It’s Tuesday; good morning, and happy International Chess Day.
Yep. There’s an entire day dedicated to chess, which was reportedly invented in India in the fifth century. (It was called “Chaturanga” at the time…though actually, the origin story of the game is disputed, because nothing is easy anymore).
International Chess Day is celebrated annually on the day that the of FIDE (World Chess Federation) was founded in 1924, and this year marks the organization’s 97th anniversary.
Robert James “Bobby” Fischer, the American (Brooklyn-bred!) chess prodigy and grandmaster and 11th World Chess Champion, once said: “Chess is a war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.”
Chess experienced something of a renaissance in 2020 – in part due to the fact that everyone was locked down and in desperate need of something to do with themselves, and also because of the popular original Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit.”
(For the record, I could not get through that show, though the acting and the clothes were downright amazing. I found it very stressful – and at the height of an incredibly stressful time, it was far more than I could take).
Anyway, chess sets sold out during the pandemic – as did all manner of outdoor equipment, like skis and snowshoes and kayaks. Also hard to find: Anything having to do with home and yard improvement like swimming pools, and decks, and refrigerators, which apparently are still in short supply.
It’s the 48th anniversary of the untimely death of martial arts movie star Bruce Lee, who collapsed and died at the age of 32 on this date in 1973 while filming “Enter the Dragon.”
It’s going to be partly cloudy today, with the possibility of a stray shower or thunderstorm. And it’s going to be damn hot – in the mid-80s, with 73 percent humidity – a good day to set up your chess set in the shade.
In the headlines…
Lawmakers scrambling to finalize a bipartisan infrastructure bill face new obstacles, with key Senate Republicans warning they won’t move forward with a planned test vote on an unfinished bill and negotiators jettisoning a crucial proposal to help pay for it.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he doesn’t believe lawmakers should have to decide whether they will vote in favor of a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package before the bill text is even finalized.
President Joe Biden walked back some of his criticism of Facebook, saying he meant to accuse a dozen users, but not the social media platform itself, of spreading deadly lies about Covid vaccines. “Facebook isn’t killing people,” Biden said.
Speaking at the White House, Biden insisted he meant “precisely what I said” when he said Friday of the tech giants that “they’re killing people.” But he said the point of his rhetoric was to ramp up pressure on the companies to take action.
Biden ordered the State Department to create a working group to review U.S. remittance policy to ensure that money that Cuban Americans send home makes it directly into the hands of their families without the regime taking a cut.
The president said that Congress needs to pass his sweeping economic agenda in order to tamp down rising inflation amid concerns that another burst of government spending will act as an accelerant to already rapidly rising consumer prices.
Biden will take the stage at Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents next month. Or at least his audio-animatronic will.
The Biden administration publicly blamed hackers affiliated with China’s main intelligence service for a far-reaching cyberattack on Microsoft Corp. email software this year, part of a global effort by dozens of nations to condemn Beijing’s malicious cyber activities.
The Biden administration has been debating internally whether and how to impose sanctions on China for its malfeasance in cyberspace, as experts question why the White House has not gone further in penalizing the country for the Microsoft attack.
The Biden administration proposed sharply higher penalties for larger hospitals that don’t make their prices public.
Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative for Covid-19 following a meeting with Texas state House Democrats, several of whom later tested positive, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Conservative hostility to Biden’s vaccine push is surging with Covid cases on the rise.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration will “welcome” a COVID-19 vaccine public service announcement (PSA) from former President Trump as coronavirus cases around the country rise.
Georgia health officials were forced to destroy over 110,000 vaccine doses because they were not being used.
The U.S. officially climbed out of a recession in April 2020, concluding a pandemic-driven economic contraction that lasted two months, making it the shortest on record.
States overpaid billions in unemployment assistance after enhanced and extended benefits were approved last year, according to a federal watchdog.
U.S. stocks fell aggressively yesterday on concerns that a rebound in Covid-19 cases would slow global economic growth.
Stocks, bond yields and oil prices declined in the most acute sign yet that investors are second-guessing the strength of the global economic recovery that sent markets soaring this year.
The Biden legal team has decided that thousands of federal convicts who were released to home confinement to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 will be required by law to return to prison a month after the official state of emergency for the pandemic ends.
Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations across the U.S. are growing steadily higher as the infectious Delta variant takes hold and the pace of vaccination subsides from highs reached in April.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its coronavirus warning for the United Kingdom to Level 4, the highest on the agency’s scale, and urged Americans not to go there even if fully vaccinated.
Canada said it will begin to ease pandemic restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border next month, allowing U.S. citizens and permanent residents living who are fully vaccinated with Canadian-authorized vaccines to enter for nonessential travel without quarantining.
Canadian officials said that international visitors from other countries will also be permitted to enter on September 7.
“Freedom Day” arrived in England yesterday with its chief architect, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, confined in quarantine, millions of Britons facing the same prospect and untold people more anxious about the risks of liberation.
The so-called bubble to control COVID-19 infections at the Olympic athletes’ village in Tokyo is already “broken” and poses a risk of spreading infections to the general populace, a prominent public health expert said.
Kara Eaker, an alternate on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, tested positive for the coronavirus just days before the Tokyo Olympics were set to begin, officials said.
The supposed anti-sex beds in the Olympic Village are not, in fact, too flimsy to support the weight of more than one person.
SEC media days kicked off with commissioner Greg Sankey announcing that six of the conference’s 14 football teams have reached an 80% mark for vaccinations.
A federal judge preliminarily upheld Indiana University’s policy requiring students to receive Covid-19 vaccinations before returning to campus for the fall semester.
