UCLA Settles Gynecologist Sex Abuse Suit for $243.6 Million

 https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-02-08/ucla-settles-gynecologist-abuse-suit-for-more-than-100m

The University of California has agreed to pay $243.6 million to settle allegations that hundreds of women were sexually abused by a former UCLA gynecologist, lawyers and the university announced Tuesday.

The settlement covers about 50 cases involving 203 women who said they were groped or otherwise abused by Dr. James Heaps over a 35-year career. Each will receive $1.2 million, attorneys said.

The deal was reached with the assistance of a private mediator after substantial litigation, the parties said.

The lawsuits said that UCLA ignored decades of complaints and deliberately concealed abuse.

Israeli gynecologist allegedly sexually assaulted 20 women

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-690259

Two Israeli women filed complaints on Wednesday to Israel Police against Israeli gynecologist Dr. Guy Rofe for committing sexual assault while treating the women, Ynet reported.

In total, 20 women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault against Rofe, with eight of them filing an official complaint to the Health Ministry.

One of the complaints filed to the Health Ministry included allegations of rape.

Trump Truth Social User Claims App Censored Anti-Vaccine Content

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-truth-social-user-claims-app-censored-anti-vaccine-content-1681507

Peters posted on Telegram on Tuesday that he was "already being censored on Truth Social." He included a screenshot of his account with a "sensitive content" warning that advised the content may not be suitable for all audiences. To see the post, users had to click "show content."

"Want to know what I said?" Peters wrote on Telegram. "I said, 'The people in our government responsible for allowing our kids to be killed with these dangerous COVID shots, should be put on trial and executed.'"

בעקבות הפגיעה במטופלות : הנחיות הלכתיות נוקשות לגינקולוגים ולנבדקות

 https://www.israelhayom.co.il/judaism/synagogue/article/7210505

רבנים ורופאים בכירים ניסחו שמונה תקנות להתנהלות רופאי נשים לאחר מקרי הפגיעה המינית במטופלות לאחרונה • בין הכללים: במהלך הבדיקה לא יתקיימו שיחות חולין, ועדכון של גורם נוסף במרפאה במידה שיש לנעול את דלת החדר

How rich is Trump, really?

Seichel vs halacha - Rav Abramsky vs Chazon Ish

updated In my discussions with Rav Sternbuch regarding dealing with child abuse the question came up whether a person needed to first overcome the halacha barriers before considering the information. In other words if he didn't have two frum male witnesses should he ignore the information or if it wasn't clear whether a rumor was lashon harah should he avoid listening to it.  In short the view presented by Rav Menashe Klein and the Aguda rabbanim. His response was that he had heard from Rav Abramsky that first a poskek needs to know the facts and then submit them to halachic analysis.  He also wrote a teshuva basing himself on Rav Chaim Ozer and the Gerer Rebbe that a menahel has to listen to all rumors - and not dismiss them first as lashon harah. See Rav Sternbuch 5:398
Also one of my sons just showed me the following which shows it is not just the view of Rav Abramsky

שו"ת מנחת יצחק חלק ט סימן קנ

 מ"מ נשארתי בצ"ע, והוא עפ"י אשר קבלתי מהגאון הגדול מראדימישלא זצ"ל, אשר אז בעת בחורותי הייתי מתאבק הרבה אצלו, והרבה שאלות עגונות באו לפניו, הי' אומר כללו, ואח"כ ראיתי שכן כתב גם בספר בשו"ת חבצלת השרון מדודו הגאון הגדול זצ"ל (א"ע סי' כ"ח), וז"ל: מראש כל אמינא להו מה ששמעתי מפי הרב הגאון מוה"ר דובעריש ראפיפארט ז"ל אבד"ק ראווא, שהי' מקובל מפי רבו הגאון בעמח"ס נודע בשערים אבד"ק לובלין ז"ל שבבואו לפניו איזה שאלה, מקודם הוא שוקל בשכלו על אמיתת הענין לפי שכל אנושי שהדבר אמת, אז הוא מעיין עפ"י חוקי תוה"ק מה משפטו, וכן הוא אצלי וכו' עכ"ל. וכ"ז עבר במחשבתי, שהי' קשה לי המציאות שידורו יחד כחמש שנים בלי ליגע בה כלל כפי דברי',

====================

My son just came across the following which indicates that this view was solidly rejected by the Chazon Ish.

