Saturday (3/7/26) News: “Every day you wake up to…things you just didn’t think were possible” – Barack Obama

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, March 7. But first, check out President Barack Obama SLAMMING Trump – without naming him – as follows:

“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law. An offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to it, to things you just didn’t think were possible. Each day we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other. and that some Americans count more than others and that some don’t even count it all. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry. Being celebrated and bullying. And mockery masquerading as strength. We see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards every single day we see that. And it’s hard to hope in those moments.”

• Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds (“Researchers identify sharp rise to about 0.35C every decade, after excluding natural fluctuations such as El Niño” That’s completely f’ed up.)
• Crude prices make record jump as Trump’s measures fail to calm markets (“The Trump administration has yet to solve the fundamental issue of getting oil and gas tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz again, analysts said.”)
• America Braces for Oil Shock as Iran War Throttles Supply
• Trump Is Risking a Global Stagflation Crisis With His Iran War (“The effect on oil and gas could be much, much larger than he thinks. And that shock will be passed on to every sector of the economy.”)
• Oil surges 35% this week for biggest gain in futures trading history dating back to 1983
• One week into the Iran war, the fallout is global
• Europe Didn’t Want War With Iran. But So Far, It Can’t Stay Out of It.
• U.S. crude oil sees largest weekly price jump on record (“Stocks also sharply dropped, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average having its worst week since April 2025.”)
• Trump wants to pick Iran’s new leader – will a hostile regime under fire agree?
• Russia has provided Iran with information that can help Tehran strike US military, AP sources say
• Russia is giving Iran intel to target U.S. forces, officials say (“The targeting information has included the locations of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the officials said.” Will this finally cause Trump to get mad at his BFF and role model, Vladimir Putin? Don’t hold your breath!)
• The Gulf Countries Can’t Take Much More (“Iran is exposing their vulnerabilities.”)
• The chaos of a failed state in Iran would be a perfectly acceptable outcome for Netanyahu (“The Israeli PM’s war on its nemesis is playing well domestically. But real safety for Israelis requires another leader altogether”)
• Israel Says It Has Launched New Wave of Attacks on Iran’s Capital
• Live updates: Israel hammers Beirut and Tehran as Iranian president apologizes to Gulf neighbors
• ‘The memories stay behind’: hundreds of thousands flee the Israeli bombs in Beirut (“The normally vibrant southern suburbs are a ghost town, their throngs of people replaced by rubble and fires”)
• Iran is not Venezuela, despite Trump’s hopes of repeating ‘regime capture’ strategy (“Experts say US influence over South American neighbour will be hard to replicate in country with deep and long-standing antipathy to the west”)
• Trump’s ever-changing rationale for war on Iran – how the story has shifted
• Why Hasn’t Trump Mentioned Iran’s Oil? (“Usually he encourages the seizure of natural resources as repayment in war.”)
• Operational Excellence, Strategic Incompetence (“The president is pointing to the American military’s excellence as though that somehow constitutes a strategy in itself.”)
• Trump Says He’s Considering New Targets in Iran War
• Trump team bashed Europe for a year. Now he wants support in war on Iran. (Hell no.)
• Trump has privately shown serious interest in U.S. ground troops in Iran (“The president’s private comments have not focused on a large-scale ground invasion of Iran, but rather on the idea of a small contingent of U.S. troops that would be used for specific strategic purposes, sources say.”)
• Trump to Mass Death: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (“The president’s shruggy nihilism extends to Iranians, US soldiers, and you.”)
• There Is No Iran Endgame That Doesn’t Risk Chaos
• U.S. May Have Committed War Crime In Sinking Of Iranian Ship (“The Geneva Conventions say nations have a duty to ‘take all possible measures’ to help rescue victims of shipwrecks. A U.S. submarine left that to Sri Lanka.”)
• VOA Persian journalist says he was fired over coverage of Reza Pahlavi
• Iran war enrages Make America Healthy Again movement (“A new petition from MAHA activists call for an end to ‘forever wars'”)
• An ideological guest list’: Trump invites Latin America’s rightwing leaders to Florida summit
• Trump tells CNN Cuba is soon going to fall: ‘I’m going to put Marco over there’
• Trump Tightens Pressure on Cuba as U.S. Pushes for Charges Against Leaders (“The order could set the stage for a drive for regime change in Cuba, a goal President Trump has expressed.”)
• CBP tells judge it needs 45 days to start tariff refunds
• New York Is Investigating the Death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam (“AG Letitia James will head an ‘independent assessment’ of what happened to the Blind Rohingya refugee who Border Patrol dumped in Buffalo.”)
