Thursday News: “Zelensky takes fighter jet bid to EU leaders”; “Anger and despair in Turkey”; “Biden, Once Again, Lucks Out with His Enemies”; Biden “handed them their asses”; Ex-Twitter Officials Debunk GOP Conspiracy Theories

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, February 9.

just a brilliant line of questioning for Connolly highlighting that Trump did everything Republicans are accusing Biden of doing and worse pic.twitter.com/ZHNq1qS16e

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 8, 2023

• ‘Monster profits’ for energy giants reveal a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence
• Oil company profits are at a record high. It won’t last. (“Exxon, BP, and the rest of the oil industry aren’t prepared for competition from renewables.” Renewables are cleaner, cheaper, better in almost every way.)
• Shell directors personally sued over ‘flawed’ climate strategy
• Australia rejects a coal mine near Great Barrier Reef due to risk of ‘irreversible damage’
• EV battery has 50% more energy density than traditional lithium-ion, 10-minute charge (“A $32 million series B fund will support the buildout of a novel silicon anode electric vehicle battery.”)
• Zelenskyy on European mission for aid, fighter jets; Russian forces close in on Bakhmut
• Zelenskiy brings pitch for weapons, EU membership to Brussels
• How a band of Ukraine civilians helped seal Russia’s biggest defeat
• Zelenskyy seeks to place Ukraine at home in the EU
• Russia may have lost up to half of its operational tank fleet in Ukraine, monitoring group says
• Zelenskyy wraps up European tour with visit to EU summit
• Ukraine war: Zelensky takes fighter jet bid to EU leaders
• Meloni, Macron Spar over Zelenskiy’s Paris Dinner Invitation
• Ukraine denounces Roger Waters as ‘another brick in the wall’ of Moscow propaganda (“Kyiv outraged as Pink Floyd star accepts Russian invitation to speak at UN security council and calls for immediate ceasefire” Disgusting.)
• G-7 Weighs Sanctioning Chinese, Iranian and North Korean Firms for Aiding Russia’s Military
• Blinken says Chinese surveillance balloon program spread over 5 continents
• China wants to dominate the ‘near space’ battlefield. Balloons are a key asset
• Biden talks economy, China, political division in exclusive interview with Judy Woodruff
• Biden says US-China relations have not taken a hit in wake of spy balloon shoot down
• Survivors of Turkey, Syria quake struggle to stay warm, fed
• Turkey’s Trust in Government Has Turned to Dust (“The country was a construction site. It has become a cemetery.”)
• Rescuers comb rubble in Turkey and Syria as quake death toll tops 15,000
• Survivors stuck without water or heat as deaths near 16,000
• Anger and despair in Turkey as death toll from quakes crosses 17,000 (“Frustration is growing over the speed of the response to the disaster in Turkey and Syria. The United Nations is hoping to reopen its only aid corridor to Syria today.”)
• Hopes fade as rescuers press on searching for quake survivors in Turkey and Syria
• North Korea shows off largest-ever number of nuclear missiles at nighttime parade
• U.S., UK and Australia carry out China-focused air drills
• Why Jan. 6 and its aftermath look far worse than Brazil’s failed coup (“One month after Jan. 8, Brazil has much to teach the United States.”)
• The pandemic after the pandemic: Long covid haunts millions of people
• Alphabet shares dive after Google AI chatbot Bard flubs answer in ad
• Biden celebrates 100,000 jobs and near half-trillion dollar investment in clean energy
• Trump judge’s ruling could ban abortion pill across the US (“Far-right groups have asked to reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, which has been on the market for decades”)
• Supreme Court justices face new pressure to adopt code of conduct
• Trump Counsel Questions Ex-Homeland Security Chief Over Bid to Overturn Election (“Chad Wolf sat for a four-hour interview with FBI, DOJ staff”)
• Biden-GOP exchanges at State of the Union forecast 2024 battle
• Joe Biden, Once Again, Lucks Out with His Enemies
• The GOP rebuttal to Biden’s State of the Union address was indistinguishable from a Fox News monologue
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s strange ‘woke’ rant reveals a big GOP problem (“How Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders showed the limits of reactionary culture-warring.” Does anyone even know what Sanders et al are ranting about?)
• Feisty Joe Biden Is Back (“The president called for national unity around shared goals, particularly delivering economic benefits to working families.”)
• The Best Part Of Joe Biden’s SOTU Address Happened After It Was Over
• The night the old man handed them their asses
• Inside Biden’s Post-SOTU Victory Lap
• Republican Leaders Might Not Be Trying to Kill Social Security and Medicare. But Their Judges Are. (“Far-right judges are crafting a theory that would empower courts to strike down trillions of dollars in federal spending.” These judges are a serious menace.)
• Republicans Have Long Called for the Social Security and Medicare Cuts They Are Now Outraged By
• GOP boos fool no one: Everyone knows Republicans want to slash Social Security and Medicare
• McCarthy brings in record haul at first fundraiser since becoming Speaker (“The new Republicans House speaker may not be the negotiation ninja that he thinks he is”)
• Republicans Are All About Weaponizing the Government
• Republican identity politics: Authoritarianism — not individualism — is central to GOP (“Their Orwellian newspeak version of ‘freedom, liberty and individual rights’ belies a darker truth”)
• Nikki Haley presidential run would sink DeSantis and hand Trump victory – poll
• DeSantis Responds to Trump’s Accusation That He’s a Pervert From Between Towers of Diapers
• Poll: DeSantis leads Trump for 2024 GOP nod — but not if Haley and others split the vote
• Trump escalates his attacks on Ron DeSantis as a 2024 clash brews
• DeSantis Threat to Crack Down on Press Protections Would Be Bad News For Conservative Media
• Gov. Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Want You To Learn About Real Black History
