A rabbi's outrageous attack on the haredi community

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/279638

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg’s unfair attack on haredi Jews during the corona crisis was published in a paper they do not read. Opinion.

Two Israelis arrested in Israel for coronavirus scam in France

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/two-israelis-arrested-in-israel-for-coronavirus-scam-in-france-626820

 Two Israelis have been extradited to France amid investigations into a suspected scam the two conducted, pretending to work at professional businesses that they claimed were in the process of developing a drug to treat COVID-19, according to Ynet.

The scam succeeded in collecting 60,000 euros from three French companies.

She Predicted the Coronavirus. What Does She Foresee Next?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-prediction-laurie-garrett.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=120436930&imp_id=866033794&action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=Homepage

Laurie Garrett, the prophet of this pandemic, expects years of death and “collective rage.”

It's an insane time for Trump to pick (another) fight with China

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/01/business/trump-china-coronavirus-trade-war/index.html

 

The coronavirus pandemic is crushing the US and global economies. Unemployment is soaring. GDP is collapsing at an unprecedented pace. Corporate profits are plunging. Manufacturing is contracting.

Yet Trump could amplify that financial pain by attempting to use tariffs or other sanctions to punish China for its role in the health crisis. Economists warn that such a strategy could badly backfire, potentially turning what is now a deep recession into a full-blown depression.

"This is pure folly. It's exactly what the US economy doesn't need," Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, told CNN Business. 

Wall Street is not happy about the return of Tariff Man, as Trump calls himself. The Dow tumbled 600 points, or 2.4%, Friday afternoon on concerns about renewed US-China tensions.

 

How China’s ‘Bat Woman’ Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/

 Back in Wuhan, where the lockdown was finally lifted on April 8, China’s bat woman is not in a celebratory mood. She is distressed because stories from the Internet and major media have repeated a tenuous suggestion that SARS-CoV-2 accidentally leaked from her lab—despite the fact that its genetic sequence does not match any her lab had previously studied. Other scientists are quick to dismiss the allegation. “Shi leads a world-class lab of the highest standards,” Daszak says.

Why is this wrong?

2. R. Jose of Milhayal and R. Joshua of Siknin in the name of R. Levi said: We find that children in David's days, before they had yet experienced the taste of sin, knew how to expound the Torah by adducing forty-nine reasons for declaring a thing unclean and forty-nine reasons for declaring it clean, and David prayed for them. This is the import of what David says: Thou O Lord keep them (Ps. XII, 8), meaning: Do Thou, O Lord, preserve their learning in their hearts! Thou wilt preserve us from this generation for ever (ib.), namely, from this generation which deserves extermination.2 Yet after all this praise3 they used to go out to battle and fall! It was only because there were informers among them that they fell. This is the import of what David says: My soul is among lions (Ps. LVII, 5). ’Lions’ applies to Abner and Amasa who were lions in the Torah.4 I do lie down among them that are aflame--lohatim  (ib.); this applies to Doeg and Ahitophel who were burning  (lehutim) to spread slander. Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows (ib.). These are the men of Keilah of whom it is written, Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand (I Sam. XXIII, 1)? And their tongue a sharp sword (Ps. loc. cit.) applies to the Ziphites, of whom it is written, When the Ziphites came and said to Saul: Doth not David hide himself with us? (ib. LIV, 1). On that occasion David exclaimed: What with all this is the Shechinah doing on earth? Be Thou exalted, O God above the heavens (ib. LVII, 6); as much as to say: Remove Thy Presence from their midst! The generation of Ahab, however, were all worshippers of idols, yet owing to the fact that there were no informers among them they used to go out to war and be victorious. This is borne out by what2. R. Jose of Milhayal and R. Joshua of Siknin in the name of R. Levi said: We find that children in David's days, before they had yet experienced the taste of sin, knew how to expound the Torah by adducing forty-nine reasons for declaring a thing unclean and forty-nine reasons for declaring it clean, and David prayed for them. This is the import of what David says: Thou O Lord keep them (Ps. XII, 8), meaning: Do Thou, O Lord, preserve their learning in their hearts! Thou wilt preserve us from this generation for ever (ib.), namely, from this generation which deserves extermination.2 Yet after all this praise3 they used to go out to battle and fall! It was only because there were informers among them that they fell. This is the import of what David says: My soul is among lions (Ps. LVII, 5). ’Lions’ applies to Abner and Amasa who were lions in the Torah.4 I do lie down among them that are aflame--lohatim  (ib.); this applies to Doeg and Ahitophel who were burning  (lehutim) to spread slander. Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows (ib.). These are the men of Keilah of whom it is written, Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand (I Sam. XXIII, 1)? And their tongue a sharp sword (Ps. loc. cit.) applies to the Ziphites, of whom it is written, When the Ziphites came and said to Saul: Doth not David hide himself with us? (ib. LIV, 1). On that occasion David exclaimed: What with all this is the Shechinah doing on earth? Be Thou exalted, O God above the heavens (ib. LVII, 6); as much as to say: Remove Thy Presence from their midst! The generation of Ahab, however, were all worshippers of idols, yet owing to the fact that there were no informers among them they used to go out to war and be victorious. This is borne out by what Obadiah said to Elijah: Was it not told my lord... how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets... and fed them with bread and water? (I Kings XVIII, 13)-If he mentions bread why also water?’ The reason can only be that it teaches that the water was more difficult for him to obtain than the bread-yet Elijah proclaims on Mount Carmel, saying: I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord (ib. 22), and all the people know the real circumstances2 and do not announce it to the king! R. Samuel b. Nahman observed: The serpent was asked: ' Why are you generally to be found among fences?’ He replied: ‘Because I made a breach in the fence of the world.’3 R. Simeon b. Yohai learned: The serpent was the first to make a breach in the world's fence, and so he has become the executioner of all who make breaches in fences.4 The serpent was asked: ‘Why do you bite? What do you gain thereby? The lion tears his prey and eats it, but you simply bite and kill!’ He answered: ’ Doth the serpent bite without a whisper (Eccl. X, 11)?5 Is it conceivable that I should do anything unless instructions were given me from on high? ' He was asked: ‘How is it that you bite into one limb and your poison travels to all the limbs? ' He answered: ' Do you say this to me? The master of the tongue6 hath no advantage (ib.), for he can dwell in Rome and slay in Syria, or dwell in Syria and slay in Rome.’7 Why is a slanderer called ‘third ‘?8 Because he kills three, viz. the one who utters it, the one who listens to it, and the one about whom it is spoken. An incident is related of a man who had a wicked daughter-in-law who was addicted to slander. He used to plead with her twice a day, once in the evening and once in the morning. He would say to her: ‘I beg of you not to
speak slander!’ What did she do? She went and told her husband: ' This father of yours wants to cohabit with me; and if you do not believe me come in at night and you will find him sitting and soliciting me.’ He went and lay in wait for him and saw him leaning over her and conversing with her. ' The thing,’ he said, ' is true then! ' What did he do? He struck his father and killed him. He was brought to justice and was sentenced to death. That woman also, who had spoken slander about his father, was brought to justice and sentenced to death. Thus it happened that the tongue killed the three of them.

