News roundup, 10 Sept 2026

- Donald Trump has promised every American adult $5,000 if the Republicans retain control of Congress in the midterms this November. The effectiveness of this in winning votes, and its very legality, is far from clear.

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has released 170,000 previously suppressed documents regarding the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the city's air quality. This probably would be harmful to Rudy Giuliani's legacy were it not already in ruins as a result of his support of Trump.

- Canada and France are following the UK's lead in banning imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. A good move, if overdue; notably Pierre Poilievre is not mentioned at all in the article. This is rather interesting; you'd expect him to come out with an unhinged rant about the Liberals being antisemites, but maybe in these times he is counting on actual antisemites to support him and doesn't want to give them cause to reconsider their support for his party.

- The Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University has confirmed that a tornado touched down in Winnipeg's South River Heights neighbourhood over the weekend, the second to strike the city this year. While it caused substantial damage, no injuries were reported.

- One of the pilots of the Amazon Boeing 767 that overran the runway in Miami on the weekend, killing five people, reportedly recognized that they were coming in too fast well before touchdown, but his colleague did not give a "consistent verbal response" and they proceeded with the landing nonetheless. This probably will not serve the crew well at their next employee evaluation.

- Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were denied bail by a federal judge in Miami on Wednesday, concluding (not unreasonably) that they are dangerous and could pose a flight risk. The two face possible extradition to the UK, where they face numerous charges including rape and human trafficking. No doubt we'll see more of their fanboys doing pushups outside the jail as a form of protest like they did earlier this summer; unfortunately I fully expect Trump to veto the extradition.

News roundup, 1 Oct 2024

- Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist and former Mexico City mayor, has been elected as president of Mexico. She becomes the country's first female leader as well as its first Jewish one. While a protege of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, she does plan on going beyond AMLO's excessive emphasis on fossil fuels; we'll have to see.

- In 2019 the BC legislature unanimously passed legislation to implement the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among those who voted to pass it was an MLA by the name of John Rustad, then a member of the BC Liberals. Now, however, as leader of the BC Conservatives, he's vowing to repeal the legislation, claiming that the issues it was meant to address don't apply to Canada. And the property rights of resource companies are more important than indigenous rights anyway, right?

- Ukraine is accusing Russia of deliberately poisoning a river by dumping industrial wastes. The river in question, the Desna, connects with a reservoir that supplies water for millions of people.

- Germany reserves the right to deny a citizenship application on the basis of antisemitism. That's fair enough, especially given their history. However, some of the things that are taken as prima facie evidence of antisemitism include not only clear examples like Holocaust denial, but the use of slogans such as "from the river to the sea..." and "Israel, child murderer".

- The Manitoba government is reviewing the provincial Mental Health Act to find ways of reducing the role of police in dealing with people in a state of mental health crisis. Currently, only peace officers are able to carry out orders under the Act; given the toll this takes on police resources, not to mention the tendency of many cops to shoot first and ask questions later, the province is looking to change this.

- Caroline Giuliani, daughter of Rudy, has endorsed Kamala Harris in an article in Vanity Fair, saying "I’ve been grieving the loss of my dad to Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him too".