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by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, July 24.
- ‘Boiling frog’ effect makes people oblivious to threat of climate crisis, shows study
- Earth’s underground networks of fungi need urgent protection, say researchers (“Study finds that only 9.5% of fungal biodiversity hotspots fell within existing protected areas”)
- Trump’s war on windmills started in Scotland. Now he’s taking it global (They’re not “windmills,” they’re powerful wind TURBINES that produce power, but…yeah.)
- Ukraine, Russia attack each other’s Black Sea coasts after latest round of peace talks
- Why are Ukrainians mad at Zelenskyy?
- ‘Commanders Saw Us as Expendable’: A Russian Soldier’s View of the War (“Mikhail Simdyankin wasn’t prepared for the reality of Moscow’s brutal war machine in Ukraine when he enlisted, lured by propaganda and a big sign-on bonus”)
- Passenger plane crashes in Russia’s far east, nearly 50 people on board feared dead
- Exclusive: Indian firm shipped explosives to Russia despite US warnings
- Exclusive: Chinese engines, shipped as ‘cooling units’, power Russian drones used in Ukraine
- Trump’s ‘massive’ deal with Japan is giving US automakers heartburn (“The preliminary agreement suggests there is a path forward to lowering the auto duties on other major trading partners, as well.”)
- Israel studies Hamas reply to Gaza ceasefire plan as fighting continues
- Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders? (“Privately, Jewish lay leaders are anguished over Gaza. Publicly, they fear being labelled antisemitic”)
- BBC and news agencies warn journalists in Gaza at risk of starvation
- ‘We faced hunger before, but never like this’: skeletal children fill hospital wards as starvation grips Gaza
- Starvation in Gaza is destroying communities – and will leave generational scars (“Health and societal ramifications of extreme hunger will reverberate long after the war is over”)
- Twelve killed in Thailand-Cambodia military clashes on disputed border
- North Korea’s military is being transformed on the battlefields of Ukraine – so why is Seoul silent? (“Observers question whether South Korea grasps the threat it faces from Pyongyang’s partnership with Moscow”)
- Donald Trump visit to Scotland expected to be met with wave of protest
- Trump Says Countries Will Face Tariffs Ranging From 15% to 50%
- House Panel Approves Spending Bill That Rejects Some Trump Foreign Aid Cuts (“The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee put forth legislation that would slash the foreign aid and State Department budget but salvage some programs that the president wants to defund.”)
- Scoop: Rand Paul stalls Mike Waltz nomination for UN ambassador
- Outrage after border agents subject detained gay Vermont superintendent to hours of ‘psychological terror’
- No One Was Supposed to Leave Alive (“Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration say they were tortured during their four months in CECOT.” Everyone involved in this needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, for crimes against humanity among other things. Even if it’s in a few years from now, it needs to happen.)
- Judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from criminal custody (“Though immigration enforcement officials signaled that he’s likely to be re-detained when he arrives in Maryland.”)
- ICE moves to shackle some 180,000 immigrants with GPS ankle monitors
- ICE’s Shocking Midday Kidnappings Remind Me of Something I’ve Seen Before (“American police are turning away from this terrifying, chaotic practice—but the agency is embracing it.”)
- Federal appeals court issues another blow to Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship
- Appeals court finds Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship unconstitutional, upholds block (Wildly so!)
- How Brett Kavanaugh Is Putting His Thumb on the Scale for Trump (Kavanaugh is scum.)
- Supreme Court allows Trump to remove 3 Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“The three liberal justices dissented. ‘By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another,’ Justice Elena Kagan wrote for herself, as well as Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.”)
- Trump to visit Federal Reserve, escalating campaign against Chair Powell (That’s nuts.)
Climate advocates outraged at Trump administration plans to fast-track AI sector- Trump signs executive orders targeting ‘woke’ AI models and regulation (“Crackdown would streamline the building of datacentres and remove environmental protections” That’s bonkers.)
