News roundup, 29 Sept 2026

- Manitoba Progressive Conservative leader Obby Khan has resigned, not only as party leader but from the caucus; he will sit as an independent for the remainder of his term. Khan had recently survived a confidence vote by his caucus, winning the vote 13-6, and had initially planned to stay on but learned over the weekend that a "small group of MLAs" intended to continue to push for his removal.

- Donald Trump's threatened import bans on several Canadian products, including motorcycles, alcoholic beverages, dairy byproducts, and molasses, have taken effect. The impact of these bans may not be very significant, though the alcohol will hit a bit harder than the others. Nonetheless, Trump is convinced that Canada will back down any day now.

- Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally has just gained enough seats in the French senate to have party status in that assembly. Senators in France are indirectly elected by municipal and regional representatives.

- South Africa's ambassador to the US, who is white, is rejecting the claim by the US that there is a campaign of genocide against people like him. That hasn't stopped the US from accepting nearly 13,000 white South Africans as refugees, at a time when they are quick to dismiss most refugee claims. Of course, the people claiming that there is a genocide are mostly far right racist types - in other words, exactly the kind of people that Trump and his supporters want in their country. Pastor Rudi Swanepoel, who is also white, believes (probably correctly) that the real thing many white South Africans fear is not persecution but loss of privilege (mind you, to people who have grown up with privilege the two might appear to be the same thing).

- Chinese researchers say they are making progress towards proton-boron fusion, which has the potential to be much more useful than the deuterium-tritium fusion being focused on by most other researchers. Besides not requiring scarce isotopes, proton-boron fusion is aneutronic whereas D-T fusion produces high energy neutrons that would gradually make the containment materials radioactive. Getting the reaction to scale, though, is expected to be much more difficult than with D-T fusion.

News roundup, 3 April 2025

- Donald Trump's latest round of tariffs are in place. There are no new ones for Canada, but a 25% levy on vehicles and vehicle parts from this country is still in place. There is a lot of confusion on exactly what is covered, since the tariffs won't apply to parts that comply with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement - until the regime comes up with a way of applying tariffs to the non-US content of the parts. In response, Chrysler's parent company Stellantis is closing their assembly plant in Windsor for two weeks as of this coming Monday; it's also expected to significantly increase the price of vehicles. Dealerships are reporting a surge in sales as people try to get their purchases under the wire before the tariffs take effect. A complete list of tariffs by country may be seen here; markets are not responding favourably.

- Along with the NDP and the Bloc, the Greens have the potential to suffer from the renewed popularity of the Liberals under Mark Carney. Elizabeth May's riding is now considered a toss-up between her and the Liberal candidate. And in the Winnipeg-area riding of Elmwood-Transcona, the Liberals could actually be the spoiler.

- The conviction of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on corruption charges and her being barred from political office as a result is causing a predictable stir. This is not limited to far-right leaders; one French political scientist, Ronald Hatto, thinks that the ban may be a mistake and could lead to unrest. While the Guardian's Georgios Samaras does not go that far, he warns that the French left needs to move quickly to keep Le Pen's protégé Jordan Bardella from exploiting the outrage and winning the presidency.

- Hot on the heels of Paul Chiang being forced to drop out of the race over injudicious comments about the suggestion that people collect a bounty from the Chinese state on his Conservative opponent, the Conservative candidate in another GTA riding is having to drop out for similar reasons. Don Patel, who was running in Etobicoke North, had indicated support for a Facebook post that called for certain folks to be sent back to India so that "PM Modi can take care of these non-sense people". Patel is actually the fourth Tory candidate to drop out in recent days.

- Hungary has announced that they're pulling out of the International Criminal Court. And no, they aren't going to hand over Netanyahu first; to the contrary, they're welcoming him to their country for an official visit.

News roundup, 1 April 2025

- French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being convicted of illegally siphoning millions of euros in public funds for her own party's use. She also received a four year suspended sentence. Predictably, Le Pen as well as her fellow deplorables around the world are having a conniption, saying that the decision saying the decision is politically motivated. Admittedly, it is very convenient for Emmanuel Macron, but it's a bit of a stretch to think the whole court system is in his pocket. A recent poll indicates that a majority of French citizens think the court ruled fairly, bit it's a slimmer majority than one might like (57%).

