Some upcoming events are posted at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2026/04/update-for-week-16-of-2026-palestinian.html (updated recently) and durhamspark.blogspot.com/2026/04/update-for-week-15-of-2026-anti-war.html ; some anniversaries are posted at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/04/some-additional-events-and.html , etc.
More will be added later.
Raúl Castro's 95 birth anniversary: cpcml.ca/TML2026/T56040.HTM#1
(The anniversary of this blog was on the 6th, of course the landing at Normandy was talked up, and a "pearl-colored 50' disk" reportedly hovered and landed, "leaving ground marks," in Greensboro, NC June 6, 1975 –.UFO Exist!, 1976; Isle of Wight report June 8th? World Oceans Day? – www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks ; Forklift Safety Day is June 9th.)
Israel tried to sink the USS Liberty June 8, 1967 in the Mediterranean off Egypt, killing or wounding many US personnel; I thought that LBJ prevented a military response but I could be mistaken; Israel has been richly rewarded by the US government since and Israel continues to get away with killing US citizens up to today.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/08/the-attack-on-the-uss-liberty-55-years-later/
The 'We want to be bombed and want to betray Hezbollah' anti-Iran propaganda continues from NPR's correspondent in Turkey. An alleged Iranian in Iran who wants to be bombed compared it to a world war, though. They want their country to be ruled by the new version of the German-Italian-Japanese fascist anti-Soviet Axis, now led by the USA (there used to be a word for this)? The war is "in" Iran, NPR always says, and up to now they have been separating off what they term the war between Israel and Hezbollah. They portray what has been going on as several separate wars, none, reportedly, very much trouble for the US or Israel. They say nothing about Israel's losses or censorship regime and little about US losses, other than the Strait of Hormuz being closed now where it was open before. Very little about what the NATO countries have been doing for Israel, but they trumpet about any country that (allegedly) helps Russia. They make everything about Trump and nothing about Israel – CBS, the persecution of Mahmoud Khalil, etc. They don't want to talk about Americans who want the US to have little or nothing to do with Israel and an end to the yearly attacks on Iran. A few days ago NPR had another story about Israeli-Palestinian civilian engagement, a start ups event at Northeastern (not in Palestine) – the Palestinians all seemed so apologetic.
["How Successful Were Iran's Retaliatory Strikes on Israel? Israeli Military Censors Don't Want You To Know." – the307.substack.com/p/how-successful-were-irans-retaliatory
Today is the 100th day of the latest US-Iran war, NPR says.
They revealed why warmonger Emily Fang was in Israel a few months ago – to whitewash something like 20,000 Chinese Uighurs and their families who went to Syria to join the Islamists in NATO's proxy jihad and are now in HTS' military. I didn't listen to Fang earlier, but a similar or the same story was on this evening. Funded by a grant from Pulitzer.
On Ukrainian and Jewish fascisms:
eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/zionazis (part of a series?)
www.rt.com/news/640771-zelensky-fascism-fetish-west/
Trying to save Albania's Adriatic Sazan Island from the Trumps, etc.:
geopolitiq.substack.com/p/albania-is-fighting-back-against
? – english.almayadeen.net/news/environment/-ivanka–go-home—albania-protests-kushner-linked-resort-pr
Dazibao in the Chinese Cultural Revolution:
Kollibri.Substack.com on Iran's natural symbols
Hands Off Nadia Topete: stopfbi.org/news/hands-off-immigrants-rights-activist-nadia-topete-stop-grand-jury-repression/
From BAJ (slightly edited) –
106 Purefoy Road
Balance and Accuracy in Journalism
Presents
Lawrence Wilkerson and Lawrence Johnson.
In Maine (from Lisa Savage’s Substack):
The polluting-for-recruiting Blue Angels military air show will be protested outside the Brunswick Executive Airport on Saturday July 11 starting at 9am.
Our next statewide coalition standout will be in Bangor on Saturday July 25 at an earlier time than usual: 11am at the West Market Square intersection (where Main St., Hammond Street, Broad Street, and Central St. meet).
Our August standout will be in Lubec on Saturday August 1 at 1:30pm. Stay tuned for details on staying in this lovely Canada-adjacent coastal community.
I saw an adult Carolina locust or grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina) this morning and in the afternoon. These relatively large, pale-colored, mottled, grasshoppers are very well camouflaged on dry, semi-bare ground, but reveal their boldly patterned black and off-white inner wings in flight. It was moving or waving its back right leg for some reason. I think their wings are supposed to both startle predators and signal for courtship. Carolina locust are usually out by May or maybe before, but are uncommon in my neighborhood. Male Carolina anoles have also been running around, signaling with their pink dewlaps. I saw that despite the drought the Eastern gama grass now has a few dark purple, 'furry' female flowers, which usually or always appear before the separate (as in maize), orange male flowers. There might have been a peal of thunder at 5:34pm.
