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New Vaccine Centers Open in Queens & Bklyn; NYers Scramble to Get Appt

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Gov Cuomo at the new Medgar Evans vaccine site (NY.GOV)

Edited By: TJV News

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced additional efforts to expand access to community-based vaccination sites at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and York College in Queens being established through a partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

As part of this effort, the MTA launched a pilot program to enhance bus service in Brooklyn and Queens to connect New Yorkers in these boroughs to the two vaccination sites. The state will also partner with faith leaders in Brooklyn and Queens to launch a vaccination drive aimed at encouraging more members of the leaders’ communities to sign up for vaccination appointments at these sites using phone banking. These new initiatives are part of New York State’s ongoing efforts to fight vaccine hesitancy and bring the vaccine to communities underserved by traditional health care institutions.

The community-based vaccination sites located in Brooklyn and Queens will began vaccinations on Wednesday, February 24th and will operate between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day with the capacity to administer 3,000 doses at each site every day. Eligible New Yorkers can currently schedule appointments for the Brooklyn and Queens sites by utilizing New York’s ‘Am I Eligible’ website or by calling the state’s COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline at 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4829).

Appointments can also be made by visiting the sites beginning on Wednesday February 24th . For the first week of scheduling, appointments at these two sites are initially reserved specifically for New Yorkers currently eligible for vaccination living in areas with low vaccination rates in counties and boroughs. After one week, appointments at each site will then be made available to all eligible residents of the site’s host borough.

“The vaccine is the weapon that will win the war, and we are working with our federal partners to make sure hard-hit communities have access to these life-saving shots,” Governor Cuomo said in a press release. “I encourage all eligible New Yorkers from these communities to schedule an appointment and get vaccinated.”

The new inoculation spots — open by appointment to eligible New Yorkers with nearby zip codes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — are part of a federal program aimed at helping hard-hit and hard-to-reach communities on a larger scale.

Bklyn Born Woody Allen Blasts HBO’s ‘Allen v. Farrow’ – Claims “Hatchet Job”

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Woody Allen blasted the new documentary series on HBO entitled “Allen v. Farrow”, calling it a “hatchet job” that was “riddled with falsehoods.” Photo Credit: AP

By: James Pikus

On Sunday, Woody Allen blasted the new documentary series on HBO entitled “Allen v. Farrow”, calling it a “hatchet job” that was “riddled with falsehoods.” The series, which has aired one of four episodes, condemns the Oscar-winner in allegations from Mia Farrow’s daughter, Dylan, that he sexually assaulted her in the family attic in 1992, at the age of seven. Allen had then been Mia’s partner and they had all lived together during Dylan’s youth.

Allen, the 85-year-old Academy Award-winning director, and his current wife accused filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick of having “no interest in the truth” and of “collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers.”

In a statement to the Hollywood reported, Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, said that the decades-old accusations are “categorically false”. “Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place,” the couple’s statement said.

In the docuseries, Dylan, now 35, speaks of the alleged abuse, and shares what is said to be a never-before-released home video taken by Mia, in which 7-year-old Dylan tells her mother that Allen touched her in the attic at the family’s Connecticut farmhouse. “I felt trapped. He was saying things like, ‘We’re gonna’ go to Paris together. You’re gonna’ be in all my movies,’ Then he sexually assaulted me. And I remember just focusing on my brother’s train set. And then… he just stopped. He was done. And we just went downstairs,” Dylan says in the docuseries.

Allen and his wife said in their statement that the HBO series is one sided, and that they were only approached by the documentarians two months ago “and given only a matter of days ‘to respond.’” The couple says, “Of course, they declined to do so”.

The couple accused HBO of possibly being biased, due to its business relationship with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow, who is Allen’s estranged son and son of Mia Farrow. Ronan has had a multi-film production deal with HBO since 2018. “It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO – which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow,” said the statement from Allen and his wife. “While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts.”

Trump Org May Struggle to Fill Tiffany Vacancy in Weak Market

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As reported by Crain’s NY, Trump’s building at 6 E. 57th St. will be losing retail tenant Tiffany & Co, which occupied space there while undergoing renovations at its nearby flagship boutique. Photo Credit: visit5thavenue.com

By Serach Nissim

Midtown Manhattan continues to struggle with vacant retail space due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Trump Organization has not been immune to the decline in luxury shoppers, and empty storefronts. The company’s trophy building near Fifth Avenue will also face the challenges of needing to fill gaps in retail space.

As reported by Crain’s NY, Trump’s building at 6 E. 57th St. will be losing retail tenant Tiffany & Co, which occupied space there while undergoing renovations at its nearby flagship boutique. The Jewelry chain hopes to move back to its own store, with renovations complete, by mid-2022. The companies holding the lease at the Trump building, Wharton Properties and SL Green Realty, will not extend it when it expires in the beginning of 2022.

