News roundup, 17 Sept 2025

- Chrystia Freeland is reportedly stepping down from her cabinet post in favour of a role as an envoy to Ukraine.

- The American far right is experiencing internal divisions over the killing of Charlie Kirk. Some figures in the movement, including Steve Bannon and Candace Owens, are working on new conspiracy theories. Owens went so far as to accuse the Trump regime of withholding information, and suggested that Israel might be to blame, claiming that Kirk had taken a more critical stance against that country shortly before his death. Maybe a civil war in the far right movement is exactly what the rest of humanity needs, though.

- Radio-Canada has suspended journalist Elisa Serret for making on-air statements that were perceived as antisemitic. Now hearing something like that arouses suspicion, since there are all kinds of things that are being called "antisemitic" that just aren't. However, if the reports are accurate, Serret made allegations that big cities and Hollywood are "run by Jews", which certainly sounds like just a wee bit more than simply criticizing Israel or Zionism.

- Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times for reporting on the birthday letter that Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. He has previously launched a suit against the Wall Street Journal for covering the same story.

- The Washington Post has fired longtime editor and columnist Karen Attiah for her social media activity. Attiah had reposted an old tweet from the late Charlie Kirk that apparently revealed a bit too much about his character for owner Jeff Bezos' liking. Meanwhile JD Vance is calling for a mass doxing of people who have posted negative things about Kirk.

- Surrey, BC has such a problem with extortion that they have announced a $250,000 reward fund for tips leading to convictions. There has been a large increase in crimes of this nature recently, mostly affecting the city's large south Asian community. Perhaps Winnipeg should follow their lead, given how many similar occurrences there have been here of late.

- Blumenort School in Hanover, Manitoba was placed under lockdown last Wednesday after an irate 43 year old father threw a tantrum and assaulted staff members. When police arrived he threatened to assault them as well. He was charged with assault and uttering threats. As far as what set him off in the first place, we'll have to wait and see to know for sure, but I'm going to hazard a guess that it was something he saw on social media.

- In addition to their failed protest in Toronto, the far-right movement also attempted to hold one in Thunder Bay, according to this Reddit thread. Apparently only one or two people actually showed up to that one. This is certainly good news, but we shouldn't get too complacent given that there's been a dramatic decline in support for immigration in this country in the last few years. And take note that across the pond, far-right activist Tommy Robinson drew a crowd comparable to Thunder Bay's entire population. Things are pretty much certain to get worse in that regard as climate change drives more migration, as Gwynne Dyer starkly reminded us in 2018.

- Russ Wyatt, who represents Transcona on Winnipeg's city council, has endorsed Braydon Mazurkiewich in the Elmwood-East Kildonan byelection, which will be held on the 25th of October. If I lived in that ward I don't think Mazurkeiwich would have been my choice anyway (I'd most likely support Emma Durand-Wood, or maybe Carmen Prefontaine) but this pretty much seals the deal.

News roundup, 14 May 2025

- A company launched by Sam Altman of OpenAI fame has produced a product called the Orb, with which it is building a global database of retinal scans and other biometric data. The product just launched in the US, having appeared in other countries as early as 2023. The purpose, supposedly, is to enable users of the service to prove that they are human so that they can be trusted when they buy and sell stuff using the pretend internet money cryptocurrency products that the company is also developing. If you're thinking that maybe handing your biometric data to someone heavily invested in AI might not be the best idea, you aren't alone. Several EU member states are investigating whether this is in compliance with the GDPR, the federation's relatively stringent privacy law. The company has already been banned in Spain and Portugal, while Germany is requiring that the company guarantee that users can delete their data. Thing is, if the data has been used to train AI in the meantime, I doubt that it would be possible to recall the learning from the AI - which could make this a de facto ban there as well. Other countries have also taken measures against the company, including Brazil, Kenya, and Hong Kong.

- Mark Carney's cabinet is now official. It includes 24 people who have never served in cabinet before, including 13 first time MPs. Ten who served in the previous cabinet are not returning despite winning their seats in Parliament. Contrary to some predictions, Chrystia Freeland was not among them; she will serve as Minister Responsible for Transport and Internal Trade.

- Donald Trump and de facto Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman have agreed to a deal for the US to sell $600 billion dollars worth of arms and military aid to Saudi Arabia. That's not to say Trump is playing favourites in the Gulf; he also accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar.

