If Black Lives Matter What About Cities? Is Taiwan Next? Good News Israel.

Buy American - Rebuild America.

And:

We need more radical professors to teach the next generation how to become better anarchists:
https://youtu.be/Y8AnF2RkMV8
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How much money do you think Soros has dispensed in support of the riots taking place?  This is what chaos proponents want/need - civil disorder and anarchy. The cost to bring it about is small relative to the bill for the damage accomplished.

This is also why Soros has chosen to finance district attorney campaigns: The cost is small, the success rate high and the prospect of changing laws is significant.  It is the Trojan Horse way to bring down a republic and democracy.

And:

Eventually the laws will/must prevail and if not then you can forget about America's adherence to the rule of law:

| Barr assigns new investigator to look into Obama admin's illegal unmasking

READ IT HERE >> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  I think I will watch some riots and anarchists while the mass media blame Trump.

And:

If Black lives matter what about cities?

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Will Taiwan be next and a way to challenge the U.S commitment?

The End of Hong Kong? | National Review

The Editors: World

The End of Hong Kong?

The 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to the People’s Republic of China marked the end of Western colonial rule in the region. Optimistic Western policy hands hoped that the final mending of the “unequal treaties,” as they were called by the Chinese Communist Party, would initiate Beijing’s integration into the rules-based world order.

Recent events in Hong Kong put paid to this hope.

The days of China’s “peaceful rise,” when the CCP steadfastly denied its hegemonic ambitions, are long gone. In light of China’s clampdown on Hong Kong, the transfer of the autonomous region now appears to have entailed swapping one imperial government for another. As if to remove any doubt, China’s National People’s Congress bypassed the Hong Kong Legislative Council this week and imposed a new national-security law. The law, which bans all “seditious activity,” effectively nullifies the Hong Kong Basic Law according to which the territory is guaranteed autonomy from the Mainland until 2047.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded appropriately in announcing that, under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed last year, Washington would no longer consider Hong Kong independent of China. The White House will reconsider the privileges and immunities granted to the autonomous region, including its preferential trade status, visa exemptions, and flexible foreign-exchange regime.

Critics argue that the measures will cause undue economic harm to the region. Hong Kong’s economy will suffer, but the millions of Hong Kongers who have taken to the streets in protest have demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they value freedom over GDP growth. Indeed, the rule of law is what allowed Hong Kong to build a thriving economy in the first place. The short-term harms from reduced trade and investment pale in comparison to the disaster of Mainland dominance of Hong Kong. Worse, allowing China to violate the 1984 Sino–British Joint Declaration, registered at the U.N., will send a signal that the U.S. is unwilling to stand by a basic element of the international order.

In any event, the White House ultimately has little choice. Congress has all but required the administration to decertify Hong Kong’s autonomous status in this circumstance. The legislation also calls for sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for Hong Kong’s suppression, a measure that the White House should undertake as Beijing moves to implement the law.

We obviously also need a strategy to combat Chinese belligerence elsewhere. Control of Hong Kong is only one step in China’s quest to “occupy a central position in the world,” as Chinese president Xi Jinping has put it. The Hong Kong security law coincides with increasingly aggressive naval exercises in the South and East China Seas and a sudden military buildup on the Sino–Indian border. The Chinese have also made clear their intention to annex Taiwan, and show no signs of rolling back their programs of industrial espionage and anti-competitive trade practices. The White House must resist China on all fronts.

The administration should mobilize our allies in the fight. As Pompeo made his announcement, German chancellor Angela Merkel said that the European Union has a “great strategic interest” in cooperating with China. Neither have the British, who designed the transfer of Hong Kong, shown much interest in pushing back on Chinese aggression. European leaders are enticed by the economic benefits of cooperating with Beijing, and it will require a deft diplomatic touch to persuade them to take a more strategically sound posture.

Hong Kong is the last redoubt of freedom and decency in China’s contiguous territory. The White House should do everything reasonably within its power to try to safeguard it.

Why China won’t reform By Peter Skurkiss

Posted by Ruth King

The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fears chaos and loss of control more than anything else, and this explains much of its seemingly erratic behavior.

