+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Israeli robot fires a Glock: https://www.defensenews.com/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
While the economy goes bust, farm-to-table booms
By Salena Zito
MIDDLETOWN, Maryland — There is an argument to be made that the coronavirus pandemic could change the food supply chain for the long term. It may disrupt our across-the-board reliance on distant producers, processing plants, and large chain grocery stores.
In the process, it would connect many of us to local food in the same way our parents and grandparents were.
For months during this pandemic, consumers who used to drive to the supermarket to buy prepackaged food are instead getting direct delivery literally from a farm to their table. People are getting hooked on direct sourcing for their food and are eating healthier because of it.
Farmers, such as Tony Brusco here at South Mountain Creamery, are growing their family farms in the process.
Brusco's farm provides fresh milk, cream, yogurt, eggs, butter, produce, and butchered select cuts of meat — all from his farm and other local family farms that have tilled the soil, grown the grass that feeds their cows, and milked, churned, and prepared everything their family farms deliver.
Brusco's farm provides fresh milk, cream, yogurt, eggs, butter, produce, and butchered select cuts of meat — all from his farm and other local family farms that have tilled the soil, grown the grass that feeds their cows, and milked, churned, and prepared everything their family farms deliver.
Click here for the full story.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Who ceded to WHO:?
How Bush and Obama Ceded the World Health Organization to China, Increasing Risk of Pandemics Like Coronavirus
By Bill Russell
A pedestrian walks by a bus stop screen showing a video clip of of Chinese president Xi Jinping wearing a protective mask on February 29, 2020 in Shanghai, China.Yifan Ding/Getty Images
The first time a China-backed candidate was named Director General of the World Health Organization, the president of the United States had other things on his mind. China had just a few years earlier botched its response to the outbreak of a flu-like disease, first covering it up and then underreporting the results. No matter. The president wanted stable relations with Beijing, and no one in his administration raised any particular objections to the selection for the top job at the WHO.
On November 9, 2006, Dr. Margaret Chan, a physician from Hong Kong, was appointed to her first five year term, having garnered majority of support from the World Health Association—the nations who vote on top appointments to the WHO. Just two days earlier, George W. Bush's Republican party had been hammered in midterm elections, losing both houses of Congress for the time since 1992. The Iraq war was heading south quickly, and in response Bush threw controversial Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the side, an acknowledgment that Iraq was a debacle. Who was going to run the WHO? In Washington the answer was simple: who cares?
The same was true five years later, when the Obama administration stood by as the pro-Beijing Chan—who appointed a slew of pro-Beijing bureaucrats during her tenure—was reappointed to another term. And when Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the now-controversial WHO director general, stood for election in the spring of 2017, the Trump administration paid little mind. Trump's agenda when it came to China, as he had made clear during the 2016 campaign, was all about trade. "No one was particularly focused on [the WHO] at the time," says a National Security Council staffer not authorized to speak on the record.
Tedros, an Ethiopian strongly backed by Beijing, easily won the directorship. The first non-physician ever elected to the post, he defeated David Nabarro of the UK, who had been nominally supported by Washington, 133 votes to 50 on the final ballot. The New York Times ran a bland story focusing on the fact that Tedros was the first African ever to become the WHO's director.
China's dissembling and opacity about the COVID-19 outbreak in the huge, central city of Wuhan—aided and abetted by the WHO in the critical early stages of the outbreak—is a scandal whose reverberations will be felt for years. As former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said over the weekend, "There is some evidence to suggest that as late as January 20, Chinese officials were still saying there was no human-to-human transmission of the virus, and the WHO was validating those claims [as late as] January 14, sort of enabling the obfuscation from China."
On Monday evening, Trump made it clear the era of Washington's indifference to the WHO is over. He announced that U.S. funding of the organization will stop for a period of 60 to 90 days "while a review is conducted to assess the WHO's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus." The administration wants to know: what did the WHO know, when did it know it, and what did Beijing tell it?
The move will be controversial, given the optics of cutting off funding to the world's primary public health agency in the midst of a pandemic. But the WHO does have questions to answer, particularly as to when it really knew when the virus was spread human to human. On December 31, the government of Taiwan, which China blocks from being a member of the the WHO because it regards Taipei as a renegade province, got in touch with WHO to say that the mysterious disease in Wuhan bore similarities to SARS, the disease that China tried to cover up in 2003. SARS, like COVID-19, was transmissible human to human.
