News roundup, 27 June 2025

- A 49 year old Canadian citizen has died in ICE custody in Florida. He had been a permanent resident since 1991 and was in custody pending deportation, having been convicted of drug offenses; he suffered from epilepsy and needed a medication to control his seizures, though it is not yet known if this is the reason for his death.

- Even as the IDF continues to demolish Gaza, their irregulars (the nominally civilian West Bank settlers) held a vicious pogrom in the town of Kafr Malik. When the locals responded by throwing stones at the attackers, the official wing of the army opened fire, killing three people. It's stuff like this that has led many to question whether the settlers should be considered to be civilians (and thus whether killing them counts as terrorism).

- The so-called "revenge tax" provision of the "One Big Beautiful Bill", which would have taxed US investment income for residents of countries that had annoyed Trump, has been removed by Republican senators following a recommendation from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Evidently the prospect of foreign investors divesting from US securities en masse didn't seem like such a good thing after some consideration.

- New York City's establishment, including the likes of hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, are freaking out over Zohran Mamdani's victory in the Democratic primary for mayor, and are getting in line behind incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Better a crook than a lefty in their minds, I guess.

- Winnipeg's most famous intersection, Portage and Main, is reopening to pedestrian traffic after 46 years. 

- A report submitted to Winnipeg's Public Works Committee has recommended the installation of bike lanes and the lowering of the speed limit to 40 km/h on the part of Wellington Crescent where a cyclist was killed last year. The proposal is for the changes to be in place by next spring, to give time for consultations; activists think a better approach would have been to provisionally make the changes and then see what people think of the reality of it rather than the idea of it, but that would make too much sense I guess.

- Trump Mobile, the president's venture into cellphone services, has removed the phrase "made in the USA" from its website, though they still insist that the phones are "brought to life" in the US, and that there will be "American hands behind every device". A cynic might wonder if the hands in question are the users' hands; if that were the case it would probably be technically accurate (who but an American would be fool enough to buy one?)

- Chinese authorities have declined a request for information about the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 in 2022 that killed 132 people, citing "national security". Based on information that has already leaked out about the crash, there are suspicions that it may have been a case of pilot suicide; perhaps the authorities don't want to have to answer any hard questions about that.

News roundup, 26 June 2025

- Banks in the US have been reversing decisions made during the Biden administration and reinvesting in fossil fuels. Notably, this is disproportionately an American trend; most of the banks offering financing in this sector are US-based, suggesting that these moves may be motivated by other considerations than the objective quality of those investments. Perhaps the fact that states like West Virginia and Texas are actively punishing institutions for divesting from the sector has something to do with it.

- The Trump regime's "One Big Beautiful Bill" includes a provision that charges a tax on investment income paid to residents of countries that the US considers to have "unfair or discriminatory" taxes, such as Canada's digital services tax. Of course, this has the potential to cause investors from such countries to invest elsewhere, potentially driving millions in investments out of the US.

- The proposal to put a build a migrant detention centre in the Everglades, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz", is going ahead; construction on the facility has begun at an old airport despite concerns from environmentalists as well as human rights activists.

- Hedge funds are buying subrogation claims from insurers, often at steep discounts, in the hope of profiting in the event that the fires are deemed to have been caused by Southern California Edison's equipment. California has a fund in place to pay out such claims and protect utilities from bankruptcy; essentially the state is getting all the downsides of public ownership with none of the upsides.

- Geoffrey Hinton, a Canadian AI researcher who won the Nobel Prize in physics for work on neural networks, is warning that Canada needs to regulate the technology more stringently. He will be meeting with AI and digital innovation minister Evan Solomon to discuss the matter but there is a lot of resistance to the idea, and Solomon himself has said that he has no plans to reintroduce legislation that died on the order paper when the last election was called.

News roundup, 25 June 2025

- The ceasefire in the Israel-Iran conflict seems to be holding for the time being. Meanwhile there are some doubts about whether the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites were as effective as Trump claims.

- Heat warnings are in place for a large portion of North America, including the US Midwest and east coast as well as parts of Ontario, Quebec, and even Nova Scotia. Even overnight temperatures are hovering in the high twenties in some cities.

- Kat Cammack, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Florida who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, found herself in a dangerous situation due to experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. It seems doctors were initially reluctant to treat her due to fears that new anti-abortion legislation could be used against them, although they eventually went ahead and saved her life. For her part, Cammack blames the messaging from Democrats and pro-choice activists for the doctors' fears, which she says are unfounded.

