Thursday News: “The Hamas horror is also a lesson on the price of populism”; “The Supreme Court appears determined to make it easy to draw gerrymanders”; “Chaos in House GOP intensifies with Scalise’s speakership bid in peril”; “Multiple Virginia school districts targeted with hoax bomb threats”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, October 12.

• The Pope’s Language About Climate Change Gets More Radical
• The Russian Army Reportedly Lost 34 Tanks Trying To Cut Off The Ukrainian Garrison In Avdiivka
• In eastern Ukraine, small assault teams quietly advance against Russia
• U.S. intensifies push to use Moscow’s $300 billion war chest for Kyiv
• Hamas attack exposes deteriorating ties between Russia and Israel
• The Hamas horror is also a lesson on the price of populism
• Netanyahu agrees to share power with opposition party
• Every Hamas member is a dead man, Netanyahu says
• Gambling on a ‘pragmatic’ Hamas was a deadly mistake, analysts say
• Humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza (“Hospitals running out of supplies amid siege; Blinken arrives in Israel”)
• Egypt warned Israel of Hamas attack days earlier, senior US lawmaker says (“Head of US foreign affairs committee says warning was given, but it is unclear ‘at what level’, supporting claims reported from Egyptian sources”)
• Hamas attack ‘deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust’, says Biden, as Israeli jets pound Gaza (“US president decries ‘campaign of pure cruelty’ and warns Iran to tread carefully as Israel conducts significant airstrikes on Palestinian enclave”)
• Scoop: Zelensky asks to visit Israel in show of solidarity
• Israel says no electricity, water or fuel for Gaza until hostages freed
• Hamas Invasion Rewrites Rules in Middle East (“Risk of wider war grows as U.S., Israel and its enemies respond to attack”)
• ‘Israel Is Going to Have to Make Some Tough Calls’: There’s No Clear Way Out of the Hostage Crisis
• Scene of Massacre Becomes Staging Ground for Israel’s Invasion of Gaza (“A small farming community near the Gaza Strip was the scene of one of the deadliest attacks by Hamas militants. Israeli soldiers are assembling there to prepare for what the military is calling a paradigm-changing offensive.”)
• For Hamas, shattering Israel’s sense of security was a major goal.
• Where the Palestinian Political Project Goes from Here (“For decades, Hamas and Israel have maintained a violent equilibrium. How will the war change that paradigm?”)
• Help took more than 20 hours to arrive for some on Israel’s bloodiest day. Others died waiting.
• Israel-Hamas War: Israel’s New Unity Government Pledges to ‘Crush’ Hamas
• U.S. intelligence indicates Iranian leaders were surprised by Hamas attack (“But Biden administration officials say Iran was ‘complicit’ in the attack since it has armed and trained Hamas for decades”)
• Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology (“A close read of Hamas’s founding documents clearly shows their intentions”)
• Hamas Seeds Violent Videos on Sites With Little Moderation
• Palestinians rush to buy food and struggle under strikes as Israel readies possible ground operation
• White House plans to put Ukraine, Taiwan and border funding in its Israel request
• Blinken visits Israel in show of US support
• Israel Targets All Hamas Leaders Across Gaza in Fresh War Effort (“Military spokesman says political leaders same as army; A ground war has not been decided but army is preparing for it”)
• Israel conducts ‘large-scale’ attacks on Hamas targets
• Biden Weighs Freezing $6 Billion for Iran After Hamas Attack on Israel (“Fund freed in prisoner swap may be ‘re-frozen,’ officials say; US intelligence has no evidence yet that Iran directed attack”)
• Cheers to Haaretz Holding Netanyahu Accountable
• Iran’s president, Saudi crown prince speak for first time since diplomatic ties restored
• War between Israel and Hamas sparks heated debate on college campuses
• Hamas hate videos make Elon Musk Europe’s digital enemy No.1
• X Is a Fog-of-War Machine (“What Elon Musk did to his social network to make it almost useless for news about Israel and Gaza.”)
• Donald Trump Criticizes Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Calls Hezbollah ‘Very Smart’ (“The former president admitted he could have been dishing classified information at a campaign event with a claim about the Israeli leader.” WTF???)
• Hamas thought Israel was weak. Now it will see the strength of a democracy at war.
• Israel’s reservists drop everything and rush home following Hamas bloodshed
• China’s soft message on Hamas is part of a much bigger strategy
• Price Rises Expected to Cool in U.S.
• Accelerating US Core Inflation Set to Muddy Rate Picture for Fed
• Fresh inflation data expected to show slight cooldown (“Economists expect annual inflation to have stood at 3.6% last month.”)
• A Mild Inflation Reading Could Keep Fed on Hold
• THE MOON SHOT – Operation Warp Speed: The Untold Story of the COVID-19 Vaccine
• The Supreme Court appears determined to make it easy to draw gerrymanders (This court sucks.)
• Supreme Court Conservatives Seem Likely To Accept South Carolina’s Racial Gerrymander (“This week’s case lays bare the results of a 2019 Supreme Court precedent that effectively greenlit partisan gerrymandering.”)
• This Supreme Court Case Could Decide Control of Congress in 2024 (“Nancy Mace’s South Carolina district is at the center of a gerrymandering lawsuit that could force the state to redraw its congressional map.”)
• Republicans fail to coalesce around speaker choice, leaving House in limbo
• Trump Not Expected to Help Scalise in Speaker Bid
• ‘We have 8 people who are insane’: Republican inside speaker vote bashes colleagues (Bob Good is definitely one of those.)
