News roundup,17 Aug 2026

- Negotiations with the US in an attempt to prevent the Trump regime from imposing severe tariffs this Wednesday are not going well. The US wants concessions on supply management for dairy products, something that Quebec has called a "red line", as well as on alcohol, something that is under provincial jurisdiction and which several provinces have said they will not relent on unless promised tariff relief for sectors of the economy relevant to them. The Americans also want preferential access to critical minerals, in part because these are needed to replenish weapons stockpiles that they've used up in the war against Iran. They further say that if the talks break down and they impose new tariffs, they will not tolerate retaliation. A former diplomat is predicting that this could permanently damage trade relations between the two countries, as whatever trust Canadians had for the US is fast evaporating.

- Tech companies in the US are having a hard time building AI data centres as fast as they want. It is expected that only half of the capacity scheduled to go online by 2028 is expected to actually be completed by that date. Public opposition is one factor, but even without that the companies are running into shortages of electricity, materials, and labour. Even with these barriers, though, spending on such facilities is up by 46% compared to the previous year, and is so high that it is contributing to inflation.

- Greenland Energy, an oil startup which despite its name is actually headquartered in Texas, has been rebuked by the Greenland government for moving equipment in such a way that they were suspected of planning to drill without authorization. The territory stopped issuing new licenses for exploration five years ago, but the company had acquired a smaller one that had obtained a license prior to the cutoff date. They still need further authorization to actually drill, however, and it is now expected that no such authorization will be issued until next year at the earliest. Several of the company's board members and partners have ties to the Trump regime; one wonders if they're trying to provoke a confrontation that could give the US a pretext to move militarily on the territory.

- The US moved to bail out the Japanese yen last month, by buying large amounts of the currency, but rather than using US dollars they dipped into their reserve of euros. While this in itself is not unprecedented, the difference today is that they did not notify the Europeans in advance as would have been the standard practice in normal times. The euro dropped by 4% against the yen as a result; while it has mostly recovered since, this does not help in rebuilding trust between the US and EU.

- Around 13% of credit cards in the US have balances that are overdue by 90 days or more. This is the highest delinquency rate since the "Great Recession" of 2007-2009.

- An Irish teenager on a family vacation in Greece was electrocuted while taking a shower, raising concerns about the safety of tourist accommodations in the country. The country also has a history of serving booze spiked with methanol; stuff like this ought to put a chill on tourism, but people's appetite to fly somewhere, anywhere, seems insatiable.

News roundup, 22 Nov 2024

- While it's too late to do anything about it now, it's an interesting academic exercise to consider whether US Attorney General Merrick Garland could have prevented the reelection of Donald Trump. Dean Obeidallah argues that Garland has utterly failed his country by failing to push aggressively enough in prosecuting Trump after the Jan 6 putsch. Many in this Reddit thread agree with Obeidallah; others think that Garland had no choice but to do his utmost to build an airtight case against the former President, due to the inevitable perception among half the country that this was a partisan hit job against their hero. But I can't help but think that maybe he should have just recognized that this would happen no matter how airtight the case and pushed ahead aggressively; on the other hand, if he did that and it ended in an acquittal, that could have won a lot of support for Trump.

- If RFK Jr. is appointed health secretary as everyone expects, we'd better hope that we don't get another pandemic during the coming years - like, say, a mutant version of H5N1 (avian influenza) that can easily spread human to human like many other flu strains. Some fear that the recent case in BC could be a sign that this is happening; on the other hand, you'd expect to have heard of more cases by now if that were true.

- Matt Gaetz has abandoned his quest to become the US Attorney General; Trump has selected prosecutor Pam Bondi for the position instead.

- The Trudeau government is suspending the GST on a number of items for a two month period; the list of affected items includes things like children's clothing and diapers but also less essential things like restaurant meals, Christmas trees, and beer. They're also sending out $250 cheques in the spring to anyone who earned less than $150,000 last year. One could be forgiven for being a bit cynical about the government's motives here.

- The truck driver involved in that fatal crash last week near Altona, Manitoba was charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death and one of obstructing a police officer. He has now disappeared and is the subject of a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest.

- While Waterloo Region's LRT system, the Ion, has been very successful, there is one recurring problem - morons keep trying to pull U-turns in front of the trains. In the most recent case the train was actually derailed, though fortunately nobody was injured, not even the idiot driving the car. You can see video of the accident here.

- There are indications that the highly popular weight-loss drug Ozempic not only helps people to lose weight, it seems to actually change people's tastes towards more healthful foods. The fast food industry is sufficiently worried about this to be intensely studying the incidence of this; it's bad news for them if this is true, albeit good news for everybody else. On the downside, there is some evidence that more food might be wasted by users of Ozempic and similar drugs.

- A bill before Australia's parliament would ban most social media for persons under 16. An exception is made for YouTube due to the large amount of educational and other child-friendly content on the platform; some who called for the legislation approve of enabling youth to watch YouTube, but would prefer to have a limitation on young users' ability to upload material to avoid the potential for exploitation and bullying.

- Six people have died of apparent methanol poisoning after visiting Vang Vieng, Laos, a popular destination for young tourists. This is a shockingly common occurrence in much of the world, including the EU.