News roundup, 17 Feb 2025

- The US Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson is accusing Apple News of "suppressing" rightwing news outlets, including the New York Post, the Daily Mail, Fox News, Breitbart, and Gateway Pundit. Ferguson claims that Apple may be violating part of its terms of service agreement with its customers, though he did not specify any specific provisions that the company might be violating.

- A French far-right activist who was providing "security" for protesters against a speech by leftwing MEP Rima Hassan in Lyon was beaten to death after getting separated from his fellow fascists. A manslaughter investigation has been opened; President Emmanuel Macron has appealed for calm.

- Two Latvian fans who waved a Greenland flag during the warmups for the US-Denmark hockey game at the Olympics were told to stop after organizers feared that it could provoke violence from American fans.

- Longtime American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84. 

- The Winnipeg city councillor behind the proposed anti-protest bylaw has withdrawn his support for the move following a public outcry. Coun. Evan Duncan also says that a bill before Parliament covers much of what the bylaw was intended to address anyway.

- Winnipeg's police headquarters suffered substantial water damage after a valve was opened in a standpipe on an upper floor of the building. Two people have been arrested on mischief charges.

News roundup, 12 Feb 2026

- More information is being released about the Tumbler Ridge shooting. The RCMP has identified the suspect as an 18 year old transwoman who killed her mother and stepbrother before going to the school to kill others; no motive has yet been revealed but it's a safe bet that the far right is going to use this as an excuse to opportunity up the transphobia (while being very quiet about the question of whether this might have been less likely to happen in a more accepting society, of course).

- The FAA closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas to all civil aircraft on Wednesday morning, initially saying flights were grounded for a ten day period but later reversing that position, all the while saying that there was no threat to commercial aircraft. Some reports say that this was for the testing of top secret anti-drone technology, which might be the truth, or not. As regards initially saying ten days and then reversing that (perhaps after the test was completed) maybe they thought they'd give the public the sense that they're not as bad as they seemed. And given where we're talking about, it might well work.

- The crisis now developing in the Colorado River system stands to be worsened - or at least happen sooner - thanks to the poor design of the Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back the waters of Lake Powell. The dam was designed for a narrow range of water levels - which would be problematic even in the absence of human-induced climate change. In fact, it very nearly led to disaster in 1983 when the waters of the reservoir came dangerously close to washing over the top of the dam. Now it has the opposite problem - the lowest outlets of the dam are some 240 ft above the lake bed, and water levels are getting dangerously close to that point, meaning that the lake could face "dead pool" in the near future. At that point, no more water could even reach downstream locations, and a lot of people would be leaving the American southwest and not returning. And the lake itself would become a deep, stagnant, stinking mess. Even before that point, the levels will fall too low to use the dam for hydroelectric power.

- The Winnipeg couple convicted of torturing and killing numerous animals and selling the videos online have both been sentenced to 12 years in prison following a joint recommendation of the prosecution and the defense. 

- A Ukrainian Olympian has been disqualified for wearing a helmet with pictures of Ukrainian athletes who have died in the war with Russia. Had he honoured friends who died in a car crash in the same way he'd have been fine, but the IOC considers honouring war dead to constitute political messaging, which is prohibited at the Olympics.

- Switzerland will be holding a referendum this summer on imposing a hard cap on the country's population. If passed, this would oblige the government to close the country to all immigration (including refugees and relatives of foreign residents) in the event that the population comes to exceed 9.5 million (it is currently 9.1 million). The initiative comes from the rightwing Swiss People's Party; opponents fear that if passed this move could violate agreements with the EU and harm the economy.

News roundup, 10 Feb 2026

- Rightwing populist André Ventura has been soundly defeated in Portugal's presidential runoff by centre-left candidate António José Seguro. This is more important than it would be in many European countries (though less so than in the US) due to the fact that Portugal has a semi-presidential system, and the president has the power to veto legislation and dissolve parliament at will.

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has introduced an executive order prohibiting ICE agents from municipal property without a warrant as well as several other measures aimed at limiting the power of the agency to conduct "abusive immigration enforcement". Interestingly, apart from a single article on CBS, there seems to be very little coverage online from the US - nothing from the New York Times, NPR, NBC, Associated Press, or any of the other usual suspects - and there's surprisingly little international coverage either, just stuff from places like this Spanish website and this Turkish one. I'm always a bit leery when someone on Facebook or whatever claims stridently that there's a "news blackout" about a subject, because generally a simple Google search brings up something - but this comes a lot closer than most to being the real deal. And yes, I tried the built-in search features of those American sites named above, just in case it was Google rather than the sites themselves burying the story, but it seems not.

- Dr. Philippe Lagacé-Wiens, a microbiologist at St Boniface Hospital, warns that the measles exposure at Brandon's Ag Days has the potential to be a superspreader event. Some 35,000 people attended the trade show, and in this day and age there's a definite correlation between attending agricultural trade fairs and not getting vaccinated.

- The Canadian government appears to have made advance payments for parts for 14 additional F-35s, seemingly still wanting to hedge their bets on the matter. The parts are needed in order to keep Canada's place in the order queue.

- Canada's airlines are cancelling flights to Cuba as Havana's airport runs short on jet fuel following the country's loss of access to Venezuelan oil in the wake of the US attack. This comes after a travel advisory was already issued for the country due to the fuel shortage.

- NBC appears to have altered the audio of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics to cut out the boos from the audience directed at JD Vance.

- Donald Trump is threatening to cancel the planned opening of a second bridge between Windsor and Detroit. The Gordie Howe International Bridge is scheduled to open in the next few months, but has become the latest fixation for the orange monster.

