Good morning, it’s Monday.
SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON from the past weekend.
First off, I cannot believe I slept through the Northern lights, which were visible for the first time in memory this far south, compliments of solar storms that are buffeting the Earth.
The lights, formally known as the aurora borealis, are the result of charged particles that are emitted by the sun during solar storms. They’re usually only visible at high latitudes. But when solar activity is particularly intense – as was the case over the past several days – they can be seen in a far broader radius.
Also, when I say “intense” I really mean it. Those energized particles are spewed by the sun into the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph). They only reason they don’t fry us all to death is because our planet’s magnetic field protects us.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center’s forecast, people “as far south as Alabama and Northern California” were expected to be treated to this spectacular and rare light show on Friday night.
Slightly more predictable, but no less spectacular, are the tulips in Washington Park. The park boasts more than 140,000 tulips in 150 different varieties, which are celebrated at the Tulip Festival – always corresponding with Mother’s Day weekend. This year was the 76th annual Tulip Festival, and though the weather didn’t entirely cooperate, it seemed a good time was had by all.
I attended the Tulip Ball, which was held at Albany’s Convention Center, and for the first time had the chance to experience one of those 360-degree video making machines. FUN.
We can’t, of course, spend all our time looking backwards. I debated for a while over what sort of tone to strike to kick off a new week.
I could always opt for something on the more light-hearted side – today, for example, is National Frog Jumping Day, which marks the publication of author Mark Twain’s first successful short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” which was published in 1865.
It’s also, for some reason unbeknownst to me, National Fruit Cocktail Day – and who doesn’t like a good mix of canned, cubed fruit bathed in a sugary syrup? I could have done a nostalgia-laden post about school lunches and intensively red cherry pieces.
On the other end of the spectrum is something that normally would be quite celebratory – and I’m sure in some corners will continue to be – but unfortunately has come to be both polarizing and politicized, given the state of the world. It’s Yom Ha’atzmaut, which commemorates the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which marked the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.
In Israel, Yom Ha’atzmaut is always preceded by Yom Hazikaron, a memorial day for fallen soldiers.
The joining of these two days ins very deliberate, meant to remind the Israeli people of fight is has often taken for them to obtain – and retain – a Jewish homeland. The “switch” from one day to the next involves a formal ceremony that occurs a few minutes after sundown.
This whole enterprise has taken on new meaning and weight, given the ongoing war in Gaza. In at least one city – Ottawa, in Canada – the annual Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration has become a political flashpoint.
To be clear, because there is a disturbing amount of misinformation out there right now, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were occupied by Israel in the 1967 war – and if you need a refresher on the history of the whole mess, click that aforementioned link. It will take you to the UN’s “The Question of Palestine” page, which I found very helpful.
We’ll see a mix of clouds and sun today, with temperatures peaking in the low 70s. There will be a slight chance for a rain shower (what else is new?)
In the headlines…
The U.S. concluded it was “reasonable to assess” Israel has violated international humanitarian law in its war conduct in Gaza, but stopped short of a determinative finding of wrongdoing because the review did not find specific instances of violations.
The finding of “reasonable” evidence to conclude that the U.S. ally had breached international law protecting civilians in the way it conducted its war against Hamas was the strongest statement that the Biden administration has yet made on the matter.
Biden’s nuanced position on Israel on the war in Gaza has created different fault lines of division within his own Democratic Party.
Biden is facing backlash from lawmakers in both parties over his ultimatum that a major Israeli offensive in the city of Rafah would result in a shut-off of some US weapons.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered some of the Biden administration’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant “a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians” but failed to neutralize Hamas.
As battles raged across Gaza where the health ministry said the death toll since Oct. 7 topped 35,000, there was widespread panic in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah as tens of thousands people upped sticks and left fearing an imminent Israeli invasion.
Close-quarters ground combat between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops raged in parts of northern Gaza over the weekend, both sides said.
Graduates across the country showed their opposition to the war in Gaza this weekend, walking out of commencement speeches, draping themselves in Palestinian flags and chanting their demands to divest from Israel.
At Emerson College’s commencement, pro-Palestinian supporters made sure they were seen and heard throughout the ceremony.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld was met with a wave of boos when students at Duke University in North Carolina walked out just before his commencement speech.
Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced his minister of defense with an economist, shaking up his national security team for the first time since his Ukraine invasion and signaling his determination to put the war effort on an economically sustainable footing.
The president this week will mark the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision as part of a broader outreach to the Black community, a White House official
Biden’s campaign plans to host a major fundraiser in Los Angeles next month with former President Barack Obama and Hollywood superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, according to a campaign official.
Biden’s campaign dropped a brutal Mother’s Day ad attacking Donald Trump’s past and proposed policies regarding mothers and women.
Trump held a raucous rally in New Jersey, where on Saturday he confidently predicted he would easily win the Garden State on Election Day in November.
Trump could owe more than $100 million in taxes as a result of a yearslong Internal Revenue Service inquiry into claims of huge losses on his Chicago skyscraper.
Trump claimed massive financial losses twice — first on his 2008 tax return, when he said the building, then mired in debt, was “worthless,” and again after 2010, when he had shifted its ownership into a new partnership also controlled by Trump.
When he takes the stand as a vital witness at Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, Michael Cohen will unearth some of the secrets he buried, revealing a mess that prosecutors say his former boss was desperate to hide.
If Trump’s fixer-turned-foe is poised to offer jurors this week an insider’s view of the dealings at the heart of prosecutors’ case, he also is as challenging a star witness as they come.
