Wednesday News: “Russia is weaponizing food supplies to ‘blackmail the world’”; “Ignore the GOP spin. The nation still hasn’t reckoned with Jan. 6.”; “McConaughey Makes Impassioned Gun-Reform Speech”; “It’s not partisan for the media to expose the GOP’s lies”

by Lowell

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

• Humpback whales face a major setback from climate change (“The iconic whales are recovering from near extinction, but warming seas could force them away from historic breeding grounds.”)
• How is climate change impacting the world’s ocean
• The world’s 1.5°C climate goal is slipping out of reach – so now what?
• Yellen, World Bank Expect Elevated Inflation to Persist
• Shock of War Threatens Lasting Impact on Global Economy
• OECD slashes global growth prediction on Ukraine war and China’s zero-Covid policy
• Russia-Turkey Talks on Ukraine Grain Passage End Without Breakthrough
• 
  Plan to ship grain out of Ukraine dealt blow due to mines (“Turkish offer to escort ships through Black Sea blockade would face six-month wait for mine clearance, says Ukraine”)
• Russia is weaponizing food supplies to ‘blackmail the world’
• U.S. bars investors from buying Russian debt, stocks on secondary market
• Russia draws closer to capture of Ukraine’s Donbas region
• Fear and Destruction Turn Ukraine’s Front-Line Cities Into Ghost Towns
• The Ukraine War Still Holds Surprises. The Biggest May Be for Putin. (“The war in Ukraine is different in that it is not prompting the energy innovation itself but making the need for it clearer. Still, the potential impact could be equally transformative.”)
• Russian assault on Sievierodonetsk redoubled after counterattack
• A Fight to Survive Russia’s Onslaught in Eastern Ukraine (“The war has become, as one Ukrainian soldier put it, a game of ‘artillery Ping-Pong.'”)
• Captured Mariupol steelworks soldiers sent to Russia – report
• Putin’s Favorite Copycat Gears Up in Panicked Wartime Frenzy (“A notorious Putin ally has made a series of dramatic military decisions this week—and alarms are starting to go off.”)
• Migration gets top billing as Biden hosts hemisphere leaders
• EU agrees single mobile charging port in blow to Apple
• Is Pope Francis nearing the end of his pontificate?
• Belgian king returns mask to Congo in symbolic gesture of restitution
• FBI seizes retired general’s data related to Qatar lobbying
• ‘Only God can help’: Hundreds die as Somalia faces famine
• One person dead after car driven into crowd in Berlin
• 2 New Omicron Subvariants Are Gaining Ground in the U.S., C.D.C. Says (“The subvariants, known as BA.4 and BA.5, could add more uncertainty to the trajectory of the pandemic in the U.S.”)
• Clean energy industry and climate activists see glimmer of hope in new Biden action after months of ‘hard times’
• Op-Ed: It’s not partisan for the media to expose the GOP’s lies
• Why Black people are afraid of ‘crazy’ White people (“Their numbers seem to be growing.”)
• White supremacist attacks stir GOP fears for safety of White people
• The Jan. 6 Committee Is Softening the Ground for a Big Show (“All the committee can do is present the whole sweep of what was attempted to the country against which this attack was made. All it can do is present the evidence so compellingly that it is difficult to ignore. What the country does with that evidence is unknowable, although the national capacity for anesthetic amnesia can sometimes feel limitless.”)
• Trump’s reckless election liars are on 2022 ballots. Here’s how Democrats can stop them.
• First on CNN: House Democrats investigating whether foreign gifts to Trump went missing
• Majority of Proud Boys indicted for sedition were U.S. military veterans
• Trump call Jan. 6 to ‘walk down to the Capitol’ prompted Secret Service scramble
• Top Trump White House lawyer in active talks with Jan. 6 committee to testify publicly
• Don’t give up on Merrick Garland quite yet (“The Proud Boys indictments strongly suggest the attorney general is going all the way to Trump.”)
• Report: Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump to Play Starring Role in January 6 Hearings
• Cheney faces pivotal moment with Jan. 6 prime time hearing
• A shocker in the Proud Boys indictment exposes the right’s long game (“How the far-right vision of revolutionary violence led to Jan. 6.”)
• Ignore the GOP spin. The nation still hasn’t reckoned with Jan. 6.
• Jan. 6 Hearings To Lead Off With First Police Officer Injured, Moviemaker Who Filmed Riot (“The House select committee plans to lay out Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election to stay in power during its two-week series of public hearings.”)
• Mark Meadows Was Trump’s “Matador” for His Fake Election Lies (“Without the former President’s fourth and final White House chief of staff, January 6th might never have happened.”)
• The Jan. 6 Committee Wants Twitter’s Internal Slack Messages. Twitter Is Fighting It
• GOP divided on how to defend Trump ahead of first Jan. 6 hearing (It’s completely indefensible, and says a GREAT deal about the Republican Party that it’s even thinking about defending scumbag/seditionist Trump.)
• Jan. 6 committee interviews head of Trump’s Secret Service detail on day of Capitol attack
• One Republican should be thrilled with the Jan. 6 hearings (“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offers Trumpism without Trump.”)
• Matthew McConaughey tells the story of those killed in Uvalde in emotional plea for action on guns
• Matthew McConaughey puts Congress to shame on guns (Except it isn’t “Congress” generically, it’s Republicans.)
