From Ynet News
US Jewish LGBT leadership in historic Israel visit
Over 100 leaders of the US LGBT community came on an unprecedented trip to Israel to express solidarity with Israeli LGBT community More than 100 leaders from the US LGBT Jewish community came to Israel in a first of its kind trip called “Visiting Israel with Pride.”
The delegation was jointly organized through the US Jewish Federation and Israeli and groups. One of the goals of the trip was to help improve the dialogue between the US and Israel – primarily amongst liberal groups, which have a tendency to be more critical of Israel.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish congressional candidate, 25, targeted with anti-Semitic abuse
Erin Schrode in a Facebook post went public with the anti-Semitic harassment she has received in the days leading up to the California Democratic primary. (Josh LaCunha)
(JTA) — A young Jewish candidate for Congress in California has been targeted with anti-Semitic abuse in the days before the state’s primary election.
Erin Schrode, 25, who has been featured recently by several news outlets, including JTA, for her underdog candidacy against incumbent Jared Huffman, has been hit with the abuse on social media and cellphone messages, she revealed in a Facebook post late Saturday night.
Personal information such as her phone number and email also were posted online.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs executive order against BDS
The United Nations hosted an anti-BDS summit at its New York City headquarters, May 31, 2016. (Shahar Azran)
(JTA) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.
The order signed Sunday, hours before the start of New York’s annual Celebrate Israel Parade, will require state agencies to divest themselves of companies and organizations aligned with the BDS movement.
Cuomo said at the signing at the Harvard Club in Manhattan that New York is Israel’s “true friend.”
From Russia Today
Drunk-driving US sailor injures 2 in Okinawa car crash amid killings scandal
Published time: 5 Jun, 2016 07:48
© Reuters
Following two scandals involving the US military stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa, a US Navy sailor was caught in a drunk-driving head-on collision with two other cars. The crash occurred off-base, despite tough new rules for personnel.
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From PressTV
Turkish troops, militants mass in Aleppo: Russian monitor
A Russian ceasefire monitoring center in Syria says more than 2,000 militants have gathered in a northern neighborhood of the embattled city of Aleppo for an offensive.
In a statement, the center said Saturday that “militants from different terrorist organizations and groups of the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ are concentrated in the region of Sheikh Maqsood.”
Quoting civilians in Aleppo, the center said armed groups, partly made up of Turkish soldiers, had appeared north of the city and begun an offensive against positions held by Syrian troops southwest of Aleppo.
An official with the monitoring base said more than 40 people were killed and about a hundred injured in a shelling by the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front terrorist group on Saturday.
“There was continuous bombardment by rocket launchers, canon artillery, mortars and anti-aircraft installations. The terrorists shelled several areas of the city inhabited not only by government forces and Kurdish troops but also civilians,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted the official as saying.
A nation-wide cessation of hostilities, brokered by Moscow and Washington, was introduced in February in a bid to facilitate dialogue between Syria’s rival parties. Daesh and al-Nusra Front terrorist groups were excluded from the truce.
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From The Independent
Susan Sarandon: Hillary Clinton is ‘more dangerous’ than Donald Trump
The actor is campaigning on behalf Bernie Sanders ahead of the 7 June primary
Academy Award-winning actor and ardent Bernie Sanders campaigner Susan Sarandon, spoke out against Hillary Clinton, saying that her presidency could prove “more dangerous” than Donald Trump’s.
In an appearance on The Young Turks, Sarandon criticised Ms Clinton on her foreign policy positions. She also conveyed that she does not take seriously Mr Trump’s sensational promises to build a wall along the southern border and bar Muslim immigration into the US.
“I believe in a way she is more dangerous,” Sarandon suggested, responding to questions about the Clinton campaign calling her Republican rival “dangerous”.
From Ynet News
Google removes Chrome add-on that detects Jewish names
After the publication of a report on Mic.com, a Google spokesperson says that ‘Coincidence Detector’ add-on violates company policy regarding incitement; a subsequent protest broke out on Twitter. Google removed an add-on called “Coincidence Detector” from its Chrome browser, which identifies Jews’ names and places parentheses around them. For example, when the individuals who downloaded the add-on searched for the name Levy, they received the following result, (((Levy))).