- A Norwegian tourist says he was denied entry into the US because a search of his phone revealed a meme that made fun of JD Vance. This is DPRK-level pettiness, and his handling while they were waiting for a flight to deport him on, while not yet in DPRK territory, certainly doesn't sound like how a well-functioning democracy is supposed to behave.

- Leftwing candidate Zohran Mamdani has won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, defeating former state governor Andrew Cuomo. In the general election he will be facing off against incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels vigilante organization. The possibility has also been raised of Cuomo also running as an independent. Meanwhile another Democratic primary, for a seat in Florida's state senate, featured two siblings facing off against each other. LaVon Bracy Davis defeated her brother Randolph Bracy in that contest.

- Flin Flon residents who were evacuated due to wildfires will be able to return home as of this morning. The city was spared direct damage from the fires, though residents fear smoke damage, not to mention the prospect of cleaning out the contents of freezers and the like.

News roundup, 24 June 2025

- Iran has launched attacks on American bases in Iraq and Qatar in retaliation for the US attacks on their nuclear sites. They now say they want to avoid further escalation. There is speculation, however, that they could close off the Strait of Hormuz, which would have significant effects on the availability and price of fossil fuels as about 20% of oil and gas globally is sent through that strait. There were some reports indicating that there might be a ceasefire in the works but this remains in doubt and the two countries continue to exchange attacks despite Trump's admonitions not to.

- Ukrainian and Polish authorities say that they have uncovered a plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a state visit to Poland. The plot allegedly involved a "deep cover" agent who was recruited decades ago. This follows the discovery of another such plot last year, which apparently involved insiders in Ukraine's State Guard Department.

- The state of emergency issued in Manitoba at the end of May due to wildfires has been lifted due to improvements in conditions and success in containing the fires; however the situation remains volatile with several uncontained fires still burning in the north.

- Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi will be entering the legislature after winning a seat in the constituency of Edmonton-Strathcona in one of three byelections held in the province yesterday. Gurtej Singh Brar also appears to have won Edmonton-Ellerslie for the NDP, while the UCP's Tara Sawyer has been elected in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.

- Following the police-involved death of a Saulteax teenager, Neil Stonechild in 1990, someone named Candis McLean self-published a book entitled When Police Become Prey which disputed the findings of an inquiry into Stonechild's death. McLean has just won a defamation lawsuit against University of Regina professor Michelle Stewart who called the book "racist garbage". The judge may have been bound by some sort of legal precedent to make that finding, however it's worth noting that instead of the $165,642 in damages sought by McLean, he awarded her only $6,450.

News roundup, 23 June 2025

- The US hit three Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday; they claim that this is "not about regime change" but merely to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. This sounds kind of odd given that Trump tore up an agreement during his first term that actually seemed to be working in that regard, but I guess we're not supposed to talk about that. They claim that Iran's nuclear weapons capacity has been "totally obliterated"; one hopes that this is a pretext to not get involved any further, but that might be too much to hope for. Iran and Israel continue to bombard each other in any case. 

- Israeli tanks fired into a crowd of people lining up for food aid in Gaza last Tuesday, killing 59 people. The IDF says it "regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals". Wording is key, of course, because people who were harmed by the attack are "involved" by definition. So really they have no regrets whatsoever I guess.

- The US Senate's parliamentarian, an official advisor who is responsible for interpreting the upper house's rules, has ruled that the Trump regime's plans to eliminate two federal agencies (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of Financial Research) cannot be included in the "one big, beautiful bill". This ruling can be ignored if a 60-vote supermajority votes to do so, or if the chair of the Senate really wants to ignore it (or is sufficiently afraid of Trump's brownshirts to do so regardless of their own preferences). Interestingly, though, this isn't the only problem the bill has encountered in the Senate - three hardline fiscal conservatives are threatening to vote against it because it doesn't go far enough for their liking.

- New modeling has concluded that even under a "moderate" emissions scenario, significant declines can be expected in the production of six staple crops - maize (corn), soybean, rice, wheat, cassava, and sorghum. The changes will not be distributed evenly (either by crop or by geography); there will be increases in some crops in some places, for instance. Most alarming though is the fact that there will be significant declines in production in areas that are major global producers. For instance, wheat production in Canada, the US, Europe, and Russia is expected to show modest declines - which will probably be addressed by reduction in exports and an increased hostility to immigration. I'm certainly not seeing any reason to doubt Gwynne Dyer's gloomy prediction that this will end with rich countries shooting migrants at their borders.

