Good morning, IT IS FRIDAY! Welcome to the weekend (almost).
On this day in 1869, in Porbandar, Gujarat, India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born. The boy who would grow up to bear the weighty unofficial title of “father of the nation” and become known worldwide was the child of a local government official (his father) and a deeply pious mother.
Though neither parent was educated (they couldn’t read or write), this combination undoubtedly shaped and influenced Gandhi and established a strong foundation for the nonviolence social justice leader he grew to be.
This significant historical figure is most commonly known as “Mahatma Gandhi”. The word “Mahatma” in Sanskrit means “venerable” or, more specifically, “great soul”, and it was an honorific given to Gandhi by his friends, associates, and followers.
Gandhi’s father, while he did not have a formal education, reportedly had a wide circle of friends who practiced many religions. including Jainism, which teaches nonviolence toward all living believes.
These individuals regularly visited the family’s home, and some scholars believe that the exposure to multiple belief structures deeply impacted Gandhi and that Jainism informed his future embrace of nonviolent means to achieving an end.
Gandhi’s father died in 1885, who prompted his family to send him abroad – to London – to study law, with the expectation that he might follow in his father’s footsteps to become a local government administrator. Instead, Gandhi returned to Indian and hung out a shingle as an attorney, but it turned out that wasn’t his calling.
Gandhi moved with his wife to South Africa for work, and it was there that he experienced an awakening, upon experiencing the discrimination as an Indian immigrant.
After being thrown out of a first class train car and beaten for refusing to give up his seat to a white passenger, Gandhi conceptualized the practice of passive resistance, known as satyagraha, which became the hallmark of his activism and inspired the work of countless future activists, including Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
What followed was a life-long pursuit of peaceful, nonviolent protest. Gandhi returned to India and lead the movement for independence from Britain. He embraced an ascetic lifestyle, marked by prayer and fasting, and stopped wearing Western clothing made from British cloth, preferring a hand-spun dhoti and shawl as a symbol of Indian self-reliance and a means of identifying with the country’s poorest citizens.
Gandhi did ultimately see his quest for an independent Indian realized when British rule ended on Aug. 15, 1947. He also championed rights for women, an end to poverty, the end of the caste system, and religious equity between Hindus and Muslims. His work was inspiring and dangerous, leading to his intermittent imprisonment and, ultimately, his assassination on Jan. 30, 1948, at the age of 78.
Today – Gandhi’s birthday – is both a national holiday in India and the International Day of Nonviolence, designated by the UN to honor his memory and his legacy.
It will be warm – with temperatures reaching high into the 70s – but overcast today. For the weekend, Saturday is looking like the best bet, weather-wise, with abundant sunshine and highs in the high 60s. Sunday, meanwhile, will be partly cloudy in the morning, with clouds intensifying as the day progresses and showers developing later int he day. Temperatures will peak in the mid-60s.
In the headlines…
Congressional Republicans left D.C. with no meaningful progress on a long list of issues weighing on their constituents, leaving some wondering — if not openly doubting — whether they had done enough to persuade voters to keep them in power.
The U.S. government has revealed a new, redesigned passport and announced plans to dramatically modernize the way Americans can apply for one.
President Trump vented about his three nominees to the Supreme Court in a new interview, calling their rulings on matters such as his tariffs “very disappointing” after “I gave them the position of a lifetime.”
Christa Pike remained in critical condition at a Nashville hospital on Thursday after surviving a botched execution that resulted from what her lawyers said was the state of Tennessee’s failure to heed warnings about its lethal injection protocol.
President Trump expressed disbelief about Pike’s botched execution, wondering how it could happen given that the lethal drugs should be “easy” to administer.
A Massachusetts man was indicted on Thursday on charges of cyberstalking after sending dozens of threatening phone and text messages to Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s most senior White House aides.
Democrat Cait Conley has a razor-thin 2-point lead over Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in the race for a New York swing district that could be the key to which party controls Congress in 2027, a new poll found.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has named Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, to serve as special prosecutor to investigate a woman’s allegation that she was raped on Cornell University’s campus in October 2024.
