Tuesday News: “The Constitutional Crisis Is Here”; “Obama condemns Trump’s $2.3bn Harvard funding freeze as ‘unlawful and ham-handed’”; “Democrats Should Seize Trump’s Tariff Flop”; “Senator Kaine ‘skeptical’ about Russia interest in ceasefire with Ukraine”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, April 15.

• Climate crisis has tripled length of deadly ocean heatwaves, study finds
• European State of the Climate 2024 (“2024 was Europe’s warmest year on record; Renewable energy generation reaches new high; Cities make progress in climate adaptation”)
• Deadly floods and storms affected more than 400,000 people in Europe in 2024 (“European State of the Climate report ‘lays bare’ impact of fossil fuels on continent during its hottest 12 months on record” So why doesn’t the fossil fuel industry have to pay for natural disasters that IT CAUSED?)
• Trump Keeps Falsely Claiming Ukraine Started the War With Russia (“The latest comes just a day after Zelenskyy accused Trump of promoting Russian disinformation.”)
• Trump blames Zelensky for starting war after massive Russian attack (100% insane; in fact, Russia is totally responsible for this war.)
• Trump lashes out at Zelenskyy as Witkoff signals Putin’s wider security demands (Zelenskyy is a hero – in sharp contrast to Putin and Trump, obviously.)
• Republican supporters of Ukraine put pressure on Trump after missile strikes
• JD Vance: My message to Europe America doesn’t want a vassal continent (Vance is such a bizarre dude.)
• China Orders Boeing Jet Delivery Halt as Trade War Expands
• China’s Xi Jinping is in Vietnam to figure out how to ‘screw’ the US, says Trump (Alrighty…)
• Iran expected to resist US plan to move uranium stockpile to third country (“Issue is seen as a key stumbling block in talks with US as Washington seeks to scale back Iran’s nuclear programme”)
• Sudan in ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’ after two years of civil war (BTW, just a reminder that The Guardian is a FAR superior paper to the Washington Post and pretty much any other U.S.-based newspaper, whether in their international coverage, climate coverage, US political coverage, you name it pretty much! So definitely consider subscribing to it/reading it every day.)
• The Dollar Keeps Falling as Its ‘Safe Haven’ Status Is Questioned
• Trump Moves to Put New Tariffs on Computer Chips and Drugs
• Democrats Should Seize Trump’s Tariff Flop (“The economic chaos is giving the opposition party a prime opportunity to push back against autocracy.”)
• The strange link between Trump’s tariffs and incel ideology (“Meet the lonely men who think the tariffs will get them girlfriends.” Yuck.)
• U.S. businesses sue to block Trump tariffs, say trade deficits are not an emergency (Correct: in no way/shape/form are these tariffs legal or constitutional.)
• MAGA media knives are out for Trump’s tariff advisers (“Trump supporters are blaming some of Trump’s economic appointees — instead of Trump — for confusion and general turmoil over his tariffs” It’s definitely Trump.)
• Trump to the USA: There Is No Rule of Law (“What might he try next? Illegal arrests or deportations of American citizens?”)
• If Kilmar Abrego García is doomed, we all are
• Two Penny-Ante Dictators Got Together to Mock a Man’s Wrongful Imprisonment
• Duplicitous Process — If you’re Justice Paula Xinis, you’re probably about ready to tear your hair out.
• The Situation: Court Orders, Kidnapping, and Smuggling
• Salvadoran president says he won’t return wrongly deported man to U.S.
• The Trump Administration Is Sticking to Its Gulag Plan in Defiance of the Supreme Court
• Trump Wants El Salvador to Build More Prisons to Jail Americans
• Donald Trump Is Defying The Supreme Court
• Trump: “Home-growns are next”
• Trump & Bukele Plot US Citizen Detention In Salvadoran Torture Camps, While Defying Supreme Court Via Gibberish Responses To Reporters
• Trump Brags That He’s Got the “Best Relationship” With the “Coolest Dictator in the World” (There is, in fact, NOTHING “cool” about dictators.)
• Bukele’s Offense Against the American People
• The Constitutional Crisis Is Here (“Trump’s administration is only pretending to comply with the Supreme Court on the matter of a Maryland man it deported erroneously.”)
• As he lionizes a strongman, Trump flexes power over the law, top colleges and the media
• Bondi Shrugs Off Key Question on Trump’s Foreign Jail Plan
• Trump Dares the Supreme Court to Do Something
• Will the Supreme Court Stop Donald Trump? (“By defying the Justices’ ruling on a man mistakenly sent to El Salvador, the Administration has shown that it is not owed the deference typically shown to the executive branch.”)
• “Horrifying”: Trump’s Angry New Rants to Media Flout SCOTUS Openly
• Trump told us the horrifying reason why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not back in the U.S. (“The Trump administration wants to send anyone it wants, including U.S. citizens, to foreign prisons. Keeping Abrego Garcia in El Salvador is key to that lawless plan.”)
• Maryland senator requests meeting with Salvadoran president to discuss deported Maryland man
• Is Trump defying the Supreme Court?
• Government’s case against Mahmoud Khalil shaky and reliant on tabloid accounts, review of evidence shows
• Every Part of This ICE Arrest Is Horrific—Especially the Location (“Khalil, permanent U.S. resident who helped lead pro-Palestinian protests, was finished with postgraduate studies when he was arrested on campus and slated for deportation.”)
