Hospitals may not be the first places that come to mind when you think of where to see works of famous contemporary artists, but inside NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, there are not one but two Keith Haring murals. The murals are part of the largest public art collection in New York City, a collection of over 3,000 works curated by NYC Health + Hospitals. As an advocate who believed art should be accessible to everyone, Haring gifted the murals in 1986. In Untapped New York’s upcoming talk with Linh Dang, Senior Director of NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine Program, she will discuss how Haring’s contribution to the New York City healthcare system is part of a tradition that dates back to the 1930s and is being carried on today by The Community Mural Project.
In a proposal for the Woodhull mural, Haring explains his inspiration for the piece. When visiting the hospital, he noticed a border running around the lobby, “an intricate part of the architecture” that he wanted to “embellish…with a frieze of characters.” The characters are “very simple human and animal figures, dancing, playing, break dancing, etc.,” outlined in thick black paint with bright splashes of primary colors. Since the 700-foot long mural is the first thing that patients see upon entering the hospital, Haring wanted the design to be “positive, uplifting, unaggressive, imaginative and comforting.”
Haring’s parade of playful figures continues down two corridors that branch off of the main lobby. The hallway mural figures are just black and white but have more details than the lobby mural. While the lobby figures are abstract shapes, the hallway figures have details like faces and clothing. To complete the murals, Haring spent an entire week inside the Bed-Stuy hospital. During his downtime, he socialized with hospital staff, patients, visitors, and fans. He happily signed autographs and did small drawings for anyone who asked.
Photograph by Rick Luftglass
According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Haring created more than fifty murals for hospitals, daycare centers, charity venues, and orphanages during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. The Keith Haring mural inside NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull is estimated to be worth millions of dollars today. In 2018, a $20,000 restoration project was carried out by art conservators Helen Im and Suyeon Kim. The restoration included making repairs to water damaged areas of the painting and touching up the paint on the Keith Haring mural.
Murals first appeared in New York City hospitals in the 1930s when the depression-era Works Progress Administration commissioned hundreds of them for New York City’s public hospital system. As the century progressed, hospitals and organizations continued to commission murals, sometimes from famous artists such as Kenny Scharf. Today, the mural tradition continues with The Community Mural Project run by NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine program and funded by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
The Community Mural Project facilitates the creation of collaborative works of art that bring together healthcare staff, patients, artists, and local residents. Each group plays an important role in every step of the creation process, from designing the mural to actually painting it! Started in 2019, the project has already added sixteen new murals to hospitals all over New York City, with plans to add more. The goal of the program is to “re-imagine hospitals and promote greater neighborhood wellness.” The Community Mutal Project was more vital than ever in 2020, when the murals helped to combat caregiver fatigue and bolstered the spirits of frontline workers during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, you can see more of KetihHaring’s work. RxArt, in partnership with the Keith Haring Foundation, produced a wall decal for the hospital’s waiting room in 2019 with a design created by Haring. In 2020, artist Imani Shanklin Roberts contributed a new mural to NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull’s exterior, joining the Keith Haring mural created over thirty years ago. On the Illumination Fund website, you can see all of the locations where community murals have been added over the past two years. The call for artists to create murals in 2021, along with a list of new mural locations, have just been released! You can learn more and fill out an application here!
Image Courtesy of NYC Health + Hospitals
For more information, please visit the following link:
NYC Health + Hospitals Woodhull Hospital has brought colorful inspiration to its Flushing Avenue side. On October 8, a mural titled, Through Healing We Unite, which the artist hopes will communicate the balance of both care workers and patients to cultivate healing, was unveiled. Oct 15, 2020
Just in time for Black History Month, a new mural has just been unveiled at Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital. “The Spirit of Sea View” by Yana Dimitrova, depicts the hospital’s deep history dedicated to serving the most vulnerable populations of New York, including the role of the Black Angels. The project was completed under New York City Health + Hospitals Community Murals Project in partnership with the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund and is located in the E. Robitzek Building at Sea View. It consists of four panels, each highlighting significant individuals and events of Sea View’s past. In the mural, you’ll see a reference to the Delft terra cotta panels that were salvaged from the abandoned tuberculosis buildings in the hospital.
The first panel highlights Sea View’s beginnings as a part of the New York City Farm Colony. Founded in 1829 as the Richmond County Poor Farm, it welcomed the poor, mentally ill, criminals, and other outcasts of the time. In exchange for a place to stay, people were given work on the farm and in various shops that specialized in skills such as carpentry, print, and tailoring. Seaview Hospital was built as a tuberculosis sanatorium right by the Staten Island farm colony, and the two later merged in 1915, forming Seaview Farms. Combining the farm colony and the hospital enabled both institutions to maximize each others’ resources and services.
Panel ones depicts individuals involved in manual labor such as farming and construction. Photo by Michael Paras.
Remnants of the Staten Island Farm Colony, which is across the street from Sea View today
Panel two focuses on the Black Angels of Seaview Hospital who were critical in providing care for patients during the tuberculosis pandemic (the cure for tuberculosis was discovered at Sea View). Called Black Angels by their parents, around 300 of African American nurses came to Seaview from across the country between 1928 to 1960 to help patients fight tuberculosis. Although many white nurses left Seaview during the height of the pandemic, Black nurses fearlessly and heroically served patients at the risk of their own lives. Their story will also be the subject of a forthcoming book from Oprah Books by Mara Smilios, The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis.
Miss Virginia Allen, the last living Black Angel nurse
Dimitrova worked on the murals in collaboration with members of Seaview hospital, in particular, Miss Virginia Allen, the last living Black Angel today. At sixteen years old, she came to Sea View from Detroit as a nurse and helped on the frontlines of treating tuberculosis patients. Dimitrova wrote about the experience on her website, “After speaking with Miss Allen and meeting her in person, it was so beautifully clear – she is an inspiring fighter for social justice for the not only the community at the hospital but also all over New York City. I am honored to have had the privilege to meet her and speak with her in preparation of this panel.” Allen attended the mural unveiling last week.
Panel two honors the bravery of the Black Angels.
Panel three continues the narrative of Seaview’s integral role in the tuberculosis pandemic. In it, Dr. Edward H. Robitzek, who discovered a cure for tuberculosis, has provided the mediation to a patient who is celebrating her recovery. Before, the only recommendations doctors could recommend for tuberculosis patients were ample sunlight, fresh air, and a good diet. However, Dr. Robitzek’s discovery of the effectiveness of the drug isoniazid led to drastic recoveries in patients who were likely to die from the disease. Alongside the Black Angels, Dr. Robitzek is portrayed as another commendable hero of Seaview’s history.
The final panel reflects the present. Although for many years Sea View’s buildings were abandoned and forgotten, they have been revived and transformed into a rehabilitation center, nursing home, and a volunteer fire company as a part of The New York City Economic Development Corp’s efforts to create a Wellness Community. In the mural, the patient is the portrait of Miss Marquita, an actual patient of Sea View, in the greenhouse of the hospital.
The four panels reflect the rich history of a hospital that has created opportunities for the poor, served tuberculosis patients with the help of Black Angels, and helped instigate a cure for tuberculosis patients.
Montefiore Medical Center – Children’s Playroom Mural
Hospital Mural. We worked with the amazing staff at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Together we created a custom mural in a newly designed playroom. We had a good time painting universal childhood favorites for the kids to enjoy. Hopefully having these friends around makes a trip to the doctor a little bit more fun. Check out some photos of the vibrant & crisp hospital mural installation below:
Donald may also need Mickey’s services after the kite ride from the looks of it. The panorama captures the size and also color of the install. In this case, painting to the edges of the frame really worked well.
Mickey keeping good company with the legos.
An apple a day or a quick race in the driving seats.
The roll down black out window screens were a fun canvas for Minnie and Lady Duck. The orange cloud background behind each contrasts the bright green hills of the hospital mural. We were able to use some negative space here also.
Green hills, blue skies, puffy clouds and wild flowers also.
You can see how the hand painted graphics transform the environment in the picture above.
It’s true—recent studies and research have proven that a trip to the art gallery or a museum can positively impact your health and well-being in several essential ways, like lowering anxiety and depression and boosting critical thinking skills. Apr 15, 2019
Jun 10, 2021 — A community-based mural by Renzo Ortega, the first in Belvis’s 25-year history, was unveiled to the public at NYC Health + Hospitals/Belvis …
Art and medicine intersect in New York City hospitals
NASA, First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope & Image of The Day
James Webb Space Telescope
First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope
The dawn of a new era in astronomy has begun as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data were released during a televised broadcast at 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 UTC) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. These listed targets below represent the first wave of full-color scientific images and spectra the observatory has gathered, and the official beginning of Webb’s general science operations. They were selected by an international committee of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
These first images from the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope demonstrate Webb at its full power, ready to begin its mission to unfold the infrared universe.
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.
Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.
Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Today, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals Stephan’s Quintet in a new light. This enormous mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, covering about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.
With its powerful, infrared vision and extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen details in this galaxy group. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.
This side-by-side comparison shows observations of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light, at left, and mid-infrared light, at right, from NASA’s Webb Telescope. This scene was created by a white dwarf star – the remains of a star like our Sun after it shed its outer layers and stopped burning fuel though nuclear fusion. Those outer layers now form the ejected shells all along this view. In the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image, the white dwarf appears to the lower left of the bright, central star, partially hidden by a diffraction spike. The same star appears – but brighter, larger, and redder – in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image. This white dwarf star is cloaked in thick layers of dust, which make it appear larger. The brighter star in both images hasn’t yet shed its layers. It closely orbits the dimmer white dwarf, helping to distribute what it’s ejected. Over thousands of years and before it became a white dwarf, the star periodically ejected mass – the visible shells of material. As if on repeat, it contracted, heated up – and then, unable to push out more material, pulsated. Stellar material was sent in all directions – like a rotating sprinkler – and provided the ingredients for this asymmetrical landscape. Today, the white dwarf is heating up the gas in the inner regions – which appear blue at left and red at right. Both stars are lighting up the outer regions, shown in orange and blue, respectively. The images look very different because NIRCam and MIRI collect different wavelengths of light. NIRCam observes near-infrared light, which is closer to the visible wavelengths our eyes detect. MIRI goes farther into the infrared, picking up mid-infrared wavelengths. The second star more clearly appears in the MIRI image, because this instrument can see the gleaming dust around it, bringing it more clearly into view. The stars – and their layers of light – steal more attention in the NIRCam image, while dust pl
The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.
Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away.
Webb will allow astronomers to dig into many more specifics about planetary nebulae like this one – clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Understanding which molecules are present, and where they lie throughout the shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star.
The observation, which reveals the presence of specific gas molecules based on tiny decreases in the brightness of precise colors of light, is the most detailed of its kind to date, demonstrating Webb’s unprecedented ability to analyze atmospheres hundreds of light-years away.
While the Hubble Space Telescope has analyzed numerous exoplanet atmospheres over the past two decades, capturing the first clear detection of water in 2013, Webb’s immediate and more detailed observation marks a giant leap forward in the quest to characterize potentially habitable planets beyond Earth.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
You’ve seen the pictures. What questions do you have? Our experts for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are ready to handle them in our NASA Science Live, starting at 3 p.m. ET (19:00 UTC) on Wednesday, July 13. Share your Qs with #UnfoldTheUniverse during our livestream. Have questions you want answered in Spanish? Tune in to a live Q&A at 1 p.m. EDT (17:00 UTC) on the NASA en español Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages: Facebook: https://facebook.com/nasaes Twitter: https://twitter.com/nasa_es YouTube: https://youtube.com/nasaes Image credit: NASA Goddard/Chris Gunn
Highlights: First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope (Official NASA Video)
NASA revealed the first five full-color images and spectrographic data from the world’s most powerful space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The world got its first look at the full capabilities of the mission at a live event streamed from the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on July 12, 2022. The event showcased these targets: – Carina Nebula: A landscape speckled with glittering stars and cosmic cliffs – Stephan’s Quintet: An enormous mosaic with a visual grouping of five galaxies – Southern Ring Nebula: A nebula with rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions – WASP 96-b: A distinct signature of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet orbiting a distant Sun-like star – SMACS 0723: The deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date The full set of the telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data are available at: https://nasa.gov/webbfirstimages Full-resolution images can be downloaded at: https://webbtelescope.org Credit: NASA Download Avail Link: https://images.nasa.gov/details-First…) Production Credit: Producer/Editor: Amy Leniarthtt
An overview of the instruments onboard the Webb Telescope: the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph. Learn how each instrument will help Webb unfold the universe. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Producer Michael Starobin (KBRwyle): Producer Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Producer Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator Chris Meaney (KBRwyle): Animator Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Videographer Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Editor Rich Melnick (KBRwyle): Editor Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Host Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Narrator Download this video at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14136
An overview of the instruments onboard the Webb Telescope: the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph. Learn how each instrument will help Webb unfold the universe. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Producer Michael Starobin (KBRwyle): Producer Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Producer Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator Chris Meaney (KBRwyle): Animator Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Videographer Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Editor Rich Melnick (KBRwyle): Editor Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Host Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Narrator Download this video at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14136
WATCH LIVE: Stunning new images from James Webb Space Telescope offer fuller picture of our universe
Now that the James Webb Space Telescope has released its first images, it’s time for the science programs to begin. We meet 5 scientists who will be using the telescope during its first cycle of operations looking at the earliest galaxies, red giant stars in the disc of Andromeda, star forming regions in the MIlky Way and nearby galaxies, the Trappist-1 exoplanet system, and mysterious icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. #JamesWebb#NASA#Space ——– Like this video? Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/Bloomberg?sub_… Become a Quicktake Member for exclusive perks: http://www.youtube.com/bloomberg/join Subscribe to Quicktake Explained: https://bit.ly/3iERrup QuickTake Originals is Bloomberg’s official premium video channel. We bring you insights and analysis from business, science, and technology experts who are shaping our future. We’re home to Hello World, Giant Leap, Storylines, and the series powering CityLab, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Green, and much more. Subscribe for business news, but not as you’ve known it: exclusive interviews, fascinating profiles, data-driven analysis, and the latest in tech innovation from around the world. Visit our partner channel QuickTake News for breaking global news and insight in an instant. 0:00 – A Giant Leap for Science 1:59 – First full color, science quality images of JWST 8:11 – COSMOS-Web: mapping the earliest structures of the Universe 14:11 – Unearthing the fossilised Andromeda Galaxy 21:49 – Star formation in the Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud 26:56 – Trappist-1: checking atmosphere of exoplanet system with multiple earth-like planets in the habitable zone 31:27 – TransNeptunian objects: discovering the composition of icy bodies beyond Neptune
NASA celebrates the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible. She partnered with us to recruit some of the first women and minority astronauts, and inspired generations to reach for the stars.
In this photo from February 2012, Nichols was a featured guest speaker in the Building 8 auditorium at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. at a special event commemorating of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The giant star Zeta Ophiuchi is having a “shocking” effect on the surrounding dust clouds in this infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Stellar winds flowing out from this fast-moving star are making ripples in the dust as it approaches, creating a bow shock seen as glowing gossamer threads, which, for this star, are only seen in infrared light. Zeta Ophiuchi is a young, large and hot star located around 370 light-years away. It dwarfs our own sun in many ways — it is about six times hotter, eight times wider, 20 times more massive, and about 80,000 times as bright. Even at its great distance, it would be one of the brightest stars in the sky were it not largely obscured by foreground dust clouds. This massive star is travelling at a snappy pace of about 54,000 mph (24 kilometers per second), fast enough to break the sound barrier in the surrounding interstellar material. Because of this motion, it creates a spectacular bow shock ahead of its direction of travel (to the left). The structure is analogous to the ripples that precede the bow of a ship as it moves through the water, or the sonic boom of an airplane hitting supersonic speeds. The fine filaments of dust surrounding the star glow primarily at shorter infrared wavelengths, rendered here in green. The area of the shock pops out dramatically at longer infrared wavelengths, creating the red highlights. A bright bow shock like this would normally be seen in visible light as well, but because it is hidden behind a curtain of dust, only the longer infrared wavelengths of light seen by Spitzer can reach us. Bow shocks are commonly seen when two different regions of gas and dust slam into one another. Zeta Ophiuchi, like other massive stars, generates a strong wind of hot gas particles flowing out from its surface. This expanding wind collides with the tenuous clouds of interstellar gas and dust about half a light-year away from the star, which is almost 800 times the distance from the sun to
Zeta Ophiuchi is a star with a complicated past, having likely been ejected from its birthplace by a powerful stellar explosion. A new look by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory helps tell more of the story of this runaway star.
Located about 440 light-years from Earth, Zeta Ophiuchi is a hot star that is 20 times more massive than the Sun. Previous observations have provided evidence that Zeta Ophiuchi was once in close orbit with another star, before being ejected at about 100,000 miles per hour when this companion was destroyed in a supernova explosion over a million years ago. Previously released infrared data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, seen in this new composite image, reveals a spectacular shock wave (red and green) that was formed by matter blowing away from the star’s surface and slamming into gas in its path. Data from Chandra shows a bubble of X-ray emission (blue) located around the star, produced by gas that has been heated by the effects of the shock wave to tens of millions of degrees.
As NASA’s Juno mission completed its 43rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 5, 2022, its JunoCam instrument captured this striking view of vortices — hurricane-like spiral wind patterns — near the planet’s north pole.
These powerful storms can be over 30 miles (50 kilometers) in height and hundreds of miles across. Figuring out how they form is key to understanding Jupiter’s atmosphere, as well as the fluid dynamics and cloud chemistry that create the planet’s other atmospheric features. A NASA citizen science project, Jovian Vortex Hunter, seeks help from volunteer members of the public to spot and help categorize vortices and other atmospheric phenomena visible in JunoCam photos of Jupiter. As of July 2022, 2,404 volunteers had made 376,725 classifications using the Jovian Vortex Hunter project web site at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/ramanakumars/jovian-vortex-hunter.
Lockheed Martin Photography By Garry Tice 1011 Lockheed Way, Palmdale, Ca. 93599 Event: Forebody and Nose – Windtunnel Testing Date: 2/10/2022 Additional Info:
Before NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft takes to the skies, plenty of testing happens to ensure a safe first flight. One part of this safety check is to analyze data collected for the X-59’s flight control system through low-speed wind tunnel tests.
The X-59 is central to NASA’s Quesst mission to expand supersonic flight and provide regulators with data to help change existing national and international aviation rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land. The aircraft is designed to produce a gentle thump instead of a sonic boom.
Recently, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, completed low-speed wind tunnel tests of a scale model of the X-59’s forebody. The tests provided measurements of how wind flows around the aircraft nose and confirmed computer predictions made using computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, software tools. The data will be fed into the aircraft flight control system and will allow the pilot to know the altitude, speed and angle that the aircraft is flying at in the sky.
In this image, a technician works on the X-59 model during testing in the low-speed wind tunnel, in February 2022.
The Sun’s rays begin to illuminate the Earth’s atmosphere as the International Space Station flew into an orbital sunrise 261 miles above Texas, as seen in this image taken by astronaut Bob Hines.
The crew doesn’t just snap pretty pictures; the research aboard the station benefits humanity in numerous ways. This week, the 11th annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference runs through Thursday, July 28, 2022, in Washington. The full conference agenda is available online.
NASA will provide live coverage of select panels from the conference on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
The event coincides with the publication of the 2022 edition of the International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, highlighting the advances in scientific knowledge on Earth, and in space, physical, and biological sciences, aboard the microgravity laboratory for the benefits of people living on our home planet.
Though Mars is the Red Planet, false-color images can help us learn about its weather and geology. This image shows a variety of wind-related features on the Red Planet near the center of Gamboa Crater. Larger sand dunes form sinuous crests and individual domes.
There are tiny ripples on the tops of the dunes, only several feet from crest-to-crest. These merge into larger mega-ripples about 30 feet apart that radiate outward from the dunes. The larger, brighter formations that are roughly parallel are called “Transverse Aeolian Ridges” (TAR). These TAR are covered with very coarse sand.
The mega-ripples appear blue-green on one side of an enhanced color cutout while the TAR appear brighter blue on the other. This could be because the TAR are actively moving under the force of the wind, clearing away darker dust and making them brighter. All of these different features can indicate which way the wind was blowing when they formed. Being able to study such variety so close together allows us to see their relationships and compare and contrast features to examine what they are made of and how they formed.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
We’re celebrating 50 years of the Landsat satellite, the first of which launched on July 23, 1972. The latest in the series, Landsat 9, launched in September 2021.
Landsat shows us Earth from space. For 50 years, the mission has collected data on the forests, farms, urban areas and freshwater of our home planet, generating the longest continuous record of its kind. Decision makers from across the globe use freely available Landsat data to better understand environmental change, manage agricultural practices, allocate scarce water resources, respond to natural disasters and more.
This natural color image of Eleuthera Island, the Bahamas, was taken by Landsat 9 on January 18, 2022. Between Landsat 8 and Landsat 9, the Landsat program delivers complete coverage of the Earth’s surface every eight days.
