Good FRIDAY morning. Wheeeeeee!!!
Here’s a statistic that blew my mind this morning: There are an estimated 3.04 TRILLION trees in the world, which works out to be somewhere between 400 and 500 trees for every man, woman and child on the planet.
That’s according to a 2015 study published in the Journal Nature. I’m assuming that there’s significantly less now, more than 10 years later, as approximately 15 billion trees are felled globally every year and only 5 billion are planted in their place.
With the growing recognition about the importance of trees (more on that in a minute), some countries are getting better at tree replacement, and managing to outpace loss through aggressive planting plans.
Russia is the country with the most trees (642 billion), followed by Canada (318 billion), Brazil (302 billion), the United States (228 billion), and China (140 billion).
Earth is home to some 73,000 tree species, which includes an estimated 9,000 that have yet to be formally discovered. South America, which is where the extraordinarily biodiverse Amazon rainforest is located, on its own is home to about 40 percent of the known tree species – about 27,000 – and the largest number of known rare species, about 8,200.
Trees are critical to human existence as they basically act like a giant lung, filtering the air, sequestering carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Just one mature tree, though the process of photosynthesis, can produce enough oxygen in a single day to support four people.
Trees also help prevent erosion; provide habitats for a wide array of animals, bugs, and birds; help control the temperature of the planet, cooling asphalt/concrete heavy cities by as much as 4 degrees; and contribute to our positive mental health (if you aren’t familiar with the term “forest bathing“, click here).
Today is Arbor Day in many (though not all) states – an observance created to educate people about the many environmental benefits and contributions of trees. Then-President Richard Nixon designated the last Friday in April as National Arbor Day in 1972.
Nebraska was the first state to declare Arbor Day way back in 1885, selecting this day because it’s the birthday of a journalist and editor in Nebraska City, J. Sterling Morton, who, in 1872, conceived of and launched the first day dedicated to tree planting and appreciation of their economic and ecological value.
More than one million trees were planted across the state of Nebraska on the first-ever Arbor Day, held on April 10, 1872, with prizes offered to individuals and counties who were able to successfully and properly plant the highest number of saplings. (And yes, there is a right and a wrong way to plant a tree).
The weekend is looking not bad at all, weather-wise, which will make the leafing trees happy.
Today will be the best of the lot, with sunny skies and temperatures topping out in the low 60s. Tomorrow will be cooler, with temperatures struggling to make it into the mid-50s. Skies will be cloudy and there’s a chance of rain in the evening. Sunday will be partly to mostly cloudy, but warmer, with highs in the low 60s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump has announced that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon would be extended by three weeks and says he hopes the two countries’ leaders would meet during the additional three-week cessation of hostilities.
When he was asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal with Iran, Trump replied: “Don’t rush me”.
An internal Pentagon email outlines options for the US to punish NATO allies it believes failed to support US operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from the alliance and reviewing the US position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
The Pentagon’s rush to rearm its Mideast forces makes it less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China, administration and congressional officials say.
The United States intends to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 leaders’ summit scheduled for December at Trump’s Doral golf resort in Miami, though the invitation has not yet been sent, administration officials said.
Trump called for the 2020 election to be “permanently wiped from the books” if the Southern Poverty Law Center is convicted of making fraudulent payments totaling $3 million to members of white supremacist groups the organization claimed to fight.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the greatest political scams in American History, has been charged with FRAUD,” Trump wrote in a fiery Truth Social post. “This is another Democrat Hoax, along with Act Blue, and many others.”
Next up on President Trump’s renovation tour of Washington, D.C.: the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, which he called “filthy” and “dirty” and in need of a major upgrade.
The man accused of spraying Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) with apple cider vinegar during a January town hall in her Minnesota district has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, according to court filings.
Senate Democrats called on a federal watchdog to investigate Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford’s stock divestment, accusing him of making profits that “violated his ethics agreement.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned that investments in artificial intelligence could trigger a potential economic crash, drawing parallels to the 2008 financial crisis caused by a collapse in the housing bubble.
Sidelined pols outside the Big Apple are frustrated that the cash-hungry metropolis is gobbling up attention amid ongoing state budget talks — as their own cities and towns starve for funds.
Suffolk County Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer, who’s held the post since 2000, is racking up big-name endorsements – including Gov. Kathy Hochul – in his fight to fend off challenger Kathryn Casey Quigley, the Southold Town Democratic Party chair.
Hochul is pushing buffer zones in the state budget, but disagreement over how effective it would be in protecting worshippers from targeted harassment and whether restrictions on the right to protest survive a legal challenge has complicated the measure.
City Hall officials met last week with union and labor leaders who are pushing Mayor Zohran Mamdani to veto a controversial City Council bill that would establish anti-protest “buffer zones” around schools and educational facilities.
A new bill introduced by Long Island Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi would create 100-foot “buffer zones” around houses of worship — making it a federal crime to interfere with congregants as they practice their religion.
The tax-the-rich movement has gained steam, with demonstrators filling the lobby of Hochul’s Midtown office yesterday. Many were taken into custody.
Food Network star Sandra Lee has broken her silence on ending her engagement and five-year relationship with Ben Youcef, which came on the heels of her more than decade-long romance with former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The Trump administration launched a civil rights probe into New York City’s public schools over claims that pro-Palestinian teachers discriminated against Jewish students.
