News roundup, 31 Oct 2023

- Houthi rebels in Yemen have apparently joined the fray in Israel, attempting a drone attack on the city of Eilat. Meanwhile Israel has bombed a refugee camp in Gaza, killing over 50 people. For their part the Israelis say that there was a "very senior" Hamas commander in the area.

- Grim signs have been found at yet another former residential school, this one in Kenora.

- A picketer in the MPI strike was assaulted this morning; no official statement on motive, though some folks on Reddit are suggesting that the cause was more psychiatric than political. In other local labour news, Winnipeg Transit workers have voted to reject a temporary agreement.

- A technical consultant for an agriculture-related company, whose job involved driving to various agricultural facilities in BC's Lower Mainland, tried to take her employer to the province's Human Rights Tribunal for not properly accommodating what she claimed was a "contact high" from visiting a cannabis farm.

- The US Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to roll out a climate disclosure rule, which would require publicly traded companies to report their greenhouse emissions. Sounds perfectly reasonable; even the banks are on board (presumably they know that there is a lot of potential liability looming, and they want to prepare for it). Predictably, rightwing populists are claiming (falsely) that individual farmers and ranchers would be impacted by this.

- The Biden administration has allocated $1.3 billion to improvements in the power grid. Such investments are very much needed in order to make the grid work properly with more renewables; in fact, limitations in the grid are already being blamed for policies that slow the deployment of solar and wind power.

- Lawyers for Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Lindell have withdrawn because their fees weren't being paid. Funny that Trump doesn't help them out with all the money he supposedly has.

- Norway has been very successful in switching over to electric cars; the problem is, though, that they're still cars. They are, however, looking to go further and try to actually reduce car use; it'll be an uphill battle though.

- GM is suspending their autonomous vehicle operations after their robotaxi division, Cruise, was ordered off the road in California for safety reasons.

- Researchers in the UK are developing robot guide dogs for blind folks. Hopefully they'll work better than GM's driverless cars.

- Facial recognition software is not always reliable, especially if you don't look like someone in Silicon Valley where the software tends to be trained. A guy in Detroit was wrongfully arrested because of this sort of thing.

- A rightwing TV host in France blamed Paris' bed bug outbreak on immigration, even as an actual pest control expert disagreed (tourism, as well as pesticide resistance, are at least as big a reason as immigration, but that presumably doesn't have the same "red meat" value to his viewers). Meanwhile, a post made to a French web forum a couple of years ago has resurfaced, in which the poster claimed to have caused the problem themselves by mailing bed bugs around the country. Hopefully this person is just a troll...

- Poutine magnate Ryan Smolkin has died following complications of a surgery. He started a chain of poutine restaurants, as well as founding the World Poutine Eating Championship (a participant in that competition once consumed almost 13 kilograms of poutine in 10 minutes). No word on what kind of surgery Smolkin was undergoing, but I'm guessing it was a coronary bypass.

News roundup, 30 Oct 2023

- Israel and the US have attacked military sites in Syria; Israel has hit sites in Lebanon as well. They say this is in response to rocket launches on Israel from Lebanese and Syrian territory. Ordinary Israelis are arming themselves; meanwhile there's been little progress on the hostage situation. Israel is also accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields, something prohibited under international law; there are some independent reports supporting this contention.

- In Makhachkala, the capital of the semi-autonomous Russian republic of Dagestan, a large mob surged into the city's airport looking for passengers from a flight that had just arrived from Tel Aviv. Over 20 people were injured and around 60 arrested. The Russians, for their part, are blaming Ukraine.

- In the US, civil rights groups say that they have received "hundreds of requests" for assistance from people who say they have lost their jobs, or been threatened with such, as a result of their stances on the conflict. Parallels are being drawn to the McCarthy era.

- Here at home, Winnipeg police are urging people not to stage dueling protests regarding the situation in the Middle East, saying that this is too much of a draw on police resources. Others are concerned that such pronouncements could put a chill on protests, and contrast the cops' response to these protests compared to their response to things like the trucker convoy.

- It is expected that unless things change by 2029, a long-term increase of above 1.5 C will be pretty much inevitable. That won't be fatal for everyone, but it will be for a lot of people.

- MPI workers have voted to reject the latest contract offer. The strike, which has just passed the two month mark, will continue for the time being.

- Manitoba is currently the second worst province in the country for number of doctors per capita, worse than Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. Only PEI has fewer.

- A student bought a car that had just passed a safety a week previously, only to find that the inspectors hadn't done their job; the frame was so badly corroded as to make the vehicle unsafe to drive. The inspection was done at a Canadian Tire location; make of that what you will.

- The debate over Buffy Sainte-Marie's identity continues. Some consider the evidence presented in the CBC investigation to be pretty clear, while others still have their doubts due to a history of incomplete or falsified records of this sort of thing. The Indigenous Women's Collective, however, believes that the case is solid enough that they are calling for the Juno she received in 2018 to be revoked.

- The newly elected AfD politician who was being sought by German police has now been arrested and charged with racist abuse and displaying Nazi symbols.

- Efforts are being made in the US to use the 14th amendment to disqualify Trump from office. Not everybody thinks this is achievable, or even desirable, however.

- Yet another mass shooting in the US, this one in Chicago. Nobody has died so far, but 15 people were wounded, two seriously.

News roundup, 29 Oct 2023

- Desperate Palestinians stormed several UN food warehouses in search of basic foods. The death toll in Gaza now reportedly exceeds 8,000, though of course the Israelis and Americans dispute that. The left around the world continues to be badly divided on the issue, as does the Jewish community (the latter mostly on generational lines).

- A hurricane has killed at least 39 people in Acapulco and surrounding areas.

- The UAW has tentative settlements with Ford and Stellantis, but still has not reached a deal with GM.

- Term limits have populist appeal, especially in the US, but most experts are skeptical about their actual merits. They won't solve a lot of the real problems (gerrymandering, polarization, and the power of wealth to sway politicians) and in fact they have the effect of removing people from office just when they're actually learning how to do their job, leaving staffers and lobbyists as the people with the actual institutional knowledge. The real solution would not be term limits but campaign spending limits, but of course that would be un-American.

