by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, November 23.
- Developing countries urged to reject ‘bad deal’ as Cop29 climate talks falter (“Talk grows of a walkout from poor countries in response to ‘unacceptable’ and ‘insulting’ finance proposal”)
- Huge election year worldwide sees weakening commitment to act on climate crisis (“Among sweeping rightwing electoral victories across the globe, the ‘big loser of the elections has been climate’” The polar opposite of what we need to be doing.)
- At a Climate Conference in Oil Country, Progress Remains Elusive
- Poorer countries face $300B take-it-or-leave-it climate deal after testy meeting
- New weapons and nuclear threats: A week of change in Ukraine war
- NATO and Ukraine to hold emergency talks after Russia’s attack with new hypersonic missile
- Exclusive: Trump considers ex-intelligence chief Richard Grenell for Ukraine post, sources say (“During a Bloomberg roundtable in July, he advocated for the creation of ‘autonomous zones’ as a means of settling the conflict, which began after Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory. He also suggested he would not be in favor of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the immediate future, a position he shares with many Trump allies.”)
- Trump wants to make a deal in Ukraine war. A bad deal is worse than none.
- Will the Ukraine missile crisis change the course of the war? (“While Putin conducts his missile diplomacy, restrictions around the use of long-range weapons may help Kyiv”)
- Ukraine is being hit with a surge of attacks using North Korean missiles. Western components help make it possible
- With Trump back, Israeli settlers revive goal of full control of West Bank
- Central Beirut residential building hit by massive Israeli strikes
- Deadly air strike on central Beirut after Israel hits Lebanon in north and south
- The Philippine vice president publicly threatens to have the president assassinated
- Germany’s Merkel laments influence of big business on Trump
- China’s crackdown on Hong Kong is a test for Trump
- Bird flu confirmed in child for first time in US: CDC
- Environmental Activists Are Alarmed by Trump’s Picks to Run the EPA, the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior (“Trump could reverse the nation’s progress on climate change, but rolling back the Biden administration’s significant climate successes could be a low, slow and difficult process.”)
- Walmart just leveled with Americans: China won’t be paying for Trump’s tariffs, in all likelihood you will
- Donald Trump’s Hush Money Sentencing Has Been Indefinitely Postponed (So much for the b.s. about how, in America, “NOBODY is above the law.” Clearly that’s false.)
- Musk, Ramaswamy ‘DOGE’ confidence in Supreme Court may be tested
- Experts: DOGE scheme doomed because of Musk and Ramaswamy’s “meme-level understanding” of spending (“They have a fundamentally superficial understanding of what they’re doing”)
- Trump, Who Called Project 2025 ‘Absolutely Ridiculous,’ Just Nominated One Of Its Authors To A Key Role
- You Can Already See Signs Of Trump’s Crony Capitalism In Action
- Pam Bondi Sure Seems Soaked in Vintage Trumpian Corruption
- Pam Bondi’s Comeback (“In 2017, Pam Bondi was passed over as too scandal-tainted. This time, she’s the safe, acceptable fallback choice.”)
- The not-so-subtle message of Trump’s disturbing Cabinet picks (“An alarming number of those poised to be in the president-elect’s inner circle are accused of sexual misconduct.”)
- Trump’s transition team turns to Project 2025 after disavowing it during the campaign
- ‘Is she on our side?’: Jan. 6 defendants and allies puzzle over Bondi nomination
- Trump’s intel pick was placed on government watch list for overseas travel and foreign connections
- Trump plans to fire Jack Smith’s team, use DOJ to probe 2020 election (“The plans show how president-elect Donald Trump wants to use the Justice Department to address his own personal grievances ” That alone should be a MASSIVE scandal!)
- Team Trump Is Furious Hegseth Hid Sex Assault Claim: ‘This Is the F-king Pentagon!’
- Trump Picks Key Figure in Project 2025 for Powerful Budget Role
- Trump chooses Bessent to be treasury secretary, Vought as budget chief, Chavez-DeRemer for Labor
- How Scott Bessent Won the ‘Knife Fight’ to Be Treasury Chief
- Trump’s treasury secretary pick is a peace offering to Wall Street (“After a slew of jaw-dropping Cabinet choices, Trump opted for a more conventional pick.”)