Image Credit: Michelle Bouchard using Landsat data from USGS
An Alta-X drone operated by NASA researchers flies over NASA Langley’s City Environment Range Testing for Autonomous Integrated Navigation (CERTAIN) as part of the Advanced Air Mobility project’s High Density Vertiplex (HDV) testing in April 2022.
HDV is developing the necessary systems to enable urban drone flights that travel beyond visual sight.
Apollo 11 Crew Trains for Excursion on the Sea of Tranquility
Two members of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission participate in a simulation of deploying and using lunar tools on the surface of the Moon during a training exercise on April 22, 1969. Astronaut Buzz (Aldrin Jr. on left), lunar module pilot, uses a scoop and tongs to pick up a soil sample. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, holds a bag to receive the sample. In the background is a Lunar Module mockup.
The Apollo 11 crew simulates deploying and using lunar tools on the surface of the Moon during a training exercise on April 22, 1969. Lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin (left) uses a scoop and tongs to pick up a soil sample. Mission Commander Neil Armstrong holds a bag to receive the sample. In the background is a Lunar Module mockup.
On July 16, 1969, the crew off Apollo 11, including command module pilot Michael Collins, launched into history on a journey to explore Earth’s only natural satellite.
Landing on the Moon’s Mare Tranquillitatis, or Sea of Tranquility, on July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first people to walk on another terrestrial body. At 5 p.m. EDT (21:00 UTC) on July 20, 2022, NASA TV will air restored footage of the Apollo 11 Moonwalk.
This composite image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope shows the supernova remnant known as N132D. Supernovas are the explosive deaths of the Universe’s most massive stars. Once these stars run out of fuel, they collapse and blast waves of energy into space around them. In this image, three of Spitzer’s infrared bands are shown in red, green, and blue, while Chandra’s X-rays are seen in purple. The pinkish color reveals a clash between the explosion’s high-energy shockwaves and surrounding dust grains.
Supernovas are the explosive deaths of the universe’s most massive stars. In death, these objects blast powerful waves into the cosmos, destroying much of the dust surrounding them.
This 2007 composite from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the remnant of such an explosion, known as N132D, and the environment it is expanding into. In this image, infrared light at 4.5 microns is mapped to blue, 8.0 microns to green, and 24 microns to red. Meanwhile, broadband X-ray light is mapped purple. The remnant itself is seen as a wispy pink shell of gas at the center of this image. The pinkish color reveals an interaction between the explosion’s high-energy shockwaves (originally purple) and surrounding dust grains.
Outside of the central remnant, small organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, are shown as tints of green. Meanwhile, the blue dots represent stars within that lie along the line of sight between the observatories and N132D.
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/SAO/CXC; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/A. Tappe & J. Rho
A View from Above: Zero Gravity Facility Circa 1966
Zero Gravity Facility at Lewis Research Center, now known as John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field. This is a tunnel view looking up from level 5. This tower drops 460 feet and allows scientists 5.18 seconds of zero gravity. By comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall.
This tunnel view looking up from Level 5 is of the Zero Gravity Facility at Lewis Research Center, now known as John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, and was taken in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 12, 1966. The tower dropped 460 feet and allowed scientists to perform 5.18 seconds of microgravity research. By comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall.
SpaceX Dragon Heads to Station on 25th Resupply Mission
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule soars upward after lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 14, 2022, on the company’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:44 p.m. EDT. Dragon will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations, to the space station. The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule soars upward after lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 14, 2022, on the company’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:44 p.m. EDT.
Dragon will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of scientific investigations, to the space station. The craft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
James Webb Space Telescope Senior Project Scientist John Mather
NASA James Webb Space Telescope Senior Project Scientist John Mather speaks with members of the media following the release of the first full-color images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The first full-color images and spectroscopic data from the James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), are a demonstration of the power of Webb as the telescope begins its science mission to unfold the infrared universe. Photo Credit: (NASA/Taylor Mickal)
Senior Project Scientist John Mather, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, speaks with members of the media following the release of the first full-color images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The first full-color images and spectroscopic data from the telescope, a partnership with European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, are a demonstration of the power of Webb as the telescope begins its science mission to unfold the infrared universe.
President Biden and the World Preview Webb Telescope’s First Image
U.S. President Joe Biden previews the first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the highest-resolution image of the infrared universe in history, Monday, July 11, 2022, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. On screen are NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen, top, Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Nancy Levenson, and NASA James Webb Space Telescope Program Director Greg Robinson, bottom. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
President Joe Biden previews the first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the highest-resolution image of the infrared universe in history, Monday, July 11, 2022, in Washington. On screen are NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen, top, Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Nancy Levenson, and NASA James Webb Space Telescope Program Director Greg Robinson, bottom.
Within the tempestuous Carina Nebula lies “Mystic Mountain.” This three-light-year-tall cosmic pinnacle, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 in 2010, is made up primarily of dust and gas, and exhibits signs of intense star-forming activity. The colors in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green) and sulfur (red).
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency, will soon reveal unprecedented and detailed views of the universe, with the upcoming release of its first full-color images and spectroscopic data.
The Carina Nebula is one of a list of cosmic objects that Webb targeted for these first observations, which will be released in NASA’s live broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, July 12. Each image will simultaneously be made available on social media as well as on the agency’s website.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observation has captured the galaxy CGCG 396-2, an unusual multi-armed galaxy merger which lies around 520 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion.
This observation is a gem from the Galaxy Zoo project, a citizen science project involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world who classified galaxies to help scientists solve a problem of astronomical proportions: how to sort through the vast amounts of data generated by telescopes. A public vote selected the most astronomically intriguing objects for follow-up observations with Hubble. CGCG 396-2 is one such object, imaged here by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel
We’re less than one week away from the July 12, 2022, release of the first science-quality images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, but how does the observatory find and lock onto its targets? Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS), developed by the Canadian Space Agency, was designed with this particular question in mind. Recently it captured a view of stars and galaxies that provides a tantalizing glimpse at what the telescope’s science instruments will reveal in the coming weeks, months, and years.
FGS has always been capable of capturing imagery, but its primary purpose is to enable accurate science measurements and imaging with precision pointing. When it does capture imagery, it is typically not kept: given the limited communications bandwidth between L2 and Earth, Webb only sends data from up to two science instruments at a time. But during the week-long stability test in May, it occurred to the team that they could keep the imagery that was being captured because there was available data transfer bandwidth.
The engineering test image – produced during a thermal stability test in mid-May – has some rough-around-the-edges qualities to it. It was not optimized to be a science observation, rather the data were taken to test how well the telescope could stay locked onto a target, but it does hint at the power of the telescope. It carries a few hallmarks of the views Webb has produced during its postlaunch preparations. Bright stars stand out with their six, long, sharply defined diffraction spikes – an effect due to Webb’s six-sided mirror segments. Beyond the stars – galaxies fill nearly the entire background.
The result – using 72 exposures over 32 hours – is among the deepest images of the universe ever taken, according to Webb scientists. When FGS’ aperture is open, it is not using color filters like the other science instruments – meaning it is impossible to study the age of the galaxies in this image with the rigor needed for scientific analysis. But: Even when capturing unplanned imagery during a test, FGS is capable of producing stunning views of the cosmos.
In this image, the FGS image was acquired in parallel with NIRCam imaging of the star HD147980 over a period of 8 days at the beginning of May. This image represents 32 hours of exposure time at several overlapping pointings of the Guider 2 channel. The observations were not optimized for detection of faint objects, but nevertheless the image captures extremely faint objects and is, for now, the deepest image of the infrared sky. The unfiltered wavelength response of the guider, from 0.6 to 5 micrometers, helps provide this extreme sensitivity. The image is mono-chromatic and is displayed in false color with white-yellow-orange-red representing the progression from brightest to dimmest. The bright star (at 9.3 magnitude) on the right hand edge is 2MASS 16235798+2826079. There are only a handful of stars in this image – distinguished by their diffraction spikes. The rest of the objects are thousands of faint galaxies, some in the nearby universe, but many, many more in the high redshift universe.
A new NASA citizen science project, Jovian Vortex Hunter, seeks your help spotting vortices – spiral wind patterns – and other phenomena in photos of the planet Jupiter.
Another NASA citizen science project, called Junocam, seeks help from members of the public processing images from NASA’s Juno Mission and choosing targets for the spacecraft. However, the new Jovian Vortex Hunter project provides images that have already been processed by the science team, making it quick and easy for anyone to lend a hand. Categorizing the images will help scientists understand the fluid dynamics and cloud chemistry on Jupiter, which create dazzling features like bands, spots and “brown barges.”
In this image from 2019, citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager. This stunningly detailed look at a cyclonic storm in Jupiter’s atmosphere was taken during its 23rd close flyby of the planet (also referred to as “perijove 23”). Juno observed this vortex in a region of Jupiter called the “north north north north temperate belt,” or NNNNTB, one of the gas giant planet’s many persistent cloud bands. These bands are formed by the prevailing winds at different latitudes. The vortex seen here is roughly 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
The last rays of an orbital sunset burst through Earth’s horizon as the International Space Station flew 258 miles above Brazil in this image from June 2022.
In this image from 2014, an adult osprey, carrying a fish in its talons, prepares to land in its nest atop a speaker platform in the press site parking lot at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the background is the 209-foot-tall U.S. flag painted on the side of the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building, which serves as the central hub of NASA’s premier multi-user spaceport, capable of hosting several different kinds of rockets and spacecraft at the same time. The parking lot borders the water of the Launch Complex 39 turn basin, making it an ideal source of food for the osprey. The undeveloped property on Kennedy Space Center is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge provides a habitat for a plethora of wildlife, including 330 species of birds. For information on the refuge, visit http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/Index.html.
NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland, or OMG, airborne mission found that most of Greenland’s glaciers that empty into the ocean are at greater risk of rapid ice loss than previously understood. OMG’s six-year field campaign studied the ocean’s role in glacial ice loss by gathering precise measurements of ocean depth, temperature, and salinity in front of more than 220 glaciers. The mission’s goal was to clarify our understanding of sea level rise over the next 50 years. This photo of Apusiaajik Glacier was taken near Kulusuk, Greenland, on Aug. 26, 2018, during OMG’s field operations.
The brightly glowing plumes seen in this image are reminiscent of an underwater scene, with turquoise-tinted currents and nebulous strands reaching out into the surroundings. However, this is no ocean. This image actually shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small nearby galaxy that orbits our galaxy, the Milky Way, and appears as a blurred blob in our skies. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has peeked many times into this galaxy, releasing stunning images of the whirling clouds of gas and sparkling stars (opo9944a, heic1301, potw1408a). This image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula’s outskirts. This famously beautiful nebula, located within the LMC, is a frequent target for Hubble (heic1206, heic1402). In most images of the LMC the colour is completely different to that seen here. This is because, in this new image, a different set of filters was used. The customary R filter, which selects the red light, was replaced by a filter letting through the near-infrared light. In traditional images, the hydrogen gas appears pink because it shines most brightly in the red. Here however, other less prominent emission lines dominate in the blue and green filters. This data is part of the Archival Pure Parallel Project (APPP), a project that gathered together and processed over 1000 images taken using Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, obtained in parallel with other Hubble instruments. Much of the data in the project could be used to study a wide range of astronomical topics, including gravitational lensing and cosmic shear, exploring distant star-forming galaxies, supplementing observations in other wavelength ranges with optical data, and examining star populations from stellar heavyweights all the way down to solar-mass stars. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Josh Barrington.
In this image from 2014, brightly glowing plumes of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) appear almost like an ocean current with turquoise-tinted currents and nebulous strands reaching out into the surroundings.
This image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula’s outskirts located within the LMC, a small nearby galaxy that orbits the Milky Way and appears as a blurred blob in our skies. The Hubble Space Telescope has peeked many times into this galaxy, releasing stunning images of the whirling clouds of gas and sparkling stars.
In most images of the LMC the color is completely different to that seen here. For this image, researchers substituted the customary R filter, which selects the red light, and replaced it by a filter letting through the near-infrared light. In traditional images, the hydrogen gas appears pink because it shines most brightly in the red. Here however, other less prominent emission lines dominate in the blue and green filters.
This data is part of the Archival Pure Parallel Project (APPP), a project that gathered together and processed over 1,000 images taken using Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, obtained in parallel with other Hubble instruments. Much of the data in the project could be used to study a wide range of astronomical topics, including gravitational lensing and cosmic shear, exploring distant star-forming galaxies, supplementing observations in other wavelength ranges with optical data, and examining star populations from stellar heavyweights all the way down to solar-mass stars.
“A piece of my story that I think needs to get told is that broken crayons still color. “So often we hear that there’s this cycle of hurt, and hurt people hurt people, and if you came from something, you have to be a product of your environment. “I do feel like, in a lot of ways, we are, whether you want to be or not. The people that raise you give you a bag, and they put things in it, and you carry those things with you, good or bad, for the rest of your life. But just because my dad struggled with addiction and just because my mom wasn’t always there didn’t mean that I had to be either of those things. “I didn’t have an example, a great example, of what love looked like all the time, but I did, right? I didn’t have the Cosbys, but I had exactly what I needed to be who I needed to be. I think that part of my story is what I’d like to tell more of. “Yeah, I came from brokenness, but I’m not broken.” NASA Public Affairs Specialist, Tyrone McCoy, poses for a portrait, Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
“A piece of my story that I think needs to get told is that broken crayons still color.
“So often we hear that there’s this cycle of hurt, and hurt people hurt people, and if you came from something, you have to be a product of your environment.
“I do feel like, in a lot of ways, we are, whether you want to be or not. The people that raise you give you a bag, and they put things in it, and you carry those things with you, good or bad, for the rest of your life. But just because my dad struggled with addiction and just because my mom wasn’t always there didn’t mean that I had to be either of those things.
“I didn’t have an example, a great example, of what love looked like all the time, but I did, right? I didn’t have the Cosbys, but I had exactly what I needed to be who I needed to be. I think that part of my story is what I’d like to tell more of.
“Yeah, I came from brokenness, but I’m not broken.”
– Tyrone McCoy, Public Affairs Specialist, NASA Headquarters
Image Credit: NASA / Bill Ingalls Interviewer: NASA / Tahira Allen
Rebecca Rogers, systems engineer, left, takes dimension measurements of the CAPSTONE spacecraft at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., in Irvine, California.
CAPSTONE, the pathfinder for NASA’s lunar outpost, will test an orbit around the Moon that has never been flown before.
In this image from April 2022, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, was undergoing final construction – and with solar panel installation and vibration testing now complete, the small satellite was shipped to its launch location in New Zealand.
CAPSTONE is slated to launch on Monday, June 27, aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. Live coverage will begin at 5 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.
The destination for this microwave oven-size CubeSat is a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). That same orbit is planned for Gateway, a multipurpose outpost for long-term lunar missions as part of the agency’s Artemis program.
Six days after launch, the Photon upper stage will release CAPSTONE into space for the first portion of the spacecraft’s solo flight. After a four-month journey to the Moon, CAPSTONE will test the dynamics of the NRHO for at least six months, helping reduce risk for future spacecraft. CAPSTONE will also demonstrate innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation technology and one-way ranging capabilities that could help future spacecraft fly near the Moon with reduced need for communication with Earth.
Mirrors Aligned: Webb Telescope’s First Full-Color Images Due in July
After completing two additional mirror alignment steps in March 2022, the team confirmed the James Webb Space Telescope’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve.
This “selfie” was created using a specialized pupil imaging lens inside of Webb’s Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, instrument, which was designed to take images of the primary mirror segments instead of images of the sky. This configuration is not used during scientific operations and is used strictly for engineering and alignment purposes. In this image, all of Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments are shown collecting light from the same star in unison.
Now, we’re counting down to the release of the Webb Telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 12.
This star-studded image shows the globular cluster Terzan 9 in the constellation Sagittarius, towards the centre of the Milky Way. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this glittering scene using its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound groupings of tens of thousands to millions of stars. As this image demonstrates, the hearts of globular clusters can be densely packed with stars; the night sky in this image is strewn with so many stars that it resembles a sea of sequins or a vast treasure chest crammed with gold. This starry snapshot is from a Hubble programme investigating globular clusters located towards the heart of the Milky Way. The central region of our home galaxy contains a tightly packed group of stars known as the Galactic bulge, which is also rich in interstellar dust. This dust has made globular clusters near the Galactic centre difficult to study, as it absorbs starlight and can even change the apparent colours of the stars in these clusters. Hubble’s sensitivity at both visible and infrared wavelengths has allowed astronomers to measure how the colours of these globular clusters have been changed by interstellar dust, and thereby to establish their ages.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this glittering scene using its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound groups of tens of thousands to millions of stars. As this image demonstrates, the hearts of globular clusters are densely packed with stars. Terzan 9 is dotted with so many glittering stars that it resembles a sea of sequins.
This starry snapshot is from a Hubble program investigating globular clusters located toward the heart of the Milky Way, in which its central region holds a tightly packed group of stars known as the galactic bulge, an area rich in interstellar dust. This dust makes globular clusters near the galaxy’s center difficult to study, as it absorbs starlight and can even change the apparent colors of stars in these clusters. Hubble’s sensitivity at both visible and infrared wavelengths allows astronomers to measure how star colors change due to interstellar dust. Knowing a star’s true color and brightness allows astronomers to estimate its age, and thereby estimate the globular cluster’s age.
The issue of General Order No. 3 by Union troops on June 19, 1865, marked the official end of slavery in Texas and the U.S.
On that Monday, enslaved African Americans in Texas learned of their freedom. That day of liberation became known as Juneteenth, when the Emancipation Proclamation was announced by Union troops in Galveston, Texas.
On Thursday, June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in this year’s Juneteenth Workforce Message:
“Last year, President Biden signed legislation into law that established June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day – a federal holiday. On this day, we reckon with the moral stain of slavery on our country. We reflect on centuries of racial injustice, inequality, and struggle that unfortunately still exist today.
“There is still more work to do, and it is work we must all do. I encourage all members of the NASA family to participate in a Juneteenth celebration and reflect on this historic event in our history. Let us reaffirm and rededicate ourselves to building a more perfect union.”
This image of Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula, separated by the Galveston Bay, were taken by the crew of the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above. In the image, Galveston Island is at right, Bolivar Peninsula at left, with the top of the picture being southeast.
Premiering on Juneteenth, Sunday, June 19, “The Color of Space” is a 50-minute inspirational documentary by NASA that tells the stories of Black Americans determined to reach the stars. It will be available to watch starting at noon EDT on NASA TV, the NASA app, NASA social media channels, and the agency’s website.
Happy Earth Day Everyone, Let Us Have Peace on Earth
Photographs and Artwork by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts
This is my studio, where I display some of my artworks. Avocado plant, tangerine, mango and more plants, keep me company in the wintertime. Now the weather is getting warmer I will move my plants to our little garden in the backyard. Some of the plants will be displayed in front of our shop with one of my artworks and one of John artworks on our shutter gate. I will miss not having the plants in my studio where I spend most of the evening and night, working on my Peace Project. But now spring has arrived, with roses blooming soon. The first flowers that appeared few weeks ago were daffodils. Our daughter Mali’s plant, called “Bleeding Heart”, is flowering with its second to bloom right now. I will plant the annuals such as Inpatients, Marigolds and a lot more soon. These annual plants produce beautiful flowers in a variety of colors. I am looking forward to the beauty of nature that gives us fresh and happy times to come.
Have A Happy Earth Day Everyone, Let Us Have Peace on Earth
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Friday, April 22, 2022
The construction below the Water Lily Pond, my artwork, is Bodhi’s House. I built this play house for my second grandson, Bodhi, after he was born. The pictures of families from both pairs of grandparents, are posted on all of the walls of this house. Bodhi likes to go inside of his play house to play hide and seek. The photos of Bodhi are integrated with the artwork by Grandpa John. Bodhi’s brother Kai, made one painting located at the top corner of the house.
With much Love,
Grandma Ing & Grandpa John, on Earth Day, Friday, April 22, 2022
This is Kai’s play house that was built in the same way I did with Bodhi’s house. This house is a preservation of memories of Kai, and all the family that had opportunities to be with Kai’s Great Grandparents, on his father’s side. Sadly, they both passed away few years ago. Hopefully, when Kai and Bodhi grow up, they will be able to look back to the past with all the pictures of events of the family gathering together when they were young.
With much Love,
Grandma Ing & Grandpa John, on Earth Day, Friday, April 22, 2022
Have A Happy Earth Day Everyone, Let Us Have Peace on Earth
Ever wonder what it’s like to see our planet from space? NASA’s astronauts will take you on a journey to the International Space Station, exploring the life-changing experience of an orbital perspective. View Earth as you’ve never seen it before: through the eyes of an astronaut.
Watch more shows on SDGs on NHK WORLD-JAPAN! https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/on… More quality content available on NHK WORLD-JAPAN! https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/on… Deep in the countryside of central Japan, an artisan makes the most of nature’s bounty while creating new items out of upcycled materials.
