Thursday News: “This burning summer is taking us out of human time”; “US Economy Set to Show Resilience as Fed Scraps Recession View”; “Scary moment for McConnell raises questions for GOP”; “Youngkin takes vital resources away from LGBTQ+ youth — again”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, July 27.

• Heat Waves and the Sweep of History (“This burning summer is taking us out of human time.”)
• Lawsuits are key tool in delivering climate justice, says UN body (“Report says nearly 200 cases filed around the world in past 12 months challenging governments and firms”)
• Legal battles over climate change are already paying off (“The future of climate change will be litigated.”)
• U.N. climate chief calls on G20 to lead way on mitigation at summit
• On the Coast of Greenland, Early Arctic Spring Has Been Replaced by Seasonal Extremes, New Research Shows
• Ukraine launches new push, claims gains against Russians in south (“Kyiv’s goal is to reach the Sea of Azov, severing Moscow’s land bridge to occupied Crimea, a key conduit for moving Russian troops, equipment and supplies into Ukraine.”)
• Was Gen. Mark Milley right last year about the war in Ukraine?
• U.S. Says Main Thrust of Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Has Begun
• Ukraine war: Western armour struggles against Russian defences
• How Ukrainian DIY Drones Are Taking Out Russian Tanks (“Since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began, there’s been a dramatic increase in Ukraine’s use of cheap FPV, or first-person-view drones, to execute kamikaze-style attacks on Russian tanks and large-scale weapons.”)
• Kyiv launches a major push against Russian forces, officials and analysts say (“Ukraine has launched a major push to dislodge Russian forces from the country’s southeast as part of its weekslong counteroffensive, committing thousands of troops to the battle.”)
• In Need of Allies, Putin Courts African Leaders at Summit
• Biden Orders U.S. to Share Evidence of Russian War Crimes With Hague Court (“The step signals a major shift in American policy and ends months of resistance by Pentagon officials who feared setting a precedent that could pave the way for the court to prosecute U.S. troops.”)
• North Korea’s Kim shows off banned missiles to Russian minister
• The Dictator Myth That Refuses to Die (Dictators, in fact, are bad in every way.)
• Xi Protege’s Sudden Removal Adds to Rough Start for Third Term
• Revealed: Fossil Fuel Giants Are Using British Influencers to go Viral
• West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attack in first six months of 2023, regional official says
• Mutinous soldiers claim to have overthrown Niger’s president
• Niger president makes defiant vow to save democracy after coup
• Heart problems from vaccines are extremely rare. Heart problems from COVID itself are not (“Conspiracy theorists have been exaggerating the link between COVID vaccines and heart problems. Here are the facts”)
• Consumer Spending in Focus Ahead of GDP Report
• Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement
• No matter where you look, consumer confidence is up
• US Economy Set to Show Resilience as Fed Scraps Recession View
• Fed approves hike that takes interest rates to highest level in more than 22 years
• Labor Department says number of children it found working illegally is up 44% since October
• An ocean heat wave has become a full-blown emergency for Florida’s coral reef
• Colorado River has lost 10tn gallons of water since 2000 due to climate crisis (Holy crap.)
• Joe Biden must declare a climate emergency. And he must do so now
• How many transgender and intersex people live in the US? Anti-LGBTQ+ laws will impact millions
• Doctors who put lives at risk with covid misinformation rarely punished (These professional boards – for doctors or lawyers – need to really crank it up.)
• Leonard Leo Wants Us to Believe There Was Nothing Fishy About His Fishing Trip With Samuel Alito (“The arch-conservative power-player, who took Alito on a luxury vacation with billionaire Paul Singer, balked at a Democratic ethics inquiry into the outing, calling it ‘politically charged.'”)
• Trump Once Condemned The Jan. 6 Rioters. Now He’s One Of Their Biggest Supporters.
• Former lawmaker says Trump asked him to overturn the 2020 election but so far he hasn’t been contacted by special counsel
• Trump Struggles to Find Enough Lawyers to Handle His Many Indictments
• Chris Christie says video of Mark Meadows not commenting looks ‘like somebody who is cooperating’ with Trump probe
• Conservatives Have a New Master Theory of American Politics (“They say the left has conducted a ‘long march’ to seize the power of our institutions.” Riiiiiiight.)
• House Republicans threaten to shut down the government and impeach Biden (Lunatics.)
• House Republicans line up behind McCarthy on the Biden impeachment seesaw (Embarrassing and disgraceful.)
