Tuesday News: “The Diseases Are Coming” – Thanks to Trump and Musk; “US stock market loses $4 trillion in value as Trump plows ahead on tariffs”; “Musk Melts Down as Tesla Stock Price Plunges”; “This Is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech Since the Red Scare”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, March 11.

• Microplastics hinder plant photosynthesis, study finds, threatening millions with starvation (Yet another man-made environmental disaster.)
• Only seven countries worldwide meet WHO dirty air guidelines, study shows
• What the world needs now is more fossil fuels, says Trump’s energy secretary (“Chris Wright signals abandonment of Biden’s ‘irrational, quasi-religious’ climate policies at industry conference” Insane person.)
• US will be ‘central’ to climate fight even without Trump, says Cop30 president
• Rubio announces that 83% of USAID contracts will be canceled (Disastrous – and presumably illegal/unconstitutional.)
• The Diseases Are Coming (“Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn government tear will have lasting effects on global health.”)
• Global stock markets register heavy falls as White House tries to talk up Trump tariffs
• Zelenskyy’s chief of staff urges Europe to keep financial pressure on Russia
• Ukraine-US talks on ending war with Russia start in Saudi Arabia as Kyiv launches huge drone attack
• Trump Drops the Mask (“The president’s latest positions on the Russia-Ukraine war reveal that he is indifferent to ongoing slaughter—indeed, he is willing to increase it.”)
• Elon Musk calls Sen. Mark Kelly a ‘traitor’ over his social media posts in support of Ukraine (In fact, Mark Kelly is an American hero, Ukraine is bravely fighting back against Russia’s barbaric invasion, and Elon Musk is heinous.)
• Ukraine Must Cede Territory in Any Peace Deal, Rubio Says (Not a single Democrat should have voted to confirm this guy – instead, ALL OF THEM did!)
• US-China Tariff Talks Stuck at Lower Levels, Stoking Frustration
• Musk’s Toxic Brand of Politics Has Hit a Wall in the U.K.
• North Sea oil tanker fire still raging as US probes causes (Reminder, wind and solar don’t “spill” or cause environmental disasters.)
• Ex-Philippine Leader Duterte Arrested in Drug War Case (“The Philippines said former President Rodrigo Duterte is under police custody after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant following an investigation into his deadly drug war.”)
• Eastern monarch butterfly population doubles in a year (“Migratory insects covered 4.2 acres in Mexican forests this winter but number remains far below long-term average”)
• Canada’s Mark Carney Rips Trump In Blistering Speech, Refuses To ‘Kneel’ And Be ‘Conquered’ (“Canada’s next prime minister said the U.S. is ‘a country we can no longer trust’ and that higher tariffs would continue ‘until the Americans show us respect.'”)
• Trump moves to relax rules against killing migratory birds (EVIL.)
• Solar Energy, Criticized by Trump, Claims Big U.S. Gain in 2024
• Dow falls by almost 900 points in market rout after Trump says he won’t rule out a recession
• US stock market loses $4 trillion in value as Trump plows ahead on tariffs
• White House downplays economic ‘blips’ as stock market tumbles (If the exact same thing had happened during a Democratic administration, Republicans would be going APESHIT!)
• Stocks’ sell-off worsens as Wall Street wonders how much pain Trump will accept for the economy
• Trump Promised Americans Booming Wealth. Now He’s Changing His Tune.
• Trump set off a stock market plunge that hammered US retirement accounts
• Donald Trump’s Empty Promises Are Catching Up to Him (“The president vowed to bring down prices on “day one”—something everyone would like to see. What happened with that?”)
• Wall Street Fears Trump Will Wreck the Soft Landing
• Is the United States headed toward a recession?
• How the US economy went from booming to a recession scare (Two words: Donald Trump)
• The Case Against Deporting Immigrants for “Pro-Terrorist” Speech
• This Is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech Since the Red Scare
• Trump warns that arrest of Palestinian activist at Columbia will be ‘first of many’
• AOC Rips “Tyrannical and Un-American” Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil (Even if you HATE Khalil’s speech, under the 1st amendment, he had the right to say it. Period. That’s the way America is SUPPOSED to work.)
• Judge halts deportation of Palestinian activist whose arrest was celebrated by Trump
• “Harassed, Bullied, Intimidated”: Behind the Right’s Legal Crusade Against the Press
• NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake (Insanity.)
• Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories (RFK Jr. is a total nutjob.)
• RFK Jr. gives Elon Musk’s DOGE free rein to raid the federal health agency
• Trump Officials Warn 60 Colleges of Possible Antisemitism Penalties
• Pentagon abruptly ends all funding for social science research
• The government already knows a lot about you. DOGE is trying to access all of it (This is inexcusable – Americans SHOULD be outraged.)
• Musk Says Entitlements ‘Big One’ to Cut in Trump’s DOGE Push (Yep, they’re coming after Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid!)
• Musk says DOGE is in almost every federal agency and plans to double staff
• Musk eyes Social Security and benefit programs for cuts while claiming widespread fraud (This AP headline SHOULD say “while FALSELY claiming widespread fraud.” Why doesn’t it???)
• Elon Musk claims X being targeted in ‘massive cyberattack’ as service goes down
• Judge orders urgent release of DOGE records, citing ‘unprecedented’ power and ‘unusual secrecy’
• Disgraced pols and crypto moguls vie for Trump pardons: ‘The level of interest is unheard of’ (Massively corrupt.)
• USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks (How is this legal? Didn’t CONGRESS appropriate this money???)
• House Democrats push to sink GOP spending bill but Senate Dems act coy
• Mike Johnson’s Oh-So-Clever Plan to Dump His Toxic, Stopgap Budget Bill on the Democrats
• Vought pushes for stopgap funding bill in GOP meeting (“Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, has also called at least one Republican holdout.”)
• Democrats offer short-term alternative to House GOP spending patch
• Tulsi Gabbard pulls security clearances for top Biden officials, those who went after Trump (Gabbard is menace.)
• Justice Dept. Official Says She Was Fired After Opposing Restoring Mel Gibson’s Gun Rights (Yet ANOTHER appalling, probably illegal, action by the Trump administration.)
• Firm Targeted by Trump Over Clinton Campaign Work Hires Top Litigators
• Musk Melts Down as Tesla Stock Price Plunges
• Tesla Shares Plunge as Musk’s Political Role Grows More Divisive
• Insight: Tesla’s stock defied gravity for years. Is Elon Musk’s EV party over?
• Billionaires at Trump’s Swearing-In Have Since Lost $210 Billion
• At SXSW, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber pokes fun at Mark Zuckerberg with Latin phrase T-shirt (“Graber’s shirt — which directly copies the style of a shirt that Zuckerberg wore onstage recently — says ‘Mundus sine caesaribus.’ Or, ‘a world without Caesars.'”)
• Mike Johnson’s chief of staff slurred speech and had trouble standing during DUI arrest, police say
• Texas bill would make identifying as transgender a felony punishable by jail (“The bill, while unlikely to pass, highlights the increasing extremism of legislation targeting trans people, especially in Texas, in recent years”)
• Trump pick for Washington US attorney made derogatory and racist comments (“Revealed: rhetoric by interim US attorney for DC includes falsely claiming Kamala Harris ‘self-identified’ as Black”)
• Top ‘Washington Post’ columnist resigns, accusing publisher of killing piece
• Health Update (“With a heavy heart, I have to tell you that after a long battle with cancer my husband Kevin Drum passed away on Friday, March 7, 2025.” RIP)
• City crews have begun painting over the ‘Black Lives Matter’ street mural in D.C.
• Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11): “The work of the Deputy IG and the OPM Office of IG must be allowed to proceed unimpeded.” (“OPM Inspector General Assessing Risks to Agency IT Systems”)
• Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) on House GOP Appropriations Bill: “This is not a funding bill, it is a defunding bill, and I will vote against it.” (“Allowing Elon and company to continue looting the federal government is as dirty as it gets.”)
• As Virginia and the Country Face Turmoil, Possible Recession, Assault on the Federal Workforce, etc., Here’s What the Three 2025 GOP Candidates for VA Governor Are Focused On (So yeah, go Abigail Spanberger!)
• Youngkin and Earle-Sears Stand By Trump as Virginia Officials Warn of Major Economic Damage (“The few resources [Earle-Sears] has offered to help Virginians ended up being broken links that led to ‘404 Page Not Found’ website errors.”)
• DPVA: “Virginians deserve answers, yet Republicans have chosen to hide from their constituents…This is a betrayal of the people they were elected to serve.” (“All five House Republicans stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami for a weekend while their constituents stood outside their offices concerned about cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP.”)
• Governors to laid-off federal workers: We’ll hire you (Youngkin, as always, is COMPLETELY full of crap.)
• Virginia’s hope to rejoin a regional effort to fight climate change delayed
• Outside of Northern Virginia, Trump’s government cuts may not matter politically unless Republican voters feel a negative impact (If Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. are affected, they will DEFINITELY feel an impact. Same thing with the weather service, etc.)
• Virginia colleges are beginning to end their DEI programs
• Va.’s plan to restrict social media for minors faces pushback and calls for tighter safeguards
• Aimee Guidera: By raising expectations, Youngkin is putting students first (I’m including this one just to say: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA – Youngkin’s Secretary of Education thinks Youngkin and her are doing a great job – newsworthy! Also, of course, she’s wildly lying, as Youngkin hasn’t “put students first,” “raised expectations,” improved math or English scores, etc, etc, etc. Yet the RTD published this false, misleading crap…)
• Probation reform awaits a signature from the governor
• UVa School of Medicine dean’s resignation letter a ‘hoax’
• Feds put UVa on notice: Protect Jewish students or face ‘enforcement actions’
• A Va. high school track athlete struck another runner with a baton. Then came death threats.
• A witness in a Norfolk murder case has repeatedly been caught lying. He’ll still be allowed to testify.
• An HOA set lethal traps for Wally the beaver. Neighbors fought back. (“A community in Fairfax County, Virginia, created a petition for Wally after its homeowners association said it would remove the beaver to protect a pond.”)
• Police interview man last seen with Loudoun Co. college student who disappeared in Dominican Republic
• Audit reveals state horse racing agency lacked key policies (“The state inspector general’s office took issue with cash handling and inspections.”)
• Wildlife experts warn of danger to Virginia finches
• Arlington to Conduct Aerial Drone Survey to Measure Deer Population
• CWG Live updates: Beautiful sunshine and springlike warmth