Fox News host Sean Hannity declared late yesterday he “believes in science” and the “science of vaccines” as he urged viewers to get inoculated against COVID-19.
In a 101-page decision U.S. District Judge Damon R. Leichty said the university acted reasonably to protect public health when it required all of its students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated by July 1, with limited medical and religious exceptions.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been suspended from Twitter for 12 hours for violating rules on spreading vaccine misinformation.
The Capital Region saw the highest 7-day average COVID infection rate in New York state, which is 1.75%.
Local officials are urging those who have not yet gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 to do so as soon as possible, as the highly transmissible delta variant now makes up more than half of all cases nationwide.
New York City’s COVID positivity rate is still only about 1.7%, and Mayor Bill de Blasio is attributing that to New Yorkers getting their vaccines while reiterating there is currently no plan to enact another mask mandate.
De Blasio balked at the idea of reinstating an indoor face mask mandate in the city even though COVID-19 infections are ticking back up. Instead, he called for more vaccination efforts throughout the five boroughs.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office is declining to release records detailing overtime payments to junior staff members, arguing the records have been “compiled for law enforcement purposes” and if disclosed would “interfere” with investigations.
Cuomo suffered an unprecedented fundraising defeat when his likely Republican opponent for governor raised more money than he did over the last six months, a period in which Cuomo plummeted in popularity and saw the worst polling numbers of his three terms.
Cuomo raised less than $2.3 million during the six months that ended Sunday, compared to almost $4 million during the six months that ended Jan. 11. But Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Long Island) raked in nearly $4.1 million since declaring his candidacy on April 8.
Cuomo’s people have been spreading a fishy story that Preet Bharara is putting out feelers about a run for governor in 2022 — in an apparent effort to undermine the investigation into their boss.
Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams suggested that he may live out of his Bed-Stuy apartment if elected mayor instead of staying full time at the Upper East Side’s palatial Gracie Mansion – or perhaps a combination of the two.
New York City civic groups and City Council members criticized the Board of Elections for a string of mishaps during the mayoral primaries and called for state reform of the board.
Ranked-choice voting (RCV) had far more benefits than drawbacks for New York voters in the 2021 primary, according to an analysis released by the good government group Citizens Union.
Preliminary findings strongly suggest most New Yorkers took to the new RCV system, though Adams and other critics charged that poor education efforts essentially disenfranchised some voters.
State lawmakers gathered at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn to hear from civil rights attorneys, advocates and members of the City Council who questioned the way the system was implemented by the city Board of Elections.
“What played out on Election Day as I observed and members of my organization, I believe, was the anticipated result of a nefarious, intentional plan to dilute the vote of African-Americans,” the Rev. Kirsten John Foy, founder of Arc of Justice, testified.
The MTA continued to bleed subway crews in June, adding to a worker shortage that’s caused major delays in service for the better part of a year.
New York City straphangers won’t have to face planned subway fare hikes until at least 2022, the head of the MTA’s Finance Committee announced.
The MTA was supposed to get $14.5 billion in COVID-19 relief funds through three packages passed by Congress between March 2020 and March 2021 — but a technicality could send a big chunk of change to New Jersey and Connecticut instead.
Tekashi69′s private security henchmen relentlessly chased a man through the streets of Harlem in SUVs — with sirens blaring and lights flashing — after he recorded the rapper on his cellphone, Manhattan prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn want a lenient sentence for ex-NXIVM official Lauren Salzman, citing her “extraordinary assistance” against reputed cult leader Keith Raniere and other members of his Colonie-based organization.
Police are no longer seizing marijuana, making arrests or issuing tickets for low-level possession for travelers passing through Albany International and other airports across the state.
After legalization, municipalities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are deciding whether to permit cannabis businesses to open.
All 64 SUNY campuses across New York State plan to fully reopen with in-person classes this Fall.
Six flags great escape is closing Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the foreseeable future, as efforts to get new hires continue.
GlobalFoundries plans to build a second semiconductor fabrication plant at its Fab 8 campus, an expansion the company says will lead to the creation of another 1,000 jobs and double its manufacturing capacity.
Peter Volkmann, a police chief once touted for innovative efforts to combat drug addiction, avoided prison time at his sentencing for stealing from the retirement system and for filing false claims for mileage and expense reimbursement from Chatham.
A young Black couple who established the city of Saratoga Springs’ Free Fridge and participated in Wednesday’s Black Lives Matter march said they were pursued by city police after leaving the protest.
Troy-based CHA Consulting is among a number of statewide companies that have been awarded grants to study the ways that heat pumps can lower energy costs in multi-unit buildings and homes.
High river levels and heavy rain forced the state to close the Erie Canal between Waterford and Herkimer County.
The National Weather Service said this Montgomery County village was under a state of emergency last night after up to four inches of rain fell, flooding village streets.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren and her husband, Timothy Granison, will be arraigned on weapons and child endangerment charges tomorrow morning, according to court records.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, is going to space today.
A diehard supporter of former President Trump who marauded through the Capitol on Jan. 6 was ordered to spend eight months in prison in the first felony sentencing for the attack that shook American democracy.
An actor from the hit series “The Wire” accused a Brooklyn journalist of sexually abusing him by touching his buttocks on two occasions — but the woman says it was in the context of a consensual relationship, her lawyer said.
Britney Spears is wasting no time siccing her new lawyer on her dad to oust him from her contested conservatorship.
Ric Orlando, the popular Capital Region culinarian who has long used his music background to position himself as a “rock ‘n’ roll chef,” is the featured vocalist in a new video for a song called “Born Hungry,” out now on YouTube.
Prince Harry is writing a memoir.
