Good Monday morning. Welcome to the tail end of February, a month I think it’s safe to say no one is sad to see go.
However, what lies ahead is equally scary these days. But at least we have Spring to look forward to – in just 20 days, to be exact. That’s a hair under three weeks. It will be here before you know it.
Today is Rare Disease Day, which impacts about 300 million people (just under 6 percent of the population, give or take) worldwide – between 25 and 30 million of whom live in the U.S. Seventy-two percent of these diseases are genetic and passed from one generation to the next, though others – like rare infections, cancers, and autoimmune disorders, are not.
In the U.S. the definition of a rare disease, as established by the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, is a condition that impacts fewer than 200,000 people across the nation. (Other countries have different definitions. In the European Union, for example, a disease is defined as rare when it affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people).
They’re sometimes referred to as “orphan” diseases because drug companies aren’t interested in “adopting” them to develop treatments because, well, frankly, there aren’t enough cases to make it worth their while, financially speaking.
The Orphan Drug Act created financial incentives to try to urge companies into doing the R&D necessary to come up with new drugs to treat these rare diseases.
There are believed to be as many as 7,000 rare diseases, and advancement are being made to treat some of them, thanks to the aforementioned Act. Between 1973 and 1983, fewer than 10 treatments for rare diseases were approved by the FDA, but as of 1983, more than 400 drugs and biologic products have been developed and brought to market.
Progress!
Today is also Shrove Monday, AKA Merry Monday, Collop Monday, Rose Monday, Lundi Gras, and/or Hall Monday, which is the Monday before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) and part of the Carnival celebrations taking place around the world. One traditional way to mark this day is to eat pastry, which is made to use up butter and eggs prior to Lent.
And if you’re looking for a last-minute indulgence, it might be helpful to know that today is also National Chocolate Souffle Day. The word “souffle” derives from the French verb “souffler”, which means to “blow up” or “puff up” – and that is what happens to a correctly made souffle when you bake it in the oven.
If you really want to go down the rabbit hall of the science behind a perfect souffle, click here. Having never tried to make one myself, I don’t feel equipped to give you the lowdown. I might actually suggest chucking the whole thing and opting for a mousse instead, which is a heck of a lot easier to make and arguably just as satisfying.
We’re in for a lot of up and down temperatures in the forecast, which I guess is typical for upstate at this time of year. Today will be a down sort of day, as we’ll barely get out of the 30s – if we’re lucky – though skies will be mostly sunny.
In the headlines…
The European Union announced new measures designed to bolster Ukraine in its fight against Russia, while imposing bans on Russian aircraft and state-owned media outlets.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put Russia’s deterrence forces, which includes nuclear arms, on high alert are part of a pattern of unprovoked escalation and “manufactured threats” from the Kremlin.
Citing “aggressive statements” by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia’s nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.
With a three-mile-long convoy of Russian military vehicles pressing down on Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed little hope negotiations planned for this morning would bring an end to the conflict, which has killed more than 350 civilians.
Zelensky has emerged as a hero to his nation’s citizens and far beyond as the former actor and comedian first elected in 2019 remains in his country at great personal risk during its bombardment by Russia.
Zelensky said in a message on the Telegram app that a delegation of the Ukrainian government will meet for talks with Russian officials near the Pripyat River in Belarus.
Belarus is preparing to send soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion in a deployment that could begin as soon as Monday, a U.S. administration official said.
It took an invasion of a sovereign country nearby, threats of nuclear attack, images of civilians facing off against Russian tanks and a spate of shaming from allies for Germany to shake its decades-long faith in a military-averse foreign policy.
The Democratic Socialists of America blamed U.S. and NATO “imperialist expansion” for helping trigger the Russian invasion of Ukraine — provoking criticism from local political leaders.
American businesses should cut their ties with Russia as it invades Ukraine, the besieged nation’s ambassador to the U.S. said.
The British oil company BP said it would “exit” its nearly 20 percent stake in Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company. Also, both BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, and his predecessor, Bob Dudley, would resign their seats on the Rosneft board.
Under mounting pressure to take action against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, the leadership of world soccer’s governing body agreed on a range of measures that would take effect for Russia’s crucial World Cup qualifying playoff next month.
A series of events last week, including Russia’s decision to throttle access to Facebook and censor news about the war in Ukraine, raise questions about just how much political support Putin will be able to draw on during the conflict.
In the most important environmental case in more than a decade, the Supreme Court today will hear arguments in a dispute that could restrict or even eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to control the pollution that is heating the planet.
