News roundup, 29 Sept 2023

- Climate change, and the environment in general, has not been talked about very much during the Manitoba election campaign. This is understandable, given that the opposition parties are going for the low hanging fruit such as healthcare (a third of respondents in a recent poll say that the Tories' handling of the pandemic is in itself enough to disqualify them from office), but it's unfortunate nonetheless. Surprisingly, the Tories of all people are promising to fund transit improvements in suburban Winnipeg, which rings a bit hollow given how they spent most of their time in office cutting funding for that sort of thing, but it is a positive sign that they see this as something that suburbanites will reward them for, at least.

- The Cons have also been failing to renew funding for housing nonprofits, which is particularly unfortunate given that we have a housing crisis on top of other crises.

- A recent national poll by EKOS has included questions about whether people believe certain bits of disinformation (e.g. that the government is concealing numerous deaths from vaccines, that climate change is a hoax, that Canada's economy is doing worse than other G7 countries, etc) and correlated them with voting preferences. To the surprise of nobody who's paying attention, Conservative voters are considerably more deluded than the rest.

- The Saskatchewan government is preparing to use the notwithstanding clause to force through their legislation denying teachers and other school staff the freedom to keep secret things that their students have told them in confidence.

 - In the US, the UAW is expanding their strike. The fact that the strikers appear to have the support of Joe Biden is positive news, and not just for labour either - it suggests that Biden is willing to annoy the automakers. However, there's still a huge problem - a really sound climate policy will mean a downsizing of the entire auto industry, and this will be a hard sell indeed.

- The US is still barrelling towards a government shutdown, which will make things difficult for a lot of people. Possibly this will harm the Republicans' chances in next year's elections; stay tuned.

- A far-right broadcaster has called for the execution of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. That seems to be his style; a few weeks ago he was advocating the same punishment for Hunter Biden.

- Dianne Feinstein has died. Hopefully someone under, say, 70 years old can take her place.

- A guy tried to bring what he calls his "emotional support alligator" to a baseball game. As with the performance artist who tried to bring her "emotional support peacock" on a flight a few years ago, he and his alligator were turned away.

News roundup, 28 Sept 2023

 - The severe neglect of affordable housing in Manitoba is a grave problem for the next government to address. It won't be easy, or cheap. Some action is being taken in BC, though the success of this remains to be seen.

- There appear to be links between Mash Strategy, a PR agency hired by the Manitoba Tories, and the Canada Growth Council, a third party advertiser that has been attacking the Manitoba NDP for some time and which the Cons claimed to have nothing to do with. Funny that.

- In other Manitoba election news, isn't it kinda funny that the health minister is nowhere to be seen in the campaign? Couldn't have anything to do with what a lousy job she did handling COVID-19, could it?

- The Hunka affair continues to reverberate through the halls of Parliament. Trudeau has apologized; the underlying issues have a long history that people (especially, but not limited to, the now former Speaker and his staff) need to be paying more attention to. The issue dates back to the early days of the Cold War, when there was a tendency not to ask too many questions of prospective immigrants from Europe as long as they were sufficiently anti-Communist. Worth noting too is that while Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie is rightly calling for a House of Commons committee to investigate the matter, she did not include Rota or his staff among the witnesses she thinks should be called, even though they would be best qualified to answer the question of how the invitation to Hunka came about. Now I'm not saying that covert Tory operatives made a recommendation to the Speaker that he honour Hunka, but I'm not saying that they didn't either.

- On the same subject, the University of Alberta is returning endowment funds for a scholarship named after Hunka. Strange that it took a national scandal to motivate them to do this, no?

- The superintendent of the Central Okanagan School District in BC is the latest to report receiving violent threats fuelled by the rightwing disinformation campaign surrounding the teaching of matters related to sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

- In the States, Republicans are moving ahead with their impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden, and they aren't going to let a lack of evidence stop them. Awkward for them is the fact that one of their own witnesses doubts the merits of impeachment. When Congressman Jason Means, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, was asked about the evidence, he didn't handle the questioning very well.

- Biden has vetoed an attempt by Republicans to remove legal protections for the threatened Greater Prairie Chicken and Northern Long-eared Bat. Presumably the Republicans were trying to protect the interests of the fossil fuel and livestock industries, both of which are a factor in the decline of these animals.

- Republicans have gone absolutely mad about the fact that Taylor Swift is encouraging voter registration among her fans, presumably because they're actually listening. Some think the fanbase's reaction could make things even harder for the Republicans; I say bring it on.

- The Pentagon seems just a wee bit too enthusiastic about autonomous killer robots for comfort.

- Travis King, the American soldier who tried to defect to the DPRK in July, has been unceremoniously handed back to the US. I can't see his military career having much of a future.

- A British teenager has been arrested for cutting down an iconic 300 year old sycamore tree near Hadrian's Wall. Also in Britain, two adults have been charged with torching a famous pub.

News roundup, 27 Sept 2023

 - Some more allegations regarding the death of Sukhdool Singh Gill, which might lend support to the claim that he was involved in criminal activities... except these allegations are also coming from the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi. Now it's possible that it's true; it's also possible that he was just a political activist and got killed for that. Or both - it wouldn't be the first time that the lines between a liberation movement and a criminal gang were blurred (see for example the IRA). I'd like to hear some evidence from someone who isn't beholden to Narendra Modi before I believe it, though.

- Meanwhile, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he has been briefed by intelligence officials on the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey and considers the allegations of Indian involvement credible. Gwynne Dyer has some thoughts on possible international consequences.

- Several prominent physicians have endorsed the Manitoba NDP. No surprise given that they can see first hand the impact of Tory cuts.

- MPI has given what they say is their final offer to settle the strike. Whether it actually is or not remains to be seen. Meanwhile Hollywood writers are now returning to work after their strike was settled.

- The apologies and recriminations in the Yaroslav Hunka story. I would hope that someone is investigating who might have recommended that the speaker take him as a guest; it could have simply been a stupid mistake, but I could also see nefarious actors (be they working for Poilievre, Putin, or someone else) having set this up.

