Daily Briefing June 5: Blackouts shine light on ill-preparedness for climate change

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.

Environment reporter Sue Surkes and culture editor Jessica Steinberg join host Jacob Magid for Monday’s podcast.

Some 300,000 Israelis lost power Friday at the peak of a heatwave that reached over 40°C (104°F) in many parts of the country. Surkes discusses how the outages exposed Israel’s ill-preparedness for extreme weather caused by climate change.

Relatedly, she shares the bleak findings of a recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report that found Israel fared very poorly on a range of environmental issues compared to other countries in the 38-member bloc. Surkes discusses how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is working to close those gaps, comparing its performance to that of the previous unity government.

Steinberg provides an update on the concert schedule for the summer in Israel and recaps last week’s performance from British pop star Robbie Williams. She reveals which artists have come under pressure from the anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to cancel their scheduled appearances and why some have been unmoved by the noise.

To close, Steinberg reviews “My Happy Ending,” a new Israeli-written film featuring Andie MacDowell. The Hollywood star plays actress Julia Roth, who strides into a small oncology day clinic outside London for chemotherapy, and while seeking privacy and anonymity ends up meeting fellow patients who make her rethink her life goals.

Discussed articles include:

Recent heatwave’s power cuts underline failure to adequately ready for climate change

Power outages spark heated accusations as grid fails to meet sweltering demand

Government greenlights 2 gas-fired power stations to meet electricity demands

OECD slaps Israel with poor marks on environmental performance in new report

Robbie Williams at Tel Aviv show: ‘You have something incredibly f*cking special here’

Robbie Williams bonds with Noga Erez ahead of Tel Aviv show

Andie MacDowell stars in Israeli film about life choices, based on Cameri play

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