Friday News: “Biden’s Poland Visit to Spotlight Weapons, Aid for Ukraine”; “What Does Clarence Thomas Know? And When Did He Know It?”; “Trump Files Batshit Lawsuit” Against Hillary Clinton; “Virginia Parents Win Right to Mask Their Vulnerable Children’s Classmates”

by Lowell

Here are a few world, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, March 25.

• Undersea Permafrost Is a Huge Wild Card for the Climate
• Satellite data shows entire Conger ice shelf has collapsed in Antarctica (“Nasa scientist says complete collapse of ice shelf as big as Rome during unusually high temperatures is ‘sign of what might be coming’”)
• Great Barrier Reef: Australia confirms new mass bleaching event (Get. Off. Of. Fossil. Fuels. ASAP!)
• Climate crisis causing birds to lay eggs up to a month earlier than 100 years ago
• BP establishes partnership focused on offshore wind in Japan
• Germany’s New Government Had Big Plans on Climate, Then Russia Invaded Ukraine. What Happens Now?
• How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2021 (“2021 was a stand-out year for climate coverage on corporate broadcast TV networks. In our annual analysis of climate coverage, Media Matters found that approximately 1,316 minutes — nearly 22 hours — were spent discussing climate change on morning, evening, and Sunday morning news shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcasting Co., more than a threefold increase from 2020. However, all those hours of climate coverage on corporate broadcast TV networks represented roughly 1% of overall news programming in 2021, a figure that is still far too small in the face of a worsening climate crisis.”)
• Analysis: New EU rules regulating U.S. tech giants likely to set global standard
• Biden seals LNG deal to help EU face energy crunch amid ‘Russia’s brutal war’
• New images reveal devastation in eastern Ukraine city
• Ukraine Update: Russia Seen Headed for Deep Two-Year Recession
• Ukraine counter-attacks gain more ground near Kyiv, UK says
• Biden to visit Poland, a complex ally on Ukraine’s doorstep
• Biden’s Poland Visit to Spotlight Weapons, Aid for Ukraine
• The U.S. starts to shoulder its Ukrainian refugee share
• US, EU announce new partnership to undercut Russian energy
• Officials: 300 dead in airstrike on theater in Mariupol
• Putin Stirs U.S. Concern That He Feels Cornered and May Lash Out
• One month into the Ukraine war, a defiant nation is forever changed but adapting
• How Putin badly misjudged the West, as explained by a Russia expert
• More than 400,000 Ukrainians taken to Russia against their will, official says (That’s a massive war crime.)
• Putin Doesn’t Realize How Much Warfare Has Changed (“Astonishingly, the Russian army is repeating the past mistakes of its Soviet predecessor.”)
• Exclusive: U.S. assesses up to 60% failure rate for some Russian missiles, officials say
• Ukraine’s Three-to-One Advantage (“It’s not technology or tactics that has given Ukrainian fighters their greatest edge.”)
• Ukrainian forces advance east of Kyiv as Russians fall back
• How Putin badly misjudged the West, as explained by a Russia expert
• Russia Has Declared War on the West. Here’s How to Win. (“The West should arm Ukraine ‘to the teeth,’ says Poland’s foreign minister.”)
• Russian activists sign open letter calling for end to war in Ukraine (“Campaigners write manifesto in broadest anti-war statement by Russian human rights supporters”)
• Biden is proving all the awful foreign policy takes wrong
• Biden warns Russia Nato will respond if Kremlin uses chemical weapons (“US leader, speaking after Nato agreed to upgrade weapons supply to Ukraine, says retaliation would be proportional”)
• Putin’s war in Ukraine nearing possibly more dangerous phase
• Some prominent Russians quit jobs, refuse to support war
• Leaders rebuff Zelenskyy’s latest pitch to join EU
• Russian spies indicted in worldwide hacks of energy industry, including Kansas nuclear plant
• N. Korea says it test-fired biggest ICBM, US adds sanctions
• Ukraine war could extend bump in US coal use, but utilities remain confident in decarbonization path
• Experts worry about how US will see next COVID surge coming
• U.S. weekly jobless claims drop to lowest level since 1969
• How High Inflation Will Come Down (“The inflation of 2021-22 looks very different, and much easier to solve, from the inflation of 1979-80.”)
• Ginni Thomas Exchanged Dozens Of Texts Urging Top Trump Aide To Overturn 2020 Election (Lock Her Up)
• Texts show wife of Supreme Court justice pushed Trump’s chief of staff to fight to overturn election results
• Ginni Thomas Pressed Trump’s Chief of Staff to Overturn 2020 Vote, Texts Show
• Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show
• What Does Clarence Thomas Know? (“And when did he know it?”)
• The Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows Texts: This Damn Case Just Gets Stranger By the Hour
• Supreme Court silent on Justice Clarence Thomas hospitalization
• How democracy dies: When it comes to Jan. 6, the American people can’t handle the truth
• Jan. 6 committee sets contempt vote for 2 former Trump aides
• A barbaric federal program’: US killed 1.75m animals last year – or 200 per hour (“Activists condemn Wildlife Services, a division of the USDA, which says deaths necessary to protect farmers and public health” Totally unacceptable and disgraceful.)
• Putin’s war and high gas prices hand Democrats an opening on climate
