I'm thinking even more fondly of The Mune in retrospect also because although I don't know that I feel that Sue Dawes is always 100% succeeding at her Victorian pastiche she has definitely done her research and is making a solid effort. Meanwhile, the book I read immediately afterwards, Jen Fawkes' Daughters of Chaos, is a Civil War-set epistolary novel that has no interest in trying to sound like something written in nineteenth century. This is of course a choice an author is free to make, but not one that I personally welcome -- although this turned out to be in the broad scheme the least of my problems with this book.
The first of three times I have been there. Struggling to light it was a challenge this time too; all of these photos have the exposure dialled way down, to avoid looking like the brightest gloomy forest there ever was.
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani waited more than 12 hours to address the release of the last remaining living Israeli hostages early on Monday morning — drawing criticism from rival Andrew Cuomo that he remained silent for too long.
Cuomo, the former governor who is running as an independent, and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa applauded in Monday morning statements the last hostages' release from Hamas' custody, which occurred during the early hours of Oct. 13, New York time. Mamdani's statement came in at 4:21 p.m. Monday; by then, Cuomo had blasted the Democratic candidate in a social media post a short time earlier, charging, "His silence speaks volumes."
Mamdani, who is a staunch Israel critic and pro-Palestinian advocate, applauded both the return of the hostages and the end to Israel's devastating military campaign in Gaza — which he again referred to as "a genocide" — that the overarching ceasefire deal brought.
"Today’s scenes of Israelis and Palestinians are profoundly moving: Israeli hostages being freed and families reunited after years of fear, uncertainty, and torture; the first days in Gaza without relentless Israeli bombardment of Palestinians as families return to rubble and loved ones freed from detention," Mamdani said in a statement. "There is finally a glimmer of hope that this ceasefire will hold and the long, difficult work of reconstruction can begin."
Much of Mamdani's statement focused on holding the Israeli government accountable for the massive toll of death and destruction in Gaza.
"We have watched as our tax dollars have funded a genocide," he said. "The moral and human cost will be a lasting stain and requires accountability and real examination of our collective conscience and our government’s policies. The responsibility now lies with those of us who believe in peace to make sure it endures, and that it is just. Once aid is delivered, the wounded are cared for, and a lasting agreement secured, we cannot look away. We must work towards a future built upon justice, one without occupation and apartheid, and for a world where every person can live with safety and dignity."
amNewYork asked the Mamdani campaign about the reasons for the delayed statement, and is awaiting a response.
On Monday, Hamas returned the 20 living hostages and the remains of at least four deceased hostages as part of a ceasefire deal between itself and Israel to bring the 24-month war in Gaza to an end.
The conflict began with Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which the group killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages. Israel's military offensive has since claimed the lives of over 68,000 Palestinians, displaced most of Gaza's population from their homes, and left most of the coastal enclave in ruins.
Also, as part of the deal, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held inside its jails.
'A moral moment'
While Mamdani focused mostly on the end of the war in Gaza, Cuomo and Sliwa barely mentioned it, instead focusing mostly on the return of the hostages.
Cuomo cast the event as "a moral moment, a reminder of our shared humanity and the sacred value of every life."
“For two long years, families have lived through unimaginable pain, sleepless nights, and endless heartache," Cuomo said. "Today, their prayers have been answered, as the remaining hostages are finally home in the arms of their loved ones, where they belong."
The former governor also urged people not to forget the Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught where Hamas took the hostages, quoting Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who documented his ordeal in the autobiography "Night" and won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for his life's work advocating against violence, racism, and repression.
“Elie Wiesel once said, 'The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference,'" Cuomo said. "Today, we reject indifference & choose remembrance. And we choose hope: hope that peace is possible.”
Sliwa expressed similar sentiments in his own statement, in which he also credited President Trump with brokering the ceasefire deal. His praise came despite his rocky relationship with Trump.
"After two long years, all the living hostages are now safely home! A massive weight has been lifted from their families' shoulders," Sliwa said. "The 20 surviving hostages are reunited with families and loved ones after 738 agonizing days in captivity. 7+3+8 = 18, which means Chai, which means “life” in Judaism. A number that embodies life, hope, and blessing. We pray that these hostages coming home can recover and live peacefully again."
I remember, decades ago, reading at least parts of a book by Paul Johnson, in the form of a series of dictionary-like entries at greater or lesser length, including “Boredom,” which he called an insufficiently recognized factor in human events. People rebel, or engage in other disorderly activities, partly because they’re bored. (I hope that my brief paraphrase is not too far from what the author actually wrote.)
It occurs to me that this is at least a partial explanation for what has happened in the United States of America over the past decade. Voters got bored choosing among a bunch of senators and governors, who, whatever their shortcomings, were at least reasonably well informed about public affairs and how the government operated, and instead elected a grifter and reality TV star who entertained them. Some second rate intellectuals and would-be thought leaders got bored with constitutional government, conventional leftism, responsible conservatism, and classical liberalism, and instead came up with the Dark Enlightenment. For some minds, it’s a lot more fun, at least so long as they don’t actually have to live under it (under it, as opposed to on top of it). Some people would rather be subjects of a king or Caesar than citizens of a functioning republic with due process of law; at least it’s a change of pace, and lets them own the libs.
I wish that I had a good solution to the problem, and could get people to gratify their itch for something new by reading a new kind of book, listening to a new style of music, visiting a distant country with different landscapes, food, and architecture, or something of the sort, while treating politics and their civic responsibilities with proper gravitas. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to accomplish this, and, so long as the human race is what it is, there may not be a good answer.
This book contains several elements which I like very much: it's epistolatory, it has mysterious ancient sophisticated machinery, and it involves very big size differences. I love miniature things and people, but I also love giants and giant things. This novel is entirely in the form of interviews, and it begins with a young girl walking in the woods who falls into a sinkhole, and lands in the palm of a GIANT HAND. (I can't believe that image isn't on the cover, because it's so striking and is also by far the best part of the book.) The gigantic hand is metal, and it turns out that there are pieces of a complete ancient giant robot scattered all over the world! What happens when the whole giant robot is assembled?
