Good morning, it’s Thursday.
If you’re a sky watcher, today is a big day. The first of two solar eclipses of the year will occur when the moon will pass in front of the sun and creates the illusion of a “ring of fire” in the sky in Northern Canada, Greenland and the Arctic.
This eclipse is “annular” which means the moon is far enough away from the Earth that it appears smaller than the sun, leaving room for bright light to glow around the edges.
Other parts of the Northern Hemisphere in the U.S., Europe and Asia, will be able to see a partial eclipse. In many of these locations, the eclipse will occur before, during, and shortly after sunrise. (Yet another reason it’s good to be an early riser).
Unlike a “ring of fire” or annular eclipse, the moon will NOT be passing directly across the center of the sun’s disk during this partial eclipse, but instead will appear to take a “bite” out of the sun, the size of which will depend on your location as the viewer.
The eclipse will start after sunrise north of Lake Superior as it crosses remote regions of Canada and then into Greenland and the Arctic Ocean before going over the North Pole. It then heads south before ending in parts of the Russian Far East.
Weather permitting, a view of the partial solar eclipse will be streamed on YouTube and on nasa.gov/live.
In case you don’t recall your grade school science classes, here’s a little PSA:
It is NEVER safe to look directly at the sun, even if it is partly or mostly obscured. When watching a partial solar eclipse or annular solar eclipse, you must wear solar viewing or eclipse glasses throughout the entire experience.
Solar viewing or eclipses glasses are NOT regular sunglasses; regular sunglasses are not safe for viewing the Sun. If you don’t have solar viewing or eclipse glasses, you might consider constructing a pinhole projector, which is really pretty easy.
If you’re in need of a refreshing beverage while you do your eclipse viewing, perhaps consider celebrating National Iced Tea Day.
Recipes for iced tea have been found dating back to the 1870s. It is believed, however, it started to appear in the U.S. in the 1860s and became widespread in the 1870s. Today, iced tea makes up about 85 percent of ALL the tea consumed in this country.
Though it’s always good to stay hydrated, it’s not going to be quite as hot today as it has been, with temperatures just barely flirting with 80 degrees. The skies will be partly cloudy.
In the headlines….
The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline pulled the plug on the contentious project after Canadian officials failed to persuade President Joe Biden to reverse his cancellation of its permit on the day he took office.
Calgary-based TC Energy said it would work with government agencies “to ensure a safe termination of and exit from” the partially built line, which was to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.
On his first stop before heading to the G-7 summit amid a busy schedule in Europe, Biden will meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson today in Cornwall, western England.
The U.S. and U.K. have pledged to agree on a new “Atlantic Charter” to cement trade, travel and tech ties between the two nations.
In remarks at the G-7 summit in Britain today, Biden is expected to announce that the U.S. has bought 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to donate to 92 low income countries and the African Union.
Biden said he was in Europe to defend the very concept of democracy, setting high stakes for his first presidential trip abroad and warning Russian President Vladimir Putin he planned to raise touchy issues during their upcoming summit.
The White House has indicated that he intends to cover a “full range of pressing issues” with Putin, including arms control, climate change, Russian military involvement in Ukraine, Russia’s cyber-hacking activities and the jailing of dissident Alexei Navalny.
A Russian court designated Navalny’s political movement as an extremist network, a remarkable move that sent a message to Biden ahead of his meeting next week with Putin: Russian domestic affairs are not up for discussion.
Before his departure from the U.S., Biden (and his press plane) had a run-in with cicadas.
A government report concludes that federal police did not clear protesters from Lafayette Park near the White House last summer so then-President Donald Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo op.
The report concluded that “the evidence did not support a finding” that the Park Police had cleared the area just for Trump, who strode through it on June 1 last year before posing for photographs in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church holding a Bible.
Trump ordered his top White House attorney to issue a false statement at the height of the Mueller investigation even though he knew the lying could carry criminal consequences for both of them, according to newly unearthed congressional testimony.
Trump praised upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik as a superstar on track “to have an incredible career” as a Republican leader Wednesday night, during a fundraiser he hosted for her at his New Jersey golf course.
Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease authority, said he never played down the possibility that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have been leaked from a lab in China, calling accusations he did so for political reasons “preposterous.”
