News roundup, 30 April 2026

- The price of oil has reached its highest level since 2022 following reports that the US is considering new attacks on Iran and that the country's ports could be blockaded for months.

- The United Arab Emirates has announced that they will be withdrawing from OPEC as of tomorrow. While this will probably not have an immediate impact on oil prices (UAE oil still has to pass through the Strait of Hormuz) it will be perceived as a win for Trump, who has railed against OPEC for a long time.

- Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have issued travel advisories for the US in the leadup to the World Cup.

- Buying a business jet to fly himself around in is far from the worst thing Doug Ford has done in terms of actual impacts on Ontario and its people (just consider all the measures he's taken against sensible urbanist policies by municipal governments, for instance), but it seems to be the one thing that could cause problems for his reelection - his party is now in a statistical tie with the Liberals according to a recent poll. That said, the jet purchase was bad enough, especially given that the aircraft wouldn't have been able to use small airports anyway.

- Bell Canada is opening a data centre in the Centreport complex in Rosser, Manitoba, just outside Winnipeg. While this is in keeping with an announcement last fall from the premier that more data centres would be built to support "sovereign AI", many are questioning whether this is the best use of the 5.5 MW of electricity it requires (enough to power thousands of homes).

- Former Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson, who has come under fire for her, er, "alternative" understanding of the residential school system, was escorted off the University of Lethbridge campus and fined $600 for trespassing. Widdowson had been the subject of a trespass notice by the university since February when she attempted to hold an unsanctioned event on campus that drew a large number of protesters.

News roundup, 29 April 2026

- Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with threatening the life of the president with a picture he briefly posted to Instagram last year. The image showed several seashells arranged to read "86 47"; apparently in some circles "eighty-six" is slang for "eject" or "remove". Comey says he took the picture after seeing the arrangement on a beach; he says removed it upon hearing that some interpreted it as a call for violence.

- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received a gift of £5 million from a crypto billionaire in 2024; subsequently he reversed his decision not to run in the general election that year. The donor, Christopher Harborne, also donated £9 million to Farage's party last year, the largest single donation to a party by a living person in British history; this is despite the fact that he is based in Thailand. On the other side of the world, Australia's wealthiest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has donated an aircraft as well as $2 million to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

- California is holding a referendum on a one time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires. The measure was proposed as a way to make up for the loss of federal healthcare money; the billionaires are pulling out all the stops to defeat the initiative.

- Higher oil prices resulting from the war in Iran mean that Canada's recent fiscal update, which was prepared before the latest developments, likely underestimates Canada's revenue, meaning a substantial windfall for the government.

- Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and obstruction of justice; this is related to his attempt to impose martial law in 2024. This is largely academic as he has already received a life sentence for rebellion in connection to the matter.

- Five correctional officers were injured in a confrontation with a single inmate at a prison in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. The president of the officers' union says that the use of drones to smuggle drugs and weapons into prisons has made their job more dangerous; among the measures they're calling for is the jamming of cellphone signals on the premises to make it harder to coordinate such smuggling.

- A 17 year old boy has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly intentionally running over several sleeping geese in a parking lot. This happened at night, however his vehicle was identified from security video.

- An Indian man dug up his sister's remains and brought them to a bank in order to prove that she was dead in order to close her account. 

News roundup, 28 April 2026

- The suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner incident has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president as well as several firearms offenses. People from his hometown, the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, seem for the most part not to know him very well, saying that he lived with his parents and didn't interact with very many people.

- Mark Carney has announced plans to create a sovereign wealth fund for Canada. Unlike the one so successfully operated by Norway over the decades, it doesn't sound like it will be filled up with oil royalties - under our federal system, these kind of resources fall largely under provincial jurisdiction (as frothing-at-the-mouth Albertans are all too keen to point out whenever any plans to federally manage that sector of the economy are made). Instead, it sounds like it's going to just be some kind of investment fund that you (as well as "the private sector and international partners") buy units of the way you would for a mutual fund or ETF. Ironically, Norway's own sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world (which does get much of its money from oil), was initially inspired by the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust fund as initially set up by Peter Lougheed (but sadly nerfed by Ralph Klein). Now, unfortunately, that sort of thing is anathema to that province.

- Water levels in Ontario's Lake Simcoe are at their highest level in decades, with the potential to cause flooding in parts of Barrie and Orillia as well as the towns of Innisfil and Georgina and the township of Ramara. This is threatening croplands in an area sometimes called the "salad bowl", a major producer of vegetable crops.

- State Farm Insurance is facing hundreds of lawsuits from people who were denied coverage for hail damage, including over 600 in Oklahoma alone. There are allegations of a "wide-ranging program" by the company to avoid claims for such damage, as well as for wildfires. Perhaps the company can see a rise in such claims coming due to climate change and wants to make sure they don't have to pay them. Meanwhile millions of properties in the US are uninsured because the owners can't afford the premiums.

