by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, December 23.
- Changing climate parches Afghanistan, exacerbating poverty
- Australia is racing towards 100 per cent renewables. What does that look like? (“The biggest reasons for the extraordinary pace of this renewables transition, and the dramatic change in expectations, are many. Mostly they fall around the rapid falls in technology costs, and the subsequent embrace of wind, solar and storage by state governments of both sides of the political divide, and by corporate demand, keen to have cheaper and greener power.”)
- Huge floating wind farms are being planned off the coast of Australia (“The proposed facilities are the 1.4 gigawatt Hunter Coast Offshore Wind Project, which would be in waters off Newcastle, New South Wales; the Wollongong Offshore Wind Project, set to have a capacity of 1.6 GW and be spread across two sites off Wollongong, New South Wales; and the 1.3 GW Greater Gippsland Offshore Wind Project, planned for waters off Victoria’s Gippsland region.”)
- Covid is here for good, scientists say. The rest remains unpredictable. (“Covid could take on a similar ebb and flow to the flu, but there is plenty left to figure out about just how severe and disruptive it will continue to be.”)
- Case data, vaccine news mark small victories in Omicron battle
- Real-world data from U.K. suggests omicron is less likely than delta to send people to the hospital
- CNN Exclusive: US intel and satellite images show Saudi Arabia is now building its own ballistic missiles with help of China
- Hong Kong University Pulls Down Monument to Tiananmen Massacre Victims
- Putin Praises U.S. Response to Security Proposals as ‘Positive’
- Russia-Ukraine crisis: Kyiv hopes truce will ease military tensions
- Russia Builds Up Forces Near Ukraine Ahead of U.S. Talks
- Pfizer pill becomes 1st US-authorized home COVID treatment
- The Army May Have Developed a Super-Vaccine. Would America’s Right-Wing Libertarian Gun Guys Actually Take It?
- Covid-19 Marches Toward Endemic Status in U.S. as Omicron Spreads (“With a new wave rising, people and institutions are making decisions that reflect changing attitudes toward the threat that Covid-19 represents”)
- President Biden to ABC’s David Muir: Accountability needed for Jan. 6 insurrection ‘no matter where it goes’
- Biden tells ABC’s David Muir ‘yes’ he’ll run again, Trump rematch would ‘increase the prospect’
- President Biden to ABC’s David Muir on at-home COVID testing: ‘Nothing’s been good enough’
- Biden gets an early Christmas gift: Good economic news
- On More Generous Terms, Obamacare Proves Newly Popular (“Record sign-ups, even in states that had resisted expanding health coverage under the Affordable Care Act”)
- Biden resists shutdowns as omicron threat rises
- Supreme Court sets special hearing for Biden’s vaccine rules for health-care workers, private businesses (If it’s this right-wing, activist Supreme Court, it’s almost certainly going to be bad.)
- ‘Fox News is putting a target on the back of top scientists’: Fellow medics back Fauci in Watters row (It’s not a “row,” it’s a dangerous threat by Watters, who should have been fired immediately.)
- Joe Manchin has all the power — and a catastrophic lack of imagination (“He can get whatever he wants and completely transform his state. But he wants nothing.”)
- Joe Biden Really, Really, Really Should Accept Manchin’s Climate Deal
- Here’s how Democrats can fix the Build Back Better mess — and appease Manchin
- Republicans woo Joe Manchin as senator clashes with Democrats
- How bad will 2022 be for Democrats? A new party analysis sounds the alarm. (“Democrats worry about what the ‘Biden-Youngkin voter’ portends for the midterms.”)
- Glenn Youngkin’s Win in Virginia Stokes Political Dreams on Wall Street (“Election of private-equity boss as governor inspires financiers to consider public office, a decade after the financial crisis closed the road to Washington”)
- The clear and present danger of Trump’s enduring ‘Big Lie’
- Trump’s Handling of COVID Was Worse Than You Thought.
- How the left forced Biden’s hand on student loans
- Policy leads the way: Impactful action at the state level in 2021
- Will Donald Trump Get Away With Inciting an Insurrection?
- The Obscure Charge Jan. 6 Investigators Are Looking at for Trump (“Prosecutors have hit 240 insurrectionists with the rare charge of obstructing an official congressional proceeding. The Jan. 6 Committee might be looking at that charge for Trump.” Absolutely.)
- Inside the nonstop pressure campaign by Trump allies to get election officials to revisit the 2020 vote (Dangerous and disturbing.)
- House Jan. 6 probe seeks information from Rep. Jim Jordan about his contact with Trump
- There Will Be No Law or Substance Behind Jim Jordan’s Defense, But It Will Be a Show
- Michael Flynn loses his legal challenge to the House January 6 probe, one day after filing it
- Capitol rioters hit with severe sentences and sharp reprimands from judges (Why does the media keep using words like “rioters,” when these people were insurrectionists?)
- First member of Proud Boys group pleads guilty in Capitol riot conspiracy
- Democrats Score a Big Win in California Redistricting Map
- Democrats confront rising retirements as difficult year ends
- ‘Have I Hit Bottom?’: Michael Avenatti and the Fall of a Trump-Era Antihero
- Rep. Madison Cawthorn Announces Divorce From Wife 8 Months After Wedding (It’s astounding that anyone would marry this unhinged extremist.)
- Fox News employs its own familiar anti-vaccine tactics to attack COVID booster shots (Disgraceful as always.)
- Monmouth Democratic leader recruiting Virginia congresswoman to challenge Chris Smith (“Red Bank native Abigail Spanberger asked to run in NJ-4 after Virginia redistricting didn’t go her way”)
- State regulators rule against pipeline company request to build without permission
- Virginia records almost 6,000 new COVID cases. That never happened in 2020.
- Thousands of Afghan refugees still living in temporary housing on Virginia military bases
- Glenn Youngkin – Who Has Zero Virginia Government Experience – Is Far Behind Terry McAuliffe, Ralph Northam in Filling His Cabinet (Youngkin also seems less focused on hiring Virginians…)
- Youngkin names investment banker as Virginia finance secretary
- UVA scientist hopes to craft a COVID-fighting cocktail (“The Food and Drug Administration has now approved a pill to treat COVID-19 — a medication shown to protect patients against severe disease, but at the University of Virginia one scientist is looking ahead – hoping to develop drug cocktails that might be used to fight all kinds of viruses.”)
- Conservators open time capsule found in Lee monument pedestal
- The box found inside the Robert E. Lee pedestal is a time capsule. But it’s not what they were looking for. (“The question of the 1887 time capsule remains. Did it ever exist at all? Was it stolen or moved?”)
- Painstaking efforts reveal almanac, photo and coin buried under Lee monument
- Time capsule found under Lee monument found to have books, envelope — but no Lincoln photo (“Even before the top of the box came off, experts had begun to doubt that this was the official time capsule placed beneath the Lee memorial in 1887, three years before the statue was unveiled.”)
- Gov. Ralph Northam: “Our thoughts are with Chuck and Lynda [Robb] as they recover from this tragedy”
- Judge rules in favor of Rappahannock Electric Co-op in transparency fight
- Fairfax leaders aim to expand infrastructure for electric vehicles
- Fairfax Co. changing contact tracing plan due to rising COVID-19 cases
- D.C.-area forecast: Cold today before a warming trend that peaks Christmas Day
