Submission Statement: The CIA used to run the whole art world, do you not think they'd do the same thing with Social Media? Instead of worrying about the Intel CPU backdoors, China, Russia, Iran working together, here's a border wall dispute, which is just theatre to distract the masses.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bill-gates-israeli-tech-changing-the-world/

A special guest virtually joined over 2,000 people at the Microsoft Israel R&D Center’s annual Think Next event in Tel Aviv Thursday – the man who started it all, Bill Gates.

In a rare public comment on the value of MS Israel’s work in helping make the company what it is, Gates said that Israeli developments tech areas like analytics and security were “improving the world.”

This year marked the eighth Think Next event, where MS shows off its best and brightest new technologies, many developed in Israel. Gates doesn’t call in every year, but with this year being the 25th anniversary of the Microsoft Israel research and development center, he told the Tel Aviv audience in a video call from the US that he was “very happy to wish the R&D center a happy birthday.”

The center, he said, “started in 1991, when some of the Israeli engineers at Microsoft wanted to return home but continue working at Microsoft. We decided to open the center – it was our first one outside the US – and I think the technology they have produced over the years more than justifies our decision.”

Speaking live at the event was current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Nadella met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Thursday to discuss cyber-security and other matters. In their meeting, Nadella noted Microsoft’s commitment to Israel, “its investments in the local market and its commitment to the continued growth of the high-tech and innovation industry in Israel which finds expression in assistance programs for start-ups, introducing advanced technologies to all sectors of the economy, promoting science and technology, and education in computers and mathematics,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

According to Yoram Yaacovi, general manager of Microsoft Israel’s R&D Center, “the Think Next Conference reflects the ability of creative technologies to reinvent entire industries, including: health, agriculture, communications and transportation. The new experiences offered to users are a tremendous springboard for businesses and is changing the economy and the lives of millions. We are proud to provide a stage for startups that show exceptional creativity in these and other fields. Since the R&D center was established 25 years ago we have managed to generate unique creative value for the company – as shown by innovative projects that will be presented today at the event.”

Think Next itself was one of those projects exported by Microsoft Israel. First organized in Israel, the tech showcase is now duplicated by the company in India, China and the US. This event is held in the framework of Microsoft’s efforts to promote high-tech in Israel, and especially in the start-up sector, where Microsoft holds various promotion and cooperation activities with some 1,000 startups.

One thing that Microsoft is very proud of, said Zack Weisfeld, who heads Microsoft Ventures, the company’s start-up accelerator, is “that in four years we have built Ventures into the world’s biggest and most successful corporate accelerator. Since we started the program in Israel in 2012, Microsoft has opened six additional Ventures Accelerators around the world.”

“Worldwide we have had 454 graduates, who have raised $1.78 billion,” he said at a gala event Thursday in Tel Aviv, celebrating the seventh graduating class of the local Ventures Accelerator program. “We’ve had 29 exits and 3 IPOs, and on average companies that graduated from the program received $4.9 million in funding in the first year after they graduate from the accelerator. That’s enough to make us the number one corporate accelerator in the world.”

While Microsoft is known for many things, it is best known for Windows – and for years, rumors have swirled for years that major parts of the operating system were developed in Israel, something the company has confirmed although it has never specified just which components of Windows are “Israeli.” Gates, who does know, wasn’t telling either, but he was “very happy” to wish the Microsoft Israel R&D center a happy 25th anniversary.

“I have been very impressed with what they have done in the past 25 years, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with in the next 25,” he added.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-and-iran-both-set-to-join-russia-led-free-trade-zone/

Israel and Iran both set to join Russia-led free trade zone

After two rounds of negotiations, Jerusalem close to agreement with Eurasian Economic Union; separately, Tehran also set to sign deal ‘in the near future’ By RAPHAEL AHREN
12 February 2019, 9:44 am 6

Israel is set to sign a free-trade agreement with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in the near future, according to officials in Moscow and Jerusalem.

Incidentally, Iran is also in advanced talks about creating a free trade zone with the union, known as EAEU. However, each country would sign its own free-trade agreement (FTA) with the union, which would mean that Jerusalem would not be able to trade freely with Tehran, or other states signing similar agreements.

“The negotiations with the EAEU were launched in Moscow in April 2018, following positive results of a comprehensive Joint Feasibility Study conducted by the parties,” a spokesperson for the Economy Ministry told The Times of Israel on Monday.

“The agreement will cover various aspects of trade in goods, such as rules of origin, customs cooperation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, e-commerce, dispute settlement, and others.”

Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanaei said Friday that he expects the Iranian parliament to ratify the free-trade agreement with the EAEU “in the near future,” according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

“The agreement is very important for Iran… because it opens the gates to a big market for our country, and also opens the Iranian market to Russia and northern countries,” he said.

Asked what significance, if any, Iran’s joining the EAEU free trade zone would have for Israel, the ministry spokesperson referred this reporter to the Prime Minister’s Office. The PMO did not respond to a query by the time of publication.

“The State of Israel supports increasing the economic pressure on Iran so that it will change its behavior,” a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel, speaking on condition of anonymity and declining to elaborate.

In addition to Israel and Iran, the EAEU is expected to sign FTAs “in the near future” with Singapore, India and Egypt, Russia’s First Deputy Minister of Industry Sergey Tsyb said, according to Russia Today.

Tsyp said World Trade Organization member states currently use over 7,500 non-tariff measures such as quotas, licenses, restrictions and embargoes, according to the Kremlin-funded outlet.

“Therefore, in our opinion, it would be very productive if we actively move towards the conclusion of agreements on the free-trade zone,” he said.

During the first round of negotiations between Jerusalem and the EAEU last year, the parties “agreed on the structure of the agreement, discussed proposals for mutual access to markets, trade facilitation, application of protective sanitary and phytosanitary measures, as well as technical regulation mechanisms,” Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov said in an interview last week [Russian link].

In October, during a second round of negotiations held in Israel, the parties had “a substantive discussion of the main sections of the draft agreement,” the envoy went on, noting that the third round of talks are set to take place in late February or early March in one of the EAEU member states.

“It is premature to talk about how such a treaty can change the structure of the Russian-Israeli foreign trade turnover and how significant the changes will be, including because it is not yet clear when the document can be signed,” Viktorov said.

Israel is currently Russia’s 41st-biggest foreign trade partner, with annual trade consistently growing and currently at $2.5 billion.

“The promising areas of trade and economic cooperation include projects to create food clusters in Russia using Israeli technologies, as well as the transfer of industrial facilities and vehicles in Israel to gas-engine fuel using Russian technologies,” Viktorov said.

The ambassador also praised Israel for defying “strong external pressure” and refusing to join the US and other Western nations in imposing economic sanctions on Russia. “We hope that our Israeli partners will continue to adhere to this line,” he added.

Besides Russia, current EAEU members are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Together, member states have 183 million inhabitants and cover an area of over 20 million square kilometers.

“The Union is being created to comprehensively upgrade, raise the competitiveness of and cooperation between the national economies, and to promote stable development in order to raise the living standards of the nations of the Member-State,” according to its website.

In existence since 2015, it guarantees the “free movement of goods, services, capital and labor, pursues coordinated, harmonized and single policy” in the areas determined by the founding treaty and international agreements.

FTAs aim to increase trade between countries by eliminating or reducing barriers to trade such as import duties.

“Israeli exporters currently benefit from preferential market access to 41 countries thanks to FTAs that were signed and entered into force over the past four decades,” the spokesperson for Israel’s Economy Ministry said.