The coronavirus slashed a combined 2.5 million years off Americans’ life expectancy, a molecular biologist and geneticist claims. Stephen Elledge told USA Today he crunched the numbers and determined that among the 200,000 Americans who had died of COVID-19 at the time of his calculations, they lost 2.5 million years of their life because of their unexpected deaths. That number is as high as it would be from six months of cancer deaths. Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v “It was really pretty shocking,” said Elledge, who teaches genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospi...
None of the trials of COVId-19 candidate vaccines can detect a reduction in serious outcomes such as hospitalization or death, a leading public health expert said Thursday. Writing in the BMJ medical journal, associate editor Peter Doshi warned that not even phase 3 trials under way in the race for a vaccine can prove their product will prevent people contracting COVID-19. Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v In a sobering essay, Doshi said those hoping for a breakthrough to end the pandemic would be disappointed, with some vaccines likely to reduce the risk of infection by only 30 percent. Read more at NEWSMAX.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday granted clemency to five people convicted of committing drug and financial crimes, all of them cases that were pushed by prison reform advocate and Trump ally Alice Johnson. Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday in a statement, Trump was granting the clemencies “in light of the decisions these individuals have made following their convictions to improve their lives and the lives of others while incarcerated.” The latest round of clemencies comes less than two weeks before Election Day and as Trump has been hammer...
Senate Judiciary Republicans seemed unphased by reports that their colleagues across the aisle may skip Thursday’s vote to move Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination forward for a full Senate vote.  “We’ll vote the nominee out,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican and Judiciary chairman, told reporters when asked about Democratic boycotts.  Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday a full Senate vote on Barrett's confirmation is expected for Monday.  Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are “strongly considering” not showing up for the vote on Thursday in protest of Republicans moving forward with Barrett’s confirmation just before the November el...
The U.S. government has concluded that Iran is behind a series of threatening emails arriving this week in the inboxes of Democratic voters, according to two U.S. officials. Department of Homeland Security officials told state and local election administrators on a call Wednesday that a foreign government was responsible for the online barrage, according to the U.S. officials and state and local authorities who participated in the call, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. A DHS official also said authorities had detected holes in state and local election websites and instructed those participating to patch their online services. The emails claimed to be from the Proud Boys, a far-right group supportive of President Trump,...
New report shows that proportion of the world’s Jewish population living in Europe today is at its lowest level for almost a thousand years. A new report published today by the European Jewish Demography Unit at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) shows that the proportion of the world’s Jewish population living in Europe today is at its lowest level for almost a thousand years. The new study, entitled Jews in Europe at the turn of the millennium and written by leading Jewish demographers Professor Sergio Della Pergola and Dr. Daniel Staetsky, paints an extraordinary demographic portrait of Jews in Europe, tracing its development over the best part of a millennium, and providing up-to-date estimates of population counts and trends today. JPR Executive Director, ...
Secretary of State Pompeo reportedly pushing to declare groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch anti-Semitic. The Trump administration is considering declaring that several prominent international NGOs — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam — are anti-Semitic and that governments should not support them, two people familiar with the issue told Politico on Wednesday. Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v The proposed declaration could come from the State Department as soon as this week, according to the report. If the declaration happens, it is likely to cause an uproar among...
Annual mass gathering of thousands of Chabad rabbis will not be held for first time since 1987 due to coronavirus pandemic. The Chabad Hasidic movement has canceled its annual International Conference of Chabad Emissaries in Brooklyn, New York in light of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v Every year, thousands of Chabad emissaries are photographed in front of 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as part of the conference which is aimed at strengthening Jewish awareness and practice around the world. This year, digital workshops will be held for the thousands of emissaries around th...
3 Cheshvan, 5781 Our community finds itself in a terrible situation. First, we are looking at the further spread of COVID-19. Second, we are facing the awful reality of the curtailment of shul attendance and the closure of Torah institutions – both yeshivas, in whose merit the world exists, and Bais Yaakovs, without which there is no future for our nation. It is obvious that we need to search for any possible methods to continue the education of our youth: Spiritual danger is even higher than physical danger. Yet, we have to put all our efforts towards adhering to the law and to the direction of medical experts. Certainly, we may not provoke through protests and unruliness against the government, something which has already caused an appalling desecration of Hashem’s Name,&...
Governor Cuomo announced today that several micro-clusters have shown significant reductions in positivity rates, and thus restrictions in several areas will be lessened.   Specifically, areas of Queens and Far Rockaway, including red zones, will all move to yellow zones. Red zones in Brooklyn and Rockland and Orange Counties have shown progress, but are not yet ready to open. Orange zones in Brooklyn will move to yellow. The laws for each zone are described here. While the progress announced today is welcome, areas in Brooklyn and Rockland and Orange counties are suffering. Agudath Israel continues its conversations with governmental officials at all levels to allow schools, shuls, and businesses in our community to&...
Two new peer-reviewed studies are showing a sharp drop in mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The drop is seen in all groups, including older patients and those with underlying conditions, suggesting that physicians are getting better at helping patients survive their illness. "We find that the death rate has gone down substantially," says Leora Horwitz, a doctor who studies population health at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine and an author on one of the studies, which looked at thousands of patients from March to August. The study, which was of a single health system, finds that mortality has dropped among hospitalized patients by 18 percentage points since the pandemic began. Patients in the study had a 25.6% chance of dying at the start of the p...
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the goal in talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a deal on a coronavirus relief package within the next 48 hours. “The last 24 hours have moved the ball down the field,” Meadows said on Fox Business Wednesday morning, after the latest round of talks between Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The goal is “some kind of deal in the next 48 hours or so.” Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v Mnuchin and Pelosi are scheduled to speak again Wednesday afternoon. Any agreement still faces a roadblock in the Senate, however, with Majority Leader Mitch McC...
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The ambush came despite Taliban assurances to Washington that they would reduce bloodshed At least 25 Afghan security force personnel were killed in an ambush blamed on the Taliban, officials said Wednesday, as spiralling violence threatens to derail ongoing peace talks. Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v The ambush came despite Taliban assurances to Washington last week that they would reduce bloodshed. Security forces were attacked overnight Tuesday in Takhar province and fighting was ongoing, said Jawad Hejri, a spokesman for the governor, who put the death toll so far at 25. "The Taliban had taken positions in th...
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Gantz and will meet his US counterpart for the second time in less than a month Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz will fly to Washington on Wednesday evening for a security meeting with his US counterpart Mark Esper, his office said in a statement. Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more:  https://bit.ly/32HUBnJ Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens: https://bit.ly/3aYxo4v Additional talks are also scheduled for Thursday with other Pentagon officials that will deal with expansive security issues in the region. The former IDF chief of staff will be back in Israel on Friday.  Gantz and will meet his US counterpart for the second time in less than a month. Discussions will also touch on concerns regarding th...
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