News roundup, 7 Aug 2026

- The heat wave striking Europe continues to rage. Temperatures as high as 42°C have been recorded in Slovakia; in Poland two coal-fired power plants were forced to shut down due to low water levels in the Vistula River, removing 1.3 gigawatts of power from the country's grid.

- Danielle Smith is criticizing the Edmonton Police Service for a video that encourages people to report hate speech. Smith posted on X (the former Twitter) that the police should focus on crime, not "free speech".

- A judge in New Mexico has slapped Meta with a $567 million fine for failing to warn the public about the possible harm that its social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, can do to children. This is on top of another $375 million in fines related to the same case. The judge compared the psychological harm done to young people to pollution, calling it a "public nuisance".

- Several legislators in the US are concerned that "prediction markets" such as Polymarket and Kalshi allow people to place bets regarding wildfires, possibly providing an incentive for people to deliberately start said fires. They are calling on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates the industry, to prohibit the practice. Similar concerns are being raised about such bets on the outcome of clinical trials, with fears that researchers could have an incentive to tamper with trials in some way.

- Toronto police have charged two people, aged 19 and 15, in connection with the recent gunfire incident at the US consulate in that city. The two are believed to have been hired for the job; police are still trying to determine who hired them.

- A 14 year old Thai boy killed his grandparents, then went on a rampage at the prestigious school he attended outside Bangkok. Five teachers were fatally shot and more than 30 teachers and students were wounded before he turned the gun on himself. The murder weapon was a 9 mm handgun owned by his grandfather.

News roundup, 6 Aug 2026

- Much of the UK, including over half of England and all of Wales, is officially in a state of drought. England received only 7% of its average July rainfall last month.

- Even if the war in Iran were to end immediately, experts think that it is unlikely that fuel prices will drop significantly before this fall's midterm elections in the US. That might be a problem for the Trump regime given that much of the public seems to actually recognize the president's role in the recent price spike. Whether this will impact the outcome of the elections remains to be seen, though; it's safe to assume that the regime will do their darnedest to suppress the Democratic vote.

- Abdul El-Sayed has won the Democratic primary for the Michigan Senate seat up for grabs this fall, defeating his AIPAC-backed opponent Haley Stevens by a narrow margin. El-Sayed is actually moderate compared to some of the people who backed him; he does not identify as a socialist, though he supports many policies favoured by those who do and was backed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Also in Michigan, Donavan McKinney (who does call himself a democratic socialist) won the primary for the state's 13th congressional district, defeating incumbent Shri Thanedar. While Thanedar was considered something of a progressive himself on many issues, they strongly differed on the Israel question. How they will fare in November remains to be seen, of course; McKinney probably won't have a problem, but El-Sayed will face a tough fight. Notably, polling predicted a considerably higher margin of victory than he actually got, and some think this may reflect rural voters being less willing to participate in opinion polls. And should he win, he'll probably need an extra security detail any time he leaves the Detroit/Dearborn area.

- The Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will vote today on whether Anthony Fauci is in contempt of Congress after he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions in a hearing last week. Fauci believes that the hearing was a setup, intended to trick him into saying something false so that he could be found guilty of lying under oath, hence his refusal/

- Manitoba's Hanover School Division, which serves the city of Steinbach and surrounding areas, attempted to introduce a policy ordering staff to ignore a longstanding provincial law that entitles "mature minors" to confidential healthcare. Education Minister Tracy Schmidt has overruled the board, and has warned that she is willing to dissolve the board and appoint a provincial trustee to oversee the division if they continue to flout the law.

News roundup, 5 Aug 2026

- Over 80% of the new vehicles registered in Denmark in July were electric. For cars purchased by individuals rather than corporations, this rises to 97%. EVs also account for nearly 25% of new vehicles purchased in Australia in the first half of this year. Doubtless the spike in fuel prices as a result of the US/Israel attack on Iran is a major factor.

- Leftwing candidate Abdul El-Sayed appears to be in the lead in the Democratic primary for a Michigan Senate seat that will be up for grabs this fall. Should he win the primary and the election he will be the first Muslim senator in the US.

- St. Catharines, Ontario was hit by severe flooding after two major storms hit the city within a few days. Thousands of homes were damaged

- A Russian soldier in Crimea reportedly opened fire on his comrades as well as on civilians, killing four people and wounding four others. 

- Both Morocco and Spain are saying that the surge of migrants into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta was not spontaneous, but rather was driven by online misinformation, possibly spread by people in the human smuggling business. This has yet to be confirmed, however.