That would leave the Trump Organization with 74,000-square-feet of unleased space, a big gap to fill. The space was formerly known as NikeTown, named after the previous tenant. Filling the five stories of space, will likely be a challenge, especially since the pandemic ravaged demand for retail space. With tourists nonexistent and shoppers still wary of going out and about, Manhattan store vacancies have been soaring, with even well-known icons breaking their leases to vacate long-time storefronts.

While there is still time before Tiffany & Co leaves the Trump building, the overall market does not seem rosy for landlords, even after the pandemic subsides. Furthermore, the Trump brand will have its own unique impediments, as the former President of the U.S. Donald Trump, has lost a good deal of popularity, particularly in New York City, which may leave potential tenants unwilling to be associated with the Trump name. “Leasing any retail or office space at this point in New York is difficult,” said Ruth Colp-Haber, president of a brokerage named Wharton Property Advisors, but not connected with the lease holder which bears a similar name. The 57th Street building is “a Triple-A location. The building itself, the spaces are really nice, it’s a lot of glass and steel. It’s extremely nice spaces. But for some users there’s definitely a stigma,” she said.

Mr. Trump won only 12 percent of the Manhattan vote in 2020. The City of NY has said it is canceling management contracts with the Trump Organization, because of the Capital riot, which Trump was accused of inciting. As per Crain’s, some Trump-branded properties have already stripped themselves of his name or are considering doing so.

Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of the organization, declined to comment, as did spokespeople for Wharton Properties and SL Green.

Progressive PAC Looks to Sway NYC Elections Even Further Left

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Last Friday marked the launch of another political money machine known as super PACS (Political Action Committees) as they race to back their respective candidates this election season.

By: Ariama C. Long

Last Friday marked the launch of another political money machine known as super PACS (Political Action Committees) as they race to back their respective candidates this election season.

The point of a PAC is to pool additional campaign contributions for a chosen candidate. PACS can give contributions directly to campaigns and act as independent expenditures, which aren’t allowed to coordinate with a candidate or campaign about money, said a Campaign Finance Board (CFB) spokesperson.

Our City is an independent and progressive super PAC dedicated to “candidates who champion the policy outcomes demanded by grassroots movement groups across four key issue areas: public safety, housing, education, and recovery.” Their goal is to raise $3 to 5 million dollars for various boroughwide and citywide elections.

“Elections should be about the challenges that we as working-class people are facing — not the agendas of private corporations who currently flood money into political campaigns in order to take the reins of our democracy and turn a profit,” said Senator Jabari Brisport (D-Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park) in support of the PAC as a fellow progressive.

Brisport, like many others running for office this and last year, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The DSA is seen as fairly new and exceptionally progressive in Brooklyn, though legs of the organization itself do originally extend back to the 1960s and 70s civil rights and socialism movements.

The organization has also previously taken stands highly critical of Israel, considering the Orthodox Jewish community is a sizable minority in the city, and endorsed the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement.

“We count a wide range of movement groups as allies, of which DSA is absolutely one,” said Our City Director Gabe Tobias when asked by KCP.

Tobias did not confirm nor deny any stances on the DSA or the BDS when asked by KCP.

“On top of a devastating pandemic, New Yorkers are suffering from a feudal housing system, deeply segregated schools, and a failed, racist criminal justice system. A true recovery demands leaders with the courage, clarity, and competence to deliver transformational change,” said Tobias.

Tobias is co-founder of Movement School and a former senior adviser to Justice Democrats, the group that helped U.S Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) get elected to Congress in 2018, reported The New York Times. Tobias also contributed to former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

The project is supported by a coalition of other progressive organizers, like Director of Strategy & Partnerships at Working Families Party Nelini Stamp. “After all the pain of this past year, we’re done with lip service, half measures, and ego politics. It’s time for our city to deliver the future that activists and organizers have spent decades fighting for,” said Stamp.

(Kings County Politics)

Read more at: www.kingscountypolitics.com

LaGuardia Marriott Hotel Sold for $104M

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The Marriot Hotel in LaGuardia Airport in NYC was sold for $104 million to a private-equity firm from California. Photo Credit: Booking.com

By Hadassa Kalatizadeh

The Marriot Hotel in LaGuardia Airport in NYC was sold for $104 million to a private-equity firm from California.

As reported by Crain’s NY, the new owner, ASAP Holdings, had purchased the hotel about a month ago, but had refused to specify the purchase price, saying only that it fell in the range of $100 million to $200 million. On Friday, published property records revealed that the firm paid $86.5 for the hotel at 102-05 Ditmars Blvd, and another $17 million for an adjacent vacant lot. The hotel boasts over 13,000 square feet of space, including 19 adaptable event spaces. “This transaction represents the largest per-room trade in a NYC submarket in the past 12 months,” said K.C. Patel, Executive Vice President of JLL, which helped broker the sale.

