News roundup, 10 Sept 2025

- The US and the EU have tentatively agreed on a "Framework Agreement" on trade; what's disconcerting is what Europe seems prepared to give up in order to continue their trade relationship with the Americans. Buried in the document is a statement that the countries "intend to accept and provide mutual recognition to each other’s standards" with regard to motor vehicles; in other words, the EU is prepared to accept gigantic hulking American trucks and SUVs on their streets in order to satisfy the current US regime. The European Transport Safety Council has issued a statement condemning the move; whether it can be reversed, though, is a good question. I suspect that most European leaders know that it really isn't a good idea but are preparing to move forward due to fears about the economic impact of tariffs. Unfortunately they're in a tight spot, because much of the voting public takes a very short-sighted, immediate view of such matters and are willing to accept a worse future in order to avoid a pay cut in the present.

- Israel bombed Doha on Tuesday, attempting to justify the attack by saying that they were targeting Hamas leaders who were in the Qatari capital for peace negotiations. The Israelis were at one point claiming that the attack was greenlighted by the Trump regime, but later retracted the statement, saying that they had acted alone. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the attack "an intolerable expansion of violence"; even Trump seems to think it may not have been a good idea. It's definitely not good for the peace negotiations. Presumably that was Netanyahu's goal, since what he seems to want is the ethnic cleansing of Gaza so he can just annex it to Israel, and that would be a hard thing to justify even to his own people if the negotiations were still active.

- Poland says that they have shot down Russian drones that had strayed into their airspace in the course of a Russian attack on Ukraine. 

- The Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles caused a stir with an Instagram post that read "Never again can’t only mean never again for Jews". There was an instant backlash as the museum's social media followers thought about who else the post might be referring to, and the post was removed with a grovelling apology.

- Manitoba's Minister of Health, Uzoma Asagwara, has announced that two police officers will be stationed at the emergency ward of Health Sciences Centre at all times, and weapon detection equipment will be installed at all entrances. This follows the "greylisting" of HSC, the province's largest hospital, by the Manitoba Nurses' Union. The union's president isn't sure this is the best way to do it, favouring more funding for specialized safety officers rather than tying up police resources. It might be a necessary evil, though.

- Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald, encouragingly, has not ruled out lifting the tariffs on Chinese EVs in the hope of getting Chinese restrictions on Canadian canola lifted. On the other hand, he also says that the government wants to "ensure any changes wouldn't jeopardize other industries or sectors"; that suggests that we shouldn't get our hopes up, though, since those autoworker votes are important.

- The mayor of Barrie, Ontario, Alex Nuttall, has declared a state of emergency in the city in order to address concerns about homeless encampments. Ontario's emergency management law empowers the city to create a new task force to oversee the response to encampments, as well as hiring contractors and consultants to assist them in the matter.

-Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm warns that the Trump regime has "basically destroyed what capacity we had to respond to a pandemic" since taking office the second time around. On the bright side, if we get a big enough pandemic it will do wonders for the fight against climate change.

News roundup, 6 Aug 2025

- A car slammed into several vehicles waiting at a red light in Winnipeg's West End on Monday, injuring several people. A dashcam video of the crash may be found here; I do hope the driver's text was important.

- Mark Carney is not in a hurry to impose retaliatory tariffs on the US, and has even expressed openness to lifting some existing tariffs if it would be beneficial to Canadian industry. The government has, however, promised over a billion dollars to support the beleaguered softwood lumber industry.

- The union representing Manitoba's nurses will be voting this week on whether or not to discourage their members from taking jobs at the province's largest hospital due to safety concerns. If the union does vote to "greylist" Health Sciences Centre, the listing will remain until certain conditions are met, including security measures to keep the public out of the facility's tunnels and an alert system to warn staff and patients about security incidents in a timely manner.

- A man walked into a courtroom in Wapekeka First Nation in northern Ontario and pulled out a knife; he was shot to death by police. 

- The number of missiles launched by Russia against Ukraine has more than doubled since Donald Trump's inauguration.

- Manitoba's cabinet has dismissed appeals against the issuing of a license for a mine near Bernic Lake near Nopiming Provincial Park. The government says that the concerns raised had already been addressed during the environmental assessment process, but critics are skeptical. The mine is expected to produce tantalum, cesium, and lithium.

- The union representing Air Canada's flight attendants has overwhelmingly voted to strike if an agreement isn't reached by the 16th of August.

- The body of a man who went missing 28 years ago has been recovered from a glacier in Pakistan's Kohistan region. He had apparently fallen down a crevasse during a snowstorm, and recent melting allowed his remains to be found.

- Today is the 80th anniversary of the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. As those with first-hand memories of the bombing of Hiroshima are dying off, efforts are being made to ensure that their accounts are not forgotten.

