News roundup, 21 March 2025

- Manitoba's efforts to address the homelessness crisis are starting to pay off, albeit slowly. About a dozen people from five encampments in downtown Winnipeg have been moved into housing. The availability of housing units is the main bottleneck, though housing minister Bernadette Smith says that 40 more units are expected to become available soon.

- Manitoba's 2025 budget forecasts a deficit that could range from $800 million to as high as $1.9 billion, depending on how badly things go with Trump's tariffs. Some of the costs result from efforts being made to cushion the economy against the tariffs; there is also a lot of money going into infrastructure. As it should be, though I suspect that there will be pressure for austerity soon enough.

- Amtrak's CEO, Stephen Gardner, is resigning from his position, saying that he is doing so "to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration". Given that Elon Musk has called for Amtrak to be privatized, it's probably a futile move, unfortunately.

- Germany as well as the UK have issued travel warnings about the US to their citizens, advising that they are not guaranteed entry to the country even with a visa or travel waiver and that they often detain people, sometimes in appalling conditions, for small errors or misunderstandings.

- Austin's efforts to increase housing availability by relaxing zoning laws are paying off in spades, as thousands of new apartments have been built and rents in the city have declined 22%. No doubt landlords are frantically lobbying their state legislature to limit the city's ability to do this.

- An examination of Tesla's accounting practices has found that some 1.4 billion dollars can't be accounted for. Normally this would mean serious trouble for the company, but since the SEC is being kneecapped by Trump and Musk, that isn't likely to happen. That said, the company's share price continues to decline, even after Trump's commerce secretary Howard Lutnick went on Fox News to beg viewers to buy the stock. Meanwhile vandalism at Tesla dealerships continues, most recently in Hamilton where 80 cars were damaged.

- The 2025 World Happiness Report has concluded that Finland's people are the world's happiest, followed by Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden. The US has dropped to its lowest ever position at 24, just behind the UK. Canada is also declining, falling to 18th place.

- A fire at an electrical substation forced the closure of Heathrow Airport, the world's 5th busiest. Diverted flights have led to cascading disruptions around the world due to aircraft and crews not showing up where they're needed.

- Some of Trump and Musk's more vocal supporters are finding themselves getting "swatted". I can't say I advocate this, since such a move can have fatal consequences (possibly for someone other than the target of the attack) but nobody should be surprised when this sort of thing happens.

News roundup, 25 Feb 2025

- Healthcare workers are subject to protections under the Geneva convention in times of war, whereby they are supposed to be protected from attacks and permitted to continue their work. The IDF don't seem to think those rules apply to them; as of last month over a thousand healthcare professionals had been killed by them (comparable to the total number of Israelis killed in the October 7 attacks). 22 hospitals had been more or less destroyed as well. Over 500 doctors were taken prisoner; some of them now report that the Israelis subjected them to what their American friends like to call "enhanced interrogation techniques". Sadly, it's almost certain that the perpetrators will not be punished. And if they are, it will probably be a punishment based on vengeance rather than actual justice.

- A resolution before the UN General Assembly condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine passed by 93 to 18 with 65 abstentions; the US voted along with Russia against the resolution. Meanwhile Ukraine has expressed willingness to pay protection money to ol' Don in the form of critical minerals.

- Danielle Smith's Minister of Infrastructure, Peter Guthrie, has resigned in protest of his own government's procurement policy, including problematic and potentially criminal insider deals with private healthcare companies.

- On the other side of the border, 21 civil servants, including engineers, data scientists and product managers, who had been seconded to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have also resigned, saying that the Muskrats' Silicon Valley-inspired "move fast and break things" approach threatens to "dismantle critical public services" and create a privacy nightmare.

- Doug Ford's cop son-in-law is facing charges under the Police Act for insubordination, discreditable conduct, and breach of trust for leaking inside police information. Apparently confidential information about a sexual assault case was leaked to the victim; while this is easy to sympathize with it could very well make it harder to get a conviction in the case.

- A man who stood outside near the courthouse where serial killer Jeremy Skibicki was being tried and hurled abuse and threats at friends and relatives of the victims has pleaded guilty to uttering threats in that and another incident.

- Green Party candidates in Ontario's upcoming provincial election in the constituency of Kitchener-Conestoga, as well as in Waterloo where NDP incumbent Catherine Fife is running again, have called on their supporters to cast a tactical vote for the NDP in order to try to keep the Tories from winning those seats.

- Last month police were called to remove a pilot from a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 that he was about to attempt to fly from Savannah to Chicago after a TSA agent noticed that he appeared to smell of alcohol. I daresay this was not a good career move.