The seller was Rubicon Holdings, a firm which focuses on reviving underperforming hotels. Rubicon had paid an estimated $33.7 million for the property in 2017, as per property records. In 2018, Rubicon also spent roughly $30 million to renovate the hotel. Representatives for ASAP Holdings and Rubicon did not respond to requests for comment. In a previous comment, ASAP Holdings CEO Frank Yuan had told Crain’s the exhaustive renovation effort going on at LaGuardia Airport was a crucial factor to his firm’s interest in the Marriott.

The sale, which poses a good deal of confidence on part of the purchaser, was forged during the pandemic which has devastated the hotel and tourism industry in NYC. A study by the Hotel Association of NYC showed that some 200 hotels had temporarily or permanently shuttered as of late September, and that only half of hotel owners and general managers said their industry would fully recover from the Coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns.

Nevertheless, despite the shadow the pandemic continues to cast, in recent months other large purchases were made for hotels in the city. In September, well-known hotel developer Sam Chang sold his Marriott project at 140 W. 28th St. in Chelsea to the Phoenix Hospitality Group for a price tag of roughly $147 million. In August, a firm linked to Magna Hospitality Group purchased the Embassy Suites by Hilton at 60 W. 37th St. in Midtown from Ashford Hospitality Trust for about $115 million. In December, Billionaire British brothers David and Simon Reuben said they would be buying NYC’s five- star Surrey Hotel at a discounted price, as part of their ambitions to increase their presence in U.S. real estate market. Though the sale has not closed, the transaction is slated to value the posh hotel at less than the $215 million asking price, sources told Bloomberg.

NYS to Reshape Midtown by Redeveloping Area Near Penn Station

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New York State is pursuing plans to reshape Midtown Manhattan by redeveloping the area near Penn Station. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

By Hadassa Kalatizadeh

New York State is pursuing plans to reshape Midtown Manhattan by redeveloping the area near Penn Station.

As reported by Crain’s NY, Empire State Development has drafted early plans to develop eight sites by the Midtown Manhattan transit hub, which has been the busiest train station in the Western Hemisphere. The ambitious project would result in 10 mixed-used buildings with a total of about 20 million square feet for offices, retail, hotel and maybe even residential space.

The plan announced on Friday, would almost double the size of building permitted at the sites. The draft is in line with the promise Gov. Andrew Cuomo made last year, to increase the train station’s track capacity by 40 percent and make new developments which will pay for the improvements. “Moynihan Hall is just the beginning. Now we will expand our vision with a new Manhattan Midtown West development project to create a new west side transit hub, and build upon it with new residential, commercial and public works projects that will combine to form a new, vibrant, exciting district extending over 140 acres,” Cuomo promised during his extensive State of the State speeches. “Taken together, the Moynihan Hall, the block south of Penn Station and the renovated Penn Station will double our capacity, and make travel easier, safer, more reliable, and more enjoyable”.

The early plans would have the state partner on the project with Vornado Realty Trust, a giant real estate investment trust which owns a lot of the land on which the project will be developed. Vornado owns and operates close to 20 million square feet of prime office properties, and is the largest owner and manager of street retail in Manhattan, with a portfolio of more than 2.4 million square feet. Vornado will be eager to replicate its achievements attained in Hudson Yards. The company has already spent over $2 billion to redevelop some 5 million square feet by Penn Station, including the new Moynihan Trail Hall, at the Farley Building. Previously the iconic post office, the Farley Building inked a deal in August, for Facebook to lease all the office space.

Pennsylvania Station has already been undergoing major improvements and redevelopment since 2017, with hopes to address space constraints and transform the station into a modern gateway to New York. Related Companies, Vornado Realty, and Skanska were awarded the contract to develop the Moynihan Train Hall. The project architect was Skidmore and Owings & Merrill.

Midtown Wholesale Startup Raises $23M in Funding as Small Businesses Shift to Online Sourcing

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Abound, a wholesale online startup, secured a venture-capital funding round of $22.9 million. Photo Credit: apps.shopify.com

By: Benyamin Davidsons

On Friday, Abound, a wholesale online startup, secured a venture-capital funding round of $22.9 million.

The Midtown Manhattan based company, launched in October 2019, connects independent product-makers with small businesses such as boutiques or gift shops to buy and resell their products in the US and UK. As reported by Crain’s NY, this is the first venture investment round for Abound. The startup has 30 employees, who are currently operating remotely. Before the pandemic hit, the company was operating out of a WeWork location near Bryant Park. The wholesale marketplace seeks to help independent retailers find and stock unique products. Abound says it will use the money to expand the platform which has added 15,000 buyers and sellers just over the past 12 months. The capital will help the company strengthen its engineering and marketing staff, said the firm’s CEO, Bill Shope.

Investors are pouring money into Abound because the pandemic has shifted the ways in which small businesses source their goods, Shope said. “The traditional process for wholesale buying and distribution is the trade shows,” Shope said. “The trade shows are all canceled for 2020 and into 2021, so we had plenty of brands coming to us to showcase their products.” Now that small shops and e-retailers cannot hunt in person for fun products as road warriors, managers are turning to Abound and similar companies to stock up with unique products. Similarly, small producers who can no longer show off their wares due to the pandemic are matching up with sellers through the online platform.