- A court has ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud by inflating the value of his holdings in order to get loans. Not a criminal conviction as such (this was a civil case), but it doesn't look good on him, and it's gotten his business licenses in New York State cancelled. The effect on his business empire could be dire.

- The Republicans aren't letting a lack of evidence stop them from opening an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden. The outcome of this remains to be seen.

- MIT researchers are reporting a breakthrough in solar powered desalination. This could be crucial in the coming years, if it works as advertised. In other potentially good news, a geological energy storage technology, in which water is pumped into an aquifer and kept under pressure, is showing great promise (though I could see it having some of the same issues as fracking, in terms of seismic effects at least).

- The International Energy Agency is suggesting that global oil consumption could peak within a decade, even without new policies; this would be very good news indeed if it pans out. Still too late for a lot of people, of course (not to mention numerous other animals and plants) and the more action taken the better. And there are still fears that the masses won't be willing to pay the cost of transition. Better to make the rich pay, of course, but in lieu of that the rest of us are going to have to pony up, and a lot of people are unwilling.

- China has ambitious plans to build a base inside old lava tubes on the Moon.

- Germany is cracking down on a cultlike far-right group known for indoctrinating children. More worrisome are the cracks in the country's "firewall" against extremism, though they're still doing better than most of Europe in that regard.

- A reporter for an Australian TV network has been charged with impersonating a police officer in the hope of obtaining security footage from a business.

News roundup, 26 Sept 2023

- In the first three days of advance voting, almost 70,000 Manitobans cast ballots - equivalent to 61% of the entire advance poll turnout in 2019. High turnout is often a sign that the public wants change. In other election news, the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals has endorsed the NDP.

- A recent poll indicates that Manitobans are split almost evenly (47% for, 45% against, the rest unsure) on whether to conduct a search of the Prairie Green Landfill. Supporters of the search include 72% of NDP supporters, 50% of Liberals, and 18% of Conservatives. Notably, 55% of Tories don't just oppose a search, but strongly oppose it. Stefanson obviously knows where her base stand, and is actively courting the haters - perhaps to avoid losing them to the Keystone Party.

- Anthony Rota is resigning as Speaker of the House of Commons following the uproar over his honouring Yaroslav Hunka. Meanwhile, a member of Poland's cabinet is looking at requesting Hunka's extradition. The international attention this episode is drawing is not helpful either.

- Opening arguments are being made in Peter Nygard's sexual assault trial in Toronto.

- Renewable energy is growing by leaps and bounds, and the cost of solar power as well as energy storage has dropped by almost 90%. This is very good news, albeit probably too late for places like Tuvalu - or even New Orleans, whose water supply is currently in danger from too much salt water and too little rainfall. A huge amount of human migration can still be expected; the fact that suppressing the huge demand for air travel will be very difficult remains a serious problem as well.

- For the more distant future, the US is hoping to be generating electricity from fusion by 2035. Since we have yet to get a sustained, controlled fusion reaction in anything smaller than a star so far, though, this should be taken with sizeable quantities of salt.

- New York City is moving ahead with city-wide organic waste collection; other cities are expected to follow its example.

- NASA's sample return mission from the asteroid Bennu has been a success, however a feasibility study of such a mission to Mars is not looking promising, perhaps because of the much deeper gravity well.

- A Calgary bylaw limiting certain protest activities within 100 metres of the entrance to city-owned libraries and recreation facilities, aimed at suppressing hate, is being challenged in court by the haters.

- The US is lumbering towards a government shutdown as extremist Republicans refuse any sort of compromise. If nothing else, this shows the superiority of Westminster-style parliamentary systems over a presidential system like the US, which has no provision for early elections if a budget cannot be passed.

- UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has mooted the possibility of pulling out of the 1951 UN refugee convention.

News roundup, 25 Sept 2023

- The Manitoba NDP is promising to address the failure to properly address sexual assaults by hiring more forensic nurses. Meanwhile, the Cons are not simply refusing to search the landfills for the bodies of murdered indigenous women, they are putting this refusal front and centre in their campaign. Pretty apparent that this is their perverse version of "virtue signalling" to their base, as is their insouciance about other sorts of bigotry. Oh, and they're also making their obligatory attack on the public sector, which is also no surprise. Nor is the fact that local antivax scumbag Patrick Allard may have been putting up election signs without authorization. What is a bit of a surprise is former Liberal leader and mayoral candidate Rana Bokhari campaigning for Obby Khan, even if he is a "family friend".

- A bylaw proposed in Barrie that would have banned giving money to homeless people on public property is getting international attention as an example of how not to address the problem of homelessness.

- The Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, honoured a 98 year old Ukrainian veteran for his service, apparently without taking due note of just who he was serving. Not surprisingly, this is not going over well with Jewish groups and numerous others; there's a limit to "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", after all. Needless to say, this is a huge gift to the Kremlin in terms of talking points. The NDP and the Bloc are calling for Rota's resignation; the Cons, of course, are trying to pin it on Trudeau, as they do everything else.

- Metro Vancouver's transit system, TransLink, is doing better than most North American transit systems at bringing back ridership, but they still face revenue problems as passengers have shifted to buying single fares rather than monthly passes.

- Canada has historically been more willing to accept immigrants than many countries (even if getting them good jobs and housing once they get here is sometimes another matter). Some fear, however, that this could change, especially if the real factors leading to the cost of housing are not addressed and the scapegoating of immigrants for the problem continues and increases.

- A tentative deal has been reached in the Hollywood writers' strike. The actors remain on the picket line. Meanwhile in the auto industry, the UAW is expanding their strike, and in Canada Unifor prepares to negotiate with GM. Speaking of which, here's some perspective on the concern about electric vehicles meaning fewer jobs. Unfortunately none of this addresses the heffalump in the room, which is that what we really need is fewer cars on the road for the greater good of the environment as well as our cities, and that this will inevitably mean fewer jobs for auto workers in the long run. Sorry.

- Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo continue; a Kosovo police officer has been killed and another wounded in a clash that is being blamed on Serbia.

