Friday News: “Adults Are Failing Children on a Global Scale”; “Trump’s ‘Deal’ With the Taliban Set the Stage for Afghanistan’s Collapse”; Newspapers Which Wrongly Pushed It Admit the Virginia Redistricting Commission “a dud so far”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, August 20.

• A billion children at ‘extreme risk’ from climate impacts – Unicef (“Report launched with youth activists including Greta Thunberg paints ‘unimaginably dire’ picture”)
• The Methane Hunters Racing to Change the Course of Global Warming
• It rained for the first time at the summit of Greenland’s ice sheet (“The rare rainfall was only the third time in less than a decade that above-freezing temperatures were recorded at the highest point on the ice sheet.”)
• Three Years After Greta Thunberg’s Strike, Adults Are Failing Children on a Global Scale
• Surging Delta Cases Reverse the World’s March Back to the Office
• Only action against corruption can solve the world’s biggest problems (“In a message from his prison cell, the jailed Russian opposition activist calls for the west to take sanctions against oligarchs”)
• Biden administration faces big choices as economic calamity hangs over Afghanistan
• Actions or words? Afghan journalists question Taliban’s free press pledge
• Trump’s Deal With the Taliban Draws Fire From His Former Allies
• How News Organizations Got Afghan Colleagues Out of Kabul
• Here’s where the Afghanistan evacuation is headed — and how we got here
• Sluggish Visa Process Strands Thousands of Afghans Who Worked for U.S. (Need to cut through that red tape!)
• A 17-year-old Afghan soccer player died falling from a U.S. evacuation plane.
• Trump’s “Deal” With the Taliban Set the Stage for Afghanistan’s Collapse
• Our effort to admit Afghan refugees will have broad support. With one exception. (“The Trump Rump will not recognize what just about everyone else does.”)
• Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to door manhunt, report says
• Thousands Of Afghans With Travel Documents Stranded In Kabul As Taliban Fighters Turn Them Away
• Taliban are rounding up Afghans on blacklist – private intel report
• Hunted by the Taliban, US-Allied Afghan Forces Are in Hiding
• Taliban responsible for brutal massacre of Hazara men – new investigation (The Taliban are evil incarnate, basically.)
• Taliban Rattles Gulf States Desperate to Keep Extremists at Bay
• Biden to Address Afghan Crisis as Desperation Builds at Kabul Airport
• China Passes One of the World’s Strictest Data-Privacy Laws
• Cutting off jobless benefits early may have hurt state economies.
• The GOP is losing its war on vaccine requirements
• The Topic Of Masks In Schools Is Polarizing Some Parents To The Point Of Violence (“School districts around the country have seen incidents of anti-mask parents and protesters disrupting school board meetings and school events, and some are getting physically violent.”)
• School boards become ground zero for country’s culture wars (Ugh, so bad.)
• The Quiet Rage of the Responsible (“…it’s time to stop being diffident and call out destructive behavior for what it is. Doing so may make some people feel that they’re being looked down on. But you know what? Your feelings don’t give you the right to ruin other people’s lives.”)
• GOP governors find new ways to make the pandemic worse (“The trouble with touting miracle cures, even if they have some use.”)
• Biden goes after MAGA governors. It’s about time. (“Republican governors who are blocking mask and vaccine requirements are risking children’s lives.”)
• Biggest Tax Hike on Wealthy Since ‘93 Is Bogged Down in U.S. Congress
• As Biden urges action on global warming, courts shape climate policy at home
• Stung by climate change: drought-weakened bee colonies shrink U.S. honey crop, threaten almonds
• Colorado River cutbacks set stage for decade of drought politics
• Elon Musk Unveils Humanoid Robot to Take Over ‘Boring’ Work (What could POSSIBLY go wrong?)
• Are You Ready for Sentient Disney Robots? (Nope.)
• As Covid-19 hospitalizations increase, a greater number of Americans are deciding to get vaccinated
• More Than 1 Million In The U.S. Got COVID-19 Vaccinations In 24 Hours, Highest In Weeks
• Child Covid-19 hospitalizations soar, filling pediatric wings, data show
• Three senators announce positive COVID-19 tests in single day
• The Internal Contradictions of Republicans’ COVID-19 Politics (“Crises have the power to expose tensions within ideologies, and the current pandemic has made some of those in contemporary American conservatism vividly apparent.”)