- The Liberal candidate in Markham-Unionville, Paul Chiang, has withdrawn from the race following his unfortunate remarks about how someone ought to claim a bounty on his Tory opponent. Probably a good move, especially since the RCMP is now looking into the matter.

- The University of Winnipeg is the latest post-secondary institution to face a financial crunch, partly as a result of cuts to international student visas. Last week the university's president brought up a clause in the faculty's collective agreement that could allow for layoffs. The fact that universities across the country are facing the same problem make this a bad time for academics.

- The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation has banned provincial courts from holding sessions on its jurisdiction until a suitable facility can be built. Community leaders say that what has been done up until now, which is for the court to use the community's mature student centre for its semi-monthly hearings, is not satisfactory because the student centre does not have the security measures needed to handle some of the violent criminals the court is dealing with (such as partitions separating the accused from witnesses). This is especially unfortunate because the circuit court arrangement was designed to make the courts more accessible to the community.

- The Green Party is calling for Canada's military reserves to be expanded by 20,000 people. Not an April Fool's joke; that's just the world we live in now. The party's co-leader Jonathan Pedneault made the announcement in Whitehorse yesterday, saying in addition that he wants to create a 120,000 person civil defence corps.

- A Canadian has been detained in the Dominican Republic because his name was similar to someone whose name was on a checked bag that was full of drugs. Maybe those who aren't deterred by the climate footprint of air travel or the Dominican Republic's problematic human rights record should look at this as another reason to stay home.

News roundup, 9 July 2024

- Democrats in the House and Senate seem reluctant to talk to the media about what was discussed in a meeting this morning about Joe Biden's future. One representative, on being asked if there was a consensus in the meeting, replied that "the consensus was not to talk to you guys". Another, who spoke anonymously to NPR, said the meeting was "like a funeral"; a third, when asked if they were on the same page, replied "We’re not even in the same book". If something isn't done soon, Joe Biden could be remembered as the American version of Paul von Hindenburg.

- Hot on the heels of National Rally's defeat in France's parliamentary elections, party leader Marine Le Pen is being investigated for campaign finance irregularities from her last presidential campaign.

- Michelle Ferreri, Conservative MP for Peterborough-Kawartha, tweeted her thanks to the Peterborough police for their arrest of a suspect in a homophobic hate crime. Pretty reasonable; much as I'd like to condemn everything a Tory says or does, I can't fault her for this. Evidently some of her constituents think otherwise, though; following the tweet she was bombarded with hate messages calling her a "fake Conservative" as well as far worse things.

- Scientists say that Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, was worsened by high ocean temperatures. Of course you can't tell Texans that, even as they're picking up the pieces from the hurricane hitting the Houston area. The remnants of the hurricane are expected to have an impact as far north as Toronto.

- The world's largest wetland, the Pantanal in Brazil, has not been so wet of late, and as a result has been devastated by wildfires.

- The IDF bombed an encampment of displaced people in Gaza, killing dozens. I guess they figure those people must be mad at being displaced, which obviously makes them a security threat. Can't be too careful, right?

- Several Silk and Great Value dairy substitutes have been recalled due to potential Listeria contamination. None of the products in question are soy-based; perhaps those products are made in a different facility.

- Migrants who arrived on the island of Diego Garcia, in the British Indian Ocean Territory, are being denied legal representation because the US, who operate a military base there, refuses to allow lawyers representing the migrants to set foot on the island. Supposedly this relates to security concerns regarding a site visit of some sort that would coincide with the migrants' hearing.

News roundup, 8 July 2024

 - French voters in the second round of parliamentary elections have largely rejected the far right; Marine Le Pen's National Rally came third after the left alliance and Macron's centrists. The party's parliamentary leader Jordan Bardella, who hoped to become prime minister, declared that "alliances of dishonor" were responsible for the outcome; perhaps he's learned something from the late Jacques Parizeau. Building a viable coalition may take some time; they don't have a lot of experience with hung parliaments there.