- Tenants at a North End apartment building operated by the nonprofit Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation, are raising concerns after the organization began housing homeless people in vacant units in cooperation with social service agencies. Several longtime tenants report that they no longer feel safe; a representative of the nonprofit acknowledges the concerns, saying that while they have been working to house the homeless for several years the situation has worsened in the last year. In contrast to this, organizations in Steinbach are proposing a dedicated building for people in such situations, which would have onsite psychiatrists. This sounds like a better way of dealing with the situation; while I can see some having concerns about the segregating effect of this, that may be a necessary evil in order to maintain a satisfactory level of buy-in from the public.

- A man in his 70s has been arrested following the fatal shooting of a 62 year old man in Mississauga. Police believe the shooting was targeted; you'd think one would outgrow one's gangster phase by that age.

News roundup, 27 April 2026

- Trump was rushed out of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday after a shooting incident. He escaped unscathed; a suspect is in custody and has been identified as a part time teacher and game developer. Investigators believe he was targeting administration officials but haven't said if Trump himself was among those he was after.

- Municipal leaders in Manitoba want provincial legislation amended to allow municipalities to ban disruptive people from public meetings. This follows an attempt to do so by the Rural Municipality of Alexander that was nixed by the courts.

- Alexandre Boulerice, the only NDP MP from Quebec, reportedly plans to step down and run provincially for the leftwing Quebec Solidaire party (there is no provincial wing of the NDP in Quebec). This will leave the NDP with only 5 MPs.

- The Kinew government in Manitoba plans to follow Australia's lead in banning social media for youth. The proposed legislation also covers things not covered by Australia's law, most notably AI chatbots. Interestingly, many young people asked by the CBC about this draw a distinction between the two, being in favour of restricting chatbots but not social media. No timeline for a ban has been announced so far.

- The Carney government has released a fiscal update indicating a deficit of $25.5 billion for the period from April 2025 and February 2026. This is considerably lower than the forecast from November, which projected a deficit of $78.3 billion for that time period. Poilievre, of course, is never satisfied on such matters and is calling for the cancellation of the high speed rail plan as well as the gun buyback program and a hard cap of $31 billion for deficits.

- A French teenager has been arrested in Singapore after posting footage on Instagram of himself licking a straw from a vending machine and putting it back in the dispenser. He has been charged with mischief and being a "public nuisance"; he could face up to two years in prison and thousands of dollars of fines if convicted. That does seem a bit excessive, but these sort of social media-fueled pranks are definitely a plague.

News roundup, 24 April 2026

- Some reports allege that Donald Trump wanted to use nuclear weapons in Iran and was blocked from doing so by a general, Dan Caine. Fact checkers have not confirmed this; the folks at Snopes are calling the story "false", but it's worth noting the basis for this rating:

We found no evidence from reputable news outlets or official sources supporting the claim, which appeared to stem from a dubious source. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly also told Snopes via email that the claim was "totally false." We have also reached out to the Pentagon for a response to the claim and await a reply.  

Given the above, we've rated this claim false.

I'd be inclined to rate it as "unconfirmed" rather than "false"; the White House's denials (or any other statement from there) are hardly something that can be taken at face value. That said, the original source of this story is a blogger who has been caught up in falsehoods before; hopefully this is another one, but given everything we do know about Trump I wouldn't put it past him.

- US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is threatening retaliatory action against Canada if the provinces that have refused to stock American liquor don't lift the bans. Mark Carney retorted that the bans could end quickly if the US lifts tariffs on such things as steel, aluminum, and vehicles. Certainly neither BC nor Ontario has any plans to reverse their policies.

- The International Criminal Court is proceeding with charges against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte. A panel found that the evidence suggests that Duterte was responsible for dozens of murders, as a result of a policy during his reign of "neutralizing" alleged criminals.

- Only 25% of American 16 year olds had a driver's license in 2022, compared to nearly 50% in 1983. On the face of it this might seem to be good news, however biking and walking rates are down as well; the implication seems to be that they just aren't going out at all.

- The Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool in inner-city Winnipeg has installed buzzers for pool users to request admittance to the facility, following a series of concerning incidents including theft, threats, and assaults against staff and patrons. Unfortunately this is causing collateral damage for some users; the automatic opener previously used by people with disabilities was itself disabled in the course of the change. On the face of it I don't see why this is necessary; it shouldn't be difficult to set it up so that the person inside who responds to the buzzer could activate the opener from inside. If this isn't possible for some reason, then this might be a necessary evil, assuming that it excludes fewer people than would be excluded due to fear if such measures weren't in place (or by reduced hours if it becomes hard to staff the pool due to employee concerns). But this should be looked at before settling on the current situation.

- An intoxicated man who showed up at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg was found to be in possession of a smoke grenade. How he obtained it has yet to be determined.

- French authorities are investigating after someone allegedly made a bet on the temperature in Paris on the online betting site Polymarket, then used a hair drier to warm the sensor so that the recorded temperature would be in line with the bet. 

News roundup, 23 April 2026

- A journalist was killed by the IDF in what Lebanese officials are calling a "double tap" strike. Amal Khalil and a colleague were reporting on an Israeli attack on a vehicle, and were allegedly targeted by the Israelis when they tried to take cover in a building. The Israelis also allegedly fired on emergency workers who were trying to save her.