US President George W. Bush shakes hands with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (L) during a meeting in the Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing on August 10, 2008. Bush, who attended the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 8, attended a church service in Beijing on August 10, using the occasion to drive home his message that China's communist leaders have nothing to fear from religious faith. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Less well understood in this debacle is the role that the United States, and its allies in the developed world, played in allowing Beijing to become so influential in the organization, with consequences that now appear to be ruinous. The coronavirus catastrophe is the second massive "China shock" to hit the United States and the rest of developed world in the last 20 years. The first unfolded in slow motion, in the years after Beijing, with the U.S's enthusiastic support, joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. What followed over the next decade and a half was, in the words of a landmark 2016 study by three U.S. economists for the National Bureau of Economic Research, "an epochal shift in patterns of world trade."
In industry after industry—including, we now learn, the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industry— large companies shifted their supply chains out of the United States and into China, lured by the extraordinarily plentiful and cheap labor available there. Entire industries were hollowed out, and in the Rust Belt in particular, entire towns were devastated.
The bet that the U.S. political and economic establishments made was straightforward: that as China prospered, its authoritarian style of government would mellow, someday perhaps going the way of South Korea or Taiwan and embracing democracy. The costs imposed on blue collar, working class America would thus, in this view, be worth it.
The way successive U.S. administrations, first Bill Clinton's, then Bush's and Obama's, dealt with China was fundamentally rooted in that hope. Clinton, in his last month in office, managed to get Congress to extend "permanent normal trade relations" to China, a critical step on the way to WTO membership. The next year China joined the WTO, and the Chinese economic miracle was jump-started. Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's views on economic engagement were little different than those of his predecessor, former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson. That was fine with Obama, particularly during his first term.
Obama's priority vis-a-vis Beijing was climate change. China's explosive economic growth had made it the world's largest emitter of CO2 into the atmosphere. If the Paris accord were to have any credibility, he had to have Beijing as a signatory. On April 1, 2016, he got his wish, when Beijing and Washington issued a joint statement saying they would both join the accord.
Obama aides such as Ben Rhodes, who was his deputy national security adviser, acknowledge that during his second term, Obama soured on Beijing. It had done little to live up to promises made that to rein in intellectual property theft, among other trade problems. The Obama administration ultimately filed 16 WTO complaints against China—an average of two a year while in office—but damage had been done. The last WTO suit it filed in January of 2017, Obama's last month in office, was on behalf of the U.S. aluminum industry, which argued that Beijing was illegally subsidizing Chinese exports. When Obama entered office in January 2009 there were 14 active aluminum smelters operating in the U.S. Eight years later, there were five.
The overarching diplomatic strategy toward Beijing for both Obama and Bush was "strategic engagement." That meant allowing China to gain more clout in international institutions such as the WHO. The thinking was that Beijing's economic rise merited those rewards. But more important, the influence would help Beijing immerse itself into existing institutions, allowing it to grow into a "responsible global stakeholder," as former Bush administration trade representative Robert Zoellick famously called it.
China's President XI Jinping and US President Barack Obama hold a meeting during an official State Visit at the White House September 25, 2015 in Washington, DC.Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images
The U.S. and its allies would allow Chinese representatives—or allies of Beijing, like Tedros—to run organizations such as the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the Food and Agricultural Organization, and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization. They believed little harm could come of it. "It was benign neglect," says Lanhee Chen, Director of Policy Studies at Stanford University's public policy program. Some current and former U.S. officials believe Washington's policy went well beyond benign neglect. Referring to China's enhanced clout inside a variety of U.N agencies, including the WHO, Joseph Bosco, former China country director at the Pentagon says, "We encouraged it."
The U.S. political and business establishment's great China dream began to die with Xi Jinping's ascension to the top political office in Beijing. His iron-fisted rule as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party makes the idea that China would soon follow in the democratic footsteps of Taiwan and South Korea seem farcical.
The second China ''shock''—the coronavirus-WHO-Beijing scandal—makes that obvious. It shows just how costly previous U.S. and allied assumptions about China can be. The belief that allowing Beijing to maneuver its favored candidate into the directorship of the WHO carried little risk was, arguably, a lethal misjudgment. If the WHO had insisted early on that Beijing share live strains of the virus with medical researchers in the outside world—and to date there is no evidence that it did—then a diagnostic test could have been developed much sooner, Gottlieb says. And had the Chinese "been more forthcoming about what was happening [in December] this might have been an entirely avoidable world event."
The diplomatic fallout is just beginning. The cessation of funding, even if temporary, will get the WHO's attention. The U.S. government's annual contribution to the WHO is 22 percent of the total: more than double Beijing's contribution. When you add in the massive amounts of money that philanthropic organizations like the Gates Foundation and pharmaceutical companies throw in—a sum far greater than Washington's donation—the overall U.S. contribution is nearly ten times that of China.
