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September 13, 2021 at 9:40 am
Booster shots to extend the protection of COVID-19 vaccines may be unnecessary for many people, a leading scientist behind the AstraZeneca vaccine said on Friday.
Oxford University Professor Sarah Gilbert told The Telegraph newspaper that immunity from the vaccine was holding up well — even against the delta variant. While the elderly and those who are immune-compromised may need boosters, the standard two-dose regimen is providing lasting protection for most people, she said.
“We will look at each situation; the immuno-compromised and elderly will receive boosters,” she said. “But I don’t think we need to boost everybody. Immunity is lasting well in the majority of people.”
The comments come as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, a p...
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September 13, 2021 at 9:27 am
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday said he would support vaccine requirements for air travel, reports The Hill.
Fauci made the comments during an interview with the Skimm This podcast, filmed last week. The episode will air Thursday.
Fauci’s support comes after Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., introduced legislation requiring vaccine proof or a negative COVID-19 test for all airline and train passengers.
Beyer’s bill, called the Safe Travel Act, requires all Amtrak and commercial airline travelers to either have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or to provide a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of traveling.
It also mandates Amtrak and commercial airline employees, contractors and subcontractors to show either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test at least once a w...
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September 13, 2021 at 9:26 am
North Korea has test-fired what it called a new type of “long-range cruise missile” over the weekend, the country’s state Korean Central News Agency reported early Monday, amid a long standoff with the United States over denuclearization.
The test launches, which took place on both Saturday and Sunday, were observed by high-level officials, KCNA said, adding that the tests had been carried out “successfully”.
The missiles travelled for 7,580 seconds along “oval and pattern-8 flight orbits” above North Korea and its territorial waters, and hit targets 1,500 kilometres (about 930 miles) away, KCNA said.
The report called the missile a “strategic weapon of great significance”, adding that “in all, the efficiency and practicality o...
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September 13, 2021 at 9:24 am
As a way to help pay for their $3.5 trillion spending plan, House Democrats want the corporate tax rate raised to 25.6 percent, up from the current 21 percent but lower than President Biden’s proposed 28 percent.
The Hill reports that, in addition to the corporate tax rate increase, House Democrats also want the top capital gains rate increased from 20 percent to 25 percent, to possibly raise the top individual income tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent, and to place a 3 percentage point surtax for people with income over $5 million.
Details of the Democrat plans could still change, as the House Ways and Means Committee has not released formal legislative text on tax increases, The Hill notes.
Last week, the committee began considering its portion of the s...
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September 13, 2021 at 9:18 am
A terrorist carried out a stabbing attack near Jerusalem's Central Bus Station Monday afternoon.
The terrorist entered a store outside the bus station and stabbed two people in the back.
A Border Police officer on his regular patrol saw the stabbing and shot the terrorist.
The victims were evacuated to Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in moderate condition. The attacker was taken to the same hospital in serious condition.
Senior Magen David medic Shlomi Pinchas said: "We arrived at the scene and there was a big commotion. The two wounded were lying unconscious and suffering from stab wounds. We provided them with advanced medical care in the field, which included bandages, stopping the bleeding and medication, and we quickly evacuated them to the hospital when they were in moderate c...
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September 12, 2021 at 9:28 pm
Baltimore, MD – Sept. 12, 2021 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Mordi Spero and Nicole Berger on their engagement.
Mazel Tov Chaim & Rebecca Spero and Grandparents Dr. & Mrs. Abba Spero and Rabbi & Mrs. Avraham Landesman
יה"ר שיזכו לבנות בית נאמן בישראל. אמן!
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September 12, 2021 at 11:20 am
Summertime temperatures are in the forecast for Maryland this week
Although the sun may be setting earlier than usual as the start of fall approaches, forecasters say the summertime temperatures will reappear this week.
"For those who enjoy summer warmth, you're in luck as the entire work week will feature above normal temperatures," the National Weather Service reported Sunday morning.
Sunday is expected to bring hot conditions with potentially hazy skies as wildfire smoke from the west arrives. Temperatures will be in the upper 80s near 90 degrees in some parts of Maryland.
Degraded air quality from the wildfire smoke may be noticeable in the area until Tuesday when cloud cover obscures the haze, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Tem...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:55 am
The FBI dropped a newly declassified document late Saturday night examining logistical backing shared between Saudi citizens in the U.S. and two of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attackers.
The heavily redacted report from April 2016 related to the agency’s investigation regarding any possible role the Saudi Arabia government played in supporting the terrorists.
Fifteen of the 19 plane hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Its release coincided with the U.S. commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the tragedy that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and led to America’s longest conflict in Afghanistan.
The Associated Press (AP) reports the 16-page summary provides an overview of an FBI interview done in 2015 with a man who had frequent contact with Saudi nationals in t...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:46 am
Agudath Israel of America, together with a number of other Orthodox Jewish organizations, joined the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA), in filing an “amicus curiae” (friend of the court) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging public funding of secular studies in religious schools.
The case before the High Court, Carson v. Makin, was brought by parents whose children attend religious schools in Maine. Although many private school students in Maine are eligible for state tuition funding, a state law says that the state will not pay tuition for students who attend a religious school - not even for the cost of the secular education portion.