- Danielle Smith's government in Alberta has passed a motion to select a committee to draw up new constituency boundaries, having rejected the recommendation of the province's Electoral Boundaries Commission. The recommendation, passed by a majority of the commission (two NDP representatives and the commission's chair) drew the ire of Smith and the UCP because it increased the large cities' share of the constituencies, thus creating the risk that good sense, as opposed to mere common sense, might prevail in a future election. For the first time in the commission's history, the two dissenting members (both UCP appointees) presented their own alternative boundaries, which merged more than a dozen urban ridings with rural ones so as to dilute the urban vote.

- The captain of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 was struck on the head by a falling piece of instrumentation while climbing out of Las Vegas, suffering a concussion. The first officer took control of the aircraft and landed safely. In other aviation news, the crew of an Air Canada Jazz Embraer E175 had to take evasive action after a Republic Airways plane of the same type strayed into their path while performing a go-around.

- The US Department of Health and Human Services stopped the publication of a study on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. The study was going to be published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an in-house publication of the Centers for Disease Control, but the department pulled it citing vague concerns about the methodology.

- Virginia has passed legislation that ends the tax exemptions for pro-Confederate organizations, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society.

- A 73 year old man from the Rural Municipality of Dauphin, Manitoba (which surrounds the city of the same name) was charged with stealing a handgun at a gun show in Newfolden, Minnesota. He was released on bail and returned to Canada, but after the RCMP were notified of this, they searched his home and found a substantial cache of weapons, several of them stolen from the US.

- An Indian medical student in need of extra cash decided to try selling bikini photos of an AI-generated woman, but he wasn't getting much of a response until he asked Google's AI chatbot Gemini how to fix that and it suggested that he create a MAGA persona for his next attempt. The chatbot referred to this as a "cheat code", adding that "the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal". So he researched MAGA culture intensively and created an Instagram profile for a fictitious nurse who looked like actor Jennifer Lawrence and dispensed such words of "wisdom" as "If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported". This succeeded beyond his wildest dreams; the account racked up 10,000 subscribers within a month, and in no time he was making money hand over fist by selling softcore images, T-shirts, and the like. He says that he also experimented with creating another, more liberal persona, but that one didn't do nearly as well. He noted that "Democrats know that it’s AI slop, so they don’t engage as much", whereas "The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people—like, super dumb people. And they fall for it". The Instagram account was eventually taken down for failure to disclose AI-generated content; its creator has no regrets and is now focusing on his studies.

News roundup, 22 April 2026

- The European Union is working on a carbon pricing scheme known as EST2, scheduled to come into effect in 2028. The scheme includes rebates to offset the impact (which will potentially leave lower income households better off); there are concerns, though, that far too little effort is being put into public education, especially regarding the rebates. One of the weaknesses of democracy is that it's not enough to have a good policy, you have to sell that policy to the public - and the more complicated the policy, the harder it is to do that. There's a saying in politics - "if you're explaining, you're losing"; that doesn't mean you should never explain things, but that when your explanation is a response to something that your opponents have already put out there, you have a problem. Given that fact it's especially important to work on educating the public about the tax and the rebates well before the pricing scheme takes effect. Otherwise, opponents of the policy may be able to whip up a populist fury before the actual facts can get out the door.

- Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz today, and has reportedly seized at least two of them.

- The Trump regime is demanding what they call an "entry fee" before reopening talks with Canada on renegotiating the Canada-United States-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA). The "fee" would not be monetary, but rather trade concessions; normally one would expect concessions to be made in the course of trade negotiations rather than as a condition of entry into said negotiations, but that's how Trump rolls I guess. For their part, Canadian negotiators say that they've already offered some concessions to no avail. 

- When Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), the metro system serving the San Francisco Bay Area, conducted a review that concluded that conventional fare enforcement disproportionately affected ethnic minorities due to the human judgment aspect, they decided instead to upgrade the gates at their stations, replacing the easily-jumped waist-high barriers with metal-framed Plexiglas doors. Besides being more effective and less inequitable than what went before, they found that vandalism dropped dramatically under the new system. Not to say that most fare evaders are vandals, of course, but it seems that a disproportionate number of the vandals are fare evaders.

- A 72 year old Winnipeg man has been arrested after unsigned, threatening letters sent to NDP MLA and cabinet minister Nahanni Fontaine were traced to him. The suspect is facing charges of criminal harassment and uttering threats.

- Chip Roy, a far-right Republican member of Congress from Texas, has introduced a bill which he has dubbed the "Measures Against Marxism’s Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists" (MAMDANI) Act. This bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow for, among other things, stripping the citizenship of any immigrant who is a member of a socialist party or who "advocates" for socialism (as well as communism or Islamic fundamentalism).

- Tucker Carlson has apologized for his past support for Donald Trump, as the consequences of the war in Iran become more apparent. Better late than never I suppose, but he should have seen something like this coming.