Cooper Fleishman, who first exposed the “Coincidence Detector”, wrote that his last name appears as (((Fleishman))), when using the add-on. According to an investigation, it is possible that the tool is connected to a right-wing extremist group in the United States.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Austrian Jewish leaders mull lifting ban of far-right party
Norbert Hofer, right, Alexander Van der Bellen appearing for a TV program in Vienna, Austria, May 22, 2016. (Jan Hetfleisch/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Leaders of Austria’s Jewish community said they are willing to normalize ties with the far-right- Freedom Party, which they have previously shunned because of some party members’ Nazi sympathies.
Oscar Deutsch, the president of the Jewish Community in Vienna, and his predecessor, Ariel Muzicant, told the nrg news site they have put together a plan of action for the Freedom Party to implement if it seeks to establish formal contact with the community, the news site reported Friday.
Last month, Freedom Party’s presidential candidate lost the election’s second and final round by less than a percent of the vote. In its journey from a fringe movement 15 years ago to a mainstream party, the Freedom Party, which opposes immigration from Muslim countries, has sought to downplay its racist and anti-Semitic reputation.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Man’s alleged rape of relatives’ daughters seen denting insularity of Jerusalem’s haredim
(JTA) — A court in Jerusalem extended the remand of a haredi Orthodox school supervisor from Jerusalem whose indictment for the alleged rape of two girls from his own family is reportedly eroding taboos on reporting sex crimes within his community.
The Jerusalem District Court’s decision Thursday on Naftali Maklev, 50, came two weeks after his May 18 indictment, the news site Kikar HaShabbat reported. According to Haaretz, the affair is leading to unusual developments within highly insular haredi Orthodox communities, including increased reporting of molestation and warnings to haredi schoolchildren to be wary even of adults known to them.
Maklev’s lawyer, Yehuda Fried, told Kikar his client was innocent and that a “detailed examination of the evidence will show the accusations and alleged evidence are made up.” Maklev is not accused of molesting pupils at the Jerusalem religious school for boys where he worked.
The 17-page indictment, obtained by JTA, accuses Maklev of raping his alleged victims — sisters now aged 23 and 27 — hundreds of times since they were 6 and 7, sodomizing them, performing obscene acts on them and assaulting them while telling them that the sexual contact was required by religious law, or halacha. He also is charged with attempting to perform and performing an indecent act under deceitful pretenses on a third sister, now 29, when she was 19.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade draws 200,000 revelers
Some 200,000 people participating in the annual Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv, June 3, 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
(JTA) — Approximately 200,000 people, including many tourists, gathered in central Tel Aviv for the city’s 23rd gay pride event.
The event, whose theme this year is women in the gay, lesbian and transgender community, kicked off Friday morning at Gan Meir, a park that houses the Tel Aviv Municipal LGBT Center. A representative of the center presented an award to journalist Ilana Dayan and to Ilana Shirazi, an organizer of lesbian marriage ceremonies.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai then gave the signal for the start of the Gay Pride Parade, which features a procession with floats and music terminating at a beach party in south Tel Aviv.
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From Russia Today
‘Screw for Denmark’ sex campaigns produce baby boom in months
Published time: 5 Jun, 2016 18:37
© Spies Rejser / YouTube
A racy ad campaign, started only nine months ago, has really hit the spot for Denmark’s campaign for more baby-making. The country now expects booming birth rates this summer.
According to research by Denmark’s Politiken newspaper, the summer months of June-August this year will produce 1,200 more Danes than last summer. In total, some 16,200 babies are due to be born.
“I’ve never experienced a boom like this in my time as a midwife,” said Ann Fogsgaard, who’s been on the job 33 years.
“Normally, there are more births during the summer compared to the winter, but an increase like this is crazy.”
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From Russia Today
German govt unsure about visa-free regime for Georgia & Ukraine, fearing spike in crime rate
Published time: 5 Jun, 2016 16:53
© Reuters
Top figures in the German government are voicing concerns over the introduction of visa-free regime for Georgia, Ukraine and Kosovo, fearing higher crime rate and citing the rising number of burglaries.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was summoned to the parliament last week to provide explanation why the number of burglaries climbed over the past months, Die Welt newspaper reported on Sunday.
