Donald Trump says that the 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports (on top of tariffs that are already in place) will come into effect on schedule next week. This is despite the fact that even the US ambassador admits that there has been noticeable progress in limiting the smuggling of drugs and people into the US. Of course, if you assume that the drugs and migrants were a pretext and that the real goal is to break our economy to the point where we capitulate so that they don't have to suffer the inconvenience of invading us, the move makes perfect sense. Meanwhile, a substantial number of Canadian snowbirds have been cancelling their plans to winter in Florida, to the consternation of one Trump-supporting resort owner who has been coasting for decades off the money rich Quebecois spend there. He just can't understand why people don't want to visit a country whose strongman president has been repeatedly threatening to take over their homeland.
- The Trump regime has ordered the removal of 8,000 EV charging stations from federal properties, and is expected to sell off a large fleet of newly purchased vehicles. Kind of like how Reagan ordered the removal of solar panels from the White House, but on a much larger scale.
- It appears that CDU leader Friedrich Merz will be Germany's next chancellor, likely by cobbling together a very thin coalition with the SPD. To get an idea of just how divided a country he will be inheriting, scroll down to the interactive map in the article; it has an awfully familiar look to it.
- The platform variously known as X, Twitter, or (colloquially) Shitter has turned into such a wretched hive of scum and villainy under the stewardship of Elon Musk that even a conservative suburban city like Cambridge, Ontario has announced that they will no longer be using the platform due to the amount of hate-related content and general misinformation on it, and the abject failure to moderate such content. Hopefully many more will follow.
- A woman who attended a town hall meeting held by the Republicans in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho was forcibly removed from the event by private security, and then charged with battery after it was alleged that she bit a security guard. The fact that even the city's police chief doubts that the charge is warranted should say a lot about how credible the allegation is. Video of the event can be seen here.
- A lawsuit against Greenpeace by Texas-based Energy Transfer, owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline, accuses the organization of "unlawful and violent scheme to cause financial harm" by their opposition to the project, and is demanding approximately $300 million in damages, enough to wipe the organization off the map. Both Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace International are named as defendants, though since the latter is based in the Netherlands it is interesting to consider what would happen if a European court refused to recognize the ruling in this case.
- Former city councillor Shawn Nason is running for the Tories in the provincial byelection being held in Transcona next month as a result of the death of incumbent NDP MLA Nello Altomare.
- The potentially city-destroying asteroid that some feared could be a threat in 2032 has had its orbit calculated more accurately, and the risk of an impact has now been reduced to 0.005% (earlier data had the risk as high as 3%). Some might raise their eyebrows at the changing numbers, but that's just how it works - when you get more data, you can calculate where the asteroid is going to be with greater precision, and more often than not this narrows the range of places to be to the point where it can safely be considered to be no significant risk.
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