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Middle East minorities forge ties with Israel. Representatives of the Druze, Kurdish, Alawite, Assyrian and Yazidi communities gathered in Tel Aviv for the first-of-its-kind conference “The Future of Minorities in the Middle East,”. They discussed the future, following the end of the brutal Syrian regime and a weaker Iran.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/seeing-israel-as-a-beacon-regional-minorities-gather-in-tel-aviv-to-discuss-future/

600 companies, 2700 jobs in NYC. A US-Israel Business Alliance report highlights that nearly 600 Israeli companies have created 27,000 jobs in New York City, generating billions of dollars for the city’s economy. What a pity that the leading contender for the city’s mayor supports the Israel boycott movement.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/nearly-600-israeli-companies-have-created-27000-jobs-in-nyc-survey-finds/

Taiwan: Israel is a model for defense. Israel is a model for Taiwan to learn from in strengthening its defenses, President Lai Ching-te said at an AIPAC meeting, citing the Biblical story of David versus Goliath on the need to stand up to authoritarianism. Unfortunately, Taiwan is not allowed to join the United Nations.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-871910

Medals of honor. (TY Sharon) The nine awardees of the Israeli President’s Medals of Honor included Israel Druzr leader Sheik Muwaffaq Tarif; US philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson; freed hostages Matan Angrest and Segev Kalfon; and non-Jewish Zionist Mathias Döpfner the “giant” CEO of Axel Springer SE media group.
https://rjstreets.com/2025/10/26/jerusalem-gets-back-to-normal-after-holidays/

Responding to Hurricane Melissa. IsraAID, Israel’s leading independent humanitarian organization, launched an emergency response after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica. Its team will focus on providing support in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, as well as Mental Health and Psychosocial Support.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417057

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Using AI to translate into sign language. Israel’s Nagish has acquired sign.mt, a cutting-edge AI company specializing in real-time sign language translation. The deal marks a step forward in Nagish’s mission to empower deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals through innovative communication tools.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-871685 https://sign.mt/

Batty discovery. (TY Nevet) Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky took his entire Weizmann Institute lab to “bat island” near Zanzibar to record the activity of fruit bats. His team discovered that bats brains have an internal “global compass”. Head-direction neurons consistently point in the same direction across the entire island,
https://zuckermanstem.org/spotlight/going-to-the-ends-of-the-earth-to-better-understand-the-brain/
https://www.weizmann.ac.il/lsc/lab/prof-nachum-ulanovsky

Autonomous AI defense startup. Israel’s Skyforce has developed AI software that transforms manually controlled defense platforms into fully autonomous multi-platform operations involving large numbers of low-cost, units. It also can be deployed in agriculture, healthcare, and other non-military areas.
https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-871876

Checking for suspicious behavior. Israeli cybersecurity Reflectiz is a behavioral analysis mechanism that simulates human user actions. This system continuously monitors all activities and behaviors of website components. By establishing what constitutes normal behavior, it can detect deviations that pose security risks.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hj01cfjjbg

Nvidia’s new AI chips. Nvidia has unveiled two new chips developed in Israel, BlueField-4 and ConnectX-8 SuperNIC. The chips, six times more than previous chips, were developed at Nvidia’s R&D center in Tel Aviv. They are designed to accelerate data transmission of huge AI models, supporting speeds of up to 800 Gb/s.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-nvidia-unveils-next-generation-ai-chips-developed-in-israel-1001524960

New programs on I24News. The new program lineup on the English language Israeli TV station I24News includes “Innovation Nation” at 9pm (Israel time) on Tues eves (14:00 EST). It says it will highlight Israel’s renowned startup scene and the region’s most inspiring technological breakthroughs.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417084

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Israeli companies come home. In 2021, seven of the ten largest Israeli companies were listed in New York, with only three traded in Tel Aviv. Now all seven are listed in Tel Aviv (two are listed in both).
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-for-israeli-companies-theres-now-no-place-like-home-1001524336

Gas prices fall. The maximum price of government price controlled 95 octane gasoline at self-service pumps in Israel fell by NIS 0.17 per liter to NIS 7.07 per liter, back to its price in August 2024, which is its lowest price in nearly two years. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-gasoline-prices-in-israel-to-fall-saturday-night-1001525164