The United States is reportedly in talks with Moderna to buy doses of the pharmaceutical company’s COVID-19 vaccine to donate to low income countries.
The highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 that spread rapidly in India is now in the U.S., worrying health experts with large portions of the country still unvaccinated.
The number of new daily COVID-19 cases and deaths rose for a second straight day, as concerns over the more easily transmissible delta variant increase, and as continued vaccination hesitancy puts meeting Biden’s goal for July 4 at risk.
The WHO has warned that a “two-track pandemic” is now afoot. While rich countries with high rates of vaccinated people are starting to talk about ending restrictions, many nations still face extremely dangerous situations.
India reported the highest single-day death toll from COVID-19 in the world, at 6,148, after a big eastern state revised its figures to account for people who succumbed to the disease at home or in private hospitals.
China has reimposed strict quarantines and lockdowns in the hopes of quelling a new COVID outbreak.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky reiterated that people will likely need to receive additional doses of the Covid-19 vaccines alongside the annual flu shot for the next “several years.”
As some states report Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses are expiring before they get used, the company and federal officials are looking at whether expiration dates can be extended – and whether the doses could be put to use elsewhere before they expire.
A new study shows that the Johnson & Johnson single dose COVID-19 vaccine triggers several immune responses that are effective in protecting people living in the United States along with South Africa and Brazil where several variants are present.
Researchers studying records of 1.7 million adults who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in Scotland found a small increased risk of bleeding conditions also sometimes associated with several vaccines routinely given to children, and usually treatable.
Companies are legally permitted to make employees get vaccinated, according to recent guidance from the federal agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Seattle is the first major U.S. city to fully vaccinate 70 percent of its residents against COVID-19, the city’s mayor said.
A Cleveland doctor told Ohio lawmakers that side effects from COVID vaccines could include people turning into magnets that are somehow manipulated by 5G telecommunications towers.
Grave ailments including hearing loss and gangrene caused by blood clots are among the significant issues reportedly being connected to the Delta variant of COVID-19.
State lawmakers prepared for late-night debates and a vote to reduce penalties for technical parole violations amid a flurry of deal-making as they concluded the annual legislative session this week.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been almost completely silent on most of the major policy debates unfolding in the final days of the legislative session. At no point during Cuomo’s decade in office has he played a less prominent role in lawmaking.
Leaders of the Democratic-controlled state Senate indicated that they would not vote on a proposal by the governor that would position Sarah Feinberg, a close Cuomo ally, to become the MTA chairwoman.
Some members of the Democrat-dominated Senate and Assembly said they were concerned the legislation would remove some oversight of the authority, which operates the nation’s largest transit system, including New York City’s subway.
State lawmakers this week put the finishing touches on a bill that is meant to make it easier for transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary and intersex New Yorkers to obtain updated government-issued identification.
State Sen. Peter Oberacker his chamber had passed legislation designating baseball as New York’s official state sport.
A group of New York legislators wants to put the state on a diet, with a new law that would mandate healthy food be served at any place that gets taxpayer funds — from prisons to schools to highway rest stops.
The state Senate passed a measure to put a hold on new large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations, but prospects for the bill in the assembly are unclear as unions push back on the measure and time is running out before the end of the legislative session.
Mental health facilities would be required to gather and provide information on how to seek protection orders for people who are discharged or put on conditional release under a bill given final approval by lawmakers this week.
New York’s vaccine passport could cost taxpayers $17 million. The state’s contract with IBM details a Phase 2 of the Excelsior Pass, which could include uses that some advocates say raise privacy concerns.
Two years after threatening to crack down on food delivery companies like Grubhub and Uber Eats, the New York State Liquor Authority has delivered a ruling that has both restauranteurs and delivery companies hopping mad.
Eric Adams holds a 6-point lead in the Democratic primary for mayor, but a surging Maya Wiley has emerged as his chief rival after landing the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to a new poll released yesterday.
Adams, a leading candidate for New York mayor, tried to rebut questions about whether he lives part-time in New Jersey, while his opponents sought to cast doubt on his truthfulness.
Adams invited the press over to his home in Bedford-Stuyvesant for breakfast and a tour after a Politico report suggested he actually lives in New Jersey.
