Tuesday News: “The difference between the GOP and Britain’s Tories: The capacity for shame”; Before/After James Webb Telescope; “The Democrats Need to Start Playing Offense”; Youngkin “refuses to say whether Donald Trump should stop pushing the 2020 election lie”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, July 12.

• Worst of Global Energy Crisis May Still Be Ahead, IEA Says
• How Climate Change Is Impacting Food Supply Chain Trends
• New Climate Promises, Same Old Global Warming
• Nearly $2tn of damage inflicted on other countries by US emissions (“Research puts US ahead of China, Russia, India and Brazil in terms of global damage as climate expert says numbers ‘very stark’”)
• Pacific islands youth “cannot wait” for climate change action, Vanuatu says
• The Energy Transition Needs to Hit a Trifecta
• The monkeypox outbreak was avoidable and warning signs were ignored, expert says
• World Population To Hit 8 Billion In November, With India Overtaking China As Most Populous
• James Webb telescope takes super sharp view of early cosmos
• NASA’s Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet
• This Is the Picture Astronomers Have Been Waiting For
• Is BA.5 the ‘Reinfection Wave’?
• Ukrainian rockets hit Russian-controlled area as Kyiv gears up for southern counter-attack
• The Ukraine War Is About to Enter a Dangerous New Phase
• Russia-Ukraine war live news: dozens killed in Chasiv Yar strike; 80% of Donetsk residents have fled, governor says
• Finnish ambassador: Russia can keep fighting for a ‘very long time’
• Russia suffers ‘wild shell hunger’ as Ukraine hits arms depots with long-range Western rockets
• Iran to supply Russia with hundreds of combat drones, US says (“White House says it shows how Russia’s weaponry has been depleted by its relentless bombardment of eastern Ukraine”)
• The Hill’s Morning Report — Biden leaves Jan. 6 behind with high-stakes Middle East trip
• ‘Even if it hurts’: Biden’s Middle East trip could bring short-term pain for long-term gain
• SAS unit repeatedly killed Afghan detainees, BBC finds (War crimes.)
• Uber promised South Africans better lives but knew drivers risked debt and danger
• Uber paid academics six-figure sums for research to feed to the media
• Boris Johnson set to step down on Sept. 6
• Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa fails in effort to flee country (“Airport staff reportedly block departing president from using VIP lane to board flight to Dubai”)
• Japanese people say their final goodbyes to former leader Shinzo Abe at his funeral
• The U.S. should support Japan’s move to legitimize its military (Agreed.)
• The difference between the GOP and Britain’s Tories: The capacity for shame
• US officials working on a plan to allow second Covid-19 boosters for all adults
• Democrats cannot afford to lose focus on abortion (“The problem is not activists; it is the extremism of Republicans.”)
• Birth Control Pills Should Be Available to Everyone
• Biden admin: Docs must offer abortion if mom’s life at risk
• Biden admin looks to protect doctors providing emergency abortions, and warn those who don’t
• To Save Democracy, Let’s Reform the Courts (“The conservative minority retains power by dominating the judiciary. Packing the courts can help represent the majority.”)
• What the liberal justices’ scorching dissent reveals about the US supreme court (“Opinions from Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor send stark warning about increasingly radical court abandoning long-held principles”)
• Jamie Raskin Brings Expertise on Right-Wing Extremism to Jan. 6 Inquiry
• Capitol attack panel to examine role of far-right groups in January 6 violence
• Jan. 6 Hearing Focuses On Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and What Trump Knew
• Hutchinson Testimony Jolts Justice Dept. to Discuss Trump’s Conduct More Openly
• Testimony From Another Young Trump Staffer Could Rock the Jan. 6 Hearings
• Oath Keepers lawyer says Stewart Rhodes wanted her Trump contacts before Jan. 6 Capitol attack
• Accused Jan. 6 rioter who warned of possible ‘civil war’ expected to testify to House committee Tuesday
• Ties between Trump allies and extremist groups to be focus of Jan. 6 panel hearing
• Judge rejects Bannon’s bid to delay trial, executive-privilege claim
• Steve Bannon’s Gambit May Have Put Him in New Legal Jeopardy (“The former Trump strategist thought he had a winning move. It turned out to be a blunder.”)
• Judge shreds Bannon defenses ahead of contempt trial
• The dispute between Trump’s and Bannon’s legal teams
• The big win the January 6 committee has already scored (“Whether or not Donald Trump ends up facing criminal charges, the House committee probing the US Capitol insurrection has scored a critical win over the ex-President by thwarting his effort to cover up the true horror of that day of infamy.”)
• Former Overstock CEO to meet with Jan. 6 panel (“Patrick Byrne, a Trump ally, is expected to meet with the House select committee Friday. Sources say there have been no ground rules or topics defined.”)
• On Politics: A G.O.P. group plans to spend millions against candidates who embrace Donald Trump’s false election claims.
• Half of G.O.P. Voters Ready to Leave Trump Behind, Poll Finds
• Mark Leibovich Plumbs the Depths of the GOP’s Cultish, Cartoonish Devotion to Trump
• We should worry what happens if Trump never faces justice, not if he does
• An Anti-Trump Republican Group Is Back for the Midterms
• How Americans Feel About Abortion, Contraception And The Right To Privacy
• The Democrats Need to Start Playing Offense
• Democrats’ latest attempt at resurrecting Build Back Better, explained (“Lawmakers are scrambling to get a deal done before August.”)
