Eat A Government TACO, Kamala's Staff Disarray? Three Op Ed Postings. Zito. White Privelege Photo. Good News Israel.

  

Eat a government taco and diaper a child.

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Kamala's office remains in  disarray?

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Just as the border trip beckons, two more staffers flee Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris has been in politics for eighteen years yet still can’t quite figure out how to keep staff.

The departure of two top travel advance women, just as she’s heading for the border in a hastily announced trip to get there before President Trump does, suggests that things are getting very bad indeed.

According to a softly cushioned report in the New York Times:

Two top aides who oversee travel for Vice President Kamala Harris are departing, leaving the vice president with her critical support staff in flux as she seeks to ramp up travel ahead of big vaccine and voting rights pushes she is planning through July.

Karly Satkowiak, the director of advance, and Gabrielle DeFranceschi, the deputy director of advance, have both told the vice president’s office they plan to leave in the coming weeks, according to three sources familiar with their plans. A spokeswoman for Ms. Harris said the departures were long planned and that both women are currently engaged with finding their replacements.

The Times tries to convey that the whole thing was pre-planned and just a changing of the guard. It’s similar in style to former State Department biggie Roberta Jacobson’s hasty exit from her border coordinator job, shortly after Harris was named Biden’s border czar on March 24. Just a temporary job, they claimed, nothing special. Amazing how they recycle their spin and excuses from one quick staff exit to the next. Nothing to see here, move along.

The details of the Times report, though, suggest a very different story.

One, the staff depart at a very bad time, just ahead of a politically critical trip for Harris, as well as a slew of others, including Harris’s bid to persuade Americans to get vaccinated, and some new plan to rig elections through what the press calls a voter rights initiative.

Perhaps the two women are staying on to get those travel-advance jobs done, but you can bet they’ve got their eyes on the door and won’t be too upset if all the details don’t come together and the whole thing does not go well. They’re busy training their replacements, the Times reports. Great time to train the newbies, suffice to say.

Two, the Biden administration apparently can’t find anyone to take the fleeing staffers’ places. They’re calling for volunteers now and pleading with previous staff to step up because it appears they can’t get people. Worse still, they’re demanding that these people work for free, despite the fact that Harris, to put it delicately, is challenging as a boss. She is well known for flying off the handle at reporters and blaming others for her own shortcomings. That’s her history with pretty much everyone, and her staff turnover shows it. Just read stories like this.

Crazier still, Harris already has at least 100 paid vice presidential staff members with a $1.6-million budget. The Wikipedia entry, which is noted as in need of updating, doesn’t list these two “top” staffers who are exiting at all on the roster, nor does it list anyone in charge of travel. That means it may be more, or else she’s got another staff somewhere not listed. That’s a lot of people, and this Legistorm entry shows 185 past and present staffers. What do these people do, given that none of them has a job managing Harris’s high-visibility trips, and Harris can’t find anyone to do it?

Maybe Harris’s last trip, to Guatemala, was an indicator, given that it suggests she doesn’t travel well.

She started out with airplane trouble, which delayed her trip, which is never a good sign. Then she showed up with the president of Guatemala, looking haggard with dirty, greasy hair. The president of Guatemala complained about the Biden administration’s mixed messages, and Harris could only prove it to him with her wan “do not come, do not come” admonition to illegals after offering them a host of benefits if they do, and later meeting with DACA activists to discuss ways to reward their illegal entry. The culmination was her insane giggling at softball interviewer Lester Holt of NBC, who asked her when she was going to the border. It was a question she should have anticipated and had an answer for, but she didn’t.

All of that suggests that staff work was lacking, not necessarily because staff were bad, but because Harris is impossible to work with. The Times report from two gushing female reporters attempts to smooth over the obvious signs of trouble by taking Harris’s word for it on those exits.

But in light of previous reporting by other Times staffers, ones who don’t have “girls, girls” on the banner of their Twitter feed and girl-power statements galore in their tweets, there’s reason to think there’s a problem.

According to the New York Times, in a report dated Nov. 29, 2019, on the collapse of Harris’s presidential campaign:

“This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly,” Ms. Mehlenbacher wrote, assailing Mr. Rodriguez and Ms. Harris’s sister, Maya, the campaign chairwoman, for laying off aides with no notice. “With less than 90 days until Iowa we still do not have a real plan to win.”

