Ido Segev, a 31-year-old Israeli citizen, and three other people were killed on Wednesday in Australia when two small planes collided mid-air north of Melbourne, Australia. One of the planes, which belonged to a nearby flight school and held an instructor and student pilot, had taken off from Mangalore airfield and the other privately owned aircraft has taken off from a different airport. “We’re not sure why both aircraft were on the same trajectory or why they were in that area, but unfortunately they’ve collided mid-air,” Victoria Police Inspector Peter Koger said, adding that there were heavy clouds at the time of the accident and it’s possible the pilots didn’t see each other.

Attorney General William Barr has told people close to him he’s considering quitting his post after President Donald Trump wouldn’t heed his warning to stop tweeting about Justice Department cases, an administration official told The Associated Press. The revelation came days after Barr took a public swipe at the president, saying in a television interview that Trump’s tweets about Justice Department cases and staffers make it “impossible” for him to do his job. The next day, Trump ignored Barr’s request and insisted that he has the “legal right” to intervene in criminal cases and sidestep the Justice Department’s historical independence. The administration official was not authorized to discuss Barr’s private remarks and requested anonymity.

As a mysterious new virus enveloped central China’s Wuhan early this year, Liu Zhiming mobilized all the resources of his hospital in the city’s Wuchang district to deal with the thousands of sick people arriving daily, threatening to overwhelm the local health care system. That dedication appears to have cost him his life, with Wuhan’s health bureau announcing Tuesday that he became infected and died despite “all-out” attempts to save him. Liu is at least the seventh health worker to die of the COVID-19 disease among the more than 1,700 doctors and nurses who have become sick.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com “A buncha Ganoovim!” was the cry of a family friend whenever he encountered dishonesty.  And now, the Houston Astros. For years, members of various Major League baseball teams had suspected the Houston Astros of stealing signs. But it was only this past November that it was actually exposed, when journalists Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich wrote about it in the November 2019 edition of The Athletic. Pitcher Mike Fiers, who played for the Astros in 2017, told these reporters that the team used a video camera in center field to film the opposing catchers’ signs to the pitchers. Astros players and/or team staffers behind the dugout would watch the feed and then signal to the Astro’s batter as to the particular type of pitch that was coming.

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include requirements for having open competition, justifying selections and receiving all bonding from a contractor before any work can begin. The acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, is exercising authority under a 2005 law that gives him sweeping powers to waive laws for building border barriers.

The Degel Hatorah faction of UTJ is initiating a campaign to try to convince Ba’alei Teshuva and others to vote for their party in the coming weeks by bringing the chair of Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky to different cities so that people can see it. The campaign, which is being titled: “A minute with Maran” is scheduled to begin this week as the Degel HaTorah party will be transporting the chair in a caravan driven by activists from the party. The campaign is being launched after the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisroel (Admorim) has begun encouraging Admorim from different Chassidish groups to go out and speak to voters and generate support for the party as well. The chair is being used because it is the chair that the Gadol Hador sits and learns in for hours each day.

A federal judge on Tuesday refused to delay sentencing for Trump confidant Roger Stone on his conviction for witness tampering and lying to Congress. The decision by Judge Amy Berman Jackson came after President Donald Trump tweeted in defense of his longtime ally and said Stone’s conviction “should be thrown out.” Stone’s defense team has requested a new trial and on Tuesday lobbied to delay the sentencing. But with Stone present on speaker phone from his lawyer’s office, Jackson ruled that delaying the sentencing “would not be a prudent thing to do.” Stone is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. However, Jackson indicated she would delay the execution of the sentence, pending resolution of the motion for a new trial.

A special committee established in the wake of a media report two months ago that Chareidi enlistment numbers were forged to reach Chareidi recruitment objectives, will recommend foregoing mass recruitment of Chareidim among other suggestions, Haaretz reported on Tuesday morning. The committee, which was formed at the request of IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, is slated to publish its final conclusions at the end of the week. According to the report, the committee’s main recommendation will be to decrease the age that Chareidim can receive an exemption from IDF service and eventually cancel the requirement for Chareidim to wait until a certain age for army exemption altogether, in order to facilitate the integration of Charediim into the workforce.

SpaceX aims to launch up to four tourists into a super high orbit, possibly by the end of next year. The private company is working with Space Adventures Inc. for the flight, officials announced Tuesday. Ticket prices are not being divulged but expected to be in the millions. Space Adventures already has helped put tourists into orbit with trips to the International Space Station, working with the Russian space program. For this trip, paying customers will skip the space station and instead orbit two to three times higher, or roughly 500 miles to 750 miles (800 kilometers to 1,200 kilometers) above Earth. It’s a lofty goal that would approach the record 850-mile-high (1,370 kilometers) orbit achieved by Gemini 11′s Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon in 1966.

Netanel and Yaffa Issachar, the parents of Naama Issachar, who was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month for drug charges and returned to Israel after being imprisoned in Russia since April, visited the home of Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky on Monday. Yaffa Issachar met with Harav Chaim’s daughter, Rebbetzin Leah Kolodetsky. Issachar told Harav Chaim about the devotion of the shlichei Chabad in Moscow toward Naama and their family from the time of her imprisonment until her release. The Issachars received words of chizuk and a bracha to continue to strengthen Am Yisrael by serving as an example of devoted parents. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)