Harvard says it won’t abandon ‘core’ principles to meet Department of Education demands

• May 12, 2025

By MICHAEL CASEY and COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Harvard University responded Monday to recent threats from the Education Department to halt its grant funding, highlighting reforms it was undertaking but warning it won’t budge on “its core, legally-protected principles” over fears of retaliation.

A letter from Harvard President Alan Garber detailed how the institution had made significant changes to its leadership and governance over the past year and a half. Among the reforms, Garber said, was a broad “strategy to combat antisemitism and other bigotry.”

Last week, the Department of Education threatened a grant freeze in a major escalation of Trump’s battle with the Ivy League school. The administration previously froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, and Trump is pushing to strip the school of its tax-exempt status.

Garber warned that its efforts to change were being “undermined and threatened by the federal government’s overreach into the constitutional freedoms of private universities and its continuing disregard of Harvard’s compliance with the law.”

“Consistent with the law and with our own values, we continue to pursue needed reforms, doing so in consultation with our stakeholders and always in compliance with the law,” Garber wrote. “But Harvard will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear of unfounded retaliation by the federal government.”

An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In call with reporters last week, a Department of Education official accused Harvard of “serious failures.” The person, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Harvard has allowed antisemitism and racial discrimination to perpetuate, it has abandoned rigorous academic standards, and it has failed to allow a range of views on its campus.

To become eligible for new grants, Harvard would need to enter negotiations with the federal government and prove it has satisfied the administration’s requirements.

The demands come amid a pressure campaign targeting several other high-profile universities. The administration has cut off money to colleges including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, seeking compliance with Trump’s agenda.

The White House says it’s targeting campus antisemitism after pro-Palestinian protests swept U.S. college campuses last year. It’s also focused on the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports. And the attacks on Harvard increasingly have called out the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, along with questions about freedom of speech and thought by conservatives on campus.

Harvard has filed a federal lawsuit over the administration’s demands, setting up a closely watched clash in Trump’s attempt to force change at universities that he says have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.

In his letter Monday, Garber also attempted to rebut many of the allegations made by the Education Department. He insisted admission to Harvard was based on “academic excellence and promise” and there were no “quotas, whether based on race or ethnicity or any other characteristic” or an “ideological litmus tests” when it comes to hiring.

Garber also dismissed the suggestion that Harvard was a partisan institution and said he wasn’t aware of any evidence suggesting international students were “more prone to disruption, violence, or other misconduct than any other students.”

Collin Binkley has covered Harvard for nearly a decade – most of the time living half a mile from campus.

​ Orange County Register 

What to know about food poisoning illnesses caused by listeria

• May 12, 2025

A listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat sandwiches and snacks has sickened at least 10 people in the U.S., and a producer is voluntarily recalling dozens of products sold to retail stores, hospitals, hotels, airports and airlines, federal officials said.

The products were made by Fresh & Ready Foods LLC and were sold in Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington.

Those who fell ill and were hospitalized were in California and Nevada. The outbreak has been simmering for many months: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said cases date to December 2023.

Listeria poisoning is caused by a particularly resilient type of bacteria that can survive and grow even during refrigeration. About 1,600 people are infected with it — and 260 die — each year in the U.S., according to the CDC.

Here’s what you need to know:

What was recalled?

The voluntary recall covers more than 80 specific products distributed between April 18 and April 25. The products have “Use By” dates from April 22 to May 19.

Brand names include: Fresh & Ready Foods, City Point Market Fresh Food to Go and Fresh Take Crave Away.

Federal officials say anyone with the products should throw them away or return them. They also suggest cleaning any surfaces that touched the recalled foods.

Where does listeria come from?

Listeria bacteria thrive in moist environments, including soil and water and decaying vegetation and are carried by some animals.

The hardy germs are typically spread when food is harvested, processed, transported or stored in places that are contaminated with the bacteria.

When the bacteria get into a food processing plant, they can be tough to eradicate.

