ANTWERP ( JTA) – The mayor of Antwerp, a city in Belgium with a large haredi Orthodox Jewish community, has singled out their neighborhoods for intensive COVID-19 testing. Bart De Wever, a right-wing politician who enjoys strong support in Jewish circles, announced the plan on Thursday to carry out 6,500 tests in two neighborhoods of […]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87. King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his production company, Ora Media, tweeted. No cause of death was given, but a […]

BELGIUM (JTA) — Organizers of Belgium’s Aalst carnival have defended the mocking of Jews there as a good-natured satire at a counterculture parade that takes swipes at people of all faiths and races. But according to a recent complaint submitted to the country’s anti-racism watchdog, the man heading the event in Aalst has made classical […]

LONDON (AP) — There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death .than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday — though he stressed that the data is uncertain Patrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that […]

BNEI BRAK (VINnews) — In an unprecedented display of violence, police last night lashed out at Bnei Brak residents after a clash with a local yeshiva which was open illegally had left two policemen lightly injured. The policemen used stun grenades, batons and water cannon to target passersby and a number of journalists were attacked […]

LONDON (AP) — LONDON (AP) — Police in London said Friday that they have broken up a wedding attended by 400 people — despite a nationwide lockdown that bars households from mixing. The venue was a school whose principal died from the coronavirus last year. The Metropolitan Police force said officers found hundreds of people […]

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci says a lack of candor and facts about the coronavirus pandemic under President Donald Trump “very likely” cost lives because it delayed getting sound scientific advice to the country. “You know, it very likely did,” Fauci told CNN. “When you start talking about things that make no sense medically and […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Public health experts Thursday blamed COVID-19 vaccine shortages around the U.S. in part on the Trump administration’s push to get states to vastly expand their vaccination drives to reach the nation’s estimated 54 million people age 65 and over. The push that began over a week ago has not been accompanied by […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a burst of executive orders, President Joe Biden served notice Thursday that the nation’s COVID-19 response is under new management and he’s demanding progress to reduce infections and lift the siege Americans have endured for nearly a year. The 10 orders signed by Biden are aimed at jump starting his national […]

NEW YORK (JTA/VINnews) – A Chabad rabbi who is believed to be among the longest hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the country has died. Rabbi Yehuda Dukes, who inspired thousands around the world with his unshakable faith as he battled COVID 19, passed away on Thursday at the age of 39. His wife Sarah posted on […]