It turns out that what happens is yet another example of a great idea making a bad book, largely - AGAIN - by failing to engage with the premise! WHY IS THIS SO COMMON????
To be fair, this book has many bad elements which do not involve failing to lean into its premise.
The entire book consists of interviews by an unnamed, very mysterious person with near-infinite money and power. He is hiring people to locate the robot parts, assemble them, and pilot it. He also conducts personal interviews with them in which he pries into their love lives in a bizarrely personal manner. It's clearly because the author wanted to have a love story (he shouldn't have, it's terrible) and figured this was the only way to do it and keep the format, but it makes no sense. The interviewers do object to this line of questioning, but not in the way that I kept wanting them to, which would have been along the lines of "Don't you have anything better to do than get wank material from your employees? Drop it, or I'll go to HR."
The girl who fell into the hand grows up to be a physicist who gets hired to... I forget what exactly, but it didn't make much sense even when I was reading it. Anyway, she's on the project. There's also a badass female helicopter pilot, and a male linguist to translate the mysterious giant robot inscriptions. All these people are the biggest geniuses ever but are also total idiots. All the women are incredibly "man writing women."
Most annoyingly, the robot does not seem to be sentient, does not communicate, does not have a personality, and only walks for like 30 seconds once.
Police from the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica are still looking for a shirtless burglar who targeted a commercial establishment on Hillside Avenue and roughed up a woman who discovered him last month. The break-in occurred on the night of Sunday, Sept. 14, when the suspect broke the front door of 146-06 Hillside Ave. just before 11 p.m. and went up the stairs to the second floor.
He approached the 44-year-old victim and forcibly removed her cell phone and threw it down the stairwell. The intruder proceeded to push the woman to the floor, causing pain and swelling to her face, before running out of the building onto Hillside Avenue, where he fled in an unknown direction, police said. EMS responded to the scene and transported the victim to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition. No property was removed from the location, and the woman’s cell phone was recovered at the scene.
The NYPD released a surveillance image of the suspect and described him as having a dark complexion, with a slim build, black hair, brown eyes and approximately 5’8” to 5’10” tall. He was last seen shirtless, wearing blue shorts, white sneakers and a white shirt over his head.
Anyone with information regarding this burglary investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through Oct. 5, the 103rd Precinct has reported 169 burglaries so far in 2025, 13 fewer than the 182 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 7.1%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Felony assaults are also down in the precinct with 561 reported so far this year, 44 fewer than the 169 reported at the same point in 2024, a decrease of 7.3%, according to CompStat.
If you want to print out a poster for October 18th, here are two; fully-guaranteed countrywide but maybe especially suitable for in and around New York.
No King Anytime sign
Two Term Limit sign
Here’s a direct link to the No King Anytime JPG and the Two Term Limit JPG. These are available as PDFs, as well (vector outlines; no worries about fonts): here’s the No King Anytime PDF and the Two Term Limit PDF. Put them onna stick and exercise the constitutional rights to freedom of expression, speech, and assembly enjoyed by everyone in the United States.
Grab your candy bag and get ready for plenty of Halloween fun as Trick or Streets takes over Queens for the fourth year in a row.
The family-friendly event, presented by the New York City Department of Transportation, will bring two weeks of festivities from Oct. 17 to Oct. 31 throughout the five boroughs, including more than 20 events in Queens.
[caption id="attachment_586663" align="aligncenter" width="700"]The Ditmars Halloween Family Parade last year. Photo credit: Destination Ditmars Merchant Association[/caption]
The events will offer an array of family-friendly activities transforming Open Streets, plazas, and corridors across the city into Halloween havens for all ages, bringing car-free events that prioritize safety to bring the community together. The festivities include live music and performances, interactive shows and workshops, harvest and Halloween activities, seasonal arts and crafts, and festive photo opportunities, as well as signature events, partner events and parades.
The DOT’s Trick or Streets initiative was launched in 2022 to provide safe spaces for the community on Halloween, which has the highest number of child pedestrian fatalities in the United States. The initiative offers a range of events throughout October, including Halloween night, allowing families to enjoy an unforgettable evening and connect with the community. This year, there will be over 137 events across the five boroughs, bringing fun and festivities for all ages.
In Queens, one signature event will take place on Friday, Oct. 24, in Woodside, on 61st St. Open Street, between Roosevelt Avenue and Woodside Avenue, from 4 to 8 p.m., hosted by Woodside on the Move Inc.
[caption id="attachment_499579" align="aligncenter" width="700"]Participants in the 2023 Maspeth Halloween Ragamuffin Parade. The parade is one of the 30 Trick-or-Streets events planned for Queens. Photo: Maspeth Lions Club Facebook[/caption]
The borough will also host a list of partner events including the Destination Ditmars Merchant Association Halloween Parade and Block Party on Oct. 25 on Ditmars between 33rd Street and 36th Street from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. featuring music, costumes, activities and a dog costume contest, as well as a list of parades in Queens, including the Ditmars Halloween Family Parade on Oct. 25 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Other parades include the Creedmoor Civics 2025 Halloween Parade in Bayside on Braddock Avenue between 239th Street and 242nd Street on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 2 to 3 p.m., and the Maspeth Lions Halloween Ragamuffin Parade in Ridgewood Grand Ave. between Remsen Place to 69th Street on Friday, Oct. 31, at 6:30 p.m.
Other Halloween night events include 31st Ave Open Streets in Astoria, between 33rd Street and 35th Street, from 3 to 6 p.m., as well as Forest Hills on Austin Street and 71st Avenue from 3 to 6 p.m., featuring a costume parade, kids' corner and other fun activities.
For a complete list of events in NYC, including all of Queens’ events, or for more information on the Trick or Streets initiative, visit DOT’s Open Street website.
A Bayside elementary school has launched a new "NFeLementary" initiative using the ongoing NFL season to teach students writing, literacy, math and social skills.
A third-grade class at Bayside's PS 390Q, a District 26 choice school located at 56-10 214th St., has launched an "NFeLementary Program," which sees every student in the class draft an NFL team to track for the current season.
The initiative, inspired by viral TikTok teacher Mary Crippen, encourages children to track a team's wins, losses and records as the NFL season progresses toward the playoffs.