- The Winnipeg Sea Bears have confirmed suspicions that it was nightclub security who injured star player Teddy Allen on the weekend. Allen's injuries were significant enough that he will be missing Thursday's playoff game; police are investigating the incident.

- A Florida evangelist took advantage of an Alaska Airlines plane whose takeoff was delayed in San Diego last week to stand in the aisle and preach at her captive audience. The airline was less than amused and removed her from the flight.

News roundup, 4 Aug 2026

- A test of GPS jamming techniques by the US military may have contributed to the fatal crash of a Beechcraft King Air medivac aircraft in May. The aircraft was flying to pick up a patient in Ruidoso, New Mexico, but the pilots appear to have become disoriented due to the lack of availability of GPS in the area which forced them to rely on older and less precise technology which modern pilots seldom use in their day-to-day operations, and crashed into a mountainside killing themselves and two nurses on board. While the crew will likely get some of the blame, it will be interesting to see how much the NTSB's final report talks about the reason for GPS not being available.

- Ukraine continues to hit Wildberries warehouses with drones, under the suspicion that they are being used to supply the Russian military (which Russia denies). The latest strike has killed at least five people at a warehouse near Moscow. 

- Hungary was forced to shut down a nuclear power plant after water levels in the Danube River dropped to a point that risked cutting off the plant's access to cooling water. The plant normally supplies 44% of the country's electricity; this comes at a time when temperatures in excess of 40°C are in the forecast.

- A law in California intended to limit the use of the recycling symbol to things that can actually be recycled has run into trouble after a federal judge ruled that the legislation likely violates the free speech rights of food and packaging manufacturers.

- A decorated US Army veteran who was detained by the DC National Guard in her front yard in May is suing for injuries sustained in the attack. The ostensible reason for this was that she was suspected of assaulting a member of the guard a few days previously, but she was never charged with anything, and suspects that the attack was motivated by her public criticism of the deployment of the guard in the city.

- Winnipeg Sea Bears player Teddy Allen was hospitalized after being attacked in downtown Winnipeg on Sunday night. While this fits in with a lot of stereotypes of the city, some folks on this Reddit thread say that footage previously posted on Instagram and subsequently deleted shows a belligerent Allen being ejected from the Palamino Club that night.

News roundup, 31 Aug 2026

- Wildfires continue to rage in southwestern Europe. 183 houses in the French town of Le Porge were destroyed on Wednesday; its residents felt abandoned as firefighters were focused on Lège-Cap-Ferret. The national government says the decision to focus on the latter community was based on it being on a peninsula that's harder to evacuate people from, however many residents of Le Porge suspect that the affluence of the latter community was the real reason, and are planning a class action.

- At least 19 people are dead after a surge of migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta and clashed with authorities. Spain's interior ministry at one point said that over 49,000 people crossed the border. Some link this to a recent court ruling saying that people intercepted at sea while crossing into Ceuta and the nearby territory of Melilla cannot be summarily deported but rather need to be assessed for refugee status. Many, however, are skeptical that this information would have been known to these people, implying that new "push factors" may be in play. Italy's rightwing prime minister Giorgia Meloni is threatening to suspend Italy's recognition of Spain as part of the Schengen Area, and other rightwing leaders across the EU are taking similar stances.

- AI companies are buying rare books to scan and then destroying them. Used booksellers report that these companies are sending them extensive lists of specific hard-to-find works. In some cases they seem to be using front companies - one German bookseller reports getting a surge in orders of obscure books every night at around the same time from a Canadian -based company calling itself "Zoom Books", with each list containing numerous rare, and moreover unrelated, titles. Anthropic AI (which, it should be noted, is considered to be one of the less unethical companies in the business), has admitted that it has spent millions of dollars in the last couple of years on so-called "destructive scanning". This emerged during a copyright lawsuit; while Anthropic ended up settling that case, the judge made a ruling before it got settled that this practice constitutes "fair use" based on copyright laws, possibly implying that nondestructive scanning would not be protected in the same way. In other unsettling AI-related news, some systems designed by Anthropic and OpenAI have reportedly escaped from what was supposed to be an isolated test environment and hacked into other companies' systems.

- The leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski, is refusing to apologize for reposting a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a guillotine and the caption "We're only making plans for Nigel". Of course the slogan alludes to an old XTC song, but the reference to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is pretty obvious, and the party reported this to police saying this could constitute "incitement to murder". Polanski say he has not been contacted by police about the matter so far. He says the photo, one of several in the post of images from a party made by another person, was included by mistake, but accuses Reform of editing the image to make it appear that it had been posted by Polanski himself rather than reposted from someone else's post. He says he'll be happy to apologize if Farage apologizes "for all the times that he's put other people in danger".