- 97% of Manitoba's electricity generation is already from renewable sources. The remainder comes from a natural gas plant in Brandon; the Kinew government hopes to close it by 2035. That sounds like a pretty modest goal, but the Tories are already making worried noises about that being too fast.

- People in the know think Danielle Smith's plan to pull Alberta out of the CPP is foolhardy. But like any good populist, Smith has staked her career on not listening to people in the know, so she's pushing ahead regardless.

- The long-anticipated collapse of the ubiquitous Cavendish variety of the banana may be on its way thanks to a fungal disease that is sweeping through plantations worldwide. The problem is that this variety (the only one most of us have ever known) is seedless, and is propagated by clones, thus there is virtually no genetic diversity. A similar fate befell the previous world-dominating variety, the Gros Michel, in the late 1950s.

- A man in Saskatchewan has been charged with unauthorized possession of zebras.

News roundup, 28 Oct 2023

- As Israel expands their invasion, the near complete communications blackout in Gaza is raising concerns among journalists and human rights activists about what kinds of atrocities may go undocumented. Meanwhile, questions are being asked in Israel about what Netanyahu did to empower Hamas over the years; Likud and Hamas may not agree on much, but they both very much oppose a two state solution. Unfortunately, they are almost certain to get their wish, at least for the near and middling future. It may still cost Netanyahu though; apparently 80% of Israelis blame him for the attack, and over half want him to step down.

- In Canada, the decision by Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles to expel Hamilton Centre MPP Sarah Jama from caucus over her stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict is dividing the party. The executive of the Kitchener Centre constituency association has drafted a letter calling for Stiles to resign. One person who's probably quite pleased with all this is Doug Ford.

- The Trudeau government is exempting home heating oil from the carbon tax for a three year period, ostensibly to give users the time to use opportunities to switch to heat pumps. Not surprisingly, since oil heating is mostly used in Atlantic Canada, the premiers of Saskatchewan and Alberta are outraged (but then, they're always outraged). The question of whether this was a good move remains; the one thing that's clear is that improvements to the carbon pricing regime are sorely needed. If they asked me (though why should they; I'm not a Liberal) I'd say make the tax higher and more comprehensive, but offset it by cutting the GST an equivalent amount. Presto - revenue neutrality, no net increase in the regressiveness of the tax regime and, most important, stronger incentives to reduce emissions.

- The lawyers who hired a private investigator to spy on a judge presiding over a case in which they were challenging COVID-19 restrictions in a fishing expedition hoping to find evidence of hypocrisy (not that it would have been a real argument if they'd found it, but it would have had great propaganda value for the convoy clowns) have been barred from practising law anywhere in Canada for three years. For their part, the lawyers say it was an "error in judgment".

- The CBC investigation into Buffy Sainte-Marie's identity has sparked considerable debate and soul searching. Some on social media have questioned whether it was appropriate for the CBC to be the outlet to break the story rather than, say, APTN. I kind of get that; maybe it should have been left to the community to figure out what to do with this information, though I can certainly understand that a scoop like this would be hard for any journalist to resist.

- The suspect in the mass shooting in Maine has been found dead, having apparently given himself a taste of his own medicine. Presumably Americans will bravely pick themselves up and go back to normal, at least until the next massacre in a day or two.

- In Germany, Daniel Halemba, a far-right politician recently elected to Bavaria's state parliament under the AfD banner, is being sought by police for reasons that have not yet been made public.

- With another time change looming, the discussions over the pros and cons of daylight saving time are ramping up again. This article makes an interesting point about which clock setting to use if time changes end; while year round standard time might be better for sleep (with associated health implications), year round DST might offset this by encouraging people to get out in the evenings and thus exercise something other than the hand that holds the remote.

News roundup, 27 Oct 2023

- Israel has made a second incursion into Gaza, and the intense bombing continues. Phone and internet services are now down in the territory, and the food shortage is growing. Amid this, the US is asking Qatar to clamp down on Al Jazeera's coverage of the conflict (perhaps they don't like too much coverage of what's really going on, nor what people like Andrew Mitrovica are saying in opinion pieces on the platform). And when UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had the audacity to suggest (rightly) that Hamas' attacks "did not happen in a vacuum", even as he (also rightly) condemned the attacks, Israel's leaders were apoplectic; their ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, declared that UN representatives would not be issued visas, and called for Guterres' resignation. For a different take, it's also worth reading Jonathan Freedland's compassionate lament. In any case, whether one agrees with Freedland's take or not, lament is about all that one can do these days, as there seems to be no realistic prospect of peace there in our lifetime, unless one means the "peace" that will result if one side is expelled or exterminated, or if climate change gets severe enough to make life in the region untenable for both sides.

- The conflict's impact abroad continues as well. When the municipal council of Waverley, NSW (a suburb of Sydney) debated a motion to condemn Hamas' attacks, councillor Dominic Wy Kanak introduced a proposed amendment to also (not instead, it should be noted) condemn the "war crimes perpetrated by a right-wing Israeli government including the bombing of Palestinian civilians", it was not well received. Only one other councillor, deputy mayor Ludovico Fabiano, voted in favour of the amendment, but that is not the shocking part. The shocking part is that the council then voted to strip Fabiano of his deputy mayor position, and Wy Kanak of his positions on several committees of council, in response to a Change.org petition. For her part, the city's mayor, Paula Masselos, declared that Fabiano wasn't sacked because of his vote, but because he had "lost the confidence of the community".

- The suspect in the Maine shootings remains at large, though the "shelter in place" order has been lifted as the river where his car was found is being searched.

- Russia is reportedly executing soldiers who retreat in the face of the Ukrainian advance. "Pour encourager les autres", no doubt.

- A convicted murderer who escaped from prison in 2019 and was at large until this year is the prime suspect in the fire that destroyed a historic building in Montreal in March, killing seven people.

- Boston Dynamics is teaming up with ChatGPT to enable their latest robot dog to talk and serve as a tour guide.

News roundup, 26 Oct 2023

- The ground invasion of Gaza has commenced, albeit in a partial way for the time being. The Americans still aren't sure what to do, other than to call casualty figures into question even as the actual experts consider them largely accurate. The leaders of the EU are calling for restraint, including humanitarian corridors, but to no avail so far. And tensions are increasing around the world, including here. In Germany, the authorities are pressuring institutions to cancel "events featuring groups critical of the Israeli state".