The 2020 Democratic field has been defined by its turbulence, with some contenders rising, others dropping out and two more jumping in just this month. Yet there is only one candidate who rocketed to the top tier and then plummeted in early state polls to the low single digits: Ms. Harris.

Here’s a whiff of her management style from the report:

Yet, even to some Harris allies, her decline is more predictable than surprising. In one instance after another, Ms. Harris and her closest advisers made flawed decisions about which states to focus on, issues to emphasize and opponents to target, all the while refusing to make difficult personnel choices to impose order on an unwieldy campaign, according to more than 50 current and former campaign staff members and allies, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations and assessments involving the candidate.

Many of her own advisers are now pointing a finger directly at Ms. Harris. In interviews several of them criticized her for going on the offensive against rivals, only to retreat, and for not firmly choosing a side in the party’s ideological feud between liberals and moderates. She also created an organization with a campaign chairwoman, Maya Harris, who goes unchallenged in part because she is Ms. Harris’s sister, and a manager, Mr. Rodriguez, who could not be replaced without likely triggering the resignations of the candidate’s consulting team. Even at this late date, aides said it’s unclear who’s in charge of the campaign.

As I noted in my May 19 blog post on why Kamala Harris can’t keep staff, she has a record of hiring lousy top people who make things miserable for the lower-level ones (such as a sex-harasser back when she was in Sacramento that she claimed to know nothing about). She also treats staff badly, with sudden pay cuts and layoffs and demands for volunteers, which has got to be bad for morale. Worst of all, she has a chaotic management style, blaming staffers for her own shortcomings, and not allowing staff to do their jobs because the only staffer who matters is apparently her sister Maya, who appears nowhere in the hierarchy. Who’d want a boss like that?

Obviously, her problem is a failure of leadership even at the staff level, a bad thing in a supposed leader of the U.S. She’s created her career by sucking up to powerful men, such as Willie Brown, her former “boyfriend,” and campaigning on her looks — her Instagrams, her selfies, her Vogue photoshoots, as well as some suspicious flattery from President Obama. None of those things is useful at this point for keeping staff on board and running a well-maintained Office of the Vice President. Can you imagine these things happening when Mike Pence had that position? We never heard about problems like that with his staff.

Even Joe Biden is able to keep staff, however strange it may seem. As the Times euphemistically concludes:

Unlike President Biden, who has been surrounded by the same top aides for the majority of his political career, Ms. Harris entered the administration with many new employees. Many of those officials came in with an understanding that they would stay only on a short-term basis.

So as Harris plans a slew of travel, seems to her staff like a good time to leave. Heckuvajob, Kammie. It’s almost as if the staff planned their exit this way as if to send Harris a message.

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Biden's Blue City Bailout  Katie Pavlich

