News roundup, 18 Dec 2025

- The Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUMSA) is currently being reviewed. Mark Carney denies that Donald Trump has threatened to abrogate the agreement in its entirety, but US Trade Representative Jamieson Grier says that the possibility is still on the table unless agreements can be made on some key issues, including supply management for dairy as well as the Online Streaming Act. It seems worthwhile to ask whether the renewal of the agreement would insulate Canada from tariffs, though; it hasn't done that so far, so perhaps cancelling the deal wouldn't make things worse than they already are. The US still does need our exports, after all.

- A federal court has ruled that National Guard troops can remain in DC while a panel of judges looks at the legality of the deployment.

- The European Union is looking into the possibility of using seized Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's war effort. They are also looking at other measures, including borrowing money to fund Ukraine, however such a move would require unanimity among member states, and Viktor Orban's Hungary is not expected to agree to it.

- A man who posted video evidence of the mistreatment of Uyghurs in his native China, then fled to the US, was given a work permit but nonetheless could now face deportation after ICE raided his residence while investigating his roommate.

- B’nai Brith Canada is going to court in the hope of having the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba's dismissal of a complaint against a physician overturned. The organization alleges that Dr. Barry Lavallee made antisemitic posts on X in 2024. The exact content of the posts has not been made public; presumably B’nai Brith wants us to take their word for it that the posts were actually antisemitic.

- A French anesthetist has been sentenced to life in prison after intentionally poisoning some 30 patients, 12 of them fatally. Dr. Frédéric Péchier had apparently contaminated infusion bags with toxic substances.

News roundup, 10 July 2025

- Four men from Quebec have been arrested over a plot to forcibly seize land near Quebec City; they appear to have been trying to start an American-style far-right militia. They had stockpiled 83 firearms and 16 bombs, as well as such things as smoke grenades and night vision goggles; all four have ties to the military.

- Donald Trump is musing about a federal takeover of New York City and the District of Columbia. In the case of New York, he suggested that it might be necessary if Zohran Mamdani (who he called a "communist") gets elected mayor. He also fulminated about the city's use instant-runoff (ranked choice) voting. In the case of DC, he tries to justify a takeover on the basis of excessive crime (despite the fact that overall crime in the federal district is down 8% compared to last year, and violent crime is down 25%). That said, there might well be a legal route to a takeover of DC (they could theoretically repeal the Home Rule Act). Ultimately, though, even in the case of New York the ability to stop a takeover depends on the whims of the courts, which have disproportionately been stacked with Trump loyalists.

- During the Biden years, the Democrats designed their climate law in such a way that many of the new green jobs would be in red states. The idea was that the Republicans, when they took power, would be reluctant to undo work that had created so many jobs for their supporters. Unfortunately the Democrats seem to have given voters too much credit for understanding this; the Republicans are betting on the bleating masses continuing to support them. Sadly it's probably a safe bet, even supposing that next year's midterms and the 2028 presidential election are fair (which seems unlikely in any case).

- A 25 nation survey by the Pew Research Center found that 59% of Canadians now view the US as the greatest threat to the country. Canadians' resolve to boycott as many American goods as possible and to avoid travel to the country seems to remain strong as well.

- Vaccination rates in the Maritimes are too low to reliably control the spread of measles. In Nova Scotia, about 23% of children have less than the requisite two doses of the vaccine; New Brunswick and PEI are somewhat better, but 10% of kids aren't fully vaccinated. The rate should be below 5% to keep the disease under control.

- The developer of ICEBlock, an app that allows people to share sightings of ICE officers has been threatened by the Department of Justice; Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that "he better watch out". Moreover, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem is threatening CNN for reporting on the very existence of the app. Admittedly, there are people out there who would happily do harm to ICE officers, but the people who lured a bunch of them out of a detention facility in Texas and opened fire on them didn't need an app to find them in any case.