News roundup, 20 Feb 2026

- The Andrew formerly known as Prince was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released from custody and has not been formally charged but remains under investigation as police continue to search the Royal Lodge in Windsor. Unsurprisingly, this is related to his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, but surprisingly it's not related (directly at least) to sexual abuse allegations but rather to reports that he shared confidential material with Epstein while serving as the UK's trade envoy. Of course, assuming the allegations are true he was probably compensated for the material in some way, probably in a way that one doesn't want to think about.

- China has reportedly transformed its largest desert into a carbon sink by planting trees and shrubs in a belt along the desert's edges. They've been working on this "Great Green Wall" since 1978; its primary purpose was to keep the desert from expanding into farmland, but new research out of the US indicates that it is having a beneficial impact on the carbon cycle. Stuff like this isn't enough, of course (emissions cuts are still essential), but it's a big step in the right direction. Of course, the fact that this is in Xinjiang puts a bit of a pall on it; I suspect the consultations on this matter wouldn't meet with democratic standards.

- Brazil is having some success in protecting the Amazon rainforest. Satellite evidence shows that the deforestation rate is the lowest since 2014.

- The City of Winnipeg has released a development plan for Point Douglas that calls for more low- and mid-rise residential properties, with mixed use development along the planned route of a future rapid transit corridor. The plan also restricts heavy industrial development in the area. This is welcome news, though it will require some significant infrastructure upgrades (especially replacement of combined sewers with separated sanitary and storm sewers). Of course such upgrades would be welcome anyway.

- Manitoba Public Insurance is suing Ford to recover the costs of payouts for fires caused by faulty block heaters, most recently one in Pilot Mound that destroyed two vehicles insured by the corporation. These heaters are now the subject of a recall issued by Transport Canada earlier this year.

- Alberta will be putting several referendum questions on the ballot this coming fall; these questions relate to immigration as well as to constitutional matters. One of the questions would be to "require proof of citizenship" in order to cast a ballot; this would seem to be pointless given that under current rules any non-citizen who manages to vote should be identifiable and could be prosecuted easily. It also will likely not affect all citizens equally; the more affluent will be more likely to have passports and thus be easily able to prove their citizenship than the poor. I guess the real purpose of this question is to serve as a dog whistle for the folks outside Calgary and Edmonton (and a substantial minority of those in those cities as well). 

News roundup, 18 Feb 2026

- Mark Carney is trying to broker a deal between the EU and various middle powers in Asia, to form a united front against the US.

- Eleven people have been arrested in France following the death of a far-right activist in Lyon. One of those arrested was an assistant to leftwing MP Raphaël Arnault; the assistant has apparently been fired.

- The US is accusing China of conducting a covert underground nuclear test after a seismic station in Kazakhstan detected a tremor. This is disputed, as that sensor was the only one to pick anything up, and independent observers are skeptical. I wouldn't be surprised if the Americans want to conduct new tests of their own and need an excuse to do so.

- CBS has refused to air an interview conducted by Stephen Colbert with James Talarico, a Democratic member of the Texas legislature. Colbert says that the network's lawyers feared a response from the FCC.

- Russia is threatening to deploy naval vessels to protect its so-called "shadow fleet" that helps it evade sanctions.

- China has apparently developed robots that can dance and perform martial arts. 

- Songwriter Billy Steinberg, who wrote or co-wrote numerous songs for such iconic artists as Madonna, Roy Orbison, the Bangles, Whitney Houston, and Cyndi Lauper, has died at the age of 75. 

News roundup, 17 Feb 2025

- The US Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson is accusing Apple News of "suppressing" rightwing news outlets, including the New York Post, the Daily Mail, Fox News, Breitbart, and Gateway Pundit. Ferguson claims that Apple may be violating part of its terms of service agreement with its customers, though he did not specify any specific provisions that the company might be violating.

- A French far-right activist who was providing "security" for protesters against a speech by leftwing MEP Rima Hassan in Lyon was beaten to death after getting separated from his fellow fascists. A manslaughter investigation has been opened; President Emmanuel Macron has appealed for calm.

- Two Latvian fans who waved a Greenland flag during the warmups for the US-Denmark hockey game at the Olympics were told to stop after organizers feared that it could provoke violence from American fans.

- Longtime American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84. 

- The Winnipeg city councillor behind the proposed anti-protest bylaw has withdrawn his support for the move following a public outcry. Coun. Evan Duncan also says that a bill before Parliament covers much of what the bylaw was intended to address anyway.