Military Generals Aren't Conservatives, They're Socialists  Kurt Schlichter

Hypocritical Race Theory Derek Hunter ++++++++++++++++++++++ ASSESSMENT Simmering Disputes Will Plague U.S.-Turkey Pragmatism Despite a positive first meeting with Biden, potential landmines in remain as Erdogan and his allies move to consolidate power ahead of elections. READ THE ASSESSMENT NOW ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Nobody is Winning here Despite All the Promises Made By Salena Zito VANDERGRIFT, Penn.- All of those strident promises of having their back from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris when the Steelworkers gave them their endorsement have been empty; both Biden and Harris have been here since the strike began never once meeting or talking with the men and women on strike.  It has been 89 days since any one of these striking workers has crossed the painted picket line here or at any of the other nine ATI plants, 89 days since any of them have received a paycheck, 89 days since they felt any certainty about their future — 89 days they will never get back. It has also been 89 days since ATI has been able to run at full steam, as it can when all 1,300 skilled workers are at their jobs, said Bill Richards: “There is no way they can hire people off the streets who have the same skill and training that we do to do the job right.” Nobody is winning here. Click here for the full story. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ And: Good news Israel (edited.) Best regards Michael The Jewish State in its true light.- In the 27th Jun 21 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:   UK National Health Service to trial Israeli cancer treatment test. Israeli grandmother is honored for fostering 217 babies. Israeli anti-malaria system wins top IBM AI prize. Israeli software powers Intel’s 5G microprocessors. Israeli sensors can detect when plants are unhappy. Three more billion-dollar Israeli companies in one week. Israel’s team of 81 Olympic athletes is the largest ever. Honduras is the fourth country to open an embassy in Jerusalem.   If someone wishes to be added to the free email subscription list, they should either click here or send a request (with their name) to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com   ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS   UK trials for Israeli cancer treatment test.  The UK National Health Service (NHS) is to trial the blood test from Israel’s OncoHost (see here previously) that predicts how well cancer patients will respond to immunotherapy treatment. Trials will focus on patients with advanced melanoma or non-small cell lung cancer. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-oncohost-uks-nhs-to-study-cancer-patient-responses-to-immunotherapies/ Israeli vaccinations good till 2022. Israelis can now download new coronavirus vaccination or recovery certificates valid until the end of the year. Despite an uptick in new cases, and a return to wearing masks indoors, the Pfizer vaccine continues to show some 90% protection against even the Delta variant. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-issue-new-proof-of-vaccine-recovery-documents-valid-until-end-of-2021/ Contact-free patient monitoring. Israel’s Clair Labs is developing 24x7 contactless patient monitoring technology. Its biomarker sensors only need partial line of sight to the blood vessels on the patients’ facial skin to measure physiological markers, e.g., heartrate, respiration, airflow, body temperature and oxygen saturation. https://www.timesofisrael.com/clair-labs-raises-9-million-to-monitor-patients-remotely-by-reading-skin/ https://clairlabs.com/ Ariel University dedicates its Medical School. The Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson School of Medicine at Israel’s Ariel University has now been officially dedicated. 40 graduating students received doctoral degrees during the event and President Reuven Rivlin and Dr. Miriam Adelson were awarded honorary doctorates. https://unitedwithisrael.org/miriam-adelson-rivlin-get-honorary-doctorates-at-ariel-university-med-school-opening/  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/308592 ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL   Angel’s family. To mark World Foster Day on May 31, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin honored Angel Alon from Netivot. Besides her eight children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Angel and husband Shlomo cared for 217 babies during 29 years as an emergency foster family for Jerusalem-based Summit Institute. https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-honors-emergency-foster-mom-who-cared-for-217-babies/   Israel’s new female pilots. (TY UWI & JNS) 62 women have graduated from the IAF pilots’ course (4 last week). Most became navigators, helicopter pilots, transport pilots or flight deck operators. Four became combat pilots and now there’s a fifth.  (Graduation video TY Yachad L’ma’an HaChayal English branch 0544 267389) https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/22/new-pilots-course-grad-becomes-5th-woman-to-serve-as-iaf-fighter-pilot/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmBG5YmfLi8 Promoting Kibbutz women leaders. The Israeli Kibbutz Movement has established a training course called “The Academy for future CEOs.” Its goal is to help women reach key positions and influence in the kibbutz movement and kibbutz industries, and to promote their integration into key positions in Israeli society at large. https://www.israel21c.org/giving-women-an-extra-leadership-edge-on-the-kibbutz/ Former Druze MK is US emissary. (TY WIN) Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, formerly the first female Druze MK (member of Israel’s parliament) is the Jewish Agency’s new senior shlicha (Israeli emissary). She will represent Israel in Washington, help train and provide support to Israel advocates on campus, plus much more. https://www.jns.org/former-druze-mk-appointed-emissary-to-washington-north-american-campuses/ Israeli clean energy innovation at the UN. Israel’s Mission to the UN and Israel's Ministry of Energy held a global, virtual event on the subject of Israeli innovation in energy. It took place ahead of September’s UN General Assembly energy summit on clean and achievable energy - the first since 1981. