International

Biden orders airstrikes in Iraq-Syria against Iran-backed militia groups

Published by New York Daily News President Biden on Sunday ordered precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement. The targets were facilities that Iran-backed militias were using to engage in drone attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, […]

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Middle East, USA

Cracks in Israel’s Government Coalition, Opposition

Some instances from the beginning of Israel’s new government: Likud has picked on a law of family reunification in order to embarrass, and perhaps defeat the Bennett-Lapid government. It’s a law that prevents Palestinians, who marry Israeli Arabs, to acquire citizenship in Israel. It’s been on the books since 2003, but has effect only for a year. Thus, it has to be renewed annually. It is something widely supported by predominantly Jewish political parties. But its current renewal has been opposed by Likud. [Ira Sharkansky, PhD]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Israel summons Polish envoy over Holocaust property bill

Published by Reuters By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel summoned Poland’s ambassador on Sunday to express its “deep disappointment” over a Polish bill that critics say will make it harder for Jews to recover property seized by the country’s Nazi occupiers during World War Two and then kept by post-war communist rulers, the foreign

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International, Middle East

Israel’s new FM tells US of Iran concerns but promises to work together

Published by AFP Rome (AFP) – Israel’s foreign minister on Sunday voiced concern over US diplomacy with Iran but promised a less confrontational approach, in the new government’s first high-level talks with the Jewish state’s closest ally. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, a centrist who masterminded a coalition that this month unseated veteran right-wing leader Benjamin

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Middle East, USA

Good News from Israel (June 27, 2021)

In the June 27, 2021 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. [Michael Ordman]

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Business & Finance, International, Lifestyles, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA

Short Story: Fishbein, the Piano Tuner

Everyone in our family called the tuner of my daughter’s piano, “the piano tuner,” though his name was Fishbein. He was a brusque man, even for a fellow Viennese, stooped, often wore a checkered jacket which contrasted ridiculously with his formal striped pants, as if he had been a jazz saxophonist at one stage of his life and a concert pianist in another; his polka dotted, cabaret comedian’s tie completed the total mismatch. He arrived, tuned the piano, refused tea and cake (not very Viennese), pleaded that he was late for another piano, grabbed his tuning case and hurried away. Always the same ritual. His statement about being late for another piano caused us to chuckle (after he left) because he spoke of the piano that awaited him like it was a person. [Larry Lefkowitz]

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International, Jewish Fiction, Middle East

Engineer had warned of structural damage before Florida building collapse -NYT

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – A consultant had warned three years before the deadly collapse of a South Florida condominium building that there was evidence of “major structural damage” to the concrete slab below the pool deck and abundant cracking and crumbling in the underground parking garage, the New York Times reported early on Saturday.

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USA

Justice Department sues Georgia over new voting law

Published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ATLANTA — The U.S. Justice Department sued Georgia on Friday over a new election law that includes restrictions on voting, setting up a legal showdown over Republican-led changes that President Joe Biden and other Democrats cast as disproportionately harmful to Black voters. The challenge seeks to overturn portions of Senate

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USA

Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22-1/2 years for George Floyd murder

Published by Reuters By Nicholas Pfosi and Jonathan Allen MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) -A Minnesota judge sentenced former police officer Derek Chauvin to 22-1/2 years in prison on Friday for the murder of George Floyd during an arrest in May 2020 on a Minneapolis sidewalk, video of which sparked global protests. A jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty

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USA

US, France warn Iran that time running out to revive deal

Published by AFP Paris (AFP) – The United States and France on Friday warned Iran that time was running out to return to a nuclear deal, voicing fear that Tehran’s sensitive atomic activities could advance if talks drag on. On the first high-level visit to Paris by President Joe Biden’s administration, Secretary of State Antony

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International, Middle East, USA

Families pray for ‘miracle’ with 159 missing in Florida condo collapse

Published by Reuters By Francisco Alvarado SURFSIDE, Fla. (Reuters) -Rescue workers scouring the debris of a collapsed condo building in a Miami suburb said they heard sounds in the rubble overnight, as officials on Friday raised the number of people unaccounted for to 159 and the confirmed death toll to four. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine

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USA