Speaking to MPs behind closed doors, the minister said that those burglaries are mostly committed by “international traveling gangs,” taking special note on those coming from Georgia having “evident problems with organized crime.”
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From Russia Today
ISIS publicly burns alive 19 Kurdish women for rejecting sex slavery – report
Published time: 5 Jun, 2016 11:24
© AFP
Fighters of the terrorist group Islamic State have publicly executed 19 Kurdish women, local activists in Mosul reported. They were burned alive in iron cages in one of the city squares, sources told Kurdish ARA News agency.
The women, who belonged to the Kurdish Yezidi minority, were executed on Thursday, according to witnesses in Mosul, the Iraqi stronghold of IS (formerly known as ISIS).
“They were punished for refusing to have sex with IS militants,” local media activist Abdullah al-Malla told ARA News.
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From Russia Today
From partner to rival: Germany to designate Russia ‘a security challenge’ – report
Published time: 5 Jun, 2016 11:09
© Michaela Rehle / Reuters
In the upcoming government security policy guidebook currently being prepared by the German Defense Ministry, Russia will be designated one of 10 major challenges on par with terrorists, migrants and global climate change, reported Die Welt.
The so-called White Paper is to be released sometime after the British referendum on EU membership, an event that that Berlin does not want to affect by releasing the 80-page document. The previous security policy overview was published in Germany in 2006 and the previous version came in 1994.
The new document is expected to downgrade Germany’s attitude toward Russia from calling it a partner, as was the case a decade ago. According to Die Welt, the move may be quite dramatic. White Paper 2016 will label Russia one of 10 global threats on par with international terrorism, migrant crises, right-wing extremism, cyberattacks and global climate change, government sources told the newspaper.
Moscow is now Germany’s rival, which uses “hybrid instruments to blur the boundaries between war and peace” and “undermine other states,” authors of the document reportedly said. Russia’s influence on global public opinion through traditional outlets and social media are of particular concern for the German military, according to the report.
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From The Times of Israel
Netanyahu: We want peace, but won’t divide Jerusalem
Taking aim at Paris confab, PM says progress won’t be made through international diktats, claims road to peace still long with Abbas at helm
June 5, 2016, 10:02 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that the Israeli capital of Jerusalem will never again be divided, while also reiterating his commitment to restarting peace talks with the Palestinians who, in any peace agreement, would want to see East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Speaking at an annual Jerusalem Day ceremony, marking 49 years since the capture of the city’s eastern part including the Old City in the Six Day War and its reunification, Netanyahu said that Jerusalem “has its problems but that we would never go back to a reality of a divided, wounded city.
“We are in Jerusalem by right and not by charity, and we will continue to develop the city for all its residents,” he said at the ceremony on Ammunition Hill.
The Six Day War in 1967 was a “rescue operation to remove an existential threat,” said Netanyahu, adding that “time and again it’s been proven that the best guarantee for our [continued] existence is our presence [here] and our ability to defend ourselves and ensure Israel’s security.”
Taking a jab at the recent peace conference in Paris on Friday aimed at setting the conditions for relaunching talks, Netanyahu said that peace was achievable through direct negotiations between the two sides “and not through international diktats.”
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From PressTV
Saudi cabinet reshuffle evidence to chaos in monarchy: Poll
A recent set of changes made by King Salman in the structure of the Saudi government highlights chaos within the ruling royal family, a Press TV poll finds.
In an online survey carried out by Press TV on May 8 – June 5, some 76 percent of respondents said that King Salman’s replacement of a number of cabinet ministers in the major reshuffle on May 7 was the result of a chaos in the monarchy.
Some 16 percent of interviewees said the decision to change the government’s structure was only a show of power by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
This as only eight percent said the reshuffle was aimed at modernizing the autocratic kingdom.
More than 4,570 people took part in the poll.
From PressTV
Turkish air raids, army operations kill 27 separatist militants: Military
The Turkish military says it has killed 27 members of a separatist Kurdish group during a series of air and ground operations in the country’s mainly-Kurdish southeast.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Turkish army said airstrikes in the Semdinli district of Turkey’s Hakkari Province left 20 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) dead on Friday.
The military said it also killed at least seven PKK militants in a series of fierce clashes across the same troubled area on Saturday.