• Scoop: Manchin outlines BBB deal requirements (Manchin “told a group of climate activists and energy executives he’s open to supporting revised Build Back Better legislation narrowly addressing three issues: climate change, prescription drug prices and deficit reduction.”)
• Sen. Manchin launches new push for ‘all of the above’ energy bill
• 3 out of 4 US counties had more deaths than births in past year
• How the false Russian biolab story came to circulate among the U.S. far right
• Ketanji Brown Jackson is on track for a pretty quick confirmation (“While they may try, there isn’t much Republicans can do to block it”)
• The Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings Show Marriage Equality Is the Next Target Once Roe Falls
• Senate Republicans respond to Fox incentives with bigoted, frenzied attacks on Judge Jackson (“Fox’s stars rewarded the worst offenders with airtime”)
• Michael Gerson: The Jackson confirmation hearings show a Republican Party in decay
• The real reason for the vile GOP child-porn attack on Judge Jackson (“They know it won’t keep her from getting confirmed. But this is what they think will rile their base.”)
• Cory Booker cut through the GOP’s ugliness to celebrate Judge Jackson
• Americans Broadly Want The Senate To Confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson To The Supreme Court
• The Story Behind That Photo of Ketanji Brown Jackson and Her Daughter
• GOP frets over how hard to fight Jackson
• Marsha Blackburn asked Ketanji Brown Jackson to define ‘woman.’ Science says there’s no simple answer.
• Jackson faces growing GOP opposition on Supreme Court (Which is why the hearings were a farce, given that Republicans were never operating in good faith.)
• As a prosecutor, Josh Hawley agreed to only probation in plea deal for sexual abuser
• Why Is the Manhattan DA Returning Evidence in Trump Case?
• Donald Trump sues Hillary Clinton and allies over Russia claims
• Trump Files Batshit Lawsuit Accusing Hillary Clinton of Trying to “Destroy His Life”
• Legal Experts Shred Trump’s ‘Utterly Hopeless’ Lawsuit Against Hillary Clinton (“The former president claims there was a ‘malicious conspiracy’ to accuse him of colluding with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign.”)
• Republicans More Likely Than Democrats To Say Partisan Control of Congress ‘Really Matters’ (People are clueless if they don’t understand the urgency of this.)
• Tiny ‘Glock Switches’ Have Quietly Flooded the US With Deadly Machine Guns
• Bannon’s escape plan: how the Trump strategist is trying to dodge prison (“Bannon is advancing a high-stakes defense as he battles a case that could mean up to a year in federal prison and thousands of dollars in fines if convicted”)
• McCarthy calls endorsement of Cheney’s primary foe a ‘special case’
• MAGA purge: Jan. 6 organizer labels former ally Rep. Mo Brooks as “LOSER” and “piece of crap” (“Ali Alexander, supposed ‘Stop the Steal’ founder, mocks ‘de-endorsed’ congressman as traitor to Trump’s Big Lie” It’s a cult.)
• Donald Trump’s disloyalty may finally come back to bite him (“Mo Brooks might become a star witness in the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation, thanks to Trump’s betrayal.”)
• YouTube removes CPAC content for violating ‘election integrity policy’
• U.S. House Candidate Ends Run After Uproar Over Behavior at Sleepover
• It’s Pride Week in Austin schools. The Texas AG says that’s illegal.
• The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Is Even Worse Than It Sounds (“For one thing, schools would practically be forced to out LGBTQ+ students.”)
• Far-Right, Insurrectionist, Extremist Rep. Bob Good (R-VA05) Endorses Conspiracy Theorist, 1/6 Trump Rally Attendee State Sen. Amanda Chase for Reelection
• VA Senate Majority Leader Saslaw Rips Youngkin on Irresponsible Budget Approach, Taking Credit for Things He Had Nothing to Do With, the Infamous “Tip Line,” His Gas Tax “Media Stunt” (Also, Youngkin wrongly “tried to interfere with the selection of a new chancellor overseeing Virginia’s 23 community colleges”)
• Arlington, Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorneys Respond to Right-Wingnut AG Miyares: ‘There you go again…Choosing to lie” and Trying to “stop criminal justice reform” (“In fact, crime in Fairfax was down 10% in 2021” and Arlington/Falls Church had ZERO homicides “from mid-September 2020 until mid-February 2022”)
• With Special Session Date Set, Virginia Democrats Will Work to Protect Generational Investments in Public Education and Health and Behavioral Health Care Infrastructure (“Republicans’ refusal to support public education, health and behavioral care health infrastructure, and ensure our localities receive the funding they need is dangerous and disappointing”)
• Pope & Schapiro: A new elections commissioner & Youngkin’s public pitch to budget negotiators
• Just how much should Virginians pay for solar energy?
• State lawmakers remain divided on how to best address gun violence
• Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 95% Compared to 1/19; Hospitalizations Down to 366 From ~4,000 in January
• Virginia receives ‘C’ ranking for protections offered to living organ donors
• Virginia Parents Win Right to Mask Their Vulnerable Children’s Classmates
• Fluvanna dam at risk of failure is one of 1,800 in Virginia that pose unknown risks
• Alexandria man says he was assaulted by participants of trucker convoy in DC
• Alexandria school board requests another year of funding for school police officers
• D.C.-area forecast: Sunnier today, with a big cooldown on the way