News roundup, 30 April 2025

- Mark Carney's Liberals won their highest share of the popular vote in decades on Monday, receiving 43.5% of the vote. Paradoxically, the Conservatives also won their highest vote share in decades, at 41%. This means a number of things - most notably, that the Liberals were bailed out by NDP and Bloc voters. How much longer that can continue to happen is an open question. And it means that despite the Liberals' high share of the popular vote, they fell just short of a majority with 169 seats. It also, however, shows that the inefficiency of the Conservative vote masks some pretty strong divisions. If you go to the interactive map of results and click on rural ridings won by the Cons, you'll see margins of victory of 60, 70, or even 80%. And like it or not, those people are not going away any time soon, meaning the Conservative Party will not become more moderate for the foreseeable future. And this in turn means that the NDP will likely go into the next election with their prospective voters pondering the same tactical voting question that they did this time.

- Despite failing to win his own seat in addition to failing to defeat the Liberals, Pierre Poilievre says he intends to stay on as Conservative leader. It's possible that the speech was written before it became apparent that he was going go lose his seat; nonetheless, some party strategists believe that he can and should stay on as leader (possibly asking someone in a rural Alberta riding to step aside so he can run in the byelection). Oh, and one interesting tidbit - by law, Stornoway is reserved for the "Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons" - without a seat, Poilievre may have to move out of there unless he can get back into the House pretty quickly.

- Donald Trump is apparently aware of his impact on the Canadian election. Currently he seems to be twisting this into some sort of perverse pride - "I'm so important Canadians couldn't ignore me". Given his volatility, we'll have to see how this evolves in the future.

- Manitoba's public health officials are trying to build trust with rural communities in the province's Bible belt in the hope of increasing the vaccination rate enough to prevent a full-scale measles outbreak. So far nine cases have been confirmed in the province, as well as four suspected cases with known connections with the outbreak in southern Ontario. Meanwhile modeling by Stanford University has concluded that there is a significant risk of the disease coming back in a big way - along with polio, rubella, and all kinds of other nasties.

- North Dakota's hospitality industry continues to take a severe beating as Canadians no longer want to spend money in a country that has threatened to take over Canada, and perhaps doubly so in a state that voted overwhelmingly for the guy who's making all the threats.

- One of the problems of using generative AI for your front line customer service is that AIs sometimes just make stuff up. People who contacted customer support for an AI-driven coding assistant regarding getting logged out of the app were told that this was "expected behaviour" under a "new login policy". The problem is, there was no such new policy. Stuff like this is not good publicity for any company, but especially when your primary product is itself dependent on AI. Companies are also finding that it weirds people out when an AI answers their call to a customer service line and starts calling them by their name unprompted, as if the AI had been reading How to Win Friends and Influence People or something.

- A woman says she was bitten by bedbugs when staying at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre to give birth to twins.

News roundup, 29 April 2025

- Mark Carney has retained power, but appears to have fallen short of the 172 seas needed for a majority; the Liberals show as leading or elected in 168 seats as of this morning. If these numbers hold, that could still give the much diminished NDP caucus the balance of power. With only 7 seats, though, the NDP loses party status; leader Jagmeet Singh has been soundly defeated in his own riding of Burnaby Central and has resigned as leader. As for the Greens, Elizabeth May held onto her seat in Saanich-Gulf Islands, but her colleague Mike Morrice is behind the Cons in Kitchener Centre, though the results aren't final as of this post. On a more positive note, Pierre Poilievre has been defeated in his riding of Carleton. Full country-wide results may be found here.

- Besides the designs Donald Trump has on the Panama Canal, he's also turning his attention to the Suez Canal. He thinks that American and American-registered ships should be exempt from canal tolls, because Americans are special or something.

- A small ferry in Clearwater, Florida was hit by another vessel which then left the scene of the accident. One person on board the ferry died and several more were injured. From the pictures in that article, the ferry is one of those catamaran ones with a tentlike canopy; it looks like it might be the topmost picture on the ferry company's page about their fleet, which seats 42. The AP story states that "police did not immediately provide any information about the boat that fled the scene", but one ferry passenger in this article described it as a "big yacht". What stands out more to me, though, is the statement that the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission will be investigating; isn't that supposed to be the NTSB's job?

- There has been a significant change in opinion among registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents as to how the party's leaders should be dealing with the Trump agenda. In 2017, 74% wanted Democrats in Congress to "work with Republicans" to overcome the divisions in society; now, however, 57% want to see congressional Democrats do their utmost to try to stop them. The party's leadership, though, has yet to figure out what to do about the situation.

- An Irish woman who had lived in the US since childhood has been detained at an ICE facility in Tacoma over past criminal convictions. She had been convicted of drug possession more than 20 years ago, but under the understanding that the convictions had been expunged, she had travelled back and forth between the US and Ireland numerous times without trouble - until now.

- A massive power outage affected the entire Iberian peninsula on Monday; Portuguese authorities are blaming the blackout on extreme temperature variations.

- A Northern Irish rap group, Kneecap, has raised eyebrows after footage emerged of a gig a year and a half ago in which one of the members said "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP".

News roundup, 28 April 2025

- Polls have already opened in Atlantic Canada. Information about where to watch the results once the polls close can be found here.

- Donald Trump will not shut up about his desire to take over Canada. He'd been a bit quiet about this lately, no doubt being advised about the risk of electing a less friendly government up here, but it seems he can't help himself.

- 11 people were killed and numerous others injured when someone drove an SUV into a crowd at a Filipino community festival in Vancouver on Saturday. The suspect was grabbed by bystanders and held until the police arrived; he has been charged with second-degree murder. The police have dismissed the idea that this was a terrorist attack, and Vancouver mayor Ken Sim stated that the suspect has a significant mental health history, but it's difficult to assess these claims because a publication ban prevents the details from being released.