[caption id="attachment_586659" align="aligncenter" width="525"]Photo courtesy of Nicolas Cocchiaro[/caption]
The class, taught by co-teachers Nicolas Cocchiaro and Macie Fuscaldo, has also selected an overall class team to track during the season, with students opting to track the Buffalo Bills.
The class is tracking Bills quarterback Josh Allen on his route to 3,000 passing yards during the regular season, which Fuscaldo says is an engaging and interactive way for students to learn addition and subtraction.
Students compile weekly reports on their own teams as part of NFeLementary, while many have written to the NFL franchise they are tracking to tell them about the initiative, which helps with their reading and writing comprehension, Fuscaldo added.
It has not been one-way traffic either, with at least four teams responding to the letters with care packages for the class - to the thrill of each student.
"They're so excited that teams are reaching out to our class and acknowledging us," Fuscaldo said.
[caption id="attachment_586660" align="aligncenter" width="394"]Third-grader Savannah received a package from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Cocchiario[/caption]
Teams to send packages to the school include the New York Giants, the Cleveland Browns, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans, with the Giants sending a one-in-a-thousand Giants-branded football for the 2025 season. Teams typically send a variety of memorabilia, including magnets and schedules.
[caption id="attachment_586655" align="aligncenter" width="525"]Third-grader Ava Marie with a special-edition Giants football. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Cocchiario[/caption]
Cocchiaro said the initiative has made students enthusiastic about their school curriculum while also making helping many students discover an interest in football.
"(Before the program) when we talked to them about football, there was maybe one kid who knew what football was," Cocchiaro said.
Now, however, students come to school on a Monday morning excited to chat about the weekend's action, he added.
"They know each other's scores, they know each other's players," he said. "They come in every day and all they talk about is football."
The two teachers believe NFeLementary has helped improve students' social skills by encouraging them to talk to one another before and after class.
They also believe the program can be adapted on a school-wide scale, with younger classes tracking more simple statistic and older grades delving deeper into the minutiae.
Cocchiaro and Fuscaldo are also planning a class celebration for when Allen breaks the 3,000 passing yard hurdle and said they guided students toward picking the Bills because there is an excellent chance that Allen and Co. will make the playoffs this year.
[caption id="attachment_586658" align="aligncenter" width="525"]Photo courtesy of Nicolas Cocchiaro[/caption]
Both teachers are anticipating that excitement levels will reach fever pitch if the Bills — or any other team that a student is tracking - reach the play-offs over the winter.
Fuscaldo added that she hopes to help students craft their own jerseys or T-shirts for play-off season. Meanwhile, the school's gym teacher has already agreed to help students take advantage of their newfound football enthusiasm and learn how to play the sport.
"He's going to be teaching the kids how to play football," Fuscaldo said. "I would love if the kids could make their own jersey for their teams. Since they're so expensive, we can't get one individually for each kid, but hopefully they could design their own on a T-shirt."
A new challenger for District 30’s seat on the City Council arose this summer. The candidate’s write-in campaign has generated buzz in Ridgewood, and stickers promoting Leo can be found smattered across light posts and subway stations, and his name whispered between residents at their speakeasies and political rallies: Leo Namuche.The catch: if he wins, Namuche would never take his seat on the council… for he is a cat — a 9-year-old cinnamon swirl tabby, to be exact, born on the very streets of Ridgewood, the neighborhood he’s running to represent.
[caption id="attachment_586653" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Photo by Patrick Stachniak[/caption]
Raquel Namuche Pacheco, a member of the Ridgewood Tenants Association with an active voice in local politics, began the write-in campaign over the summer after Democrat Candidate Phil Wong won the primary by 300 votes, narrowly edging out Paul Pogozelski. Both Wong and the Republican candidate, Alicia Vaichunas, currently work for City Council Member Robert Holden as budget director and deputy chief of staff, respectively.“None of the candidates in the recent Democratic primary offered real solutions to improving the material conditions of people in the district and none of them worked hard enough to turn out underrepresented groups which have historically, in District 30, been left out of political life,” Namuche said.Namuche’s goal is to demonstrate the “failures of conservative politics” and emphasize the “unequal representation… of City Council District 30 for decades.” The cat’s owner wants the City Council member to focus more time addressing quality of life issues, such as rising inflation and the overall cost of living.“It’s a waste of time: vote for someone you support, I don’t really see the merit in this,” said Wong. “If you want your agenda to be on the radar of a candidate, you tell the candidate, and don’t just waste your vote.”This year, about 3,000 more people voted in the District 30 democratic primary than in 2021, and 4,000 more than in the 2023 general election, as Holden ran uncontested. Isaiah Vega, a Ridgewood native and canvasser for Pogozelski, mentioned Leo’s candidacy to residents while door knocking after the primary and believes Namuche has given Wong’s campaign “paws” when it comes to his neighborhood’s issues. “I’d go up to their doors and tell them to vote for the cat, and they’d be laughing, but they said they’d do it,” Vega said. “The idea has caught on really rapidly.”Vega appreciated Pogozelski’s platform of adding more public trash cans and funding local arts programs, and wants Wong to incorporate some of the ideas into his own to better connect with Ridgewood voters. New pamphlets distributed by Wong’s campaign highlight how he will protect immigrant rights, find more affordable housing options, and even get Ridgewood its own zip code.
[caption id="attachment_586640" align="alignnone" width="526"]Courtesy of Isiah Vega[/caption]
Vega said the “pivot” should help Wong differentiate himself from his competition amongst the liberal base in Ridgewood that voted in large numbers for the progressive mayoral candidate, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, last June.“When you have two candidates who have the same endorsements and work in the same office, people don’t see much of a difference,” Vega said. “So they’re just going to go back to the Republican candidate.”Both Wong’s and Vaichunas’s campaign websites feature Holden’s endorsement. But in a video posted to Instagram on Oct. 11, Holden stood beside mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, Republican City Council Member Joann Ariola, and Vaichunas to endorse her once again.