News roundup, 25 July 2024

- The worst fears for Jasper have been realized as the wildfire that sprung up almost overnight swept into the townsite. The full extent of the damage is not clear, but the photos that have come out so far suggest that not much will be left when the smoke clears. This hits home to many people more than other recent wildfires since a lot of us have actually been there; spare a thought, though, for the people who actually lived in the town.

- A new poll indicates that Kamala Harris is winning over swing voters following Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race. To anyone with the slightest bit of political awareness it is downright bizarre that there are any swing voters; how ignorant do you have to be to think "maybe I'll vote for a Democrat, or maybe I'll vote for Donald Trump". But heck, we'll take it. Meanwhile Colorado Republican representative Lauren Boebert is peddling MAGA conspiracy theories that Joe Biden is already dead.

- A delegation from Manitoba, including housing minister Bernadette Smith as well as the mayors of Brandon and Thompson, is visiting Houston to study their efforts to house the homeless. Houston has adopted a "housing first" model that has successfully housed 30,000 people since it was initiated just over a decade ago.

- The City of Winnipeg is making it easier to build housing by eliminating the need for a traffic study for projects with 20 or more units. Of course the NIMBY types are up in arms; perhaps that's part of the reason that Coun. Brian Mayes, who notwithstanding his other virtues is all too happy to advocate for those people, has been dropped from the Executive Policy Committee. I'm not too keen on the fact that he is being replaced on the committee by the erratic Vivian Santos, but that's another story.

- The Manitoba government has denied a request by the City of Winnipeg to extend by two years the deadline to complete an extensive upgrade of a sewage treatment plant. The effluent from the plant is a significant contributor to the decline of Lake Winnipeg.

- Following electrical problems that cut power to some units of an apartment building in Toronto's St James Town neighbourhood, some residents expressed their displeasure by throwing their own feces at workers who had been sent to fix the matter. Evidently they don't understand that this will only prolong the outage; meanwhile some others think that the strongly worded letter sent to building residents advising them not to do this is an inadequate measure. Nonetheless, the Toronto Police Service does not yet have anything on file regarding the matter.

- The International Olympic Committee is strongly objecting to an American investigation into a scandal in which the positive drug tests of 23 Chinese athletes were never disclosed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The IOC is threatening to reject Salt Lake City's bid for the 2034 Winter Games unless the officials sign a contract affirming "respect" for the WADA.

- Remember the confrontation between two Niagara Regional Police officers back in 2018 that led to one of them shooting the other 10 times? The shooter, Det.-Sgt. Shane Donovan, was initially charged with attempted murder but stated that the other officer, Const. Nathan Parker, had pulled his gun first after previously attacking with a baton, following a dispute over bathroom breaks. Parker's own brother has described him as a "monster". Subsequently Parker was charged with assault with a weapon, but Donovan's testimony was later found to be tainted by having allegedly seen information that he shouldn't have had access to; his denial of this led to a perjury charge against him. He has now been acquitted of that charge. It's really not easy to get a conviction against a cop...

- A judge in St. Louis has overturned the conviction of a man who has served 33 years in prison for a murder. Christopher Dunn was convicted on the basis of testimony from two boys who later recanted their statements, saying they were coerced. The judge has ordered his release, but this has not yet occurred, and the state Attorney General Andrew Bailey intends to appeal the decision.

News roundup, 24 July 2024

- US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned following a grilling from a congressional committee regarding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

- Marcel Colomb First Nation in northern Manitoba is evacuating vulnerable residents to Lynn Lake due to a wildfire. Further south, closer to Flin Flon, a wilderness camp has been destroyed by another fire; fortunately nobody seems to have been there when it happened. Meanwhile in Alberta, Jasper remains under evacuation following the pair of surprise fires that sprung up the other day, although a handful of residents refuse to leave and crews with helicopters are trying to find backcountry hikers. One of the fires is within 12 km of the townsite.

- A student at at Memorial University of Newfoundland emailed the university's board of regents as part of a campaign in support of pro-Palestinian protesters on campus. The chair of the board forwarded the email to her father; the father thought this to be inappropriate and replied accordingly, whereupon the chair replied "I am telling parents that I know just what their kids are doing. They need to grow up." The university is investigating.

- Donald Trump is apparently having second thoughts about his selection of JD Vance as his running mate this fall. Vance was apparently selected to appeal to Trump's base, not swing voters, and the withdrawal of Joe Biden from the race has changed the dynamics in a way that worries some Trump allies.

- Given Trump Nation's obsession with fossil fuels, as well as their disdain for science and reason in general, many scientists are quite fearful of what another Trump administration might mean for them. Many fear that it will be worse than the previous one, especially with Project 2025 to guide them.

- An American manufacturer of herbal supplements has announced a nationwide recall of one of their products, marketed as a pain reliever, after the discovery of acetaminophen and two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in samples of the product.

- The coach of the Canadian women's Olympic soccer team has withdrawn from coaching a match against New Zealand, and two staffers have been fired, following revelations that a drone was used to spy on the New Zealand team.

- A Portage la Prairie man was one of seven people charged and publicly named in connection with a teen sexual exploitation case, only to have the RCMP suddenly say "oops, he had nothing to do with it". The retraction comes a bit too late for him, though, given that he's already been facing the wrath of the public for two weeks.

- Two teenage boys in Saskatoon have been arrested following the robbery of a 7 year old girl's lemonade stand. One of them, aged 16, already had outstanding warrants, while the other, 14, was in possession of a knife and was allegedly in violation of a previous court order.