- Boom fades for US clean energy as Trump guts subsidies
- Trump admin cancels $4.9B loan for biggest transmission line in US (“The Grain Belt Express is over a decade in the making and would bring huge amounts of cheap wind and solar from the plains to the East. Its future is now murky.”)
- PJM capacity prices set another record with 22% jump (“The Trump administration will likely seize on the auction results to justify keeping thermal power plants, namely coal, in PJM from retiring, according to analysts with Capstone.”)
- Hurricane Helene and Subsequent Cleanup Efforts Have Decimated North America’s Most Biodiverse Waters
- Hegseth Signal messages came from email classified ‘SECRET,’ watchdog told (“The revelation contradicts the Trump administration’s longstanding claims that no classified information was shared by the defense secretary’s account during the ‘Signalgate’ scandal.”)
- Trump’s Epstein nightmare worsens amid new revelations and a GOP revolt
- In Seeking More on Epstein, Justice Dept.’s No. 2 Official Occupies Unusual Role
- Judge Denies Request to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts in Florida (“The president and his subordinates, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, have come under enormous pressure to release further details about the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.”)
- House subcommittee votes to subpoena Justice Department for Epstein files (“Three Republicans on the panel voted with Democrats for the subpoena, sending it through on an 8-2 vote tally.”)
- How the Jeffrey Epstein scandal became the mother of all conspiracy theories (“It’s a Pizzagate/QAnon scandal. It’s a Trump scandal. It’s a Me Too scandal. It has something for every political subculture.”)
- Fox News has mentioned Obama over 3 times more than Epstein since Tulsi Gabbard released her report (Anyone who thinks Fox “News” is actual news is an imbecile.)
- GOP dysfunction over Epstein leaves Senate Republicans angry with House
- Jeffrey Epstein Asked About Himself, Trump And Underage Girls In Resurfaced Video
- ‘The rule was going down’: Inside the House GOP’s Epstein meltdown (“Anger inside the conference over Epstein went beyond even what was on display publicly.”)
- Is This the Turning Point of Trump’s Presidency? (“It’s early yet, but the Epstein story has all the makings of a defining scandal that could grind Republican rule to a halt.”)
- Trump’s Name Is Reportedly in the Epstein Files Multiple Times
- In Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats Find Unlikely Weapon Against the G.O.P. (“A conspiracy theory many of them once dismissed has given Democrats a potent tool for exploiting G.O.P. divisions, even if it has little to do with what many regard as their best line of attack against Republicans.”)
- As Trump struggles to deflect from reporting on his Epstein ties, MAGA media set their sights on the press
- Bondi facing Democratic calls to testify following report she told Trump he was in Epstein files
- Trump ‘hung up after 30 seconds’ on the phone with CNN reporter who called to ask about new Epstein photos (“Resurfaced photos show Epstein attending Trump’s 1993 wedding to his second wife Marla Maples”)
- Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files
- Bondi briefed Trump that his name was in Epstein files
- Trump foe Thomas Massie wins over MAGA allies with his push for Epstein files
- Republicans Are Breaking With Trump Over Epstein Files, Polls Show (“The president’s avid followers have backed him through many controversies. But more than a third of Republicans disapprove of his handling of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein.”)
- With his suit against Murdoch, Trump signals: No one is safe
- By Accusing Obama of Treason, Trump Comes Off More Unhinged Than Ever
- Right-wing media use Tulsi Gabbard’s flimsy memo to call for imprisoning Obama (“The right-wing media efforts to implicate Obama come as Trump tries to deflect from the Epstein files”)
- Gabbard Releases New Documents Targeting Obama Administration (Gabbard is soooo bad.)
- Obama to headline fundraiser in response to GOP redistricting efforts
- A D.O.J. Whistleblower Speaks Out (“In a complaint, a former Justice Department lawyer said his former colleagues were being forced to choose between the president’s agenda and their ethical obligations as attorneys.”)
- Regulation by Deal Comes to Higher Ed (“In short, the agreement gives legal form to an extortion scheme—the first of its kind!—that defies the relevant statutes as well as the constitutional separation of powers and the First Amendment. There is another unprecedented feature of the situation that is so obvious it is easy to overlook, and that might ultimately prove the most consequential of all: the way in which the federal government is seeking to reshape the internal operations of universities not through generally applicable directives, but rather through a series of bilateral ‘deals.'”)
- Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump (“The White House had canceled more than $400 million in research funding to the university, saying it had failed to protect Jewish students from harassment.”)
- Columbia’s Administrators Are Fooling Themselves
- Tesla Profit Falls, Hurt by Plunging EV Sales
- Tesla Braces for Rough Quarters Ahead as US Ends EV Incentives
- Tesla shares drop 6% in premarket trading after auto sales plunge again
- Skydance Tells FCC It Will Create CBS News Ombudsman, Eliminate DEI at Paramount
- Biden Sells Memoir for Roughly $10 Million, Less Than Obama and Clinton
- Finally, a Democrat Who Could Shine on Joe Rogan’s Show (“Hunter Biden is unrepentant.”)
- Josh Shapiro joins Mamdani pile-on, saying candidate failed to condemn antisemitic rhetoric (“The remarks are the latest sign that the NYC mayoral candidate hasn’t won over the party establishment.”)
- Scoop: Cooper plans to enter North Carolina Senate race next week
- 11 tips for becoming a columnist (Catherine Rampell is leaving the WaPo, among many others who don’t want to swear a loyalty oath to Bezos and his libertarian creed.)
- Video/Statement: Sen. Mark Warner Rips Trump Administration’s “desperate and irresponsible release of the partisan House intelligence report” (Warner: “the bipartisan, unanimous finding of the Senate Intelligence Committee…was that Russia launched a large-scale influence campaign in the 2016 election in order to help…Trump.”)
- Video: Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10) Says Future of Democratic Party Is People Like Abigail Spanberger – “she has both the charisma of someone like Mamdani, but also a really good ear to the ground of what people want”
- Brutal (but Accurate) Media Coverage This Morning of the Winsome Earle-Sears Campaign “Disaster,” “Panicking” Virginia Republicans Filled with “sense of dread,” etc. (As if that’s not bad enough, Winsome Earle-Sears is now whining, “who wants to do a bus tour in the summer?”)
- Republican nominee for Virginia governor names new campaign manager (“Pennsylvania-based political strategist Corey Barsky will take on the role, CNN has learned. A campaign spokesperson says Barsky will take over for Will Archer, who the campaign announced last week was moving into a different role.”)
- Virginia: Earle-Sears names new campaign manager
- ‘We really don’t know yet’: Consequences of Medicaid cuts remain unclear for Virginians
- Virginia lawmakers, health officials brace for Medicaid changes
- How Youngkin Reshaped Virginia’s Universities (“The Virginia governor has appointed multiple donors, political activists and former GOP officials to governing boards, prompting a clash with faculty and Democrats.”)
- Is Virginia ready to take over more disaster responsibilities from FEMA? Gov. Youngkin thinks so – but critics fear loss of crucial aid
- Syphilis cases climb in Virginia, as more babies are exposed during pregnancy
- Capacity auction predicts higher energy bills; Youngkin, governors air frustrations in letter to PJM (“Amid skyrocketing electricity costs, multiple governors are asking PJM to let them have more of a say in the grid operator’s leadership”)
- Miyares offers no proof that 2,500 immigrants arrested by Va. task force were violent offenders (“At campaign event, attorney general defers when pressed on Youngkin’s claims, says ICE and partner agencies are targeting those already ordered to leave the country.”)
- Williams: In withholding degree, VCU is on the wrong side of history and free speech.
- Roanoke’s request for 15% of Botetourt’s tax revenue from Google data center is unprecedented. It also harkens to a darker era in the Roanoke Valley.
- Henrico approves 5-year plan for affordable housing, fighting homelessness
- CWG Live updates: Hot today and sweltering Friday; weekend storm chances rise (“Heat indexes may approach 105 Friday.”)
