- The fact that a bunch of Musk-rats straight out of high school have been given access to the crown jewels of the US Treasury's IT systems has many tech professionals shaking in their boots at what kind of damage they could do, either intentionally or otherwise. Administration officials tried to claim that there's nothing to worry about because they only have read access to the systems, but this appears not to be true. Moreover, many of the systems these lads have been given access to are running code that's decades old and which they probably didn't learn about in high school computing class, and which furthermore is highly integrated with other systems. All it could take is for one of these kids to break something and you could have a situation where the US government's ability to make a payment could be compromised. And that's not even considering the possibility of intentional harms that could be done, say by feeding big databases about millions of people into an AI that's been trained to spot signs that someone could be an enemy of Musk or Trump.
- Justin Trudeau thinks that Donald Trump is entirely serious in his desire to annex Canada. Apparently in a recent phone call between the two leaders Trump spewed a litany of grievances against Canada, including actual policies (e.g. supply management) as well as imagined ones (e.g. Trump's belief that American banks are prohibited from operating in Canada). Trudeau thinks the most likely motive is US access to critical minerals. Meanwhile the US has imposed 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum, and Trump continues to make declarations about how Canada is "not viable as a country".
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced an agreement with El Salvador that would effectively allow the US to use the troubled Central American country as a penal colony, sending not only deportees of any nationality but also American criminals to be housed in prisons there. I guess that will suffice until Musk can set one up on Mars, as seen in D. G. Compton's novel Farewell, Earth's Bliss.
- BC Conservative leader John Rustad is coming under fire for a social media post in which he falsely accused former provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry of "promoting fentanyl use" due to her harm reduction advocacy. There are obvious fears that this could lead to threats to her safety; then again, she's lived with threats against her life for several years simply for being a voice of reason on COVID-19.
- Last year, Minneapolis City Council approved a pilot project where food deliveries to students living in residence on the University of Minnesota campus are done by robots. Now, halfway through the study, the city is considering whether it's necessary to regulate them in some way, in order to ensure safety as well as to protect jobs. On cue, the techbros on r/Futurology are in a tizzy at the mere thought of regulation.
- Someone has been putting copies of a far-right book into "Little Free Libraries" around Ottawa. The title of the book in question has not been made public.
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