The number of Americans filing for first-time jobless benefits fell less than expected last week and remains elevated as the economy continues to battle through the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Data released Thursday by the Labor Department showed 411,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits in the week ended June 19, above the 380,000 that analysts surveyed by Refintiv had expected. The prior week’s reading was revised higher by 6,000 to 418,000.  Continuing claims for the week ended June 12, meanwhile, fell by more than 140,000 to 3.39 million. Analysts surveyed by Refintiv were anticipating a decline to 3.47 million. The bigger-than-expected decline in continuing claims comes as at least 26 states have already ended or announced plans to end the ...
I have covered many victory parties, but this week I was invited to my first "defeat party." The volunteer staff of Miriam Peretz gathered to share their experiences and summarize their feelings regarding Miriam's campaign for president of Israel, which failed. What did I learn there? If we know how to take advantage of every experience in life and learn from it, then there is no such thing as a defeat. This is not a cliché. Miriam and the volunteers truly feel that they won. They met nearly 120 Knesset members personally and passed along a message simply by the way they competed and the idea behind their campaign. "A person cannot allow himself not to try his hardest and not to attempt to do things in life, even if at the end there is a chance he won't succeed," Miriam to...
Rishon LeTzion - Mair Ya’ari is a United Hatzalah volunteer hailing from the city of Bnei Brak. Along with volunteering as a medical service first responder, Meir is a teacher at a school for troubled teens.  On Wednesday afternoon, Meir was on a trip with his students to the Rishon LeZion beach. As the group was unloading from the bus, one of Meir’s students urged his teacher to leave his communications device in the car that he drove in, so that he can provide undivided attention to his students. Knowing the importance of life-saving, Meir put the device in his pocket. At 12:30 p.m., the device began to ring. In a supermarket on Etzel Street in Rishon Lezion, a 60-year-old worker was feeling unwell when he suddenly collapsed in the middle of the store. Alerted bystande...
President Rivlin: “We are not addicted to the quiet in the north. We know that the threat remains severe. We are aware of Hezbollah’s attempts to continue gaining strength with Iranian backing and support, and to acquire weapons whose only aim is to hit Israel’s civilian home front.” “The State of Israel will not allow Iranian build-up in Lebanon to continue. We will not allow Iran to send its cancerous cells here. We will respond with determination to Iranian aggression, seeing our duty to protect Israel’s citizens as a fundamental and basic responsibility.”      President of Israel Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin today, Thursday 24 June / 14 Tammuz, delivered remarks at the memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Second Lebanon ...
Rescue crews in South Florida rushed the scene of a partial collapse at an apartment building early Thursday that prompted a massive emergency response as dozens of rescuers search for survivors in the rubble. Surfside police told Fox News that multiple agencies are at the scene and it is unclear how many people were inside the building at the time. Officials have not yet commented on how many people are hurt, but a firefighter on the scene could be heard saying there are multiple casualties. Firefighters pulled at least one boy from the debris, according to photos online. A reporter from CBS Miami reported that at least nine people were transported to the hospital. One witness, who was on vacation in the city with his family, told Fox News he was next door when it s...
Israel’s campaign to promote the coronavirus vaccine – now focusing on young teens – is going full steam ahead, in spite of statistics presented by government officials showing that half of those recently infected with Covid-19 were fully vaccinated, Behadrey Haredim reports. Head of Public Health Services, Dr. Sharon Alray-Price, revealed the disturbing facts at a media presentation on Wednesday. According to her data, of the 891 cases of coronavirus confirmed in the last month alone, half had received both doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine. According to a report on Channel 12, in the months since the vaccines were rolled out, 6,765 people who received both shots have contracted coronavirus, and epidemiological tracing has revealed that an additi...
Bilaam was charged with cursing the Jewish people. He was chosen by Balak due to his unique ability to perceive the exact times when HaShem was displeased with His nation. Bilaam’s several tries proved unsuccessful. In fact his “curses” turned out to be blessings. The most famous blessing of Bilaam is: מה טבו אהליך יעקב משכנותיך ישראל How Good are Your Tents, Yaakov, Your Dwelling Places Yisrael This bracha has been incorporated into our daily prayers, and is said upon entering the Beit Knesset in the morning. There are many commentaries with regard to the meaning behind these words. Some say that it refers to the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the desert and the 2 Batei Mikdash (Holy Temples). Others say that it refers to the status of the Child...
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...
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