• Scientists question evidence behind U.S. COVID-19 booster shot drive
• Fox’s effort to undermine vaccines has only worsened (Evil.)
• EXCLUSIVE FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated-sources (Wuuuuut?)
• What Americans Think About The End Of The Afghanistan War And Biden’s Handling Of It So Far
• Unvaccinated terror: Proud Boys push the anti-vaccination movement into a violent threat
• Saying Crazy Apocalyptic Sh*t All the Time Has Consequences
• To Trumpers, “critical race theory” is as bad as the Taliban — and they’re not kidding (“A Trump fundraising email compares American teachers to the Taliban. It’s an explicit invitation to violence”)
• The FTC has refiled its case against Facebook (“In an amended lawsuit, the powerful regulatory agency renewed its case that Facebook is a monopoly.” Break it up and heavily regulate it!)
• OnlyFans to Block Sexually Explicit Videos Starting in October
• South Carolina county Republican Party chair dies of COVID-19 after railing against mask requirements
• Appeals court orders Arizona Senate audit records released
• Ron DeSantis has ‘made a monumental mess of masking in public schools’ | Column
• Ex-wife of leading California GOP gubernatorial candidate says he waved a gun at her while high
• ‘Women exaggerate the problem of sexism’: Top California recall candidate Larry Elder has a long history of making disparaging remarks about women
• Boebert proposed several energy bills that could have benefited her husband’s work
• Govs. DeSantis and Abbott, in denial and risking lives, have betrayed the public trust
• If North Texas runs out of ICU hospital beds, doctors can consider a patient’s vaccination status
• After a nearly six-week exodus over GOP voting bill, enough Democrats return to Texas House to resume work
• NEW Digital Ad: “Movie” Further Highlights Glenn Youngkin’s Devotion to Donald Trump’s Extremist Agenda (“Youngkin has focused his entire candidacy on divisive conspiracy theories, promoting Trump’s lies, and trying to hide his out-of-touch views from Virginians.”)
• BREAKING: Glenn Youngkin Funding Dangerous Anti-Vaccine Extremists (One of them “falsely said the flu is deadlier than COVID-19, and questioned the need to get the COVID-19 vaccination.”)
• They both have prioritized public education, but McAuliffe and Youngkin differ greatly on policy
• Donald Trump’s Servile, Hard-Right, Failed VP Mike Pence Campaigns for Glenn Youngkin. So When’s the Trump-Youngkin Rally Going to Happen?
• Virginia GOP governor nominee helped fund anti-vaccine candidates
• FWIW Virginia: Post-Primary Digital Spending by Statewide, House of Delegates Campaigns
• Virginia’s new redistricting panel was supposed to make democracy work better — but partisanship stands in the way (The WaPo can’t just admit that it completely f’ed up in relentlessly promoting this fatally flawed amendment.)
• Editorial: The redistricting commission is a dud so far (The Roanoke Times editorial board, which is complete shit-for-brains, also 100% f’ed up on this.)
• Thursday (8/19) Virginia Data on COVID-19: With Delta Now Dominant, Hospitalizations (1,289) at Highest Level Since Early March, 10-Day New Cases (+21,968) Highest Since Late February(!)
• Governor Northam Announces Grants to Replace 83 Diesel School Buses with Clean Alternatives
• Editorial: 6 takeaways from a summer of polls in the governor’s race
• Challenger to Goochland lawmaker criticizes his presence outside Capitol at Jan. 6 insurrection (“Blakely Lockhart of Henrico County is the Democratic challenger to Del. John McGuire, R-Goochland, who has served in the House since 2018.”)
• Virginia Tech changes policy to require employee vaccines or potentially lose jobs (Good.)
• Yes, Virginia, we are seeing more — and more intense — rainfall (“Climate change risks overwhelming infrastructure”)
• Should Rent Relief Start With Landlords?
• UVA To Offer Evidence-based Guidance For Criminal Justice Reform
• Editorial: A full account of history (“The annual commemoration of the African landing at Fort Monroe helps provide a more complete accounting for the American story.”)
• State of City speech: Roanoke mayor calls for transformational change with relief funds
• Richmond-area ERs are seeing more patients, and they’re sicker now than when the pandemic started
• D.C.-area forecast: Downpours that are focused on the morning may cause some flooding