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by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, February 9.
- Global economy must move past GDP to avoid planetary disaster, warns UN chief (“Exclusive: António Guterres says world’s accounting systems should place true value on the environment” BINGO!)
- Economic growth is still heating the planet. Is there any way out? (“Rising GDP continues to mean more carbon emissions and wider damage to the planet. Can the two be decoupled?”)
- There May Be No Turning Back This Climate Crisis (“As warming breaches a critical threshold, scientists fear cascading consequences.” Humanity MASSIVELY f’ed up.)
- Epstein tried to cozy up to Russian officials, including Putin, documents show
- Experts sound alarm over UK exports to firm linked to Russian war machine
- Ukraine Seeks a War Plan Beyond Killing as Many Russian Soldiers as Possible (“As conflict approaches four-year mark, Russia’s grinding, slow-motion advance is weakening Kyiv’s hand at the negotiating table”)
- China Urges Banks to Curb Exposure to US Treasuries
- Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong pro-democracy figure, sentenced to 20 years in prison (“Family of media tycoon say he will ‘die a martyr behind bars’ amid widespread criticism from press freedom groups”)
- How Political Parties Die (“The parties that have dominated European politics for decades are collapsing.”)
- Europe is holding its Epstein creeps accountable. Why can’t we?
- Epstein was not ostracised for his crimes. To some powerful men, he became even more appealing
- Iran arrests leading reformists close to the country’s president (“Detentions of senior Reformists Front figures follow criticism of the authorities’ handling of recent protests”)
- How Japan’s Prime Minister Rescued Her Party from the Abyss (“Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader, harnessed her personal popularity and a shift to the right to achieve a record election win.”)
- Takaichi Triumphs With Japan’s Biggest Post-War Election Victory
- Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi looks to translate her election gains into a new conservative shift (“NHK, citing vote count results, said Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, alone secured 316 seats by early Monday, comfortably surpassing a 261-seat absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. That is a record since the party’s foundation in 1955. With the 36 seats won by its new ally, Japan Innovation Party, the ruling coalition won 352 seats.”)
- Supermajority Gives Japan’s Takaichi Strong Hand at Home and Abroad (“Win offers chance to push through policies on economy and defense—and might open the door to revising Japan’s constitution, a conservative goal for decades”)
- U.S. Olympic athletes in Italy are speaking out about the political situation at home
- Trump lashes out at American Olympian who expressed negative view of US politics (Trump, as always, is dead wrong.)
- U.S. Winter Olympic Champion Reveals ‘Scary’ Response To Her Trump Comments
- Trump calls Hunter Hess ‘a real loser’ for skier’s ambivalence about representing US
- UK leader Starmer fights for his job as Mandelson-Epstein revelations spark a leadership crisis (“The political storm stems from Starmer’s decision in 2024 to appoint Mandelson to Britain’s most important diplomatic post, despite knowing he had ties to Epstein.”)
- Starmer’s UK Premiership Teeters on Brink as Key Aides Quit
- Venezuela’s Machado says close ally kidnapped by ‘heavily armed’ men hours after prison release
- Trump’s Oil Grab in Venezuela Shatters an American Taboo
- Border czar warned immigration operations should be targeted to ‘keep the faith of the American people’ (“n an exclusive interview for an upcoming book, Tom Homan warned that public support for aggressive immigration tactics could falter.”)
- Plato Understood Why Masking Would Turn ICE Agents Into Devils (“The Republic explained that social scrutiny was necessary for human virtue”0
- Maine shaken by ICE raids as backlash threatens Republican Senate control
- How TikTok 2.0 Became a Weapon for ICE (“In just one week, the company has gone from being Gen Z’s preferred social media platform to a tool for spying on Americans and the suppression of information.”)
- Trump accepts ownership of the current economy: ‘I’m very proud of it’ (Hmmm…alrighty.)
- These US states want polluters to pay for the rising insurance costs of climate disasters (“Proposals by California, Hawaii and New York lawmakers aim to hold fossil fuel industry accountable for soaring rates” How about Virginia?)
- ‘The Trust Has Been Absolutely Destroyed’ (“Some state election officials say they no longer trust their federal partners.” Nope, zero reason to trust anyone associated with the Trump regime.)
- Trump news at a glance: ‘This is going to be a free and fair election,’ says Hakeem Jeffries after Trump’s comments
- Trump leaves Republicans guessing on midterms plan as outlook darkens (“The president is said to be eager to increase his involvement but has yet to approve a spending plan for the more than $300 million he’s got in his war chest.”)
- Fulton County argues FBI seizure of 2020 ballots shows ‘callous disregard’ for constitutional rights (“A Trump-appointed judge set a Tuesday deadline to disclose justification for the raid.”)