The wholesale platform carries roughly 180,000 products, including vintage art, handmade soaps, makeup, stationary and coffee beans from independent producers. Shope said the firm’s products are customized and it does not view Amazon as a competitor. “Boutique and independent retailers differentiate themselves by having these types of products that surprise and delight and make you want to stroll in on a Sunday afternoon,” Shope said. Abound competes with San Francisco–based wholesalers Faire and Tundra, which are also venture-backed startups.

Abound’s obtained venture funding round was led by Left-Lane Capital, a New York firm whose prior notable investments include HelloFresh, The Farmer’s Dog and SpotHero. Despite the investment, Abound will still need to capturing market share, as well as overcome the retail slump. The pandemic is still devastating in-store retail across the board, and at the end of last year confidence among Abound’s target audience of small-business owners was down to an eight-year low.

Former 5th Ave Valentino Boutique Sued for $13M Over Defaced Italian Marble

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Valentino, the glamorous Fifth Avenue boutique built for Italian Luxury Designer Valentino now lays empty, with bare white walls. Photo Credit: boutiques.valentino.com

By Benyamin Davidsons

The glamourous Fifth Avenue boutique built for Italian Luxury Designer Valentino now lays empty, with bare white walls.

The posh retail store located at 693 Fifth Ave, in Midtown Manhattan had cost millions to build, using the same marble terrazzo that adorns palaces in Venice, Italy. On Friday, the landlord of the space filed a lawsuit against Valentino, saying the expensive natural stone was covered in white paint, alleging that Valentino is responsible to pay $13 million, to cover the costs of restoring the stones.

As reported by Crain’s NY, the suit filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, says that the landlord paid for the imported precious marble slabs as well as Carrara chippings to create a luxurious atmosphere at the shop, and it was supposed to be returned in the same condition.

This is not the first fallout between the landlord and Valentino. In June, after the pandemic struck, the Italian designer had sued the property holder, 693 Fifth Owner LLC, to break its lease eight years early. The fashion icon had said in its suit that the pandemic had toppled its day to day business, leaving no tourists or clients for the store, and making it impossible to operate its shop as planned. The landlord had refused to end the lease, and a judge had dismissed the retailer’s suit. Notwithstanding, in December, Valentino vacated the space. According to the landlord’s complaint filed Friday, Valentino owes a total of $207 million for the remainder of the lease as well as damages to the store.

The landlord maintains that there is $184 million worth of payments remaining on the lease, as well as the cost for repairs, and says that in addition Valentino should pay for the $15 million in rent it will forgo while repairing damage to the shop. The landlord’s lawsuit says that the retailer’s earlier lawsuit and vacate notice “were an opportunistic attempt to capitalize upon and pervert the international Covid-19 pandemic in order to mitigate market difficulties the House of Valentino had been suffering since well before the Covid-19 pandemic”.

As per Crain’s, the owner’s lawyer said they had tried to work with Valentino during the pandemic, but Valentino sued anyway, and has since signed a lease for an 8,700-square-foot store at 135 Spring St. in SoHo. “What was surprising was what Valentino left behind when it abandoned the store,” said Attorney Robert Cyruli. “The expensive, imported store installation was effectively destroyed. My client expected more from a well-known international luxury brand.”

A representative for Valentino declined to comment.

 

NY Senate Passes Nursing Home Reforms, Assembly Split on Limiting Cuomo’s Emergency Powers

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The New York State Senate is set to pass a set of bills aimed at reforming the nursing home industry and how the state oversees it, CBS reported. Photo Credit: nysenate.gov

By: Howard Weinstein

The New York State Senate is set to pass a set of bills aimed at reforming the nursing home industry and how the state oversees it, CBS reported.

Democrats in the state Senate have 10 bills intended which they claim improve accountability and transparency at nursing homes. as the federal government investigates the Cuomo administration’s handling of COVID-19 in these facilities.

It was reported by Spectrum News Last week that while Senate Democrats discussed a bill that would establish a ten-person commission made up of mostly Democrats that would have control over the governor’s executive orders as a way to limit his emergency powers, many Dems in the Assembly oppose the idea.

Senate Republicans have introduced an amendment to revoke the governor’s emergency powers 14 times and each time it has been voted down.

One of the Senate bills which did advance, mandates the state report long-term care residents who die in hospitals as nursing home deaths, while another looks to establish a mandatory staff-to-patient ratio.

Department of Health Death Records: This bill, S.3061A sponsored by Senator Gustavo Rivera, requires the Department of Health to record COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents that died in hospitals to be recorded as a “nursing home” death and require the Department of Health to update and share data it receives with hospitals and nursing homes on communicable diseases.

Also, among the 10 bills are one’s which reimagines Long-Term Care Task Force, long-Term Care Ombudsman Program Reform Act, Requirements for Transfer, Discharge and Voluntary Discharge, and one bill which aimed Transparency of Violations.