Startup employees become millionaires. More employees are becoming millionaires, even before the company is sold or goes public. In the past year, Armis, Island, Quantum Machines and Exodigo have allowed employees and founders to sell shares to new investors, and pocket the proceeds.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-secondary-rounds-in-tech-sector-make-a-comeback-1001524831

$2 billion fund with Israeli emphasis. Viola Credit has announced the closing of the $2 billion Viola ABL Fund III asset-based lending strategy fund. The fund was $0.5 billion oversubscribed. The fund places a unique emphasis on the Israeli ecosystem and is expected to expand the financing of local fintech companies
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-viola-credit-closes-2b-asset-backed-credit-fund-1001524977

Nvidia employs 5,000 Israelis. In one year, Nvidia (at $5 trillion, the world’s most valuable company) has increased its Israeli workforce from 3,300 (see here previously) to 5,000 and it’s still hiring. Today, Israel is Nvidia’s second-largest R&D hub outside the United States.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sjberli0eg

Replacing diesel generators. The Net Zero Innovation Hub for Data Centers, a consortium of companies involved in data centers led by Google and Microsoft, has chosen the aluminum-air technology from Israel’s Phinergy (see here previously) as the main solution for replacing diesel-fueled data center generators.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-clean-energy-co-phinergy-teams-with-google-and-microsoft-1001524699

A $1.5 billion solar project in Texas. Israel’s Doral Energy (see here previously) has won a NIS 1.5 billion deal for the construction of a large solar field (553 megawatt output) at Cold Creek in Texas. The project will include storage capacity of 340 megawatt-hours, and will be spread over more than 5,000 acres.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-doral-to-build-nis-15b-solar-project-in-texas-1001524685

Exits, takeovers, and mergers to 2nd Nov 25. Israel’s Nagish has acquired sign.mt. US design software company Figma has acquired Israeli AI powered design workflows company Weavy for $200 million.

Startup investment – to 2nd Nov 25: Navan raised $923 million; Winvia Entertainment raised $40 million; Reflectiz raised $22 million; Onfire AI raised $20 million; CyberRidge raised $16 million; Impala AI raised $11 million; Spacial raised $10 million; Wild Moose raised $7 million;

CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT,

Rare turtle rescued. A very rare softshell turtle was rescued from the Jordan River during Sukkot after his beak became entangled in abandoned fishing wire. The turtle was recovered by the Nature and Parks Authority and treated at the KKL-JNF Hula Valley Wildlife Acclimation Center. It had also swallowed fishing hooks.
https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-871598

Here come the cranes. The first flock of migrating cranes have arrived at the KKL-JNF Hula Valley Nature Reserve, marking the start of the region’s annual spectacle as the birds leave their Russian breeding grounds (see kkl-jnf’s live cameras). Meanwhile, the first-ever sighting in Israel of Asia’s White’s thrush.
https://www.jns.org/first-migrating-cranes-arrive-at-israels-hula-valley-reserve/
https://www.kkl-jnf.org/tourism-and-recreation/forests-and-parks/hula-lake-park/live_broadcast/
https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-872281

Abu Ghosh festival. This year’s Abu Ghosh fest featured 30 concerts and musical events, including the “Sinatra Meets New Orleans” show with Eli Preminger and The Chocolate Factory Band! Part of the festival was held in Tel Aviv due to the renovation work being carried out on the Kiryat Ya’arim Church.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-869106 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRQpku31BwA

Punch comedy festival. Tel Aviv’s first-ever stand-up and comedy “Punch” festival, takes place Dec 11-13. Based at the Zionist House, it features homegrown comedians, a special Russian-language stand-up night, and The Harry Potter Stand-Up Show for the whole family. bit.ly/3WrVOf9 for tickets.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-871931

Sderot blues festival. From Dec 1-3, the southern Israeli city of Sderot will pulse with the sound of Israeli blues, as top artists, local jams, and rare blues films take over the Music, Soul, Cinema and Resilience Festival at the Sderot Cinematheque. For a city that’s seen more than its share of blues, the festival is one of celebration.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-871684 https://www.sderot-cin.org.il/movies

Israel Opera at 40. The Israeli Opera turns 40 this year, featuring seven productions. Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas (November – the company’s very first production in 1985), Tchaikovsky’s Iolanthe (January), The Dybbuk, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Strauss’s Salome, Verdi’s Nabucco, and finally, Puccini’s Tosca.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-871817

