by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, January 31. One month into 2025, and it’s going just great, huh?
- New technology could make fridges cheaper and more eco-friendly (“Using thermogalvanic technology as cooling mechanism may significantly reduce power usage, research says”)
- ‘Everybody is tired. The mood has changed’: the Ukrainian army’s desertion crisis
- Russia Seizes Another Ukrainian Town in Push to Take All of Donetsk (UGH.)
- Middle East latest: Families welcome news of 3 more male hostages to be released
- Hamas Turns Hostage Releases Into a Humiliating Spectacle for Israel
- 5 years after Britain left the EU, the full impact of Brexit is still emerging (To this day, it remains mind bogglingly stupid, although not as stupid as the US electing Trump not just once but AGAIN!)
- Egypt Fears Syria’s Revolutionary Fervor Could Be Contagious
- ‘This is not a joke’: Rubio says Trump is serious about buying Greenland (Rubio should stand up to Trump, but of course he won’t do so.)
Nearly half of Danes see US as threat and 78% oppose Greenland sale, poll shows (“Exclusive: More Danish people regard US as a threat than see North Korea or Iran as danger”)- Biggest US trading allies brace for a ‘game of chicken’ with Trump’s tariffs
- Trump Aides Hunt for 11th-Hour Deal to Dial Back Canada-Mexico Tariffs
- Trump says US could soon put 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada (Brace yourself, prices/inflation could increase sharply in coming months.)
- Trump Barrels Toward Tariff Showdown With Top Trade Partners (Let’s be clear: this will be a TAX on Americans.)
- Trump says he will impose trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Saturday
- Trump says 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada may not include oil: ‘Oil is going to have nothing to do with it as far as I’m concerned’
- FDA approves new type of nonopioid painkiller for acute pain
- Trump Doesn’t Want to Make Government Better—He Wants to Dismantle It (“The president’s assault on nearly every branch of government, including the safety-related FAA and disaster-related FEMA, is actually part of a plan reaching back decades.”)
- Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America
- Trump has already remade our constitutional order (“Trump’s vision of governance reminds me of nothing so much as the declaration attributed to Louis XIV: “L’Etat, c’est moi”: I am the state”)
- A new era of government censorship has dawned
- Government Tech Workers Forced to Defend Projects to Random Elon Musk Bros (“A recent high school graduate and former Neuralink intern has joined meetings to review lines of code and other work history of career public servants, sparking chaos at a major government agency.”)
- Trump Raised Millions From Crypto Firms for His Inauguration (Of course…)
- Pentagon scrubs Biden-era abortion travel policy
- Kash Patel Suddenly Can’t Seem to Remember His Long Record of Extremism (“Trump’s FBI pick couldn’t handle the truth…about his own record.”)
- Several senior FBI leaders told to leave agency or be fired, people familiar say
- Several top FBI officials are told to resign or face demotion as Trump continues federal purge
- MAGA’s revenge of the mediocre: Trump’s war on federal workers targets the meritorious
- Donald Trump’s Cabinet of Revenge (“Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., bobbed and weaved around senators’ questions, but their own words came back to bite them.”)
- Democrats refuse to vote on Trump budget pick: ‘So clearly unfit for office’
- The astonishing conflict of interest haunting RFK Jr.’s health secretary nomination
- RFK Jr. stumbles over basics of Medicare, Medicaid during Senate confirmation hearings
- Hassan, Choking Up, Assails Kennedy for His History of Questioning Vaccines
- When RFK Jr. was presented with the science on vaccines he said needed to see, he dismissed it (RFK Jr. is complete unhinged)
- Gabbard was hoping for the Pete Hegseth hearing treatment. She didn’t get it.
- The senators who’ll make Trump sweat over RFK Jr. and Gabbard votes (Collins, Young, Cassidy, Moran, Cornyn)
- Gabbard in danger after views on Snowden rankle GOP senators
- Records undercut Tulsi Gabbard’s claim of ignorance on cleric’s views
- Gabbard’s Hearing Turns Tense Over Snowden Questions (When it comes to all things Trump, the NY Times consistently makes choices in its headlines to make them as bland and non-descriptive as possible, instead of stating clearly what’s going on. Gee, wonder why that is.)
- Trump baselessly blames diversity program for fatal air collision (Notice how the media uses “baselessly” instead of “falsely” or “LIES”?)
- Political reporters are actively covering up Trump’s racism
- Trump Administration Orders Agencies to Find More DEI Workers to Ax
- Census Bureau Director Robert Santos is resigning, making way for Trump’s pick (Bland, non-descriptive headline by NPR that doesn’t get at the danger of this.)
- Videos show new angles of midair collision
- Trump has a very inconsistent view of job qualifications
- The Day Trump Became Un-President
- The FAA is facing a major crisis without a leader because Elon Musk pushed him out
- Control tower at National Airport understaffed before deadly collision
- Washington plane crash: cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder recovered
- Was he grave, sombre, the consoler-in-chief? Are you kidding – this is Trump (“Hours after the Washington plane crash, the president’s desire to politicise tragedy was breathtaking in its audacity”)
- Trump, Facing Two Crises in His Second Week, Spreads the Blame Around
- The Guardian view on the Washington DC plane crash: Trump’s warped priorities (“The president is more concerned with attacking the federal government than with putting safety first”)
- Trump On If He’ll Visit Site Of Deadly Aviation Collision: ‘You Want Me To Go Swimming?’ (Trump is pure scum.)