What are the symptoms of listeria?

Foods contaminated with the bacteria can make people sick. Symptoms can be mild and include fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. More serious illness can include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.

Listeria poisoning is tricky because symptoms can start quickly, within a few hours or days after eating contaminated food. But they also can take weeks or up to three months to show up.

Those most vulnerable to getting sick include the very young, people older than 65 and those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.

Does cooking kill listeria?

Listeria can survive and grow in refrigerated food. It can be killed by heating foods to “steaming hot,” or 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius), the CDC says. But that’s not always possible — or palatable — for foods that are made to be eaten cold.

Because listeria can survive under refrigeration, it’s important to clean and sanitize any surfaces, including refrigerator drawers and shelves, that may have come in contact with the products.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange Lutheran softball earns No. 3 seed for CIF Division 1 playoffs

• May 12, 2025

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Orange Lutheran’s softball team on Monday received the No. 3 seed for the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs and will open against visiting Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks on Thursday.

The Lancers (22-5), ranked No. 2 in Orange County this week, are seeded behind No. 1 Norco and No. 2 Etiwanda in Division 1.

Last season, Orange Lutheran lost to Pacifica 3-0 in the Division 1 final.

In a sign of the power-ratings system used to construct the playoff brackets, El Modena (18-8) will play host to Crestview League rival Pacifica (15-11) in the first round on Thursday. The teams played three times in league and were part of a three-way tie for first place.

Pacifica is the two-time defending champion in Division 1.

More coverage of the playoff draw in softball to come.

​ Orange County Register 

Gov. Gavin Newsom urges cities and counties to ban homeless encampments

• May 12, 2025

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday urged California’s local governments to clear homeless encampments, escalating the state’s efforts to ban the growing number of makeshift camps on sidewalks and in parks that are the most visible signs of the crisis of people living on the streets.

The announcement of a new model ordinance for counties, cities and towns is coupled with the release of $3.3 billion in voter-approved funds the state will make available to communities to expand housing and treatment options for homeless residents, the governor’s office said in a news release.

The goal is is to help municipalities set “rules around encampments and establish effective enforcement procedures” that prioritize shelter and services.

“Encampments pose a serious public safety risk, and expose the people in encampments to increased risk of sexual violence, criminal activity, property damage and break-ins, and unsanitary conditions,” the news release said.

In 2024, voters approved a measure that imposes strict requirements on counties to spend on housing and drug treatment programs to tackle the homelessness crisis. It was a signature proposal for Newsom, who campaigned for the measure’s passage.

Under the measure, counties are required to spend about two-thirds of the money from a voter-approved tax enacted in 2004 on millionaires for mental health services on housing and programs for homeless people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse problems.

The key provisions of the model ordinance announced Monday include prohibitions on “persistent camping” in one location, a ban on encampments that block sidewalks and a requirement that local officials provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter prior to clearing an encampment.

The state accounts for nearly a third of the homeless population in the United States. More than 187,000 Californians are in need of housing.

With tents lining streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns across the state, homelessness has become one of the most intractable issues in California and one sure to dog Newsom if he runs for national office.

The governor has also pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment.

A state audit in 2024 found California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the previous five years but did not consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money actually improved the situation.

Despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California does not have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn’t improve in many cities, according to state auditor’s report.

​ Orange County Register 

Who is Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American hostage released by Hamas?

• May 12, 2025

By JULIA FRANKEL and MELANIE LIDMAN

JERUSALEM (AP) — Edan Alexander was 19 when Hamas stormed the Israeli military base where the American-Israeli from New Jersey was a soldier and dragged him into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas released Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, on Monday ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the region this week. The group called it a goodwill gesture aimed at reviving mediated efforts to end the 19-month war. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Alexander was among 251 people taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. Fifty-eight remain in Gaza. Around a third are believed to be alive. Most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

After Hamas announced on Sunday he would be released, Alexander’s family said it “received the greatest gift imaginable — news that our beautiful son Edan is returning home after 583 days in captivity in Gaza.”

