Good morning, it’s Thursday. Perhaps this is the last day of your workweek in anticipation of an extended July 4 holiday weekend. If that’s the case, I am happy for you. Truly, I am, and I am absolutely not jealous. Not even a little.
Time for a little history lesson! On this day in 1908, the Tunguska explosion occurred – the largest asteroid impact in recorded history – flattening 830 square miles of Siberian forest in the process.
Tunguska was the largest cosmic impact ever witnessed by humans, which is to say that since we weren’t around in the dinosaurs’ time. The asteroid that ended the dino age created what is known as the Chicxulub crater, on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
That asteroid is believed to have been between 10 and 15 km wide, and the velocity of its collision with the Earth created a crater that is 150 KM in diameter – the second-largest crater on the planet.
But back to Tunguska, the anniversary of which is commemorated via the annual observance of Asteroid Day.
Witnesses at the time reported seeing a bluish light – nearly as bright as the sun – and a fireball streaking toward the Earth. The sound that followed was likened to artillery fire, and the shockwave produced was felt hundreds of miles away, knocking some people off their feet.
No one could explain this phenomenon at the time, in part because there was no impact crater. Scientists believe the asteroid burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere, creating what’s known as an “air bust” that was still strong enough to cause considerable damage, even though it actually passed us by. (Imagine what would have happened had it actually hit?)
Asteroid Day is a UN-sanctioned global awareness campaign with a mission to “inspire, engage and educate the public about asteroids opportunities and risks.” Interesting blurbage:
“Asteroid Day was co-founded by astrophysicist and famed musician Dr Brian May of the rock group Queen, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, filmmaker Grig Richters, and B612 Foundation President Danica Remy, to educate the public about the importance of asteroids –their role in the formation of our solar system, their impact in space resources and the importance of defending our planet from future impacts.”
Yeah, the Rock group Queen, you read that right.
There’s in-person programing – in case you happen to be in Luxembourg – on topics such as space research; asteroid characterization, development, and tracking; defense and mitigation; and much, much more.
It might not be the best night for gazing at the heavens, as there will be some clouds about. During the day, we’ll see temperatures in the low 80s and partly sunny skies.
In the headlines…
Vice President Kamala Harris created new uncertainty about President Biden’s intentions to run for reelection in 2024, pulling back from a definitive statement she had made earlier in the week.
“The president intends to run and if he does, I will be his ticket mate. We will run together,” Harris told a reporter as she prepared to depart for California aboard Air Force Two.
Advisors had told the reporter that Harris wanted to come to the back of the plane to clarify what she told CNN on Monday, which was: “Joe Biden is running for reelection, and I will be his ticket mate. Full stop.”
At fundraisers and on the sidelines of events in recent weeks, Joe Biden has been selling Democrats — on Joe Biden for 2024.
Senate Democrats are close to a deal to lower prescription drug costs as part of a larger party-line package to advance a number of Biden’s economic priorities, three sources familiar with the negotiations said.
Biden wraps up a six-day trip to Europe that has been largely overshadowed by domestic issues and will meet the press before heading home today.
Biden said the U.S. will significantly expand its military presence in Europe, the latest example of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reshaped plans for the continent’s security and prompted a reinvestment in NATO.
Arriving at the meeting in Madrid, the president announced the stationing of a brigade of 3,000 combat troops in Romania, two squadrons of F-35 fighters in the UK and two navy destroyers in Spain.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack issued a subpoena to Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel to President Trump who repeatedly fought back against extreme plans to overturn the 2020 election, after he resisted testifying publicly.
Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican and vice chairwoman of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, described Trump in stark terms as a threat to the republic who had “gone to war with the rule of law.”
Rudy Giuliani appeared to have admitted asking for a pardon from Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 attack, but then quickly deleted the post on Twitter.
Lev Parnas, an associate of Giuliani who was a figure in Trump’s first impeachment investigation, was sentenced to a year and eight months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes.
The death toll from Monday’s discovery of dozens of migrants being smuggled in a tractor-trailer rose to 53, according to local authorities, adding to what appear to be increasing fatalities among people attempting to illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico.
A tractor-trailer that ended up in San Antonio with more than 50 dead or dying migrants passed through a federal immigration checkpoint inside the United States without being inspected, a top Mexican official said.
Continuing their rapid march across the United States, the Omicron subvariants known as BA.4 and BA.5 have together become dominant among new coronavirus cases, according to new estimates from the CDC.
The federal government’s stores of a key Covid-19 antibody drug, a crucial weapon for keeping the infected out of the hospital, are expected to be used up in late August because pandemic funding is running out.
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor, said he is experiencing a rebound of COVID-19 symptoms after taking Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid.
Fauci said he started taking a second course of Paxlovid after experiencing symptoms “much worse than in the first go around.” Now near completion of the five-day oral treatment, he said he was still enduring symptoms but felt “reasonably good.”
Fauci sought to discourage doubts about Paxlovid, saying it “did what it was supposed to do,” which was keep him out of the hospital at the age of 81.
A team in Thailand reports the first solid evidence of a pet cat infecting a person with SARS-CoV-2 — adding felines to the list of animals that can transmit the virus to people.
A tiger at an Ohio zoo died of health complications caused by Covid-19, officials said.
Thousands of MTA employees who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 will no longer have to be tested weekly for the virus, transit officials said.
A sneaky new omicron subvariant, BA.5, has arrived in New York City, and it may require another round of booster shots, according to experts.
Muppet Elmo proudly got his coronavirus vaccine, weeks after the United States made the shots widely available for children under 5, sparking a battle with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Biden plans to nominate a conservative lawyer who has represented anti-abortion causes to a federal judgeship in Kentucky, according to Rep. John Yarmuth’s (D-Ky.) office.