- Meanwhile, the Russia-Ukraine war continues apace. The Russian military is now doing what the Wagner Group was doing before by recruiting from prisons. 

- Yet another mass shooting in America, this one in Maine. The suspect remains at large.

- The crisis on the Colorado River has been deferred, for now, as cuts to water consumption take effect.

- The City of Winnipeg is considering replacing its current bicycle registry with 529 Garage, which shares data between jurisdictions to increase the chance of recovering stolen bikes. This registry has been quite successful in Vancouver; for more information see this video.

- The rightwing extremists have been shut out in the byelections for the Brandon School Division. Of course this won't stop them from making a lot of noise and scaring people, but nice to see them marginalized.

- The calls to close the Manwin Hotel have a problem - people still live there. As bad as conditions are there, it's still better than the street.

- The family of the man who killed his parents during a psychotic episode are suing public health agencies for failure to properly address his issues before the killings.

- Dr Gianluca Grimalda, the scientist whose refusal to fly from PNG to Germany for a meeting that could easily have been done by Zoom got him fired, still has no regrets. The organization he had been working for is called the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which might be a clue as to where their real priorities lie. Or perhaps the executives love to take advantage of the opportunity to travel for business and don't want to be shamed into meeting remotely. Grimalda thinks that his involvement in climate-related protests may be another factor.

News roundup, 25 Oct 2023

- The death toll in Gaza from Israeli bombing now stands at over 5,000. Around 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the original Hamas attack, so they still have a ways to go to reach the magical 10 to 1 ratio, but they'll get there. Oxfam is accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war; this is prohibited under international law. The organization is calling for the Security Council to do something, but the Americans would doubtless use their veto power, so you have to wonder why they even bother saying that. On the slightly more positive side, Qatar is expressing hope that some more hostages will be released, though the anticipated ground invasion could sink that. The invasion is, however, apparently being delayed at the Americans' request - only so they can protect their own interests, of course.

- The US House of Representatives finally has a speaker, Mike Johnson from Louisiana. He's quite a piece of work; a far-out Trump supporter and election denier. At one point it looked like they might choose a moderate, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, but he withdrew after Trump objected and it became clear that the hardliners would not back him. Given Emmer's relative reasonableness one wonders why he couldn't have gotten enough Democrat votes to put him over the top, but maybe the Dems didn't want to make it easy for the Republicans; on the other hand maybe they were willing but he didn't want to get the position that way and thus put a big target on his back.

- The City of Winnipeg is planning to replace all water meters within a few years; the new meters could be read remotely to avoid the hassle of sending in your readings after the reader can't get in and leaves a card in your mailbox.

- A Winnipeg police officer has been charged with failing to use a siren and failing to drive with due regard to safety after colliding with a civilian vehicle and a building. I have to assume his carelessness was particularly egregious and/or that he was on poor terms with his colleagues before the accident.

- A more positive police story - Toronto police have recovered over a thousand stolen vehicles and made numerous arrests. Unlike most Winnipeg auto thefts, this was an organized scheme to ship the vehicles overseas.

- Wab Kinew is meeting with the families of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, as well as community leaders, to discuss a potential search of the Prairie Green Landfill in Rosser.

- A study has concluded that bus rapid transit is beneficial for property values near stations. That won't stop the NIMBYs of course; their real concern is the possibility that the kind of people who take the bus might show up in their neighbourhoods and ask them for spare change.

- A TikTok user in Saskatchewan who made videos explaining how "multi-level marketing" really works has received hate mail, death threats, and has even had her videos shadowbanned by the platform. Of course TikTok doesn't have her back; they probably benefit more from MLM folks' accounts than from those doing exposes about them.

- The Quebec government has doubled the tuition for university students from outside the province. Premier François Legault is not shy about saying why - it's to limit the number of those darned Anglos who show up in Quebec, attending those darn Anglais schools, and speak English in public. He claims this is a threat to the French language; it really isn't, but it works well as red meat for his base.

News roundup, 24 Oct 2023

- Some social media users are reporting that their posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict are being banned or "shadowbanned", i.e. left up but not referred to other users by the platforms' algorithms. One TikTok user says that a video about Palestine that was initially getting large numbers of views suddenly stopped getting new views; others accuse Instagram of entirely removing posts for merely mentioning Palestine. And a professor of Jewish studies at UCLA is feeling awfully isolated after an article he published in the university newspaper.

- Here at home, Hamilton MPP Sarah Jama has been kicked out of the provincial NDP caucus. This follows a social media post that she made on 10 Oct regarding Israel; the stated reason for kicking her out, however, allegedly has to do with unspecified actions since the post, which leader Marit Stiles says "have contributed to unsafe work environments for staff" and "undermined our collective work and broken the trust of her colleagues". It would be nice if we had some information about what those actions were. Now to be fair, the party has voted against a motion put forward by the Tories to censure Jama, but the publicly available information still doesn't look good on them. Then again, a left-leaning party is in a lose-lose situation here. There's a saying in politics, "if you're explaining, you're losing", and countering the dominant narrative on Israel/Palestine might require more explanation than the average Joe or Jane Sixpack is willing to listen to. So maybe the party has decided to pick their battles and that addressing the reality of the situation in the Middle East is out of their scope as a provincial party... but even so, it's an ugly situation any way you slice it, and expulsion from caucus sure looks excessive, at least from an outsider's perspective.

- Yet another strike, this time involving workers who operate the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Which means ships can't get in or out of the Great Lakes. Meanwhile the UAW strike in the US is ramping up again, this time hitting the iconic (for loogans) Ram 1500 pickup.

- A man who spent a half century in prison for what is looking like a very dubious murder conviction has been granted bail pending a new trial. Better late than never I guess...

- Two high profile members of China's cabinet, defense minister Li Shangfu and foreign minister Qin Gang, have been removed from office for unexplained reasons. Li has not been seen in public since August; perhaps he's currently undergoing some in-depth interrogation regarding matters of national security.

- Meta is being sued by 33 American states for harming the mental health of young people, due to the way Instagram has reportedly impacted many users.

