Friday News: “Dozens Dead in Strike on Train Station in East, Ukraine Says”; “Ketanji Brown Jackson Has Her Work Cut Out for Her”; “The Washington Post Checks in on Donald Trump, Finds He’s Still a Lying Sociopath”; “Policy setbacks slow Virginia’s momentum on shared solar”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, April 8.

• The world is ‘perilously close’ to tipping points of irreversible climate change. These are 5 that keep scientists up at night.
• Asia faces growing threats from climate change. Here’s what can be done
• Australia needs a government that actually wants wind, solar and electric cars
• Food Prices Jump Most on Record as War Sparks Supply Chaos
• West seeks to ramp up arms deliveries to Ukraine as war enters new phase
• Dozens Dead in Strike on Train Station in East, Ukraine Says
• Ukraine: Russian missile kills 30 civilians at train station (Yet another war crime. Prosecute Putin and his regime…)
• Keep calm, stop Putin and fortify the Baltics
• Nato states agree to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine
• Expulsion of Russian ‘diplomats’ may strangle Moscow’s spying
• UN suspends Russia from Human Rights Council
• Bill Clinton: I Tried to Put Russia on Another Path
• US giving intel to Ukraine for operations in Donbas, Defense Secretary says
• ‘This is a crazy, unjust attack’: Pink Floyd re-form to support Ukraine
• Putin Army Regroups for Ukraine Showdown After Invasion Setback
• Ukraine War: Kremlin spokesman Peskov admits ‘significant’ Russian losses
• As Ukraine braces for a second round, the West has a duty to step up
• Could Russia Lose This Whole War? (“Putin’s forces bungled round one of the invasion. Here’s why they might bungle round two.”)
• Russia’s war dead belie its slogan that no one is left behind (“As Russian mothers and widows grieve, countless bodies are unclaimed in Ukraine.”)
• The Post’s View: Russia’s war reveals what’s wrong — and right — with the U.N.
• How Germany Became Putin’s Enabler
• Russian Troops Are Running Low On Supplies And Morale, UK Officials Say
• Some of the Biggest Brands Are Leaving Russia. Others Just Can’t Quit Putin. Here’s a List.
• Right-wing populists are thriving — even when they’re friends of Putin
• Congress Votes Overwhelmingly To Suspend Russia’s Trade Status, Ban Oil
• Russian disinformation surged after invasion of Ukraine, Meta reports
• Fears genocidal streak in coverage may prompt more war crimes
• Race Is On to Rearm Eastern Front That Could Decide Ukraine War
• Peruvian prime minister’s praise of Hitler sparks wave of protest (“Aníbal Torres said his words were misunderstood but offered to apologize in person to Israeli ambassador Asaf Ichilevich”)
• Shooter kills 2, wounds several in central Tel Aviv
• French election: Far-right Le Pen closes in on Macron ahead of vote
• Emmanuel Macron Could Lose France’s Presidential Election (That would be disastrous.)
• Men accused of impersonating federal agents being investigated for possible ties to Iranian intelligence (Very disturbing.)
• U.S. life expectancy falls for 2nd year in a row
• Appeals Court Upholds Biden’s Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate
• Ketanji Brown Jackson and a marathon of hope
• Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation will have deep political effects (“Democrats will celebrate it — and stay angry at Republicans, who moved pedophilia panic to the center of their politics.”)
• Senate confirms Jackson to Supreme Court (“With Jackson, a new version of the Supreme Court takes shape”)
• The paradox of Ketanji Brown Jackson (“The Supreme Court is more diverse than it has ever been, and more hostile to political equality than any Court since the 1950s.” This court is a disgrace.)
• Ketanji Brown Jackson Is No Longer an Event. She Is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
• Jackson confirmation takes Biden political story full circle
• Jackson will join more diverse and conservative high court
• Supreme Court Highlights: Senate Confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson
• Confirmation Puts Jackson in a Unique Position: Justice-in-Waiting
• Democrats plan to seize on GOP opposition to Jackson
• Ketanji Brown Jackson Has Her Work Cut Out for Her
• The guy who brought us CRT panic offers a new far-right agenda: Destroy public education (“Christopher Rufo used ‘critical race theory’ as a Trojan horse. Now he wants to sack the city and win the war”)
• The GOP is less popular than Biden. Why would voters put it back in power?
• With democracy under attack, Democrats see a firewall in states
• Please, George Bush and Barack Obama. Help protect our democracy.
• Obama: I Underestimated the Threat of Disinformation (“Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg in conversation with Barack Obama about the social web, Ukraine, and the future of democracy”)
• Four Opinion Writers on How the G.O.P. Fringe Took Over American Politics
• States With Strictest Abortion Laws Are Hardest Places To Raise Children
• Legal Effort Expands to Disqualify Republicans as ‘Insurrectionists’
• Alvin Bragg Insists His Criminal Probe of Trump Isn’t Over (“The state of the investigation from the Manhattan DA’s office was uncertain following the recent resignations of the probe’s top prosecutors.”)
