News roundup, 24 June 2026

- Donald Trump, having previously fulminated about the tolls that Iran had imposed on the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict, is now threatening to impose his own tolls on the strait unless a peace deal can be signed within 60 days. This worries many who fear this could set a precedent that could encourage other countries to impose tolls on what were previously accepted as international waterways, including the Malacca Strait in Indonesia and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti. This comes as Marco Rubio says that "no country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway"; no doubt Rubio will be forced to clarify this and say that "no country but America is allowed to charge tolls or fees".

- The heatwave sweeping Europe continues. Highs of around 40°C are expected in western France today while Belgium and the Netherlands are getting temperatures in the high thirties. Even in Ireland temperatures may edge into the thirties, something almost unheard of there. Two children died after being left in a hot car in the French town of Carpentras; some 40 people have also drowned in France since the start of the heatwave.

- Several leftwing candidates have scored victories in Democratic primaries in New York. Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier had all been endorsed by NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani. Lander defeated congressman Dan Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune (and staunch Israel supporter); Lander, Valdez, and Chevalier have all accused Israel of genocide. The party's leadership have expressed concerns that this will be alienating to swing voters (but are probably more worried about donors than voters).

- The city of Waterloo is looking at allowing churches to build housing on their properties as a way of expanding the housing supply. Predictably, local NIMBYs are bleating about notions such as "neighbourhood character" (which generally means "keeping the poors out", of course).

- The Manitoba NDP has nominated Jennifer Flett as their candidate in the upcoming byelection in The Pas-Kameesak. The byelection was called after incumbent Amanda Lathlin died in March. Flett's background includes serving as a band councillor in OCN as well as working for the Correctional Service of Canada.

News roundup, 27 Feb 2026

- The Trump regime has ordered its diplomats to lobby against efforts by other countries to regulate American tech companies' handling of people's personal information. Secretary of State Marco Rubio singled out the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an example of the "unnecessarily burdensome" legislation that needs to be stopped. Rubio has previously condemned Europe's Digital Services Act for its requirement that social media firms remove illegal content such as child pornography and extremist materials. The US is also developing an online portal that's intended to allow people to get around such restrictions.

- Pakistan has launched airstrikes against Afghanistan after the latter country launched an offensive against Pakistani bases near the border. A representative of Pakistan's government says that 133 Afghan troops had been killed and over 200 wounded. The regime in Afghanistan denies any provocation, but also claims to have inflicted heavy losses, something Pakistan denies. Pakistan has launched strikes in the country previously, but this time government facilities have been hit. Their defense minister now describes the country as being in a state of "open war" with their neighbour. I guess the good part is that while they're fighting with Afghanistan they're less likely to enter hostilities with nuclear-armed India.

- Iceland's government, which had previously promised a referendum on entering talks to join the European Union by 2027, now hopes to move up the date to as soon as this August. Given that the country has essentially no military and the country to which it has outsourced most of its defense keeps threatening to invade neighbouring Greenland, this is quite understandable.

- The Green Party's Hannah Spencer has been elected to the UK parliament in a byelection in the constituency of Gorton and Denton, in Greater Manchester. Spencer, a plumber by profession, had previously led her party in the council of the Manchester suburb of Trafford.

- A new law in Kansas declares trans people's driver's licenses to be invalid if the licence does not correspond with their sex at birth. The state's governor, Laura Kelly, had vetoed the bill but her veto was overridden by the legislature.

- Vancouver's rightwing mayor, Ken Sim, has accused an opposition councillor, without evidence, of distributing illegal drugs. Sim claimed that Coun. Sean Orr of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) was "handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets". COPE calls Sim's claim "a clear violation of the city's code of conduct" and suggests that it may constitute defamation.

News roundup, 28 Nov 2025

- Steven Guilbeault has resigned from Mark Carney's cabinet in protest over a memorandum of understanding the government signed with Alberta that essentially gives Danielle Smith whatever she wants in terms of getting a pipeline through BC. For Guilbeault, a lifelong environmentalist, this was a pipeline too far.