- The California Public Utilities Commission is voting on a proposal that would require participants in the net metering program to sell all of the output of their solar panels to the grid, and then buy it back from the grid at market rates in order to use it. You'd think California, of all places, would be better than this; we'll have to see how the vote goes.

- An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot riding in the jumpseat of an Embraer 175 over Oregon appears to have tried to do an Andreas Lubitz impression but was fortunately subdued by the crew. Not surprisingly, there appear to have been psychiatric factors at play.

- The US Environmental Protection Agency is considering a ban for most uses of trichloroethylene, a widely used but toxic solvent.

News roundup, 23 Oct 2023

- A few Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas, though the overall situation remains grim. Israel has made footage of some of Hamas' atrocities available to journalists; meanwhile, the death toll among Palestinians in Gaza has now topped 5,000. The situation is opening divisions in the Jewish community in Europe.

- To no one's surprise, Donald Trump is viciously trying to smear the judges overseeing the criminal charges against him. One of these judges, Tanya Chutkan, received a death threat, with a racial slur thrown in, from one of Trump's over-zealous fans. Coincidentally (or not), Chutkan had recently issued a limited gag order prohibiting Trump from "making statements targeting prosecutors, possible witnesses and court staff"; that order has since been placed on hold.

- Former officials at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are reporting that their jobs were made extremely difficult after they published information about the climate impact of methane from livestock. Because apparently you just don't talk about that if you know what's good for you.

- Even with best emissions management from now on, the sea level is virtually certain to rise by some 1.8 metres over the course of a few centuries, as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to have been destabilized.

- The Alaskan fishing industry has long been praised for its relatively good management of the resource, but it appears to be meeting its match, partly due to climate change.

- On a more positive note, Norway is showing just how quickly it's possible to transition away from fossil fuels for land transportation. Critically, as the shift to EVs lowers demand for oil, and thus the price, marginal oil reserves become less economical to exploit as the more easily accessible reserves are sufficient to satisfy the market. Which increases the likelyhood that those assets will be "stranded" and thus left in the ground, something that has to happen no matter how sad it makes Albertans.

- In 2020, Doug Ford's then-Minister of Colleges and Universities, Ross Romano, tried to reassure the president of Canada Christian College that he'd ensure that the college would be given university status, notwithstanding the recommendation by an independent board that this should not occur. This particular college president was already infamous for his anti-LGBTQ and anti-Islamic statements, which just might have been a factor in the board's recommendation.

- Last week, Stephanie Cadieux flew from Toronto to Vancouver, only to discover that Air Canada had neglected to load her wheelchair onto the flight. The airline may have messed with the wrong person, though; Cadieux is Canada's Chief Accessibility Officer.

News roundup, 21 Oct 2023

- A tiny trickle of aid, consisting of 20 trucks, has been allowed into Gaza from Egypt. The fact that fuel is not included is a concern, however, not to mention the continued bombardment. Beyond the actual horrors of the conflict, it has opened up deep divisions among the left as well as among ordinary Israelis. And in the US and elsewhere, there are active efforts to suppress attempts to present the Palestinian side of things, including the cancellation of conferences and attempts to discredit journalists.

- The Kinew government is making efforts to settle the MPI strike, appointing a new board of directors who hopefully will be more prepared to settle with the union.

- The City of Winnipeg is considering moving staff into vacant areas of the police headquarters. Seems more than reasonable to put your staff into a building you actually own rather than renting space elsewhere, though concerns are being raised about the impact on those poor commercial landlords who own the buildings where staff work currently.

- A waste to energy project in the Blenheim area of Chatham-Kent, Ontario will feed landfill gas into the natural gas system (both natural gas and landfill gas are mostly methane). A positive step.

- Also positive is the proposed changes to zoning in Kitchener and Guelph, essentially making fourplexes allowable on any residential lot without the need to apply for a zoning variance.

- A mere 12% of the American population are responsible for half of all beef consumed in the country. Looking on the positive side, this might make measures to reduce beef consumption a bit less difficult politically, since the people affected the most by such measures would be a small minority anyway.

News roundup, 20 Oct 2023

- Israel continues to prepare for a land invasion of Gaza. Meanwhile, a nephrologist at a hospital in Richmond Hill has been suspended and doxxed in response to a tweet expressing skepticism about some of the reported atrocities by Hamas. And some folks, including David Matas from B’nai Brith Canada, are calling for a ban on "pro-Hamas" rallies... but one has to ask if a rally protesting the bombing of civilians necessarily qualifies as "pro-Hamas", or whether those investigating rallies will bother to make the distinction. And in the UK, the Labour Party is deeply divided on the conflict.

- The US Congress has failed yet again to elect a speaker. with Jim Jordan losing a third vote despite other Republican members being threatened with violence by his supporters.

- Francine Champagne, the trustee at the Louis Riel School Division who was previously suspended for problematic posts on social media, has been suspended again for refusing to sign on to the school division's code of conduct.

- A CBC investigation has found that technicians at several computer repair stores have been accessing files "not relevant to the repair" on computers brought to the stores by undercover journalists.

- A community refrigerator set up by a Waterloo organization called The 519 Community Collective was stolen in August but has now been replaced. Notably, the organization is not planning to install security cameras, for fear of alienating the marginalized people who use the fridges. This is laudable, though if it keeps happening they'll have to consider whether it's maybe a necessary evil to keep the service functioning. Yes, some people might be reluctant to use the fridge if there's a camera pointed at them, but nobody will use the fridge if it isn't there.

- India is threatening to strip dozens of Canadian embassy and consulate staff of their diplomatic immunity, forcing Canada to scale back operations in that country. This is expected to cause difficulties for those seeking Canadian visas.

- A judge in Maryland has been shot to death outside his home; police suspect the killer to be a man who he had ruled against in a custody battle.

- Travis King might well be wishing he'd stayed in the DPRK given that besides desertion he's been charged with possession of child pornography.

News roundup, 19 Oct 2023

- The rightwing nationalist "Law and Justice" party has lost its majority in Poland's parliament; despite winning a plurality of seats they are unlikely to be able to form a government. Which is good news for Poland, and for the EU as a whole.