• Trump’s new admission about Jan. 6 should boost pressure on Garland
• The Washington Post Checks in on Donald Trump, Finds He’s Still a Lying Sociopath
• Under Fire, Manhattan D.A. Defends Handling of Trump Investigation
• F.B.I. Preparing to Investigate How Classified Material Went to Trump’s Home
• Ex-cop testifies he and former colleague hoped to ‘overturn’ election on Jan. 6
• Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights
• Texas leads among 26 states with book bans, free speech group says
• Senators to restart bipartisan immigration reform talks
• GOP ‘no’ votes on Russia measures prompt pro-Putin accusations
• McConnell’s revealing squirm session on why he’d still back Trump
• Mitch McConnell On Why He Would Back Trump In 2024: Party Comes First (That’s completely insane.)
• After Touting Ivermectin as a Covid Treatment, Fox News Hosts Ignore New Study Showing It Doesn’t Work
• As Fox News turns on Disney, advertisers supporting LGBTQ youth should be wary of partnering with the network
• Exclusive: Leaked Messages Reveal the Origins of the Most Vile Hunter Biden Smear (“Fugitive Chinese tycoon and Steve Bannon ally Guo Wengui pushed out explicit material—and lies—on the eve of the 2020 election.”)
• CBS News promotes a fake, Republican-driven scandal from when Joe Biden wasn’t even in office
• Elon Musk to address Twitter staff after internal outcry (“Twitter plans to host Elon Musk for a question-and-answer session with employees after a week of internal outcries over his appointment to the social network’s board of directors, according to company messages obtained by The Washington Post.”)
• Journalism’s Twitter Problem Is the Journalists
• LEAKED MEMO: The New York Times has issued a Twitter ‘reset,’ urging reporters to ‘meaningfully reduce how much time you’re spending on the platform’
• 2 former coaches join Brian Flores in his discrimination suit against the NFL
• Alabama Lawmakers Approve Ban on Medical Care for Transgender Youth
• Far-Right’s Pedo Obsession Goes Mainstream With Calls to ‘Bring Ammo’ to Disney Fight
• Texas and Florida’s Culture-War Competition
• Senator Tim Kaine Says Putin Should Be Put on Trial in the Hague
• Virginia Leaders React to Senate Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court: “This is a historic moment for our nation”
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner “so proud of the Ukrainian people” and of the U.S. for “supplying them with the tools they need”; Says “I look forward to voting for Judge Jackson” (“I’m not sure I could have sat through that kind of…unfair grilling she got from some of the Republican senators, and maintained my cool the way she did.”)
• Audio: Leading VA02 GOP Candidates Rip Each Other as “radical leftist RINO,” running “one-issue smear campaign” (re: Kiggans’ vote for the Virginia Values Act) (Kiggans brags that she OPPOSED bills “that establish a transgender policy in our schools”; declares, “men should not be in women’s bathrooms, period, hands down”)
• Senators Warner, Kaine Announce $232 Million in Federal Infrastructure Funding for Virginia Transit
• DCCC: Madison Cawthorn Comes To Town; GOP Establishment Can’t Make Up Their Minds In VA-02 (“The VA-02 GOP primary is pure chaos as Jen Kiggans fails to earn support of conservative Republicans”)
• Pope & Schapiro: No sign of budget progress
• Inside the budget battle (“Youngkin frustrated with the legislature’s stalemate over the state’s biennial spending bill.”)
• Gov. Youngkin Cancels Gov. Northam’s Common Sense Plastic Reduction Plan via Executive Order (VA Sierra Club: Youngkin’s EO #17 “puts plastic polluters’ profits at the expense of Virginia’s environment, public health”)
• Youngkin promotes recycling but discards Va. program to ban plastics
• Youngkin rolls back Northam’s limits on single-use plastics
• Policy setbacks slow Virginia’s momentum on shared solar (“A proposed monthly fee to participate in Dominion Energy’s upcoming shared solar program is too high to be viable, advocates say. Meanwhile, efforts to expand to other utility territories will likely be delayed for more study.”)
• Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 96% Compared to 1/19; Hospitalizations Down to 231 From ~4,000 in January
• Loudoun County Plans To Review Qualifications To Run For Sheriff (“Randall said her motion grew out of concerns she’d heard from sheriff’s deputies about the possibility of ending up with an elected leader who had no law enforcement experience.”)
• Nelson County women committed to protecting animals
• Amazon Fresh brings new store with cashier-less tech to Fairfax
• D.C.-area forecast: Sunshine’s back, but occasional showers still pester