• Matthew McConaughey Makes Impassioned Gun-Reform Speech From White House (“After spending about a week in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, following the Robb Elementary School shooting, the actor eulogized several of the victims and shared pictures of their artwork during his emotional 20-minute plea.”)
• Matthew McConaughey Knocks Down Common Talking Point Against Raising Age Requirement to Buy AR-15s
• The story of a Uvalde victim’s green shoes captures the White House’s attention
• What the Senate Gun Bill Could Actually Do
• Is there a sickness in U.S. culture? Yes: The GOP gun cult.
• Hopes for quick gun deal in Senate fade
• John Cornyn, ‘linchpin’ of a gun safety deal, seeks to tame GOP fears on gun rights
• About 5% of young adults in the U.S. say their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth
• House GOP candidate shares post claiming Buffalo, Uvalde shootings were false flag operations (Completely unhinged person.)
• As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces An ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’
• Shell, the Oil Giant, Will Sell Renewable Energy to Texans
• Republicans are wielding the powers of government to aid Musk’s Twitter pursuit
• New York City Is a Lot Safer Than Small-Town America
• More People Are Moving to Manhattan Than Before the Pandemic
• Trump-appointed judge defends rulings unpopular with ‘cultural elites’ (This extremist should definitely NOT be a judge.)
• Trump hits another snag: 6 takeaways from a big primary night (“Some of the former president’s least favorite Republicans survived their primaries.”)
• 6 takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries (“Concern about crime burst to the forefront in San Francisco, a rising star flamed out in Iowa and a mayoral race advanced to a runoff”)
• San Francisco recalls DA Chesa Boudin in blow to criminal justice reform (“Gavin Newsom easily advances to November election as Karen Bass and Rick Caruso head to mayoral runoff in Los Angeles”)
• Chesa Boudin ousted as San Francisco district attorney in historic recall
• It’s a Malinowski-Kean rematch in a crucial New Jersey swing district.
• San Francisco ousts liberal DA Chesa Boudin in heated recall
• Louisiana becomes 18th state to enact a transgender athlete ban
• Florida undercounted COVID cases and deaths, failed to get test results, state audit says
• Tucker Carlson Revels in the WaPo Drama: ‘The Post Caved!’
• Fox’s Harris Faulkner and Will Cain claim George Soros is using “money” and “the media” to buy Latino votes (Sure sounds anti-Semitic.)
• The Daily Wire’s Facebook pages dominated discussion of the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial
• Sen. Mark Warner Announces Nearly $220 Million for Affordable, High-Speed Internet (“I look forward to seeing Virginia achieve universal broadband coverage in the very near future.”)
• Wakefield students question Sen. Tim Kaine about Congress passing gun legislation
• The Jan. 6 Inquiry’s Only Endangered Democrat Prepares Herself for a Fight (“Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia knows the coming hearings could be a political liability for her in a Republican-leaning district. ‘If I don’t get re-elected because of this, that’s OK.'”
• After Public Speaker at Prince William County Board Meeting Rails Against “celebrations of homosexual sin,” Del. Danica Roem Argues, “this is exactly why #PrideMonth matters” (Far-right, anti-LGBTQ Supervisor Jeanine Lawson (R) – “decries ‘drag queen story hour in libraries,’ ‘sexualization of our children,’ etc.)
• As Congress bankrolls electric conversion for bus fleets, is Virginia ready?
• Virginia Citizens Ask All Political Candidates to Pledge Support for Campaign Finance Reform (Note that “nearly 80% of Virginians want to curtail the influence of large campaign donors while 88% want improved disclosure”)
• Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 85% Compared to 1/19; Hospitalizations Down to 586 From ~4,000 in January; Both Up From a Couple Months Ago
• Is Virginia’s redistricting saga finally over? (“A Monday court ruling dismissing a high-stakes redistricting case may be the end of Virginia’s long and dysfunctional redistricting drama. A federal court ruled that Paul Goldman, an activist lawyer, didn’t prove he had standing to sue in his bid to have a special election for the House of Delegates this fall.”)
• State LGBTQ+ board concerned over meeting disruption, remote security (“A virtual committee meeting of the Virginia LGBTQ+ Advisory Board in May was interrupted by a group of people flooding the chat with racist and homophobic messages and imagery.”)
• Uvalde shooting prompts calls in Northern Virginia for stronger gun laws (“Fairfax County urged Congress and Virginia lawmakers to ban assault weapons, raise the age for gun purchases and allow local jurisdictions more authority to enact their own gun laws.”)
• Virginia coal production climbs (Not good.)
• Raytheon to move global headquarters to Arlington, Virginia
• Statements on Raytheon Moving its Global Headquarters to Arlington
• BREAKING: Arlington scores another major corporate headquarters
• Editorial: Leaving on top (“As Christopher Newport University President Paul Trible readies for retirement, his success at the school deserves recognition.”)
• Brimming with frustration: Recycling bins on Chesapeake streets have sat full for weeks as city’s contract nears end
• New editor to lead Virginia Mercury (Sarah Vogelsong is excellent; congratulations!)
• Fairfax Co. collision kills 2 girls, injures 3 other people (Ugh, that’s horrible.)
• Is Roanoke at the peak of a “muted surge” of COVID-19?
• D.C.-area forecast: Warm and humid today, showers and storms likely this evening