Early voting begins on Oct. 25, and despite the fact that no animal can hold public office, as “purr” the NYC Board of Elections, any votes the cat receives will highlight Leo’s campaign manager’s message.“The people of District 30 have more in common than we typically like to think,” Namuche said. “But no one is bringing people together under a vision that inspires and gives people something to look forward to.”
I am going to provide you with all the details I can, because that is who I am as a person. Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these fandoms. See you on the 25th!
[caption id="attachment_586601" align="alignnone" width="1024"]The FIAOQ sponsored the 48th annual Columbus Day parade in Astoria. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
Numerous participants and attendees braved the heavy rain for this event. The rain eventually halted toward the end of the parade as it went up 33rd Street and approached Columbus Square.
[caption id="attachment_586599" align="alignnone" width="1024"]The rain could not stop attendees from enjoying the parade. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586608" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Ralph Curatolo (right) and his son Gianfranco (left) drove a 1975 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super in the parade. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586606" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586595" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
Antonio "Nino" Vendome acted as the grand marshal for this year's parade. Judge Jerry Iannece was the chairman of the parade, as well as the emcee for the event. The event also featured Joe and Myra DiRico as Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain.
[caption id="attachment_586610" align="alignnone" width="1024"](Left to right) Mayra DiRico as Queen Isabella of Spain, Grand Marshal Antonio "Nino" Vendome and Joe DiRico as Christopher Columbus. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586598" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Marchers from St. Joseph Catholic Academy. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586597" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Marchers from the Astoria Italia Soccer Club. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586596" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Marchers from the Hellgate Road Runners. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586587" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Marchers from Aviation High School's ROTC. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586593" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Marchers from the New York Naval Cadet Corps. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586594" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586589" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Marchers from the NYPD's band. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
Vendome was also recognized for his philanthropy work and community outreach following the September 11 terrorist attacks. He turned his restaurant, "Nino's American Kitchen," into a 24/7 relief center that served hundreds of thousands of meals to firefighters, police officers, Red Cross workers and others working at Ground Zero.
[caption id="attachment_586592" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586588" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586585" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Deputy Consul General of Italy to New York Alessandra Oliva (center) was on hand, joined by Vendome (left) and FIAOQ President Joseph DiPietro (right). Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_586579" align="alignnone" width="1024"]The Santa Maria, the Columbian flagship, being prepared for its forthcoming time in dry dock by Alessandro Iannece. Photo by Walter Karling[/caption]
Two occupied MTA buses collided on a rain-slicked roadway, injuring 19 people in Flushing during the morning rush on Monday.
The two MTA Q27 buses were traveling westbound on Sanford Avenue near Bowne Street when bus #8426 attempted to pass bus #8764 and rear-ended it at approximately 8:27 a.m. on Oct. 13, an NYPD spokeswoman told QNS.
[caption id="attachment_586634" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Two MTA Q27 buses collided in Flushing on Monday, Oct. 13, leaving 19 passengers with minor injuries, officials said. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud[/caption]
The FDNY received a call at 9:03 a.m. and dispatched units and EMS personnel to the scene.
[caption id="attachment_586635" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Two MTA Q27 buses collided in Flushing on Monday, Oct. 13, leaving 19 passengers with minor injuries, officials said. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud[/caption]
The FDNY said 19 civilians sustained minor injuries, 14 were transported to area hospitals and five received medical attention at the scene. There were no pedestrians injured in the crash, and there was no property damage reported. The investigation remains ongoing, the NYPD spokesperson said.
Q13, Q27, Q26, and Q65 buses were detoured as of midday Monday, according to the MTA.
More than 1,000 people braved the wind and rain for the biggest ever Taste of Sunnyside Sunday afternoon, which saw 67 local establishments provide their best bites and sips during the popular neighborhood restaurant crawl.
Celebrating its 15th year, Taste of Sunnyside once again transformed the neighborhood into a vibrant hub of food, drinks and community celebration despite the steady stream of rain that signaled the onset of the powerful nor'easter storm currently impacting the Northeast.
The weather did not put off throngs of attendees from flocking to each restaurant on the 2025 route, with lines forming outside most, if not all, of the participating restaurants throughout the afternoon on Sunday.
Many participating businesses adapted to the damp conditions by bringing their stalls inside and allowing attendees to remain momentarily dry as they enjoyed their bites and their brews underneath awnings and tents.
The event still featured all of the festivities that have made Taste of Sunnyside a neighborhood staple over the past 15 years, including a block party underneath the elevated subway lines at the intersection of Queens Boulevard and 46th Street and roaming performances by groups of musicians. Meanwhile, the CitySoul Bus also provided mobile DJ setlists throughout the neighborhood on Sunday afternoon.
[caption id="attachment_586625" align="aligncenter" width="700"]CitySoul Bus toured the neighborhood throughout the Taste of Sunnyside. Photo: Shane O'Brien[/caption]
The popular restaurant crawl aims to promote Sunnyside as a culinary destination by showcasing the diverse restaurant mix in the neighborhood. Attendees go door-to-door to sample food and drinks from participating businesses, which set up stands in front of their establishments to allow ticketholders to sample their cuisine.
Sunday's event featured a record-breaking 67 participating businesses, surpassing the previous record of 65 participants set in 2024.
Taste of Sunnyside was changed to a crawl format in 2021 due to safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The event had previously taken place in a single location, with local restaurants setting up stalls underneath the elevated subway tracks along Queens Boulevard.
A number of participating businesses extolled the benefits of the format change during the 2025 event, stating that the current format allows attendees to better engage with participating businesses.
Michelle Murphy, co-owner of neighborhood sports bar and long-time Taste of Sunnyside participant Bar 43, said the current format allows ticketholders to actually see where a business is located, making it easier for people to return to a particular restaurant or bar in the future.
The current format also provides visitors with a sample of the atmosphere they can expect at each business, Murphy added.
"It's just a better experience for everybody," Murphy said. "They're getting the experience they would get when they visit a restaurant."
Murphy and Bar 43 staff opted to bring their stall inside on Sunday to offer ticketholders some shelter during persistent rain throughout the afternoon, but she does not believe that the weather had any impact on attendance numbers.
