News roundup, 14 Jan 2026

- Austria's advisor on NATO enlargement, Gunther Fehlinger, has warned the US that if they go ahead with trying to take Greenland, Europe just might respond with the seizure of US bases in their territory. I do hope this is policy and not just bluster.

- ICE appear to be conducting door to door raids in the Twin Cities. Meanwhile, more than half the staff at the US Attorney's office in Minnesota, responsible for federal prosecutions in the state, have resigned in protest over directives from Washington following the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. In addition to locking state officials out of the investigation, the Justice Department is asking the office to look into possible charges against Good's widow.

- Philadelphia's district attorney, Larry Krasner, is echoing the warnings of the city's sheriff, saying that ICE agents who commit crimes will be prosecuted.

- The Toronto Sun's parliamentary bureau chief has been suspended after his tweet calling Renee Good's death at the hands of ICE "well-deserved" embarrassed his employer just a bit too much.

- Manitoba premier Wab Kinew says his government will not mandate full-time return to office for its employees, in contrast to Alberta and Ontario. Instead, the current policy of up to 2 remote days per week will be continued. This will not apply to managers of frontline staff. I can kind of see the reasoning behind that from a staff morale point of view, but on the other hand fewer cars on the road and less crowding on buses is good no matter who it is that gets to stay home. A side note - the CBC interviewed the founder of a company called Gov Fox Municipal Consulting for the contrary view; she actually admitted that RTO isn't about productivity but still favours it due to nebulous notions of "improving culture". I looked at her company's client list, and most of them are rural municipalities. So her position may be more a reflection of rural prejudices than actual good business.

- Rob Ashton, a union leader who is one of the frontrunners in the NDP leadership race, recently participated in one of those "ask me anything" sessions on Reddit. Ashton has raised (entirely legitimate) concerns about the growth of AI, but Redditors are an astute bunch and several of them noticed telltale signs that he was using AI to generate his responses. Having been caught out, he confessed and apologized. Hopefully this will harm his campaign; he seems to be the "anti-environmentalist" candidate, accusing fellow candidate Avi Lewis of being "divisive" due to his focus on climate change.

- The City of Winnipeg will be installing tempered glass suicide barriers in the Millennium Library to prevent future tragedies like the one last August.

- An Air Canada flight from Toronto to Moncton was cancelled after a baggage handler was locked in the cargo hold. Passengers heard the man screaming and banging as the aircraft began to taxi. By the time the matter was addressed, the flight had to be cancelled because the crew would have exceeded their maximum work hours by the time they reached their destination.

News roundup, 12 Jan 2026

- Philadelphia's sheriff, Rochelle Bilal, has called ICE "fake, made-up law enforcement" and warns that members who commit crimes will be prosecuted. Acting ICE director Todd Lyons was not impressed with Bilal's warning, replying "try it. Try [and] arrest my folks and see what happens". I kind of hope she does; this could get interesting.

- A clinic in Gaza started by Médecins Sans Frontières is in danger of shutting down after Israel banned the organization from sending new staff and supplies as of the new year. Israel claims MSF as well as around 40 other organizations including Oxfam and Save The Children were banned because they allegedly "failed to meet new security and transparency standards".

- Eight people were arrested on Saturday following an anti-immigration protest in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square. The protesters were met with counter-protesters from Community Solidarity Toronto and other organizations. Police allege that following confrontations between the two groups, some attendees assaulted their opponents and then police officers; the Toronto Police Association says that its members were pelted with eggs, used toilet paper, and bags of urine. It is not stated in the article who started the confrontation or which group those arrested came from; a Toronto Sun article points the finger at the counterprotesters, though.

- The death rate from motor vehicle accidents in Toronto in 2025 was the lowest it's been in a decade. Coincidentally (or not), the number of speed cameras in the city doubled last year, until the provincial government banned municipalities from using the cameras at all. Doug Ford, of course, refuses to consider the possibility that the two are connected.

- Texas has eliminated American Bar Association oversight of its law schools, the first state to do so. I guess if you're worried about your graduates leaving the state, making it difficult for them to get jobs anywhere else might help...

News roundup, 12 Aug 2024

- An ATR-72 turboprop operated by the Brazilian carrier Voepass crashed in a residential neighbourhood outside São Paulo, killing all 62 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft. Dramatic videos shot by onlookers show the aircraft descending in what appears to be a flat spin; preliminary analysis by Juan Browne (of the blancoliro YouTube channel) suggests that icing is a likely factor, though an official report is probably months away.

- Alberta premier Danielle Smith has been holding what she calls "town hall" sessions across the province, but unlike most events called by that term, these are not open to the general public but are for party members only, and the media is barred from such events. Independent journalist Katie Teeling did manage to slip into one of these events, though; the general picture that one gets is that UCP members are batshit insane, so that's probably the reason for the restricted access.

- Pickering, Ontario city councillor Lisa Robinson is being condemned by her colleagues for appearing on a far-right podcast by Kevin J. Johnston. Johnson reportedly declared that it's not her that's the fascist, it's all the rest of them. More seriously, in the course of the podcast several of Robinson's colleagues were labelled as "pedophiles" by Johnson (for no obvious reason except that it's become a standard far-right buzzword for everything they don't approve of) and their private phone numbers were posted along with their photos and a statement that they deserve "a baseball bat to the face". Johnson, a onetime candidate for Mayor of Calgary, has a long history of harassing people, including an Alberta Health Services worker who he was recently ordered to pay $650,000 for defaming her. For her part, Robinson also has a history of siccing her sheeple on her colleagues and has faced sanctions from council for her actions.

- Vancouver's integrity commissioner, Lisa Southern, has released a report that raises concerns about the work environment in Mayor Ken Sim's office, including the actions of two staffers who tried to discredit the commissioner of the city's park board. Southern's report comes as the city council, dominated by Sim's party, prepares to suspend the work of the integrity commissioner's office. Coincidence?

- Manitoba's francophone school division, which has already banned cellphones in its schools, is taking further measures to reduce students' screen time by limiting computer use by students to one hour per day.

- The City of Philadelphia has ordered its remote workers back into the office five days a week, despite the clear benefits to the workers of not having to go in. Interestingly, the city's leadership has admitted that it's not about productivity, but rather about a "leadership philosophy". Strangely, the folks at NPR, who are usually pretty good at asking the right questions, have not asked any about things like commercial real estate.

- China, perhaps inspired by the bizarre "birds aren't real" satire of conspiracy theories, has developed an actual drone that looks like a bird.