by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, July 7.
- Sheldon Whitehouse’s Three-Hundredth Climate Warning (“The Senator’s wake-up calls about government inaction take on a new urgency in Trump 2.0.”)
- Texas floods reveal limitations of disaster forecasting under climate crisis
- Exclusive: OPEC+ set to complete big oil output cut unwinding in Sept, sources say
- Russia and Ukraine trade drone strikes as Kyiv signs deals to boost drone production
- Ukraine Turns to Fishing Nets to Catch Russian Drones (“With their dense mesh, the nets can tangle drone propellers. It’s a simple but effective countermeasure that reflects how low-tech means can blunt high-tech weapons in the war.”)
- China has become the most important enabler of Russia’s war machine
- How Ukraine is revamping frontline fortifications to stem Russian advances (“Vladimir Putin’s troops are using smaller units to attack the front lines and Ukraine is being forced to respond.”)
- Killing machines: how Russia and Ukraine’s race to perfect deadly pilotless drones could harm us all
- Is Trump tariff deal really a win for Vietnam – or a way of punishing China?
- “Never seen a wind farm in China:” Trump invents a new affliction – wind turbine blindness (“In fact, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, of the 109 gigawatts (GW) of new onshore wind generation capacity installed worldwide in 2024, China added 79.3 GW, representing around 60 per cent of global additions for the year. This took China’s total installed capacity of onshore wind to more than 520 GW – a good deal more than the US, at a total of 154 GW.”)
- Elon Musk Is Running Out of Road in China (“As Tesla falls behind the local competitors it helped create, the billionaire’s rupture with Trump is limiting his value to Beijing.”)
- Israeli strikes kill at least 38 in Gaza as ceasefire talks reach critical point
- Netanyahu’s legacy won’t be made on the battlefield alone
- Knives, bullets and thieves: the quest for food in Gaza
- Netanyahu Heads to Washington as Trump Pushes for Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire
- Trump and Netanyahu may take a victory lap on Iran, but the Gaza war looms over their meeting
- BRICS condemns US tariff plans without naming Trump (BRICS “is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.”)
- Trump Warns of 10% Tariff for ‘Anti-American’ BRICS Policies
- U.S. seeks limited trade deal with E.U. as Trump’s deadline approaches
- Trump and US commerce secretary say tariffs are delayed until 1 August, sparking confusion
- Tariffs return to April rates on August 1 without deals, Bessent says
- Australian woman guilty of murdering relatives with toxic mushroom meal
- Trump’s effort to deport pro-Palestinian activists goes to trial
- Are We About to Have Labor Camps in the United States of America? (“If you think that’s far-fetched, then you really haven’t been paying attention to what the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have been up to lately.”)
- The Ruthless Ambition of Stephen Miller
- Trump’s $5 million ‘gold card’ visa might never happen (“The president and his aides have exaggerated the likelihood that the program can be implemented and have made no effort to introduce legislation that would be needed.”)
- Trump Is Gutting Every Source of America’s Greatness (“His attacks on the country’s painstakingly built diplomatic, scientific, and human capital will turn it into a second-rate power”)
- Summers: No economist ‘without a strong political agenda’ says Trump bill good for economy (Correct.)
- Social Security Email Says Policy Bill Eliminates Tax on Benefits. Does It? (“’The S.S.A. statement implies there is a direct tax cut on Social Security benefits,’ said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, ‘which there is not.’”)
- Republicans just cut Medicaid. Will it cost them control of Congress?
- Trump, GOP target ballots arriving after Election Day that feed conspiracy fears (The ballots arriving after ELection Day don’t “feed conspiracy fears”; that’s the responsibility of those pushing the b.s. conspiracies! Yet ANOTHER bad framing by the political media, which just continues to suck on almost all levels.)
- Is the Hispanic Red Wave for Donald Trump Starting to Crash?
- Trump Goes Nuclear on ‘Train Wreck’ Elon in Unhinged Post (“Musk hit back at the president on X.”)