"So many people came in and said it doesn't about the rain... They're having a good time and that's what matters to people," Murphy said. "It's a community event and I see the same faces coming back every year."
Carrie Longo, owner of Brookside Market on Queens Boulevard, similarly believes that the weather did not deter foodies from coming out for the popular event. She said she also expected the weather to be worse on Sunday and praised the awning covering the Brookside Market stall outside the restaurant.
"We got pretty lucky. We thought it was going to be downpouring," Longo said. It's not so bad, people are still out enjoying it."
[caption id="attachment_586623" align="aligncenter" width="700"]Brookside Market offered crostini and meatballs during Sunday's Taste of Sunnyside. Photo: Shane O'Brien[/caption]
Longo also believes that the current Taste of Sunnyside format is "much better" and gives restaurants a better opportunity to show "what we offer."
For first-time participants and new businesses, Taste of Sunnyside offers an opportunity to make an impression on the neighborhood and meet new potential customers.
Sheila Connolly, who opened the Sconery at 39-39 47th Ave. in August, said many residents had "no idea" that the store existed before Sunday's event.
"The neighborhood has been great and that's where most of our customers have been coming from," Connolly said. "But there's still people who don't know we're here."
Connolly started the Sconery at farmer's markets before opening her first brick-and-mortar location in August and said she was thus well accustomed to operating a stand in the rain. Consequently, Sunday's persistent rain didn't dampen her spirits, Connolly said.
John Chowdhury, who co-owns Cafe Bliss and Organic Juice Bar along with his wife Sheila Dey, said he has been operating in the neighborhood for seven years but decided to join Taste of Sunnyside for the first time this year because it was an opportunity to meet new customers.
"I don't spend much money on advertising or anything," Chowdhury said Sunday.
Chowdhury, who served Royal Berry Sensation Smoothies on Sunday, said he will be participating in future Taste of Sunnyside events after a successful debut.
Mirsad Kraja, who co-owns SoleLuna, Sotto Le Stelle and the Arcobaleno bakery and gelato shop, is a long-time Taste of Sunnyside participant and said the event is an opportunity for the three locations to "give back" to the local community.
"It's a good way to give back to everybody who supports the businesses throughout the whole year," Kraja said.
Attendees also described Sunday's Taste of Sunnyside as an exemplary community event that offered them an opportunity to find new local favorites and meet the faces behind the food throughout the neighborhood.
Kevin Han, who has moved to Sunnyside within the past 12 months, said he had heard "good things" about food in the neighborhood and added that Sunday's event was an opportunity to explore the diverse culinary options that Sunnyside has to offer.
Han said a peanut soup from Bolivian Llama Party was his standout dish from the event and said the crawl has helped him discover restaurants that he was walked by without even noticing.
"I walk around here all the time," Han said. "But because of this, I'm able to actually notice stores or restaurants I haven't seen."
Andres and Brenda, a couple that has recently moved to Jackson Heights from Sunnyside, said they returned to the neighborhood for the restaurant crawl because it was an opportunity to find new favorites outside of their regular haunts.
They said their favorite offerings from 2025 Taste included Indian staple Cardamom and popular Nepalese joint Bajeko Sekuwa.
[caption id="attachment_586624" align="aligncenter" width="700"]Cardamom offered a sample of "Chicken 46" during the event. Photo: Shane O'Brien[/caption]
At Sonar, we’re dedicated to helping development teams build trust into every line of code. We believe that developing secure quality code shouldn't be an afterthought; it should be a core part of the development lifecycle. But in today's complex world of microservices and distributed architectures, maintaining visibility across all projects and teams is a challenge. Information gets siloed, making it difficult for developers, managers, and platform teams to get a clear, contextualized view of their organization's code health.
That’s why we’re excited to announce our partnership with Port, the creator of a leading internal developer portal. By integrating SonarQube's best-in-class code quality and security analysis directly into Port's software catalog, we’re providing a single pane of glass for engineering organizations to build better, more secure software, faster.
A centralized view for all stakeholders
The Sonar and Port integration is designed to provide clear, actionable insights and allow significant operability between SonarQube and Port. By enriching Port’s catalog of technical assets with deep code-level intelligence from SonarQube, we unlock powerful new capabilities for different roles.
For engineering leadership
Gaining a high-level perspective without drowning in details is key for effective leadership. This integration provides a comprehensive overview of your organization's code quality and security posture at a glance.
Comprehensive dashboards: Access dashboards in Port that aggregate Sonar metrics, offering a complete view of code quality and security across all teams.
Track quality gates: Monitor the status of SonarQube quality gates for every service directly within the developer portal, ensuring standards are met consistently across the board.
Centralize standards: Easily see how coding standards are being adopted and administered organization-wide.
For developers
Developers need to focus on shipping features, and context switching between tools slows them down. By surfacing SonarQube data directly in Port, we bring critical information into their daily workflow, right where they manage their services.
Quality-focused prioritization: Developers can see critical quality and security issues related to their team's code right inside Port, helping them prioritize remediation tasks effectively.
Full context: Sonar's code quality, security, and coverage information is displayed alongside the service's ownership details, dependencies, and other technical assets in the catalog, providing a holistic view.
Streamlined remediation: Quickly navigate from a service in Port directly to the detailed analysis in SonarQube to explore and fix issues.
For platform & DevOps teams
Platform teams are responsible for enabling developers and ensuring organizational standards are met. This integration makes it easier than ever to drive the adoption of SonarQube and maintain a consistent quality bar.
Monitor Sonar adoption: Track the percentage of services that have SonarQube integrated, and identify those that don't.
Discover and Enable: Easily discover services that are not yet being analyzed by SonarQube and use Port’s self-service actions to enable them, ensuring complete coverage.
Automate onboarding: When adding a new service to the catalog, you can onboard it to SonarQube in the same single action.
How it works
The integration is seamless. Port uses the SonarQube API to ingest project analysis data and display it within its software catalog. You can configure Port to pull key metrics such as:
Reliability (bugs)
Security (vulnerabilities)
Maintainability (code smells)
Coverage
Duplications
Quality gate status
This information can then be used to populate dashboards, create scorecards, and set organizational quality initiatives directly within your developer portal. For Port customers who aren't yet using SonarQube, a dedicated widget in the integrations marketplace helps them discover SonarQube as the preferred solution for code quality and security.
