According to the Israeli Health Ministry’s website, since midnight last night, 16,587 people were tested for Covid-19 Coronavirus and 1,060 tested positive for the virus. Since the beginning of the plague in Israel, some 94,277 people have contracted the virus. Among the 23,324 current active cases of the virus, some 399 people are in serious condition and 111 are on respirators. The number of fatalities rose by four on Monday and now stands at 692 in total since the plague began. 70,267 people have made full recoveries after having contracted the virus, with 192 of them finishing their recovery on Monday. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI has been charged with spying for China, including by disclosing secret tradecraft and information on sources to intelligence officers, according to a court documents unsealed Monday. Alexander Yuk Ching Ma is accused of revealing government secrets to Chinese intelligence officers in a hotel room in Hong Kong during a three-day period in March 2001, and of continuing to remain in touch with them even after he took a job with the FBI. Ma was charged in federal court in Honolulu with conspiring to gather and communicate national defense information for a foreign nation.

An Israeli Border Police Officer was stabbed in a terror attack in Jerusalem’s old City on Monday evening. Police say it happened near the Lions’ Gate. Magen David Adom say the border guard, 19, sustained a number of stab wounds and was taken in moderate, stable condition to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment. United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yechiel Stern, who was among the first responders at the scene of the incident relayed: “The young man was suffering from a stab wound. Together with other EMS personnel at the scene, I treated him for his injuries, after which he was transported to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for further treatment and care.

Over 50 people were shot across the city over the weekend, police said as an increase in gun violence continues. From midnight on Friday to midnight Monday morning 51 people were shot in at least 39 shootings NYPD data shows. President Donald Trump tweeted at NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio about the uptick in gun violence, Sunday night. “Law and Order. If @NYCMayor can’t do it, we will!” The crime wave caps a bloody week of 62 total shootings, up from 26 gun incidents over the same one-week period last year. STAY WITH YWN WHATSAPP FOR BREAKING UPDATES IN LIVE TIME!  YWN WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES: CLICK HERE to join the YWN WhatsApp Status. YWN WHATSAPP GROUPS: CLICK HERE to be dded to an official YWN WhatsApp Group. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Hagaon HaRav Chaim Dov Keller ZATZAL, the Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe Chicago. He was 90 years old. The Rosh Yeshiva had been on a ventilator after contacting COVID-19 in March, and unfortunately never recovered. As one of the senior roshei yeshiva in the United States, Rav Keller served as a member of the Nesius of Agudas Yisroel of America. Rav Keller was born in New York City and attended the Telshe Yeshiva after it was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 1940 by HaRav Chaim Mordechai Katz and HaRav Eliyahu Meir Bloch. Rav Keller became a student and disciple of Rav Bloch in particular.

As Elul is just around the corner, Shuls around Israel are now planning for the Yomim Noraim under COVID-19 restrictions. While the number of people allowed to attend shul was raised yesterday to 20 in an indoor space and 30 in an outdoor space, the totals are woefully low of what general occupancy is during a regular year. Tefillos are long and often crowded as many people who do not regularly attend minyanim come out in droves during the Yomim Noraim. In addition, no one is quite sure what the restrictions will be for the Yomim Tovim themselves. In all likelihood, Israel may issue another lockdown similarly to what was done over Pesach and Shavuos.

It’s been a particularly violent weekend during a historically violent summer in New York City. There were at least nine shootings in the city overnight, from Prospect Park in Brooklyn to the Lower East Side. At least 40 people have been hurt and six people were killed in the dozens of shootings this weekend. According to the NY Post, New York City’s latest bloody week of gunfire saw 76 people injured, including 14 murdered – with almost two-and-a-half times more shootings than the same week last year. STAY WITH YWN WHATSAPP FOR BREAKING UPDATES IN LIVE TIME!  YWN WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES: CLICK HERE to join the YWN WhatsApp Status. YWN WHATSAPP GROUPS: CLICK HERE to be dded to an official YWN WhatsApp Group. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

An early-morning crash in the Catskills left one person dead, and two others injured, Sunday morning. Sources tell YWN that emergency personnel received calls at round 3:40AM, reporting a vehicle that crashed on Old Glen Wild Road near Marsh Road. Upon arrival, Catskills Hatzolah found a severely damaged vehicle in a ditch, with the occupants pinned inside. One of them was in traumatic arrest. Rock Hill Fire Department performed an extended extrication of the victims, where Catskills Hatzolah Paramedics and MobileMedics began treating the victims. One of the victims was pronounced dead on the scene, and two additional victims were transported by ambulance. A chopper was requested, but was unable to fly due to the weather in the area.

A stolen SUV crashed into an MTA bus, sparking a chain-reaction crash that injured 14 people in Brooklyn Thursday evening, police said. The tan Toyota Highlander slammed into the occupied MTA bus after driving through a stop sign near East 87th Street and Avenue M in Canarsie around 6 p.m., the New York Post reported. Watch the footage below of the accident happen, and then the second video taken at the scene seconds after the crash happened. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Following the historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the UAE has unblocked phone calls to Israel and unblocked Israeli websites for the first time, Israeli officials said on Sunday. Israeli news websites that had previously been blocked by UAE authorities, like the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post and YNet, could be accessed without using means to bypass internet filtering in the Emirates. In the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, a recorded message in Arabic and English would typically play prior to Sunday saying calls to +972 numbers could not be connected. The advent of internet calling allowed people to get around the ban, though these too were often interrupted.