Wednesday, April 16, 2025

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.

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