Better together
Implementing and managing code quality at scale requires clear insights and frictionless workflows. Our partnership with Port brings together Sonar's best-in-class code analysis with Port's powerful software catalog to create a centralized hub for engineering excellence. Now, our mutual customers can build trust in all their code—whether developer-written or AI-generated—while improving developer experience and operational efficiency.
To get started, check out the Port integration documentation or watch the on-demand webinar. Begin enriching your software catalog with SonarQube data today.
Using the Kayaks You Can Build book, I built my first Coho, a stich-and-glue plywood sea kayak. Before deciding on the Pygmy kit, I also considered ones offered by Mill Creek, Red Wing, Cheasapeake Light Craft, Dancing Waters, and One Ocean Design. In the end, I settled on Pygmy based on the feedback I got from other builders who touted just how very, very accurate the computer controlled router cut parts are. From the start, I realized I’ve seen a lot of Cohos out there over the years, which seemed to imply the design would be pretty well nailed down and refined by now. I was right.
The eight panels in the hull of the Coho make it a multi-chine boat, sort of half way between a strip construction and a four-panel hull. The way the deck fits elegantly onto the hull was also a big factor in my decision. I really like the fact that it is such a simple, but effective attachment. Some designs mandate you place screws or nails through the deck to the shear — to me that just seemed wrong. I also liked the more modern vertical stern, though the bow still very much keeps with a classic Greenland kayak shape. The hull is not too wide, but very stable and the deck’s extra two panels create a shape that reduces the knocking of your knuckles when you’re paddling. Also, the thinner panels of the hull really allow them to twist and create intriguing transitions that are simply not possible with a four-panel hull.
I was at Eagle Lake, CA and someone had a Pygmy Arctic Tern. The boat paddled like a dream — reminded me of the first time I rode a high quality road racing bicycle. I was finally sold. Not long after, I bought my Coho kit from Pygmy.
I took a pretty leisurely approach and probably spent about 300 hours, until it was done. After that, there is always something to consider adding — a carrying cart, some kind of a sail rig, etc. So I guess it is never really all finished! There really are only two problems with the Coho: 1) though they are very durable, you have so much time in them, you still really want to take care of them, 2) just about every trip I go on I get about six people a day stopping and asking me questions. It can actually delay your leaving the beach! — Mark Forwalter
The Advanced Expedition inflatable kayak has allowed me to get out on the water more often than I ever would with one of its hardshell cousins.
Because the boat fits in the trunk of my car and can be carried solo in a duffle bag, I find myself using it when the hassle of loading a more traditional kayak onto a roof rack and muscling it around would dissuade me. Using a double action pump it can be set up and ready to go in under 10 minutes, and the break down is even faster. It just deflates and folds back into its bag.
While it doesn’t track as well as a hard bottomed boat, it more than makes up for this with its incredible stability. Buoyed by two high-pressure inflatable tubes that form the 13.5 foot frame, the boat withstands moderate waves and can carry up to 400 pounds. Standard spray skirts fit and keep the inside snug and dry.
I have used it to surf waves, paddle with sea lions, and as a kayak escort for swim races. In all cases I have been able to keep up with fellow kayakers.
I highly recommend this for kayakers who want a full size boat but don’t have a garage or the space to keep one! — Ben Hanna
I have built several simple fiberglass canoes and repaired my sailboats, but using this book I was able to build my first “real,” high-performance boat, a Pygmy Coho, a stitch and glue plywood construction sea kayak. I read a lot of books on kayak construction, stitch and glue type in particular. I also used the Coho building manual from Pygmy some. But I absolutely would not have been as successful with my boat had I not read this book before building and referenced it during building. The detail, sharing of practical experience, the tons of photos, clarity in explanation and the examples of the exact same boat — the Coho — made this the only choice. The book lays out everything in terms of what you can expect to accomplish on Day 1, Day 2 and so forth. Even if you don’t follow it step by step, the book provides the fundamentals to make good alternative building decisions.
I was able to do all of the following alternatives: Rigged up my own plumbing for a built in bilge pump. Added 4-oz glass to the deck for strength. Added the bulkheads to also gain rear deck strength. Doubled the coaming lip for strength and aesthetics. Added in hardwood keys at the coaming spacer joints for strength. Fiberglassed the entire coaming (probably really not necessary). Made my own jigs with hot glue and pop sickle sticks as prealignment tools for bulkheads, seat braces, deck joint, etc.
Above all else, the book explains how to build a very flat, level, elevated worktable with internal/external stations to hold the boat in position. That aspect alone is reason enough to go with this book. I am currently building a skin-on-frame, Greenland style kayak for my wife, but I would re-read this book before building any other stitch and glue boat. I also recommend the Greenland kayak website, Qajaq USA and Guillemont Kayak’s boat-building forum, where there is a wealth of information for the construction and use of stitch and glue, strip building and traditional skin-on-frame (SOF) kayaks. — Mark Fowalter
In order to achieve professional results, each stage of your work should be completed with the least number of steps as well as prepare you for the next stage. For example, if you apply the filler casually with a stick, before the next step can happen the excess will have to be sanded off. Professionals eliminate the cleanup step by placing just enough filler in the right place to do the job. When the masking tape is peeled off, the step is complete and ready for the next one. Keeping the filler under control saves time and minimizes exposure to the bad stuff. That’s a pretty fair payoff, but there’s also a bonus that comes with thinking lazy. That bonus is professional results. You cannot build a professional-quality boat when you are doing damage control between each step… We are all good at something; by combining an understanding of what needs to be done with what is already familiar, we find that practical solutions present themselves.
The less epoxy you put on, the less you have to sand off. If the epoxy is kept under control when wet, expect about one day of sanding, preferably outside. Tidy glue application brings the additional benefits of less unhealthy dust produced and more efficient — and less costly — use of the epoxy.