- Winnipeg's police headquarters suffered substantial water damage after a valve was opened in a standpipe on an upper floor of the building. Two people have been arrested on mischief charges.

News roundup, 13 Feb 2026

- While the American labour movement had what was considered a breakthrough year in 2024, with over 1,600 workplaces holding unionization votes, this is far short of the movement's successes even two decades previously, much less the mid 20th century. Worse, overall union density in the private sector remains at an abysmal 5.9% of the workforce, compared to around a third in the 1950s. There are fears that this could lead to a "death spiral" where weakening unions are less able to score wins, making them less relevant to the needs of workers, and so forth. Unless a great deal changes the left in the US - and perhaps a lot of other countries - is going to face the unthinkable prospect of having to move ahead without the labour movement.

- Gallup will no longer track the approval ratings of the president, something they've tracked for nearly a century. When asked if pressure from the White House had anything to do with it, a company representative simply said "this is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities". Of course, this is probably not false; their research goals and priorities probably include still being allowed to conduct research, albeit maybe not on the president's popularity.

- To the surprise of few, there has been a torrent of disinformation about trans people following the Tumbler Ridge massacre. Far-right pundits, and even supposed news outlets, have been claiming that there's an "epidemic" of violence by trans folks - and once those stories are out there, debunking them can be hard. In the words of Jonathan Swift, "falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it".

- A proposed bylaw in Winnipeg would prohibit protests within 100 metres of schools, hospitals, and cultural centres in the city. There would be an exemption for "legal labour activities related to a dispute or collective bargaining", however activists are naturally wary. Councillor Evan Duncan, who introduced the proposal, says it's to protect "potentially vulnerable populations" served by those locations; it's widely suspected that this comes in response to pro-Palestinian protests that were held near synagogues. On the one hand, conflating Jewish worship with the policies of Israel is problematic; on the other hand, I've seen allegations that at least one such protest was in response to a synagogue hosting someone who was promoting the sale of seized Palestinian land in the West Bank, which if true sounds like fair game for protesters (I'd like to see confirmation of that claim, though, since while it sounds believable it could also be disinformation).

- Jeffrey Epstein apparently purchased 330 gallons of sulfuric acid in 2018, about a year before his last arrest. 

News roundup, 12 Feb 2026

- More information is being released about the Tumbler Ridge shooting. The RCMP has identified the suspect as an 18 year old transwoman who killed her mother and stepbrother before going to the school to kill others; no motive has yet been revealed but it's a safe bet that the far right is going to use this as an excuse to opportunity up the transphobia (while being very quiet about the question of whether this might have been less likely to happen in a more accepting society, of course).

- The FAA closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas to all civil aircraft on Wednesday morning, initially saying flights were grounded for a ten day period but later reversing that position, all the while saying that there was no threat to commercial aircraft. Some reports say that this was for the testing of top secret anti-drone technology, which might be the truth, or not. As regards initially saying ten days and then reversing that (perhaps after the test was completed) maybe they thought they'd give the public the sense that they're not as bad as they seemed. And given where we're talking about, it might well work.

- The crisis now developing in the Colorado River system stands to be worsened - or at least happen sooner - thanks to the poor design of the Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back the waters of Lake Powell. The dam was designed for a narrow range of water levels - which would be problematic even in the absence of human-induced climate change. In fact, it very nearly led to disaster in 1983 when the waters of the reservoir came dangerously close to washing over the top of the dam. Now it has the opposite problem - the lowest outlets of the dam are some 240 ft above the lake bed, and water levels are getting dangerously close to that point, meaning that the lake could face "dead pool" in the near future. At that point, no more water could even reach downstream locations, and a lot of people would be leaving the American southwest and not returning. And the lake itself would become a deep, stagnant, stinking mess. Even before that point, the levels will fall too low to use the dam for hydroelectric power.

- The Winnipeg couple convicted of torturing and killing numerous animals and selling the videos online have both been sentenced to 12 years in prison following a joint recommendation of the prosecution and the defense. 

- A Ukrainian Olympian has been disqualified for wearing a helmet with pictures of Ukrainian athletes who have died in the war with Russia. Had he honoured friends who died in a car crash in the same way he'd have been fine, but the IOC considers honouring war dead to constitute political messaging, which is prohibited at the Olympics.