00:00 – Opening 00:32 – From a NY organic farm 01:45 – Carbon farming: What is it? 03:03 – Regenerative agriculture: A Minnesota Case Study 06:04 – Ray Archuleta: Visually comparing soil health 12:19 – Gabe Brown: The 5 principles 19:14 – Shinano Takuro: Visualized rhizosphere 23:05 – Carbon farming around the world 23:42 – Toshimichi Yoshida: Our dear friend bacteria 38:20 – The ‘4 per 1000’ Initiative 39:20 – Biochar: A Yamanashi Case Study 47:54 – Conclusion Regenerative agriculture, also known as carbon farming, is one way people are taking action against the climate crisis, turning harmful carbon emissions in the atmosphere into nutrient rich soil or biochar and using it to farm organic and sustainable food. Meet carbon farming pioneers like Gabe Brown in the US, Toshimichi Yoshida in Japan and more. Watch more shows on SDGs on NHK WORLD-JAPAN! https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/on… More quality content available on NHK WORLD-JAPAN! https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/on…
400 years after Hudson found New York harbor, Eric Sanderson shares how he made a 3D map of Mannahatta’s fascinating pre-city ecology of hills, rivers, wildlife — accurate down to the block — when Times Square was a wetland and you couldn’t get delivery.
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Armed with an 18th-century map, a GPS and reams of data, Eric Sanderson has re-plotted the Manhattan of 1609, just in time for New York’s quadricentennial.
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Countdown Summit
October 2021
How to make radical climate action the new normal
A net-zero future is possible, but first we need to flip a mental switch to truly understand that we can stop the climate crisis if we try, says Nobel laureate Al Gore. In this inspiring and essential talk, Gore shares examples of extreme climate events (think: fires, floods and atmospheric tsunamis), identifies the man-made systems holding us back from progress and invites us all to join the movement for climate justice: “the biggest emergent social movement in all of history,” as he puts it. An unmissable tour de force on the current state of the crisis — and the transformations that will make it possible to find a way out of it.
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Given the scale of the challenge, the conversation around climate change is often tinged with doom and gloom. But climate tech investor Gabriel Kra thinks we need to reframe the crisis as a source of tremendous opportunity. He offers five big reasons to be optimistic about climate — starting with the fact that many of the world’s best minds are focused and working on building a clean future for all.
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Don’t be afraid to take a chance. Go out and get a job working at a company to solve climate change. Or advocate within your current company. But stand up and be a part of the solution. Companies can have an impact, positive or negative, and you can make a difference.
It was 50 years ago this weekend that giant pandas were first brought to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington. The historic program with China has fostered a collaboration between scientists and led to a conservation success story for the once endangered species. Geoff Bennett takes an up close look at these popular and precious animals. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
ABC News reporter Paul Lockyer mounted four separate filming expeditions to Lake Eyre, often with cameraman John Bean and pilot Gary Ticehurst. They captured extraordinary footage of nature at work on a grand scale, as the desert bloomed and water flowed all the way to the parched mouth of the Murray River in South Australia. Birds flocked to the outback in record numbers and the rivers and lakes were brimming with fish. Tragically, on the last of those expeditions in August 2011 the ABC helicopter crashed at Lake Eyre, killing Paul, John and Gary. This 90-minute documentary combines the best footage of those expeditions and shows off Lake Eyre in all its many moods. It also contains special tributes to the three men. Lake Eyre features the footage and commentary from Paul Lockyer that was filmed for the original news documentaries, Lake Eyre – Australia’s Outback Wonder produced in 2009, and the follow-up, Return to Lake Eyre – The Deluge produced in 2010. This special amended version pulls together the stunning images that captured history in the making, following the floodwaters from north Queensland down the great outback rivers to Lake Eyre and recording the extraordinary transformation of an environment that was desolate and stark, that turned into a flourishing oasis. And as producer, Ben Hawke says: “This commemorative edition is a fitting tribute to three great professionals, and three great blokes.” Please note the audio in this program is mono. 00:00:00 | Lake Eyre 00:03:48 | Donald Malcolm Campbell, Bluebird land speed record 00:08:15 | Flinders Ranges 00:11:27 | Australian outback floods 00:13:30 | Professor Richard Kingsford, environmental/ biological expert and river ecologist 00:16:55 | Elder Don Rowlands, Watti Watti and Wangkangurru Yarluyandi man 00:24:20 | David Brook, Birdsville 00:26:18 | Birdsville races 00:35:46 | Australian dry season 00:38:25 | Australian native wild flowers 00:41:43 | Australian desert storms 00:46:15 | Christmas storms 2009 01:05:59 | Birdsville races 01:07:30 | Lake Yamma Yamma on Channel Country in south-western Queensland 01:11:53 | 2010 Australian floods 01:13:30 | Darling River and desert rivers 01:14:48 | Dale McGrath, Glenn McGrath’s brother 01:16:06 | The Coorong, Murry River meets the sea 01:20:15 | Victoria and New South Wales September 2012 floods 01:27:24 | Commemorating Journalist Paul Lockyer, pilot Gary Ticehurst, and cameraman John Bean Subscribe ? and tap the notification bell ? to be delivered Australian stories every day: http://ab.co/ABCAus-subscribe ___________________________________________ Web: http://abc.net.au/ Facebook: http://facebook.com/abc Twitter: http://twitter.com/abcaustralia Instagram: http://instagram.com/abcaustralia ___________________________________________ This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel. Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC’s Online Conditions of Use http://www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3).
Watch Al Roker’s extended interview with former President Barack Obama as they discuss climate change, politics and life after the White House. The 44th president gives Al heartfelt advice on dealing with an empty nest and sending kids off to college. Team Obama and Team Roker also hold a nature scavenger hunt with kids from the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington and the National Park Service. » Subscribe to TODAY: http://on.today.com/SubscribeToTODAY » Watch the latest from TODAY: http://bit.ly/LatestTODAY About: TODAY brings you the latest headlines and expert tips on money, health and parenting. We wake up every morning to give you and your family all you need to start your day. If it matters to you, it matters to us. We are in the people business. Subscribe to our channel for exclusive TODAY archival footage & our original web series. Connect with TODAY Online! Visit TODAY’s Website: http://on.today.com/ReadTODAY Find TODAY on Facebook: http://on.today.com/LikeTODAY Follow TODAY on Twitter: http://on.today.com/FollowTODAY Follow TODAY on Instagram: http://on.today.com/InstaTODAY#AlRoker#Obama#NationalParks
After leaving the National Security Council, Albright joined the academic faculty of Georgetown University and advised Democratic candidates regarding foreign policy. After Bill Clinton‘s victory in the 1992 presidential election, Albright helped assemble his National Security Council.
Vice President Al Gore swears in Madeleine Albright as the nation’s first female secretary of state on Jan. 23, 1997. Diana Walker—Getty Images
President Clinton appointed her United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997, a position she held until elevation as secretary of state. Secretary Albright served in that capacity until Clinton left office in 2001.
Albright served as chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a consulting firm, and was the Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.[9]
Albright received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama at the White House on May 29, 2012. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová in 1937 in the Smíchov district of Prague, Czechoslovakia.[12] Her parents were Josef Korbel, a Czech diplomat, and Anna Korbel (née Spieglová).[13] At the time of Albright’s birth, Czechoslovakia had been independent for less than 20 years, having gained independence from Austria-Hungary after World War I. Her father was a supporter of Tomáš Masaryk and Edvard Beneš.[14] Marie Jana had a younger sister Katherine[15] and a younger brother John (these versions of their names are Anglicized).[16]
The family moved to Britain in May 1939. Here her father worked for Beneš’s Czechoslovak government-in-exile. Her family first lived on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill, London—where they endured the worst of the Blitz—but later moved to Beaconsfield, then Walton-on-Thames, on the outskirts of London.[20] They kept a large metal table in the house, which was intended to shelter the family from the recurring threat of German air raids.[21] While in England, Marie Jana was one of the children shown in a documentary film designed to promote sympathy for war refugees in London.[22]
After the defeat of the Nazis in the European theatre of World War II and the collapse of Nazi Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Korbel family returned to Prague.[18] Korbel was appointed as press attaché at Czechoslovakian Embassy in Yugoslavia, and the family moved to Belgrade—then part of Yugoslavia—which was governed by the Communist Party. Korbel was concerned his daughter would be exposed to Marxism in a Yugoslav school, and so she was taught privately by a governess before being sent to the Prealpina Institut pour Jeunes Filles finishing school in Chexbres, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.[23] She learned to speak French while in Switzerland and changed her name from Marie Jana to Madeleine.[24]
The couple moved to Joseph’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois, in January 1960. Joseph worked at the Chicago Sun-Times as a journalist, and Albright worked as a picture editor for Encyclopædia Britannica.[38] The following year, Joseph Albright began work at Newsday in New York City, and the couple moved to Garden City on Long Island.[39]
Madeleine Albright with her children
That year, she gave birth to twin daughters, Alice Patterson Albright and Anne Korbel Albright. The twins were born six weeks premature and required a long hospital stay. As a distraction, Albright began Russian language classes at Hofstra University in the Village of Hempstead nearby.[39]
Joseph’s aunt Alicia Patterson died in 1963 and the Albrights returned to Long Island with the notion of Joseph taking over the family newspaper business.[41] Albright gave birth to another daughter, Katharine Medill Albright, in 1967. She continued her studies at Columbia University’s Department of Public Law and Government.[42] (It was later renamed as the political science department, and is located within the School of International and Public Affairs.) She earned a certificate in Russian, an M.A. and a PhD, writing her master’s thesis on the Soviet diplomatic corps and her doctoral dissertation on the role of journalists in the Prague Spring of 1968.[43] She also took a graduate course given by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who later became her boss at the U.S. National Security Council.[44]
Wikipedia
Joseph was a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. He became famous in 1961 after publishing a report on the scandalous meeting of Richard Nixon with his supporters (Joseph hid in the hotel bathroom and recorded the conversation). In 1970, the couple sold all News Day shares for $ 37.5 million.
After 23 years of marriage, on January 31, 1983, the couple divorced. After the divorce, Madeleine got a three-storied house in Georgetown, a wealthy suburb of Washington, and a farm in Virginia, as well as a large part of his fortune. en.24smi.org
Madeleine Albright with Newspaper Staff at Wellesley College ca. 1958.
Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty Images Time
Madeleine Albright began her political career early
Madeleine Albright was invited to work in the White House after the 1976 U.S. presidential election of Jimmy Carter. Madeleine’s former professor at Columbia University, Zbigniew Brzezinski, became National Security Adviser and recruited his student to work in the West Wing as the National Security Council’s congressional liaison.
As a Democratic Party activist, in 1984 she became a foreign policy advisor, working with Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro when Walter Mondale ran for president. After that, she headed the Center for National Policy, which was created to strengthen the Democratic Party. At that time, Albright managed to broaden contacts and in 1988 became a foreign policy advisor, briefing Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
During the presidential debate of Dukakis and his adversary George W. Bush in Washington, Madeleine Albright met Bill Clinton, the then-governor of Arkansas. In 1989, she advised Clinton to join the Council on Foreign Relations (an influential U.S. non-governmental organization), which Clinton did not forget. After becoming president, he appointed Madeleine Albright U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. en.24smi.org
United Kingdom Ambassador to the United Nations, Sir David Hannay, and US Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright vote during a Security Council meeting in New York to allow Iraq to export a limited amount of oil to cover the cost of humanitarian supplies for its population on April 14, 1995.TIME
Timothy Clary—AFP/Getty Images
While working at the U.N. as the United States representative, she played a key role when Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined NATO. She is known for her involvement in the use of force during the conflict in the Balkans. Many people blame her for the mass killing of Serbs in Kosovo and call her the “executioner of Serbia.”
Madeleine Albright as U.S. Secretary of State
When Clinton began his second term in January 1997, following his re-election, he required a new Secretary of State, as incumbent Warren Christopher was retiring.[66] The top level of the Clinton administration was divided into two camps on selecting the new foreign policy. Outgoing Chief of Staff Leon Panetta favored Albright, but a separate faction argued, “anybody but Albright”, with Sam Nunn as its first choice. Albright orchestrated a campaign on her own behalf that proved successful.[67] When Albright took office as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State on January 23, 1997, she became the first female U.S. Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government at the time of her appointment.[68] Not being a natural-born citizen of the U.S., she was not eligible as a U.S. presidential successor.[69]
Wikipedia
President Bill Clinton with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 1999.Cynthia Johnson / Getty Images file
Madeleine Albright has often sharply criticized the foreign policy of Russia, in particular, President Vladimir Putin:
“He is smart, but a truly evil man. A KGB officer, who wants to keep everything under control and believes that everyone conspires against Russia. It is not true. Putin had bad cards, but they were played well. At least, in the short-term. I think his goal is to undermine and split the E.U. He wants to drive NATO from his sphere of influence.”
President Bill Clinton confers with Albright before delivering the final statement at the Middle East Summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, on October 17, 2000 [File: Jerome Delay/AP Photo]
When The Washington Post reported on Albright’s Jewish heritage shortly after she had become Secretary of State in 1997, Albright said that the report was a “major surprise”.[149] Albright said that she did not learn until age 59[150] that both her parents were born and raised in Jewish families. As many as a dozen of her relatives in Czechoslovakia—including three of her grandparents—had been murdered in the Holocaust.[18][19][151]
(Al Jazeera)
In the lead-up to the Iraq war in 2003, Albright said the invasion was justified, based on allegations that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction. But she argued that the country did not pose an immediate threat to the US and called for keeping focus on defeating al-Qaeda.
She would later come out forcefully against the war. “Iraq is going to go down in history as the greatest disaster in American foreign policy,” she told Al Jazeera in a 2007 interview.
During efforts to press North Korea to end its nuclear weapons programme, which were eventually unsuccessful, Albright travelled to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, becoming the highest-ranking US official to visit the country.
While hailed in some circles as a feminist icon, critics have criticised Albright’s support for US wars and sanctions.
“Madeline Albright was one of my earliest lessons in the bankruptcy of identity politics. It doesn’t matter if you are the first anything if your politics perpetuate the status quo of racial violence, imperial war making, and capitalist extraction/exploitation,” Palestinian-American author and activist Noura Erakat wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price called Albright a “trailblazer” on Wednesday.
“The impact that she has had on this building is felt every single day and just about every single corridor,” Price told reporters.
Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, eulogised Albright as a “towering champion for peace, diplomacy and democracy”.
“Her historic tenure as our nation’s first woman to serve as our top diplomat paved the way for generations of women to serve at the highest levels of our government and represent America abroad,” Pelosi said. (Al Jazeera)
Former President Barack Obama said in a statement, “Madeleine Albright helped bring peace to the Balkans, paved the way for progress in some of the most unstable corners of the world, and was a champion for democratic values. And as an immigrant herself, she brought a unique and important perspective to her trailblazing career.”
Obama also recounted an interaction he said Albright had with an Ethiopian man at a naturalization ceremony.
Obama said the “man came up to Madeleine and said, ‘Only in America could a refugee from Africa meet the Secretary of State.’ She replied, ‘Only in America could a refugee from Central Europe become Secretary of State.'” ABC News
Madeleine Albright, 1st female secretary of state, dead at 84
Madeleine Albright’s family said the former secretary of state died Wednesday from cancer.
Alex Wong/Getty Images, FILE ABC News
Albright died from cancer in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 2022, at the age of 84.[157][158][159] Many political figures paid tribute to her, including presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and former British prime minister Tony Blair.[120]
US President Joe Biden paid tribute to Albright, saying she was a “force for goodness, grace, and decency – and for freedom”.
Diana Walker/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Georgetown Univiversity professor Madeleine Albright, foreign policy adviser to presiden…Read More ABC News
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Madeleine Albright testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Peace Powers Act and the National Security Revitalization Act in 1995.
Joyce Naltchayan/AFP via Getty Images
Albright proved adept at making complicated foreign policy accessible to the public. NPR
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright displays the instruments of accession that brought Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic into NATO.
Cliff Schiappa/AFP via Getty Images
As secretary of state, Albright promoted the eastward expansion of NATO and the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. NPR
Douglas Graham/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearin…Read More ABC News
Madeleine Albright and Representative Barbara Mikulski greet each other at the commemorative ceremony of the NATO Summit in Washington on April 23, 1999.
Stephen Jaffe—AFP/Getty Images TIME
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright being interviewed by John F. Kennedy Jr. for George Magazine, 1998.
Albright holds a bat before throwing out the first pitch before the game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles during opening day at Camden Yards in 2002.
Ted Mathias/AFP via Getty Images NPR
Albright remained an active professor at Georgetown University, training the next generation of diplomats.
Madeleine Albright, seen here in 2009, served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of state.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images NPR
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry greets Albright, February 6, 2013 Wikipedia
Pins and broaches worn by former Secretary Albright are seen at the Mint Museum on Sept. 3, 2012, in Charlotte, N.C.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images NPR
Madeleine Albright’s brooches
An interesting fact is her impressive collection of pins. In 2009-2010, she exhibited them at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Most of them have no artistic or jewelry value, but attract people as a symbol of a new approach to diplomacy.
Madeleine Albright is naturally straightforward. But, as a diplomat, she could not always express her opinion, communicating with an opponent. Madeleine is a woman who came up with her diplomatic language, “brooch language.” en.24smi.org
Albright mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews. In 2006, she said she was capable of leg pressing 400 pounds (180 kg).[154][155] Albright was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by The Guardian in March 2013.[156]
Madeleine Albright: My Life With Pins While serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and as Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright became known for using jewelry as a tools for diplomacy. Hear her discuss her collection of more than 200 pins, from the gold serpent brooch she wore in response to a poem published by Saddam Hussein’s press, to gifts—like the pin she received from the family of a woman who died as a result of Hurricane Katrina. The program includes an audience Q&A with Secretary Albright moderated by Maxwell Anderson, The Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO of IMA. This event took place on November 11, 2010 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Madeleine Albright, first woman to become secretary of state, dies at 84
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who died Wednesday after a battle with cancer, was known by most everyone in Washington, D.C. in the world of politics, statecraft, and journalism. Susan Rice, one of Albright’s longtime friends and one of her successors as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss her legacy. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us:
‘Irreplaceable’ | Madeleine Albright’s friends remember her contributions to DC
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as the U.S. secretary of state, died Wednesday at the age of 84, her family said in a statement. Mika Brzezinski and the Morning Joe panel remember Albright’s life and legacy. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed perspectives. Reaching more than 95 million households worldwide, MSNBC offers a full schedule of live news coverage, political opinions and award-winning documentary programming — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Connect with MSNBC Online Visit msnbc.com: http://on.msnbc.com/Readmsnbc Subscribe to MSNBC Newsletter: MSNBC.com/NewslettersYouTube Find MSNBC on Facebook: http://on.msnbc.com/Likemsnbc Follow MSNBC on Twitter: http://on.msnbc.com/Followmsnbc Follow MSNBC on Instagram: http://on.msnbc.com/Instamsnbc Mika On Madeleine Albright: I Will Miss Her Deeply
Madeleine Albright Says ‘See Something, Say Something, Do Something’
Former Sec. of State and ‘Fascism: A Warning’ author Madeleine Albright tells Stephen the warning signs of a strongman. Subscribe To “The Late Show” Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/ColbertYouTube For more content from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, click HERE: http://bit.ly/1AKISnR Watch full episodes of “The Late Show” HERE: http://bit.ly/1Puei40 Like “The Late Show” on Facebook HERE: http://on.fb.me/1df139Y Follow “The Late Show” on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1dMzZzG Follow “The Late Show” on Google+ HERE: http://bit.ly/1JlGgzw Follow “The Late Show” on Instagram HERE: http://bit.ly/29wfREj Follow “The Late Show” on Tumblr HERE: http://bit.ly/29DVvtR Watch The Late Show with Stephen Colbert weeknights at 11:35 PM ET/10:35 PM CT. Only on CBS. Get the CBS app for iPhone & iPad! Click HERE: http://bit.ly/12rLxge Get new episodes of shows you love across devices the next day, stream live TV, and watch full seasons of CBS fan favorites anytime, anywhere with CBS All Access. Try it free! http://bit.ly/1OQA29B — The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is the premier late night talk show on CBS, airing at 11:35pm EST, streaming online via CBS All Access, and delivered to the International Space Station on a USB drive taped to a weather balloon. Every night, viewers can expect: Comedy, humor, funny moments, witty interviews, celebrities, famous people, movie stars, bits, humorous celebrities doing bits, funny celebs, big group photos of every star from Hollywood, even the reclusive ones, plus also jokes.