Former President Donald Trump repeated familiar boasts and grievances in a keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday.
Trump gave his strongest indication yet that he intends to run in 2024 during a nearly 90-minute speech to supporters that also included continued praise of Putin.
Trump repeated his praise of Putin as “smart” and called American leaders “dumb” as Russia pressed on with its far-reaching invasion of Ukraine in the face of fierce resistance.
Trump overwhelmingly won a straw poll at the nation’s top conservative conference, another sign of his continued dominance in the GOP.
Former Attorney General William P. Barr writes in a new memoir that Trump’s “self-indulgence and lack of self-control” cost him the 2020 election and says “the absurd lengths to which he took his ‘stolen election’ claim led to the rioting on Capitol Hill.”
When the first trial stemming from the attack on the Capitol opens today, it will set the stage for prosecutors to do more than merely lay out the details of how the defendant, Guy Wesley Reffitt, sought to storm the building with a pistol at his hip.
The House is lifting its mask mandate ahead of Biden’s State of the Union address tomorrow, making mask wearing optional throughout the Capitol complex.
Fencing installed around the U.S. Capitol for months after the January 2021 insurrection will be put back up before Biden’s State of the Union address as concern grows about potential demonstrations or truck convoys snarling traffic in the nation’s capital.
A caravan of truckers that left California for Washington, D.C., on Friday to protest coronavirus mandates arrived in Las Vegas early Saturday with only five trucks in its ranks, the organizers said, prompting them to scrap the convoy.
Biden’s underwater approval ratings and Americans’ deep discontent with inflation and the economy has given Republicans an advantage going into the 2022 midterm elections in which the GOP is hoping to regain control of Congress, a new poll shows.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order that will stop investments and purchases involving Russia. The order will remain effective for as long as the federal government’s sanctions against Russia are in place.
The governor also said New York will welcome Ukrainian refugees in response to Russia’s invasion, noting at a press conference in Albany that her state is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the U.S.
The plaza in front of the state Capitol was a sea of blue and yellow yesterday afternoon as demonstrators took to the streets to rally in support of Ukraine.
The Metropolitan Opera said that it would no longer engage with performers or other institutions that have voiced support for Putin, becoming the latest cultural organization to seek to distance itself from some Russian artists amid the invasion of Ukraine.
Green Day became the latest artist or organization to cancel events in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The punk rock band said it won’t perform in Moscow on May 29 as previously scheduled.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Rep. Lee Zeldin called on Biden to boot Russia from the Killenworth compound in Glen Cove that it has owned for seven decades.
In voicing support for the city’s Ukrainian community, Mayor Eric Adams warned New Yorkers to avoid blaming Russian speakers in the Big Apple for Russia’s unprovoked war against its neighbor.
Dead bodies are piling up on gurneys in hospital hallways as Hong Kong’s health system is overloaded by its biggest Covid-19 outbreak of the pandemic.
Scientists released a pair of extensive studies that point to a market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the studies – neither of which has been peer-reviewed or published in a professional journal – used spatial analysis to show that the earliest known Covid-19 cases, diagnosed in December 2019, were centered on the market.
One by one, Hong Kong’s government is being forced to move away from key pillars of its strict Covid Zero strategy as a surge in new cases overwhelms the under-prepared health-care system.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has risen to become a major figure in the vaccine resistance movement. Those close to him say it’s “heartbreaking.”
Broadway icon Patti LuPone announced that she has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss more than a week of shows of “Company” on the Broadway stage.
The rush to return to normality in light of an improving national outlook for coronavirus cases has many public health experts concerned that the end of the Omicron surge is incorrectly being conflated with the end of the pandemic.
Mask mandates in public schools across New York will be lifted this Wednesday, Hochul announced, and she feels “confident” Adams will follow suit but said it’s ultimately up to him.
“My friends, the day has come,” said Hochul, citing recent CDC guidance which classified much of the state as “low risk” for coronavirus infection.
Hochul said counties and cities can decide whether to lift the requirement in their areas. Individual students and staff members still have the option to wear masks. School districts and private schools can still require face coverings if they want to do so.
New York will continue to require masks be worn indoors in health care settings, on public transit and in limited other congregate settings, Hochul said, adding state officials plan to review these measures in the future.
Adams announced in a statement that the city will remove so-called Key2NYC requirements next month “as long as COVID indicators show a low level of risk and we see no surprises this week.”
