Friday (7/7) News: Sen. Mark Warner “Shreds MAGA-Coded Anchor for Showcasing Trump’s Lies”; “Dazed, confused Trump goes on about ‘burn bags,” “Drags America Deep Down the Rabbit Hole”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise (economic, environmental), for Friday, July 17. Also, check out Sen. Mark Warner reacting to Trump’s insane speech last night, saying, “as an American, I’m embarrassed that the president…tried to speak to the whole nation with a whole series of falsehoods.” And also see Sen. Warner slamming CBS “News” for carrying Trump’s speech “as news”: “before I start, I just as an American, not an elected official, I was embarrassed that the president of the United States went before our whole country, and networks like yours carried this as news as opposed to a rehash of falsehoods and it is incumbent upon you and any responsible journalist to push back on these falsehoods. I’ve been either chairman or vice chairman of the intelligence committee for the last decade…If I may finish, if we don’t call into question these falsehoods this president is trying is going to lose a free and fair election and unless responsible journalists and the American people step up and say our system which has stood the test of time is not going to be undermined by this kind of falsehoods then you know we all will have to live with those responsibilities”

INTERNATIONAL

• Climate change driving more rains that lead to deadly flash floods, experts say
• As the UK and Europe battle deadly wildfires, what lessons can Australia offer?
• As Climate Extremes Collide, Attribution Science Evolves (“A National Academy of Sciences report on extreme climate event attribution confronts political climate denialism with scientific evidence.”)
• The U.S. Is Trampling Allies in the Global Hunt for Rare Earths
• ‘Enemies of civilization’: top Trump officials launch sweeping attack on left (“Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller took aim at only leftwing activism at meeting of 66 nations against political violence” Rubio and Miller are both evil.)
• Trump’s Election Security Speech: A Good Night for Putin (“His China deflection covers for Russia.”)
• Political crisis and protests in Ukraine as Zelenskyy defends sacking defence minister (“President says he had to choose ‘one side or the other’ after breakdown of relations between ministry and military leaders” Not good.)
• China just erased America’s AI lead (“A Chinese moonshot — literally and figuratively — has caught up to models that defined the U.S. frontier just weeks ago, at a substantially lower price.”)
• China’s Xi Touts Open-Source AI and Takes a Swipe at U.S. Dominance
• US, Iran Step Up Attacks as Fears Grow of Return to Full War
• US launches new strikes as Iran says civilian infrastructure hit
• Trump’s Tightening Squeeze on Iran Will Heap More Pain on Its Battered Economy
• US strikes bridges and collapses a tower at a key port as its Iran campaign expands
• Inside Bibi’s mystery Trump meeting (“It’s unclear whether Netanyahu received an outright “no” from the White House. But it is clear he did not receive a positive response.”)
• Andy Burnham to Replace Keir Starmer as Leader of U.K. Labour Party
• Burnham to become Labour leader and promise to ‘fix the big things politics has neglected’ – UK politics live
• More than 500 Rohingya vanished at sea – what happened?
• More than 200 countries endorse Infantino for fourth Fifa term despite Balogun scandal (World soccer’s governing authority is highly corrupt.)
• Canada’s Forests Will Burn and Burn (“Once a wildfire starts, it can spread to an area too massive to control.”)

