The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on three senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party, including a member of the ruling Politburo, for alleged human rights abuses targeting ethnic and religious minorities that China has detained in the western part of the country. The decision to bar these senior officials from entering the U.S. is the latest of a series of actions the Trump administration has taken against China as relations deteriorate over the coronavirus pandemic, human rights, Hong Kong and trade. Just a day earlier, the administration had announced visa bans against officials deemed responsible for barring foreigners’ access to Tibet. Thursday’s step, however, hits a more senior level of leadership and is likely to draw a harsh response from Beijing.

A Chareidi man was saved from drowning on Thursday afternoon on the Kinneret after he was pulled from the water by United Hatzalah’s rescue boat. The boat which patrols the western side of the Kinneret surrounding Tiveria on a daily basis during the swimming season works in conjunction with the maritime police on the sea to rescue swimmers who are often dragged into the middle of the lake by a strong undertow. On Thursday afternoon Yossi Vaknin, head of the Tiveria chapter of United Hatzalah and skipper of the rescue boat noticed a floating ring that was spinning some distance away from the shore. “I saw the flotation device spinning and I steered the rescue boat in that direction.

Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals on the heels of a newspaper photo showing him eating at a Manhattan restaurant weeks after being released from prison into home confinement. His attorney told NBC News that his detention could be connected to a photo of him that appeared on the front page of The New York Post eating outside his Manhattan residence, where he was supposed to be under home confinement. Cohen was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal jail, NBC News reported. Cohen was recently released from prison after raising concerns he could catch the coronavirus. (AP)

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published an epidemiological investigation earlier this month showing how one woman unwittingly infected 71 people, CNN reported. On March 19, the woman returned from a trip to the United States to her home in the Heilongjiang Province in China, where the last coronavirus case had been diagnosed a week earlier. The woman, who had no symptoms of the virus, was tested and the results were negative but she was asked to quarantine at home anyway. The woman followed orders and everything was seemingly fine. But as the epidemiological investigation showed later, things were far from fine. It began with a man unconnected to the woman who suffered a stroke.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio says the state attorney general’s recommendation to have a commission oversee the city’s police department “just won’t work.” “In terms of that particular proposal, I don’t think it will work. I think it would be counterproductive,” de Blasio said Thursday. New York State Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the NYPD’s recent interactions with protesters and shared her preliminary findings Wednesday. “The police should not police themselves, period. It requires change, and it requires reform, and it requires transparency and accountability,” she said. “At this point in time, why is this one agency treated so differently than all of the others?” Among her recommendations, James called for a separate commission to appoint the police commissioner.

The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered split opinions in two cases over whether President Donald Trump can shield his tax records from investigators, handing a win to the Manhattan district attorney but rejecting parallel efforts by Democrats in the House of Representatives. The justices ruled President Trump is not immune from New York’s subpoena — but prosecutors will not get documents now. They also blocked Congress from getting the President’s records for now, sending a controversial case back down to the lower court for further review. Each of the two opinions were 7-2, with Chief Justice John Roberts and both of Trump’s appointees — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — joining the liberal justices.

The number of coronavirus patients in Israel increased by 1,231 in the previous 24 hours as of Thursday morning, with active patients now totaling 15,209, of whom 118 are seriously ill and 41 are ventilated. There are 426 virus patients currently hospitalized. Another two deaths were recorded, raising the death toll to 346. The Ministerial Committee on Restricted Zones is convening on Thursday to deliberate placing restrictions on another nine areas including a full lockdown of the cities of Modiin Illit and Ramle, an extension of the lockdown of neighborhoods in Ashdod and Lod, a lockdown of neighborhoods in Kiryat Malachi, Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem, restrictions on the city of Bnei Brak and increased testing in Ra’anana.

A massive yellow mural spelling “Black Lives Matter” was painted In the middle of 5th Avenue between 56th and 57th Street in the shadow of Trump Tower, Thursday morning. Joining the organizers to fill in the yellow paint, was the Socialist NYC Mayor, Bill DeBlasio. He was joined by “Reverend” Al Sharpton, one of the biggest anti-Semites NYC has ever seen. Responding to President Trump’s remarks last week where he said a Black Lives Matter mural will denigrate the luxury of 5th Ave, DeBlasio said the mural is “liberating 5th Avenue… we are uplifting 5th Avenue”. For those that are unaware, or need a reminder, Shaprton is the rabid anti-Semite, who fueled the Crown Heights riots 27 years ago that ended with the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum HY”D.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com Photograph by Harry Green – Los Angeles, CA – 2020.  Rav Simcha Wasserman zt”l (1899-1992) was the son of Rav Elchonon Wasserman zt”l and was told to stay in the United States to improve the level of Chinuch in America.  He established Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in Los Angeles and helped create a Torah infrastructure on the west coast. There are times, such as Mitzvah HaBa B’aveirah, where even though a stolen item may be technically permitted – one should still be concerned about our children learning from us – and we should rather distance ourselves as much as possible from even an appearance of theft [see Sukkah 30a].