News roundup, 21 April 2026

- A Canadian tourist was shot dead at a popular tourist site in Mexico. Another Canadian, as well as three Columbians (one of them a child), a Russian, and a Dutch national were wounded; the shooter, a Mexican citizen, killed himself. The motive for the attack is unknown.

- The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz threatens to significantly disrupt food production around the world, due to the huge amounts of fertilizer shipped through the strait. In wealthy countries this will primarily mean higher prices, but in poorer countries it could very well lead to famine. 

- Florida's orange industry is undergoing a catastrophic decline, due to a combination of invasive pests, excessive glyphosate use, hurricanes and other weather events, as well as changing public tastes. The state produced 242 million boxes in 2003; this year's harvest is being optimistically projected at 12 million. 

- Doug Ford has abruptly backtracked on a plan to spend nearly $30 million of public money on a business jet to fly him around (dubbed the "gravy plane" by critics), while continuing to spout a torrent of whataboutery and claims of persecution regarding the matter. This includes a claim that Quebec did the same thing, when in fact the jets purchased by that province were for medevac purposes, not for the premier's use.

- Brokenhead Ojibway Nation has purchased a Winnipeg clothing manufacturer. Freed & Freed International Ltd. manufactures jackets for the Canadian Armed Forces as well as the RCMP and Canada Post; the First Nation hopes that this will provide their community with employment opportunities.

- The Rural Municipality of Alexander in eastern Manitoba attempted to ban a disruptive resident from council meetings, but a court has ruled that while they can remove him from a meeting if he actually behaves in a disruptive manner, they do not have the authority to ban him from future meetings, at least without an injunction or similar measure.

- Residents of the Rural Municipality of Sherwood in Saskatchewan are up in arms about the approval of a Bell Canada data centre in the municipality. Adding to residents' frustration is the fact that most of the councillors were appointed by the province to replace councillors who resigned en masse last month, leaving the council without quorum.

- An Israeli soldier took an axe to a statue of Jesus in the predominantly Christian Lebanese village of Debel. This was too much even for Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed that the soldier will be punished.

News roundup, 20 April 2026

- The US captured an Iranian container ship that was planning to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has called the seizure "piracy" and has announced that they will not be going back to the negotiating table any time soon.

- Mark Carney has recognized that Canada's trade ties to the US have become weaknesses, due to the erratic nature of that country's leadership in these times. This follows an outburst by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in response to Canada's trade breakthroughs with China.

- To the surprise of few, the BBC has found that there is often a large spike in securities trading activity in the leadup to major announcements by Donald Trump. This might seem pretty trivial compared to some of Trump's crimes, of course.

- The uncontrolled building of data centres is becoming a potential issue in the US midterms as opposition grows to the impacts of these centres on energy prices, water use, and other matters. No doubt Silicon Valley will be pulling out all the stops to nip this in the bud, though.

- Two First Nations in Manitoba's Interlake region have declared states of emergency due to impending flooding. Peguis and Fisher River are both anticipating evacuations in the aftermath of a late snowstorm that affected the region. Peguis in particular has been calling for federal assistance towards a permanent solution for years, to no avail. Flooding is also causing disruptions in northeastern Ontario and in Gatineau, Quebec.

- A Chinese-born artist who emigrated to the US in 2022 was arrested while visiting family back in China in 2024 on charges of "insulting revolutionary heroes and martyrs". This is in response to works he exhibited back in 2009 that satirized Mao Zedong.

- A couple from Kelowna, BC were hit with a huge bill by Enterprise Rent-A-Car for allegedly damaging their rental vehicle by filling it up with diesel. The thing is, they had kept receipts from the gas station, and even taken a photo of the gas pump, showing that it doesn't even dispense diesel - and yet the company still sent them a bill for $9,500. Evidence was also provided that the fuel filler could not accommodate the larger nozzles from diesel pumps. The company only backed down after they hired a lawyer and the CBC started asking the company questions. I can confirm that this sort of thing isn't that uncommon in the car rental business; a number of years ago I had a disconcerting experience with a different company when I rented a truck and then was sent a bill claiming that I'd racked up a huge amount of mileage on the vehicle. Fortunately they immediately reversed this when I called them and pointed out that there was no way I could have driven thousands of kilometres in the couple of hours that the truck was in my possession. One is left with the impression, though, that these companies like to throw something at the wall and see if it sticks every so often.

News roundup, 17 April 2026

- The continued war in Iran is causing serious concern for commercial aviation. Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency warns that Europe has "maybe six weeks or so [of] jet fuel left" and that flight cancellations may start to occur if the situation isn't resolved soon. And John Gradek of McGill University calls the situation the "worst crisis we've had in aviation, ever", pointing out that with 9/11 and the pandemic there was never an issue with supply.

- Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10 day ceasefire, with the possibility of extension if progress is made in the meantime. 

- Canada's federal government is considering acquiring more office space in order to accommodate the employees that they're forcing back to the office. Anything to prop up the commercial real estate sector I guess...

- Residents of Winnipeg's West Broadway neighbourhood are creating a community land trust which will buy up land and rent it out at affordable rates.

