President Trump on Friday announced that new Centers for Disease Control guidance will classify houses of worship as “essential,” as he called on governors to allow them to open “right now” after being closed during the coronavirus lockdowns. Trump announced the policy for churches, synagogues and mosques, during a short briefing at the White House. “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now–for this weekend,” Trump said. “If they don’t do it I will override the governors.” “In America, we need more prayer not less,” Trump said.

Joe Biden’s campaign wouldn’t let reporters listen to a question-and-answer session during a virtual fundraiser with Wall Street donors on Thursday night, a break from its usual procedures and from the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s past pronouncements about promoting transparency. The former vice president’s campaign suggested that such press limits would be common going forward as Biden prepares to square off with President Donald Trump in November. “Tonight’s event was a new format as we enter a new phase of the general election campaign,” Rufus Gifford, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, said in a statement.

As the spread of the coronavirus in Israel continues to dramatically decrease, with only 18 new cases in the past 24 hours and no new fatalities, the ban on non-citizens from entering Israel that was imposed as the coronavirus pandemic began has been extended until at least mid-June. Israeli citizens returning from abroad will still be required to self-quarantine for two weeks until at least June 14 as well. The ban was originally set to last until May 30. The Israel Airports Authority informed airlines of its decision on Wednesday, a Globes report said. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

More than 4,300 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York’s already vulnerable nursing homes under a controversial state directive that was ultimately scrapped amid criticisms it was accelerating the nation’s deadliest outbreaks, according to a count by The Associated Press. AP compiled its own tally to find out how many COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals to nursing homes under the March 25 directive after New York’s Health Department declined to release its internal survey conducted two weeks ago. It says it is still verifying data that was incomplete. Whatever the full number, nursing home administrators, residents’ advocates and relatives say it has added up to a big and indefensible problem for facilities that even Gov.

The Ayelet Hashachar organization calls on Israeli Jews to support their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora during this global crisis.This Shavuos we daven for you, our brothers and sisters in the diaspora.We will say a special Tefila for you from Eretz Yisroel.

A passenger plane with 107 people on board crashed in a crowded neighborhood on the edge of the international airport near Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday after what appeared to be an engine failure during landing. Mayor Wasim Akhtar said at least five or six houses were destroyed in the crash of the domestic flight operated by Pakistan International Airlines. He said all those on board died, but two civil aviation officials later said that at least two people survived the crash. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. Local TV stations reported that three people sitting in the front row of the aircraft survived and aired footage of a man on a stretcher they identified as Zafar Masood, the head of the Bank of Punjab.

Statement from Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Far Rockaway, NY: Our plans are tentative at this point. Although we operate a program every July known as Oraysa, which is a study-and-recreation program for our own high school and post-high school seminary students, our current plans relate to our seminary students (18+ years old) only. We have conducted extensive discussions with the NYS Department of Health about allowing a group of approximately 100 of our adult students – all of our seminary students are 18 years of age or older – to spend part of June and the month of July in seclusion at our Woodbourne property. The purpose would be to study and pray together for seven days a week on our expansive grounds. All of the students would sleep on the grounds as well.

The family of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi announced on Friday they have forgiven his Saudi killers, giving legal reprieve to five government agents who had been sentenced to death for an operation that cast a cloud of suspicion over the kingdom’s crown prince. “We, the sons of the martyr Jamal Khashoggi, announce that we forgive those who killed our father as we seek reward from God Almighty,” wrote one of his sons, Salah Khashoggi, on Twitter. Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia and has received financial compensation from the royal court for his father’s killing, explained that forgiveness was extended to the killers during the last nights of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in line with Islamic tradition to offer pardons in cases allowed by Islamic law.

Iran’s supreme leader on Friday called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed” in an annual speech in support of the Palestinians, renewing threats against Iran’s Mideast enemy. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech marked a subdued Quds Day for Iran, which typically sees government-encouraged mass demonstrations in Tehran and elsewhere in the Islamic Republic, as well as Iranian-allied nations. “Al-Quds” is the Arabic name for Jerusalem. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Iran largely asked demonstrators to stay home. Khamenei spoke to the nation in a 30-minute speech aired on state television, a rare address by the supreme leader as other officials in the past gave the keynote speech.

U.S. regulators are moving ahead with a crackdown on scores of antibody tests for the coronavirus that have not yet been shown to work. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday published a list of more than two dozen test makers that have failed to file applications to remain on the market or already pulled their products. The agency said in a statement that it expects the tests “will not be marketed or distributed.” It was unclear if any of the companies would face additional penalties. Most companies faced a deadline earlier this week to file paperwork demonstrating their tests’ performance. Regulators required it after previously allowing tests to launch with minimal oversight, which critics said had created a “Wild West” of unregulated testing.