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by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, October 16.
- CO2 from wildfires increases by 9% as climate crisis supercharges infernos (“Greenhouse gases from wildfires at sixth highest level on record after blazes in large areas of the Americas and Africa”)
- Scientists Warn About the ‘Greenlandification’ of Antarctica (“Global warming is awakening sleeping giants of ice at the South Pole as glaciers start to flow faster and surface melting increases.”)
- Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050 (Disastrous.)
- Zelenskiy goes to Trump for more support as Ukraine war escalates
- Ukraine likes its latest ally — Trump (Skepticism warranted, but let’s hope so!)
- Trump says Modi assured him India will stop Russian oil purchases, but timeline unclear
- Xi’s Rare Earth Shock Gives Trump a Chance to Win Over US Allies
- China’s Rare Earth Restrictions Aim to Beat U.S. at Its Own Game
- Embattled French PM Sébastien Lecornu survives no-confidence vote in Parliament
- U.S. forges ahead on Gaza deal amid disputes, clashes and executions
- Why Is Trump Making Excuses for Hamas? (“The president seems undisturbed by the terrorist group’s murderous campaign against dissidents. In fact, he seems to admire it.”)
- Hamas says all reachable hostage bodies recovered amid Israel threat to resume Gaza fighting
- Trump’s Middle East ‘peace’ pitch to Iran falls flat in Tehran and Jerusalem
- Public executions. Hunting rival gangs. Hamas seeks to regain control of Gaza by force.
- Trump says he has authorized covert CIA action in Venezuela
- Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela
- Trump Treasury Sec Reveals Argentina Bailout Is Actually Twice as Big
- President Trump once again suggests relocating World Cup matches
- ‘There was no rebellion’: Trump’s war on U.S. cities is hitting a legal buzzsaw
- Trump ICE Raids Take Horrific Turn in Chicago, Handing Dems an Opening
- County judge in Chicago area bars ICE from arresting people at court
- Border Patrol Posts Instagram Propaganda Video Featuring Antisemitic Slurs
- Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People
- The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans
- The Conservative Justices Have So Many Ideas For How to Kill the Voting Rights Act
- It sure looks like the Voting Rights Act is doomed
- Live Updates: Supreme Court Appears Poised to Upend Key Provision of Voting Rights Act (The Supreme Court’s far-right majority is lawless, corrupt, extreme and insane.)
- Brett Kavanaugh holds the future of the Voting Rights Act in his hands (Which means our democracy is screwed???)
- The Supreme Court Is Going To Gut The Voting Rights Act To The Bone (“The conservative justices appear ready to gut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The only question is how.”)
- SCOTUS Could Take Away Minority Voting Rights
- Judge dismisses suit by young climate activists against Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies (“Plaintiffs had ‘overwhelming evidence’ of climate crisis but a court injunction would be ‘unworkable’, ruling says”)
- When the Trump Guardrails Fall (“The president’s second term is telling us a lot about the constraints that he faced during his first administration.” This is what some of us – raisaes hand! – warned about, that a second Trump term would NOT be like the first one, and that we’d probably not survive it with our democracy intact.)
- Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money (Wait, so all Obama or Biden had to do was sign a memo and voila, they had more power??? Who knew?!?)
- Trump Administration Decimates Birth Control Office in Layoffs
- Don’t Blame the Democrats for Trump’s Revenge Tour (“Defending Trump’s lawfare as just deserts misremembers what actually happened.”)
- The Trump administration is positioning the upcoming No Kings protests as an excuse for crushing dissent
- Democrats float a new shutdown demand: Reversing Trump’s mass firings
- Senate GOP, Thune throw curveball into shutdown fight
- Trump Plots Major Agency Overhaul to Ramp Up Enemy Probes (“The IRS crime unit is being reshaped as an instrument of presidential payback.”)
- Trump Team Plans IRS Overhaul to Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups (“Effort would install at the IRS’s criminal unit an ally of President Trump who has drawn up a list of investigative targets”)
- The Hatch Act? Wassat? Who cares?
- Reporters leave Pentagon en masse after refusing to sign on to new rules
- The Last Days of the Pentagon Press Corps
- Journalists turn in access badges, exit Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules
- What Do the New Pentagon Press Reporting Rules Say?
- Scoop: Dozens of Dem candidates won’t commit to backing Jeffries
- JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’ (“Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’” Sorry, but 24 to 35 year olds are NOT “kids” or “young boys” or whatever the f*** JD Vance says they are.)
- No One in the GOP Hitler Chat Was a “Kid”
- Vance downplays group chat messages: ‘Kids do stupid things, especially young boys.’ (This Politico article SUCKS, as it just repeats JD Vance’s lies without even correcting them! THat’s the opposite of journalism, and why Mark Jacob the other day gave Politico a D+…maybe should have been even lower than that???)
- Trump Invites Ballroom Donors to Glitzy White House Dinner (Massive corruption.)
