Daily Briefing Nov. 28: Netanyahu's 'mind-blowing' extremist ministerial appointees

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.

Editor David Horovitz and health reporter Nathan Jeffay join host Amanda Borschel-Dan in today’s episode.

Before the serious talk begins, Borschel-Dan mentions that ahead of the nominations for Best Foreign Film for the Academy Awards, on December 6 at Jerusalem’s Yes Planet, The Times of Israel is holding a screening of “Cinema Sabaya,” which swept Israel’s Ophir Awards in September, and culture editor Jessica Steinberg is speaking with its creator, Orit Fouks Rotem.

Turning to Horovitz, we hear why it is deeply troubling to many in Israel and world Jewry that Avi Maoz, the lone lawmaker of the fringe Noam party, will be appointed as a deputy minister and head a to-be-created authority for Jewish identity that will be housed under the Prime Minister’s Office.

In another contentious appointment, Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir is set to be given the newly created role of national security minister in the upcoming government. The National Security Ministry’s planned portfolio will include overseeing the police and, potentially, Border Police units in the West Bank.

Jeffay reports on a recent peer-reviewed study that tells us about the currently available COVID booster’s safety.

We hear about a new company, Wisdome Wearables, that may soon blow the paper mask idea away. What’s their great, peer-reviewed idea?

Another new Israeli med-tech startup claims it can use voice analysis techniques through a phone app it’s calling HearO to sound the alarm before the onset of congestive heart failure.

And finally, four South Sudanese children who have waited over two and a half years for heart surgery should be soon going under the knife in Holon. How did they, and their guardians, finally get the green light?