Thursday News: “Russian Attack On Mariupol Theater Was Reportedly Far Deadlier Than Originally Estimated”; “The Medieval Logic Behind the SCOTUS Draft”; “Trump reasserts dominance over GOP”; “The Wackadoodle Wave”; “A revanchist assault on racial reforms in Virginia”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, May 5.

• New Reports Show Forests Need Far More Funding to Help the Climate, and Even Then, They Can’t Do It All
• Fortescue green hydrogen goal needs 450GW of wind and solar by 2030
• Oil giant Shell reports highest quarterly profit since 2008 on soaring commodity prices
• Don’t be ‘Putin’s altar boy,’ pope warns Russian Orthodox leader
• Ukraine, Russia production critical to restoring global food security, UN chief says
• Russian Attack On Mariupol Theater Was Reportedly Far Deadlier Than Originally Estimated (“According to an AP investigation, 600 people inside and outside the building died. That’s almost double the death toll cited so far and many survivors put the number even higher.” Horrific war crime by Putin’s regime, which must be held accountable.)
• Ukraine: National railway hasn’t buckled in the face of intense attacks
• ‘If there is hell in the world, it is in Azovstal’ (“Mariupol steel plant has faced ‘non-stop shelling’ as battles rage with Russian forces inside the complex, Ukrainian officials say”)
• Unexplained Attacks Inside Russian Territory Raise Prospect of Wider Conflict
• Russia Steps Up Attacks on Ukraine Railways, Other Infrastructure
• Attacks on Mariupol steelworks intensify as Russia looks to end standoff; fate of Ukraine’s Donbas in the balance
• U.S. Intelligence Is Helping Ukraine Kill Russian Generals, Officials Say
• Russia learns the perils of aggression in an age of defensive dominance
• Europe is finally ready to cut off Russian oil. It’s about time. (That’s fine, but Russian natural gas is what really needs to be cut off.)
• The AP Interview: Belarus admits Russia’s war ‘drags on’
• Ukraine repels Russian attacks; Mariupol plant battle rages
• Easy out from steel mill seen as unlikely for Ukraine troops
• Russia trying to destroy Mariupol defenders – Ukraine army
• Ukraine leader appeals for truce to dig out civilians trapped under steel plant
• Sweden says it received U.S. security assurances if it hands in NATO application
• UK revokes Moscow bourse’s status as recognised exchange
• Analysis: India is finding Russian oil to be an irresistible economic deal, regardless of the broader diplomatic costs.
• Covid’s toll in the U.S. reaches a once unfathomable number: 1 million deaths
• Blinken tests positive for coronavirus, State Department says
• Fed raises rates by half a percentage point — the biggest hike in two decades — to fight inflation
• Falling Jobless Rate Is Set to Complicate Fed’s Inflation Fight
• Powell Vows to Cool Prices With Hikes That Risk Economy Pain
• California’s All-Renewable Moment Shows the Future of the Power Grid
• Opinion Alito’s aggressive ruling would reach way beyond Roe
• U.S. Supreme Court’s Alito cancels conference appearance after abortion ruling leak
• Supreme Court Weighs Future Role and Final Word on Abortion
• Let’s throw out the term ‘culture wars.’ This is religious tyranny. (“This isn’t ‘culture.’ It’s about lives, rights and human dignity.”)
• Kamala Harris finally found her moment and her message (“Harris is ideally suited to speak to the issue of abortion and privacy.”)
• Editorial: Reproductive health choices long ago should have been codified in law
• Editorial: Forcing women to have babies is a big mistake
• Despair Is Premature And Rage Is Insufficient (“When the country that considers itself the definition of freedom takes away the most basic freedom of more than half its people, the only response is to resist until the end.”)
• Biden warns LGBTQ+ children could be next target of Republican ‘Maga crowd’ (“President warns of new attacks by Trump-dominated political party after supreme court ruling draft leak on abortion”)
• The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Next Target: Birth Control (“And disinformation from social media influencers is helping their cause.”)
• Trump the hero for anti-abortion movement after bending supreme court his way (Disgusting.)
• ‘Do something, Democrats’: party struggles to rise to abortion challenge
• Democrats promise votes on abortion rights despite vanishingly small odds of success
• Can the GOP Stop Patients From Leaving the State for an Abortion?
• Four Reasons the End of Roe v. Wade Terrifies Me
• Panic turns to strategy in White House pursuit to protect abortion
• What an Unprecedented Supreme Court Leak Says About the Future of Abortion (“The fragility of the right to an abortion has become synonymous with the fragility of the Court’s legitimacy.”)
• Of Course There Are No Women in the Constitution (“There is little mention of abortion in a four-thousand-word document crafted by fifty-five men in 1787. This seems to be a surprise to Samuel Alito.”)
• The Medieval Logic Behind the SCOTUS Draft (“Justice Samuel Alito’s reasoning is stuck in the 1600s — literally”)
• Why the Supreme Court’s Leak Investigation Is a Sham (“The institution’s certainty in the sanctity of its own norms is blowing up in its face.”)
• Can Republicans Stop Patients From Leaving the State for an Abortion? Some Are Willing to Try.
• What overturning Roe v. Wade could mean for interracial marriage and contraception rights
• Democrats need to truly engage the abortion fight (“No more abstractions. Force Republicans to defend the horrifying things they have planned.”)
