by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, May 19.
- “Fossil fuels are a dead end:” UN chief says coal, oil and gas subsidies a “scandal”
- World’s oceans at most acidic level in 26000 years, climate report warns
- Global leaders warn ‘climate catastrophe’ on the horizon
- EU hits fast forward on renewables, including “massive deployment” of solar (“The European Commission has unveiled a plan for a massive scaling-up and speeding-up of renewable energy in the EU, including a dedicated strategy to double the region’s installed solar capacity by 2025 and install 600GW of solar by 2030.”)
- The air conditioning paradox (“How do we cool people without heating up the planet?” A big part of the answer, as usual, is energy efficiency, clean power production, well-insulated homes, etc.)
- Offshore wind giant to use turbine foundations to “rewild” North Sea
- Australia election: How climate is making Australia more unliveable
- Climate Change Made Record-Breaking Heatwaves 100 Times More Likely in India, Pakistan; Projected to Hit Every 3 Years
- Rare monkeypox outbreak in U.K., Europe and U.S.: What is it and should we worry?
- Crypto Crash Probably Won’t Ease Crypto’s Massive Energy Suck (“Enormous energy consumption has barely reduced despite $1tn being wiped off the sector”)
- As Prices Soar, Russia’s Economy Grows ‘Especially Gloomy’ (“The government has brought stability for now through extreme measures, but forecasters are expecting continued severe inflation and a deep downturn.”)
- Russian Blockade Heightens Fears of Global Grain Shortages
- Raising the Flag at U.S. Embassy Kyiv
- US intel shows Russians fear Mariupol abuse will backfire
- The world must not forget Mariupol’s defenders (“They are heroes”)
- We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist.
- Opinion U.S. mistakes in Ukraine can’t all be pinned on bad intelligence
- Turkey blocks start of NATO talks on Finland’s and Sweden’s applications
- Fiona Hill says Putin got ‘frustrated many times’ with Trump because the Russian leader ‘had to keep explaining things’ to him
- Russian Soldier’s War-Crimes Trial in Ukraine to Hear More Evidence (“Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old Russian tank-unit officer, has admitted to fatally shooting an unarmed 62-year-old civilian in late February.”)
- Senate confirms Brink as new US ambassador to Ukraine
- Red Cross registers hundreds of Ukrainian POWs from Mariupol
- Russia says 900 Mariupol defenders sent to prison camp
- Biden, after months focused on Ukraine, makes first trip to Asia
- How the war in Ukraine is challenging the long-sought pivot to Asia
- Ukraine Latest: China in Talks to Buy Russian Oil for Reserves
- Explainer: Why is India facing its worst power crisis in over six years?
- China Insists Party Elites Shed Overseas Assets, Eyeing Western Sanctions on Russia
- U.S. health officials say a third of people live in areas with so much virus they should consider masks indoors.
- White House resumes Covid briefings after six-week hiatus as cases rise
- Pro-Trump counties continue to suffer far higher COVID death tolls (“States that went most heavily for Trump – including Wyoming and West Virginia – have among the highest rates of preventable deaths, while states that voted heavily for Biden – such as Massachusetts and Vermont – had among the lowest.” Trumpism is literally killing its supporters.)
- Dow drops 1,100 points for its biggest decline since 2020 as the sell-off this year on Wall Street intensifies
- FERC’s Glick says he’s ‘bullish’ on energy storage, aims to prioritize regulations for hybrid projects
- Biden invokes Defense Production Act to address nationwide shortage of baby formula
- Full List of 192 House Republicans Who Voted Against FDA Baby Formula Bill
- Biden calls out “domestic terrorism”: That’s important, but is it enough to shift the narrative? (“In refusing to call out Tucker Carlson and Trump after Buffalo, the president is backing away from a fight”)
- Democrats Press Biden to Go Big on Forgiving Student Loan Debt
- Sick of Massacres? Get Rid of the Guns.
- Gun sales have exploded. Funny, that didn’t make us all safer. (“The gun advocates are proven wrong yet again.”)
- How the Biden administration let right-wing attacks derail its disinformation efforts
- Dems stand back and watch Chuck and Joe show (“Democrats are hoping Chuck Schumer’s 10-year-plus relationship with Joe Manchin will finally get the party their sweeping tax-and-climate bill.”)
