News roundup, 21 Aug 2026

- Mark Carney is still urging the provinces to allow American alcohol back on the shelves. Wab Kinew says that Carney told the premiers that there "will be no trade deal" unless the provinces capitulate on this. Kinew has not made an absolute commitment on the matter yet. He says he's "reluctantly open" to the idea but urges Manitobans not to buy it even if it becomes available, and further says that given Trump's untrustworthiness "we reserve the right to take the US booze off the shelves again" if Trump reneges on the deal.

- The Manitoba government is looking into the possibilities of extending the shipping season from Churchill and reducing the need for expensive icebreakers as a result of declining sea ice.

- The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is filing a constitutional challenge over Manitoba's inadequate legal aid system. The organization says that the inadequate representation provided by legal aid violates the right to a fair trial and to the presumption of innocence.

- An American computer manufacturer reports that the Fedora Linux version of their laptop is outselling the Windows 11 version by ten to one. Some important context, though - Framework Computer is no ordinary computer manufacturer; founder Nirav Patel is a former Apple employee who is reacting against the industry's planned obsolescence model and has designed his products to be easy to disassemble, repair, and upgrade. So naturally the company is going to attract the kind of people who are more inclined to use Linux anyway.

- Swedish startup Heart Aerospace successfully conducted a test flight of the largest electric aircraft to date, flying for 27 minutes. The company plans to develop a 30 seat aircraft with a hybrid drivetrain, which it hopes to have in service within five years.

- Two members of Milligan University's cycling team were killed and seven injured when a car plowed into them. The suspect, a 69 year old North Carolina man, is in custody and facing multiple charges, including reckless vehicular homicide. His bail was initially set at $150,000 but was doubled at his arraignment; evidence was presented that he made no attempt to brake or take evasive action and that officers detected the smell of marijuana in his vehicle. So much for the idea that pot makes you peaceful...

News roundup, 27 Aug 2025

- The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have won the Spruce Woods byelection, but by a surprisingly narrow margin. Colleen Robbins defeated the NDP's Ray Berthelette by only 70 votes.

- Danish authorities have found evidence of Americans conducting covert operations in Greenland, apparently in an attempt to sway public opinion in the territory in favour of US annexation.

- A man who sent letter bombs to his ex-wife and two lawyers, one of whom lost a hand in the explosion, has been denied parole. Guido Amsel had been sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 10 years, something usually reserved for those convicted of second-degree murder; then again, the fact that nobody died is not for want of trying on Amsel's part. The parole board concluded that while he hadn't caused any problems while incarcerated, he showed no sign of remorse and in fact tried to argue in his parole hearing that the police had planted his DNA during the investigation; he was deemed a high risk to reoffend.

- A law firm that represents several anti-wind power organizations is trying to pressure Brown University to retract a report published by the university's Climate and Development Lab. The report pointed out the similarities between statements from the organizations and from fossil fuel organizations, and uses Marzulla Law LLC in a case study to map connections between different organizations. The firm is threatening to go to the university's funders to pressure them; so far the university is standing firm.

- The Carney government is considering major upgrades to the Port of Churchill. Wab Kinew called this an exciting moment for the province; he's not wrong, though it's unfortunate that much of the incentive for the upgrades is LNG exports.

- Ireland's Central Statistics Office reports that while the total number of people emigrating to the country has decreased by 16% compared with the same time last year, the number emigrating specifically from the US has almost doubled. I'm pretty sure that weather isn't the reason.

- An autopsy has concluded that Norwegian hiker Steffen Skjottelvik died from drowning. It's thought he may have been swept away while trying to cross the Hayes River. 

- Police in the Australian state of Victoria are seeking a man suspected of shooting three cops, two of them fatally, following an attempt to execute a search warrant related to historical sex crimes on his rural property. The suspect is thought to be associated with the so-called "sovereign citizen" movement.

News roundup, 17 April 2025

- There were nearly 900,000 fewer border crossings into the US last month than there were in March of 2024, suggesting that Canadians take the travel boycott very seriously indeed. California governor Gavin Newsom is begging Canadians not to boycott his state, essentially saying that Trump's tariffs and annexation threats are not his state's fault. Now to be fair, the state is taking measures to fight the Trump regime, including suing the federal government for the impact of the tariffs on their economy, but it's worth noting that a recent survey found that average Californians are increasingly wanting to make nice with the regime, which tells me that they haven't learned their lesson. Keep boycotting, folks.