• Dead Men at the State of the Union (“I’m talking about two Black men, both killed by the police, one a few years after the Civil War ended and the other last month.”)
• Hunter Biden’s legal team asks Bannon, Stone, Giuliani others to preserve evidence for future lawsuits
• Ex-Twitter Officials Confirm to Congress: Trump, Not Biden, Has Tried to Censor Tweets
• GOP lawmakers allege Big Tech conspiracy, even as ex-Twitter employees rebut them
• Ex-Twitter exec details ‘homophobic and antisemitic’ abuse over handling of Hunter Biden story
• Twitter Kept Entire ‘Database’ of Republican Requests to Censor Posts
• Twitter execs acknowledge mistakes with Hunter Biden laptop story but say no government involvement
• Trump White House Asked Twitter to Take Down Chrissy Teigen Burn (“More proof that the former president can dish out insults but can’t take them.”)
• Republicans Swing and Miss on Hunter Biden and Twitter
• James Carville Attacks GOP, Marjorie Taylor Greene As ‘White Trash’
• Fetterman hospitalized after feeling lightheaded
• Democrats build on midterm wins with new control of Pennsylvania House (“Even in 2023, Democrats are still winning the 2022 midterms.”)
• ABC’s Jonathan Karl rewrites Republicans’ long history of targeting Social Security (Disgrace to journalism.)
• The New York Times helped fuel an anti-trans panic in 2022. Will 2023 be any better?
• New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu takes a major step toward running for president
• Mitt Romney Confuses George Santos for Person Capable of Shame (“After Romney confronted Santos at the State of the Union, saying he didn’t belong there, the lying congressman lobbed weak comebacks on Twitter.”)
• Hawley’s departure from Armed Services draws speculation
• Bill would ban the teaching of scientific theories in Montana schools (Insanity.)
• Mississippi House OKs new court system — to be appointed by white state officials — for second-Blackest U.S. city, stoking tension
• NewsNation reporter arrested at Ohio governor’s press conference (WTF???)
• Eric Trump Runs with a Racist Crowd These Days
• Texas man pleads guilty in racist 2019 Walmart attack
• Rep. Good heckled the president. Why that’s bad for Republicans and bad for society. (Good is an utter disgrace in every way.)
• Here is where 25 key issues stand after Crossover
• The Commonwealth Institute Analysis Finds MAJOR Differences Between Youngkin’s and the VA Senate Dems’ Proposed Changes to the 2022-2024 Budget (Youngkin’s focused on corporate tax cuts; Dems are focused on funding public education.)
• Former Secretary of Education Atif Qarni Comments on the Rejection of Youngkin’s Board of Education Appointee, Wonders “are the Republicans in this case anti-merit and pro-equity?” (“Shouldn’t we be looking at the merit of an individual if somebody does not have the qualifications?”)
• Gov. Ralph Northam’s Secretary of Education, Atif Qarni, Says Newly Revised Youngkin Administration History Education Standards Get a “D” Grade, Remain Heavily “Whitewashed” (That’s sharply down from the “A” grade for the Northam administration’s history education standards.)
• Can abortion amendment get through House of Delegates? (Ridiculous, click-baity headline; the answer is no, a constitutional amendment protecting women’s reproductive has ZERO chance of getting through the right-wing-Republican-controlled House of Delegates.)
• Mid-session update: what’s still alive and what’s dead (or on the way there)
• Schapiro: Legislature will lose muscle – and memory (“Hanger, joking that he was too busy in Richmond, ignored the other: His last chance to file as a candidate for the Republican nomination decided at a convention this spring. Hanger’s decision ensures that Mark Obenshain, a fellow incumbent with whom Hanger was paired in a redrawn district, will be renominated – and likely re-elected – in a leafy region that would vote for a Republican if you dug one up and stuffed him…Norment, 76, is somewhat transactional, a comparative centrist with almost 32 years in the Senate, placing him fourth in seniority. McDougle, 51, is more ideological, reliable on the GOP holy trinity of God, guns and gays. He’s been a senator 17 years; previously serving four years in the House. Norment says he’s running for re-election. McDougle is mum – for now. A Norment-McDougle race would be the main Republican event of the Senate primary season.”)
• Parental involvement or “utter foolishness”
• Bills to Divert Public School Funding to Private Institutions Fail: Here are Some Virginia School-related Measures that Could Still Become Law
• Williams: It’s past the time to purge Virginia’s constitution of marriage bigotry
• Virginia suspends COVID-19 emergency allotment SNAP benefits
• Bill to ban use of cyanide in Virginia for mining fails despite early support
• ER Nurse Kellen Squire: “Don’t let them gaslight you into losing your rights- abortion is safe” (“The only life-threatening complication I’ve ever seen patients have from an abortion is because they could not access the abortion care they needed in time. in a timely manner.”)
• Commanders stadium study short on fans in Virginia legislature (“The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee has stripped funding for the study from its proposed state budget plan.” Good.)
• At lawmakers’ halfway point, Roanoke Valley, NRV senators have bills afloat
• CASEY: New map sets up potential fall clash between 2 Roanoke Valley senators (My understanding is that John Edwards is likely to retire, which would mean there would NOT be a “fall clash between 2 Roanoke Valley senators”…)
• ‘Epitome of the warrior patriot’: Veteran held captive in Vietnam for 7-plus years laid to rest in Virginia Beach
• Editorial: A historic leadership change at Naval Station Norfolk (“Naval Station Norfolk’s new commander, Capt. Janet Days, should serve as inspiration for women and Black servicemembers.”)
• Arlington schools considering security, communication changes after apparent overdose
• D.C.-area forecast: Unseasonably mild into Friday, but cold and rainy Sunday