- The Environmental Protection Agency in the US is changing the way they measure methane emissions; evidently the old reporting system glosses over rather a lot.

- Scientists are reporting an increase in the numbers of flowering plants in Antarctica and neighbouring islands.

- Trump is talking about taking legal action against NBC and MSNBC if he becomes president again. Whether he can be stopped is the big question, though his indictments are proceeding. Related to this, it has been reported that his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, burned so many documents in the final days of the presidency that his wife complained about the dry cleaning bills to get the "bonfire" smell out of his suits.

- The measures needed to limit the severity of climate change will have staggering costs, albeit less than the cost of not taking action. Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown is proposing a levy on oil producers to raise this revenue. The best time to do this would have been 40 or 50 years ago, of course, and the second best time would have been while Brown was PM, but the third best time would be now.

News roundup, 24 Sept 2023

Apologies as usual for the missing days.

- Meta's block on (most) news sites for Canadian users has, predictably, had a negative impact on political literacy in Manitoba (and presumably also the rest of the country). No doubt Meta is eagerly looking at how they can monetize this.

- Alberta premier Danielle Smith is trying to push ahead with her plan to pull Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan, despite a great deal of skepticism among the electorate as well as experts. The claim that Alberta should be entitled to half of the CPP's assets is more than a little hard to swallow.

- On the positive side, Ontario premier Doug Ford is backtracking on the plan to open up the Greenbelt for development (though only because of the negative publicity for the apparent corruption involved, not the principle that the Greenbelt should be, you know, protected from development).

- As with the neo-Confederate bleating about "states' rights", there's a lot of talk about "parental rights" these days. In both cases, the obvious question to ask is, "rights to do what?"

- The federal government reportedly has gained access to the communications of Indian diplomats concerning the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and raised the matter with India, though India denies this. Joe Biden has apparently raised the issue as well; interestingly, this occurred at the G20 summit, before the suggestion of Indian state involvement became public.

- Attempts are being made to negotiate an international treaty regarding how to manage future pandemics. Sadly (though predictably) it's proving extremely difficult to get countries to agree on how this would work.

- A natural gas provider in New York is trying to turn its customers into lobbyists to get the state to reverse its opposition to a proposed new pipeline. Note, though, is that they aren't telling customers that their own gas supply would be in trouble (because this is obviously nonsense) but that new hookups would be impossible in the future (which might also be nonsense, but would be good if true because it would hasten the transition away from natural gas). Hopefully the state will stand firm.

- When the Outer Space Treaty was signed in 1967, it only (explicitly) covered the actions of governments; it wasn't anticipated that the private sector would be able to get into space. Now that they can, there are questions about what can be done if a private company does something that states aren't allowed to do under the treaty.

- Noam Chomsky once said that the only thing that has prevented the US from sinking into full-blown fascism is the fact that virtually every president since WWII has been a crook. Certainly if anything saves the world from another Trump term, it will be his crookedness. That's a pretty flimsy protection; all it takes is a true believer who is "lawful evil" in the D&D sense and things will get much worse right quick. Fortunately Marine Le Pen is facing her own corruption accusations in France, which may save France from that fate.

- The wildfires of the summer were so severe that our forests were net emitters of carbon.

- Rishi Sunak's proposed environmental rollback plans may interfere with the UK's ability to meet international commitments; this may lead to legal challenges to the plan. Hopefully.

News roundup, 21 Sept 2023

- As anticipated, the usual basket of deplorables were out in force yesterday. They appear to have vandalized a bookstore in Winnipeg's Osborne Village neighbourhood, which should give the undecided an idea of the kind of people they really are (as should certain other aspects of their modus operandi). Amusingly enough, some infighting has broken out among the deplorables, as the hillbillies realize that they're finding common cause with Muslims and feel uncomfortable about it.

- Also yesterday, and apparently related - a thousand kids in the Seven Oaks School Division were kept home by their parents based on a rumour that the schools were going to be distributing sexually explicit materials. Interestingly, the superintendent reports that many of the parents told him that they would have preferred to send their kids to school as normal but were facing pressure from their friends and neighbours.

- And speaking of these people, they claim to be all about protecting the kids - but presumably not from their own leaders.

- A man was fatally shot in his home in Winnipeg yesterday. This would not be all that surprising (sadly) except that the fact that it was reported in Indian media before our own media reported it, with numerous allegations of the victim's supposed criminality. One has to wonder how they got the scoop on this; perhaps from Indian intelligence?

- Poland now seems prepared to throw Ukraine to the wolves (or orcs?); apparently their agricultural lobby is pissed at Ukrainian retaliatory moves over Polish blocking of grain sales.

- Far right parties are still making gains in various parts of Europe.

- Drought conditions continue to cause problems for the Colorado River. The Mississippi is also dropping dramatically.

- Great Slave Lake has warmed sufficiently to cause a noticeable shift in the biota, with unpredictable consequences for the food chain.

- On a more positive note (maybe) bacterial strains are being developed to break down plastics. There are some caveats here, though, notably the fact that CO₂ is a byproduct of said breakdown.

- You can now buy 3D-printed vegan salmon substitutes, though only in the EU so far.

- A Palestinian boy reportedly spotted undercover Israeli soldiers sneaking into a refugee camp in Jenin, so they killed him. 

- A soccer team associated with the Croatian community in Canberra is raising eyebrows for displaying a portrait of WWII-era fascist collaborator Ante Pavelić.

News roundup, 20 Sept 2023

- A new poll bodes well for the Manitoba NDP, with a six point lead province-wide and a 22 point lead in Winnipeg. Ultimately, though, the election will come town to what happens in a handful of constituencies. The NDP has announced their intention to convert 5,000 homes to geothermal energy, administered by Efficiency Manitoba.

- The latest round of COVID-19 vaccines should be available in October as well. Also on the COVID front, five churches whose Charter challenge of restrictions from the height of the pandemic are appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada.

- The Winnipeg Transit Master Plan is still proceeding, albeit slowly. They do say that the reorganization of routes may happen by 2025.