The statement added that Turkish warplanes also pounded PKK positions in Turkey’s Dyarbakir Province as well as in the Gara area of northern Iraq on Saturday. There was no word on the death toll from those airstrikes.
However, the state-run Anadolu Agency cited security sources as saying that a small number of PKK militants were killed in those strikes.
Meanwhile, local authorities said that two Turkish troopers were wounded when their military vehicle came under gunfire in northeast Turkey’s Gumushane Province. Media reports indicated that one of the soldiers subsequently died of his injuries.
The Turkish military has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. Ankara has been conducting offensives against the positions of the militant group in northern Iraq as well.
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From PressTV
Video show Israeli troops questioning underage Palestinians
A leading Israeli rights group has denounced the Israeli military for illegally questioning a group of underage Palestinians, calling it a “blatant disregard” for the rights of minors.
A video provided by B’Tselem shows several dozen Israeli forces randomly gathering around 20 Palestinian children and teens from the streets and questioning them.
The Palestinians are forced to stand against a wall and answer questions about a stone-throwing incident, which had allegedly occurred last week.
The soldiers then take photo of every child and teen, using a cell phone, after making them sit in front of the wall before releasing them.
In a statement, B’Tselem said the scope of the latest incident and the fact that every minor was photographed was unusual.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Watch
In remote Madagascar, a new community chooses to be Jewish
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (JTA) — A nascent Jewish community was officially born in Madagascar last month when 121 men, women and children underwent Orthodox conversions on the remote Indian Ocean island nation better known for lemurs, chameleons, dense rain forests and vanilla.
The conversions, which took place over a 10-day period, were the climax of a process that arose organically five to six years ago when followers of various messianic Christian sects became disillusioned with their churches and began to study Torah.
Through self-study and with guidance from Jewish internet sources and correspondence with rabbis in Israel, they now pray in Sephardic-accented Hebrew and strictly observe the Sabbath and holidays.
The conversions were facilitated by Kulanu, a New York-based nonprofit that specializes in supporting isolated and emerging Jewish communities, but were initiated by the residents.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
This Israeli startup will match your breasts with the perfect bra
Brayola is a social network for lingerie shopping. Note: Author not pictured. (Courtesy of Brayola)
(JTA) — They say the best stories happen when a writer gets pushed out of his or her comfort zone.
Since the “they” in this case was my editor, this is how I found myself readying to post a topless photo of myself online — all in the name of good journalism.
But this isn’t a story about — well, whatever you’re thinking it’s probably about. Rather, this was an investigation into a legit Israeli startup, Brayola, a social network for lingerie shopping. The site, which also sells and ships bras, just received $2.5 million in Series A funding from HDS Capital and FirstTime Capital.
Still, when I told colleagues that I was working on a story about a website that involves uploading bra selfies and crowdsourcing underwear advice, I was met with concern.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Father gets 2 life sentences in murder of his American-Israeli children
(JTA) — An Israeli man convicted of murdering his two American-Israeli children in 2014 was sentenced to back-to-back life sentences.
The sentence against Avi Levy was announced Sunday in Lod District Court. He was convicted last month despite his plea of temporary insanity, the Times of Israel reported. Levy refused to testify during his trial in the killings of Yishai, 12, and Naomi, 10.
The children lived in Columbus, Ohio, moving there with their mother, Karen, after their parents divorced and Karen was granted custody.
On July 11, 2014, the children came to Israel to visit Levy for the summer. That evening, Levy slashed their throats in his home on a moshav in central Israel in what apparently was intended as an act of revenge directed at their mother.
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From Russia Today
Ice free Arctic could occur this year, warns expert
Published time: 5 Jun, 2016 13:43
The last time the Arctic was ice-free was 100,000 years ago. © Svebor Kranjc / Reuters
Sea ice in the Arctic could be a thing of the past, a leading scientist has warned. For the first time in 100,000 years the chilling landscape known for its snow-capped mountains and polar bears may be without its sea ice either this year or the next.
Ocean Physics Professor Peter Wadhams from Cambridge University based his prediction on projected data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center showing that on 1 June this year there were estimated to be 11.1 million square kilometers of sea ice. This is below the average from the past 30 years of 12.7 million square kilometers, a difference of an area roughly the same size as the UK.
The last mid-September reading in 2012 measured 3.4 million square kilometers.
