Wednesday News: “Five Years After Paris, Where Are We Now? Facing Urgent Choices”; “Trump goes on a rampage with pardons, veto threats and Covid denial”; “America braced for final month of madness as Trump show nears its end”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, December 23.

• The Weekly Planet: The 5 Biggest Climate Stories of 2020
• Here’s What The Grim Reality Of Climate Change Looked Like In 2020
• Five Years After Paris, Where Are We Now? Facing Urgent Choices (“Climate experts point to some signs of hope, but add: ‘That is not nearly enough.’” We need to crank it up BIG TIME!)
• “Disappointing” Decision from Norway’s Supreme Court in Climate Lawsuit Challenging Arctic Offshore Oil Licenses
• Renewable energy groups hope Spain’s newly launched tender for wind and solar resolves flaws in previous policies.
  Spain Tenders 3 Gigawatts of Renewables Under New Pay-as-Bid Model
• U.K.-France Border Reopens Amid Spread Of New Coronavirus Strain
• Russia Sees Nothing Good From ‘Hostile’ U.S. Under Biden (“Relations go from bad to worse, deputy foreign minister says; Russia has no links to Biden transition team, Ryabkov says”)
• Putin signs bill granting lifetime immunity to former Russian presidents (You can see where Trump gets his authoritarian ideas from…)
• Iran Pushed Online Effort to Incite Violence Against Officials Defending U.S. Election Result
• Israeli government collapses, sending country back to elections for fourth time in two years
• As U.K. faces mutant virus surge over Christmas, experts warn U.S.: ‘It’s coming’ (“‘It is going to be hard to contain,’ one expert said, ‘and I don’t think it’s possible to stop it from spreading internationally.'”)
• Trump’s Longtime Banker at Deutsche Bank Resigns (“Rosemary Vrablic, who oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to President Trump’s company, will leave the bank next week.”)
• Biden castigates Trump over recent cyberattack on U.S. government
• For the sake of public health, the press must avoid sensationalizing stories about adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines (“Proper context can prevent readers from overestimating the odds of allergic reactions”)
• The Coronavirus Is Mutating, and America’s Leaders Are Flying Blind (“Travel restrictions might make sense, but what this country really needs is better disease surveillance.”)
• Biden warns Covid vaccine won’t stop deaths of ‘tens of thousands’ Americans in the months to come
• U.S. reports more Covid deaths than ever before
• See Where U.S. Intensive Care Units Are Filling Up
• Climate Action For Christmas? Omnibus Bill Includes Biggest Policy Shift In Years
• Trump’s final month might make the past four years seem calm
• Trump goes on a rampage with pardons, veto threats and Covid denial (“The outgoing President’s antics weigh down on Biden, who has already faced the most challenging debut of any US leader since Roosevelt in 1933”)
• Trump calls on Congress to approve $2,000 stimulus checks, hinting that he might not sign economic relief bill into law without changes (“The president has still not signed the measure even though it passed Monday night. He called the measure ‘a disgrace.'”)
• Pelosi responds to Trump: Let’s push for $2K checks ‘this week’
• America braced for final month of madness as Trump show nears its end
• Trump Pardons Two Russia Inquiry Figures and Blackwater Guards (Massive abuse of the pardon power.)
• Trump grants clemency to 20 people, including three former GOP members of Congress and two men convicted in the Russia probe
• Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq civilians (That’s right, Trump just pardoned f’ing war criminals!)
• Pardons sink Trump further into swamp of his own shamelessness
• Trump paved the way for vigilantism
• Monsters of 2020: The United States Senate (“Any principles they once had have gone missing.”)
• WH virus coordinator Deborah Birx says she will retire (Good move.)
• In new court filing, Bill Barr accused of arresting impeachment witnesses to shield Trump (“Lev Parnas, an indicted former associate of Rudy Giuliani, alleges his arrest was part of a plot to protect Trump”)l
• Don’t let Mitch McConnell get away with his vile rewriting of history
• Republicans plunge into open battle over attempts to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden
• The dishonest heart of the challenge to the 2020 election results
• As Trump meets with QAnon influencers, the conspiracy theory’s adherents beg for dictatorship
• Trump orchestrates final loyalty test in dying bid to subvert election
• Trump Tells Sidney Powell He Won’t Name Her ‘Special Counsel’
• Karl Rove Tears Into Sidney Powell: Trump Is ‘So Ill-Served’ by Her ‘Antics’
• Media resolutions: Do better in 2021 (Does anyone have any confidence that the media will ever get better?)
• The Dumbest Moments of the Trump Presidency (“For five years, we kept a Google Doc of the most deeply idiotic episodes of this monumentally stupid era. Now it’s time to share our work with the world.”)