Alexander’s parents flew to Israel on Monday. Trump’s hostage negotiator, Adam Boehler, posted a picture on social media showing Alexander’s mother, Yael, aboard the flight.

A native of Tenafly, a suburb of New York City, Edan Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after high school and enlisted in the military. Hamas terrorists seized him from his military base after he volunteered to stay there over the Jewish Sabbath.

In a video Hamas released of Alexander over Thanksgiving weekend in November 2024, he cried and pleaded for help. Though the video was difficult to watch, his family said, it came as a relief to see he was alive.

Hostages freed since then have given the family more news, his father said. Some said Alexander had lost a lot of weight. Others said he’d been an advocate for fellow hostages, standing up for captive Thai workers and telling their captors that the workers weren’t involved in the conflict and should be freed.

Alexander, like other male soldiers held in Gaza, was not included among hostages released during a ceasefire earlier this year. Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in January and February in return for nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. The sight of some emaciated hostages among those freed brought fresh despair to families whose loved ones remained in Gaza.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, along with the release of more Palestinian prisoners. Israel has rejected those terms, saying it will continue the war until all the hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated.

Hamas said in March it would release Alexander and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel recommitted to the stalled ceasefire agreement. Alexander’s father, Adi, said at the time he was speaking with Trump’s hostage negotiators almost daily, pressing for his son’s release.

Days later, Israel shattered the truce with a surprise bombardment that killed hundreds of Palestinians. Israel called the renewed bombardment a tactic to pressure Hamas to negotiate different ceasefire terms. Hamas said the offensive puts remaining hostages at risk.

In April, Hamas published another video of Alexander in which he spoke from a dark room. His family believes he has been held in Hamas’ vast tunnel network.

Days later, Hamas said it had lost contact with the group holding Alexander after an Israeli airstrike targeted their location. Israeli officials have not commented on the claim.

The Alexander family Monday urged the Israeli government to continue efforts to free all the hostages — a plea that other families have echoed since the Hamas announcement on Sunday.

“Please don’t stop,” Alexander’s family said. “We hope our son’s release begins negotiations for all 58 remaining hostages, ending this nightmare for them and their families.”

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv contributed.

​ Orange County Register 

Israel’s blockade means Gaza’s hospitals cannot provide food to recovering patients

• May 12, 2025

By MOHAMMED JAHJOUH

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — It cost a fortune, she said, but Asmaa Fayez managed to buy a few zucchinis in a Gaza market. She cooked them with rice and brought it to her 4-year-old son, who has been in the hospital for the past week. The soup was his only meal of the day, and he asked for more.

“It’s all finished, darling,” Fayez replied softly. Still, it was an improvement from the canned beans and tuna she brings on other days, she said.

Hospital patients are among the most vulnerable as Palestinians across Gaza struggle to feed themselves, with Israel’s blockade on food and other supplies entering the territory now in its third month.

With hospitals unable to provide food, families must bring whatever they can find for loved ones.

“Most, if not all, wounded patients have lost weight, especially in the past two months,” Dr. Khaled Alserr, a general surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told The Associated Press. Nutritional supplements for intensive care unit patients are lacking, he said.

“Our hands are tied when it comes to making the best choice for patients. Choices are limited,” he said.

Hunger worsens as supplies dwindle

Malnutrition is on the rise across Gaza, aid groups say. Thousands of children have been found with acute malnutrition in the past month, but adults as well are not getting proper nutrients, according to the U.N. It estimates that 16,000 pregnant women and new mothers this year face acute malnutrition.

Since Israel’s blockade began on March 2, food sources have been drying up. Aid groups have stopped food distribution. Bakeries have closed. Charity kitchens handing out bowls of pasta or lentils remain the last lifeline for most of the population, but they are rapidly closing for lack of supplies, the U.N. says.