How overturning Roe affects the right to talk about abortion remains far from settled, teeing up what legal experts said was a looming confrontation over whether the First Amendment allows censoring speech about a medical procedure.
The Biden administration released new patient-privacy guidelines, seeking to spell out federal protections for personal medical information that law-enforcement officials could use to investigate potential violations of state antiabortion laws.
The issue of abortion and the overturning of Roe could impact the governor’s race, where the Republican candidate, Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin, has been a reliable vote to limit abortion access and to bar federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood.
Gov. Kathy Hochul wasted no time in previewing her plan of attack against Zeldin, as she painted her Republican rival as a “Trump extremist.”
Hochul’s launched a new website and statewide digital ad, “Too Extreme,” highlighting what it characterized as Zeldin’s dangerous and out-of-touch views for New Yorkers.
Zeldin faces an uphill battle in his “long shot” bid for New York’s top job — but political experts say he has a chance if he is laser-focused on specific areas and hot-button issues such as crime and inflation.
New York lawmakers and Hochul have reached a broad agreement on a package of measures meant to address a Supreme Court ruling that knocked down the state’s century-old concealed carry law for firearms.
State lawmakers are expected to vote on a package of provisions at a special session today that will restrict where guns can be carried, including places where kids gather, polling places, educational institutions and public transit.
Hochul unveiled a list of “sensitive locations” where she is seeking to ban concealed carry following the bombshell Supreme court gun ruling last week — as she also argued it shouldn’t be a “default” for private businesses.
Ten firearms distributors accused of illegally selling thousands of “ghost gun” kits to New York residents are being sued by the office of state Attorney General Letitia James.
There is also a push for lawmakers to take further action in response to the court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade while they’re in special session today.
The state legislature will try to force Hochul into approving its two-year extension of mayoral control over New York City schools if she doesn’t act by the time it expires today.
A pro-gun group asked a federal judge to order the NYPD to loosen rules on concealed firearms after last week’s Supreme Court decision striking down a state law that required citizens to demonstrate “proper cause” for carrying weapons.
A 20-year-old woman was fatally shot last night by a hooded gunman while she pushed her 3-month-old child in a stroller on the Upper East Side, officials said, another bleak episode in a wave of gun violence that has gripped the City over the past two years.
Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at a news conference at the site of the shooting, said the killing was another example of the scourge of gun violence in New York, and another reason he had made combating it a top priority.
More guns in our city means more lives lost,”Adams said. “It means more babies crying, as those who love them lie dead.”
A preliminary investigation shows the victim was pushing the baby in a stroller when a man, wearing all black, hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants, walked up from behind and shot her once in the head at point blank range. He fled. The baby was unharmed.
Adams added that he had spent his whole day before the shooting addressing the “over-proliferation” of guns on the streets before the shooting “and how there is just no fear on using these guns on innocent New Yorkers. And this is the result of that.”
Adams has urged Staten Island DA Mike McMahon to consider prosecuting ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani for allegedly filing a false police report, to which Giuliani responded by calling for Adams to quit over the city’s crime crisis.
The MTA has resubmitted a plan to implement congestion pricing tolls in Manhattan to the feds, a step transit officials hope will put the major initiative on track to be implemented by 2024.
Adams called on the MTA to provide “exemptions” to forthcoming congestion fees planned for Manhattan below 60th Street — even as the MTA’s CEO warned doing so will mean a higher toll for everyone else.
Former City Hall staffer Pinny Ringel defeated a pro-Andrew Yang Brooklyn district leader in Tuesday’s election after Adams and a top member of his team spent an unusual amount of political capital to boost Ringel in the relatively low-profile race.
All but one Democratic incumbent in 28 Assembly primaries across the five boroughs were able to stave off challengers in Tuesday’s election — the first in a split primary season that has seen notably low voter turnout.
Left-wing candidates lost in the primaries as Democratic voters gravitated toward the ideological center in key races, but observers cautioned against viewing the outcome as a referendum on progressive politics due to fundraising disparities and other factors.
The real estate industry watched nervously Tuesday night to see if moderate Democrats could hold off far-left insurgents in the state’s primary elections. For the most part, they did.
One longtime incumbent who was ousted, Bronx Assemblyman José Rivera, who held his seat since 2000, lost to George Alvarez, an information-technology specialist who is the vice president of the Bronx Democratic Party and a member of Community Board 1.
Steven Raga, a Woodside, Queens resident and former chief of staff to the incumbent Brian Barnwell, has won the Assembly District 30 seat—making him the first Filipino American to hold elected office in New York.
A 22-year-old NYU student and Lazard intern died after falling onto the subway tracks in front of a train at the No. 7 station beneath Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal.
The mother and teen brother of a 7-year-old girl were arrested and charged with her horrifying beating death and sexual abuse in their Bronx home, cops and prosecutors said.
Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, who for decades preyed on his fans through psychological and sexual abuse, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
As the judge read out his term, Kelly, 55, did not react, and outside, his victims expressed deep relief at the decision.
Kelly is scheduled to stand trial again in Chicago on Aug. 15, where he faces federal charges for producing child pornography and luring minors into sex acts.
New York’s recreational marijuana market is beginning to sprout, literally, with thin-leafed plants stretching toward the sun in farms around the state.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany announced it is proposing a plan to use a court-supervised mediation plan to compensate the more than 400 victims of sexual abuse who have filed claims against the diocese, clergy and others under the Child Victims Act.
The City of Albany has released two possible designs for the new Lincoln Park pool as potential replacements for the existing landmark pool. Both proposals would more than triple the bather capacity of the current pool and replicate its walk-in entry.
One prisoner is dead and another injured after a confrontation at Green Haven Correctional Facility, State Police said.
