10,000 expected to attend Satmar wedding in New York despite coronavirus

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/10000-expected-to-attend-satmar-wedding-in-new-york-despite-coronavirus-646076

 An estimated 10,000 people are expected to gather together in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, on Monday to celebrate the wedding of the grandchild of the Satmar hassidic dynasty's grand rabbi, local CBS-affiliate WBCS reported Saturday.

The wedding of the the grandchild of Satmar Grand Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitlebaum get married is set to draw guests from both Williamsburg and Rockland County, raising fears of a potential further spread of coronavirus in the area, according to WCBS.

New York has seen a renewed spike in coronavirus cases, particularly in a few notable hot spots, such as in some ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, and while the wedding is not in one of these hot spots, worries still persist.

New York issues halt order on planned 10,000 person Brooklyn wedding

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/289257

 New York state officials issued a halt order on a planned wedding in Brooklyn that they allege would have brought together "upwards of 10,000 individuals," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday quoted by ABC News.

Rockland County Sheriff's Office informed state authorities of the wedding planned for Monday in Williamsburg, that would have taken place outside the state's cluster zones.

Hunter Biden email story: Computer repair store owner describes handing over laptop to FBI

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-emails-computer-repair-store-owner-john-paul-mac-isaac

Isaac’s claim that the laptop in question belonged to Hunter Biden has yet to be substantiated. Isaac told the New York Post, which first published the emails earlier Wednesday, that he determined it was Hunter Biden because the laptop had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, which is named after his late older brother.

“I just don't know what to say, or what I'm allowed to say,” Isaac said. “I know that I saw, I saw stuff. And I was concerned. I was concerned that somebody might want to come looking for this stuff eventually and I wanted it out of my shop.”

When asked, Isaac, whose social media posts indicate is a supporter of President Trump, rejected the possibility that the laptop did not belong to Hunter Biden and was an attempt to set him up.

Twitter refuses to unlock New York Post account unless Hunter Biden posts deleted

 https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/twitter-has-refused-to-unlock-new-york-posts-account

 Twitter has refused to unlock the New York Post's account since Wednesday unless the outlet deletes six tweets about its reporting on 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, the Post reported.

Both the San Francisco-based social media platform and Facebook came under fire this week after the two blocked users from sharing a Post article showing purported communication between 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and an adviser to a Ukrainian energy company.

Biden email episode illustrates risk to Trump from Giuliani

 https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-russia-024b553e9a4ffb2716286dd134876f8a

A New York tabloid’s puzzling account about how it acquired emails purportedly from Joe Biden’s son has raised some red flags. One of the biggest involves the source of the emails: Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani has traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens, developing relationships with shadowy figures, including a Ukrainian lawmaker who U.S. officials have described as a Russian agent and part of a broader Russian effort to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee.

Yet Giuliani says foreign sources didn’t provide the Hunter Biden emails. He says a laptop containing the emails and intimate photos was simply abandoned in a Delaware repair shop and the shop owner reached out to Giuliani’s lawyer.

US authorities investigating if recently published emails are tied to Russian disinformation effort targeting Biden

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/16/politics/russian-disinformation-investigation/index.html

 US authorities are investigating whether recently published emails that purport to detail the business dealings of Joe Biden's son in Ukraine and China are connected to an ongoing Russian disinformation effort targeting the former vice president's campaign, a US official and a congressional source briefed on the matter said.

The conservative-leaning New York Post claimed in a series of articles this week that it obtained "smoking-gun" emails about Hunter Biden and his dealings in Ukraine. CNN has not determined the authenticity of the emails.

President Donald Trump and his allies have used this topic to smear the Bidens over the past year and seized on the recent articles to attack Biden in the final weeks of the presidential election. The specific new allegations touch on the same topics as the Kremlin's ongoing disinformation campaign against the Bidens, which the US intelligence community said this summer was intended to weaken Biden's candidacy against Trump.

The FBI is leading the investigation, the official and congressional source said. NBC was first to report the inquiry.

