Tuesday, June 23, 2026

News roundup, 23 June 2026

- The Trump regime has turned its sights on the EU again, this time looking at Germany's regulation of pharmaceutical prices. Trump claims that this practice forces drug makers to charge higher prices in the US in order to make up the difference.

- The Manitoba government is still looking at Sio Silica's bid to open a sand mine in the Rural Municipality of Springfield, but Premier Wab Kinew has dropped hints that the mine will not be approved. In an interview with radio station CJOB, Kinew indicated that the fact that the company's last bid for this is the subject of an upcoming public inquiry into the previous government's actions could impact the decision.

- The Toronto Star has an interesting take on Carney's pipeline deal with Alberta - they suggest that the proposal is not economically viable and will likely never be built. If this is true, I have to give some credit to Carney for moving to placate Danielle Smith while not doing real damage to the climate. However, as the article points out, such a move could backfire if the idea collapses before this fall's referendum.

- A blind woman was apparently denied service by the Stella's restaurant chain in Winnipeg due to her guide dog. The chain has a long history of questionable practices (including sexual harassment and union busting) so this is entirely in character for the company. That said, the article does touch on an issue with the legislation surrounding service animals - there's no standard certification process for the animals, leaving the door wide open to abuse by the kind of people who claim their dog is an "emotional support" animal. If I were to guess, I'd say someone involved in drafting the legislation thought that requiring disabled people to prove the legitimacy of their service animals constituted a "microaggression" of some sort; while this was no doubt well-intentioned, it fails to take into account the realities of human behaviour.

- A Russian journalist who reported in 2008 that Putin planned to divorce his wife in favour of Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva has died. Grigory Nekhoroshev had been living in exile in Latvia for a number of years, and allegedly died from eating poisonous mushrooms foraged from his front yard. I guess that has more plausible deniability than polonium.

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