Kevin Spacey and Jazz concert. Actor Kevin Spacey will perform a show, “Songs & Stories,” accompanied by a jazz band on 19 Nov at Tel Aviv’s Hangar 11. Spacey visited Israel in Dec 2024 with British author Douglas Murray (see here previously).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/kevin-spacey-heads-to-israel-with-one-man-show/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ycXNuw5zQA https://www.eventim.co.il/en/artist/kevinspacey/

Tel Aviv Night Run. The annual Tel Aviv Night Run, featuring courses lined with DJ stands and illuminated art installations, on Oct 29 was organized by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality. It is described as a “celebration of sport, music, and urban energy”. It had three courses – 5km, 10km, or 15km – to attract various fitness levels.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/sports/article-871555

THE JEWISH STATE

Ex-hostage leads mass tefillin event. Hamas captivity survivor Bar Kuperstein called on the public at Tel Aviv’s Hostages’ Square to join a mass tefillin-laying event before Shabbat. He gave “a huge thanks to everyone for your prayers, your support, and everything you’ve done for me and for all the other hostages.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416968 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417072

Hostages became religious. Most of the ex-hostages were completely secular before being kidnapped, but conducted Jewish practices during their ordeals. Some kept Shabbat; some refused food on religious fast days. Bar Kuperstein simulated putting on tefillin; others prayed. And most have maintained those practices since.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-freed-hostage-segev-kalfon-on-keeping-shabbat-in-gaza/
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-hostages-and-their-families-share-how-hardship-strengthened-their-faith/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-gali-and-ziv-berman-don-tefillin/

Ministers quoting the Torah? Interesting article – maybe inferring that Israel is becoming more “Jewish”?
https://www.jns.org/golden-age-of-israeli-ministers-quoting-scripture-experts-say/

From Ethiopia, to New York, to Jerusalem. Ethiopian-born scholar Dr. Shmuel Legasse has represented the Knesset abroad and worked with Jewish and interfaith communities across Africa, the US and Israel. “Our diversity is our greatest diplomatic asset,” he says. His mentor was Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z”l).
https://www.jns.org/israel-should-lead-with-moral-diplomacy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6jTAUizSSI

Aliyah Day. Officially the 10th of the Hebrew month of Nissan (when the Israelites entered the Land), Aliyah Day is celebrated at this time of year – on the 6th or 7th of the Hebrew month of Marcheshvan to coincide with the Torah reading of Lech Lecha, when Abraham was commanded to go to the Land of Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-871928 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-871918
https://anglo-list.com/israel-aliyah-day/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_HaAliyah
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-872014 (celebration at Tel Aviv’s ANU museum)

She said “Yes”. At his graduation ceremony, an IDF soldier stole the spotlight with a heartfelt proposal—dropping to one knee before his girlfriend as his fellow soldiers erupted in dance and cheers around them.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-idf-soldier-proposes-during-his-graduation-ceremony/

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

New York Reruns: What Mamdani Means for New York New York flirts with a familiar disaster as Zohran Mamdani rides Rousseauvian rhetoric toward the same ruinous script that doomed revolutions past. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on November 2nd, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/11/02/new-york-reruns-what-mamdani-means-for-new-york/

As the world waits for New York’s first Islamo-Communist mayor—hailed alike by the overtly malicious and the terminally stupefied—it may be worth stepping back to ask what the advent of Zohran Mamdani, the pampered 34-year-old rich kid who was born in Uganda, tells us about the decay of liberalism.

In many ways, Mamdani—who, as I write this, is a comfortable 10-15 points ahead in the polls—is just the latest avatar of the AOC-Ilhan Omar wing of the Democratic party.  He loves talking about (re)distributing the wealth of others, defunding the police, arresting Benjamin Netanyahu, and penalizing “landlords,” which last is just one of his many code words for Jews.

But haven’t you seen this play before?  Don’t we know how it ends?  Yes, we have, and yes, we do. It ends badly.

Remember the intoxication that greeted the French Revolution in 1789 or the Russian Revolution in 1917.  At first, it was all “what bliss it was in that dawn to be alive.”  But the bliss quickly soured and turned rancid.

Mamdani does not quote Jean-Jacques Rousseau. However, his utopian politics owe a great deal to Rousseau’s hothouse sentimentalities—and their more somber incarnation in the theories of his disciple Karl Marx.  For more than two centuries, Rousseau’s mesmerizing rhetoric has provided despots of all kinds with a means of promoting conformity while ostensibly praising freedom. It is a neat trick. Words like “freedom” and “virtue” were ever on Rousseau’s lips.