Assuming U.S. funding restarts at some point, it would be wise to tailor the money with conditions, as Congress does in funding the U.N., suggests Stanford's Chen. Start by insisting on far more transparency, public health officials say. The accounts of monthly board meetings published on the group's website are cursory, says Chen. A summary of the December meeting, for example, simply says evidence of human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 in Wuhan was "insufficient." The organization's response in the past has been that more detailed accounts of its meetings would stifle scientific debate, but that argument doesn't hold up. "It stands science on its head," says Chen. ''The scientific method requires widespread dissemination of data and assumptions so they can be picked apart and improved. That's the whole point."
The U.S. and its allies will likely be unable to remove Tedros before his term ends in 2022, and Trump didn't say he seeks his immediate ouster. But at the end of Tedros's term, current and former diplomats and public health officials say, the U.S. must gather its allies and use its economic clout to install a new WHO director general who isn't beholden to Beijing. "It will require old- fashioned horse-trading and lobbying and diplomacy, but it has to happen," says Dan Blumenthal, Director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
He'll get no argument from Trump administration officials, who hope they will still be around in 2022. In late January, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—said by a White House official to be "fed up" with China—named career foreign service officer Mark Lambert to a newly created position: a special envoy whose job it is to counter China's malign influence at the U.N. and other international agencies. He'll have help. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are both reported to be furious with Beijing and the WHO. Japan's Deputy Prime Minister, Taro Aso, has said the WHO should change its name to the CHO: the China Health Organization.
There are two problems with the idea of pushing back on Beijing, one very real, the other potential. The first is, it will be hard to win over countries in the developing world that have become increasingly reliant on aid and trade with Beijing. The majority of Tedros's votes in 2017 came from the developing world. The U.S., current and former diplomats say, needs to re-engage aggressively, diplomatically and economically, to claw back lost ground.
President Donald Trump is pictured during an appearance with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on November 9, 2017 in Beijing, China. Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images
The second potential problem is U.S. politics: Trump right now trails former Vice President Joe Biden in most polls, and if the economy remains in a medically-induced recession throughout the year—more than a possibility—Biden is the likely winner. Beijing, based on Biden's campaign to date, would breathe a sigh of relief. And so too would all those Fortune 500 executives who really don't want to move their supply chains out of China. Biden has consistently downplayed Beijing as an economic and geopolitical rival throughout the campaign. His rhetoric is straight out of the 1990s. "China's gonna eat our lunch?" he bellowed at one point on the trail. "C'mon, man...they're not competition for us!"
Biden may be waking to reality. More than two months after the fact, his campaign quietly put out a statement saying that the former vice president actually supported Trump's January decision to cut off air travel from China. (He had originally accused Trump of "xenophobia.") The WHO's handling of the coronavirus is the clearest indication to date of how dangerous a path Beijing was on: dangerous for the world. In the previous two decades, some leaders coddled China—in the eager hope it would grow to be just like us— while others genuflected to the soon-to-be-dominant power.
That era has come crashing to a close. Someone tell Joe Biden.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Good News From Israel - edited:
The positive news on the coronavirus front is that many previously critical patients are recovering. Some of them were saved (in Israel and elsewhere) by new Israeli treatments and others thanks to to the dedication of Healthcare staff and the use of Israeli innovations at hospitals. This newsletter also contains positive news about new Israeli tests for infection, protective equipment, things to do while in isolation and even some good news unrelated to the pandemic.Best regards
Michael
Michael
In the 19th Apr 20 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
- Three Israeli treatments have saved lives of critically ill coronavirus patients.
- Israel has given coronavirus training to PA medics from Gaza.
- Three Israeli innovative solutions for the ventilator shortage.
- Investment in Israeli startups continues despite the pandemic.
- Many more opportunities to enjoy Israeli culture and entertainment on-line
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Positive coronavirus treatment news. Six critically ill Israeli coronavirus patients with organ failure are still alive after 1-week’s Pluristem’s PLX cell-therapy in three separate Israeli medical centers. Four show improved respiratory parameters - three of those could soon be weaned off ventilators with two showing clinical recovery.
- Latest – The first critically ill US coronavirus patient has received Pluristem’s treatment (in New Jersey).
