WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump said Monday his administration will ask Congress to pass payroll tax relief, as he looks to calm financial markets’ fears over the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Trump told reporters that the administration was seeking “very substantial relief.” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow, the director of the […]

ROME (AP) — More than half of the world’s countries have now reported a combined total of more than 110,000 cases of the new coronavirus. While most of the people infected so far — 62,000 — have recovered from the disease, the fast-spreading virus created spikes in deaths and infections around the world, including in […]

JERUSALEM (JNS) — Amidst the world-wide tourism slowdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, Israel Hotel Association (IHA) president Amir Hayek warned on Monday that the hotel industry is “on the brink of collapse.” “Mass layoffs and hotels closing down” lie ahead, said Hayek, adding that 4,000 of the 41,000 workers in the hotel industry have […]

NEW YORK (VINnews) – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Cotton “is going to be on quarantine” and will be working at home, Cuomo said at a press briefing. The team […]

NEW ROCHELLE (CHABAD.ORG) — When Rochel Butman of Chabad-Lubavitch of New Rochelle, N.Y., learned that the COVID-19 coronavirus was at her doorstep last week, her mind buzzed. “What will be with Purim?” she asked herself. A joyous holiday full of family cheer, synagogue get-togethers and gifting food packages to one another all day long, Purim […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Capitol’s attending physician’s office said Monday that “several” members of Congress had contact with a person who attended a recent political conference and subsequently developed COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. In a note to lawmakers, the attending physician’s office said the ill individual had recalled “specific names of […]

NEW YORK (THE CONVERSATION-AP) The Harvard historian Jill Lepore recounted recently in The New Yorker magazine that when democracies sink into crisis, the question “where are we going?” leaps to everyone’s mind, as if we were waiting for a weather forecast to tell us how healthy our democracy was going to be tomorrow. Quoting Italian […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The two top Democratic leaders in Congress are calling on President Donald Trump to support a series of steps to help Americans deal with the coronavirus outbreak — from paid sick leave to widespread and free testing and other moves. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday he will remain at his home in Texas after learning that he shook hands and briefly chatted with a man in suburban Washington who has tested positive for coronavirus. In a statement, Cruz said he met the man 10 days ago at the Conservative Political Action […]

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel could soon require anyone arriving in the country to self-quarantine, as the number of Israelis affected by the virus climbed to 39. Reports had suggested that a quarantine requirement was under consideration for travelers arriving in Israel from several high-infection areas of the United […]