The matter goes back to be bargain that the CCP has struck with the Chinese people. The deal is this: the Communist Party gets complete political control over the country in return for ever-increasing standards of living. This means no elections, no demonstrations, no rule of law, and no dissent from below as to how the show is run. The CCP is an illegitimate regime and can stay in power only if it can continue to pay off economically.

Up until now this has proven to be a win-win situation. Of course, it was always predicated in U.S. allowing China to lie and cheat on every trade agreement it ever signed and to turn a blind eye to stealing our technology. This worked for the past 25 years. But now the Chinese economy is facing strong headwinds which throw that arrangement  into doubt. These include an American president who will not play the patsy to China’s predatory trade practices and its massive theft of U.S. intellectual property and the worldwide blow-back from China’s Wuhan virus.

If China’s economy slackens enough, the bargain between the CCP and the Chinese people will fall apart. This could literally lead to revolution triggered by rising expectations.  That is, the rise in prosperity and freedom that China has experienced in the past twenty years has led people to believe they can continuously improve their lives. They also seek ever more amounts of political freedom. People in poor and oppressed countries like China hope for a sliver of the prosperity, and then they get a taste of it, they want more. When these hopes and dreams are frustrated, revolution can ensue.

Could reform be the answer to the dilemma that China faces? That’s certainly the option the foreign policy gurus at Foggy Bottom would suggest. It sounds ever so logical to them. But not to the Chinese communist leadership. They may be evil to the core, but they’re not fools. By attempting to reform and loosening up control, the CCP rightly fears what is known as the Tocqueville Paradox.

Minxin Pei states:

The Chinese leadership, especially Vice President Wang Qishan, piqued interest in Tocqueville because he read L’Ancien Regime, and warned fellow cadres that reform could speed up the demise of the system itself. This is why Chinese leaders like Wang read Tocqueville: They are aware of the risks embedded in reforming a very rigid, brittle system.

Historically, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is also informed by the Gorbachev experience. They blame the collapse of the Soviet Union on Gorbachev, not on more fundamental causes that preceded him. So, they’re informed, in many ways, by this phenomenon identified by Tocqueville, that a bad system is at its most perilous moment when it tries to be better.

Accordingly, the CCP believes it cannot reform the Chinese economy and financial system without being consumed by its own population. Given this mindset, it is clear that no meaningful trade agreement between the China and the U.S. is possible. That’s because the U.S. demands are premised on China opening up, and the Chinese leadership firmly believes it could not survive that. The Chinese may agree to this or that on trade, but it’s all a lie. They have no intention to living up to any deal. To believe otherwise is beyond foolish. China feels it’s better to string President Trump along and hope for a China-friendly President Biden in the White House 2021. But even that will only buy China some time.

The CCP has little choice but to look inward, stoke up nationalism, and blame outsiders, particularly the United States, for the country’s problems.

It is through this prism that recent Chinese actions such as  blaming the U.S, for the Wuhan virus, its crack down on Hong Kong, its heightened aggressiveness in the South China Sea, and Xi’s belligerent rhetoric to the Chinese army to prepare for war should be looked at. The CCP is in survival mode, and that makes China especially dangerous now.

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Regime change is nothing new.

Regime change in Iran shouldn’t be a taboo

By Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh 

Regime change in Iran is one of the biggest taboos in U.S. foreign policy. Bring it up and you will be scorned as a warmonger, a fomenter of chaos. Yet we have encouraged and welcomed the collapse of dictatorships in other countries, especially within the former Soviet empire. And we used severe sanctions against apartheid South Africa to bring fundamental change. The Islamic republic has been directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Syria. Is that a lesser sin?

The Iranian theocracy’s disregard for the rights and livelihoods of its people periodically drives them into mass protests (at great risk to themselves). Its imperialist ambitions endanger its neighbors. Yet American leftists routinely argue that we can never dare to replace it. Two liberal analysts recently warned in The Post that “it is fair to ask whether the political and social collapse of a country of 80 million people at a time of a global pandemic is in the United States’ — or anybody’s — interests.” To speak of its demise, much less try to hasten it, is considered untoward and egregiously ideological in polite Washington society.