Bill Clinton: Madeleine Albright Represented The Best Of America
Former President Bill Clinton joins Morning Joe to discuss the life and legacy of first female Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who died at the age of 84. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed perspectives. Reaching more than 95 million households worldwide, MSNBC offers a full schedule of live news coverage, political opinions and award-winning documentary programming — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Connect with MSNBC Online Visit msnbc.com: http://on.msnbc.com/Readmsnbc Subscribe to MSNBC Newsletter: MSNBC.com/NewslettersYouTube Find MSNBC on Facebook: http://on.msnbc.com/Likemsnbc Follow MSNBC on Twitter: http://on.msnbc.com/Followmsnbc Follow MSNBC on Instagram: http://on.msnbc.com/Instamsnbc Bill Clinton: Madeleine Albright Represented The Best Of America
Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright Speak at the Women in Public Service Institute
On Monday, June 11, 2012, the inaugural Women in Public Service Institute opened at Wellesley College. The two-week program for emerging women leaders is part of a global project launched by the U.S. Department of State and women’s colleges of the Seven Sisters—Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley—with a goal to get world leadership from 17.5% female to “50% by 2050.” Speakers included: Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright ’59, introduced by Ambassador Michele Sison ’81 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ’69, introduced by Wellesley College President H. Kim Bottomly A text transcript of Secretary Clinton’s remarks is available at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/201…. Learn more about the opening ceremonies: http://new.wellesley.edu/news/wps Learn more about the Institute: http://womeninpublicservice.org/insti…
Madeleine Albright discusses her book, “Fascism: A Warning”, at a Politics and Prose event at Sixth and I in Washington, DC on 4/16/18. Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Madeleine Albright is the first woman ever to serve as U.S. Secretary of State. Over her long career as a diplomat, Albright watched Fascism rise and endure. In Fascism: A Warning, she shows us how its legacy shapes today’s world. Albright believes that the momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse. Extremists on the right and left are taking power all over the globe, and we must join forces to resist in order to avoid repeating the horrors of the past. In this call to arms, Albright gives us the lessons we should take from the past, the questions we need to ask in the present, and the tools we can use to fight for our future. Albright is in conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic and a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Reporting https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9… Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.’s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. Visit them on the web at http://www.politics-prose.com/ Produced by Tom Warren
Ukraine Reports 300 Dead in Airstrike on Mariupol Theater, Mr. Putin, “PLEASE STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE!!!”
Ukraine reports 300 dead in airstrike on Mariupol theater
By NEBI QENA and ANDREA ROSAtoday
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — About 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike last week on a Mariupol theater that was being used as a shelter, Ukrainian authorities said Friday in what would make it the war’s deadliest known attack on civilians yet.
The bloodshed at the theater fueled allegations Moscow is committing war crimes by killing civilians, whether deliberately or by indiscriminate fire.
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Flames and smoke rise from a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
People line up for food in a subway station being used as a bomb shelter, as Russian attacks continue in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana
Nastya Kuzyk, 20, is comforted by her mother Svitlana ,50, while recovering in a hospital from the injuries caused after a Russian attack in her city Chernihiv, downtown in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A man walks behind a crater created by a bomb and in front of damaged houses following a Russian bombing earlier this week, outskirts Mykolaiv, Ukraine, Friday, 25, 2022.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
People try to extinguish a fire in a market after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A member of the Ukraine territorial defense unit prepares to go to the front line in Yasnohorodka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/ (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the leaders of the European Council during their summit in Brussels from Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
A photograph hangs on a wall inside a house destroyed by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the village of Yasnohorodka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. With stunning speed, Russia’s war in Ukraine is driving Western Europe into the outstretched arms of the United States again, and the embrace was especially apparent when President Joe Biden offered a major expansion of natural gas shipments to his European Union counterpart Friday. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
People sit inside a subway car, parked in a station being used as a bomb shelter, as Russian attacks continue in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A Ukrainian soldier lays on the operating table before surgery after being injured as the Russian attack continues in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A man recovers items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana
A woman sweeps in front of her house, fragments of a Russian rocket in the foreground, following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Volunteers help an elderly woman to go downstairs to a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Firefighters battle a blaze following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)A man rides a bicycle as black smoke rises from a fuel storage of the Ukrainian army following a Russian attack, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/ (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Damage is seen inside a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Yasnohorodka, a rural town where the Ukrainian army stopped the advance of the Russian army, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/ (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A banner with the image known as “Saint Javelin” depicting a saint holding a Javelin, an American-made portable anti-tank missile system, is displayed in a check point in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/ (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A child walks with a toy in a refugee center in Nadarzyn, near Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, March 25, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden heads to Poland on Friday for the final leg of his four-day trip as he tries to maintain unity among allies and support Ukraine’s defence. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
The lifeless body of a resident lies next to a shop after being killed by a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A man looks up as he sits in his apartment in a multistory house destroyed by a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Residents wait in line to receive aid from the Ukrainian Red Cross in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)Russian forces have repeatedly attacked Ukrainian medical facilities, with at least 34 assaults independently documented by The Associated Press — part of an effort by the AP and Frontline to track evidence of potential war crimes (March 25)
How would those accused of Ukraine war crimes be prosecuted?
FILE – Jean-Paul Akayesu listens to the court before being pronounced guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity , murder, torture and rape at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, Wednesday Sept.2, 1998. Less than a month after Vladimir Putin’s order to drop the first bombs on his neighbor, the United States declared that Russian forces were committing war crimes in Ukraine. But it remains far from clear who will be held accountable and how. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju, File)
FILE – Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic enters the court room of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, March 20, 2019. Less than a month after Vladimir Putin’s order to drop the first bombs on his neighbor, the United States declared that Russian forces were committing war crimes in Ukraine. But it remains far from clear who will be held accountable and how.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool, File)
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Each day searing stories pour out of Ukraine: A maternity hospital bombed in Mariupol. A mother and her children killed as they fled Irpin in a humanitarian corridor. Burning apartment blocks. Mass graves. A child dead of dehydration in a city under siege, denied humanitarian aid.
Such images have contributed to a growing global consensus that Russia should be held accountable for war crimes in Ukraine.
“The world’s strongmen are watching like crocodiles … We have to show tyrants around the world that rule of law is stronger than rule of gun,” said David Crane, a veteran of numerous international war crime investigations.
Even as the conflict rages, a vast apparatus is being built to gather and preserve evidence of potential violations of international laws of war that were written after World War II. Less than a month after Vladimir Putin’s order to drop the first bombs on his neighbor, the United States declared that Russian forces were committing war crimes in Ukraine. But it remains far from clear who will be held accountable and how.
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One month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the loss and destruction is hard to put into words. Traumatized soldiers have returned to the front lines; ordinary citizens have taken up arms for the first time. Millions of women and children have boarded trains west, bidding painful goodbyes; others have taken shelter in underground subway stations. There are no definitive counts of the dead or wounded, no official tally of what has been destroyed, but the pain of war is on the faces of the people from this embattled nation, their resilience etched into their brows. Washington Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning — here’s some of their most powerful work.
Heidi Levine, in Kyiv, Ukraine
When I first arrived in Ukraine, just four days before Russia invaded, it felt as though everyone was still trying to desperately hold on to a fragile thread of hope that this horrific war could somehow not happen.
Within the very first days of the war, I witnessed and documented the largest exodus of refugees fleeing to bordering countries for safety since World War II. It felt as though people were running from a tidal wave crashing down on their lives, most leaving their sons, fathers, husbands and even grandfathers behind to fight for their country.
In the city of Irpin, people carried their children, their elderly, their disabled and whatever belongings they could take with them. Some often collapsed from the journey against the sounds of war and crackle of gunfire. Even their pets showed fear in their eyes as their owners tried to keep their balance while crossing the shaking planks of wood over the icy Irpin river. During one snowstorm, the images I made of an elderly woman covered in snow as her family struggled to push her in a supermarket cart made me wish to caption my photos with a single sentence: “What if this was your grandmother?”
In Irpin lay the bodies of three Russian soldiers as civilians carrying a white flag walked in their journey to escape to elsewhere in Europe. On the destroyed bridge, among the deserted cars, lay the body of a young man shot by a sniper. Beside the body were his cellphone and bicycle.
It is difficult to estimate how many more lives will be lost in bloodshed as the war continues. And yet, despite it all, Ukrainians are united in a way that words cannot describe. They display a level of immeasurable resilience that can never be shattered.
Ukrainian forces carry an elderly man as thousands flee the city of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine on March 7,2022. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The Washington Post).
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As the conflict grinds into its second month, the UN today said 1,081 civilian deaths have been confirmed, although the true figure is probably far higher. (Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe) Today, officials in the southern city of Mariupol said that as many as 300 people were killed when the theatre they were sheltering in was hit on 16 March. Moscow signalled that it is scaling back its military ambitions in Ukraine to focus on the Donbass region, territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists. Lying on the edge of that region, the strategically important city of Izyum has seen intense fighting. With officials there telling us Russians have taken control of land north of the river. Warning: This report contains images some viewers might find distressing. ———————– Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/Channel4News
President Biden travels to Poland to survey humanitarian crisis, exclusive look inside besieged Mariupol, and 14-year-old dies after fall from Orlando amusement park ride. 00:00 Intro 01:48 Biden in Poland as Ukraine fighting rages 04:59 Ukraine cities under siege from Russia 07:31 Inside brutal siege on Mariupol 09:30 2 million Ukrainians flee to Poland 12:21 Refugees living in limbo in Poland 15:03 Justice’s wife pushed to overturn election 17:38 Teen killed in amusement park fall 19:21 Lester reflects on support for Ukraine » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#Biden#Ukraine
The world has responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with crippling sanctions that are damaging the Russian economy. Sharyn Alfonsi reports. “60 Minutes” is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen’s Top 10. Subscribe to the “60 Minutes” YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/1S7CLRu Watch full episodes: http://cbsn.ws/1Qkjo1F Get more “60 Minutes” from “60 Minutes: Overtime”: http://cbsn.ws/1KG3sdr Follow “60 Minutes” on Instagram: http://bit.ly/23Xv8Ry Like “60 Minutes” on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1Xb1Dao Follow “60 Minutes” on Twitter: http://bit.ly/1KxUsqX Subscribe to our newsletter: http://cbsn.ws/1RqHw7T Download the CBS News app: http://cbsn.ws/1Xb1WC8 Try Paramount+ free: https://bit.ly/2OiW1kZ For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the number of Russian losses since the beginning of the war “has exceeded 16,000 killed, including top commanders.” » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#Zelenskyy#Russia
Images have emerged from inside the Ukrainian theater that was bombed as women and children sheltered inside, texts from the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas show she urged the White House to overturn the 2020 election and newly released body camera video shows the moments after a man was mauled by a tiger at a Florida wildlife attraction. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#Ukraine#ClarenceThomas
Putin Reportedly Suspects Betrayal From Within His Inner Circle
Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist with expertise in the Russian state intelligence apparatus, talks about reporting that Vladimir Putin is looking for who leaked the secret intelligence about the invasion of Ukraine that the U.S. made public in the lead up to the war. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed perspectives. Reaching more than 95 million households worldwide, MSNBC offers a full schedule of live news coverage, political opinions and award-winning documentary programming — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Connect with MSNBC Online Visit msnbc.com: http://on.msnbc.com/Readmsnbc Subscribe to MSNBC Newsletter: MSNBC.com/NewslettersYouTube Find MSNBC on Facebook: http://on.msnbc.com/Likemsnbc Follow MSNBC on Twitter: http://on.msnbc.com/Followmsnbc Follow MSNBC on Instagram: http://on.msnbc.com/Instamsnbc#MSNBC#Putin#Russia
Ukraine War: Civilians shelled fleeing northern Ukraine, as escape routes are sealed
It was a genocide that Russia continues to cover up to this day Subscribe and turn on notifications ? so you don’t miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO In Ukraine, it’s become known as “the Holodomor,” meaning “death by starvation.” It was a genocide carried out by a dictator who wanted to keep Ukraine under his control and who would do anything to keep it covered up for decades. In the 1930s, Soviet leaders under Joseph Stalin engineered a famine that killed millions as they sought to consolidate agricultural power. In Ukraine, they used additional force as they sought to clamp down on a burgeoning Ukrainian national identity. There, at least 4 million died. As hunger spread among residents, Stalin spearheaded a disinformation campaign to hide the truth from other Soviet citizens and the world. So many Ukrainians died that officials had to send people to resettle the area, setting off demographic shifts that last to this day. Have an idea for a story we should investigate for Missing Chapter? Tell us! http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy Sign up for the Missing Chapter newsletter to stay up to date with the series: https://vox.com/missing-chapter Explore the full Missing Chapter playlist, including episodes, a creator Q&A, and more! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list… Check out the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium for more information and resources: https://holodomor.ca/ We used the Harvard Great Famine Project’s maps and data for our video: https://gis.huri.harvard.edu/great-fa… The English translation of Ukrainian historian Stanislav Kulchytsky’s “The Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine: An Anatomy of the Holodomor” was crucial for context for this piece. https://holodomor.ca/the-famine-of-19… Anne Applebaum’s book, “Red Famine,” was a great resource for understanding this history: https://bookshop.org/books/red-famine… We used photos from Alexander Wienerberger, which are maintained by his great-granddaughter Samara Pearce: https://samarajadea3bb.myportfolio.com/ We also used photos from James Abbe. More info on the photographer can be found here: https://www.jamesabbe.com/ “Ukraine: Histories of Dispossession and Resilience” by Olga Biochak: https://www.megconley.com/hidden-brea… Make sure you never miss behind the scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter, sign up here: http://vox.com/video-newsletter Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com Support Vox’s reporting with a one-time or recurring contribution: http://vox.com/contribute-now Shop the Vox merch store: vox.com/store Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://facebook.com/vox Follow Vox on Twitter: http://twitter.com/voxdotcom Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom
A child refugee fleeing the war from neighboring Ukraine with her family reacts as she sits in a bus after crossing the border by ferry at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing, in Romania, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
Nadia kisses her 10-year-old granddaughter Zlata Moiseinko, suffering from a chronic heart condition, as she receives treatment at a schoolhouse that has been converted into a field hospital in Mostyska, western Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty
Children sit in a refugee center in Nadarzyn, near Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
A refugee fleeing the war from neighboring Ukraine with his family looks out of a tent after crossing the border by ferry at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing in Romania, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
A man and his child look at a photographer as they wait to get a food and drinking water at a supermarket on the territory which is under the Government of the Donetsk People’s Republic control, on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
An elderly man plays the accordion to amuse children in a city subway that people have used as a bomb shelter for over three weeks in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second biggest city 30 kilometers of the Russian border. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Mr. Putin, “PLEASE STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE!!!” May Peace, Love & Kindness be in your Heart always
A woman arrives at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Photo: Visar Kryeziu/AP
Are this lady and baby doing any harm to you?
You destroyed her home, her community and her country
You killed her family, her friends, and her beloved country, Ukraine.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
Your young Russian men, are only teenagers, just starting their lives, were killed in thousands.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
Millions of Ukrainians are homeless, with no place to stay, no food to eat.
Once you told people that your mother had no food to eat and she fainted, people thought that she was dead.
But now you put the Ukrainian people in a worse situation than your mother.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
If you want your Ukraine brothers to be with you, you have to give them Peace, Love and Kindness
You said that Ukraine is the brother of Russia. You should not kill your brother, but that is what you are doing.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
You will never conquer Ukraine or the world. If you use nuclear weapons, it will be suicide, because you and all your Russia people will also die.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
If you want the world to respect and honor you, you need to use kindness and love, which in turn will bring peace.
Imagine that you stand proudly at the highest podium, with love, kindness and open arms, offering Peace to the world. This you can do though your wealth and power.
You will be honored as a man of Peace, Love and Kindness. For this you will be remembered and recorded in history forever.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE!!!”
“What does Peace mean to you?”
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, March 13, 2022, 3:38 PM
ING PEACE PROJECT
Finished “Peace” artwork 14
Shadow of peace comments on “What does Peace mean to you?” organized by Marissa Blodnik and Greg Walker on Saturday, November 15th, 2014 at Paul Robson Center, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts
Links to Ing’s Peace Project Finished Artwork of Essex County 4-H Peace Comments page:
Mr. Putin, “PLEASE STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE” May Peace, Love & Kindness be in your Heart always
A woman arrives at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Photo: Visar Kryeziu/AP
Are this lady and baby doing any harm to you?
You destroyed her home, her community and her country
You killed her family, her friends, and her beloved country, Ukraine.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
Your young Russian men, are only teenagers, just starting their lives, were killed in thousands.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
Millions of Ukrainians are homeless, with no place to stay, no food to eat.
Once you told people that your mother had no food to eat and she fainted, people thought that she was dead.
But now you put the Ukrainian people in a worse situation than your mother.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
If you want your Ukraine brothers to be with you, you have to give them Peace, Love and Kindness
You said that Ukraine is the brother of Russia. You should not kill your brother, but that is what you are doing.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
You will never conquer Ukraine or the world. If you use nuclear weapons, it will be suicide, because you and all your Russia people will also die.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR!!!”
If you want the world to respect and honor you, you need to use kindness and love, which in turn will bring peace.
Imagine that you stand proudly at the highest podium, with love, kindness and open arms, offering Peace to the world. This you can do though your wealth and power.
You will be honored as a man of Peace, Love and Kindness. For this you will be remembered and recorded in history forever.
“PLEASE STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE!!!”
“What does Peace mean to you?”
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, March 13, 2022, 3:38 PM
Good morning … It’s March Madness Selection Sunday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,150 words … 4½ mins. Edited by Fadel Allassan.
Bulletin:National security adviser Jake Sullivan, warning Russia could be preparing to use chemical weapons in Ukraine, told Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation”
“[T]here is an escalating level of rhetoric on the Russian side trying to accuse the Ukrainians and the United States of potentially using chemical or biological weapons. And that’s …. an indicator that in fact, the Russians are getting ready to do it and try and pin the blame elsewhere.”
2. U.S. journalist killed in Ukraine
An elderly resident hides in a basement with no electricity, water or food, in the center of the Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on Friday. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
A freelancer who formerly worked on New York Times projects was killed covering the war in Ukraine, The Times said today.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud’s death. Brent was a talented filmmaker who had contributedto The New York Times over the years,” The Times said in a statement emailed to Axios.
“Though he had contributed to The Times in the past (most recently in 2015), he was not on assignment for any desk at The Times in Ukraine. Early reports that he worked for Times circulated because he was wearing a Times press badge that had been issued for an assignment many years ago.”
Renaud, 50, was a writer, filmmaker, and photojournalist from Little Rock, according to his Nieman bio.
NATO’s doorstep: Waves of Russian missiles pounded a military training base near Ukraine’s western border with NATO member Poland, killing 35 people, Ukrainian authorities told AP.
More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targetedthe sprawling facility, less than 15 miles from the closest border point with Poland, according to the governor of Ukraine’s western Lviv region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of using blackmail and bribery in an attempt to force local officials in the southern Kherson region to form a “pseudo-republic.”
A CBS News poll out today finds “overwhelming support for sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas, and the willingness to pay more as a result.”
· Why it matters: This is “the kind of widespread sentiment we don’t always see in public opinion these days: bipartisan, cutting across race, region, and even income,” CBS pollsters note.
Breaking: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of “a new stage of terror” in a video posted to Telegram last night, referring to the abduction of the mayor of Melitopol by Russian forces.
Zelensky accused Russiaof “a war of annihilation” as devastation intensified across Ukraine, including in Kyiv, The New York Times reported.
Russian forces pounding the port city of Mariupol shelled a mosque sheltering 80+ people, including children, the Ukrainian government said. Get the latest.
1 big thing: Dems ask Americans to sacrifice
Speaker Pelosi and House Democratic leaders at their issues conference in Philadelphia yesterday. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Facing a bleak midterm outlook, Democrats see a potential reset with voters based on President Biden’s handling of the Ukraine crisis, Axios’ Sophia Cai reports from Philadelphia:
Why it matters:S. sanctions on Russia are worsening inflation and increasing gas prices — adding misery for Democrats, who are bracing for the possible loss of the House and even the Senate in November.
At a conference for House Democrats in Philadelphia this week, lawmakers made the case for Americans’ shared sacrifice — including paying more for gas.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Gregory Meeks(D-N.Y.) said: “I’m asking the people of the United States to also make that kind of sacrifice because in the long run, democracy is at stake.”
Between the lines: The war is giving Biden a chance to showcase attributes that appealed to Americans who backed him for president —foreign-policy experience, empathy and respect for institutions.
Reality check: Some House Dems tell Axios they’re skeptical voters will embrace surging gas prices — and reward or forgive Biden and Democrats just because they find Vladimir Putin repugnant, or value democracy over oppression.
“It’s not enough for us to say, ‘It’s a tough time and it’s because of the war in Russia,'” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Axios. He and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced legislation to tax the largest oil companies, and assist individuals earning less than $75,000 or couples earning less than $150,000.
“We’ve got to figure out something to reduce prices, and we need to be getting more money into the hands of working families.”
What we’re watching: A Wall Street Journal poll out yesterday (subscription) found that “57% of voters remained unhappy with Biden’s job performance, “despite favorable marks for the president’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a recent State of the Union speech.”
