Friday, April 12, 2024

News roundup, 12 April 2024

- In Israel, a decision of their Supreme Court a few years ago calls on the government to end the exemption from conscription that the ultra-orthodox community has enjoyed. This is rather awkward for Netanyahu since his governing coalition depends on the support of parties from that community, who would love their country to regain lands that they consider to have been promised to them by God, while wanting to ensure that it's other people's kids who have to risk their lives doing it. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, a mob of Israeli settlers stormed a Palestinian village, setting fire to homes and shooting at residents, killing at least one and wounding 25. And in Ireland, the government is making noises about possibly recognizing a Palestinian state. More alarmingly, following the bombing of Iran's embassy in Damascus, apparently by Israel, and the resulting threats of reprisals from Iran, many countries are issuing travel warnings for Israel, Iran, and in some cases the entire Middle East.

- Following his failure to provide a financial statement required for his bond in the New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump submitted documents indicating that the company backing him is itself backed by a company based in the Cayman Islands, leading to concerns that the money may not be collectable if he loses his appeal.

- It's looking more and more like there will be a very bad wildfire season in much of Canada this year.

- The US has issued permits for 25 gigawatts of clean energy, a year earlier than anticipated.

- There's still some concern about vacancy rates in downtown Winnipeg office buildings. I still say get to work on retrofitting as many of them as practical for residential use.

- Two dogs that killed an 11 year old in Edmonton last week had been reported to the city's animal control department for previous attacks, including one in which a woman was seriously injured a mere two months ago. In spite of this, the city says that it had no lawful basis to seize the dogs until the fatal attack; if true that suggests that the city's animal control bylaws need a bit of work.

- A man in Stony Plain, Alberta has been getting numerous unwanted pizza deliveries to his home and workplace. Initially they were coming from a company called Pizza 73, but after he called the company's head office and asked them to cancel any orders coming from him, the orders started coming from Domino's instead. He suspects a disgruntled former coworker.

- An astrology influencer on the former Twitter, after warning her followers that Monday's eclipse was "the epitome of spiritual warfare", apparently stabbed her partner to death, then threw her two children from her car, killing one of them, before fatally crashing the vehicle into a tree.

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