- One of the West Virginia National Guard members shot on Wednesday has died. Donald Trump is vowing to "permanently pause migration" from poorer countries in response. Meanwhile Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats in Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, and New Zealand to press those countries to restrict immigration, and to report if the governments appear to be "overly supportive" of immigrants. Canadian Immigration Minister Lena Diab has denied knowledge of the order but says that she will continue to consult with the provinces and territories, not the Americans, over such matters. It's kind of interesting that Rubio cares so much about other countries' immigration policies; you'd think he'd be glad about anything that takes pressure off the US. Maybe he's worried about too many skilled Americans leaving and doesn't want it to be too easy for them to do so. 

- Vladimir Putin is doubling down on his demand that Ukraine let Russia have the Donbas region as a condition of ending the war. This is naturally unacceptable to Volodymyr Zelensky. Meanwhile Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies are now investigating Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelensky. This raises unfortunate questions about how long Ukraine is going to be able to hold on.

- At least 128 people are now known to have died and 79 have been injured in the fire in Hong Kong. 200 still remain unaccounted for in the city's worst fire in decades.

- The UK's Ministry of Justice plans to limit the use of jury trials to the most serious crimes. Courts minister Sarah Sackman says that the time taken to select juries slows the court system to a crawl. The measures are opposed by 90% of the Criminal Bar Association (understandable, since the slower the process the more lawyers tend to get paid). Whether it's actually a good idea is a matter of debate, even among Guardian columnists. Simon Jenkins is in favour, pointing out that European countries that seldom use juries actually imprison far fewer people than the UK (much less the US, which also is all-in on jury trials). On the other hand, Gaby Hinsliff thinks that juries are not the main factor in delaying trials. She also argues that they may be a defense against racism (definitely debatable given the quirks of jury selection, but I see her point) and moreover thinks that in the event that extremists take control of the government, they will have an easier time persecuting people without juries than with. I'm not sure she's right about that; future extremist governments could quite easily abolish juries entirely if they want anyway. I also can't help but think think that while jury trials make sense in a simple, homogeneous society like medieval England, modern societies are not simple and homogeneous and juries may not be well adapted to the modern reality. Maybe Hinsliff's best point is that doing away with juries will tend to further alienate the public from the justice system, which would not be a good thing.

- Apparently the folks at CNBC are freaking out about the fact that people aren't upgrading their cellphones as often as the manufacturers would like. I dunno, why would I waste money on a new one when my current one still works? I'd rather emulate the Dutch octogenarian who still runs errands on the same bike her parents gave her when she was 13.

 

- An Auckland man has been charged with aggravated robbery after allegedly using a spear gun to carjack an elderly man. 

- A Singapore toy manufacturer has pulled one of its products, a teddy bear which uses ChatGPT to interact with kids, from the market after reports that the bear was discussing matters with the kids that weren't age-appropriate, including sadomasochistic sex, where to find knives, and how to light a match.

News roundup, 15 Sept 2025

- Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election. He is also barred from running for public office until eight years after the end of his sentence. Evidently Brazil has learned from America's failures; unsurprisingly the Trump regime is not happy, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the sentence "unjust" and a "witch hunt". The regime had already imposed a 50% tariff on all goods from Brazil in July after the government refused to stop the trial.

- A suspect is in custody in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson is a 22 year old resident of Utah with no previous convictions and from a "respectable" Mormon family; his parents are registered Republicans but he is registered as an independent. Despite previous bleatings from the MAGA crowd blaming the left and calling for "war", the slogans engraved on the shell casings left behind at the murder scene don't have a consistent leftwing message but rather betray a lot of influence from online culture with no clear political leanings. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said that he had prayed that it wouldn't turn out to be a native Utahan; I guess it's harder to whip up a lynchmob against one of your own than against the "other".

- People who have made online posts critical of Charlie Kirk in the wake of his death have come under heavy fire. Manitoba's Minister of Families, Nahanni Fontaine, shared a post on Instagram from US based activist @che_jim, which (not inaccurately) called Kirk "racist", "sexist", "transphobic", and a number of other bad things. Following this, many accused her of "celebrating" Kirk's assassination, and called for her removal. Premier Wab Kinew has refused to fire her, though he did ask her to apologize as a means of "taking the temperature down". One person who probably can be accused of celebrating Kirk's death is University of Victoria art history professor Melia Belli Bose, who posted this. It remains to be seen whether Bose's tenure will protect her.

