Friday (6/5) News: “Senate [GOP] passes $70B bill to fund immigration enforcement, without limits on Trump ‘anti-weaponization’ fund”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, June 5.

• Scientists warn Trump plan to axe US ocean monitoring system will leave world ‘flying blind’ (“Experts say dismantling the ocean observation system will ‘severely degrade’ the accuracy of weather predictions”)
• Mangrove forests are healing after decades of human destruction (“… a new study shows that since 2010 the world has been gaining more mangroves than it has been losing – driven by stronger legal protections and increased public awareness of their importance, sparked by disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The researchers say the key factor though is the remarkable capacity of these forests to regenerate naturally once humans stop chopping them down.”)
• A disease of deforestation: how Ebola is linked to the smartphone in your pocket
• ‘World-first’ vaccine designed by artificial intelligence
• Putin faces Ukrainian drone threat and stagnating economy at ‘Russian Davos’
• House Passes Ukraine Aid in Defiance of Republican Leaders (“Eighteen G.O.P. lawmakers broke with their party and joined Democrats to deliver yet another blow to the president’s foreign policy agenda.”)
• Pentagon likely to cancel missile deal with Germany over fears of Russia (Wuuuuuuut???)
• America, the Inessential Nation (“It turns out that Trump doesn’t have the cards”)
• Zelensky proposes face-to-face talks in open letter to Putin
• Putin says Russia will bolster its air defenses in response to Ukrainian drone attacks
• China Builds an Economic Fortress as Global Tensions Rise
• Why Xi Jinping Is Going to North Korea to Court Kim Jong-un
• US-Iran Talks at a Standstill as Hezbollah Rejects Truce
• Dems help GOP kill Tlaib’s Lebanon war powers measure
• Lebanon’s Latest Cease-Fire Shows Little Sign of Taking Hold
• Hezbollah rejects latest ceasefire agreement as Israeli strikes kill 4 in Lebanon
• Hezbollah rejection clouds Lebanon ceasefire and prospects for ending Iran war (So Israel’s gone rogue, with a bunch of far-right extremists in its government, but Israel’s enemies – Hezbollah, Hamas, etc. – are utterly heinous. Great combo, huh?)
• Congress wants to tie the United States to Israel with this new legislation. It’s a trap (“Israel and its lobby will use section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act to bind the US to a state that has gone rogue”)
• The Iran War and the End of the “Middle East” (“Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are reshaping the region—just not as they imagined.”)
• Orbán’s media slop spread poison beyond Hungary. Luckily, fearless, fact-based reporting endures
• Out of the shadows: Venezuela’s opposition emerges from hiding but remains on political sidelines
• US imposes new sanctions on Cuban president and Castro family members
• Senate passes $70B bill to fund immigration enforcement, without limits on Trump ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
• ICE to stop reporting deaths of newly released detainees, internal memo says (Ummmmm…WTF?)
• Senate Passes $70 Billion G.O.P. Immigration Bill
• The Delaney Hall Strikers Are Hitting GEO Group Where It Hurts (“There’s a lot of profit in paying immigrants a dollar a day to run their own jail—until they refuse.”)
• JD Vance goes all in on immigrant fraud hoax (JD Vance is utterly disgusting.)
• How to Shut Down an Immigrant Detention Camp (“There are many ways to interrupt the Trump administration’s brutal deportation campaign. Just look at what’s happening around Delaney Hall in New Jersey.”)
• Trump officials planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead, whistleblower says (“A former Social Security executive said the plan, which was not carried out, would have used a death database to pressure immigrants to leave the country.”)
• Spike in border wall spending goes mostly to 2 firms with GOP, White House ties (Massive corruption.)
• Prince William County Supervisor Kenny Boddye: “I am disgusted by the White House’s new ‘Aliens’ website.” (“I will not stay silent while this administration tries to train Americans to see immigrants as something other than people.”)
• Wildfires are making the US smoggy again, reversing progress on cleaner air, study finds
• How the insatiable thirst of datacenters is leaving communities across the US high and dry
• The May jobs report will be released Friday. Here’s what to expect (“Economists expect the employment rolls to show that just 80,000 jobs were added during May, which would mark a notch step down from the average of 150,000 over the prior two months.”)
• Oil executives warn of imminent price spike as right-wing media downplay risks
• Trump says Pulte won’t be his nominee for director of national intelligence (“Trump said other candidates were under consideration for nomination to the post.”)
• Trump claims Bill Pulte will investigate ‘rigged elections’ in temporary intelligence role (Again, why doesn’t the headline MAKE CLEAR that there are NO “RIGGED ELECTIONS” in the United States???)
• Trump uses wartime powers to dole out $700m to ‘clean, beautiful’ coal (WHY does the media keep using Trump’s/Republicans’ 100% false, insane, Orwellian language for shit???)
• New BLM Grazing Rules Eliminate Tribal Buffalo From Public Lands (“Tribes with bison herds are seeking negotiations with U.S. Department of Interior officials to ask for an exemption from new rules they have called “DEI for cattle.””)
• Pam Bondi claims Todd Blanche was ‘in charge’ of ‘entire release’ of Epstein files
• Todd Blanche was ‘in charge’ of Epstein matter, Bondi told lawmakers, according to new transcript
• Senate GOP defeats initial attempts to kill DOJ payout fund
• Blanche faces uncertain path through Senate
• Trump’s attorney general pick has exactly one qualification (“Todd Blanche passed his loyalty test to Trump.”)
• Todd Blanche won over his key audience of one. Now come the 100.
• Trump’s Justice Department Is Suing Cities and States to Dismantle Gun Laws (“The DOJ’s hollowed-out Civil Rights Division has a new focus: the Second Amendment.”)
• DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military’s Recognized Religion List (“This restructuring of faith codes, which help identity service members as well as the military in planning for appropriated religious coverage to include them, has now excluded minority faith/worldview groups including Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick, New Age churches, Pagan, Rosicrucianism, Shaman, Spiritualists, Troth, Unitarian Universalists and various Wiccans.”)
• States Have Replaced Pride Month with an Insanely Weird Conservative Holiday (“Why do right-wing lunatics feel the need to hijack or ruin anything that makes people happy?”)
• House bill rolls back food aid for pregnant women, children (House Republicans are sadistic motherf***ers.)
• Ballroom donors won $50B in contracts after giving to Trump project, watchdog group finds (Massive corruption.)
• Ex-national security adviser John Bolton will plead guilty in classified information case: AP source
• The Jan. 6 Pardons: How Many Clemency Recipients Have Faced Other Charges? (“The real count is much higher than the public knew.”)
• Tick, Tick, Boom (“Paramount delivers ’60 Minutes’ to Donald Trump on a gold platter”)
• The real Nick Bilton revealed — from political beliefs of new ‘60 Minutes’ boss to the rivals he beat to top job
• Scott Pelley, star of 60 Minutes, stood up for his principles and lost his job
• Knives Out for Morris Katz (“Operatives revel in the Mamdani mastermind’s Maine misstep.” What a disaster.)
• Democrats are furious after latest Platner revelations
• The Changing Face of “Authenticity” in Politics (“What Graham Platner’s scandal-plagued Senate run says about a tired cliché.”)
• Platner Denies Hurting Ex-Girlfriend and Says He Will Not Quit Senate Race (Definitely can’t believe a word this guy says.)
• Don’t Worry! That Was Almost Certainly the Last Graham Platner Scandal! (“A very not-panicked note from the Platner campaign”)
• Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall ‘Unsettling’ Behavior
  (“‘He said this a lot: If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them,’ she recalled, saying that he added that it would not be in ‘a sexual way, not in a gay way.’ ‘He was like, I would rape them to show them that I’m dominant,’ she said.” I mean…yeah, this guy has some major, MAJOR psychological “issues.” And WTF is the deal with people defending him???)
• ‘Like Two Cats Circling’: Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom Weigh a 2028 Showdown (“They claim to be friends, but many expect a gloves-off brawl should the two California Democrats decide to run for president”)
• Tense governor’s race in California unsettled as vote-counting continues (“State election officials continue to sift through uncounted primary ballots, which could take days or even weeks” This isn’t nefarious, of course, but it IS utterly ridiculous!)
• Is Texas About to Weather a Big Blue Storm? (“A veteran Lone Star State strategist forecasts a midterm win for Democrat James Talarico, believing political winds could swing deep red Texas blue.”)
• I wrote about George Santos. Then he made a violent threat and lied about it
• Kennedy Center Tells Staff to Immediately Remove Trump’s Name From Documents
• Kennedy Center moves to erase Trump references after judge said they were illegally added
• Trump’s Name Is Disappearing From More Than Just the Kennedy Center (“Lawyers are ordering staff to remove Trump from email signatures, letterhead, webpages, brochures, promotional materials, press releases, signs, and more.”)
• Swapped
  Trump Scraps Failed Freedom 250 Concerts, Makes Himself Headliner of ‘Greatest Rally, EVER’ (“The president also installed country singer Lee Greenwood as a replacement performer after several artists dropped out” Total f’ing farce.)
• Vanilla Ice Is In, Bret Michaels Is Out: Trump’s Battle for Celebrity Validation (D tier performers? F tier?)
• Trump’s arch not subject to law limiting D.C. building height, planning chief says (“The federal requirement caps most construction in Washington to a maximum height of 130 feet, about half that of the president’s 250-foot project.”)
• Trump eyes his next DC renovation: The Lincoln Memorial
• Sen. Tim Kaine Unveils Amendments to Republican Budget Resolution (Put guardrails on ICE and CBP, ban Trump’s “slush fund” and block Trump’s immunity from IRS audits, etc.)
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says His Concerns About a “Corrupted Election” in 2026 Goes Up “Five-Fold with Bill Pulte” as DNI (Sen. Warner also talks about the Iran War “disaster,” stopping Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund, the need for national “guardrails” on data centers, etc.)
• Speaker Scott says Virginia should honor its word on business deals, including with data centers (“We need to make sure that we do not do anything to kill the golden goose. I really don’t care about a specific industry”)
• Notes from the Square: Long-stalled state budget negotiations moving forward
• Spanberger signs legislation banning weapons in hospitals (These signings, by the way, are all ceremonial – the bills were signed weeks ago…)
• FOIA Friday: Richmond city and schools face scrutiny
• Pope & Schapiro: Could Virginia still get a legal marijuana marketplace?
• After Ashland dam removal, freshwater mussel species reintroduced to South Anna River
• Pair of major I-64 projects linking Hampton Roads and Richmond remain on schedule, officials say
• Shenandoah County: Solar-panel company investing $23.8 million in new operation
• Albemarle County: School system employee arrested in child sex crimes case
• Republican nomination process for Lynchburg City Council ‘not over’ until appeals are settled, state party chair says
• Media generates controversy over Albemarle County police chief being out on medical leave (“…he deserves to have time to focus on his health like any of the rest of us would, without having to see his name in clickbaity headlines.”)
• Brendan Banfield faces mandatory life in prison in ‘au pair affair’ murders sentencing (This guy is truly evil.)
• DC-area forecast: Hot through the weekend; some break from heat early week