- Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent has died at the age of 87.
- South African delegates to the International Court of Justice in The Hague have presented their opening arguments in a case accusing Israel of genocidal acts. Meanwhile, Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has expressed discomfort with the idea, based on past crimes against Jews in Europe. Varadkar has, in fact, articulated what is probably the main reason a lot of people in the West want to handle Israel with kid gloves; probably there's a certain amount of guilt mixed in even on the part of countries that fought against Nazi Germany, given that many of them (including Canada) were not keen on accepting Jewish refugees from there back when it was really needed. And for their part, many Israelis are questioning what the war will achieve.
- Toronto police have charged a protester with public incitement of hatred for waving what is described as a "terrorist flag" at a demonstration. Police have declined to identify the specific flag that was waved; if it was an ISIS flag that would be one thing, but if it was a Palestine flag that would be quite another.
- A bomb threat was made against the home of the judge hearing Donald Trump's civil fraud trial. This follows the judge's ruling that Trump cannot make his own final arguments because he would not agree to stick to "relevant" issues.
- The National Review has published an editorial urging Republicans to select anyone except Trump for the nomination, on the grounds that it's the only reliable way to beat Biden. Encouragingly, a poll indicates that Biden now has a three point lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, so maybe the editors' fears are justified. In any case, whoever might beat Trump, it's not going to be Chris Christie.
- The US Food and Drug Administration is warning that vaccination rates, not only for COVID-19 but for numerous other diseases, are low enough that herd immunity is now at risk. Unfortunately the prospects for fixing this any time soon are poor, especially when even the Democrats don't want to talk about the subject, even as some 1,500 Americans a week are still dying from COVID. And some reports indicate that, in the case of COVID, that which does not kill you might make you weaker.
- At a Fox News town hall session, Trump was asked about a congressional report that found that he was paid almost $8 million from multiple foreign governments while president. His reply was that he was "doing services" for those governments, and that it was "a small amount" of money anyway.
- The Conservative Party of Canada's entire strategy under Pierre Poilievre is centred around framing the next election as a referendum on Justin Trudeau. Given Trudeau's dismal standing in the polls, that is understandable, and it may well work, but it's interesting to note that Deveryn Ross, a columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press and the Brandon Sun who tends to lean right, is not comfortable with this, fearing that it could backfire. Jagmeet Singh's NDP is not mentioned in the article at all, but a situation like this would seem to be ripe for exploitation for them, if they are both bold and lucky. Maybe that's what Ross is really afraid of.
- Worldwide renewable energy production is growing at a remarkable rate, which is very good news (in a "the future may not be very good, but at least there probably is going to be a future" kind of way. In Europe, wind has overtaken coal for electricity production, for instance.
- The Max 9 variant of the Boeing 737 remains grounded in the US following Alaska Airlines' little misadventure with one last week. In the course of inspections of their fleet, as well as that of United Airlines (the only other North American carrier to operate the type) several other aircraft were found to have loose bolts that would have the potential to cause a similar failure; it appears that the aircraft may have been delivered to the airlines in that condition. Boeing CEO David Calhoun admitted the existence of the loose bolts; when asked how something like this could have happened, he replied "Because a quality escape occurred". Have to remember that one, "quality escape". If you want the really geeky details of what is known about the incident so far, check this video out.
- It appears that China isn't the only place where they actively harvest the organs of people who die in custody. Several families in Alabama say that their deceased relatives have been returned to them with organs missing.
- In Florida, the Escambia County School District, serving Pensacola and vicinity off in the western panhandle, has apparently gone above and beyond in their effort to keep forbidden thoughts from impressionable minds - they've removed dictionaries and encyclopedias from school libraries.
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