by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, March 13.
- IEA sees global oil market surplus for 2025 as demand disappoints
- Climate Group Funded by Bill Gates Slashes Staff in Major Retreat
- Putin presses Russia’s battlefield advantage ahead of talks with US on Ukraine ceasefire
- U.S. Negotiators Are En Route to Moscow, Kremlin Says (This will NOT go well.)
- Russia says it has retaken Kursk’s biggest town from Ukraine as US awaits Putin’s ceasefire response
- Document prepared for Kremlin outlines hard-line negotiating stance
- Putin orders swift expulsion of Ukrainian forces before peace talks
- Europe Expected a Transactional Trump. It Got Something Else. (No idea why they expected that…)
- Rubio could face an unfriendly reception from close G7 allies over Trump’s policies
- ‘Nobody Is Safe’: Canada Sends World a Warning Against Trump (“The country’s minister of foreign affairs shared a blunt message ahead of a G7 meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week.”)
- Counter-counter-tariffs? Trump threatens to hit back against EU’s retaliation
- Canada announces retaliatory tariffs on nearly C$30bn worth of US imports
- Ex-Philippine president in ICC custody on crimes against humanity charges
- From Mexico cartel safe house to US streets: BBC tracks deadly fentanyl targeted by Trump tariffs
- ICE Returns All Migrants From Guantánamo to Stateside Facilities (“A court filing described strip searches and the use of restraint chairs on some of the 290 migrants the Trump administration has cycled through the base.” This is insanity.)
- U.S. citizen child recovering from brain cancer deported to Mexico with undocumented parents (Cruel, sadistic, insane by the Trump administration.)
- Venezuelan couple arrested and charged with illegal entry — two years after crossing into the U.S.
- Where’s the economic sense behind Trump’s tariffs? (“Not even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent can convincingly defend the president’s trade policy.”)
- CEOs Don’t Plan to Openly Question Trump. Ask Again If the Market Crashes 20%.
- Trump vowed to fix the economy. His voters are still waiting.
- Stagflation Trade Emerges as Rare Winner in US Stock Market Rout
- Gasoline prices coming down. But Trump’s drill-baby-drill promises are not the reason (“The recent drop in prices is due to a classic imbalance between supply and demand, rather than expectations for a Trump-fueled surge in domestic oil production, Lipow said. OPEC+, a group of major oil-exporting nations, announced plans earlier this month to increase production over the next 16 months. And there are signs of weak demand for oil on the horizon, especially in China, Lipow said.”)
- CNN Poll: Optimism about the economy sags as 55% say cuts to federal programs will cause harm
- Trump’s Big Bet: Americans Will Tolerate Downturn to Restore Manufacturing (It won’t even “restore manufacturing”)
- Solar and wind beat coal in the US for the first time
- Donald Trump and Elon Musk Are Driving America Over the Edge (“The president and his billionaire sidekick turned the White House into a makeshift Tesla showroom amid a recession scare—a perfect encapsulation of the Trump-Musk regime.”)
- Trump’s Revenge on Law Firms Seen as Undermining Justice System
- Judge says Trump penalties on law firm send ‘chills down my spine’
- Trump Officials Are ‘Pretending’ a Judge Didn’t Bar His Anti-Diversity Orders
- The Felling of the U.S. Forest Service (“The Trump Administration has cut two thousand workers, making it harder for the service to fight wildfires and repair storm damage across the country.”)
- Trump admin says it’s ‘terminated’ $20B green bank in latest escalation (“The EPA program, which provides financing to help low-income communities adopt clean energy, has been an ongoing target of Trump’s funding freeze.”)
- Rapidfire announcement of EPA regulation rollbacks announced in press releases filled with typos and placeholders
- Trump administration briefing: landmark climate ruling in jeopardy
- US energy industry’s climate retreat is putting profits over people, advocates say
- Trump Administration Launches All-Out Assault on Environmental Protection (“Environmentalists vow to fight ‘the greatest increase in pollution in decades.'”)
- EPA administrator announces huge rollback of environmental regulations (Horrible.)
- Trump’s FBI Moves to Criminally Charge Major Climate Groups (“The FBI is moving to criminalize groups like Habitat for Humanity for receiving grants from the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration.” WTF????)
- Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections (“Now that Trump has installed election deniers throughout his Administration, he has been busy dismantling the guardrails protecting voting and voters.”)
- Washington braces for a government shutdown amid DOGE cuts
- Biggest Federal Employee Unions Says Shutdown is Preferable to Elon/Trump CR
- Chuck Schumer says Senate Democrats won’t provide votes to pass GOP funding bill as shutdown draws near
- Senate Democrats embrace hardball on government shutdown
- Senate Dems form plan to avoid a shutdown
- Senate Democrats insist on voting on 30-day government funding bill
- Conservatives’ decades-long quest to destroy the Department of Education (“Trump has already cut the department’s staff in half. He won’t stop there.”)
- DOGE Makes Its Latest Errors Harder to Find
- Pete Hegseth to overhaul US military lawyers in effort to relax rules of war (Translation: he wants to commit war crimes, kill civilians, etc.)
- Social Security scraps far-reaching cuts to phone services after Post report
- Federal student loan site down Wednesday, a day after layoffs gutted Education Department
- Education Department layoffs gut its civil rights office, leaving discrimination cases in limbo (This is BY FAR the worst presidential administration in US history, at least going back to the late 1800s, but probably ever.)