- The FBI showed up at a Wisconsin courtroom to arrest a man who was in court for another matter. The judge hearing the case, Hannah Dugan, refused to cooperate with them due to the lack of a warrant, whereupon the FBI arrested her as well. Stuff like this does not bode well for judicial independence in America.

- CentreVenture Development Corporation has agreed to fund a study to evaluate the possibility of saving Holy Trinity Anglican Church, which faces possible demolition due to structural issues.

- China has successfully built a nuclear reactor that runs on thorium (more accurately, it runs on uranium-233 which is bred from thorium). It's a small facility, generating only two megawatts, but it's an important proof of concept. Notably, such reactors are much more difficult to weaponize, due to the difficulty of handling uranium-233 to shape it into the kind of structure that can be imploded to make a nuclear explosion.

- Manitoba's Progressive Conservative Party has chosen former CFL star turned MLA Obby Khan as its new leader. Khan will probably poll somewhat better in Winnipeg than opponent Wally Daudrich, though he still probably faces an uphill battle to win the next election.

- The MAGA crowd has created a website, Public Square, which bills itself as "the anti-woke online marketplace" to show Trump supporters which businesses they should be supporting. To their chagrin, the sane crowd discovered the site and has been using it to find out which businesses to boycott.

News roundup, 25 April 2025

- Gunfire was reported on the India-Pakistan border following escalating tensions over the massacre of tourists in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of shooting first; Pakistan has not commented on whether this is the case or not.

- The Hudson Bay Company, having filed for creditor protection last month, will be liquidating all of its merchandise at the six stores that had previously been spared this fate, after concluding that there was little chance of finding a buyer for those stores. More alarming to First Nations, historians, and UNESCO alike is the prospect of valuable historical artifacts being auctioned off. A court has just ruled that they can go up for auction; a lawyer representing the attorney general's office has requested that a catalogue of the artifacts be provided to him as well as to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs before proceeding with such an auction.

- Russian authorities say a senior military officer, Yaroslav Moskalik, was killed in a car bombing in the city of Balashikha, near Moscow. The bomb was reportedly detonated remotely in a car parked along a route where Moskalik routinely walked. One hopes the Trump regime is paying attention to the kind of thing that happens when you try to take over a country whose citizens can easily pass for your own.

- Pierre Poilievre uses the word "woke" a lot, but he seems unable, or more likely unwilling, to give a clear and concise definition of it. The things that the word gets applied to can range from common decency to some things that actually are annoying, but if he doesn't want to tell you where his use of the word lies on that spectrum, you can guess pretty easily. He's also warning that the country will "face nothing but despair" if the Liberals win. That might well be true, but current polls suggest that most Canadians recognize that it's going to be even worse if the Conservatives win.

- Peel Regional Police officers summoned to the scene of a dispute at Pearson International Airport fatally shot a man, allegedly after he pointed a gun at them.

- As of the first of May, Manitobans will be legally able to do what residents of most other provinces (except Quebec) have been able to do for years - grow their own pot. One activist, however, thinks the change isn't good enough, because you're only allowed to grow it indoors. He argues that keeping it out of sight reinforces the "stigma" around cannabis. The thing is, even if it were allowed I don't think it would be such a great idea to grow pot outside - it's likely to be stolen anyway.

- Winnipeg's partnership with the 529 Garage bike registry has led to a 19% increase in the recovery rate of stolen bicycles.

- A Russian-born scientist at Harvard Medical School was detained by ICE and had her visa cancelled because she had neglected to declare biological specimens (specifically frog embryos) in her luggage as she returned from France. She says that this was an error, though a Homeland Security representative alleges that she had deliberately concealed them. She fears persecution if sent back to Russia due to her opposition to the war in Ukraine.

- Quebec's language watchdog has ordered Montreal's transit system, STM, to stop displaying slogans such as "GO! Canadiens GO!" on its buses - because "go" is an English word. Undaunted, STM has changed the slogan to "Allez! Canadiens Allez!"

News roundup, 24 April 2025

- Donald Trump is accusing Volodymyr Zelenskyy of jeopardizing the peace deal that Trump claims was "right around the corner", due to his unwillingness to surrender territory as part of the deal. Now it has to be admitted that Trump has a point of sorts when he says that Crimea "was lost years ago", but to expect Zelenskyy to just agree to this as part of a deal for which he wasn't even invited to the negotiations seems more than a little suspect.

- Trump is partially backing down on his threats against China, saying the tariffs will be coming down "substantially". He has also said that he no longer plans to fire Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Markets have rebounded somewhat in response to these announcements.

- A substantial number of Canadian snowbirds are selling their winter homes in the US, for reasons that should be increasingly obvious. Florida's housing market is taking a particular hit, given the state's relative proximity to Canada's largest population centres.

- Some unnamed Conservative Party sources suggest that Pierre Poilievre could be at risk of losing his own seat in the riding of Ottawa-Carleton. The party has apparently deployed a lot of campaign workers to that riding and others in the area in recent days. Liberal sources also indicate that their candidate, Bruce Fanjoy, is in a dead heat with Poilievre.

- A Swedish company, Candela, has set a new speed and range record for an electrically powered vessel. The P-12 is a hydrofoil developed for use as a ferry, with a range of 40 nautical miles and a top speed of 25 kt. All this with a battery less than twice the size of the ones in some electric cars. The main downside is that it only has the capacity for 30 passengers.

- Gunmen opened fire on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing 26 people and wounding 17. The Indian government is blaming Pakistan for the attack, and has taken a number of measures, the most significant of which may be the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. Several Pakistani officials warn that the unilateral suspension of the treaty is a violation of international law; an advisor to Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif went further, calling it an "act of war". This is not the kind of talk you want to hear in a dispute between two nuclear powers.

- A fund created by the Stefanson government in 2023 to subsidize WestJet flights between Winnipeg and two American cities (Los Angeles and Atlanta) has run out. Given the current political climate in the US, the Kinew government has no desire to top it up (myself, I wouldn't be in favour of doing that even under better circumstances). In any case, the demand for flights to the States is tanking; WestJet is reorienting their plans to offer more flights to Europe instead.