• Columbia Activist Arrested by ICE at His Appointment for Citizenship
• Judge temporarily halts Trump admin move to end Biden-era migration program
• Investors Haven’t Been This Bearish in 30 Years, BofA Poll Shows (“GOLDEN AGE!”!!! LOL)
• Despite a court order, White House bars AP from Oval Office event (Trump is clearly defying the courts. So now what???)
• Inside the Trump Administration’s Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations (“The White House will soon move to rapidly repeal or freeze rules that affect health, food, workplace safety, transportation and more.” Wildly irresponsible, almost certainly illegal, etc.)
• Trump urges the FCC to punish ‘60 Minutes’ over reports on Greenland and Ukraine (“60 Minutes” did absolutely nothing wrong and should absolutely NOT cave to Trump!)
• Democrats Are Getting Real About the New Anti-Trump Resistance: “The Final Check Is the People” (“I attended Tim Walz’s town hall, Bernie Sanders’s anti-oligarchy tour, and a protest against Elon Musk. An insurgency is building—but it feels a lot different this time.”)
• The Supreme Court Laid the Groundwork for Trump’s Attack on Big Law’s Pro Bono Work
• Big law spends top dollar as Trump takes aim at firms
• ‘Honey badger’ admiral emerges as top contender for Navy chief (“Adm. Daryl Caudle has spent the past two weeks meeting with senators.”)
• Marco Rubio’s hunt for “anti-Christmas bias” is creeping theocracy (“In a new war on federal workers, State Department employees are told to snitch on people with Pride flags”)
• Core Democratic groups are preparing to be targeted by the Trump administration
• Obama condemns Trump’s $2.3bn Harvard funding freeze as ‘unlawful and ham-handed’ (“In some of his most vocal criticism of the current administration, former president says move is ‘an attempt to stifle academic freedom’”)
• Harvard’s Decision to Resist Trump Is ‘of Momentous Significance’
• Harvard Will Fight Trump’s Demands (Every college/university should do the same!)
• The Promise of American Higher Education
• Trump Administration Will Freeze $2 Billion After Harvard Refuses Demands
• White House to send Congress a formal request to nix $9.3B for PBS, State Department
• White House to Ask Congress to Claw Back Funding From NPR and PBS (Weird way to put it by the NY Times – “claw back?”)
• OPM plans to spend nearly $42 million to relocate a few hundred employees (Far from saving the government money or making it more efficient, in almost every way DOGE seems to be COSTING the government money and making it LESS efficient!)
• What the Josh Shapiro Attack Reveals (“Donald Trump condemns political violence only when he has nothing to gain from it.”)
• JD Vance drops Ohio State’s national championship trophy at White House celebration
• Greene Bought Market Dip Before Trump Paused Tariffs, Profiting From the Rally
• POLL: California insiders say ‘meh’ to a potential Kamala Harris for governor run (“Among the state’s Democrats, there was a warm response to a Harris run, with 33 percent saying they felt joyful about her possible candidacy and 41 percent feeling “mostly excited.” The negative emotions hovered in the single digits, while roughly a quarter of Democrats said they were indifferent.”)
• The Republican attempt to steal a state supreme court election, explained
• What’s the Matter with Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi? (“Taibbi, along with Bari Weiss and the reporters Lee Fang and Michael Shellenberger, among others, benefited from a more direct relationship with the tech oligarchy. “)
• Bill Maher went to Washington. He got played. (What a clown.)
• Sen. Tim Kaine, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) Rip Donald Trump’s “Sick” Comments and “cozying up to an aspiring dictator,” El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele (“The United States should call out Bukele’s contemptuous and anti-democratic behavior rather than celebrate and be complicit in it.”)
• Senator Kaine ‘skeptical’ about Russia interest in ceasefire with Ukraine
• Sen. Mark Warner hosts town hall on flooding recovery needs in Buchanan County
• “Virginia House Republicans In Disarray — Too Terrified to Lead, Too Divided to Govern” (“There is a Purple Caucus? They aren’t red and they aren’t blue?…Del. Batten is supposed to be moderate now? That’s funny, because she’s not moderate. She’s as extreme as everybody else” – VA Speaker Don Scott)
• Video: On the “Friday Power Lunch,” Rachel Bitecofer and Gene Rossi Both Cut Loose – on Virginia’s 2025 Elections, the Failure of Dems to Communicate Effectively, Trump’s Dire Threat to Democracy and Rule of Law, etc. It’s Definitely Worth Listening To!
• Virginia braces for changes to student aid programs
• Jewish leaders speak out in support of Hashmi
• Commentary: Gov. Youngkin pulls plug on clean energy, progress (Youngkin has done, and continues to do, a LOT of damage to Virginia. Worst governor ever?)
• As Virginia gets inundated with pollen, some scientists blame global warming
• Staunton police chief says more officers may be needed to safeguard future protests
• Despite governor’s veto, Portsmouth working to boost minority business opportunities
• As budget deadline looms, Council, mayor struggle to work together
• Mecklenburg County blocks future large-scale solar development
• Balico withdraws data center proposal for Pittsylvania after months of resident pushback and vote postponements
• Fairfax County School Board member misspent company money, firm alleges (“Kyle McDaniel, a former official of Blue Label Aviation, is accused in a lawsuit of spending about $160,000 in business funds on personal and campaign expenses.”)
• Norfolk State educator residency grant canceled by Trump administration (“This grant, unlike VCU’s, has not been reinstated by the federal government.”)
• A university confronts the dark history of a stolen heart in a vibrant way (“A Black man’s heart was used without permission in a landmark surgery. Virginia Commonwealth University is making sure people know his story.”)
• CWG Live updates: Gusty winds today with a few showers; still quite breezy tomorrow