https://www.jpost.com/health-
Italy approves Israeli coronavirus treatment. (TY JNS) Italy has approved Opaganib from Israel’s Redhill Biopharma to treat some 160 severe COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory problems at three hospitals in northern Italy. Phase2 tests on 131 US patients were positive and two critically ill Israeli patients are improving.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Passive vaccine saves 29-year-old coronavirus patient. (TY Hazel) A 29-year-old coronavirus patient in Ashdod has improved from serious to serious but stable condition, after receiving multiple doses of plasma from a donor who recovered from coronavirus. Another patient who received plasma has also improved.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-
Targeting coronavirus proteins. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute are working with a UK laboratory and others to develop an anti-viral treatment that targets Protease - a protein essential for coronavirus activity. Meanwhile, Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists are testing many chemicals against similar proteins.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-
Decoys to trap coronavirus. Technion scientists are using their NanoGhost technology (reported here) to send NanoGhost stem cells into the lungs. The coronavirus cells then bind with the NanoGhost decoy cells rather than the cells in the lung, thus reducing the ability of the virus to propagate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Radar for the lungs. Israel’s Sensible Medical has developed a radar-based system that continuously monitors a patient’s lung fluid levels to prevent deterioration. It has already in operation in four Italian hospitals and a US hospital has bought 20 units. Israel is also about to adopt it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.calcalistech.com/
New coronavirus test is 10 times faster. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed and implemented a new test for coronavirus infections that is much faster, cheaper and hasn’t the resource issues of current tests. It extracts RNA from swabs as now, but with a magnetic bead-based cleanup process called SPRI.
https://www.jwire.com.au/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Recovered. The many critically ill Israeli coronavirus patients being cured include a couple from Ashkelon aged 90 and 87 who can now celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. Also, Eli Beer, CEO of Israel’s United Hatzalah has awoken from a coma.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://worldisraelnews.com/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Israel’s first Haredi doctor in coronavirus front line. The first Israel-trained ultra-Orthodox doctor (see here) Dr Yehuda Sabiner, has begun his internship in the Coronavirus ward at Sheba hospital. Dr Sabiner also helped initiate a Rabbinic proclamation ordering Haredi communities to observe the coronavirus lockdown.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
Druze brothers lead Arab sector COVID-19 battle. (TY Hazel) Two Druze brothers from Daliat al-Carmel in the Haifa District are spearheading the IDF’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic in the Arab sector. Col. (res.) Saleem Wahaby is directives instructor and his brother, Maj. (res.) Zohar is liaison commander.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Israelis train Gaza medics. Dozens of doctors, nurses and medical personnel in Gaza have been trained by Israeli teams in techniques to treat patients infected with the coronavirus. Sessions took place at the Erez border crossing, at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and by conference calls. Hamas even acknowledged it.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
Israel helps Palestinian Arab sheikhs return from Indonesia. (TY Hazel) Despite having no diplomatic relations, Israel helped evacuate five Palestinian Arab sheikhs from Indonesia to Nablus, after it banned foreigners due to the spread of the coronavirus.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Clean water reduces Africa’s risk from COVID-19. Israeli NGO Innovation: Africa (see here) is racing to prevent mass infections by installing Israeli solar and water technologies in remote villages in Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Cameroon and South Africa. Clean water can prevent COVID-19 wiping out entire villages.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Chinese donors send Israel medical supplies. Chinese donors enamored with the Jewish State have been inundating the Israeli embassy in Shanghai with medical materials for shipping to Tel Aviv. They include from former tourists and academic exchange alumni who have fond memories of Israel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
The safest country. Forbes Economic magazine has published a study by Deep Knowledge that ranks how 60 countries are dealing with the coronavirus. It analyzed safety, risk level, treatment efficacy, and government support for people affected. Israel was ranked as the safest of the 200 countries assessed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/
http://www.israelnationalnews.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Israeli portal for corona-tech. Israeli tech nonprofits Start-Up Nation Central and HealthIL, have set up a new website, CoronaTech Israel, to become a one-stop-shop for technological COVID-19 solutions from Israel and abroad. Its analyses, news, developments, challenges, grants etc. aims to initiate projects to combat the crisis.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.coronatech.org.il/
Turning oxygen tanks into ventilators. Another “beating swords into ploughshares” story. The IDF Shayetet 13 Naval commando unit is using its expertise in diving with oxygen to convert its oxygen tank production line into making medical oxygen compression systems (ventilators) for critically ill coronavirus patients.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Elbit makes ventilators. Israeli defense electronics firm Elbit Systems has repurposed assembly lines to manufacture thousands of automatic ventilation machines. It expects initially to produce around 300 machines per week, enabling medical centers to provide care to patients suffering from less severe respiratory conditions,
https://www.israelhayom.com/
Make me a ventilator. Graduates from Israel’s Technion Institute have developed an ingenious solution for the rapid production of ventilators. With its 40 partners in the AmboVent project they have designed a product called AmboVent-1690-108 which can be mass-produced using the readily available “open” published design.
https://presidentsreport.
https://members.smoove.io//
New mask for ultimate protection. Israel’s Technion and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa have developed a face mask for those treating COVID-19 patients. A pump worn near the waist sends cool filtered air into a fan inside the mask, creating an air curtain to protect medical workers from any droplets containing the coronavirus.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Lowering the risk of supervising patients. Remote device monitoring of ventilators is currently being tested at Laniado Hospital in Netanya. Developed by the Directorate of Armored Combat Vehicles (Tank Assault Program) of the Ministry of Defense, it reduces the need for medical personnel to be in the contaminated area.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Students build COROBOT. Students from Haifa’s Hebrew Reali school, mentored by engineers from Israel’s Technion, have developed COROBOT - a robot to deliver equipment, medicine and food to coronavirus patients. It can help protect hospital medical staff from COVID-19. A radio control device steers the robot.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
https://haifadiarist.blogspot.