News roundup, 23 April 2025

- Marty Morantz, the Conservative candidate in Winnipeg West, says that the vandalism of several of his campaign signs is "antisemitic" in nature. Now I'm not going to endorse sign vandalism in general; it's petty and not very effective. Looking at the text of the article, though, all we see is this:

Some of the messages spray-painted over the signs include the words "traitor," "con men" and a slur for people with mental disabilities. The candidate's face in some of the signs was also defaced with a toothbrush mustache and haircut resembling Adolf Hitler's.

Now the only thing in there that could even conceivably be considered antisemitic is the alteration of his face to look like Hitler - but it's far from obvious that this was done because Morantz is Jewish as opposed to, you know, running for the Conservatives (who aren't Nazis per se but their followers are increasingly moving in that direction). Of course there's a school of thought that says the intent of an action doesn't matter as far as racism is concerned; as long as your actions cause a member of a minority group distress (or as the kiddies say, "trauma"), you've committed a racist act. I suspect a lot of people who subscribe to that view are going to be very quiet about this, given who the target was (and I don't blame them per se, but it seems inconsistent).

- Elections Canada has removed a worker from polling station duties following allegations that the worker was "attempting to influence voters to cast their ballot for the Conservatives" at an advance polling station in Vaughan, Ontario. The worker was allegedly speaking in Urdu to voters, and made comments about voting for "blue". The agency is also investigating allegations that another poll worker, in Milton East–Halton Hills South, took similar action to shift voters towards the Liberals.

- A court has temporarily blocked the Ontario government's order to remove existing bike lanes on three streets in Toronto until he is able to rule on the constitutionality of the order. An advocacy group, Cycle Toronto, had launched the challenge along with two cyclists; a lower court judge had decided not to stand in the way of demolition, but Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Schabas says that he had additional information not available to the other judge. A ruling on the actual constitutionality of the matter could be months away.

- Elon Musk is cutting back his DOGE work following a 71% drop in Tesla's profits. Whether this is enough to save the brand is another question.

- Russia is using fibre optic drones in the Ukraine war. These weapons are controlled through a fibre optic line up to 20 kilometres in length, and can't be jammed due to not using radio. Ukraine is working on them too, but they don't have as much access to optical fibres as the Russians do. In related news, Russia used a drone of some sort (whether fibre optic or not isn't clear) to hit a bus full of workers, killing 9 people. There are suspicions that the bus was deliberately targeted.

News roundup, 22 April 2025

- Donald Trump has demanded that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell be terminated for not lowering interest rates as Trump would like. Constitutionally, this isn't supposed to be doable by the president alone; however, the question of what happens if he tries anyway has yet to be answered. Certainly investors are not showing confidence in the situation.

- There has apparently been a noticeable shift, at least in the US, towards bringing one's own lunch to work rather than eating at a restaurant. This is seen by some as a worrisome economic indicator, even a harbinger of a recession.

- Pierre Poilievre is conspicuously absent from the latest round of Conservative Party TV ads. While he's mentioned in one of them, he isn't shown; instead they show old white guys playing golf. The fact that the Cons feel the need to target white male boomers suggests that they're struggling even with that demographic (or at least its urban/suburban component, whose votes they need if they are to have a hope of winning the election next week).

- A bunch of the usual far-right suspects have planned a "Referendum Rally" at the Alberta Legislature on the first of May, figuring that if Poilievre can't win the election it's time for Alberta to secede and join the US.

- Not satisfied to simply cut billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard University, the regime now appears to have directed the IRS to rescind the institution's tax-exempt status.

- A new Silicon Valley startup, Scout AI, hopes to develop autonomous military robots controlled by the latest in AI technology. I think maybe it's time for these people to watch Terminator (or watch it again, if they didn't clue into the message the first time).

- Commuter trains running between San Francisco and San Jose are now fully electric; this has led to a rapid improvement in air quality in the region, with an 89% decrease in fine carbon particulates ("black carbon").

- An American nonprofit that provides eyeglasses around the developing world is moving its operations to Manitoba due to uncertainties related to Trump's tariffs (their lenses come from places like China).

News roundup, 21 April 2025

- Pope Francis has died. No doubt some of the more conservative Vatican officials are secretly breathing a sigh of relief.

- An awkward truth about efforts to get people to use public transit - if people feel unsafe, they're less likely to use it. For this reason, many are calling for more police on transit. This is controversial; some activists warn that this may discourage many poor and racialized passengers from using the service. The thing is though, if the primary goal of a public transit system is to keep cars off the road, the wealthy passengers who are afraid of the absence of police are more likely to actually switch to driving than the poor ones who are afraid of the presence of police - because they can. Of course this line of thinking will make many activist types uncomfortable, but the ultimate goal has to be minimizing total harm to the community as a whole, and while the harms of more traffic are more abstract and less in-your-face than the harms of causing discomfort to poor and racialized people, they are no less real, and all harms have to be weighed in order to develop the least bad policy. And more traffic is bad for everybody, including poor and racialized people (not to mention the biosphere).

- Following Thursday's leaders' debate, the plan was for a media scrum where reporters could ask questions of the leaders. However, this was cancelled due to what the Leaders Debate Commission called "security concerns". These concerns seem to have involved far-right pseudo-journalists like Ezra Levant; in particular, there was a confrontation between Levant and Hill Times reporter Stuart Benson in the leadup to the scrum after Benson pointed out that another organization owned by Levant was registered as a third party advertiser in the campaign and questioned whether Levant should be accredited as a journalist for the event. This of course sent Levant into one of his trademark emotional outbursts, leading to the cancellation of the scrum. For their part, the commission was apparently unaware of the connection between Levant and the third-party advertiser at the time they accredited him and his outlet; in any case, they were reluctant to shut him out due to his having been able to sue his way into similar events in previous elections.