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/308563 Eliminating malaria in Africa. Israel’s ZzappMalaria (see here previously) uses AI to combat malaria. It has won first place and $3 million in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Competition. ZzappMalaria also won the People’s Choice Award as the “Most Inspiring Team.” It is running trials in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. https://nocamels.com/2021/06/israeli-zzapp-malaria-wins-ibm-watson-ai-xprize/ Israel helps Miami. In the wake of the Florida building collapse, Israel has sent a delegation of IDF, trauma experts, Foreign Ministry aid and ZAKA volunteers to assist at the disaster site. The Israeli Consulate in Miami has already provided assistance with clothing, medicine, food, emergency lighting and more. https://unitedwithisrael.org/jewish-community-israeli-consulate-spring-to-action-after-shocking-miami-tragedy/ https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/308766   SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Powering Intel’s 5G chips. Israel’s Cellwize (see here previously) has been chosen by Intel to provide AI-capable software to power its chipsets for 5G networks.  Cellwize is also selling its software to 30 companies including Dell, Verizon, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Israel’s Partner. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-cellwize-to-supply-intel-with-software-that-launches-5g-networks/ Digital transformation conferences. The IDF held its first international digital transformation conference. Over 100 participants from 30 countries learned about the knowledge gained by the Israeli military. Calcalist’s Digital Transformation conference featured Gil Rosen of Israel’s Amdocs who spoke about the 5G revolution. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/idf-holds-first-annual-conference-on-digital-transformation-671087 https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910605,00.html Sniffing out bacteria. Scientists from Israel’s Ben Gurion University have developed technology to analyze bacteria. Carbon nanoparticles detect electrical differences in metabolites emitted by different bacteria. Potential uses include to detect spoiled food, protect hospitals and the environment, and diagnose diseases. https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-scientists-invent-artificial-nose-to-sniff-out-bacteria/   Talking to your plants. Israel’s InnerPlant is a pioneer of living crop sensors. Plants have inherent defense mechanisms that generate signals when thirsty, low in nutrients or attacked by pests or disease. InnerPlant adds a safe protein to the plant so that these signals can be seen visually on smartphones and even by satellites. https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/06/18/shely-aronov-completes-a-5-65-million-pre-seed-round-for-innerplant/  https://innerplant.com/ Resistant crops from Dead Sea soil. (TY INN & I24 News) Israel’s Plantarcbio (see here Nov 2018) is using RNA technology similar to coronavirus vaccines to target the Palm weevil pest. It also uses genes from Dead Sea soil to produce drought-resistant crops. Plantarcbio recently launched on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvzUxDMtd3Q   https://plantarcbio.com/ The answer is not blowing in the wind. Israel’s Edete (see here previously) is expanding its technology that artificially pollinates crops, to include not just insect-pollinated plants but wind-pollinated crops as well. It will focus first on the pollination of pistachios, one of the world’s fastest-growing crops. https://www.timesofisrael.com/agtech-startup-edete-brings-tech-to-wind-pollinated-crops-for-better-yield/ Saving honeybees from extinction. (TY Stuart Pl) Excellent article by newsletter supporter Diana Bletter about the Beehome robotic beehive from Israel’s Beewise. Great final quote from Beewise’s CEO  - “Just think that five Israelis from a small Israeli kibbutz have the chutzpah to change the world”. https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israeli-start-up-beewise-is-saving-honey-bees-from-extinction-671288 Successful tests of anti-drone laser. (TY WIN & UWI) The Israeli Air Force successfully intercepted several UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles) using an airborne high-power laser. The Elbit-developed system has a range of over 1km, at high altitudes regardless of weather conditions and has the capacity to defend vast areas of Israel. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/308469 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESnYtXEndAE Protecting US planes. (TY Nevet) Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is to integrate an anti-jamming system developed by Israel’s Elbit Systems into a fleet of F-15 jets. Elbit's Immune Satellite Navigation System fully protects multiple GPS channels against numerous interfering signals, ensuring uninterrupted operation. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-use-anti-jamming-system-israels-elbit-f-15s-2021-06-20/ Satellite to the moon. Aerospace Engineering students at Israel’s Technion Institute together with the Space Division at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) are to develop and launch a nanosatellite that will enter low-altitude orbit around the moon and collect data. The project will start in October and last several years. https://www.jns.org/technion-israel-aerospace-industries-launch-project-to-develop-nanosatellites/ Human-centered AI. Israeli-founded, US-headquartered Vianai Systems has its R&D center in Israel. Its aim is to help businesses realize the full potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by using it to impact human lives and human society. AI’s success depends on how humans and AI work together. https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/06/17/vianai-systems-raises-140-million-for-ai/  https://www.vian.ai/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWYGOzMX7Vc  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-m-gZpc14w Fiber network rollout imminent. Israel's Bezeq said it is boosting fiber optic network speeds to up to 2.5 gigabit per second (Gbps) from 1 Gbps to win customers. Bezeq competitors Cellcom and Partner have begun their own fiber rollouts to hundreds of thousands of households, and said they plan to offer faster speeds. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-bezeq-fires-up-fibre-optic-speed-after-slow-start-2021-06-22/ Protecting Israel’s water infrastructure. Israel’s IXDen (see here previously) uses ‘behavioral biometrics’ to protect critical infrastructure. Israel’s national water carrier Mekorot has partnered IXDen to guard interconnected water devices against malfunction, whether caused by cyberattack or routine wear and tear. https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/startup-steps-up-to-defend-israels-water-network-against-iranian-cyberattackers/   https://www.ourcrowd.com/companies/ixden Drink in the city atmosphere. Tel Aviv University scientists have proved that water extracted from the air in an urban area of Tel Aviv, using Watergen’s GENius technology, is in compliance with the regulatory standards of the World Health Organization. The results are important for drought areas that cannot desalinate seawater. https://www.ynetnews.com/environment/article/rkKcVSy200  https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/10/2940 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969721030114 Toyota goes tactile. (TY Hazel) Union Motors, Toyota’s official Israeli importer, is installing sensing and data technology from Israel’s Tactile Mobility (see here previously) into hundreds of Toyota vehicles. It will help Israeli road authorities conduct responsive and preventative road maintenance, ultimately ensuring safer roads. https://www.israel21c.org/nationwide-israeli-survey-uses-tactile-data-gathering-to-understand-the-roads/ https://vimeo.com/44416978   ECONOMY & BUSINESS Israeli companies on Wall Street worth $300 billion. There are now 85 Israeli companies traded on the Nasdaq and NY Stock Exchange. Their combined worth is over $300 billion – up 50% since Jan 2021. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910186,00.html A healthy tech ecosystem. Israel has increased its score in StartupBlink’s 2021 Startup Ecosystem Index Report (see 2020 here). It remains at number 3 ahead of Canada and Germany but is close behind the UK in second place. The US is still number one.  The list compares Quality, Quantity and Business Environment. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910412,00.html Israel leads in B2D. The Israeli Business to Developer (B2D) sector is growing as companies develop products that automate and simplify the jobs of highly sought-after hi-tech developers. Examples include Lumigo, Orca Security, OwnBackup, Redis Labs, Snyk and JFrog. (All but Lumigo featured here previously). https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910171,00.html   https://lumigo.io/ A digital Shekel? The Bank of Israel has issued digital currency for a first internal pilot program prior to the possible issue of a digital Shekel. Israel’s Central Bank Deputy Governor Andrew Abir has been tasked with examining the need for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and its implications for the financial sector. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-bank-of-israel-issues-digital-shekel-1001375320 Startup City Galil. Entrepreneur and JVP chairman Erel Margalit has launched Startup City.Galil – a unique studio for startups in the fields of foodtech and agritech in the Galilee. It will provide members with a range of laboratory infrastructure, and dozens of researchers in the fields of environmental food and agriculture. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910180,00.html Helping Israeli startups market to the US. Deloitte Israel and Deloitte US are to mentor a second group of seven Israeli startups that wish to grow their business in the US after the pandemic. The Launchpad program will advise on strategy, relocation, sales infrastructure, and access to top tier venture capital funds in the U.S. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910430,00.html Mnuchin & Friedman to invest in Israeli tech. Former US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman have made plans to set up a Tel Aviv office for their Liberty Strategic fund. The fund expects to receive billions of dollars including from the sovereign wealth funds of Gulf States. https://www.timesofisrael.com/steven-mnuchin-david-friedman-visit-tel-aviv-to-check-out-startups/ https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910579,00.html Clean engines in the UAE. Israel’s Aquarius Engines (see here previously) and UK’s Kampac International (KIP) are forming the Middle East Aquarius Automotive company to produce automotive products based on Aquarius technology in the United Arab Emirates. KIP will invest up to $1.2 billion in the UAE facility. https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-joint-clean-tech-ventures-accelerate-in-uae/ Time off is an asset. Paid Time Off (PTO) is often unusable until an employee terminates their job. Israel’s Sorbet has developed a platform that allows employees to convert unusable PTO into cash. Sorbet buys out PTO and gives employees virtual prepaid cards for travel experiences, flight upgrades, training courses etc. