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October 11, 2018 at 10:29 pm
A pilot study led by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine suggests Jewish men who practice wearing tefillin, which involves the tight wrapping of an arm with leather banding as part of daily prayer, may receive cardiovascular health benefits.
The researchers propose that benefits may occur though remote ischemic preconditioning that results in protection during heart attacks. The results are available online in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology.
Jack Rubinstein, MD, associate professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Health and a UC Health cardiologist, says he enrolled 20 Jewish men living in Greater Cincinnati–nine who wear tefillin daily and 11 non-users of tefillin–in the study. His team of researche...
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October 11, 2018 at 9:26 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed 15 more judges late Thursday, all but wrapping up its pre-election work on a top Republican priority days after Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Clearing the judicial nominees provided a signature walk-off for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has focused on reshaping the judiciary with more conservative judges. Once final action was finished later Thursday evening, senators were not expected back to session full-time until after the November election.
While many of the judges were approved with bipartisan support, almost half were confirmed on mostly party-line votes. Democratic opponents and their allies swiftly objected to some of the nominees, in large part over views aligned with stricter abortion acces...
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October 11, 2018 at 9:18 pm
New York - Fox News Channel has recently pulled back from airing President Donald Trump’s campaign-style rallies during prime time, a move that could put a crimp in Republican efforts to reach voters in the weeks before midterm elections.
During much of the late summer, Fox would pre-empt its lucrative nightly lineup of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham in order to air the rallies. None of its rivals did so. It was an important platform for the president and his supporters, since Fox’s opinionated hosts are generally their first choice for political coverage.
On Tuesday of last week, Carlson told viewers that Fox would be monitoring the president’s rally from Mississippi and would break in for any news. He did interrupt his show later to tell viewers of Tr...
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October 11, 2018 at 9:16 pm
New York - Investors searching for perpetrators and victims in this week’s U.S. stock market selloff pointed to a familiar source: number-crunching fund managers and machines.
The benchmark U.S. S&P 500 stock index < .SPX> marked its biggest one-day fall since February and added to those losses on Thursday.
The carnage followed a debt market selloff this month driven by expectations that U.S. inflation will be strong enough to warrant further rises in interest rates the Federal Reserve, but not all investors think the selling made sense.
“Warren Buffett made his fortune by buying low and selling high,” said the billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman, founder of Omega Advisors Inc. “Machines buy strength and sell weakness and aggravate the m...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:25 pm
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews struggling to enter stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind.
At least three deaths were blamed on Michael, the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in over 50 years, and it wasn’t done yet: Though reduced to a tropical storm, it brought flash flooding to North Carolina and Virginia, soaking areas still recovering from Hurricane Florence.
Under a clear blue sky, families living along the Florida Panhandle emerged from shelters and hotels to a perilous landscape of shattered homes and shopping centers, wailing sirens and hovering helicopters.
Gov. Ri...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:19 pm
Los Angeles, CA - Walmart Inc has agreed to pay $65 million to nearly 100,000 current and former cashiers in California who accused the retailer of violating state law by refusing to provide them with seating while they worked.
Walmart denied any wrongdoing in the nine-year-old case, which was scheduled to go to trial later this year, in a filing in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday. The settlement must be approved by a federal judge.
In addition to the payout, the company said it would begin providing seating to its cashiers in California.
Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said “both sides are pleased to have reached a proposed resolution.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the court filing, Walmart and the plaint...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:17 pm
Washington - President Donald Trump defended continuing huge sales of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia on Thursday despite rising pressure from lawmakers to punish the kingdom over the disappearance of a Saudi journalist who lived in the United States and is now feared dead.
As senators pushed for sanctions under a human rights law and also questioned American support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, Trump appeared reluctant to rock the boat in a relationship that has been key to his strategy in the Middle East. He said withholding sales would hurt the U.S. economy.
“I don’t like stopping massive amounts of money that’s been pouring into our country. They are spending 110 billion on military equipment,” Trump said, referring to proposed sales announced in ...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:16 pm
Ashdod, Israel - A U.S. Navy warship has docked in the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, the first such visit there in almost 20 years, in what officials from both sides hailed as a sign of their strong ties in the face of shared adversaries like Iran.
Foreign navies generally prefer northern Haifa as their Israeli port of call, so the destroyer USS Ross’s arrival at Ashdod potentially signaled Washington’s interest in broadened berthing options for its Mediterranean Sixth Fleet.
“This visit has significance. It symbolizes the deep alliance between Israel and the United States,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking from the deck of the USS Ross, together with his wife and the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
“We are determined to defend ourselv...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:14 pm
New York - Facebook says it has purged more than 800 U.S. pages and accounts for spamming users with garbage links and clickbait.
Facebook accuses their backers of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” for setting up networks of pages and accounts designed to mislead users about who they are and what they’re doing.
The social network says these accounts spread “sensational political content” designed to drive people to ad-laden websites outside Facebook. In the past, such spammers have often focused on celebrity gossip, weight loss remedies and fake iPhones.
The turn toward politics suggests that spammers are learning from the Russian playbook on how to get people riled up and clicking. Facebook has been working to weed out misinformation and election meddling...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:12 pm
Washington - Goldman-Sachs executive Dina Powell is no longer under consideration by President Donald Trump for the position of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a senior administration official said on Thursday.