It rained in May and the drought temporarily backed off. It is hot now. Deep blue dayflowers, orange 'wild' daylilies, white daisy fleabane (?), white Gardenias, a white azalea, a white and dark red or red purple rose of Sharon, pink Spirea, etc. have been blooming; just today a dark red/pink Madagascar periwinkle or vinca (not a Vinca?) and white lizard's tail are beginning to bloom.
I thought I heard a cicada of some kind around 8pm on June 4th and more subsequently. I found a bluish-green egg shell (robin?) June 6th. I saw a small brown Chinese or European praying mantis nymph June 7th. Praying mantises have recently colonized the southern UK (the Isle of Wight, etc.?) from mainland Europe. A family of raccoons might be living here (hence a flea or two?) and running around on the roof (at 8:41pm today?). Few fireflies.
On cicadas: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/08/summer-came-in-with-buzz-and-whirr-goes.html
Two or more fireflies, the first of 2026, were out around 7:30 on the 21st. There were more clouds on the 21st and it might have been cooler; it was windy around dusk, followed by a storm, outages, and rain overnight. Deep drought ongoing. A gray treefrog call (more every evening after it began to rain again, but I lost track of when it rained; I think US Memorial Day weekend was cool and wet again this year, though it used to be very warm and dry or maybe stormy every year; I think the Japanese privet used to be blooming in late May, and Manhattan Euonymus around July 4th; green June beetles should be out flying over lawns during the day now or by mid-June; various species of brown May and click beetles have been out at night for a while now) and a yellow sulphur recently. The loud nocturnal treetop summer katydids will start calling in several days? I didn't really hear the loud, buzzing nocturnal spring (shield?) katydids/orthopterans again this year.
I might have neglected to post the many butterfly species I saw at the end of June 2025 (and later this month?) and the 'lost' notes from early 2026.
The new world screwworm fly has escaped from US government control, but Google (why, what does it have to do with IT or their profits?) wants to release genetically-engineered mosquitos somewhere.
"Hayekian" literary criticism?
NP 100th anniversaries (to add later):
Great Smokey Mountains, Shenandoah, Mammoth Cave, Moores Creek Battlefield
'Astronomer propaganda' on HASTRO and PBS (British?) recently.
Meteor showers: www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/ ]
In FT 471 – a meteor hit a house in Koblenz-Hulz, Germany early in the evening on March 8th and a bright meteor or bolide a few feet wide was recently seen over New England. (And humans can be poisoned by drinking blood; there are many human blood types (49?); living fossil marsupials were found in Indonesian West Papua; and an Aegyptius monachus, the biggest species of Old World vulture, turned up in Hunchun, Jilin, China, and video of it walking across a main road was thought to be fake, "AI" or a suit. The Patterson-Gimlin film has been called into question again?)
Some spring festivals in the UK:
Wyrd Wycombe – WyrdWycombe.co.uk ?
The Ely Eel Festival, Penzance May Horns, and the Glastonbury Dragons Wild Hunt
Powwows to add.
Around May 3rd-4th and 30th-31st I saw the Moon near Antares and Fang or pi Scorpii. The "Blue Moon" at the end of May was a "super moon" but smaller than usual. I missed it, but Mars re-appeared around May 14th and there was a conjunction of the Moon and Venus May 18th. Venus was apparently highest on May 31st.
立夏 – Rikka, etc. May 5th-21st in 2026 – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lixia
Pegasus is rising above the trees before dawn now; Cassiopeia is up in the northeast and Capricornus and Aquarius (the waning Moon will be around Aquarius tonight?) to the south to southeast.
On the constellations: penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/home.html
For alerts when the star T CrB goes nova: Astronomerstelegram.org and aavso.org/faq
Venus and Jupiter will appear to be very close together in the west on June 9th.
spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=08&month=06&year=2026
The Moon will appear to be very close to the Pleiades star cluster (M45) early on the 13th; from the Salt Lake City area west the Moon will occlude the Pleiades.
Asteroid Irene will reach opposition June 15th.
The Moon and Venus will be in conjunction June 17th; the Moon will occlude Venus during the day across much of the Americas (beginning around 3:30-4pm here); see: is.gd/iota_0617venus They will be near the Beehive, M44, at dusk, and Venus will be closest to the Beehive on the 19th.
The Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice will be June 21st.
Jupiter and Mercury (greatest elongation on the 15th) will appear to be close together on June 24th
Mars will be near the Pleiades June 29th, not to be within two degrees again until 2038.
For occultations: Stellarium.org , SkySafariAstronomy.com , or lunar-occultations.com/
– From recent issues of Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines and see: planetary.org/night-sky I don't really know the Winter Hexagon asterism, though it is bright, but there is a chart on page 22 of the February issue Sky and Telescope. Now it is getting to be the time of the (Great?) Summer Triangle.
The Blogger software has been changed? Clustrmaps?
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