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by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise (economic, environmental, etc.) for Friday, August 7. Today’s biggest developments and headlines include the climate crisis (always at the top of these news highlights because it’s existential and should be a massive story every single day)…also AI can create new viruses – what could go wrong???; Trump making the world safe for kleptocrats and squandering America’s strategic advantages; U.S. political developments; Trump still trying to end birthright citizenship; Max Miller exemplifying horrible Republican men; etc.)
INTERNATIONAL NEWS (AI/viruses; Climate crisis/media failure; Trump squandering our strategic advantages and making the world safe for kleptocrats, etc. )
- Extreme heat breaks temperature records in central and eastern Europe (“Slovakia reaches new high of 42C as authorities in Poland forced to shut down Kozienice and Połaniec power plants”)
- ABC, CBS, and NBC aired nearly 200 segments about three U.S. heat events without mentioning climate change (These “news” networks are complete failures, total f’ing jokes.)
- Wildfire Smoke Is Now a Bigger Prenatal Threat Than Human Sources of Air Pollution (“As regulations have reduced prenatal exposure to harmful emissions from vehicles and industry in recent years, smoke from climate-fueled wildfires is erasing air quality gains.”)
- This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature (“Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.”)
- Now AI can create new viruses (“Why it matters: What could go wrong?”)
- Iran and Ukraine Aren’t Just Wars About Energy. They’re Wars Targeting Energy. (“Until recently, attacking civilian energy infrastructure was unacceptable. The dynamics of modern war have changed that.”)
- How Donald Trump Made the World Safe for Kleptocrats
- Ukraine war briefing: We will build missiles the way we built drones – Zelenskyy (“‘Concrete results’ needed by end of the year in developing alternative to Patriot, says Ukrainian president. What we know on day 1,626”)
- U.S. Intel Finds Putin Could Test NATO’s Resolve With Limited Incursion
- Pentagon policy chief can’t get invited to Beijing< (“Pentagon policy chief can’t get invited to Beijing”)/li>
- How the U.S. Squandered Its Strategic Advantage (“Idle threats and munitions shortages have boxed Trump in.”)
- Trump Orders Leak Probe After Venting About Media Coverage of Munitions Stockpile (“Move follows weeks of headlines describing depleted munitions levels”)
- Trump Says Hormuz Talks ‘Moving Along’ Even as Iran Mulls US Ban
- Oil rises as Iran’s draft plan sees U.S. and Israel banned from Strait of Hormuz
- Trump Vowed to Thwart Iran’s Nuclear Program. Here’s Where That Stands.
- Trump’s Iran dilemma: He’s stuck in war with no exit in sight
- Can Iran’s Diminished Diplomats Deliver a Hormuz Deal? (“Hard-liners’ growing clout raises the risk they undermine an agreement to reopen the strait”)
- Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan sign joint defence deal amid regional turmoil
- Saudi Arabia expects imminent attacks from north and south, senior official says
- Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace issues first building contract – for a military base (“Exclusive: Louisiana firm awarded tender to build rudimentary outpost to house Moroccan troops”)
- Israeli prosecutors charge settler with killing Palestinian activist in rare indictment (“It’s the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, that an Israeli has been indicted in the killing of a Palestinian in the West Bank, said Israeli rights group B’Tselem.” There should be many, MANY more indictments – and severe punishments – of these violent extremist scumbags.)
- Seized on Their Way to Gaza, Activists Tell of Abuse in Israeli Custody (“More than 20 people who tried to break an Israeli blockade described beatings, electric shocks and other abuse after being captured. Israel denied the accusations.” Such treatement would be wildly antithetical to Jewish values, democracy, law, etc.)
- Besieged Sudanese city faces relentless drone strikes and risk of mass atrocities, U.N. warns (And there continues to be almost no coverage of this horrible situation, no outrage in the West, etc. Why the f*** not? Racism?)
- ‘Her face was beaten in’: how Taliban rule ushered in a new era of women being killed (We really never should have allowed the Taliban to come back into power. I’ll never fully understand what Biden was thinking here…)
- Thai teenager kills at least seven and injures more than 30 as PM calls shooting ‘well prepared’
- Colombia on the brink: ELN guerrilla group prepares for return to war (“As Abelardo de la Espriella takes office as president vowing a new military offensive, the country’s last leftwing rebels are getting ready to fight back”)
- “No escape:” Inside Rubio’s Cuba pressure campaign
NATIONAL NEWS (Trump still pressing to end birthright citizenship despite SCOTUS ruling; Trump’s/Blanche’s war on women’s reproductive freedom/bodily autonomy; psychopathic Max Miller exemplifies horrible Republican men; etc)
- Trump targets birth tourism and citizenship in new executive orders
- Trump rolls out orders intended to narrow birthright citizenship and target ‘birth tourism’
- Trump Calls Roberts’s Bluff With New Executive Order On Birthright Citizenship (“What will Justice Barrett do?”)