NATIONAL

• What ICE Didn’t Say About Its Latest Killing (“The agency is no longer even claiming its officers feared for their lives.”)
• ICE arrests human rights lawyer who fled Chinese crackdown (F*** ICE)
• ICE agent who killed man in Biddeford identified as former Maine law enforcement officer (“An ex-wife told the Press Herald that David Brouillette called her and admitted he was the ICE agent who shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.” Arrest him IMMEDIATELY and charge with him murder.)
• AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say (“David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.”)
• Racist Law From 1882 Is Not That Racist, Trump Says (“Buried in the White House’s broadside against the Smithsonian is a bizarre—and revealing—claim about the Chinese Exclusion Act.”)
• Tribes and Environmental Groups Push Back on Trump Rule to Diminish Habitat Protections for Endangered Species (“Rescinding the definition of a single word under the Endangered Species Act will undermine the majority of habitat protections for imperiled species, experts say.”)
• Why Is It Always Lettuce? (“Although the source of this summer’s Cyclospora outbreak is still unknown, history suggests that leafy greens could be the culprit. A food microbiologist explains why salad makes for such a good Trojan horse, and why this bug is so hard to study.”)
• Iceberg lettuce supplier investigated as possible source in cyclosporiasis outbreak (“The lettuce, supplied to Taco Bell, is linked to an outbreak spanning at least five states: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.”)
• Don’t give up vegetables because of the diarrhea parasite
• Wildfire smoke makes air unhealthy from the US Midwest to East Coast. Officials say stay inside (AP doesn’t mention the climate crisis. Fuck them.)
• Canada fires prompt US air quality alerts as smoke blankets major cities (This BBC articles *does* mention climate change – good job!)
• Wildfire smoke will drive poor air quality through Saturday as new plumes arrive from Canada (CNN also mentions the climate crisis – good job!)
• Wildfire smoke will worsen in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic through Friday
• Trump’s health nominees are in flux with vote pending
• G.O.P. Rifts Deepen Over $95 Billion Budget Plan for Iran War and SAVE Act (“A House panel approved the measure. But Republicans are divided over its size, cost and policy provisions, and many are concerned about the timing before the midterm elections.”)
• Trump Accidentally Proves That Putin Did Help Him Run for President (“The president declassified intelligence that was supposed to back up his conspiracy theory but showed something very different.”)
• Trump Still Hasn’t Found What He’s Looking For (“The president’s prime-time speech was more notable for what it didn’t prove than what it did.”)
• Trump pushes debunked election lies, demands SAVE America Act in primetime speech
• Trump Just Did More Damage to American Elections Than China (“His speech was a mashup of charges that aren’t supported by the documents he released.”)
• A Trump Obsession That Carries a Cost for Democracy (“In demanding steps to address the integrity of voting, President Trump persisted in relitigating his 2020 election defeat while finding ways to cast doubt on the 2026 outcome.”)
• Dazed, confused Trump goes on about ‘burn bags’ in TV speech about elections
• Trump’s dark warning on U.S. elections: 4 takeaways (DISGRACEFUL “journalism” by Axios – should lead with the fact that Trump’s claims were all FALSE!)
• Trump Recycles And Distorts Old Intelligence Reports To Attack U.S. Elections Anew (“The president lost his 2020 reelection to Joe Biden by 7 million votes, but has been falsely claiming he won for five years, eight months and 13 days now.”)
• Trump rails against election systems — and familiar enemies (“None of the information Trump described appears to support his long-running claims that the 2020 election was stolen or that ballots and vote totals were manipulated.” ZERO evidence to support Trump’s insane claims, TONS of evidence to refute them!)
• ABC, NBC, CNN do not air Trump’s election-security speech live on primary channels
• How Trump’s address was bluntly aimed at destabilizing the US electoral system (“US president using office and intelligence agencies to try to undermine confidence in elections before midterms”)
• Trump: Networks That Didn’t Air Primetime Speech Live Should Have Licenses Revoked
• Trump Drags America Deep Down the Rabbit Hole (“In a White House address, Trump spouted wild election conspiracy theories.”)
• Trump makes unverified claims of China ‘election meddling’ as critics fear ploy to challenge midterm results (Why “unverified” and not just “FALSE”???)
• Biggest TV Networks Deliver Crushing Blow to Trump (“Donald Trump’s forthcoming address will not be aired in full on at least two major networks.”)
• Trump again makes unverifiable claims of noncitizen voting (“The president offered no concrete evidence, and at least one state — Nevada — rejected his claims immediately.”)
• Trump’s Election Denial Has Never Been More Dangerous
• White House touts Trump speech as Democrats warn of recycled falsehoods (The Bezos Post does the “both sides”/false equivalence bullshit thing.)
• White House Melts Down as Trump’s Speech Backfires (“Trump had promised to reveal “really big news” during the address, but that didn’t materialize.”)
• Can This Pseudo-Journalist Destroy American Democracy? (“Whatever Trump does, it’ll be because of John Solomon—a star conservative reporter who is, somehow, also a White House staffer. For nearly a decade, Solomon has had a hand in the creation of nearly every major MAGA grievance narrative, from the Russia investigation to Ukraine to 2020 election fraud. Solomon has a pretty clear M.O.: He’ll spin a story that seems like a massive exposé, getting it trumpeted on Fox News and throughout the right-wing media ecosystem before it has a chance to deflate under scrutiny, as it usually does.”)
• Epstein Survivors Give Todd Blanche A Failing Grade After Meeting In New Statement (“Lara Blume McGee says the AG nominee was “condescending” and tried to gaslight survivors instead of answering for the DOJ’s failures. Sen. Thom Tillis praised him anyway.” Tillis is PATHETIC!)
• The Biggest Takeaway From Todd Blanche’s Confirmation Hearing (“The once-cherished ideal of dispensing impartial justice has all but disappeared.”)
• Why Trump Can’t Leave the Smithsonian Alone
• Trump Media to Sell Faster Access to President’s Social Posts (WTF???)
• Pete Hegseth wants testosterone for his soldiers. Finally, some gender-affirming care (LOL, exactly!)
• Pete Hegseth wants to measure your manhood (“The defense secretary’s obsession with high testosterone levels can’t hide MAGA insecurity” These people are PATHETIC!)
• Platner is finished. Does the same fate await the out-of-state consultants who recruited him? (Let’s hope!)
• CNN and Bangor Daily News to host July 23 debate for Maine Democrats running to replace Graham Platner
• The Montana Independent Who’s Dooming the Democrats (“Major Democrats are backing Seth Bodnar’s bid for a Senate seat—over the party’s own nominee. The shortsighted strategy risks long-term damage to the Democrats in the red state.”)
• Blue Angels flyover: ‘No reprimands. No firings. No problem,’ acting Navy secretary says (Batshit-crazy extremist Hung Cao strikes again!)
• After Blue Angels low flyover, acting Navy secretary says: ‘No firings’ (“The flyover, which the Blue Angels said was lower than standard, sent umbrellas and chairs toppling. The acting Navy secretary later posted “That’s the sound of Freedom!””)
• What to know about cyclosporiasis cases in D.C., Maryland and Virginia
• DC region under code red air quality alert due to heat and smoky skies