- Israel's national police chief has declared that there will be "zero tolerance" for protests in support of Gaza, even making the (presumably empty) threat to bus antiwar protesters to the besieged territory. Nonetheless, some brave Israelis are questioning the country's approach to the problem. There is still some uncertainty over whether the threatened land invasion will proceed, but it seems likely. Meanwhile, a senior official with the US State Department has resigned in protest of the government's unquestioning support for Israel no matter what. And the mis- and/or disinformation continues apace.

- The new government in Manitoba faces numerous challenges in trying to accomplish their goals for the province. Many of these involve healthcare, housing, and other social issues, but there's a lot of work to do on the climate front as well.

- The guy just found not criminally responsible for the killings of his parents and the wounding of his former supervisor had previously been put on an "involuntary hold" at a psychiatric facility, but this didn't stop him from just walking away from the facility.

- Assaults on Winnipeg Transit drivers have dramatically increased since the start of the pandemic, going from 66 incidents in 2019 to 104 last year and 91 so far this year. No question, the pandemic really messed with a lot of people's heads.

- Saskatchewan's human rights commissioner has resigned in protest over the Moe government's insistence that "parental rights" are more important than the rights of children.

- The US House of Representatives still doesn't have a speaker, and Jim Jordan's allies have been accused of threatening other Republicans for not backing their guy. 

- With all the talk about "tipping points", it's nice to see a positive one - many think that one such point has been reached in solar power that will eventually lead to the decarbonization of the power grid. Suck it up, Alberta.

- Inflation is cooling in Canada, but that doesn't mean prices are coming down - they're just not rising at the crazy rates that they were.

- A man who spent over 16 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, before being freed three years ago, has been killed in a traffic stop by a sheriff in Georgia.

News roundup, 18 Oct 2023

- Wab Kinew and his new cabinet have been sworn in. Notable cabinet posts include Uzoma Asagwara as Minister of Health (and deputy premier), Adrien Sala in Finance, Matt Wiebe in Justice, Ron Kostyshyn in Agriculture, Nahanni Fontaine in Families, and Bernadette Smith in Housing, Addictions and Homelessness. A full list can be found here. Meanwhile, Cindy Lamoureux has become Liberal leader by default. The Cons couldn't leave office without making one final blunder, though, by allowing funding to lapse for a program from the height of the pandemic that had been helping to boost the availability of paramedics.

- There is still some dispute over who was actually responsible for the bombing of that hospital in Gaza. Hamas says the Israelis did it; the Israelis insist that it was actually a misfired rocket from another militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Since we can't trust either Hamas or Likud to tell the truth about this (even if Biden thinks otherwise), we'll have to wait to see if some independent evidence becomes available. Meanwhile, Israel is furious that some Spanish politicians used the G-word to describe what they're doing to the Palestinians. And as everyone feared, there are attacks on synagogues and mosques happening the world over. Meanwhile, in a recent poll more than 50% of Canadians gave the gloomy (but probably accurate) assessment that a lasting peace in the region is not currently possible.

- 21 species of animals and plants have been removed from the US endangered species list; they are no longer in need of protection due to their being already gone. These include the Bachman's Warbler, several species of Hawaiian honeycreepers and other Hawaiian birds, a couple of fish, several species of mussel, and a fruit bat from Guam.

- On the other hand, Florida is now home to vast numbers of exotic species. Besides the well known case of the Burmese Python, these include such things as the Nile Monitor, the Vervet Monkey, the Cane Toad, and all manner of other creatures. The fact that many Floridians like exotic pets and don't like rules is a big part of the problem. Some of these animals are more of a problem than others; like it or not, though, many of them are there to stay.

- The BC government is actually taking action against illegal Airbnb and similar listings, something that appears to be sorely needed. Predictably, rightwing columnists are upset about the plight of the poor downtrodden "hosts" (who in their impact on society are much closer to parasites than actual hosts). Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, upon hearing a caller to a phone-in show whine that Airbnb hosts "will become reluctant residential tenancy landlords", replied "Good. That's the point. Homes are for living in - they're not commodities for speculation and profit". Hear hear; we need more politicians like him.

- The US House of Representatives still has to choose a speaker; Jim Jordan has been voted down amid continued Republican infighting. It's all fun and games until there's another government shutdown, of course. 

- The price of cultivated meat is expected to drop dramatically as economies of scale kick in, to the point where it is expected to be on par with actual dead animal by 2030.

- New Zealand is being asked to make it easier for environmentally displaced people to settle there, at least from the Pacific where several island countries are only a few metres above sea level and are pretty much doomed at this point. Somehow I doubt the new government will be keen on the idea, though.

News roundup, 17 Oct 2023

- The UN states that Israel's order for the 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to relocate could constitute a "forcible transfer of civilians", which is a violation of international law. I suspect that their airstrike on a hospital, something straight out of the Russian playbook, could run afoul of some conventions too. Some argue that Israel is "losing its value as an ally" for the West, though that sounds like wishful thinking to me. In any case, their value as an ally is secondary to who they might take with them if they go down, so they'll never be allowed to fall in any case (nor should they, given the consequences).

- Speaking of Russia, they seem to be encountering difficulties in their attempts to storm the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. They may benefit, however, from the distraction of the Israel-Gaza war, which may redirect a lot of aid to Israel that would otherwise have gone to Ukraine.

- A man who shot three people, two of them fatally, near a soccer stadium in Brussels has been killed by police. It looks like a case of "lone wolf" terrorism, albeit inspired by ISIS/Daesh.

- The natural gas industry is borrowing a page from the tobacco industry in its efforts to fight restrictions on gas stoves.

- Australia's bushfire season is taking off in a big way in northern NSW, with one fatality already and several communities threatened.

- Besides laying bare a dark undercurrent of Australian culture, the Voice referendum also raises serious issues about the role of disinformation in democratic politics and how to address it. It's old Karl Popper's "paradox of tolerance"; if you tolerate all speech and viewpoints, you hand too much power to the liars. Yet there's no doubt that an overzealous campaign against disinformation has the potential to criminalize legitimate speech as well. Not an easy problem to solve.

- The EU seems to be making some serious efforts to address the microplastics problem, including but not limited to a ban on glitter.