“My prediction remains that the Arctic ice may well disappear, that is, have an area of less than one million square kilometers for September of this year” the professor told the Independent.
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From Russia Today
Scientists eye creating synthetic human genomes in lab
Published time: 4 Jun, 2016 09:14
© National Human Genome Research Institute / Reuters
Mapping the genetic code was only complete 13 years ago, but researchers are already setting their sights on another lofty goal – creating a synthetic human genome in a laboratory to better understand how DNA works.
The proposal, published in the journal Science on Thursday, outlines ways to build a synthetic human genome in a laboratory by using chemicals to create the DNA present in human chromosomes.
“We just had a revolution in our ability to read genomes,” said George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University who is part of the group behind the plan, as quoted by NPR. “The same thing is happening now with writing genomes.”
Church and his colleagues believe the plan is a logical step after the Human Genome Project, which mapped DNA for the first time in 2003 (while the project was officially launched in 1990). For that reason, the new project has been dubbed Human Genome Project-Write.
The plan, which aims to build a synthetic genome and test it in laboratory cells within 10 years, would be administered by the non-profit organization Center of Excellence for Engineering Biology, according to a draft of a news release obtained by The Washington Post.
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From The Times of Israel
Ruth Bader Ginsburg the namesake for new species of insect
Researchers say they named the Madagascar native for the Supreme Court Justice to honor her ‘relentless fight for gender equality’
June 4, 2016, 2:27 am
Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, may have a university named for him.
But Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first female Jewish Supreme Court justice now has an entire species named for her, even if it is a rather small one: the leaf-dwelling Ilomantis ginsburgae, a newly identified type of praying mantis.
Ginsburg’s new namesake was discovered at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the museum announced in a news release Wednesday.
The new species is green, with a flattened body, conical eyes and broad wings with “venation that resembles the vein patterns on leaves,” according to the release.
Researchers said they named the Madagascar native for the 83-year-old Brooklyn native, known by some fans as the Notorious RBG, to honor the esteemed judge’s “relentless fight for gender equality.”
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From The Times of Israel
For LGBTQ Jewish mission to Israel, right to marry trumps Right of Return
In Tel Aviv for Pride Week, JFNA delegation impressed by social progress. And while happy to visit, delegates say they’re glad to go home to the land of the free
June 3, 2016, 7:39 pm
TEL AVIV — On May 31, 2016, Amichai Lau-Lavie posed for a photo at the Israeli President’s official residence in Jerusalem. Some 26 years earlier he had stood in the exact same spot, as a 21-year-old IDF paratrooper in an honor guard for Israel’s 42nd Independence Day.
For Lau-Lavie, the photo was highly symbolic. It signified the journey he has been on since 1990. Back then he was a closeted homosexual Orthodox Israeli Jew. Today he returned to the President’s Residence Tuesday an openly gay, newly-ordained Conservative rabbi and admired spiritual leader in the American Jewish community.
Lau-Lavie was joined at the President’s Residence by 104 fellow delegates to an LGBTQ mission organized by the Jewish Federations of North America. They were there to meet with President Reuven Rivlin, who gave them a warm welcome.
The intention of the week-long, densely-scheduled Israel trip was to build a bridge between American LGBTQ Jews and their counterparts in Israel — the kind of bridge that Lau-Lavie had already personally built and crossed by virtue of his particular life story.
The idea was for the mission’s participants — men and women of all ages from all over the United States — to see the country specifically through an LGBTQ lens during Tel Aviv’s Pride Week.
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From The Times of Israel
Swedish nurse who saved Jews gets sainthood
Pope canonizes Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad, who hid 60 Jewish people for half a year in a convent in Rome during the Holocaust
June 5, 2016, 5:02 pm
VATICAN CITY — A Swedish nurse who converted to Catholicism and helped dozens of Jews during the Holocaust was made a saint on Sunday, Sweden’s first in six centuries.
Pope Francis canonized Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad at a ceremony in Saint Peter’s Square that took place just a few months before he is due to visit Sweden, a largely secular country.
She had been beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000 after a 30-year campaign.
Hesselblad is only the second Swede to receive sainthood, following Saint Bridget 625 years ago.
She reportedly saved more than 60 Jews during World War II, hiding families inside her convent in Rome for about six months before the war ended.
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