Detecting coronavirus by loss of smell. (TY Hazel) Professor Noam Sobel of Israel’s Weizmann Institute has built smelltracker.org to help diagnose coronavirus patients. Thousands have registered on the site and report their ability to smell pungent household products. Losing the sense of smell is a symptom of coronavirus.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://smelltracker.org/
Thermal cameras to detect coronavirus carriers. (TY Hazel) Israel’s AnyVision (reported here previously) is deploying thermal cameras at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital). The cameras can measure body temperature from a distance and can determine whether a high temperature is caused by disease.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Multimillion EU grants to 3 Hebrew U professors. Three Hebrew University of Jerusalem professors have been awarded European Research Council Advanced Grants. They include 3.2 million Euros to Prof Yinon Ben-Neriah for a leukemia treatment and 1.6 million Euros to Math Prof Alex Lubotzky (his 3rd ERC grant).
https://www.afhu.org/2020/04/
Record production of renewable energy. On Sunday 5th Apr Israel set a new all-time record for the production of renewable energy. The peak was set at 1610 MW, accounting for 27% of the nation’s total production. https://unitedwithisrael.org/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Record bond sale. The previous newsletter stated that Israel’s treasury sold $5 billion in long-term bonds to help alleviate the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, the issue was so oversubscribed, that a record $25 billion was raised, highlighting international confidence in Israel’s economy.
https://www.jns.org/israel-
Checking the quality of medical supplies. (TY Hazel) Israel has recruited local start-up Qlarium to screen providers of medical equipment to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Qlarium, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to give an intelligence picture about the reliability of suppliers, including the Chinese market.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Protecting the Swiss Army. Israel’s Elbit Systems has been awarded a contract worth $15 million to provide command and control (C2) systems for the Tactical Reconnaissance System (TASYS) of the Swiss Armed Forces. It will help generate a common operational picture and facilitate rapid and effective decision making.
https://elbitsystems.com/pr-
How do you like your microalgae? Israeli start-up Yemoja, cultivates customized, pharmaceutical grade microalgae on demand. It utilizes unique, high precision, fast-track photobioreactor technology. Yemoja aims to develop these marine “super-crops”, boosting the entire microalgae value chain with new varieties and yields.
https://yemojaltd.com/how-it-
Grants for companies combating coronavirus. Israel has issued NIS 22 million of its NIS 50 million fund (see here) for Israeli startups countering the coronavirus. They include NEAT Applied Technologies (air flow in ventilators), Ezmems (sensors for ventilators) and NanoScent (scent detection of infection).
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.en.neat-tech.co.
https://www.ezmems.com/ https://www.iati.co.il/
Focusing on Israel. Despite the global economic slowdown, Israel-headquartered VC firm Entrée Capital has raised $100 million for a new, third Israel-focused fund. It will target early-stage Israeli founded startups active in the fields including deep tech, SaaS, fintech, quantum computing, AI, AR / VR and healthcare.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Investment in Israeli startups. Despite the economic crisis, Israel’s Vast Data has raised $100 million; Cato Networks raised another $77 million; Tyto Care raised $50 million; Glassbox Digital raised $40 million. Bringg raised $30 million; CyberMDX raised $20 million; Cyolo raised $4.2 million and Agroscout raised $3 million.
Viacom acquires Ananey. ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI), owner of MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, has taken over Israel’s pay TV channel provider Ananey Communications. The two companies will also set up Gazella - a new fund focusing its investment on Israeli media and tech-related businesses.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`
Happy Passover from the Israel Philharmonic. Social isolation hasn’t prevented the Israel Philharmonic, Israel’s top orchestra, from performing this Passover-related concert piece to a virtual audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Virtual Jerusalem. (TY Sharon) The Real Jerusalem Streets may be empty, but there is plenty for on-line tourists. View the Kotel (Western Wall), Tower of David museum, Bible Lands museum, Western Wall tunnels and the City of David Sound & Light show. You can even watch films or opera at Jerusalem’s Cinemateque.
