Good morning, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s Monday after a long holiday weekend – the worst kind of Monday, in my experience.
We had what I consider a quintessential upstate summer weekend, which is to say lots of lake time and lots of soft ice cream. Sitting on a porch and/or Adirondack chair watching the boats go by is rivaled only by being on a boat, though Lake George was really crowded and choppy Friday, which always puts me on edge.
If you cannot afford a lake house of your own, I highly recommend making friends with people who can, or who are lucky enough to have one in the family.
For those of us who are not on vacation this week, I find it’s better to just jump back in with two feet – much like you would do at the lake. Trying to ease in to acclimate is, in my experience, only prolongs the unpleasantness. Just brace ourself and go for it, and everything will feel fine once the shock wears off.
An astronomical phenomenon of note today: At approximately1:30 p.m. EDT, the Earth will reach aphelion, which is the point in its orbit when it is farthest from the Sun. (I know, this makes no logical sense give how hot it has been of late). At that exact moment, we will be 94.5 million miles (152 million km) away from the Sun – about 3 million miles farther than at the closest point in the Earth’s orbit – a moment called the perihelion.
The aphelion and perihelion both occur roughly two weeks after the summer and winter solstices, respectively. Perihelion is derived from the Greek words peri (around) and helios (sun), while aphelion includes the same suffix combined with a different prefix: apo (Greek for “away from”).
This seems like a monumental happening, but actually it’s going to occur without anyone actually noticing. Counter to what you might have read on the interwebs, there will be no notable temperature difference during the aphelion, though the sun will appear ever so slightly (about 3.5 percent) smaller in the sky – something you would need precise astronomical equipment to view.
The aphelion does influence the duration of Earth’s seasons, but it is not in and of itself the REASON for the seasons. If Earth had a perfectly circular orbit, instead of the elliptical one we have now, the seasons would be exactly the same length. In the Northern Hemisphere at the moment, though, Spring and Summer are just a hair longer than winter (not that you would know it, the way we complain about the cold) – but really only by a few days.
Brace yourself for a true upstate weather slingshot situation, as we move from historically hot to unseasonably cool. (I, for one, could use the break, though it’s not going to be great lake weather for the aforementioned folks on vacation. Sorry, not sorry).
Today will bring considerably cloudy skies with periods of occasional rain showers. Temperatures will top out in the low 70s. Yes, you read that right. Break out the light sweaters, raincoats, umbrellas, and boots.
In the headlines…
China test fired a long-range ballistic missile with a dummy warhead in the Pacific Ocean today, the first such launch in almost two years, which set off alarm from countries in the region that criticized the move as “destabilizing.”
The missile was launched from a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine and sent a “mock warhead” into the Pacific Ocean, according to a report from Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
Explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early this morning, the eve of a NATO summit, as Russia mounted its second major attack on the city in days.
President Trump got what he wanted from NATO at last year’s summit: an alliance whose members had largely acceded to his demands to step up their defense spending. This week when he meets leaders in Turkey, his mission is to enforce that pledge.
Trump escalated his public dispute with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Sunday by posting an edited image on Truth Social suggesting she was overly interested in him, writing: “Restraining order needed.”
Huge crowds gathered in the Iranian capital, Tehran, for the third consecutive day to mourn Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, who ruled his country for decades with an iron fist before he was killed in the war with the US and Israel.
After a controversial red card, Folarin Balogun got the green light to play in the World Cup Round of 16 after all. In a stunning reversal, FIFA announced it is suspending Balogun’s red-card ban, clearing him to compete for the US against Belgium tonight.
President Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the red card issued to Team USA’s Folarin Balogun during the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social.
Belgian politicians and soccer officials were outraged after FIFA ditched a one-match ban for American star Folarin Balogun that would have ruled him out of the U.S.-Belgium World Cup round-of-16 matchup.
FIFA issued a statement Sunday using a provision in its disciplinary code to defer the punishment. It appeared to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup finals match didn’t result in a suspension.
England held on with 10 men to withstand a late bombardment by Mexico in the Estadio Azteca and triumph 3-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup,
A new report from the White House Domestic Policy Council labels leaders at the Smithsonian Institution as “extreme” activists attempting to impose their own ideology on how American history is presented.
The 162-page report, released on July 4, alleges the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) “fails in the basic task of illuminating” U.S. heritage in its exhibits.
The Trump administration is scrapping more than three dozen firearms regulations, abandoning a crackdown on illegal sales, restoring gun rights to some people with mental illness and loosening oversight of private weapons transactions.
Trump will host officials from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq in the Oval Office today, to mark his administration’s launch of new investment accounts for children.
Trump said he personally overruled a recommendation to cancel the July 4th “Salute to America” event on the National Mall after approaching storms forced a chaotic evacuation of revelers and triple-digit heat cast a sweltering pall over much of the day.
Trump marked the nation’s 250th birthday with a late Saturday night speech that blended the championing of American achievements with partisan rhetoric.
The larger purpose of the president’s speech was hard to miss. He was sharpening a line of attack that the White House has started to use to head off a newly insurgent progressive wing of the Democratic Party that appears to be resonating with liberal voters.
After the president warned that the “evil of communism” is among the threats he believes the country is facing, Speaker Mike Johnson said that “there are many Mamdanis popping up,” referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mallory McMorrow, the Democratic Michigan state senator who tried to cut a middle path between moderate and left-wing rivals, suspended her campaign for the U.S. Senate amid poor poll numbers and advertising that did not keep pace with her opponents.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the Trump administration has denied a New York State request for a major disaster declaration related to February’s record snowfalls and cold temperatures.
A group of Democratic governors – including Hochul – asked the U.S. Postal Service to withdraw its proposed rule to implement an executive order from Trump to create a federal list of eligible voters and potentially limit who can receive a ballot in the mail.