To a remarkable extent, we have turned Iran policy into a debate about ourselves. If the regime is opposed by conservatives, liberals veer the other way, often trying hard to find something redeeming about the Islamic republic (at a minimum, it isn’t Saudi Arabia). For them, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is reactionary, if not a tad villainous, because of his ardent opposition to Tehran. When Cotton prophetically warned Iran’s leaders in an open letter in 2015 that a nuclear agreement would not be binding on a Republican president, his colleague Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described his move as “undermining the authority of the president,” while Secretary of State John F. Kerry professed himself to be in “utter disbelief.”

The advocates of cooperation with the clerical regime often play down its crude and constant anti-Semitism. Its misogyny and homophobia somehow do not invite calls for sanctions from liberals. The ardent left — for example, Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) foreign policy staff — can see bigotry and bellicosity in any use of “mullah” to describe Iran’s religious government (even though “mullah” is a word used most often by Iranians to describe a cleric). And some even manage to blame Tehran’s harsh repression of its own people on anti-American animus that is allegedly empowering the hard-liners who would be weaker if Washington weren’t so mean.

If the intellectual classes can’t contemplate the demise of the Islamic republic, neither can the intelligence community, which has a knack for echoing the zeitgeist. Without seeing classified documents, one can be assured that a typical CIA memorandum will point out all the problems confronting the regime and end with pretty firm assurance of its survival. By temperament, our spies are rarely capable of spotting discontinuities. Iran today is probably where the Soviet Union was in the 1970s, an exhausted regime mishandling every crisis it encounters. And the same intelligence services that just couldn’t see the Soviet Union dying don’t see the cracks in the clerical regime.

Arms control defines America’s approach to the Islamic republic. It did so during the Obama years, and it lingers in the Trump White House. The problem with an arms-control approach is that you have to pretend that your interlocutors are sufficiently “moderate” to seek regional stability. You have to pretend that the Iranians are willing to concede their religious ideology and imperial ambitions. Most importantly, you have to pretend that the regime you are dealing with is durable and can soften if given access to the global economy. Americans are particularly susceptible to this business argument, even though recent history (see post-Mao China) surely tells us that wicked authoritarianism can adapt to market imperatives.

Much of Washington fears that the only alternative to arms control is war. Far preferable would be a strategy of relentless pressure that with time cracks the regime. This was the definition of containment as envisioned by George Kennan. He advocated unrelenting patience with the Soviet Union; we should do the same with Iran.

It shouldn’t be hard to see that anti-Americanism is an inextricable part of this revolutionary Islamist state, or that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (an ardent fan and translator of the seminal Egyptian jihadist Sayyid Qutb), the ruling clerical elite and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards have no desire to create a normal country. Once you accept this reality (which many Democrats did before the Iran nuclear deal undercut their support for sanctions policy), regime change becomes the only viable option — assuming, of course, that you believe the United States has a role to play the Middle East in the first place.

Seeking regime change isn’t rude. It is pragmatic, cost-sensitive, humane and — in the best sense of the word — liberal.

Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ More good news Israel (edited.)

Many of Israel's latest innovations will support the new reality that will exist when the current pandemic is over. Patients will be monitored remotely both inside hospitals and outside. Radar sensors will protect the public and workers at airports, factories and care homes. Shoppers will use Israeli technology to bypass manual checkouts and global companies will follow Israel's lead in flexible working.

Elsewhere, Israel is pioneering a new reality in cancer treatment, heart surgery, clinical trials and personalized medicine. It is transforming internal relationships with minorities and the perceptions of former adversaries. Israel's scientific advances include replacement limbs, unmanned search and rescue and smarter business operations. And the innovation even extends to the animal kingdom.Best regards
Michael

In the 31st May 20 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

• Israeli tests found that two Gaucher’s medications also treat Covid-19.
• Israeli engineers made an artificial arm for a girl to play the violin.
• Israel is using radar sensors to detect Covid-19 infections.
• An Israeli has won the Mathematics equivalent of the “Nobel Prize”.
• An Israeli company trained all its cleaning staff to become IT operators.
• Israeli restaurants, bars and cafes are open again.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Gaucher’s treatment also works for Covid-19. In animal tests, Israel’s Institute for Biological Research has found two treatments for the genetic disorder Gaucher’s disease are also effective against Covid-19 and other viruses (e.g. West Nile). Cerdelga is already approved for Gaucher’s and Venglustat may be fast-tracked.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/gauchers-disease-drugs-also-fight-covid-19-israeli-defense-lab-finds/