Democratic advantagesover Republicans narrowed on education, COVID response and protecting middle-class families, the poll found.
What they’re hoping: DCCC Chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) advised Biden: “Be the man you saw on Tuesday night — who crushed it at the State of the Union, who right now is leading the world standing up to Russian aggression.”
“The next chapteris going to be where the American people rediscover they elected a strong, decent man who is fighting for very important things.”
Go deeper: See Wall Street Journal poll results (not paywalled).
Quote of the week: We won’t fight WW III in Ukraine
President Biden holds a drawing by Mia Parrilla as he visits Hon. Luis Muñoz-Marín Elementary School in Philadelphia yesterday. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden in the Roosevelt Room yesterday, on Day 16 of the Ukraine invasion, as he announced revocation of Russia’s most-favored-nation status:
We will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War Three, something we must strive to prevent.
But we already know Putin’s war against Ukraine will never be a victory.
A Ukrainian serviceman photographs a damaged church yesterday, after shelling hit a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
The White House is sounding the alarm over a new Russian propaganda campaign that officials fear is a pretext for an appalling new phase of the war:
The use of biological or chemical weapons, Axios’ Zachary Basu reports.
Why it matters: Vladimir Putin has a history of deploying illegal nerve agents against enemies, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny and former double agent Sergei Skripal. In Syria, Russia helped Bashar al-Assad cover up the use of chemical weapons against his own people.
What’s happening: Kremlin propagandists have been frenetically spreading baseless claims that the Pentagon is funding dangerous bioweapons labs in Ukraine.
Chinese diplomats and state-controlled media have joined in on the conspiracy theories, raising fears about a level of coordination between the two powers not seen during the conflict thus far.
Reality check: The U.S. and Ukraine have vigorously denied the presence of any U.S.-backed bioweapons program, saying the only labs the U.S. supports in Ukraine are standard research facilities that focus on “diagnostics, therapeutics, treatment, prevention and vaccines.”
The Biden administration has issued statements calling the Russian claims “preposterous” and “total nonsense,” and urging the world to “be on the lookout” for Russia to use chemical weapons itself or attempt a “false flag” operation in Ukraine.
“Allegedly, we are preparing a chemical attack,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a new video address. “This makes me really worried because we’ve been repeatedly convinced: if you want to know Russia’s plans, look at what Russia accuses others of.”
Between the lines: The U.S. has repeatedly sought to debunk Russia’s narratives about Ukraine by declassifying intelligence about Putin’s plans ahead of time, a novel approach that undermines his element of surprise.
War intensifies the impulse to share powerful images, but leaves users with uncomfortable choices and pitfalls in the social media wilderness, Axios’ Ina Fried writes in her weekly “Signal Boost” tech column.
Why it matters: Platform moderators face complex ethical and legal calls over photos of dead soldiers, images of teens taking up arms and videos of prisoners of war criticizing the conflict.
A video went viral of a Russian soldier denouncing the invasion after being captured in Ukraine.
It wasn’t long before observers pointed outthat such footage, if produced by a government, might well violate the Geneva Conventions.
Detainees“must be treated with dignity, and not exposed to public curiosity — like circulating images on social media,” the International Red Cross said as part of a Twitter thread explaining those rules.
Spotted yesterday on Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood, near LAX
Banks reveal billions in potential Russia losses
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
With Russia’s economy collapsing, its stock market cryogenically frozen and its bonds near default, global investors are set to endure major losses, Axios Markets co-author Matt Phillips reports.
Why it matters: For decades, Russian investments were a cornerstone of “emerging market” investing — the financial world’s marketing rubric encouraging the free-flowing global investments that helped define the post-Cold War era.
Russia was a star of the “BRICS” — a rubric coined by Goldman Sachs analysts that stood for the fast-growing emerging market economies that were investor favorites over the last two decades.
BRICS = Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.
What we’re watching: Russia is considering seizing and potentially nationalizing assets of companies that quit the country.
The commodity price spike caused by the war in Ukraine has increased the risks of a recession, sustained high inflation, or both, reports Axios Capital author Neil Irwin.
The big picture: It’s pretty much a mathematical certainty that inflation rates will be higher in the months ahead rather than lower.
Will year-over-year headline inflationhit double digits? Quite plausibly. That leaves the Fed between a rock and a hard place.
A woman outside a maternity hospital that was shelled yesterday in Mariupol, Ukraine. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba met in Turkey this morning for the highest-level peace talks since the war began, Axios’ Zachary Basu reports.
The two sides discussed the possibilityof a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but otherwise failed to come to any agreement on a ceasefire.
The big picture: As Putin’s frustration builds, Russian forces have increasingly turned to targeting civilians with indiscriminate shelling. (Photo above.)
The meeting came just one day after Russia bombed a maternity ward and children’s hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol, killing three people in an attack that Zelensky calledproof of genocide.
Lavrov falsely claimedat his press conference in Turkey that Ukraine was the aggressor, at one point telling reporters: “We are not planning to attack other countries. We didn’t attack Ukraine in the first place.”
Breaking: The U.K. this morning froze the assets of seven Russian oligarchs, including Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich — who was in the midst of attempting to sell the storied London soccer team.
Protesters form a human peace sign in Heroes’ Square in Budapest, Hungary, yesterday.
Fear in Europe: Who’s next?
Photo: Richard B. Levine/Sipa USA via Reuters
Some European countries, watching Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, fear they could be next, AP reports.
Why it matters: Vladimir Putin “has said right from the start that this is not only about Ukraine,” said Michal Baranowski, director of the German Marshall Fund’s Warsaw office, but also “about the eastern flank of NATO and the rest of Eastern Europe.”
Western officials say the most vulnerable could be those who aren’t members of NATO or the European Union, and thus alone and unprotected — including Ukraine’s neighbor Moldova and Russia’s neighbor Georgia, both of them formerly part of the Soviet Union — along with the Balkan states of Bosnia and Kosovo.
Analysts warn that even NATO members could be at risk, including Estonia, Latviaand Lithuania on Russia’s doorstep, as well as Montenegro, either from Moscow’s direct military intervention or attempts at political destabilization.
A bunch of you asked: Why are gas prices going up if the U.S. barely relies on Russian oil?
The answer: You’ll pay a lot more for gas for three big reasons, Axios energy experts Ben Geman and Andrew Freedman tell us.
1. Supply: Less oil sloshing around in an already-tight market, thanks to Russia.
2. Demand: Driving and energy use is surging back post-COVID.
3. Risk: War.
Be prepared: It‘s hard to see any of these trends getting better fast. Expect high gas prices for at least the next few months.
Be aware: Oil makes up about 45% of gas prices, which is why President Biden is playing footsie with the Iranians, Saudis and Venezuelans. They have oil. Biden wants cheaper gas.
Be savvy: We only get 3% of our oil from Russia. BUT Europe gets 27% … and we all tap the same global oil pool. Hence, your pain at the pump.
Aftermath of Mariupol Hospital after a Russian attack severely damaged the children’s hospital and maternity ward. Photo: Mariupol City Council via AP
Russian shelling in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupolhas killed at least 1,170 people and destroyed a children’s hospital that also housed a maternity ward, Deputy Mayor Sergiy Orlov said today. Go deeper.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plantthat’s now controlled by Russian forces no longer has electricity, threatening efforts to safely store radioactive material, the Ukrainian government warned. Go deeper.
A grand jury indicted Colorado election official Tina Peters on seven felony counts as part of an investigation into tampering with the results of the 2020 election. Peters is a Republican candidate for secretary of state. Go deeper.
Volkswagen is reviving the microbus as an electric vehicle, scheduled to release in the U.S. in 2024.
AXIOS AM: Mar 9, 2022
Mike Allen <mike@axios.com>
Breaking: Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal early today to provide $13.6 billion to help Ukraine, as part of a $1.5 trillion measure funding the government. Party leaders hoped to whip the 2,741-page measure through the House today and the Senate (perhaps) by week’s end. —AP
1 big thing: Putin’s failure
A charred Russian tank is seen Monday in Ukraine’s Sumy region. Photo: Irina Rybakova for the press service of the Ukrainian Ground Forces via Reuters
Vladimir Putin’s plan to seize Ukraine’s capital in the first two days of Russia’s invasion has been a complete failure, Axios’ Zachary Basu writes.
It’s been thrown off courseby a fierce Ukrainian resistance, poor planning and a series of profound miscalculations, top U.S. intelligence officials say.
Why it matters: An isolated and angry Putin is expected to double down on his brutality as the war in Ukraine drags on for weeks, months or even years. It could be his undoing.
Reality check: A devastating punch that levels Ukrainian cities is more likely than ever. It’ll be less targeted … more indiscriminate.
State of play: CIA Director Bill Burns testified at a House hearing yesterday that Putin “has no sustainable political end game in the face of what’s going to continue to be fierce resistance from the Ukrainians.”
Even if Russia eventually captures Kyiv, the U.S. intelligence community doesn’t see a way that a pro-Russian puppet regime can stay in power given the Ukrainian people’s absolute refusal to capitulate.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces say this is a downed Russian jet crashing in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sunday. Image from video released by Ukrainian Ground Forces via Reuters
The U.S. estimates between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have already been killed, “far in excess” of what Putin anticipated or has admitted, Burns said.
Putin was readyfor sanctions, but not the speed and unity with which the Western world brought the hammer down — especially private companies. McDonald’s, Starbucks and Coca-Cola all halted Russian sales yesterday.
What we’re watching: Despite the setbacks, Putin is “unlikely to be deterred,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified.
The people who will suffer most are Ukrainian civilians, who are already beginning to see the vicious tactics Putin adopted to achieve his military aims in Syria and Chechnya.
The upside is that what Putin “might be willing to accept as a victory may change over time, given the significant costs he is incurring,” Haines predicted.
Data: UNHCR; Map: Jared Whalen and Will Chase/Axios
Stunning stat: At the end of 2021, before the invasion of Ukraine, 1 in 29 people worldwide needed humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N.
After a pandemic, multiple food shortages, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan — and now an exodus of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian military — global aid groups tell Axios’ Stef Kight they can barely keep up.
Why it matters: “The world’s humanitarian funding machine just doesn’t have enough money to face all of the people in need this year,” Bob Kitchen, the International Rescue Committee’s director of emergencies, tells Axios.
What’s happening: Aid groups are scrambling to help Ukraine, as well as the surrounding nations welcoming 2 million+ refugees — the world’s fastest population movement since at least World War II, experts say.
Many of the same agencies sprang into action as refugees poured out of Afghanistan last year.
At the same time, West Africa is headed toward devastating drought and food insecurity: Over 38 million people will likely experience a severe food emergency this summer.
Separately, the Horn of Africa is facing what could be the worst food crisis in 30 years .
Conflict and other disasterscontinue in Yemen, Syria, Myanmar and elsewhere.
“I would love to know the top 3 or 5 ways that I can help Ukraine besides donating money to charity,” Stephanie Worthington, a Finish Line reader and tech marketer in Shingle Springs, California, emailed last night.
“I’ve given to charity, but there must be more ways to help that I just don’t know about.”
Here ya go:
Give critical supplies: Meest, a Ukrainian logistics company with warehouses in several states, is accepting humanitarian aid packages for Ukraine. The urgent needis for medical and tactical supplies, including backpacks, Tylenol and bandages. Here’s how to drop off or ship packages to a Meest warehouse.
Give your time: You can sign upto volunteer with Nova Ukraine, and help organize fundraisers and spread awareness.
Attend a peaceful protest: Here’s a live logof upcoming demonstrations, including events all over the U.S. (h/t The Guardian)
Support on-the-ground journalism: The Kyiv Independent, an English language news site that has been reporting the facts in real time, is raising money via GoFundMe.
The Chinese government is scrubbing the country’s internet of sympathetic or accurate coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and systematically amplifying pro-Putin talking points, Axios China author Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian writes.
· Why it matters: China’s use of its propaganda and censorship muscle helps insulate Beijing from domestic backlash against its support for Putin — and leaves its citizens with an airbrushed, false version of events, similar to what’s seen in Putin’s state-controlled Russia.
What’s happening: Chinese media outlets were told to avoid posting “anything unfavorable to Russia or pro-Western” on their social media accounts, and to only use hashtags started by Chinese state media outlets, according to a leaked censorship directive.
· Online comments expressing sympathy for Ukraine have been deleted — even the anti-war speech given by the Paralympic Committee president during the opening ceremony was censored on Chinese TV.
· Pro-Putin social media posts on Chinese social media were allowed to proliferate, as were posts blaming the U.S. and NATO for the conflict.
· Chinese state media have widely aggregated content from Russian outlets.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyposted a video of himself in his presidential office in Kyiv last night, declaring in the face of multiple alleged assassination attempts: “I’m not hiding. And I’m not afraid of anyone.”
Why it matters: Zelensky’s nightly addresses, in which he details Russian attacks and honors fallen heroes, have become appointment viewing for news and inspiration, Axios’ Zachary Basu writes.
“You know, we used to say: Monday is a hard day,” Zelensky said as he filmed out his window on Bankova Street on the 12th day of the invasion.
“Now there is a war in the country, so every day is Monday.”
Zelensky entered selfie-style, then sat at his desk. Photo from Ukrainian Presidency video
Russia claimsit is allowing “humanitarian corridors” for the safe passage of civilians, but Ukrainian officials have reported multiple instances of shelling along those routes in the last 24 hours.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said the country has sufferedabout $10 billion in damage since Russia’s invasion began.
Zelensky pledgedto continue peace talks until the war ends — and to rebuild Ukraine until there is “no trace” of the “hatred that the enemy brought to our cities with shelling and bombing.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is threatening the global food supply.
The big picture: The two countries combine for nearly 1/3 of global wheat and barley exports, AP reports. Ukraine is a major exporter of corn.
Lebanon, Egypt and Syria are among the countries most dependent on affordable wheat. “Any [price] hikes will be catastrophic not only for me, but for the majority of the people,” Ahmed Salah, an Egyptian father of seven, told AP.
Supplies were already tight because of droughts hitting the wheat belts of North America, NPR notes.
European livestock farmers are heavily reliant on Ukraine for corn and other grain additives for animal feed.
Between the lines: This also threatens efforts to help famine-stricken countries like Afghanistan, Yemen and Ethiopia, the Financial Times reports (paywall).
The bottom line: Ukraine and Russia “account for about 12% of the calories the world trades,” NPR reports.
Go deeper:Tomorrow’s Axios Markets will dive into what the war means for global wheat markets.
Russia “nearly 100%” deployed
A woman arrives at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Photo: Visar Kryeziu/AP
Russia has now deployed “nearly 100%” of the combat power that it had massed on Ukraine’s borders, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters today.
The World Health Organization confirmed at least 14 attacks on Ukrainian health facilities since the start of Russia’s invasion, reports Axios’ Oriana Gonzalez.
?The U.S. is deploying another 500 troops to Europe in response to the invasion, a senior defense official said today, “pushing the total number of American forces in the region to 100,000.” — The Wall Street Journal
AXIOS AM: Mar 7, 2022
Mike Allen <mike@axios.com>
15 Running for their lives
Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters
Above, residents flee the town of Irpin, outside Kyiv, after heavy shelling landed on the only escape route used by locals, with Russian troops advancing towards the capital.
At least four civilians killed: The top of the front page of today’s New York Times includes a photo of a family lying on the ground in Irpin after being hit by a Russian mortar shell. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said they were killed.
“A cloud of concrete dustlofted into the morning air,” writes The Times’ Lynsey Addario, one of the world’s most distinguished combat photographers, who witnessed the attack.
“When the family — a mother, her teenage son and a daughter who appeared to be about 8 — was spotted sprawled on the ground, soldiers rushed to help, but could do little for them or a man described as a family friend who had been helping them escape,” Addario reports.
A factory and a store burn after being bombarded in Irpin.
AXIOS AM: Mar 6, 2022
Mike Allen <mike@axios.com>
1 big thing: Blinken sees evidence of war crimes
Screenshot: CNN
Secretary of State Tony Blinkentold CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” from Moldova this morning: “[W]e’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians, which would constitute a war crime.”
“And what we’re doingright now is documenting all of this, putting it all together, looking at it, and making sure that as people and the appropriate organizations and institutions investigate whether war crimes have been or are being committed, that we can support whatever they’re doing,” Blinken added.
“They’re very credible. And we’re documenting everything.”
Breaking:The Ukraine exodus is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, topping 1.5 million in 10 days, the UN refugee agency said today.
“In the coming days,millions more lives will be uprooted, unless there is an immediate end to this senseless conflict,” the UNHCR said. Go deeper.
Pope Francis said today in his weekly address to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square: “In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing. This is not just a military operation [as Putin described it], but a war which sows death, destruction and misery.” (Reuters)
Ukrainians crowd under a bridge destroyed by a Russian airstrike, as they wait to flee across the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv yesterday.
Photo: Emilio Morenatti/AP
Assisted by Ukrainian soldiers, they lugged pets, infants, purses and flimsy bags stuffed with minimal possessions, AP reports.
Photo: Vadim Ghirda/AP
Some of the weak and elderly were carried along the makeshift path in blankets, carts — and even a wheelbarrow.
AXIOS AM: Mar 5, 2022
Mike Allen <mike@axios.com>
1 big thing: Zelensky’s Zoom plea
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Ukraine leaders appreciate the worldwide solidarity, but are frustrated by how far the talk exceeds the action, Axios’ Sophia Cai writes.
Why it matters:The survival of some cities could come down to hours or days. While missiles are arriving in Ukraine and crushing sanctions are being felt in Moscow, neither is stopping the invasion.
This morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after senators held a Zoom call with President Volodymyr Zelensky that the Ukrainian leader “made a desperate plea for Eastern European countries to provide Russian-made planes to Ukraine.”
“These planesare very much needed,” Schumer said. “I will do all I can to help the administration to facilitate their transfer.”
Andriy Yermak, a longtime top aide to Zelensky, wrote in a New York Times op-ed under the headline, “I’m Writing From a Bunker With President Zelensky Beside Me. We Will Fight to the Last Breath”:
We need more — and, please, stop telling us military aid is on the way. … We need antitank and antiaircraft weapons and other ammunition delivered to our brave soldiers right now.
Many countries promised aid to Ukraine to help repel the invasion. But the strongest declarations from the West and elsewhere haven’t fully materialized.
The UN General Assemblyvoted 141-5 to demand Vladimir Putin withdraw forces, but there’s no mechanism for enforcement.
The European Union promised to send fighter jets. But that never happened, after three nations with Russian-made aircraft refused.
About 20 countries— mostly NATO and EU members — pledged to send weapons. But the arms have been slow to reach Ukraine, and it’s unclear whether they’ll arrive in time to make a difference.
TIME’s new coverfeatures President Zelensky’s words to the European Parliament on March 1: “Life will win over death, and light will win over darkness.” Cover stor
The U.S. has also been heavy on symbolism over substance:
First lady Jill Bidenhosted Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. at the State of the Union address. Many senators and representatives wore Ukrainian blue and yellow.
Congress left for the weekend,though, without passing a multibillion-dollar aid package.
Schumer told Zelensky today, according to a source on the call: “Senator McConnell and I — along with the other members on this Zoom — are working very hard in a bipartisan fashion to get all the assistance the administration has requested for the Ukrainian people. Together we will get that assistance of over $10 billion in economic, humanitarian, and security assistance to the Ukrainian people quickly.”
Alexander Vindman, the Ukraine-born, retired Army officer and former National Security Council director for Europe, called for $35 billion in reconstruction aid — what’s been dubbed a “Marshall Plan for Ukraine.”
Go deeper … Axios explains: Why Ukraine isn’t getting a no-fly zone.
White House open to cutting Russian oil
Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, joins Jen Psaki’s briefing yesterday. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
The White House signaled openness yesterday to reducing imports of Russian oil — without saying exactly how, Axios’ Hans Nichols reports.
Why it matters:A ban could translate to higher prices at the pump in parts of the U.S. and increase inflation, a key concern for Biden.
Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, said yesterday that he expects the practice of importing Russian oil to “change soon.”
“The United States should not be importing Russian oil. Period,” McFaul said during an onlinepanel discussion about the Russian invasion of Ukraine moderated by Axios’ Jonathan Swan.
“I understand inflation.I understand the arguments. But there’s no ethical or moral reason that we should be doing that, and I expect that to change soon.”
The context: Oil from Russia accounted for roughly 3% of U.S. crude imports in 2021.
It’s mostly importedin Hawaii and the coasts, where refiners don’t have access to the pipelines connecting the big domestic oil fields in places like the Southwest’s Permian Basin.
Energy analysts and economists disagree about how much of a price spike an import ban would generate.
State of play: Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters yesterday: “[W]e are looking at options that we can take right now if we were to cut the U.S. consumption of Russian energy. But what’s really most important is we — that we maintain a steady supply of global energy.”
Between the lines: That appears to be a shift from the White House’s initial dismissal of the congressional effort to effectively impose an embargo on Russian oil for U.S. refiners.
