by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, January 25.
- ‘We’re in trouble:’ U.S. envoy urges faster action on climate goals
- Webb telescope arrives at outpost 1 million miles from Earth to begin study of distant galaxies
- Antibodies that block omicron found to persist 4 months after Pfizer booster
- The Oil Industry Is Terrified of College Kids (“Students helped crush Apartheid. Now they’re using the same tactics against fossil fuels.”)
- UN data reveals ‘nearly insurmountable’ scale of lost schooling due to Covid (“Up to 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries lack basic reading skills, with learning losses seen from US to Ethiopia”)
- Investors fear ‘crypto winter’ is coming as bitcoin falls 50% from record highs
- A Russian Invasion of Ukraine Looms, but Diplomatic Options Remain
- U.S., NATO allies intensify diplomacy in bid to deter Russia
- What happens if Russia invades Ukraine?
- Putin’s Making NATO Stronger, Whether He Starts a War in Ukraine or Not
- Russian stocks sink 8%, ruble plunges to 14-month low as conflict fears intensify
- On the Brink of War With Russia, Ukrainians Are Resigned and Prepared
- US puts 8,500 troops on heightened alert amid Russia tension
- Russia Says U.S. Troop Decision Raises Tensions: Ukraine Update
- Rising costs of Ukraine gamble could force Russia’s hand (“Analysis: Putin can still turn back but it looks less likely as economic and political consequences mount”)
- U.S. Joins Assault on Prison Where ISIS Holds Hundreds of Boys Hostage
- Netanyahu rejects plea deal with clause that would ban him from politics
- Yemen’s Houthis have launched two attacks against the U.A.E. — here’s why
- Why Is North Korea Suddenly Launching So Many Missiles?
- Mexican journalist Lourdes Maldonado López, who feared for her life, killed in Tijuana
- FDA ends for now use of two monoclonal antibodies, spurring a halt in federal shipments of the covid-19 treatments
- Fauci expects most states to reach peak omicron by February. Close to half already have.
- Health Experts Express Really, Really Cautious Optimism on Omicron (“Dr. Anthony Fauci said the rate of new cases is seemingly ‘going in the right direction,’ though some parts of the country still report record-breaking hospitalizations and infections.”)
- Free N95 masks now available at some U.S. pharmacies, with wider rollout expected soon
- Democrats say change to filibuster just a matter of time
- Attack of the Right-Wing Thought Police
- ‘Aggressively conservative’ Supreme Court plunges into U.S. culture wars (The Supreme Court is a menace. Also increasingly illegitimate.)
- U.S. Supreme Court rejects House Republicans’ challenge to pandemic-era voting rules
- Wingnut Legal Apparatus Eyes Affirmative Action
- The Supreme Court will hear two cases that are likely to end affirmative action (“The conservative Court adds more cases to its growing culture war docket.”)
- Republicans are embarrassed to tell us what they are for (“They definitely have an agenda. It’s just an unpopular one.”)
- Biden may not find it so hard to turn the corner
- Behind the latest GOP restrictions on race teaching: A hidden, toxic goal (“How GOP legislatures hope to remove big questions about race and the U.S. from the agenda entirely.”)
- Prosecutors in multiple states are investigating false Electoral College submissions
- McConnell-Trump deep freeze promises to define the midterm elections
- Why should we worry that the U.S. could become an ‘anocracy’ again? Civil war.
- What the Trump Documents Might Tell the Jan. 6 Committee
- Trump Throws a Fit Over Investigators Going After His “Children,” Who Are in Their 40s
- Biden Bristles at Fox Inflation Query With Hot-Mic Expletive (Fox is right-wing propaganda, not journalism or news, and shouldn’t be allowed to be part of the White House press corps.)
- The media fails to challenge Joni Ernst’s paltry excuses for voting subversion
- BREAKING: Fulton judges greenlight special grand jury for Trump probe
- Moderate non-Trump Republican governors are disappearing from the political landscape
- Newt Gingrich Invented Donald Trump’s Lock-Them-Up Politics (Gingrich is evil incarnate.)
- Newt Gingrich Is a Radical Prophet of the Big Lie
- Sarah Palin, who is unvaccinated, recently dined indoors in New York City before testing positive. (Stone-cold moron.)
- ‘Jeopardy!’ phenom Amy Schneider wins 39 games, the second-highest streak in show history
- Fox News celebrates Washington rally by anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists (Of course they do…)
- Why debating coup plotters and insurrectionists on TV doesn’t work, continued (“MSNBC host Ari Melber inadvertently helped right-wing conspiracy theorists find a new mainstream audience”)
- Beyer running for reelection in Va.’s 8th District
- Youngkin fuels a culture war and puts schools at risk
- Youngkin’s use of executive orders to appease the GOP base comes with many downsides
- Audio: Glenn Youngkin Rants About “Privilege Bingo,” “Critical Race Theory,” “teachers’ unions and teachers associations and the left liberals” (Youngkin also pledges to “press forward on our charter school agenda big time,” “clean house” at the Virginia Department of Elections)
- Video: Virginia Parents, Democratic Lawmakers Blast Youngkin’s “Illegal Executive Order” on Masks in Schools; Say He’s “Becoming the Most Divisive and Authoritarian Governor” in Virginia History (Youngkin trying to “appease the extreme far-right…instead of putting the safety of our children first”)
- Youngkin breaks precedent, proposes $3.5 billion in budget amendments without saying how to pay for them (Hell no.)
- We’re already seeing what a mistake Virginia’s voters made
- Virginia Schools Are Melting Down (“In his first week on the job, Gov. Glenn Youngkin created a crisis.”)
- Virginia Is for Suckers (“If you were a Joe Biden/Glenn Youngkin voter, you ignored a lot of evidence that the man in fleece was no moderate.” You had to have been paying almost no attention whatsoever to actually believe Youngkin was a “moderate.”)
- Youngkin urges calm on his call for a ban on mask mandates but also stokes division
- ‘I’m a parent too’ — Va. Democrats, parents blast Youngkin’s order lifting mask mandates
- Seven School Divisions Take Joint Legal Action to Affirm Local Constitutional Authority to Keep Public Schools Safe (“FCPS and other school divisions filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of Executive Order 2 issued by the governor on January 15, 2022”)
- Richmond among seven Virginia school boards suing Youngkin over order on masks in schools
- Firings of Top Lawyers at UVa and George Mason Raise Questions of Political Interference
- Virginia COVID-19 Cases Up 129,877 Over the Past 10 Days…Has the Omicron Wave Finally Started to Recede?
- “Greta’s Law” Will Require Breeders to Track Dogs and Cats Sold for Testing
- Electric Vehicles Should Not Be Delayed in Virginia
- Bill banning ticket, arrest quotas unanimously passes Senate committee, with last-minute amendments
- Hanover School Board unanimously votes to follow Youngkin’s masks-optional order (Of course…)
- Richmond City Council approves plans for second casino referendum; Stoney proposes real estate tax cut if measure passes
- Virginia Beach police were caught using fake DNA reports. So a Norfolk delegate introduced a bill to ban the practice.
- Inside Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Unlikely Rise and Precipitous Fall at Liberty University
- Maskless Monday Hits Loudoun Schools, Further Divides Families and District
- Virginia clean energy job training program climbs its own learning curve (“After going dormant at the start of the pandemic, a Richmond-based workforce training program is once again exposing Black and other underrepresented residents to the career possibilities in solar and energy efficiency.”)
- Chesapeake teachers’ union organizes protest over masks, votes no confidence on school board
- D.C.-area forecast: Briefly warming into the 40s today, then temperatures tumble again midweek