Hochul asked New Yorkers to voluntarily conserve electricity during a prolonged heat wave as the state monitors the electrical grid.
Hochul urged New Yorkers to take advantage of utility bill discount programs as the state experienced a summer heat wave, with an estimated 1.5 million eligible households yet to enroll.
In the recently passed state budget, lawmakers quietly exempted nearly $1.5 billion from key oversight, allowing Hochul’s administration to ink an array of future contracts without approval from the state’s fiscal watchdog.
As part of the expansion of the Empire State Service Corps, New York college students will be trained in the “science of reading” this year so that New York state can send them out to tutor children.
New York’s electric grid operator reported that the state’s electricity supply reserves dipped below normal levels last Thursday afternoon as the worst of a brutal heat wave set in over the East Coast.
New York regulators are considering letting monopolistic utility companies own large-scale power generation again, something they’ve largely been banned from doing in the state for nearly 30 years.
The newly built power line connecting hydropower from Quebec to New York went down last week, leaving the state without a major source of electricity as a brutal heat wave expands over the East Coast.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III joined the fray of a dispute between New York and federal authorities over the state’s efforts to combat Medicaid fraud, calling them a “dramatic failure.”
The Hochul administration is extending a program that has filled tens of thousands of government jobs across the state — but New York City, despite facing its own vacancy crisis, is opting out.
The City of New York has mobilized a full emergency response ahead of a severe weather system forecast to bring torrential rain, thunderstorms and widespread flash flooding to the area starting yesterday evening and lasting through tonight.
The punishing heat wave that made most of last week nearly unbearable across New York is finally over, but a new week is bringing a new weather danger: the potential for torrential rain and flash flooding.
In a speech marking America’s 250th anniversary, Mamdani rejected Trump’s view of the nation, and especially of its immigrants, without naming him directly.
Mamdani exalted the city’s legacy of immigrants in a historically laden, ideological counterpoint to address that was expected later in the day from Trump, who has sought to deport immigrants en masse throughout his second presidency.
The mayor took a thinly veiled jab at Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk during his speech, saying the trillionaire’s immense wealth epitomizes the “contradictions” that exist in the country.
Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, faced criticism over the Fourth of July weekend after she reportedly traveled to Mallorca, Spain, for an Islamic “spiritual wellness” retreat while New York and the rest of the nation celebrated America’s 250th anniversary.
The Police Benevolent Association (PBA) is using Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ own words against Mamdani as the union fights for a new contract for NYPD officers.
The death of Tibetan activist Lobg Rangzen, the Queens Uber driver and Tibetan activist who set himself on fire outside the United Nations to protest the Chinese occupation of his native home, has left Mamdani “heartbroken,” the mayor said Saturday.
Republicans criticized Mamdani after he suggested residents set their thermostats to 78 degrees to help conserve energy in the city as it braces for triple-digit temperatures this weekend.
An archive cataloging the mayor’s official events indicates he has used the phrases “for too long” or “for far too long” at least 80 times since taking office.
A 21-year-old socialist and unpaid former NYC Council intern who claimed she was axed after demanding she and her peers get paid $32 an hour with full health benefits — and plans to sue the Council — was born into wealth.
Shootings broke out Saturday night and early Sunday morning in Brooklyn after a day of heat-baked July Fourth celebrations.
A fire broke out on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York during the city’s July Fourth fireworks show, spreading flames and setting off a plume of smoke before firefighters extinguished the blaze. No injuries were reported.
Eight people were rescued from a seaplane that made a “hard landing” on Manhattan’s East River Sunday, officials said. The plane splashed down about noon near E.23rd St. and the FDR Drive, part of it tilting under the surface of the water.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it has begun to investigate the incident. In a statement, it said that the plane was a Kodiak 100 seaplane, and that a wing strut, which connects the wing to the main body of the aircraft, snapped.
The pop superstar Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, both 36, tied the knot on Friday, July 3rd, in a glam ceremony held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
As 1,000 guests gathered inside, regular city residents and tourists were significant inconvenienced as streets were closed, train station access was restricted, and Con Ed was forced to shut off power to thousands of people due to the heat wave.
Adam Sandler, the actor and comedian and a friend of the couple, officiated.
After a divisive primary, Anthony Constantino has wasted no time getting key New York Republicans behind his campaign to replace retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik in NY-21.
Work is getting underway on an $18 million project to resurface and improve safety along a heavily traveled stretch of State Route 17 between the hamlet of Parksville and the Village of Liberty.
Visitors with mobility disabilities will have more opportunities to explore Great Camp Santanoni Historic Area this summer as the state expands its electric wheelchair accessibility program.
A secure, state-operated facility in the Adirondacks operated by the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities has reportedly lacked working air conditioning for nearly three years, and staff members and residents are enduring “oppressive heat”.
An Albany County comptroller’s report revealed scores of financial disclosure forms filed late or not at all by the five-person county Ethics Commission. One unnamed county official was referred to law enforcement.
A sailboat operated by the nonprofit Hudson River Sloop Clearwater was removed from a parade of tall ships making their way to New York Harbor on Saturday after flying banners in support of Indigenous rights and climate action, the nonprofit said.
Tens of thousands of people in the Hudson Valley lost power Saturday evening after a storm rolled through the region.
A driver crashed into Martha’s Dandee Creme on Route 9 in Queensbury late Friday, destroying one of the well-known food and ice cream stand’s neon signs, the owner said.
Leonidas, a police dog who has worked for the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office for eight years, died of heat exhaustion in a car Thursday, the office announced.
An Albany teen faces felony charges after allegedly bringing a gun into Crossgates Mall.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
