News roundup, 29 April 2026

- Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with threatening the life of the president with a picture he briefly posted to Instagram last year. The image showed several seashells arranged to read "86 47"; apparently in some circles "eighty-six" is slang for "eject" or "remove". Comey says he took the picture after seeing the arrangement on a beach; he says removed it upon hearing that some interpreted it as a call for violence.

- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received a gift of £5 million from a crypto billionaire in 2024; subsequently he reversed his decision not to run in the general election that year. The donor, Christopher Harborne, also donated £9 million to Farage's party last year, the largest single donation to a party by a living person in British history; this is despite the fact that he is based in Thailand. On the other side of the world, Australia's wealthiest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has donated an aircraft as well as $2 million to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

- California is holding a referendum on a one time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires. The measure was proposed as a way to make up for the loss of federal healthcare money; the billionaires are pulling out all the stops to defeat the initiative.

- Higher oil prices resulting from the war in Iran mean that Canada's recent fiscal update, which was prepared before the latest developments, likely underestimates Canada's revenue, meaning a substantial windfall for the government.

- Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and obstruction of justice; this is related to his attempt to impose martial law in 2024. This is largely academic as he has already received a life sentence for rebellion in connection to the matter.

- Five correctional officers were injured in a confrontation with a single inmate at a prison in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. The president of the officers' union says that the use of drones to smuggle drugs and weapons into prisons has made their job more dangerous; among the measures they're calling for is the jamming of cellphone signals on the premises to make it harder to coordinate such smuggling.

- A 17 year old boy has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly intentionally running over several sleeping geese in a parking lot. This happened at night, however his vehicle was identified from security video.

- An Indian man dug up his sister's remains and brought them to a bank in order to prove that she was dead in order to close her account. 

News roundup, 25 Nov 2025

- Democratic senator Mark Kelly, who represents Arizona, appeared in a video with other Democratic politicians in which they called upon military and intelligence personnel to refuse illegal orders. Trump fulminated about "sedition" on Truth Social, while the Pentagon is looking into what actions they can take against Kelly owing to his status as a retired US Navy captain, which would theoretically allow them to recall him to active duty for a court martial.

- A US judge has dismissed all charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey on the grounds that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed. The charges were, however, dismissed "without prejudice", meaning that the cases could be revived if the regime finds a suitable replacement for Halligan.

- Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, recently introduced a new "About this account" feature, which enables users to see where an account is based, when they joined the platform, and how often they have changed their username, among other things. This has led to the discovery that a large number of MAGA influencers are actually based overseas. Some are calling this "total Armageddon for the online right", though that is almost certainly giving the American public too much credit.

- The recently passed federal budget bill contains new legal powers to facilitate expropriation for projects such as the planned high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City. This could be a good thing if it leads to the construction of the line in a reasonable time, though it's worth considering the fact that such powers could also be used to push through a new highway or pipeline.

- Unlike the US, in Canada it is extremely unusual for the terms of bail to require an actual cash bond; the federal government restricted its use in 1971 owing to concerns that this discriminated unduly against the poor. This was amplified in a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that limits the use of cash bail to "exceptional" circumstances. Doug Ford wants to change this, having introduced legislation to make cash bail mandatory. Whether this is constitutional remains to be seen, give that bail is governed by the federal Criminal Code rather than provincial legislation.

- Sio Silica is still trying to convince Manitoba to accept a silica mine in Springfield following last year's rejection of their application for an environmental license. The company held an open house at the Club Regent casino to promote their plans; critics are still skeptical.

- Steinbach is facing pushback from some residents for permitting the use of the city-owned Southeast Event Centre as a warming space for homeless people. An email sent to city council expressed concerns about encounters that "unsettled some young athletes". It's telling that the sender doesn't specify any wrongful actions by the homeless people, just worries that the kids might have to look at these people.

- Thomas King, author of books such as The Inconvenient Indian, has discovered that he is not half Cherokee as he had believed for his entire life. He expects a backlash, though in his defense it was he himself who investigated the matter in the first place and he was forthcoming with the evidence, in contrast with the likes of Buffy St. Marie. Doubtless many will question why it took him so long to look into the matter, though.

