News roundup, 3 Dec 2025

- British researchers warn that shifting rainfall patterns have caused a net loss of fresh water from central and southern Europe, even as the northern part now has more. For a look at what that might mean for the future, Iran is in a severe crisis, with Tehran potentially facing water rationing or even evacuation. Where you would evacuate the 15 million people who live in the metro area to is another question.

- The American real estate listing company Zillow has removed climate risk data from their listings following complaints from sellers and realtors that the data was negatively affecting sale prices. Not sure how that's supposed to make the problem go away.

- The involvement of conservation officers in patrolling the border for potential migrants in response to Trump's claim that has not led to any additional reports of suspicious activity beyond that already found by the RCMP and border agents. Political scientist Christopher Adams figures everyone knew all along that they wouldn't find much (who'd want to sneak into that country right now anyway?) and that it was more about "optics to the Trump administration". If that was all it was, it it would be kind of futile (we all know Trump has annexation on his mind so he's not going to be appeased by this), but I think it's also about optics regarding the regime. Adams says that the provinces and the federal government were trying to say to Trump, "Look, we're doing everything we can and I hope you're happy with that", but I think it's more about telling those affected by the tariffs that.

- The mayor of Winkler, Manitoba gave a very, very mild admonition to his constituents that essentially amounted to "look folks, we've had a lot of cases of measles around here, and people up in Winnipeg talk about it, and it's embarrassing, and you really should do your research about vaccines, OK?", knowing full well that the people he's addressing think they've already done their research. It seems kind of weak and milquetoast, but then again I'm not sure what he could have said that would have made a difference. I think it was more a way of signaling to the rest of the province "hey, I know my constituents are crazy, but I'm not, and we can still do business, OK?"

- Scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris warn that a pandemic of one of the H5NX flu strains, while not especially likely, could be far worse than COVID-19 if it did occur. Myself, I think it would be far worse even if the actual virulence and contagiousness were identical to COVID due to the difficulty governments would have in getting people to comply with public health protocols.

- The 71 year old driver of a charter bus full of junior high students was pulled over reentering Saskatoon following a field trip after multiple reports of erratic driving from the public. He was found to be under the influence of alcohol, fentanyl, and hydromorphone. Certainly not a good career move; for his part, he attributes his poor decision to severe back pain.

- A Brantford, Ontario resident who lived along the route of the city's Santa Claus parade evidently was not in a festive mood about the matter. They posted signs in their windows saying such things as "Santa isn't real", "Your parents are Santa", etc. Several outraged neighbours called the police about the matter, and apparently an officer spoke to the person and convinced them to remove the signs; they clarified later that they couldn't actually force their removal. Left unspoken is how they persuaded the person to take them down.

News roundup, 12 March 2025

- A Portuguese container ship, the Solong, collided with an anchored American tanker, the Stena Immaculate off the UK's east coast. The tanker was full of jet fuel, which ignited and caused a series of explosions, setting fire to both ships; to make matters worse, the freighter's cargo included sodium cyanide. Despite this, everyone except one crew member of the Solong has been rescued. Sadly the missing crew member was not the captain but some hapless low-level sailor; the captain is, however, facing manslaughter charges.

- The Trump regime is backing off on their plans to raise tariffs on aluminum and steel to 50% from the 25% already planned. In return, Ontario is suspending their planned 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the US. Hopefully that's not deterring the feds from keeping all options on the table, up to and including fees, restrictions, or a complete stoppage of oil exports if necessary. Although in the latter case I don't think the Americans would take it very well.

- The regime has abruptly withdrawn $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University, accusing the institution of being soft on antisemitism. They've also gotten ICE to arrest a Palestinian student at the university, Mahmoud Khalil, for his activism, but a court has blocked his deportation for the time being. They apparently arrested him claiming his student visa was cancelled, apparently not realizing that he had a green card.

- Former Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested at the request of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in his zeal to arrest drug traffickers (or certain drug traffickers, or people accused of being drug traffickers, or...)

