by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, February 19.
- How Climate Change Is Making Tampons (and Lots of Other Stuff) More Expensive
- Mother Nature Has the Best Climate-Fixing Technology
- A Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled (“A very strange conversation with the chatbot built into Microsoft’s search engine led to it declaring its love for me.”)
- The New AI-Powered Bing Is Threatening Users. That’s No Laughing Matter
- Microsoft Puts New Limits On Bing’s AI Chatbot After It Expressed Desire To Steal Nuclear Secrets
- The new Bing told our reporter it ‘can feel or think things’ (“The AI-powered chatbot called itself Sydney, claimed to have its ‘own personality’ — and objected to being interviewed for this article”)
- Bing Is a Liar—and It’s Ready to Call the Cops (“You can’t trust Microsoft’s AI chatbot.”)
- Cattle, not coca, drive deforestation of the Amazon in Colombia – report
- F-16s, longer-range missiles could help Ukraine beat Russia, U.S. general privately tells lawmakers
- Ukrainian grain shipments drop as ship backups grow
- Russia’s year of war: Purge of critics, surge of nationalism
- There can be no real peace in Ukraine without justice
- A Year of Putin’s Wartime Lies (“Every credible analyst of the invasion of Ukraine has been stunned by the scale of the Russian President’s folly—and his failure extends well beyond the battlefield.”)
- Faint cracks emerge in the facade of Putin’s rule (“Russia is now in an uncertain new phase, and it’s clear there will be no rewind for ordinary citizens”)
- US formally accuses Russia of crimes against humanity in Ukraine
- Inside the stunning growth of Russia’s Wagner Group
- U.S. officials believe China may be providing Russia nonlethal military assistance in Ukraine war
- Blinken: China’s balloon incursion ‘must never happen again’
- “Absurd and Hysterical”: China’s Top Diplomat Dismisses U.S. Response To Spy Balloon at the Munich Security Conference
- China may be on brink of supplying arms to Russia, says Blinken (“US secretary of state meets with top Chinese diplomat, Wang Yi, and warns of ‘serious problem for us’ if Beijing supplies weaponry to Vladimir Putin” If they do that, hit them with sanctions.)
- Chinese Drones Still Support Russia’s War in Ukraine
- Blinken meets top China diplomat for 1st time since U.S. downed spy balloon
- Beijing Wants to Meet EU Leaders as US Ties Fray
- Blinken was ‘quite blunt’ in warning against China’s support for Russia
- Tense US-China meeting deepens balloon row
- White House to hold secret talks with Taiwan officials in Washington (Apparently they’re not longer a secret!)
- Blinken to talk earthquake aid, Nordic NATO bid in Turkey visit
- Erdoğan faces backlash over building standards in city wrecked by quake (“The Turkish president’s role in allowing lax regulation to flourish is coming under scrutiny in the wake of the disaster that struck Adıyaman”)
- Turkey’s Reeling Economy Is an Added Challenge for Erdogan
- Earthquake rescue efforts wind down in Turkey, many left to mourn without a funeral
- U.S. stages joint air exercises with Asian allies after North Korea’s ICBM launch
- The son of Iran’s last shah says the Islamist regime is splintering
- It’s the end of the world as we know it — and Munich feels nervous
- Israeli missile strikes building in central Damascus, five dead
- Public Lands in the US Have Long Been Disposed to Fossil Fuel Companies. Now, the Lands Are Being Offered to Solar Companies (“As the nation looks to transition to more forms of renewable energy, the country’s millions of acres of public lands could be key, drawing concerns over how local habitats could be impacted.”)
- Social Security and Medicare Cuts Are a Trap Republicans Just Can’t Resist (“And Biden will happily fuel the backfire in 2024”)
- There is only one way to rein in Republican judges: Shaming them.
- Special counsel shows signs of ramping up Trump investigation (Great, but why didn’t that happen a year or more ago?)
- Former president Jimmy Carter opts for home hospice care for final days
- Statement on President Carter’s Health
- Twitter Foes Call For Rupert Murdoch To Be Deported After Peddling Fox News Lies
- Inside the collapse of the Trump-DeSantis ‘alliance of convenience’
- Ron DeSantis Should Be Careful of the Company He Keeps
- Florida Mulls ‘Classical’ Christian Alternative To SAT And ACT Testing (Completely unhinged.)
- Ron DeSantis Reportedly Took Advantage Of AP Classes He Now Wants To Deny Florida Kids
- Sen. John Fetterman Is Expected To Return To Work After Treatment for Depression, Aides Say
- Michigan G.O.P. Installs Kristina Karamo, an Election Denier, as Leade
- Far-right election denier beats Trump’s pick for Michigan GOP (“Kristina Karamo, who refused to concede her run for secretary of state, beat Donald Trump’s choice for state chair in a chaotic convention”)
- Florida Teacher Is Fired for Posting Viral Video of Empty Classroom Bookshelves (DeSantis is a fascist.)
- Florida couple unable to get abortion will see baby die after delivery (There’s absolutely no good reason for this, and it wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for Republicans.)
- 28 Children Rescued, 59 Adults Arrested in Massive DFW Child Porn Investigation: Police
- Special election for late Congressman Donald McEachin’s seat is Tuesday
- Video: In Superb Speech, Del. Candi Mundon King Tells Her Republican Colleagues, “What the women of Virginia need most is for politicians to keep their hands off our bodies!” (“Women should know that while the majority party in this body claims to be pro-life, many of the votes and decisions taken have been anything but pro-life.”)
- Friday Night Update from the ER in Arlington, VA: “We’re still learning a lot about the impact of COVID on long term health.” (Also, the last of these updates by Dr. Mike Silverman will be on March 10th.)
- Opinion: Dominion faces the consequences of its actions (“Dominion’s solution to its falling stock price is to depend again on the Virginia General Assembly to legislatively micromanage a higher profit margin. The opposition to this legislation is broad, diverse and united. It includes everyone from big customers like Google and Amazon to the small residential customers I represent via the Virginia Poverty Law Center.”)
- Small Modular Nuclear Reactors: A Bad Deal for Southwest Virginia! And All of Us! (Youngkin’s latest terrible idea is “too late, too expensive, too risky and too uncertain”)
- State investigation of UVa shooting differs from that of Virginia Tech
- Hate flyers discovered in multiple McLean neighborhoods
- Hampton Roads’ centuries-old documents are in peril, archivists say, due to method used to preserve them
- D.C.-area forecast: New warming trend starts today; highs could reach the 70s by Thursday
