Good Wednesday morning. I had to think about that one for a while. I also had to go back to yesterday’s post and add the day of the week in, which I had conveniently omitted – probably because in my pre-coffee early morning fog I couldn’t remember it.
These short weeks always mess me up.
Our yard right now is in full splendor – sort of the last gasp of everything growing there before the dying cycle starts. The crabapple tree is losing some leaves. I think it was stressed by the stretch of really hot days we had for a bit there. Otherwise, though, things are still blooming away.
The yard attracts a variety of animals – from deer who browse in the woods at the edge of the fence to snakes that freak me out by popping up unexpectedly while I’m weeding to the very large woodchuck who has taken up residence under the back deck and likes to taunt the dogs through the living room windows.
I’m sure there’s a wide variety of other bugs and beasts and birds making their home in my backyard. They all play a role in keeping my mini ecosystem alive and well. And that replicates over and over – on a much grander scale – all across the globe.
Biodiversity – short for biological diversity – refers to the variety and variability of life on our plant. It’s made up of every living thing – plants, animals, microorganisms, etc. – and the ecosystems they form. When one part of this vast and delicate web is out of whack, the rest of it is impacted and potentially suffers.
Here’s a stat that will blow your mind: It’s estimated that the vast majority of species that every lived on the plant – 99.9 percent – are extinct. The average lifespan for a species is between 1 to 10 million years. Humans, for example, have only been around for about 300,000 years, which is a very small sliver of the Earth’s 4.5 billion year history.
Of course, if we keep up in the way we’ve been going, we might cut our time here considerably short.
The UN has been warning for years that, thanks largely to human impact on the plant (pollution, over development, exploitation of resources etc.), biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate.
In 2019, a report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) indicated that the rate of species extinction was accelerating with the potential for grave impacts on people worldwide.
Just this past winter, a first-ever report from the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals found that 44 percent of migratory species have seen their numbers decline and 22 percent could disappear altogether due largely to climate change and human encroachment. All told, 75 percent were experiencing loss of habitat.
There’s a lot more where that came from, but I’m starting to seriously bum myself out here, and it has already been a DAY. So, let’s cut to the chase. Today is National Wildlife Day, which provides an opportunity to raise awareness about endangered species and the many organizations that exist to help protect and support them.
(As an aside, there’s apparently a second National Wildlife Day observed on Sept. 22 to honor the late Steve Irwin, AKA the “Crocodile Hunter”, who was born on Sept. 22, 1962 and died on Sept. 4, 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray barb while filming in the Great Barrier Reef).
It’s estimated that there are more than endangered species on Earth – an all-time high. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates some 44,000 species are right now at risk of extinction. Here in the U.S., more than a third of wildlife is at risk of extinction, according to one assessment, and a number of species have been delisted because, well, they’re already gone.
To leave you on a more positive note, the news isn’t ALL bad. Thanks to aggressive conservation efforts and enforcement of the U.S> Endangered Species Act, some previously at-risk species are now recovering – including the California condor, the grizzly bear, the Okaloosa darter, the whooping crane, and the black-footed ferret. More stories of recovery and hope can be found here.
Another beauty of a day is on tap, with sunny skies and the temperature topping out in the high 70s. Maybe if we all wish really hard, we’ll hit 80 degrees.
In the headlines…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other militants over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced.
Yahya Sinwar, the group’s political chief, was charged with carrying out the attacks that resulted in the killing of at least 43 Americans. Five other Hamas senior leaders were also charged.
The charges, unsealed yesterday, accuse Sinwar and other senior Hamas leaders of “financing and directing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States.”
The criminal complaint includes seven counts, including charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was poised to undertake the biggest shake-up of his government since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with half a dozen senior figures offering to resign, as Russian forces carried out a second day of deadly attacks.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tendered his resignation today ahead of an expected major cabinet reshuffle as a fresh wave of Russian missiles overnight killed at least seven people, including a child.
Others reported to have submitted resignations are Olha Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister in charge of leading Ukraine’s push to join the EU, and Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister for strategic industries, who oversees arms production and development.
A Russian missile strike killed more than 50 people and injured scores of others – the latest in a series of devastating bombardments of Ukraine and one of the deadliest attacks of the war.The whole country has been placed under an air alert.
Zelenskyy told NBC News that Kyiv is planning to indefinitely hold Russian territories it seized in a surprise incursion last month as it tries to force President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is spending nearly $25 million to help down-ballot Democrats, in a sign of confidence heading into the final two months before Election Day.
That’s an earlier investment and far more money than the top of the ticket has sent in past election years.
Allies of the Harris campaign, including Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, began a campaign bus tour in Palm Beach County, Fla., yesterday focused on reproductive rights — a top issue for Democrats in this election.
A new ad appearing on the streets of Philadelphia this week showed Harris in an Eagles uniform holding a football, with “KAMALA” in bold letters above the tagline “Official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles.” The NFL team confirmed that the ads were fake.
A federal judge in Manhattan denied an effort by Donald Trump to move his already adjudicated state criminal case to the federal courts on Tuesday, rejecting his claims of presidential immunity and brushing aside his allegation of bias.
In a four-page decision, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan said he could not evaluate Trump’s claims of bias, saying those were issues for the state courts.
Hellerstein’s ruling came hours after Manhattan prosecutors raised objections to Trump’s effort to delay post-trial decisions in the case while he sought to have the federal court step in.
The son of the late Republican senator John McCain – whose war record was disparaged by Trump – has added his voice to criticism of the former president’s controversial Arlington cemetery visit, accusing him of violating a sacred burial site for political purposes.
McCain’s youngest son had already been moving away from the Republican Party — just weeks ago, he changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Harris in November, he told CNN in an exclusive interview this week.