- Analysis: Election Deniers on Many Ballots Raise Stakes of Midterms
- What the Primaries Reveal About the Future of Trumpism
- Pa. Trump endorsee’s win could give 2020 denier oversight of 2024 election
- Say it clearly: Republicans just nominated a pro-Trump insurrectionist
- GOP voters choose nominees with first loyalty to Trump, not McConnell
- Report: The Justice Department’s 1/6 Criminal Investigation Is Getting Closer to Trump, A.K.A. the Guy Actually Responsible for 1/6
- Conservatives Are Defending a Sanitized Version of ‘The Great Replacement’ (“Their reaction to the Buffalo shooting shows that the racist theory has now entered the GOP mainstream.”)
- Republican ‘big lie’ supporters triumph in sign of Trump’s enduring power (“Hard-right candidates who challenged 2020 result win string of primary victories on a good night too for progressive Democrats”)
- In Tuesday’s primaries, Democrats’ left and center wings both got wins
- Rise of ultra-MAGA right could play into Dems’ hands
- Tuesday primaries show that Trumpism has metastasized
- The Republican primaries are a tug-of-war between rightwing and even-righter-wing (“Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ is now entrenched as Republican Gospel, and the candidates he endorsed have – mostly – done well in the primaries”)
- Republicans in Disarray? Well, They Certainly Aren’t Trying to Root Out the Crazy. (“Do not be deceived by the excision of Madison Cawthorn.”)
- Navy desertions have more than doubled amid suicide concerns, as sailors feel trapped by contracts
- I Don’t Think This Congressman Wants Answers to His Absurd Abortion Questions
- Voters are finally seeing how political the Supreme Court really is
- Poll: Two-thirds say don’t overturn Roe; the court leak is firing up Democratic voters (“Democrats also got a boost on which party Americans want to control Congress. By a 47%-to-42% margin, this survey showed voters would cast their ballot in favor of a Democrat in their local congressional district if the election were held today.”)
- Trump taints Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary with fresh fraud lies
- Trump to Dr. Oz: Just Steal the PA Senate Race (“Following his own example from 2020, Trump wants the candidate to “declare victory” despite the thousands of ballots that have yet to be counted.”)
- The Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary is probably headed for a recount
- Mehmet Oz thanked Fox News host Sean Hannity for advising his US Senate campaign (“In his speech the night of the Pennsylvania primary, Oz touted getting ‘behind the scenes’ advice during ‘late night conversations’ with the Fox star” Just a reminder that Hannity is NOT a legitimate journalist. Same thing with most or all of his Fox “News” colleagues.)
- Army officer who reported Trump probably faced retaliation, inquiry finds (“Yevgeny Vindman suffered ‘swift’ reduction in responsibilities as White House adviser after raising alarm about the president’s actions toward Ukraine, the Defense Department inspector general’s office determined.”)
- George W. Bush compares Zelenskyy to Churchill, mistakenly calls Iraq invasion unjustified
- Dinesh D’Souza’s Vile Big Lie Doc Is Too Stupid Even for Fox (This guy’s definitely one of the worst people in America.)
- A network of hate-fueled accounts is thriving on Instagram (“These accounts use the platform and its features to spread their racist ideology”)
- Fox News Poll: Georgia’s GOP primary race for governor sees Kemp holding wide lead over Perdue
- Buffalo shooting survivors hid in a milk cooler, waiting for horror to stop. The suspect is set to appear in court today
- Video: Sen. Warner Talks Ukraine, Tucker Carlson, Baby Formula, the “heinous crime” in Buffalo, Racism, Guns, John Fetterman, Madison Cawthorn… (We need to “put some guardrails…on the social media companies that bear no responsibility at all… no matter how…atrocious some of the propaganda that comes over their sites.”)
- Senators Warner and Kaine talk baby formula shortage and Ukraine conflict
- Kaine sees encouraging signs in response to baby formula shortage
- Virginia’s 10th has gone blue. But 11 Republicans hope to flip it. (This article really misses an opportunity to inform readers how extreme all of these Republican candidates are. #FAIL as usual by the “mainstream media”)
- Republicans to choose nominees by convention in three Congressional districts Saturday (This article has no substance whatsoever about who the candidates are, what they believe, etc. Why even bother?)
