About 3,700 people – 2,666 passengers and  1,045 crew members – aboard the Japanese cruise ship “Diamond Princess” anchored off Yokohama port near Tokyo are being quarantined on the ship for two weeks, including 15 – 17 Israelis, after ten passengers were found to be infected with the coronavirus. The ten passengers, covered in white sheets to hide their identity, were transferred by Japanese health workers from the cruise ship to a Japanese coast guard boat which took them to a dock, where they were evacuated to a hospital by ambulances. Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated on Wednesday: “This information is based, among other things, on a briefing held by the Japanese Foreign Ministry for foreign representatives in Tokyo and received from Israeli consul Revital Ben-Naim.

After lots of effort to shut down a vile anti-Semitic Facebook page operating in Ocean County (near Lakewood), New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal today announced that Rise Up Ocean County has been shut down permanently. “We just learned that Facebook has decided to take down the public page on the company’s social network called ‘Rise Up Ocean County.’ Facebook’s action comes ten months after the Director of our Division on Civil Rights, Rachel Wainer Apter, first sent a letter to Facebook expressing concerns about racist and anti-Semitic statements on the page.

Joe Biden’s third presidential bid enters a critical stretch after a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses sent the former vice president on to New Hampshire with a skittish donor base, low cash reserves and the looming threat of billionaire rival Michael Bloomberg and his unlimited personal wealth. In New Hampshire on Tuesday, Biden insisted he had a “good night” in Iowa even as he trailed the top moderate candidate, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and the leading progressive, Bernie Sanders, according to initial returns from 71% of precincts. Biden was running fourth, close to Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who just days ago polled in single digits.

American Airlines said Tuesday it has suspended flights to Hong Kong through Feb. 20 due to weak demand , and United Airlines will do the same next weekend. Interest in travel to Hong Kong was already weakened by months of anti-government protests in the city, and has fallen off more recently as the coronavirus outbreak spreads in China. On Tuesday, officials in Hong Kong reported the first death from the virus in the semi-autonomous territory, fanning fear that the virus is spreading locally. China reported 425 deaths and more than 20,000 confirmed cases, up sharply from figures the day before.

IDF fighter aircraft attacked Hamas terror targets in the southern Gaza Strip overnight on Tuesday, following three rockets launched toward Netivot after midnight on Tuesday night as well as a series of explosive balloons launched into Israel throughout the day on Tuesday. “In response to rockets and explosive balloons launched from Gaza into Israel over the last day, our Air Force just struck a number of Hamas terror targets in Gaza,” the IDF stated a little after 2 a.m. Tuesday night. “A manufacturing site for weapons which belongs to Hamas was attacked, reducing the capabilities of Hamas.” “The attack was carried out in response to high altitude fire and explosive balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory today. We hold Hamas responsible.

Rav Shimon Zeffren zt”l Dinner and Sefer Torah Campaign Continuing in Memory of the Beloved Montreal Rosh Yeshiva On Friday night, the 7th of Teves, Rav Shimon Zeffren’s holy neshamah was taken by the One Above, plunging talmidim and admirers into mourning. The heart that pulsated with ahavas haTorah, ahavas Hashem and ahavas talmidim ceased to beat. It was hard to fathom. How could it be? What was there to say? It was just a number of months ago that Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal, a bastion of Torah in Québec’s largest city, launched its Beacon Through Time campaign to mark 50 years of dedication to the yeshiva by the rosh yeshiva, Rav Shimon Zeffren.

Monday night could not have gone better for online troublemakers who have spent years propagating false or misleading conspiracy theories on the internet that the U.S. election is rigged or vulnerable to tampering. The delayed election results from the Iowa caucuses revealed some Democratic candidates’ supporters are so distrustful of the outcome that they peppered the internet with unproven claims that accused the Democratic Party of corruption by attempting to tilt the election in favor of a single candidate. President Donald Trump and his supporters seized on that distrust by sending tweets Monday night with #RiggedElection. Trump’s own sons shouted “Rigged!” at an Iowa campaign event. And Republican Sen.

Text of President Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, as delivered, provided by the White House: Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States and my fellow citizens: Three years ago, we launched the great American comeback. Tonight, I stand before you to share the incredible results. Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is surging, and our country is thriving and highly respected again. America’s enemies are on the run, America’s fortunes are on the rise, and America’s future is blazing bright. The years of economic decay are over. The days of our country being used, taken advantage of, and even scorned by other nations are long behind us.

Twitter will begin to label and in some cases remove doctored or manipulated photos, audio and videos that are designed to mislead people. The company said Tuesday that the new rules prohibit sharing synthetic or manipulated material that’s likely to cause harm. Material that is manipulated but isn’t necessarily harmful may get a warning label. Under the new guidelines, the slowed-down video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which she appeared to slur her words could get the label if someone tweets it out after the rules go into effect March 5. If it was proven that it also causes harm, Twitter could also remove it. But deciding what might cause harm could be difficult to define, and some material will likely fall into a gray area.

Would-be plotters bent on staging an attack aboard a passenger plane know they’ve first got to pass through a gauntlet of security measures at an airport, from body scans and spot interrogations to pat-downs and even close scrutiny of their shoes. But a shooting that killed a person and wounded five this week on a Greyhound bus in California illustrates a stark reality about security on buses and trains: Anyone determined to carry out an attack on ground transportation faces few, if any, security checks. The comparative scant security prompted at least one survivor of Monday’s shooting on the bus heading from Los Angeles to San Francisco to rethink his future mode of travel. “I think I will just fly from now on,” Mark Grabban said.