http://rjstreets.com/2020/04/
A virtual tour of Jerusalem. Each year, during Passover and Easter, thousands of worshipers flock to Jerusalem's holiest sites. Unfortunately, this year that won't be possible, so these breathtaking and spiritual sites are brought to you in a special virtual tour. https://www.youtube.com/
Stream Israel. (TY SCICC) IZZY is a new streaming platform similar to Netflix, which will feature movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Request a special invite; or wait until IZZY launches in the Fall. Izzy gives a front-row seat to Israel for a low monthly fee. https://helloisrael.tv/ https://helloisrael.tv/
Israel judo champ sells memorabilia to buy ventilators. (TY WIN) Israeli judo champion Sagi Muki is auctioning off memorabilia including the uniform from his victory at the 2019 Judo World Championships in Japan. The money raised will buy ventilators for the Laniado hospital in his hometown of Netanya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
THE JEWISH STATE
Sharansky donates Genesis Prize money. Natan Sharansky has donated his $1 million Genesis Prize to aid those affected by coronavirus. The Israeli former Soviet prisoner urged people to “think about our great journey together and about new challenges which we face together, and that we will win together.”
https://www.jns.org/sharansky-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
IDF cares. (TY Hazel) Some 1,000 Israeli soldiers are helping at 200 assisted living facilities around the country, providing the help they need during this period, when they are unable to leave their homes. A commander and four soldiers have been assigned to each facility,
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/
Making Israel safer together. (TY Robert) Yatar Israel is a highly trained counter terrorism unit of the Israel Security Forces that shields vulnerable citizens. Its volunteers are either ex-elite IDF officers or have extensive defense background, who take orders from and support Israeli Border Police and National Israeli Police.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/
https://www.yatarisrael.org/
Co-existence in an Israeli hospital. In an Israeli hospital, an Arab nurse reads the Four Questions, a Jewish Prayer, to elderly patients who are unable to be with their children and grandchildren on Passover due to the coronavirus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Pesach in Jerusalem 2,400 years ago. (TY Haaretz) The Passover Letter of Elephantine is the oldest known ex-biblical account of Passover laws. Sent by Hananiah, a high official in Jerusalem, to his “brother” Yadaniyah and the Judean soldiers on Egypt’s Elephantine island, the papyri are 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.
https://www.israpundit.org/
Italy approves Israeli coronavirus treatment. (TY JNS) Italy has approved Opaganib from Israel’s Redhill Biopharma to treat some 160 severe COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory problems at three hospitals in northern Italy. Phase2 tests on 131 US patients were positive and two critically ill Israeli patients are improving.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Passive vaccine saves 29-year-old coronavirus patient. (TY Hazel) A 29-year-old coronavirus patient in Ashdod has improved from serious to serious but stable condition, after receiving multiple doses of plasma from a donor who recovered from coronavirus. Another patient who received plasma has also improved.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-
Targeting coronavirus proteins. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute are working with a UK laboratory and others to develop an anti-viral treatment that targets Protease - a protein essential for coronavirus activity. Meanwhile, Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists are testing many chemicals against similar proteins.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-
Decoys to trap coronavirus. Technion scientists are using their NanoGhost technology (reported here) to send NanoGhost stem cells into the lungs. The coronavirus cells then bind with the NanoGhost decoy cells rather than the cells in the lung, thus reducing the ability of the virus to propagate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Radar for the lungs. Israel’s Sensible Medical has developed a radar-based system that continuously monitors a patient’s lung fluid levels to prevent deterioration. It has already in operation in four Italian hospitals and a US hospital has bought 20 units. Israel is also about to adopt it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.calcalistech.com/
New coronavirus test is 10 times faster. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed and implemented a new test for coronavirus infections that is much faster, cheaper and hasn’t the resource issues of current tests. It extracts RNA from swabs as now, but with a magnetic bead-based cleanup process called SPRI.