- FAA Report on D.C. Plane Crash Is Out—and It’s an Indictment of Trump
- Trump steamrolls every principle of aviation safety in wild news conference
- DC Plane Crash Is a True Test of Donald Trump’s Leadership. He’s Off to a Bad Start
- Fact check: Trump’s FAA used the same language about hiring people with disabilities he’s now blasting
- Trump’s blame game returns after deadly plane crash
- What the data says about Trump’s DEI air crash claims (“Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and IPUMS show air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists are predominately male and white.”)
- Staffing Was ‘Not Normal’ at Reagan Airport Tower, According to F.A.A. Report
- Trump launched air controller diversity program that he now decries
- National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills (Totally FUBAR.)
- Senate confirms Burgum as Interior secretary (Not sure why any Democrat voted for this guy.)
- ‘Scream night’: Democrats get shouted down by their own activists over climate change (Notice how these protesters NEVER protest Trump/Republicans, ONLY protest Democrats? Hmmmm…)
- Scoop: Democrats ready to fight unwanted candidates in Senate primaries
- How US states are leading the climate fight – despite Trump’s rollbacks
- How Trump Has Already Changed the Justice Department (Disastrous.)
- DOJ’s LGBTQ employee group shuts down after three decades
- Trump Admin Trashes DEI… Then Orders DEI For Trad Wives (“A Transportation Department memo reveals a plan to ‘give preference… to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.'”)
- Jim Acosta defined CNN under Trump. Now he’s gone ‘independent.’
- The Art of the Kneel (“If a settlement deal is inked with Donald Trump, Shari Redstone will be remembered as the mogul who sold out ’60 Minutes.'”)
- Paramount in Settlement Talks With Trump Over ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit
- F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Stations (This harassment of the media is right out of the authoritarian playbook – see Putin, Orban, Modi, Erdogan, etc for examples.)
- Musk’s Twitter Takeover Offers Trump a Blueprint (Another bland, unhelpful – or worse – NY Times headline. That paper is just f’ed.)
- Sam Bankman-Fried’s Parents Explore Seeking Trump Pardon for Son
- Trump Administration Considers Halting Congestion Pricing
- New FERC chairman talks electric bills, energy demand and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (“Mark Christie, who was named this month as chairman of FERC, grew up in coal country and spent 17 years on the Virginia State Corporation Commission.”)
- ‘Sorrow, thanks, and questions’: Virginia leaders, including Warner and Kaine react to American Airlines crash
- Kaine doubles down on concerns about National Airport following fatal incident
- Video: Sen. Mark Warner to Tulsi Gabbard – “Repeatedly, you have excused our adversaries’ worst actions, and instead blamed the United States and our allies for them.” (Also: “you have been publicly outspoken in your praise and defense of Edward Snowden – someone who betrayed the trust and jeopardized the security of our Nation.”)
- Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Calls Out RFK Jr. For Writing, “I won’t take sides…on 9/11” and For Having a “pretty significant financial interest in litigation against Gardisil” (Sen. Kaine: “Virginians know what happened on 9/11” and “We take that kind of stuff pretty personally.”)
- Virginia Dems warn of stark choice if GOP cuts Medicaid
- State Senate Democrats say special session is likely if feds cut Medicaid funding
- VA Speaker Don Scott: “Virginians should be disgusted that their governor won’t stand up to the president of the United States and say you’re wrong.” (WaPo: “Youngkin says voters asked for Trump disruption”)
- Virginia leaders slam Trump’s immediate, baseless blame of DEI for crash (How about instead of using the word “baseless,” maybe try “false?”)
- Pope & Schapiro: The plane crash, crossover, and Trump executive orders
- Virginia legislators look to extend the standard deduction
- Commentary: Virginia is subsidizing the world’s richest companies. Why?
- After tragic losses, mothers push for stronger driving laws in Virginia
- Virginia Democrats Advance a Measure to End Lifetime Voting Ban. Now It Gets Complicated. (“The measure’s fate likely hinges on this fall’s legislative races: Lawmakers will need to pass it again next year. In the meantime, Glenn Youngkin’s harsh restrictions remain in place.”)
- Three interesting bills: immigration, National Guard deployment and labeling pork
- There is a bipartisan effort to reform probation in Virginia
- VCU clinic begins to comply with Trump’s transgender healthcare ban on those under 19
- 3 Fairfax County students, 6 parents among those killed in Washington, D.C. plane crash
- Multiple former Loudoun County Public School students presumed dead in plane crash
- Jury recommends four life sentences for Virginia ‘shopping cart killer’ suspected in additional DC, Fairfax killings
- Editorial: Animal rescues, local shelters will benefit from residents’ generosity
- CWG Live updates: A wet end to the work week today, and more seasonable this weekend
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