- Williams: Trump’s unqualified Cabinet nominees didn’t earn it
- Trump expected to offer Kelly Loeffler secretary of Agriculture (Another horrible pick.)
- Trump Taps Sebastian Gorka, Controversial Far-right Pundit, as Deputy National Security Advisor (“Gorka, who served in Trump’s first term, has been dogged by ties to Hungarian far-right nationalist groups and incendiary remarks about Muslims”)
- Trump picks former Florida Rep. Weldon to lead CDC (“While in Congress, Weldon introduced legislation to move oversight of vaccine safety from the CDC to an independent agency within HHS. He has also repeatedly voiced serious reservations about the independence of the federal government’s vaccine safety review process, and previously suggested that a mercury-based preservative once commonly used in vaccines, thimerosal, is linked to a rise in autism.” Nutjob.)
- Trump nominates Marty Makary, who opposed COVID vaccine mandates, to head FDA
- Trump chooses Fox News contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat for surgeon general
- Kennedy’s ‘MAHA transition team’ includes anti-vax activists (Disastrous.)
- Trump selects former NFL player Scott Turner to lead housing agency (Crazy.)
- Sharp elbows and raised voices: Inside Trump’s rocky transition
- Trump’s Crown Doesn’t Fit (“The Constitution is not a grant of power for a king. It is, instead, a grant of authority from the sovereign people to establish a republican form of government — a representative democracy of limited and enumerated powers. And the republican character of American constitutional government is expressed in the way it divides the executive, legislative and judicial powers among separate institutions.”)
- Trump Is Pissed at True Reports His Victory Wasn’t Exactly a Landslide (Very narrow win, actually.)
- Just how large was Trump’s election win? (“The US president-elect has emphasised the scale of his win – but data shows that most voters picked someone else.”)
- Musk Unleashes Online Army on Federal Workers. ‘A Tough Way to Find Out She’s Losing Her Job.’
- Elon Musk Is Now Cyberbullying Government Employees (“Elon Musk is so excited to start his new gig ruining the federal government that he’s getting an early start by goading his millions of followers to cyberbully government employees”)
- Matt Gaetz says he doesn’t plan to rejoin Congress after withdrawing name for attorney general
- Florida sets special election to fill Matt Gaetz vacancy on April Fools’ Day
- Texas approves new Bible-based curriculum for elementary schools (“Teachers can opt in, but state is offering financial incentive of $60 a student for participating school districts — The Texas board of education voted 8-7 on Friday to approve a new Bible-based curriculum in elementary schools.” This is completely moronic and also a violation of the separation of church and state.)
- The Politics Hour: Prince George County’s Jolene Ivey and Virginia Congressman-elect Eugene Vindman
- Kaine and Warner have concerns about RFK Jr., Dr. Oz but say they want to see the process play out
- VPAP Now Has Precinct-Level Results for 2024 U.S. House Races in Virginia; Tons of Interesting, Detailed Information
- Five takeaways from AG Miyares’ decision not to run for governor
- Virginia special elections don’t follow the same rules as regular elections
- Information for the Loudoun Dems’ HD 26 Caucus Saturday (11/23), 9am-4pm in South Riding, Ashburn and Centreville (Five Democrats are running for the nomination to succeed Kannan Srinivasan)
- No fireworks and much agreement at the first Republican candidate forum for Senate District 10 (“Six of the seven Republican candidates vying for the seat that state Sen. John McGuire will vacate to serve in Congress met on stage for the first forum of the 10th District special election.” Yet again, the media goes with a bland, anodyne, uninformative headline and framing for a bunch of far-right extremists spewing lies, etc. FAIL.)
- Air regulators awaiting info for Dominion’s proposed natural gas plant
- Avula reflects on election, vows to resist Trump on immigration
- After heated hearing, trial date set in Richmond FOIA whistleblower case
- D.C.-area forecast: Gusty wind adds a chill today before a milder Sunday (“Unsettled weather of the past couple days is out of here for the weekend. It’ll feel seasonable today and pretty nice tomorrow.”)