Markets are empty of almost everything but canned goods and small amounts of vegetables, and prices have been rising. Local production of vegetables has plummeted because Israeli forces have damaged 80% of Gaza’s farmlands, the U.N. says, and much of the rest is inaccessible inside newly declared military zones.

Fayez’s son, Ali al-Dbary, was admitted to Nasser Hospital because of a blocked intestine, suffering from severe cramps and unable to use the bathroom. Fayez believes it’s because he has been eating little but canned goods. She splurged on the zucchini, which now costs around $10 a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Before the war it was less than a dollar.

Doctors said the hospital doesn’t have a functioning scanner to diagnose her son and decide whether he needs surgery.

Israel says it imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March to pressure Hamas to release its remaining hostages and disarm.

Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.

Concern over Israeli plans to control aid

Israeli officials have asserted that enough food entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year. Rights groups have disputed that and called the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a potential war crime.

Now Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, using private contractors to distribute supplies. The U.N. and aid groups have rejected the idea, saying it could restrict who is eligible to give and receive aid and could force large numbers of Palestinians to move — which would violate international law.

Those under care at hospitals, and their families who scrounge to feed them, would face further challenges under Israel’s proposal. Moving to reach aid could be out of the question.

Another patient at Nasser Hospital, 19-year-old Asmaa Faraj, had shrapnel in her chest from an airstrike that hit close to her tent and a nearby charity kitchen in camps for displaced people outside Khan Younis.

When the AP visited, the only food she had was a small bag of dates, a date cookie and some water bottles. Her sister brought her some pickles.

“People used to bring fruits as a gift when they visited sick people in hospitals,” said the sister, Salwa Faraj. “Today, we have bottles of water.”

She said her sister needs protein, fruits and vegetables but none are available.

Mohammed al-Bursh managed to find a few cans of tuna and beans to bring for his 30-year-old son, Sobhi, who was wounded in an airstrike three months ago. Sobhi’s left foot was amputated, and he has two shattered vertebrae in his neck.

Al-Bursh gently gave his son spoonfuls of beans as he lay still in the hospital bed, a brace on his neck.

“Everything is expensive,” Sobhi al-Bursh said, gritting with pain that he says is constant. He said he limits what he eats to help save his father money.

He believes that his body needs meat to heal. “It has been three months, and nothing heals,” he said.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

​ Orange County Register 

PGA Championship: When it starts, how to watch, what’s at stake, betting odds for golf’s next major

• May 12, 2025

By DOUG FERGUSON | AP Golf Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The PGA Championship is the second major of the year and occasionally gets overlooked between the Masters and the U.S. Open. That’s not the case this year when the 107th edition returns to Quail Hollow Club.

Rory McIlroy is the toast of golf after he won the Masters green jacket on his 17th try and became only the sixth player with the career Grand Slam. That last happened 25 years ago, and there’s a chance it could happen again in 35 days if Jordan Spieth were to win.

Remember Scottie Scheffler? The world’s No. 1 player had been slow to hit his stride after a freak hand injury he got while making ravioli. He comes into the PGA Championship off an eight-shot victory in which he tied the PGA Tour’s record score for 72 holes.

Here is a look at what you need to know leading up to the PGA Championship.

When is the PGA Championship?

The first round begins Thursday at about 7 a.m. (Eastern Time) and players in groups of three go off and on both nines, morning and afternoon. The PGA Championship typically puts one of the 20 club professionals in the first group. The biggest names will start on No. 10 in the morning or No. 1 in the afternoon for television purposes.

The top 70 players and tie make the 36-hole cut Friday and advance to the weekend.

How can I watch the PGA Championship?

There is wall-to-wall coverage of the PGA Championship. It starts Thursday and Friday at 7 a.m. (Eastern Time) on ESPN+ until noon, and then it switches to ESPN until 7 p.m. On the weekend, coverage goes from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on ESPN+, then moves to ESPN until 1 p.m. CBS (and Paramount+) take over from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Who are the betting favorites?