- The RCMP detachment in Thompson evidently did a rather substandard job of searching a teen they'd taken into custody in December 2024. It seems that they somehow overlooked the fact that he was carrying a gun; fortunately the firearm was not used and was later discovered hidden behind a toilet while the suspect was in court.

- Former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax killed his wife and then himself on Wednesday night. The two were going through what was describe as a "complicated" divorce.

- Some residents of Peguis First Nation may need to evacuate as early as this weekend due to flooding.

- The singer D4vd has been charged with murder following an investigation into the discovery of the remains of a teenage girl in a car he owned. Why it took as long as it did to press charges is an interesting question.

News roundup, 16 April 2026

- Donald Trump is once again threatening to fire Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for refusing to lower interest rates, even though it's far from clear that he has the authority to do that unilaterally. The regime is also pursuing a criminal investigation regarding alleged cost overruns for renovations at the central bank's headquarters; a judge has already given the legal opinion that the overruns are a mere pretext and that the government wants to intimidate the bank. The strange thing is, Powell's term is set to expire in May, although he would stay on until a successor is found. 

- Hospitalization rates for vaccine-preventable respiratory infections, including flu and RSV as well as COVID-19 and other conditions, have doubled since the start of the pandemic. Evidently enough people went down the antivax rabbit hole that they stopped getting the vaccinations that they previously went along with.

- To the surprise of nobody with any sense, speeding has increased in Ottawa school zones since the Ford government banned municipalities from using speed cameras.

- More information has emerged about Jeremy Frimer, the psychology professor who is suing the University of Winnipeg for allegedly giving him complex PTSD and the faculty union for not backing him up. It seems that Frimer made some highly questionable claims about race, intelligence, and crime; despite his protestations, the general consensus among most scientists is that human races are so ill-defined that it's pretty safe to assume that such claims are nonsense. As to what could have motivated to make such claims, well...

- Travis Patron, a Saskatchewan man who once served as the leader of a now defunct far right fringe party, has been charged with wilful promotion of hatred for some online posts. He has previous convictions for the same offense, as well as for assault, harassment, and impersonating a police officer.

- Remember the story a few years back about the programmer whose best friend was killed by a hit-and-run driver, so she trained a chatbot on all the texts he'd sent to her so she could still feel like she was talking to him? Whatever you think about whether that's psychologically healthy or not, at least she knew what was going on. A more recent case, though, is a bit more problematic. After a man died in a car accident last year, his family decided to keep the news from his mother, fearing that the shock would harm her health. So they got together all the audio and video they could find of him and trained an AI on it. The AI has brief conversations with her on screen but then apologizes saying that he has to go back to work because he's very busy, and that he will be sure to move back to her city to be with her once he has earned enough money. As some folks in this Reddit thread have remarked, this might be justifiable if she had severe dementia (the only thing worse than having to tell her that he'd died would be having to tell her that over and over again), but there's no mention of this in the article, and I can't see things going too well if the AI has some sort of glitch that reveals its true nature or if she finds out the truth in some other way.

News roundup, 15 April 2026

- Donald Trump is threatening to revoke the trade deal he made with the UK last year if relations between the two countries don't improve. Trump accuses the UK, as well as numerous other countries, of being "not there when we needed them" for the war on Iran. To his credit, PM Kier Starmer says he will not give in. Meanwhile Trump is suggesting that peace talks with Iran could resume in the coming days, after breaking down over the weekend. 

- Along with the war, Trump's feud with the Pope and circulation of an AI-generated image of himself as a Christlike figure may be among the few things he's done that could significantly cut into his support. He's drawn a lot of support from conservative Catholics, but there seem to be limits. On the other hand, his followers are extremely good at compartmentalization, especially when he causes people they dislike to suffer.

- The Carney government is temporarily suspending the excise taxes on gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel. I still say a better way of providing relief, if you're going to reduce taxes, would be to reduce the GST by a revenue-equivalent amount, thus helping everyone rather than just those who drive or fly. This just incentivizes people to keep driving. And this sort of thing tends to develop a momentum; already Manitoba's opposition is calling on the province to scrap its gas tax permanently. This needs to be nipped in the bud.

- Communities in Manitoba's Interlake region are concerned about the flooding situation this spring. Peguis First Nation as well as the town of Arborg are watching anxiously to see if it's as bad as it's been in some recent years. Even in Winnipeg the floodway is being operated to protect low lying properties. This isn't entirely bad news, since it means some relief for Manitoba Hydro from the impacts of the drought we've seen over the last few years.

- An American influencer who calls himself Johnny Somali has been sentenced to six months in prison for public order violations in South Korea. He had caused public outrage by filming himself kissing a statue commemorating wartime sex slaves, referred to as "comfort women" by Japan. He has previously created a stir by taunting Japanese commuters about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

News roundup, 14 April 2026

- Mark Carney's Liberals have swept three byelections held yesterday, giving them a slight majority of 174 seats in the 338 member House of Commons.

- There are already predictions being made about how the defeat of Viktor Orbán will impact the global right. Certainly it's a sign that Trumpism isn't popular on the international scene, but before we get our hopes up too much, it's worth noting that the incoming prime minister,  Péter Magyar, is right of centre himself and was a member of Orbán's Fidesz party until 2024.

