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March 2, 2021 at 9:25 pm
All three are members of one family, Health Ministry says, adding 2 cases of UK variant found as well
The COVID-19 coronavirus strain found in New York since last November has made its way into Israel, the Health Ministry warned on Tuesday.
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In a statement, the ministry confirmed the earlier reports in the Israeli media, saying that three cases of the B.1.526 strain had been found in the Jewish state.
All three infections were registered in members of one and the same family, it clarified.
Previously, Channel 12 reported that the strain...
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March 2, 2021 at 9:22 pm
Likud party still polling at top with 27-28 mandates three weeks prior to March's election
With Israeli elections looming, the two latest polls released Tuesday night showed that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still short of the required 61 parliament seats to form a government.
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A potential pro-Netanyahu coalition consisting of Likud, ultra-Orthodox parties and Religious Zionism party, together with Yamina (undecided in regards to joining Netanyahu), would secure 57 to 59 seats if elections were held today, broadcasters&...
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March 2, 2021 at 9:19 pm
Ex-Prime Minister Albin Kurti won recent snap elections that could also affect Serbia ties
Recently re-elected Kosovan ex-Prime Minister Albin Kurti, met with Turkey's ambassador in the capital Pristina on Monday, discussing numerous topics including the decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
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On February 1, Kosovo established diplomatic ties with Israel and decided to open an embassy in Jerusalem - becoming the first European country and Muslim-majority one to make such plans. It followed the US and Guatemala in doing so.
The intent...
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March 2, 2021 at 9:16 pm
Vienna, Copenhagen are angry at the slow rollout of COVID-19 shots within the 27-nation supranational bloc
Austria and Denmark announced Tuesday that they will form an alliance with Israel to produce second-generation vaccines against mutations of the coronavirus, reported Reuters.
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Vienna and Copenhagen have become increasingly irritated at the slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the 27-nation supranational European Union bloc, causing them to break ranks with Brussels.
Delays in ordering, approving and distributing vaccines largely due to...
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March 2, 2021 at 9:13 pm
The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to confirm Cecilia Rouse as President Biden’s top White House economist.
Senators voted 95-4 in favor of Rouse’s nomination to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA). GOP Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) and Rick Scott (Fla.) voted against her.
Rouse most recently served as dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and was a member of former President Obama’s CEA. She received wide bipartisan praise throughout her nomination process and was unanimously recommended for confirmation by the Senate Banking Committee on Feb. 4.
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March 2, 2021 at 9:11 pm
Neera Tanden has withdrawn her nomination to head President Biden's White House budget office after her prospects of Senate confirmation flamed out.
The White House made the announcement on Tuesday evening, capping a tumultuous few weeks surrounding the fight over her nomination.
Tanden, who would have been the first woman of color to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), faced scrutiny over mean tweets she had written about Republicans and progressive Democrats alike in her previous role heading the Center for American Progress think tank.
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March 2, 2021 at 9:07 pm
Following Monday’s news that the Israeli Supreme Court has issued a landmark ruling allowing converts through the Reform and Conservative streams to apply for Israeli citizenship, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, issued the following statement:“Israel today is a country of the first world to which millions of citizens of third world nations aspire to emigrate. The liberalization of the conversion process to non-official rabbinical courts, whether Orthodox or others, might bring millions of people from different countries to Israel as tourists, go through a pro-forma conversion and dilute the character of the only Jewish state in the world."
More than a month ago, the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) released a statement&n...
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March 2, 2021 at 9:04 pm
Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, apologized in an exclusive statement to the Forward for offensive remarks she made against the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.
In a February interview with the Gothamist, a local New York website, Lerner characterized the Orthodox community as an ‘extremist bloc.’ Her comments were widely condemned by city politicians, including Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“In public debate, voters are best served when an argument is about how to solve problems, not labeling the people involved on either side,” Lerner said in a statement on Tuesday. “I apologize for causing anyone offense.”
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March 2, 2021 at 9:04 pm
More than 11 million families are at risk of losing housing when federal coronavirus eviction and foreclosure protections expire later this year, according to a report released Monday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Analyzing private sector and federal data, the CFPB found that 2.1 million homeowners are at least 90 days behind on mortgage payments and 8.8 million households are behind on rent.
Some homeowners and renters who’ve been unable to cover housing payments due to coronavirus-related expenses have been able to avoid homelessness thanks to a patchwork of federal and state bans on evictions and foreclosures. Millions of homeowners have also opted into forbearance to delay mortgage payments for several months.
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March 2, 2021 at 5:31 pm
Two Taiwanese-American members of Congress have joined the leadership of its anti-Semitism task force.
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Reps. Grace Meng of New York and Ted Lieu of California, both Democrats, were listed among eight-co-chairs of the Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism in a release Monday, the first for the new Congress. The task force has over 100 members from the U.S. House of Representatives.