- Meanwhile, the folks at Forbes are suggesting that the travel boycott could end up leading to higher carbon emissions, because people are traveling to other overseas locations in lieu of the US, meaning longer flights. Now Forbes is hardly an impartial observer here, and there are doubtless ulterior motives in sowing the seeds of doubt in the minds of Canadians, but I can kinda, sorta see the point. However, the solution here is not to stop boycotting, it's to find a way to fill the void in your life closer to home, not further. Go somewhere in Canada, or do a "staycation". Spending a week in a resort doesn't make you more worldly in any meaningful way anyhow.

- The Leaders' Debates Commission, which governs the debates in Canadian federal elections, has dropped the Green Party from the debates due to the party's decision to withdraw candidates to avoid vote-splitting that might favour the Conservatives.

- Pierre Poilievre is the most unpopular leader of a federal party in Canada, according to a new poll from Angus Reid. 60% of respondents have a negative opinion of him, while only 34% have a positive one. It's worth noting, of course, that the kind of person who would support Poilievre is also probably the kind of person who would avoid answering polls because they're associated with the woke libtard media or something like that, but those numbers are pretty stark.

- Wab Kinew is reconsidering his decision to cancel a proposal to build a second port on Hudson Bay, saying that the issues with the US are forcing the province to look towards other markets, such as in Europe. He says that the busiest part of the shipping season coincides with whale migration in Churchill, and wants to avoid conflicts with the whales and the tourists who go there to watch them.

- The Bank of England fears allowing autonomous AI to trade stocks could lead to disaster, as bots might learn how to profit from volatility and how to create more of it. And if an AI autonomously does something to manipulate stocks, which would be illegal if a person did it, how do you prosecute?

- The FAA has issued an emergency order grounding New York Helicopter Tours, the company that operated the helicopter that self-destructed over the Hudson River last week killing all 6 people aboard. The company's Director of Operations, Jason Costello, had agreed to a voluntary pause in operations while the accident is being investigated, and emailed the FAA to that effect, but 16 minutes after he sent that email, CEO Michael Roth sent another email to the FAA saying that he did not authorize Costello to agree to this and adding that Costello was no longer employed by the company. Thing is, the director of operations is a required position in order for the company to be allowed to operate, and with the sudden vacancy of the position the FAA ruled accordingly. In related news, the main rotor was found with the mast and the entire main rotor gearbox still attached. This appears to rule out the mast bumping theory, suggesting that the pilot did nothing wrong except perhaps in his choice of employer.

- A woman showed up at an elementary school in Decatur Township, Indiana to complain about the fact that her daughter's teacher mentioned a rainbow flag in an assignment about flags. She was carrying a handgun in a holster, and police were called; the gun was confiscated but she was initially released. However, her luck ran out soon after when she sent a threatening (and very poorly spelled) message to the teacher, and she was charged with harassment as well as possession of a firearm on school property.

A made-in-Canada launch vehicle?

It seems the folks at the Canadian Space Agency (and others, but more on this in a moment) are suggesting that we should develop our own indigenous rocket for space launches. It's an interesting idea, and not as far out as one might think (we've been making first-rate sounding rockets for decades, so an orbital launch vehicle is not out of the question). There are a couple of rather interesting tidbits buried in the story, though. Consider this:

Shortt pointed out that sub-orbital launches used to take place at Churchill, and that site could be used for orbital launches.

Well, Churchill could indeed be used for orbital launches, though it's not really well-suited to the more conventional sort of launches, because it's a long way from the equator. Ideally, you want to launch from as close to the equator as possible (think Cape Canaveral, Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, or the EU's facility in French Guiana) so as to take maximum advantage of the Earth's rotation and thus reduce the amount of fuel needed to reach orbital velocity. However, Churchill would be a decent launch site to put satellites in polar orbit... which is precisely the kind of orbit favoured for spy satellites. Of course, there are other uses for polar orbits, but consider this point from the Free Press story:

Canada has the technological capacity to build its own rocket to launch small satellites, officials and documents have revealed, highlighting a top priority for future research at the Defence Department as well as something that's being studied at the Canadian Space Agency.

My bold, of course. And under Harper, this is the only way we're likely to see the development of space launch technology in this country, I fear.