Israeli startups swept the board at the Asia Smartphone Apps Competition in Hong Kong late last week, winning three of the four top prizes. Israel’s Tekoia, which has developed a universal remote, won the grand prize for the event, and came first in the advertising and marketing category. Castle Builders came...

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Five Israeli firefighting aircraft were deployed on Sunday and Monday to help the overwhelmed government of Cyprus extinguish a massive forest fire. “Last night I ordered that three of our firefighting aircraft, out of our fleet of 13 or 14, be sent to help them, and the planes are now in Cyprus,” Israeli...

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Israel’s all-girl rhythmic gymnastic team won its first-ever gold medal at the European Championships on Sunday. The team also earned a silver medal for its ribbons routine and a bronze in the overall competition, which this year took place in Holon, Israel. The gymnastic team from Belarus edged out the Israeli team in the...

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The Dutch parliament passed a non-binding motion to end government funding for organizations that call for a boycott of Israel, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported Thursday. The motion was co-signed by three lawmakers, one of whom is a prominent member of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the Netherlands’ largest party....

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Ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s historic visit to Sub-Saharan Africa next month, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Israel expressed support for the Jewish state and its expanding ties on the African continent, The Jerusalem Post reported Saturday. Helawe Yosef Mengistu told the Post that African countries are turning to Israel for help in combating...

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In the wake of a debunked claim last week that Israel had cut off water supplies to Palestinians in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry claimed that a rabbi authorized Jews to poison wells belonging to Palestinians, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday. In a statement, the PA’s Foreign Ministry cited a...

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An Israeli minister is advocating for the construction of an artificial island off the coast of the Gaza Strip in order to facilitate the import of goods to the territory, the Associated Press reported Monday. Yisrael Katz, Israel’s transportation minister and one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top deputies, told reporters that he...

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Several major automakers are teaming up with an Israeli assisted-driving developer to beat Google to releasing driverless cars, Forbes reported Wednesday. General Motors will be the first to integrate semiconductor chips from Mobileye that can map road condition in real-time into its vehicles, followed by Volkswagen and Renault-Nissan in 2018. The amount of data provided...

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An Israeli financial technology startup is on a mission to make banking and financial activities easier and cheaper for migrant workers. Neema, in collaboration with MasterCard, has launched a debit card system that does not have transfer or foreign currency exchange rate fees, dramatically reducing the cost migrant workers pay to send...

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At least four Arab nations voted in favor of Israel’s successful and historic candidacy to head a major United Nations committee, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi reported earlier this week. Committee chairs are normally approved by consensus, but Danon’s candidacy, sponsored by the Western Europe and Others group of UN members, was protested by...

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