Good morning, it’s Wednesday. I fully expect I will spend most of my week screwing up the days, given that I took yesterday off to observe the Jewish New Year. Today feels like Tuesday, and I had to remind myself multiple times that no, it’s Wednesday, and you are going to be scrambling to catch up from now through Friday (and beyond?)
I’m in a religious state of mind, having spent more time in synagogue over the past several days than I did in the past several months combined. Hence the topic of this post, which I’m sure some people are going to find irreverent in tone, so let me apologize in advance for offending anyone – if anyone takes offense.
Jews have now officially embarked on the Days of Awe, which is the 10 day period (also known as the 10 Days of Repentance) between the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
The first day of Rosh Hashanah, Sept. 23, also happened to coincide with the predicted Rapture, believed by some evangelical Christians to be the day that Jesus Christ will return to Earth and take all the true believers back with him to Heaven.
The Rapture is the supposed end of human history, and since we are all still here – unless I missed something and we’re operating in an alternate reality – I’m going to assume the Rapture was a no-go this time around.
The prediction that it would occur yesterday was made by a South African man named Joshua Mhlakela, who has been misdescribed in some news accounts as a pastor.
Mr. Mhlakela was not terribly precise in his prediction, saying that the Rapture would either occur yesterday OR today, so I guess we’re technically not 100 percent out of the woods yet – or, depending on your point of view, we shouldn’t yet give yup hope.
This was hardly the first Rapture prediction. According to one online account, the Second Coming has been predicted hundreds of times before. And I’m fairly certain it won’t be the last.
To be clear, I don’t think there’s any connection between the Days of Awe and this prediction. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Mhlakela doesn’t have any idea that the days he predicted for the end of the word (or the beginning of the afterlife, again, depending on what your worldview might be) coincides with Rosh Hashanah.
The juxtaposition just struck me as ironic, is all, and I was little bit tickled by it, truth be told. And given what’s going on in the world these days, I guess we have to find our moments of levity where we can get them.
It looks like we’re going to be in for some wet weather in the coming days. Today will be cloudy with showers popping up in the afternoon and developing into a steadier rain as the evening approaches. Temperatures will top out in the low 70s.
In the headlines…
Health officials across the globe rejected President Donald Trump’s warning that pregnant women should limit the use of acetaminophen over unsubstantiated claims of a link to autism.
Authorities from Australia to Europe moved swiftly to respond to the U.S. announcement, which Trump made with great fanfare while flanked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying people should “fight like hell” not to take the pain reliever.
Additionally, Trump and Kennedy Jr. suggested that the childhood vaccine schedule could contribute to autism, contradicting years of research that has found no link between the two.
The dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who consulted with top Trump health officials on Tylenol and autism, was paid at least $150,000 to serve as an expert witness on behalf of plaintiffs in lawsuits against the maker of Tylenol.
In taking the unusual step of approving an old generic drug as a treatment for autism, the Food and Drug Administration stunned some experts by departing sharply from the agency’s typical standard for reviewing drugs.
Trump reversed himself on a key foreign policy issue, abandoning his insistence that Ukraine give up land to strike peace with Russia and declaring that Ukraine, with Europe’s support, was “in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”
Trump made his comment in a post on his Truth Social platform soon after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Europe must “grow up” and step up its support for Ukraine after comments byTrump backing Kyiv to take back all of its territory from Russia, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said.
In a meandering, 56-minute address to the UN General Assembly, Trump rebuked global institutions and complained about immigration, environmentalists, windmills and more. “I’m really good at this stuff,” he said. “Your countries are going to hell.”
About 50 anti-Trump protesters were arrested before the president’s address to diplomats and world leaders yesterday morning, according to an organizer of the demonstration.
The French head of state experienced a frustration that many New Yorkers know all too well. He got stuck during the U.N. General Assembly. But he had an unusual fix: He called Trump on the phone.
A man who plotted to kill Trump last year and staked him out at one of his Florida golf courses with a semiautomatic rifle was found guilty of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Ryan W. Routh, 59, an itinerant building contractor from North Carolina, was also found guilty of assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.
Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work. The General Services Administration has given the employees until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement.
Jimmy Kimmel broke his silence last night in an emotional return to ABC’s airwaves, by turns defiant, joking and somber as he addressed the controversy that temporarily sidelined his late-night show and set off a national debate over free speech.
In a monologue that turned emotional, the comedian choked up addressing the family of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist who was killed Sept. 10.
Kimmel said he understood why his comments about Kirk’s suspected shooter seemed “ill-timed, or unclear, or maybe both,” adding: “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”
But the host also warned about threats to free speech. “This show isn’t important — what’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this,” he said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to weigh in on mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s mumbling non-answer about how he plans to make amends to the thousands of NYPD cops for his history of anti-police statements.
New York is poised to become only the third state in the nation to pass a law rejecting anonymous reports of child abuse in a move to cut false tips.
Faster train service will launch on Metro-North Railroad next month, cutting a significant amount of time from passenger commutes, Hochul and MTA officials announced.