- Switzerland will be holding a referendum this summer on imposing a hard cap on the country's population. If passed, this would oblige the government to close the country to all immigration (including refugees and relatives of foreign residents) in the event that the population comes to exceed 9.5 million (it is currently 9.1 million). The initiative comes from the rightwing Swiss People's Party; opponents fear that if passed this move could violate agreements with the EU and harm the economy.

News roundup, 11 Feb 2026

- A mass shooting in the town of Tumbler Ridge in BC's interior has killed at least 10 people, including the attacker. Seven of the victims as well as the attacker died at a school, while two other bodies were found at a residence believed to be connected to the shooter; at least 25 others were injured in the attack.

- A database of ICE agents is being set up on a European website, putting it out of reach of American authorities. Dominick Skinner, an Irish citizen currently living in the Netherlands, was inspired to set up the list after hearing that there were plans to criminalize releasing this information in the US.

- WestJet is suspending its Winnipeg-Nashville and Winnipeg-Atlanta routes due to collapsing demand. The airline is also pausing flights to Orlando in June.

- Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flown through Canadian airspace twice since Mark Carney's vow to honour the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against him. Global Affairs Canada has so far not answered questions as to whether they received the 72 hours notice that's supposed to be given by foreign state aircraft to enter our airspace.

- Cuba has been in an escalating crisis since the US move against Venezuela, which supplied most of Cuba's oil. The Americans have also threatened sanctions against any country that tries to fill the gap.

News roundup, 10 Feb 2026

- Rightwing populist André Ventura has been soundly defeated in Portugal's presidential runoff by centre-left candidate António José Seguro. This is more important than it would be in many European countries (though less so than in the US) due to the fact that Portugal has a semi-presidential system, and the president has the power to veto legislation and dissolve parliament at will.

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has introduced an executive order prohibiting ICE agents from municipal property without a warrant as well as several other measures aimed at limiting the power of the agency to conduct "abusive immigration enforcement". Interestingly, apart from a single article on CBS, there seems to be very little coverage online from the US - nothing from the New York Times, NPR, NBC, Associated Press, or any of the other usual suspects - and there's surprisingly little international coverage either, just stuff from places like this Spanish website and this Turkish one. I'm always a bit leery when someone on Facebook or whatever claims stridently that there's a "news blackout" about a subject, because generally a simple Google search brings up something - but this comes a lot closer than most to being the real deal. And yes, I tried the built-in search features of those American sites named above, just in case it was Google rather than the sites themselves burying the story, but it seems not.

- Dr. Philippe Lagacé-Wiens, a microbiologist at St Boniface Hospital, warns that the measles exposure at Brandon's Ag Days has the potential to be a superspreader event. Some 35,000 people attended the trade show, and in this day and age there's a definite correlation between attending agricultural trade fairs and not getting vaccinated.

- The Canadian government appears to have made advance payments for parts for 14 additional F-35s, seemingly still wanting to hedge their bets on the matter. The parts are needed in order to keep Canada's place in the order queue.

- Canada's airlines are cancelling flights to Cuba as Havana's airport runs short on jet fuel following the country's loss of access to Venezuelan oil in the wake of the US attack. This comes after a travel advisory was already issued for the country due to the fuel shortage.

- NBC appears to have altered the audio of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics to cut out the boos from the audience directed at JD Vance.

- Donald Trump is threatening to cancel the planned opening of a second bridge between Windsor and Detroit. The Gordie Howe International Bridge is scheduled to open in the next few months, but has become the latest fixation for the orange monster.

News roundup, 9 Feb 2026

- A bill before the New York state legislature would impose a moratorium on new data centres in the state for three years, making the state the largest to impose such restrictions. The moratorium will hopefully give them the chance to look seriously at what kind of effect those data centres have on things like grid stability. 

- This year's Ag Days, an annual agricultural trade show in Brandon, could turn out to be Plague Days, as it was an exposure site for measles. Anyone who attended the event or visited hotels, restaurants, or shops in the city that weekend is being asked to monitor for symptoms. That means much of the city's population could be at risk.

- A Manitoba Court of King's Bench judge has certified a class action lawsuit against Revera, the former owner of the Maples Personal Care Home, as well as against the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, regarding a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility that killed 56 people.

- Elon Musk is calling Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez a "tyrant" after his government introduced strict regulations on social media, which not only follow Australia's lead by prohibiting those under 16 from using it but which can hold executives criminally liable for illegal content published on their platforms.

- King Cobras are turning up in parts of India where they don't occur naturally. Researchers believe the snakes may be catching rides on trains.