• Right-wing media attempt to conjure a Biden impeachment with admittedly flimsy evidence
• Giuliani Concedes He Made False Statements About Georgia Election Workers
• McConnell has fallen multiple times this year, sources say
• Scary moment for McConnell raises questions for GOP
• Mitch McConnell escorted away from cameras after freezing mid-press conference
• ‘Just say nothing’: Democrats advise Biden to keep mum on Trump’s legal woes
• DeSantis’s rocky week adds to image of campaign in crisis
• Fired DeSantis Staffer Called White Nationalist Nick Fuentes a Good Influence
• Black History Is a Casualty in Ron DeSantis’s Christian Nationalist Quest
• GOP congressman calls on Florida to ‘correct’ Black history standards on slavery
• DeSantis officials push back on Byron Donalds’ criticism of African American history standards
• Judge declines to approve Hunter Biden plea deal for now
• How Hunter Biden’s plea deal fell apart, for now, during dramatic 3-hour hearing
• Here’s Why Hunter Biden’s Plea Deal Collapsed (“The president’s son’s legal team and the Department of Justice are almost certainly ironing out details for another deal that will be a ‘win-win’ for each of them.”)
• Author Who Debunked RFK Jr. A Decade Ago Thinks His Candidacy Is ‘Pretty Depressing’
• At House UFO Hearing, Military Members Push for Answers: “It Is Long Overdue”
• How George Santos Used Political Connections to Fuel Get-Rich Schemes
• Sinéad O’Connor, acclaimed Dublin singer, dies aged 56 (R.I.P.)
• The gospel according to Sinéad O’Connor: She was right all along
• Fox News staffer: “It is hard to talk about the Holocaust and rising anti semitism without discussing Jewish presence in banking” (Wow, that’s viciously anti-Semitic.)
• Tucker Carlson says ‘being racist is not a crime’ but if he was he would ‘just say so’ (Yep, Carlson’s 100% a racist. A really nasty one at that.)
• Teachers association sues Tennessee education department over race education restrictions
• How Alabama could get away with defying the Supreme Court
• Connecticut Has Done Something Remarkable With Crime (“The state cut incarceration in half, while crime plummeted.”)
• Environmental Groups Petition SCOTUS to Deny Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Emergency Application (“…by attempting to pick the Government and MVP as the winners in pending litigation without creating new substantive law for courts to apply, Congress unconstitutionally invaded the judicial power.”)
• Sen. Mark Warner Reintroduces “ACCESS Act” to Encourage Social Media Competition; Requiring “portability, interoperability, and delegatability” (“Consumers are currently locked in to the social media platforms that they use, unable to move to a different platform for fear of losing years’ worth of data and interactions”)
• Video: Rep. Don Beyer, National Domestic Workers Alliance, etc. Discuss Biden Administration’s Efforts to Lower Rx Drug Costs Ahead of Upcoming Medicare Drug Negotiations
• Youngkin takes vital resources away from LGBTQ+ youth — again (Totally unacceptable.)
• Gov. Glenn Youngkin an ‘ideal candidate’ for the Republican Party: Thomas Peterffy (This guy was a big Trump donor in 2016 who ranted insanely about how “we are on a slippery slope to socialism with Barack Obama.” Nutjob.)
• Youngkin Still Can’t Deliver a Resolution to Virginia’s Budget Stalemate
• If MAGA Republicans Shut Down the Government This October, It Will Be Very Bad for the Country. How About Possible Impact on the 2023 Virginia Elections? (In 2013, the polls consistently indicated a big win for McAuliffe, both during and after the shutdown, but…that’s not what ended up happening.)
• $3.2 million in rural rail crossing upgrades increase safety, lay the tracks for high speed rail
• Democrats focus on issues from abortion to gun control ahead of November elections
• As some Virginia registrar controversies settle, others escalate
• Virginia athletics organization plans no changes to its policy for trans athletes
• Virginia is on its way out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Here are some projects it’s funded in Southwest and Southside. (“Revenues from RGGI, a carbon cap-and-trade program, have funded weatherization and flood resiliency projects across the state.”)
• Youngkin administration criticizes falling ABC profits
• Schapiro: A task that may be easier said than done (“What is the basis, beyond a fiscal emergency, and we’re not in one, for the governor re-framing extant contracts?”)
• The FBI is investigating the alleged beating death of a disabled inmate in Virginia
• Manassas airport one step closer to providing passenger flight service
• RELEAF plans to rebuild Cville’s tree canopy
• D.C.-area forecast: Excessively hot with potential late-day storms(“Highs could near 100 through Saturday, with heat indexes of 100 to 110.”)