Testing Nitric Oxide treatment on Covid-19 patients. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Beyond Air develops LungFit  - a revolutionary Nitric Oxide (NO) generator and delivery system. The US FDA and Health Canada have approved the use of LungFit in COVID-19 treatment trials in both countries.
https://www.beyondair.net/news-media/press-releases/detail/101/beyond-air-to-initiate-clinical-study-evaluating-high  https://www.beyondair.net/news-media/press-releases/detail/105/beyond-air-receives-approval-from-health-canada-to-study

Israeli-Italian partners for Covid-19 treatment. Israeli biotech Kamada (see here) has partnered Italy’s Kedrion to develop a human plasma-derived Anti-SARs-COV-2 product. Kamada will use its proprietary IgG platform technology and Kedrion will provide plasma from donors who have recovered from the virus.
https://www.kedrion.com/kedrion-and-kamada-announce-collaboration-anti-covid-19-igg-0

Patch for monitoring Covid-19 patients. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s G Medical has received Emergency Use Authorization from the US FDA for its Vital  Signs Monitoring System (VSMS) ECG Patch. It can be used to monitor Covid-19 patients whose treatment includes medication that may cause life-threatening arrhythmias.
https://gmedinnovations.com/products/#prod  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRaL2OzzGoY

Treating diabetic children in Texas. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s DreaMed Diabetes (reported here previously) is integrating its Advisor Pro software at Texas Children's Hospital. It allows diabetic children to be monitored remotely and avoids the risk of them (and their parents / guardians) being infected in hospital with Covid-19.
https://finder.startupnationcentral.org/company_page/dreamed-diabetes
https://dreamed-diabetes.com/advisor/

The ICU of the (near) future. HealthSpace 2030, Israel’s high-tech Intensive Care Unit of the future was unveiled in the ARC center of Sheba hospital. 11 technologies integrate augmented reality, communication, monitoring, AI, sensing, and robotic technologies to maximize care and comfort while minimizing risk to staff.
https://www.israel21c.org/hospital-icu-of-the-future-prepares-israel-for-second-corona-wave/

Cancer treatment gets $0.9 million boost. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s VBL Therapeutics (reported here previously) has been awarded a grant of up to $0.9 million by the Israel Innovation Authority.  It will support the Phase 3 study of VBL’s lead candidate VB-111 for the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
http://ir.vblrx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/vbl-therapeutics-awarded-32-million-nis-non-dilutive-grant  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnNsZYrpT_w

Funding for 16 research projects on personalized medicine. The Israel Precision Medicine Partnership (IPMP – reported here previously), has granted another NIS 60 million to 16 projects researching into specific targeted personalized medicine that can treat ailments such as autism, cancers and trauma.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/16-israeli-research-projects-on-personalized-medicine-get-millions-in-funding/

Personalized pregnancy care. Israel’s NUVO has partnered with Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital to develop an AI platform for accurate decision-making about pregnancy complications. NUVO has also just received US FDA approval for its INVU device (reported here previously) to be used in monitoring maternal fetal heart rate.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nuvo-group-announces-partnership-with-hadassah-hebrew-university-medical-center-to-develop-innovative-pregnancy-population-management-platform-301058487.html

A better medical trial experience. Israel’s Habitu (see here) develops a platform specifically targeting clinical trials and patient support programs in community-based healthcare. It provides flexible, continuous, emotional, professional and procedural support to patients, leading to more efficient trials and lower drop-out rates.
https://www.habitu.health/

Heart stent gets Breakthrough status. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Endospan (reported here previously) has been granted Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. FDA for its NEXUS Aortic Arch Stent Graft System.  It already has the CE Mark of European approval.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200419005001/en/FDA-Grants-NEXUS%E2%84%A2-Aortic-Arch-Stent-Graft

Decoding the immune system. Israel’s Immunai is developing a technological platform that aims to map the entire immune system for better detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. It uses single cell genomics that could in the future unlock the secrets of infections, cancer and autoimmune diseases.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3822891,00.html  https://www.immunai.com/


ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

A prosthetic arm to play the violin. Yael, from Petah Tikvah, was born without her left arm but always hoped to play the violin. At an event of Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM – reported here previously), Israeli students from Shenkar College of Engineering, Arts, and Design, built the device that made her dream a reality.
https://www.israel21c.org/for-under-60-teen-gets-prosthetic-arm-to-play-the-violin/
https://tomglobal.org/project?id=5e6f8f2b94711e10b13ebdff (includes video of Yael playing the violin)

Two Ethiopian Israeli women become border police officers. Sub-Inspector Oshrat Negosa and Sub-Inspector Tikva Makonnen have made history. They are the first Israeli women to be promoted to the rank of officer in the Border Police, where they will command platoons of new recruits.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/05/22/in-first-2-ethiopian-israeli-women-become-border-police-officers/

Happy Eid to Israel’s Muslim citizens. Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and other prominent leaders extended greetings to Israel’s Muslims in honor of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the month of Ramadan. Knesset speaker Yariv Levin delivered his own Eid el-Fitr greeting, in fluent Arabic, from the Knesset podium.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-leaders-bid-muslims-happy-eid-al-fitr-praise-communitys-handling-of-the-pandemic/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6knDcBpo6qg

IsraAID is now working in Israel. Volunteers from Israeli NGO IsraAID are usually in far-flung countries such as Haiti, Nepal and even the USA. But the Covid-19 crisis meant many had to return to Israel. So, they now work as part of a coronavirus response project to help the children of refugees and migrants in Tel Aviv.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/migrants-and-refugees-need-covid-19-support-in-israel-too/?

Four US States build bridges to Israeli tech. Many US states are expanding links with Israeli companies during the pandemic. Key drivers are the Florida Israel Business Accelerator, Tulsa Oklahoma’s hub for healthcare and cybersecurity; the Texas-Israel Alliance and the Arizona Israel Trade and Investment Office.
https://www.israel21c.org/why-are-4-us-states-building-bridges-to-israeli-tech/  https://www.fiba.io/
https://www.texasisrael.org/  https://www.azcommerce.com/

Educating global disadvantaged communities. Thousands of post-army or post-high school Israeli volunteers help underdeveloped countries by participating in the Jewish Agency’s Project T.E.N. (Tikkun Empowerment Network) – see here. It now operates in Uganda, Mexico, Ghana, Greece, South Africa and Cambodia.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-jewish-volunteers-educate-disadvantaged-communities-worldwide/

Israel praised on Lebanese TV. In an interview on Lebanon-based TV station LBC TV, Lebanese Journalist Nadim Koteich said, “Israel is scientific, economic, cultural, and military power”. He reported that the per capita contribution of each citizen to GDP was $3600 in Israel whilst in Lebanon it was just $360.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/lebanese-journalist-israel-is-internationally-respected-lebanon-is-not-629055

Asiatic lion cubs born at Jerusalem zoo. (TY UWI) Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo saw the birth of a pair of Asiatic lions cubs, the first such animals born in captivity in Israel. Their parents Gir and Yasha were brought to Israel from Sweden and Germany as part of the European endangered species breeding program.
https://www.israel21c.org/in-first-asiatic-lions-welcome-two-cubs-at-jerusalem-zoo/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/first-lion-cubs-born-in-captivity-at-jerusalem-zoo/ (Very cute video in report)


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

4D sensors detect Covid-19. Israel’s Government is using 4D radar sensors from Israel’s Vayyar to detect and monitor vital signs that can indicate early-stage COVID-19 symptoms. The sensors can be placed in hospitals, care homes, factories, airports, public transport, borders etc., to minimize exposure and face-to-face contact.
https://blog.vayyar.com/israeli-government-partners-with-vayyar-to-combat-covid-19

A facemask that cleans itself. (TY WIN) Ein-Eli is dean of the faculty of materials science and engineering at Israel’s Technion Institute. He has applied for a US patent for his invention of a facemask with a USB-powered carbon fiber heating element that kills germs in under 30 minutes.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/masks-may-become-self-cleaning-with-israeli-scientists-usb-powered-hack/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyifhDqUJuw

Software to accelerate Covid-19 trials. Ben Gurion University student Daniel Iluz-Freundlich has developed a software program to help find and enroll Covid-19 positive patients in trials for new treatments and vaccines. He has provided the app PI-Enroll at no cost to COVID-19 trials underway in North America, Asia and Europe.
https://aabgu.org/msih-student-covid-19-trials/#