Several New York lawmakers are pushing to strengthen the state’s sexual assault laws as Cornell University and a state prosecutor face a firestorm of criticism over their handling of a student’s gang rape allegations in 2024.
The Cornell University student who alleged she was gang raped said some fraternity members were joking about having an “eightsome” with her and that her reputation had been “destroyed,” according to newly revealed documents and text messages.
Cornell’s student government convened a public hearing on sexual assault Thursday, and some 100 people turned out to share their raw emotions in a student union auditorium, Cornell flags and chandeliers hanging overhead.
In the weeks after a Cornell University student reported being raped at a fraternity party on campus, most of the men she accused were questioned by university officials about their actions that night; they gave varying accounts of that night.
Many alumni and some prospective parents are rethinking their relationships with Cornell. But as one admissions consultant said, “Prestige is a powerful draw.”
Jay Jacobs was reelected as chair of the state Democratic Committee in a landslide win over Otsego County Democratic Party Chair Caitlin Ogden, his first-ever challenger for the role.
Advocates are sounding the alarm on Medicaid cuts that will significantly reduce payments for an autism therapy known as applied behavior analysis.
New York State is sitting on a $21 billion pile of cash belonging to everyday Empire State denizens, but also some of its more recognizable celebs.
Joseph Hernandez, a Republican running for state comptroller against Democratic incumbent Tom DiNapoli, said taxpayers are being forced to jump through hoops to get the money held in the state’s massive “unclaimed funds” accounts.
The price New Yorkers will pay for heat this winter is expected to rise dramatically, climbing from $3.72 per gallon of heating oil to $6.27 per gallon, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni temporarily blocked New York State from enforcing a law that took effect in December 2025, banning landlords from using algorithms to set apartment rents.
New York Democrats introduced legislation in Congress Thursday to reverse federal funding cuts that resulted in hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers getting kicked off of a popular public insurance program earlier this year.
Attorney Randy Mastro wants a judge to order top city officials and Rent Guidelines Board members to sit for interviews after communications they gave to the court failed to produce clear evidence that they colluded to reach the decision not to raise rents.
At an unrelated news conference, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was confident in the board’s “independent decision,” adding that it had been made “on the basis of all the information that they had in front of them.”
Mamdani just inked a public housing rehab so pricey it works out to more than half a million dollars for every single apartment — on city taxpayers’ dime.
If he had it his way, the US would join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and enforce an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mamdani said in a podcast interview aired yesterday.
A journalist’s public reckoning over how to balance giving her own daughter a good education while fighting for a better, more equal public school system has put new pressure on Mamdani to present a more expansive vision for how to fix the city’s schools.
A new fast-track process for affordable housing will take effect in 12 community districts next year, after the Mamdani administration on Thursday identified the neighborhoods where the voter-approved changes will apply.
New York City may need to build a temporary highway over the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge as part of its plan to repair a crumbling stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, according to documents released this week.
A federal judge in Manhattan has largely blocked ICE agents from making arrests at immigration courthouses in New York City and across the country, ruling the Trump administration policy authorizing the arrests was invalid.
Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs unveiled a $257 million general fund budget Thursday that seeks to close a budget gap years in the making, calling for a 15% property tax increase while cutting dozens of city jobs.
“This is a soundly balanced budget that improves public safety and other essential services, continues turning the lights back on in Albany, and drives the city from a generational fiscal crisis toward real sustainability,” Applyrs said.
Troy Deputy Police Chief Steven Barker expects police to make an arrest in the “near future” in connection with a string of thefts, in which tip jars and cellphones were among items stolen from Troy businesses.
In his first public comments since sexual assault allegations against Albany Med Health System President and CEO Daniel T. Pickett III became public, the health system’s board chair called the news “unsettling to read” but said it has nothing to do with the hospital.
The data center proposed for part of the 76-acre Kenwood site in South Albany has divided neighbors.
The Lincoln Bathhouse at Saratoga Spa State Park reopened on Thursday after a multimillion-dollar renovation. It now hosts the Saratoga Spa State Park offices and a new museum focused on the cultural history of the mineral spring waters.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
