- To the surprise of no one, Vladimir Putin has been announced as the winner in Russia's presidential election. Yulia Navalnaya seems to be taking over from her late husband as the chief opposition figure, at least until she falls out of a window or something. In related news, Ukraine reported over the weekend that their citizens in Russian-occupied regions were being forced to vote in Russia's presidential election.
- Donald Trump's lawyers have admitted that he is unable to come up with the $450 million needed to cover his bond for the New York civil fraud case. They are trying to argue that the amount is excessive and thus unconstitutional; whether this will persuade the courts remains to be seen. Of course, he may yet get a mysterious foreign bailout, but only if the mystery donor(s) think he has a chance of regaining the White House in the fall; if not, this could be another nail in his campaign's coffin, one much more significant than his reported inability to speak in complete sentences (which his supporters probably just see as authenticity).
- With the UN warning that famine is imminent in Gaza, the EU is now accusing Israel of weaponizing hunger. Still not quite fair to compare it to the Holocaust, but it's starting to look a bit like the Holodomor.
- The federal NDP has introduced a motion in the House of Commons that calls on the government to recognize a Palestinian state. This is expected to open up divisions, particularly in the Liberal caucus.
- New modelling suggests that a major outbreak of measles could be imminent in Canada. Only 31 cases have been reported so far, but the risk is high in communities where less than 85% of the population is vaccinated, and there are pockets where the rate is as low as 30%. Ironically, efforts to contain COVID-19 may have contributed to the problem as medical appointments where vaccinations might have occurred were deferred due to lockdowns.
- A bill introduced this past Thursday in the Manitoba legislature would prohibit those convicted of certain sexual offenses from changing their names. Some people who work with offenders oppose this, however, saying that existing sex offender registries will still enable them to be tracked and that this will further stigmatize offenders and potentially prevent them from getting treatment.
- South Sudan is closing all of its schools due to a heatwave that has been forecast to reach as high as 45°C. This is unusually hot even for that country; usually they don't get higher than 40. They're urging people to keep their kids indoors; looking at the picture in the article showing what constitutes "indoors", though, I wonder how much good that will do.
- Wildlife Haven, a nonprofit specializing in rehabilitating injured or orphaned wildlife, is facing a financial crunch, and has announced that they will not treat invasive species (notably House Sparrows, Starlings, and Pigeons). They are also putting a three year moratorium on raccoons.
- Dell has told their workers that fully remote employees won't be eligible for promotions. Whether the bump in pay the workers would get from a promotion would outweigh the added costs of the commute is another question; the folks at Reddit mostly think it's just a way of getting people to quit and thus removing them from the payroll without having to record it as a layoff. If that's the case, though, it's shortsighted, because the people who leave will be the ones who can get a better job elsewhere, i.e. the people you'd expect they'd want to hold on to.
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