News roundup, 30 July 2026

- A tornado watch was issued for the city of Thompson yesterday, meaning that conditions created the potential for tornadoes to develop. While tornadoes are not uncommon in southern Manitoba, it's quite unusual that far north.

- The US has launched a new wave of attacks on Iran following Iranian strikes on American bases in Jordan and ships in the Strait of Hormuz. This likely reduces the chance of Trump being able to get fuel prices down in time for the midterms; how that will impact the elections remains to be seen.

- The union representing WestJet flight attendants has issued a 72 hour strike notice, meaning a walkout could occur as soon as Sunday if a deal isn't reached. The airline responded by issuing a 72 hour lockout notice.

- A number of "centrist" Democrats (who would be considered moderate rightwingers in most functioning democracies) are questioning their commitment to the party as leftwing candidates keep winning primaries. Longtime Democratic consultant James Carville even brought up the possibility of a split in the party.

- A man who tried to help a woman suffering from an apparent drug overdose in a Winnipeg park was stabbed by her companion for his trouble. The woman and her would-be rescuer were taken to hospital; a suspect is in custody.

- A man charged in a spree of theft and vandalism in Winnipeg's Crescentwood neighbourhood has been denied bail. The judge issuing the decision says this is because of his lengthy criminal history; while I think it's reasonable to deny bail under the circumstances, one can't help but wonder if the affluence of the neighbourhood where he ran amok had something to do with the decision.

- Research at McGill University has found that large stands of aspen can make a forest more resistant to wildfires. They tend to have higher moisture content, and their leaves tend to be higher off the ground, reducing the risk of a crown fire. Unfortunately the forestry industry hates aspen due to it competing with more commercially valuable species, and sprays forests with herbicides to control it.

News roundup, 29 July 2026

- BC Conservative Party leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay has directed the party's MLAs to stop using the term "First Nations". The terms "indigenous" and "aboriginal" are still considered OK, along with the antiquated and widely deprecated term "Indian". I suspect that part of the motivation is to avoid giving any legitimacy to the idea of them as sovereign nations, but even so she could have avoided suggesting "Indian" as an alternative. I suspect the latter is motivated as much by desire to appeal to the more openly racist voters as anything. Some folks in this Reddit thread suggest another factor - Findlay herself ended up declaring bankruptcy following a legal fight with Musqueam First Nation in 2001 and may carry some residual animus (not that the bankruptcy stopped her from serving as Minister of National Revenue in the Harper government). What's especially worrisome is the fact that Premier David Eby is tanking in the polls, and when average voters get into a "throw the bums out" mood, they stop caring about who they're voting in (if indeed they ever did).

- The Ford government is considering withdrawing support for the Alto high speed rail project in revenge for the federal government's rejection of the expansion of Billy Bishop Airport. This is pure spite, of course; if you're actually concerned about making it easier to get around the country, trying to stop high speed rail isn't going to make things better.

- At least 13 people are dead and numerous others missing after an earthquake struck the Japanese city of Kumamoto.

- Atlanta activist Samuel Tunick, upon returning from overseas, was pulled aside by Customs and Border Protection last year and ordered to provide access to the data on his smartphone. The phone was running GrapheneOS, which allows you to set up a "duress code" that wipes the contents of the phone when entered; he allegedly gave this code to CBP officers when they demanded access. Following this they let him go, but he was subsequently charged with a felony for destruction of evidence. Tunick had been involved in protests against the construction of a police training facility called "Cop City" by critics, and suspects that this was a fishing operation.

- Around 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians who had been given "temporary protected status" in the US due to the conditions in their homelands have had their status cancelled. Their chances of admission to Canada are minimal due to changes to the Safe Third Country agreement. The changes are definitely unfortunate, but were probably inevitable in this political climate; it's unrealistic to expect the federal government to simply accept an influx of people comparable to a medium-sized city, no matter how deserving they are of refuge. This is something that's only going to become more common in the coming years as climate change displaces vast numbers of people.

- A volunteer with the animal rescue organization K9 Advocacy Manitoba was killed by dogs earlier this month in Sandy Bay First Nation. She had apparently visited a home to pick up some puppies, but the owner wasn't home and their own dogs, described as "protective and aggressive", attacked and killed her.