Joined by his 25-year-old son, Jordan, outside the red-brick residence, Adams grew emotional, wiping away tears with napkins, as he said his privacy is rooted in an incident in which the back windows of his car were blown out by gunfire when Jordan was a baby.
Mayoral candidate Maya Wiley scored another endorsement that could bolster her standing among New York City progressives.: Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
Mayoral hopeful Kathryn Garcia made a well-received pitch to the city’s largest real estate lobby group — telling developers and owners the city needs to make it “easier” to build in the city and vowing to crack down on quality-of-life nuisances.
The Satmar Hasidic community led by Aaron Teitelbaum — a faction that supported Mayor Bill de Blasio in his 2013 primary win — endorsed Adams for mayor.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorsed Curtis Sliwa for mayor and taped a robocall urging fellow Republicans in the city to vote for the Guardian Angels founder.
Comptroller race frontrunner Corey Johnson faced attacks from the left and right, with moderate ex-financial journalist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera faulting him for increased spending and left-wing Councilman Brad Lander blaming him for stifling left-wing causes.
The city will crack down on dangerous and noisy illegal fireworks after Roman candles and bottle rockets flooded the city streets during the tumultuous summer of 2020, de Blasio said.
An MTA bus that crashed into a Brooklyn rowhouse Monday — possibly due to shopping bags the driver had near his feet — was still wedged into the side of the building yesterday, and city officials said the whole place is at risk of collapsing.
A prominent Capital Region moving company appears to have been hacked by the same Russian-speaking gang that two weeks ago temporarily crippled one of the nation’s largest meat-packing companies.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino called for schools in New York to disobey the current indoor mask guidelines for kids and adults following conflicting messages from state officials.
Backing away from an earlier plan to make mask-wearing optional for students in classrooms, the Mechanicville city school district said that it will instead continue to offer “mask breaks.”
After Lake George players threatened to boycott the high school football program, the district’s school board reversed its decision on merging its team with the Corinth school district.
Capital Region universities, corporate research labs and semiconductor research and manufacturing all stand to gain billions of dollars in federal support under the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which passed the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support.
After almost a decade of planning, a new section of “New York’s Energy Highway” opened in Rotterdam on a hilltop overlooking Schenectady and surrounding towns.
With 2,500 champion dogs arriving this weekend, Tarrytown, a quaint village on the Hudson River, aims to capitalize on hosting the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which has strayed outside Manhattan because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is moving this year’s induction ceremony for Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, Ted Simmons and the late Marvin Miller from July 25 to Sept. 8 so a crowd may attend as coronavirus restrictions ease.
Season tickets to the Saratoga Race Course are now on sale.
Starbucks is running short in some stores on basics including cups and coffee syrups, baristas said, as the chain grinds back to full operations in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden revoked a Trump-era attempt to ban Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat, substituting an executive order mandating a broad review of apps controlled by foreign adversaries to determine whether they pose a security threat to the U.S.
Facebook is giving most of its employees a choice: Seek permission to keep working at home or go to the office at least half the time.
CNN secretly fought an attempt by the Justice Department to seize tens of thousands of email logs of one of its reporters, the network disclosed, adding that the government imposed a gag order on its lawyers and president, Jeff Zucker, as part of the legal battle.
More than half of Republicans now say that same-sex marriages should be recognized as legal, with the same rights as opposite-sex marriages, according to a new poll released by Gallup.
Data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) yesterday showed that fewer children and families crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in May, although the number of crossings is still high.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, appeared to stun a Forest Service official by suggesting the agency fight climate change by altering the orbits of Earth or the moon.
Two top lawyers for R. Kelly are moving to withdraw from his case, citing internal disputes with other lawyers, less than nine weeks before they were set to represent Kelly, the disgraced R&B star, in his criminal trial in federal court in Brooklyn.
As the late-night talk show veteran’s latest series draws to a close, TBS has announced that the final two weeks of “Conan” will be star-studded – and in front of a live audience for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” a reality TV mainstay that led to international superstardom, a family empire worth billions of dollars and 11 spin-offs, will end its 15-year and 20-season run on the E! network with its series finale tonight.