The NY Post reported:

“Ensuring that nursing homes are safe is a priority,” said a spokesman for state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx). “We will be discussing these and other issues with our members.”

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said that the governor and the state legislature want the same thing, and that the administration was open to considering other reforms.

“We all share the same goal of reforming these facilities and fixing the inequities laid bare by this pandemic, which is why the governor laid out a legislative package in the 30-day amendments and said he wouldn’t sign a budget without them,” he said. “To the extent there are other ideas we’re open to reviewing them.”

NJ Rep Pallone Leads Hearings on Purging Conservative News Outlets From Cable TV

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The questions came two days before a hearing on Wednesday before the powerful House Committee on Energy & Commerce, chaired by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), titled “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media.” Photo Credit: Public Domain Rep. Pallone’s official House website.

By: Peter Barry Chowka

In a shocking development in the ongoing censorship debate, two influential Democrat members of the House of Representatives have taken the first steps to challenge the continued availability of conservative channels Newsmax, OANN, and Fox News on mainstream cable, satellite, and streaming television platforms. Multichannel News reported on the story yesterday in an article titled “House Dems Pressure Distributors to Justify Carrying Fox News, Others.”

California Democrats Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney have written to a dozen cable, satellite and streaming companies calling on them to better combat disinformation — which they principally identify as Fox, Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN) — and grilling them on what they plan to do about it.

Among other things, the letter to the companies by Eshoo and McNerney attacked the three conservative news channels as “misinformation rumor mills and conspiracy theory hotbeds that produce content that leads to real harm.”

The Democrats’ February 22 letter to Comcast, AT&T, Dish, Verizon, Roku, and the seven other companies demanded that they respond to a laundry list of seven intrusive and intimidating questions:

  1. What moral or ethical principles (including those related to journalistic integrity, violence, medical information, and public health) do you apply in deciding which channels to carry or when to take adverse actions against a channel?
  2. Do you require, through contracts or otherwise, that the channels you carry abide by any content guidelines? If so, please provide a copy of the guidelines.
  3. How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on [Fill in the company’s distribution platforms] for each of the four weeks preceding the Nov. 3, 2020 elections and the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel.
  4. What steps did you take prior to, on, and following the Nov. 3, 2020 elections and the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks to monitor, respond to, and reduce the spread of disinformation, including encouragement or incitement of violence by channels your company disseminates to millions of Americans? Please describe each step that you took and when it was taken.
  5. Have you taken any adverse actions against a channel, including Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN, for using your platform to disseminate disinformation related directly or indirectly to the Nov. 3, 2020 elections, the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, or COVID-19 misinformation? If yes, please describe each action, when it was taken, and the parties involved.
  6. Have you ever taken any actions against a channel for using your platform to disseminate any disinformation? If yes, please describe each action and when it was taken.
  7. Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN [fill in the platform] on TV both now and beyond any contract renewal date? If so, why?

The questions came two days before a hearing on Wednesday before the powerful House Committee on Energy & Commerce, chaired by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), titled “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media.” Pallone has represented his New Jersey district in the House since 1993. Reps. Eshoo (who, like Pallone, was also first elected to Congress in 1992) and McNerney (who was re-elected to his eighth term in the House in 2020) are both members of the House committee and will be participating in the hearing.

The hearing, scheduled to start at 12:30 P.M. E.T., will be virtual, using Cisco WebEx video technology, and it will be live-streamed at the committee’s site. Previous congressional inquiries have targeted social media, but this is the first time that major television outlets, including Fox News (which is considered mainstream media and is available to 100% of television viewers around the country), have found themselves directly in the cross hairs of politicians on Capitol Hill.

   (American Thinker)

Blinken Calls Israeli FM to Stress Biden’s Push Toward 2-State Solution

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Secretary of State Tony Blinken participates in a video teleconference with the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 22, 2021. Credit: State Department. Photo by Ron Przysucha/Public Domain.

By: Aryeh Savir

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Monday with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in a discussion that focused on the defunct peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The two discussed “regional security challenges and the importance of continued cooperation in addressing these issues,” according to a statement by the State Department.

Blinken addressed the US approach towards “a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future for Israelis, Palestinians, and the greater Middle East.”

He also emphasized the Biden Administration’s “belief that the two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, living in peace alongside a viable and democratic Palestinian state.”

He also noted the US’ “continuing commitment to opposing unfair, one-sided actions against Israel in the multilateral arena.”

Ashkenazi and Blinken “acknowledged the steadfast partnership” between the US and Israel, and that the two countries “would work closely together on challenges ahead.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has yet to comment on the conversation.

The Biden administration has signaled its desire to amend Washington’s relations with Ramallah after a months-long disconnection with the Trump administration.

The Biden administration has already made preliminary contacts with PA officials.

Speaking during his confirmation hearing at the Senate in January, Blinken said that while President Joe Biden remained committed to a two-state solution with the Palestinians, “realistically, it’s hard to see near-term prospects for moving forward.”

