Good Tuesday morning.
I’ve been doing this morning headline thing for a long time, going on six years now (in this space) and far longer than that in prior iterations. Sooner or later, I’m going to run out of material. I’m verbose, but not an endless well.
That said, there are some subject that bear repeating, and in my humble opinion, bees are one of them. Hear me out here.
Without bees, humans arguably wouldn’t eat. Bees are pollinators, and in their flitting from one plant to another, they enable plant reproduction – including many of the plants that provide staples of sustenance, not only for humans but for a wide variety of other animals, too.
An estimated one third of all the world’s food supply depends on honeybees. Some scientists believe that one of every three bites of food humans eat exits because of animal pollinators – not just bees, but also, butterflies, birds, moths, bats, beetles and other insects.
So, bees are critical for biodiversity. They also generate high-quality products on their own, including honey, royal jelly, and beeswax.
And boy, do they work for it. Honey bees have to fly 55,000 miles — roughly the equivalent of twice around the Earth — and visit two million flowers just to make a single pound of honey. For the record, that honey is not meant to be drizzled on your oatmeal – at least not as far as the bees are concerned. They make it to feed the hive. (Nectar on its own doesn’t keep long).
Bees are also big business; pollinating about $15 billon – yes, with a b – worth of crops annually in the United States alone.
According to a report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the western honeybee is the most widely managed pollinator across the globe, with more than 80 million hives producing an estimated 1.6 million tons of honey every year.
There are more than 20,000 known species of bees around the world, about 4,000 of which are native to the United States. They range in size from very, very small (the perdita minima measures only about 2 mm) to about as large as a kumquat (those fuzzy wood-boring carpenter bees).
Sadly – and rather alarmingly – an estimated 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species are facing extinction, including eight species of bees, which have been officially declared endangered. Also, you might have heard something about colony collapse, which is causing bees to die at a rapid rate. This is caused by a combination of pesticides, climate change, disease, and loss of habitat.
What can you do to help the bees? Well, first and foremost, you can buy locally produced bee-related products. More impactful would be to plant a pollinator garden, or at least increase the number of pollinator friendly plants in your yard, because one of the biggest challenges bees face is, as mentioned above, a loss of habitat.
Also, stop using chemical based pesticides, herbicides, and other agrochemicals, which are bad for bees’ health. For the record, New York has a Birds and Bees Protection Act, which curbs neurotoxic neonicotinoid (neonic) pesticides, starting in 2027. That’s good not only for bees, but also for birds , deer, and humans. It will also lead to cleaner water and soil – BONUS!
Today is World Bee Day designated as such by the UN to “raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development.”
Says the UN, most succinctly: “The goal is to strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators, which would significantly contribute to solving problems related to the global food supply and eliminate hunger in developing countries.” This day was selected because it’s the birthday of Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern beekeeping, who was born on this day in 1734 inn what today is Slovenia.
Another meh day is on tape, weather wise. It will be cloudy with highs only in the low 60s. Boo.
In the headlines…
For President Trump, yesterday’s phone call with Russian President Putin amounted to a major occasion — meant to ascertain his counterpart’s willingness to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end. For Putin, it seemed a much less momentous event.
Trump said Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations for a ceasefire, but the Kremlin said the process would take time and the U.S. president indicated he was not ready to join Europe with fresh sanctions to pressure Moscow.
Trump backed off his demand that Russia declare an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, instead endorsing Putin’s call for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
The Supreme Court let the Trump administration, for now, remove protections from nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants who had been allowed to remain in the US without risk of deportation under a program known as Temporary Protected Status.
The court’s brief order was unsigned and gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices rule on emergency applications. No vote count was listed, although Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that she would have denied the administration’s request.
Trump is telling some of the nation’s largest companies that they should eat the cost of his tariffs, as a growing number of businesses signal that they must raise prices to blunt the impact of a persistent global trade war.
Trump said that he was surprised that former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis was not made public a “long time ago,” seeming to suggest without evidence that the cancer was not newly discovered and had been covered up.
King Charles III wrote to Biden after he announced he was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer, Buckingham Palace confirmed. The British monarch, 76, is undergoing his own treatment for an unspecified form of cancer.
Former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who challenged former Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, suggested that Biden timed his cancer diagnosis announcement to deflect from renewed scrutiny of his time in the White House.
The cancer announcement has derailed Democrats’ nascent effort to acknowledge where they went wrong on his presidency and 2024 candidacy, as the party wrestles with a complicated mix of sympathy and unsettling new questions about his health.
Biden’s eldest granddaughter, Naomi Biden, ripped into Jake Tapper’s new book about the 82-year-old Democrat’s mental decline in office.
“Just read a copy of this silly book, and if anyone is curious for a review from someone who lived it first-hand: this book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class,” she wrote on X.
Trump is calling for a “major investigation” into the celebrities Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono, bringing his retribution campaign to the music industry.
A late-night meeting between Speaker Mike Johnson and moderate Republicans fighting for SALT ended with no deal yesterday, prolonging the fight over an issue that’s emerged as one of the major barriers to a final agreement on Trump’s domestic agenda.
“We had some questions, they have to wait for some more scores now,” Long Island GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino said. “They’re hoping to have some numbers back to us by morning.”
Most taxpayers would see their tax bills fall under House Republicans’ plans, according to a new nonpartisan analysis.
About two-thirds would pay less in 2027, per the Joint Committee on Taxation. About a quarter would see essentially no change in their tax bills, and about five percent would pay more.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, is predicting that the legislative package at the heart of Trump’s domestic agenda doesn’t have the support to pass through the House this week.
