News roundup, 7 Aug 2025

- Manitoba's Southern Health Region has warned that numerous people appear to be defying public health directives regarding the measles outbreak in the region. I can't help thinking that while the law may allow for action to be taken against these people, public health officials are having to weigh this against the social harm that could result from the inevitable populist backlash against such measures.

- A man who was caught on video during the Jan 6 putsch calling on rioters to kill cops is now a senior advisor for the US Department of Justice. 

- The Trump regime appears to be planning to end the missions of the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, which measure CO₂ and plant growth around the world. NASA has been "asked" by the government to draw up plans to end the missions, including deorbiting one of the satellites. 

- Although some parts of the world have gotten wetter with climate change, a lot more have become drier. 75% of the world's people live in the latter. 

- Manitoba Justice sometimes outsources prosecutions to people who normally serve as defense lawyers. There has been a significant increase in this recently, with more than 70% of criminal cases being outsourced. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe attributes this to logistical matters (e.g. juggling maternity leave) and to the practice of hiring a special prosecutor when there is a potential conflict of interest. The union representing prosecutors, however, says the government needs to hire more prosecutors to deal with rising caseloads.

- A BC man who suddenly found himself getting rejected for loans discovered that his credit score with Equifax had been reset to zero. The agency refused to provide any explanation until the CBC started investigating, whereupon they pointed to an obscure policy under which they reset the scores of anyone whose file is labelled "inactive". The other major rating agency in the country, TransUnion, says that they do not do this, but many lenders rely solely on Equifax, with the result that people who studiously avoid using credit are putting themselves at a disadvantage.

- China has submitted plans to the UK government for a new embassy, to be located near London's financial district. The thing is, parts of the submission have been redacted, leading to fears about espionage. There are also fears that the facility could be used to detain dissidents living in Britain - Hong Kong authorities recently offered large amounts of money for information leading to the capture of 19 pro-democracy activists living abroad.

- The UK has arrested three people, two of them seniors, and charged them with showing support for a banned organization (Palestine Action) under the Terrorism Act of 2000. The "terrorism" attributed to the organization has consisted of disruption of the operations of factories owned by Israeli arms companies; it seems a bit of a stretch to call that terrorism, given the lack of actual violence. More on the organization here.

- Police in LaSalle, Ontario caught a man who had apparently entered Canada illegally by crossing the Detroit River in a kayak.

News roundup, 6 Aug 2025

- A car slammed into several vehicles waiting at a red light in Winnipeg's West End on Monday, injuring several people. A dashcam video of the crash may be found here; I do hope the driver's text was important.

- Mark Carney is not in a hurry to impose retaliatory tariffs on the US, and has even expressed openness to lifting some existing tariffs if it would be beneficial to Canadian industry. The government has, however, promised over a billion dollars to support the beleaguered softwood lumber industry.

- The union representing Manitoba's nurses will be voting this week on whether or not to discourage their members from taking jobs at the province's largest hospital due to safety concerns. If the union does vote to "greylist" Health Sciences Centre, the listing will remain until certain conditions are met, including security measures to keep the public out of the facility's tunnels and an alert system to warn staff and patients about security incidents in a timely manner.

- A man walked into a courtroom in Wapekeka First Nation in northern Ontario and pulled out a knife; he was shot to death by police. 

- The number of missiles launched by Russia against Ukraine has more than doubled since Donald Trump's inauguration.

- Manitoba's cabinet has dismissed appeals against the issuing of a license for a mine near Bernic Lake near Nopiming Provincial Park. The government says that the concerns raised had already been addressed during the environmental assessment process, but critics are skeptical. The mine is expected to produce tantalum, cesium, and lithium.

- The union representing Air Canada's flight attendants has overwhelmingly voted to strike if an agreement isn't reached by the 16th of August.

- The body of a man who went missing 28 years ago has been recovered from a glacier in Pakistan's Kohistan region. He had apparently fallen down a crevasse during a snowstorm, and recent melting allowed his remains to be found.

- Today is the 80th anniversary of the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. As those with first-hand memories of the bombing of Hiroshima are dying off, efforts are being made to ensure that their accounts are not forgotten.

News roundup, 5 Aug 2025

- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helped fund PBS, NPR, and various local stations, is shutting down after being defunded by Congress. This won't lead to an immediate shutdown of NPR and PBS, but much of their programming is expected to take a hit - notably, anything to do with music is likely to disappear unless new licensing agreements with music publishers can be negotiated, as CBP money was used to cover music licensing fees.

