Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that gyms in New York state will be able to open as soon as August 24 at 33% capacity. Masks are required to be worn at all times, Cuomo said. Cuomo says the localities must open the gyms by September 2. “They have to inspect the gyms before they open or within two weeks of their opening to make sure they are meeting all of the requirements,” Cuomo said. “So the variation is to give the locality time. If the locality can get the inspections done or be ready to inspect, they can open August 24. If the locality cannot get ready to do inspections, then they get another week. They can do it September 2.” Cuomo says the locality can also decide if the gym can have classes inside. “Some gyms have classes,” he said.

Over 50 people were shot across the city over the weekend, police said as an increase in gun violence continues. From midnight on Friday to midnight Monday morning 51 people were shot in at least 39 shootings NYPD data shows. President Donald Trump tweeted at NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio about the uptick in gun violence, Sunday night. “Law and Order. If @NYCMayor can’t do it, we will!” The crime wave caps a bloody week of 62 total shootings, up from 26 gun incidents over the same one-week period last year. STAY WITH YWN WHATSAPP FOR BREAKING UPDATES IN LIVE TIME!  YWN WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES: CLICK HERE to join the YWN WhatsApp Status. YWN WHATSAPP GROUPS: CLICK HERE to be dded to an official YWN WhatsApp Group. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A Chareidi man in his 50’s drowned at the separate beach in Herzliya on Monday afternoon. United Hatzalah volunteer EMS personnel and Magen David Adom Paramedics responded to the incident and performed CPR on the man at the scene. United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Bar Rosenfeld who was one of the first responders at the scene relayed: “When I arrived at the scene I saw a number of passersby gathered around. They told me that the man had been pulled from the water by his fellow swimmers after he apparently drowned. I performed CPR on the man together with a volunteer doctor from United Hatzalah who also arrived. After he received initial treatment at the scene, he was transported to the hospital in a mobile intensive care unit while still undergoing CPR.

The Democratic and Republican conventions will lack for crowds but not television coverage. The standard political gatherings that were to unfold for the Democratic Party in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and for the GOP in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be largely virtual, constrained by the coronavirus. That won’t stop TV scrutiny of the speeches and other activities leading up to Joe Biden’s Democratic Party nomination for president on Thursday, Aug. 20, and the GOP’s renomination of President Donald Trump the following week. But the coverage will look drastically different. Gone will be the images of packed convention hall floors with news anchors ensconced above them; most are likely to broadcast from their usual New York or Washington bases.

Aron Schweitzer is a choshuve member of the Belzer kehila and beloved kindergarten Rebbi in Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal Canada. We were all shocked and saddened when his wife suddenly passed away at the young age of 55. She had ran a home daycare which was a big source of income for the family. Reb Aron is now left, not only grieving the loss of his wife, but with debts up to 50 thousand dollars which has accumulated over the years, plus the costs of the kevurah. Reb Aron has been an integral part of our community for so many years and contributed to the kehal in many ways. The LEAST we can do for him is ease his financial burden. Please contribute and may we only share in simchos.

The U.S. Postal Service is warning states it cannot guarantee that all ballots cast by mail for the Nov. 3 election will arrive in time to be counted, even if ballots are mailed by state deadlines. That’s raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised. It’s the latest chaotic and confusing development involving the agency, which has found itself in the middle of a high-stakes election year debate over who gets to vote in America, and how. Those questions are particularly potent in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led many Americans to consider voting by mail instead of heading to in-person polling places. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends mail ballots as a way to vote without risking exposure to the virus at the polls.

YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Hagaon HaRav Chaim Dov Keller ZATZAL, the Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe Chicago. He was 90 years old. The Rosh Yeshiva had been on a ventilator after contacting COVID-19 in March, and unfortunately never recovered. As one of the senior roshei yeshiva in the United States, Rav Keller served as a member of the Nesius of Agudas Yisroel of America. Rav Keller was born in New York City and attended the Telshe Yeshiva after it was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 1940 by HaRav Chaim Mordechai Katz and HaRav Eliyahu Meir Bloch. Rav Keller became a student and disciple of Rav Bloch in particular.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she is calling the House back into session over the crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, setting up a political showdown amid growing concerns that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election. Pelosi is cutting short lawmakers’ summer recess with a vote expected the Saturday after the Democratic National Convention on legislation that would prohibit changes at the agency as tensions mount. President Donald Trump’s new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has sparked nationwide outcry over delays, new prices and cutbacks just as millions of Americans will be trying to vote by mail to avoid polling places during the coronavirus outbreak.

A rare summer thunderstorm brought lightning that sparked several small blazes in Northern California on Sunday and stoked a huge wildfire that has forced hundreds of people from their homes north of Los Angeles. More than 4,500 buildings remained threatened by the fire burning toward thick, dry brush in the Angeles National Forest. Firefighters already battling the blaze in steep, rugged terrain with scorching heat faced more hurdles when hundreds of lightning strikes and winds up to 15 mph (24 kph) pushed the flames uphill. “We set up a containment line at the top of the hills so the fire doesn’t spill over to the other side and cause it to spread, but it was obviously difficult given the erratic wind and some other conditions,” said fire spokesman Jake Miller.

The Palestinian Authority announced the death of an eight-year-old boy in the Chevron district from the coronavirus on Thursday. The boy suffered from pre-existing conditions, including asthma and congenital heart defects. The Chevron district has been an epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the PA but the infection rate in the district has been declining in the past two weeks, with the Palestinian epicenter shifting to east Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority includes Israeli-controlled east Jerusalem coronavirus data in its own statistics. The Palestinian Authority confirmed 381 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, raising the total number of cases in the PA to 16,534, of which 6,586 cases are currently active.