• Marjorie Taylor Greene won’t support her party’s choice for House speaker because he has cancer
• Scalise secures GOP Speaker nomination
• Chaos in House GOP intensifies with Scalise’s speakership bid in peril
• The Eat-Your-Own Caucus Has Found Its New Leader. Or Has It?
• House speaker debacle hold promise for democracy: The Jeffries Compromise (Seems unlikely, but good idea in theory.)
• Ken Buck: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan Won’t Admit Biden Won 2020 Election for Fear of Upsetting Trump’s Base (“Buck refused to cast a vote for either lawmaker to replace Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.”)
• Republicans have nominated Steve Scalise for speaker. Now comes the hard part. (“Scalise still has to win on the House floor, which will require near-unanimity among Republicans.”)
• UAW launches strike against Ford’s Kentucky truck plant, signaling major escalation in labor fight
• 25 years after Matthew Shepard’s death, LGBTQ+ activists say equal-rights progress is at risk
• The horrors in Israel should be a wake-up call about kids and social media
• Judge in Trump documents case weighs whether defense lawyers are too close to witnesses
• Trump’s Claim That He Can’t Be Prosecuted Collides With Precedents
• Fulton County DA rebuffs Jim Jordan’s request for information on her investigation of Trump
• From Donald Trump to George Santos, fraud cases expose the gullibility of rich conservatives (“Their victims were bankers, tech bros, and GOP donors — what they have in common is giant egos fit for manipulation”)
• As Red States Curb Social Media, Did Montana’s TikTok Ban Go Too Far?
• ‘Unacceptably devoid of empathy’: DSA facing an internal reckoning on Israel
• Sen. Mitt Romney urged Democratic senators to challenge Biden — and he named names (Stupid.)
• Fox News Poll: Support for Haley doubles in GOP primary, she tops Biden by four
• Cenk Uygur running for president as Democrat (He’s not eligible to serve as president, of course, because he wasn’t born in the United States.)
• Fox News contributor Tom Homan appears on Hitler-praising antisemite’s show and pushes “great replacement” theory (“Homan was the acting director of ICE under Trump” Horrifying.)
• Democrats furious over Van Orden outburst during White House briefing on Israel terrorist attack (“Multiple attendees described Van Orden as acting belligerent towards the Biden administration briefers when he asked questions.” Disgusting.)
• She was told her twin sons wouldn’t survive. Texas law made her give birth anyway. (Horrible.)
• Democrat raises more funds than GOP incumbent in Mississippi governor’s race
• New Polling Finds VA Likely Voters in Competitive Districts “Do Not Trust Youngkin or Republicans When Learning About Candidates’ Positions on Abortion” (“…roughly two-thirds of these voters say that politicians and the government should not interfere in a patient’s personal reproductive health care decisions.”)
• Miyares orders group to stop sending misleading election fliers in Va.
• Miyares urges safety precautions at universities amid Israel-Palestine tensions
• Community activists put Virginia’s correctional system on trial
• Video: Excellent New Ads for Democratic Candidates Lily Franklin (HD41), Nadarius Clark (HD84), Sen. Aaron Rouse (SD22) [UPDATED with New Rodney Willett Ad] (Let’s help elect all three of these candidates on 11/7!)
• Video: In Response to Spotsylvania County Banning Books About Slavery, Joel Griffin Releases Television Advertisement Entitled “Libraries”
• Curious Commonwealth asks: How much of my recycling actually gets recycled?
• AUDIO: “Geralene Thomas Freeman and Allen Thomas called on Brentsville Supervisor Jeanine Lawson to apologize for the humiliation they endured after being kicked out of a public town hall last Tuesday” (“It felt like we were being singled out.”)
• Mountain Valley Pipeline Sparks Fears Around Construction, Pollution, Safety
• Loudoun voters debate whether length of residency matters in District 31 race
• Williams: Here’s what should be disqualifying for public office. And it ain’t online sex (“We are a nation besieged by sedition and paralyzing division, rife with politicians taking a jackhammer to democracy and the rule of law. But the true menace to our body politic is a woman who engaged in online sex…In a nation on the precipice of collapse for want of decency and democracy, this is the moral high ground upon which The Family Foundation is planting its flag? Where is this outspoken outrage as Donald Trump, the darling of America’s Christian right, so clearly demonstrates his poor character and a lack of morality, integrity and fitness for office? Let’s start with the porn.”)
• House District 65 race: Democrat Cole vs. Republican Peters
• ‘Take the politics out of reading’: School board candidates oppose book bans as distractions
• In Henrico, Virginia Senate candidates battle over ‘banning books’ accusation
• Multiple Virginia school districts targeted with hoax bomb threats
• Virginia solar program delivers clean energy to elderly, low-income households (“A three-year pilot spurred by 2019 legislation, the Dominion Energy program offers weatherization services and solar panels to qualified customers free of charge.”)
• Kathy Byron and John Cosgrove are friends of Gov. Glenn Youngkin — with benefits.
• Sheep grazing on solar farms make a greener mix for Dominion Energy
• CASEY: As bombs fell on Israel, 4 Roanokers make harrowing escape
• Fairfax County officials say residents missing out on cost-saving green incentives
• Jewish leaders meet with Gov. Glenn Youngkin in Virginia Beach amid war in Israel
• Hanover Girl Scout fights censorship with ‘Banned Book Nooks’
• Hanover school board reviews books, restroom policies
• D.C.-area forecast: Mild sunshine next two days before a rainy Saturday (“Around an inch of rain could fall Saturday.”)