Monday, September 4, 2023

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.

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