- Those investigating the other shooting that occurred at a US educational institution last Wednesday say that the shooter had been radicalized by an online network of some sort, though they declined to provide specifics.

- Following an ICE raid on a Hyundai plant in which around 475 people, mostly South Koreans, were rounded up for deportation, the Trump regime attempted to reverse this, but only one of the workers accepted the offer. Hyundai had apparently been working in legal grey areas with their subcontractors, but at least one of the workers had a valid visa, adding to the outrage. Some think this could lead foreign companies to reconsider whether it's worth building a plant in the US.

News roundup, 12 May 2025

- India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire, though tensions still remain high and not all conflict ended immediately. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims that the two parties have agreed to talks on "a broad set of issues at a neutral site", but India denies agreeing to this.

- A recount in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne has given the riding to the Liberal candidate by a single vote over the Bloc Quebecois. This leaves the Carney government two seats short of a majority.

- When ICE agents attempted to apprehend a woman and her two children in Worcester, Massachusetts on Friday, around 25 angry residents swarmed the officers and asked to see their identification. The officers refused, and they called the local police for backup. The cops behaved as you'd expect them to. Some video can be seen here.

- Waterloo Region's Ion LRT system has been involved in an average of 15 collisions a year since the service rolled out in 2019. The collisions have not cost the region anything, as all of them were the fault of motorists whose insurance covered it, but it suggests that some motorists have a hard time adapting to the service that was rolled out six years ago.

- A team from the University of Manitoba's faculty of agriculture is working with Opaskwayak Cree Nation to set up a vertical farming operation in the community, which will produce fresh vegetables and herbs year-round.

- At the end of April, the city of Pickering, Ontario was debating a motion to do something about the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, including redirecting the city's purchasing to non-American sources if possible. One councillor, Lisa Robinson, opposed the motion, saying "No to 'Elbows Up'!" Robinson has a long history of bleating about what a patriot she supposedly is while never knowing a far-right cause she didn't like (to the point of coming under criminal investigation for siccing her potentially violent followers on her colleagues).

News roundup, 10 April 2025

- When the stock market is plummeting, as it has been for the last while, the bond market usually does well as investors rush to safety. Not this time, though; US government bonds have been taking a beating in the markets. Gold, on the other hand, is doing well, topping $3,000/oz t on Wednesday afternoon. Then when Trump announced that most of the tariffs he had imposed would be deferred for 90 days, it caused the stock market to spike. Some are speculating that this was engineered to allow insiders to profit, especially since he told his followers on Truth Social that it was a good time to invest mere hours before the tariff deferral.

- Pierre Poilievre returned to the old tactic of taking jabs at Mark Carney's haircut, which he called a "banker's haircut". Because that worked so well the last time the Cons tried that angle.

- A biologist studying wildlife in Colombia was killed and cut into pieces by person or persons unknown. I'm guessing he must have stumbled across something related to one of the cartels.

- A bodyguard for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was arrested in Brussels, where his boss was attending a NATO conference, after allegedly becoming aggressive with hotel staff when they refused to reopen the bar after hours.

- Apparently a lot of people who voted for Trump are now getting some belated buyer's remorse as the tariffs threaten their livelihood. One response, from someone whose social media handle is redacted in the article, actually came out and said this:

I voted for Trump because I thought it would be funny to see liberals growl like dogs.

I wanted affordable groceries, but the tariffs are going to make everything worse and my life savings will be gone.

I can't afford to spend $100 on groceries. I didn't vote for this.

I can't say I feel too sorry for this person. Oh, so you only wanted to make other people suffer and are mad because you're suffering too? PFO.

- Dr. Jen Gunter, a Winnipeg-born physician who has worked in the US for 30 years, is moving back to Canada, unable to tolerate the degeneracy of American political culture any longer. She's not moving to Winnipeg though; she's moving to BC where her American husband will be able to tolerate the winters.

