European countries said on Thursday they wanted to preserve Iran‘s nuclear deal and rejected “ultimatums” from Tehran, after Iran scaled back curbs on its nuclear program and threatened moves that might breach the pact.
Iran announced steps on Wednesday to ease curbs on its nuclear program, in response to new US sanctions imposed after Washington abandoned the deal a year ago.
Tehran’s initial moves do not appear to violate the accord yet, but President Hassan Rouhani said that unless world powers protect Iran‘s economy from US sanctions within 60 days, Iran would start enriching uranium beyond permitted limits.

For the first time, a Memorial Day ceremony was held in Jerusalem on Tuesday night honoring the memories of Orthodox Jewish soldiers who laid down their lives in service to their country, as well as ultra-Orthodox victims of Arab terrorism.
Some 800 people attended the event, including Jerusalem chief rabbis Aryeh Stern and Shlomo Amar, senior Israel Defense Forces officials, bereaved families, and members of the IDF’s strictly Orthodox Netzach Yehuda Battalion.
The ceremony honored the memories of Sgt. Yosef Cohen and 1st Sgt. Yovel Mor Yosef, who were killed by a terrorist outside the community of Givat Asaf in southern Samaria in December.

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range missiles on Thursday, the South’s military said, less than a week after its leader, Kim Jong Un, oversaw the test-firing of multiple rockets and a missile.
The launches came as U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun was in the South Korean capital for talks with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and his counterpart, nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon.
South Korea’s president said the tests seemed to be a protest by the North after its leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump failed to reach agreement on the North’s nuclear weapons and missile arsenal at a February summit.

Don’t call back phone numbers that ring once and hang up, the Federal Communications Commission has warned.
People throughout the US have been receiving “one ring” or “wangiri” robocalls in bursts, according to officials. The calls are targeting specific area codes, “often calling multiple times in the middle of the night.”
“These calls are likely trying to prompt consumers to call the number back, often resulting in per minute toll charges similar to a 900 number,” the agency said in a news release Friday. “Consumers should not call these numbers back.”
Read more at NY POST.
{Matzav.com}

Former Israeli defense chief Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday warned that Tehran’s threat of withdrawal from parts of the international nuclear deal means Israel should prepare for a direct Iranian attack.
“The ultimatum posed by Iran poses an immediate and tangible danger to the security interests of Israel and the countries of the free world, and should not be seen only as a power struggle between Iran and the US,” Liberman, who is chairman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, said in a tweet.
During his tenure as defense minister, Liberman railed against Iran’s continued entrenchment in Syria, repeatedly defending Israel’s right to carry out strikes on Syrian soil to stem the growing hostile Iranian presence on its borders.

Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Tuesday it has launched a four-month program in Israel to help startups grow globally using its experts and tools.
The Google Startup Growth Lab Programme has picked eight companies, after a pilot was completed in 2018.
“This is a program for startups that are beginning their growth period or have growth challenges,” Lior Noy, startup growth lead at Google, told Reuters.
The format, which provides industry insights to achieve growth in various geographies, is a first for Google, he added.
The eight firms include Guesty, a platform for short-term property management, and DayTwo, which provides personalized nutrition insights based on intestinal bacteria.

A French widower with no children left about $14.5 million to the state of Israel to assist families who lost loved ones serving in the military or to terrorism.
Nicolas Bauman died in 2009; most of the inheritance was transferred to Israel last week, Keren Kayemet L’Israel-Jewish National Fund announced on the eve of Yom Hazikaron, or Israel’s Memorial Day.
The fund for bereaved families established in Bauman’s will will operate for 10 years under the trustee management of the Ministry of Justice Administrator General and KKL-JNF.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Last March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s research vessel Ronald H. Brown was knocking around the waves in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when the crew spotted a surprise on the horizon.
It was bright orange and barrel-shaped, 10 feet long and seven feet wide, its sides splashed with stickers featuring French companies and organizations. Neither engine nor sail steered the object’s course. Rather, the barrel was completely at the mercy of the tossing ocean current, which very slowly was pushing it west.

Iran accused the United States on Tuesday of “psychological warfare” with the United States announcing on Sunday that it is sending an aircraft strike group to the Middle East amid “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Tehran.
Semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday that a spokesperson for Iran’s supreme national security council, Keyvan Khosravi, said “Bolton’s statement is a clumsy use of a burnt-out happening for psychological warfare.”