Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Health reporter Diana Bletter joins host Gabriella Jacobs for today's episode.

Bletter joins us from her home near Nahariya after speaking with residents across Israel's north about life during an uneasy, on-again-off-again ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

She describes a region unable to move forward. Residents are exhausted after another disrupted school year, uncertain about what the coming months will bring, yet determined to remain in the communities they call home. She shares stories of hardship and resilience from communities living just kilometers from the Lebanese border.

Later in the episode, we move on to discuss a breakthrough in cancer therapy developed by scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who have engineered nanoparticles that treat aggressive “triple-negative” breast cancer tumors without chemotherapy or drugs.

 We conclude by diving into a revolutionary method of identifying life beyond Earth by analyzing the diversity of molecular groups, pioneered by Israeli researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Bletter explains how scientists plan to use this method on Eureka, an Israeli spacecraft concept currently in planning.

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and edited by Ari Schlacht.