• Trump 2024? Not just yet, some Republicans say
• Trump rally in North Carolina canceled as former president summoned to court
• News engagement plummets as Americans tune out
• Sen. Lindsey Graham ordered to testify in front of special grand jury in Trump election probe
• An expert in political violence urgently warns: The worst is coming (“The GOP flirtation with political violence could be a harbinger of democratic breakdown.”)
• If Herschel Walker wins in Georgia, America will have lost its mind (“It’s not yet clear who will be the weirdest and most unfit Republican Senate candidate in November. But my early pick is Herschel Walker in Georgia. If he wins — and he could — this nation has truly lost its mind.”)
• Fox News attacks Biden for “surging” gasoline prices as they fall for 27th consecutive day
• Right-wing media freak out over Monticello teaching visitors that Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds
• Paul Ryan Wants Everyone To Know The Insurrection Gave Him Sad Vibes
• Donald Trump isn’t worried about Paul Ryan’s crocodile tears (“Ryan was heartbroken over Jan. 6, he wants you to know — but not enough to do much about it.”)
• Musk’s Twitter War Goes Nuclear
• Looming Musk-Twitter Legal Battle Hammers Company Shares (“Shares of Twitter are down more than 11% in the first day of trading after billionaire Elon Musk said that he was abandoning his $44 billion bid for the company.”)
• It’s time for Trump to ‘sail into the sunset,’ says Musk
• As a gay kid, I felt the instinct to hide. I feel it again now.
• Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Chairman Don Beyer (D-VA08): “The mesmerizing first scientific image from the James Webb Space Telescope is breath-taking”
• Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA02) Raises Biggest Fundraising Quarter Ever with More Than $1.85 Million (“Luria’s re-election campaign ends Q2 with $4.3 million cash on hand”)
• Video: At “Abolish Abortion” Rally in Richmond, Rep. Bob Good and Other Extremists Declare “There Can Be NO COMPROMISE,” There Can Be “No Middle Ground,” etc. (Good claimed that more lives are lost to abortion than “what’s been attributed to the ‘China virus’ over two years every year for 49 years”)
• Virginia shows signs of shift back toward GOP (Not really; what it actually shows is that it follows national trends, so if Dems do well this November nationally, they’ll probably do well in Virginia. If not, then not.)
• Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07) Rips Youngkin For Either Not Knowing VA Constitution Or “lying & assuming we won’t notice” About “the threat to Obergefell & marriage equality after SCOTUS overturned Roe”
• Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia win could catapult him as 2024 GOP nominee
• This rising star Republican governor refuses to say whether Donald Trump should stop pushing the 2020 election lie
• Youngkin Faces Criticism After Gay Marriage Comments
• Speculation on possible presidential run grows as Gov. Youngkin campaigns in Midwest
• Mid-Atlantic shared solar advocates see progress in D.C. but setback in Virginia (“A week after District of Columbia regulators moved to hold utility Pepco accountable for community solar problems, their counterparts in Virginia greenlit a $55 monthly fee on subscribers that may curb interest.”)
• Sunrise Brief: Virginia approves $55 minimum bill for community solar – the highest nationwide
• Confirm Hanes to the Eastern District
• GOP looks for ways to curb abortions even without a ban
• Public transit governing boards don’t look like their riders. A new state study could be a fix.
• 2022 VA League of Conservation Voters Scorecard: 58/58 “Legislative Heroes” Are Dems; Republicans’ Scores Are as Disgracefully Anti-Environment as You’d Expect. (Any further questions about which party cares about clean energy, clean air, clean water, etc, and which party does NOT care about any of those things?!?)
• Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 87% Compared to 1/19; Hospitalizations Down to 659 From ~4,000 in January; Both Up From a Couple Months Ago
• Wealthiest Virginians are benefiting most from contributions to school voucher program (“Most contributions to the program claimed on tax returns during the past six years have been from individuals with six-figure incomes or above.”)
• In Arlington, advocates and critics of ‘missing middle’ housing face off (Of course the WaPo headline “both sides” it and treats it as a contest. This is one of the main failings of the media.)
• Details scant in Richmond’s alleged July 4 mass shooting plot
• Beware Of The ‘Recent Monticello Visitor’ (“Getting outraged over Fox News holds little allure these days, but occasionally the network will do something so quintessentially Fox News that you have to sit back and marvel at the layers of mendacity”)
• Gas price plummet continues (“The average price for a gallon of regular gas in the Fredericksburg area on Monday fell to $4.27, a 19-cent drop in the past week and 70 cents cheaper than the local record price of $4.97 on June 14, according to AAA data.”)
• Why did Fairfax Co. police draw guns on a juvenile recording on smartphone?
• Roanoke Amtrak expansion rolling: Significant ridership increase predicted
• Chesapeake lawyer and William & Mary grad wins ‘Jeopardy!’ episode — by $2 (“Steve Clarke, a Chesapeake native and William & Mary alum, pulled ahead during Final Jeopardy!.”)
• D.C.-area forecast: Surge of heat and humidity today with late-day storm threat