- An Israeli airstrike on another hospital in Gaza has killed 28 people and injured many more. The Israelis, for their part, claim that they had to do it because there was a Hamas command centre right under the hospital; evidence for this claim has yet to be provided.

- A state of local emergency has been declared in parts of eastern Manitoba due to wildfires, and four provincial parks, including Nopiming, are being evacuated entirely.

- Two men have been found guilty of criminal damage after cutting down an iconic sycamore tree that grew in a gap in Hadrian's Wall in 2023. They have been remanded in custody for their own protection pending sentencing; they could get up to 10 years in prison. They had previously been investigated for a series of homophobic attacks in the area, but the charges had been dropped due to the difficulty of positively identifying the attackers.

- Winnipeg topped 35°C on Monday, breaking temperature records for the 12th of May (the previous record was 31.7°C, in 1958). Records also fell in the cities of Steinbach and Portage La Prairie, 

- Former Uruguayan president Jose Mujica, a onetime Marxist revolutionary who was famed for his humble lifestyle as much as his leftwing policies, has died at the age of 89.

- People calling themselves psychics are scamming lonely and desperate people out of tens of thousands of dollars. One unfortunate chap, who understandably didn't want to be identified, paid one of these "psychics" some $80,000 to get rid of the demon that was keeping him from winning the lottery. In an interview after he realized he'd been had, he said "I feel like an idiot". Now normally I'm suspicious of coming to conclusions based on mere feelings, but in this case I think his feelings are accurate.

- A judge hearing a divorce case in Regina awarded custody of a pug/Boston terrier cross named Charlie to the wife after it emerged that the husband had developed a strong opposition to vaccinating the dog.

News roundup, 29 Jan 2025

- A total of 6 candidates have been approved to run for the Liberal Party leadership. A seventh, Nepean MP Chandra Arya, will not be permitted to run, for reasons that are not being made public; some on this Reddit thread are alleging that far-right influencers have been telling their followers to join the party ad vote for Arya, though, which just might have something to do with it. For her part, Chrystia Freeland says she's running against the "Ottawa establishment", which does sound a bit rich coming from someone who served as one of Trudeau's top cabinet ministers from the beginning of his prime ministership. Not to say that the only other candidate anyone's heard of, Mark Carney, isn't establishment; he's more "international establishment" than "Ottawa establishment", though. Not sure which is worse in the eyes of the kind of voter Poilievre is going after.

- The public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections has found no evidence of "traitors" in Parliament; while there was some evidence of attempts by foreign interests to "curry favour" with MPs, no evidence was found of MPs helping. For his part, Charlie Angus is calling for Elections Canada to investigate possible interference by Elon Musk and X. Given that Musk seems to have no compunction about such interference, this is an eminently reasonable request.

- One of the few things Doug Ford has in common with David Eby, policy-wise, is a willingness to ban American alcohol from his province if Trump goes ahead with his threatened tariffs. And as in BC, some bars and restaurants are uneasy about this, complaining that some of their top-selling cocktails can't be made without bourbon. Nonetheless, I have to give credit where credit is due; Ford has done the right thing here, showing that he is at least no lower than the third worst premier in the country after Danielle Smith and Scott Moe. The impact may be noticeable - the LCBO is one of the biggest buyers of alcohol in the world (though not the undisputed #1 that it once was).

- School districts in the US are trying to figure out how to respond when immigration officers show up at their schools (possibly for kids born in the US but whose citizenship is no longer recognized by the current administration).

- Google has reclassified the US as a "sensitive country", meaning one that gets really worked up when you don't call things by the name they prefer (like how China gets when an airline lists "Taipei, Taiwan" instead of "Taipei, China" as a destination). Presumably this is why they've given in to pressure from the administration and accepted the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

- Gwynne Dyer would like to remind us that for the most part countries still take international law seriously, even if there are a few exceptions (Rwanda, Russia, US, etc.)

- Calgary is planning a new LRT line. Since that sort of thing does not sit well with the provincial government, due to running contrary to the interests of the only people the UCP cares about, the province imposed limits on the project that amount to a poison pill. City council, though, recognizing that the line is needed regardless, has voted to move ahead with the project anyway.

- When office space becomes vacant, it's not always feasible to convert it into apartments due to design constraints for residences. An alternative, though, is to use it for food production instead.

