by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise (economic, environmental, etc.), for Monday, June 29.
INTERNATIONAL
- Our Climate Models Are Missing Something Crucial (“They don’t properly account for growing natural emissions from wetlands, wildfires and permafrost melt.” That’s disastrous.)
- Millions in Climate Investments for Developing Countries Were Just Announced. It’s Not Nearly Enough.
- Offshore Oil and Gas Rush Threatens Whale Corridors and Coral Reefs (“Global plans to drill and expand fossil fuel projects overlap with marine protected areas and important fishing grounds, a new report finds.”)
- The Democracies Can Still Triumph (“Liberal societies need to show they can win—without destroying their own values from within.”)
- Russians Feel the War’s Hardships as Ukraine Pummels Crimea
- Putin details Russia’s fuel shortages after Ukrainian drone strikes
- Putin Ready for Ukraine Talks But Won’t Halt Long-Range Strikes
- China Emerges as a Relative Winner From Strait of Hormuz Crisis (“A report examines how the war in Iran has weighed on Asian economies, but left China in a more advantageous position.”)
- Iran Risks Peace Talks With U.S. to Maintain Leverage Over Strait (“Iran sees its control over the Strait of Hormuz as critical leverage in peace talks with the United States. It seems willing to risk the cease-fire to maintain that power.”)
- Iran Asserts Sole Control of Hormuz, Warns Challenges Will Bring More Violence
- U.S. and Iran agree to halt strikes and meet this week, U.S. official says
- Iran’s president says $6B in frozen assets in Qatar to be released as US talks challenged
- Shattered tiles, trembling domes: An inside look at how the war has damaged Iran’s historic sites
- What Was Really Going On With Republicans’ Show of Rebellion Against Trump’s War (“The whole sequence of events was political drama… Trump showed that, even so, he can still do pretty much whatever he wants”)
- Behind the scenes: How shared fear of Iran led to an Israel-Lebanon deal
- How Israel and Iran Are Fracturing Both Parties in the Midterms (“Raging internal debates over foreign policy threaten both parties’ fortunes in November — and in 2028. Is a major ideological shift underway?”)
- The Republican Party is starting to turn on Israel
- How children in West Bank are being killed by Israel ‘without accountability’ (WILDLY unnaceptable and heinous.)
- Trafficked, beaten and raped: raids reveal scale of abuse of women in Asia’s cyberscam centres (Evil.)
- Andy Burnham to set out his economic vision as he speeds toward power in Britain
- How population decline is exposing Germany’s old divides (“In the 35 years after reunification, the country’s overall population grew by 3.8 million, a 5% increase – driven by immigration. But in the five states that were part of the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR), the population has fallen by 16% (this figure excludes East Berlin).”)
- If Australia is serious about 1.5°C, it needs to shut down coal by 2034 and install a lot more solar and batteries
- How a Mass Shooting Shattered Australia’s Political Consensus (“After the country’s most deadly act of gun violence in nearly thirty years, some politicians asked whether the real problem wasn’t gun control but antisemitism. Were they right?”)
- Venezuela Is Desperately Searching for 50,000 Missing After Earthquakes (“After four days, hope is fading for families and teams looking for signs of life as criticism of Delcy Rodríguez’s government grows.”)
- Venezuela earthquake survivors share their stories but rescue teams’ hopes are fading
NATIONAL
- The US supreme court just put the lives of 1.3 million immigrants in danger (This Court is utterly heinous.)
- The stock market rally that’s making some people rich and everyone else miserable
- GOP lawmakers fear Trump is out of sync with voters on the economy
- With Final Decisions Ahead, the Supreme Court Is Sharply Divided (“The justices will decide this week whether President Trump can end the guarantee of birthright citizenship and fire a leader of the independent Federal Reserve.” These SHOULD be no-brainer cases, but probably won’t be.)
- Supreme Court Leaves Trump’s Fed, Citizenship Gambits for Last
- Heatwave and high humidity to blast much of US: ‘impactful to anyone’ (“Forecasters expect days of high temperatures in central and eastern US before Fourth of July and World Cup festivities”)
- Five Americans die every hour from toxic vehicle emissions, study finds (“Research suggests 41,800 premature US deaths in 2024 were attributable to road pollution” Just about everything about cars is a disaster.)
