Daily Briefing June 27: Reports from Evyatar & Turmus Ayya; proof of David's kingdom?

Settlements reporter Jeremy Sharon describes life at the repopulated outpost and conversations with bereaved Palestinians; Melanie Lidman on AI to read millennia-old cuneiform

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Settlements reporter Jeremy Sharon and writer Melanie Lidman join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today’s episode.

Yesterday, Israel broke a record when authorities advanced plans for some 5,700 additional new settlement homes, bringing the year’s total to some 13,000. Where are some of the building starts?

The United States said it would cut support to scientific and technology research in Israeli institutions in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights. Which university specifically does this target?

Yesterday, Sharon was onsite at the illegal outpost of Evyatar after it was repopulated last week. Who is there now? He also visited the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya, where he met with the family of the man killed in unclear circumstances during last week’s vigilante violence following a fatal Palestinian terror attack near Eli.

Lidman brings us a study conducted by Hebrew University Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, who claims that he has found evidence of a network of biblical cities — including road infrastructure and communication between the capital and its satellites — that basically shores up the biblical narrative of a Davidic kingdom.

And finally, we hear about how a team of scientists from Ariel University and Tel Aviv University has written a kind of Google translate for millennia-old Akkadian.