- The banning of books is an issue in two byelections being held to fill vacancies on the board of the Brandon School Division. A resolution to create a book banning committee failed to gain traction, but the bad guys are doing their darnedest to get onto the board and keep this kind of crap on the agenda.

News roundup, 16 Oct 2023

- As predicted, Israel's ultimatum demanding that northern Gaza be evacuated has not worked. Perhaps this has something to do with the need for evacuees to have somewhere to go. The siege continues, as does the hostage crisis. The prospects for peace look bleaker than ever, and the conflict is sparking tension on university campuses around the world as students take sides.

- White-nose syndrome has arrived in Manitoba, with devastating consequences for several bat species in the province. There is some possible good news, though, in that in eastern North America, where the disease became established earlier, populations of the Little Brown Bat, at least, are showing signs of recovery.

- Mask mandates have been reinstated at hospitals, personal care homes and other heath-care centres... at least for staff. Unfortunately visitors will not be required to cooperate; perhaps the authorities have concluded that hostility from the angry masses and the added stress to workers from said hostility will do more harm than the increased risk of transmission.

- Wab Kinew has announced that his new government will recognize Louis Riel as the honorary first premier of Manitoba.

- A witness at the trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber has described the intolerable conditions that the convoy created for local residents. Which was almost certainly the convoy's intention; they wanted to stick it to the big city libtard ay-leets (even though many of the people who live in the area are just ordinary working people trying to get by, to those hillbillies they represent everything they hate).

- A man who killed his parents and then tried to kill his former supervisor at Seven Oaks Hospital has been found not criminally responsible due to his delusional mental state at the time of the killings.

- The Saskatchewan government has banned sexual assault centres from making presentations in schools to teach children what their rights are. Perhaps they want to protect their God-fearing Christian followers from having their crimes come to light. So who are the groomers now?

- In BC, the extremists are turning their attention to wetland conservation projects, stirring up opposition among the rural sheeple. And in New Zealand the new government they've helped elect is reversing measures to clean up the country's vehicle fleet.

- Some researchers are working on genetically modifying plants, such as trees, to increase the rate at which they sequester carbon. A risky move perhaps, but it's not like nature is going to return to its primordial state anyway, so maybe this is justifiable as a Godzilla threshold-type strategy. It does not by any means, however eliminate the need to reduce emissions; even the best sequestration measures are inferior to emissions reduction.

- A biologist at the University of California - Berkeley who was researching the effects of the herbicide atrazine on frogs began to suspect that the herbicide's manufacturer, Syngenta, was spying on him. Might sound paranoid, but in the words of Kurt Cobain, just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you.

News roundup, 14 Oct 2023

- The question of how the Israel-Hamas conflict will impact Netanyahu's political fortunes has come up. It's something of an open secret that Israel's leaders have tolerated, and even covertly aided, Hamas in the hope that they will cause more problems for the cause of Palestinian statehood than they will for Israel; that of course looks like something of an own goal now. For his part, Netanyahu will no doubt blame everyone but himself and his cronies for the situation while raining furious vengeance upon ordinary Palestinians as Hamas' leaders go into hiding; whether the Israeli public buys that remains to be seen. They still have to figure out how to rescue the hostages, though.

- Australian voters have soundly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have given their indigenous peoples (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) recognition as the country's first peoples and given them an advisory body to Parliament. The situation was not helped by ridiculous conspiracy theories claiming that this was a plot to hand the country over to the UN, which the bleating masses lapped up. A consolation (albeit a small one) is that the country's largest cities mostly voted Yes; as usual, rural and small town folk seem to once again be the enemies of progress.

- Across the Tasman, New Zealanders have voted for change, even if they don't really understand what change means other than stopping those big city libtard ay-leets from taxing livestock farmers to try to limit the severity of climate change.

- Here at home, the Winnipeg Police Service has pulled community support units from inner city residential neighbourhoods in order to reassign them to the downtown. While there's definitely a problem in the downtown, community activists fear that abandoning poor neighbourhoods will turn out badly in the long run. Notably they have also increased their presence around synagogues and mosques, which is probably necessary given the grim situation in the Middle East.

- A project is underway to convert the old McKenzie Seeds building in Brandon to a vertical farm. Increasingly, this will be the future of farming, especially as conventional farming becomes harder due to climate change and other environmental problems. Of course some farming (notably grains) will have to remain outdoors, but this is a positive step for food security.

- The idea of an environmental tax on meat, especially beef, is gaining momentum in some places. Denmark is considering such a measure, for instance, and New Zealand planned to do the same thing, though the new government is likely to reverse this move. Of course industry people are doing the usual hand-wringing about how this will "drive up costs for low-income families", though really it will only drive up costs for inflexible low income families. What really needs to happen, though, is to use the revenue raised from this to bring down the prices of alternatives.

- School divisions in Manitoba have issued a large number of "limited teaching permits", which enable someone without the usual credentials to teach in classrooms, in order to replace the large numbers of teachers who left the profession during the ravages of the pandemic.

- Five people, among them the despicable Patrick Allard, have had their appeal of their convictions for violating COVID-19 restrictions denied.

- A climate researcher working in Bougainville, PNG has been fired because he refused to hop on a plane to meet with his German employers. He has no apologies; as far as he's concerned flying would be undermining the purpose of his job.

News roundup, 13 Oct 2023

- Israel ordered 1.1 million people to evacuate from the northern part of Gaza within 24 hours, in preparation for the ground invasion they have now started. Logistically this would be rather difficult (especially considering that with power and internet outages a lot of people may not even have gotten the warning), but I suppose it allows Israel to say "you were warned" when civilians get caught up in the bloodshed of that they are embarking on. Human Rights Watch has also accused Israel of using white phosphorus near civilians; this is prohibited under the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons, but Israel isn't a signatory to that convention. Gwynne Dyer rather cynically (but perhaps accurately) suggests that "the Israeli public expects and will accept nothing less than the traditional ten-to-one kill ratio". Looked at that way, the brutality of their response makes a perverse sort of sense.

- The conflict is, not surprisingly, causing huge divisions on university campuses in the West. In the UK, a 22 year old protester has been arrested following a rally in Brighton on charges of supporting a proscribed organization (namely Hamas), allegedly for saying calling the last weekend's attacks "beautiful and inspiring to see". It is also leading to severe harassment for some Palestinians living in the West, including Canada. In all likelihood the ugliness will endure long after this round of the actual fighting.