"Rav Yoel Kluft said that one of the rabbis in Israel had told him that when a question of Aguna arose that it was necessary to first see according to seichel (commonsense) whether the husband was alive or dead. Only afterwards to do a halachic analysis. The Chazon Ish responded angrily, "It is prohibited to say such a thing. It is necessary to see the halacha!"

מעשה איש חלק ד` עמ` קיב

שח הג"ר יואל קלופט זצ"ל לפני רבינו, שאחד הרבנים בארץ אמר לו שכאשר מגיעה שאלה בעגונה, וצריך דבר ראשון לראות על פי השכל אם הבעל חי או מת, ואח”כ לעשות את החשבונות בהלכה.  הגיב על כך החזו”א בריתחא ואמר : “אסור להגיד כך. צריך לראות בהלכה!” (מבנו הג”ר חיים שליט”א)

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A friend of mine however insists that the following letter of the Chazon Ish contradicts what I said - however I disagree since the Chazon Ish clearly says there are two stages and the first one is to clarify the halacha and then afterwards to look at metzius.

אגרות חזון איש (א:לא): בירור משפט בבחינת הלכה למעשה נחלק לעיונים שנים. העיון הראשין להניף הסלת הנקי סעיפי המשפט התוריים. ואחריו עיון השני החדירה בהעובדא הנוכחת לפנינו במלעיותיה ומגרעותה ובדיוק משקל של כל פרק מפרקיה כדי להתאים את הנידון אל סעיף ההלכה המכוון עליו. ומרובים המכשולים של ההתאמה כוזבת מהמשכולים ביודה ההלכה. ז"א אף שאין הדיין אומר על מותר אסור ועל אסור מותר בכל זאת הוא נכשל בהמעשה שבא לידו ומחליט בכח מדומה שזו שבא לידו היא של הסעיף הידוע בעת שהעלים עין מקו דק רב הערך בפלילת המשפט הנבנה תמיד על קיום שכליים דקים. ובהעלמה זו הוציא משפט מעוקל מעוות לא יוכל לתקן. ובשל העיון האחרון נשללה ההוראה מן ההמון אף בדברים שהאוסר והמותר מפורסם תכלית הפרסום ונתנ לחכמים שבכל דור לחקות לאשורה של כל שאלה המופיעה מזמן לזמן שהחכמים יפתרוה מנקודת עיון מקיף והסתכלות בהירה.

Cue the outrage machine — Fox News is paying attention to Canada

 https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2022/02/18/cue-the-outrage-machine-fox-news-is-paying-attention-to-canada.html

Trump and Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have already long since weighed in. Fox News is running wall-to-wall commentary: one Fox host called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “a wannabe emperor, a haircut with an ego.” A gelato truck operator who was harassed after donating to the convoy made an appearance, as did the interim leader of the Conservative party. Tucker Carlson called Trudeau a “Stalinist dictator” who “suspended democracy and declared Canada a dictatorship.”

Analysis of records purportedly hacked from a crowdfunding website revealed more than half of the donors to the protest — and a little less than half of total funds raised — are from the U.S., including from members of far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers.

Trudeau wins House vote on Emergencies Act

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/21/trudeau-wins-house-vote-emergencies-act-00010474

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has said the threat posed by the so-called Freedom Convoy justified use of the act. “They came here to overthrow a democratically elected government,” he said last week. “It is a movement funded by foreign influence, and it is fed on disinformation. Its goal is to disrupt our democracy.”

“Hurtful and racist symbols were everywhere … the incessant honking was unbearable,” Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi told POLITICO over the weekend. “Nearby parking lots were used as urinals, our skies were filled with firecrackers as they were hurled down streets every night, and the air was thick with diesel fuel.”

Protesters also shut down key trade corridors for a time along the U.S.-Canada border, including at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont.

Once the Emergencies Act was invoked, police created a perimeter around key blocks in downtown Ottawa and established checkpoints to control entry into the area.