- The woman who was abducted in Pimicikimak Cree Nation on Thursday has been rescued, having sustained only minor injuries. The suspect was also captured alive and is in custody. I have to say, I wasn't expecting a happy ending to this story.

News roundup, 6 Feb 2026

- The New START treaty, which capped the numbers of launch-ready nuclear weapons that the two largest nuclear powers could have, has just expired, leading to fears of an escalating arms race.

- A Minneapolis activist has been arrested on cyberstalking charges by federal officers after allegedly doxxing a "pro-ICE individual" in Michigan. Kyle Wagner is said to have posted the person's address, phone number, and birth date to social media. The complaint against him also cited posts such as "Get your [expletive] guns and stop these [expletive] people".

- A Russian general survived getting shot 7 times in Moscow. Lt Gen Vladimir Alexeyev was attacked in an apartment building in the northwestern part of the city. The shooters remain at large.

- French prosecutors are seeking "voluntary interviews" with Elon Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino following the raid on X's offices in the country related to deepfakes and child pornography. Of course Musk and X are claiming this is "politically motivated" and "threatens our users’ rights to privacy and free speech". I have to say that while this may not be politically motivated, it could well have a political impact - most likely a positive one - if X is pushed out of Europe. That might be to much to hope for, but we'll have to see.

- Seven Toronto police officers have been arrested on corruption charges related to organized crime. Charges include accepting bribes, leaking confidential information, and drug trafficking.

- A 20 year old woman was abducted from her home in Pimicikamak Cree Nation, Manitoba on Thursday morning by a man who also attacked another resident of the home with a hammer. Police are still searching for the victim as well as the suspect in what appears to be a case of "intimate partner violence".

- The Catalina Island Conservatory, which owns most of the land on the island, is moving ahead with plans to exterminate the deer population. Deer are not native to Catalina, having been introduced about a century ago, and the conservancy wants to restore the old ecosystem as best they can. Not surprisingly this is a controversial move; an earlier plan to shoot deer from helicopters was shot down after a public outcry.

News roundup, 5 Feb 2026

- Jeff Bezos has ordered massive layoffs at the Washington Post, affecting a third of the newspaper's workforce. Among other things, the entire Middle East desk will be gone, as will be the paper's Ukraine bureau chief and correspondent. Former Executive Editor Marty Baron condemns this and previous decisions by Bezos, which he calls "ill-conceived". The thing is, though, they're only "ill-conceived" if you're thinking in terms of the greater good; if you're thinking in terms of Bezos' personal interests they aren't ill-conceived at all, especially in light of how Donald Trump is making new threats regarding the broadcast licenses of major networks in the US.

- The Trump regime appears to be issuing selective exemptions to tariffs for companies with which he has a good relationship. Nothing suspicious about that at all...

- Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is warning federal leadership candidates to treat Alberta with kid gloves so that he has a chance of defeating Danielle Smith next year. Meanwhile, leadership candidate Rob Ashton singled out Avi Lewis for "turning New Democrats against each other".

- The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is taking over the Golden Door Geriatric Centre, a personal care home in the Fort Garry district of the city whose private owners had announced plans to close the facility. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says that the province is working to fill the numerous beds that the owners had been leaving vacant in order to prepare for the closure.

- A little known fact - ICE actually has offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Their agents don't have the power of arrest in this country; they claim that these agents (who are not armed) assist in the investigation of international crimes. NDP MP Heather McPherson is calling on the Carney government to close those offices "until the human rights crisis is resolved"; whether the government will do so remains to be seen.

- Manitoba Hydro is hiring institutional safety officers for its downtown office tower following a seemingly random attack by a methed up teenager with a knife. Manitoba Housing is also hiring such officers for its downtown office. Unlike run-of-the-mill security guards, these officers have specialized training; they are equipped with handcuffs and pepper gel and are empowered to make arrests. CUPE, which represents Hydro employees, is calling for the officers to be deployed as soon as possible.

- Manitoba currently has the highest incidence of measles in Canada. To the surprise of few, these cases are concentrated mostly in the Southern Health Region, and in particular a church in Winkler, though some people were infected in Winnipeg after people from the province's Bible Belt were hospitalized at HSC. 51 confirmed and three probable cases have been reported in the province as of the 24th of January. This compares to 319 confirmed cases of measles and 29 probable cases last year, and only 18 cases between 2000 and 2024. At least 86% of the cases were in unvaccinated people; another 6.2% were in people of unknown vaccination status.