Virtual camera to detect overcrowding. Israel’s Nexar (reported here previously) developed its dashboard smartphone camera to prevent vehicle accidents. It has now launched a Virtual Camera to help public officials resolve overcrowding issues – e.g. at public events, recreational areas and even hospital entrances.
http://nocamels.com/2020/05/ai-road-safety-startup-nexar-raises-52m/

Israeli drone has life-rafts for search and rescue. Elbit Systems' Hermes 900 maritime patrol drone has been equipped with 4 six-person inflatable life-saver rafts, plus detection and identification capabilities as part of a new search and rescue (SAR) package. It can operate for 24+ hours, in adverse weather conditions.
https://www.defenseworld.net/news/26930/Hermes_900_Maritime_Patrol_Drone_Equipped_with_Inflatable_Life__Raft

Israeli wins top Math prize. Hebrew University’s David Kazhdan won the 2020 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences - the first Israeli ever to receive the so-called “Nobel of the East.”  It recognized his “huge influence on, and profound contributions to, representation theory, as well as many other areas of mathematics.”
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-mathematician-awarded-prestigious-2020-shaw-prize/

Security in the code. (TY Atid-EDI) Cybersecurity startup Bridgecrew’s Israel-based R&D team develops and  delivers security as code so that anyone can deploy the defenses needed to protect their cloud infrastructure. Bridgecrew recently emerged from stealth mode with $14 million of new funding.  https://bridgecrew.io/
https://medium.com/bridgecrew/the-crew-is-out-of-stealth-b94ce33f3720

Smart fleet management. Israel’s Autofleet uses Artificial Intelligence to generate “Vehicle as a Service”. Its software maximizes the use and revenue of each vehicle, minimizing downtime through automated servicing. It allows managers to simulate ride sharing and revenue predicting. Autofleet has just raised $7.5 million of funds.
https://www.autofleet.io/

Reducing the cost of computing. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Granulate has a patent-pending solution that improves an organization’s computer workload performance with up to 60% less computer resources. It means a huge reduction in costs without requiring any changes in the customer's code.  https://granulate.io/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3809987,00.html

Micro cameras. Israel’s ScoutCam develops minimally invasive endo-surgical tools and innovative imaging solutions. Their CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) video cameras include one of the smallest cameras in the world. They are used by surgeons, by NASA in outer space and to inspect nuclear reactors.
https://www.scoutcam.com/about-scoutcam/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HddemC-PCg

Fast checkout with visual recognition. Israel’s Shekel Scales uses AI and visual recognition to automatically identify products at self-checkout, even if in an acrylic supermarket bag. It also weighs fruit and vegetables.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005455/en/Shekel%E2%80%99s-Fast-Track-Answers-Urgent-Call-Touchless  https://www.shekelonline.com/news-and-events/87-shekel%E2%80%99s-visual-recognition-svr-included-in-ground-breaking-edge-x-autonomous-shopping-solution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBCCAHFw7gs



ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Record Q1 funds raised. (TY Atid-EDI) Israeli companies raised $2.74 billion in the first quarter of 2020 – 76% more than Q1 2019.  March saw a slowdown, but funds raised in April were nearly $1 billion.
https://nocamels.com/2020/04/ivc-zag-sw-first-quarter-2020-record-coronavirus/

Nine years of the Israel-Asia Center. The Israel-Asia Center (reported here previously) was founded in 2011 Since then it has secured some $185 million for the Israeli economy. Its 8-month fellowship has trained almost 100 young leaders from 14 different countries across Asia, including Indonesia and Malaysia.
http://nocamels.com/2020/05/israel-asia-center-fellows-185m-investments-israeli-economy/

US gets good value from Israel. The US gets a high return on its annual $3.8 billion Israeli investment. Israel invests almost $24 billion in the US, nearly triple that in 2010. Israeli-designed components are an integral part of US hi-tech products. Areas include IT, biotech, life sciences, energy, defense, cyber-security and much more.
https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/us-aid-israel-investment/

Ukraine-Israel trade to expand. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed with and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu expanding the Free Trade Area Agreement, promoting Israeli investment and resuming flights. He also said that Israel is "an example of an effective fight against the coronavirus epidemic."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/280834