- The American Bullfrog is native to the eastern US and adjacent parts of Canada, but is introduced and invasive, in the west, including BC. This guy is hoping to address the problem by eating them.

- Organized labour seems to be experiencing a resurgence after years of decline. Besides public sector workers here in Manitoba, we see strikes from Hollywood to Detroit. The UAW in particular is using novel tactics in their fight with the automakers, with targetted strikes at plants belonging to all the automakers rather than a full shutdown of each one in sequence as has been their past practice. Back on this side of the border, Unifor has a tentative agreement with Ford, though.

- There's been a road rage incident involving a cyclist. The accused was driving a truck; colour me surprised.

- Far right activists are holding their "1 Million March 4 Children" protests in cities across Canada; happily they're being met with counterprotests. Here's a primer on what they're really about.

- You'd think a conviction for stealing money from a murder scene as well as other instances of theft would be a firing offense, even for a cop. In Alberta, at least, you'd be wrong.

- Say what you will about Biden (and there's plenty to criticize him for), creating a New Deal-style agency to address climate issues as well as provide jobs for young people is definitely a step in the right direction. Given the urgency of the situation, though, perhaps a better model to use would be the Manhattan Project.

- One of the biggest issues with electric vehicles is what to do with the battery at the end of its life, as well as supplies of the critical materials. Successful recycling is critical; fortunately some progress is being made.

- The more one sees of Elon Musk, the more one has to wonder why the conspiracy nutters are so fixated on George Soros instead of him.

- Poison Sunak is considering weakening key environmental policies. Unfortunately the next election might not happen till 2025.

- India is warning its citizens to be cautious in Canada. No doubt they should be cautious, not least of agents of the Indian government, given the fate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Meanwhile, the row is causing concern among other western powers, by making it awkward to deal with India even as they want it on their side as a counterbalance to China.

News roundup, 19 Sept 2023

- Heather Stefanson repeatedly dodged questions about her party's promise to "enhance parental rights in schools". I guess if she explained what they mean, it would defeat the purpose of dog whistling. Also worthy of notice - when a party's own candidate questions how long the leader is going to keep her job, that might be a sign that the party's morale is not in a good state.

- Also in Manitoba political news, staff at the provincial Environment Department have been cut by 70% since the Cons took power. But then, that's what modern conservatives do, isn't it.

- If Trudeau truly wants to protect Canadians from Pierre Poilievre (as any reasonable person does), perhaps he should resign and let someone else take over his party. Unfortunately, he shows no sign of doing so.

- The Swiss government is encouraging its citizens to reduce their meat consumption. This is good news; another sign that the meat industry may eventually go into terminal decline (though they'll fight tooth and nail to stay afloat).

- Serious work on geoengineering is afoot. Many argue, quite reasonably, that the deployment of such technologies should be banned until properly assessed. I would wholeheartedly agree with that, with the caveat that research should still continue, just in case we do cross the Godzilla Threshold.

- California is suing five oil companies for deliberately misleading the public about the amount of risk from their products. The unfortunate thing is that this will probably end up in the Trump-stacked Supreme Court in the end.

- Researchers at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh have developed what they say is a more environmentally friendly alternative to palm oil. This is sorely needed.

- Progress in the greening of Sacramento's electricity grid. They've put batteries into the system to enable more use of solar and wind.

- 73 entire genera have disappeared in the last 500 years. The species extinction rate is 35 times faster than when humans first appeared.

- It is expected that by 2025, more gasoline powered cars will be scrapped than sold. As this progresses further, with less demand for gasoline there will be fewer gas stations, causing a death spiral for gasoline.

News roundup, 18 Sept 2023

- Trudeau has accused "agents of the Indian government" of involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey this past June. A senior Indian diplomat has been expelled, however details remain to be seen. Meanwhile Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously accused Canada of harbouring terrorists (a designation they had given to Nijjar, by the way) and accused protesters in Canada of "inciting violence against Indian diplomats".

- Trudeau's remarks on the housing issue sound uncomfortably similar to Stefanson's "coulda, woulda, shoulda" comment on her own government's mishandling of the pandemic.

- The CBC and Probe Research conducted a focus group of residents from five rural Manitoba constituencies and one small-city one, and found that four of the nine were considering changing their vote, with a fifth saying that she would stick with the Tories this time around but would have voted for the Keystone Party had they run a candidate. Now a big caveat - a focus group is a very small sample, not enough to get anything statistically useful. As they say, "the plural of anecdote is not data". That said, anecdotes can sometimes give us an idea of where to look for data.

- Meanwhile, in the US, where even federal elections have fifty different sets of rules, there's a fierce debate over so called "open primaries" (which for practical purposes could be thought of as a two round system by other means), to the point where Colorado Republicans are suing the state to force it to re-close its open primaries (which were opened by statewide referendum).

- A bill has been introduced in the Massachusetts legislature prohibiting attaching weapons to robots... with a couple of caveats. Firstly, the US military is exempt (probably unavoidable, since presumably states don't have jurisdiction over it); secondly, it does not apply to "law enforcement officials disposing of explosives" (seems reasonable) and private companies testing "anti-weaponization technologies". Notably, Boston Dynamics state that they are in support of the bill (well, they'd have to say that, wouldn't they). What I'd like to know is what it says about a Massachusetts-based company making robots that could readily be retrofitted with weapons by buyers in other jurisdictions, or operating plants in other places where they did add guns. From my (admittedly nonexpert) reading of the actual bill, it would appear not.

- Ukraine is suing Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary at the WTO for blocking the sale of Ukrainian agricultural products. Those countries say Ukrainian grain threatens their domestic markets.

- The Chechen president is rumoured to be seriously ill. What that means for Chechnya's future in Russia remains to be seen.

- Not surprisingly, people who work from home tend to be responsible for less in the way of emissions than those who work in the office, although the trend is partly offset by increased emissions from social activities.

- Trump has been making remarks about Biden's age for a long time. He's not wrong, but he shouldn't be one to talk (but who are we kidding expecting Trump not to talk). And then there's McConnell, Feinstein... the list goes on.