Speaker Pelositold reporters on Thursday about a ban: “I’m all for that. Ban it. … Ban the oil coming from Russia. Yeah.”
New efforts by the Kremlin to bully the press and silence dissent are forcing independent media and social networks out of the country, Axios’ Sara Fischer writes:
The BBC and Bloomberg said they’re suspending operationsin Russia, and CNN will stop broadcasting there, following a new law threatening to imprison journalists for up to 15 years if they publish what Moscow deems to be “fake” information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
ABC and CBS saidthey’ll temporarily stop broadcasting from Russia.
Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor (Russian) yesterday blocked the websites of several outlets, including U.S. government-funded VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, for spreading what it called fake news on the “special operation in Ukraine.”
High-quality Russian independent news agenciesare being yanked off the air, forcing journalists to flee the country.
Russia alsoblockedFacebook entirely yesterday, after partially restricting the social network last week.
Zoom out: Putin’s propaganda push has intensified as protests erupt at home. The Kremlin is relying on state media to sell the war as a success domestically.
This image, made from a video released by the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, shows a bright, flaring object landing at the plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine, today. Photo via AP
As the Ukraine invasion enters Week 2, Russian shelling ignited a fire at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant. That led to global alarm about a meltdown, as the world watched ghostly nighttime video of the complex.
But the fire is out.Russian forces took control of the site.
Why it matters: Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator said losing the ability to cool nuclear fuel at the plant could lead to an accident even worse than the 1986 Chernobyl accident — the world’s worst nuclear disaster — or the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns in Japan, AP reports.
The assault led to a phone call between President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The U.S. Energy Department activated its nuclear incident response team as a precaution.
Ukraine saidno changes in radiation levels have been recorded.
In an emotional speech in the middle of the night, Zelensky accused Russia of “nuclear terrorism” and said he feared an explosion that would be “the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe.”
Photo: Maksim Levin/Reuters
This is a drone’s-eye view of a residential building destroyed by shelling, in the settlement of Borodyanka, about 35 miles outside
Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
A family of Ukrainian refugees in Lonya, Hungary, yesterday after walking across the border. Long queues are forming at border crossings.
Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting yesterday at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. Photo: Andrei Gorshkov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Thousands of Russians are rushing to flee the country ahead of this weekend, as rumors swirl that Vladimir Putin could soon declare martial law, close the borders and crack down even harder on domestic dissent, Axios’ Zachary Basu reports.
Why it matters: For as devastating as the humanitarian situation in Ukraine has become, widespread suffering is rapidly arriving at Russia’s own doorstep.
More than 8,000 people have already been detained at anti-war protests since Feb. 24, according to the independent monitor OVD-Info.
Russia’s Duma has passeda law making the spread of “fake news” about the Russian military punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The last pillarsof Russia’s already-limited independent press were forced to close under pressure from the Kremlin this week.
Russia’s state communications watchdog blocked the websitesof the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle and other foreign media outlets for spreading “fake” information.
What to watch: Russia’s second-largest airline announced it will cease all international flights from tomorrow, as Russia’s upper house of parliament meets for an emergency session that many fear could mark the descent of a new Iron Curtain.
Invasion’s economic dominoes
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
Ripping Russia, the world’s 11th largest economy, out of the global financial system is already causing collateral damage around the world, Axios Markets author Emily Peck writes.
Oil and gas prices have skyrocketed, even though energy was purposefully carved out of sanctions.
Internal conflicts could erupt elsewhere due to food insecurity.
Catch up quick: Since Russia invaded Ukraine last week, the U.S. and its European allies moved fast to levy some of the harshest sanctions ever imposed.
The strikes were targeted. The West tried to keep the energy sector — a massive part of the Russian economy — out of the most severe penalties, so European countries could continue to buy oil and gas.
Reality check: Russia will start to operate in different ways, carving out an alternate financial system — much like Iran has done after being cut off from SWIFT by the Trump administration.
Axios explains: Why Ukraine isn’t getting a no-fly zone
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly urged Western leaders to impose a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine. But establishing one appears unlikely any time soon, Axios’ Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath writes.
Why it matters:Imposing a no-fly zone (NFZ) would mark a significant escalation in the war — potentially bringing NATO directly into a conventional conflict with a nuclear power.
A no-fly zone is airspace where certain aircraft aren’t allowed to enter.
In a war, no-fly zones must be enforced militarily — which can include shooting down banned aircraft.
The U.S. and other major powers have so far ruled out establishing a NFZ over Ukraine.
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson joins Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at a press conference today following the passage of the Ending Forced Arbitration Act. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Biden today will sign landmark workplace legislation that forbids companies from forcing sexual harassment and assault claims into arbitration, Axios’ Emily Peck reports.
Why it matters: The law, the Ending Forced Arbitration Act, is the first major piece of legislation to come out of the upheaval of the #MeToo era.
· Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) told Axios it was “the most significant piece of labor legislation passed in this century.”
· It’s a huge win for former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, credited with bringing together diverse supporters, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
Workers will no longer be forced to take claims of sexual harassment or assault to private arbitration.
· But employers can still force workers to take all kinds of other complaints to private dispute resolution — including pay inequality and civil rights claims over race.
Photo: Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images
Spotted today at the Frankfurt (Oder) rail station.
Why it matters:Trains from Poland with war refugees are expected at the station.
Context: 1 million people have fled Ukraine in seven days, UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said today.
Catch up quick
The 190-foot Amore Vero (True Love), linked to a close ally of Vladimir Putin, was seized today in a French Riviera port. Photo: Nicholas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
France seized a mega yacht belonging to a Russian oligarch, CNN reports.
The Sackler family reacheda deal to pay as much as $6 billion to end litigation against the OxyContinGo deeper.
Ukrainian and Russian delegationsagreed to organize humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to flee, but made no other progress.
Giant global businesses in every sector are abandoning Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.
Why it matters:In addition to condemning the invasion, the companies see an impossible environment — from worker safety … to the logistics of getting supplies … financial and sales disruption … and the complexity of complying with sanctions, Axios’ Hope King writes.
State of play: Financial sanctions have isolated Russia from the rest of the world. Businesses operating in Russia have an increasingly limited ability to collect revenue or pay workers and suppliers.
Economic sanctions, including export controls, have curtailed imports.
Some workers are being moved out of Russia.
Restricted airspace and travelare preventing companies from getting the equipment they need to continue to operate.
Between the lines: Some companies that have very little physical presence in Russia — including many in tech, retail and media — are limiting how products are used in the country or have pulled them.
Flashback: Since the Soviet Union’s collapse three decades ago, Russia had been seen as an emerging market with long-term growth potential.
In the seven days since the invasion began:
Boeingsuspended major operations in Moscow, as well as maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines.
Shellwill sever ties with Russian gas giant Gazprom and end its roughly $1 billion financing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Exxon Mobil saysit will exit Russia oil and gas operations valued at more than $4 billion and cease new investment.
GM, which sells only about 3,000 cars a year in Russia, saysit will suspend exporting vehicles.
Adidassuspended its partnership with the Russian Football Union.
Nikeceased online sales because it can’t guarantee delivery.
FedEx and UPS suspended shipments.
Yoox Net-A-Porter Groupand Farfetch, luxury e-commerce platforms, are suspending deliveries in Russia.
Applepaused product sales and limited services (including Apple Pay), on top of ceasing exports to Russia and restricting features in Apple Maps in Ukraine to safeguard civilian safety.
Only four countries — Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria — joined Russia today in voting against a non-binding UN resolution that condemned the invasion of Ukraine.
Another 35 abstained, including India and China, Axios’ Ivana Saric and Zachary Basu report.
Between the lines:India has military ties with Russia from the Soviet era, causing headaches for the U.S. as it seeks to integrate India into an alliance to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
141 countries voted in favor of the resolution.
AXIOS AM: Mar 2, 2022
Mike Allen <mike@axios.com>
1 big thing: Ukraine splinters internet
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Moves to restrict Kremlin disinformation after the Ukraine invasion are further splintering the global internet.
Why it matters:A universal internet — where everyone can access the same messages and services — is slipping out of reach as democracies falter and governments limit usage, Axios’ Ashley Gold writes.
Zoom out: Social media execs have warned against the dangers of a Balkanized internet for years as many nations — including Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ethiopia and Turkey — limited access.
In China, American apps like Facebook and Twitter are blocked.
Between the lines: Cutting countries off can help dictators win.
In democracies, including the U.S., it’s easy to focus on the harms of Big Tech and look to the government for answers, Kate Klonick, an assistant law professor at St. John’s University, told Axios.
But “what we’re seeing with Russia and Ukraine is a return to some of the formative ideas around the power that the internet brings to individuals.”
Reality check: Authoritarian countries plow ahead with their own visions for the internet as the U.S. and Europe search for alignment on privacy, AI, competition, content moderation and cybersecurity regulations.
Biden: “I get it”
What President Biden sees. Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA/Pool via AP
President Biden said in his State of the Union address that getting inflation under control is his “top priority,” while warning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to higher costs for American consumers.
Why it matters:The White House knows the country is frustrated with price hikes. But officials also want credit for strong GDP growth, job creation and low unemployment, Axios’ Hans Nichols writes.
“With all the bright spots in our economy, record job growth and higher wages, too many families are struggling to keep up with the bills,” the president said.
“Inflation is robbing themof the gains they might otherwise feel. I get it.”
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Above: An old-fashioned scrum greets President Biden after the speech.
Secretary of State Tony Blinkentalked with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.).
Go deeper: Read Biden’s vow to seize yachts and jets of Russian oligarchs, from the Axios AM Thought Bubble that dropped in your inbox late last night ET.
Zelensky: “The best people on Earth”
Cover: The Times of London
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video on Facebook today in which he praised Ukrainians as “a symbol of invincibility,” as the Russian invasion entered a seventh day.
“Another night of Russia’s full-scale war against us, against the people, has passed,” Zelensky said. “We’ve hardly slept for seven nights.”
Zelensky said invading forces “know nothing about our capital,” Kyiv, or Ukrainian history: “But they have an order to erase our history … Erase our country. Erase us all.”
“Today you,Ukrainians, are the symbol of invincibility, a symbol that people in any country can become the best people on Earth at any moment.”
A member of the Ukrainian Emergency Service beholds Kharkiv City Hall following shelling yesterday. Photo: Pavel Dorogoy/AP
Explosions rang out in Kyiv and Kharkiv as Russian forces intensified their bombing campaign on Ukraine today.
Kharkiv has been the scene of some of the worst shelling by Russian troops since the invasion began.
Zelenskyhas called a strike on Kharkiv’s central square yesterday an act of state terrorism.
A Russian missile hit the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial site in Kyiv today, killing at least five people, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted:“[W]hat is the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?”
“Between 1941 and 1943,the Nazis shot between 70,000 and 100,000 people at Babyn Yar, including almost the entire Jewish population of Kyiv,” according to the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.
The Russians were targetingthe nearby Kyiv TV tower, saying it was among the infrastructure used for “information attacks” from Ukraine’s security services.
A blast is seen in the TV tower, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, today. Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters
The bottom line: A senior U.S. defense official told reporters that Russia’s advance on Kyiv had stalled and that there were signs of flagging Russian morale, Axios’ Zachary Basu and Dave Lawler report.
State of the Union spoiler
The House chamber yesterday. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Look for President Biden to be very tough on Vladimir Putin in tonight’s State of the Union address (9 p.m. ET).
Why it matters: The White House has scrambled to be sure he meets the moment.
The president will point to the U.S. role in protecting democracy, before moving on to Americans’ pocketbooks — how to grow the economy from the “bottom up and the middle out,” as he puts it.
The speech is built around four buckets:
World stage:Biden will say “democracy will prevail” in Ukraine.
Economy:He’ll call for lowering costs for working families.
COVID:He’ll stress the U.S. is “in a new moment” of the pandemic and has the tools to contain the virus.
The future of America:He’ll point to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, his nominee for the Supreme Court, and vow to make inroads on immigration and climate.
Catch up quick
Photo: Emilio Morenatti/AP
Above: Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at the Kyiv Zoo.
“Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century”:About 677,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in neighboring countries. Go deeper.
The U.S. will release 30 million barrelsfrom the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of international plans to release 60 million barrels. Go deeper.
The ACLU is suing to block aTexas directive that would have a state agency investigate parents for child abuse if they seek gender-affirming care for their children. Go deeper.
Exclusive: A small group of Latino U.S. House members recently expressed “extreme concern” about a plan to potentially dispatch robot dogs along the U.S.-Mexico border, Axios’ Russell Contreras reports.
President Biden set his sights on Russian oligarchs, COVID fraudsters, social media platforms and even defund-the-police efforts tonight — populist targets in a broader speech about national and global unity.
Biden’s anti-Russia,pro-Ukraine passages inspired the only real partisan unity in the chamber:
The U.S. Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs.
We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets. We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.
On Vladimir Putin, Biden ad-libbed: “He has no idea what’s coming.”
Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova is applauded by first lady Jill Biden. Photo: ABC News
Twitter erupted when Biden accidentally said Putin would never gain the hearts and souls of the “Iranian” people, instead of Ukrainian.
Biden’s other targets:
He announced that the Justice Department will appoint a chief prosecutor to go after pandemic fraud.
He bluntly distanced himselffrom the defund-the-police movement: “The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”
With Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in the audience, Biden framed social media as part of a larger mental health crisis and urged Congress to “strengthen privacy protections” and ban targeted advertising to children.
Reality check:Privacy legislation has been stalled for years, notes Axios managing editor Scott Rosenberg.
Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) sat with Republican senators. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
What we were watching, from Axios’ Sophia Cai, in the House chamber:
Fellow Supreme Court justicesstanding to applaud retiring Stephen Breyer — but careful to avoid politics by sitting when Biden mentioned his nominee to replace Breyer, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Joe Manchin(D-W.Va.) sitting with Republicans — but rising for most of the Democrats’ applause lines.
Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) shouting “13 of them!” as Biden spoke, referring to Americans killed at Kabul airport during the frantic evacuation from Afghanistan. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shouted: “Stay out of women’s sports!”
Axios.com has the latest reaction, including the Republican response.
1 big thing — Biden’s dilemma: Putin off-ramp
Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on economic issues at the Kremlin yesterday. Photo: Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
With Ukraine holding Russia off longer than many U.S. officials had expected, President Biden now faces a great unanswered question — how to give Vladimir Putin an off-ramp to avoid even greater calamity.
Why it matters: A cornered, humiliated Putin could unleash untold pain on the world, from cyberattacks to nuclear threats. After enacting brutal sanctions, the White House now must consider how the invasion can end without a new catastrophe, Axios’ Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu report.
Between the lines: Nobody knows what Putin would accept.
Many officials fear that we are heading into a very dangerous period — the punishing Western sanctions pushing an autocrat into a corner.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee, has hinted Putin could be addled.
“This is the most dangerous moment in 60 years,” Rubio tweetedSunday night. Putin, he said, “is facing a humiliating military fiasco & he has triggered extraordinary consequences on #Russia’s economy & people that will not be easy to reverse … And his only options to reset this imbalance are catastrophic ones.”
A European diplomat told reporters at a briefing yesterday: “It’s like the Sun Tzu thing of giving someone a golden bridge to retreat across. How do you get him to go in a different direction?”
“I think the door to diplomacy remains open,” the diplomat continued. “Putin … doesn’t normally back down. But he also controls the information environment in his own country to such an extent that if he does, he can cover his tracks. … So I think there is room for him to de-escalate — and that’s certainly what we’re pressing for.”
The diplomat pointed to yesterday’s Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Belarus as the most viable off-ramp in a sea of bad options, noting that negotiations lasted for four hours and appear headed for a second round.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskysaid before the talks that he was willing to discuss “neutral status” for Ukraine — one of Putin’s three demands.
But the other two— demilitarization and “denazification” of Ukraine, and recognition of Russia’s claim to Crimea — suggest Putin will never accept a deal in which Zelensky remains in power.
The bottom line: The West’s response to Putin — for so long, uncertain and halting — has moved at astonishing speed and ferocity over the past week. How Putin will respond — and whether de-escalation is even possible — is keeping national-security leaders up at night.
The West is ratcheting up economic pressure on Russia’s oligarchs — known for splashy yachts and piles of dark money squirreled away around the globe, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck writes.
· Why it matters: Some of these wealthy Russians may have a measure of influence over Vladimir Putin. The U.S. and Europe are hoping that if they squeeze the oligarchs, the oligarchs may pressure Putin. In the longer term, going after hidden Russian wealth could curtail the power of Putin and his circle.
The EU yesterday banned travel and froze assets of 26 businessmen, government officials and even journalists with longstanding ties to Putin, the Financial Times first reported (subscription).
· On the list: Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, “considered to be one of the most powerful members of the Russian Political elite,” the EU said in its statement.
· Nikolay Tokarev, CEO of Transneft, a major oil and gas company, is also among the West’s specific targets. He served with Putin in the KGB in the 1980s and is one of the oligarchs who took control of state assets in the 2000s, the EU said.
Reality check: There’s a lot of Russian money hidden around the globe, including in the U.S. and U.K. — and it’s not always clear where it is.
· Recent laws passed in the U.S. and EU are intensifying efforts to untangle this dark web, but they’re just at the start.
Maxar Technologies says the Russian convoy converging on Kyiv stretches 40 miles — up from the 17 miles we told you about in Axios PM.
The tanks, self-propelled artillery and armored vehiclesare spaced fairly far apart in some stretches. In others, the military equipment is traveling two or three vehicles abreast, Maxar says.
“The Russian advance on Kyiv has made little progress over the past 24 hours probably as a result of continuing logistical difficulties,” the British defense ministry said in a military intelligence update quoted by Reuters.
But the war entered a new, uglier phase:70 Ukrainian servicemen were killed by a Russian rocket attack, and dozens of civilians have died in “barbaric” shelling, Ukrainian officials said.
On this edition for Sunday, March 13, Russian forces attack a military training center in western Ukraine. American journalist and documentarian Brent Renaud, who reported for PBS in the past, is killed outside of Kyiv. And in our signature segment, the challenges of tackling drug smuggling in Antwerp, Belgium, a key entry point into Europe. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Ukraine Russia conflict: Russia threatens Western weapons supplies as missiles hit near Nato border
It’s day 18 of the war in Ukraine and there has been no let up in the fighting. (Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe) Russian forces have continued their operation all over the country. There was more heavy shelling of Chernihiv and an American journalist was shot dead near Irpin. The attack on the Yavoriv base near the Polish border is the furthest west the Russians have attacked since the invasion started. Ukrainians have also been protesting against the Russian occupation in Kherson. But there have been hopeful messages from both sides over negotiations, although it is too early to tell whether that will lead to anything. ——- Watch more of our explainer series here – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list… Get more news at our site – https://www.channel4.com/news/ Follow us: Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/Channel4News
35 killed after Russian attack on Ukrainian military base, Ukrainian refugees begin to spread into neighboring countries, and new wrestling champion breaking down barriers. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#Russia#Ukraine
Ukraine, Artist Polina Rayko, farmer, Painted House in Tsurupinsk, Versus Putin, President of Russia who has Invaded Ukraine
Ukraine. Artist Polina Rayko, farmer, she started paint in old age, her painted house is in Tsurupinsk near Kherson. 1928-2004This is Ukraine. Artist Polina Rayko, farmer, she started paint in old age, her painted house is in Tsurupinsk near Kherson. 1928-2004.
Posted by Marina Koldobskava on Facebook, February 25, 2022
Polina Rayko (her original name was Pelaheya Soldatova) was born in April 1928 in the small Ukrainian town of Oleshky. She married Mykola Rayko at the age of 22. Polina at that time had no interest in painting. She led a life typical of a Soviet woman – she worked hard and devoted herself to her family.
The Raykos had few means. They worked at a kolkhoz (a collective farm) and also did work for hire, grew fruits and vegetables in their kitchen garden, and generally tried to do their best. The couple brought up two children, a boy and a girl.
Late in life, Polina met with hard times. In 1994, her daughter Olena died tragically in a road accident and her husband Mykola passed away a year later. Instead of supporting his mother, her son drank heavily and made trouble. Later, he was imprisoned.
To keep from going mad with grief, the woman, to her own surprise, began to paint. She created her first paintings at the age of 69. The walls of her house became her “canvas.” She used the cheapest paints – enamel floor colors. But neither lack of experience nor her use of low-cost art supplies got in the way of her desire to realize herself.
Painting became therapy for Polina Rayko, alleviating her loneliness and allowing her to appreciate herself more. She was sincerely surprised how she found subjects for her frescoes and ways of embodying her thoughts, considering that except for a few times at school, she had never before held a brush in her hands.
She Created Her Own Universe
The self-taught painter made all her frescoes in the same manner, with no free space between them – all her paintings are like one continuous mural. Granny Polina’s subjects are sometimes taken from her own life.
One wall of her living room is covered with life-size portraits of her sisters. All are long-haired with big wings behind their backs. Little angels and white pigeons fly around them in a blossoming magical garden.