- Chair of National Endowment for the Humanities Leaves at Trump’s ‘Direction’
- Senate Retirements Make Midterms Harder for Democrats
- Trump condemned for using ‘Palestinian’ as slur to attack Schumer (Really, really sick.)
- The Viral ‘Debate’ Video That Proves Most MAGA Voters Are a Lost Cause
- ‘Guess what? You don’t matter’: what Trump’s war on DEI means for every American who’s not a straight white man
- Elon Musk Looks Desperate (“How to lose $148 billion in less than two months “)
- Donald Trump Bought a $90,000 Tesla With 37 Recall Notices Against It
- Who’s in Elon’s ear — and DMs (“Musk’s most trusted advisers remain a tight-knit group of executives who have followed him from his companies but lack political experience.”)
- Newsom’s Game: Democracy Is The Pawn (“So when I saw that California Governor Gavin Newsom—once seen as a leading Democratic voice against MAGA extremism—chose to platform Steve Bannon on his podcast, I was disgusted. Not surprised, perhaps, but disgusted nonetheless. He had already had Charlie Kirk on, Bannon Junior for the gen z’ers. It’s like he’s desperate to be liked by MAGA.” Totally f*** Gavin Newsom.)
- Antisemitic and racist shock jock is back on the radio, 11 years after being fired for tirade (“Anthony Cumia, the former longtime host of Opie & Anthony, has joked about lynching and the Holocaust and made offensive comments about Jews on X” Very disturbing.)
- Robert Morris, Texas megachurch pastor and former Trump adviser, indicted for child sex crimes (Least surprising news ever???)
- Yale Suspends Scholar After A.I.-Powered News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link
- The Khalil case is a threat to First Amendment rights
- The Mahmoud Khalil arrest is also what cronyism looks like (“The administration’s explanations are a cover: Trump is using his power to shield allies and punish opponents.”)
- Effort to deport Columbia student rests solely on Rubio determination (Whatever you think of this student’s speech and actions, the way the Trump administration is going about this is thuggish, lawless, etc.)
- Mahmoud Khalil and His Green Card (“Terrorist support is cause for revocation, but not unpopular speech.”)
- At Columbia, Tension Over Gaza Protests Hits Breaking Point Under Trump
- Tim Walz to launch national tour of town halls in Republican House districts (Good – would be great to see other Democratic leaders do this as well!)
- In reversal, NPR permits anchor to attend Pride event (Bizarre behavior by NPR.)
- Florida Republicans turn on DeSantis administration in DOGE-like quest to cut spending
- Editorial: Spotlight on Warner, Kaine as federal government shutdown looms (“A federal government shutdown would be a harmful measure, but one that may be necessary to stop the Trump administration’s lawless destruction.”)
- Mark Warner says government funding bill is ‘mean-spirited’ attack on D.C.
- Sen. Tim Kaine pushes bill to reverse veteran layoffs, slams Trump’s federal workforce policies
- House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) Sounds the Alarm on Ethics Violations After President Trump and White House Employees Hawk Elon Musk’s Cars
- Ranking House Oversight Committee Member Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) Demands Answers After Reports DOGE is Feeding Americans’ Private Data Into Unapproved AI Systems, Using AI to Slash Programs
- Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus: “Firing half of the Department of Education’s staff is…yet another direct attack on education, this time from the President of the United States.” (Meanwhile, Youngkin “is like the Roman Emperor Nero, fiddling while Virginia is burning as a consequence of federal actions.”)
- Virginia Judge Pauses State’s Return To RGGI During Youngkin’s Appeal (“The appeal process will likely span a potential administration switch, as Virginia loses out on millions in funding for energy efficiency and flood preparedness.” That’s right, Youngkin’s costing Virginia millions of $$$ thanks to his ILLEGAL actions.)
- Va. lawmakers direct researchers to review book bans, court funding methods, storm risk studies
- Virginia’s major political parties both enter 2025 election with new leadership
- Peake announces bid for Republican Party chair seat, collects endorsements from Youngkin, others (“As of Wednesday afternoon, state Sen. Mark Peake was the only person to have thrown his hat in the ring for the position, which will be vacated by current chair Rich Anderson.”)
- With Anderson likely heading to D.C., Republican Party of Virginia could pick a new chair next month (“Sen. Mark Peake only declared candidate so far”)
- Democrats seize on enthusiasm gap in 2025 Virginia House races (“With candidates in 92 of 100 districts, a grassroots movement aims to capitalize on GOP disarray and anti-Trump sentiment.”)
- VAPLAN’s 2025 Virginia General Assembly Scorecard Is Out; There Are Some Surprises and Some Significant Differences with W-Nominate’s Scores
- Schapiro: Demographics, not DEI, imperil Va. schools (And anti-public-education Republicans like Trump and Youngkin very much imperil Virginia schools.)
- Column: Virginia must fund wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation
- Aird: VMI should not feel comfortable as lawmakers discuss response
- Roanoke and Lynchburg are rising as destinations for people moving out of Washington metro. Will Trump’s cuts accelerate that?
- Portsmouth track athlete who struck opponent with baton charged with assault, reports say
- Hanover County, Sheriff David Hines lose FOIA case appeal
- Richmond VA hospital says there have been layoffs, but won’t say how many
- CWG Live updates: Cooler through Friday before warm weekend, Sunday storms
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