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by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, February 11.
- European nuclear fusion experiment announces ‘record-breaking’ results (“If we can maintain fusion for five seconds, we can do it for five minutes and then five hours as we scale up our operations in future machines”)
- We regret to inform you that we are now discussing subvariants (“BA.2 is a fast-spreading variant of the omicron variant. Here’s what we know.”)
- COVID-19 takes serious toll on heart health—a full year after recovery
- Governments All Over the World Are Regressing on Climate
- Daily Climate Damage Should Feel More Like a Disaster
- Koalas Now Endangered In Large Swath Of Australia, Government Says (Helluva job, humanity. UGH.)
- When Will China Be the World’s Biggest Economy? Maybe Never (“A debt crisis, international isolation, and a shrinking population are some variables that could block Beijing’s quest to lead the world.”)
- US urges Canada to use federal powers to end bridge blockade
- Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’ surges beyond legitimate protest
- The ‘Freedom Convoy’ may be in Canada, but it’s a creature of the U.S. right
- Trucker protests start to hurt auto plants nationwide
- Ontario prepares fines, possible seizure of trucks to end Ambassador Bridge blockade, sources say
- Paranoia and alarmism: Canada truckers’ ‘intelligence reports’ hint at mindset
- Putin kept Macron at a distance for snubbing COVID demands: sources
- Biden warns Americans in Ukraine to leave, says sending troops to evacuate would be ‘world war’
- U.S. intelligence report details ‘indirect’ Russian government support for Western neofascist groups
- Investors Bet Ukraine-Russia War Will Be Averted
- Ukraine tensions: Joe Biden says US citizens should leave Ukraine now
- U.S. intel: Nine probable Russian routes into Ukraine in full-scale invasion
- At Olympics and beyond, getting away with it is Russia’s way
- Ukraine tensions: Can diplomacy prevent war?
- New satellite images show Russian military buildup on three sides of Ukraine
- ‘Things could go crazy quickly,’ Biden warns on Ukraine as talks in Berlin fail
- With watchers on the ground and spy drones overhead, U.S. zeroed in on Islamic State leader’s hideout
- Sudan’s military rulers step up crackdown and arrests of activists
- Biden Moves to Split $7 Billion in Frozen Afghan Funds, Spurning Taliban’s Demand (“President Biden is expected to seek a legal path for relatives of 9/11 victims to pursue $3.5 billion from assets deposited in New York by Afghanistan’s central bank. Mr. Biden is also set to ask a judge for permission to move the other $3.5 billion to a trust fund to pay for humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan.”)
- Panel Approves Transfer of Saudi Engineer From Guantánamo Bay
- The Memo: Americans brace for Canada-style COVID-19 protests
- Blue states are rolling back mask rules – but experts warn it’s too soon (“The lifting of mandates is coming at a time when the CDC says a vast majority of the country is still seeing high Covid transmission”)
- Schools Lift Mask Requirements, Change Rules as Omicron Recedes
- US inflation hits highest level in 40 years in January as prices rise 7.5% from 2021 (It’s long past time to raise interest rates.)
- Echoes of the Wage-Price Spiral of the 1970s (“The economy has changed in a number of ways over the past half century, but there’s still a risk that inflationary dynamics can re-emerge”)
- Senators: CIA has secret program that collects American data
- The Jan. 6 Committee Won’t Be Intimidated
- Liz Cheney Warns Critics Of Jan. 6 Investigation Exactly What To Expect (“We are focused on facts, not rhetoric”)
- Trump’s Missing Call Logs Present a Challenge for Jan. 6 Investigators
- Trump’s document destruction isn’t something to paper over or shrug off
- Assessing Trump’s risk if he mishandled White House documents
- The Justice Department has yet another Trump misdeed on its plate (“And voters have yet another reason to throw out Republicans en masse.”)
- Can Trump Be Barred for Running for President Because He Flushed Papers Down a Toilet? (It’s complicated”)
- A Dark Turn in Trump’s Toilet Obsession
- Shred It! Tear It! Eat It! Flush It! Kill It With Fire!
- Trump Committed Every Sin of Hillary Email Saga
- Some Trump records taken to Mar-a-Lago clearly marked as classified, including documents at ‘top secret’ level
- Republicans Who Railed About Clinton Emails Are Quiet on Trump’s Records
- The Incredible Vanishing Trump Presidency (“The Presidential Records Act was not designed for a president as lawless and shameless as Trump.”)
- Trump turns to endorsements to keep bending GOP to his will
- This Supreme Court May Be an Abomination. But It Is Not an Aberration.
- Biden predicts his Supreme Court nominee will get Republican votes
- Biden talks Supreme Court timing with Democratic senators
- Why the RNC blunder may be a tipping point (“Republicans in disarray!”)