- German chancellor Friedrich Merz is the most unpopular head of government across 24 democracies. Only 19% of Germans approve of his performance, while 76% disapprove; Emmanuel Macron had a lower approval rating (18%) but also a lower disapproval rating (74%). The margin of error for the survey isn't given, though, so it's questionable how meaningful the ranking is for those two. Meanwhile Donald Trump's approval rating is still 38% in spite of everything, and his disapproval rating is only 57%. Leaders of Spain, Italy, and Argentina also fall into that mid-range; the most popular leaders among the countries surveyed were Indian PM Narendra Modi (70%), South Korean president Jae-myung (63%) and Czech PM Andrej Babiš (55%). From that it's probably safe to say that there's no correlation in either direction between how popular a leader is and how good they are.

- Electric vehicles are getting cheaper; even in the US they're increasingly competitive with conventional cars. Combine that with the impact of Trump's war on fuel prices and Americans just might find themselves dragged into the EV era, no matter how emasculating it might be to not hear that V8 roar when you press the accelerator.

- Two people have been arrested after allegedly opening fire on the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. This comes only two days after someone else tried torching the place. Nobody was injured in either incident. Meanwhile a survey of  2,400 "knowledge workers" found that 29% of those surveyed admitted to taking actions to sabotage their companies' rollout of AI. Of course the way AI gets introduced is often pretty haphazard; some of the accounts given in this related Reddit thread are pretty telling:

"The majority of AI rollouts that I've seen have been 'Please guys, find any problem that we can solve with AI. Anything, please. Just do something, the executives don't have any ideas either but we need AI.' and then they blame the workers when there's not any useful use case."

"My wife's company had that. Find a way to build it into your workflow. Then suddenly someone changed they mind and they're requiring you NOT to use it. I think someone just found out how shit it can be. So now, weeks after being aggressively pushed to use AI whenever possible, it's now pause all AI use." 

I think in a lot of cases companies have been sold on the idea that investors want you introducing AI as soon as possible and that your stock value depends on this, so executives push people to find some use, any use, for the technology so that they can include metrics about how much they're using it in their annual reports. Certainly that's what the AI companies themselves would have you believe. And I guess day traders don't hold onto the stock long enough to see the technology fail to deliver anyway.

News roundup, 13 April 2026

- Following the breakdown of peace talks in Pakistan, Donald Trump has announced that if the US can't use the Strait of Hormuz, nobody else can either. He says the US navy will "hunt down and interdict" vessels that have paid the toll being charged by Iran to use the strait.

- In January, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's ambassador to the US, was summoned to a meeting at the Pentagon in response to papal criticism of American foreign policy. According to one report, US officials told Pierre that due to the US' enormous military strength the country can do "whatever it wants…and that the Vatican, and Leo, better take its side". They allegedly invoked the Avignon papacy as a warning. The Pentagon has denied that the meeting went as reported, of course.

- Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has been soundly defeated in Hungary's general election on Sunday. The opposition Tisza, led by Péter Magyar, is projected to win 138 out of 199 parliamentary seats; if these results stand it means that Tisza will have the supermajority needed to undo some of the constitutional changes made by Orbán over the years.

 - Lars Løkke Rasmussen, leader of Denmark's Moderate party, is refusing to enter into a coalition with PM Mette Frederiksen's Social Democrats unless Frederiksen talks to centre-right parties. Frederiksen has been trying to bring in more left-leaning parties, but has paused those negotiations, apparently in response to pressure from Rasmussen. I imagine Rasmussen doesn't want to be the most rightwing member of any coalition, and/or is further to the right than he presents himself to voters. 

- BMW is retooling their 104 year old assembly plant in Munich for the construction of electric vehicles. They say that by next year it will be the company's first plant to produce EVs exclusively.

- France's government is trying to move away from Windows on desktop computers; they have plans to convert many such systems to Linux in order to reduce dependence on American companies. 

News roundup, 10 April 2026

- Several anonymous sources interviewed for an upcoming book report that in a series of Situation Room meetings earlier this year, various Trump advisors dropped hints that going to war with Iran would be a bad idea - but none of them except JD Vance pressed the issue. You know it's a mess when JD freaking Vance is the voice of reason.

- The American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the US automakers, is concerned about new EU vehicle safety standards that could limit the importation of gigantic pickup trucks. Andrew Puzder, the US ambassador to the EU, suggests that this could breach the spirit of a trade deal with the US that the EU has signed but has not yet ratified.

- People who have worked with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman say that he barely knows how to code and has a "surprisingly shallow" knowledge of how AI actually works. Then again, to do what he does you don't have to know how it works. You don't even have to know if it works, so long as you have plausible deniability about what you know or don't know when you issue an IPO. You just have to know how to sell stuff, and evidently Altman is very good at that.

