President Donald Trump said Wednesday the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social distancing guidelines once they expire Thursday, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, predicted that by July the country will be “really rocking again.” To underscore his confidence, Trump said he plans to resume out-of-state travel after spending more than a month mostly cooped up in the White House, starting with a trip to Arizona next week. And he said he’s hoping to hold mass campaign rallies in the coming months with thousands of supporters, even though medical experts have said there is little hope of having a vaccine by then. Putting a positive face on the latest grim numbers — the U.S.

The Yarchei Kallah started five weeks ago to provide an organized framework of high-level learning to motivated participants. Lomdim from Eretz Yisrael, Europe, Australia, and across the US joined in the virtual limud b’iyun. The program includes a hachana shiur, copies of mareh mekomos, and live, in-depth shiurim from world-renowned maggidei shiur. The maggidei shiur have included R’ Akiva Dershowitz, R’ Yosef Elefant, R’ Moshe Aaron Friedman, R’ Tzvi Greenberg, R’ Moshe Greenfield, R’ Sholom Kamenetsky, R’ Mordechai Linzer, R’ Aaron Lopianski, R’ Eli Reisman, R’ Yehoshua Rishy, R’ Avrohom Schorr, R’ Chatzkel Weinfeld, and R’ Avrohom Ziskind shlit’a.

In a harrowing encounter with a yellow scorpion, a 6-year-old boy was bitten by the creature near the Negev junction on Wednesday. The boy, was rushed towards the nearest medical clinic as his parents called emergency services. A Magen David Adom ambulance rushed to meet them and intercepted the family on Highway 40 near the junction. The ambulance took the boy to Soroka hospital for treatment. The boy was conscious but in serious condition. Stings from some species of yellow scorpion can be deadly for an adult. Scorpion venom is far more dangerous for young children. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A 16-year-old yeshivah bochur from Tzfat was hospitalized in the ICU of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa in serious condition. The bochur was transferred from a different hospital in the north due to multi-system organ failure and heart complications. He was tested for the coronavirus at the first hospital twice and both tests were negative. At Rambam, he was tested three more times and the third test was borderline positive. Despite the uncertainty of whether he is positive for the coronavirus or not, the bochur was transferred to an isolated negated pressure room. The condition of the 11-year-old girl from Elad who was hospitalized in critical condition in Rambam has improved and she is now fully conscious.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tweets last night about a large funeral that took place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn created a maelstrom of protest. They gave the impression that he saw the Jewish community, in particular, as flouting rules of social distancing in this challenging time. The mayor expressed regret this morning for the way his words were taken. We agree with that sentiment. No matter how well-intentioned the Mayor might be, words that could be seized upon by bigots and anti-Semites must be avoided at all costs. The Jewish community as a whole, and the Orthodox Jewish community in particular, are heeding social distancing rules, including at funerals.

With the push of a red button, one of the two operating reactors at an aging nuclear plant serving millions of people in the New York City area will shut down Thursday night as federal regulators consider the owner’s proposal to sell it to a company that plans to demolish it. The Unit 2 reactor at the Indian Point Energy Center along the Hudson River will close for good Thursday, and Unit 3 will close in April 2021, as part of a deal reached in January 2017 between Entergy Corp., the state of New York and the environmental group Riverkeeper. The plant generated a quarter of the electricity used in New York City and suburban Westchester County, where the plant is located, in 2017.

Once again klal yisroel is reeling from another tragic petira, this time of a yungerman in his high 30s, R’ Yehuda Aryeh Falik a”h. R’ Yehuda Aryeh a”h suffered multiple health issues throughout most of his life as well as various challenges. Despite all of his difficulties, Yehuda Aryeh maintained an ayin tova and would go above and beyond for anyone, especially for his children. Yehuda Aryeh always had a smile and was such a geshmak and easy person to “chap a schmooze” with. PLEASE CLICK TO DONATE NOW! Yehuda Aryeh contracted the corona virus a few weeks ago and was on a respirator for 3 weeks until the Aibeshter decided that it was time to take his neshama back to shamayim. His four children are now in a desperate situation.

Rambam Hospital in Haifa announced on Wednesday that there was continued improvement in the status of the 11-year-old girl who was hospitalized in serious condition with the Covid-19 Coronavirus According to the statement, the girl has fully recovered from the virus itself, but is still listed as being in serious condition due to heart complications that arose as a result of the virus. The young girl regained consciousness on Wednesday and is breathing on her own. She will remain under close observation in the intensive care pediatric ward in the hospital. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Over the course of the 27-hour enforced lockdown on Israelis during Yom Ha’Atzmaut to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus, police issued 1,091 tickets for countermanding the regulations set forth by the Health Ministry of for people breaking the lockdown. Police advertised where they would be setting up roadblocks across the country to encourage motorists and would-be-party-goers to stay home. Of the 1,091 tickets issued to people for entering into the public sphere against regulations, 137 of them were given to citizens who were in a prohibited area and 122 were given to citizens who were not wearing a mask. According to the new rules that have begun to be enforced, anyone over the age of seven not wearing a mask can be fined for not doing so.

Police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood Wednesday after a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell, officials said. Investigators who responded to a 911 call found that the home had rented four trucks to hold about 50 corpses, according to a law enforcement official. No criminal charges were brought and the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home was cited for failing to control the odors. The home was able to obtain a larger, refrigerated truck later in the day, the official said.