- Trump Slams Musk Plan for Rival Party as Feud Deepens (Calling it a “feud” is moronic – the US political media, in this case Bloomberg, thinks it’s all a big game.)
- 6 of the biggest challenges facing Musk’s new political party
- Tesla shares drop 7% in premarket trading after Elon Musk says he is launching a political party
- FBI and DOJ Memo Claims There Is No Jeffrey Epstein Client List After All (“Investigations also claim that the financier was not murdered.”)
- Exclusive: DOJ, FBI conclude Epstein had no “client list,” committed suicide (The problem is, DoJ and the FBI have no credibility under their current leadership.)
- Potential 2028 GOP contenders already making moves (“Youngkin will visit Iowa — the traditional home of an early primary caucus — later this month for an event with state GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann. Next month, Youngkin will headline the annual fundraising dinner for the GOP in South Carolina, another key primary state. During the past year, he’s appeared at state party functions in California, New York and North Carolina.”)
- The other winner in New York’s mayoral contest: ranked-choice voting
- 5 questions about the Democrats’ Tea Party moment
- Exclusive / Times pushed ahead to avoid being scooped on Mamdani Columbia story (So, Semafor refers to “independent journalist Christopher Rufo,” when of course Rufo is an “American conservative activist” and “opponent of critical race theory.” As Marcy Wheeler points out, Semafor also “repeats NYT’s false claim that Jordan Lasker is an academic.” So, yet again, horrible “journalism” by the political media in this country, in this case the godawful Semafor.)
- Texas Hill Country is no stranger to flash floods. Why were so many caught off guard? (“When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites known to be in the floodplain.”)
- At Least 82 Dead in Texas Floods as Families of Missing Wait and Hope
- Texas lawmakers failed to pass a bill to improve local disaster warning systems this year (“A GOP state lawmaker who represents Kerr County says he likely would vote differently now on House Bill 13, which would have established a grant program for counties to build new emergency communication infrastructure.”)
- Johnson on Texas floods: ‘We feel just as helpless as everyone else does’ (Actually, there are a TON of things the government could do to help prevent future disasters like this.)
- Texas Hill Country Is Underwater, and America’s Emergency Lifeline Is Fraying
- Donald Trump Admits He Misses Sports Team’s Old Racist Name
- Now THIS Seems Fishy; Anti-Environment Donald Trump Shares a Video Arguing Against the “pillaging of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay” (Despite not being well known, menhaden are an absolutely crucial species that feeds osprey, striped bass, dolphins, whales, etc, – and they’re being badly overfished.)
- Riley rebounds, takes second shot at Virginia’s 5th District seat in Congress
- Virginia emerges as key bellwether ahead of midterms (Typical whitewashing/sanewashing of right-wing extremism by the “mainstream media”; see if you can find anything in here about Winsome Earle-Sears many, MANY hard-right positions, bizarre/outlandish statements over the years, etc. Nope, nada.)
- Spanberger: Open to data center tax breaks, sees inland port as ‘transformational’ and U.S. 220 improvements as ‘vital’ (“The Democratic candidate for governor talks about some of her views on economic development in an interview. The Republican candidate has not responded to interview requests to talk about policy.”)
- Virginia’s top prosecutor targets drugs, crime — and Northern Va. schools
- Governor Youngkin deploys Virginia Swift Water Rescue Teams to Texas
- Virginia Democrats are eyeing 13 potential seats that could flip blue this year (Intriguing headline, but almost no substance.)
- Cumberland residents continue to raise concerns over landfill proposal
- What Chantal will mean for Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks (“As Tropical Depression Chantal moves into eastern North Carolina, the primary threats to Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks are rip currents and occasionally heavy rainfall.”)
- Manager Dave Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo get fired by the last-place Washington Nationals (Not surprising…the team has been terrible since the amazing, magical 2019 World Series season.)
- CWG Live updates: Thunderstorms are possible every day this week