- The prospect of a casino opening in Tysons Corner, Virginia (a short drive from Washington) is causing unease in some former intelligence officers. They figure that, James Bond movies notwithstanding, having your spies, military, and defense contractors get the gambling bug is not a good thing from a security standpoint. It would be interesting to know who is bankrolling this casino and/or lobbying in its favour.

News roundup, 20 Jan 2025

- As expected, both Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney have announced their candidacy for the federal Liberal leadership. Health Minister Mark Holland and Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Diane Lebouthillier have endorsed Freeland, while Holland has the support of several backbenchers but no ministers so far. Globe and Mail columnist Robyn Urback notes that Carney might benefit from having a greater distance from Trudeau's policies and personality; while nothing is likely to keep the Liberals in government, the party's time in the political wilderness might be shorter under Carney than Freeland.

- The pundits are still trying to work out what's behind Donald Trump's obsession with Greenland. One hypothesis is that this centres around security concerns. Greenland has deepwater harbours that might be seen as necessary to maintain a military presence in the area; while the US already has full access to this, there are concerns in some circles that an independent Greenland might not continue with Denmark's tolerance of this. Perhaps more significant, though, is the prospect for harvesting resources left behind as the ice cap melts; in addition to such things as rare-earth metals, there is the debris left behind by the glaciers themselves, known as "rock flour", which has proven to be useful for improving the productivity of agricultural soils - something that will no doubt be crucial in the coming decades, and which the Americans most definitely want a part of.

- An oil embargo might be the strongest response Canada can make to the tariffs Trump is vowing to impose on imports, as the costs of retooling refineries to use oil from other sources would be high. Of course, this would cost the Canadian oil industry dearly, since there are few other places to export the oil to; of course this is the reason Danielle Smith is so intransigent on the matter. There's also the scenario envisioned by Richard Rohmer in his 1973 novel Ultimatum, but you'd hope it wouldn't come to that...

- The US Supreme Court has upheld the bipartisan legislation that bans TikTok from being downloaded in that country as of today. In fact, even existing American users are finding that the app is not working for them; perhaps the company is hoping that this will strengthen opposition to the ban. Some critics think that notwithstanding the concerns raised about espionage, the real motivation may be to do the bidding of Silicon Valley; however, the fact that Trump isn't so sure about upholding the ban suggests otherwise, given that Silicon Valley has their own representative pulling many of Trump's strings.

- The Gaza ceasefire has taken effect. Whether it will last long enough for anything more than for the two sides to reload remains to be seen.

- Apparently it's become trendy for people in the US to give their sons weapon-related names such as Wesson, Caliber, and even Gunner (not to be confused with Gunnar, which is a legitimate name in Scandinavian culture). One hypothesis is that this is a hope on the parents' part to nip any less-than-masculine tendencies in the bud.

News roundup, 31 Dec 2024

- Gerald Butts, a former advisor to Justin Trudeau, thinks Chrystia Freeland's resignation from cabinet increases the likelyhood of Trudeau stepping down. Whether that matters or not is another question; in a recent poll, 25% of Canadians said that none of the potential candidates for the Liberal leadership were appealing to them. This is higher than the degree of support for any of the hypothetical candidates, including Mark Carney at 18% and Chrystia Freeland who is tied with Trudeau at 11%. Of course Carney and Freeland will likely wait for Trudeau or his short-term replacement to crash and burn in the hope of getting credit for rebuilding the party later on.

- Apparently another Jeju Air Boeing 737 reported landing gear issues similar to those apparently experienced by the aircraft that crashed on Sunday. And others are reporting that the plane that crashed had been forced to divert only two days before the accident. Stuff like this does not build confidence in the airline's maintenance culture.

- Donald Trump is calling on the US Supreme Court to delay the implementation of legislation that will ban TikTok in the US if it is not sold by its parent company by then. This has led to speculation that his puppeteer Elon Musk is hoping to buy the platform.

- The Saudi-born doctor accused of ramming his car into a Christmas market in Germany appears to be a Muslim apostate and a supporter of the far-right AfD party. This will no doubt be ignored by AfD when they use him as an example of why they shouldn't allow immigration from such countries.

- Belgium is banning disposable e-cigarettes as of the new year, both for environmental reasons and because they're suspected of getting teens addicted to nicotine.

- Ten years ago, Manitoba premier Greg Selinger routinely rode his bicycle to the legislature for work. Wab Kinew does not, due to security concerns, something that does not speak well to the evolution of our political culture.