Pompeo falls on his face by contradicting himself within 15 SECONDS live on air

Trump says blame China. His supporters are listening.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/03/trump-supporters-china-226309

President Donald Trump’s decision to focus his coronavirus anger on China, America’s top economic rival, is part of a pivot for Trump’s reelection team as it scrambles to revise a campaign message that had been focused on financial prosperity. Now, with the economy in a coronavirus-induced coma, Trump’s team is working to instead make the 2020 race a referendum on who will be tougher on China — Trump or Joe Biden. In recent days, Trump’s campaign has even dubbed the president’s likely Democrat opponent “Beijing Biden."

 

Trump contradicts top health officials with vaccine timeline, malaria drug claims

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/03/trump-predicts-vaccine-end-of-year-233330

President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that a coronavirus vaccine would be ready by the end of 2020 and returned to touting an unproven treatment for the disease — on both fronts contradicting his own health officials as well as companies developing and testing potential vaccines.

 

New virus cases plummet to just 23 in past 24 hours, lowest in 6 weeks

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-virus-cases-plummet-to-just-23-in-past-24-hours-lowest-in-6-weeks/

Health Ministry figures also show sharp drop in the percentage of coronavirus tests that came back positive to just 0.5%; 3 more die as toll climbs to 232

 

Trump and Kushner show depth of disconnect with Americans on the front lines

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/30/politics/donald-trump-jared-kushner-economy-coronavirus/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion

An administration which, in tax reform and assault on the regulatory state, has long sided with corporations, appears to have made its choice that the economic collapse -- which is cataclysmic -- means that it's time to unleash the economy

 

On Tuesday, for instance, Trump forced the nation's meat packing plants to stay open, declaring them a critical piece of the nation's infrastructure. He acted despite warnings by workers in the industry, who are disproportionately Hispanic and African American that they are in grave danger of fatal illness.

"The eternal lockdown crowd can make jokes on television but the reality is is that the data's on our side and President Trump has created a pathway to safely reopen our country," Kushner said on Fox.

In fact, the data suggests exactly the opposite.

Trump claims intelligence officials did not raise coronavirus until late January

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/03/politics/trump-coronavirus-us-intelligence/index.html

While claiming that he was only briefed about the coronavirus in late January, Trump did not address why he continued to downplay the threat of the virus in January, February and March.

 

 Trump also falsely claimed in his tweet that those allowed into the US from China "were heavily scrutinized and tested U.S. citizens." Passengers returning to the United States from China were not tested at airports, though there had been some basic screening and a request that those passengers self-quarantine for 14 days.

Mike Pompeo: 'enormous evidence' coronavirus came from Chinese lab

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/mike-pompeo-donald-trump-coronavirus-chinese-laboratory

 

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo claimed on Sunday there is “enormous evidence” the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese laboratory – but did not provide any of the alleged evidence.

But when he was reminded that US intelligence had issued a formal statement noting the opposite – that the scientific consensus was that the virus was not manmade or genetically modified – Pompeo replied: “That’s right. I agree with that.”

Donald Trump made a similar unsupported claim on Thursday, saying he was privy to evidence of the pandemic began in a Chinese lab but was not permitted to share it.

Major prohibition