- I don't envy this pilot having to explain to his superior officers how he managed to just lose a hundred million dollar airplane.

- Activists in France want to ban cruise ships. An ambitious goal, and not an easy one, but a desirable one.

News roundup, 17 Sept 2023

- Not surprisingly, among contenders in the Manitoba election the Conservatives are far away from all the other parties on how to solve the problem of hard drugs.

- Danielle Smith doesn't hate all electric cars. If the electricity is made in a fuel cell, which is powered by hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, she's all for it. At least until it becomes cost-effective to use solar energy to split water for the hydrogen, then fuel cell cars will suddenly become un-Albertan again.

- Speaking of Alberta, they're well-known for their disdain for rules and regulations. Maybe that's why they gave daycares so much freedom from red tape (though the fact that it seems to have made a whole bunch of kids sick ought to make them reevaluate this).

- In other EV news, a corporate landlord in Toronto is banning electric vehicles, including personal ones such as e-bikes and Segways, ostensibly due to the fire hazard from lithium-ion batteries. Yet curiously, this only applies to transportation-related uses of these batteries; no ban on cellphones, laptops, cordless vacuum cleaners, etc.

- The two sides in the MPI strike remain far apart. The matter has not been helped by a letter sent by the corporation to striking workers advising them that it's bound to go to binding arbitration anyway so you should just push to end the strike now, oh and by the way here's how to turn scab if you want to.

- Wales has reduced their default speed limit in built-up areas to 20 mph (32 km/h). Predictably there's a lot of outrage and consternation about this, and cries of a "war on the car", but many major cities in the UK and EU have a 30 km/h speed limit, and the sky hasn't fallen (though apparently road deaths have).

- There has been speculation that Ukraine might be preparing to retake Crimea. This would not be easy, though, and Russia's response would be unpredictable. Could Russia accept the loss of Sevastopol? What would they do if they decided that they couldn't?

- The far right likes to claim that the various outrages they promote and do are in the name of protecting children. Yet somehow, child abuse - and child labour - is at its worst in Republican-run states. Funny that.

News roundup, 16 Sept 2023

- The flood disaster in Libya just continues to get worse. There are now concerns about the possibility of a cholera outbreak.

- Closer to home, Lee has been downgraded to a post-tropical storm but is still doing damage. 

- The Republicans' attempt to impeach Biden is proceeding; some think it could backfire on them.

- Besides matters of race and gender, climate science is high on the far right's list of things to purge from classrooms.

- In Belgium, a rash of arson attacks on schools is being linked to extremists opposed to a new sex education program.

- The Manitoba NDP intends to streamline the process for the employment of foreign-trained doctors and nurses, something that's sorely needed for many reasons.

- Nearly a quarter of Manitoba's personal care homes don't have fire sprinklers.

- A cyberattack is being blamed for the outage at provincial government websites in several provinces.

- The UAW strike in the US is expected to have an impact on the broader economy, though the severity of this remains to be seen.

- Prosecutors in DC are trying to get a gag order against Trump. One hopes the authorities are willing to do what's necessary to enforce such an order.

- Police investigating a homicide in Winnipeg found a bomb.

The war on WFH is coming to Winnipeg

A new report for the City of Winnipeg has concluded that giving city employees whose jobs can be done from home the ability to do so has been beneficial for the city, with better staff satisfaction and retention as well as saving $119,000 a year on printing costs, with apparently no significant loss in productivity. Despite this, though, Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt has introduced a motion to council's Executive Policy Committee, seconded by Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood Coun. Evan Duncan, calling for the city to end all such arrangements, and Mayor Scott Gillingham seems to sympathize (albeit a bit more cautiously). Wyatt's claims that "other studies" (unspecified) indicate that productivity is worse with WFH, and Duncan expressed concern that a study done by city staff is inherently biased in favour of WFH because he assumes that the staff doing the study are working from home themselves and want to keep it that way.

One wonders about the real motivation; in Gillingham's case (and probably Duncan's as well) this may be the result of pressure from downtown businesses and commercial real estate interests. As far as Wyatt goes, it's more likely the politics of envy - he represents a part of the city with a lot of blue-collar workers whose jobs can't be done from home and probably resent those who can, in a "crabs in a bucket" sort of way. Those same people have also doubtless been primed with all kinds of lore about how lazy public sector workers supposedly are. The thing is, ending WFH will not improve their lot at all. In fact if anything it will mean they have to compete with more people for space on the road or on the bus, but they're not going to let that get in the way of their "righteous" populist rage.

News roundup, 15 Sept 2023

- Hurricane Lee is expected in the Maritimes this weekend.

- The Ford government held up the release of a climate change report, which was written in January, until late August.

- The idea of "using oceans for carbon capture" can mean a lot of things, some of them more benign (and realistic) than others. Some of them (such as the idea to dump alkaline material into the oceans) strike me as less than realistic, especially if one factors in what is needed to produce said alkaline material.

- Back in the 1980s a national task force concluded that Canada had too many doctors for its population and recommended limiting the number of doctors trained as a cost-cutting measure. The recommendations were followed; this doesn't seem to have turned out too well.

- Vancouver is effectively doing away with single family only zoning, allowing up to six units per lot in those neighbourhoods. A step in the right direction perhaps?

- When an airline gives the federal opposition leader the mic, one has to say that creates the impression of bias on their part.

- Kamsack (population 1,898) may be a small town in Saskatchewan, but Romana Didulo is a bridge too far even for them.

- A lawyer who has worked with Trump (and who herself faces criminal charges in connection with the Georgia case) now says that she can no longer support him because he is a "malignant narcissist". Which he no doubt is; indeed one has to wonder why she took so long to figure that out.

- The evacuation order for Hay River will be lifted tomorrow morning.

News roundup, 14 Sept 2023

- Hurricane Lee is now a significant concern in parts of the Maritimes and New England. Several orders of magnitude worse, though, is what already just happened in Libya. The death toll is already over 11,000 and rising, and as pointed out in the article, years of infighting between two rival claims to the legitimate leadership of the country has led to the neglect of mitigation measures which could theoretically have saved a lot of lives. It wouldn't have hurt for the article to have reminded the reader of what kind of external interventions could have produced such a divided country in the first place.

