by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, December 31.
- Snapshots, Hotshots and Moonshots: Images of Climate Change in 2022 (“Climate change manifested this year in more than just weather disasters.”)
- To Save the Vaquita Porpoise, Conservationists Entreat Mexico to Keep Gillnets Out of the Northern Gulf of California
- Pope Emeritus Benedict, who resigned the papacy, dies at 95
- How Pope Benedict’s death could reshape the Catholic Church
- Benedict XVI, first pope to resign in 600 years, dies at 95
- Russia’s Oil Ban Accelerates Shift in Global Energy Flows
- Ukraine Latest: Zelenskiy Pledges to Bolster Air Defense in 2023
- Exiled chief rabbi says Jews should leave Russia while they can
- Russian oligarchs lose $95bn in 2022 amid sanctions after Ukraine war
- Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 311 of the invasion
- China’s Economic Activity at Slowest Since 2020 as Covid Spreads
- Xi Says Tough Challenges Remain in New Phase of Covid Response
- New Year Eve spurs hope in China, censors target online COVID content
- China’s Economy Reels as Beijing Lifts ‘Zero-Covid’ Measures
- China’s covid explosion shows why we need a genomic early warning radar
- UK’s Problems Won’t ‘Go Away’ in New Year, Sunak Tells Britons
- Iran top court accepts protester’s appeal against death sentence
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro lands in Florida, avoiding Lula handover
- FTX Collapse Erodes Lawmakers’ Support for Crypto
- 5 ways the US can fight climate change in 2023 (“The US can tackle methane emissions and deliver on global financing.”)
- Promise of California offshore wind will help reduce emissions
- The Year TikTok Made the Multiverse Real (and Murdered the Newsfeed) (“As the app’s cunningly customized rabbit holes subsume culture, the rest of the internet will splinter further into algorithmic isolation.” This is really, really bad.)
- Democrats made historic gains at the state level. Can they build on them? (They badly need to do so.)
- The political winners and losers of 2022 (Joe Biden #1 winner. Donald Trump #1 LOSER.)
- How Biden earned an ‘I told you so’
- Monster of 2022: Billionaires (“When you have that much, some portion is invariably blood money.”)
- The ‘Red Wave’ Washout: How Skewed Polls Fed a False Election Narrative (The NY Times is just figuring this out now? LOL)
- Democratic-led Congress and President Joe Biden delivered on key promises in 2021 and 2022
- Jan. 6 transcripts detail numerous warning signs of potential for violence before Capitol attack
- Trump wanted to trademark ‘Rigged Election!’ and other key findings from the Jan. 6 panel’s latest release
- Trump’s tax returns are out. Here’s how he was able to pay so little — so often
- Trump’s main holding company racked up over $300M in losses
- Trump had bank account in China while president, tax returns show
- Trump taxes show foreign income from more than a dozen countries
- What we’ve learned from Trump’s tax returns
- Key takeaways from six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns
- The IRS Really, Really Should Have Audited Trump (“The failure to do so is outrageous and needs to be investigated.”)
- Former Virginia AG and Top Trump DHS Official Ken Cuccinelli’s 1/6/21 Interview Is Filled with Fascinating, Troubling Details (For instance, “Cuccinelli had [a] meeting w Trump in [the Oval Office] on Jan 5 about ‘the role of congress in counting electoral votes’. No one else present at meeting.”)
- Don Jr admits he doesn’t know where $240m Trump fundraised to fight election results went in Jan 6 transcripts
- Jan. 6 committee is running out of time. Key documents may soon be locked away for decades
- Ginni Thomas says she wanted Trump admin to challenge 2020 election “until the truth could be found out” (Ginni Thomas should be in deep, deep trouble. And her husband has no business being on ANY court, let alone the Supreme Court!)
- A Charity Tied to the Supreme Court Offers Donors Access to the Justices
- How Justice Kagan lost her battle as a consensus builder (“‘She’s clearly not very happy,’ one associate says.”)
- McCarthy struggles to appease conservative demands as speakership battle nears
- AG: Meadows won’t face voter fraud charges in North Carolina (If he had been Black, he’d be in huge trouble.)
- Scrutiny turns to George Santos’s campaign funding
- Where George Santos’ many scandals stand
- George Santos, Mitch McConnell, and Kevin McCarthy Are All Having Rough Weeks
- How to Destroy a Brand, Musk Style
- Fidelity slashes Twitter value by 56%
- FEC levies $30K penalty tied to Kobach’s 2020 US Senate bid
- Barbara Walters, trailblazing TV icon, dies at 93
- Barbara Walters dies at 93; news anchor broke the boy’s club of network television
- Tucker Carlson’s Defense of Andrew Tate Resurfaces After Influencer’s Arrest in Sex Trafficking, Rape Case
- Andrew Tate, brother charged in Romania with human trafficking
- Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler sued for 1970s sexual battery and assault of minor
- Idaho murders live updates: Suspect arrested in the killings of 4 college students
- Arrest of suspect in killings ‘a relief’ to Idaho campus
- Criminology graduate student held in Idaho student murders
- New laws take effect in Virginia, Maryland and D.C.
- Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) Statement On Publication of Six Years of Donald Trump’s Tax Returns (“Trump used questionable or poorly substantiated deductions and a number of other tax avoidance schemes as justification to pay little or no federal income tax in several of the years examined.”)
- Friday news dumps in 2022 are seemingly common in Virginia
- Minimum wage increase takes effect on New Year’s Day in Virginia (“Another bump to Virginia’s minimum wage takes effect on New Year’s Day. Starting Jan. 1, 2023, the state’s minimum wage will jump to $12 per hour, up from the current rate of $11 per hour.”)
- Family of man incarcerated at Norfolk jail raises concerns about heating: ‘Basic human rights are being neglected’
- Fairfax prosecutor clears undercover officer in nonfatal shooting (“When a man fled from police and was soon surrounded, an officer believed the driver was reaching for a gun and fired once, wounding the man in the arm.”)
- Arlington Delegate Receives 2022 Equality Award For LGBTQ Advocacy (“Del. Patrick Hope, who represents Arlington, received the 2022 Equality Award from the Arlington-Alexandria Gay and Lesbian Alliance.” Nice!)
- D.C.-area forecast: Afternoon and evening showers depart for the New Year
********************************************************