But freedom for him was a chilly abstraction; it applied to mankind as an idea, not to individual men. “I think I know man,” Rousseau sadly observed near the end of his life, “but as for men, I know them not.” In the Confessions, he claimed to be “drunk on virtue.” And indeed, it turned out that “virtue” for Rousseau had nothing to do with acting in a certain way toward others. On the contrary, the criterion of virtue was his subjective feeling of goodness. For Rousseau, as for the countercultural radicals who followed him, “feeling good about yourself” was synonymous with moral rectitude. Actually behaving well was irrelevant if not, indeed, a sign of “inauthenticity” because it suggested a concern for conventional approval. Virtue in this Rousseauvian sense is scarcely distinguishable from moral intoxication.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Al-Qaeda is tightening its grip on Mali’s capital in a Taliban-style bid to seize control of the west African nation.

Posted By on November 2nd, 2025

https://x.com/Telegraph/status/1984520830219358404

Militants have blocked fuel entry to cities and are closing in on Bamako, raising fears it could become the first country ruled by the terror group in its nearly four-decade history.

The United States and several European nations have also urged their citizens to leave immediately as the security situation deteriorates.

The United Arab Emirates confirmed on Friday a £38 million ransom payment to JNIM to secure the release of two hostages held by the militants.

“At the beginning [JNIM] was attacking some businesses and especially some industrial plants, which was really worrying,” said Beatriz de León Cobo, an associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute, a think tank. “But now the fuel shortage has proven really challenging for Bamako and for the regime.”

She added: “The problem right now is the criminal economy surrounding the fuel. So essentially everyone is taking the fuel for themselves and there’s a lot of contraband, and in the black market it’s being sold massively.”

On Tuesday, dozens of fuel tankers were ambushed on roads leading to the capital.

A major army garrison in nearby Kati, the junta’s primary stronghold, was unable to respond due to a lack of fuel.

“The fuel also helps generators because before the fuel crisis, there was also an electricity shortage for the past couple of years,” said Ms de León Cobo.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Why is the Intifada crowd silent on Sudan? by Lara Brown

Posted By on November 2nd, 2025

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/31/why-the-intifada-crowd-is-silent-on-sudan/

For the past 18 months, the city of el-Fashir in Darfur has endured a brutal siege. Over two hundred thousand civilians are trapped, cut off from basic supplies, as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seized control from the army.

Hundreds of unarmed civilians have been murdered in ethnically motivated attacks. Many are being held hostage for eye-watering ransom payments. Some are being hunted down by armed militias.

So why does nobody care about Sudan? The attention paid by activists to certain conflicts clearly has nothing to do with severity – otherwise the BBC would lead on Sudan every day. So how do the Left determine which wars merit a weekly march?

The truth is that foreign conflicts have always felt very remote. Disasters unfold across the world every day. Most are deeply complex, with fault on both sides. Consequently, Western activists have chosen a select few tragedies to focus their attention on.

Fashionable conflicts all have a few things in common. Firstly, they need to be clear cut (or at least, advocates need to believe they are clear cut). In the case of Gaza, Israel has been branded the villain, and the Palestinians the victims.

In Sudan, it’s hard for progressives to pick a side. The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have both inflicted harm on civilians. Neither group can be branded colonisers, and the whole saga has been buried in complexity far too confusing for the average student politician to understand via one Instagram infographic.

HISTORY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Vernon Bogdanor The Balfour Declaration is a monument to humanity in this dark age of anti-Semitism Hostility towards Israel in Britain has shown the need for a state where Jewish people can live without fear

Posted By on November 1st, 2025

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/01/balfour-declaration-monument-humanity-anti-semitism-israel/ “It’s a boy”, Sir Mark Sykes, the government’s negotiator on the Middle East, told the Zionist leader, Chaim Weizmann, eventually to be the first president of Israel, on October 31, 1917. Two days later, on November 2, the British commitment to Zionism was born, with the Balfour Declaration that the “Government view with favour the […]

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Charles Lipson JD Vance has cast a dark shadow over US relations with Israel A speech by the vice-president should alarm anyone who thinks both countries benefit from a close relationship Charles Lipson

Posted By on November 1st, 2025

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2025/10/31/jd-vance-cast-dark-shadow-over-us-relations-with-israel/

The strong alliance between the United States and Israel has been a staple of US foreign policy for decades. But that bond, advantageous to both countries, is now facing sustained attack – and no longer just from the progressive Left.