- Looks like another sad example of demolition by neglect in the case of Winnipeg's Windsor Hotel. One is left with the impression that the current owner(s) just ran it into the ground, then let nature take its course once it had deteriorated to the point where people couldn't live there anymore.

- The federal Liberals are removing the GST on the construction of new rental apartments. Better than nothing I suppose, though the effect on their electoral fortunes remains to be seen. The funny thing is, though, as recently as a few decades ago the federal government was actually building housing; that would seem to be a much more sensible approach. Problem is, it might be politically unpopular among those who use housing as an investment as opposed to those who use it for, you know, housing.

- Kenora OPP officers, upon finding an injured deer that needed to be put down, got the fire axe from their vehicle instead of using their service weapons; perhaps they didn't relish filling out the paperwork that would have been required had they used their guns. Now that they've made the news for it, though, they'll probably be reassigned to Moosonee or something.

- The Republicans are presumably salivating at the indictment of Hunter Biden, but given that the indictment is on firearms charges, I can't help thinking there's an irony in there somewhere.

- It just came out that a rogue Russian pilot allegedly tried to shoot down a British aircraft in international airspace last year. Assuming (as I do) that this was indeed a rogue act rather than being the intent of Russia's leadership (they presumably aren't suicidal, after all), the next question has to be whether the rogue pilot had malicious intent (e.g. to draw a NATO power into the war) or was just reckless. Not sure which possibility is scarier.

News roundup, 13 Sept 2023

- US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is pushing ahead with an attempt to impeach Joe Biden. Of course the chance of convicting him in the Senate is infinitesimal, but maybe that's not really the point.

- Thousands are dead in flooding in Libya, and the political situation in the country is being blamed for the neglect of infrastructure that may have contributed to the severity of the disaster. It is also complicating rescue efforts.

- A school board in Ontario is purging books published prior to 2008 from school libraries. This does not seem like a good idea.

- New COVID-19 boosters have been approved by the FDA and Health Canada.

- Some are concerned about the Canadian Armed Forces being the go-to agency to address the increased number of disasters resulting from climate change, apparently fearing that the military will be too focused on saving people to be properly prepared to kill people.

- The federal Liberals seem to be getting concerned about their chances in the next election.

- The definition of antisemitism codified by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (the one that Jeremy Corbyn was attacked for not adopting in full) is used by most British universities, but remains controversial.

- Gary Doer's endorsement of the current Manitoba NDP is expected to be a boost to the party's chances.

News roundup, 12 Sept 2023

- A disquieting worldwide poll suggests that younger people are more likely to have doubts about the merits of democracy. I have to admit that I get where they're coming from; democracy is certainly badly flawed (more so in some countries than others), but I always go back to Churchill's remarks on the matter. Worryingly, only 57% of respondents aged 18 to 35 agree that democracy is still preferable.

- The Manitoba Liberals have been unable to field a full slate in the coming election. The fact that Dauphin, Selkirk, and Swan River are among the constituencies where they've been unable to find candidates may be a good thing for the NDP, though.

- The rightwingers love to talk about eliminating "gatekeepers". As a severe outbreak of food poisoning in Alberta should make clear, though, gatekeepers are very much needed in matters of public health.

- Trump is still a serious threat. Because too many people are clueless or worse.

- Thanks to a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, Guelph General Hospital has reinstated mask mandates in parts of the hospital.

- Cheap sherry is so popular in Thompson that the city has set up a special recycling program for the bottles. They've collected about 370,000 bottles since the program started.

- A drop-in centre in Winnipeg is closing its doors out of fears for the safety of its volunteers.

- Stores owned by Loblaws are the latest battleground on the labour front, with a 97% strike vote. I guess the chain considers properly paid staff to be a frill.

- The US Department of Justice is finally taking antitrust action against Google.

- A Nobel Prize-winning journalist in the Philippines, who was arrested after talking a bit too much about Duterte's antics, has been acquitted of tax evasion charges, though she still faces two other charges.

- Hurricane Lee's path is still unclear, and it could still be a problem for Atlantic Canada.

- TikTok has figured out how to play the social media game better than anyone else - for certain values of "better". It's worth remembering that China heavily regulates it at home, while letting it spread chaos in the rest of the world.

News roundup, 11 Sept 2023

- Today is the 50th anniversary of the US-backed coup in Chile when Salvador Allende was overthrown by Augusto Pinochet. This is a pretty good retrospective on the coup and its consequences. 

- Meanwhile, even the better known atrocity that occurred on this date 22 years ago is now history rather than personal memory for a growing number of people.

- The death toll from the earthquake in Morocco is now over 2000, and time is running out to rescue trapped survivors.

- Ethiopia has completed their Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Egypt is not pleased.

- Still far too little being done to limit climate change, with prospects of a 2.5°C rise in average global temperature at the present rate. The potential consequences of that are ungood.

- That hurricane in the Atlantic could cause trouble for Atlantic Canada in a few days. Or not; a lot of uncertainty there.

- Apparently foreign aid workers are legitimate military targets now...

- New York City's crackdown on Airbnb seems to be having an effect, but a lot of listings are slipping through the cracks.

- The AFD candidate has made it to the runoff stage of the mayoral election in the East German city of Nordhausen.

- Road to work closed by a rockslide? You could always go on a paraglider...

 

News roundup, 9 Sept 2023

- Pierre Poilievre, in classic rightwing populist fashion, is blowing a lot of hot air about "common sense", while making pronouncements about how he'll make life affordable without saying much about how he'd actually do that. Sure, he says he'll kill the carbon tax, but one Bank of Canada study suggests that it only accounts for only 0.15 percentage points of the inflation we're now experiencing. As regards "common sense", every time I hear that phrase I think of a quote floating around on the internet, often attributed to Einstein. That quote is:

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Now as with most quotes attributed to Einstein, it's questionable whether he ever said it, at least in those words. But whoever did say it is bang on. Unfortunately, "common sense" is a very effective tool in the populist toolbox.

