News roundup, 20 Jan 2026

- Two directors of a German nonprofit, HateAid, have been banned from entering the US due to their efforts to fight disinformation and hate speech online. Also banned are people from several other nonprofits (including one that simply provided risk ratings warning advertisers so that they could decide whether to allow their ads on a site) and former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, who had helped author the federation's Digital Services Act. Secretary of State Marco Rubio apparently believes in a conspiracy theory called the "censorship-industrial complex", whereby the tech companies, the US government, and nonprofit organizations are conspiring to suppress conservative views. It's absurd on so many levels, yet those affected have no choice but to take it seriously. To their credit, the French and German governments are taking the matter seriously too - but they're also warning those affected to take precautions by moving their assets somewhere where it won't be within reach of the Americans.

- Adam Kadyrov, the son of Chechnya's gravely ill leader Ramzan Kadyrov, has apparently been seriously injured in a car crash. Given that he had been touted as a possible successor to his father, this could get interesting; a succession crisis in Chechnya is probably not something Vladimir Putin wants to see right now.

- Winnipeg had nearly 5,000 housing starts in 2025 according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The article does not state where this new construction is occurring; it makes a big difference whether it's infill (generally good) or greenfield development on the outskirts (bad). The city does attribute this to such things as the Housing Accelerator Fund and changes to zoning bylaws, so if their statement can be taken at face value that's a promising sign.

- The mayor of the Rural Municipality of Gimli, Manitoba has been slapped with a 7 day suspension (with pay, mind you) after a formal complaint about his behaviour was deemed by an investigation to be "founded". The exact nature of said behaviour was not made public. The municipality has also stated that "members of council" (the article does not specify whether this means all members or just certain ones who came close to the line) will have to take mandatory training on conflict resolution and respectful workplace practices. Folks in this Reddit thread add some context, saying that the municipality's CAO was essentially bullied out of her job, so perhaps that has something to do with it. It does seem like rural and small town politics is becoming extremely toxic, as evidenced buy such things as this, this, this, this, and this.

- Police in Queensland are investigating after the body of a 19 year old Canadian woman was found on a beach surrounded by dingoes after she had gone for an early morning swim. There is some uncertainty as to whether she was killed by the dogs or whether she died by some other means and was just seen by them as an opportunity.

News roundup, 30 Dec 2024

- Jimmy Carter, possibly the most decent human being to occupy the White House in living memory, has died at the age of 100. He probably didn't want to wait around for Trump's inauguration anyway.

- An Embraer 190 operated by Azerbaijan Airlines on a flight from Baku, Azerbaijan to Grozny, Chechnya has crashed after diverting to Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board. Russia is attributing the crash to a birdstrike; however, images of the crashed aircraft show shrapnel damage that is not consistent with this, and footage from inside the aircraft indicates that the cabin had depressurized. This has led others to suspect that the aircraft was damaged by Russian air defense systems, especially since according to some reports there was Ukrainian drone activity in Chechnya around the time of the crash. Russia is predictably warning against promoting "hypotheses" about the incident, but Azerbaijan says that it was indeed a missile and claims that the diversion to Aktau was necessary because the Russians wouldn't let them attempt a landing at Grozny.

- Skepticism about the Russians' claims about the Azerbaijan Airlines crash notwithstanding, a birdstrike is being investigated as the possible cause of a landing gear problem that led a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, a low-cost South Korean carrier, to crash and burn at Muan, killing 179 people. Two flight attendants are the only survivors; they were apparently seated in the tail section which separated before the rest of the fuselage was consumed by fire.

- Finland has seized an oil tanker after an undersea electrical cable between Finland and Estonia was disrupted just as the ship passed over it; it is suspected that the ship's anchor caused the damage. Finland suspects that the tanker, which is officially registered in the Cook Islands, is actually part of Russia's "shadow fleet" and that the disruption of the cables was deliberate. Sweden is calling for NATO members to meet to discuss the matter.

- An Oregon pet food company, Northwest Naturals, has recalled one of its products after discovering that it was infected with avian influenza.