by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines. Time for Democrats, as well as anyone who’s a small-d democrat, to really crank it up at this point.
- The puzzling and powerful polar vortex faces ‘big uncertainty’ as Earth warms
- OpenAI CEO to issue warning to world leaders at AI Action Summit
- Trump says he has spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war (Remember, Trump promised to end this war in “24 hours” after taking the oath of office. Obviously, he didn’t do that.)
- ‘This time, we stay’: the Palestinian families vowing not to leave Gaza (“Defiant Gazans reject Trump’s resettlement plan after enduring 15 months of conflict”)
- Israeli forces begin to withdraw from a key Gaza corridor, part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas
- 5 Thai hostages arrive back home after being released by Hamas
- Trump’s plan for ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza is illegal, says UN investigator (“Navi Pillay, head of U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, also said she would support a charge of apartheid against Israel at the ICC.”)
- ‘Dad, I Came Back Alive!’ Israeli Hostages Start to Give Glimpses of Ordeal. (“Hostages freed before Saturday’s exchange have expressed relief and joy, while descriptions of the torment they endured are trickling out.”)
- Frailty of Israeli Hostages Freed by Hamas Sparks Alarm (Hamas is pure evil/scum, no better than ISIS and should be treated as such.)
- Syria’s revolution hangs in the balance. The west must lift sanctions now (“Competing interests and rivalries between regional powers threaten hopes of change after the fall of Bashar al-Assad”)
- North Korea’s Kim slams US-South Korea-Japan partnership and vows to boost his nuclear program
- Britain navigates rough transatlantic waters as Trump roils the ‘special relationship’
- Far-Right Leaders Rally in Spain to ‘Make Europe Great Again’ (The contagion is spreading…)
- Trump cuts aid to South Africa over ‘racial discrimination’ against Afrikaners (Of course, the discrimination in South African has been against BLACK South Africans by Afrikaners – forever.)
- Tsunami alerts cancelled after Caribbean earthquake
- A Tent City Is Rising at Guantánamo Bay
- Lawyers worry that migrants sent to Guantánamo are entering a ‘legal black hole’
- Stuck stock market is worried about economic growth as Trump’s tariffs dominate headlines
- Researchers decry ‘disastrously bad idea’ as NIH slashes payments for research infrastructure
- NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately
- Trump threatened college research, culture and funding. Confusion reigns.
- Now Is Not the Time to Tune Out
- While Trump blathers about tariffs and Gaza, Musk is executing a coup d’état
- In chaotic Washington blitz, Elon Musk’s ultimate goal becomes clear (The word choices by the WaPo – “chaotic,” “blitz” instead of “authoritarian” “assault” “illegal” etc. are VERY telling about how pathetic the WaPo is.)
- Editorial: Elon Musk’s infiltration of government systems puts privacy, security at risk (Good job by the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press. EVERY news outlet should have prominent editorials like this!
- ‘The feel of a coup’: Elon Musk said to be poised to ‘defy’ major judicial order
- The Recruitment Effort That Helped Build Elon Musk’s DOGE Army
- Elon Musk and JD Vance Agree On Rehiring DOGE Employee Who Wrote He Was “Racist Before It Was Cool” (JD Vance is a sick motherf*****…)
- ‘They will collide eventually’: how long will the Trump-Musk relationship survive? (“The bromance may fade, but the two megalomaniacs could still reshape the US as long as Trump’s fickle affections hold”)
- DOGE’s First Round of Cuts Went to Trump Priorities, but Bigger Targets Await
- Musk’s DOGE Team Now Seeks Access to Treasury’s Accounting Data (Hell no!)
- Who is helping Elon Musk gut the US government?
- This senator says Democrats need to invoke villains, namely Elon Musk (Yes, clearly.)
- The real lesson of the DOGE racist tweets scandal (“Musk and Trump say they promote free speech. They seem to only defend racist speech.”)