The newcomers replace two Jewish members, also Democrats, in leadership positions: Nita Lowey of New York, who retired, and Eliot Engel of New York, who lost in a primary...
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March 2, 2021 at 5:28 pm
Gov. Tate Reeves is lifting mask mandates and allowing businesses to operate at full capacity without any state-imposed rules.
The governor’s latest executive order replaces the one that expires at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
"Today, I signed what I expect will be one of my last executive orders regarding COVID-19. Our hospitalizations have plummeted, and our case numbers have fallen dramatically as well. In fact, our case numbers have fallen to the point where no county meets the original criteria for a mask mandate," Reeves said during a briefing Tuesday.
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March 2, 2021 at 4:56 pm
The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill on Monday that would make future mask mandates illegal.
The Grand Forks Herald reported that the bill passed 50-44. It next heads to the state Senate.
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The bill comes three months after North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) imposed a statewide mask mandate, though the governor himself had previously expressed skepticism over such a move.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Jeff Hoverson (R), called mask mandates “diabolical silliness,” characterizing them as a consp...
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March 2, 2021 at 4:54 pm
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) said on Tuesday that he is “actively exploring” a run for New York governor as Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) faces mounting calls for his resignation.
In a tweet, Zeldin cited the ongoing controversy over Cuomo’s role in withholding data on coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes, as well as mounting allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women, as the impetus for a potential campaign.
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“With his nursing home cover-up & abuse coming more to light, it's clear #CuomosGotta...
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March 2, 2021 at 4:50 pm
President Biden on Tuesday said that the United States will have enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all American adults for coronavirus by the end of May, crediting a “stepped up process” under his administration.
Biden made the announcement while outlining a partnership between Merck and Johnson & Johnson to produce the latter’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine.
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“We’re now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May,” Biden said in remarks Tuesday afternoon at the White House. &ld...
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March 2, 2021 at 4:47 pm
The deal would roll back broad powers granted to the governor in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic
Legislators from New York's Assembly and state Senate struck a deal Tuesday to strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo of his pandemic-linked emergency powers and return matters like lockdowns to local control.
The deal would reverse emergency powers granted to Cuomo exactly a year ago, in the early days of the COVID pandemic, that gave him free rein to order measures like quarantines.
“I think everyone understands where we were back in March and where we are now. We certainly see the need for a quick response but also want to move toward a system of increased oversight, and review. The public deserves to have checks and balances. Our proposal would create a system with increased inp...
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March 2, 2021 at 4:36 pm
Construction is due to begin in 2025 on the world’s first “space hotel” in low Earth orbit that will include restaurants, a movie theater, spa and rooms for some 400 guests, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
Named the Voyager Station, the complex could be operational as early as 2027. Developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the project will be a large circle and rotate to generate artificial gravity similar to that of the Moon’s.
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The plan is to construct the inner spinning wheel using robots in Earth orbit, with...
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March 2, 2021 at 4:36 pm
The United States “enthusiastically embraces” the working definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), the Jewish Insider reported on Monday.
The outlet was able to obtain a letter penned by Blinken to American Zionist Movement President Richard Heideman.
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It cited Blinken as saying that stressing the long-running ties between Israel and the US and affirming Washington’s commitment to fighting Israel’s delegitimization.
Blinken also reiterated the belief in a two-state solu...
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March 2, 2021 at 4:32 pm
Former Trump attorney and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was recently suspended from posting to YouTube for making unfounded claims about last year’s presidential election.
Giuliani in videos had falsely claimed the race was stolen, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
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A spokeswoman for YouTube said in a statement to The Hill that the attorney’s channel will be blocked from posting content for two weeks for violating its “election integrity policy.” The platform also said it removed content from the channel for violatin...
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March 2, 2021 at 3:24 pm
Texas Governor Greg Abbott made the “statewide announcement” Tuesday afternoon that it’s time to open Texas 100% and he ended the mask mandate.
“Under no circumstance can someone be punished for not wearing a mask,” said Gov. Abbott.
By next Wednesday, March 2 all business of any time can open at 100% and ending statewide mask mandate.
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He made the announcement from Lubbock on the same day Texas reported a new one day record for the number of people receiving vaccines—more than 216,000.
“Within a few months, experts ...
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March 2, 2021 at 3:23 pm
Forty-one percent of voters said they are not willing to get the coronavirus vaccine, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill on Monday.
The same survey found that 59 percent of respondents said they were willing to receive the vaccine.
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Among those who said they were unwilling to get the vaccine, 66 percent said they were concerned about side effects, while another 33 percent said they did not believe it was effective. Twenty-seven percent said they were not concerned about the virus, 23 percent said it should go to more a...
