by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, April 17.
- These Countries Did Well With the Virus. Why Are They Slow on Vaccines? (“Japan, South Korea and Australia have inoculated tiny percentages of their populations. The delays risk unwinding their relative successes.”)
- Covid Claims 3 Million Lives as Burden Shifts to Poorer Nations
- India Has a Double Mutant Virus Variant. Should We Worry?
- Biden Faces New Pressure to Act on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline
- Wind energy production costs could be halved by 2050, survey suggests
- Gas Is the New Coal With Risk of $100 Billion in Stranded Assets
- Myanmar junta chief to attend ASEAN summit on first foreign trip since coup
- Kim Stanley Robinson on Cities as a Climate Survival Mechanism
- Cuba’s Raul Castro steps down, ending the era of his famous clan at the country’s helm
- Russia’s surveillance state still doesn’t match China’s. But Putin is racing to catch up.
- Russia Retaliates Against Biden’s New Sanctions, Expelling 10 U.S. Diplomats
- A ‘Worst Nightmare’ Cyberattack: The Untold Story Of The SolarWinds Hack
- Withdrawing From Afghanistan Is Biden’s Least Bad Option
- Vaccinations in the U.S. are surging with many states nearing half of residents jabbed (“The rate of daily vaccine doses reported administered in the U.S. held above 3 million for the tenth straight day Friday. Many states are nearing the halfway point for residents with at least one shot, with New Hampshire already across the 50% mark. The seven-day average of U.S. daily new coronavirus cases is 70,484, according to Johns Hopkins University data.”)
- Why the Second COVID Shot Makes You Miserable (“Unpleasant side effects are in part a consequence of lightning-quick vaccine development.”)
- Least Vaccinated U.S. Counties Have Something in Common: Trump Voters
- How The U.S. Could Halve Climate Emissions By 2030
- Leaked Calls Reveal ALEC’s Secret Plan to Thwart Biden on Climate (Pure evil.)
- Nasa picks Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build spacecraft to return humans to moon (“Space agency breaks with tradition by awarding $2.9bn contract to single company in ‘big step’ for moon-to-Mars strategy”)
- Biden’s rescue plan is looking like a home run (“Republicans, meanwhile, look to have committed political malpractice.”)
- The Republican war on democracy started long before Jan. 6 (“There’s a straight line going from the Russia scandal to the assault on the Capitol to the new wave of voter suppression.”)
- U.S. has new intel that Manafort friend Kilimnik gave Trump campaign data to Russia
- White House Walks Back Order On Refugee Limits After Backlash
- After backlash, Biden will increase the limit on refugee admissions.
- Democrats debate timing and wisdom of reparations vote
- The media’s horse-race narratives are covering up the big issue of voter suppression (“The media is paying more attention to whether the president is winning or losing against Republican rivals.”)
- The Political Media Is Having a “Gotta Hear Both Sides” Relapse (The political media is mostly a wasteland.)
- Law Professor: Police Hold ‘Extraordinary’ Power Over Black People In Traffic Stops
- Big corporate donors claim to support racial justice — but fund Republicans pushing voting limits (“Companies that virtue-signaled on BLM are funding the very lawmakers ‘stripping voting rights’ from Black people”)
- Cash floods into battle for control of Congress (“The most vulnerable Senate Democrats all had strong first quarters, while House Republicans narrowed the fundraising gap for the GOP’s efforts to win the House.”)
- “Woke?” “Cancel culture?” “Identity politics?” The right’s reliance on empty rhetoric is getting ridiculous (“Without coherent policy arguments to make, the right falls back on buzzwords”)
- Andrew Cuomo, Matt Gaetz, and “Never Resign” Politics (“In recent years, many politicians seem to have realized that remaining in office is often the best path out of a scandal.”)
- Gaetz ex-girlfriend feared alleged sex-trafficking victim taped call for feds
- The GOP Is Raising Money Off Tucker Carlson’s Racism
- Founding member of Oath Keepers enters first guilty plea in Jan. 6 Capitol breach
- Justice Department sues Trump ally Roger Stone, alleging millions in unpaid taxes
- Roger Stone owes nearly $2 million in unpaid taxes and fees, Justice Dept. alleges in lawsuit
- The Justice Department sues Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally, alleging tax evasion.