On another wall Polina depicts herself in a wedding gown beside her husband. Fantastic flowers and birds of paradise surround the newly married couple.
In a separate portrait of her husband Mykola, he is shown in a boat with a float fishing rod and a bottle of vodka – everything he might need in the other world.
Animals make another vivid subject of her frescoes – her fabulous fish, birds, and butterflies are all over the walls, the ceiling, the stove, the doors.
This self-taught artist learned to render the feeling of movement in her paintings. Entering the house, we seem caught up in a swirl of images flying and circling around us.
Sentiment grows to declare the house of naive painter Polina Rayko a national cultural monument of Ukraine. From Vhoru, a Kherson-based news outlet.
If granny Polina had known that high officials and famous painters would troop through her house to look at her wall paintings, she’d have thought it a dream. It wasn’t for fame when the retired Polina Rayko began to paint on the walls of her house. For over 15 years the painter has been with the saints, but the images she created remain alive and inspire others.
For more information, please visit the following link:
Mrs. Polina Rayko was a simple working-class person, who went through her life with unfortunate and suffering incidents. But she overcame problems and discovered that artwork could make her free and happier than in her younger years. I can imagine how happy she could be to spent the end of her life for more than 15 years using her imagination, and creating artwork that will last for future generations to enjoy. I admire her work and her ability to share and make others see that one good human being can create a positive atmosphere for the world.
At this moment, Russia has invaded Ukraine, the homeland of Polina Rayko, by the order of one man, Vladimir Putin. He has already created more than one million refugees so far, as they run away from Russian bombs that destroyed their houses and all the possessions of their lives. Vladimir Putin came from the poor family. By any means possible, he has acquired great wealth in the multi-billions of dollars. He climbed from being KGB officer to become the president of Russia for more than 20 years. With all this wealth and power, he can do a lot of good things. Even though he cannot paint like Polina Rayko, he can build museums that cultivate artists to create artwork that Russia and the whole world can admire and enjoy. Aside from this, he could help the world reduce global warming by using science to discover new inventions to reduce global warming. This could help prevent the rise of the sea water that may inundate the coastlines of the entire world. Using his power, he can do many things to make the world better and happier. But he selects to use his power to subjugate others by sending Russian soldiers to kill and be killed by invading Ukraine, a smaller neighboring country with far less weapons and soldiers than Russia. Now Vladimir Putin threatens the whole world with nuclear weapon if any country intervenes with his operation. He is able to make the whole world unhappy and on edge, afraid that we might have a third World War.
Let us look at these two humans’ lives, Mrs. Polina Rayko, versus Mr. Vladimir Putin. Who is more peaceful, and who has more value? The world is troubled by many problems. We need leadership that brings peace and happiness for their own countries and the world. We need peace and togetherness as one humanity to solve the issue of global warming. We all will not survive if global temperature is warmer than now.
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, March 6, 2022
For more information on Vladimir Putin, please visit the following link:
Admired by former President Donald Trump and feared by his rivals, Putin: The New Tsar is an enthralling BBC political documentary on BBC Select that reveals the story of Vladimir Putin’s extraordinary rise to power. From a lowly KGB colonel to Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s right-hand man and ultimately his successor, those from his inner circle, both close friends and bitter enemies, describe his often harsh methods. BBC Select is the new home for documentaries. Available in the U.S and Canada. Find out more and start your free trial: https://bit.ly/3kwM3bU Follow us on social media ?? Facebook: https://bit.ly/37UXpBn Twitter: https://bit.ly/3dSUqxc Instagram: https://bit.ly/3uEVieL
Subscribe here: http://9Soci.al/v6PJ50GjSKI | Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia with an iron fist for more than 20 years as he began his invasion of Ukraine. An expert of Russian politics at ANU, Dr Leonid Petrov, said he believes the Russian leader is undermining “law-based world order” to replace it with “the law of the jungle”. (Broadcast February 26, 2022) Stream full episodes on 9Now: https://9now.app.link/5Kxzlq5dX6 Follow ACA on Facebook: http://facebook.com/ACurrentAffair9 Follow ACA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ACurrentAffair9 Follow ACA on Instagram: http://instagram.com/ACurrentAffair9 A Current Affair covers the realms of politics, crime, human rights, science, technology, celebrities and entertainment – all investigated by a dedicated team. A Current Affairs airs weeknights 7.00pm on Channel 9 #ACA#ACurrentAffair#TracyGrimshaw
In this 2015 documentary, FRONTLINE traces Vladimir Putin’s ascent from unemployed spy to modern-day czar, and investigates the accusations of criminality and corruption that have surrounded his reign in Russia. (Aired 2015) This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: http://www.pbs.org/donate?. In this 2015 film, a coproduction with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, producer Neil Docherty and correspondent Gillian Findlay traced Putin’s career back two decades to his political start in St. Petersburg, where allegations of corruption began almost immediately. Drawing on firsthand accounts from exiled Russian business tycoons, writers and politicians, as well as the exhaustive research of scholar and best-selling “Putin’s Kleptocracy” author Karen Dawisha, the film examined troubling episodes in Putin’s past, from alleged money-laundering activities and ties to organized crime, to a secret personal fortune said to be in the billions. Love FRONTLINE? Find us on the PBS Video App, where there are more than 300 FRONTLINE documentaries available to watch any time: https://to.pbs.org/FLVideoApp?#Documentary Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1BycsJW? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinepbs? Twitter: https://twitter.com/frontlinepbs? Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline
Watch New York Times reporter Peter Baker’s candid, full interview on Vladimir Putin and allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election – all part of “The Putin Files”, FRONTLINE’s media transparency project. Explore Baker’s full interview and interactive transcript here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/in… Explore the entire “Putin File” experience here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/int…
On this edition for Saturday, March 5, Putin says sanctions are ‘akin to declaration of war,’ the number of Ukrainians leaving the country reaches more than 1.3 million and continues to grow rapidly, and in our signature segment how NYC’s guaranteed income program is helping new mothers find their footing. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
More than 600,000 children have now been displaced by war, thousands of American volunteers to fight alongside Ukrainians, and sunflowers marking support for Ukraine. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#Russia#Ukraine
Who is the Russian President, and what does he want with Ukraine? Vladimir Putin is the President of Russia, and has been the country’s leader for more than 22 years. He grew up in an area which is now St Petersburg. His political career began when he and his family moved to Moscow in 1996, and he quickly became an important political figure. The BBC’s Ros Atkins looks at Putin’s life and his world view – and how they influence the decision he took this week. Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog#Ukraine#Russia#BBCNews
From a basement in the centre of Kyiv, BBC correspondent, James Waterhouse, has been reporting on the seismic developments in Ukraine as the Russian bombardment continues. In this special programme, James speaks with colleagues from BBC News across Ukraine and Russia on the extraordinary impact of seven days that have changed the world. Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog#BBCNews
Is Putin’s power ebbing away in Russia’s own back yard? – BBC News
For Russian President Vladimir Putin, it’s not just the coronavirus pandemic that is making 2020 a difficult year. In recent months the Kremlin has faced a whole series of geo-political challenges on its doorstep, including mass protests in Belarus and the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. So what do these dramatic events mean for Russia’s influence in its own back yard Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog
A woman became the third person ever to be cured of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, after she received a stem-cell transplant that used cells from umbilical cord blood, scientists reported Tuesday (Feb. 15).
The two other people cured of HIV, Timothy Brown and Adam Castillejo, both received bone marrow transplants from donors who carried a genetic mutation that blocks HIV infection, Live Science previously reported. These transplants contained adult hematopoietic stem cells, which are stem cells that develop into all types of blood cells, including white blood cells, a key component of the immune system.
The majestic Mount Etna is erupting so strongly in the Mediterranean that it’s catching the attention of the International Space Station crew.
Members of Expedition 66 currently in orbit shared some views of space of the highly active volcano, which has erupted dozens of times in the past year alone.
“@astro_luca’s home volcano #Etna is clearly smoking (and spitting lava as I learnt from the news) ,” wrote European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer on Saturday (Feb. 12), referring to fellow ESA spaceflyer Luca Parmitano, who is from Italy.
A newborn baby in the U.K. died last week of Lassa fever — an acute viral illness that is endemic in parts of West Africa. Because the disease doesn’t spread easily, however, the chances of a wider outbreak are low, health authorities said.
The infant was one of three confirmed cases of the virus in the U.K.; all of the infected were members of the same family, and they had recently traveled to West Africa, the BBC reported on Feb. 15.
If you’re feeling anxious or depressed because you can’t afford to fuel up your car or buy groceries, you aren’t alone. With the cost of living at an all-time high in the U.K., and individuals still reeling from pandemic lockdowns, who could blame you? Though you can’t change the economy, there are simple actions you can take to stay sane and even boost your mental health.
Dips in mental health for a variety of reasons have been stark across the globe. In Great Britain, 17% of adults reported experiencing depression in summer 2021, up from about 10% pre-pandemic. (In early 2021, the rate reached as high as 21%.) The U.S. has seen a similar disruption in mental health: According to statistics published in April 2021 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the percentage of adults reporting symptoms of anxiety or depression in the U.S. rose from 36.5% to 41.5% between August 2020 and February 2021.
The origin of life on Earth began more than 3 billion years ago, evolving from the most basic of microbes into a dazzling array of complexity over time. But how did the first organisms on the only known home to life in the universe develop from the primordial soup?
Science remains undecided and conflicted as to the exact origin of life, also known as abiogenesis. Even the very definition of life is contested and rewritten, with one study published in the Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, suggesting uncovering 123 different published definitions.
Although science still seems unsure, here are some of the many different scientific theories on the origin of life on Earth.
Researchers have discovered an exceptionally rare, newly hatched “ghost shark” near New Zealand’s South Island, according to the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
Translucent, gelatinous and crowned with a pair of giant black eyes on its pointed head, the alien-like baby likely belongs to one of the more than 50 known species of ghost sharks, also known as chimaeras, which live in deep water around the world. Though not exactly sharks, chimaeras are closely related to both sharks and rays, all of which are fish with skeletons made of cartilage instead of bone, according to NIWA.
Astronomers just found the largest galaxy ever discovered, and they have no idea how it got so big.
At 16.3 million light-years wide, the Alcyoneus galaxy has a diameter 160 times wider than the Milky Way and four times that of the previous title holder, IC 1101, which spans 3.9 million light-years, researchers reported in a new study. Named after one of the mythical giants who fought Hercules and whose name means “mighty ass” in Greek, Alcyoneus is roughly 3 billion light-years from Earth.
(Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Bernardinelli & G. Bernstein (UPenn)/DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys)
The Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet, identified in 2021, is officially the biggest comet ever observed.
The new record, reported on the preprint website arXiv and now accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, bumps the Hale-Bopp comet from the top spot. Hale-Bopp was discovered in 1995 and became visible to the naked eye in 1996; it was about 46 miles (74 kilometers) across. Bernardinelli-Bernstein, also known as comet 2014 UN271, has now been calculated to be about 85 miles (137 km) across.
The mysterious source of a globe-spanning tsunami that spread as far as 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers) from its epicenter was an “invisible” earthquake, a new study has found.
In August 2021, an enormous tsunami rippled out into the North Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. It was the first time a tsunami had been recorded in three different oceans since the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake; at the time, scientists thought it was caused by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake detected near the South Sandwich Islands (a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean).
Ebola can lurk in fluid-filled cavities in the brain and kill monkeys, even after the animals have been treated for the disease and seem to have recovered, a new study shows.
The study, conducted in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), hints at why some human Ebola survivors relapse and die months or years after recovering from their initial infections, The Scientist reported. Past studies of monkeys and humans suggested that the Ebola virus can lurk in various places in the body — including the testes, eyes and brain — and the new report may reveal where in the brain the virus persists.
With five eyes, a backward-facing mouth, and a long, claw-tipped trunk where its nose should be, Opabinia regalis is one of the strangest-looking celebrities of the Cambrian period. In fact, this ancient sea-dweller is so unique that scientists have never discovered another species in the fossil record that appears to fit into its alien-faced family.
A four-story-tall rogue wave that briefly reared up in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Canada in 2020 was the “most extreme” version of the freaky phenomenon ever recorded, scientists now say.
Rogue waves, also known as freak or killer waves, are massive waves that appear in the open ocean seemingly from nowhere.
The rogue wave was detected on Nov. 17, 2020, around 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) off the coast of Ucluelet on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, by an oceanic buoy belonging to Canadian-based research company MarineLabs. Now, in a new study published online Feb. 2 in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists have revealed that the Ucluelet wave was around 58 feet (17.6 meters) tall, making it around three times higher than surrounding waves. Rogue waves this much larger than surrounding swells are a “once in a millennium” occurrence, the researchers said in a statement.
In its 4.5 billion-year existence, Earth has been punched and gouged by hundreds of large asteroids that have slammed into its surface. At least 190 of these collisions have left colossal scars that are still visible today. But not every space rock that zips into our planet’s atmosphere makes it to the ground. So what does it take for an asteroid to make a dent on Earth, and which known impact events have left the biggest craters?
Most space rocks that barrel into Earth’s atmosphere aren’t giant at all. They’re very small — around 3 feet (1 meter) across, according to NASA. That’s good for Earthlings, as any space rock less than 82 feet (25 m) in diameter usually won’t make it past Earth’s atmosphere, NASA reported. The space rock’s super high speeds heat up the gases in the atmosphere, which burn away the space rock (which technically becomes a meteor once it meets the atmosphere) as it passes through. In most cases, any space rock remnant that makes it through the atmosphere will cause little or no damage if it reaches the ground.
This week, you can lunch with the Snow Moon, which will appear at its fullest at 11:57 a.m. EST (1657 GMT) on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
If you can’t make this lunar lunch date, the moon will still be a perfect companion for other outdoor activities, appearing full for three days, from Tuesday (Feb. 15) through Thursday night (Feb. 17), according to NASA.
Astronomers have finally seen the remnants of a dead planet as it tumbled onto the surface of a dead star — and in doing so, they confirmed decades of speculation about what happens to solar systems that reach the end of their lives.
These explosive observations — which were taken with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory — provide a preview of the violent future that may await Earth and its sun billions of years from now, the authors wrote in a study published Feb. 9 in the journal Nature.
The Wari leaders of a 1,200-year-old town now called Quilcapampa may have used their access to the psychoactive substance vilca to help keep their people loyal, a team of archaeologists says.
Recent excavations at the center of Quilcapampa, a site in southern Peru, revealed 16 vilca seeds alongside the remains of a drink made from fermented fruit that scientists refer to as “chicha de molle.” The archaeologists found the seeds and drink in an area of the site that contains buildings that were likely used for feasting, the team of researchers wrote in a paper published Jan. 12 in the journal Antiquity.
In 2017, a totally bizarre object zipped through the solar system. Nicknamed ‘Oumuamua, this interstellar traveler was too far away and too speedy to be identified. Years later, scientists are still puzzling over what it might have been.
It’s not too late to go see, according to a new research paper posted to the preprint website arXiv. By executing a complex maneuver around Jupiter, a spacecraft launched by 2028 could catch up with ‘Oumuamua in 26 years.
A powerful geomagnetic storm has doomed 40 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX last week, the company has announced.
Elon Musk’s company launched a Falcon 9 rocket bearing the 49 satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (Feb. 3), but a geomagnetic storm that struck a day later sent the satellites plummeting back toward Earth, where they will burn up in the atmosphere.
(Woodruff et al. (2022)/Artwork by Corbin Rainbolt)
Hacking coughs, uncontrollable sneezing, high fevers and pounding headaches can make anyone miserable — even a dinosaur.
Recently, researchers identified the first evidence of respiratory illness in a long-necked, herbivorous type of dinosaur known as a sauropod, which lived about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago) in what is now Montana.
(Ryo Taniguchi, et al. The Science of Nature. September 28, 2021)
Today’s cockroaches are nocturnal creepy crawlers that scatter when you turn on the light. But their ancient relatives were likely the polar opposite, according to the discovery of an immaculately preserved, big-eyed cockroach trapped in amber.
Its huge peepers likely helped it forage during the day, when the sun was blazing overhead.
On an underwater mountain in the Arctic Ocean lives a community of sponges with a ghoulish secret. With little to eat in the nutrient-poor water, the sponges survive by digesting the remains of long-dead animals that once inhabited the seamount peaks where the sponges now live. And they’ve been feasting on their extinct neighbors’ corpses for centuries.
Scientists recently discovered these macabre creatures on the Langseth Ridge, part of a former volcanic seamount in the Central Arctic, at depths of 1,640 to 1,969 feet (500 to 600 meters) where temperatures hover just above freezing. In those icy depths, researchers found thousands of sponges covering an area measuring 5.8 square miles (15 square kilometers).
Imported pet hamsters carried the delta variant of the novel coronavirus into Hong Kong, sparking a local outbreak, a new study suggests.
The research, posted Jan. 28 to the database Preprints with The Lancet, has not yet been peer-reviewed, but it provides the first evidence of hamster-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Hamsters can be infected with the coronavirus in laboratory settings and are often used in research, but prior to the Hong Kong outbreak, there wasn’t evidence of the rodents passing the virus to humans, Nature reported.
So far, the outbreak has affected about 50 people and has prompted government officials to cull thousands of pet hamsters in the city, according to Nature.
(Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images)
NASA’s asteroid monitoring system has been upgraded so that it can scan the entire night sky once every 24 hours for potentially hazardous space rocks that are heading our way.
The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) is essential for tracking of asteroids and debris that could be on a collision course with Earth, and it is operated from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. ATLAS began as an array of just two telescopes in Hawaii, but it has now expanded to include two more telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere — giving it a complete view of the sky.
Even the glaciers on Mount Everest are not safe from climate change, new research suggests.
In a record-setting study, a team of scientists scaled the world’s highest peak to monitor the mountain’s highest-altitude glacier — the South Col Glacier, standing nearly 26,000 feet (8,000 meters) above sea level — for signs of climate-related ice loss. After installing the two highest weather stations on Earth and collecting the world’s highest ice core from the glacier, the team found that South Col is losing ice roughly 80 times faster than it took for the ice to accumulate on the glacier’s surface, they reported Feb. 3 in the journal npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.
The ocean is often thought of as a victim of climate change, in need of human protection. But ocean expert Susan Ruffo says that mindset needs to shift. From storing carbon to providing protection to coastal communities, Ruffo highlights the ocean’s ready-made solutions to the climate crisis and asks: With more than eighty percent of the ocean still unexplored, what new solutions are waiting to be discovered?
A conservationist and former diplomat, Susan Ruffo is the senior advisor for Ocean and Climate at United Nations Foundation.
Susan Ruffo’s resource list
TEDMonterey July 2021
The unexpected, underwater plant fighting climate change
Carlos M. Duarte
Once considered the ugly duckling of environmental conservation, seagrass is emerging as a powerful tool for climate action. From drawing down carbon to filtering plastic pollution, marine scientist Carlos M. Duarte details the incredible things this oceanic hero does for our planet — and shows ingenious ways he and his team are protecting and rebuilding marine life.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED’s editors chose to feature it for you.
Learn more about how rebuilding coastal habitats, including mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes, is an effective climate solution and a path to restoring marine life. Support local projects.
Carlos M. Duarte researches the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems — and develops nature-based solutions to mitigate them.
Carlos M. Duarte’s resource list
Countdown Summit October 2021
The forest is our teacher. It’s time to respect it
Nemonte Nenquimo
For thousands of years, the Amazon rainforest has provided food, water and spiritual connection for its Indigenous inhabitants and the world. But the endless extraction of its natural resources by oil companies and others is destroying the lives of those who live there, says Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo, and threatening the overall stability of Earth’s biosphere. In this powerful talk, she reminds us of the destruction that continues to happen to the world’s largest tropical rainforest — and demands respect for Mother Nature. “The forest is our teacher,” she says. (Filmed in Ecuador by director Tom Laffay and associate producer Emily Wright, in collaboration with Amazon Frontlines. In Spanish with subtitles.)
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED’s editors chose to feature it for you.
Donate to Amazon Frontlines, a nonprofit cofounded by Nemonte Nenquimo to seed a global effort to drive resources to the frontlines of Indigenous action in the Amazon.
Sign the letter to Ecuador’s Supreme Court, written by Nemonte Nenquimo and other Indigenous peoples to demand respect for their right to decide the future of their ancestral territories.
Nemonte Nenquimo is an Indigenous leader of the Waorani peoples, legendary hunter-harvesters of the south-central Ecuadorian Amazon. She is a founder of the Ceibo Alliance and Amazon Frontlines and a board member of Nia Tero.
Countdown Summit October 2021
The powerful women on the front lines of climate action
Farwiza Farhan
When it comes to big problems like climate change, we tend to focus on big solutions — but many of the best ideas come from people on the ground, facing day-to-day conservation battles. Sharing her effort to protect the Leseur ecosystem in Indonesia (the last place on Earth where the Sumatran rhino, tiger, elephant and orangutan still roam together in the wild), TED Fellow and conservationist Farwiza Farhan explains the challenges women face on the front lines of forest preservation within patriarchal societies — and the resilient, world-changing power they hold.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED’s editors chose to feature it for you.
