Jerusalem, Israel - President Reuven Rivlin hosted the Israeli Olympic and Paralympic delegations before their departure for the postponed Tokyo summer games. The two delegations participated in the traditional reception and photograph on Wednesday, June 23/ 13 Tammuz, at Beit HaNasi in Jerusalem, Israel.  The Olympic and Paralympic delegations, larger than in the past, including sportsmen and women, trainers and team members, Minister of Sport and Culture Chili Tropper, chair of the Israeli Olympic Committee Yigal Carmi, chair of the Israeli Paralympic Committee Dr. Shuki Dekel, and two widows of the victims of the Munich Olympic massacre, Ilana Romano, wife of Yossef Romano ז"ל and Ankie Spitzer, wife of Andre Spitzer ז"ל participated in the event with the Ambassador ...
A campaign operative at the center of the 2018 North Carolina ballot fraud scandal pleaded guilty on Monday to illegally accepting Social Security benefits while concealing other money that he had earned, The Associated Press reported. Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. pleaded guilty to theft of government property and Social Security fraud and faces up to 15 years in prison. His sentencing hearing has been set for Aug. 23. Dowless was indicted last year after evidence revealed that he had received around $135,000 in 2017 and 2018 for his work on both state and federal campaigns, the AP reported. At the same time, he applied for Social Security benefits in 2018 and claimed to have not been working for the past few years. Dowless worked on the 2018 co...
The White House on Monday laid out a plan to share 55 million US COVID-19 vaccine doses globally, with roughly 75 percent of the doses allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa through the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program. The plan fulfills US President Joe Biden’s commitment to share 80 million US-made vaccines with countries around the world. The president sketched out his priorities for the first 25 million doses from that pledge earlier this month. Of the 55 million remaining doses, some 41 million would be shared through COVAX, the White House said, with approximately 14 million going to Latin America and the Caribbean, some 16 million to Asia, and roughly 10 million to Africa.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid held a phone call with US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the first since he took over as Israel’s top diplomat earlier this month, his office says. “The two had a warm and positive conversation and discussed the importance of bipartisan support for Israel in the United States,” according to the Foreign Ministry. Lapid thanked Pelosi for her longstanding support of Israel the two agreed to remain in touch, the statement says. Lapid has set improving Israel’s ties with the Democratic Party as one of his top goals as foreign minister after the relationship was battered during former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s time in office.
A California man has been arrested in connection with a theft of roughly 21 tons of pistachios valued at more than $100,000, authorities said. The Tulare County Sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post that 34-year-old Alberto Montemayor, of Montemayor Trucking, was arrested after a routine audit by Touchstone Pistachio Company revealed that 42,000 pounds of pistachios were missing. The company contacted authorities to investigate on June 17. The nuts, originally stored in 2,000-pound sacks, had been placed into smaller sacks and moved to a separate trailer in a nearby lot for presumed resale. Authorities returned the remaining pistachios to Touchstone.
An attempt to sabotage one of the facilities of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization failed Wednesday, according to local media reports. The ISNA news agency reported that the unspecified threat was “neutralized before it damaged the building, and the saboteurs failed to carry out their plan.” The report credited the “vigilance” of Iran’s security apparatuses in foiling the attack and said the incident was being investigated. ISNA said the building was located near Karaj City, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital of Tehran. The website of state-owned IRAN newspaper published the same report without offering the location or other details. Iranian state TV carried the report on its news ticker. Read more at Times of Israel.
For the first time in 12 years, Benjamin Netanyahu has his own personal smartphone. For many years, Netanyahu was probably the only person in Israel who did not own a cell phone, but Israel Hayom reporter Yehuda Shlezinger reported on Sunday that the former Prime Minister is currently boasting a new and personal smartphone. As expected, few people know Netanyahu’s new number. Even now, he continues to receive most of the calls he has made so far through his office phone. Netanyahu does not yet have WhatsApp, but he is expected to learn the additional functions on his device in the coming days. Back in 2014, Netanyahu indirectly addressed the issue of owning a smartphone. He was preparing at the time for an interview on an American network and was heard saying to his peop...
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday the delta variant now accounts for roughly 20% of newly diagnosed cases in the U.S. and will become the dominant Covid strain in the nation in a matter of weeks. “It just exploded in the U.K. It went from a minor variant to now more than 90% of the isolates in the U.K.,” Fauci said on NBC’s “TODAY” show. Fauci said the variant has a doubling time of about two weeks and currently accounts for 20% of the isolates in the U.S., which are newly diagnosed infections. “So you would expect, just the doubling time, you know, in several weeks to a month or so it’s going to be quite dominant, that’s the sobering news.” The variant, which first emerged in India, has quic...
The comeback of ordinary viruses is widely regarded as a dark underside of a season in which the coronavirus has been receding in much of the nation as vaccinations provide protection. As a result, people are shedding masks and abandoning social distancing — and resuming spreading viral droplets. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory warning that respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, has been detected with increasing frequency since March in 10 Southern states, plus Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. RSV is the most common cause of bronchial infections and pneumonia in children under age 1, with a season that typically runs roughly from November to early spring. The CDC said in a statement Wednesday that it expects...
