Thursday, December 21, 2023

News roundup, 21 Dec 2023

- Following the court ruling in Colorado the other day, California's Lieutenant Governor is calling for similar measures in her own state. While none of these actions, even if upheld by the Supreme Court, are likely to make a difference in the presidential race (since so far it's just happening in states where Trump has little chance anyway), I wouldn't be surprised if it could have an impact on down-ballot races, notably for Congress - if Trump isn't on the ballot, many of his supporters probably won't bother to go to the polls, or else will write in his name and not bother with the rest of the ballot. This could conceivably tip the balance in some races, weakening the Republicans' chances of retaining their majority in the House. Not surprisingly, the Republicans are having a meltdown, and the judges in Colorado who made the ruling are receiving death threats.

- Rudy Giuliani is filing for bankruptcy, with debts that include a $146 million judgment against him for defamation of election workers in Georgia, as well as nearly a million in unpaid federal and state taxes.

- In Colorado, the local natural gas utility has been furiously lobbying to stop municipalities from taking action to reduce natural gas consumption. In the town of Gunnison, an update to the building code that would have required new construction to have sufficient wiring to make it easier to switch away from natural gas was blocked following pressure from the utility.

- A court in Texas has ruled that power companies cannot be held liable for failure to deliver their product to citizens, thanks to the state's deregulated electricity market.

- Around 1,430 bird species have become extinct in the last 130,000 years, and researchers believe humans are to blame for the vast majority of these extinctions. 61% of these extinctions occurred in the Pacific region.

- Healthcare systems across Canada are severely stressed by a dramatic rise in respiratory viruses. Meanwhile, documents show that the Alberta government ordered their health department to remove all references to COVID and flu and to limit information on the efficacy of vaccines in their fall vaccination campaign.

- The UN human rights office has called for an independent inquiry into the deaths of 11 Palestinians who were reportedly "summarily executed" by IDF soldiers.

- Geert Wilders is having trouble building a stable coalition government in the Netherlands. Unfortunately he may still succeed, and even if he doesn't it may lead to new elections which may be more favourable to him - his popularity has actually increased since November's election.

- A 17 year old boy has been charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of a teenage girl in downtown Winnipeg last week. Sadly, just a day before the girl's death, a judge had expressed concern that she was not getting the support she needed to keep her safe.

- An Israeli lobbyist who has worked for despots and dictators around the world is finding that banks and insurance companies in Canada don't want to do business with him. For his part, he says it's all Trudeau's fault.

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