News roundup, 18 Dec 2024

- Many Liberal MPs are now calling on Justin Trudeau to step down. This includes people like Francis Drouin, who had previously defended the prime minister. Notably, another MP who had previously been silent, Chad Collins, said that Chrystia Freeland received a standing ovation at the caucus meeting following her resignation from cabinet. Whether this will be enough to overcome Trudeau's ego remains to be seen. Meanwhile the Globe and Mail is reporting that Freeland's resignation came after Trudeau told her in a Zoom call that he intended to replace her with former central banker Mark Carney; curiously, Carney himself has so far said nothing about such a plan. Jumping the gun like this on a highly competent and loyal member of cabinet is not a good look for the PM.

- The school shooting in Wisconsin yesterday appears to have been the work of a 15 year old female student at the school, who appears to have shot herself. A manifesto entitled "War Against Humanity", claimed to have been written by the shooter, has been circulating on social media, though its authenticity has yet to be confirmed. The school in question is a private institution called the Abundant Life Christian School; it's almost as if posting the Ten Commandments in schools isn't enough to prevent violence. Who'd have thought?

- Joe Biden is now calling for a ban on stock trading by members of Congress. That would be an excellent idea, but it's rather unfortunate that he waited till now, when the proposal has nearly no chance of going forward in the foreseeable future, to speak up about the matter.

- Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland in July on an Interpol notice from Japan, has been freed after Danish authorities refused to extradite him. The Danish justice minister says that this is because of a lack of assurances from Japanese authorities that time served would be deducted from whatever sentence he received; given that he was facing up to 15 years in prison, it seems odd that Japan was unwilling to waver on a few months.

- A dietary supplement, Bovaer, has the potential to significantly reduce methane emissions from cattle and other ruminants when added to their feed. Of course, it would be much better to eliminate the farming of such livestock entirely, but it's probably unrealistic due to the romanticization of agriculture in so many different societies. Unfortunately, even this modest measure is receiving a lot of pushback from the masses, some of whom apparently think this is yet another sinister plot to control their minds or some such nonsense.

- Doctors Manitoba has been placing recruitment ads in several Republican-dominated American states, notably the Dakotas and Florida, suggesting that the political environment here might be better for them than where they are currently. A worthwhile move, though probably more useful for getting ob-gyns than regular family doctors.

- The Thompson Citizen, the last remaining local newspaper in the northern Manitoba city, is expected to shut down in the near future. The province has lost 31 news outlets since 2008.

- In much of Canada the number of "winter days" (defined as days in a year with temperatures below 0°C) has decreased significantly in just the last decade. Vancouver has lost 19 such days since 2014 and Toronto has lost 13; Winnipeg has only lost one so far, though.

News roundup, 17 Dec 2024

- In a surprise move, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned from Justin Trudeau's cabinet, mere hours before she was scheduled to deliver the government's fall economic statement. Freeland says her resignation was prompted by Trudeau approaching her about moving her to another cabinet role. She also cited concerns about what she calls "costly political gimmicks" (assumed to refer to the GST "holiday" that began this past weekend) at a time when Freeland believes it is necessary to "keep our fiscal powder dry" owing to the uncertainties arising from the impending Trump presidency in the US. Freeland says she will remain as an MP and plans to run for the Liberals in the next election; whether Trudeau will allow her to run under the party banner (or whether he'll even be leader by then) remains to be seen. In the meantime, the fiscal update was tabled by Liberal house leader Karina Gould; subsequently public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc was appointed finance minister. And housing minister Sean Fraser has also announced that he will be leaving cabinet and will not run again next year. And the Liberals were defeated yesterday in yet another byelection, this one in BC.

- In Ontario, there is speculation that an early election may be in the offing; presumably the Ford government sees hard times coming due to the looming tariff threat from the US. The threats may not be limited to tariffs; some fear that the incoming Trump administration could push the US economy into stagflation, and something like that is likely to make it very difficult for all governments. So it's not surprising that they want to get the election out of the way before that happens. It's worth noting that when David Peterson called an early election in anticipation of a recession, he got thumped... not sure if we can hope for the same thing here though.

- The minority government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been defeated in a confidence vote in the Bundestag (the lower house of the country's parliament). The government's minority status and resulting defeat follows the withdrawal of the neoliberal Free Democrats from the "traffic light" coalition with the Greens and Scholz' Social Democrats. An election has been called for the 23rd of February; opinion polls so far seem to favour the centre-right Christian Democrats to win the most seats. Disturbingly, the party coming second in these polls is the far-right AfD; this could well tempt the Christian Democrats to abandon the longstanding unwritten rule in postwar Europe that you don't take extremist parties into your coalition.