- A plan to rebuild the upscale Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in Los Angeles following the wildfires in January has been put on hold following opposition to provisions in the bill that would have allowed the construction of affordable housing on some lots in the neighbourhood.

- Brazilian far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who is awaiting trial for plotting Brazil's version of Jan 6 after losing the 2022 presidential election, has been placed under house arrest for violating bail conditions by using his son's phone to post content attacking the judiciary.

- The former CAO of Gilbert Plains, Manitoba has pleaded guilty to stealing over half a million dollars from the municipality. When the discrepancies were originally found, she attributed the disappearance of the money to a cyberattack. I'm guessing she thought she was just borrowing the money until her lucky numbers came up at the local VLT lounge.

- The rules of Texas' legislature provide for a quorum of two thirds of the members of the lower house in order for the legislature to proceed. The Democratic opposition is taking advantage of this to shut down the legislature by leaving the state, as they have done in the past, to stop gerrymandering; the governor has ordered them to be arrested and brought back to the House. He has also threatened that if they accept donations to cover the fines for their boycott, they will be charged with accepting bribes.

- A Danish zoo is asking members of the public to donate their unwanted pets to feed to zoo animals. 

News roundup, 1 Aug 2025

- Donald Trump has signed an executive order raising tariffs on Canadian goods to 35%, continuing to beat the fentanyl drum as an explanation. Mexico has been given a 30 day reprieve but could still face tariff hikes in another month. Both Doug Ford and Unifor president Lana Payne are calling for 50% tariffs on American steel and aluminum in retaliation.

- Trump suddenly finds himself on Joe Rogan's bad side over the failure to release the Epstein files, and Rogan isn't letting this one slide. This is a problem for Trump, given how big the overlap between Rogan fans and prospective Trump supporters. Of course, this is doubtless more of a cynical move than a principled one on Rogan's part, but if his buyer's remorse does Trump some damage, I'm not complaining. I'm not convinced it's enough to bring him down, though. His supporters seem willing to give him a pass on all manner of other awfulness; why should the sexual abuse of children be any different?

- A bill before the US Senate would, if passed, ban the ownership of individual stocks by members of either house of Congress. Interestingly, Republican senator Josh Hawley voted with the Democrats to get the bill through committee and potentially get it to the floor for a full vote. Naturally this drew the ire of Trump, who called Hawley a "pawn"; another Republican senator, Rick Scott, isn't too happy either. Of course, the bill has little chance of becoming law; for starters, Senate Majority Leader John Thune can stop it from going to a full vote (and probably will).

- A recent survey conducted by the Canadian Automobile Association has found that 65% of Manitobans polled are in favour of photo radar; evidently the loudmouths who bleat "Cash grab! Cash grab!" every time this is suggested are just a noisy minority. Of course polls can be biased, but if a CAA-sponsored poll was biased I'd expect the bias to be in the other direction. And despite what the freedumb crowd will tell you, there's evidence that it actually does reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents. All that said, designing the roads so that people adapt to lower speeds unconsciously is a far better way to slow traffic. Still, in places where traffic calming is difficult due to existing legislation, photo radar is the way to go.

- A fourth candidate has entered the race for the byelection to replace deceased Winnipeg city councillor Jason Schreyer. Abel Gutierrez seems to have his heart in the right place, but I can't help but think that a civic employee and labour leader like Carmen Prefontaine or an urbanist like Emma Durand-Wood probably have a better understanding of the big picture than a construction manager would.

- An extradition hearing in Edinburgh is deciding whether three men will face extradition to Canada to face charges related to the beating death of an Owen Sound restaurant owner in 2023. 

- Several business owners in Winnipeg have been subjected to extortion recently, with threats of arson or violence. Two restaurants owned by the same family were hit in July; one of them suffered relatively minor damage but the other was destroyed by fire. Convenience stores have also been hit; many of the victims believe the same people are behind the attacks. 

- A Winnipeg tattoo artist is offering a service where she'll mix the cremated remains of a loved one into tattoo ink so you can carry a bit of them around with you forever. 

News roundup, 31 July 2025

- The Carney government says they will recognize a Palestinian state, with certain conditions. Notably, the Palestinian Authority must hold an election and commit to other democratic reforms. A step in the right direction, certainly, though it's worth noting that no such condition is placed on the recognition of other sovereign states (e.g. Saudi Arabia).

- The Poilievre Conservatives have been attacking the prosecutors in the case of the clownvoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, prompting the Ontario Crown Attorneys' Association to accuse the Cons of an attack on prosecutorial independence. Prosecutors are seeking a seven year sentence for Lich and eight years for Barber.