- Appeals court rejects Trump EPA bid to abandon rule restricting deadly soot pollution (“Decision leaves in place Biden-era standard on pollution from coal-fired plants, factories and other industrial sources”)
- Corruption for Make Benefit Glorious Family of Trump (“The emoluments are the message”)
- Johnson says he will send housing bill to Trump on Monday (“I certainly want him to take the biggest, boldest marker that he has and do that big Trump signature proudly on that legislation”)
- ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears (“The National Design Studio, staffed by Doge veterans, installed visitor-tracking software on vital federal websites”)
- “Nuclear Family Month” shows that MAGA is still coming for same-sex marriage (“Red state anti-Pride proclamations demonize most straight people along LGBTQ folks”)
- Yoo to advise diGenova on probe into inquiries of Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia (“The conservative law professor will consult with the Justice Department prosecutor on the investigation based in South Florida.” Insanity.)
- The Trump Pentagon appointee who has divided top Republicans (“Elbridge Colby has become the central figure in a battle to define the future of ‘America First’ foreign policy.”)
- Red, white and glowing blue: Trump’s push for new reactors reaches the finish line (“… for others, the speed sparks alarm. The race is “essentially an exercise in public relations,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. And, he added, the slashing of regulations undoes decades of safety lessons learned in the nuclear industry.”)
- Student loan shake-up hits July 1: Here’s what to know
- Trump-backed ‘Freedom Trucks’ tell a sanitized story of the country’s founding
- ‘Criminally Made’ What?!?: Trump’s Bonkers New 589-Word Rant Has A Wild Plot Twist
- Sen. Thom Tillis rails against Trump’s fixation on voting legislation (“The retiring North Carolina Republican said implementing the legislation ahead of November’s elections would be an ‘impossible task.'”)
- Sen. Bill Cassidy on Trump: ‘Sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage’ (Replace “sometimes” with “all the time”)
- GOP Sen. Cassidy seeks to explain RFK Jr. confirmation vote for Health and Human Services
- Why resisting Trump has galvanized Black Democrats as the midterms approach (“High primary turnout among Black voters in the South has given some in the party hope for upset wins in the region.”)
- Dems’ Tea Party-like rebellion built by a decade of frustration
- Left-wing Democratic primary wins pose test for a Jeffries speakership
- What If the MAGA Vibe Was Just a Mirage?
- Zohran Mamdani says he and allies he endorsed carry a ‘national message’
- The Important Missing Word That Discredits the Centrists’ New Letter (“The letter organized by moderate Rep. Tom Suozzi praises capitalism—but it somehow forgets to name the biggest enemy of any decent capitalism.”)
- Colorado Democrats brace for their own insurgent earthquake (“Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Diana DeGette are both facing surprisingly tough races in their Democratic primaries.”)
- Fox News’ Not-So-Wonderful Apology (Whatever else Fox “News” is, it most certainly is NOT actual news.)
- Comcast plans to split into two public companies by spinning [off] NBCUniversal and Sky
- Comcast soars 23% after announcing it will spin off media and tech wings into separate public companies
- Platner Has Slight Edge Over Collins in Tight Maine Senate Race, Poll Finds
- Trump sets Sept. 1 start for D.C. golf course overhaul (Sounds super sketchy.)
- Trump attacks Lewis George, says he won’t let D.C. ‘be destroyed’ (Trump, of course, is the one trashing D.C.)
VIRGINIA
- Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Says Trump Claiming Dems Are “becoming a Communist Party” Is “just goofy word salad” (Sen. Kaine pledges to support Chuck Schumer, says “he was one of the best Majority Leaders we’ve had in a long time”)
- Kaine says Hegseth ‘grudge’ against Army looks ‘personal’
- Transcript: Sen. Tim Kaine on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” June 28, 2026
- Three Republicans vie to take on Mark Warner this fall (These people are all far-right and awful.)
- Democrat says he ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if Trump does not sign bipartisan housing bill
- Virginia’s romance with data centers has cooled, but nobody benefits if there’s a full breakup (“Data centers should slow their jackrabbit pace of reproduction in congested suburbs and build where they could fill a need and do more economic good, columnist Bob Lewis writes.”)
- Virginia lawmakers return Monday to weigh Spanberger budget amendments before fiscal deadline (“Governor proposes 14 changes to newly approved spending plan, including firefighter cancer screening, data center revisions and expanded utility bill credits.”)
- Farmers, retailers worry as state and federal regs for hemp, marijuana shift (“A store owner gave notice to her landlord to end a lease while a farmer ponders sustainability of his business”)
- Virginians are feeling the effects of spiking health insurance premiums
- Spanberger proposes digital team to tackle tech challenges facing state agencies
- Local leaders seek to reestablish Centreville as ‘suburban center’ through new long-range plan
- Last Week in Rob Schilling: Somebody wants me to be their cabana boy
- Dangerous heat wave expected to build across Hampton Roads this week, forecasters say
- DC-area forecast: Warm-up begins today, with major heat wave ahead
