Thursday News: “Where are Russian generals Gerasimov and Surovikin after Wagner rebellion?”; “Heat and smoke are smothering most of the U.S., putting lives at risk”; “‘Bidenomics’ is all about repelling Trump’s chaos theory”; “Mountain Valley Pipeline gets authorization to resume construction”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, June 29.

• Rainfall Extremes Increasingly Threaten Mountain Regions and Areas Downstream From Them
• Funding to Cut Methane Emissions ‘Woefully’ Short of What’s Needed
• ‘Climate washing’ lawsuits jump as more activists challenge corporate claims, report shows
• Climate Change Is Making Floods and Landslides More Likely, Study Finds
• Climate crisis linked to rising domestic violence in south Asia, study finds
• Global heat waves show climate change and El Niño are a bad combo
• Climate change: China’s green power surge offers hope on warming
• In a major discovery, scientists say space-time churns like a choppy sea (“The discovery seems to affirm an astounding implication of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity that until now has been far too subtle to detect.”)
• Where are Russian generals Gerasimov and Surovikin after Wagner rebellion?
• Analysis-Where Are Russia’s Top Generals? Rumours Swirl After Mercenary Mutiny
• Kremlin looks to reassert Putin’s authority after rebellion (“Events were held in Russia to show unity after the Wagner mutiny, but as the dust settles, military leaders face tough questions”)
• Putin Moves to Seize Control of Wagner’s Empire
• Recapping the revolt in Russia, through the words of 4 presidents and a mutinous warlord
• Why This May Be the Beginning of the End for Putin
• Yevgeny Prigozhin May Be Gone, but Not the Failings He Ranted About
• Sanctioned Russian Cargo Ships Made More Than 100 Stops at Turkish Ports
• Prigozhin retreat deal terms could still be under discussion; Death toll from Kramatorsk strike rises
• Russian general who may have known about Wagner mutiny goes missing
• Putin freezes out hardliners after Wagner mutiny
• Inside Biden’s dramatic backchannel to Russia as a near-coup unfolded
• It’s way too early to write off the Ukrainian counteroffensive
• Chinese Balloon Used American Tech to Spy on Americans
• Scoop: White House expressed concern that Israel is leaking info on indirect Iran talks
• Netanyahu Revives Judicial Overhaul Stripped of Most Controversial Piece
• Scoop: Netanyahu sees upside to China’s growing involvement in Middle East
• The Wannabe Putin in Saudi Arabia
• China on course to hit wind and solar power target five years ahead of time (“Beijing bolstering position as global renewables leader with solar capacity more than rest of world combined”)
• Mainstream Conservatives Are On The Run in Europe, Too (“The shocking impotence of the center-right on both sides of the Atlantic is once again opening the door to right-wing populism.”)
• Spain targeting 56 GW of new solar by 2030 under new energy strategy
• Facebook content moderators in Kenya call the work ‘torture.’ Their lawsuit may ripple worldwide
• At least 150 arrests in violent protests over France police killing
• Thailand’s people have spoken. Will its military listen?
• Extreme Heat Is Already Straining the Mexican Power Grid
• Scorching heat and Canada wildfires could be tied to ‘wavy, blocky’ jet stream
• Heat and smoke are smothering most of the U.S., putting lives at risk
• Tick and mosquito season is already shaping up to be severe this year
• 200 million under extreme weather alerts as heat and smoke pummel U.S.
• In Speech On Bidenomics, Biden Tries To Turn The Page On Reagan (And Every President Since)
• If ‘Bidenomics’ works, it will be a very big deal
• Bidenomics Is Working: The President’s Plan Grows the Economy from the Middle Out and Bottom Up—Not the Top Down (“America has seen the strongest growth since the pandemic of any leading economy in the world. Inflation has fallen for 11 straight months and has come down by more than half. And we have done it all while responsibly reducing the deficit.”)
• ‘Bidenomics’ is all about repelling Trump’s chaos theory
• Biden world wants Republicans to feel the pain for voting no while taking the dough
• Powell Says Likely Need Two or More Hikes to Cool Inflation
• Public Pension Funds Have Lost Billions on Their Fossil Fuel Investments: New Analysis (“Six major US retirement funds would be worth a combined $21 billion more today if they had divested a decade ago, University of Waterloo researchers find.”)
• Biden-Harris Administration Holds Record-Breaking Auction for Solar Energy Development (“Projects from $105 million auction could produce nearly 3 gigawatts of clean energy”)
• The Myth of Early Pandemic Polarization (“…at the state and local levels, for many months, red and blue authorities moved in quite close parallel. For the most part, red and blue people did, too… stay-at-home orders were riddled with exceptions, and all but one state lifted them by the end of June. On average, those orders lasted for a couple of weeks longer under the 23 Democratic governors than 17 Republican ones in those states — seven weeks compared with five, at the beginning of a public health emergency that lasted 171 weeks.”)
• Online hate and harassment continues to rise (“More than half of Americans say they have experienced hate or harassment online, according to a new survey from the Anti-Defamation League, with a dramatic rise in incidents over the last 12 months, especially among teens.”)