The producers of the upcoming Trump biopic The Apprentice have launched a Kickstarter campaign to boost the controversial film’s profile and tech — and keep it in theaters as long as possible.
A federal judge in Atlanta ruled that Trump and his campaign must stop using the song “Hold On, I’m Coming” while the family of one of the song’s co-writers pursues a lawsuit against the former president over its use.
Local landowners in Albania are questioning how Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were able to sew up development rights for two luxury hotels on hot coastal property.
A judge in Michigan ruled that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must stay on the state’s presidential ballot, even though he has withdrawn from the race and thrown his support to Trump.
A former high-ranking aide for Gov. Kathy Hochul and disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo was arrested along with her husband on charges she acted as a foreign agent for China in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks and fancy perks such as salted ducks.
The 64-page indictment accuses Linda Sun, 41, and her husband, Christopher Hu, 40, of laundering money and spending their gains on a $4 million Manhasset mansion, a $2 million second home in Hawaii and luxury cars such as 2024 Ferrari Roma.
Prosecutors say that Sun blocked Taiwanese officials from having access to the governor’s office, eliminated references to Taiwan from state communications and quashed meetings between Taiwanese officials and state leaders, including Hochul.
Sun was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy, while her husband was charged with money laundering conspiracy and more.
On four occasions, a Chinese government official sent Nanjing-style salted ducks to the home of Linda Sun’s parents. They were prepared by the official’s personal chef, according to the indictment.
“This is no ordinary financial fraud,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon said during the arraignment. Attorneys for Sun called the charges “inflammatory.”
If true, the allegations show that Chinese authorities were able to gain influence at the highest levels of state government in New York for nearly a decade. The couple pleaded not guilty to the charges against them in a Brooklyn federal court.
“I’m furious and I’m outraged and I’m absolutely shocked at how brazen her behavior was,” Hochul told WNYC’s Sean Carlson, referring to Sun. “It was a betrayal of trust.”
A Hochul spokesman said Sun was fired in March 2023 “after discovering evidence of misconduct,” adding that the administration “immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process.”
A Cuomo spokesman said Sun had “worked in a handful of agencies and was one of many community liaisons who had little to no interaction with the governor” during the previous administration.
Cuomo is scheduled to testify next week before a congressional subcommittee that has been investigating New York’s handling of the pandemic and the circumstances that led to the deaths of more than 15,000 nursing home residents.
The former New York governor, who has already testified behind closed doors to the Republican-led House panel investigating the coronavirus pandemic, has agreed to appear on Sept. 10 – this time to testify publicly.
Seniors on Medicare will have their out-of-pocket prescription drug costs capped at $2,000 starting next year while the federal government continues to negotiate lower prices for common medications.
Mayor Eric Adams and other city leaders said Monday’s fatal shooting at the West Indian Day Parade was the work of a lone gunman, and insisted the event was otherwise safe. But some residents of Crown Heights say they plan to sit out future parades.
“Let’s be clear: one nut shot five people, one,” Adams said. “When you look at that one person, who we’re going to find, that shot five people, you remove them from the equation.”
“Yes, the parade has had a history of violent encounters, but we can’t say that about this weekend,” he added. “J’Ouvert was one of the safest we’ve ever witnessed. We would have had the same with this parade if we didn’t have this nut job that shot five people.”
The mayor has brought religious leaders into political power and will rely on faith communities to back him in 2025.
Getting arrested in New York City doesn’t bar migrants from taxpayer-funded shelters, the Adams administration admitted.
Adams announced that New York City has achieved consecutive record-breaking years for creating affordable housing and connecting New Yorkers to it.
City Comptroller Brad Lander is blocking the NYPD from awarding a new $5.4 million contract to a construction company facing criminal indictment, and chiding the department for leaning on the firm to do work at its HQ without anti-corruption “safeguards.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University called for a strike yesterday, asking students to skip school and urging college officials to divest from Israel as classes resumed for the fall semester.
A ghost gun manufacturer has ghosted its own attorney, even as it faces a lawsuit holding it accountable for the shooting death of a 16-year-old Bronx girl, according to a court filing.
A controversial security robot that had a short but well-publicized stint patrolling a NYC subway station appears to be headed back to work after months in storage room retirement — but details about the 5’2, 400-pound machine’s new gig remain in question.
Former New York City Correction Department Commissioner Louis Molina’s decision to ban a well-respected doctor from Rikers Island over a handful of critical social media posts will cost taxpayers $375,000 as part of a new settlement.
NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper, who has presided over a contentious increase of police officers stationed in the city’s subway system over the past year, will retire at the end of the month and is expected to join the MTA in a top security role.
Seniors at Cooper Union received a delightful surprise on the first day of classes yesterday, when administrators announced their tuition would be free once again.
The announcement marks an unexpected milestone in the college’s effort to return to free tuition for all students, a model that had distinguished Cooper Union, a school for art, architecture and engineering, for nearly all of its 165-year history.
Even with a cellphone ban, teachers in the small rural Schoharie Central School District still found themselves fighting daily to keep students off the electronic devices and focused on schoolwork, Superintendent David Blanchard told Schenectady school leaders.
A former doctor from Arizona pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter for assisting in a woman’s suicide last year at a motel in Kingston, N.Y.
The former doctor, Stephen P. Miller, 85, entered his plea and received his sentence during a brief appearance in Ulster County Court about seven months after he was charged for his role in the asphyxiation death of the woman, Doreen Brodhead.
The Democratic majority on the Common Council wants to oust a former Rensselaer County elections commissioner , Jason T. Schofield, from his new city job by cutting his salary by 99.7%.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