Several dozen House Republicans led by Utah Rep. John Curtis will on Wednesday launch the Conservative Climate Caucus. Via the Washington Examiner, Curtis’ office says it will look to “educate House Republicans on climate policies and legislation consistent with conservative values.” The New York Times reports that Curtis wants to “counter what the caucus terms ‘radical progressive climate proposals'” with distinct policies. “Those ideas include limited government, free-market policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions, as formulated by new conservative think tanks,” the Times reports.
Antivirus software tycoon John McAfee died by an apparent suicide in a Spanish jail cell Wednesday evening — hours after reports surfaced that he would be extradited to face federal charges in the US, according to local media. The eccentric tech entrepreneur was arrested in October and was awaiting extradition when he was found dead, police sources told the newspaper El Pais. The newspaper reported McAfee was pulled from his cell in Barcelona and police are investigating the circumstances around his death. “Everything points to suicide,” the newspaper reported, citing justice department officials in the country. A second Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, also reported McAfee had died by an apparent suicide in the jail.  Earlier on Wednesday, the Spanish High Court had...
Baltimore, MD - June 23, 2021 - Do you hear it? It starts as a low murmur. And then it grows in its excitement and energy. And then you hear it. The sound of Torah. The thunderous, explosive sound of Torah reverberating throughout TA’s batei midrashos and classrooms. It’s like nothing you’ve heard before. Why was it so special this year? The answer: Hadron Aloch There are no words to possibly do justice in describing our Hadran Aloch: A Celebration of Torah campaign. From the learning to the siyum, concert, and campaign, the energy at TA was electric! In the days leading up to the end of the school year, TA was alive with energy and the enthusiasm of talmidim, Rebbeim and parents was contagious! The Hadron Aloch: A Celebration of Torah campaign included a series ...
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, today (Wednesday, 23 June 2021), held a discussion on the spread of the coronavirus, with emphasis on the Delta variant. Participating in the discussion were the Health Minister, the head of the National Security Council, the Attorney General, the national coronavirus project director, the Health Ministry Director General, the Tourism Ministry Director General, the Airports Authority Director General, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority, the Finance Ministry Budget Director and senior officials from – inter alia – the Health Ministry, the Population Authority and the Israel Police. Also participating were various experts including Prof. Ran Balicer, Prof. Eli Wachsman and Prof. Eran Segal. Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Bennet...
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott will spend time with President Joe Biden at The White House on Wednesday. Biden plans to lay out new steps to stem a rising national tide of violent crime, with a particular focus on gun violence, as administration officials brace for what they fear could be an especially turbulent summer. In a speech on Wednesday, Biden is to unveil a series of executive orders aimed at reducing violence, and he will renew his calls for Congress to pass gun legislation, aides said. Ahead of the speech, the Justice Department announced new strike forces aimed at tackling gun trafficking in five cities. Scott is expected to attend a meeting Wednesday with Attorney General Merrick Garland; the Democratic mayor of Miami-Dade County and the Republican mayor of Rapid City, South...
Emails reportedly suggest a possibly closer relationship between Hunter Biden and a Washington, D.C. firm under federal investigation for allegedly illegally lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian company that counted Biden as a board member. The emails from 2014 and 2015 bring into question sworn statements given to Congress by the Washington firm Blue Star Strategies co-founder and CEO Karen Tramontano, the Daily Mail reports. Blue Star was drawn into the political firestorm around Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma in 2019 when it emerged it hired the lobbyist to improve the image of Mykola Zlochevsky, who’s been accused of corruption in Ukraine. According to Politico, the Department of Justice is investigating Blue Star for allegedly failing to file...
Taliban fighters took control of a key district in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province Monday and encircled the provincial capital, police said, as the insurgent group added to its string of recent victories on the battlefield. Fighting around Imam Sahib district began late Sunday and by mid-day Monday the Taliban had overrun the district headquarters and were in control of police headquarters, said Inamuddin Rahmani, provincial police spokesman said. Taliban militants were within a kilometer (mile) of Kunduz, the provincial capital but had not entered into the city, he said, although there were reports of small bands of Taliban near the outskirts and residents trying to leave for Kabul. Dozens of districts have fallen to the Taliban since May 1, when U.S. and NATO troops began...
The No. 3 Senate Republican, John Barrasso of Wyoming, told a group of voters that he wants to make President Joe Biden a “one-half-term president.” “Mitch McConnell’s come under a lot of criticism for saying, at one point, he wanted to make sure that Barack Obama was a one-term president,” Barrasso said last Thursday at an event hosted by the Ripon Society, a centrist Republican think tank, which posted the remarks Tuesday. “I want to make Joe Biden a one-half-term president. And I want to do that by making sure they no longer have House, Senate, White House,” he said. McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate minority leader, has vowed to block Biden's agenda and sharply criticized the administration's policies. McConnell said last month tha...
Wednesday marks another COVID-19 feat for Maryland as Gov. Larry Hogan announced that the state's COVID-19 case rate has dropped below 1 per 100K, putting the state in the federal "green zone" category for cases.  Maryland is one of only three states nationwide reporting case rates under 1 per 100K—the other two are Vermont and South Dakota.  The statewide case rate is 0.99, and overall, half of the state’s jurisdictions are reporting case rates in the green zone. Official data by jurisdiction is available at coronavirus.maryland.gov. Maryland is now reporting 6,671,766 COVID-19 vaccinations with 73.2% of adults with at least one dose. While President Joe Biden set a national goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by the Fourth of Jul...
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