VIRGINIA

• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says “Don’t believe anything [Trump says in his speech tonight] until it’s fact checked and verified”; “this is a loser who can’t acknowledge that he lost in 2020” (Trump’s just “trying to get his hardest core supporters to not trust in the election when he gets his tail whooped come November”)
• Senator Shreds MAGA-Coded Anchor for Showcasing Trump’s Lies (“Mark Warner schooled Tony Dokoupil within seconds of being introduced on CBS.”)
• VA Senator Tim Kaine is pushing for action on Social Security concerns
• Graphics: As of 6/30, Cash-on-Hand for Virginia’s Candidates for U.S. Senate, U.S. House (Very impressive fundraising by Sen. Mark Warner, Rep. Eugene Vindman, Elaine Luria, Tom Perriello, Beth Macy, etc.)
• Perriello has nearly three times as much cash as McGuire; Macy outraises Cline (“New campaign finance reports show Republicans outraise Democrats in the two districts where Democrats think they have their best chance, while Democrats outraise Republicans in two rural districts that haven’t gotten as much attention.” That’s really weird/false – in fact, in VA01, Shannon Taylor outraised Rob Wittman in 2Q26, and in VA02, significantly outraised Jen Kiggans. So…not sure what Dwayne Yancey is talking about here.)
• Six months in, Spanberger defends her record as economic concerns persist (“Virginia’s governor touts new affordability measures, education spending and data center tax while confronting weak poll numbers and legal challenges.” Spanberger’s still blathering about “polarization” – so stupid. Also, this is lame: “Spanberger declined to say whether Democrats should pursue another redistricting effort before the 2028 election, saying the political landscape could look very different by then.”)
• Six months into her term, Spanberger says challenges ahead after agenda wins
• Pope & Schapiro: New poll, new federal fallout, and a new gig for Glenn Youngkin
• New solar standards strengthen Virginia’s energy future (Will the Virginia General Assembly ever pass serious/aggressive energy efficiency mandates for Dominion Energy? If not, why not???)
• Jones asks judges to delay weapons ban cases until SCOTUS rules
• ‘Enough is enough’: Virginia’s ‘immovable’ power broker says data centers aren’t unstoppable (“State Senate President Pro Tem L. Louise Lucas tells the POLITICO Energy Podcast that public anger over data centers cuts across demographics.”)
• After Months of Debate, Virginia Fails to Pass Data Center Clean Energy Requirements (“The state will tax data center electricity but plans to reduce emissions at the facilities and secure environmental protections went nowhere.”)
• Va. fired federal workers rally for their jobs back, Trump accountability
• Today, Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti Is Being Compelled to Appear in a Closed-Door/Secret/Sham Hearing Run by the Horrendous “Gym” Jordan (Jordan et al “will pursue a disgusting, cynical agenda to impress an audience of exactly one.”)
• House committee questions Va. prosecutor in closed-door deposition (“Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (D), the top prosecutor in Arlington County, is the latest Northern Virginia official to be pressed by members of the House Judiciary Committee.”)
• Governor visits Smith Mountain Lake to emphasize water conservation in drought (And doesn’t mention the words “climate crisis,” “global warming,” etc. FAIL.)
• Spanberger: “I do not want us to need mandatory practices to conserve water”
• Water authority director says despite drought, reservoirs “are looking great”
• Report finds ‘substantial disparities’ in Virginia Beach contracts with minority-owned businesses
• Fairfax cancer survivor says reproductive rights amendment would protect vital healthcare (“Raquel Simental plans to vote on Nov. 3 to approve an amendment to the Virginia Constitution to protect the right to reproductive freedom.”)
• Poquoson cop faces grand jury after holding man and teen at gunpoint after crash (“Michael A. Disanto is charged with four felony counts — including two counts of abduction — after a teenager crashed into his parked police SUV on April 19.”)
• Mending a torn safety net: Lagging salaries, lapsed communication at Nelson DSS
• In Purcellville, a small town faces big questions about its future
• Waynesboro: Church school, daycare director charged with failure to report inappropriate contact
• DC-area forecast: Smoky with unhealthy air today. Storms likely Saturday.