Thursday, May 9, 2024

News roundup, 9 May 2024

- Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over Donald Trump's trial in the classified documents case, has delayed the start of the trial indefinitely, probably until after the November election. And guess who was President when Cannon was appointed to the bench? 

- A Republican representative from Nebraska, Don Bacon, has introduced a motion to censure Ilhan Omar; this was ironically motivated by a statement that Omar made against antisemitism, albeit one which had a little jab thrown in. When asked by a news outlet about antisemitism at the protests on university campuses, she said "We should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide." I guess insinuating that some of those students are pro-genocide was too much for Bacon.

- Doctors have removed a dead parasite from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s brain. Whether this will restore him to rationality, though, is doubtful.

- Police say that the three men charged in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar are members of a prominent Indian organized crime group known as the Bishnoi gang. Maybe this is true, and the gang was doing the work of the Indian government. However, since proving such a link will be very difficult, this could be a convenient way for Canadian authorities to rationalize maintaining relations with India.

- Italy's far-right government is imposing restrictions on the deployment of solar panels on agricultural land. They're also putting the military to work shooting wild boars; perhaps the latter is necessary but it does seem quite consistent with the style of that government.

- Former Tory MLA Shannon Martin, who lost his McPhillips seat in last fall's election, is seeking the party's nomination for the byelection in Tuxedo, whenever it occurs. 

- This past January was the worst month in recorded history for overdose deaths in Manitoba, at 56. The previous record was held by December 2023, with 54. Some of this may be attributable to the use of benzodiazepines, including a new designer drug called desalkylgidazepam, to cut opioids; the standard treatment for opioid overdose, Naloxone, does not work on these drugs.

- Venezuela's last glacier has been reduced to an ice field. While not as dependent on glaciers as some of its neighbours, this is not a good sign.

- Analysis of sperm whale communication with the help of AI has concluded that there is a lexicon of sound patterns that function like an alphabet, suggesting that they are using a bona fide language.

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