- Lawmakers Who Voted Against Certifying Biden’s Victory Saw Drop in Business Contributions (“PAC donations fell about 80% for objectors, compared with 35% drop for those who voted to approve results, latest campaign filings show”)
- This is what we know about the shooting at an Indianapolis FedEx facility
- The Sikh community is in mourning as 4 members were among the victims of the Indianapolis mass shooting
- Indianapolis shooter, former FedEx worker, had gun seized by police, officials say
- Police ID killer in FedEx shooting as 19-year-old man
- Biden officials rescind Trump’s okay for Texas’s $100 billion-plus Medicaid plan
- Trump loyalists start ‘America First Caucus’ to promote U.S. as ‘uniquely Anglo-Saxon’ (Yep, that’s today’s Republican Party for ya.)
- Marjorie Taylor Greene Forming Caucus To Promote ‘Anglo-Saxon Political Traditions’
- McCarthy: GOP not the party of ‘nativist dog whistles’ (It most certainly is!)
- Hundreds March in Chicago, Protesting Police Shooting of Adam Toledo, 13
- Pompeos violated rules on use of State Department resources, IG finds
- How Kash Patel rose from obscure Hill staffer to key operative in Trump’s battle with the intelligence community
- Vartan Gregorian, Savior of the New York Public Library, Dies at 87
- 2020 Election Conspiracy Theorists Rush To Bankroll Arizona Senate GOP’s Sketchy Audit
- VA Dems Send Travel Kits to GOP Candidates As Virginia GOP Mad Dash to Mar-a-Lago Begins
- Virginia GOP Lawmaker Used Campaign Funds To Attend ‘Stop The Steal’ Rally (That would be Amanda Chase.)
- McAuliffe holds fundraising lead in race for Virginia governor (“Two Republican contenders have each lent their campaigns more than $5 million.”)
- Jennifer McClellan Campaign Announces $630,000 Raised in First Quarter, Nearly $1.5 Million Pledged for Second Quarter
- 1Q2021 Fundraising Numbers Coming In…
- Fundraising numbers are in for all of the statewide candidates
- Millionaires Leave Their Mark on Virginia Governor’s Race (We need campaign finance reform badly, including limits on the amount that any single individual or corporation can give.)
- Dark Money Fuels Attacks on Primary, Convention Candidates (This is also really bad.)
- Virginia House Democrats see record number of challenges in primary elections
- Opinion: Competition will build a reliable, affordable energy future for Virginia
- Virginia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility Opens for All Adults on Sunday
- VDH confirms first cases of COVID-19 variant from Brazil in Virginia
- Virginia reports first cases of COVID variant initially found in Brazil, mutation could be more resistant to vaccines
- Report: Black and Latino people make up 34% of Va.’s college age population, but 10% of some of the state’s biggest universities
- Isle of Wight NAACP Calls For The Immediate Resignation Of The Town Of Windsor’s Chief of Police
- Windsor officials repost police body cam video showing prior traffic stop involving Army lieutenant
- Video shows earlier traffic stop of soldier in Virginia town
- Hala Ayala Releases Plan to Tackle the Gun Violence Epidemic on 14th Anniversary of Virginia Tech Shooting
- Can We Stop Gun Violence? McAuliffe Hosts Panel Looking For Answers
- Hileman: DEQ should reject MVP’s water-crossing application
- Norfolk Police Official Donated To Fundraiser For Accused Kenosha Shooter, Report Says
- Jay Jones is calling for the Norfolk PD officer’s resignation if the Rittenhouse allegations are true
- Northam meets with students over pervasive harassment of Asian Americans
- Fairfax seeks to dismiss 400 convictions in cases brought by one officer
- Liberty University sues Jerry Falwell Jr., seeking millions in damages
- Gov. Ralph Northam, Native American tribes celebrate Machicomoco State Park grand opening, dedicated to native history and culture
- D.C.-area forecast: After another cool one today, temperatures move upward the next few
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