About the speaker
Farwiza Farhan
Forest conservationist
Farwiza Farhan is a marine biologist and forest conservationist seeking to protect and restore the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra. She is a 2021 TED Fellow
Countdown May 2021
Women and girls, you are part of the climate solution
Rumaitha Al Busaidi
What does gender equality have to do with climate change? A lot more than you might think. Empowering women and girls around the world is one of the most important ways to combat carbon pollution and is projected to reduce CO2-equivalent gases by a total of 80 billion tons. Entrepreneur, scientist and TED Fellow Rumaitha Al Busaidi looks at why women are more likely to be impacted and displaced by climate catastrophes — and explains why access to education, employment and family planning for all women and girls is the key to our climate future.
Omani scientist, activist and athlete Rumaitha Al Busaidi empowers Arab women to step into spaces previously denied to them — whether it’s a football field, volcano summit or the front line of the battle against climate change.
Rumaitha Al Busaidi’s resource list
Western states face a bleak future amid the worst drought in more than 1,000 years
The so-called megadrought that is afflicting the American West is the worst in 1,200 years, according to a study published this week. It has dried up water supplies, threatened ranchers and fueled wildfires. Park Williams, the lead author of the study just published in the journal Nature Climate Change, joins William Brangham with more. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Remembering Ing & John’s Street Art 2019 before the COVID-19 arrived, New York Times, AXIOS, PBS News, and NBC News
Remembering Ing & John’s Street Art 2019 before the COVID-19 arrived
Ing & John’s Street Art 2019, Downtown Newark, New Jersey, USA
Kai, The Artist, and Ing and John’s Artwork
July – December, 2019
Photographs by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts
My first day of Street art was on Friday, July 26, 2019. I took some plants from our backyard garden to display in front of our shop. I started my first display of artwork with “Elephants at the Water Lily Pond” I produced in 1999. There are always people walking by our place, but more during lunch time. Most of them are the office workers. Also, in the evening, people walk by going home from work. Some people are interested in the artwork, and ask questions, while others are oblivious to the artwork that I display.
I love plants and flowers. It makes me happy when I see the freshness of green leaves and beautiful flowers blooming. Our shop is closed temporally, and the window gate is down. I thought that if I display our artwork and some of the plants from our backyard garden in front of the shop gate, it would make it more pleasant for the people who pass by. I am happy to do it, and I hope the artwork and the plants will help the downtown office workers or others feel fresh and lively.
I love street art for many reasons. First of all, the artwork is there for the public. It is for everyone who passes to their destination. Without spending time visiting art galleries or museums, they can see art while they are going to work or getting lunch. Some may pay attention to the artwork and some may not. Some may ask questions about the artwork. I hope, at least the artwork will activate the thought process of those passing by.
This artwork of mine titled, “I Have A Dream – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr”, I displayed from, Wednesday, August 14, 2019, to August 21, 2019. I produced this work in 2010. I also added more plants to fill the front of shop space.
My Thai classical artwork was displayed on Thursday, August 22, 2019. I produced this artwork in1994.
For more photos and information, please visit the following link:
Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 1
On Monday, August 28, 2019 John added his work to the display. John’s artwork is on the far left, “Impossible Dreamer”. “Gandhi Man of Peace”, in the middle is my artwork, which I produced in 2010. The far right is John’s artwork “Beneath the Lake”. Thanks to John Watts, my husband, for helping to display the artwork in a better presentation.
I am happy to display our artworks in public. There seems to be a positive reaction from the people who view them. People comment about the beautiful plants and unique artwork.
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Monday, October 7, 2019
I am very happy to have an opportunity to display our artworks in public. There were people asking some questions about our artwork. Some people took pictures of our artwork. It seems to be a positive reaction from the people who view them. People comment about the beautiful plants and unique artwork.
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Tuesday, October 22, 2019
For more photos and information, please visit the following link:
Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 3
Kai, our grandson, who love to do painting. He volunteers to do artwork in front our shop.
This is the nature of life. One minute we are here and the second minute we are gone. What remains’ is what we did with the minutes before, while we are still alive on earth.
On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, while we were taking our artwork down at night time, a homeless man asked me, “Do you sell the paintings?”. “No, I said, we put our artwork up for people to see, and it makes the sidewalk more pleasant to walk by.” Then he pointed to my Gandhi artwork and asked “Who is this man?” I explained to him that “His name is Gandhi. He helped his country of India to gain independence from the 200-hundred-year rule by the British Empire. He achieved this by non-violent mean. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought for human rights in this country, USA, followed Gandhi’s non-violent philosophy. I felt very glad that the homeless man asked me the questions.
I do not think that homeless people or working-class people will have a much of an opportunity to visit art galleries or museums. This is one of the reasons that I love Street Art. The artwork is in public view. Some might like the artwork or some might not, but it can create inter action and activate the viewers to think. This thinking process helps create learning and reasoning about what others show or tell you to believe.
There are some people asking us about our artwork that we display in front of our building. So, we decided to post a sign to let people know who did the artwork along with my Peace Poem.
Little one on mother’s bosoms
Happy to hang along
Where ever she goes
Ride, ride, ride
Happy mother and happy child
I am a lucky one
Ride, ride, ride
Mommy, Daddy I love you
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, November 10, 2019
I wish some of the homeless children that I saw in the parks or the public library will have comfort and be as well provided for as this child.
This past summer I took our grandson, Kai to Newark Museum, I found out that it is free admissions for Newark residents, for others it cost $15.00 for an adult and $7.00 for a child. I took Kai to Military Park to play. I met a woman who has seven children and is not a Newark resident, so she can only bring the children to the park and cannot afford to pay for the Museum entrance tickets. I think the working-class, poor, and homeless children, need as much as education as they can possibly have. Museums and libraries are good places for children to learn. They can form good habits of learning and be able to do well in school and have ambition to get higher education, such as college or university. Education can help people get out of poverty. The cities nearby Newark, such as Irvington, Jersey City, and others cities have poor and working-class children. These youngsters will be left out of the experience and enjoyment of seeing the fantastic artwork collections that Newark Museum offers to Newark residents, and well to do families out of town that can afford the price of admission.
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Thursday, November 14, 2019
For more photos and information, please visit the following link:
Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 5
Middle: Vincent van Gogh and his letters to his brother – Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts’ Artwork
Right: Homage to the Dragon – John Watts’ Artwork
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Saturday, November 30, 2019
Kai, The Artist our grandson, who just turned four years old.
It was time for the four-year-old artist to relax and play.
I have a better chance to learn human behavior and development from our grandson than our only daughter when she was young. This was because we were so busy with working and now, we have more time to observe our grandson’s interaction with other children, including his behavior as a baby and his progress up to now.
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Saturday, November 30, 2019
For more photos and information, please visit the following link:
Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 7
The reason I am re-posting some parts of, Ing & John’s Street Art of 2019, is because I miss our life and activities before COVID-19 arrived. I enjoyed posting our artwork on our shop window shutter. I had a chance to see people outside the house. Especially, when I had conversations with people who were interested in our artwork. We usually went to do our shopping, especially for food in different places. We went to obtain our Chinese food at China Town in New York City. After we had some food from China Town, we would head to Central Park, Washington Park. John had some of his readings, and plays performed in NYC, which was his best opportunity to meet friends involved in theater.
On March 10, 2020, I went to a hospital to support our daughter when she gave birth to our second grandson, Bodhi. That is the last day I step outside our house until now. It will be two years next month since that event. Thanks to my husband, John Watts for doing all the grocery shopping and other necessary activities outside of the house. When the weather is warm, I would go to the backyard and tend my garden, enjoying and seeing the flowers bloom. Some butterflies and bees came to drink nectar from the butterfly bushes and other kinds of flowers. Roses were blooming beautifully in Spring and Fall, when the weather was cooler. Now, the weather is very cold, some plants dormant for the winter and others are completely gone. On Saturday, December 29, 2021, I looked at my backyard, and I saw snow over the garden. I took photos of the backyard. John took photos of the front of our shop and the street, before he had to clean the snow from our sidewalk.
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, February 6, 2022
I took photographs from our backyard garden.
John took photos of the front of our shop and the street, before he had to clean the snow from our sidewalk.
The New York Times on January 30, 2022
By Remy Tumin
Snow removal outside the Federal Courthouse in Boston yesterday. Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
1. The East Coast is digging out from a major winter storm.
After dropping a blanket of snow over parts of New York and New Jersey yesterday — as much as 18 inches on some parts of Long Island — the “bomb cyclone” marched northeast, bringing gusting winds, flooding and near-record snow accumulation in New England. Thousands of flights were canceled up and down the coast.
Nearly 70,000 households were without electricity in Massachusetts, especially on Cape Cod and the nearby islands, where heavy winds made restoring power difficult. As much as 30 inches of snow had fallen in some parts of Massachusetts, while Boston had about two feet. The storm drew comparisons to the nightmarish Blizzard of ’78, which buried the city under more than 27 inches of snow.
Parting shot
Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images
Manhattan’s Chrysler Building(center), as seen yesterday from the observation deck of Summit One Vanderbilt.
AXIOS AM on January 30, 2022
By Mike Allen
4. Epic nor’easter
Photo: Nantucket PoliceSeveral streets on Nantucket, the fabled island off Cape Code, “flooded with seawater during high tide … as the powerful nor’easter brought with it storm surges of over 3 feet,” The Boston Globe reports.· Go deeper: Historic bomb cyclone blizzard slams New England, may break records, Axios’ Andrew Freedman reports.Photo: Andrew Kelly/ReutersA person ski over the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday.Photo: Julio Cortez/APSpotted in Ocean City, Md.
On this edition for Saturday, January 29, major winter storm in the Northeast brings blizzard conditions to some areas, Burmese people continue their fight for democracy, and in remembrance of the Holocaust, a message for future generations. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
PBS NewsHour Weekend Full Episode January 30, 2022
On this edition for Sunday, January 30, the Northeast digs out after the first winter storm of the year, President Biden backs NYC Mayor Eric Adams on his crime policy after two police officers were fatally shot, and in our signature segment, singer-songwriter Tori Amos on loss, grief and regeneration. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Northeast recovers from blizzard aftermath, Covid cases falling nationwide, and the List of Supreme Court Justice candidates grows. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NightlyNews#WinterStorm#Covid#SupremeCourt
Across the U.S., a sprawling winter storm brings snow, ice and tornadoes
In 1797, English scientist Henry Cavendish measured the strength of gravity with a contraption made of lead spheres, wooden rods and wire. In the 21st century, scientists are doing something very similar with rather more sophisticated tools: atoms.
One of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes, Mount Vesuvius, appears to “peer up” into the sky through an eerily circular hole in the clouds in this striking satellite image.
The Operational Land Imager onboard the Landsat-8 satellite snapped the photo, which was released Jan. 10 by NASA’s Earth Observatory. The volcano’s summit caldera — a large bowl-like depression that forms when a volcano erupts and collapses — is clearly visible in the new image, as well as a section of large mountainous ridge to the north, which is a remnant of Mount Somma — an ancient volcano that once stood in the same spot as Mount Vesuvius, before the newer volcano’s cone grew from it’s center.
The Earth seems to inhale and exhale in a new animation that shows how carbon is taken up and released as the seasons change.
The animated continents seem to deflate during summertimes, indicating times and places where vegetation is growing and plants are sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. When it’s winter, the continents seem to inflate, indicating that vegetation is dying off and carbon is being released.
Stalactites and stalagmites decorate caves the world over. Stalactites hang down from the ceiling, while stalagmites rise up from the ground. They grow incredibly slowly, and some are so ancient that they predate modern humans, Live Science previously reported.
These tooth-like rock formations grow when dripping water comes into contact with the cave air, according to the National Park Service website. The water carries dissolved minerals, picked up on its journey from Earth’s surface. As it passes through the cave, it leaves tiny traces of those minerals behind, building each stalactite drip by drip.
A small pile of pebbles is clogging up the Perseverance Mars rover’s operations.
The rover, which is collecting rock samples for eventual return to Earth, began to struggle on Dec. 29, after extracting a core from a rock the mission team nicknamed “Issole.” According to a NASA blog, the problem occurred in the device that transfers the drill bit and sample out of the rover’s drill arm and into a carousel inside the rover’s chassis for storage. During the transfer, sensors within the rover recorded a higher-than-normal amount of friction at an unexpected point in the process.
Multiple sclerosis — an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord — may emerge after infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
An estimated 90% to 95% of people catch EBV, also called human herpesvirus 4, by the time they reach adulthood, according to the clinical resource UpToDate. In children, the virus typically causes an asymptomatic or very mild infection, but in teens and young adults, EBV can cause infectious mononucleosis, better known as “mono.” Despite EBV being a commonly-caught virus, there’s evidence to suggest that infections with the virus are a risk factor for multiple sclerosis, a far less common condition.
A million years ago, the soundtrack of the “sky island” mountains of East Africa may have been very similar to what it is today. That’s because a group of tiny, colorful birds has been singing the exact same tunes for more than 500,000 years — and maybe as long as 1 million years, according to a new study.
Sunbirds in the family Nectariniidae are colorful, tiny, nectar-feeding birds that resemble hummingbirds and are common throughout Africa and Asia. They are the “little jewels that appear before you,” senior author Rauri Bowie, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a curator in the school’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, said in a statement.
Doctors have transplanted the heart from a genetically modified pig into the chest of a man from Maryland in a last-ditch effort to save his life. The first-of-its-kind surgery is being hailed as a major step forward in the decades-long effort to successfully transplant animal organs into humans.
Although it’s been tried before — one of the earliest subjects, known as Baby Fae, survived 21 days with a baboon’s heart in 1984, according to Time — the practice has fallen into disuse because the animal organs are usually quickly rejected by their human host.
But doctors say this new transplant is a breakthrough because the donor pig had undergone gene-editing to remove a specific type of sugar from its cells that’s thought to be responsible for previous organ rejections in patients.
About 2,500 years ago, a man in northwest China was buried with armor made of more than 5,000 leather scales, a military garment fashioned so intricately, its design looks like the overlapping scales of a fish, a new study finds.
The armor, which resembles an apron-like waistcoat, could be donned quickly without the help of another person. “It is a light, highly efficient one-size-fits-all defensive garment for soldiers of a mass army,” said study lead researcher Patrick Wertmann, a researcher at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich.
A hungry badger searching for food seems to have uncovered what turned out to be hundreds of Roman coins in a Spanish cave, according to a new study.
Archaeologists first discovered several coins laying on the ground at the entrance to a small cave in the woodlands outside Grado in northern Spain in April 2021. The researchers suspect that the coins were unearthed by a European badger (Meles meles) from a nearby den after a heavy storm dumped several feet of snow on the ground, making it harder for animals to find food. The hungry badger probably ventured into the cave looking for something to eat but came across the coins instead.
Roughly 3,600 years ago, the massive Thera volcano in the Aegean Sea blew its top, unleashing massive tsunamis. Now, archaeologists in western Turkey have unearthed the bones of a young man and a dog killed by one of those tsunamis.
It’s the first time that any victims of the ancient eruption have been found in their archaeological context, and it’s the northernmost evidence found of the tsunamis that followed it.
The remains of a monstrous, 33-foot-long (10 meters) “sea dragon” that swam in the seas when dinosaurs were alive some 180 million years ago have been unearthed on a nature reserve in England. The behemoth is the biggest and most complete fossil of its kind ever discovered in the U.K.
“It is a truly unprecedented discovery and one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history,” excavation leader Dean Lomax, a paleontologist and visiting scientist at the University of Manchester, said in a statement.
Though many such ichthyosaurs have been found in the U.K., none have been as large as the current discovery.
Energy saving light bulbs were invented as a greener alternative to traditional bulbs, needing 90% less electricity to produce the same light, according to the Centre of Sustainable Energy. But how do they do it?
As bright ideas go, it’s almost impossible to overstate the impact the humble light bulb has had on human civilization. Before Thomas Edison had the original ‘light bulb moment’ and patented his invention all the way back in 1879 people were literally living in the dark ages, according to the Franklin Institute. People depended on oil or gas lamps and candles to light their rooms and streets, and when the sun went down the world would look much duller than it does today.
(Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
The ice giants Uranus and Neptune don’t get nearly enough press; all the attention goes to their larger siblings, mighty Jupiter and magnificent Saturn.
At first glance, Uranus and Neptune are just bland, boring balls of uninteresting molecules. But hiding beneath the outer layers of those worlds, there may be something spectacular: a constant rain of diamonds.
Hospitals may not be the first places that come to mind when you think of where to see works of famous contemporary artists, but inside NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, there are not one but two Keith Haring murals. The murals are part of the largest public art collection in New York City, a collection of over 3,000 works curated by NYC Health + Hospitals. As an advocate who believed art should be accessible to everyone, Haring gifted the murals in 1986. In Untapped New York’s upcoming talk with Linh Dang, Senior Director of NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine Program, she will discuss how Haring’s contribution to the New York City healthcare system is part of a tradition that dates back to the 1930s and is being carried on today by The Community Mural Project.
In a proposal for the Woodhull mural, Haring explains his inspiration for the piece. When visiting the hospital, he noticed a border running around the lobby, “an intricate part of the architecture” that he wanted to “embellish…with a frieze of characters.” The characters are “very simple human and animal figures, dancing, playing, break dancing, etc.,” outlined in thick black paint with bright splashes of primary colors. Since the 700-foot long mural is the first thing that patients see upon entering the hospital, Haring wanted the design to be “positive, uplifting, unaggressive, imaginative and comforting.”
Haring’s parade of playful figures continues down two corridors that branch off of the main lobby. The hallway mural figures are just black and white but have more details than the lobby mural. While the lobby figures are abstract shapes, the hallway figures have details like faces and clothing. To complete the murals, Haring spent an entire week inside the Bed-Stuy hospital. During his downtime, he socialized with hospital staff, patients, visitors, and fans. He happily signed autographs and did small drawings for anyone who asked.
Photograph by Rick Luftglass
The Community Mural Project facilitates the creation of collaborative works of art that bring together healthcare staff, patients, artists, and local residents. Each group plays an important role in every step of the creation process, from designing the mural to actually painting it! Started in 2019, the project has already added sixteen new murals to hospitals all over New York City, with plans to add more. The goal of the program is to “re-imagine hospitals and promote greater neighborhood wellness.” The Community Mutal Project was more vital than ever in 2020, when the murals helped to combat caregiver fatigue and bolstered the spirits of frontline workers during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Image Courtesy of NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals Woodhull Hospital has brought colorful inspiration to its Flushing Avenue side. On October 8, a mural titled, Through Healing We Unite, which the artist hopes will communicate the balance of both care workers and patients to cultivate healing, was unveiled. Oct 15, 2020
Through Healing, We Unite mural unveiling. Photo: Anna Bradley-Smith for BK Reader.
Through Healing, We Unite mural unveiling. Photo: Anna Bradley-Smith for BK Reader.
Through Healing, We Unite mural unveiling. Photo: Anna Bradley-Smith for BK Reader.
Just in time for Black History Month, a new mural has just been unveiled at Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital. “The Spirit of Sea View” by Yana Dimitrova, depicts the hospital’s deep history dedicated to serving the most vulnerable populations of New York, including the role of the Black Angels. The project was completed under New York City Health + Hospitals Community Murals Project in partnership with the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund and is located in the E. Robitzek Building at Sea View. It consists of four panels, each highlighting significant individuals and events of Sea View’s past. In the mural, you’ll see a reference to the Delft terra cotta panels that were salvaged from the abandoned tuberculosis buildings in the hospital.
Panel ones depicts individuals involved in manual labor such as farming and construction. Photo by Michael Paras.
Remnants of the Staten Island Farm Colony, which is across the street from Sea View today
Miss Virginia Allen, the last living Black Angel nurse
Panel two honors the bravery of the Black Angels.
The final panel reflects the present. Although for many years Sea View’s buildings were abandoned and forgotten, they have been revived and transformed into a rehabilitation center, nursing home, and a volunteer fire company as a part of The New York City Economic Development Corp’s efforts to create a Wellness Community. In the mural, the patient is the portrait of Miss Marquita, an actual patient of Sea View, in the greenhouse of the hospital.
Donald may also need Mickey’s services after the kite ride from the looks of it. The panorama captures the size and also color of the install. In this case, painting to the edges of the frame really worked well.
Mickey keeping good company with the legos.
An apple a day or a quick race in the driving seats.
The roll down black out window screens were a fun canvas for Minnie and Lady Duck. The orange cloud background behind each contrasts the bright green hills of the hospital mural. We were able to use some negative space here also.
Green hills, blue skies, puffy clouds and wild flowers also.
You can see how the hand painted graphics transform the environment in the picture above.
Park West Gallery
Jonathan Boos
Bronx Times