- Federal judge temporarily blocks DOGE from accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment systems
- Trump Loyalty Test Asks If Jan. 6 Was ‘An Inside Job,’ If 2020 Election Was ‘Stolen’: Reports
- Donald Trump’s chaos strategy: Why Americans continue to fall for his game of distraction (“At the root of Trumpism’s rapid ascendance, and the pitiful resistance to it, is a profound failure of imagination”)
- U.S. intelligence, law enforcement candidates face Trump loyalty test
- In a harbinger of illiberalism, Trump fired the Archivist of the United States without telling her or Congress why
- ‘We’ve Already Won’: Podcasters and Influencers Gain New Standing in Trump’s White House (“The administration has already received more than 11,000 applications for a “new media” seat.”)
- Trump stripping the security clearances of numerous antagonists — including NY AG Letitia James, DA Alvin Bragg (Craziness.)
- This Isn’t the Donald Trump America Elected
- Why Trump’s in-your-face campaign will never end
- The Lessons From 2024 Democrats Really Need Right Now (“…Democrats can batten on his broken promises and the disappointments they will breed. The 2028 presidential candidate who may be in real trouble is the Republican who succeeds the 2024 winner.”)
- Democrats, forget 2024. Defending democracy in 2025 is all that matters. (“The republic’s under siege. What can be done?”)
- Democrats plot strategy in shutdown battle with Trump (“Democrats have been powerless as they’ve watched Trump. But they have some leverage: the upcoming government shutdown deadline.”)
- ‘We’re figuring it out’: Democrats struggle to keep up with Trump’s dizzying pace (“An NBC News review shows that Trump signed more executive orders in 10 days than any of his recent predecessors had signed in their first 100 days.”)
- Russell Vought takes the helm at CFPB, orders pause in agency activities
- Federal Financial Watchdog Ordered to Cease Activity
- New York lawmakers moving to deny House GOP a key vote
- Trump’s Conquest of the Kennedy Center Is Accelerating (“The president has begun purging the board of Washington’s premier arts organization”)
- Trump to reverse Biden’s plan to phase out plastic straws across US government (This is just gratuitous anti-environment crap.)
- Virginia senators express disappointment in Goodyear job cuts
- Virginia General Assembly Week Four 2025: “Crossed Over” and “Left Behind in the Dust” (Also, the quote of the week goes to Del. Katrina Callsen: “Study after study shows that race matters in the criminal justice system”)
- Photos, Audio: Freeda, a 20-Foot Inflatable IUD, Returns to Richmond as Lawmakers and Advocates Call for the Passage of the Virginia Right to Contraception Act (“Thanks to Democratic majorities, both bills have crossed over to opposite chambers. However, nearly every Republican in the Virginia General Assembly voted against the Right to Contraception Act.”)
- Schapiro: Singh thee of Virginia’s changing face
- One nation, under watch: Bill would allow installation of Flock cameras on Virginia interstates, bridge-tunnels (“A new bill gives the Virginia State Police ‘the exclusive authority’ to install Flock Safety cameras on interstates and state bridge-tunnels.”)
- The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis (Plus, it’s hideously ugly.)
- Trump chops away at the government and the fallout is felt in the Virginia governor’s race (The quotes by Republicans – Sears, Youngkin, Obenshain – in this article are a combination of false, distorted, callous and nutty. Kinda like the MAGA GOP itself these days…)
- Former federal prosecutor announces run for Norfolk commonwealth’s attorney (“Calling for a need to depoliticize and return professionalism to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office in the city, longtime federal prosecutor John Butler announced Saturday he’s running to unseat first-term incumbent Ramin Fatehi…Butler recently left the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Norfolk division, where he was serving as managing assistant U.S. Attorney. Before that, he was an assistant to then-Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a lawyer in private practice and a judge advocate general in the Navy.”)
- I Was Fired From Old Dominion for Asking Questions About DEI (I mean, check this out: “For several years, Goldfarb has been a vocal critic of considering social determinants of health, racism, and anything else he considers too “woke” in medical education or health care at large. In 2019, he penned a Wall Street Journal editorial entitled, “Take Two Aspirin and Call Me by My Pronouns,” which gave rise to the social media hashtag #GoldfarbChallenge. It makes fun of his criticism that medical students are taught about social issues and don’t spend enough time concentrating on biochemistry and physiology. These tweets share stories of how physicians heroically procured therapies for their patients but, instead of celebrating their successes, sarcastically lament their inability to remember the biochemistry of those medications or the disease processes.”)
- CWG Live updates: Sun and a breeze today. Snow likely Tuesday in an active week.
********************************************************