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910853,00.html  https://www.getsorbet.com/ Two new Tel Aviv Hiltons. The Hilton hotel chain is looking forward to the end of the pandemic. It announced plans to build two new hotels on Tel Aviv seafront. In total there will be 577 rooms in the two hotels, which will be housed in one building north of the existing Tel Aviv Hilton. The hotels will open in 2026. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-hilton-to-build-two-new-tel-aviv-hotels-1001375645 JoyTunes - this week’s first Unicorn. Music education startup JoyTunes (see here previously) has just completed a $50 million funding round at a $1 billion valuation, giving it the financial status of a “Unicorn”. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910571,00.html Record investment for new Unicorn. Israel’s Transmit Security (see here previously) leaped in value to become another Israeli startup to gain the status of a “Unicorn”, with the largest Series A investment in the history of cybersecurity. The $543 million of new funds gives Transmit Security a valuation of $2.2 billion. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910675,00.html And Hailo to the 3rd Unicorn of the week. Israeli AI chipmaker Hailo (see here previously) completed a $110 million funding round at a valuation of $1.1 billion, making it the latest Israeli company to join the “Unicorn” list. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3910807,00.html Investment in Israeli startups: Transmit Security raised $543 million; Lendbuzz raised $360 million; Vianai Systems raised $140 million; Firebolt raised $127 million; Hailo raised $110 million; Unit raised $51 million; JoyTunes raised $50 million; Tonkean raised $50 million; KAHR Medical raised $46.5 million; DataRails raised $25 million; Mitiga raised $25 million; Sorbet raised $21 million; Equinom raised $20 million; env0 raised $17 million; Lightspin raised $16 million; Clair Labs raised $9 million; Better Juice raised $8 million; InnerPlant raised $5.65 million;   CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`   Summer on the Streets of Jerusalem. (TY Sharon) Jerusalem’s summer festivals are returning. They include the Israel Festival (21 -25 Jun), Mekudeshet Festival in Abu Tor (Weds until 7 July) and Runaway Circus (1 – 8 July). The Jazz festival and the Wine & Beer festival will also be coming back soon. http://rjstreets.com/2021/06/20/jerusalem-time-and-travel/ New pre-historic humanoid discovered. Israeli archaeologists have discovered fossils of an ancient humanoid previously unknown to science. The Nesher Ramla site dates to about 120,000-140,000 years ago and indicates that the land that is now Israel has always been an area of major significance. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-nesher-ramla-homo-fossil-discovery.html Israel’s Olympic athletes are right on target. (TY Sharon) President Reuben Rivlin met the 81 Israeli athletes from 17 different sports that have qualified to compete in the Tokyo Olympics - the largest Olympic team Israel has ever fielded. It includes Itay Shanny, the first Israeli archer to qualify for the Olympic games. https://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=37&ARTICLE_ID=145363 https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1624458550-president-rivlin-meets-with-israeli-olympic-team-ahead-of-games   https://unitedwithisrael.org/bullseye-for-israel-with-first-archer-to-compete-in-olympics/ The first Maccabiah competitor from the Gulf. Dubai-based athlete Yves Friedman has made history by becoming the first athlete from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to qualify for the Maccabiah games. Yves is a Belgian citizen who has been living in Dubai since he was a young child. https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/06/17/jewish-athlete-from-uae-becomes-first-gulf-athlete-chosen-to-compete-in-maccabiah-games/     THE JEWISH STATE   96-years young. Mazel tov to Tammy Goldenhirsch, who made aliyah from St. Louis at the age of 96, proving that it is never too late to make one's dream of moving to Israel a reality. Tammy was greeted at Ben-Gurion International Airport by three generations of family. https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/18/mazal-tov-96-year-old-american-woman-makes-aliyah/ Gilad Shalit gets married. Gilad Shalit, who was held in captivity by Hamas in Gaza for five years, has married his long-time girlfriend Nitzan Shabat. One of the wedding guests was Gilad’s friend Shai Gross, who was rescued by Israeli commandos during Operation Entebbe in Uganda in 1976. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/308622 https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/HycMK11bn  Honduras opens its embassy in Jerusalem. (TY UWI) Honduras has relocated its embassy to Jerusalem, joining the US, Guatemala and Kosovo.  Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said, “I am here today with our delegation to inaugurate the Embassy of Honduras in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel.” https://www.jns.org/honduran-president-visits-israel-to-celebrate-embassy-opening-in-jerusalem/ https://worldisraelnews.com/honduras-relocates-embassy-to-jerusalem/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++