- Governor Youngkin Ramps Up Anti-Environment Agenda: Attempts to set the groundwork to leave RGGI; Appoints anti-environment cronies to Air Pollution Board (“One thing is clear: Governor Youngkin’s attempts to withdraw from the RGGI are further examples of his and his far-right cronies being out of touch with Virginians.”)
- On Right-Wing Radio, Youngkin Claims Virginia’s at a “20-year high” in the Violent Crime Rate; Per the FBI and VA State Police, That’s Not Even Close to Accurate (In fact, Virginia’s rate of violent crime in 2020 was 26% lower than in 2000.)
- Virginia receives a big boost in federal funds for brownfields work
- Schapiro: Youngkin recasting bureaucracy in his own image (“This all-the-government’s-a-stage mentality means Virginia’s 120,000 employees are bit players in a carefully scripted exercise in political theater that seems more about maneuvering for the White House than mastering the statehouse. Gov. Ron DeSantis, another 2024 Republican prospect, is doing it in Florida. His backdrops include a chastened — because it’s LGBTQ-friendly — Disney World.”)
- AG Jason Miyares Stiff-Arms FOIA Request by James Abrenio, Refuses to Supply Any Evidence to Support His Claim of Supposed Threats by Pro-Choice Activists to Disrupt Virginia Churches on Mother’s Day
- VPAP Looks at Whether VA House Dems Could Have Kept Their Majority If They’d “invested more in key races.” The Answer: “Resources were not an issue for the seven incumbent Democrats who lost their seats”
- ‘We are not done with COVID’: Virginia is averaging nearly 3,000 new cases per day, a first since February
- Who are the governor’s marine commission picks there to serve? (“Instead of balancing the VMRC with representatives from various backgrounds, it appears that the governor has stacked the commission with commercial fishermen who will look out for the interests of the largest fishing operation on the East Coast. Furthermore, the commission will now no longer have representation from the charter fishing or environmental sectors.”)
- Progress reported in state budget talks (“’I can tell you that we’re very, very close in having a budget,’ Austin said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. ‘The larger items that were in contention have pretty much been worked out. And we’re pretty much finished with those issues. We’ve now just got a few minor things we’re working on. And upon completion of those we’ll be ready to get back to business.’”)
- Virginia’s health department to retire more COVID-19 dashboards, including cases by date reported (“The dashboards that will go down include federal vaccine doses, vaccines received, cases and deaths by date reported and cases by vaccination status.” That’s so, so stupid.)
- 2 Virginia cities named in list of best places to live in US
- Need a dose of climate optimism? Look to Charlottesville business collaborative (“A Charlottesville business alliance is quickly progressing toward a goal of cutting carbon pollution by 45% by the end of 2025. Successes include energy audits and a family-owned fossil fuel distributor’s unlikely embrace of solar power.”)
- Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 84% Compared to 1/19, But Creeping Up Steadily; Hospitalizations Down to 390 From ~4,000 in January, But Also Increasing (10-day new cases (32,129) hit highest point since February 18; hospitalizations at highest level since mid-March)
- Health officials say COVID-19 likely to surge in Richmond
- Fairfax officials launch campaign to grow tourism beyond Mount Vernon
- Jones: The Black church, in Roanoke and elsewhere, must call for change in the face of injustice
- Editorial: New approach to youth offenders (“Newport News is launching a youth diversion program aimed at keeping minor offenders from further criminality.”)
- Norfolk police make arrest in Granby Street shooting that killed 3, including Virginian-Pilot reporter (“Norfolk police charged Antoine M. Legrande Jr., 24, of Norfolk with three counts of second-degree murder. His arrest comes two months after the March 19 shooting outside Chicho’s Backstage in downtown Norfolk.”)
- Clues point to Amazon building a distribution center in Virginia Beach
- D.C.-area forecast: A warm afternoon, and then a weekend sizzler (“Highs in the mid-90s Saturday will challenge records.”)
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