In another development, it was reported that Jerusalem police were successful in thwarting a stabbing attack in the city on Monday.

The police received a report about a suspicious person on his way to the Mizmoria checkpoint in the south of the city. Police forces searched him until he was located.

The suspect, 27, from the nearby village of Tzur Baher, who noticed the policemen searching for him threw his knife at his side of the road.

In his initial interrogation, he claimed that he wanted to harm the security forces due to the death of his mother.

The would-be terrorist was arrested and taken for questioning in the Central Unit of the Jerusalem District.

An IDF soldier was lightly injured on Sunday night by a gunshot while manning a checkpoint near the city of Modi’in.

The 19-year-old soldier was evacuated to the Tel Hashomer hospital in serious condition. Further examinations determined he was in light condition.

The IDF stated that the soldier was injured by “erroneous gunfire.”

An initial inquiry shows he may have been shot by another soldier who was playing with his weapon.

  (TPS)

No Longer Trusting US, Saudis to Invest Billions in Own Arms Industry

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Saudi Air Force members pose in front of an array of aircraft at the end of a military exercise, Feb. 11, 2021. (Saudi Arabia Ministry of Defense)

Saudis apparently react to Biden administration freezing arms deals signed with former President Trump

By Paul Shindman

Saudi Arabia will invest more than $20 billion to establish its own domestic military industry in an apparent move to reduce its dependence on the United States which recently announced it was freezing certain arms sales to the Kingdom, Reuters reported over the weekend.

Following the Biden administration’s suspension earlier this month of two large arms deals worth some $760 million for precision munitions that were signed during the Trump era, the Saudis announced a 10-year investment plan aimed at developing a local arms industry with the target of spending half of the defense budget locally by 2030.

Saudi Arabia’s defense budget for 2020 was $48.5 billion, most of it spent purchasing arms and munitions from the United States, but Biden objects to the Saudi-led coalition continuing its intervention in the Yemen civil war against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

On Sunday, the Saudis announced state-owned Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) signed a deal with American defense Lockheed Martin to form a joint venture to boost the Kingdom’s military capabilities.

“The joint venture is aimed at developing localization capabilities through the transfer of technology and knowledge and training of Saudi nationals to manufacture products and provide services to the Kingdom’s armed forces,” SAMI said in a statement.

Lockheed Martin makes major weapons systems, including the F-16 fighter jet, F-35 stealth bomber, helicopters, offensive missiles and missile-defense systems.

Lockheed Martin’s vice president Timothy Cahill said the deal marked a “major milestone” for the U.S. company.

“This agreement is in line with Lockheed Martin’s strategy to expand its partnership with the Kingdom by providing reliable defense and security solutions,” Cahill said in the statement reported by Reuters.

Saudi Arabia is looking to improve its ability to defend against missile and drone attacks both from the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran-backed militias in Iraq that have recently increased their attacks and appear to be emboldened by the Biden administration’s decision to re-evaluate its relations with the Saudis.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding to “transfer technology and know-how and to build an integrated base for defense industries in the Gulf,” Asharq Al-Awsat reported.

            (World Israel News)

Read more at: www.worldisraelnews.com

Israeli Data Shows One Dose of Pfizer Vaccine 85% Effective Over Time

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A COVID-19 vaccine injection is prepared at a vaccination center in South Tel Aviv, Feb 14, 2021. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.

The Sheba Medical Center findings support the U.K.’s decision to delay the second dose, says Sheba deputy director general.

By: Abigail Klein Leichman

Peer-reviewed correspondence from Sheba Medical Center published last week in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet reveals that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is up to 85 percent effective even after the first dose.

Sheba’s research team reported that after 7,214 of its healthcare workers received their first dose in January, there was an 85 percent reduction of clinical (symptomatic) COVID-19 between 15 and 28 days later. Overall, both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections were reduced by 75 percent.

“This affirms the effectiveness of a single vaccine dose in real-life conditions and shows early effectiveness, even before the second dose was administered,” said professor Eyal Leshem, director of Sheba Medical Center’s Institute for Travel & Tropical Medicine.

According to professor Arnon Afek, Sheba’s deputy director general, the results support the U.K. government’s decision to begin inoculating citizens with a single dose of the vaccine.

Still, the team noted that its results “need further validation through active surveillance and sampling of vaccinated people and unvaccinated controls to ascertain the actual reduction of asymptomatic infection in vaccinated individuals.”

Furthermore, they cautioned, “The early rate reductions seen in [health-care workers] might differ from vaccine efficacy reported in the general population due to their higher exposure risk or due to exposure to more virulent or infectious strains.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli Health Ministry has released data suggesting that the full two-dose regimen of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 98.9 percent effective at preventing death in the approximately four percent of fully vaccinated people who do contract COVID-19.

