Tuesday News: “IEA issues dire warning on carbon emissions”; “‘It’s almost like insanity’: GOP base continues to lash out over Trump’s defeat”; US Braces For Chauvin Trial Verdict; R.I.P. Walter Mondale; “Northam ‘confident’ Virginia can look at lifting restrictions at the end of May”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, April 20.

• IEA issues dire warning on carbon emissions, says Covid recovery anything but sustainable
• Carbon emissions to soar in 2021 by second highest rate in history (“Global economies forecast to pour stimulus money into fossil fuels as part of Covid recovery” That’s completely insane. Not a penny should go to planet-killing fossil fuels – ever.)
• Biden’s biggest climate diplomacy challenge could be China, Russia, and India
• Amid Biden Climate Push, a Question Looms: Is America’s Word Good?
• After Ingenuity’s successful Mars flight, NASA plans to fly a huge rotorcraft on Saturn’s moon (“It’s the beginning of an era of drone flights on other celestial bodies”)
• They Flew a Freaking Helicopter on Mars
• New Coal Projects Have Gotten Super Expensive to Finance (“Investors are nervous, and that’s probably good.”)
• A Global Tipping Point for Reining In Tech Has Arrived (“Never before have so many countries moved simultaneously to limit the power of a single industry with such urgency and breadth. The U.S. and Europe are focused on competition, misinformation and privacy. Russia and others are silencing protests. In China, it is a bit of both.”)
• Joe Biden Is Already ‘Tightening’ Battered U.S.-Europe Relations (“The president proved he’s serious about addressing Trump-era damage by working closely with allies in withdrawing from Afghanistan, Italy’s outgoing ambassador to the U.S. said.”)
• How Brazil’s Far-Right Extremists Learned From Trump Insurrectionists on Parler (“A new study raises concerns about radicalization ahead of Brazil’s presidential elections in 2022.”)
• Scoop: U.S. ambassador refuses Kremlin push to leave Russia
• Alexei Navalny moved to prison hospital amid fears for Putin critic’s life (“Doctors say opposition leader, who is on hunger strike, is in danger of a heart attack or kidney failure”)
• To save Alexei Navalny, go after Putin’s enablers
• Two Russian agents have been linked to a high-profile poisoning and a deadly explosion, but there’s little Europe can do
• Report: China, Russia fueling QAnon conspiracy theories
• China and Russia ‘weaponized’ QAnon conspiracy around time of US Capitol attack, report says
• Global Corporate Tax Gains Momentum (“The Netherlands, long seen at the heart of a system in which multinationals minimize their taxes, signals it’s ready to support a U.S. proposal.”)
• Xi Challenges U.S. Global Leadership, Warns Against Decoupling
• Xi says China ‘will never seek hegemony’ no matter how strong it becomes
• State Department to list 80% of countries as ‘Do Not Travel’ as it updates advisory system to align with CDC
• US Senator Mark Warner calls for urgent transatlantic cooperation on cybersecurity (“Mark Warner said the consequences of not acting could be ‘disastrous’”)
• What’s the Secret of Biden’s Success? (“The president’s party is finally comfortable in its own skin.”)
• Liberals warn Biden against lengthy talks with GOP
• SALT Cap Revolt Led by N.Y. Democrats Snarls Biden Spending Plan
• Senate GOP faces post-Trump spending brawl
• Senator Manchin throws support behind U.S. labor reform bill (“The PRO Act passed in the House 225 to 206 but has an uphill battle in the Senate. Even with Manchin’s support the bill does not yet have all 50 Democrats in the 100-member Senate, the level at which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said it would get a vote. Democratic Senators Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly still have not supported the bill.”)
• Stuck At 435 Representatives? Why The U.S. House Hasn’t Grown With Census Counts (“A century ago, there was one member for about every 200,000 people, and today, there’s one for about every 700,000.”)
• We found hundreds of posts about plans to attack the Capitol. Why aren’t we seeing this evidence in court? (“The feds have presented no evidence any of the people charged in the Jan. 6 riot planned to attack the Capitol. But these posts gave detailed plans.”)
• The invention of whiteness: the long history of a dangerous idea (“Before the 17th century, people did not think of themselves as belonging to something called the white race. But once the idea was invented, it quickly began to reshape the modern world”)
• Remembering Walter Mondale (“The former Vice-President and Presidential candidate told voters truths that they didn’t want to hear.”)
• Walter Mondale, Ex-Vice President and Champion of Liberal Politics, Dies at 93
• Walter F. Mondale, Carter’s vice president who lost White House bid, dies at 93 (We would have been MUCH better off if Mondale had been elected president.)
• Walter Mondale, Carter’s vice president, dies at 93
• Walter Mondale reinvented the vice presidency. Both Biden and Harris should thank him for it.
• Statement from President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on the Passing of Walter Mondale
• Immigrant Detention For Profit Faces Growing Resistance After Big Expansion Under Trump
• ‘It’s almost like insanity’: GOP base continues to lash out over Trump’s defeat (“There’s no evidence of election fraud in Georgia. Even so, the party rank and file is fixated on it — even if it costs them in the midterms.”)
• The next big voting rights fight is in Texas (“Texas is already one of the most restrictive states in the country. Republicans want new rules that would make things worse.”)
• Sonia Sotomayor’s Lonely Battle to Give the Voiceless a Voice at the Supreme Court
• The Two Memos With Enormous Constitutional Consequences (“What’s astonishing is that presidential criminal immunity has no grounding in actual law. It’s not in the Constitution or any federal statute, regulation, or judicial decision. It is not law at all.” Trump should be in prison for a bunch or crimes.)