• Anti-LGBTQ Backlash Puts a Chill on Corporate America’s Rhetoric
• Nonreligious Americans Are The New Abortion Voters
• The Court Is Conservative—But Not MAGA (“Does Moore v. Harper shift the dominant narrative about the Roberts Court?”)
• Neil Gorsuch’s Quirky Originalism Just Dealt a Major Blow to Corporate America
• From birth to death, legacy of racism lays foundation for Black Americans’ health disparities
• Thousands more prisoners across the US will get free college paid for by the government
• The odds of a Trump coup attempt in 2024 are dropping fast (Seems overly optimistic.)
• Kevin McCarthy Seems to Be in Full Damage Control Mode After Questioning Trump’s Political Strength (Pitiful.)
• “It Will Be a Revenge Machine”: Why a Second Trump Administration Would Be Much Worse (“Expect career officials purged and MAGA loyalists in charge if Trump returns to the White House, warns Miles Taylor. The ex-DHS chief of staff spoke out as ‘Anonymous’ during the first term and, in an excerpt from his new book, Blowback, is sounding the alarm ahead of 2024.”)
• Trump Calls Out Fox News for Posting Unflattering Photos of Him
• I’ve ‘never seen anyone in government’ so dangerous to national security as Trump: Bob Woodward
• Trump Demanded ‘My Documents’ Back Even After His Lawyers Told Him He’d Be Indicted
• Top Trump campaign aide identified as key individual in classified docs indictment: Sources
• Why Donald Trump Was So Mad at Mark Milley That He Confessed to a Crime
• As Trump faces criminal charges, here are 27 people he’s previously said should be indicted or jailed
• GOP’s lackluster frontrunner: Trump seems awfully low energy lately
• DOJ questions Raffensperger for Trump election probe
• Moms for Liberty will feature Oath Keepers militia member who spoke at pro-Confederate conference (“The right-wing organization works to pass anti-LGBTQ laws across the country, especially regarding education, and helps platform extremists. The organization has also repeatedly quoted Adolf Hitler.”)
• Biden Has Begun Using CPAP Machine to Aid With Sleep Apnea (Millions of Americans use CPAP machines.)
• MSNBC Has Quietly Surged Off CNN’s and Fox’s Woes (“Fox had its post-Tucker nosedive, CNN had the disastrous Trump town hall—and MSNBC has been reaping the benefits.”)
• Ron DeSantis vetoes popular criminal justice bill as he moves to Trump’s right
• DeSantis agency sent $92 million in covid relief funds to donor-backed project (Sounds highly corrupt if not illegal.)
• How a Border Photo Stunt Could End Up Costing Ron DeSantis
• Ron DeSantis says he would eliminate four federal agencies if elected president (DeSantis is an extremist/nutjob.)
• RFK Jr.: ‘I’m proud that President Trump likes me’ (This guy’s terrible in just about every way.)
• Human remains and debris from sub returned to land after fatal implosion near Titanic site
• Multiple deputies fired after 2 Black men file lawsuit alleging torture and attempted sexual assault in Mississippi
• National Geographic lays off its last remaining staff writers (“The magazine’s current trajectory has been years in the making, set in motion primarily by the epochal decline of print and ascent of digital news and information. In the light-speed world of digital media, National Geographic has remained an almost artisanal product — a monthly magazine whose photos, graphics and articles were sometimes the result of months of research and reporting.”)
• “There Are No Off Years”; “In Virginia, Fundamental Freedoms Are On the Ballot This November” (Now that the primaries are over, Hillary Clinton and the DLCC remind us that it’s time to start focusing on November!)
• What caused Virginia’s budget breakdown? Accounts differ.
• Democrats Nominate One Of The Most Diverse Slates of Candidates in Virginia History. Republicans, in Stark Contrast, Have “Predictable Lack of Diversity” (“56% of the Democratic candidates running for the Senate and 50% of those running for the House are female; 49% of Democratic candidates for both the Senate and the House are candidates of color”)
• Glenn Youngkin faces lawsuit over voter disenfranchisement
• Virginia back-to-school shoppers won’t have a tax holiday this year
• What Virginia got in the latest $2.2 billion round of federal transportation grants
• Schapiro: The primary, secondary, tertiary lessons of primaries
• Mountain Valley Pipeline gets authorization to resume construction
• Data shows Southside has higher unemployment rates than other parts of Virginia
• Selenium discharges from Southwest Va. mine trigger debate over testing
• Allegations made against Portsmouth council member ‘unfounded,’ city attorney says after review
• Editorial: In Norfolk and Newport News, dismal approaches to government transparency (“Officials in Norfolk and Newport News choose to honor Virginia’s open government law — or not — as it suits them. That’s unacceptable.”)
• Culpeper County Man Celebrates Biden’s Broadband Investment at White House
• Dollars and Common Sense: Madison Irving on Why He’s Running for Henrico School Board
• Richmond approves 17-story apartment tower along James River despite concerns
• VCU to cut as much as $25 million from its budget
• You probably don’t know about the Roanoke Black Cardinals. But baseball fans should.
• D.C.-area forecast: Unhealthy air today as heat builds into the weekend (“Code Red unhealthy air quality is forecast across the area today. Slow improvement is possible by Friday, but heat is turning it up.”)