News roundup, 19 Aug 2026

- The Trump regime is delaying the 50% tariffs on Canadian goods for three days. The announcement came less than two hours before the tariffs were set to take effect, with Trump saying that there is a "deal" pending the finalization of some documents. Mark Carney did not say that there was a deal, though he did say that "substantial progress" had been made. Whether the progress in question has to do with actually reaching a deal, or merely with Trump's stock portfolio, is unknown at this time.

- Canadian researchers have concluded that foreign actors, from the US as well as Russia, have been pushing pro-separatist content in Alberta. Danielle Smith has acknowledged this, but it's not clear what can or will be done about the problem.

- ABC (US) is suing the FCC in an attempt to stop the early review of the licenses of eight of their TV stations, whose licenses were originally not scheduled for renewal until after 2028. 

- Declining church attendance across Canada means that a lot of old churches are closing. Some of these buildings, however, are being converted to affordable housing. This article focuses on a particular church in Winnipeg's North End; I'm aware of at least two others (one is now a co-op while another, just down the street from me, is owned by Manitoba Housing).

- Columbia House, the storied mail-order provider of music (and later DVDs) posted, and then removed, an announcement on its website indicating that it was shutting down. The company, not surprisingly, had difficulty competing with online retailers.

- A pharmacist in Portage la Prairie has been fined and hit with heavy license restrictions after it was found that he improperly dispensed controlled substances to patients (while also using several of these drugs himself). Some 39,000 doses of various controlled drugs went missing under his watch, including over 2,500 that went to the same individual.

- Erin Patterson, the Australian woman convicted of fatally poisoning three of her husband's relatives with the aptly named Death Cap mushroom, is appealing her conviction on a couple of grounds, most notably that the jury was sequestered at the same hotel where the prosecutors and a key witness were staying. The Director of Public Prosecutions argues, however, that while this was an error there is no evidence of communication between the parties.

News roundup, 23 July 2025

- A Nouvelair Airbus A320-200 attempted to land on the wrong runway at Nice on Sunday and was forced to execute a last-minute missed approach, coming within three metres of another A320 operated by Easyjet that was lined up on the runway. The Easyjet flight returned to the gate because the pilots were too shaken to continue; passengers reported that the captain was crying and his hands were shaking as he exited the cockpit.

- ABC is walking back their cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and FCC chair Brendan Carr is denying that any threats were made to the licenses of ABC stations. I guess he didn't explicitly threaten to pull licenses, though when he said things like "These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead", it's hard not to interpret this as a threat. Nonetheless, the show is set to return to the airwaves tonight.

- The US Supreme Court has issued an "emergency order" allowing Donald Trump to fire Rebecca Slaughter, the last remaining Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission. The agency, like many federal agencies, was designed to be bipartisan, and a unanimous 1935 ruling of the Supreme Court forbade then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt from firing commissioners, but that precedent seems to be of no merit to the MAGA-dominated court. The court has so far indicated that the Federal Reserve will be handled differently, but it remains to be seen if this will be the case.

- Not satisfied with the existing sanctions against the International Criminal Court in the wake of their call for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump regime reportedly has a bunch more coming up the pipeline. Possible sanctions could include prohibiting banks that do business with the ICC from doing business with the US. The court has responded by paying the remainder of their staff's 2025 salaries in advance, which if nothing else gives the staff time to make alternative plans for their livelyhoods. Perhaps the court should follow the lead of New South Wales premier Jack Lang, who in 1932 withdrew the state's assets from the bank and stored it in cash at the Sydney Trades Hall in response to a threat to seize the state's bank accounts in order to move forward with their deflationary plans. Lang's government was dismissed by Governor Philip Game soon after, but Trump can't do that to the ICC, much as he'd like to.

- In other ICC-related news, the court has issued an indictment against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity, including murder.

- Winnipeg police are investigating after fires were set on four different occasions since August at the constituency office of housing minister Bernadette Smith. Damage in all cases was relatively minor and the office remains open. Police say they do not know if the fires were random or targeted. Tellingly, however, there were no signs of similar attempts on nearby buildings.

- The noted American shock-rock band GWAR beheaded Elon Musk in effigy on stage at Riot Fest in Chicago. Of course, stuff like this is nothing new to GWAR, who have previously pulled the same stunt with effigies of other people (including both Donald Trump and Joe Biden). The stunt is getting a bit more scrutiny in the present political climate, though.

- A 47 year old math teacher at a middle school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was arrested after a drug-sniffing dog brought into the school by police took an unusual interest in her purse. Police searched and found cocaine inside a wallet, and subsequently found marijuana and pipes in her car.