Sunday News: “4 hottest days ever observed raise fears of a planet nearing ‘tipping points’”; “Harris raised $200M in first week of White House campaign and signed up 170,000 volunteers”; “Trump faces backlash for ‘in four years, you don’t have to vote again’ remark”; “J.D. Vance’s Basket of Deplorables”

by Lowell

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

• ‘Morally, nobody’s against it’: Brazil’s radical plan to tax global super-rich to tackle climate crisis (“A 2% levy would affect about 100 billionaire families, says the country’s climate chief, but the $250bn raised could be transformative” Excellent, every country should do that. Hell, make it 10% or 20%.)
• ‘A Repair Manual for the Planet’: What Would It Take to Restore Our Atmosphere?
• Should Companies Get Paid When Governments Phase Out Fossil Fuels? They Already Are
• 4 hottest days ever observed raise fears of a planet nearing ‘tipping points’ (“Since last July, Earth’s average temperature has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.”)
• Life and death in the heat. What it feels like when Earth’s temperatures soar to record highs
• Yellen says $3T of fresh capital is needed annually to fight climate change
• Ukraine Says Its Drones Hit Strategic Jet in Russia’s Arctic
• Ukraine war briefing: Russian oil depot burns after drone strike (“Blinken warns of further actions if China keeps aiding Russian industrial base; Russia claims control of Lozuvatske settlement. What we know on day 886”)
• Wind and solar to surpass 40% of China’s power capacity by year-end
• Golan Heights attack raises concerns of war between Israel and Hezbollah
• Israel sends Gaza hostage and ceasefire proposal to U.S.
• A strike from Lebanon killed 12 youths. Could that spark war between Israel and Hezbollah?
• Israel hits Hezbollah targets after football pitch strike kills 12 young people
• Israel promises to hit Hezbollah hard after rocket kills 12 on football field
• Explainer: Is the Hezbollah-Israel conflict about to spiral?
• Israel-Gaza war live: Israel says Hezbollah will ‘pay a price for this loss’ after deadly strike on occupied Golan Heights
• ‘Iron Lady’ vs. Autocrat: Venezuela Faces Crucial Vote for President (“Sunday’s election could mark the end of a generation of rule by Venezuela’s socialist party. It could also usher in a period of profound uncertainty.”)
• Venezuela election live updates: Maduro and his ruling party face serious electoral challenge for first time in years
• Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Draws More Than 28.6 Million US Viewers (“The audience was 60% larger than for the 2021 Tokyo games”)
• Speaker Johnson blasts Olympics for mocking Christians, Last Supper
• Stricter Covid mask rules could’ve saved hundreds of thousands of lives, new study finds (“Restrictions in Northeastern states likely ‘saved many lives’ say researchers”)
• How a Year of the Fed’s High Rates Has Affected the US Economy (“The central bank has kept borrowing costs at a more than two-decade high for a full year. The results have been somewhat surprising.”)
• A Fed Rate Cut Is Finally Within View
• Biden’s Supreme Court reform plan could actually help make it less political
• Trump Says Americans ‘Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He Wins (“He’s telegraphing his authoritarian intentions in plain sight.”)
• Trump faces backlash for ‘in four years, you don’t have to vote again’ remark (“Some Democrats say his comments, directed at a Christian audience, signaled his plans to be a dictator. His campaign says he was talking about ‘uniting’ the country, and experts point to his ‘deliberately ambiguous’ speaking style.”)
• Trump-Vance Ticket’s Big Campaign Promise: End American Democracy (“[Friday] night, Donald Trump told voters they ‘won’t have to vote anymore’ if he’s elected president.” – DNC War Room”)
• Dems Go All-In on Blasting Trump and MAGA as ‘Sick Freaks Who Everyone Hates’ (No lies detected!)
• J.D. Vance’s Basket of Deplorables (Wow, this is the far-right Wall Street Journal editorial board???)
• 5 Excerpts From JD Vance’s Emails to a Transgender Classmate (Vance is a bizarre, awful, intensely weird person.)
• JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended
• The Childless Cat Lady Memes Are Flowing as J.D. Vance Keeps Digging
• Trump Pledges to Fire Gensler, Hire People Who ‘Love’ Crypto
• Trump proposes strategic national crypto stockpile: ‘Never sell your bitcoin’
• Trump Declares Outrageous Reason He Won’t Pronounce ‘Kamala’ Correctly (The reason is that Trump is a virulent racist and misogynist.)
• Harris camp responds to Trump telling Christians they ‘don’t have to vote again’ if he gets elected
• Trump and Harris enter final 100-day stretch of a rapidly evolving 2024 race
• Kamala Harris Isn’t Going Back (“Fifty years after Shirley Chisholm ran for the Presidency, we find ourselves yet again questioning the durability of outmoded presumptions about race and gender.”)
• Kamala Harris wants to extend her honeymoon — but is ready if it ends
• Blue-state Dem dread turns to elation over Harris: ‘It’s all changed’ (“This is an excitement level that has very rarely been seen in American politics”)
• Kamala Harris for President Campaign Memo Reviews Highlights From “A Winning First Week”
• Harris raised $200M in first week of White House campaign and signed up 170,000 volunteers
• Harris campaign reports record-breaking volunteer surge in key swing states
• Harris Raises $200 Million in First Week to Build Up War Chest
• Gen-Z voters spread the ‘Kamalove’ as Harris’s popularity earns youth support
• Harris Holds Her First Fundraiser As The Likely Democratic Nominee As Donors Open Their Wallets (“She told an excited group of supporters that she entered the race as an ‘underdog,’ while expressing confidence that her surging campaign could defeat Trump.”)
• In Tim Walz, Democrats see a potential VP pick who can shore up the ‘blue wall’
• Kelly emerges as a top contender for Harris’s VP pick
• How Harris Is Still Building Her Team With 99 Days to Go (“The ink is still wet on her new campaign signs, and Harris is trying to woo key Obama aides after demoting a Biden confidant.”)
• KSTP/SurveyUSA poll: Harris takes lead over Trump in first Minnesota poll
• Elon Musk Shares Manipulated Harris Video, in Seeming Violation of X’s Policies (“The billionaire owner of the social media platform X reposted a video that mimics Vice President Kamala Harris’s voice, without disclosing that it had been altered.”)
• Virginia is changing the way it rates schools. Here’s what to know. (“Critics of the move, like the Virginia Education Association, worry that favoring mastery will lead to schools being categorized on demographics. Statistically, they said in a news release, schools in affluent neighborhoods typically perform better on standardized tests than schools in lower-income areas, and the rankings will reflect that.”)
• Virginia collects $1.2B more revenue than expected
• Glenn Youngkin appoints ‘failed Moms for Liberty candidate’ to Virginia Board of Education
• Augusta County nixes major solar project in Stuarts Draft (That’s a mistake.)
• Drought busting: Decisions 20 years ago secured Roanoke Valley’s water future
• COVID outbreak at Charlottesville’s only overnight homeless shelter
• D.C.-area forecast: Beautifully bright and a touch warmer today. Late-week heat on the way.