Friday News: “Global Boiling” as July “hottest in around 120,000 years”; “Stunning new Trump charges” for “an uncommonly stupid criminal”; “Aliens are among us — and they want to impeach Biden”; “DeSantis donors leave for Glenn Youngkin”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, July 28.

• “It is terrifying:” July confirmed as planet’s hottest month on record
• Climate Litigation Has Exploded, but Is it Making a Difference?
• EV Sales Continue to Soar, But a Surge in Production Could Lead to a Glut for Some Models
• This month is the planet’s hottest on record by far – and hottest in around 120,000 years, scientists say
• ‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record
• Analysis | How Offshore Wind Can Survive Its Spell in the Doldrums
• Ukrainians are breaking their ties with the Russian language (“The repudiation of the Russian language in Ukraine is a stark failing of Putin’s invasion, shattering the notion that he will unite historic ‘Russian lands.'”)
• Does Ukraine have a second summer push up its sleeve?
• In Ukraine, land mines left by Russian forces pose a deadly threat
• Bank of Japan Shocks Financial Markets by Loosening Grip on Bond Yields
• Biden Is Weighing a Big Middle East Deal
• After new law, Netanyahu vows to keep attorney general and return felon to office
• Bunkers, sniper rifles: Deepening sectarian war in India dents Modi’s image
• “Bidenomics in action: Wages rising, Inflation falling sharply, Record job creation…Manufacturing jobs boom” (“GDP data today: US economic growth ‘blowing past estimates’”)
• Surprisingly strong economy shifts political calculations (Mostly “surprising” to the dumbasses in the media.)
• Biden rolled out some new measures to respond to extreme heat as temperatures soar
• Biden to Overhaul Military Justice Code, Seeking to Curb Sexual Assault (“President Biden will usher in major changes mandated by Congress to the military legal system, removing commanders’ authority over sexual assault cases.”)
• A year after Dobbs, House GOP proposes taking food from hungry babies (The supposedly “pro-life” party? Hahahaha – not!)
• New Charges in Documents Case Add to Trump’s Legal Peril
• Another Indictment! Trump Told Aides to Delete Security Footage in Coverup Attempt
• New charges for Trump in documents case (“Unsealed indictment alleges the ex-president asked to have security footage deleted”)
• Trump accused of asking staffer to delete camera footage in Florida classified documents case
• Read the superseding indictment bringing new charges against Trump
• Trump, aide face additional charges in classified documents case as 3rd defendant is added
• Five revelations from new Trump charges
• What’s new in the new indictment against Donald Trump? (“Trump allegedly tried to destroy evidence in the federal case involving classified documents.”)
• New indictment proves Trump never learned the first lesson of Watergate (“If the allegations in the latest indictment of Donald Trump hold up, the former president is an uncommonly stupid criminal.”)
• “These people are admitting they lied to you”: Trump’s own men undermine his “delusional” defense
• Takeaways from the new charges against Trump, aide and Mar-a-Lago worker in the classified documents case (“Significant new allegations against Trump, a newly identified document and another defendant were unveiled in a court filing”)
• Stunning new Trump charges up the stakes of an already existential 2024 election
• Prosecutors in documents case argue against Trump team’s push to discuss classified information at his homes instead of SCIF
• Trump faces more charges in classified documents case as second aide named
• Conservatives have already written a climate plan for Trump’s second term (Extremely disturbing.)
• US Government Shutdown Threatened as Congress Departs for August
• Senate passes defense policy bill, setting up showdown with the House
• House GOP bails on funding fight amid conservative impasse
• Biden to run against MAGA in 2024, not just Trump
• GOP senators express anxieties about Mitch McConnell’s health — and what comes next
• What we know about Mitch McConnell’s health and his future in the Senate (“What happens if Mitch McConnell has to retire?”)
• Ron DeSantis Wants to Tell the Future by Controlling the Past
• The DeSantis Campaign Has a Ron Problem
• Dear Ron DeSantis, slavery was not a job skills program (“A losing Republican campaign finds a winning issue: whitewashing the enslavement of Black Americans”)
• Tim Scott rebukes Ron DeSantis over Florida Black history standards on slavery
• ‘No silver lining in slavery’: Scott slams DeSantis on Florida curriculum comments
• Ron DeSantis’s Campaign “Reset” Apparently Involves Fighting a Black Republican Over Slavery
• Team DeSantis’s fury at mild Republican criticism distills his politics
• DeSantis is defending new slavery teachings. Civil rights leaders see a pattern of ‘policy violence’
• Trump, DeSantis Clash in Iowa at Crucial Moment in 2024 Race
• Trump, DeSantis rivalry ratchets up with ‘critical’ Iowa fundraiser
• “He Might Have a Foot in a Grave”: Can Ron DeSantis Pull His Campaign Out of a Death Spiral?
