Good morning, it’s Thursday. It’s also Eid al-Fitr, also known as the “Festival of Breaking the Fast.”
This Muslim celebration marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. The word “eid” literally means “festival” or “feast” in Arabic. There are two major eids in the Islamic calendar every year – Eid al-Fitr earlier and Eid al-Adha later.
Eid al-Fitr is a three-day-long festival and is known as the “Lesser” or “Smaller Eid” when compared to Eid al-Adha, which is four-days-long and is known as the “Greater Eid.”
Eid al-Fitr includes two to three days of celebrations that feature special morning prayers. People greet each other with “Eid Mubarak,” meaning “Blessed Eid” and with formal embraces (when social distancing is not being practiced as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic).
Eid feasts vary across cultures, but they often include rice, stewed or grilled meats and vegetables, dates and other fruits, and desserts. Gifts – usually money, but in modern times also sometimes jewelry or clothing – are traditionally given to children and to those in need.
In addition, Muslims are encouraged to forgive and seek forgiveness. Practices vary from country to country.
Completely unrelated, it’s International Hummus Day, which celebrates the dip/spread/condiment/main course that is traditionally made of garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, and garlic (though these days, it includes pretty much anything, including chocolate).
The origin of hummus is cloudy and hotly contested, though it was definitely born somewhere in the Middle East. The first real mention of hummus in a cookbook was found in 13th century Cairo. At the time, it was a cold chickpea puree, sans lemon juice and garlic, instead featuring pickled lemons with oil, herbs, and spices.
Ownership of this popular chickpea dip started a war between Lebanon and Israel in 2008. In 2010, Lebanon set the record for the largest plate of hummus at 11.5 tons. Hummus is now popular and fairly mainstream here in the U.S., but apparently the Brits are just mad for it.
If hummus is still perhaps a little too exotic for your taste, perhaps you can seek solace in the fact that it’s National Apple Pie Day, though this dessert that is often thought of as quintessentially American actually originated in the Middle Ages – both the English and the Dutch had a version, as did France and Sweden.
It will be sunny to partly cloudy today with temperatures just shy of 70 degrees.
In the headlines…
Republican leaders told President Joe Biden that they will draw a hard line on raising taxes to pay for infrastructure, demonstrating the substantial challenges ahead for a potential bipartisan deal on Biden’s infrastructure and jobs plan.
The gathering at the White House that lasted nearly two hours was the president’s first sit-down with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell since taking office in January.
Anxious drivers circled from one filling station to another, gasoline prices rose and thousands of stations were out of fuel in the Southeast yesterday as a ransomware attack continued to cripple a vital fuel pipeline.
Although officials said the U.S. has plenty of fuel, drivers clogged gas stations and created shortages in parts or all of 11 states. At least 12,000 gas stations reported being completely dry, and the squeeze pushed the price of a gallon past $3, its highest in years.
Colonial Pipeline, which the line that transports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Texas to New Jersey, said it had “initiated the restart” of operations, but it will take several days for supplies to return to normal.
Biden signed an executive order aimed at strengthening U.S. cybersecurity defenses, a move that follows a series of sweeping cyberattacks on private companies and federal government networks over the past year.
Amid the massive fuel shortage in several states as a result of the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, Chick-fil-A is reportedly facing a short supply of its signature sauce. Republicans are blaming “Joe Biden’s America.”
Speaking for the first time since violence started flaring between Israelis and Palestinians at the start of the week, Biden said he’d spoken at length to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voiced confidence in a swift end to the hostilities.
House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her leadership post as conference chair in a closed-door voice vote after she repeatedly called out former President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.
The move sends a high-profile message about the Republican Party’s priorities, its ongoing loyalty to the former President and the limited extent to which it is willing to tolerate dissent even after Trump’s election lies incited a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Cheney made a defiant final speech rather than fight the ouster, warning that Republicans would follow Mr. Trump to their “destruction” by silencing dissent and refusing to reject the myth of a stolen election. She drew boos from her colleagues.
“I will do everything I can to ensure that (Trump) never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” Cheney said. “We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution.”
The GOP conference is expected to replace Cheney with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, of the North Country, who has a less conservative voting record than her Wyoming colleague but has emerged as one of Trump’s top defenders.
GOP leaders are moving swiftly to install Stefanik as the No. 3 Republican in the House tomorrow, but the move comes as a growing number of conservatives are expressing doubts that she has the credentials or voting record needed to step into the job.
Stefanik huddled with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus to lay out her case on why she believes she should succeed Cheney.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy is reportedly considering launching a bid for House GOP conference chair, as conservatives fret that the party is moving too quickly to anoint a successor to newly deposed Cheney.
Stefanik’s rise within the Republican Party and embrace of Trump have met with a mixed reaction in the district she represents, which pivoted in the past from voting for former President Barack Obama.
After Cheney’s ouster, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the GOP is “eating itself and it is discovering that the meal is poisonous.”
A prominent panel of political and public health leaders has blasted the international and national response to the coronavirus pandemic, labeling slow and tepid reactions around the world as a preventable disaster that cost millions of lives.
The federal government took a final step toward making the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine available to adolescents in the United States, removing an obstacle to school reopenings and cheering millions of families weary of pandemic restrictions.
The vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, was 14-0, with one voting member recusing.
New York residents age 12-15 are now eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination against COVID-19.
In a report issued yesterday, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response called on wealthier countries to do more to help the world end the pandemic and to bolster the global health systems to prevent future outbreaks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had identified a total of 28 cases of serious, potentially life-threatening blood clots among the more than 8.7 million people who had received the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccination.
Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio announced that the state would give five people $1 million each in return for having been vaccinated as part of a weekly lottery program. The lottery, funded by COVID relief funds, may not be legal.
Ohio is also ending its mask mandate on June 2.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling on regional transit authorities across the state to help get New Yorkers vaccinated against COVID-19.
The New York Yankees have confirmed seven COVID-19 positives on their coaching and support staff, manager Aaron Boone said before last night’s 1-0 win at the Tampa Bay Rays.
Beaches and pools in New York state can open starting Memorial Day with six-foot social distancing, Cuomo announced. The goal is to reach 100 percent capacity by July 4.
The state Education Department’s Cultural Education Center re-opens to the public on Monday, May 17, with new COVID-19 protocols in place, State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said.
Bigger crowds will be allowed to gather at New York state high school sporting events this month, according to a clarification from the state’s department of health.
After a year of staying away, visitors are trickling back to New York City. Now, city officials and business leaders are plotting ways to lure them in large numbers.
Apartments rented through Airbnb Inc. and other home-sharing sites would have to be registered with New York City under a city council bill introduced yesterday.
With less than six weeks before the June 22 Democratic primary that is likely to determine the next mayor, eight Democratic contenders will convene by video for the first of three official primary debates.
The two-hour debate, co-hosted at 7 p.m. by Spectrum News NY1, is unfolding at an inflection point for a city, a period marked by both economic uncertainty and the reopening of businesses, a spike in gun violence and a surge of hope around vaccinations.
Here are some things to watch for if you plan on tuning into the debate.
Mayoral contender Andrew Yang revised his staunchly pro-Israel tweet amid the ongoing conflict with Palestinian militants — after critics on the left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, blasted him for the stance.
Yang acknowledged that volunteers with his own campaign were upset by his statement, prompting him to release a new one on admitting that his first was “overly simplistic”.
“They felt that my tweet was overly simplistic in my treatment of a conflict that has a long and complex history full of tragedies. And they felt it failed to acknowledge the pain and suffering on both sides,” Yang said. “They were, of course, correct.”
With just weeks until the primary election, Yang has regained his lead in the contest to become the next mayor of New York City, a new poll revealed.
A former employee of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was working as a lobbyist for at least one company that had business before the BP’s office, almost immediately after he left his government job, creating the potential for a conflict of interest.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson netted the endorsement of New York’s influential teachers’ union in his bid to become the next city comptroller.
Italian-American activists blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio during a protest at Columbus Circle for scrapping Christopher Columbus Day from the New York City school calendar.
The minimum penalty for hate crimes against houses of worship is set to double under a bill passed by the City Council.
A uniformed NYPD cop was shot three times — including once in the bulletproof vest — while responding to a report of gunfire in Brooklyn last night, sources said.
A male suspect opened fire and was taken into custody with unspecified injuries, the police said. It was not immediately clear how many times the officer had been shot or where he had been struck.
A four-day search for a man wanted in a weekend shooting in Times Square that injured two women and a 4-year-old Brooklyn girl ended yesterday when the suspect was arrested in Florida, the police said.
Farrakhan Muhammad, 31, was apprehended in Starke, Fla., about 30 miles outside of Jacksonville, while eating lunch with his girlfriend in a McDonald’s parking lot, the officials said. He was caught with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service.
The New York City jail system is in disorder and use of force against inmates is at a five-year high, a court-appointed federal monitor said in a newly published report.
City government would have to set up a “smart technology working group,” under a bill introduced by Manhattan Councilman Ben Kallos.
Top Republican leaders are asking Cuomo to temporarily suspend the state’s gas tax after pump prices surged following the Colonial Pipeline’s nearly week-long shutdown.
A state worker was arrested this week after allegedly pouring cleaning solution into a co-worker’s drink.
The building at the Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands where the ShopRite supermarket is located was sold earlier this year to a group of New Jersey investors for $18.5 million.
The New York State Authorities Budget Office has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging state oversight and financial reporting requirements for the privately run Saratoga Economic Development Corp.
Bobby Castagna, whose relationship with Siena men’s basketball coach Carmen Maciariello goes back a quarter-century, is joining the Saints as an assistant coach.
The Tri-City ValleyCats are planning to have vaccinated sections where social-distancing is not required when the minor-league baseball team begins its home schedule on June 4 at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
The Sierra Club is taking a major upstate operator of scrap metal yards to court, contending the company, Ben Weitsman & Son, hasn’t taken adequate steps to protect against storm water discharge washing hazardous metals into streams and rivers.
City of Albany police Officer Luke Deer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to resign as part of a plea deal for his conduct in an incident in which officers were accused of pummeling Black men at a First Street home in 2019.
The owner of the huge former Central Warehouse in downtown Albany — an 11-story concrete blot on the city skyline — vows to fight a planned auction of the property.
Colleges and universities in the Capital Region are getting more than $143 million in the latest round of federal pandemic relief funding.
A Jesuit priest who delivered the homily at a Mass for the inauguration of President Biden has resigned as the president of Santa Clara University after he engaged in inappropriate behavior, university officials said.
Mysterious episodes that caused brain injuries in spies, diplomats, soldiers and other U.S. personnel overseas starting five years ago now number more than 130 people, far more than previously known.
Electric-vehicle companies want New York lawmakers to let them open more dealerships in the state, a move that they and environmental groups said would expand sales of emission-free cars and trucks.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company has suspended accepting bitcoin as payment for its vehicles.
Embattled comedian Ellen DeGeneres confirmed that she’ll end her eponymous talk show after next season.
“American Idol” finalist Caleb Kennedy is leaving the show after video surfaced that showed him sitting next to a friend who was wearing a white Ku Klux Klan-style hood.
There’s a bike shortage. Again.