- Conservative-turned-Liberal MP Marilyn Gladu was welcomed with open arms at the Liberal party convention in Montreal. When Mark Carney was asked about her rather sketchy past (which includes opposition to abortion, opposition to bans on conversion therapy, and support for the Freedom Convoy and other antivaxxers), he stated that Gladu has agreed to vote with the government on those issues. I guess she's flexible, if nothing else. Perhaps Gladu believed, rightly or wrongly, that she had to take such positions to run for office in a place like Sarnia even if she didn't actually believe in them. I'm guessing that she doesn't intend to run again and wants to end her career on the winning side. 

- Solar farms in the UK generated a record 14.1 gigawatts of power on Monday. That's pretty impressive for a country that's not exactly known for being sunny.

- Representatives of 85 countries will be meeting in Colombia at the end of this month for the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels. Unlike UN-run climate summits, this will be governed by majority vote rather than consensus, preventing a small number of countries from sabotaging plans like Saudi Arabia and other petrostates did at COP30. The countries plan on putting together a workable plan for the transition; what could be promising is the fact that put together, the countries participating have enough economic heft to force investors to reconsider whether it's still worth investing in new fossil fuel reserves.

News roundup, 9 April 2026

- An Israeli bombardment of Lebanon on Wednesday has killed over 250 people and injured hundreds more. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, says that the inclusion of Lebanon in the ceasefire with the US is essential, but JD Vance is urging Iran to throw Lebanon under the bus. Meanwhile, uncertainty arising from the conflict is driving banks to raise their lending rates, which could have significant implications for those who have to renew their mortgages soon.

- Marilyn Gladu, until now the Conservative MP for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong, has become the latest to cross the floor and join Mark Carney's Liberals. This brings the Liberals up to 172 seats, one short of a majority.

- A study at Tufts University on how to increase election turnout among students has been halted by a federal order, ostensibly because the feds are concerned about the privacy of students. I think we all know the real reason though.

- The Manitoba government is warning that the flood situation in the Interlake region could be severe this spring, possibly as bad as 2014 when much of Peguis First Nation had to be evacuated. In other parts of the province, conditions are drier - so dry, in fact, that people are already getting anxious about the coming wildfire season.

- A referendum in the Milwaukee suburb of Port Washington to restrict the construction of data centres in the city has passed by a large margin. It will require any future data centres to win the approval of voters. A regional business organization is fighting the initiative in court, fearing that it will set a precedent for other forms of development.

- Danhao Wang, a semiconductor researcher at the University of Michigan, has died after falling from a campus building, apparently intentionally. This came shortly after he was subjected to "hostile questioning" by authorities. Wang is not the first Chinese-born researcher to die in this manner recently; Jane Wu of Northwestern University killed herself in 2024 while under investigation by federal authorities.

News roundup, 8 April 2026

- Donald Trump has agreed to defer the annihilation of Iran's infrastructure for two weeks, following negotiations brokered by Pakistan. The Israelis are making it clear that they don't consider this to apply to Lebanon, and have continued to bomb that country, ostensibly in an attempt to root out Hezbollah.

- Some 25% of Pakistan's households now have solar power, meaning that the country has suffered a lot less from the surge in energy prices than most countries.  

- There are warnings that this summer's expected El Niño could be a big one, possibly a "super El Niño". Weather impacts in various parts of the world could be significant; in Canada it could mean a mild winter, but possibly more lake effect snow in southern Ontario if the Great Lakes don't ice up.

- Manitoba PC leader Obby Khan has been scolded by the Speaker of the legislature for a hateful comment made against Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara. Khan had initially denied making the remark as reported but a recording indicated otherwise; he has apologized.

- The Somali community in Minnesota is feeling more than a bit uneasy about living under the Trump regime. Many are seeking asylum in Canada; unfortunately new (and controversial) legislation may limit their ability to do so.

- New legislation in the UK will prohibit "no-fault evictions"; there has been a surge in such evictions in the leadup to the legislation taking effect next month. 

News roundup, 7 April 2026

 - Donald Trump made a rather unsubtle statement on Truth Social regarding Iran's failure to allow US ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump is threatening to bomb power plants and bridges unless the strait is opened by 8 PM (Eastern time) today. Targeting civilian infrastructure in this way would likely constitute a war crime, though whether anyone would be prosecuted for this is doubtful.

- US Attorney General Pam Bondi has become the latest recipient of Trump's favourite catchphrase. Trump had reportedly been frustrated with Bondi's failure to "execute on his vision". The fact that she pretty much destroyed the Department of Justice as per his wishes was evidently not good enough for him; she wasn't able to lock up his enemies fast enough.

- The BC General Employees' Union has become the latest to request that its members be allowed to work from home due to the increase in fuel prices resulting from the war. The union represents public servants as well as private sector employees in several provincially regulated industries.

- Doug Ford is vehemently opposed to the talks between Stellantis and Chinese manufacturer Zhejiang ‌Leapmotor Technology regarding the possible use of Stellantis' idled plant in Brampton to build EVs. Ford is concerned that the cars will be assembled from pre-prepared kits, meaning fewer jobs than the standard model, but that would presumably still mean more jobs than keeping the plant idle.