In a news release, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said it received reports about a coalition of teachers known as “NYC Educators for Palestine” organizing seminars focused on “Palestine, Zionism, and Resistance.”
Dominique Ellison, a spokeswoman for the city’s schools, said that the group was not affiliated with the district. “We received this notice today, and we are reviewing,” she said.
Billionaire Ken Griffin is appalled that Mamdani used his 24,000-square-foot Manhattan penthouse last week as the backdrop for a tax-the-rich video, triggering a subtle threat to re-evaluate his firm’s investment in the city.
Citadel denounced the mayor’s move with Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson saying in an internal memo that targeting Griffin showed “ignorance and disdain” toward contributors to the city’s economy.
Citadel suggested it may review plans for a $6 billion expansion in New York City after Mamdani filmed a video announcing a new tax on second homes in the city in front of Griffin’s townhouse last week.
CEOs may have spent millions trying to block the election of Mamdani and now are mobilizing to prevent tax increases on executives like themselves and their companies — but the people who work for them are on the mayor’s side.
Mamdani established the Office of Deed Theft Prevention and named a longtime homeowner assistance lawyer, Peter White, as its director.
Mamdani has called the city’s $5.4 billion budget deficit a “generational fiscal crisis.” One idea to solve it would entail pushing off or decreasing payments to pension funds for city employees, possibly to the next generation.
Mamdani believes that a $150 round-trip fare to get to and from MetLife Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will make the upcoming tournament “out of reach for many.”
The Mamdani administration celebrated a sweeping effort to install solar panels across New York City’s public school system on Thursday with the completion of the city’s 130th installation at Marie Curie High School in the Bronx.
Our Time NYC, a nonprofit created by Mamdani’s allies to harness the grassroots energy of his historic campaign, is facing a crisis after all but one of its staff members have stepped down.
Related Companies struck a deal with former Mayor Eric Adams to have New York City finance a costly platform to facilitate new housing. Mamdani said advancing the deal was not a priority.
A special election next Tuesday may see a straight person elevated to the West Village Council seat for the first time in decades, after Mamdani endorsed Lindsey Boylan, an activist who was also the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Rep. Daniel Goldman, who is fighting to fend off a primary challenge, put $1 million into his campaign and pledged to begin matching every donation he receives in the run-up to the June primary — a dollar-for-dollar incentive that could cost him millions.
In 2009, the City Council decided that roll-down metal gates could no longer be solid. The law goes into effect this summer, after 17 years.
Amtrak, the federal passenger railway, is suing the MTA, alleging the latter’s Metro-North Railroad is keeping Amtrak from being able to move non-passenger trains on tracks the MTA controls.
A brazen NYPD cop racked up more than 500 speeding tickets in his home borough of Staten Island over the last four years — making him one of the most reckless drivers in the entire city, according to a report.
A New Yorker writer who lives in a $2.5 million Brooklyn brownstone has kicked off fury after she claimed it was just fine to shoplift on a podcast praising “microlooting” — a trendy new term for stealing from big companies such as Whole Foods.
Wild photos captured firefighters battling a raging five-alarm fire last night at an historic Queens church, which suffered another devastating inferno over a century ago.
Fire officials said the initial call came in around 6:46 p.m. for a reported fire at 27-21 12th St., near the First Reformed Church of Astoria, between 27th Avenue and Main Avenue. The blaze was later escalated to a fifth alarm.
One of the two crew members aboard the truck involved in last month’s deadly crash at LaGuardia airport told investigators he heard a command to “stop stop stop” coming from air traffic control, but realized too late that the order was intended for his truck.
A Manhattan man who is the son of a federal judge and secretly filmed his sexual encounters with numerous women in his Upper East Side apartment was sentenced to 30 days in jail but avoided having to register as a sex offender.
A decades-old transportation program for senior citizens operated by Colonie Senior Service Centers has ground to a halt months after the town cut funding for the popular initiative.
Despite improvements in overall air quality, the Capital Region continued to see worsening spikes of hazy air, according to the latest “State of the Air” report from the American Lung Association.
Restaurateur Yair De La Rosa has submitted a proposal to the city to raze the structurally unstable former Troy Pork Store building and build a dine-in Mexican restaurant.
The public will need a lot more convincing to jump on a permit or reservation system for some of the most popular trails in the Adirondack Park, the state learned Wednesday night at a virtual meeting on management recommendations in the High Peaks.
City of Schenectady leaders are closer to scrapping a failed bulk-trash sticker program in favor of a new system that would require homeowners to buy a 45-gallon garbage can with a lid for solid waste disposal and allow at least two bulk items per month.
A 36-year-old man was charged after allegedly lunging at police officers with a knife while inside an ambulance on New Scotland Avenue yesterday.
Ten years after Thomas Messic, an 82-year-old Troy resident, vanished, forest rangers and search-and-rescue experts recently headed back into the woods to search for traces of the missing hunter.
Troy Public Library officials are on the hunt for an independent contractor to temporarily fill the role of Timothy Furgal, who became executive director in late 2024 and went on paid administrative leave on March 19.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