The Left-wing attacks on Israel are likely to get more exposure if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York, America’s largest city and its media capital. His hostility to the Jewish state, combined with his apparent indifference to violent Palestinian resistance, is no outlier on the far-Left. It is, in fact, a pillar of their political coalition.

Why? Because the groups in that coalition have very different, often antagonistic goals (Queers for Palestine?). What allows them to lock arms is that they hate the same things, beginning with Donald Trump, Israel, and capitalism. The coalition remains intact by emphasising these shared hatreds, which sometimes border on anti-Semitism or cross that line entirely. The anti-Semitic, conspiratorial line is always some variant of “the Jews, with all their money, control American policy for their narrow interests, not America’s”.

Less familiar are rising attacks on Israel and its American supporters from the populist Right. The most prominent voice for those hostile views is Tucker Carlson, with his huge podcast audience. But he is hardly alone.

This Right-wing populist opposition to the Jewish state is far different from the traditional, pro-Israel stance of Reagan Republicans and evangelicals like Mike Huckabee, who is now US ambassador to Israel. Still, support is waning even among evangelicals, especially younger ones.

This shifting view on the Right was on display on Wednesday night at Ole Miss, where vice-president JD Vance spoke to a crowd, organised by Turning Point USA. After a short speech, Vance answered questions from students. Two posed questions hostile to Israel. Instead of pushing back, the vice-president largely seemed to endorse the students’ antagonism. That’s new for such a prominent voice in Republican politics.

It’s hard to criticise Vance’s statement that American foreign policy should put American interests first. Although that sounds like a simple restatement of Trump’s “America First” policy, as Vance surely intended, it is really the aim of every country’s foreign policy. They all ask the same question, “How will this policy advance our interests?” That’s perfectly sensible.

What’s different under Trump is that those national interests are conceived primarily in transactional terms rather than long-term relationships. That’s how Vance’s response to students appeared to frame US-Israeli relations, more as stand-alone transactions and less as a firm, long-term bond of mutual advantage. That reframing is significant, and it’s not good news for Israel.

HISTORY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ruffian Dick’s Pilgrimage to Mecca Michael Kile (2014)

Posted By on November 1st, 2025

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/history/ruffian-dicks-pilgrimage-mecca-2/

Traveling incognito, Sir Richard Francis Burton eventually entered Mecca. They don’t make Englishmen like him these days

In a time of turmoil in the Middle East, a thirty-one-year-old Englishman’s pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest shrine—Mecca’s House of Allah—disguised as a wandering Dervish doctor, is even more remarkable today than it was in 1853.

Infidel, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does. A kind of scoundrel imperfectly reverent of, and niggardly contributory to, divines, ecclesiastics, popes, parsons, canons, monks, mullahs, voodoos, presbyters, hierophants, prelates, abbés, nuns, missionaries, exhorters, deacons, friars, hadjis, high-priests, muezzins, Brahmins, medicine-men, confessors, eminences, elders, primates, pilgrims, prophets, etc. — [Ambrose Bierce, 1911, The Devil’s Dictionary]

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1822–1890)—also known as “Ruffian Dick” and “the White Nigger”—was such a “scoundrel”. Irreverent of many things, he was neither British spy nor Muslim. He was driven by a prodigious curiosity, not geopolitics, to explore the hidden and forbidden—geographical, ethnological, erotological and spiritual.

In the Folio Society edition of Burton’s three-volume Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, Tim Mackintosh-Smith describes him as having “one foot in the buccaneering age and the other in that of mass tourism”. The Personal Narrative (1855-56) was “the masterpiece of a misfit”, a “mixture of scholarship, slapdash and slapstick, of tedium, trivia and transcendence, of rhapsody and rant, prejudice and poetry”.

Misfit he was, but one with bravado, courage and erudition in equal measure. A keen observer, Burton documented virtually every facet of life he encountered, ferreting away scraps of paper in his kit. “Thou art always writing, O my brave!” remarked his Arabic teacher in Cairo. “What evil habit is this? Surely thou hast learned it in the lands of the Frank. Repent!” But he never did.

Why did he do it?