- 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.
1 comment:
The new speaker is very very scary. He is an election denier and extremely anti-gay.
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