Tuesday News: “Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize” (Beyond Parody); “Deadly floods could be new normal as Trump guts federal agencies”; “MAGA melts down, Dems exult as ‘Epstein files’ evaporate”; “Two big media companies, two troubling developments”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, July 8.

• Melting glaciers and ice caps could unleash wave of volcanic eruptions, study says
• Brics summit in Brazil tries to reinvent collective approach to world’s problems (“President Lula rebukes wealthy countries for retreating on climate and trade but bloc is divided and unbalanced”)
• The New Nuclear Arms Race (“As American power recedes, South Korea, Japan, and a host of other countries may pursue the bomb.”)
• Trump to Resume Sending Weapons to Ukraine (“The U.S. will send additional defensive arms because Moscow is hitting Kyiv ‘very hard,’ the president says”)
• Trump says US must send more weapons to Ukraine, days after ordering pause in deliveries
• As Trump Fails to Deliver, Russia Looks to Musk’s America Party for Leverage
• Russian Drone Documents Draw Line From China to Ukraine’s Skies
• Poisoned water and scarred hills: BBC visits world’s rare earths capital in China
• Who’s Running American Defense Policy? (“Trump’s national-security institutions are still in disorder.”)
• Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize (Bibi knows how to play Trump. Presumably most foreign leaders do by now…)
• Senate leaders to meet with Netanyahu (“Both Thune and Schumer will participate in the scheduled Tuesday meeting.”)
• Hamas used sexual violence as part of ‘genocidal strategy’, Israeli experts say
• Trump says Bolsonaro ‘not guilty of anything’ amid Brazil coup trial (“President Lula rejects foreign ‘interference’ as Trump claims far-right former leader victim of ‘witch-hunt’” Bolsonaro is most definitely guilty as sin!)
• Trump says Aug. 1 tariff deadline ‘not 100 percent firm’
• Here Are Trump’s New Tariff Threats
• Trump to put 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, new import taxes on 12 other nations.
• El Salvador Contradicts Trump, Says It Has No Authority Over Migrants Held in Megaprison
• Bombshell report alleges El Salvador disclaimed responsibility for those U.S. sent to CECOT
• Ábrego García will be deported again if released from jail before trial, says DoJ attorney (“Disclosure by justice department attorney contradicts statements by his own agency and White House”)
• Heavily armed immigration agents descend on MacArthur Park in L.A. (Completely insane and wildly unacceptable. Just imagine the reaction if this had happened during the Biden administration in a RED state???)
• Los Angeles mayor slams “outrageous and un-American” federal immigration enforcement sweep through MacArthur Park (Correct!)
• Four Fears about ICE, Trump’s New Masked Monster (“We’re about to pour $200 billion into immigration enforcement—but understanding specifically why this is a bad idea is important.”)
• 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 U.S. Is Much Closer to Making Concentration Camps Than You Think (“The government is tempting us to cooperate in fascist dehumanization on a grand scale. But that doesn’t mean we must do so.”)
• Senators Introduce a Bill Requiring Immigration Agents to Show Their Faces
• ‘Could become a death spiral’: scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of US honeybees (“‘Experts scrambling to understand losses in hives across the country are finally identifying the culprits. And the damage to farmed bees is a sign of trouble for wild bees too”)
• RFK Jr. promoted a food company he says will make Americans healthy. Their meals are ultraprocessed
• How Kennedy and Trump Are Making America “Healthy” Again: Asbestos, Measles, Kicking Millions Off Medicaid (“Closing rural hospitals, undermining lifesaving vaccines, keeping dirty coal plants open for no reason. Are we healthy yet?”)
• Trump admin asks staff to report cases of bias due to DEI directives
• The Bleak Unifying Principle of This Supreme Court Term (“It’s an emergency whenever Trump says so.”)
• Trump’s ‘Big Ugly Blackout Bill’ will destroy energy security, kill jobs
• Wind and solar companies are racing to build before their tax credits disappear
• Trump Probably Can’t Believe How Easy It’s Been (“He’s becoming a more effective bully, and no one is getting in his way.”)
• Trump’s new cologne can’t cover up the stench of a president doubling as a salesman (“Shilling products while in office has become common for Trump.”)
• Paramount’s Outrageous ’60 Minutes’ Settlement May Be Even Worse Than It Appears
• Two big media companies, two troubling developments (“CBS News’s parent caves to Trump and The New York Times publishes a made-up scandal.”)
• The sad, sad state of the New York Times (“The newsroom will go to extreme lengths to achieve its primary missions — and one of them, most assuredly, is to take cheap shots at the left. You can see it almost daily – just this past week alone in a condescending article about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s brave defense of democracy, and a celebratory story about Trump’s achievements that likened dissenting views to ‘asterisks’ on his legacy.”)
• I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit
• MAGA media eat their own after Trump administration denies their Epstein conspiracy theories
• MAGA melts down, Dems exult as “Epstein files” evaporate
• ‘They’re Gonna Be So Mad’: Trump Admin Braces for MAGA Revolt Over Epstein Memo (“Right-wing conspiracists are again up in arms that the Justice Department isn’t prosecuting anyone else connected to the late sex trafficker”)
• The Deadly Floods Revealed Texans’ Heroism—and Their Failed Politics
• Deadly floods could be new normal as Trump guts federal agencies, experts warn
• Democrats Should​ Say Who’s Really to Blame for the ​Flooding in Texas
• How Many Disasters Must Happen in Texas Before Greg Abbott Stops Denying Climate Change? (Another one of Youngkin’s favorite governors, btw.)
• Trump Looks to Avoid Casting Blame in Texas Flood as Democrats Question Cuts (Another day, another lame/weak headline by the NY Times.)
• Debate erupts over role job cuts played in weather forecasts ahead of deadly Texas floods (The media’s safe space is reporting stuff as a “debate” or “controversy” or whatever, without taking a “side.” That’s just one of the ways the media fails us.)
• FEMA response to deadly Texas floods delayed & deficient with Noem in charge (“Staffers sound the alarm.”)
• Deaths From Texas Floods Exceed 100 With Toll Expected to Rise
• Ted Cruz Kept Sightseeing as Desperate Rescue Crews Searched for Missing Kids in Texas Floods
• Ted Cruz ensured Trump spending bill slashed weather forecasting funding (“Senator on vacation abroad while Texas was hit by deadly floods, a disaster worsened by forecasting cuts, critics say”)
• Planned Parenthood sues over Trump megabill ‘defunding’ provision
• Veterans Affairs reverses course on large-scale layoffs (“The department says it is on pace to reduce its total staff by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year through retirements, attrition and deferred resignations after previously saying it would need to cull 83,000.”)
• Musk and Yang have connected on the billionaire’s third party threat (Hahahaha, of course!)
• Musk escalates Trump feud with third party launch, Epstein attack
• How Elon Musk’s Third Party Gamble Could Succeed
• California will not block trans athletes from school sports, defying White House
• Independent Dan Osborn launches another Nebraska Senate run
• Chantal Wrecks Havoc in North Carolina as State Lawmakers Try to Repeal an Ambitious Climate Change Goal
• Sen. Mark Warner: Trump’s Purge of FBI Agents ‘Will Be Devastating’ to Serious Crime Investigations
• Attorney Andrew Lucchetti jumps into race against Wittman
• DCCC Launches Digital Ads Holding Vulnerable House Republicans (Including Jen Kiggans and Rob Wittman) Accountable for Their Vote to Jeopardize America’s Rural Hospitals (“Vulnerable House Republicans’ incredibly cruel vote to jeopardize hospitals in their districts and across America is going to cost them their jobs and the majority.”)
• Is it too hot for common sense? (“Heat-addled brains might explain the thinking of many Virginia lawmakers that what we need to do right now is burn more fossil fuels, writes columnist Ivy Main”)
• Republicans try a novel pitch: Make Virginia 2021 again (“But this year, Democrats doubt that the issues that bedeviled them four years ago — like post-pandemic learning loss, public school gender policies, or higher crime that got blamed on criminal justice reform — will be on the ballot again. They see Virginia as a proving ground for their post-Biden campaign strategies. And they see a backlash coming against elements of President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda that have hit the state especially hard, starting with his sweeping federal workforce cuts.”)
• In New Article on Youngkin (Who Is VERY Much “eyeing the White House”) Heading to IA, SC, Youngkin Falsely/Laughably Claims He’s Not Thinking About Any of That At All (LOL)
• Video: On Hard-Right “Newsmax,” Winsome Earle-Sears Says Trump Tax Bill That Risks Healthcare for More Than 322,000 Virginians “Does So Many Great Things” (In fact, this law is going to do tremendous damage to VA and the country…)
• Commentary: Virginia’s housing market is worse than you think
• Commentary: Ranked choice voting improves democracy. Will Va. embrace it?
• Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears cozies up to anti-abortion group on campaign trail (“The GOP candidate for governor joined a slate of Republicans at Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference.”)
• Yes, Women HAVE Been “On the Rise” in the VA House of Delegates – but Mostly in 2017 and 2019, and Overwhelmingly Among *Democrats*, While House of Delegates Republicans Have Remained Overwhelmingly Male (Today, there are 27 Democratic women in the House of Delegates vs. just 7 Republican women…)
• Virginia lieutenant governor nominees disagree on major issues (“Democrat Ghazala Hashmi and Republican John Reid hold opposing views on health care, reproductive rights, tariffs, education and other policy issues.”)
• New Va. law protecting reproductive health data prompts Walmart’s online data collection pop-ups
• Could ICE detention funding trickle down to Virginia’s closed prisons?
• Annual ‘Best Places to Bike’ report ranks Va. cities low, rankles officials and advocates (“National report ranks Virginia cities low, despite the state’s beefed up bike infrastructure designed to improve access and safety for cyclists.”)
• With four new appointments, Youngkin has chosen all members of UVA’s board
• Chesapeake leaders to consider more water, sewer rate increases
• The spotted lanternfly: Virginians should brace for three to five years of ‘heavy infestation’
• National seashore lacks lifeguards as Chincoteague fumes
• Fairfax County parents spoke up about antisemitic bullying. They say it got their kids expelled
• Editorial: New fund aims to create jobs and opportunity on the Peninsula
• CWG Live updates: Toasty Tuesday with storms likely; more of the same ahead (“Humidity holds through week with daily storm chances.”)