Good morning. It’s Wednesday already. Love a four-day workweek…though I’m getting slightly less sleep than usual to get it all done. Also because the littlest dog has suddenly decided that the hours between 4 and 6 a.m. are a good time to play – loudly.
Yes, yes, I know. I need to train him. Discipline. Structure. Crate time. Get in line behind my husband and submit your complaints and advice to the HR department, where they will be appropriately dealt with (ahem, politely ignored).
On the sleep front, it doesn’t help that it starts to get light before 5 a.m. and we have skylights in our bedroom. I love a lot of light in a room, but NOT when I’m trying to sleep. I need darkness and quiet. I wear a sleep mask and earplugs, and even that isn’t enough a lot of the time. Let’s not even start to get into the rituals and sleep aids required just to get me to drift off in the first place.
I do sleep better if I’ve spent a lot of time outside. Maybe it’s the combination of fresh air and exercise, but if I have been hiking for hours on end, guaranteed I’m going to sleep well that night. There are a number of hikes on my bucket list. (Let’s not revisit the disaster that was the last attempt…still too soon to discuss that in depth). But Everest has never been one of them.
Everest has been on my mind lately because it was – tragically – back in the news last week after the mountain claimed its eighth death this climbing season. That seemed high to me, but it’s actually lot lower than in 2023, when 18 fatalities were recorded – the deadliest year on record at the world’s highest peak).
At 8,849-meters (29,032-feet), Everest has long presented a tantalizing challenge for those who want to push themselves, reach new heights, and overcome significant odds to accomplish something.
But the growing popularity of climbing in general, and Everest in particular, has generated countless problems – overcrowding, trash (including human waste, depleted oxygen tanks, and the bodies of those who have died while attempting to summit, because recovering them is simply too difficult and expensive), and exploitation of the Sherpa people, just to name a few.
Ever since I read “Into Thin Air,” John Krakauer’s account of a tragic 1996 incident on Everest that resulted in 12 deaths – the highest single-season body count in the mountain’s long history, I’ve been both fascinated and not a little repulsed by what’s happening on the world’s highest peak. Our ability as a species to just love nature to death is frankly overwhelming. And it’s not just happening on Everest, but at national parks all over the country, and right here in our own backyard in the Adirondacks and the Catskills.
Even with the efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of overuse and the ethical questions raised by our obsessive pursuit of peak bagging, people just keep climbing. To wit: A number of records were broken on Everest this year.
In May, a Nepali climber named Phunjo Lamam clocked the fastest ascent by a women, summiting in just 14 hours and 31 minutes. (Consider that it usually takes several days to achieve that goal – weather permitting – with stops along the way to rest and adjust to the altitude).
Also in May, another Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa (AKA “Everest Man”) made his 30th ascent of Everest three decades after his first summit.
For those of us who enjoy a challenge but perhaps don’t want to – or can’t afford to – train for, travel to, and climb Everest, there are Everest-esque alternatives. One is simply called “Everesting,” which is to pick a hill and climb it over and over until you “summit” the equivalent of the massive mountain. You can do this on your own, or in an organized way, hiking up and riding a gondola back down to the start. (The latter does cost a few thousand dollars, but is supported and is MUCH cheaper than the actual trek).
Today, by the way, is International Everest Day, founded to honor the first ever summit on this date in by 1953 by Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali-Indian Sherpa, and Sir Edmund Hillary, a mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist from New Zealand.
It will be a comfortable late spring day – perfect for hiking! – with intervals of clouds and sun and temperatures in the mid-70s.
In the headlines…
Defense lawyers and prosecutors tried strategy and stagecraft to sway jurors in their respective closing arguments in Donald Trump’s criminal trial, which lasted several hours. The panel of 12 New Yorkers will get the case this morning.
It could take hours, days or even weeks for the 12 New Yorkers to reach a verdict in the first criminal trial of an American president. And before they begin deliberating, the jurors will receive instructions from the judge on the relevant law.
Jurors cannot convict Trump based on the testimony of “MVP of liars” Michael Cohen, defense attorneys argued, as tensions flared between protesters outside the courthouse where the historic criminal trial against the former president neared its end.
A prosecutor in the criminal case against Trump asserted that the former president had engaged in a fraud against the American people on the eve of the 2016 election by silencing a porn star’s account of a sexual encounter with him.
The prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, told jurors in his closing argument that the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels was part of a conspiracy that “could very well be what got President Trump elected.”
North Country Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik filed a misconduct complaint against the judge overseeing Trump’s Manhattan trial, alleging that his selection to handle the former president’s case — and others involving his allies — is “not random at all.”
“Raging Bull” star Robert De Niro, 80, took a number of shots at Trump, then went a few rounds with MAGA loyalists, as closing arguments began in the former president’s lower Manhattan criminal trial.
A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had expressed confidence about the coming battle with Trump.
For decades, Democrats have built their electoral strategies on a common assumption: the higher the turnout, the better their chances of winning. But that familiar equation may no longer apply for Biden in 2024.
Home prices could play a subtle but important role in the 2024 presidential election, according to a recent first-of-its kind study.
The Democratic National Committee said it would move to conduct virtual party proceedings to certify Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party nominees – a move that works around Ohio’s ballot certification deadline.
Ohio’s Senate Republicans ultimately passed a bill that would both allow Biden to appear on their general election ballot in November, but also bar foreign contributions to ballot issue campaigns.
Pope Francis has apologized for using a homophobic slur during a recent closed-door meeting with more than 200 Italian bishops, the Vatican said.
