News roundup, 29 April 2026

- Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with threatening the life of the president with a picture he briefly posted to Instagram last year. The image showed several seashells arranged to read "86 47"; apparently in some circles "eighty-six" is slang for "eject" or "remove". Comey says he took the picture after seeing the arrangement on a beach; he says removed it upon hearing that some interpreted it as a call for violence.

- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received a gift of £5 million from a crypto billionaire in 2024; subsequently he reversed his decision not to run in the general election that year. The donor, Christopher Harborne, also donated £9 million to Farage's party last year, the largest single donation to a party by a living person in British history; this is despite the fact that he is based in Thailand. On the other side of the world, Australia's wealthiest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has donated an aircraft as well as $2 million to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

- California is holding a referendum on a one time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires. The measure was proposed as a way to make up for the loss of federal healthcare money; the billionaires are pulling out all the stops to defeat the initiative.

- Higher oil prices resulting from the war in Iran mean that Canada's recent fiscal update, which was prepared before the latest developments, likely underestimates Canada's revenue, meaning a substantial windfall for the government.

- Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and obstruction of justice; this is related to his attempt to impose martial law in 2024. This is largely academic as he has already received a life sentence for rebellion in connection to the matter.

- Five correctional officers were injured in a confrontation with a single inmate at a prison in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. The president of the officers' union says that the use of drones to smuggle drugs and weapons into prisons has made their job more dangerous; among the measures they're calling for is the jamming of cellphone signals on the premises to make it harder to coordinate such smuggling.

- A 17 year old boy has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly intentionally running over several sleeping geese in a parking lot. This happened at night, however his vehicle was identified from security video.

- An Indian man dug up his sister's remains and brought them to a bank in order to prove that she was dead in order to close her account. 

News roundup, 21 Oct 2025

- An estimated 5 million people (more than 1% of the country's population) participated in the "No Kings" protests across the US on Saturday. The protests were largely peaceful; Republicans were predictably dismissive of course.

- A gang of thieves broke into the Louvre over the weekend and stole priceless jewelry once owned by French monarchs. More info on the missing items here; whether the theft was commissioned by a collector (in which case the items might be recovered) or done for the precious metals and gems (in which case they'll likely be broken up and melted down) is unknown. Definitely, though, the recent surge in the price of gold is making it attractive to thieves.

- Israel suspended their ceasefire and the shipment of aid in Gaza on Sunday, claiming that two IDF soldiers had been killed by Hamas, however they now say they're resuming the ceasefire and aid shipments.

- Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek appears to have been defeated in the city's municipal election yesterday. The actual winner has yet to be determined, but it appears that it will be one of two rightwingers (Jeromy Farkas and Sonya Sharp) who are separated by less than a percentage point.

- Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries disposed of some $29,000 worth of American liquor following its removal from shelves in protest to the US' behaviour towards Canada. I still think they should have done what they did with South African wine back in the 1980s - they sold the stuff, but turned over the proceeds to opposition groups in South Africa. Not sure why they couldn't have done that here.

- Some activists are concerned about the Manitoba government's plans to allow 72 hour detention for severely intoxicated persons. The move was motivated by cases in which people remain high on meth after the current maximum of 24 hours runs out. The argument is made by some that forced withdrawal leads to an increased risk of overdose upon release due to reduced tolerance. I'm not sure how sound their reasoning on this is though; I was of the understanding that it takes longer than 72 hours for tolerance to decrease, and it's notable that several physicians including some who specialize in mental health and addictions agree with the government. I'm inclined to believe a doctor over an activist on that point. In all likelyhood the activists are primarily motivated by other factors (and to be fair they do mention other factors, such as concerns about autonomy and what they refer to as "arbitrary" detention).

- Police in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario stopped a semi and found 72 smuggled handguns as well as 66 other prohibited devices inside. The truck's operators had been targeted following an investigation into cocaine trafficking.

- A woman in the rural Minnesota community of Nashwauk was convicted of submitting her dead mother's absentee ballot so as to cast an extra vote for Trump last fall. She was given an $885 fine, up to three years' supervised probation, and was ordered to read Erin Geiger Smith's book Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth About Voting in America and to write an essay on the importance of voting and the harms of voter fraud.

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.