• Kristi Noem’s Fireable Offenses (“The former Secretary of D.H.S. faced criticism for misspending funds, prioritizing her own self-promotion, and reflexively defending even the most brutal acts of the Trump Administration’s deportation efforts.”)
• Republicans hope Mullin brings steady hand amid Trump’s shakeup at DHS
• DHS feeds talking points to Republicans as opposition to ICE warehouses swells
• Kristi Noem Didn’t Give a Sh*t About ‘the Details’
• U.S. Employers Cut Jobs in Sign of a Shakier Economy
• Iran war threatens Trump’s affordability push as rising energy prices complicate Fed rate cuts
• The US economy lost 92,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%
• The U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February, stoking labor market worries
• The Economy’s Warning Light Is Flashing Yellow (“A soft labor market, persistent inflation, a potential oil crisis—what could go wrong?”)
• America Cannot Withstand the Economic Shock That’s Coming
• Donald Trump Promised a New “Golden Age” in America. Today, That Looks Extra Absurd. (“Is it good politically to preside over job losses and rising gas prices? We’ll find out!”)
• FDA’s controversial vaccine chief will exit agency next month (One of the media’s favorite “neutral” words is “controversial,” because that allows them to sidestep calling the person something more accurate – but harsher – such as “batshit crazy” in this case.)
• Unproven Trump autism claim affected care: Research (Speaking of batshit crazy…our president!)
• DOJ releases Epstein files with accusations against Trump
• Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid (So these DOGE f***ers committed crimes, right? Charge them then.)
• OP-ED: The SAVE America Act Isn’t About Voting — It’s About Your Data…and Supercharging Voter Suppression (“Privacy Violation and Grave Risk for Misuse”)
• Obama Buries Trump in Barbs at Civil Rights Icon’s Funeral
• Kalshi and Polymarket Are Each Eyeing Roughly $20 Billion Valuations
• Scoop: Rep. Darrell Issa expected to retire from Congress
• Veteran Rep. Darrell Issa decides not to seek reelection in new Democratic-leaning district
• Florida Bar reverses itself, says it is not investigating Lindsey Halligan (Cowards. In fact, Halligan should be disbarred ASAP for gross, egregious misconduct, unethical behavior and incompetence.)
• Top National Symphony Leader Quits in New Blow to Kennedy Center
• Austin shooting suspect was Tesla employee who assaulted co-worker, lawsuit says (“A 65-year-old woman says the automaker ignored warning signs before Ndiaga Diagne, the suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting, assaulted her. She sued Thursday.”)
• Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08): “The February Jobs Report Should Be A Flashing Red Warning Light for the Trump Administration” (Sen. Mark Warner: “92,000 jobs lost. Skyrocketing gas prices because of the administration’s war of choice. This is Trump’s economy.”)
• Lawsuit claims violation of constitutional amendment process, but new law may invalidate that charge (“An after-the-fact law will be tested in a case challenging one of four constitutional amendments voters are supposed to weigh in on this year and could have implications for all of them.”)
• Video: Sen. Tim Kaine, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04), Del. Cia Price Explain Why Voting YES on the Redistricting Amendment Is Crucial “to put a stop to Trump’s power grab” (Virginians need to stand up “against Donald Trump’s tyranny”)
• GOP draws comparisons to Jim Crow as Virginia redistricting vote gets underway (Another classic case where the newspaper’s headline shouldn’t just amplify/regurgitate right-wingers’ BULLSHIT, it should say right up front that this is FALSE and LAUGHABLE. But no…the media can’t do that, because faux “neutral” and “objective” or something. Ugh.)
• ‘Unprecedented times:’ Virginia Democrats defend redistricting referendum as early voting begins (“Kaine, McClellan and Price say amendment is a temporary response to GOP mid-decade redistricting efforts encouraged by Trump.”)
• Virginia voters show up early for redistricting ballot initiative
• Stripped of members, Virginia’s parole board operations grind to a halt
• A suburb rife with data centers set to fight Amazon plan for another (“An announcement that George Washington University sold its Northern Virginia campus to Amazon for $427 million stunned officials in Loudoun County.”)
• Williams’ bill would reward people on probation for fulfilling requirements
• The UVA president situation was Spanberger’s first political test: She failed (“Spanberger’s olive branch leaves a thin-resumed MAGA in charge of the day-to-day at the University of Virginia.”)
• A Virginia Beach man spent a month in immigration detention. Now, he faces an uncertain future: ‘I have to start again’ (“The man came to the U.S. seven years ago seeking asylum from Honduras. After his arrest by ICE, he spent time at a detention center in Farmville — a harrowing experience he said haunts him daily.”)
• Fairfax Co. board chairman says he wouldn’t put casino deal before voters (“I am not going to subject my residents to vote on something that we know is a bad deal for them.”)
• Dead menhaden wash ashore in Virginia Beach (“Officials say the die-off is likely the result of cold water temperatures”)
• CWG Live: Cool morning to milder late day, then warmer through midweek (“Scattered showers or a storm possible this evening. More showers may be around Sunday.”)