- 5 glaring warning signs for Republicans in this year’s midterm elections
- The Trump Bubble Is Impregnable for Now—but Boy, Is It Going to Burst (“The president is on collision course with an accountability moment. Either he or our democracy will prevail.”)
- Exclusive: Centrist Dems strike back with new group
- The Troubled State of the Senate Has Members Eyeing Governorships (“A record number of senators running for governor reflects deep frustrations with the upper chamber.”)
- Watch the Epstein Survivors’ Powerful Super Bowl Sunday Ad
- FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running a sex trafficking ring for powerful men, files show (Bizarre.)
- Seized, subverted, shuttered: a year in Trump’s assault on the Kennedy Center
- ‘Whiny Loser’: Critics Mock Trump’s Super-Triggered Meltdown Over Bad Bunny (“The president had some very strong feelings about a performance that many people loved.”)
- Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl 2026 Show Was a Joyful Act of Resilience—and Resistance (“It was one of the most feverishly-anticipated, instantly-controversial halftime shows in history. You didn’t need to know Spanish to grasp the message: Puerto Rico is America; fiesta is a form of protest; joy is a kind of rebellion.”)
- Trump Got Bad Bunny’s Message — And He Didn’t Like It (“The anti-immigrant president called the Puerto Rican musician’s Super Bowl performance “an affront to the Greatness of America””)
- The Right Is Terrified of Bad Bunny
- Trump calls Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance ‘absolutely terrible’
- Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show review – a thrilling ode to Boricua joy
- Trump calls Bad Bunny’s halftime show performance ‘one of the worst, EVER’ (Of course; 100% predictable.)
- ‘Together, We Are America’ (“Bad Bunny’s critics said his Super Bowl halftime show would be divisive. They were totally wrong.”)
- As Bad Bunny Slayed the Super Bowl, Turning Point USA Staged Its Own Weird Little Event (“The counterprogramming to the half time show was predictably xenophobic, but (perhaps) surprisingly low-quality and poorly attended”)
- Purported ransom deadline nears as Guthries say ‘we will pay’
- Video: Sen. Mark Warner Warns of “ICE patrols around polling stations” Aimed at Discouraging Latinos and Others from Voting in the Midterm Elections (Also, Warner says Gabbard going to Fulton County elections office is “Nixonian” and “stinks to high heaven.”)
- Mark Warner sounds the alarm about ICE playing a role in 2026 midterms
- Gerrymandering in Virginia is a strategic blunder for Democrats (The core argument here is simply wrong, as this is a TEMPORARY measure, only through 2030, and the chances of a “red wave” in 2026 or 2028 are basically zero. Maybe 2030, but after that the maps would change drastically again…)
- U.S. Representatives in Hampton Roads react to proposed redistricting map
- 10 more things to know about the Democrats’ proposed redistricting map (“The Democrat most hurt by this new map is 6th District challenger Beth Macy…This is a map that seems tailor-made for Perriello…Of the four Republican incumbents targeted, McGuire got the worst deal…This map would seem to be impregnable to a Voting Rights Act challenge.”)
- Bezos Post, Fox “News,” Right Wingers Freak Out, Attack Louise Lucas for Fighting Back Against Trump’s Attempts to Rig the Midterms (And they REALLY didn’t like “Hero of the Commonwealth” Lucas saying “You all started it and we fucking finished it”)
- State lawmakers want to lift local caps on housing grants for government employees
- Bill to ban the use of herbicide paraquat in Va. advances with narrow vote
- Advocates push state legislators to step up effort to protect victims of child abuse, rape
- Legislative seats shuffle around Virginia after Spanberger appointments
- Virginia House committee kills bill to decriminalize homelessness
- Shenandoah Borderlands Project protects forestland next to national park (“A project to protect more than 5,000 acres of forested mountain land adjacent to the Shenandoah National Park has secured conservation easements on two properties, with three more in the works. WMRA’s Randi B. Hagi reports.”)
- JUST IN: Fairfax’s Ilia Malinin secures US figure skating team gold at Milan Cortina Olympics
- Dems’ Woodbridge supervisor primary still too close to call, party leader says (“In addition to counting the ballots several times, Chisolm has decided to do what he calls ‘a complete re-look at everything,’ including whether the more than 500 voters who participated in the primary actually live in the Woodbridge District. That includes Casim himself, since the address Casim provided to the local Democratic committee differs from the one listed in the party’s voter database. As a result of the discrepancy, Casim was one of several voters who cast provisional ballots in the primary, Chisolm said.”)
- CWG Live: Freezing today but not quite as cold the rest of the week (“Some storminess is possible over the weekend.”)