- A Trump adviser’s angry eruption over Jan. 6 bodes badly for democracy (“The myth that Mike Pence betrayed Trump is a truly dangerous one.”)
- McConnell demands that governors stop Biden from making America greener (McConnell is evil.)
- Republicans keep attacking a highly qualified Black female Fed nominee
- Ranking the States Demographically, from Most Republican-Friendly to Most Democratic-Friendly
- Sexual harassment victims just got a win in Congress. But there’s more to do.
- Joe Walsh on what the left doesn’t get: TrumpWorld “would happily burn this country down” (“‘I’m responsible for Trump,’ says former GOP congressman. Now he’s here to warn us: The danger isn’t going away”)
- Christian nationalism drove Jan. 6: Now it’s embraced the Big Lie, and wants to conquer America (“America has a choice between democracy and Christian nationalism, says author of new report: ‘We can’t have both'”)
- The Times may publish documents about Project Veritas, a court says.
- The Brutal Moment That Sarah Palin’s Testimony Fell Apart at the NYT Trial
- Sarah Palin bombs on witness stand in New York Times trial (“Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s years as a conservative provocateur, TV personality and outspoken critic of the ‘lamestream media’ have ill-prepared her for any venue in which the federal rules of evidence hold sway.”)
- Palin calls New York Times the ‘Goliath’ in libel dispute
- The existential dread of journalists watching the Sarah Palin trial
- Abortions in Texas fell 60% in 1st month under new limits
- Hundreds of mail-in ballots are being returned to Texas voters because they don’t comply with new voting law
- On Facebook, ads for Tucker Carlson’s Hungary vs. Soros “documentary” have been viewed millions of times (“The Fox Nation propagandist screed regurgitates the same antisemitic tropes that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán used to get reelected in 2018”)
- Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says US Needs to Stand Up For “Democracy” Ukraine and Against “Authoritarian Regimes” Like Putin’s; “I hope the Canadian government will move more aggressively to restore rule of law” (Also says he supports a ban on members of Congress trading individual stocks)
- Video: Rep. Spanberger Hosts President Biden in Virginia’s Seventh District for Official Visit to Address Rising Prescription Drug Prices
- Biden, with Spanberger in Culpeper, urges lower prescription drug prices
- VA-02 GOP PRIMARY TROUBLE: “How Can You Vote for a Two-Time Loser, Bro?” (“For once, Jarome Ball gets it right”)
- Luria calls plan to ban stock trading in Congress “bulls—“ (“Why would you assume that members of Congress are going to be inherently bad or corrupt?”)
- Virginia’s Deputy AG Resigns Over Posts Praising 1/6 Insurrectionists; Jason Miyares Is Even Worse Than Many of Us Feared He’d Be (The election of Miyares as Attorney General of Virginia may have been the worst mistake Virginia voters have ever made.)
- Deputy Virginia AG resigns over posts lauding Jan. 6 rioters
- Report: Virginia Deputy Attorney General Resigns Over Praise of January 6 Rioters (“She also reportedly spread election conspiracy theories.”)
- Deputy Va. attorney general resigns after revelation of posts praising Jan. 6 rioters, claiming Trump won election (“Monique Miles resigned Thursday after the posts were revealed.”)
- Miyares drops wrongful conviction case that Herring was championing
- Virginia’s AG Miyares rejects blanket dismissals of failure to pay child support prosecutions
- VA Senate and House Democrats Call On Governor Youngkin to Request Andrew Wheeler’s Resignation After Nomination Rejected by Senate
- Video: VA Senate Committee Kills Several Bad Bills (on Charter Schools, Off-Label Prescriptions, Abortion) by Far-Right Sen. Amanda Chase
- Va. Senate Democrats kill proposal to mostly ban abortion after 20 weeks
- Virginia House GOP Continues Attack on Voting Rights (“Virginia Republicans vote to advance additional legislation undermining ballot access across the commonwealth”)
- Lawmakers pivot to ‘lab schools’ as Senate committee kills charter legislation
- Virginia COVID Hospitalizations Under 2,000 For First Time Since 12/31/21; New Cases Far Lower Than a Couple Weeks Ago; Deaths Still Staying High
- Va. Senate panel backs compromise on grocery tax repeal, kills gas tax suspension
- State Republicans working to pull Virginia out of RGGI (So f’ing stupid.)
- Lieutenant governor casts her first tiebreaker against Edwards bill
- Virginia lawmakers move to end ban on police facial recognition technology
- Bill prohibiting local bans on natural gas service advances
- Pope & Schapiro: Almost at the midpoint (“…split control of the legislature has sidelined numerous bills from both Democrats and Republicans.But there have been a few areas of agreement so far”)
- Senate committee kills bill that would allow Petersburg to have a casino
- Fairfax Co. schools update mask exit ramp, as Va. mask-optional bills advance
- D.C.-area forecast: Spring preview peaks today with 60s and sunshine