- The US House of Representatives still hasn't chosen a speaker. Steve Scalise has dropped out of the race due to insufficient support. They're now looking to put forward Trump favourite Jim Jordan; the House will be unable to pass legislation until it is resolved.

- The Supreme Court of Canada has handed the fossil fuel industry an ill-deserved victory by ruling that the federal Impact Assessment Act is "largely unconstitutional". Now to me, this is exactly the sort of thing the notwithstanding clause was created for. Unfortunately, recent uses of the clause by rightwing arsehole governments in Quebec, Ontario, and now Saskatchewan make such a move politically very difficult for the feds.

- The EU is investigating X (formerly known as Twitter) for possible violations of their Digital Services Act with regards to disinformation.

- The far right loves, loves, to accuse their opponents of being pedophiles, groomers, etc. So why is it that so often it's them that are committing these kinds of crimes? It's like every accusation is a confession with these people.

- The woman who recently pleaded guilty to running a large drug distribution network "branded her crack by having workers add pink food colouring to the product so her customers could tell it apart from that of competitors". And no, this article is not on the site of the Onion or the Beaverton but CBC Manitoba.

News roundup, 12 Oct 2023

- Israel's reaction to the attack by Hamas is raising concerns due to its indiscriminate nature; the decision to cut off all electricity, fuel, food, and water to Gaza's entire population of 2.3 million looks a lot like collective punishment, which is a violation of international law. There is also some question about what Hamas intended to accomplish; some think the goal was to sabotage the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

- The US House of Representatives is still struggling to elect a new speaker thanks to divisions among the Republicans.

- The US Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge by several red states against a policy requiring that societal costs of carbon emissions be taken into account in drafting regulations and approving projects.

- The drought conditions in the central US has led to a reduction in the flow of the Mississippi River, resulting in more salt water creeping upriver by diffusion. This leads to salt entering aquifers, threatening water supplies. The problem isn't limited to the Mississippi either.

- Climate change threatens to render large areas of the world uninhabitable. Billions of people live in places where wet bulb temperatures are expected to exceed the limits for human survival; while many of them will die in place, a lot will migrate as well.

- Deforestation in the Amazon threatens to reduce rainfall in the region, which in turn will lead to more deforestation if not stopped. At some point, possibly not far in the future, it could hit a tipping point, after which the ecosystem will almost inevitably transform into a savanna, with huge consequences for humans around the globe.

- The federal cabinet has rejected a plea by their own environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, to protect the habitat of the Spotted Owl in BC.

- While there has been a lot of hand wringing from economists about the possibility of a collapse in global population due to low birth rates, actual demographers aren't too worried about it.

- Some progress is being made in the conversion of office buildings in Winnipeg for residential use. Notably, the old Medical Arts Building has been retrofitted into 104 apartments. The city's effort to impose restrictions and licensing requirements on short-term rentals, however, is running into resistance from the landlords who are up in arms about the licensing fees, even as others fear that enforcement will be inadequate.

- Winnipeg Transit could well be the next local public agency to go on strike; the Amalgamated Transit Union already has a strike mandate and is holding informational pickets.

News roundup, 11 Oct 2023

- Israeli troops are massing on the border with Gaza and launched numerous airstrikes; the large number of hostages, however, complicates matters. Hamas' attack has shown more sophistication than many had given them credit for, though not a lot of restraint; even someone like AOC, not a huge fan of Israel, was shocked by the attack as well as by some of the response from Americans. The death toll continues to rise. 

- Meanwhile, in the UK, Home Secretary Suella Braverman is suggesting that the police should go beyond simply prosecuting overt support for Hamas and that waving a Palestinian flag should be treated as a criminal act.

- The RCMP has launched a criminal investigation into the Ford government's handling of the Greenbelt affair.

- An new energy storage technology could greatly facilitate the transition to clean energy. Whether the transition will be fast enough to avoid a great deal of misery and displacement is another question; the International Energy Agency is still saying it's possible, but then they have to say that.

- The EU has made a bold move in addressing emissions - they are taxing imported goods based on their carbon footprint. This is essential to enable domestic manufacturers to compete as decarbonization measures are taken. Not everyone is pleased; China has made angry noises, and the Americans don't think the rules should apply to them either, but if Europe stands firm this could be set a precedent for other countries.

- Stockholm is banning gasoline and diesel cars from its city centre starting in 2025. Exceptions will be made for emergency vehicles and certain plug-in hybrids.

- The collapsed walkway at Fort Gibraltar earlier this year seems to have resulted from rotten wood and insect damage. One would hope that they'd have done enough inspections to find problems before something like this happened, but I guess not.

- Unifor has reached a tentative agreement with GM. 

- Noted Indian author Arundhati Roy may face prosecution for comments she made in 2010 about Kashmir which the government interprets as advocating secession.

- Cellphone bans in schools are controversial, but in New South Wales they seem to be paying dividends in terms of improving the learning environment.

News roundup, 10 Oct 2023

- The Israel-Gaza conflict continues. Hamas has reportedly threatened to kill one hostage for each airstrike that strikes Gaza, though one Palestinian politician says that they are prepared to negotiate. As disturbing as that is, much more disturbing is the possibility that this could lead to war with Iran, though some are skeptical that it could go that far. And the political debate over the matter has scarcely begun. One thing is clear, ordinary Palestinians aren't likely to benefit from the conflict.

- The City of Winnipeg has created a task force to address the issue of derelict buildings, but some inner city residents are skeptical that it will accomplish its goal.

- Unifor has launched strike action against some GM facilities in Ontario; meanwhile the UAW strike in the US continues apace.

- A man has been shot to death by police after crashing his car into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.

- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running as an independent for the presidency. There is uncertainty as to who the resulting vote split would harm; his stance on a lot of issues (especially vaccines) is closer to Trump, but one poll suggests he could draw a significant amount of support from Democrats as well.

- The trial of Chris Barber and Tamara Lich continues in Ottawa. A striking fact is that the evidence provided by the Crown and the defense is very similar, described by one criminologist as a "Rorschach test" for how people feel about the convoy protest.

