The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing post offices across the country, sparking concerns ahead of an anticipated surge of mail-in ballots in the 2020 elections, U.S. Sen Joe Manchin and a union leader said Wednesday. Manchin said he has received numerous reports from post offices and colleagues about service cuts or looming closures in West Virginia and elsewhere, prompting him to send a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy asking for an explanation. The possible cutbacks come as DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump who took control of the agency last month, moves to eliminate overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers, potentially causing a delay in mail deliveries.

As Belgium implements new restrictions to stem the tide of a soaring rate of coronavirus infections, the province of Antwerp has instituted even more stringent restrictions due to the particularly high rate of infections in the area, with 55% of all new infections in Belgium in the Antwerp district. Provincial officials in Antwerp, Belgium’s most populous province, are imposing a curfew on the province, barring all residents from leaving their homes from 11:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Cafés and restaurants must close their doors by 11 p.m. Customers at cafés and restaurants must register their names and contact information before eating and 1.5 meters must be maintained between customers.

A 25-year-old seeking a New York driver’s license with a nonbinary gender identity marker of “X” sued the state in federal court Tuesday. The lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of Sander Saba challenges the state policy limiting gender identity on licenses to either male or female. Saba, a nonbinary transgender New York City resident, said the current policy is discriminatory. “Just knowing that my identity is not recognized by the state weighs on me,” Saba said in a phone interview. The recent law school graduate said presenting an inaccurate license at a bar, a bank or at school can be “stressful, complicated and confusing.” The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York City names Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles as defendants.

Anosmia, a temporary loss of smell, has emerged as one of the defining neurological symptoms of COVID-19 but until recently no one has been able to explain the phenomenon. Furthermore, there are fears that for some, the damage may be permanent, with one study saying that one in ten coronavirus patients who lost their sense of smell won’t get it back. According to Dr. Jane Parker, an associate professor of flavor chemistry at the University of Reading, and Dr. Simon Gane, a rhinologist at the University of London, coronavirus patients may be losing their sense of smell from the “cleft syndrome” – when inflamed tissue and mucus block the olfactory cleft. When the swelling goes down, the passageway to the olfactory neurons opens up and smell is regained.

An experimental blood test was highly accurate at distinguishing people with Alzheimer’s disease from those without it in several studies, boosting hopes that there soon may be a simple way to help diagnose this most common form of dementia. Developing such a test has been a long-sought goal, and scientists warn that the new approach still needs more validation and is not yet ready for wide use. But Tuesday’s results suggest they’re on the right track. The testing identified people with Alzheimer’s vs. no dementia or other types of it with accuracy ranging from 89% to 98%. “That’s pretty good. We’ve never seen that” much precision in previous efforts, said Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimer’s Association’s chief science officer. Dr. Eliezer Masliah, neuroscience chief at the U.S.

Israel’s Association of Event Hall Owners sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ on Tuesday saying that they plan to re-open their halls on August 5 despite current coronavirus restrictions forbidding it with or without the government’s permission. Although the Knesset Finance Committee approved a financial aid package for event hall owners this week, the letter stated that the package is not enough to alleviate the financial distress of 100,00 families who lost their livelihoods. Event hall owners said they will open their halls according to current health ministry guidelines for parks and local authorities. The government closed event halls earlier this month amid the ever-increasing number of new coronavirus cases.

Three suspects were arrested after one of them stabbed a Boro Park Shomrim volunteer on Wednesday night. Sources tell YWN that Shomrim had received a hotline call reporting an assault, and while following the suspects, the stabbing occurred. The incident happened at New Utrecht Avenue and 46th Street The Shomrim volunteer was taken to Maimonides Hospital where he was treated for a stab wound to the foot. He is Bichasdei Hashem in stable condition. The knife was recovered at the crime scene, and NYPD Detectives were investigating. NOTE FROM YWN: CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO YWN WHATSAPP STATUS TO RECEIVE ALERTS IN LIVE TIME!  PHOTOS VIA BP24: (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Give your daughter the overnight camp experience she’s been dreaming of. Camp Palgai Mayim’s beautiful campus is up in the stunning Pocono Mountains, for girls going into 7th grade till 12th grade. To apply now please click the following link: https://form.jotform.com/201945058802152 0r call 347-782-3359
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by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com The Kinos were meant to be said in a slow dirge in rhyme.  That is how they were written.  When it is read in English – this is lost.  There is something unique that takes hold of you when you combine a slow dirge with rhyme.  Those that are not so fluent in the Hebrew lose the impact. To some, this poetic translation may help bring across that feeling. The Kinnah is numbered as #44 and is an expansion of The Pasuk in Yoel 1:5 אֱלִי צִיּוֹן וְעָרֶיהָ, כְּמוֹ אִשָּׁה בְּצִירֶיהָ, וְכִבְתוּלָה חֲגוּרַת שַׂק, עַל בַּעַל נְעוּרֶיהָ עֲלֵי אַרְמוֹן אֲשֶׁר נֻטַּשׁ, בְּאַשְׁמַת צֹאן עֲדָרֶיהָ, עַל בִּיאַת מְחָרְפֵי אֵל, בְּתוֹךְ מִקְדַּשׁ חֲדָרֶיהָ.

There is a wonderful mother of three who is in desperate need of help. Two of her children attend a local Orthodox day school in Los Angeles and the oldest is a graduate of Valley Torah High School. PLEASE HELP HER! The mother has custody of the children and is bereft with no one to turn to. There is a plan in place to relocate the family where they can get a fresh start and the cost of living is much more manageable. There are a number of Rabbis, educators, and therapists who are very familiar with the situation and can vouch for the urgency of the matter and the magnitude of the mitzvah. If we can raise $50,000, we can set this family on a solid foundation for success and allow them to be self-sufficient moving forward. The time to act is now.