Wednesday News: “Biden plans to cut emissions at least in half by 2030”; “Will the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict change policing in America?”; “George W. Bush shows how far the GOP has fallen”; “Will any Virginia Republican condemn this despicable racism?”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, April 21.

Holy. Shit. She is just despicable. https://t.co/3w7QAPNM1e

— Chris Saxman (@ChrisBSaxman) April 21, 2021

• EU Calls for J&J Vaccine Warning but Says Benefits Outweigh Risks
• Here are the 10 biggest economies in the world — before the pandemic vs. now (“The United States, China, Japan and Germany still take the top four spots as the world’s largest economies.”)
• China’s Xi Jinping to speak at a U.S.-led climate summit on Thursday
• The case for US cooperation with India on a just transition away from coal
• ‘It is much worse this time’: India’s devastating second wave
• After Trump ‘Failed,’ South Korean Leader Hopes Biden Can Salvage Nuclear Deal (“In an interview with The New York Times, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea urged the United States to sit down with North Korea.”)
• Alexei Navalny is dying. Millions of Russians need him alive
• Hunger strikes like Navalny’s are a Russian tradition dating to the czar’s prisons
• Oceanex eyes massive 10GW of offshore and floating wind farms in Australia
• Raúl Castro relinquishing power won’t bring change to Cuba anytime soon
• Biden’s Climate Credibility May Hinge on Whether He Makes Good on U.S. Financial Commitments to Developing Nations (“World governments have spent $12 trillion addressing the Covid-19 pandemic. But a $100 billion climate fund for less wealthy countries has run sizable deficits.”)
• Global Recovery Wipes Out Most of 2020’s Decline in Carbon Emissions (“A ‘dire warning’ from the International Energy Agency’s new report.”)
• Idriss Déby Dies at 68; Poor Herder’s Son Became Chad’s Longtime Autocrat (“Mr. Déby, who was aiming for a fourth decade in power, died from what the government called wounds sustained at a battlefront with rebels.”)
• Rebels threaten to march on capital as Chad reels from president’s battlefield death
• Brazil’s Climate Overture to Biden: Pay Us Not to Raze Amazon
• Energy Giants Ditch Oil and Coal Assets. Smaller Rivals Want Them.
• The finance sector links arms on climate
• Biden plans to cut emissions at least in half by 2030 (“The target, intended to reassert America’s global leadership on climate action, would require profound changes at home” Good, let’s do it already!)
• Biden’s next big plan could blow up one of the GOP’s worst lies (“… throughout U.S. history, amid periods where the economy failed large numbers of Americans, government policy has created new foundations for better life prospects and expanded economic opportunity. It must do so again.”)
• ‘The wheels fell off’: How Biden’s misgivings on border surge upended plan on refugees
• Biden’s open to doing immigration through reconciliation, Hispanic lawmakers say
• Biden Calls on Lawmakers to Honor Floyd With Police-Reform Bill
• Republicans have made their hostility to civil rights clear
• George W. Bush shows how far the GOP has fallen (“The GOP was not always this bad.” No, but it’s been very bad for decades now…)
• The Enemy Within (“State and local Republican parties have been taken over by white supremacists, conspiracy mongers, and insurrectionists.”)
• Republican attacks on Maxine Waters prove the GOP is committed to a politics of white whining (“Kevin McCarthy denies the GOP is racist only to disprove himself by blasting Maxine Waters with bad faith umbrage”)
• SEC Targets Greenwashers to Bring Law and Order to ESG
• Welcome to the age of brutal activist Republican governance (“‘Small government’ is out. Vindictive exercises of government power are the new GOP trend.”)
• What the ‘Anglo Saxon traditions’ controversy says about our current moment (“How the boundaries of acceptable discourse get slowly moved further afield.”)
• ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Is What You Say When ‘Whites Only’ Is Too Inclusive
• Ted Nugent tests positive for coronavirus after calling pandemic a ‘scam’
• ‘I’m still a zero’: Vaccine-resistant Republicans warn that their skepticism is worsening
• The Republican Party is beyond salvation — even without Trump
• Unlike so many other times when Black people died at the hands of police, the Chauvin jury got it right
• Jennifer Rubin: The nation breathes a sigh of relief after Derek Chauvin’s conviction
• Black Americans are buoyed by verdict, but they worry it will blunt pace of reform
• Chauvin’s conviction shouldn’t feel like a victory. But it does. (“That a jury saw George Floyd as fully human, and trusted their eyes and ears, is just a start.”)
• The Chauvin verdict had cities nationwide braced for unrest. Instead, they got a celebration (“Tears, hugs and relief characterized the response after a former officer was found guilty of George Floyd’s murder.”)
• Why Chauvin’s conviction matters (“In America, police are rarely held accountable.”)
• The Significance of the Derek Chauvin Verdict
• The Death of George Floyd Reignited a Movement. What Happens Now? (“Calls for racial justice touched nearly every aspect of American life on a scale that historians say has not happened since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.”)