As Trump weighs who should be his running mate, top prospects in Congress are burnishing their credentials to appeal to him, from their committee seats to TV spots in which they can speak to an audience of one.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has changed his stance on abortion once again, saying he supports abortion up until a certain point rather than at full term.
Office of Cannabis Management executive director Christopher Alexander will leave the beleaguered agency in September, as Gov. Kathy Hochul tries to get the agency on firmer footing.
“We promised to build the strongest, most equitable legal cannabis market in the nation, and we’re announcing long-needed steps to make New York’s cannabis program work as promised,” Hochul said.
The announcement of Alexander’s departure came after a task force found a startup-like culture at the agency contributed to “confusion, difficulty and delay” in the rollout of the state’s legal market, according to a report released Friday.
The report found that the office was staffed with inexperienced leadership, lacked a transparent process for licensing new dispensaries and had virtually no customer service for licensees. It also outlined a path forward.
The city’s cannabis cops have raided and shuttered an illegal pot shop in the heart of a Queens neighborhood’s business district as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ newly announced crackdown on scofflaws.
Hochul said she regrets her remark that Black children in the Bronx don’t know the word “computer.” Black Lives Matter and education activists from the borough say that’s not enough.
Students, activists, and educators are also up in arms.
Hochul signaled her support last week for reauthorizing the city’s tiny red light camera program — but stopped short of calling for an expansion of the decades-old program.
Hochul recently announced more than $3 million for 64 projects that will protect water quality, prevent farmland conversion, boost public access for outdoor recreation, and conserve open space.
Building on earlier plastic packaging bans, the state Senate passed a bill banning polystyrene “beach coolers,” that long-sought by environmentalists due to the harm they say they do to the environment, especially at sensitive coastal areas or near lakes.
New York’s pension funds should be investigated to probe whether the massive accounts are supporting the shady world of third-party legal lending, a newly united coalition of critics said.
The actor Steve Buscemi, 66, was punched in the face in a random attack in Manhattan last week, his publicist said.
Buscemi was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated for bruising, swelling and bleeding in his left eye, the police said.
“Steve Buscemi was assaulted in Mid-Town Manhattan, another victim of a random act of violence in the city,” according to a statement from his publicist. “He is ok and appreciates everyone’s well wishes.”
The Yankees and Mets both whiffed on snagging Shohei Ohtani last year, but “Sho-time” is still shaking up things in New York City — in the battle for state casino licenses in the Big Apple.
Michael Henry, the underdog Republican candidate who ran a spirited campaign against Democrat state Attorney General Letitia James in 2022, is seeking a rematch.
Mayor Adams said meeting Pope Francis was the highlight of his trip to Rome, where he traveled to speak at a conference about world peace. Adams often speaks about how his Christian faith informs his leadership.
Adams lauded the Pope’s calls for migrants to be treated humanely as he kicked off his visit to Italy, and said he also took away lessons from Roman Mayor Roberto Gualtieri on how the Italian capital is supporting migrants.
The mayor was received warmly in Rome: On Saturday, his often-used line comparing New York to other cities — in this case, “New York is the Rome of America” — drew applause. Yesterday, a child asked for his autograph.
“I’m traveling to Rome because the solutions to the problems facing our city, country and planet must be solved together—by sharing ideas and strategies,” Adams wrote in a post on X.
Adams called out sick on the third day of his Rome visit – cancelling a tour of an Italian school teaching migrants the local language to help them assimilate to society.
Ronn Torossian, a New York City PR executive and Adams associate, was arrested at a pro-Palestinian Syracuse University encampment, where he and other parents protested what he called the school’s inaction on student safety issues.
A state Supreme Court justice struck down Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s executive order barring transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports played at county parks and facilities.
The ruling turned on a technical issue: Blakeman, had “acted beyond the scope of his authority as the chief executive officer of Nassau County” when he imposed the ban, Justice Francis Ricigliano of Nassau County Supreme Court said.
The Department of Transportation hopes to add 500 new secure bike parking facilities to New York City streets over the next five years as part of an effort to encourage cycling and reduce theft.
The NYPD arrested 19 and doled out 100 summonses in one day in a joint operation with law enforcement and transportation agencies to curb the number of drivers evading tolls and other fines by using cars with fake or obscured license plates.
A top NYPD officer was seemingly caught on camera accidentally pepper-spraying himself while trying to break up an anti-Israel demonstration on the Manhattan Bridge Saturday.
Some 2,500 top-ranked dogs are in New York City to compete in this year’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Breed judging, the marquee event, will begin today.
A wild turkey is evading capture and winning hearts and minds all over Manhattan.
Nauman Hussain says less than 20 minutes wasn’t enough time for him to decide whether to abandon a sweetheart plea deal sparing him jail time in the 2018 limousine crash in which 20 people died or go to trial and risk being locked up for decades.
Exactly a century after bidding farewell to its first graduating class, the College of Saint Rose held its final commencement ceremony Saturday morning at MVP Arena.
The University at Albany and the University of Rochester are partnering on a new center to develop RNA-based medical treatments.
The redesigned Guilderland rest stop along the eastbound side of the Thruway is open, with new restaurants, outdoor seating and a dog-walk area. Eventually, high-speed EV charging stations will be available.
Orange County has joined other local governments in filing lawsuits against the state challenging a new law that moves most local elections to even years, arguing it usurps its ability to govern by home rule.
Switzerland’s Nemo became the first nonbinary person to win the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, seeing off competition from Croatia in Malmö, Sweden, as well as Israel, whose participation had ignited protests and calls for a boycott.
In the headlines…
Photo credit: George Fazio.
