New coronavirus restrictions

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/277101

The Health Ministry announced new guidelines and restrictions in response to the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday evening.

The ministry has tightened restrictions on large gatherings from gatherings of 5,000 people to banning gatherings of 2,000 or more people

 

Trump ally Graham and ex-aide Bolton voice concerns over Taliban deal

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/29/us-taliban-agreement-reaction-pompeo-trump-allies
 

John Bolton, Trump’s third national security adviser who was fired in September last year, was more damning.

“Signing this agreement with Taliban is an unacceptable risk to America’s civilian population,” he said in a tweet. “This is an Obama-style deal. Legitimising Taliban sends the wrong signal to [Islamic State] and al-Qaida terrorists, and to America’s enemies generally.”

The mention of Obama would have been particularly stinging to Trump, who has repeatedly sought to reverse his predecessor’s actions.

 

'I Didn’t Think We’d Get Out Like That.' Veterans Have Mixed Feelings As U.S. Withdraws Troops From Afghanistan

https://time.com/5799845/us-troops-afghanistan-veterans/

Trump’s embrace of the Taliban has landed like a gut punch to some of the men and women whose lives have been changed forever by the war. Even for veterans who think the U.S. should get out of Afghanistan, it looks a lot like Washington is backing the people who plunged Afghanistan back into the middle ages in the 1990s, harbored al-Qaeda as it plotted the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, and killed thousands of American troops since, instead of backing a modern Afghan government that holds elections, and allows women to vote, work outside the home, and ditch veils if they so choose.

 

The Trump Administration Is Stalling an Intel Report That Warns the U.S. Isn’t Ready for a Global Pandemic

https://time.com/5799765/intelligence-report-pandemic-dangers/

The final draft of the report remains classified but the two officials who have read it say it contains warnings similar to those in the last installment, which was published on January 29, 2019. The 2019 report warns on page 29 that, “The United States will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large-scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, strain international resources, and increase calls on the United States for support.”

Rush Limbaugh: Democrats want Trump to stop rallies because Democratic voters are attending -- not because of coronavirus

https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-democrats-want-trump-stop-rallies-because-democratic-voters-are

 

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): Democrats out the wazoo are showing up at Trump rallies. This is why they want these rallies stopped. This is why -- it’s not because of public safety, not because of public health. These people -- because as you point out, they’re not making an effort to shut down every other opportunity for people to congregate.

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Coronavirus testing kit shortages, delayed results adding to frustrations

https://www.foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-testing-kit-shortages-delayed-results

The country continues to grapple with the shortage of testing kits for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) amid the increasing number of those requiring one. Several governors have called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to expedite the production and shipping of additional test kits.

But test kit scarcity isn’t the only issue. The nation’s been struggling to turn around results at a fast-enough pace.

 

Dow plunges as much as 2,000 points, oil crashes as price war erupts and coronavirus spreads

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/us-markets-march-9-2020

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by as many as 2,046 points, or 7.9 percent, in the opening minutes of trading while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were lower by 7.4 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. Trading, which was already halted for 15 minutes, will see another stoppage if the S&P 500 trades down 13 percent.

 

Psak: First use commonsense to understand facts - before applying halacha

update below When I was writing my books on child abuse, I was puzzled by poskim such as Rav Menashe Klein and Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg who avoided the issue because cases didn't have halachic significance. They claimed that if there weren't two kosher witnesses, or there wasn't a violation of a Torah prohibition whose punishment was as severe as jail, they basically ignored the problem.

Rav Moshe Sternbuch disagreed with their approach and told me that in poskening halacha that Rav Abramsky had said that one first needed to use common sense to understand the facts before apply halacha.  Thus if there was even a rumor of a child being hurt, that rumor needed to be investigated - and a responsible person could not hide behind the excuse he didn't want to listen to lashon harah or there weren't 2 witnesses.

My son just pointed out another source for this very important idea in שו"ת חבצלת השרון חלק ב. click here for Hebrew Books for full teshuva.  [update]  He also noted, " I just checked the מנחת יצחק it’s ח”ט סק”נ he copies the whole חבצלת השרון and says that he heard this כלל numerous times from מהר”ש ענגיל מרדישמולא who is considered the biggest galicaner posek before the war. So it’s seems that it was wide spread in Galicia.   

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