- Following the drowning death of a 12 year old student at a scuba school in Texas, her family sued the school. One thing that has come up in court is the fact that the school's owner had been caught on video bragging about the number of fatalities he'd gotten away with, which does not inspire confidence.

News roundup, 4 Feb 2026

- Bill Blair has resigned his seat as the MP for Scarborough Southwest in order to take up a new position as Canada's high commissioner to the UK. Doly Begum, who has represented the seat for the NDP at the provincial level since 2018, has announced that she will be running for the Liberals to replace Blair, sparking condemnation from the federal party.

- The seven states that depend on the Colorado River basin are at an impasse about how to manage the long-term drought the area is experiencing. The upstream states - Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming - are refusing to cut their own consumption, saying that the problem lies with the other three states in the basin (Nevada, California, and Arizona), which consume far more water but which, on the other hand, have taken some measures to cut their consumption. The New York Times article on the matter takes the position that this is entirely the fault of the upper basin states. I'm not so sure; while those states should doubtless be making cuts, one has to question whether growing alfalfa in a desert for the Saudis is a wise or sustainable industry.

- Colorado is challenging the Trump regime's order to keep an aging coal-fired power plant open. Even the state's power utilities want to close the plant, but Trump can't tolerate any kind of move away from coal, so...

- Thousands of Epstein-related documents have been removed from the Department of Justice website after some of his victims said that they were identified in the documents.

- At least 17 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in response to an Israeli soldier being wounded by gunfire. Israel seems to take "one of ours, all of yours" seriously.

- The federal government is considering amending the Canadian Migratory Birds Regulations to allow the hunting of Tundra Swans in the prairie provinces. This has raised concerns among some that this will lead to collateral damage to the more vulnerable Trumpeter Swan, which looks very similar and could easily be mistaken for the more common species.

News roundup, 3 Feb 2026

- Much of the world is trying to distance itself from American tech companies. This is easier said than done, of course, but France has banned its public officials from using Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet in favour of their homegrown product, Visio. The Ford government in Ontario has yet to get on board with this, despite the premier's bleating - they've been storing cabinet records, which are supposed to stay secret for decades - on Google Docs, leading to fears about security.

- French authorities have raided X's offices in the country over allegations of complicity in the distribution of child pornography, deepfakes, and other illegal materials.

- The Mozilla Foundation is adding AI features to their Firefox web browser, but unlike other browsers you'll be able to turn said features off. That's the difference between a nonprofit like Mozilla and the more typical tech companies - they don't have the same need to dazzle investors.

- FAA administrator Bryan Bedford is refusing to say whether the agency is going to pull the airworthiness certificates of Canadian-made aircraft. I have to assume this means he thinks it would be absurd to do so but is unwilling to say so publicly for fear of incurring the wrath of Donald Trump.

- The number of unclaimed bodies in Ontario has more than tripled since 2019. One cemetery manager suggests that there are probably "socio-economic issues" involved here but doesn't speculate further. I wouldn't be surprised if some people just became more alienated from friends and family due to the pandemic and the political polarization around measures to contain it.

News roundup, 2 Feb 2026

- Former CNN journalist Don Lemon was arrested on civil rights charges after he covered an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a church service last month. The prosecutor accuses him of "knowingly joining" the protest.

- Two Customs and Border Protection agents have been identified as having fired the fatal shots in the killing of Alex Pretti. An investigation has apparently been opened, though it's a safe bet it won't go anywhere.

- Pierre Poilievre easily passed his leadership review at the Conservatives' convention, winning the support of over 87% of the delegates. This might seem strange given his poor performance in the last election and continuing unpopularity with the general public, but as others have pointed out, no matter how unhinged the opposition is, people will eventually tend to elect them once the government falls out of favour, and most current members of that party want an extreme leader like Poilievre.

- The federal government will be accepting delivery today of the first of 12 F-35s that it has already ordered, even as doubts are being raised about whether to buy another 72 as originally planned.

- Even as the major US automakers are scaling back their operations in Ontario, Toyota's plants in Cambridge and Woodstock and Honda's in Alliston are still going strong, though there are some clouds on the horizon due to tariffs. The Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing in London attributes this to cultural factors - the Japanese manufacturers take a more long-term view than the American ones who are laser-focused on the next quarter.

- Despite low birthrates, demographers did not expect the population of the US to start declining until 2081 due to immigration. Then Donald Trump happened and the country suddenly started to look a lot less attractive to immigrants; some now believe a decline could begin as soon as this year.

- Canadian actor Catherine O'Hara has died at the age of 71.