- A major earthquake has struck Morocco, killing over a thousand people.

- In Winnipeg you can hardly throw a stone without hitting a dope store, but unlike many provinces it remains illegal to grow it yourself, unless you have a medical license. Some are seeking to change this.

- A wide range of Christian church leaders are joining the calls for a proper search of landfills for the remains of missing and murdered First Nations women. Can't help noticing that the leaders of Springs Church, the Church of the Rock, and that one outside Steinbach that kept getting in trouble for flouting pandemic restrictions are not among them. I'm not sure those leaders are really taking "what would Jesus do" to heart.

- Celebrations Dinner Theatre in Winnipeg has shut down permanently only a few days after their staff went on strike. Unfortunate, but if you can't afford to pay your staff a living wage, then maybe you can't afford to be in business.

- A major lithium exploration program has been announced in Manitoba. This is a mixed blessing; lithium is currently critical for the batteries needed for electric vehicles, but it is fairly difficult to extract in an environmentally benign way. I'm still hoping that similar batteries made with sodium or aluminum can be made feasible, which will render the concerns about lithium (environmental as well as availability) moot.

- Despite the MPI strike, you can still take your driver's test, if you're willing to be tested by a scab.

- A school district in Wisconsin that had opted out of Biden's national school lunch program (the only district in the state to do so) on the grounds that it would "spoil" children has backtracked, but only barely. The vote to reverse the opt-out passed 5-4.

- As most people know (though not everyone), animals other than humans don't take the laws of humans into account. (A lot of humans don't either, but that's another story). So when Colorado reintroduced wolves to their state, decades after their extirpation, some of them strayed into Wyoming, and at least one has been killed. Now this was actually legal in Wyoming, despite their protected status in Colorado. What's noteworthy is that Wyoming state officials are severely restricted from providing any information beyond the total number of wolves killed in the state.

- In a lot of countries, including Canada, denying the Holocaust is a criminal offense. Could the same be true for climate change denial at some point?

- The world's longest undersea power cable, running for 765 km (475 mi) between Denmark and the UK, has been completed.

- Noted arsehole Jordan Peterson has jumped on the climate change denial bandwagon. After all, the sheeple who follow him are mostly that kind of person anyway, so it's gravy for him.

- A bit of good news on the plastic front - there's a draft treaty being discussed at the UN level on the prohibition of certain plastics that are generally recognized as harmful. Keeping grounded in reality, the key word there is "draft", but it's a start at least.

News roundup, 8 Sept 2023

- When a party's leader stays out of the spotlight during an election campaign, it just might be a sign that said leader is seen as a liability by the party's backroom folks. When said leader is a suburban Winnipegger who desperately needs the votes of other suburban Winnipeggers, it adds further to that impression.

- India has long been friendly with Russia, but that may be changing. And as they demonstrated by landing a probe on the Moon when Russia failed, they don't have as much need for Russian technology as in the past. American overtures may be a factor in changing relations as well.

- Local elections are being held in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Not surprisingly, Ukraine is not amused.

- A large hurricane has formed in the Atlantic, with winds of 260 km/h (140 kt, 160 mph). Fortunately it's not currently expected to make landfall, but not a good time to go sailing.

- Winnipeg's mayor, Scott Gillingham, seems to be on board with the Houston model of addressing homelessness. This is noteworthy; it's no surprise that Wab Kinew and the NDP favour this, but when a small-c conservative also approves, it greatly improves the chance of it actually happening. It's also remarkable that Houston, of all places, has done a better job than virtually any other North American city of managing the problem of homelessness, and the secret is... provide housing.

- The business world continues to push for return to the office. Even NPR doesn't want to talk about the role of commercial real estate, though; the phrase "real estate" does not appear in the article.

- Winnipeg Transit's plan to expand service is being delayed by a shortage of drivers, but also by the lack of suitable streets in some suburban neighbourhoods.

- The federal Liberals are definitely in trouble, if you believe the polls. Andrew Coyne quotes an anonymous pollster as saying “When people have decided to get rid of a government, it doesn’t matter who the other guys are.” This is a big problem for those who don't want the Conservatives in power.

- To the surprise of few, much more action is needed to achieve the climate goals set in Paris.

- The Sunshine Coast Regional District in BC has imposed heavy restrictions on water use due to persistent drought.

- The BC government seems reluctant to impose a province-wide building code to incorporate more fire resistant designs, instead leaving it up to the municipalities. Doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

- Apparently comparing Pride to a Nazi rally is too much even for a Catholic school board in Alberta. Seems as well they have the power to actually expel a trustee for misconduct. This is more than can be said for school boards in Manitoba; the strongest sanction they can give a trustee for comparable misconduct is a three month suspension.

- The suspect in the stabbing attack at the University of Waterloo now faces terrorism charges on top of the numerous counts he already faces. Seems appropriate; at first blush it definitely seems to have been ideologically motivated.

- It's a great shame that the Ontario greenbelt scandal didn't break before the last provincial election. As it stands, there isn't going to be another election until 2026.

- In Texas they've busted a ring of people capturing and selling songbirds, mostly grosbeaks, finches, and buntings.

News roundup, 7 Sept 2023

- The CBC has rolled out the Manitoba edition of their Vote Compass for the upcoming election. Not sure who you're voting for? Take the quiz and see what it recommends.

- A report commissioned for the City of Winnipeg has concluded that cleaning up debris from demolition sites and billing the owners might not be cost-effective - even if the land were seized and sold by the city it might not pay for the cleanup costs. I suspect, though, that if you factored in things such as the effect on sale prices of nearby properties (and hence tax revenues from said properties) it might be still worthwhile, even in dollar terms. And that's not counting other, non-monetary externalities.

- The Alberta government is not posting information about class sizes anymore. But that's OK, about half the province will vote for their UCP shepherds no matter what, so no need for transparency.

