Stampede: At least 44 people died in a stampede overnight at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious ceremony in Israel. At least 150 were also treated for injuries in one of the worst civilian disasters in Israeli history.

  The festival took place as Israel had lifted its Covid-19 restrictions.  As many as 100,000 people had attended the celebration of a holiday on Mount Meron in northern Israel and the stampede began about 1 am as people were leaving. A few people slipped and fell, beginning a pileup, and panic in the crowd did the rest.

India on Fire: The funeral pyres in India are burning 24 hours a day as the country buries the dead from a devastating wave of Covid-19 infections.

  Yesterday India reported more than 386,000 new cases and over 3,600 deaths. The numbers might not even reflect reality.

  Hospitals say they have critical shortages of ventilator beds, oxygen, medicine, and other lifesaving supplies. Sick people are being turned away from hospitals.

  On Wednesday, the US government authorized families of diplomats to leave India and advised other Americans to leave “as soon as it is safe to do so.”

  India has a population of nearly 1.4 billion people, 940 million of them adults. Only about 26 million people have been fully vaccinated, about 2 percent of the population, making it unlikely that India will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of vaccinating 300 million people by the summer.

  The US is sending oxygen compressors, but western countries are being criticized for not sharing vaccines. Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told CNN, “If we don’t help in India, I worry about an explosion of cases” around the world.

Viral News: Despite the crisis in India, the US still leads the world for Covid-19 deaths, about three times as many as India with a third of the population. At least 575,000 Americans have died. But nationally, new cases are down 27 percent over the past two weeks and deaths are down 7 percent.

  New York City hopes to fully reopen on July 1 and allow restaurants, shops, and stadiums to operate at full capacity, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.  Appearing on MSNBC, de Blasio  said that gyms, hair salons, arenas, some theaters, and museums should all expect to be fully open. 

  Later at a news conference, the mayor said he wants the subways, now shutting down for two hours overnight for cleaning and disinfection, to run around the clock again by July.

Econ 101: The Commerce Department reported that the economy expanded 1.6 percent in the first three months of 2021, compared with 1.1 percent in the final quarter last year. If that keeps up, annual growth would be a healthy 6.4 percent.

Job growth is picking up.

  Tom Gimbel,  who works for a recruiting and staffing firm in Chicago, told The NY Times “It’s the best job market I’ve seen in 25 years. We have 50 percent more openings now than we did pre-Covid.”

  Some economists say economic activity should return to normal this quarter and the overall economy might be firing its afterburners by the end of the year.

  At the same time, the European economy has shrunk, slipping back into recession.

Ultra Violet: Former president Donald Trump is fixated on the hand recount of 2.1 million ballots cast in Arizona’s largest county for the 2020 election, The Washington Post reports.

  The paper says that, holed up at his private club in Florida, “Trump asks aides for updates about the process multiple times a day.” Trump advisers told the Post Trump is particularly interested in the use of ultraviolet lights to examine the Maricopa County ballots. Maybe he thinks they’re treating the ballots for Covid-19

  The count is being done by Cyber Ninjas, a private contractor whose chief executive has espoused claims of election fraud but says his recount will be impartial. 

The Spin Rack. Appearing on Fox News with host Maria Bartiromo, Donald Trump said he was appalled by the search warrants executed at the home and office of his former lawyer and New York mayor, Rudolph Giuliani. “Rudy Giuliani is a great patriot. He does these things — he just loves this country, and they raid his apartment,” Trump said. “It’s, like, so unfair and such a double — it’s like a double standard like I don’t think anybody’s ever seen before.” — A 23-year-old Minneapolis man has been ordered to pay $12 million for setting a gas station on fire during protests in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. His lawyer said “there is no realistic chance” his client can afford it. — Five members of what’s described as a dog-napping ring have been arrested in the shooting of Lady Gaga’s dog walker and the abduction of her French bulldogs, including the woman who returned them.

Republican Family Values: A longtime friend of Rep. Matt Gaetz admitted in a letter seeking a pardon that both he and the congressman paid for sex, including with a minor, according to a report by The Daily Beast. The news site said it has three versions of a confession letter that Joel Greenberg wrote last year to President Trump’s friend Roger Stone in an effort to secure a pardon from the then president.

  A handwritten letter The Daily Beast attributes to Greenberg says that both he and Gaetz were “involved in sexual activities” with a girl who was 17 at the time. The letter says, “From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18.” 

  The Justice Department is investigating Gaetz.

  The Greenberg letter goes on to say, “I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”

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