- Trump launches new effort to end birthright citizenship
- ICE will release body camera video only when seen in the agency’s ‘best interests,’ policy says (Which is…never?)
- ICE is now tracking nearly 54,000 immigrants via ankle monitors (“Shift in monitoring methods has led to revenue boost for Geo Group, a private prison firm, that also makes the device”)
- Trump Promotes Commercial Fishing in Protected Pacific Marine National Monuments (“Scientists and other environmental advocates warn such activity would threaten coral reefs and other marine life.” WILDLY unacceptable!)
- Trump orders new 15% tariff on key material for solar panels and microchips (“Move to raise levy on goods made with polysilicon aims to protect domestic US supply chains from China, the major producer”)
- The July jobs numbers are due out Friday. Here’s what to expect (“The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its nonfarm payrolls report for July, with Wall Street expecting a gain of 83,000 and the unemployment rate to hold at 4.2%.”)
- White House drafting order on vaccines, autism despite pollsters’ warnings
- US strikes $1.2bn deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects (That is FUCKING INSANE!)
- Trump faces calls for windfall tax on big oil’s profits from Iran war (“US president’s complaint industry ‘making too much money’ comes after his policies boosted corporations”)
- With their assault on science, Trumpists aren’t just harming America – they’re harming themselves (“The administration is subjugating science to political imperatives, a major blow to US soft power and technological progress”)
- Behind the Curtain: Trump’s quicksand (“Even some longtime insiders fear he’s trapped by a war he shouldn’t have waged, tariffs he shouldn’t have levied, monuments he shouldn’t be obsessed with.”)
- The Trump Administration Is About to Step Up Its War on Abortion Access (“Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general is promising to take bodily autonomy from millions of women.”)
- Murkowski will oppose Blanche, threatening his confirmation
- Thune sets up votes on sanctions and nominees as final summer sprint takes shape
- Author of DNC’s 2024 “autopsy” says he concluded Gaza war hurt Harris (Maybe so, but I wouldn’t go by that FUBAR “autopsy” to prove it. Seems kinda obvious, though, that it at least hurt on the margins in Michigan, maybe elsewhere.)
- Abuse, harassment allegations threaten to derail Republicans’ midterm message (What “midterm message?” Fear, lies, etc?)
- Insults, Expletives and Fat-Shaming: Vance Trolls Critics on the Right and Left (“The vice president has dispensed with the decorum and restraint of his predecessors to directly take on opponents and journalists on social media with sometimes profane and often personal jabs.” Vance is a f’ing joke.)
- Jeanine Pirro berated Doug Burgum. But Interior staffers have been angry at him for months. (Burgum is disgusting.)
- Yes, El-Sayed May Lose. But Democrats Shouldn’t Try to Make It Happen.
- Abdul El-Sayed Talks About His Victory, Chuck Schumer and More
- Can Abdul El-Sayed Unify Michigan Democrats Ahead of the General Election?
- Stevens says of El-Sayed: “Differences were aired out” and “we did the unity deal”
- Susan Collins Reminds Maine Voters Just How Easily Brett Kavanaugh Duped Her (Collins is pathetic.)
- McConnell Announces Discharge From Rehabilitation Center (BTW, “Mr. McConnell said in a statement” is simply evidence that his staff put out a statement, not that McConnell actually said it himself. Of course, the media goes with “McConnell Announces” instead of the more accurate “McConnell’s Office Announces”)
- “Suspicious”: McConnell hospital discharge revives conspiracy theories (“Mitch McConnell is heading home. The internet still wants to hear from him”)
- Donald Trump refuses to say whether Ohio Republican Max Miller should step aside by tomorrow (“Former senior adviser to Trump is seeking reelection despite domestic abuse allegations by his ex-wife” If he stays in, it gives Democrats a chance to pick up his red-leaning district.)
- Why Max Miller is staying in (for now)
- Ohio Rep. Max Miller faces a growing number of calls to resign from fellow Republicans
- Max Miller tests GOP tolerance of terrible men
- Rep. Max Miller Has a History of Withholding His Daughter’s Blue Bunny (This guy is evil incarnate.)
- The Max Miller Allegations Are Horrible. He Needs to Not Be in Congress.
- Max Miller to Loan Campaign $1 Million, Rejecting Calls to Withdraw (“The Ohio congressman has said he would remain in the race despite domestic-abuse allegations and pressure from Republicans to step aside”)
- Rep. Andy Ogles loses his Republican primary in Tennessee (“Ogles lost despite having President Donald Trump’s endorsement, NBC News projects. Former state Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher will be the GOP nominee.”)
- Blackburn Wins Republican Nomination for Tennessee Governor
- Justin Pearson and Brent Taylor win primaries for key Tennessee House seat (“Nominees to face off in November in redistricted seat central to Trump’s bid to retain slim Republican majority”)
- ‘No magic formula’: Francesca Hong recalibrates her democratic socialist message as Wisconsin’s primary nears (Hong is a HORRIBLE candidate, truly cringe-inducing if you watch her interviews…WTF???)
