Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy signed an order on Friday designating all countries as “red,” forcing all Israeli travelers to enter quarantine upon arriving back in Israel, Channel 12 News reported. The new orders apply to only three countries that were designated “green” until now, the United Arab Emirates, Seychelles and Rwanda. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been traveling to Dubai in recent weeks, with about 70,000 said to have visited just over Chanukah. Many of them participated in gatherings with little or no social distancing and in fact, dozens of Israelis were forced to enter quarantine in Dubai last week after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China — not Russia — may be behind the cyberattack against the United States and tried to minimized its impact. In his first comments on the breach, Trump scoffed at the focus on the Kremlin and downplayed the intrusions, which the nation’s cybersecurity agency has warned posed a “grave” risk to government and private networks. “The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control,” Trump tweeted. He also claimed the media are “petrified” of “discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).” There is no evidence to suggest that is the case.

New York City’s Department of Investigation identified several deficiencies in the NYPD’s response to the protests and violence in the spring, “that undermined public confidence in the NYPD’s discharge of its responsibility to protect the rights of citizens to engage in lawful protest.” The DOI identified these key areas: – The NYPD lacked a clearly defined strategy tailored to respond to the large-scale protests of police and policing – The NYPD’s use of force and certain crowd control tactics to respond to the Floyd protests produced excessive enforcement that contributed to heightened tensions. – Some policing decisions relied on intelligence without sufficient consideration of context or proportionality.

Hagaon HaRav Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel traveled to Dubai on Thursday in the first-ever visit by a sitting chief rabbi to an Arab country. He is scheduled to remain in the United Arab Emirates until Sunday. During his visit, HaRav Yosef plans to attend a ceremony building a mikvah and dedicate a new Shul in Abu Dhabi. He will also meet with senior Emirati officials, and inaugurate a newly certified Jewish (children’s) school On Friday HaRav Yosef visited the first Kosher restaurant of the UAE at the Armani in the Burj Khalifa. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

President Donald Trump’s expected move to his Mar-a-Lago club after he leaves office next month is being challenged by a lawyer who says a 1990s agreement allowing Trump to convert the Florida property into a business prohibits anyone from living there, including him. Attorney Reginald Stambaugh sent a letter this week to the Town of Palm Beach saying he represents a neighbor who doesn’t want the president to take up residence at the 17-acre property because it would decrease the area’s property values. He also asserts that a microwave security barrier operated by the Secret Service is harming his client, who he says is exhibiting symptoms of microwave exposure. He did not give the client’s name.

Chevra Hatzalah, the largest volunteer ambulance corps in the United States, is pleased to announce the hiring of Rabbi Yehiel Kalish, as CEO. The Board’s choice follows a comprehensive, nationwide search that attracted significant interest from a diverse pool of impressive candidates. Rabbi Kalish brings twelve years’ experience as Vice President for Development and State Regulations at Agudath Israel of America. Following his tenure at Agudath Israel, he was the CEO of the S4 Group, a highly successful government and business consulting firm. The last two years he has served as a member of the General Assembly for the 16th District of the State of Illinois. “Our search for CEO focused on two key priorities,” says Mr. Isaac Stern, Member of the Executive Board.

Vice President Mike Pence was vaccinated for COVID-19 on Friday in a live-television event aimed at reassuring Americans the vaccine is safe. In remarks after his shot, Pence called the speed with which the vaccine was developed “a medical miracle.” “The American people can be confident: we have one and perhaps within hours two” safe vaccines,” Pence said, referring to expected FDA approval for Moderna’s vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine was the first to be approved. “Building confidence in the vaccine is what brings us here this morning,” he added. Pence’s wife Karen and Surgeon General Jerome Adams also received shots during the televised White House event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

New Jersey lawmakers passed a measure Thursday setting up a recreational marijuana marketplace, sending the legislation to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who is expected to sign the bill. The Democrat-led Assembly and Senate passed the bill during remote sessions because of the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation now goes to Murphy, who along with lawmakers reached an agreement on the legislation earlier this month. He’s expected to to sign the bill, though it’s unclear when. New Jersey joins 15 other states and the District of Columbia with recreational marijuana. Voters in New Jersey overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in November allowing for recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older. The amendment takes effect Jan. 1.

Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show. Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. While the purpose of the building remains unclear, any work at Fordo likely will trigger new concern in the waning days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Already, Iran is building at its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion in July there that Tehran described as a sabotage attack.

Rav Yerachmiel Gorelik, a Chabad shaliach in the Siberian city of Tyumen, was interviewed last week on the first night of Chanukah by Israel’s Channel 13 News about the giant ice menorah he commissioned for Chanukah. The menorah is 13 feet tall, bigger than a similar ice menorah commissioned by the Chabad shaliach in the Siberian city of Tomsk, which is a “mere” ten feet tall. Dozens of workers in Tyumen toiled for two and a half days before Chanukah to build the giant menorah, using water instead of glue in the freezing Siberian cold. The menorah is formed out of blocks of ice, each weighing 264 pounds, and the menorah itself weighs 2.5 tons. No one would have imagined the television interview’s unlikely ending, which Rav Gorelik shared with Channel 13 this week.