- Air Canada seems very concerned about turnaround times for flights - so much so that they didn't take the time to clean up the vomit on two seats before assigning it to passengers, then kicked the passengers off the plane when they had the audacity to complain about it. Between that and a similar incident involving blood on an Air France flight in July, one has to conclude that the golden age of air travel is long gone.

- A judge has been appointed to head the inquiry into possible foreign interference in Canadian elections. Details (including how much of the inquiry's conclusions will be made public) have yet to be determined.

- A timber company in BC is suing the province and the Haida Gwaii Management Council for restricting old growth logging. 

- New cars are not good news for privacy (and not just electric ones either, notwithstanding the way some have spun it).

- China wants to ban clothes that are "detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people". They don't seem to have defined that too clearly either; I suppose if you live in China it's best not to dress "different", just to be on the safe side.

- Dynamite fishing has been around for a long time and has been illegal in most places for almost as long due to its destructive effect on fish stocks and the rest of the ecosystem. Unfortunately many people don't let that stop them. Because freedom, or something.

- The state of Utah is being sued for their catastrophic mismanagement of Great Salt Lake.

- Putin is trying to get closer to another pariah state. Because when you have so few friends, you need all you can get.

- Elon Musk's idea of "free speech" depends a lot on who's doing the speaking. Hate propaganda? That's allowed. Criticize Elon, though, and he'll sue your ass.

News roundup, 6 Sept 2023

- The Manitoba NDP is promising to add 5 "neighbourhood health clinics" to ensure services are available in underserved areas. Meanwhile the Cons are beating the usual drum about cutting taxes; Dan Lett figures this may be a risky approach since he reckons the masses are starting to clue in that cutting taxes will inevitably mean cutting services at some point. Let's hope he is right.

- Manitoba's Francophone school division is banning cellphones from classes. Seems like a good idea really. Even some of the students think so, according to the article.

- Somebody has gone on a rampage with an excavator at a water treatment plant outside Winnipeg. Nobody hurt, and no damage to the actual water supply, but he made a mess of some vehicles and a building.

- Wildfires are turning carbon sinks into carbon sources. This is ungood.

- The summary of this article claims that "nearly all" stolen cars in this country are exported by organized crime. When you read the actual article it becomes clear that they're talking specifically about Ontario and Quebec; in Manitoba I think most stolen cars are either taken on joyrides or maybe used to commit other crimes, then ditched.

- There is currently a constitutional challenge against Alabama's abortion legislation, which among other things appears to allow conspiracy charges to be levied against those helping someone leave the state to get an abortion.

- Some municipalities are giving employers tax breaks - subject to the condition that they mandate a return to the office.

- Imagine the impact that a mass exodus from the American Southwest would have on American and world culture. You might not have to imagine much longer. And the thing is, it's not just there that we're going to see big problems with agriculture. By the middle of the century food scarcity may well be a reality.

- On a positive note, Brazil - and the world - are far better off now that Bolsonaro is out of office; there's been a big drop in the deforestation rate since Lula took power.

- Iceland, a progressive country in many ways, is not so progressive on whaling.

News roundup, 5 Sept 2023

- A focus group consisting of likely voters from Winnipeg's swing constituencies were favourable towards Wab Kinew and the NDP, were somewhat turned off by Heather Stefanson and the Tories, and barely know who Dougald Lamont was. If that's reflective of the broader picture (a big if with focus groups) it bodes well for the NDP.

- Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are about to be tried for mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation in connection with the "Freedom Convoy" protest in Ottawa. Meanwhile in the States, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys is to be sentenced for his role in the Capitol riot.

- Glaciers in the Rockies are quickly disappearing, with one well-studied example in Banff National Park having retreated by 80 metres horizontally.

- A Lone Star Tick, the species known to sometimes cause people to develop an allergy to red meat and dairy products, has been found on a dog in Winnipeg. Turns out this is the seventh one found in Manitoba since July 2022. The species is not yet considered established here, but conditions are changing.

- Cuba has discovered a human trafficking ring allegedly forcing Cuban citizens to join Russia's military. If that's how Russia treats their supposed friends one might expect them to have a hard time finding more, but one of their people is leading the polls in Slovakia. And they can still rely on the DPRK for the time being.

- Turkey's attempt to salvage the Black Sea grain deal has not succeeded. 

- The Church of Scientology is lobbying against effective right to repair legislation, apparently out of fear that people will be able to reverse engineer their "E-meters" and reveal the mumbo jumbo that underlies them.

News roundup, 4 Sept 2023

- Ukraine has made breakthroughs near Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, which is raising hopes. Unfortunate that their defense minister just got caught with his hand in the till. And whether Western support will continue long enough for Ukraine to actually regain all lost territory is very much up in the air.

- Many are mystified by the sudden announcement and quick reversal of the idea to exempt some driving students from road tests. One suggestion is that this was "an attempt to send a message that examiners are easily replaceable". In any case, it's good that clearer heads prevailed, and a promising sign that the Tories may be floundering.

- Meta's blocking of news to Canadian users has had no significant effect on the amount Canadians actually use the platform. It's just that we see a lot less actual useful information. Whether it's being replaced by the frivolous or the outright misleading is a question that still needs to be answered. It's not reassuring that Meta seems to be backing away from efforts to limit disinformation. Of course Poilievre's contention that this was the Trudeau government's plan all along is absurd; it's the Cons who benefit most from low-information voters.

- Montreal is reaping dividends from an experiment in car-free streets that began during the height of the pandemic, with local businesses making gains. This is contrary to the conventional wisdom that "people with cars buy more stuff".

- Around 100 young people showed up at Winnipeg's Polo Park shopping centre, simply because someone on TikTok told them to. Not clear that there was any point to this, other than causing chaos.

- Two planes belonging to subsidiaries of Air Canada collided on the tarmac at Vancouver as one of them was being pushed back from the gate. Certainly better that it happened on the tarmac rather than the runway or in midair, but it's not a good look.

- Yellowknife has avoided destruction by wildfires - at least this time - and people are starting to return to the city. Hay River is still there as well, though not out of the woods yet.

- Concierges and bartenders are being replaced by robots in Las Vegas.