Furthermore, the ministry’s data show the vaccine is 99.2 percent protective against serious COVID-19 illness and decreases the chance of hospitalization by 98.9 percent.

(Israel21C)

In First, Israeli Team Develops Biological Therapy that is Suitable Alternative to Antibiotics

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Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a biological substitute for the treatment of tuberculosis, which in the future could serve as an alternative for the traditional “chemical” antibiotic therapy. Photo by Kobi Richter/TPS on 12 February, 2020

By: TPS

Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a biological substitute for the treatment of tuberculosis, which in the future could serve as an alternative for the traditional “chemical” antibiotic therapy.

In the course of the new and groundbreaking study, led by Dr. Natalia Freund and the doctoral candidate Avia Waston at the Sackler Medical Faculty, the research group succeeded in isolating monoclonal antibodies, derived from single cells, which hindered the growth of tuberculosis germs in laboratory mice.

The antibodies were isolated from a patient who had contracted tuberculosis but had since recovered. This is, in fact, the first time in history that researchers have managed to develop a “biological antibiotic” and demonstrate that human monoclonal antibodies can act as a substitute for the traditional chemical antibiotics and protect mice from the pathogenic bacterial challenge.

The study was carried out in a collaboration with two additional laboratories from the US and China.

For the last century, antibiotics have served as the main treatment against germs, being both efficient and cheap. Antibiotics are chemical agents, which are designed to block and destroy specific cells, such as microbial cells. However, since some biological mechanisms are common to both human and microbial cells, the range of antibiotics that can safely be used without harming the patient is limited.

For example, cell wall components of many strains of microbes are common to human cells. Therefore, any damage caused to the microbial cell walls can lead to extensive damage to body systems.

Furthermore, in recent years, the number of microbial strains that are antibiotic resistant has increased, presenting new challenges of how to defend the body from microbes in the post-antibiotic era.

For these reasons, Dr. Natalia Freund and her laboratory team have spent the recent years searching for a biological substitute for known antibiotics.

Antibodies are proteins that are produced naturally by our immune response following infection or a vaccine. They harbor many advantages such as specificity, stability and safety. For these reasons, antibodies are in widespread use in the clinic for treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and viral infections such as COVID-19.

The research team chose Tuberculosis, which is caused by infection of the bacilli Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as a test model, and were successful, for the first time ever, in devising an effective treatment on the basis of anti-bacterial antibodies naturally developed during infection.

Another reason for the choice of tuberculosis is, that although the vaccine against tuberculosis was developed 100 years ago, and is based on the attenuated bacillus bovis (BCG) strain, it is not effective in adults and does not prevent infection.

In addition, in recent years, more varieties of disease have developed that are resistant to the only treatment that is currently available, namely, treatment with antibiotics. Since tuberculosis germs are very infectious, transferred in the air and detrimental to the lungs, the spread of resistant strains of tuberculosis that modern medicine cannot combat is a real danger.

Currently, approximately one-quarter of the world’s population is infected by tuberculosis, with the rates of drug-resistant strains peaking to as high as 40% in some countries. In Israel, there are about 200 active tuberculosis cases per year.

Dr. Natalia Freund explained that “new ways to kill bacteria are urgently needed. Advances in biological medicine have enabled us to rout the germs in new ways that are not based solely on antibiotics, and therefore allow a solution to the challenge posed by resistant germs.”

“Our study is an initial proof of concept of employing monoclonal antibodies as an effective therapy in combating bacterial pathogens,” said Dr. Freund.

It should be noted that owing to the size and complexity of the tuberculosis bacillus, isolation of monoclonal antibodies to it has been extremely challenging. The researchers in Freund’s laboratory have succeeded in pinpointing a phosphate pump protein on the bacillus cell wall, which supplies energy to the bacterium and is highly specific and conserved to all tuberculosis strains.

The two types of antibodies the researchers have isolated, which block the action of the pump, inhibit the bacteria growth and reduced the bacterial levels by 50% in mice as compared with mice that were not treated with antibodies.

Furthermore, these antibodies have been found to be active against three different strains of the tuberculosis bacillus; and seeing that the antibodies are directed against the phosphorus pump, which is common to all strains of this bacillus, it is expected that the vaccine will be effective against many other strains that were not investigated, including those that are resistant to antibiotics.

In view of the success of the study, Dr. Freund’s laboratory is investigating the possibility of extending the “biological” substitute for antibiotics to include other diseases.

“The model that has proven successful in this study will enable us to extend our future work to include other diseases such as pneumonia and staphylococcus infections,” Freund concluded.

(TPS)

Mark Levin Warns Storm is Coming in Relations Between Israel, US

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Mark Levin (YouTube/Fox News/Screenshot)

Levin warns Israelis that the Biden administration is deeply hostile to Israel.

By: Caroline Glick

Mark Levin, the conservative Jewish American radio broadcaster with more than 14 million daily listeners, has a gloomy forecast for the future of American media coverage of the United States, of Israel and of ties between the two countries.