- An Oakville woman who had booked hotel rooms for herself and some European relatives in Montreal for the Grand Prix at a cost of $4,300 was taken by surprise when the online booking platform Booking.com cancelled her reservations, claiming that the pricing was a mistake, then offered her the same rooms for the "correct" price, which was in excess of $17,000. The hotel is attributing this to a "synchronization error" between them and the booking platform that briefly allowed the regular prices instead of the event-inflated ones to appear on the site.

News roundup, 14 Nov 2025

- A full vote in the House of Representatives on the full release of the Epstein files appears imminent after Donald Trump failed to convince Republican representatives Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert to remove their names from the discharge petition. Of course, a yes vote in the House won't force the release; it would still have to be voted on in the Senate, where it is expected to be blocked, but some in the Trump camp fear that this could open divisions in the Republican Party that might get out of control. In other Epstein-related news, Steve Bannon reportedly sought advice on political messaging from him during a pro-Trump media campaign in 2018.

- Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey are arguing for the dismissal of charges against their clients on the grounds that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan's appointment was illegitimate. Halligan was installed on an interim basis without Senate approval after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned after refusing to proceed with the prosecutions.

- Saab CEO Micael Johansson has confirmed that his company is in talks with the Canadian government as well as with Bombardier for a licensing deal to build the Gripen fighter in Canada. There are suggestions that this could not only provide fighters for Canada, but also for Ukraine, who have announced the intention to buy at least 100 of the aircraft.

- Winnipeg's 2026 budget is expected to include a 3.5% increase in property taxes. The city has a lot of catching up to do, given that taxes were frozen for many years while expenses kept creeping up, and time is running out for upgrades to the North End Water Pollution Control Centre, among other things.

- Toronto's city council has voted to relax zoning restrictions that prevented new retail stores and cafes from opening on residential streets, despite the best efforts of NIMBYs like these people. There will still be restrictions; for instance, they can only open on corner lots, or lots next to parks or locations that are already zoned commercial. Food services will be limited; while cafes and the like are OK, large commercial kitchens will not be allowed. And councillors will have a veto on new facilities in their wards.

- The Silicon Valley crowd is apparently looking for ways to get around legislation prohibiting genetic engineering of human embryos. I guess we can add Gattaca to the list of science fiction dystopias that the techbros see as utopias.

- Sonder, a chain of boutique hotels, suddenly went bankrupt on Monday after defaulting on payments and losing their licensing deal with Marriott, stranding thousands of guests in over 40 cities around the world.

- After an intoxicated woman fell while disembarking from a carnival ride in Port Hardy, BC, sustaining significant injuries, investigators learned that the ride attendant had left his nine year old child in charge of operations while he went to "wash up". The company involved is no stranger to such investigations; earlier this year one of their employees was killed when he was hit by the same ride involved in the most recent incident.

News roundup - 9 Oct 2025

- The BC Conservative Party is experiencing a lot of internal strife as it tries to figure out whether it wants to be a pragmatic centre-right party or a youth-oriented, populist, far-right one. The firing of staffer Lindsay Shepherd was not the only one in recent weeks; caucus researcher Siavash Tahan was also fired in September; both say that they were fired for being too conservative for the party. Many of this lot cite leader John Rustad's failure to talk enough about such things as reversing the NDP's attempts to bring the province's legislation in line with the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the province’s existing gender identity education framework, known as SOGI 123. The thing is, in order to have a path to victory the Tories need to appeal to suburban voters, many of whom are understandably a bit spooked by hardcore social conservatism. Part of me hopes that the extremists win out, because that will likely keep them out of power for quite a while. The problem with this, though, is that sooner or later any government is going to wear out its welcome, and one person in this Reddit thread sums it up nicely:

 Wish for your competitor to be crazy, and you get what happened to America, or the Fords in Ontario, or Alberta. It's an unsafe bet - the public might just elect crazy to spite you. 

It's also worth noting that moderation of one's position to attract suburban voters is not limited to the right. The NDP also has tended to take more moderate, centrist positions, even as it tries to make incremental improvements to society. (The Liberals, of course, have no such problem, because suburban voters are their bread and butter). It's not limited to Canada either, though the problem is more acute in countries like ours (or the US or the UK) due to our first-past-the-post electoral system.

- Former FBI director James Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges of misleading the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2020. In that hearing Comey told the committee that he had not authorized any associate to serve as an anonymous source to the media regarding investigations into Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The indictment makes no mention of what was allegedly leaked or who the source was; a Trump loyalist, Lindsey Halligan, who was appointed to head the prosecution, is having difficulty getting staff to work on the case.