News roundup, 27 Nov 2024

- Justin Trudeau has agreed to an urgent meeting with provincial and territorial leaders to discuss the looming tariffs that Donald Trump has vowed to impose on Canada, though it's not clear what they're going to be able to do about the situation. Doug Ford is particularly worried, given Ontario's dependence on the American export market. Ford described the proposed tariffs as "like a family member stabbing you right in the heart"; it's kind of telling that Ford thinks of Trump as being like a family member.

- The Ford government has passed Bill 212, the legislation best known for limiting the ability of cities to build bike lanes. Other provisions in the bill have not received as much scrutiny - notably the fact that it removes environmental and other safeguards that might stand in the way of building a new freeway the government is planning.

- The Manitoba Nurses Union is hoping for a return of the weapon detection system that was tested in the emergency room at Health Sciences Centre this past summer, and is calling for it to be used at all entrances to all hospitals. The union's president, Darlene Jackson, says that nurses are reporting "escalating violence" in ERs around the city, and that this is driving people out of the profession.

- Brazil's former rightwing populist president Jair Bolsonaro has been charged with plotting a coup d’état following his electoral defeat in 2022. We'll have to see if the Brazilians do a better job of dealing with this situation than the Americans have.

- Farmers in Arizona are suffering the effects of subsidence as a result of excessive groundwater pumping, but they sure as heck aren't going to accept any kind of rules to manage the problem. Because rules are for dem big city libtard ay-leets, I guess.

- Anger over Jeff Bezos' interference in the editorial policy of the Washington Post in order to block the publication of an editorial endorsing Kamala Harris has led some book lovers to seek an alternative to Amazon-owned Goodreads. One beneficiary of this is a site called The StoryGraph.

- With the pending closure of supervised consumption sites in Ontario, someone has gone around putting up these posters that purport to be from the provincial health department, pointing out where the drug consumption will be relocated to by this move.

News roundup, 15 May 2024

- The gag order that's supposed to prevent Trump from attacking jurors, witnesses, and the judge's family does not apply to his supporters, who have been loudly shouting what their hero isn't allowed to say. The judge, however, plans to look into whether any of this behaviour was instigated by Trump himself, something which might well constitute a violation of the order. In other Trump news, following rumours that Trump has to wear adult diapers, some of his supporters have taken it upon themselves to declare that "real men wear diapers". No, you really can't make this shit up.

- Israeli settlers in the West Bank attacked an aid convoy bound for Gaza, destroying and scattering the food. The White House has condemned the attack, and even some Israelis say that this is "not in line with our movement", though the military seems to hit aid convoys and buildings far more than they have any excuse to do. Meanwhile, in Paris, some overly enthusiastic pro-Palestinian protesters thought it would be a good idea to vandalize a Holocaust memorial with red handprints, which cannot be reasonably called a legitimate target and only adds to the impression that antisemitism is part of their motivation.

- The Free Press and Brandon Sun columnist Deveryn Ross thinks that the NDP actually has a good chance of taking Tuxedo when the byelection to replace Heather Stefanson occurs. Given what I've seen of Ross' opinion pieces, I don't think this is wishful thinking either, though it could still be wrong.

- A patient who had been taken to Health Sciences Centre's mental health crisis response centre appears to have killed himself while awaiting treatment.

- United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, which represents the workers at the No Frills store on Notre Dame Avenue, has filed a grievance following the stabbing of an employee, saying that the store has not provided a safe workplace as required in their collective agreement. A valid complaint, but it's an interesting question how to resolve this. Should the store do what the Liquor Marts do and require ID to enter? For the safety of the workers, maybe - but food is a necessity in a way that liquor isn't, and this will inevitably mean that some people who don't have ID won't be able to shop there. Of course, they can always go elsewhere, at least until other stores do the same thing - but I could see this becoming a human rights issue of its own.

- The cost to Canadian taxpayers for the protection of MPs has skyrocketed since the pandemic and convoy protest. At current rates, costs for the RCMP alone for protecting MPs could hit $3.4 million by the end of this fiscal year - and that doesn't include the protection of the prime minister, which has hit over $30 million a year.

- The head of personnel at Russia's defense ministry has been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, following the discovery of over a million dollars' worth of cash and valuables in his home. Unfortunately stuff like this hasn't stopped Russia from making substantial gains in Ukraine; I'm not sure that the conquest of that unfortunate country can be prevented at this point. Perhaps the best hope is that any conquest will be incomplete and will lead to a drawn-out guerilla campaign that will wear away at Russia over the years, much like Afghanistan did in the 1980s; this will at least keep Russia from attacking anyone else. Certainly Ukraine deserves better than to serve as Europe's sacrificial anode, but that's the world we live in I guess.