The leader of the Catholic Church was heavily criticized after multiple Italian news outlets reported he had used the Italian term “frociaggine” when discussing the admission of gay men into Catholic seminaries.
The bombs used in the Israeli strike that killed dozens of Palestinians in a camp for displaced people near Rafah on Sunday were made in the United States, according to weapons experts and visual evidence reviewed by The New York Times.
The United Nations said that it was struggling to maintain its operations in Gaza because of Israel’s expanding military offensive in Rafah.
The University of California’s academic workers union expanded its ongoing strike in response to pro-Palestine protests to UCLA and UC Davis, bringing the total walkouts to about 12,000 individuals.
Anti-Israel criminals caused at least $3 million in damage and the need for costly extra security at taxpayer-funded City College’s campus in Upper Manhattan during their violent protests there, officials say.
Longshot presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has submitted petitions to appear on a third-party line on New York’s ballot in November.
His campaign paid people a whopping $90 an hour to collect signatures in New York to get him on the state’s ballot for his long-shot independent presidential campaign.
Albany pols are rushing to put the finishing touches on proposed legislation meant to crack down on what they call “addictive” social-media algorithms — with a push from Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The legislation is in the form of two bills, the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and the Child Data Protection Act.
New York may have to refund millions of dollars to opioid companies after a state appellate court ruled recently that the state violated their due process rights.
Assemblymember Amy Paulin said the effort to rewrite criminal procedure law in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s overturned conviction is dead for this year.
Population decline, remote work and the woes of commercial real estate could create long-term problems for New York’s economy, a report released by the state Division of Budget found.
The Division of the Budget is also projecting a growing general fund deficit that could reach $7.25 billion in three years, worrying some analysts.
More than 15 months after an historic fight over the selection of the chief judge for New York’s highest court revealed a loophole in the state’s lobbying laws, a second attempt by lawmakers to address that issue is underway in the last days of the session.
Mayor Eric Adams confirmed his legal defense trust isn’t bankrolling legal fees for Rana Abbasova, a longtime aide whose home was raided by the FBI last year as part of an investigation into ties between the Turkish government and Adams’ 2021 campaign.
In a break with custom, Adams is keeping tight control over his newly announced Charter Revision Commission, rather than relying on outside experts.
Adams said that the city’s Department of Investigation is reviewing findings by THE CITY and two reporting partners that his son and a senior mayoral aide stayed in taxpayer-funded rooms at a Queens hotel owned by a major mayoral donor.
Adams praised NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell, saying he likes “his style,” amid widespread criticism of Chell’s use of his official social media account to attack perceived critics of the department.
Mets owner Steve Cohen’s dream to build a casino and entertainment complex dubbed “Metropolitan Park” by Citi Field was dealt a serious blow when local Queens Sen. Jessica Ramos announced she would not be backing a key bill needed to make it happen.
Ramos, a progressive Democrat who is considering a run for mayor of New York City next year, said in a statement that she would not introduce legislation to pave the way for a casino at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
A state appellate court revived a lawsuit seeking to overturn New York City’s Local Law 97, potentially imperiling the city’s landmark statute regulating large buildings’ carbon emissions.
Officials expect New York City’s new congestion pricing tolling system to reduce air pollution, as well as carbon emissions. The impact may be uneven.
New York City officials are planning to launch a novel resettlement program to help migrants leave city-funded hotel shelters in Buffalo, which some proponents hope will serve as a blueprint for how the city manages the migrant influx moving forward.
Partial remains of Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and year on the loose enthralled New York City before his death in February, will be kept at a museum near where he spent most of his life, zoo officials said.
Manhattanhenge, a phenomenon that sees the setting sun perfectly align itself with Manhattan’s grid of roadways, are again dazzling New Yorkers this week.
NYU Langone Health bestowed an award on a labor and delivery nurse for providing compassionate care to mothers who had lost babies. But shortly after, the nurse said, the hospital fired her over the speech she gave when she accepted the award.
A recent study by LawnStarter has crowned Houston, Texas, as the nation’s dirtiest city — bumping Newark, New Jersey from the top spot. New York City, despite its notorious grime, didn’t even crack the top 10. (It’s 12th).
Heavy rainfall triggered bathing restrictions at dozens of Long Island beaches. The Suffolk County Health Department issued an advisory against bathing or other water contact at 63 beaches, citing bacteria levels that could exceed state standards.
Nurses at Ellis Hospital and Bellevue Woman’s Center voted with a 94 percent margin over the weekend to authorize their union leaders to call a three-day unfair labor practices strike.
The first Belmont Stakes to be run at Saratoga Race Course will make a big change in the race’s distance, moving from a mile-and-a-half to a mile-and-a-quarter. The changes for fans at the historic track may seem just as jarring.
Democratic challenger Lee Kindlon said he will order an audit of the Albany County district attorney’s office if elected.
Kindlon picked up the public endorsement of Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan in an expected June 25 primary challenge against Albany County District Attorney David Soares.
“I have known Lee Kindlon for many years now,” said Sheehan. “And I have admired his integrity. I have admired how hard he works.”
The NY Forward program for the state’s small and rural communities approved funds for 19 projects in the villages of Kinderhook, Cambridge and Coxsackie.
Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Pratt, the sole survivor of an Army National Guard helicopter crash that killed two local members of the National Guard and a Border Patrol agent, has begun physical rehabilitation at a spinal cord injury center.
The Daily Beast’s new leaders will do a round of voluntary buyouts intended to cut costs by $1.5 million, in one of their first major moves to try to revitalize the flagging digital tabloid.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
