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, 13 April 2026

- Following the breakdown of peace talks in Pakistan, Donald Trump has announced that if the US can't use the Strait of Hormuz, nobody else can either. He says the US navy will "hunt down and interdict" vessels that have paid the toll being charged by Iran to use the strait.

- In January, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's ambassador to the US, was summoned to a meeting at the Pentagon in response to papal criticism of American foreign policy. According to one report, US officials told Pierre that due to the US' enormous military strength the country can do "whatever it wants…and that the Vatican, and Leo, better take its side". They allegedly invoked the Avignon papacy as a warning. The Pentagon has denied that the meeting went as reported, of course.

- Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has been soundly defeated in Hungary's general election on Sunday. The opposition Tisza, led by Péter Magyar, is projected to win 138 out of 199 parliamentary seats; if these results stand it means that Tisza will have the supermajority needed to undo some of the constitutional changes made by Orbán over the years.

 - Lars Løkke Rasmussen, leader of Denmark's Moderate party, is refusing to enter into a coalition with PM Mette Frederiksen's Social Democrats unless Frederiksen talks to centre-right parties. Frederiksen has been trying to bring in more left-leaning parties, but has paused those negotiations, apparently in response to pressure from Rasmussen. I imagine Rasmussen doesn't want to be the most rightwing member of any coalition, and/or is further to the right than he presents himself to voters. 

- BMW is retooling their 104 year old assembly plant in Munich for the construction of electric vehicles. They say that by next year it will be the company's first plant to produce EVs exclusively.

- France's government is trying to move away from Windows on desktop computers; they have plans to convert many such systems to Linux in order to reduce dependence on American companies.