- JD Vance is warning Keir Starmer's government that there will be no trade deal between the US and UK unless the latter's hate speech laws are repealed; Vance is also demanding that a proposed online safety law and a digital service tax be abandoned.

- It's not just leisure travel to the US that's in decline; it's now business travel as well. The fact that people visiting that country are being arbitrarily detained seems to have something to do with it.

- Following "Freedom Convoy" organizer Chris Barber's conviction for mischief, the prosecution is seeking to use civil forfeiture to seize his truck, which he calls Big Red. Of course he and his sheeple are up in arms about this; meanwhile more sensible people are making interesting suggestions like turning it into a mobile vaccine clinic. Now it should be said that civil forfeiture is problematic the way it is used in some jurisdictions; it is sometimes applied before the actual criminal trial so even if you're acquitted your property has still been seized. That concern doesn't apply here, though, since Barber has been duly convicted of a criminal offense in a court of law.

- The tariffs on China are driving up the cost of small appliances and electronic devices, many of which are made nowhere else (at least for the US market). 

- A knife-wielding American citizen attempted to hijack a small passenger aircraft in Belize, wounding two people (one seriously) before he was fatally shot by another passenger.

- A drop-in centre for the homeless operated by the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, which provided food, washrooms, and showers for people, has been permanently closed due to escalating violence at the facility. Understandable, but the closure is unlikely to lead to less violence in the city overall; probably the opposite is true.

- A Toronto couple with four kids between them took an Uber home from a Raptors game following a flat tire, but as they were unloading the driver took off with one of their kids still in the vehicle. They contacted the company but representatives refused to contact the driver; they called 911 but the company wouldn't provide info even to the police. Fortunately the police located the vehicle by other means; the driver was still unaware of the 5 year old child sleeping in the back of the car. For their part, Uber apologized afterwards and offered a $10 credit in compensation.

News roundup, 17 April 2025

- There were nearly 900,000 fewer border crossings into the US last month than there were in March of 2024, suggesting that Canadians take the travel boycott very seriously indeed. California governor Gavin Newsom is begging Canadians not to boycott his state, essentially saying that Trump's tariffs and annexation threats are not his state's fault. Now to be fair, the state is taking measures to fight the Trump regime, including suing the federal government for the impact of the tariffs on their economy, but it's worth noting that a recent survey found that average Californians are increasingly wanting to make nice with the regime, which tells me that they haven't learned their lesson. Keep boycotting, folks.

- Meanwhile, the folks at Forbes are suggesting that the travel boycott could end up leading to higher carbon emissions, because people are traveling to other overseas locations in lieu of the US, meaning longer flights. Now Forbes is hardly an impartial observer here, and there are doubtless ulterior motives in sowing the seeds of doubt in the minds of Canadians, but I can kinda, sorta see the point. However, the solution here is not to stop boycotting, it's to find a way to fill the void in your life closer to home, not further. Go somewhere in Canada, or do a "staycation". Spending a week in a resort doesn't make you more worldly in any meaningful way anyhow.

- The Leaders' Debates Commission, which governs the debates in Canadian federal elections, has dropped the Green Party from the debates due to the party's decision to withdraw candidates to avoid vote-splitting that might favour the Conservatives.

- Pierre Poilievre is the most unpopular leader of a federal party in Canada, according to a new poll from Angus Reid. 60% of respondents have a negative opinion of him, while only 34% have a positive one. It's worth noting, of course, that the kind of person who would support Poilievre is also probably the kind of person who would avoid answering polls because they're associated with the woke libtard media or something like that, but those numbers are pretty stark.

- Wab Kinew is reconsidering his decision to cancel a proposal to build a second port on Hudson Bay, saying that the issues with the US are forcing the province to look towards other markets, such as in Europe. He says that the busiest part of the shipping season coincides with whale migration in Churchill, and wants to avoid conflicts with the whales and the tourists who go there to watch them.

- The Bank of England fears allowing autonomous AI to trade stocks could lead to disaster, as bots might learn how to profit from volatility and how to create more of it. And if an AI autonomously does something to manipulate stocks, which would be illegal if a person did it, how do you prosecute?

- The FAA has issued an emergency order grounding New York Helicopter Tours, the company that operated the helicopter that self-destructed over the Hudson River last week killing all 6 people aboard. The company's Director of Operations, Jason Costello, had agreed to a voluntary pause in operations while the accident is being investigated, and emailed the FAA to that effect, but 16 minutes after he sent that email, CEO Michael Roth sent another email to the FAA saying that he did not authorize Costello to agree to this and adding that Costello was no longer employed by the company. Thing is, the director of operations is a required position in order for the company to be allowed to operate, and with the sudden vacancy of the position the FAA ruled accordingly. In related news, the main rotor was found with the mast and the entire main rotor gearbox still attached. This appears to rule out the mast bumping theory, suggesting that the pilot did nothing wrong except perhaps in his choice of employer.

- A woman showed up at an elementary school in Decatur Township, Indiana to complain about the fact that her daughter's teacher mentioned a rainbow flag in an assignment about flags. She was carrying a handgun in a holster, and police were called; the gun was confiscated but she was initially released. However, her luck ran out soon after when she sent a threatening (and very poorly spelled) message to the teacher, and she was charged with harassment as well as possession of a firearm on school property.

News roundup, 16 April 2025

- For a time it seemed like Donald Trump's ramblings about annexing Canada were a passing phase; after Mark Carney met with him last month he seemed to tone down his talk on the subject. However, when asked about this the other day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the president's position on Canada has not changed.