https://www.jwire.com.au/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Recovered. The many critically ill Israeli coronavirus patients being cured include a couple from Ashkelon aged 90 and 87 who can now celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. Also, Eli Beer, CEO of Israel’s United Hatzalah has awoken from a coma.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://worldisraelnews.com/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Israel’s first Haredi doctor in coronavirus front line. The first Israel-trained ultra-Orthodox doctor (see here) Dr Yehuda Sabiner, has begun his internship in the Coronavirus ward at Sheba hospital. Dr Sabiner also helped initiate a Rabbinic proclamation ordering Haredi communities to observe the coronavirus lockdown.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
Druze brothers lead Arab sector COVID-19 battle. (TY Hazel) Two Druze brothers from Daliat al-Carmel in the Haifa District are spearheading the IDF’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic in the Arab sector. Col. (res.) Saleem Wahaby is directives instructor and his brother, Maj. (res.) Zohar is liaison commander.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Israelis train Gaza medics. Dozens of doctors, nurses and medical personnel in Gaza have been trained by Israeli teams in techniques to treat patients infected with the coronavirus. Sessions took place at the Erez border crossing, at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and by conference calls. Hamas even acknowledged it.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
Israel helps Palestinian Arab sheikhs return from Indonesia. (TY Hazel) Despite having no diplomatic relations, Israel helped evacuate five Palestinian Arab sheikhs from Indonesia to Nablus, after it banned foreigners due to the spread of the coronavirus.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Clean water reduces Africa’s risk from COVID-19. Israeli NGO Innovation: Africa (see here) is racing to prevent mass infections by installing Israeli solar and water technologies in remote villages in Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Cameroon and South Africa. Clean water can prevent COVID-19 wiping out entire villages.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Chinese donors send Israel medical supplies. Chinese donors enamored with the Jewish State have been inundating the Israeli embassy in Shanghai with medical materials for shipping to Tel Aviv. They include from former tourists and academic exchange alumni who have fond memories of Israel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
The safest country. Forbes Economic magazine has published a study by Deep Knowledge that ranks how 60 countries are dealing with the coronavirus. It analyzed safety, risk level, treatment efficacy, and government support for people affected. Israel was ranked as the safest of the 200 countries assessed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/
http://www.israelnationalnews.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Israeli portal for corona-tech. Israeli tech nonprofits Start-Up Nation Central and HealthIL, have set up a new website, CoronaTech Israel, to become a one-stop-shop for technological COVID-19 solutions from Israel and abroad. Its analyses, news, developments, challenges, grants etc. aims to initiate projects to combat the crisis.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.coronatech.org.il/
Turning oxygen tanks into ventilators. Another “beating swords into ploughshares” story. The IDF Shayetet 13 Naval commando unit is using its expertise in diving with oxygen to convert its oxygen tank production line into making medical oxygen compression systems (ventilators) for critically ill coronavirus patients.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Elbit makes ventilators. Israeli defense electronics firm Elbit Systems has repurposed assembly lines to manufacture thousands of automatic ventilation machines. It expects initially to produce around 300 machines per week, enabling medical centers to provide care to patients suffering from less severe respiratory conditions,
https://www.israelhayom.com/
Make me a ventilator. Graduates from Israel’s Technion Institute have developed an ingenious solution for the rapid production of ventilators. With its 40 partners in the AmboVent project they have designed a product called AmboVent-1690-108 which can be mass-produced using the readily available “open” published design.
https://presidentsreport.
https://members.smoove.io//
New mask for ultimate protection. Israel’s Technion and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa have developed a face mask for those treating COVID-19 patients. A pump worn near the waist sends cool filtered air into a fan inside the mask, creating an air curtain to protect medical workers from any droplets containing the coronavirus.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Lowering the risk of supervising patients. Remote device monitoring of ventilators is currently being tested at Laniado Hospital in Netanya. Developed by the Directorate of Armored Combat Vehicles (Tank Assault Program) of the Ministry of Defense, it reduces the need for medical personnel to be in the contaminated area.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Students build COROBOT. Students from Haifa’s Hebrew Reali school, mentored by engineers from Israel’s Technion, have developed COROBOT - a robot to deliver equipment, medicine and food to coronavirus patients. It can help protect hospital medical staff from COVID-19. A radio control device steers the robot.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
https://haifadiarist.blogspot.
Detecting coronavirus by loss of smell. (TY Hazel) Professor Noam Sobel of Israel’s Weizmann Institute has built smelltracker.org to help diagnose coronavirus patients. Thousands have registered on the site and report their ability to smell pungent household products. Losing the sense of smell is a symptom of coronavirus.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://smelltracker.org/
Thermal cameras to detect coronavirus carriers. (TY Hazel) Israel’s AnyVision (reported here previously) is deploying thermal cameras at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital). The cameras can measure body temperature from a distance and can determine whether a high temperature is caused by disease.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Multimillion EU grants to 3 Hebrew U professors. Three Hebrew University of Jerusalem professors have been awarded European Research Council Advanced Grants. They include 3.2 million Euros to Prof Yinon Ben-Neriah for a leukemia treatment and 1.6 million Euros to Math Prof Alex Lubotzky (his 3rd ERC grant).
https://www.afhu.org/2020/04/
Record production of renewable energy. On Sunday 5th Apr Israel set a new all-time record for the production of renewable energy. The peak was set at 1610 MW, accounting for 27% of the nation’s total production. https://unitedwithisrael.org/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Record bond sale. The previous newsletter stated that Israel’s treasury sold $5 billion in long-term bonds to help alleviate the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, the issue was so oversubscribed, that a record $25 billion was raised, highlighting international confidence in Israel’s economy.