The COLPA brief argues that the law is unconstitutional under the Free Exercise Clause of...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:45 am
This morning (12.09.2021), Defense Minister Benny Gantz delivered remarks at the annual International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) Conference at Reichman University. The following are excerpts from his speech:
“Iran has developed ‘proxy terror’ which is perpetrated by organized ‘terror armies’ which are assisting Iran in achieving its economic, political and military goals. One of the most significant tools employed by Iran and its proxies is UAVs with a range of thousands of kilometers. Hundreds of these UAVs are spread across Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Iran is also attempting to transfer the know-how needed for UAV production to Gaza.”
*Minister Gantz revealed that, “the Kashan base located north of the city of Isfahan is used to ...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:41 am
After being pulled from the water by alert passersby, the teenage boy was treated at the scene by an ICU Doctor who volunteers as a first responder with United Hatzalah
Nitzanim Beach - On Sunday morning just after 8:00 a.m., a teenage boy was surfing with his father when he suddenly lost control of his surfboard and plunged into the water. The boy somehow lost consciousness and didn’t resurface. The father, who was on the beach at the time, didn't notice the incident take place. Luckily, another surfer noticed the surfboard floating on its own, and thinking that the board somehow got away from its owner began pulling it back to the beach when he noticed that it was attached to the leg of the submerged boy.
The surfer signaled to people on the beach that he was in ...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:34 am
Texas statute better aligns with Jewish values cherishing every human life
Washington, DC, Sept. 12, 2021 — Weighing in on the Texas law prohibiting abortions after six weeks’ gestation except in cases of medical necessity, Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 1500 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in matters of public policy, called the law a step in the right direction, better aligned with mainstream Jewish values, Rabbinic texts, and legal codes. In so doing, it condemned the left-wing National Council of Jewish Women and its “Rabbis for Repro” for distorting Jewish teachings, devaluing the sanctity of life, and causing a desecration of G-d’s Name.
“The Texas statute demands that human life be cherished, while recognizing that the mother...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:26 am
The Biden administration is not planning to vaccinate the nearly 200,000 migrants who are showing up on the border each month, despite imposing mandates on federal workers and private businesses nationwide.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed during a press briefing Friday that many employees would be required to get the coronavirus vaccine but that people in federal custody at the U.S.-Mexico border would not be required, nor be able, to get it.
“Our objective is to get as many people vaccinated across the country as humanly possible, and so the president’s announcement yesterday was an effort to empower businesses to give businesses the tools to protect their workforces,” Psaki said Friday. “That’s exactly what we did, but certainly we want eve...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:26 am
The latest politician to compare government vaccination efforts to Nazi Germany is Josh Mandel, a Jewish Republican candidate for US Senate in Ohio.
In a video Thursday protesting President Joe Biden’s upcoming requirement that a large portion of private sector employees either get vaccinated against COVID or get tested weekly, Mandel instructed his social media viewers not to comply with the requirement. In doing so, he compared Biden to the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police force that played a major role in carrying out the Holocaust.
“I call on my fellow Americans: Do not comply,” he said. “Do not comply with the tyranny, and when the Gestapo show up at your front door, you know what to do.”
Mandel is among the latest in a lengthening list of public figure...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:26 am
Six more people pleaded guilty on Friday to charges connected to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, including a man who threatened to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head.
Cleveland Meredith Jr. missed the pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, but stuck around long enough to tell family members that he planned to shoot Pelosi. He pleaded guilty to one count of interstate communication of threats.
According to court papers, Meredith sent a relative a text message saying he wanted to attend an event with Pelosi and put “a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.” The relative contacted Meredith’s mother, who got in touch with the FBI. Soon after, agents located Meredith in a downtown D.C. hotel, and found a handgun, rifle and 2,500 rounds of ammunition in his poss...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:25 am
A man who placed a pillowcase over a heavily pregnant chareidi woman’s head before punching her “several times” to the head has pleaded guilty to a single count of assault. However the court did not deem the attack an anti-semitic and sent the man for observation.
Keith Gowers, 59, followed his victim, 20-year-old Beila Reisz, along a street in North London before launching the “unprovoked and shocking” attack shortly before 6.30pm on March 18 earlier this year.
Gowers appeared at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Friday. The court heard that the woman, who was six months pregnant and unknown to Gowers, was set upon from behind in Hackney and suffered a cut lip and thumb during the random assault. Her glasses also broke during the incident. Fortunately her ...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:25 am
Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of the cable car crash in Northern Italy in May which took the lives of his parents, mother’s grandparents and brother, has been smuggled back to Israel by his other grandfather. The boy has been the subject of a struggle for adoption between two of his aunts, the Italian-based sister of his father and the Israeli sister of his mother. Recently he was placed by his Italian aunt, Dr. Aya Biran-Nirko, in a Catholic school run by nuns and monks.
Relatives in Israel, including his aunt, Gali Peleg, had claimed that Biran’s parents, Amit and Tal, had wanted him to receive a Jewish education in Israel and not to be placed in a non-Jewish environment.
Eitan’s grandfather arrived in Italy last week in order to meet his grandchild. A few hours late...
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September 12, 2021 at 10:18 am
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was seen in a new video on Saturday, following rumors that he had died. The footage wsas released on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the online activity of jihadist groups, reported that in a video released by al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri spoke on a number of subjects including the “Judaization of Jerusalem.”
Although the video was released on Saturday, al-Zawahri made no mention of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Rita Katz, SITE’s director noted.
Al-Zawahiri made references to a raid on a Russian military base by the al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group in Syria, which it claimed on January 1, 2021, Katz added.
Al-Zawahiri also talked about the United States withdrawal from Afghan...
