The condition of Rosh Yeshivas Brisk HaGaon HaRav Meshulam Dovid Halevi Soloveitchik, who contracted the coronavirus almost two weeks ago, took a serious turn for the worse over Shabbos. The Rosh Yeshivah, 99, who initially was treated at home for COVID-19 and a lung infection, and was then transferred to Hadassah Ein Kerem when his condition worsened, was sedated and attached to a ventilator over Shabbos due to severe breathing difficulties. Many atzeret tefillos are being held throughout Eretz Yisrael and the world for the Rosh Yeshivah’s refuah. The public is asked to daven and awaken rachamei Shamyaim for the refuah of Hagaon HaRav Meshulam Dovid ben Alta Hendel b’soch shaar cholei Yisrael. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Senator Lindsey Graham backed him President trump on Fox News this Sunday morning with Maria Bartiromo. Graham appeared on Fox – which has called the election for Joe Biden – to say, “This is a contested election, the media doesn’t decide who becomes president. If they did you’d never have a Republican president forever, so we’re discounting them.” “If Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there’ll never be another Republican president elected again.” He concluded the interview by declaring, “Trump has not lost. Do not concede, Mr. President, fight hard.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States on Saturday, positioning himself to lead a nation gripped by a historic pandemic and a confluence of economic and social turmoil. His victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed processing. Biden crossed the winning threshold of 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania. Trump refused to concede, threatening further legal action on ballot counting. Biden, 77, staked his candidacy less on any distinctive political ideology than on galvanizing a broad coalition of voters around the notion that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy.

YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Hagaon HaRav David Feinstein ZATZAL, one of the Poskei Hador and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorh in the United States. He was the Rosh Yeshiva of Meshiva Tiferes Yerushalayim in the Lower East Side on Manhattan. He was 91. Rav David was born in 1929 in Lyuban, (the former USSR), and immigrated to the United States in 1936 with his father, the late Posek hador, Hagaon HaRav Moshe Feinstein ZATZAL. After the Petira of Rav Moshe in 1986, Rav David assumed the leadership of the Yeshiva. He wrote many Seforim. His Anivus was legendary, never putting on the attire worn by most Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbonim (Frock – long black jacket, and up-hat). For those that have ever visited the Yeshiva, it says it all.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden steadily gained ground on President Trump in both Pennsylvania and Georgia as more mail votes were counted Thursday and overnight into Friday, inching the former vice president closer to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Joe Biden has taken the lead in Pennsylvania over President Trump, a dramatic and potentially decisive. In the latest update, Biden got 27,396 votes, while Trump got 3,760 votes. Of the 31,412 votes that were just tallied, 87% of that vote came in for Biden. He has now taken the lead in Pennsylvania by 5,587 votes. It appears Trump will almost certainly ask for a recount in Pennsylvania – in addition to the one announced in Wisconsin.

At least one person is in custody and a weapon has been recovered during an investigation into an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center. According to WPVI, on Thursday night, cops received a tip that someone, possibly a group, was traveling from Virginia to Philadelphia in a Hummer. The tipster said the people intended to launch an attack at the convention center, the site were ballots are being counted. No one was injured and the investigation is ongoing. It was also unclear what charges, if any, the detained suspect faced. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Trump again claimed victory in the presidential race on Thursday. At the same time, he accused his critics and the media of stealing the election from him. Hundreds of thousands of legally cast votes have yet to be counted in several states, and there is not yet a winner in the race between Trump and Joe Biden. Mr. Trump spoke Thursday evening from the White House, the first time that he has addressed the public since his remarks in the early hours of Wednesday morning after election night. His campaign has brought or threatened lawsuits in several closely contested states in an attempt to stop the the counting of votes it is disputing. “If you count the legal votes I easily win,” Trump said, providing no evidence for his claim.

Biden: “In America, the vote is sacred, it’s how people express their will and it is the will of the voters, not anything else that chooses the President of the United States.” “Each ballot must be counted,” he says, adding that it “requires patience.” “We continue to feel very good about where things stands, we have no doubt when the count is finished Sen Harris and I will be declared the winners,” he says. He urges supporters to “stay calm.” “The process is working, the count is being completed.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Democratic lawmakers are urging Twitter to suspend President Trump’s account, suggesting none of his tweets should be posted until all ballots have been counted in the 2020 presidential election. The president, whose Twitter comments Wednesday complained about Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s lead among mail-in ballots and claimed victory for himself in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina before counting was finished, has been spreading “pure disinformation,” Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly said on the social media platform. “Suspend his account, @Twitter,” Connolly wrote. “Valid votes are being counted. This is America, not Russia.” Rhode Island’s Rep.

Two days after Election Day, neither candidate had amassed the votes needed to win the White House. But Biden’s victories in the Great Lakes states left him at 264, meaning he was one battleground state away – any would do – from becoming president-elect. Trump, with 214 electoral votes, faced a much higher hurdle. To reach 270, he needed to claim all four remaining battlegrounds: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada. With millions of votes yet to be tabulated, Biden already had received more than 71 million votes, the most in history. At an afternoon news conference Wednesday, the former vice president said he expected to win the presidency but stopped short of outright declaring victory.