- India has achieved criticality with a prototype fast breeder reactor that is expected to be able to produce 500 MW worth of electricity once testing is complete. The reactor is running on uranium/plutonium mixed oxide fuel at present, but India's long-term plan is to get reactors of this sort running on thorium (which gets turned into the fissile uranium-233 in the same way the current test reactor generates plutonium-239 from natural uranium), as India has large thorium reserves.

- The man convicted of sending letter bombs in attempts to kill his wife and two of her lawyers, causing one of the lawyers to lose her right hand, has lost his appeal of his sentence for attempted murder. Guido Amsel had been given life with no chance of parole for a minimum of 10 years, a sentence usually reserved for a successful attempt at second-degree murder. It's noteworthy that one parole officer argues that he could be a danger abroad; once he is released he will immediately face deportation to his native Germany. It's perhaps to the credit of Manitoba Justice that they don't just quietly let him go and become someone else's problem, which would be easy enough to do.

News roundup, 2 April 2026

- Donald Trump claims that the US has just about finished the job in Iran. Nobody with any sense believes him, of course.

- Chrysler's parent company, Stellantis, is reportedly in talks with Chinese automaker Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co to build EVs at a closed plant in Brampton. If this goes ahead, there might still be hope for an auto industry in Ontario.

- UCP MLA Jason Stephan, who represents the constituency of Red Deer South in Alberta's legislature, has written a column endorsing the idea of a referendum on Alberta separating from Canada. The actual column can be seen here if you're curious; he seems to be working from the same style guide as a certain prominent politician to the south. Yet Danielle Smith seems to think that disloyalty to Canada is not a reason to take disciplinary measures against a caucus member.

- The US Supreme Court has ruled that Colorado's law banning "conversion therapy" for LGBT* kids is unconstitutional. The court believes that prohibiting therapists from telling kids that they need the devil prayed or beaten out of them is a violation of said therapists' free speech rights.

- A Toronto doctor has had her licence revoked after writing nearly 1,500 letters purporting to exempt the bearers from mask and vaccine mandates during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (and incidentally charging the rubes up to $300 per letter). Dr. Celeste Thirlwell was found guilty of "dishonourable and unprofessional" conduct. Don't feel too bad for her, though; I'm sure she'll make a comfortable living off a GiveSendGo campaign and maybe a speaking tour or two.

- Canada Post plans to end home delivery for households that still get it (it ended for many households during the Harper era, of course).  

- Following a 2023 court ruling, millions of Americans may now be eligible for Canadian citizenship by descent. No doubt a number will take advantage of this in order to escape from the current regime down there.

- The Artemis II mission successfully launched from Cape Canaveral yesterday, marking the first time in more than half a century that humans have gone beyond low earth orbit. The mission is scheduled to last 10 days.

- Anthropic AI is using copyright takedown requests to try to suppress the circulation of the source code for their Claude chatbot, which was inadvertently leaked to the internet. Given AI companies' rather cavalier attitude towards other people's intellectual property, it's hard not to see an irony here.

News roundup, 1 April 2026

- NORAD's US commander, Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, has thrown cold water on the idea that the F-35 is essential for the defense of North America. Guillot says that the aircraft is better suited to assaults on overseas targets where its stealth and air-to-surface weapons would be more useful. Prime Minister Mark Carney is holding off on commenting on the matter pending a review.

- The Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch today. It will carry four astronauts, including Canada's Jeremy Hansen, in a loop around the Moon before returning to Earth, in preparation for Artemis III which is planned to actually land.

- Stephen Lewis has died at the age of 88, having lived just long enough to see his son Avi win the NDP leadership.

- Numerous airlines around the world, including Air Canada and Air Transat, are imposing surcharges to deal with the rising cost of jet fuel as a result of the Iran war.

- Pierre Poilievre is calling for the cancellation of the proposed high speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City, using his usual simplistic populist slogans.

- A man in Niagara Region, Ontario has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges. Matthew Althorpe had created propaganda for the Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist group, and an agreed statement of facts at the sentencing hearing showed that documents that he posted on the Telegram social media platform had inspired multiple terrorist attacks. This included an attack against the LGBT* community in Slovakia that killed two people, as well as a mass stabbing at a mosque in Turkey.

- French MEP Rima Hassan was invited by several organizations to speak at events in Quebec, but was denied entry to Canada. The official explanation was that she had "failed to disclose a previous visa refusal or denial of entry" as well as "an alleged criminal offence, arrest, indictment or conviction". Both of these appear to stem from her participation in one of the flotillas bringing aid to Gaza in June. B’nai Brith Canada has praised the denial, accusing her of "promoting terror"; presumably they think that if those kids in Gaza are given enough food to survive they'll surely grow up to be terrorists. 

- A teacher in Manitoba's Frontier School Division, which serves mostly remote communities in the northern part of the province, has been decertified after admitting to supplying a student with alcohol and cannabis. In other professional misconduct news, a lawyer who is already under suspension by the Manitoba Law Society has been accused of conspiracy to smuggle cannabis into Headingley Jail as well as conspiracy to obtain a prohibited or restricted firearm.