How to Begin So, how to begin? One option, of course, is the freeform approach, in which the kayak is built right on the floor or, as one manufacturer suggests, on somethingflat like three cardboard boxes. Although this lets you get right to work, there are a number of drawbacks. One is the possibility of introduction funky eccentricitiesand variables to a process that requires precise control. The other is the questionable practicality of spending hours bent over, toiling on the floor. Thisis a pretty good sized “some assembly required” project, and at some point in the process either your knees or your back will start protesting. Another way to go is to build a worktable that will raise your assembly surface to a more civilized altitude. With some forethought the worktable also becomes a modification of the traditional boatbuilder’s strongback. A big advantage to the worktable is that you are, in effect, working from the same baseline that the designer used to draw the boat. With the addition of a centerline and station liners, the table becomes an accurate reference and a jig for many of the building steps… Being able to reach in and clamp along the edge of the worktable is convenient, and a step towards making tidy joints that require very littlecleanup. This not only saves time but also reduces your exposure to the epoxy.
Building the box beam and fitting and leveling the top of the worktable took the best part of one day and consumed two sheets of plywood. If building this beam sounds like too much work, there are other possibilities for getting a stable base under the top. Consider a straight ladder set up on a sawhorses, laminated floor joints or anything else that will support the length of the table to accommodate your height and the kayak you are building. Making the long straight cuts necessary for building a straight table could be a challenge for the casual builder. The easiest solution, and one that also simplifiestransportation, is to have the plywood sheet ripped into desired widths when you purchase the board. Some big-box home improvement stores offer this service at little or no extra cost, using extremely accurate dedicated panel saws. If you decide to do it yourself and are using a table saw, keep in mind that the panel must be supported at both the in-feed and out-feed ends for safety reasons and to ensure that the cuts are straight. If you are using a portable circular saw, consider clamping a straightedge to the board to guide the saw. The simple-to-build box beam consists of two 8-foot open-ended boxes held together with a 4-foot sectionthat fits in the open ends of the boxes to tie them together. The important point to keep in mind is that once joined, the top side of the box must be straight.
Cradle forms are the secret to controlling the shape of a plywood kayak. They can make the difference between a twisted hull with a hogged bottom and the beautiful kayak in your mind. Besides, now that you have a worktable, you might as well add several cradle forms and enjoy the peaceful rhythm of building when the pieces fall into place and stay where you put them. With cradles attached to the predictable base formed by the worktable, the hull will come together at a controlled distance above the baseline and will be centered over the table centerline; our horizontal reference will be the level, anytime we need it. As flimsy plank is added to the flimsy plank, the crade forms will hold all the pieceswhere they should be. The pieces will come together without being stressed or having to be bullied into position. Cover the path of the cut with masking tape to provide something to mark on and to protect the desk and the edge of the cut. Drill a hole inside the line big enough for the jigsaw blade (5-84). Take your time making the cut. Trust the line and follow it; it is easier to make the first cut to the line than to try to clean it up later. As the cut progresses, bridge the joint with tape to keep the cutout from falling into the hull (5-85). Peel off the tape when you have finished making the cut and clean up the shape with a rasp or a hard sanding block if needed. This opening will be the pattern for trimming the parts to come, so getting a smooth shape now will save correcting the same problem on the spacer and rim later.
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
Just over a year ago, President Joe Biden had proposed a similar deal to the one pitched by Trump, to no avail. Did Trump succeed by pressuring Netanyahu in a way that his predecessor refused to do? Or did Israel simply degrade Hamas so badly that the terrorist group had no choice but to agree? Both factors seem to have played a role. Did Arab countries sway Hamas, or did the monarchies push Trump to change his stance? Both, again, seem to have been factors, according to our conversations with 10 officials from the United States, Israel, Arab nations, and Europe, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing talks. Now the question is whether the swap of hostages for prisoners unfolds as planned, and whether this week’s diplomatic success will amount to anything more than a blip in the fighting.
and the ongoing invasion of Chicago
The semi-comic superhero Peacemaker once said: “I made a vow to have peace. No matter how many people I have to kill to get it.” Trump’s ICE raids and National Guard deployments are similar: He would have us believe that he is dead set on stopping crime, no matter how many laws he has to break to do it. And if armed men have to drag you and your family out of your home in the middle of the night and zip-tie you all in the back of a van in order to keep you safe, Trump’s people are up to the job.
Here are just a few of the cases I ran into this week:
In Chicago, ICE shot a Presbyterian pastor the head with a pepper ball. ICE agents shot from the roof of their building. The pastor was among nonviolent protesters in the street.
A Delaware domestic violence victim with protected status and no criminal record was taken from her home in front of her children and flown to ICE’s Louisiana concentration camp, where she was held for nearly a month before relatives and the Delaware attorney general were able to find her and negotiate her release.
A 13-year-old boy got arrested by police in Everett, Massachusetts. His mother was called to pick him up, but before she could get there ICE had wisked him away to Virginia. “The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, [immigration lawyer Andrew] Lattarulo said.”
And this: “Doctors at Adventist Health White Memorial hospital in Boyle Heights told LAist that hospital administrators are allowing federal immigration agents to interfere in medical decisions and block doctors from properly treating detainees who need emergency care.”
I believe I could find large numbers of similar abuses if I looked harder. There is a crime wave in our cities, but it’s not immigrants: It’s ICE agents who pay no attention to the legal limits on their actions.
The big news this week mainly happened in court. The question to be resolved is how much deference courts owe a president who is either lying or completely deranged.
The laws that allow the President to federalize National Guard units and deploy them to American cities are all based on the existence of certain conditions, like “invasion” by a foreign nation, “rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States”, or “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States”.
Ordinarily, if it’s anything like a close call, courts defer to a president’s judgment about whether such conditions exist. But if a president can make stuff up, then the conditions might as well not be in the law at all. If that’s what Congress intended, the law should just say, “The President can take command of the National Guard whenever he wants.”
Obviously, the law doesn’t say that, so there is some limit to the deference a president is owed. Just as obviously, when Trump described Portland as “war ravaged”, he passed that limit. His claims about Chicago are only somewhat more credible.