News roundup, 21 Feb 2025

- Given that many of Donald Trump's policies and appointments have been utterly ridiculous even by Republican standards, the question has to be asked about where the non-crazy Republican members of Congress are. Part of it is that they're afraid of being defeated in primaries, of course, but another possible reason has been mooted - they're afraid of being killed by Trump supporters. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis was considering voting against confirming Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, but then turned around and provided the key vote to enable Hegseth's appointment to proceed. He has reportedly said in private conversations that the FBI has warned him of "credible death threats", though he publicly denies this, perhaps to avoid becoming a target anyway. He's apparently not the only one to privately express fear of harm at the hands of Trump's brownshirts either. Some are saying that Trump's betrayal of Ukraine might be a bridge too far, but I'll believe that when I see it.

- Hot on the heels of Trump's "border czar", Tom Homan, trying to get AOC arrested for allegedly "impeding" ICE's operations by informing people of their legal rights, we now have a Trump-appointed prosecutor investigating Chuck Schumer for comments he made about Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch in the leadup to the Roe v. Wade decision. Apparently he addressed them by name on the steps of the Supreme Court, saying "You have unleashed a whirlwind, and you will pay the price". I suppose one could conceive of that as being a threat, but it's a stretch. The most likely reason, of course, is that the Trump regime is doing their darnedest to find any way of getting rid of enough Democrats so that they have a supermajority that could allow them to, say, successfully impeach liberal and moderate Supreme Court justices.

- Jesse Rothstein, who served as chief economist of the US Department of Labor during the Obama administration, warns that the massive civil service layoffs and cancellation of government contracts that Elon Musk's DOGE is pushing through are likely to cause a serious recession. If this is correct, it's just one more incentive for the regime to ensure that the 2026 midterms (not to mention the 2028 presidential election) are not free or fair, something they seem to be working on already.

- Elon Musk is now saying it's time to deorbit the International Space Station. After all, SpaceX already has a $843 million contract to do it in 2030, and he doesn't want to leave all that money just sitting there until then.

- One thing about Trump acting like a dictator is that all kinds of people and corporations are coming out of the woodwork with things they'd like him to dictate. For instance, Facebook parent company Meta is warning the EU that they're going to sic big daddy Trump on them if they dare to do such things as enforcing their own laws regarding privacy, protecting children, and the like. And a bunch of California Republicans are trying to get Trump to look into stopping the construction of a high speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles, something he seems happy to oblige.

- Sweden's centre-right prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, is bleating that Europe risks becoming a "museum" unless they stop regulating artificial intelligence. I guess we know who most of the techies in that country vote for.

News roundup, 12 Feb 2025

- Recent polling suggests that Mark Carney winning the leadership of the Liberal Party could dramatically improve the party's fortunes in both Ontario and Quebec. If these results hold, then I really hope the news cameras focus on the faces of Scott Moe and Danielle Smith as they watch the results come in.

- Jim Farley, CEO of the Ford Motor Company, is expressing concerns about the possible impact of Trump's tariffs on his company, and indeed the entire American auto industry. In addition to manufactured auto parts, the 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum could greatly increase costs for the industry. GM CEO Mary Barra is optimistic about her company's ability to adapt, but that could be just an attempt to put on a brave face - especially since Japan and South Korea, home to the US automakers' main competitors, have so far not been hit with the same tariffs as Canada and Mexico.

- The Archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, was fired on Friday. The agency she headed is generally considered apolitical, but happens to have played a key role in the legal proceedings against Trump regarding those boxes of classified records that somehow ended up in a washroom at Mar-a-Lago. One hopes that pure spite is the only reason for the dismissal, but it also raises the possibility that her replacement will assist the president in throwing records he doesn't like down the memory hole. Even more alarming, the archivist has a role in verifying the vote count in the Electoral College.

- Two security chiefs at USAID have been put on leave after attempting to stop the Muskrats from accessing classified information. The agency used intelligence reports in planning how to distribute aid; while the use of intelligence for this purpose could be problematic in itself, it's most definitely problematic for a bunch of unvetted teenagers to be going through the data. Oh, and one of them, the 19 year old who has now been appointed as a "senior adviser" at the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Technology as well as FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, was fired a couple of years back from an internship with a cybersecurity firm for leaking company data to a competitor.

- Luigi Mangione has had over $300,000 crowdsourced for his legal defense for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The company, meanwhile, has hired a law firm specializing in defamation to go through social media posts looking for anything someone might say that could be actionable. No mention of any plans to investigate why Mangione might be so popular in the first place, though; that level of self-reflection is uncommon in the corporate world.

- The German Club of Regina is taking heat for renting their facility for a fundraising event for the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan. Given that the party is a far-right party that advocates secession from Canada, and that the fundraiser itself will see a discussion of whether to join Trump's America, you'd think somebody, somebody at the club would have thought about the optics of a German club renting space to fascist traitors.