Adams announced New York City was poised to eliminate school mask mandates and vaccine requirements for restaurants, gyms and movie theaters, by March 7, if case numbers remain low.
Kyrie Irving, the Nets’ star guard, will still be ineligible to play in home games at Barclays Center in Brooklyn if New York City lifts its vaccine mandate for restaurants, gyms and most indoor spaces.
Public schools in New York City will no longer require students and staff members to wear masks outside while on school grounds starting today, David C. Banks, the city’s schools chancellor, announced.
NYC dwellers, who retreated to rural areas in the pandemic, now see drawbacks, from pests and social isolation to the difficulty of finding day care and health care.
Keechant Sewell, who took over the New York Police Department as an outsider, was immediately faced with a series of shocking crimes.
New York City’s subways and buses today will launch “fare capping,” which automatically issues unlimited passes to straphangers if they spend $33 on single ride fares in less than a week.
Hochul included provisions in her executive budget last month to extend Kendra’s Law for another five years, since it was scheduled to sunset this July.
New York’s state ethics watchdog was attacked by hackers, officials disclosed. The web servers of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics were hit by a “deliberate malicious cyberattack” this week, according to a press release.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and Adams were joined by Sybrina Fulton and her family to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the murder of Fulton’s son, Trayvon Martin, in Harlem on Saturday.
Adama vowed to take down every single homeless encampment in New York City’s subway system, arguing they’re not only dangerous to the people living there, but also for the city as a whole.
New Yorkers’ chances of getting killed by strangers grew sharply in 2021, and show no sign of abating in 2022.
A city Department of Health senior scientist bashed 13 times in her head by a hammer-wielding madman was alert and awake Saturday as police hunted the fugitive suspect in her Queens subway station beatdown.
NYC teachers, pupils and elected officials said in interviews that Adams’ Vegan Fridays haven’t been a hit so far since there’s been no improvement in the overall food quality in lunchrooms.
For two years before his indictment on charges of looting his union’s treasury, SBA ex-president Ed Mullins pursued a reexamination of the 2003 death of a Staten Island woman believed to have killed herself with her police officer boyfriend’s gun.
Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn — which is hemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars and facing complaints of severe understaffing and a decline in care — is paying its CEO and five other top medical brass seven-figure salaries.
A Rikers Island inmate was pronounced dead yesterday after being found unresponsive city officials said — marking the first reported death of 2022 at the notorious jail.
Republicans in New York State have opportunities to gain seats in the 2022 midterm elections amid rising crime and raging inflation under Democrats’ leadership, a new poll suggests ahead of the party’s nominating convention.
The sole Ukrainian-born pol on City Council will be given a prime speaking slot at the New York state Republican convention tomorrow.
Ana Maria Archila, a Queens activist who gained national attention in 2018 for confronting Sen. Jeff Flake in a Capitol elevator to protest Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, is running for LG and is likely to be backed by the WFP.
Lisa Do Hofflich, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, has decided to run for Sen. Alessandra Biaggi’s 34th District state Senate seat.
Manhattan Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney is leading a congressional charge for an equal rights amendment to enshrine gender equality in the U.S. Constitution as lawmakers in New York push for a broader measure on the same issue in the state Constitution.
Assemblyman Michael Cusick announced he won’t seek re-election for the seat he’s held since 2003, becoming the second leading Staten Island Democrat in as many weeks to make such an announcement.
With hospitalizations on the decline, Capital Region BOCES joined the growing “unmask our kids” chorus.
All Confucius Institutes housed at State University of New York campuses statewide are now closed.
Facing roughly 300 lawsuits since the Child Victims Act went into effect in August 2019, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has quietly waged an aggressive effort in court to conceal records that may reveal more about its handling of sexual abuse cases.
A city woman was arrested last week for her role in abandoning and injuring a Rottweiler puppy, Troy police said.
High school students at Heatly School in Green Island will see increased security measures and a rigorous weeklong slate of programming following a recent spurt of violence and bullying that resulted in the district briefly pivoting to virtual learning.
Albany High School students will be met with boosted security measures when they return from February break today.
City of Troy police are investigating three separate shootings that injured three men within 24 hours.
Hollywood’s biggest stars were back together in the room where it happens for the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards — and some history was made as the mostly deaf cast of Apple TV+’s dramedy about a child of deaf adults, “CODA,” clinched the top prize.
“Succession” star Brian Cox, 75, received a standing ovation at the Screen Actors Guild Awards as he spoke about censorship in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