New York has rolled out a new program that relies on manufactured homes to tackle housing affordability.
The family of Robert Brooks, who was severely beaten to death in a medical exam room at Marcy Correctional Facility last December, joined the “End Prison Violence” campaign in urging Hochul to sign a prison reform bill.
Hochul said that New York will not be legalizing prostitution, though Mandani is the co-sponsor of a bill that would decriminalize consensual sex work, so those who sell or buy sex would no longer be arrested — as long as it’s between two consenting adults.
Misconduct complaints against New York City police officers have increased under Mayor Eric Adams’s administration and last year were at their highest since 2014, according to a report that measures the performance of city agencies.
The city’s first-ever “rat czar”, Kathleen Corradi, quietly scurried away from her post last week with the war on rats still raging, the mayor’s office confirmed.
Adams faces low poll numbers and a diminishing likelihood of remaining in office, but several real estate developers have thrown their support behind his reelection campaign, including two prominent developers in Williamsburg.
The City Council is expected later this week to approve a plan to build a housing complex in the Bronx for ex-inmates with serious health issues, bucking a last-ditch effort from Adams’ administration to block the project.
The Democratic Party is having a reckoning around what it actually means to be a “big tent,” and Mamdani’s candidacy for New York City mayor is at the center of the debate.
Where Mamdani stands on sex work has become an enduring feature of the New York City mayoral race: The frontrunner has pushed back on accusations he wants prostitution legalized, but has declined to provide a clear accounting of his position.
Mamdani visited a synagogue on Monday as part of a series of appearances in explicitly Jewish spaces during the High Holy Days, seeking to bridge a divide with some Jewish voters as he runs for mayor.
Mamdani said Monday that he would reschedule a local ABC town hall after the network’s decision to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel. “Whether you watch Jimmy Kimmel or not,” he said on social media, “today’s decision is a victory for free speech.”
Republican mayoral Curtis Sliwa demanded equal time after Mamdani initially backed out of a TV “town hall” in a supposed “political statement” over Kimmel’s suspension.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said that she’s backing Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race during her first live interview since leaving office.
“I support the Democrat in the race,” Harris said during an interview with Rachel Maddow. She added of the Democratic Party, “we’ve got a big tent and we’ve got a lot of stars.”
Mamdani has “failed miserably” at showing real contrition as he changes his tune on his past hardline anti-police and anti-Israel rhetoric, a high-profile New York rabbinical leader wrote on the eve of the penitential Jewish High Holidays.
One of the most well-funded anti-Mamdani super PACs recently dropped $250,000 on a set of attack ads that contain misleading stock imagery and curiously also compliment the Democratic front-runner.
The mayoral candidates’ views on addressing homelessness in New York City differ vastly, with calls to expand mental health services, overhaul the shelter system and change policing.
New York City’s social services agency now runs one of the nation’s largest housing assistance programs, according to new city data, but advocates and one mayoral candidate say it could be even bigger.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams plans to introduce a bill this week that would require private security guards receive active-shooter training and earn higher wages in the wake of this summer’s grisly Park Ave. mass shooting.
A string of largely unexplained deaths of people in New York City police custody is now under investigation by an independent city agency, a Police Department official said.
Up to 20 people — or nearly three times the official count — may have died in the city’s latest Legionnaires outbreak because of misdiagnoses, according to the lawyer for four fatal victims who filed notices of claims over the mess.
New York broke a new record for public urination tickets as the number of overhydrated streetwalkers caught using the five boroughs as their toilet grows from a tinkle to a flood.
Sean “Diddy” Combs gave his fellow inmates in a Brooklyn lockup a free crash course on business while prepping for his infamous sex crimes trial, his lawyers claimed.
A state board nixed a plan to build a casino near the East River in Manhattan on Monday — knocking down the final existing bid for legal gambling in the borough.
For decades, county clerks have been reimbursed for administering the Oath of Allegiance to new citizens at naturalization ceremonies, but this summer, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quietly ended the practice.
Multiple law enforcement agencies were at 6 Crestwood Court in Albany yesterday for what police described as a financial crimes investigation.
A Schenectady man pleaded guilty to a criminal weapons charge after Albany County prosecutors said he used a loaded handgun in February to threaten bar patrons at Washington Tavern on Western Avenue.
A former Troy police officer cleared of wrongdoing in the nonfatal shooting of an unarmed Black man in 2017 has been hired by the Watervliet Police Department.
Town of Bethlehem police released a video of their pursuit of a vehicle suspected in a local shoplifting case that ended when the fleeing SUV was driven through a park filled with soccer players.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned to ABC yesterday, but WTEN-Channel 10, owned by Nexstar Media Group, did not broadcast the show.
After receiving a new cease-and-desist letter, Rensselaer County executive candidate Tiffani Silverman says she’ll continue sharing allegations involving a federal loan that rival incumbent Steve McLaughlin’s attorney has called false.
A member of the state Assembly whose son was killed in a crash on Route 7 in Niskayuna is calling on state officials to find a solution to the concerning stretch of road where another motorist died last week.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