Ahead of the launch of the Hebrew-language edition of his bestselling book, Unfreedom of the Press, Levin tells Israel Hayom that to understand the nature and depth of the danger that the U.S. media poses to democracy in America, you have to understand the way that the U.S. media treats Israel.

“I think the American people — forget about the elites — I think the American people and the Israeli people have such a connection, and such a love for each other,” he says.

“We get in this country from our media … that Israel is an apartheid society; it’s a racist society. It’s the same things they say about our country, they say about Israel. So it’s kind of hard to write a book — what I called Unfreedom of the Press — and ignore what’s going on in Israel.”

“It’s also hard to ignore it as a Jew,” he adds. “I see the overlays. I see the animus towards Israel, the animus towards the United States.”

For decades, Israelis and Israel’s supporters in America complained about the anti-Israel bias of the U.S. media. But in Unfreedom of the Press, Levin explains that the problem is far worse than mere bias.

The vast majority of media outlets in the U.S., including all the major television networks aside from Fox News, are fully mobilized to advance a radical ideological agenda that is deeply hostile both to Israel and to the United States.

And since his book was first published in 2018, the situation has only grown worse in terms of the media’s hatred of Israel and its supporters, and their rejection of core American values, including freedom of expression, freedom of religion and liberty itself.

Levin explains that to advance their anti-American agenda, the media work to silence, censor and block conservative voices — from former President Donald Trump to the last of his supporters.

Deeply concerned about the future of democracy in the U.S., Levin worries that the widening censorship in the U.S. will be copied by the Israeli media — which Levin argues is even more ideologically uniform and uniformly radical than the American media.

He argues that the way to fight against distortions and false claims, and to counter the media censors, is take a page from the anti-Israel activists’ playbook.

Levin recently shut down his Twitter and Facebook accounts in response to both platforms’ aggressive censorship of conservative leaders and private citizens. He urges conservatives in the U.S. and Israel to do the same.

“We need to BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] them. We need to have a BDS movement against big tech. And if not big tech, then their advertisers.

“We need to BDS these major television networks, just like the left does.”

Levin warns Israelis that the Biden administration is deeply hostile to Israel. Biden’s foreign-policy team is comprised of the most hostile officials from the Obama administration “and then some.” Israel, he says, must be prepared for the storm in relations that is blowing its way from Washington.

(www.JNS.org)

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Israeli Navy Foils Attack at Sea, Sinks Suspicious Vessel

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Israeli Navy ships off the coast of Gaza (Flash90/Edi Israel)

Israel has more concerns about the sea, particularly with its newfound riches offshore which represent soft targets.

By: WIN Staff

The Israeli Navy identified a “potential threat” on Monday morning, sinking a suspicious vessel near the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces reported.

“Earlier today, IDF naval troops spotted suspicious naval activity in the maritime zone along the Gaza Strip, which posed a potential threat to Israeli Navy vessels,” the IDF said in a statement.

The IDF says the vessel was spotted off the shore near Khan Younis, an Arab city located on the southern end of the Strip near Egypt.

Israel has more to worry about on the sea, particularly with its newfound riches offshore, which need to be defended.

Israel’s Leviathan field began pumping gas in December 2019. Egypt’s petroleum and mineral resources minister will in fact visit the Leviathan rig on Monday. He met with Israel’s prime minister on Sunday in Jerusalem, where it was agreed the countries would build a natural gas pipeline from the Leviathan field to liquified natural gas terminals in northern Egypt.

The IDF gave no indication that the Egyptian minister’s visit and the suspicious vessel were connected.

Over the last few years, Hamas has been developing its maritime capabilities. In 2014, Hamas naval commandos infiltrated an Israeli beach. The five commandos attached an explosive to a bulldozer and threw a grenade at a tank. All were killed by IDF gunfire.

Israel’s Channel 20 reports that the IDF needs 21 assault and defense ships to defend its maritime interests but is far short of that. Including the four new Saar 6 ships to be added by the end of the year, Israel will have only 15 ships.

In another development, following joint IDF, Israel Security Agency (ISA) and Israeli Border Police operational and intelligence efforts, a terror squad suspected of carrying out an attempted car-ramming and shooting attack against IDF troops was apprehended days after the attempted attack.

The attempted attack occurred on Jan. 9, adjacent to the village of Ya’bad, west of Jenin, but the information of the terrorists’ capture days later was only cleared by the IDF for release on Monday.

Following ISA intelligence efforts and a large-scale operational effort conducted by the “Duvdevan” Unit, the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit and special forces in the Israeli Border Police, the terror squad was apprehended in the village of Qabatia, north of Nablus, or Shechem, a number of days after the attempted attack.

The investigation of the attempted attack revealed that the two assailants who were present in the vehicle had intended to shoot at IDF troops operating in the area.

The two assailants arrived in the area with a loaded “Carlo” submachine gun, a locally made weapon, and had clearly intended to carry out an attack.

(World Israel News)

Read more at: www.worldisraelnews.com