Trump had been talking to Powell about the position since the current ambassador, Nikki Haley, announced plans to resign earlier this week. Powell served the Trump White House earlier as a deputy national security adviser.
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October 11, 2018 at 8:10 pm
New York - President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen returned to the Democratic Party on Thursday, the latest in a series of steps he has taken to distance himself from the Republican president following a bitter falling-out.
Cohen’s defense attorney, Lanny Davis, announced on Twitter that his client has changed his registration from Republican to Democrat. He described the move as an effort to distance “himself from the values of the current” administration.
Cohen retweeted Davis’ post and a link to an Axios story that first reported the news.
The switch came on the eve of Friday’s deadline for New Yorkers to register to vote in the November election.
Cohen had been a registered Democrat for years until changing his registration in March ...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:09 pm
New York - A small but growing proportion of the youngest children in the U.S. have not been vaccinated against any disease, worrying health officials.
An estimated 100,000 young children have not had a vaccination against any of the 14 diseases for which shots are recommended, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday.
“This is pretty concerning. It’s something we need to understand better — and reduce,” said the CDC’s Dr. Amanda Cohn.
Most young children — 70 percent — have had all their shots. The new estimate is based on finding that, in 2017, 1.3 percent of the children born in 2015 were completely unvaccinated. That’s up from the 0.9 percent seen in an earlier similar assessment of the kids bo...
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October 11, 2018 at 8:08 pm
Houston - Two men have been banned from a Houston gun range for life after one pointed an unloaded gun at the other while taking a picture.
Top Gun Range manager Kyle Harrison tells television station KTRK he was alarmed when he saw the one man point the handgun at himself then at his friend’s head while he took a selfie. The safety officer broke it up and ejected the pair, and the gun range posted surveillance video of the incident on Twitter.
Harrison calls the act “a cardinal safety violation,” adding that his children “know better than to do that, and they are two and three years old.”
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Information from: KTRK-TV, http://abclocal.go.com
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October 11, 2018 at 8:06 pm
The title for the world’s longest commercial flight will be reclaimed by Singapore Airlines today as it relaunches its Singapore to New York route.
The 9,534 mile route was was cancelled five years ago due to rising oil costs.
Taking up to 18 hours and 25 minutes to reach New York from Singapore, the three-times-weekly flight overtakes Qatar Airways’ Doha to Auckland route as the world’s longest in terms of distance.
This record-breaking service isn’t cheap: a return flight in premium economy starts from $1630 per person; while a business class return fare starts from around $5000!
Previously, passengers from Singapore had to fly to New York via Frankfurt.
Read more at The Independent.
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October 11, 2018 at 7:57 pm
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
YWN regrets to inform you of the sudden Petira of Mrs Lilach Paraschiv A”H (nee Menachem) of Monsey, NY.
Mrs Paraschiv, who turned 42 on Wednesday, suddenly collapsed on Thursday morning at her home. Hatzolah did everything they would to save her life, but were unfortunately unsuccessful. She leaves behind a husband and five children – the oldest 11 and the youngest just FIVE WEEKS OLD.
Her parents flew back to Israel just last night, after coming to visit their newest grandchild.
The Levaya and Kevura will take place hopefully on Friday in Eretz Yisroel.
The family has no money for the burial transport and money for Kevura, and local Askonim and Rabbonim have launched a fund to assist the family. Read more at YWN
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October 11, 2018 at 4:43 pm
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
A fire broke out in the Zvhill building on Rechov Shmuel Hanavi in Yerushalayim on Thursday afternoon.
The Jerusalem fire department responded to the scene at around 1:30PM,with six firefighting and rescue teams, and battled the blaze which was on the upper floors of the building.
The building houses numerous institutions ranging from a kindergarten to Rabbi Senters’ Yeshiva. Everyone was evacuated, including young children who were seen being carried out in playpens by several women.
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October 11, 2018 at 4:36 pm
WASHINGTON — The White House expects North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson to be released by the Turkish government and returned to the U.S. in the coming days, two years after he was detained, according to two senior administration officials and another person briefed on the matter.
Under an agreement senior Trump administration officials recently reached with Turkey, Brunson is supposed to be released after certain charges against him are dropped at his next court hearing, currently scheduled for Friday, the senior administration officials and a person briefed on the matter said.
The details of the deal are unclear, but those familiar with the discussions said it includes a commitment by the U.S. to ease economic pressure on Turkey.
The Trump administration, however, isn't f...
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October 11, 2018 at 4:29 pm
Stocks fell sharply in volatile trading at the close on Thursday, Oct. 11, pushing the Dow's two-day losses to more than 1,300 points and sending the Nasdaq into correction teritorry a day after tech stocks went into a tailspin.
Both the Dow and S&P 500 on Wednesday logged their largest losses on a percentage basis since Feb. 8.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 546 points, or 2.1%, to 25,053, the S&P 500 was down 2%, and the Nasdaq fell 1.25%. Leading the Dow lower were Pfizer Inc. (PFE) , McDonald's Corp. (MCD) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) . Energy giant Chevron declined after oil prices fell following an increase in U.S. crude supplies for a third straight week.
"The sellers have swamped the market and continue to dump stocks with every ra...