Scheffler is a slight favorite by BetMGM Sportsbook at +450, followed by McIlroy at +500. Bryson DeChambeau is next at +1100 and defending champion Xander Schauffele, who hasn’t won this year after a rib injury kept him out for two months, is at +1600.

Spieth, who needs to win the PGA Championship for the career Grand Slam, is at +4000. Compare that with McIlroy at +8000 to sweep all the majors this year.

What’s at stake?

The winner gets the Wanamaker Trophy, which at 27 pounds is the heaviest of the four major championship trophies.

McIlroy will try to become the fifth player since 1960 to win the first two majors of the year. Spieth will try to become the seventh player with the career Grand Slam.

Schauffele is trying to become only the third player to win the PGA Championship in consecutive years at stroke play. And if Justin Thomas were to win, he would join Tiger Woods as the only players to win the PGA Championship twice on the same course.

Who are the players to watch?

McIlroy not only is the Masters champion and a three-time winner this year, he has won four times at Quail Hollow when it hosts a PGA Tour event. He has won more at Quail Hollow than any other golf course in America.

Schauffele, the defending PGA champion, has been runner-up at Quail Hollow each of the last two years.

Thomas won the PGA Championship the last time at Quail Hollow in 2017 and ended a three-year drought by winning the RBC Heritage last month. Scheffler also comes to the PGA Championship fresh off a victory.

Americans have won the last nine times at the PGA Championship dating to Jason Day of Australia winning in 2015.

What about LIV?

There are 16 players from LIV Golf in the field at the PGA Championship, the same number as last year. That includes John Catlin, a regular reserve for the Saudi-funded league.

The one to watch is DeChambeau. Not only was he runner-up at the PGA last year, he won the U.S. Open the following month and played in the final group with McIlroy — even led briefly — at the Masters.

What’s the forecast?

Rain and thunderstorms are likely for practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday that could soften the course. For the tournament days, the forecast is for a mixture of sun and clouds with the possibility of afternoon showers. Sunday’s final round is expected to be warm and dry.

What happened last year?

Schauffele won the PGA Championship last year at Valhalla for his first major, making a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a one-shot victory over DeChambeau. That’s what happened inside the ropes.

Outside the ropes was an astounding development: Scheffler, the Masters champion and No. 1 player in the world, was arrested by Louisville police Friday morning and taken to jail in handcuffs on charges he did not follow instructions by police investigating a traffic fatality.

Scheffler was released in time to make it back to Valhalla — there was a rain delay — and then shot 66 and was three shots off the lead. It caught up with him the next day (73) and he finished in a tie for eighth.

​ Orange County Register 

The researchers charged with defending the planet against asteroids

• May 12, 2025

In December, astronomers identified that the asteroid YR4 had a small but not insignificant chance of striking Earth in 2032, a scenario that experts postulated could have more explosive potential than 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs.

Researchers reclassified YR4 as a non-threat in February, but the interim period when the asteroid was considered a threat, was the first time that the International Asteroid Warning Network had been activated to respond to a threat since its formation in 2014.

“The fact is that humanity does have a system that has been put in place in the last decade, essentially, and it worked for YR4,” said Danica Remy, president of the Mill Valley-based B612 Foundation, a nonprofit focused on identifying near-Earth objects (NEOs) that pose a threat to humanity.

The global apparatus of researchers and cosmologists had formed in 2013 in the wake of an exploding meteor over Chelyabinsk, Russia, that shattered glass for miles around.

“We did not see that one coming,” said Katie Kumamoto, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor. “There was no warning until there was actually a fireball in the sky being caught on all of those dashboard cameras on people’s cars. I think that was a big wake-up call.”

