Saturday News: DoJ “releases heavily redacted cache of Jeffrey Epstein files”; In Speech Supposedly on Affordability, “Trump Complains the FBI Made a Mess of Melania’s ‘Panties’”; “UVa’s board chose speed over legitimacy. Predictable crisis to follow”; “Sunshine is free. Don’t let Dominion try to block the sun”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, December 20.

• Was 2025 the year that business retreated from net zero? (“From retailers to banks, carmakers to councils, the bold pledges for carbon-neutral economies are being watered down or scrapped”)
• Investment in data centers worldwide hit record $61bn in 2025, report finds
• Amazon Sponsors AI Energy Summit Featuring Climate Deniers (Appalling.)
• Witkoff’s Other Backer in His Unlikely Diplomatic Ascent: Putin (“The Kremlin release of an American prisoner and a Saudi backchannel bolstered the rise of Trump’s longtime friend.”)
• Ukraine attacks Russian ‘shadow’ tanker off Libyan coast (“Reportedly critical drone strike is first in Mediterranean since full-scale invasion began as maritime conflict grows”)
• U.S. Strikes Islamic State Targets in Syria
• Trump Picks New Leader for Southern Command as Venezuela Pressure Grows
• U.S. and Venezuela Jam Caribbean GPS Signals to Thwart Attacks, Raising Flight Hazard
• Gaza no longer in famine but hunger levels remain critical, UN says
• U.S. Pitches ‘Project Sunrise’ Plan to Turn Gaza Into High-Tech Metropolis (“The blueprint, drafted by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, could see the U.S. commit to roughly 20% of some reconstruction costs over 10 years.”)
• Australia Once Acted Decisively on Guns. Bondi Tests Whether It Still Can
• Inside a ‘Turn and Burn’ Immigration Crackdown and the Chaos It Unleashes (“A video analysis of one early morning raid in Los Angeles revealed the vast web of consequences brought by aggressive new Border Patrol tactics.”)
• Trump again uses a tragedy as the pretext to target legal immigrants
• Trump Administration Seeks to Speed Up Deportations to Distant Countries (“Homeland Security attorneys have filed thousands of requests to dismiss asylum cases and send people to seek refuge in countries like Uganda and Honduras.”)
• Pro-immigrant pastor named bishop of Florida diocese home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate
• Unaccompanied children being pressed to return to their countries by US border officials (“Exclusive: federal document reveals children arriving as undocumented immigrants being threatened with detention”)
• Chesapeake City Jail sees spike in immigration detainers after becoming temporary holding facility for ICE
• Trump Judge Threatens to Hold Government in Contempt Over ICE
• Trump-Appointed Judge Flays ICE Over Conditions in Long Island Lockup
• Bulgarian Chicago business owner dies in ICE custody, sparking calls for ‘immediate investigation’
• Trump’s win streak on Supreme Court emergency docket breaks
• Supreme Court rebuffs Trump in immigration judges’ free-speech case
• Trump Seizes on Brown, MIT Shooting to Suspend More Legal Immigration (“The collective punishment for immigrants, documented or not, continues apace.”)
• Donald Trump promised a new ‘golden age’ for the US economy. Where is it?
• R.F.K. Jr. Likely to Swap U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule for Denmark’s (” The shift would mean fewer shots recommended for children. But a Danish health official found the idea baffling, saying the United States was getting ‘crazier and crazier in public health.'”)
• Under RFK Jr., U.S. plans to stop recommending most vaccines, defer to doctors
• How Proposed Changes to the Endangered Species Act Could Further Threaten the Country’s Imperiled Species (“The Trump administration is working to systemically unravel protections for endangered species. Environmental groups are pushing back. “)
• Scientists push back on Trump plan to break up a critical climate and weather center
• The United States of Donald Trump (“Donald Trump is slapping his name and face on everything he can, but America’s institutions don’t belong to him.”)
• Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building (Criminal vandalism.)