The probe is part of a larger investigation into Russian disinformation that dates back to before the impeachment inquiry last fall. The alleged disinformation campaign is aimed at tying the former vice president to his son's dealings with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

Trump coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas undermines importance of masks as cases spike

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/17/politics/scott-atlas-face-masks-coronavirus/index.html

 Atlas wrote in a tweet, "Masks work? NO" followed by a series of misrepresentations about the science behind the effectiveness of masks in combating the pandemic. The tweet links to an article in the American Institute for Economic Research that argues against the effectiveness of masks, among other things.

גדו"י מזהירים את ראשי הישיבות: "זלזול בכללים עלול לפגוע בבריאות"

 https://www.kikar.co.il/376650.html

 

גדולי ישראל, מרן שר התורה הגר"ח קנייבסקי, ראש הישיבה הגרי"ג אדלשטיין, ונשיא מועצת חכמי התורה-ראש הישיבה הגר"ש כהן, במכתב משותף על שמירת הנחיות בישיבות

As the Coronavirus Surges, a New Culprit Emerges: Pandemic Fatigue

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/us/coronavirus-pandemic-fatigue.html

 Exhaustion and impatience are creating new risks as cases soar in parts of the world. “They have had enough,” one U.S. mayor said of her residents.

Top rabbi defies orders for preschool reopening limits

 https://www.jpost.com/health-science/top-haredi-rabbi-defies-orders-to-limit-reopening-to-preschools-646060

 While the country takes its first steps toward returning to routine today, most of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community will defy the government by opening up educational institutions for hundreds of thousands of students in first through eighth grades against the law.On Saturday night, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky – one of the leading rabbis of the Lithuanian haredi community – ordered that his community’s elementary schools open up while adhering to Health Ministry regulations, such as wearing masks, organizing students into small groups, and maintaining social distancing.

The move comes after negotiations between authorities and the haredi sector failed last week.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called upon the haredi community to keep their children at home and not obey the rabbi’s order.
“I call on the ultra-Orthodox public and its leaders not to do it,” Netanyahu said. “We followed the health official’s recommendation to open the preschools. They clearly said that there should be no opening beyond that.”But Netanyahu said that while he would send police to enforce the regulation, he does not anticipate mass arrests and does not want to see violence like that which occurred between the police and haredi violators in recent weeks.“We are unable to send a police officer to every street corner or alley,” the prime minister said. “We will exercise our best judgment. Understand that there are limitations here.”

Rabbi Kanievsky orders opening Torah studies in haredi centers

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/289251

 Haredi-Lithuanian leader Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky this evening ordered Talmud Torah directors in the haredi areas to open classes tomorrow.

This, after they failed to reach an understanding around an agreed outline last week. The rabbi's instruction also includes the yeshivot ketanot without boarding schools for 13-16-year-olds.

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, also among the senior Lithuanian-stream leaders, stated that for the time being, remote learning should be enough, and instructed not act against the law.

 Former Maayanei Hayeshua Hospital Director Prof. Moti Ravid warned on Kan News of a disaster in the haredi sector: "If they open up the education system to the haredi, it'll spell disaster in a short time."

Ravid explained that while kindergarten children are not contagious while the older population is more careful, children and teens aged 7-20 are "super contagious". "If the overall infection rate is 0.6, for them it is 2-5. Fifteen percent of all patients are responsible for 60% of all infections," Ravid said.

White House official pushes back on Trump's Barr critique, claiming AG ‘saved his presidency'

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-bill-barr-criticism-administration

 Trump also called the conclusion of an investigation into unmasking requests made by the Obama administration on some names in classified documents a “disgrace,” after a veteran federal prosecutor tapped by Barr – U.S. Attorney John Durham – declined to bring charges.

Washington Post: Trump-hyped investigation into Obama officials concludes without charges

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/13/politics/william-barr-unmasking-investigation/index.html 

 The US attorney tasked by Attorney General William Barr to review instances of "unmasking" -- the practice of releasing the names of American citizens who are caught up in National Security Agency foreign intelligence reports -- done around the 2016 election has completed the probe without bringing any charges, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

While Republicans for months have hyped the Obama-era unmasking requests as an enormous scandal, John Bash found no evidence of substantive wrongdoing in his investigation, which has concluded without a public report, the Post said. Bash left his role with the Justice Department last week.

Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Exposes Hypocrisy of Graham and McConnell