The Senate voted to advance landmark cryptocurrency legislation, with 16 Democrats siding with most Republicans on a key procedural motion that could set the stage for the upper chamber to pass its first-ever crypto regulatory overhaul.
The Senate voted 66-32 to proceed on the bill following a series of bipartisan negotiations in which Republicans agreed to an array of changes to win over enough Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold required to advance the measure.
The Senate confirmed Charles Kushner, a real estate executive and the father of Trump’s son-in-law, as ambassador to France, a prized diplomatic role. The vote was 51-45, with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker the only Democrat to vote with Republicans.
Federal prosecutors are charging U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers during a confrontation earlier this month at a federal immigration detention facility in Newark, officials said.
Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba said McIver is being charged under a federal statute for assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.
Prosecutors will, however, drop the federal trespassing charge against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested during the confrontation.
The Trump administration will allow a major offshore wind project that will deliver power to New York to continue, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum halted the project last month, claiming that the Biden administration did not adequately review it. But, Hochul said in a post on X that she managed to “save” the project by working with the administration.
“I want to thank President Trump for his willingness to work with me to save the 1,500 good-paying union jobs that were on the line and helping get this essential project back on track,” Hochul said.
Equinor said work would now restart on the project and it still aims to complete the wind farm by 2027.
“I would like to thank President Trump for finding a solution that saves thousands of American jobs and provides for continued investments in energy infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Anders Opedal, the chief executive of Equinor.
Hochul took a victory lap on restored service on the Rockaway A Train yesterday morning, but it’s still a mystery how the flailing MTA will plug a funding hole in its massive five-year capital plan.
Mayor Eric Adams signed a business engagement agreement with Israel’s government, seeking to draw a sharp contrast with local progressive Democrats calling for divesting from the country over its military campaign in Gaza.
Adams and Israel’s Economy Minister Nir Barkat announced a new unit in the mayor’s office aimed at building economic ties between the US city and Israel.
“As long as I am mayor of this city, we will be invested in Israel,” Adams said at The Jerusalem Post’s Annual Conference in New York City.
City officials announced that a massive new building near one of Brooklyn’s busiest transit hubs will become a one-stop shop for social service programs offered to New Yorkers every day.
Leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America see a path to victory for Assemblymember Zorhan Mamdani in the mayor’s race by targeting “older, non-white, outer borough working class voters,” they told members at a recent gathering of the local DSA chapter.
With only five weeks to go in the Democratic mayoral primary, Mamdani took the unusual step of urging his own supporters to donate to a rival – a move analysts said shows how a ranked-choice alliance could undermine the frontrunner, Andrew Cuomo.
Mamdani encouraged his supporters to quit canvassing on his behalf — in a video posted to X — and instead donate to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ mayoral campaign.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist representing part of western Queens, framed the request as a way to strengthen his, Speaker Adams’s, and other competitors’ efforts to defeat Cuomo next month.
Far more voters have a negative view of the domineering former governor than of any other candidate in the Democratic primary. He’s on track to win anyway.
Gaming giant Wynn Resorts, citing political opposition, is withdrawing its proposal for a sprawling casino in Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side, where officials are now pushing a 4,000-unit housing development, but no gaming, officials said.
Shortly after Wynn Resorts withdrew from a casino bid on Manhattan’s Far West Side, Related Companies formally pulled the plug and announced a new housing plan.
New York City plans to pony up new funding for child care assistance, narrowly avoiding a doomsday scenario for now where tens of thousands of families could have lost access to their vouchers.
The Big Apple’s beleaguered child service agency is able to keep its records secret from city investigators because of a state law — but a new bill would force the office to loosen its grip on the closely guarded files.
NTSB probers said they are investigating a tugboat’s possible role in a Mexican ship’s crash into the Brooklyn Bridge — while adding they have yet to board the foreign craft, much less talk to its crew.
Federal investigators said the Brooklyn Bridge passed a vulnerability test conducted after a Mexican Navy ship crashed into the span on Saturday. The bridge suffered “no significant structural damage,” an NTSB board member said.
The ship in the East River accelerated suddenly in the wrong direction before slamming its masts into the Brooklyn Bridge in a crash that killed two crew members, federal transportation officials said.
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, recently detained by federal immigration officials for his pro-Palestinian activism, walked across a graduation stage yesterday, blowing a kiss, bowing, and flashing peace signs to a roaring, largely standing crowd.
A now-former Bloomberg News reporter was arrested when anti-Israel protesters took over Columbia University’s main library this month, according to law enforcement sources.
One-time actress Jessica Mann told jurors she “felt like I was being discovered” when film mogul Harvey Weinstein met her at a party and told her she was prettier than Natalie Portman — but that feeling gave way to horror and, ultimately, rape.
A nonprofit trying to end youth homelessness pitched a radical idea last year: What if they gave young people on the brink of homelessness cash, with almost no strings attached, to help them keep a roof over their heads? Early results show it worked.
Lincoln Center in Manhattan detailed plans for a $335 million makeover of its west edge, a landmark project that it hopes will bring in new audiences and help define the center’s modern legacy.
The United States Open tennis tournament, already one of the most glamorous sporting events in the world, will become even fancier after an $800 million renovation that will be the largest single investment in the site’s history.
A sale is pending for Cady Hill, the Geyser Road estate of the late socialite and philanthropist Marylou Whitney and her late husband John Hendrickson, according to Zillow.
The 120-acre property was listed for $12.9 million, but the sale price was unclear. The prospective buyer’s identity was unavailable.
Police arrested a 32-year-old man who attempted to steal a purse from someone at Stuyvesant Plaza before bystanders tackled him and retrieved the purse.
A local congregation is transforming a vacant Delware Avenue neighborhood church into a space where various local nonprofits can host programs, classes and events.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