- Some 77% of aquifers in coastal areas could be vulnerable to saltwater intrusion as sea levels rise, making the water unsuitable for drinking or agriculture.

- A Russian general, who has been accused of ordering the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, was killed in an explosion in Moscow; Ukraine's SBU security service has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

- Two Winnipeg high schools, Elmwood High School and Oak Park High School in Charleswood, were closed yesterday after receiving emailed threats. Police have not said whether the two cases are linked. Meanwhile in Madison, Wisconsin, there was a fatal shooting at a Christian school... but only three fatalities so it's pretty mild by American standards.

- A Florida woman, in a heated phone discussion with her health insurance provider, blurted out "Delay, deny, depose, you people are next"; she has been charged with "threats to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism".

News roundup, 17 April 2024

- A whistleblower is calling for the grounding of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, alleging that production issues could make the aircraft susceptible to in-flight breakup.

- Jury selection in Donald Trump's trial for the hush money allegedly paid to Stormy Daniels is progressing better than might be expected, with seven jurors already selected.

- Back in Canada, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has delivered this year's budget to Parliament. Notably, this includes $8.5 billion for housing (better late than never certainly), as well as a national disability benefit (albeit less than what advocates were hoping for). There will be a deficit of $40 billion; predictably, the deficit hawks are getting antsy, and some worry that this could worsen inflation. Some others point out that this is a simplistic view of things and that austerity could do a lot more harm than a deficit (citing the basket case that the UK has become as an example). Then again, it may not matter what the fundamentals are if big economic interests lose confidence. It may be a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

- The Manitoba PCs are going to stick with interim leader Wayne Ewasko until next year. Interestingly Ewasko is being touted as a potential candidate for the full job; many parties prohibit an interim leader from running for the main prize, due to them enjoying an unfair advantage due to their higher profile. Other potential candidates include MLA Obby Khan, former MLA Kevin Klein, and East St. Paul Mayor Carla Devlin.

- Emergency departments in rural Manitoba experienced some 80,000 hours of closures due to being shortstaffed. Three ERs (in Shoal Lake, Teulon, and Winnipegosis) have been closed indefinitely for several years. The Tories did a lot of complaining about this kind of thing the last time they were in opposition, and no doubt the NDP will happily point out that the Tories were in power as the current situation developed. What neither party will likely want to say, though, is that the problem may be as much a cultural problem as a fiscal one. To put it bluntly, most people who spend years at university to become doctors and nurses don't want to move out to a small town, and the growing hostility in many of those communities towards those edumacated big city folks with their electric cars and rainbow flags isn't going to make the situation any easier.

- The US House of Representatives is holding separate votes on aid packages for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Originally this was planned as a single vote, but given the willingness (or even desire) of many Republicans to throw Ukraine under the bus, I guess AIPAC and their ilk decided that the possibility of the whole package being defeated meant that the votes had to be separated, or else. On a related note, some of the Republicans are trying to oust Speaker Mike Johnson for not being sufficiently extreme for their liking (even though he's pretty darned extreme).

- A fire has devastated the historic building that once housed Copenhagen's stock exchange. Happily there were no fatalities, and a lot of the artworks stored there were rescued, but the building itself is likely to be a total loss.

- The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, who had been held liable by a lower court for injuries that a police officer sustained when a protester at a rally organized by Mckesson. A previous Supreme Court decision in 1982 had ruled that protest leaders cannot be held liable for the violent actions of a protest participant, unless there was evidence that the leaders had actually directed or incited the violence, but I guess the present court didn't want to do the legal gymnastics needed to say that the Mckesson case is somehow different.

- The University of Southern California has cancelled their valedictorian speech, citing "safety concerns". No doubt they're particularly concerned about their donor base, since the valedictorian has been highly critical of Israel on social media.

- A former US Marine has been sentenced to 9 years in prison for the firebombing of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Costa Mesa, California in 2022. He had also admitted to planning other attacks.

- Julian Assange's prospects of avoiding extradition to the US are diminishing after the Americans assured the High Court of England and Wales that he will not face the death penalty if convicted.

- A debate over a controversial bill requiring NGOs that accept money from abroad to register as "foreign agents" turned into a punch-up in the Georgian parliament.