• Republicans, on cusp of abortion win, seek to change the subject
• Donald Trump Jr. interviews with Jan. 6 select panel
• The Jan. 6 Committee Has a Subpoena for Parler’s Founder
• Oath Keeper details pre-Jan. 6 planning, pleads to seditious conspiracy
• Trump official interfered in report on Russian election meddling – watchdog (“Chad Wolf, then acting homeland security secretary, demanded changes and delayed report, risking perception of politicisation”)
• New audio: McCarthy said 25th Amendment ‘takes too long’ and wanted to reach out to Biden after January 6 attack
• If democracy survives, thank a federal employee
• Where The GOP Could Make Or Break Its Chances In 10 Key Governors’ Races
• The Wackadoodle Wave (“If 1994 brought the Republican Revolution and 2010 delivered the Tea Party to D.C., the 2022 election may bring something even more extreme.”)
• Ohio’s U.S. Senate race pits a fake populist against a real one (“Can a steadfastly pro-labor Democrat push aside Republican culture-war extremism?”)
• J.D. Vance Won Out in One of the Most Embarrassing Debase-a-Thons in the History of Human Government (“The Ohio Republican Senate nominee really picked up speed when he jettisoned his conscience.”)
• Trump reasserts dominance over GOP (“His Ohio romp is a strong signal that — for all the talk of his waning influence — the GOP is still in his thrall.”)
• J. D. Vance’s Win in Ohio and What It Means for Trumpism (Nothing good, that’s for sure!)
• Tucker, Thiel and Trump: How J.D. Vance Won in Ohio
• U.S. House nominee J.R. Majewski lied about having “never read any QAnon drop”
• How Tucker Carlson helped J.D. Vance to victory in the Ohio Senate primary
• J.D. Vance’s Victory in Ohio Is a Huge Win for Peter Thiel’s Political Movement (Thiel is a far-right extremist)
• Dr. Oz’s vote in 2018 Turkish election renews criticism
• J.R. Majewski, a G.O.P. House nominee, has expressed fringe views on QAnon and Jan. 6.
• Abbott says Texas could ‘resurrect’ SCOTUS case requiring states to educate all kids
• 5th Wave? New York COVID Hospitalizations Top 2,000, Nearly Tripling in a Month
• An upset win over the ‘enjoy rape’ MAGA candidate speaks volumes (“Democrats need to offer a bigger response to relentless right-wing insurrectionism and culture-warring.”)
• Madison Cawthorn Says ‘Blackmail Won’t Win’ After Nude Thrusting Video Leaks (“Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has responded to a video circulating on social media that appears to show the conservative congressman in the nude, making thrusting motions near the face of another man.”)
• Abrams raises $11.7 million in Georgia governor’s race
• Emboldened by Musk’s Twitter takeover, anti-trans figures are celebrating by breaking the platform’s rules on hateful conduct (“Musk’s history of anti-trans rhetoric is already driving right-wing bigots to break rules on misgendering. Many are not facing repercussions.”)
• Matt Gaetz Accidentally Reminds People He’s a Loser Who Allegedly Has to Pay Women for Sex
• Mid-Atlantic solar advocates watch with concern as shared solar efforts hit snags (“Customer billing problems in the District of Columbia and steep fees proposed in Virginia threaten to sink the potential impact of shared, community solar programs in the region. Solar developers are watching with concern.”)
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says The “Harshness” and Substance of What Alito Wrote Has Him “Gravely Worried”; Adds, “I think Americans overwhelmingly want abortion to be safe, legal and rare” (Sen. Warner says DHS “Disinformation Board” rollout was “botched,” but to not have “appropriate oversight of these [violent extremist] groups” is “not a safe path for America.”)
• Opinion/Editorial: Warner’s worries about SCOTUS are legitimate
• Tim Kaine Refuses to Let Long COVID Be an Afterthought
• Bicameral Delegation Urges Justice Department To Reconsider Bijan Ghaisar Case (“Unfortunately, Virginia’s new Attorney General has chosen to drop the Commonwealth’s appeal, leaving this question unsettled.”)
• 7 members of Congress ask Justice Department to revisit Bijan Ghaisar case
• VA02 Republican Candidate Jarome Bell Takes Stage with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago; Is an Endorsement Coming? (DCCC: Bell “is best known for calling for the execution of people involved in voter fraud”)
• Trump brought a Virginia congressional candidate on stage at Mar-a-Lago
• Audio: LG Winsome Sears Comments on SCOTUS Abortion Opinion, Says “All of a sudden we know what a woman is now?” and “the KKK could not be happier about so many Black women not having their babies”
• Lt. Gov. Sears’s and Attorney General Miyares’s Radical Abortion Record (“It’s not a question of if they will try to criminalize abortion, it’s a question of when”)
• Child welfare watchdog gets to work in Virginia (“Created to provide more oversight of the state’s child welfare system, the long-awaited Virginia Office of the Children’s Ombudsman is now up and running.”)
• A revanchist assault on racial reforms in Virginia
• Small cannabis entrepreneurs say they can’t compete against ‘Walmart of weed’
• How allowing single-staircase buildings could change Virginia’s housing market
• VIDEO STORIES: Parents Call for Action on Budget, Following Reconvened Session
• Virginia 10-Day New COVID-19 Cases Down 90% Compared to 1/19; Hospitalizations Down to 206 From ~4,000 in January (Highest 10-day number of new cases since 3/2)
• Emerging subvariants are driving Virginia’s rise in COVID-19 cases (Also, people getting back together again and not wearing masks.)
• Protesters rally at federal building in Charlottesville
• Liberty needs to overhaul its approach on sexual assault
• Albemarle approves 2023 budget, meals and hotel tax increases
• Fairfax Co. chief on police reform and the crime that ‘scares me the most’
• Virginia Beach woman committed $2.7M tax fraud while living ‘lavish’ life, prosecutors say
• D.C.-area forecast: Dry today then soaking rain Friday and into the weekend