Though astronomers have known about the threat posed by NEOs since the 1970s, efforts to catalogue potentially dangerous asteroids and meteors have only seriously materialized in the past decade, according to researchers from LLNL, the Marin County-based Asteroid Institute and NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

The Planetary Defense Coordination Office has identified 873 NEOs larger than one kilometer, a size that could be “a disaster of the scale of anything we’ve seen,” according to Planetary Defense Officer Emeritus Lindley Johnson, who established the office in 2016. Another 11,266 NEOs have been identified that are large enough to wipe out entire cities if they landed in a metropolitan area, Johnson added. Johnson said NASA’s catalogue has now identified more than 95% of NEOs that pose a threat to Earth.

“Even though we now feel we’ve got a good handle on the population of large near-Earth asteroids, we’re still working on understanding what the smaller population is,” Johnson said. “We now have this tasking from NASA to find everything that’s larger than 140 meters in size.”

The last major asteroid impact on Earth was the Tunguska Event in 1908 in Siberia, where an asteroid, estimated to be between 50-100 meters in diameter, exploded in the Earth’s atmosphere and flattened 2,000 square kilometers of forest. Asteroids of that size are estimated to strike Earth once every 200-300 years, while asteroids larger than one kilometer strike Earth once every 500,000 years on average, according to the University of Arizona.

The International Asteroid Warning System’s researchers, recognizing that an asteroid impact is an inevitability rather than a possibility, have worked to develop numerous strategies to deploy against an asteroid whose trajectory is aligned with Earth. Some of these strategies have already been tested.

On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA successfully redirected the asteroid Dimorphos as part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) using the strategy of a kinetic impactor — a fancy way of saying scientists crashed into an asteroid and changed its trajectory. The DART mission was a huge step in the planetary defense field, proving that the kinetic impactor could be utilized in the future.

“Just changing the speed at which something is moving in orbit, that changes the orbit forever in the future,” Johnson said. “The orbital shape, size of the orbit, and where it’s going is all determined by the orbital velocity around the sun.”

Like a real-world game of Galaga, the kinetic impactor strategy works for smaller space rocks, however, other larger asteroids require more intense interventions. Asteroid Institute co-founder Ed Lu and astronaut Stanley G. Love invented the “gravity tractor” method, where, if given enough time, a spacecraft could be placed near an asteroid’s gravitational field, “fine-tuning” its orbital trajectory safely away from Earth, Remy said.

But what if the asteroid is too large for a kinetic impactor and scientists are too late to identify an impending impact? At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Kumamoto and other researchers are working on a solution: nuclear deflection. For this strategy, a nuclear explosive device would be triggered near an asteroid, sending it off its orbital path and ablating material from its surface.

“Because there’s just so much energy in a nuclear explosive device, we would be able to apply a much bigger push to the asteroid than we could get from a kinetic impactor,” Kumamoto said about the “nuclear option” of planetary defense. “We don’t understand that one as well as we understand option number one and option number two.”

Part of the reason for Kumamoto and other LLNL researchers’ limited understanding of nuclear deflection is that international law prevents them. The Outer Space Treaty, approved by the United Nations in 1967, prohibits nuclear weapons in space and limits nations from testing military weapons on any celestial body. Space might be the final frontier, but no nation holds claim to it.

In 2014, in the wake of the Chelyabinsk meteor, the United Nations brought greater focus to asteroid threats and planetary defense by sanctioning “International Asteroid Day” on June 30, a commemoration of the Tunguska Event in 1908. Originally founded by Remy’s B612 Foundation, along with physicist Stephen Hawking, astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Queen guitarist Brian May in 2014, Asteroid Day is a call to action to keep humanity safe from what lies beyond our atmosphere — because in a world of natural disasters, one of the most devastating phenomena comes from space.

“Unlike a hurricane or a tsunami or an earthquake or super volcano, there’s really absolutely nothing we can do about those right now,” Remy said. “Whereas with an asteroid impact, there are deflection options, and the work that we’re doing is really important because warning time is everything.”

​ Orange County Register