- France is considering prohibiting social media access for children under 15. They, along with Spain and Greece, are proposing an EU-wide policy, but say that they will move ahead unilaterally if there is no progress within a few months. This is a good policy if it can be enforced, but that's a big if.

News roundup, 20 June 2025

- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now over budget by as much as a billion dollars and could run out of funds as early as July. This would run afoul of the law and raises obvious concerns about the sustainability of the current crackdown. Trump's "big beautiful bill" includes an additional $75 billion for the agency over the next five years, and the current situation may add to the pressure on Republicans to pass the bill. In related news, Florida's Attorney General, James Uthmeier, has called for ICE to build a detention centre in the middle of the Everglades, so that escapees would have to contend with alligators. It sounds like something inspired by the children's prison in Jacob Two-Two Meets The Hooded Fang that's surrounded by a moat full of sharks and crocodiles.

- The American Chestnut was driven to near extinction over a century ago by a fungal disease. Now, selective breeding (including hybridizing with a Chinese species) has produced blight-resistant trees, giving some hope for the reintroduction of the species to the wild.

- A Dutch environmental consulting firm has concluded that a tax on air travel could raise over €100 billion a year, which would hopefully be allocated towards efforts to limit climate change and its effects. It might be a hard sell, though; even many people who are otherwise progressive and well-informed seem to be in a state of denial about just how bad air travel is for the climate.

- Elisa Morgera, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change, has called for disinformation about climate change to be criminalized. Some might feel uncomfortable about this, but it's worth considering that Holocaust denial is already criminalized in many countries, and climate change has the potential to make the Holocaust look like a picnic in comparison, so it seems justifiable.

- Honda has successfully tested a reusable rocket. Given that SpaceX's latest efforts on this front have not gone so well, it's probably a good thing for the space industry that another player is entering the field.

- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is accusing the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, of fathering a child, in contravention of his vows. Pashinyan has also accused one archbishop of having an affair with his uncle's wife. This is just the latest chapter in the feud between Pashinyan and the Church, who have been calling for his resignation since the country's defeat in the 2020 conflict with Azerbaijan. Things like this probably will not help restore unity to a deeply divided country.

News roundup, 19 June 2025

- The Trump regime plans to deploy another 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to anti-ICE protests. Governor Gavin Newsom points out that these troops are being diverted from critical roles in managing wildfires and, ironically enough, patrolling the border; evidently Trump considers sticking it to California to please his base more important though.

- An Iranian missile hit the main hospital in the Israeli city of Beersheba this morning; no deaths are reported but a number of people were injured. The Israelis are outraged; evidently they can dish it out but can't take it themselves (not that anyone should be targeting hospitals, of course). Donald Trump is apparently still not sure whether he wants to join Israel in the war on Iran. I guess Netanyahu is pushing him one way, and Putin is pushing him the other way. Meanwhile Ted Cruz got a grilling from none other than Tucker Carlson over his hawkish stance towards Iran.

- The Trump regime wants Canada to increase its tariffs on China in return for the US lowering its tariffs on Canada. While Melanie Joly was open to this idea earlier this year, a recent poll finds that a plurality of Canadians are opposed.

- Conservative MP Damien Kurek, who represents the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, has resigned his seat to allow Pierre Poilievre to run in the resulting byelection and thus reenter Parliament. This will not stop a leadership review from occurring at the next Conservative Party convention, scheduled to occur in Calgary next January, but he seems unlikely to be removed unless he somehow loses the byelection, which is highly improbable unless an even more extreme candidate (like, say, Maxime Bernier) is able to capture the attention of the voters in that riding.

- Norway has introduced new regulations for cruise ships, prohibiting them from coming closer than 500 metres away from polar bears in order to minimize interference with the bears. Predictably, the cruise industry is up in arms, with one expedition leader saying ships are sailing "empty" as a result and calling the policy "conservation fascism". Doesn't really look like fascism to me; I must have missed the part where tour operators get put into concentration camps. The remark seems especially tone-deaf given what looks very much like the rise of actual fascism in places like the US.

- Czech authorities have charged three people with running a fake dental office in which an unqualified, self-taught individual conducted root canals, extracted teeth, and even used anesthesia.