- Capitol Police called to investigate swastika in GOP congressional office (“U.S. Capitol Police were called about an American flag altered to include a swastika and displayed inside the office of Rep. Dave Taylor (R-Ohio), his spokesperson said.”)
- Swastika Flag Spotted in MAGA Congressman’s Office (“The hateful symbol was spotted during a virtual meeting inside Rep. Dave Taylor’s office.”)
- Free Press Reporter Discovers That Being An Amoral Dickhead Can Cost You Friends (The “Free Press” is pure trash. Don’t believe that? Watch John Oliver explain!)
- NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams
- Brown University rejects Trump administration compact (Every university should reject it, immediately.)
- It’s the Governor vs. the Oysterman, and Democrats’ Pick Will Tell Us a Lot About the Party’s Future (Dems should nominate whichever one has a better chance of beating Susan Collins.)
- DC metro region leaders exclude I-495 express lanes project from long-term plan (As a general rule, building more roads/highways just increases sprawl, is environmentally harmful, doesn’t reduce congestion – may even increase it due to “induced demand,” costs a ton of money which could be much better spent, etc.)
- Senator Tim Kaine calls for action to end federal government shutdown
- Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Says “there’s no reason for [the shutdown] to drag on,” “we could solve it in a day,” but Trump “is going about it the wrong way; he’s stiffening our spine”
- Sen. Tim Kaine says Trump is a ‘bully’ who is treating government shutdown ‘like a joke’
- CASEY: Dozens of ‘No Kings!’ rallies scheduled across Virginia on Saturday
- Virginia 3Q25 (Federal Candidates) and September (State Candidates) Campaign Finance Reports Coming In
- Obama endorses Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s race for governor
- Spanberger on Youngkin-Sears Coverup: “Making a blatant, concerted effort to conceal what should be public information is insulting to Virginia taxpayers, particularly those affected by these devastating cuts.” (Youngkin, Earle-Sears “must immediately release this information — and explain why it was concealed in the first place”)
- Video: On MSNBC, Spanberger Stands Up for Virginia Jobs as Trump, Earle-Sears Double Down on Mass Firings of Virginians (“The stakes of this election are very clear”)
- DPVA: “Sears Must Call on All Young Republicans Implicated in Racist Text Scandal to Step Down from Their Positions” (“Youngkin Appointee and former Virginia Party officer called on participants to step down, but Sears has been silent”)
- Winsome Earle-Sears rejects federal data that shows rising unemployment in Virginia (“The Republican nominee for governor of Virginia also baselessly claimed that Medicaid cuts are not a factor in rural hospital closures.”)
- President Trump still hasn’t endorsed Winsome Earle-Sears
- The two wildcards shaping the tail end of the Virginia race for governor
- Virginia’s next AG can fight Trump’s assault on our rights – or join in
- Miyares ad tells Spanberger voters: ‘Say no to Jay Jones’
- Jones, Miyares are neck and neck in latest polling average following texting scandal
- Candidates for Virginia attorney general prepare for Thursday debate
- 4 questions that Jones should answer in tonight’s attorney general candidates debate (Notice how Dwayne Yancey only talks about which questions Jay Jones should answer, not which questions the godawful Jason Miyares should answer?)
- Republican ads zero in on Jay Jones’ violent texts in closing weeks of Virginia’s elections (“An NBC News analysis of recent ad spending shows that Republicans up and down the ballot in the state have shifted the focus of their closing messages to the Jones scandal.”)
- House District 82 rematch could help decide control of Virginia’s legislature (“Republican Del. Kim Taylor faces Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams again as both candidates spotlight economic policy, abortion access and competing visions for the district’s future.”)
- With clinics closed, Churchville’s predicament could foreshadow things to come for more of rural Virginia (“The tiny community of Churchville in western Augusta County no longer has a doctor’s office. Its clinic was one of three recently shuttered by Augusta Health.”)
- Fairfax County concerned about impact of proposed cuts to homeland security funding
- Editorial: Weekend storm serves as a reminder of region’s flooding needs (Alternate headline: “Editorial: Weekend storm serves as a reminder of the climate crisis’ threat to Hampton Roads region”)
- UVA faculty rejects Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence
- Trump’s ‘excellence’ compact kills UVA’s free speech and self-rule (“The proposed compact is one more example of how Donald Trump wants to impose his personal political will and philosophy on a country where democracy dies without free speech, writes guest columnist Jim Spencer.”)
- UVA students organize to resist ‘unconstitutional and tyrannical demands’ of White House
- Norfolk School Board approves plan to close 9 schools by 2034 (“In a 6-1 vote on Wednesday, the Norfolk School Board approved a plan to close nine schools and repurpose four more.”)
- Top White House official selling Arlington home after activists write chalk messages on sidewalk
- Richmond area harm reduction boxes mark three months in service
- CWG Live updates: An autumn chill into Friday before slow warming into the weekend (“Sunday night brings the next chance of rain.”)