Resuming tourist flights to Cyprus. Cyprus announced that Israel will be in the first group of 13 countries, with low COVID-19 infection rates, allowed to resume commercial flights to the country on 9th June. Initially, passengers will require a health certificate confirming that they are virus-free. Cyprus hotels open on 1st June.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israelis-among-first-to-be-allowed-in-as-cyprus-announces-resumption-of-tourism/

How Israeli companies retained employees. Several Israeli firms took major steps during the pandemic to avoid losing skilled staff. Ness Technologies and VeriFone Systems re-assigned many employees from clients who froze their business activity to clients that had increased demand or moved them to development projects.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3824112,00.html

Turning cleaners into computer staff. When Covid-19 struck, Israeli company Lightricks (developer of photo editing software Facetune) sent home its nine cleaners. Days later, maintenance manager Nadav changed their lives. He taught them basic computer skills and had them inputting photos of faces for image processing.
https://jewishjournal.com/israel/315715/transformation-cleaner-high-tech-employee/

IKEA opens its 6th Israeli store. As reported here previously, IKEA’s sixth Israeli store has been built at Moshav Eshtaol – north of Beit Shemesh. Now, as the number of coronavirus infections in Israel has dropped, the new store has opened, employing some 380 people.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/280814

BuyMe gift vouchers. Micha Berkuz, Shai Darin, and Tal Zuri, established BuyMe in 2012 and turned it into Israel’s leading platform for employee gift vouchers, offering vouchers to more than 1,000 businesses. They have now sold their share in the company to Tel Aviv-based Teleclal Group for NIS 81 million.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3826810,00.html
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3826930,00.html

Vegan baby formula heads to Canada and India. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Else Nutrition (reported here previously) has just been granted approval of patent applications for its plant-based formulation for infant and toddler populations in both India and Canada.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/else-nutrition-announces-expansion-intellectual-120000643.html


CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`

We were all born in Jerusalem. The first ever English translation of former Israeli PM Menachem Begin’s amazing literary speech in 1972, about his past and present homelands. (Need to register for free trial)
https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/israel-zionism/2020/05/we-were-all-born-in-jerusalem-a-never-before-translated-speech-by-menachem-begin/

Israeli Innovation – read all about it. (TY Hazel) Avi Jorisch’s amazing book, “Thou Shalt Innovate” (reported here previously) has now been translated into 30 languages – most recently into Thai. See this latest interview with Avi in the Bangkok Post (in English!).
https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/social-and-lifestyle/1922492/


Israel re-opens bars, cafes and restaurants. (TY I24) Israel’s restaurants, cafes and bars have reopened after two months closure. Israel’s PM said “We want to help the economy, but also ease your lives, make it possible for you to get out, return to normalcy, get a cup of coffee, a glass of beer as well, so first of all have fun,”
https://unitedwithisrael.org/lchaim-israel-reopens-bars-cafes-and-restaurants/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXlTLG_5-dw

Feeding the fish at Jerusalem’s aquarium. 60 volunteer divers clean and maintain the fish tanks at the Israel Aquarium in Jerusalem. They also feed a few of the fish that cannot have their food thrown to them from above. The aquarium’s 33 tanks hold hundreds of fish that represent Israel’s diverse maritime environment.
https://www.israel21c.org/corona-or-not-israels-aquarium-fish-still-need-to-be-fed/


THE JEWISH STATE

Arab praises Jew who returned lost property. More details of that story (see here) of a religious Jew who traced the Palestinian Arab who lost a bag containing NIS 40,000. On Kol Hai Radio, the Arab said "I am happy I ended up, thank G-d, with someone good, who returned the money to me. He's a holy man."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/280805

Bride invites EMT “savior” to her wedding. EMT Yoav Shemaryahu saved Hila Meuda’s life after a kitchen accident sent boiling wax all over her face and arms. Yoav helped her to remove the wax slowly in a way that would not exacerbate the burns. A year later, Hila phoned Yoav to thank him and to invite him to her wedding.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/thankful-israeli-bride-invites-hatzalah-emt-who-saved-her-to-her-wedding/
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Salena writes about mass mailing test.

Pennsylvania primary offers early test of mass mail-in voting

By Salena Zito

Click here for the full story.

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