• Black lawmakers blast Alabama’s new congressional map
• A confused Dianne Feinstein tried to give a speech in the middle of a Senate hearing vote and was told to ‘just say aye’ instead
• Aliens are among us — and they want to impeach Biden
• Democrats Have Just About Had It With Kevin McCarthy Caving to the Right: “They’re on a Fast Track to a Shutdown” (“Amid funding battles, acrimony is spiking on Capitol Hill as the Republican Party’s right flank continues to push an extreme agenda at every turn. ‘They need to keep their bans off our budget and leave the culture wars to Fox News,’ said one Democrat.”)
• ‘You Are a P*ssy’: McCarthy and Swalwell Get in House Floor Feud
• Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints
• ‘Jackasses,’ ‘little s‑‑‑‑’: GOP congressman curses out teenage Senate pages
• Meta plans retention ‘hooks’ for Threads as more than half of users leave app
• What’s in a Name? Musk/Twitter Edition
• Twitter placed ads for USA Today, National Women’s Soccer League, and other major brands on a terrorism-linked neo-Nazi account (“This is Linda Yaccarino’s Twitter ad environment”)
• GOP groups keep money from conservative casino mogul accused of sexual misconduct (“Republicans have been dodgy about returning donations from Steve Wynn, who recently agreed to pay $10 million in a settlement over sexual misconduct allegations.”)
• Fed-up teachers in Tennessee find a novel answer to anti-woke hysteria
• HISD to eliminate librarians, turn libraries into discipline centers at 28 campuses (“Houston Independent School District will be eliminating librarian positions at 28 schools this upcoming year and utilizing some of the libraries as ‘Team Centers” where kids with behavioral issues will be sent, the district announced.” WTF???)
• Eagles founding member Randy Meisner dies aged 77 (“The bassist sang lead vocals on Take It To the Limit and backing vocals on Hotel California.”)
• Warner and Kaine criticize Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on the hold of hundreds of military promotions
• GOP Senate candidate Hung Cao warns of ‘witchcraft’ happening in California: ‘We can’t let that happen in Virginia’
• Former Ron DeSantis Staffer and “Trump Acolyte” Scott Parkinson Declares Himself the Frontrunner in the Republican Primary to Take on Sen. Tim Kaine in 2024 (Presumably, Hung Cao and the many other far-right/Trumpy Republicans running will take issue with this.)
• Video: Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) Says Republicans “Heading Into A Six-Week Recess Focused On Stripping Protections From Bats And Prairie Chickens” (“And we only have two months to stop a government shutdown. This is ridiculous.”)
• Good’s colleagues react to his comments on a government shutdown
• U.S. Supreme Court lifts stays on Mountain Valley Pipeline
• DeSantis donors leave for Glenn Youngkin. Is Youngkin running in 2024?
• ICYMI: VA Senate Dems Host 100-Days-Until-Election-Day Press Conference (“Abortion is on the ballot this fall”)
• Pope & Schapiro: Political donations, shutdown fears, and a do-over
• FOIA Friday: What Virginia officials withheld or disclosed, July 21–July 28, 2023
• Loudoun County Chair Phyllis Randall Corrects Sinclair/WJLA7’s “intentional misreporting and politicizing of our highly successful long-term economic Sister City program” (“I am the first Loudoun County Chair to insist my travel not come from General Fund Tax Revenue, but instead use EDA funds.”)
• GOP electoral board’s move to cut Richmond early voting sites may have been illegal
• Mayor Levar Stoney speaks about closed polling locations
• One married couple is looking to make history in the General Assembly (If Clinton or Karen Jenkins want to do that, they’d better start raising a LOT of $$$, starting immediately, and also getting a lot more aggressive in general.)
• ‘Commanders stadium should be in Virginia’ says Governor Glenn Youngkin (Nope, in fact is should be centrally located in the region, near a Metrorail stop, etc. In other words, at the RFK Stadium site.)
• Editorial: Public input needed as area officials develop regional transportation vision (“The Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization needs public input as it develops its vision for how people move around the region in the coming decades.”)
• As heat wave continues to swelter in Hampton Roads, cooling centers begin to open
• D.C.-area forecast: Heat index nearing potentially dangerous 110 degrees today