- A court in Ontario has struck down the Ford government's order to remove bike lanes from certain Toronto streets. The government, of course, plans to appeal

- The acquisition of CBS parent company Paramount by Skydance has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission - on the condition that they appoint an ombudsman to ensure that news coverage isn't "biased" against the Trump regime. I can't see any way this could go badly... 

- The City of Winnipeg is the latest to deny Sean Feucht's application for a permit to perform on public land in the city. Montreal went further, denying a church a permit to host Feucht on their own property, and then fining the church $2,500 when they called their bluff.

- In tangentially related news, Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert (who was alleged to have had an affair with Feucht while still married to her husband) is claiming that the child abuse charges against her son were the result of a "miscommunication".

- A man in Ridgeway, Virginia who had shot his wife to death in an argument decided that since he wasn't going to get away with it anyway, he might as well kill someone else too. I think the old saying "Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb" comes closer to the mark than usual here.

News roundup, 30 July 2025

- A major earthquake in eastern Russia has led to tsunami warnings on the BC coast and throughout the Pacific. 

- An intelligence report from the Netherlands' National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) has identified Israel as a potential national security threat for the first time. This follows attempts by Israel to influence public opinion in the country following a soccer riot by fans of the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam last year. Fans of the team were caught on video vandalizing property and threatening people, but the Israelis planted stories in the Dutch media claiming that their team's fans were victims of antisemitism. NCTV has also raised concerns about Israeli and American threats towards the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague.

- After Toronto police officer Jason Boag got drunk and crashed his car two years ago, the incident was described as having occurred "off duty". However, an investigation has found that his superior seems to have falsified paperwork to cover up the fact that he, Boag, and several other officers spent the better part of their shift drinking at a restaurant before the accident.

- Evacuees are returning to Tataskweyak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba after two months. They had left at the end of May due to the threat from wildfires, and then their return was delayed by problems with the community's water treatment plant.

- A Winnipeg teenager named who checked in to a fight from Calgary to Tokyo was found to have 30 kilograms of meth in her luggage. I have to assume she wasn't acting alone.

- Former prime minister Justin Trudeau was spotted having dinner with American pop singer Katy Perry at a posh Montreal restaurant on Monday.

- A 76 year old man in the Chicago exurb of Schaumburg has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting his daughter-in-law to death. Apparently he was displeased that she had filed for divorce from his son.

News roundup, 29 July 2025

- The Manitoba government says that 59 people have been housed through the "Your Way Home" program since it launched in January. According to housing minister Bernadette Smith, all 59 are still housed; nonetheless, some are concerned about the slow pace of getting people into housing. The City of Winnipeg's move to shut St. Boniface Street Links out of the process and give the Main Street Project an exclusive contract is also getting poor reviews from some; city councillor Ross Eadie says that he will be calling for the city to review this decision. For her part, Street Links' executive director, Marion Willis, says that her organization has housed 28 people this month; it would be interesting to know more about the difference in the organization's approach compared to MSP.

- Elections Canada says that they will be using write-in ballots in order to make balloting for the Battle River-Crowfoot byelection manageable. The best thing to be hoped for would be if one of the 209 candidates has a similar name to Pierre Poilievre; that could lead to some interesting results.

- Donald Trump is now saying that a trade deal with Canada to avoid the planned increase in tariffs may not be in the cards. Of course, given that Trump said months ago that he wants to use economic force to compel Canada to join the US, this is not surprising. Probably the negotiations were set up by Trump to fail from the beginning. Meanwhile, the EU has agreed to a deal with the US that will set baseline tariffs at 15%; this is lower than the 30% threatened but considerably higher than the 4.8% tariffs in place now. German chancellor Friedrich Merz says that this was the best deal that could be hoped for, while French prime minister François Bayrou called it a capitulation.

- Two prominent Israeli human rights organizations are now accusing their country of genocidal acts in Gaza. Of course this is old news to anyone who's been paying attention to organizations outside that country, but it makes it a bit harder for the Netanyahu regime to deny it when their own people are saying it.

- A British judge has ordered the last will and testament of Freddie Scappaticci, widely suspected of being a mole in the Provisional IRA for the government, to be sealed for 70 years. A representative of the estate had requested this to protect his heirs from possible retribution in case someone considers them guilty by association.

- The city of Vaughan is the latest to deny MAGA rocker Sean Feucht a permit to perform in one of its parks. Instead, he will performed in a church in Etobicoke. It's worth noting how nearly all of his performances seem to have been initially booked for venues that are owned by public entities. I'm pretty sure he's not doing that as a way of showing solidarity with the public sector; more likely he's hoping for this very result so he can play the victim.