SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A train likely belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been parked at his compound on the country’s east coast since last week, satellite imagery showed, amid speculation about his health that has been caused, in part, by a long period out of the public eye. The satellite […]

ATLANTA (AP) — As the global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 200,000 on Saturday, countries took cautious steps toward easing lockdowns imposed amid the pandemic, but fears of a surge in infections made even some outbreak-wounded businesses reluctant to reopen. The states of Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska started loosening restrictions on businesses despite warnings […]

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Video calls weren’t really cutting it for Fiet Aussen, a 91-year-old widow who has spent the past six weeks in lockdown at this city’s Jewish nursing home. Nearly deaf, she isn’t really able to use that technology to communicate with family members, who have been unable to visit her at Beth Shalom […]

PARIS (AP) — Amazon is studying its next moves in France after an appeals court upheld a ruling saying the company hadn’t done enough to protect workers from the coronavirus. Unions in France and beyond welcomed Friday’s ruling by the appeals court in Versailles as a comeuppance for the online behemoth, and expressed hope that […]

BRUSSELS (AP) — Despite the devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Britain is making scant effort to negotiate a far-reaching free trade deal in the wake of Brexit that would stave off a costly final separation at the end of the year, the European Union said Friday. EU negotiatior Michel Barnier said his British […]

BERLIN (AP) — An Iraqi man went on trial in Frankfurt on Friday for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, on allegations that as an Islamic State member he was part of an effort to exterminate the Yazidi religious minority, and killed a five-year-old girl he purchased as a slave by chaining her in […]

NEW YORK (THE CONVERSATION/AP) During the 1970s when I was growing up in Southern California, the air was so polluted that I was regularly sent home from high school to “shelter in place.” There might not seem to be much in common between staying home due to air pollution and staying home to fight the […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors against prescribing a malaria drug widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus outside of hospitals or research settings. In an alert Friday, regulators warned of reports of serious side effects and death among patients taking hydroxychloroquine and the related […]

BNEI BRAK (VINnews) — After the Israeli health ministry refused to allow yeshivos to open in any format, the leaders of the Lithuanian community published a letter for all yeshiva and kollel students announcing the opening of the summer zman from Sunday from home. The letter stresses that all Chareidi yeshiva students should continue to […]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has caught the Chareidi public in Israel unawares. Until this point a large proportion of the public shunned the internet and found other sources for their information. The Chareidi print media and telephone news services were suitable replacements for the internet. However as the epidemic continues […]