- Two ICE agents showed up to arrest a few Venezuelan refugees in New York City on suspicion of gang ties. According to Wilmer Gutiérrez, the father of one of these people, one of the agents said "No, he's not the one", but the other said "Take him anyway". The hapless 19 year old, Merwil Gutiérrez, was subsequently sent to the Trump regime's overseas penal colony in El Salvador. Meanwhile, the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, has dismissed the idea of returning another wrongfully deported man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the regime has said they wouldn't accept him even if Bukele sent him. This despite the fact that the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that his deportation was illegal. Meaning that even the likes of Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas think that the regime is going too far. And the regime's response is, essentially, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"

- The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, warns that the rare earth metals upon which China is imposing export restrictions could be difficult for the US to replace and that this could lead to supply chain disruptions. China has a virtual monopoly on the processing of those elements.

- The Trump regime plans to demand that the EU distance itself from China as a condition of avoiding tariffs from the US. The thing is, the more they pull this stuff on countries, the more most other countries are going to say "to heck with you then, we'll just deal with each other and leave you out of it".

- Canada's climate limits what can be grown in this country, but vertical farming may well help to make us more self-sufficient in food. And now that the US can't be relied on for this, there's an extra incentive to move in that direction.

- Unlike Columbia University, which caved to the regime's demands regarding protests and the curriculum of its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department in order to secure $400 million in funding, Harvard is standing firm. The regime is now withholding $2.3 billion in funding in response. All I can say is, fight fiercely, Harvard.

- Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn have introduced a bill called the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act", which would order the removal of the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian and for it to be shipped back to Texas to be displayed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

News roundup, 15 April 2025

- The Manitoba government has announced that it will be expropriating the Lemay Forest in Winnipeg's St. Norbert district, to stop a developer from pushing ahead to clear it. The forest will be turned into a provincial park.

- Two contracts for Manitoba Hydro to sell a total of 500 megawatts to American utilities are about to expire; the Kinew government is ordering Hydro not to renew them in yet another move in the ongoing trade war with the US. The fact that this power is likely to be urgently needed at home in the near future is probably another reason for the move.

- Winnipeg police opened fire on a stolen truck in the West End on Friday night. Shortly thereafter the vehicle collided with a house and a tank of gasoline in the back of the truck ignited, destroying the house and killing a cat inside. Amazingly nobody other than the cat was hurt, and the two people in the truck were captured. The police naturally claim that the vehicle was being driven towards them and that they believed their lives to be in danger; those who wish to assess the accuracy of their claim can watch video of the shooting here.

- As the federal government considers whether to continue pursuing the controversial F-35 beyond the first 16 aircraft ordered, one option that looks attractive is the KF-21, from Korean Aerospace Industries Ltd. in South Korea. The aircraft differs from the American product in several ways; it is a twin-engined jet, which might make it more suitable for use in isolated areas like the north. It's also considerably cheaper.

- Two Liberal staffers attended the Conservative-dominated Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference (formerly known as the Manning Conference) and left a bunch of buttons with MAGA-like slogans lying about the venue. Presumably they hoped that people would wear them and get caught on camera, or that they'd wear the one that alludes to former Harper advisor Kory Teneycke's criticism of the Poilievre campaign and spark some uncomfortable conversations. I definitely understand the temptation, but it's not a good idea, especially if you're going to have a few drinks with a journalist afterward, which these guys did.

- A Winnipeg man has been charged with assault causing bodily harm following a racially charged attack on a cab driver in Canmore, Alberta. The suspect has not been named, but based on the video, someone in this Reddit thread believes that one of the passengers was one Rod Sweeney, a member of the Hells Angels with a history of violence.

News roundup, 14 April 2025

- A recent Angus Reid poll has found that 53% of respondents across Canada believe that Alberta premier Danielle Smith has betrayed her country by engaging with the likes of Ben Shapiro, who supports the Trump regime's desire to annex Canada. The article doesn't give a regional breakdown; I'd be interested to see what percentage of Albertans think Smith is a traitor. Notably, 67% of those who still plan to support the Conservatives think she is "defending her country by keeping an open dialogue with Americans".

- The UK parliament has passed emergency legislation that compels British Steel's parent company to keep the furnaces burning even if they aren't making money, or face criminal penalties for their executives. Despite this, there is still no guarantee that the two facilities in Scunthorpe will be kept open; a shortage of raw materials looms. And due to the nature of the process, it's extremely difficult to restart a blast furnace once it's gone cold. The company that manages the country's railway tracks has already been making contingency plans; they've been stockpiling rails for the last year just for this eventuality.

- Billionaires are all of a sudden uncomfortable about what Donald Trump is doing to their investments. Of course, they were fine with everything else he's done, or at least not sufficiently bothered to think the other stuff outweighed the wealth that they thought Trump was going to bring them.

- ChatGPT is supposed to have safeguards to limit its ability to make fake images of real people. CBC journalists tested this on Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre, though, and found that the right prompt can trick the AI into generating stuff that it's not supposed to, including potentially harmful disinformation.

- The daughter of Deepak Obhrai, who served as a Conservative MP from 1997 until his death in 2019, is running for the Liberals in Calgary East. Priti Obhrai-Martin says that her father spoke very highly of Mark Carney's work as a central banker during the 2008 economic crisis and she has decided to join his team.

- New information on the Hudson River helicopter crash calls the mast bumping theory into question. A new video shows the aircraft in straight and level flight before suddenly yawing to the right and breaking up; it also shows something, perhaps part of the main rotor gearbox, hanging from the rotor assembly as it spins downwards. More details, including an interview with a Bell 206 test pilot, here. I wouldn't want to be the last mechanics to work on that helicopter, that's for sure.

- A Toronto woman was meditating next to Peru's Pachitea River, which is heated by natural geothermal heating to around 90°C, when she apparently passed out and fell into the river; she got out but sustained severe burns and died in hospital.

News roundup, 11 April 2025

- A Bell 206 sightseeing helicopter broke up in midair and crashed into the Hudson River near Jersey City yesterday afternoon, killing a family of 5 from Spain along with the pilot. It appears that the main rotor came off in flight, chopping off the tail boom as it went. The first thing that comes to mind is mast bumping, but it could also be a mechanical issue. I guess the NTSB will figure it out eventually.

- Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at stopping states from enforcing their own climate laws. Vermont, New York, and California are specifically named in the order. Whether or not the regime will be able to enforce this order remains to be seen, but regardless it's kind of funny that the American far right is really big on states' rights with regards to owning people, but takes a very different view on their rights to protect people.

-The International Maritime Organization's Maritime Environmental Protection Conference (MEPC) is meeting in London to negotiate an agreement on greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. The US is boycotting the meeting, instead sending a letter to the participants warning them that they will take reciprocal measures to protect their own shipping interests if an emissions price is imposed.

- Bridget Brink, the US Ambassador to Ukraine, is apparently planning to resign her position; she has not submitted a formal resignation but sources indicate that she has been "making farewell calls to colleagues". No doubt her position is increasingly untenable given the new regime in Washington.

- China's central bank is ordering major state-owned financial institutions to reduce US dollar purchases and to increase scrutiny on dollar purchases by their clients (the latter apparently an attempt to control speculation).

- Turkey has detained two journalists, accusing them of "threats" and "blackmail". Authorities say the accusation was made by the owner of a TV station who is currently in jail for money laundering; the journalists and their supporters believe the real reason for their arrest was their coverage of protests against the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

- The UK intends to develop techniques to predict who is most likely to commit homicide. This involves the use of algorithms to analyze detailed information about large numbers of people; they claim that they will only be using data related to people with at least one criminal conviction, but activists are skeptical of this, and furthermore fear that the algorithms themselves will likely have built-in biases against the poor and minorities. I seem to recall Philip K. Dick having imagined something like this...

- A biotech company claims to have achieved the "de-extinction" of the Dire Wolf that lived throughout much of the Americas until the end of the Pleistocene. Critics argue that what have actually been created are genetically modified Grey Wolves with a few Dire Wolf genes inserted. Some Redditors speculate that this is a deliberate attempt to make people think protecting diversity is irrelevant (since hey, we can just bring back anything that goes extinct, right?) Regardless of whether that's the case or not, though, this certainly isn't something we should be relying on to protect biodiversity.

News roundup, 10 April 2025

- When the stock market is plummeting, as it has been for the last while, the bond market usually does well as investors rush to safety. Not this time, though; US government bonds have been taking a beating in the markets. Gold, on the other hand, is doing well, topping $3,000/oz t on Wednesday afternoon. Then when Trump announced that most of the tariffs he had imposed would be deferred for 90 days, it caused the stock market to spike. Some are speculating that this was engineered to allow insiders to profit, especially since he told his followers on Truth Social that it was a good time to invest mere hours before the tariff deferral.

- Pierre Poilievre returned to the old tactic of taking jabs at Mark Carney's haircut, which he called a "banker's haircut". Because that worked so well the last time the Cons tried that angle.

- A biologist studying wildlife in Colombia was killed and cut into pieces by person or persons unknown. I'm guessing he must have stumbled across something related to one of the cartels.

- A bodyguard for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was arrested in Brussels, where his boss was attending a NATO conference, after allegedly becoming aggressive with hotel staff when they refused to reopen the bar after hours.

- Apparently a lot of people who voted for Trump are now getting some belated buyer's remorse as the tariffs threaten their livelihood. One response, from someone whose social media handle is redacted in the article, actually came out and said this:

I voted for Trump because I thought it would be funny to see liberals growl like dogs.

I wanted affordable groceries, but the tariffs are going to make everything worse and my life savings will be gone.

I can't afford to spend $100 on groceries. I didn't vote for this.

I can't say I feel too sorry for this person. Oh, so you only wanted to make other people suffer and are mad because you're suffering too? PFO.

- Dr. Jen Gunter, a Winnipeg-born physician who has worked in the US for 30 years, is moving back to Canada, unable to tolerate the degeneracy of American political culture any longer. She's not moving to Winnipeg though; she's moving to BC where her American husband will be able to tolerate the winters.

- Christopher Griffin, who has been serving as artist-in-residence at the University of Prince Edward Island's veterinary school, has quit his position after being told to remove one of his paintings. The work is a parody of Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" depicting a boat full of lemmings carrying a faded American flag across the river.

- Robert Morris, a former pastor at a Texas megachurch who once served as a "spiritual adviser" to Donald Trump, has been indicted for the sexual abuse of a 12 year old girl. Because conservative Republicans are all about protecting the kids, right?

News roundup, 9 April 2025

- Many economists now think a global recession is almost inevitable unless the US changes course on tariffs. Of course, that probably won't sway the MAGA crowd; they'll just look for some outsiders to blame.

- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves are considering doing something that was unthinkable in the neoliberal era even for the Labour Party - renationalizing British Steel. Of course, steel is a key strategic material for running any modern society, and when knockoff effects from the Trump regime's tariffs threaten to possibly end domestic production of the stuff in a newly uncertain geopolitical climate, it concentrates the mind wonderfully. It would be interesting to see if they go ahead with this, and if so, whether other social democratic parties in places like the EU, Canada, and Australia might follow suit. For instance, it wasn't long ago (well, 54 years actually, but...) that the Manitoba NDP government under Ed Schreyer directed the Manitoba Development Corporation to take over a struggling bus manufacturer and keep it afloat, then rather controversially sold it (creating what is now known as New Flyer) after it became profitable. Soon they might want to consider doing that again, only maybe without that last part.

- A suspect has been charged in the case of the woman who was run down and severely injured while crossing Osborne Street last month. Curiously, they have only been charged under the Highway Traffic Act, despite the fact that leaving the scene of an accident is a Criminal Code offense as well. Her family expressed a suspicion at the time that it wasn't an accident at all; even if it was, though, it's interesting that they didn't use that obvious charge. The police did specify that the suspect is definitely not a cop; the fact that they went out of their way to say that while saying little more about the suspect's identity is rather telling.

