Former Vice President Joe Biden will win the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, Fox News can project — a crucial first victory that gives Biden’s struggling campaign a much-needed boost ahead of Super Tuesday. The win could help Biden reset the race after Sanders racked up wins in New Hampshire and Nevada and essentially tied the Iowa caucuses. The results had led to speculation that Sanders may soon be unstoppable on his path to the Democratic nomination, as well as questions over whether Biden could resurrect his campaign after the former front-runner failed to win any of the first three states on the calendar. Sanders, meanwhile, is currently in second place in South Carolina, ahead of billionaire Tom Steyer. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a global run on sales of face masks despite evidence that most people who aren’t sick don’t need to wear them. Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy. Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers don’t gouge panicked buyers. In South Korea, hundreds lined up to buy masks from a discount store. Rumors that toilet paper and napkins could be used as masks have emptied store shelves in Asia of paper goods over the past few weeks. People trying to protect themselves from the outbreak and medical centers alike are facing shortages.

Israeli researchers are weeks away from developing a vaccine against COVID-19, Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis stated, adding that the vaccine could be ready within three weeks and enter the marketplace 90 days later. “Congratulations to MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. “I’m confident that there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat.” Scientists at the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute have been developing a vaccine for four years against a coronavirus in poultry called infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and recently proved its effectiveness in clinical trials.

Israel became the first country on Wednesday to advise its citizens to halt all unnecessary travel abroad in light of the recent alarming spread of the coronavirus in countries outside China, including South Korea, Italy, Germany and other European countries and the first case diagnosed in Latin America in Brazil. “If you don’t genuinely have to fly – don’t do so,” Israel’s Health Ministry said. Following the Health Ministry’s announcement, El Al airline stated that Israel’s unprecedented warnings and restrictions against travel due to the coronavirus – stricter than any other country – will bring it and other Israeli airlines to financial collapse. “It’s a catastrophe,” an El Al official told Kan News. “The airlines here will collapse within weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank nearly 1,200 points Thursday, deepening a weeklong global market rout caused by worries that the coronavirus outbreak will wreak havoc on the global economy. Bond prices soared again, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury to another record low. When yields fall it’s a sign that investors are feeling less confident about the strength of the economy going forward. “People can demand things that feel safe for irrational amounts of time,” said Katy Kaminski, chief research strategist at AlphaSimplex Group. “It doesn’t matter, the fundamentals, when people are worried.” The latest losses extended a slide in stocks that has wiped out the solid gains the major indexes had posted early this year.

A website called “סכנה מביתנו” (“Danger from [Yisrael] Beiteinu]” is beginning to scare Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman. The website, run by former Russian refusenik Natalia Rotenberg, opens the Hebrew-speaking public’s eyes to the depths that Liberman is willing to descend to garner votes and reveals how radically different Yisrael Beiteinu’s election campaign in Russian is than its Hebrew one. It reveals the depth of his incitement – actually criminal in nature – against the Chareidi population and aimed at the lowest elements of society. Rotenberg’s website translates Yisrael Beiteinu’s appalling propaganda against Chareidim from Russian to Hebrew.

The first case of an Israeli diagnosed with the coronavirus who was not in quarantine was confirmed on Thursday in a man who returned from Italy on Sunday, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday morning. He was on El Al flight LY 382 from Milan, which landed at 4:10 p.m. on Sunday at Ben Gurion Airport, the ministry says. The confirmation of the virus in an Israeli who has been in contact with others for four days before being diagnosed raises fears that he may have spread the virus to others before being diagnosed and significantly increases the risk of the coronavirus spreading in Israel. The Health Ministry is contacting everyone they know to have been in contact with the man since he returned from Italy and instructing them to self-quarantine at home.

The Jerusalem-based Rabbi David Rosen was invited to Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh last week as part of an interfaith meeting known as KAICIID.  Rabbi Rosen, representing the Jewish faith, together with eight other members of the KAICIID board of governors representing other religions, were hosted by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. The king hosted the group at his formal residence and royal palace on Thursday. Rabbi David Rosen is a leading figure in interfaith cooperation and is also an Israeli citizen making his meeting with the king even more unique.

Yisrael Katzover, a senior journalist who covered the IDF for several decades for numerous Israeli newspapers and media channels was interviewed by Chabad many years ago about his many encounters throughout the years with the Lubavitcher Rebbe to receive advice and instructions about his work. One of the stories he told was a fascinating encounter with former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who passed away on Tuesday. “I visited Egypt 11 times and I had meetings with Hosni Mubarak many times during these visits.

Over a thousand women came to the Kosel early Wednesday morning for Rosh Chodesh Adar davening, filling the entire ezras nashim and forcing the “Women of the Wall” to remain outside the plaza. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Women of the Wall from again treating a Sefer Torah in a non-dignified manner by smuggling it into the Kosel plaza, which is against the law – the second month in a row they have done so. “No one will prevent us from expressing feminine voices at the Kosel and davening at the makom ha’mikdash,” said Yochi Rappeport, Executive Director of Women of the Wall. On the positive side, a special guest, the Rav of Tzfat, Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, was present for the joyous singing and dancing in celebration of Rosh Chodesh Adar.