https://www.jns.org/israel-
Checking the quality of medical supplies. (TY Hazel) Israel has recruited local start-up Qlarium to screen providers of medical equipment to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Qlarium, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to give an intelligence picture about the reliability of suppliers, including the Chinese market.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Protecting the Swiss Army. Israel’s Elbit Systems has been awarded a contract worth $15 million to provide command and control (C2) systems for the Tactical Reconnaissance System (TASYS) of the Swiss Armed Forces. It will help generate a common operational picture and facilitate rapid and effective decision making.
https://elbitsystems.com/pr-
How do you like your microalgae? Israeli start-up Yemoja, cultivates customized, pharmaceutical grade microalgae on demand. It utilizes unique, high precision, fast-track photobioreactor technology. Yemoja aims to develop these marine “super-crops”, boosting the entire microalgae value chain with new varieties and yields.
https://yemojaltd.com/how-it-
Grants for companies combating coronavirus. Israel has issued NIS 22 million of its NIS 50 million fund (see here) for Israeli startups countering the coronavirus. They include NEAT Applied Technologies (air flow in ventilators), Ezmems (sensors for ventilators) and NanoScent (scent detection of infection).
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.en.neat-tech.co.
https://www.ezmems.com/ https://www.iati.co.il/
Focusing on Israel. Despite the global economic slowdown, Israel-headquartered VC firm Entrée Capital has raised $100 million for a new, third Israel-focused fund. It will target early-stage Israeli founded startups active in the fields including deep tech, SaaS, fintech, quantum computing, AI, AR / VR and healthcare.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Investment in Israeli startups. Despite the economic crisis, Israel’s Vast Data has raised $100 million; Cato Networks raised another $77 million; Tyto Care raised $50 million; Glassbox Digital raised $40 million. Bringg raised $30 million; CyberMDX raised $20 million; Cyolo raised $4.2 million and Agroscout raised $3 million.
Viacom acquires Ananey. ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI), owner of MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, has taken over Israel’s pay TV channel provider Ananey Communications. The two companies will also set up Gazella - a new fund focusing its investment on Israeli media and tech-related businesses.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`
Happy Passover from the Israel Philharmonic. Social isolation hasn’t prevented the Israel Philharmonic, Israel’s top orchestra, from performing this Passover-related concert piece to a virtual audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Virtual Jerusalem. (TY Sharon) The Real Jerusalem Streets may be empty, but there is plenty for on-line tourists. View the Kotel (Western Wall), Tower of David museum, Bible Lands museum, Western Wall tunnels and the City of David Sound & Light show. You can even watch films or opera at Jerusalem’s Cinemateque.
http://rjstreets.com/2020/04/
A virtual tour of Jerusalem. Each year, during Passover and Easter, thousands of worshipers flock to Jerusalem's holiest sites. Unfortunately, this year that won't be possible, so these breathtaking and spiritual sites are brought to you in a special virtual tour. https://www.youtube.com/
Stream Israel. (TY SCICC) IZZY is a new streaming platform similar to Netflix, which will feature movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Request a special invite; or wait until IZZY launches in the Fall. Izzy gives a front-row seat to Israel for a low monthly fee. https://helloisrael.tv/ https://helloisrael.tv/
Israel judo champ sells memorabilia to buy ventilators. (TY WIN) Israeli judo champion Sagi Muki is auctioning off memorabilia including the uniform from his victory at the 2019 Judo World Championships in Japan. The money raised will buy ventilators for the Laniado hospital in his hometown of Netanya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
THE JEWISH STATE
Sharansky donates Genesis Prize money. Natan Sharansky has donated his $1 million Genesis Prize to aid those affected by coronavirus. The Israeli former Soviet prisoner urged people to “think about our great journey together and about new challenges which we face together, and that we will win together.”
https://www.jns.org/sharansky-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
IDF cares. (TY Hazel) Some 1,000 Israeli soldiers are helping at 200 assisted living facilities around the country, providing the help they need during this period, when they are unable to leave their homes. A commander and four soldiers have been assigned to each facility,
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/
Making Israel safer together. (TY Robert) Yatar Israel is a highly trained counter terrorism unit of the Israel Security Forces that shields vulnerable citizens. Its volunteers are either ex-elite IDF officers or have extensive defense background, who take orders from and support Israeli Border Police and National Israeli Police.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/
https://www.yatarisrael.org/
Co-existence in an Israeli hospital. In an Israeli hospital, an Arab nurse reads the Four Questions, a Jewish Prayer, to elderly patients who are unable to be with their children and grandchildren on Passover due to the coronavirus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Pesach in Jerusalem 2,400 years ago. (TY Haaretz) The Passover Letter of Elephantine is the oldest known ex-biblical account of Passover laws. Sent by Hananiah, a high official in Jerusalem, to his “brother” Yadaniyah and the Judean soldiers on Egypt’s Elephantine island, the papyri are 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.
https://www.israpundit.org/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment