Wednesday News: “RFK Jr. Cancels $500 Million In Funding For Vaccine Development”; “Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance”; “Trump threatens federal takeover of D.C. after attack on former DOGE worker [known as ‘Big Balls’]”; NRA Endorses Sears/Reid/Miyares

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, August 6.

• Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn (“More than 100 million ‘novel entity’ chemicals are in circulation, with health impact not widely recognised”)
• ‘Maddening’ Proof Plastics Industry Knew Recycling Was False Solution in 1974, New Document Shows (“Exclusive finding by DeSmog shows high-level industry awareness that recycling plastic ‘not feasible’ as companies face lawsuits over alleged public deception campaign.”)
• Rebuilding Faces, Lives and a Sense of Self in Ukraine (“Surgeons have made significant strides in tending to the war’s wounded, particularly through the use of 3-D printing.”)
• Trump’s envoy meets Putin ahead of Russia-Ukraine peace deadline, the Kremlin says
• What, Exactly, Is the ‘Russia Hoax’? (“To start with, it’s not a hoax.”)
• MAGA expectations soar after DOJ orders Russia grand jury probe
• Bondi’s Obama Grand Jury: The Authoritarian Moment We’ve All Feared (“It’s officially happening: the use of the machinery of justice to go on fishing expeditions about political predecessors. Absolute madness.”)
• Trump is hailing the EU’s $600 billion investment pledge — but it might never happen
• Trump Ramps Up Tariff Blitz With India, Pharma, Chips in Sights
• Trump-Modi bromance sours over trade talks, Russian oil
• Missed signals, lost deal: How India-US trade talks collapsed
• Brazil’s Key MAGA Ally Linked to Massive Fraud Scheme Involving Jailed Chinese Billionaire (“Paulo Figueiredo is building a bridge between the Brazilian far right and Trump. Court records reveal his alleged connection to a high-profile bankruptcy case.”)
• A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves: how Gaza looks from the sky (“The Guardian joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel’s offensive”)
• Trump plans to “take over” Gaza aid effort, U.S. officials say
• UN official says Israel expanding Gaza operations would risk ‘catastrophic consequences’
• How Do You Destroy a Country’s Reputation? Just Ask Benjamin Netanyahu (“If we call what he did to Gaza genocide, then we must append this term to what he’s done to Israel: politicide.”)
• Israel’s Gaza aid cutoff was not only immoral. It was a strategic disaster. (“A policy whose cruelty was matched only by its incompetence.”)
• UN alarmed by reports about possible expansion of Israeli Gaza operations
• This Is What the End of the Liberal World Order Looks Like (“In a post-American world, greed and nihilism are destroying Sudan.” Absolutely horrific situation, yet we barely even hear about it. WHY???)
• ICE Offers, Then Quickly Withdraws, Cash Bonuses for Swiftly Deporting Immigrants
• Right-wing media’s campaign against due process for immigrants (“Figures on the right falsely claimed that migrants don’t — or shouldn’t — get constitutionally protected rights”)
• There Is an Information Blackout at Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Detention Camp
• Florida prepares to build a second immigration detention center to join ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ (Don’t forget: Youngkin said DeSantis was a role model for him.)
• Hundreds of alleged human rights abuses in immigrant detention, report finds
• Where Have the Proud Boys Gone? (“Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown has left the extremist group with little to do.”)
• The ripple effects of the BLS firing
• The Latest Phase in Trump’s War on Data (“When the facts don’t fit the President’s narrative, he asks for new ones, as evidenced by his recent firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner.”)
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent off list for next Fed chair, Trump says
• Trump Just Got a Fresh Shot at Bending the Fed to His Will
• RFK Jr. may be on the verge of dismantling U.S. preventive health care (“Here’s how the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force influences medical guidance.”)
• RFK Jr’s health department to halt $500m in mRNA vaccine research (“Agency to end 22 federal contracts, questioning safety of technology credited with helping end Covid pandemic” Deranged.)
• RFK Jr. Cancels $500 Million In Funding For Vaccine Development (“The mRNA vaccines are credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.” Total insanity, pure evil really. Also, how is this legal???)
• Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research (“Key HHS agency will wind down funding, delivering blow to technology that produced Covid-19 shots”)
• Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds
• First-of-a-kind US class-action lawsuit would force EPA to reinstate $3bn climate program (“Coalition of non-profits, tribes and local governments sued EPA chief for halting climate justice grants”)
• E.P.A. Moves to Cancel $7 Billion in Grants for Solar Energy
• Weather Service is now hiring back hundreds of positions that got cut in the DOGE chaos
• The Nation’s Landmark Voting Rights Law Just Turned 60. It May Not Survive Trump. (“The long-term game is to repeal the Voting Rights Act.”)
• The Supreme Court Prepares to End Voting Rights As We Know It (“And they don’t want you to notice.”)
• Donald Trump and John Roberts Have a Lot in Common
• Trump’s tactics are bending the criminal justice system to his personal preferences (“The president and his team have mounted a direct assault on all three pillars of the justice system: judges, prosecutors and the legal profession”)
• What makes an American? Three in 10 Republicans say: Being White.
• Trump suggests he could use the military to keep the L.A. Olympics ‘safe’
• Crime down in every category in 2024, FBI report says (What’s astounding is that most Americans pretty much always believe that crime is high and going up, even when it’s relatively low and/or going down. A lot of this is because with local media, it’s been “if it bleeds, it leads” for decades…)
• It Took Trump Seven Years To Expel Epstein After Learning About ‘Stolen’ Staff (“The president brags that he broke with the child sex trafficker after discovering that he was raiding his ‘help’ but leaves out how long that took.”)
• Prosecutor who negotiated Epstein’s sweetheart deal left off subpoena list
• Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance
• Trump administration considering releasing transcript of DOJ’s interview with Ghislaine Maxwell
• Ghislaine Maxwell told DOJ Trump never did anything concerning around her: Sources (Of COURSE she didn’t – she wants Trump to pardon her!)
• Comer issues subpoenas for DOJ’s Epstein files, depositions with former officials
• New National UMass Amherst Poll Finds President Trump’s Job Approval Gap Slides 6 Points Since April (“Public approval of Donald Trump’s presidency has dropped by 6 percentage points since April and his approval rating is now 20 points underwater, 38-58”)
• Trump Has a Plan to Rig the Midterms. Are Democrats Going to Do Anything About It? (“Fighting the latest power grab is going to come at a steep long-term cost.”)
• Several states consider redrawing congressional maps after Texas kicks off fight
• Trump and Johnson face escalating GOP revolt on redistricting
• California Democrats Look to Redraw House Map to Counter Texas G.O.P. (“As a Texas senator summoned the F.B.I. to round up Democrats, the redistricting war that began in Texas was spreading, with California aiming at five Republican House seats.”)
• Abbott sues to remove Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu from seat
• Texas AG Paxton will try to expel Texas Democrats if they don’t return by Friday (Paxton is a scumbag and a fascist who has no business holding public office of any kind.)
• The Next Generation of Progressive Pundits Is Here (“They’re not on MSNBC—they’re streaming on YouTube and Twitch.”)
• Columbia and Brown to Disclose Admissions and Race Data in Trump Deal
• Miss United States Files Restraining Order Against GOP Rep. Cory Mills
• Trump threatens federal takeover of D.C. after attack on former DOGE worker
• Trump threatens federal control of D.C. following attack on administration staffer known as ‘Big Balls’ (“Edward Coristine, the Trump administration employee nicknamed ‘Big Balls,’ was the victim of a carjacking and assault in Washington over the weekend, police said.”)
• Trump Reveals Musk’s ‘Big Balls’ Was Beaten in Bloody Attack
• Youngkin supports National Guardsmen assisting with ICE deportations
• Sears Touts Meeting with Trump, But Refuses to Ask Him to Stop Attacking Virginians’ Jobs and Healthcare (Earle-Sears: “I’ve already told you the President and I have been in the Oval Office”)
• NRA’s Political Victory Fund Endorses Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, Attorney General Jason Miyares and John Reid
• Mid-decade redistricting unlikely in Virginia, but Democrats are considering changes to the state’s map drawing process (“’I believe the redistricting commission needs to be restructured if not repealed altogether,’ Lucas added. ‘It’s a worthwhile discussion for sure.’ Democratic Senate Majority leader Scott Surovell agreed.”))
• The 2020 VA Redistricting Amendment Was Fundamentally Flawed, Based on Idealism and Intentional Disinformation Rather than Fact – and Represented Unilateral Disarmament in the Face of the MAGA GOP’s Growing Authoritarian Threat (If VA and NY hadn’t unilaterally disarmed, Democrats would control the US House today.)
• Editorial: Bipartisan commission inoculates Virginia from redistricting fever (Terminally naive.)
• Do income tax rates cause people to move out of state? Youngkin says yes, new study says no. (Just remember: Glenn Youngkin lies about EVERYTHING, just like his role models, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Donald Trump, etc. But the media won’t say that.)
• The debate over data centers is alive and well on the campaign trail
• Earle-Sears wants a second governor’s office, somewhere ‘past Abingdon’
• Dominion Energy: Trump tariffs will cost you on your electricity bill (“The Trump tariffs are going to increase your electricity bill, because they’re going to push the cost on a Dominion Energy offshore wind project up, in the area of $640 million beyond amended projections”)
• Lynchburg electoral board to discuss budget, poll worker term length ahead of general election (“The Lynchburg City Council adopted the 2026 fiscal year budget a day before it went into effect. Now programs like the electoral board are feeling the pressure of funding cuts.”)
• Dominion Energy announces plans for solar installation at CarMax Park in Richmond
• New baseball stadium solar energy project, one of the largest ever, coming to Richmond
• Toll-free at last: Coleman Bridge to end toll collection early (“Virginia Department of Transportation accelerates timeline, offering commuters financial relief five months ahead of schedule.”)
• Roanoke councilmembers agree to amend single-family zoning reforms
• Roanoke revisits zoning changes
• Albemarle supervisors to consider new data center rules
• Richmond actor shot trying to help during confrontation in Shockoe Bottom
• Palestine activists target North Arlington home with protests and graffiti
• CWG Live updates: Clouds and maybe a few showers today as temperatures stay comfortable