Monday News: “Putin attacks Odessa and a hungry world’s hopes”; “Why Isn’t There a Mass Movement for Climate Action in the US?”; “The Four Stages of Republican Misinformation”; “We Can’t Afford Not to Prosecute Trump”; “Sharp Contrasts With Other Jan. 6 Inquiries Increase Pressure on Garland”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, July 25.

• Congo to Auction Off Oil and Gas Blocks In a Step Back for Climate Change (HUGE mistake. Ugh, this sucks.)
• Mideast nations wake up to damage from climate change
• Living Through India’s Next-Level Heat Wave (“In hospitals, in schools, and on the streets, high temperatures have transformed routines and made daylight dangerous..”)
• Storm-ravaged Bahamas rebuilding its power grid with emphasis on solar energy – 60 Minutes
• Putin attacks Odessa and a hungry world’s hopes
• Wheat prices rise after Odessa attack; Russia says it targeted Ukraine military
• Putin’s Unexpected Challenge: Snubs From His Central Asian Allies
• Last Stand at Azovstal: Inside the Siege That Shaped the Ukraine War
• The Ukrainian nationalists standing in Russia’s way on eastern front
• There are too many wild cards to forecast the Ukraine war
• Myanmar junta executes four democracy activists (Horrific and completely unacceptable.)
• View from Taiwan: China’s threats shouldn’t dissuade Pelosi from visiting
• UK Factories Say Orders Weaken and Cost Pressures Ease
• China’s population expected to start to shrink before 2025
• We’ve all got Covid-19 fatigue, but BA.5 shows it’s not over (“Despite increased cases, public health officials’ plans seem muted, at best.”)
• Epidemiologists warn the U.S. reaches a critical moment to contain monkeypox
• Where On Earth Is the GOP on Climate Policy?
• Why Isn’t There a Mass Movement for Climate Action in the US?
• Millions Swelter As Heat Wave Shatters Temperature Records Across Northeast
• Al Gore warns severe weather will ‘get a lot worse’ without climate action
• Al Gore compares climate deniers to Uvalde police who ‘heard the gunshots, and nobody stepped forward’
• Al Gore: Mother Nature Has Already Declared A ‘Global Emergency’ On Climate
• Drought-Parched California Burns While Prospects for Federal Climate Action Dim
• Biden faces moment of truth on the economy this week
• AP-NORC poll: 2 in 3 in US favor term limits for justices
• Doctors and patients deserve a ‘conscience’ exception to abortion bans
• “He Paid No Price For His Lies”: How Trump’s Bogus 2016 Election Claims Cleared the Way for 2020 Conspiracies (“In an excerpt from his new book, The Big Lie, Jonathan Lemire describes how the former president dodged accountability for his dishonesty in office about matters ranging from inauguration crowd size to the democratic process, establishing a template of lies that fueled the violence of January 6 and is shaping the politics of today.”)
• Juan Williams: Don’t swallow Trump’s poison
• Analysis: Sharp Contrasts With Other Jan. 6 Inquiries Increase Pressure on Garland (“The continued revelations from the House committee and the rapid pace of the Georgia investigation have left the U.S. Justice Department on the defensive. Attorney General Merrick Garland rejected speculation about its apparently plodding approach, saying it does not conduct its investigations in public.”)
• We Can’t Afford Not to Prosecute Trump (“A Trump free of prosecution is a Trump free to rampage. Some could argue that prosecuting a former president would forever alter presidential politics. But I would counter that not prosecuting him threatens the collapse of the entire political ecosystem and therefore the country.”)
• Trump’s behavior sharpens dilemma facing the Justice Department (“The Jan. 6 panel’s ambition to hold the ex-President to account means its probe is on a collision course with the midterm elections”)
• Trump’s attempted coup continues – even after January 6 hearings are over for now
• Break up the Secret Service and send its people to jail for the Jan. 6 cover-up
• Cheney and Kinzinger tee up possible January 6 subpoena for Ginni Thomas
• GOP begins to look for new 2024 candidates amid fears over Trump
• An ‘imposter Christianity’ is threatening American democracy
• How The Fight To Ban Abortion Is Rooted In The ‘Great Replacement’ Theory
• Opinion: New York Post’s editorial should worry Trump
• As Jan. 6 Panel’s Evidence Piled Up, Conservative Media Doubled Down (Very dangerous.)
• Senators, pass the Respect for Marriage Act
• Senate Bill to Boost Chip Production, Advanced Technology Set to Move Ahead
• The Four Stages of Republican Misinformation (“First, Republicans use any means necessary to achieve power and promote their unpopular, extremist, counter-majoritarian agenda. Second, they create and promote disinformation and lies to frighten their base and Jedi mind-trick them into believing they are being oppressed by the actual victims. Third, they create a specific villain, target them, and then attack them through scapegoating, smearing, and intimidation. Fourth, they never apologize or back down once their lie is exposed, but instead, they double down, and in times of doubt, always pivot towards racism and fear-mongering.”)
• Claim that sex ed ‘grooms’ kids jolted Nebraska politics a year before it swept the nation (What’s incredible is that literally anyone would believe this lunacy.)
• Al Gore knocks notion of another presidential run: ‘I’m a recovering politician’
• Here are the Dumbest Moments of Turning Point USA’s Confab in Florida (“At the far-right group’s youth conference, Trump and his cronies didn’t hold back.”)
• The Jan. 6 Hearings Have Turbocharged the Georgia Investigation of Trump
• The Claremont Institute triumphed in the Trump years. Then came Jan. 6. (“The role of Trump lawyer John Eastman in trying to overturn the 2020 election has divided the followers of the Claremont Institute, which has stood by him.”)
• Josh Hawley, senator who ran from Capitol mob, mocked by home paper
• Elon Musk’s Friendship With Sergey Brin Ruptured by Alleged Affair (Musk is just a bad person. No wonder why the right wingnuts love him so much.)
• Joni Mitchell sings, steals show with surprise Newport Folk Festival concert
• Video: On Meet the Press, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA02) Promises 1/6 Committee Report Before January 3, 2023; Says “we’re not looking at it through a political lens of the midterm elections”
• Luria says Garland ‘doesn’t need to wait’ to act on criminal investigation of Trump over Jan. 6
• Virginia’s program to reduce police mental health transports isn’t working
• Editorial: New study unveils the effects of mass incarceration in Virginia
• Rail policy group: The state can do even better
• For Black women in Hampton Roads, barriers to reproductive healthcare are nothing new
• Incarceration rates in 9 Norfolk neighborhoods are more than double the city’s average. So how can they get ahead?
• Newport News purchased 1,500 acres for a reservoir it never built. Now it’s selling off the land at a fraction of the price.
• Patrick J. Michaels, a former Virginia scientist and a vocal outlier on climate change, dies at 72 (In short, he spent his life working to ensure that future generations would NOT have a habitable planet to live on.)
• Loudoun Co. remembers Charlie Waddell, a political giant who served his community
• D.C.-area forecast: Steamy and stormy today, then not as hot but still unsettled