As you may have already seen, the world of social media has recently gone up in flames. Twitter has shut down Donald Trump’s account, Apple banned ‘Parler’, the conservative social media platform, from their app store, and WhatsApp is forcing users to adhere to obscure terms and conditions. So, does this mean all the popular social media platforms will now censor all of our content? It is scary to see how Twitter is handling the situation. Even Apple. But we’re going to focus on how what’s currently going on with WhatsApp is extremely different. With WhatsApp’s new “terms and conditions” many WhatsApp users understandably assumed that this meant WhatsApp had finally crossed a line, requiring data-sharing with no alternative.

Israel’s Health Ministry on Sunday morning recorded a record number of 993 seriously ill coronavirus patients, the largest number since the start of the pandemic, of whom 231 are ventilated. About 60 fatalities were recorded over the weekend, raising the death toll to 3,645. According to Health Ministry Deputy Director-General Prof. Itamar Grotto: “it was the worst weekend since the pandemic broke out.” “The percentage of coronavirus cases remains high,” Grotto told Radio 103FM on Sunday. “I don’t think there’s been a downward trend yet.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump unless the vice president and Cabinet invoke constitutional authority to force him out, calling Trump a threat to democracy after the deadly assault on the Capitol. Pelosi made the announcement in a letter to colleagues, framing it as an ultimatum to Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the powers of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. If not, she said, the House would proceed with impeachment. Trump could become the only president to be impeached twice.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Motzei Shabbos revealed the reason that Pfizer agreed to advance deliveries of their vaccines to Israel, allowing it to continue its lightening fast vaccination drive, the fastest and most efficient in the world. Israel, with its universal public healthcare system and its advanced technological savvy, has the unique advantage of having all its citizens’ medical data digitally stored in a centralized storage bank. Israel’s four Kupot Cholim who are in fierce competition with each other for Israelis’ loyalty, encouraging them to provide top-quality care, are now competing with each other to efficiently provide vaccines as swiftly as possible.

WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messenger that claims to have privacy coded into its DNA, is giving its 2 billion plus users an ultimatum: agree to share their personal data with the social network or delete their accounts. The requirement is being delivered through an in-app alert directing users to agree to sweeping changes in the WhatsApp terms of service. Those who don’t accept the revamped privacy policy by February 8 will no longer be able to use the app. People who object to the new terms and policy should consider using a different messenger. The move prompted calls for users to delete their WhatsApp accounts and switch to smaller encrypted messaging apps such as Signal and Telegram. THE YWN TELEGRAM CHANNEL IS UP AND RUNNING!

@realDonaldTrump, the Twitter feed that grew from the random musings of a reality TV star into the cudgel of an American president, has died. It was not quite 12 years old. The provocative handle was given birth by a New York real estate tycoon who used it to help him become the 45th U.S. president. It began with a May 4, 2009, tweet promoting Donald Trump’s upcoming appearance on David Letterman’s show. It died more than 57,000 tweets later, with Trump using some of his final postings on the powerful platform to commiserate with a pro-Trump mob that besieged the halls of Congress in a deadly assault as lawmakers were set to certify his defeat.

In the Rosh Yeshivah’s weekly sicha on Tuesday evening, HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein addressed the soaring infection rate in Israel. “The coronavirus situation had already vastly improved because we were careful,” the Rosh Yeshivah said. “But then people began to make light of it and now we have thousands of cholim. This all comes from being mezalzel the health regulations.” “This not just a matter concerning one’s own self. If [someone is not careful], he also infects and harms others – and he’s a rodeif.” “The tzibur must be stringent in adhering one hundred percent to health regulations, according to the known instructions of the doctors, to be careful and not to harm others.

*BREAKING:* President Trump on Friday said he would not attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, a break with decades of tradition as he stews over his defeat. “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted. Vice President Pence is expected to attend the event. The president’s tweet comes after he spoke at a rally Wednesday, telling supporters that he would “never concede” and repeated unsubstantiated claims that the election was “stolen” from him and that he won in a “landslide.” To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021 (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she has spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing President Donald Trump from initiating military actions or a nuclear strike. Pelosi said in a statement to colleagues that she spoke with Gen. Mark Milley “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.” She said, the situation of “this unhinged President could not be more dangerous.” Pelosi is meeting with the House Democratic caucus Friday to consider impeachment proceedings against the president.

Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney in Washington, DC, told reporters on Thursday that his office is investigating President Donald Trump’s role in inciting a frenzied mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol. Wednesday’s disruption forced the House and Senate to go into recess and lawmakers, reporters, and Hill staffers to evacuate the building, and resulted in four deaths.