- US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sees a lot of opportunities to bring manufacturing back to America without the problem of having to pay those pesky factory workers by replacing the latter with robots.

- Traffic at the border crossing between Emerson, Manitoba and Pembina, North Dakota has declined 17% compared to the same time last year. Once we get into times when there's more leisure travel the drop may well be considerably more, and people in the tourism industry in border states are getting worried. An odd footnote - an industry group, the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada, conducted a survey that's mentioned in the article. Of the possible answers to a question about reasons people don't want to travel to the US, 57% of respondents cited tariffs as a factor, 51% cited political leadership, and 34% mentioned the low Canadian dollar. The fact that nobody cited the orange monster's threat to take over our country as a reason to not want to visit seems only explicable if that wasn't listed as a possible reason; that seems like a strange thing to leave out of such a poll.

- Donald Trump has signed several more executive orders aimed at increasing coal production in the US, mostly reversing the policies of previous administrations but also one that allows the Justice Department to "investigate" states that are "discriminating" against coal for energy production. One interesting quote comes up here:

The president said coal miners want to mine coal, not work in high-tech jobs or other fields. 

"You could give 'em a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of job, and they'd be unhappy," Mr. Trump said, with the miners behind him. "They want to mine coal. That's what they love to do."

The thing is, there's actually an element of truth to that. There is a fairly large subset of the population that is so contrarian that they have made their backwardness and nastiness a huge part of their identity. These are the same kind of people who think that "environmentally friendly" is tantamount to "unmanly". And their response to society moving on is what Hunter S. Thompson called "an ethic of total retaliation". Unfortunately, most of those people can't be reasoned with; the best you can do is defeat them. Whether the latter is possible remains to be seen.

News roundup, 8 April 2025

 - Stock markets around the world continue to tank as investors respond to Trump's reckless tariffs. Even CEOs on Wall Street, who usually are reluctant to criticize Trump, are warning of the damage that could result, both in economic and geopolitical terms.

- Not satisfied to fire people currently working on DEI projects for US government departments, the regime now appears to be firing people for past work on such initiatives. 

- Canada has imposed a new travel advisory on the US, warning that "If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation"; this has already happened to a number of people. 

- After killing 15 paramedics and rescue workers in an attack last month, the IDF has admitted that their initial account, which claimed that the victims were "advancing suspiciously", was "mistaken". The "mistake" was corrected only after video of the incident emerged.

- The Yale philosophy professor who moved to Toronto to take a job at U of T was not the only one to do so. Two historians from the same university did so last fall. There are limits to the Canadian university system's ability to take advantage of the troubles in the US, though, since many institutions here are making cutbacks as the supply of international students upon which they depended dries up. In Manitoba, researchers are urging the government to reverse the Tory cuts to Research Manitoba in order to ensure that there's work for these people.

- Canadian retailers are starting to follow the lead of their customers and are turning away from American products. 

- It has emerged that Andrew Lawton, the Conservative candidate for Elgin-St. Thomas-London South, was part of a secret chat group on Signal with "Freedom Convoy" organizers.

- The outbreak of "freedom freckles" in southern Ontario has exceeded 600 cases, and is serious enough that the New York State health department is taking notice.

News roundup, 7 April 2025

- Nearly a dozen candidates for the two major federal parties have left or been removed from the race since the start of the campaign. Besides the Liberals' Paul Chiang and the Cons' Don Patel, of whom we've spoken before, this list includes such luminaries as Simon Payette, who was the Conservative candidate in Berthier—Maskinongé until he accused École Polytechnique massacre survivor (and Liberal candidate) Nathalie Provost of exploiting the crime to "grease the palms of anti-gun extremists". I guess he'll have to move to Alberta and run for the UCP there. Today is the parties' last day to replace candidates.

- An Ottawa man was arrested after he entered Parliament's East Block on Saturday and allegedly made threats, sending Parliament Hill into lockdown. Nobody was injured and no weapons found; the nature of the threats and their target has not been disclosed.

- Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is warning that inflation may remain high for the foreseeable future, and stagflation is a risk, due in large part to the policies of the Trump regime. It's a safe bet that Trump will do his darnedest to get Powell removed, not that this will help the situation of course.

- An Australian tourist was denied entry to the US, resulting in him losing out on a $15,000 non-refundable cruise, because the route he took to the US was circuitous and was deemed "suspicious" for that reason. For his part, he says that the route was chosen for the cheapest airfares, but American officials weren't having it. He has vowed never to return to the US. Stuff like this isn't going to help the American travel industry, which is already reeling from a dramatic drop in visits from abroad.

- Another child (unvaccinated of course) has died of "freedom freckles" in Gaines County, Texas. The victim apparently had no underlying health conditions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has visited the area; perhaps someone should convince him to take a side trip to Dallas.

News roundup, 4 April 2025

- Stock markets continue to fall worldwide in response to Trump's tariffs. US stocks seem to be taking the worst of it, with the S&P 500 losing almost 5% of its value, and the NASDAQ doing even worse with a 6% decline.

- The Conservatives' latest attempt to win back public support is to trot out Preston Manning to have him declare that another Liberal term will drive the western provinces to secede. Now there's no denying that the country is very divided right now. But besides being alarmist, I think Manning is a couple of decades out of date. Yes, historically there has been a very stark resentment of Ontario and Quebec in the west, and some of that resentment is still there. But nowadays, I think the average citizen of Calgary has more in common with a Torontonian than with someone from Edson. It's the same urban-rural divide that you see around the world - and it's not the kind of divide that can be resolved by secession.

- Donald Trump has fired at least 3 National Security Council officials after meeting with far-right influencer Laura Loomer. Trump denies that Loomer made any specific recommendations; several people who were privy to the meeting say otherwise.

- The Trump regime is trying to pursue its attack on DEI even outside its own borders. They are requiring foreign companies with US government contracts to "self-certify" that they are in compliance with the anti-DEI policy. France as well as Germany are pushing back.