- German officials have made several arrests in a move against the far-right "Reichsbürger" movement.

News roundup, 9 Oct 2023

- The death toll in the latest iteration of the Israel-Palestine conflict now exceeds 1,100; unusually, more of those deaths are Israeli than Palestinian, including about 250 people at a music festival. Israel has made a formal declaration of war and greenlighted "significant military steps" to retaliate, so that ratio may reverse soon, though the large numbers of hostages may complicate matters. Israel has also announced a "total blockade" of Gaza, including fuel, food, and water. There is also a lot of talk about the intelligence failure that made such a surprise attack possible.

- Russia intends to revoke their ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, although they are currently saying they will not actually test weapons until the US does.

- An earthquake in Afghanistan has killed over a thousand people, though that's not much more of a rounding error considering all that country has endured in the last 40 years.

- There's been a lot of attention focused on "flash mob" thefts from retailers in the US, though whether they are actually on the rise or just getting more media attention is a matter of debate.

- If you think people are meaner now than before the pandemic, you're not alone and probably not wrong.

- Despite some backtracking on the Greenbelt, the Ford government is still forcing municipalities to open up more land for development.

News roundup, 8 Oct 2023

- The dramatic surprise attack by Hamas on Israel is noteworthy for a number of reasons, not least because the death toll among Israelis is much higher than previous conflicts of this sort, comparable to that among the Palestinian population. The lack of warning, as well as reports that substantial numbers of Israelis have been taken hostage suggests meticulous planning. Hamas will probably be hard pressed to follow through, though.

- A Winnipeg city councillor is calling for speed limits on active transportation paths. Enforcement could be difficult, though. In other municipal news, council is looking at relaxing height limits on apartment buildings in Osborne Village in the hope that this will spur the construction of more affordable housing.

- The co-chair of the Manitoba PC party is defending the decision to take a hard right turn in the leadup to the election. Interestingly, she acknowledges that this made things more difficult for the party in suburban Winnipeg, but that it secured support in rural Manitoba; she says that polling data indicated that a less extreme campaign would have cost the party in those areas. Presumably this is because voters would have stayed home rather than voting NDP.

- Of course, the troubles of the Manitoba Tories pale before those of the Republican Party in the US. Currently they remain competitive due to heavy gerrymandering, but they seem to be losing ground, because they are driving away moderates in droves (see for example Mitt Romney's decision not to seek reelection) and are incapable of breaking away from Trump. Since over half of the country is not insane (contrary to stereotypes) the party's ability to govern will only weaken. Unfortunately, since nearly half the country is insane, it will not lead to a peaceful and stable society, in the short run at least.

- An eminently reasonable move in Wales to lower the default speed limit in residential neighbourhoods to 20 mph (32 km/h) has sparked a rabid populist backlash, complete with vandalism of signs, slowdown protests on highways (which aren't affected by the law) and wackadoodle conspiracy theories (check out the placards held by some of the protesters in that photo).

- Speaking of those conspiracy theories, the warped, paranoid idea of what a "15 minute city" really is has led to similar madness around the world, with urban planners receiving death threats in some places.

- California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill which would have decriminalized natural psychedelics (notably mushrooms), saying that the regulatory infrastructure is not yet in place that could make such a move safe.

- Sobeys and its subsidiaries have removed some turkeys from the shelves and are offering refunds to people who have bought them.

- NASA is sending a probe to the asteroid 16 Psyche, a highly metallic asteroid whose value, if somehow mined, has been estimated at around 10¹⁹ US dollars.

- The FCC has fined a satellite TV company for contributing to the space junk problem. A step in the right direction for sure.

News roundup, 7 Oct 2023

- Morden mayor Brandon Burley has abruptly resigned and is joining Wab Kinew's transition team. No doubt the unpleasantness he was subjected to owing to the eminently reasonable stance he took on COVID-19 (including having his home address provided to the "freedom" loogans, not to mention losing at least a dozen friends) was a factor.

- Canada is the third worst country in the developed world (after the US and Japan) in terms of the amount of paid vacation we have (only 10 days guaranteed in most provinces, plus statutory holidays). In contrast, most of the EU has 25-30 days.

- As expected, the Hunka affair is paying rich propaganda dividends to Russia.

- Donald Trump's civil fraud trial continues despite a bid to halt the proceedings.

- Ukraine is claiming significant gains in the war with Russia; the Black Sea fleet has been forced to relocate from Sevastopol to Novorossiisk and other places in Russia proper. Less reassuring is the fact that they are now at the mercy of whoever gets elected Speaker of the House of Representatives as far as American aid goes. The effects of the conflict are now visible from space. And meanwhile Russia seems to be considering pulling out of the Comprehensive Test Band Treaty.

- Dutch PM Mark Rutte is questioning Hungary's place in the EU over their socially conservative policies. One wonders, though, if the rest of the bloc would be willing to drive them out (and thus further into the arms of Russia).

- There's been a significant breakthrough in the UAW negotiations, with battery plant workers being brought under the union's wing. This is important, since until now many of the batteries, unlike parts in gas and diesel cars, have been made in non-union shops.

- Two environmental groups, Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace, have been unsuccessful in getting California's last nuclear plant shut down. This may not be such a bad thing, though. If they were opposing the construction of a new one, I might be more inclined to agree with them (not least because you could construct a lot of solar and wind capacity in the time it takes to build a nuclear plant) but removing an existing plant would almost inevitably mean a delay in decarbonization.

- A study commissioned by an organization called Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation has concluded that large solar projects do not harm property values. Meanwhile, researchers at MIT have developed a promising new solar powered desalination system; it would be especially good if this could somehow be combined with new methods of extracting lithium from the salts left behind.

- Shell is buying ad space in the highly popular Fortnite video game, in the hope of infecting younger minds with pro-oil sentiment.

- The Biden administration is waiving several environmental laws to enable the construction of Trump's border wall. This sounds absurd, but Biden has been under pressure from several blue states to limit migration. There's going to be a lot more of this sort of thing in the future, both in the US and elsewhere; governments with domestic policies that are liberal or even social democratic will likely bow to pressure to chop the extra hands from the gunwales in order to avoid losing ground to the far right.