- Christopher Griffin, who has been serving as artist-in-residence at the University of Prince Edward Island's veterinary school, has quit his position after being told to remove one of his paintings. The work is a parody of Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" depicting a boat full of lemmings carrying a faded American flag across the river.

- Robert Morris, a former pastor at a Texas megachurch who once served as a "spiritual adviser" to Donald Trump, has been indicted for the sexual abuse of a 12 year old girl. Because conservative Republicans are all about protecting the kids, right?

News roundup, 13 March 2025

- Russian forces have recaptured most of the Kursk region seized by Ukraine last year as a bargaining chip. There are suggestions that the Trump regime's move to suspend intelligence sharing with Ukraine may have been a factor.

- Shelly Glover, who ran for the leadership of the Manitoba PCs in 2021, is looking at launching a new rightwing party on the assumption that the Tory brand is too badly tainted by the refusal to search the landfill. Glover says she cancelled her party membership after the party ran ads campaigning on said refusal. Whatever else one can conclude from this, it's certainly not going to hurt the NDP's prospects.

- A lobby group called the "Freedom Cities Coalition", backed by billionaire techbros, is calling on the Trump regime to create new special development zones where they could build corporate run cities that aren't bound by the usual rules governing municipalities. One of the stated reasons is so that they can develop new technologies without regulatory oversight. That does not sound like a good idea.

- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that Trump's proposed annexation of Canada will not be a topic of discussion at the upcoming G7 summit. It's kind of telling how he thinks it's entirely up to the US what will be discussed there, especially since they aren't even hosting the summit.

- Canadians continue to cancel vacation plans in the US in large numbers. Provincial tourism boards are hoping to capitalize on this by getting people to travel within the country. The boycott movement is also spreading to Europe, where both individuals and businesses are getting on board.

- Canadian intelligence agencies are taking the danger of US interference seriously. It's no great secret that the Americans have destabilized countries before, and the rise of social media has added a dangerous new dimension to this.

News roundup, 10 Feb 2025

- The fact that a bunch of Musk-rats straight out of high school have been given access to the crown jewels of the US Treasury's IT systems has many tech professionals shaking in their boots at what kind of damage they could do, either intentionally or otherwise. Administration officials tried to claim that there's nothing to worry about because they only have read access to the systems, but this appears not to be true. Moreover, many of the systems these lads have been given access to are running code that's decades old and which they probably didn't learn about in high school computing class, and which furthermore is highly integrated with other systems. All it could take is for one of these kids to break something and you could have a situation where the US government's ability to make a payment could be compromised. And that's not even considering the possibility of intentional harms that could be done, say by feeding big databases about millions of people into an AI that's been trained to spot signs that someone could be an enemy of Musk or Trump.

- Justin Trudeau thinks that Donald Trump is entirely serious in his desire to annex Canada. Apparently in a recent phone call between the two leaders Trump spewed a litany of grievances against Canada, including actual policies (e.g. supply management) as well as imagined ones (e.g. Trump's belief that American banks are prohibited from operating in Canada). Trudeau thinks the most likely motive is US access to critical minerals. Meanwhile the US has imposed 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum, and Trump continues to make declarations about how Canada is "not viable as a country".

- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced an agreement with El Salvador that would effectively allow the US to use the troubled Central American country as a penal colony, sending not only deportees of any nationality but also American criminals to be housed in prisons there. I guess that will suffice until Musk can set one up on Mars, as seen in D. G. Compton's novel Farewell, Earth's Bliss.

- BC Conservative leader John Rustad is coming under fire for a social media post in which he falsely accused former provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry of "promoting fentanyl use" due to her harm reduction advocacy. There are obvious fears that this could lead to threats to her safety; then again, she's lived with threats against her life for several years simply for being a voice of reason on COVID-19.

- Last year, Minneapolis City Council approved a pilot project where food deliveries to students living in residence on the University of Minnesota campus are done by robots. Now, halfway through the study, the city is considering whether it's necessary to regulate them in some way, in order to ensure safety as well as to protect jobs. On cue, the techbros on r/Futurology are in a tizzy at the mere thought of regulation.

- Someone has been putting copies of a far-right book into "Little Free Libraries" around Ottawa. The title of the book in question has not been made public.