- The Jewish community is reeling over the prospect of having to celebrate Passover without Manischewitz wine, which was removed from liquor store shelves along with all other American products.

- Evidently Hooters is no better at covering its debts than at covering its servers' skin; the chain just filed for bankruptcy protection.

News roundup, 3 April 2025

- Donald Trump's latest round of tariffs are in place. There are no new ones for Canada, but a 25% levy on vehicles and vehicle parts from this country is still in place. There is a lot of confusion on exactly what is covered, since the tariffs won't apply to parts that comply with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement - until the regime comes up with a way of applying tariffs to the non-US content of the parts. In response, Chrysler's parent company Stellantis is closing their assembly plant in Windsor for two weeks as of this coming Monday; it's also expected to significantly increase the price of vehicles. Dealerships are reporting a surge in sales as people try to get their purchases under the wire before the tariffs take effect. A complete list of tariffs by country may be seen here; markets are not responding favourably.

- Along with the NDP and the Bloc, the Greens have the potential to suffer from the renewed popularity of the Liberals under Mark Carney. Elizabeth May's riding is now considered a toss-up between her and the Liberal candidate. And in the Winnipeg-area riding of Elmwood-Transcona, the Liberals could actually be the spoiler.

- The conviction of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on corruption charges and her being barred from political office as a result is causing a predictable stir. This is not limited to far-right leaders; one French political scientist, Ronald Hatto, thinks that the ban may be a mistake and could lead to unrest. While the Guardian's Georgios Samaras does not go that far, he warns that the French left needs to move quickly to keep Le Pen's protégé Jordan Bardella from exploiting the outrage and winning the presidency.

- Hot on the heels of Paul Chiang being forced to drop out of the race over injudicious comments about the suggestion that people collect a bounty from the Chinese state on his Conservative opponent, the Conservative candidate in another GTA riding is having to drop out for similar reasons. Don Patel, who was running in Etobicoke North, had indicated support for a Facebook post that called for certain folks to be sent back to India so that "PM Modi can take care of these non-sense people". Patel is actually the fourth Tory candidate to drop out in recent days.

- Hungary has announced that they're pulling out of the International Criminal Court. And no, they aren't going to hand over Netanyahu first; to the contrary, they're welcoming him to their country for an official visit.

News roundup, 2 April 2025

 - A wide range of tariffs are set to be announced today by the Trump regime, taking effect immediately. Trump is calling this "Liberation Day". Some background info here. A resolution before the US Senate from Virginia senator Tim Kaine is expected to make things awkward for Republicans representing states expected to take a hit from the tariffs, but won't have a real impact even if it passes, since it is nonbinding.

- Mark Carney plans to carve out an exemption for New Flyer in the countertariffs imposed on US manufacturing; meanwhile the company is working towards all buses for the Canadian market being assembled here.

- Former parliamentary reporter Rachel Gilmore had been asked by CTV to do an election-related fact-checking segment on their morning show, but the network cancelled the segment after a single episode following pressure from the Conservatives and their fellow travellers.

- The cancellation of the carbon tax took effect yesterday. This is expected to bring some savings to consumers, but preventing backsliding on emissions will require measures that may well cost more overall in terms of public funds. The question I've never been able to find a clear answer to, though, is this: If tax relief is politically necessary, why not provide said relief by reducing or eliminating the GST (or PST for provinces) rather than the carbon tax? That way everyone sees relief, not just those who drive. I guess they're afraid of worsening the urban-rural divide, but I think that divide is basically beyond healing at this point anyway.

- The Trump regime has admitted that they shipped an innocent man to their contracted prison in El Salvador due to what they call an "administrative error". They say it's now out of their hands, though, as he's no longer in US custody.

- Wisconsin held an election for a vacant seat on the state supreme court yesterday. A liberal judge squeaked a victory despite Elon Musk having spent millions of dollars on her opponent's campaign.

- Western Australia's police force has repurposed a Maserati seized from a repeat driving offender into a publicity device to warn people not to drive like idiots.

News roundup, 1 April 2025

- French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being convicted of illegally siphoning millions of euros in public funds for her own party's use. She also received a four year suspended sentence. Predictably, Le Pen as well as her fellow deplorables around the world are having a conniption, saying that the decision saying the decision is politically motivated. Admittedly, it is very convenient for Emmanuel Macron, but it's a bit of a stretch to think the whole court system is in his pocket. A recent poll indicates that a majority of French citizens think the court ruled fairly, bit it's a slimmer majority than one might like (57%).

- The Liberal candidate in Markham-Unionville, Paul Chiang, has withdrawn from the race following his unfortunate remarks about how someone ought to claim a bounty on his Tory opponent. Probably a good move, especially since the RCMP is now looking into the matter.

- The University of Winnipeg is the latest post-secondary institution to face a financial crunch, partly as a result of cuts to international student visas. Last week the university's president brought up a clause in the faculty's collective agreement that could allow for layoffs. The fact that universities across the country are facing the same problem make this a bad time for academics.

- The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation has banned provincial courts from holding sessions on its jurisdiction until a suitable facility can be built. Community leaders say that what has been done up until now, which is for the court to use the community's mature student centre for its semi-monthly hearings, is not satisfactory because the student centre does not have the security measures needed to handle some of the violent criminals the court is dealing with (such as partitions separating the accused from witnesses). This is especially unfortunate because the circuit court arrangement was designed to make the courts more accessible to the community.

- The Green Party is calling for Canada's military reserves to be expanded by 20,000 people. Not an April Fool's joke; that's just the world we live in now. The party's co-leader Jonathan Pedneault made the announcement in Whitehorse yesterday, saying in addition that he wants to create a 120,000 person civil defence corps.

- A Canadian has been detained in the Dominican Republic because his name was similar to someone whose name was on a checked bag that was full of drugs. Maybe those who aren't deterred by the climate footprint of air travel or the Dominican Republic's problematic human rights record should look at this as another reason to stay home.