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, 11 Aug 2025

- Six journalists were killed and three injured when an IDF drone hit their tent in what appears to have been a targeted attack. It's like the Israelis aren't even pretending anymore, just counting on people's fear of being called antisemitic being enough to keep talk of this out of western consciousness. That approach doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to; Australia is the latest country to announce that they'll be recognizing a Palestinian state, with New Zealand expected to follow suit. The UK, on the other hand, seems to still be solidly in their pocket; they just arrested over 500 people for carrying protest placards in support of Palestine Action, a group that has been labelled a "terrorist organization" for their interference in the operation of Israeli weapons manufacturers.

- The Trump regime is threatening to take direct control of the District of Columbia, allegedly to deal with rampant crime.

- A Georgia man who had was convinced that his depression was the result of the COVID-19 vaccine opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control, firing dozens of rounds into the complex and killing a police officer before dying himself (whether his death was at the hands of himself or the police is unclear at this point).

- The membership of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation have voted against a partnership with Sio Silica to mine sand in southeastern Manitoba. The agreement would have given the first nation 5% of the profits from the project.

- A wildfire is spreading rapidly on the outskirts of New Brunswick's largest city, with some bedroom communities being urged to prepare for evacuation.

- A Quebec judge has given the go ahead to a class action suit over brainwashing experiments conducted in Montreal by Dr. Ewan Cameron as part of the CIA-funded MK-Ultra program.

- The WNBA is having to deal with an outbreak of sex toys being thrown onto the court during games. For some strange reason no other professional sports league seems to have to deal with this.

News roundup, 7 July 2025

- Torrential rains have caused flash flooding on the Guadalupe River in Texas. At least 69 people have been killed, many of them campers from a Christian summer camp; many others remain missing.

- Foreign investors are increasingly leery of the US. A survey of fund managers worldwide by the Bank of America has found that only 23% of them preferred American stocks over those of other countries, a sharp reversal from the last 20 years. And while the S&P 500 is up over 6% compared to last year, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Germany's DAX are up more than 20%. Of course, abandoning the US dollar as a reserve currency isn't something that can be done on a whim, or without significant disruption in its own right, but the dollar's status is more uncertain than ever.

- The director of one of Gaza's largest hospitals was killed along with much of his family by an Israeli airstrike on his apartment. His surviving children believe that he was targeted; they say his unit was the only one hit in the airstrike. If true, this would of course be yet another war crime; I guess you can file that along with the countless other war crimes Israel has been accused of in the last few years. All hospital directors in northern Gaza are now either dead or detained. Meanwhile there are also allegations that some of the food aid being distributed in Gaza is laced with the opioid oxycodone.

- The Brokenhead Ojibway Nation has obtained land to build an urban reserve in the RM of East St. Paul, just outside of Winnipeg.

- Tataskweyak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba was hit by a wildfire that has destroyed at least 7 homes; meanwhile the town of Lynn Lake has been evacuated for the second time this summer and residents of Leaf Rapids have been warned to prepare for the same.

- Bob Vylan are facing a rash of cancellations of their booked events in response to on-stage remarks at the Glastonbury festival. The Radar Festival in Manchester has dropped them from their lineup. A representative of the festival says that they did not want to cancel them but were "forced", with suggestions that the venue being partially owned by AMG and Live Nation was a factor. In response, other artists, including GENN and The Scratch, are cancelling their appearances at the Manchester festival in solidarity.