- 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.
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