New York Jewish group slams AOC after she accused Israel of caging Arab kids

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322624

Following comments by pro-Palestinian protesters at the event, Ocasio-Cortez accused Israel of putting Arab children in Judea and Samaria in cages, saying: “I don’t believe that a child should be in a cage on our border, and I don’t believe a child should be in a cage in the West Bank.”

On Sunday, the Queens Jewish Community Council responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, accusing her of smearing the Jewish state.

“The Queens Jewish community is concerned when a local elected official makes spurious and reckless suggestions aimed at Israel,” Michael Nussbaum, president of the Queens Jewish Community Council, told The New York Post.

“Bombastic suggestions and lies are dangerous when spewed by sitting politicians anywhere on the political spectrum. When the far left mimics the far right in lies and exaggerations, democracy and dialogue suffers.”

AOC’s newest cage complaint: Now it’s Israel ‘locking up kids’

 https://thejewishvoice.com/2022/02/aocs-newest-cage-complaint-now-its-israel-locking-up-kids/

Far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., has come up with a new complaint about kids being locked up in cages, but if this talking point is anything like her last on the topic, it won’t end well for her.

In fact, her claim that now Israel is locking Palestinian kids in cages already has brought a backlash against her.

It’s from World Israel News that at a rally of the Democrat Socialists of America in Texas, Cortez complained, “I don’t believe that a child should be in a cage on our border, and I don’t believe a child should be in a cage in the West Bank.”

Jesse Watters spins facts beyond recognition with claims that Hillary Clinton paid to hack and frame Trump

 https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/jesse-watters-spins-facts-beyond-recognition-with-claims-that-hillary-clinton-paid-to-hack-and-frame-trump/

Watters said, “Durham’s documents show that Hillary Clinton hired people who hacked into Trump’s home and office computers before and during his presidency, and planted evidence that he colluded with Russia … fabricated evidence connecting Trump to Russia.”

None of that is backed up by Durham’s filing, a motion over a conflict-of-interest matter in the case against an attorney linked to the Clinton campaign who was charged for lying to the FBI.

We rate Watters’ claim False.

In filing, Durham appears to distance himself from far-right theories

 https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/filing-durham-appears-distance-far-right-theories-rcna16784

What’s more, while the details get a little complicated, one of the key elements that’s emerged this week is that Trump and other GOP conspiracy theorists had a calendar problem: The relevant White House network data appeared to come from the Obama era, before Trump even took office. Durham’s filing from last week didn’t acknowledge this timeline, which led Republicans and conservative media to make assumptions that were wrong.

According to the special counsel’s new filing, Durham was exploring Mr. Sussmann’s potential conflicts of interest, one of which involved a lawyer who worked for the White House “during the relevant events that involved” the White House.

That lawyer worked in Barack Obama’s White House, not Trump’s.

Former top Trump Russia adviser details the sharp contrast between the former President and Biden

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/20/politics/fiona-hill-donald-trump-joe-biden/index.html

Fiona Hill doesn't know whether President Joe Biden can lead Western allies to ward off Russia's threat to Ukraine. But unlike his predecessor, he's trying.

At home, Trump softened Republicans' once-hawkish approach to Russia. Today, the leading Fox News hosts and other conservative voices -- "the ultimate stooges," as Hill calls them -- buttress Russian arguments as armed conflict looms.

GOP plays Ukraine blame game as pundits criticise ‘tyranny’ in Canada

 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-news-today-truth-social-jan-6-latest-b2020155.html

With Vladimir Putin taking his most concrete steps yet towards a full-on invasion of Ukraine, many Republicans are seeking to blame the crisis on Joe Biden, arguing that Russia did not invade any countries while Donald Trump was president – despite the fact that Mr Trump repeatedly sided with Mr Putin over the US’s military and intelligence agencies, disdained Nato, and attempted to extort the Ukrainian government into investigating the Biden family.

Meanwhile, many right-wing pundits are increasingly incensed by the march of “tyranny” in another country: Canada, where prime minister Justin Trudeau is cracking down harshly on truckers his protesting Covid-19 policies. Far-right agitators like Candace Owens have gone so far as to call for American intervention, while a similar trucker convoy is reportedly planned to descend on Washington in time for Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.