- British researchers warn that shifting rainfall patterns have caused a net loss of fresh water from central and southern Europe, even as the northern part now has more. For a look at what that might mean for the future, Iran is in a severe crisis, with Tehran potentially facing water rationing or even evacuation. Where you would evacuate the 15 million people who live in the metro area to is another question.
- The American real estate listing company Zillow has removed climate risk data from their listings following complaints from sellers and realtors that the data was negatively affecting sale prices. Not sure how that's supposed to make the problem go away.
- The involvement of conservation officers in patrolling the border for potential migrants in response to Trump's claim that has not led to any additional reports of suspicious activity beyond that already found by the RCMP and border agents. Political scientist Christopher Adams figures everyone knew all along that they wouldn't find much (who'd want to sneak into that country right now anyway?) and that it was more about "optics to the Trump administration". If that was all it was, it it would be kind of futile (we all know Trump has annexation on his mind so he's not going to be appeased by this), but I think it's also about optics regarding the regime. Adams says that the provinces and the federal government were trying to say to Trump, "Look, we're doing everything we can and I hope you're happy with that", but I think it's more about telling those affected by the tariffs that.
- The mayor of Winkler, Manitoba gave a very, very mild admonition to his constituents that essentially amounted to "look folks, we've had a lot of cases of measles around here, and people up in Winnipeg talk about it, and it's embarrassing, and you really should do your research about vaccines, OK?", knowing full well that the people he's addressing think they've already done their research. It seems kind of weak and milquetoast, but then again I'm not sure what he could have said that would have made a difference. I think it was more a way of signaling to the rest of the province "hey, I know my constituents are crazy, but I'm not, and we can still do business, OK?"
- Scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris warn that a pandemic of one of the H5NX flu strains, while not especially likely, could be far worse than COVID-19 if it did occur. Myself, I think it would be far worse even if the actual virulence and contagiousness were identical to COVID due to the difficulty governments would have in getting people to comply with public health protocols.
- The 71 year old driver of a charter bus full of junior high students was pulled over reentering Saskatoon following a field trip after multiple reports of erratic driving from the public. He was found to be under the influence of alcohol, fentanyl, and hydromorphone. Certainly not a good career move; for his part, he attributes his poor decision to severe back pain.
- A Brantford, Ontario resident who lived along the route of the city's Santa Claus parade evidently was not in a festive mood about the matter. They posted signs in their windows saying such things as "Santa isn't real", "Your parents are Santa", etc. Several outraged neighbours called the police about the matter, and apparently an officer spoke to the person and convinced them to remove the signs; they clarified later that they couldn't actually force their removal. Left unspoken is how they persuaded the person to take them down.
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