• Judge orders two Proud Boys leaders held in custody over Capitol attack
• GOP senators backed by meat industry declare war on vegetarian meals (These Republicans are just relentlessly horrible in almost every way.)
• ‘It’s not safe’: Parents of transgender kids plan to flee their states as GOP bills loom
• Surprise news from the miners union gives Democrats an opening against Trumpism (“At an event Monday with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W. V.), United Mine Workers president Cecil Roberts unveiled an extraordinary document called ‘Preserving Coal Country,’ which is in effect an admission that clean energy is the future.”)
• We Can’t Be Held Hostage to a Political Party
• ‘Beyond seriously:’ Donald Trump (again) teases another presidential run in 2024
• Republicans Say They Care About Election Fraud. Here’s How They Could Actually Prevent It.
• There Could Never Be a Female Andrew Yang (“No woman with his résumé would have a chance of becoming New York’s mayor.”)
• Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who engaged rioters, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes, officials say
• All we can do for George Floyd now is wait and worry (“If the jury wants to strike a blow for justice, the prosecution handed them a hammer.”)
• Derek Chauvin jury begins deliberations as America braces for verdict
• Looming Chauvin Verdict Will Test Biden’s Leadership On Race
• Minnesota students walk out of schools in solidarity with the racial justice movement.
• George Floyd’s brother bonds with Emmett Till’s cousin over brutal, public deaths decades apart 
• What the Chauvin judge got so wrong about Maxine Waters
• Chauvin Judge: Maxine Waters’s Comments Could Result in ‘Overturned’ Verdict on Appeal
• Anti-riot laws vs. police reform as the US waits for Chauvin verdict
• Waters’ comments on Chauvin trial expose Republican hypocrisy (“Waters’ warnings drew out the hypocrisy of pro-Trump Republicans over incitement to violence and shouldn’t overshadow issues of race and justice raised by the trial”)
• Maxine Waters slams GOP attacks over ‘confrontational’ comment: ‘I am nonviolent’
• The disturbing failure of Minnesota police to exercise restraint during protests
• ‘Fox is not news’: New CNN morning anchor debuts with blistering takedown of right-wing network (Obviously not.)
• Florida ‘Anti-Rioting’ Law Will Make It Much Easier to Run Over Protesters With Cars
• Who Is Kyrsten Sinema Telling to F— Off? (“Her style has overtaken her substance.”)
• What Virginia Republicans Have To Answer For Ahead of Tonight’s Forum (“Will you be seeking Donald Trump’s endorsement in this primary? Do you agree with those in your party who say the 2020 election was stolen?”)
• Republican candidates in Virginia’s gubernatorial race meet at forum
• Video: Amanda Chase Wonders What Dems Would Say If She Led a Hypothetical “White Republican Caucus”; Says Legislative Black Caucus Vice Chair Jennifer McClellan “should stop being a racist”
• VA State Sen. Jennifer McClellan: “It’s time for every Republican candidate running for governor to call out Sen. Chase’s comments for what they are: racist attacks that Virginians will not tolerate.”
• One of the Leading VA GOP Governor Candidates, Pete Snyder, Was Just Endorsed By “Conservative Warrior,” “Fringe Conspiracy Theories” Spreader Ginni Thomas
• Another Day, Another Misleading, Anti-Progressive, Falsehood-Laden Piece in the WaPo, This One Asking Leadingly, “Did Virginia’s Democrats misread their mandate with a boldly progressive agenda?” (There’s so much wrong with this piece, it’s hard to even know where to begin…)
• Saxman: Virginia Democratic Nomination for Governor
• Video: Terry for Virginia Launches New Television Ad Featuring Son of Eric Branch, Whose Voting Rights Terry Restored as Governor
• McAuliffe near the top in restoring ex-felon voting rights
• Jennifer Carroll Foy Releases Plan to Strengthen Early Childhood Education and Child Care
• Diving Into Virginia Candidates’ Q1 Finance Reports Highlights the Case for Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform (“But at least we have transparency, right? So we know all about who’s donating to whom and we can be on the lookout for undue political influence, right? Um, not really.”)
• ‘Exciting new phase’: Northam urges all Virginians 16 and older to seek COVID-19 vaccine
• Northam ‘confident’ Virginia can look at lifting restrictions at the end of May
• Northam: Some Loosened Restrictions to Be Announced Soon
• Monday (4/19) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +978 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 647,111), +29 Hospitalizations (to 27,678), +14 Deaths (to 10,595) (1-day new cases under 1,000 for first time since 3/8)
• Va. Republican leaders ask for special session to investigate parole board after release of recording (“Senate Republicans, some of whom had asked whether Northam’s office was involved in the editing, acknowledged Monday that the audio recording suggests the governor’s office was not involved.”)
• House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert wants a special session to investigate the Parole Board (Whatever…)
• Taking steps to cut maternal mortality in Virginia
• Virginia public defenders face resistance in push for pay parity with prosecutors
• Former Virginia Beach deputy city manager, retired police officer join state’s 2019 mass shooting investigation panel
• Mass vaccination site set to open inside Tysons Corner mall
• Former Virginia Tech soccer player sues coach, claiming she was forced off team for refusing to kneel before games
• Fairfax NAACP Statement on Officer Freitag Case Dismissal (“[T]he Fairfax County NAACP strongly believes that this is just another example of the systemic problems in Fairfax County (and across America)”)
• Opinion: Tunnel deal remains an anchor on Hampton Roads
• Richmond public school officials unanimously approve back-to-school plans for fall
• D.C.-area forecast: Terrific Tuesday before a big cold front sweeps through Wednesday