• Biden team calls out Twitter over plan to wipe White House accounts’ followers
• Trump nominates Hope Hicks, Ric Grenell to government posts (Biden needs to get them out of there.)
• America’s Post-Covid Future Could Look a Lot Like Flint (“The highest-profile public-works tragedy of the past decade has triggered a bigger breakdown in trust—and carries a lesson for post-Covid America.”)
• Dominion worker sues Trump campaign and conservative media
• Republican Leaders in Congress Could Stop This at Any Point. They Choose Not To. (“The profitable vein of idiocy running through American conservatism—and, therefore, through the Republican Party—will continue for the foreseeable future.”)
• DOE offers an energy storage strategy, publishes detailed technology cost estimates
• A Trump executive order set the stage for Falwell’s political activities (“By discouraging investigations of religious organizations, Trump appeared to clear the way for Liberty University to spend millions on his own causes.”)
• Alex Padilla Will Replace Kamala Harris in the Senate
• Alex Padilla becomes California’s first Latino U.S. senator, replacing Kamala Harris
• Newsom names Assemblywoman Shirley Weber to succeed Padilla as California secretary of state
• America’s growing fake news problem, in one chart (“Americans consumed twice as much dubious news in 2020 as they did in 2019.” Disastrous.)
• Trump’s media diet is endangering American democracy
• A far-right architecture obsession just became a Trump executive order — and Tucker Carlson was the middleman
  
• Newsmax, Fox News backtrack on election fraud claims
• Georgia Trump Fans Say the Last Election Was a Sham. Will They Vote in This One?
• Kelly Loeffler’s Letter Helped Set Stage for Husband’s $10 Billion Deal
• With U.S. Senate at stake, Black voters loom large for Democratic candidates in Georgia
• The Right-Wing Misinformation Machine Went Down to Georgia (“As Facebook rolls back changes that promoted credible sources of information around the presidential election, the Senate runoffs loom”)
• Senators Warner, Kaine Applaud Passage of Government Funding Bill That Includes COVID Relief
• Rep. Morgan Griffith only member from Virginia to vote against part of COVID-19 relief bill (Griffith is far, far worse than worthless.)
• After Signing Amicus Brief in Support of Seditionist TX Lawsuit, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01) Gets Ripped on His FB Page For Laughably Claiming He “Defended Our Constitution” (“You…are complicit in the undermining of our democratic process”)
• How Did Our “15 Things to Keep an Eye On” in Virginia Politics in 2020 – Posted a Year Ago – Turn Out?
• Judge Hicks recuses self from Morrissey’s criminal case after questions of possible conflicts arise
• Wild Virginia, Other Groups File Suit in Federal Appeals Court to Challenge FERC’s “Reckless Actions” Regarding the Mountain Valley Pipeline
• Environmental groups make another legal attack on Mountain Valley Pipeline
• Limpert: Influx of pipeline workers will drive virus surge
• Governor Northam Takes Action to Protect Businesses from Increasing Cost of Unemployment Insurance
• Northam halts payroll tax increase tied to pandemic layoffs
• Terry McAuliffe Releases Food Security Plan to Ensure Virginians Have Access to Regular Nutritious Meals
• Obenshain: We need more people from Southwest to apply for redistricting commission
• Health officials brace for COVID-19 surge post-holidays as Virginia records 15K new cases since Friday and traveler numbers peak
• Despite Lockdown Efforts, COVID-19 Cases Are Surging Again At Local Nursing Homes
• Next week, Virginia will start giving coronavirus vaccines at long-term care facilities
• About 140,000 doses of Moderna vaccine expected to be delivered in Virginia by Wednesday
• Tuesday (12/22) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +3,591 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 314,481), +135 Hospitalizations (to 17,083), +51 Deaths (to 4,705)
• The Great Dismal Swamp was a refuge for escaped slaves. A congressman wants to revive its forgotten history. (“U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin has introduced a bill that would get the swamp designated a National Heritage Area, which could bring federal funding for historic preservation.”)
• Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano Announces Reforms Aimed at Curbing Pre-Trial Detention, Calls on General Assembly to Ban Cash Bail
• Williams: Mayor Stoney made a political appointee the city’s acting CAO, proof there are still kinks to work out in the City Charter.
• Inova plans major new hospital, offices at Alexandria’s Landmark Mall site (“The mall will be demolished, hospital to join a new mixed-use development.”)
• Conservation groups purchase land to preserve views from McAfee Knob
• Calm today before a wild weather ride Christmas Eve into Christmas Day (“A dynamic storm system brings a surge of warmth and heavy rain tomorrow afternoon into evening, with some flooding and damaging winds possible tomorrow night. By Christmas Day, wind chills are only in the teens and 20s.”)