- BC's Liquor Distribution Branch has removed all American alcohol from its shelves (previously they had selectively removed products from red states). Premier David Eby, commenting on the situation, said "if the president so interested in Canadian water, then we're gonna help him out by letting him keep his watery beer".

- Ukraine has agreed to a 30 day ceasefire negotiated by the US; in turn, the US will resume military aid and intelligence sharing. The ceasefire is, however, subject to Russian approval.

- Amazon is actually complying with the Manitoba government's request that it follow the law on the sale of machetes in the province. 

- US Customs has seen a 36% increase in the smuggling of eggs at the Windsor-Detroit border crossing since October, and a 158% increase at the Tijuana-San Diego crossing. The customs service has made 3,768 seizures of eggs and poultry at its crossings in that time, compared to 352 fentanyl seizures.

- An automated assistant for moderators at Reddit is flagging posts containing the name "Luigi" as potentially violent content thanks to the Luigi Mangione case.

News roundup, 13 Nov 2024

- Donald Trump has selected his cabinet-in-waiting, as well as other key advisors. More alarming, though, is the fact that he appears to have an executive order ready to go that would establish a "warrior board" (appointed by the president of course) with the power to dismiss three- and four-star generals.

- Winnipeg has not had any snow since April and relatively little since January. This is expected to change by the end of the month, however. Meanwhile in Fergus, Ontario they just had a tornado, and the northeastern US is extremely dry - so much so that a small fire (such as seen at homeless encampments) can easily turn into an inferno.

- A teenager in BC is in critical condition in hospital with a suspected case of avian influenza; the source of infection is unknown.

- Former BC premier John Horgan has died at the age of 65, following his third bout with cancer. A detailed account of his life and career may be found here.

-The City of Winnipeg has announced that security guards at the Millennium Library will be paid a living wage, currently $19.21 per hour. An earlier proposal to require a living wage for all city employees and contractors was rejected by council last month, however.

- Winnipeg councillor Sherri Rollins is calling for a 30 km/h speed limit for the section of Wellington Crescent where cyclist Rob Jenner was killed earlier this year. Rollins notes that in addition to the aforementioned fatality, there have been a number of other accidents on that stretch, and says that the fence at St. Mary's Academy has been damaged numerous times over the years by vehicles that left the road.

- Due to an unfortunate bit of confusion, surgeons at Winnipeg's Grace Hospital amputated the wrong leg from a patient. Admittedly there was a good chance that both legs would have had to come off eventually anyhow, but still...

- North Korean soldiers fighting for the Russians in Ukraine have gotten relatively unrestricted internet access for the first time in their lives; predictably some of them have gotten obsessed with porn.

News roundup, 29 April 2024

- Pro-Palestinian protests at university campuses have lead to hundreds of arrests across the US. 

- The UK's Home Office is detaining refugee claimants weeks earlier than planned in preparation to ship them to Rwanda; it is suspected that the change in timing is to enable the Tories to look tough on immigration as municipal elections are held across the country.

- The legislation to ban TikTok in the US unless parent company ByteDance sells it within 9 months is now awaiting Joe Biden's signature. India has already banned the platform; how American courts will react to the ban remains to be seen, though.

- The spread of avian influenza through wildlife continues to cause alarm.

- A new bill in the Alberta legislature would give the province considerably more power over municipalities, including the power to remove councillors and repeal bylaws.

- Manitoba's Hanover School Division, which serves the eponymous RM as well as the city of Steinbach, has just passed a policy giving the school board a direct say into the hiring of gym and music teachers. The stated reason for singling out those two teaching areas specifically is that they're "faces of the division at sporting events and concerts"; a parent group called the Hanover Parent Alliance for Diversity fears that the real motivation is "to reduce the number of diverse and 2SLBGTQ+ staff in the division".

- South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, considered a possible choice as Trump's running mate, is bragging about shooting a dog and a goat on her farm. Now granted, that might be the sort of thing that often happens on farms, but the reason for shooting the dog was simply that she had judged it "untrainable" and "dangerous" (no indication that she consulted any experts on the matter). And even if it was necessary, it's kind of telling that she's talking openly about it as a way of signalling to the MAGA crowd that she's their kind of person.