- A socialist candidate criticized Thanksgiving — and unearthed a deeper debate on the left (“Some of Francesca Hong’s fans are gently asking: Does she have a ‘woke 1.0’ problem?”)
- Tucker Carlson Threw Down the Post-MAGA Gauntlet. Can He Actually Build a Movement? (“Along with fellow defectors Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Joe Kent, the former Fox News host says he’s planning a new party to break from Donald Trump. In a 90-minute monologue, he outlined his vision of what “America should be”—and left the door wide open as to what he plans to do about it.”)
- Louisiana school board and federal government end 61 years of segregation monitoring
- Judge formally dismisses Reflecting Pool charge against Olympian (It’s absolutely INSANE that charges were ever brought!)
- Trump again rebukes Jeanine Pirro over reflecting pool ‘vandalism’ case (“President attacks ‘terrible mistake’ of US attorney, who said in court filing damage stemmed from botched renovation”)
- How the Reflecting Pool Came to Mirror Trump’s Washington (“A hospitality manager for the Trump Organization traveled to Las Vegas to find a solution to problems at a national landmark. This is the untold back story of the fallout.”)
VIRGINIA NEWS (Sen. Warner on “full-alert time” for Trump messing with 2026 elections; Kaine a no vote on Blanche; “Yes on #3” launches; etc.)
- Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says This Is “Full-Alert Time” for Trump Potentially Messing with the 2026 Elections; Cites DoJ Election Monitors in Fairfax, PW Counties (Also, Sen. Warner rips into ABC13 reporter over her outrageous “question” about Dr. Fauci)
- Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Says He’s a NO Vote on Todd Blanche; Opposes Data Center Moratorium; Says Dominion-NextEra Deal Deserves Scrutiny… (Also, decries “a revenge campaign against a guy who’s in his mid-80s [Dr. Fauci] who retired four years ago”)
- Kaine: 340B program to help safety-net hospitals needs to return to original intent
- Virginia Dems resist a progressive trend, but moderation will pay off in November (Maybe so, but it’s also kinda funny, as this is exactly what you’d expect Mark Rozell to say…)
- Pope & Schapiro: A look at the primary results, Spanberger’s Dominion intervention
- Video: In Norfolk, “Virginians for the Right to Vote” Launches Statewide “Yes on #3” Constitutional Amendment Campaign (“Our laws are only as good as our constitution and the systems that enforce it”)
- Editorial: Proposed amendment would make rights restoration automatic (“Restoring civil rights to those convicted of felonies and who completed their sentences isn’t about voting power, as some will cynically argue, but rather an issue of fairness and justice.”)
- Campaign to enshrine voting rights in Virginia Constitution kicks off in Norfolk (“If the amendment is approved in November, people with felonies will be automatically able to vote when their sentences are complete.”)
- VA Gov. Abigail Spanberger Emphasizes “Three Nonnegotiable Priorities” for Proposed Dominion-NextEra Merger; “will formally request to be a party to the case” (This is “the first time a Governor of Virginia has taken such an action”)
- Spanberger takes step to intervene in Dominion Energy-NextEra Energy merger
- Scrutiny of Dominion Energy megamerger intensifies as Virginia governor weighs in (Wow, the Bezos Post actually wrote an article about Virginia politics – amazing! LOL)
- Spanberger takes unprecedented step to intervene in $67B Dominion-NextEra merger (“Virginia’s governor says she will press for lower electric bills, job protections and continued clean energy investment as the SCC reviews the deal.”)
- Data center politics shape Virginia scrutiny of NextEra-Dominion deal (“Gov. Abigail Spanberger isn’t opposing the tie-up yet but says she is ‘deeply skeptical’ that consumers and public policy priorities are protected through the proposed utility merger.”)
- ACLU of Virginia lawsuit alleges King George School Board blocked LGBTQ+ student club
- Mandatory fees for intercollegiate athletics are the fastest-rising part of cost of attending a state college in Virginia (“A new state report shows that overall costs are increasing faster. Mandatory fees for athletics aren’t the only reason but every school except one raised athletic fees at a faster rate than they raised tuition. At some schools students now pay more than $3,000 per year in such fees.”)
- Regulators OK Appalachian Power’s $340 million plan for old Glen Lyn coal plant (“The utility plans to haul the byproducts of coal-fired electricity generation to a future landfill across the West Virginia border. Utility customers could be paying for it for more than a decade.”)
- Elliston residents speak out against MVP compressor station, citing health and safety concerns
- Soering case may go back to court (“It’s been more than 35 years since Jens Soering – who’s now 60 — was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s parents in Bedford County, but that case could be coming back to court. He’s presented new evidence, and Virginia’s court of appeals has ordered the attorney general to review it and decide whether Soering should be declared innocent.”)
- New competency restoration pod in Virginia Beach jail aims to reduce wait times, increase access to mental health services
- Virginia: Rains helping to ease drought, but far from being out of the woods
- DC-area forecast: More heat and humidity, plus late-day strong storms possible