• US legislators say justice department is violating law by not releasing all Epstein files
• Trickle release of Epstein files on a Friday signals move to bury Trump ties (“The justice department is using a variety of tactics to try to obfuscate the US president’s connection to the sex offender”)
• US justice department releases heavily redacted cache of Jeffrey Epstein files
• ‘They’re Delusional If They Think This Is Going to Go Away’ (“The Trump administration’s release of the long-awaited Epstein files didn’t provide what survivors were looking for.”)
• The Most ████ Administration Ever (“The Epstein files are here, and they are too redacted to satisfy anyone.”)
• Takeaways from the US Justice Department’s initial release of Epstein files, mandated by Congress (“It includes thousands of photos, but far fewer files than expected…No new revelations about Trump or others”)
• 5 takeaways from the Justice Department’s Epstein files release
• What’s missing from the Epstein files release (“A lot of information that would help the public understand the case is still under wraps.”)
• Trump talks about neuroses, selecting chairs and his wife’s underwear drawer in latest affordability speech
• Trump Complains the FBI Made a Mess of Melania’s ‘Panties’ (“The president shared TMI about Melania in a rambling speech in North Carolina.”)
• MAGA infighting over Israel and 2028 heats up at the Turning Point USA conference (“Influencers turned on one another, with Ben Shapiro blasting ‘charlatans,’ Steve Bannon calling Shapiro a ‘cancer’ and Megyn Kelly declaring she was no longer friends with Shapiro.”)
• MAGA Is Eating Itself Alive (“From TPUSA to the White House, the feuds are spiraling out of control.”)
• Nick Fuentes is the biggest beneficiary of a crowded and fractured new era of right-wing media (“Why Media Matters is naming Nick Fuentes the 2025 Misinformer of the Year”)
• Two Young Physicists Seemed Destined for Greatness. Two Decades Later, One Shot the Other Dead. (“Former classmates say Claudio Neves Valente, suspect in the Brown and MIT shootings, was confrontational and socially awkward.”)
• Elise Stefanik Drops Out of N.Y. Governor’s Race and Will Leave Congress (This woman sold her soul to the devil, just like her BFF Jen Kiggans did as well.)
• Elise Stefanik Tried Everything to Please Trump. He Still Jilted Her.
• Sen. Cynthia Lummis will not seek reelection
• How surveillance technology and the ‘Reddit Detective Agency’ helped search for a killer
• Affordability is an easy campaign slogan. It’s harder to accomplish. Here’s why. (“Some of the key initiatives that many Virginia Democrats would like to pursue run the risk of making things less affordable, not more so.”)
• Virginia Democrats hint at re-embrace of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
• Sunshine is free. Don’t let Dominion try to block the sun
• UVA’s Republican-Controlled Board Votes to Appoint New President Weeks Before Abigail Spanberger Is Sworn In (LG-elect Ghazala Hashmi says this “raises serious concerns about process, institutional norms, and respect for a democratic transition.”)
• U.-Va. names new president, sparking outcry from some who sought delay (“Scott C. Beardsley, dean of the University of Virginia’s business school since 2015, was unanimously appointed as the 10th president of the state flagship university.”)
• UVA board appoints business school dean to be university president
• UVa board picks business school dean Scott Beardsley as new president
• UVa’s board chose speed over legitimacy. Predictable crisis to follow
• University of Virginia Board of Visitors announces tenth president
• MAGAs on UVA Board of Visitors make attempt to name new president
• Southwest Virginia: Former pastor pleads guilty to grooming teen he met on TikTok
• Virginia Democratic operative arrested on child pornography charges (Wow, this is horrendously bad.)
• Exclusive: Former Virginia Dem Finance Director Charged with Distributing Child Porn, Court Docs Show
• CWG Live: Colder air today gives way to a milder Sunday, then more ups and downs ahead (“Low to mid-40s today and near 50 tomorrow. Early look at Christmas indicates mild conditions likely.”)