What Trump intends to do with the troops is also a factor. If the problem he intends to address is “crime” rather than rebellion or insurrection, that is better in one way and worse in another. All cities have crime, so he is at least not delusional when he refers to crime as a problem. But Posse Comitatus and other laws put firm limits on the conditions under which National Guard or regular military units can participate in law enforcement (which has long been a state and local responsibility). So he can call up units, but it’s hard to see what they can do (legally) to solve a crime problem.
Here’s where things stand at the moment. In Portland, a federal district judge barred Trump from sending National Guard troops — either Oregon’s or some other state’s — to Portland. However, a three-judge appeals court panel reviewing the matter has two Trump appointees, and they seemed skeptical of the lower-court’s order. Portland’s Channel 6 anticipates that Trump will be allowed to deploy the guard to protect ICE offices and other federal buildings, but not to do any law enforcement.
A Chicago-based federal appeals court has allowed National Guard troops (including 200 from Texas) to remain under federal control in Illinois, but not to deploy to Chicago.
This escalation of violence is targeted and intentional and premeditated. The Trump administration is following a playbook: cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protestors are a mob, by firing gas pellets and teargas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act, so that he can send military troops to our city. He wants to justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command.
Crowds that have gathered daily and nightly outside the immigration facility in Oregon’s largest city in recent days have embraced the absurd, donning inflatable frog, unicorn, axolotl and banana costumes as they face off with federal law enforcement who often deploy teargas and pepper balls.
Sunday, there was a naked bike ride to protest against troops deploying into the city. See the closing for more Portlandish absurdity.
and the shutdown
There is essentially no progress to report. Democrats are refusing to approve a continuing resolution unless it addresses Obamacare subsidies, which are lapsing and will cause huge increases in many families’ health insurance premiums. Republicans are refusing any concessions, even though many of them realize their own constituents are being hurt.
This week the regime announced that it was using the excuse of the government shutdown to fire more federal workers. About 4600 were let go in all, which doesn’t sound like a lot compared to the size of the federal government. But certain areas were hit particularly hard: about 100 were fired from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Because, it’s not like substance abuse is a problem in America.
THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM – DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT
Anybody see the problem? January 6 happened at the end of the first Trump administration. There was no “Biden FBI”. Did Trump forget he was president then?
Under the deal, AstraZeneca agreed to sell its drugs to Medicaid, the health insurance program for lower-income Americans, at about the same prices that it offers to wealthy countries in Europe.
As with all Trump announcements, we’ll have to wait and see whether this agreement has any actual effect. But I will guarantee you one thing: It won’t have the effect Trump promised. Here’s what he said:
Now drug prices are going to be going down 100 percent, 400 percent, 600 percent, 1,000 percent, in some cases. … And as an example, one particular drug that’s hot, very hot, 654 percent, on inhalers, COPD and asthma, as well as certain diabetics medications. They’re going to be averaging about 654 percent reduction in price.
If math isn’t your strong suit, let me interpret: Suppose a pill costs $1. A 100% price cut means that AstraZeneca gives you the pill for nothing. 1000% of $1 is $10. So a price reduction of 1000% means AstraZeneca will pay you $9 to take the pill. A 654% reduction means they’ll pay you $5.54. Do you really believe that’s going to happen?
This wasn’t a slip of the tongue or a teleprompter screw-up. At the 5:20 mark in the White House video, the camera pulls back enough that you can see a poster on an easel. The poster claims that some drug has a 654% price reduction.
This raises two issues:
Does Trump’s brain really work so badly these days that he believes price reductions over 100% are possible? (Seth Meyers would say yes.)
Think about the number of people who had to be involved in producing that poster and setting it up. None of them had the courage to push back and tell the Mad King “This doesn’t make any sense.”
And finally, let’s look at the credulous press coverage Trump gets. The WaPo article on this event doesn’t mention his laughable claims. The NYT mentions this dementia symptom in the 7th paragraph of its article:
He spoke of delivering seemingly impossible price reductions, such as a “654 percent discount” on Bevespi Aerosphere, an AstraZeneca inhaler for patients with respiratory problems.
Seemingly impossible? Compare this to the wall-to-wall coverage Biden would get whenever he flubbed something.
During the week that the Special Counsel’s report came out, we examined the top 20 articles on the Times’ landing page every four hours. In that time, they published 26 unique articles about Biden’s age, of which 1 of them explored the possibility that Trump’s age was of equal or more concern.
Now, Trump outright babbles and the WaPo ignores it while the NYT tells us he seems to have made a mistake. Apparently the NYT believes it is a matter of opinion whether drug prices are going down more than 100%.
and you also might be interested in …
Don’t forget the No Kings protests on Saturday. There’s bound to be one in your area. You may not feel like you can do much to stop the Trump regime. But you can at least do this.
After a few months of relative peace, the trade war with China has restarted. China is restricting exports of rare-earth metals that are used in a wide variety of electronic devices. Trump is threatening 100% tariffs on imports from China. Investment markets crashed on Friday and have recovered somewhat today.
A new report says that the Earth’s coral reefs are at a tipping point and have entered into a period of “long-term decline”.
The report from scientists and conservationists warns the world is also “on the brink” of reaching other tipping points, including the dieback of the Amazon, the collapse of major ocean currents and the loss of ice sheets.
Back in May, Trump added a carrot to the stick he brandishes against undocumented immigrants: If they would self-deport, the US would fly them to any other country for free, and also give them an “exit bonus” cash payment. ProPublica followed up with immigrants who tried to take advantage of this offer. For many, it hasn’t worked out the way Trump described.
Upon his arrival, he planted a majestic cross in a mighty act of devotion, dedicating the land to God and setting in motion America’s proud birthright of faith. … Guided by steadfast prayer and unwavering fortitude and resolve, Columbus’s journey carried thousands of years of wisdom, philosophy, reason, and culture across the Atlantic into the Americas — paving the way for the ultimate triumph of Western civilization less than three centuries later on July 4, 1776.
Isn’t it weird that the Native Americans aren’t more grateful for the “thousands of years of wisdom, philosophy, reason, and culture” Columbus brought to them?
and let’s close with something relevant
OK, normally the closing is supposed to get your mind off the news. But the most amusing video I’ve seen this week is this animated music video of Portland’s dancing frogs.
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