- Georgia's much reviled "foreign agents" legislation has been passed, though not before one of their traditional parliament brawls occurred.

- Wastewater surveillance has been extremely useful in tracking the spread of several diseases, including COVID-19, mpox, and polio - yet the US Centers for Disease Control have apparently discouraged its use for tracking avian influenza, much to the consternation of many experts. One researcher says he was told not to use a virus assay he'd developed specifically for that purpose - ostensibly because it would "add to the confusion". One can't help but wonder if the real reason is that factory farming is a big factor in the spread of the disease, and that if the extent of the disease in livestock were known, it would force the government to take measures to control it. And as we know, such measures would infuriate the farmers who are so good at milking populist rage - and in an election year.

- A two-way video portal between public spaces in New York and Dublin has been temporarily shut down following reports of "inappropriate behaviour". This apparently included "flashing body parts" and "displaying images of 9/11 and swear words on phone screens" as well as one woman who was escorted away by Dublin police after being seen "grinding" against the portal.

News roundup, 16 April 2024

- The US Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation last month against Boeing over their handling of their latest safety issues. Mentour Now has just put out a highly detailed video on the topic; Boeing really seems to be testing the limits of "too big to fail". They probably still are, but are they too big to fail in the civil aviation market? I dunno, but if I were the sort of person to invest in that sector (which I wouldn't) I'd be looking at Embraer stock.

- An abortion rights referendum is going to be on the ballot in Florida this fall. Could it give Biden a chance at winning the state? That remains to be seen, but it probably won't hurt. Meanwhile a Republican operative in that state has admitted to recruiting a third party candidate with the same surname as Democratic incumbent José Javier Rodríguez, in order to siphon votes away from him. The scheme worked; Rodríguez lost by a scant 32 votes while the other Rodríguez drew over 6,000. One is reminded of a similar scandal in Manitoba in the 1990s.

- Donald Trump's trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money case has commenced. Jury selection is underway; there is an extensive list of questions to screen prospective jurors. The trial itself is expected to last about six weeks.

- One of the biggest barriers to solving the housing crisis is the fact that in order to solve the problem you need to drive down property values - and a lot of people don't like that since they've been conditioned to see houses not as a place to live but as an investment. Meanwhile, in Innisfil, Ontario, a guy seems to be trying to unlock the master slumlord achievement by charging people to camp on his property.

- Parti Quebecois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon expects to form government in 2026, and is vowing that the province will see a third referendum on independence by the end of the decade.

- Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara has given the direction for the institutional safety officers at Health Sciences Centre to be provided with pepper gel, however this has not yet happened as the necessary training has not yet occurred. Shared Health and the WRHA have expressed concerns that "some patients who might be uncomfortable around armed, uniformed security personnel chose not to seek needed medical assistance"; this is not an invalid concern but it has to be weighed against the fact that some patients who might be uncomfortable at an ER with inadequate security might also not seek assistance, or, more seriously, that staff recruitment and retention could be more difficult.

- Following the mass stabbing in metro Sydney's Bondi Junction, massive amounts of disinformation about the attacker circulated on social media. Some falsely implicated a student at Sydney University, while others claimed, equally falsely, that the attacker was a Muslim immigrant (one of the victims was, but that's another story). In actual fact, the attacker seems to have been a follower of the incel movement.

- In yet another stabbing incident in the Sydney area, a bishop and three others were wounded at an Assyrian Orthodox church; following the incident the police got a less than friendly reception from parishioners and two were injured. I guess the parishioners wanted to take the law into their own hands.

- A senior officer in the Australian Federal Police has pleaded guilty to having a blood alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit when she crashed her car into a tree on the way home from a work-related function.

- The spectacular crash in East St. Paul last week appears to have resulted from an online sale that came to a dispute when the people met to transfer the item. The driver of one of the trucks now faces charges of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon.

- A man in Guelph was charged with possession of an explosive device after showing up at the local hospital with hand injuries.

News roundup, 10 April 2024

- The City of Winnipeg is still considering the possibility of a pedestrian scramble somewhere, though probably not at River and Osborne thanks to the report that concluded that the price of pedestrian safety could be as much as 30 extra seconds on suburbanites' commute. On a related note, at a meeting of Winnipeg's Standing Policy Committee on Public Works yesterday, Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg, was presenting on behalf of the organization regarding the proposals for the intersection of Osborne and River when Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt showed up late and berated Cohoe and other delegations, calling them "bike Nazis". The organization is outraged, and is calling for Wyatt to be removed from the committee. Based on that and other aspects of his character I have to assume that if he follows through on his threat to run federally in Elmwood-Transcona he'll run for the Tories.