- David Frum thinks that Trump may be running out of time to consolidate his power as public opinion turns against him with next year's midterms looming. Frum cites Trump's pressure on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute as many of his enemies as possible, and thinks that Bondi is having to weigh the merits of keeping in the president's good books with the possibility of herself facing prosecution once he is out of office. This may be wishful thinking, however; I think the odds are already against the midterms being anything resembling free and fair elections.

- A historian at Rutgers University who teaches a course about resistance to fascism is putting all his courses online and moving with his family to Spain due to threats and doxxing from the far right. He has already received numerous death threats, including one in which someone threatened to kill him in front of his students. The university's chapter of Turning Point USA, the group founded by Charlie Kirk, has already called for him to be fired, ironically claiming he is "a risk to their safety". Admittedly, he is on record as saying that "violence is sometimes necessary" to stop fascism, but that is entirely true.

- The pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago is suing the federal government after he was shot with a pepper ball, apparently without provocation, while protesting at an ICE facility in nearby Broadview. Rev. David Black says he was taking part in a prayer vigil outside the facility when officers opened fire. 

- Two social media accounts popular with the MAGA crowd, Defiant L’s and Resist the Mainstream, are run by a Macedonian national who has never set foot in the US and who once donated over $3,000 to far-right conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins' unsuccessful bid for the Republican primary for Arizona's 2nd congressional district (as donations by foreign nationals are illegal, Watkins returned the money when this was discovered).

News roundup, 26 Sept 2025

- Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted on charges of making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The basis of the indictment is a claim by his former deputy Andrew McCabe that Comey authorized a leak of information about the FBI's investigations into Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, something Comey denied in hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The indictment comes just days after Trump publicly called for it. 

- Tech billionaire Peter Thiel allegedly gave a lecture in San Francisco in which he warned that regulating AI could hasten the arrival of the Antichrist. His reasoning is not entirely clear, except that he apparently said that people's fear of existential threats could give them an appetite for the kind of leadership the Antichrist would provide. A curious side note from the article - apparently the UK office of Thiel's company Palantir is headed by Louis Mosley, grandson of 1930s British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley.

- Hundreds of senior American military officers have been ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to attend a meeting in Quantico, Virginia next Tuesday. The subject of the meeting has not been disclosed, leading some to speculate that a mass firing is in the works, especially given Hegseth's disdain for much of the current leadership of the military.

- The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has gone on strike in response to the federal government's proposed reforms to Canada Post, which include the elimination of home delivery and the closure of a number of post offices.

- An RBC employee has been charged with gaining unauthorized access to the accounts of Mark Carney and someone named Justin Trudeau - though in the latter case it turned out not to be the former prime minister but someone else with the same name. He allegedly told police that he was lured into the scheme by someone on the social media platform Telegram. Police believe organized crime is behind this, though I have to wonder if it was "regular" organized crime, or some kind of "gotcha" attempt sort of like when lawyers with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms hired a private investigator to spy on a judge hearing their case in the hope of catching him being hypocritical about the laws he was enforcing.

- Marchers in Fredericton's Take Back The Night rally were harassed by several young men on motor scooters on Friday. Police are investigating but no charges have been laid so far.

- The Kinew government is considering changes to the Intoxicated Persons Act to allow people to be detained for more than 24 hours if intoxicated. While 24 hours might be enough to come down off most drugs, including alcohol, it sometimes isn't enough for meth, leading to situations in which people have to be released when they're in no condition to be out on the street. The Main Street Project is not opposed to this so long as adequate supports and medical supervision are provided, something the government is looking at.

- Doug Ford has announced the intention to ban municipalities in the province from using speed cameras, for which he uses the usual populist slogan "cash grab". Setting aside the fact that there's a very simple way to avoid getting your cash grabbed (namely, pay attention to your speed and the signs on the road, both things you should be doing anyway), one might think that if people in the cities that use such cameras were sufficiently bothered by them, they could decide at the municipal level not to use them. Of course, the people Ford is serving here are people in the suburbs and exurbs around big cities, who refuse to live in an actual urban centre but need to go there for work and are always running late.

- The owners of a house outside St. Thomas, Ontario with a swastika mowed into its front lawn have been charged with criminal harassment and other offenses.