- Toronto's city manager is saying that if the province insists on pushing ahead with the forced removal of bike lanes, it should compensate the city for the cost of the initial investment in the lanes. Meanwhile a study indicates that the lanes are successful in increasing the number of people who ride. At this point my hope is that enough people who have gotten into the habit of riding will continue to do so, but in the traffic lanes instead, slowing down Doug Ford's commute further. I'd like to think there was something better than that to hope for (like a reversal in the policy), but one has to be realistic about what one hopes for.
- The Trudeau government is ordering the closure of TikTok's Canadian offices, citing unspecified national security concerns, but they aren't blocking access, nor stopping the distribution of the app. Given that the company's algorithms themselves are the source of some of the biggest concerns, this seems like the kind of half-hearted decision all too typical of the Liberals.
- Evidently stock traders see opportunities in the massive deregulation of business that is expected from Donald Trump; the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by over 1,500 points following his election victory. Not all stocks benefited equally, though; there was a significant selloff of stock in solar manufacturers. This is largely due to Trump's vow to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, from which most of those incentives come. Of course this will partly hinge on whether the Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives, which has yet to be determined. Some also hope that the huge benefits that many red states have gotten from the legislation in terms of jobs will keep Trump from killing it entirely, but don't count on it. Overall, this is going to be very damaging to the climate, especially given the expected withdrawal from the Paris agreement, which will incentivize other countries to do the same. And the latest estimates suggest that without considerably more action than we're seeing already, the global average will increase by as much as 3.1°C by the end of the century.
- Although prior to the election the folks in the r/BoomersBeingFools subreddit assumed that baby boomers were Trump's base, the biggest shift away from the Democrats between 2020 and 2024 was among the 18-29 age group. To their credit, some folks in the aforementioned subreddit are recognizing this; some suggest that the likes of Andrew Tate were a big factor in this shift.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is putting on a brave face and hoping that Trump will continue to help his country fight off their invaders. Of course he has to do that to try to retain the morale of his people, but I doubt he's actually happy with the situation.
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