• Why Americans are abandoning the church
• Obamas: Chauvin Jury ‘Did The Right Thing’ But ‘We Cannot Rest’
• ‘Finally’: America Reacts To Chauvin Guilty Verdict
• Will the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict change policing in America?
• Chauvin guilty verdict a landmark moment in US criminal justice history (“Analysis: The testimony against the ex-officer was damning – it was clear this case was different from so many that had come before”)
• Why A Guilty Verdict For Derek Chauvin Doesn’t Change The Reality Of Police Violence
• The Derek Chauvin Verdict Cannot Just Be Recorded in the Law. It Must Live in the Law.
• Joe Biden delivered the Chauvin verdict speech America needed
• Biden Calls Chauvin Verdict a ‘Much Too Rare’ Moment of Justice
• Biden urges Congress to not look away from George Floyd(“Biden promised George Floyd’s family to fight for policing reforms. He needs Congress to act.”)
• The law delivered justice to George Floyd. America’s political leaders are up next
• Chauvin’s Conviction Is the Exception That Proves the Rule (“The former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty on all three counts he faced—but his trial was a demonstration of how difficult efforts at accountability remain.”)
• Harris says verdict in Chauvin trial ‘will not heal the pain that existed for generations’
• Ex-Officer May Face Decades for Killing That Spurred Protests
• Derek Chauvin convicted of murder and manslaughter in death of George Floyd
• By bearing witness — and hitting ‘record’ — 17-year-old Darnella Frazier may have changed the world
• Columbus Police Release Body Camera Footage of Fatal Shooting of Black Teen (“The footage shows an officer fire his weapon within seconds of arriving at the scene of a brawl where a girl appeared to lunge at someone with a knife.”)
• Teenage Girl Is Fatally Shot by Police in Columbus, Officials Say (“The police in Ohio, who released body camera footage, said the girl had threatened two other girls with a knife before an officer opened fire.”)
• Columbus Police Fatally Shoot Black Teen Who Called Them for Help, Aunt Says
• Feds Track Down Capitol Rioter With Facial Recognition Hit On His Girlfriend’s Instagram
• As network news leadership shuffles, doubts about future loom
• Mainstream media outlets embarrass themselves on John Boehner’s book tour (“Sunday shows let former GOP speaker talk up ‘common ground’ and compromise, without confronting his own hard-line record”)
• Mark McCloskey, gun-toting St. Louis lawyer, considering Senate bid (That’s today’s Republican Party…)
• This Trump Wannabe Just Might be the Worst of the Rotten Bunch (“The dentist turned pol who might’ve helped plan the insurrection is loathed by fellow dentists and his own family, so of course Rep. Paul Gosar is a Republican in good standing.”)
• Fox keeps hosting pandemic conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf
• Luria condemns Chinese crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong
• Virginia state, local lawmakers react to former officer being found guilty of George Floyd’s murder
• Virginia Elected Officials, Candidates React To Guilty Verdict in Chauvin Case: “George Floyd’s life mattered. Justice has been served.” [UPDATED with Amanda Chase’s reaction]
• Virginia’s Democratic leaders hail verdict, but say work against injustice must continue (Republicans were almost universally silent, except for Amanda Chase’s appalling comments…)
• Gubernatorial candidates respond to Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict
• In First Week in the Race, Jen Kiggans (R) Courts Fox News Donors, Ignores Virginians, and Proves She’s a Typical Politician
• Graphics: Where Are Virginia Statewide Candidates Getting Their $$$?
• Governor Northam Announces Five New State Historical Highway Markers Addressing Black History in Virginia
• Virginia Agrees to Provide Accessible Absentee Voting Option for Voters with Print Disabilities
• Video: Jay Jones for Attorney General Releases First Ads, “Lead” and “Firsts”
• Staffing shortages are overwhelming Virginia’s psychiatric hospitals
• Tuesday (4/20) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +1,236 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 648,347), +106 Hospitalizations (to 27,784), +30 Deaths (to 10,625)
• Richmonders react to verdict in Derek Chauvin trial: ‘This gives me some hope that we can get up this mountain.’
• Editorial: Emergency alert sent the right message: Vaccines enhance public safety
• Virginia landowners urge FERC to require cancelled Atlantic Coast Pipeline to relinquish easements
• RCAHD Reports Waning Demand for First Doses (“Officials with the Roanoke City-Alleghany Health District say demand for first COVID-19 vaccine doses has started to taper off.”)
• Protester who blocked pipeline work in Giles County is charged, jailed
• Should a police oversight group have investigative powers? Virginia Beach to create task force that will explore the impacts.
• Norfolk fires police lieutenant who donated to accused vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse
• Virginia Tech athletics lays out aggressive $400 million fundraising campaign
• Newport News is renaming four schools. Here are the proposed changes.
• D.C.-area forecast: Strong cold front sweeps through today with gusty storms possible and then a blustery chill