News roundup, 11 Feb 2025

- The unleashing of the Muskrats on government IT systems has resulted in several secure networks being exposed to the public internet, meaning that top-secret information may be vulnerable to hackers. Besides the Treasury department, this also involves things like nuclear research, something that you might not want just any run of the mill terrorist or hostile power to gain access to.

- One of Trump's executive orders was to stop work on a project called the National Nature Assessment, which was almost ready for publication in draft form. Researchers working on the project are trying to find a way to get it published outside of government; how the administration will respond to resistance of this sort remains to be seen.

- The Environmental Protection Agency has notified about 1,100 "probationary" employees that they could be terminated at any time, and has placed 160 staffers working on environmental justice related matters on administrative leave. Because of course any viewing of environmental issues that takes race and class into account in terms of their effects is "woke".

- The US Travel Association is freaking out over the prospect of Canadians boycotting travel in the US. Thousands of Canadians have already cancelled travel plans in that country, and there's no sign of the goodwill returning any time soon.

- A study by First Street Foundation concluded that some $1.47 trillion in property values in the US could evaporate over the next 30 years due to climate change and the resulting disasters and insurance rate hikes. The biggest declines are expected in Sunbelt states, but significant declines are expected in much of the country. Not everywhere, mind you; in parts of the Midwest and some eastern states, properties in more resilient areas are expected to increase significantly in value.

- A poll in the UK, conducted by YouGov on behalf of the nonprofit Control AI, has found that 87% of respondents would like AI developers to be required to prove the safety of their products before release, and 60% want an outright ban on any AI that is more intelligent than humans (though the criteria for the latter might be difficult to write into law). 75% want a ban on the development of AI systems that can escape their environments, while 63% want a ban on systems that can improve their own intelligence. Despite their nominally social democratic stance, the incumbent Labour government seems to have little interest in proceeding with such regulation, despite their pre-election promises.

- Evidence presented at a class action against Facebook parent company Meta indicates that staff pirated nearly 82 terabytes of books in order to train AI. Because under the Silicon Valley "move fast, break things" philosophy, following the rules is for wimps.

- Israel's defense minister is trying to argue that countries such as Ireland that criticized their actions in Gaza are "legally obligated" to accept Palestinians who become refugees as a result of Trump's plans for the territory. I don't think that's correct, and in any case I'm pretty sure Israel and the US are legally obligated not to ethnically cleanse the territory, but that's just me.

- A resolution before the North Dakota legislature calls for "a recognition of Almighty God as the source of authority" and "of the Lord Jesus Christ as the rightful ruler of nations". Some of the same legislators are also behind a bill calling on the Supreme Court to reverse its 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage; worth mentioning is the fact that one of the people behind these resolutions, Nico Rios, made a social media post last week calling on the CIA to "overthrow and kick this Jew [Claudia Sheinbaum] out of power in Mexico".

News roundup, 7 Feb 2025

- Donald Trump has issued yet another executive order, this one imposing travel sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court involved in cases being brought against American or Israeli personnel. So far the sanctions don't seem to be as harsh as some had feared, though.

- The new US Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, has issued a memo mandating the department to give preference to communities with high marriage and birth rates when allocating funding. It's not The Handmaid's Tale yet, but it seems to be getting closer to that by the day.

- The US Center for Disease Control has ordered the retraction of all papers submitted by their researchers for publication in outside journals so that they can be scrutinized for reference to things that the Trump administration thinks don't or shouldn't exist (like, say, LGBT* people).

- The CIA has reportedly offered buyouts to its entire workforce. If you thought the CIA was bad before, just wait until it's completely staffed by Trump's sycophants.

- Elon Musk's Departement of Government Efficiency has gained access to highly sensitive financial data with the Treasury Department, ostensibly to make sure that proper precautions are being taken when sending out money. Musk claims, without providing evidence, that payment approval officers were instructed to never deny payment no matter who the recipient. I have to assume that this is a lie, and that Musk's real reason for gaining access was to find potential dirt on his or the president's enemies, or to otherwise cause them grief.

- A recent poll found that 82% of Canadians would favour placing export taxes on oil shipments to the US if Trump's threatened tariffs materialize. This includes 72% of respondents in the Prairies, but Danielle Smith is most definitely not among that 72%.

- The National Football League has banned teams from posting on Bluesky, evidently to avoid the wrath of the Trump administration (or rather the administration's puppeteer Elon Musk).

- Two Russian colonels fell out of windows in two days, one of them fatally. Evidently Russian bigwigs are terribly careless around windows, failing to take basic precautions like making sure an FSB officer isn't in the room before going near the window.

- Manitoba Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Wally Daudrich has proposed a novel solution to the homelessness problem - feeding the homeless to polar bears. While the conservationist in me is all in favour of making sure polar bears have enough to eat, I'm not sure this is the best solution to the problem.