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July 2, 2020 at 10:12 pm
Hate crimes targeting Jews rose sharply in California in 2019 despite an overall decline in hate crimes in the state, according to a report released on Thursday by the state’s Criminal Justice Statistics Center.
Antisemitic crimes — including the deadly gun attack on a Passover service on a Chabad synagogue in Poway — increased by 12 percent in 2019, the report said.
The one person to have been murdered in a hate crime was Lori Gilbert-Kaye, a 60-year-old woman who was in attendance at the Poway synagogue on April 27, the last day of the Passover holiday.
Three other worshipers, including the community’s rabbi and an 8-year-old girl, were wounded in the attack carried out by John Earnest, a white supremacist.
The rise in antisemitic acts came as overall hate cri...
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July 2, 2020 at 10:10 pm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced new coronavirus restrictions on Thursday evening during a live address to the nation from his Yerushalayim office.
Netanyahu said given the dramatic rise in new coronavirus cases, the government will reimpose “minimal” restrictions which will pertain mostly to gatherings at event halls, bars and nightclubs, capping admittance at 50 people.
Other activities such as religious ceremonies and Shabbos services will be limited to 20 people, Netanyahu added.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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July 2, 2020 at 10:07 pm
Protesters attempting to link the Palestinian cause with the Black Lives Matter movement shouted anti-Israel slogans and recited antisemitic poems in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.
The Washington Examiner reported that the march of roughly 200 people was headed by Harvard University senior Christian Tabash, who led the marchers in the somewhat awkward chant, “Israel, we know you, you murder children too.”
An Examiner journalist, Nicholas Rowan, posted video of the marchers chanting on Twitter.
The Examiner stated that the crowd quickly switched to shouting “Black lives matter” and “Palestinian lives matter” while flying Palestinian flags.
Tabash then read an antisemitic poem that called Israel the “puppet master of continents.”
The march ...
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July 2, 2020 at 10:05 pm
Herman Cain, the former pizza chain executive who ran in the Republican presidential primary in 2012, has been hospitalized with COVID-19 less than two weeks after attending President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla.
Cain, 74, learned that he tested positive for the virus Monday, and by Wednesday required hospitalization for his symptoms but is not on a ventilator, according to a statement on his Twitter account.
“There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus, but we do know he is a fighter who has beaten Stage 4 cancer,” the statement says.
While it is unclear where Cain contracted the disease or how long he had it, Cain was among the several thousand attendees at Trump’s Tulsa rally, most of whom did not wear ...
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July 2, 2020 at 10:00 pm
Manhattan apartment sales went down by 54 percent in the second quarter of this year, marking the steepest decline in 30 years, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman obtained by multiple media outlets.
The median sales price fell 18 percent to only $1 million, the biggest decline in a decade. A study from Compass found there were only 1,147 sales in Manhattan in the second quarter, the lowest number on record.
The report noted that it took course over a period which overlapped with New York’s ban on in-person apartment tours, an “unprecedented shutdown [that] skewed the results.”
Read more at The Hill.
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July 2, 2020 at 9:58 pm
There may not be fireworks for the Fourth of July, but the Pentagon is providing reasons for Baltimoreans to keep their eyes to the skies.
Led by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, a formation of military aircraft is set to fly over Fort McHenry at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The Air Force and Marine Corps jets, also including bombers and fighters, will approach from the northeast at 1,000 feet above the ground. They will fly over in five waves before turning south and heading out of the city.
In May, the Thunderbirds and U.S. Navy Blue Angels flew over Baltimore and other major cities to honor healthcare workers.
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July 2, 2020 at 9:58 pm
The University of Maryland Medical System recently discharged its 1,000th coronavirus patient, officials there announced this week.
Steve Nicewarner, a federal employee, is recovering at his Elkridge home after 31 days at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center.
He was sick at home for a week and developed a fever on May 17. The next day, he tested positive for the coronavirus and was taken to the hospital on May 24. At one point, he said, he was told his fever reached 103 degrees.
"I was not aware of what was going on at that point," Nicewarner said.
He spent 10 days on a ventilator and had to be proned, a medical procedure where he was flipped onto his stomach in order to better oxygenate his lungs.
His youngest daughter, 25-year-old Johnna Nicewarner, is an e...
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July 2, 2020 at 9:58 pm
Maryland health officials are taking steps to expand access to testing, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday.
Officials are also asking anyone who works in close-contact settings or who are visiting or returning to Maryland from out of state to get tested.
“While other states are experiencing testing shortages, the State of Maryland will continue to have an abundant supply of testing available at no out-of-pocket cost to anyone in our state who wants to be tested,” Hogan said in a statement. “As more and more people are returning to the workplace, and as more Marylanders are beginning to interact with larger numbers of people, testing will become even more critical. We are making great strides in further expanding testing in Maryland, and strongly encourage anyone who is...
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July 2, 2020 at 9:57 pm
The U.S. is no longer “flattening the curve” of the COVID-19 epidemic, a Trump administration official told members of Congress Thursday.
“We are not flattening the curve right now. The curve is still going up,” Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing.
“Flatten the curve,” which means to slow the rate of COVID-19 infections, was a mantra used in the early days of the pandemic when officials were worried about overwhelming the health care system, particularly in New York.
Giroir noted that the curve was successfully flattened at one point, but the U.S. is once again seeing an increase in cases, led by states in the Sou...
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July 2, 2020 at 8:08 pm
Baltimore, MD - July 2, 2020 - Vaad HaRabbanim of Baltimore: "Despite our diligent efforts and vigilance locally, we have had a slow trickle of new cases in the past 2 weeks that raises concern."