- Joe Biden says he's still not quitting. Unless something happens soon, the Democrats are going to be stuck with him for the fall. This is ungood.

- California has imposed permanent restrictions on water utilities across the state, requiring the utilities to reduce their total consumption by around 40%. How the goal is to be met is up to the individual utilities. There are also efforts by the WWF to encourage other places to grow the crops that California has traditionally supplied. Meanwhile in Florida, where the citrus industry has been decimated by disease, efforts are being made to get farmers to grow pongamia trees, potentially a valuable source of biofuel. Getting farmers to switch away from crops they've been growing for years isn't easy, but it's going to be increasingly necessary in the coming years.

- Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to fraud in connection to the 737 Max disasters in 2018 and 2019, following revelations that the company violated a settlement related to the accidents.

- Solar power is growing so fast that it may be the biggest source of energy on the planet in a decade or so. Growth that experts had predicted could take 20 years happened in only 6. And various industries, notably data centres, are moving to "behind the meter" projects that produce electricity in their own microgrids without having to worry about such matters as feed-in tariffs.

- Canada's new anti-greenwashing law is already spooking energy companies into removing claims from their websites about how environmentally friendly they are, even as they try to claim that the sites they've taken down aren't greenwashing.

- 21 species are being removed from the US Endangered Species list; unfortunately the reason is that they are thought to be extinct.

- Ukraine's largest pediatric facility was severely damaged in a Russian missile strike. At least two people were killed there, in addition to 34 others killed in strikes in other locations.

News roundup, 2 June 2024

- Two former Liberal cabinet ministers who served under Jean Chrétien are calling for Justin Trudeau to step down as leader following the loss of a longtime safe seat in the Toronto-St. Pauls byelection. Perhaps more relevant to Trudeau's plight, current backbencher Wayne Long, who represents Saint John-Rothesay in New Brunswick, sent out a mass email to the entire caucus calling for his resignation, and at least one caucus member responded with "Well said!"; Kingston MP Mark Gerritsen advised his colleagues to stop hitting "reply all" to the email.

- An Ipsos poll conducted between June 12 and 14 found that Poilievre's "Canada is broken" slogan is resonating with an awful lot of people. This is unfortunate, because while there is indeed a lot wrong with this country, if given the chance Poilievre is just going to break the country far more thoroughly than it currently is.

- South of the border, the fears being felt among Democrats (and indeed among democrats generally) are hard to ignore. Ezra Klein and Maureen Dowd are quite concerned for sure. Unfortunately Biden's family are urging him to fight on.

- Republicans are attacking an executive order issued by Biden three years ago which calls for federal agencies to promote voter registration and participation in ways that are "consistent with applicable law". Because you don't want the wrong kind of people to find it too easy to vote, right?

- In France, Marine Le Pen's National Rally party won a plurality of votes in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday. France uses a two round system, so all constituencies where no candidate got more than 50% of the vote will hold a second round next Sunday, and candidates who received more than 12.5% of the vote in the first round will be on the ballot for the second. This means that vote splitting can still occur in the second round; a record number of constituencies will be facing three-way runoffs next week. Left and centre activists are calling for tactical voting to prevent National Rally from getting a majority.

- A Labor senator from Western Australia, Fatima Payman, has been indefinitely suspended from caucus for voting for a Green motion in support of a Palestinian state.

- Manitoba's Progressive Conservative party has launched their leadership campaign. Interim leader Wayne Ewasko does not plan to run; the deadline for candidates to register is Oct 15 and the convention will be held next April.

- Despite the federal government's imposition of binding arbitration, WestJet mechanics walked off the job anyway over the weekend, forcing the cancellation of the majority of the airline's flights on the busy long weekend. The strike has now ended.

- McDonald's say they will not be introducing a plant-based burger after a pilot study in San Francisco and Dallas failed. My guess is that the sort of people who want plant-based burgers don't want to go to McDonald's anyway. I know I don't.