- At Manitoba's largest hospital, University of Manitoba medical and nursing students have better security than working nurses at the same institution. The security guards employed by the university are equipped with batons and pepper gel, but those employed by the hospital itself (e.g. in the emergency room) are not. The nurses' union is naturally lobbying for changes following a number of incidents including the stabbing of a security guard in February; the union wants weapon scanners and armed security. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says that the training of additional security is a top priority but is uncomfortable with some aspects of the union's demands, saying "Some people maybe feel nervous or anxious or have a reaction based on their trauma when they see people who look like security or look similar to police". Now the minister is not wrong about that, however in order to properly evaluate this it's necessary to also factor in the fact that some people may be made more comfortable, especially given what's been going on there of late, and to choose a course of action that leads to the lowest overall amount of anxiety - not that it's necessarily easy to do that, of course.

- In the US, a federal court has upheld the right of California to set its own emission rules that are stronger than federal standards, following a challenge by several Republican-held states.

- Toronto is now less affordable than New York City or Miami. At the same time, commercial landlords are freaking out about the high vacancy rate for offices in the city. It seems to me that the second problem could be turned into a solution to the first, although converting an office building to an apartment building isn't always easy.

- Arizona's Supreme Court has reinstated an 1864 law that outlaws abortion in nearly all cases. You might expect Republicans to be rejoicing at this, but in fact they're freaking out, with even Sen. Kari Lake having suddenly changed her mind on the merits of this old law. Trump also says that the law goes too far. Of course in Trump's case it's likely partly because he's no doubt been spared huge amounts of money in child support payments by the availability of abortion, but the fact that there's going to be a referendum on abortion in the state in November probably has a lot to do with it too, given the potential increase in Democratic turnout that could result. The fact that shortly before the court ruling a Republican legislator brought in a delegation to pray and speak in tongues probably doesn't help their image either.

- Parks Canada is considering a temporary ban on boating on Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park in order to limit the spread of Zebra Mussels. The premier is uncomfortable with that due to the popularity of the lake, but it seems like it may be a necessary evil to protect the lake.

- There was a big spike in Google searches for the phrase "my eyes hurt" following Monday's eclipse. Whether this is a result of people actually damaging their eyes from not following precautions, or just psychosomatic pain due to people second-guessing whether their precautions were adequate, is not clear.

News roundup, 16 Feb 2024

- The federal Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, said earlier this week that the federal government would stop investing in new road infrastructure, then revised this statement to say that the government would not invest in "large" road projects. This has led to a backlash from many politicians. Winnipeg councillor Janice Lukes, who represents the suburban Waverley West ward, nattered on about how we "need to move goods" (not that Guilbeault or anyone else is saying we don't, but whatever), while Mayor Scott Gillingham said Guilbeaut is "out of touch" with the reality of what Winnipeg and other cities need. In fact he isn't, though perhaps he is out of touch with the reality of what suburbanites want. Or maybe he no longer cares; given the dismal situation of his party in the polls, perhaps he figures the best that he can do is kick the can down the road a bit. Unfortunately, the present political culture combined with first past the post voting means that it's suburbanites who determine the results of most elections.

- The Manitoba government has rejected Sio Silica's application to mine sand in Springfield (the one the Tories tried to push through during the transition period). They have, however, approved Canadian Premium Sand's application to mine sand near Hollow Water First Nation; a notable difference is that the First Nation itself has agreements with the company (though not all of its residents agree with the decision). This project is also linked with plans to create a solar panel manufacturing facility in Selkirk; if nothing else solar panels are a far better use for sand than fracking is.

- The cyclotron at Health Sciences Centre, which is critical for the production of isotopes needed for PET scans, has failed a safety audit by Health Canada for the fourth time in a decade. This could theoretically lead to it being shut down, which would not be good news for cancer patients in this province.

- Several mayors in BC are complaining about the provincial government's abolition of exclusive single-family zoning. Tellingly, most of the cities in question are suburbs; the exceptions are Nanaimo and Nelson.

- Alexey Navalny has died at the gulag where he was imprisoned; official Russian reports make no mention of radioisotopes or defenestration.

- Some people involved with the "Freedom Convoy" plan to be back in Ottawa to mark the second anniversary of their protest/occupation, despite the fact that the mandates that they were protesting are long gone. It's as if this has become their entire identity and they don't know what else to do with themselves other than to make lots of noise and disruption to stick it to the big city libtard ay-leets.

- The credit union that sponsored Tucker Carlson's recent visit to Alberta is reaping significant rewards, as Carlson fans move their money to the institution, though other members are repelled by this.

- A New York City resident apparently bought three young Burmese Pythons in Montreal, then tried to smuggle them home in his pants. Unfortunately for him US customs officers noticed something amiss and he was fined $5,000 US as well as getting a year of probation.