Click here or on the graphic below for a larger, printable copy
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July 2, 2020 at 4:29 pm
Baltimore, MD - July 2, 2020 - On June 25, a swastika was found drawn on a public bench on Cross Country Boulevard near Key Avenue and on a few nearby homes. Neighbors, understandably disturbed by this vile act, called the Northwest Citizens Patrol. NWCP president, Neil Schachter, immediately reported it to city police who wrote a police report. Concerned citizens also contacted some news organizations about the incident.
A Key Avenue resident covered the offensive symbol with the drawing of a heart and the phrase “love not hate”. That sentiment was echoed by the rest of the neighborhood.
On July 2, when Mr. Schachter was told that the swastika had not yet been removed by the city, he came out himself with commercial spray paint and scrubbed it off. He explained that the...
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July 2, 2020 at 4:27 pm
U.S. equity markets rallied Thursday after the June jobs report showed the nation's employers brought more workers on board than expected during a gradual reopening of the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 92 points, or 0.36 percent, after giving up the bulk of its early gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.45 percent while the Nasdaq posted its 23rd record close of the year, adding 0.52 percent.
All three of the major averages posted healthy gains for the holiday-shortened week. Financial markets and government offices are closed on Friday in observance of Independence Day.
Nonfarm payrolls added 4.8 million workers in June, pushing the unemployment rate down to 11.1 percent, according to the Labor Department. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refiniti...
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July 2, 2020 at 2:52 pm
Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton warned that President Trump’s reelection could imperil Israel.
Speaking with Israel’s Channel 13 in an interview which is set to be aired Thursday night, Bolton said he fears that if President Trump is reelected this November, it could create a ‘risk’ for Israel.
Specifically, Bolton claimed that Trump is “eager” to open negotiations with Iran and could offer sanctions relief, something which would pose a “a danger”.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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July 2, 2020 at 2:51 pm
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Moscow has never delivered weapons to the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, countering U.S. allegations.
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected the claim by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said Wednesday that he had repeatedly raised the issue during his talks with the Russians.
“Russia has only supplied weapons to the legitimate government of Afghanistan, which is well known,” Zakharova said at a briefing.
Read more at ABC NEWS.
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July 2, 2020 at 2:51 pm
City schools will reopen — in some form — in September, Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed Thursday.
The nation’s largest school system will be subject to daunting limitations, with many principals staggering classes to comply with social distancing, he said.
“Schools will be opening in September,” de Blasio said. “Each school will have a number that is the maximum number of kids that can be in that school with social distancing using every conceivable space in that school.”
Read more at NY POST.
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July 2, 2020 at 2:50 pm
The U.S. on Wednesday reported more than 50,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, as states across the nation paused reopening plans due to a recent surge in infections.
The figure represented a new single-day high in the country, which has reported approximately 2.6 million total cases of COVID-19 and 128,000 deaths caused by it. Health officials on Wednesday reported about 50,700 confirmed virus cases, according to a Johns Hopkins University database, marking a jump from the previous single-day high of 45,300 cases.
While the initial epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak was in New York metropolitan area, states such as California, Texas, Arizona and Florida are now accounting for a substantial portion of the country’s cases. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top inf...
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July 2, 2020 at 1:29 pm
Baltimore, MD - July 2, 2020 - It has been a thrilling experience to be back in shul after being locked out for so long. And it is gratifying to see almost all of our community adhering to the guidelines that were put in place to make the shul reopening safe, particularly social distancing and masking. But it is troubling to see a small minority of the community not adhering to these guidelines.
In fact, it is infuriating. For months, many of us complained about government officials and health experts being “overly restrictive” in banning activities like shul-going altogether. After all, people argued, just let us get together in a safe way. And now that we are being allowed to do just that, why do some people insist on being unsafe?
As we have been told over and over again, ...
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July 2, 2020 at 12:15 pm
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’s wealth has increased to $171.6 billion, surpassing his own previous record even after his divorce settlement.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index previously put the peak of Bezos’s net worth at $167.7 billion in September 2018, but he is estimated to have accrued at least $56.7 billion in 2020 alone, Bloomberg reported.
After the couple’s divorce, Mackenzie Bezos acquired a 4 percent stake in the retail giant and is estimated to have a net worth of $56.9 billion, putting her in 12th place in Bloomberg’s rankings. She is ranked as the world’s second-richest woman after L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, according to the news outlet.
Read more at THE HILL.
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July 2, 2020 at 12:15 pm
MISGAV (VINnews) — Israeli start-up company Nanoscent which is based in the Lower Galilee’s Misgav , has developed a chip enabling electronic devices to have an artificial sense of smell. The new technology is currently being used in trials in conjunction with the Sheba Medical Center in order to detect COVID-19 patients via the smell they emit. If the trials are successful, the technology could then be used to do mass 30-second testing of people in all kinds of locations such as hospitals, shopping centers, airports, and border entry points. The new test could even jumpstart the ailing tourist industry since it will enable tourists to get on flights after undergoing a simple procedure.
Nanoscent’s founder Oren Gavriely told Times of Israel that together with the overt...
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July 2, 2020 at 11:56 am
Israeli Finance Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday threatened new elections unless the law is changed to allow the passing of an annual budget instead of a biennial one.
During a press conference at the opening of a meeting with Finance Ministry officials, Katz said, “If [Justice Minister Avi] Nissenkorn [of the Blue and White Party] does not change the law authorizing an annual budget by August 28, there will be new elections.”
The coalition agreement reached in April between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White calls for the government to be dissolved in the event that a biennial budget is not passed by August 15, with whichever side responsible for blocking its passage ceding the premiership to...
