'This is an extremely dangerous situation'
| There's a new sheriff in town  The Republican Party's new canary in the coal mine is facing his first big test.
Glenn Youngkin pulled off what looked like an impossible mission last year when he won the Virginia gubernatorial election -- in a state Joe Biden won by 10 points in 2020 -- while keeping Donald Trump at arm's length. He didn't just spell doom in Democratic hearts ahead of midterm elections. He pioneered a possible strategy for Republican candidates on a tightrope between the party's hardline base and suburbs that abhor the ex-President.
Youngkin played into frustration among parents over pandemic-enforced school closures and a sense that state education officials were becoming more preoccupied with liberal causes than the basics. He was also early to spot how rising prices were cutting deep into family budgets.
Youngkin was only sworn in on Saturday but he's already taking a sharp Trumpian turn. His new executive order says parents, not education authorities, should decide whether their kids wear masks in schools. Conservative bastions in the state are cheering. But more liberal suburban parents -- typically more open to public health guidance -- are another matter, making Youngkin's early power play something of a risk.
When the great new Republican hope won the election in November, Covid-19 was waning. But now that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is raging, parents may be more willing to retain masking to keep their kids in class. Youngkin may also face a court battle over whether he has the power to set masking policy. Already, several school districts have said they believe state laws passed under the previous Democratic governor mean they must retain masking requirements.
Youngkin has not just set up an early litmus test of his authority. Some may suspect he's already eyeing a bigger stage by buying into the pandemic populism that other Republican state governors from Florida to Texas and South Dakota apparently hope to ride into a future presidential primary. The world and America The US may send more weapons to Ukraine
Indonesia has named a new capital
Tonga is covered in volcanic ash
The FBI and European police take down cyberhacking servers
Meanwhile in America ... the White House launches a website for free home Covid-19 testing
The body of an LGBTQ advocate is found in a landfill
Cracker Barrel owes a man who was served a glass of chemicals $9.4 million   Satellite images of the main port in Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, show the impact before (top) and after (bottom) of the huge volcanic eruption off the coast on Saturday that triggered tsunamis and an ash cloud.  'This is an extremely dangerous situation' The White House is warning that the long-feared Russian invasion of Ukraine, which would trigger the worst geopolitical crisis in Europe since the end of the Cold War, could erupt at any moment.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Kyiv to express support for the government there should the worst happen, and he will also visit Germany. The top US diplomat also spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by phone, but there were few signs of a breakthrough on Russian demands for a NATO rollback in Eastern Europe. Blinken and Lavrov are expected to talk again in Geneva in the coming days.
"Let's be clear. Our view is this is an extremely dangerous situation. We're now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "And what Secretary Blinken is going to go do is highlight very clearly there's a diplomatic path forward. It is the choice of President Putin and the Russians to make whether they're going to suffer severe economic consequences or not." 'Thank you Mr. President...' Biden will cap his first full year in office doing something he doesn't do a ton of: taking questions from White House reporters at a formal press conference, CNN's Kate Sullivan writes for Meanwhile.
The President regularly fields questions from reporters after delivering remarks and during departures from and arrivals to the White House, but he hasn't held as many formal press conferences as his most recent predecessors.
In his first year in office, Biden held nine total press conferences -- six solo and three joint ones, according to data tracked by The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The last time he held a formal press conference was at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
By comparison, President Donald Trump held 21 press conferences in his first year in office, but just one of them was solo and the rest were joint appearances, usually with foreign leaders. In his last year in office, Trump held a staggering 35 solo press conferences.
President Barack Obama held 27 press conferences in his first year -- 11 solo and 16 of them joint. President George W. Bush held 19 press conferences -- five solo and 14 joint, according to UCSB data. Then-President Bill Clinton held 12 solo news conferences and 26 joint ones, resulting in 38 press conferences in his first year in office.
Biden is clearly lagging well behind in the solo category, but to be fair, the pandemic slowed the flow of foreign leaders to the White House.
Biden's poll numbers have been cratering as economic anxiety grips the nation and the Omicron surge caused a spike in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. His critics have long accused his staff of trying to spare a President with a historic penchant for gaffes from the scrutiny of the solo televised clash with the press.
The President will be prepping for questions on Wednesday on any of the multiple crises assailing his White House. They include his handling of the pandemic, rising inflation, his stalled economic agenda, voting rights legislation heading for failure in Congress, competition with China and whether the US will be able to persuade Russia not to invade Ukraine. Thanks for reading. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden is set to hold a news conference marking his first year in office. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi will hold talks in Moscow. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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