News roundup, 27 Aug 2025

- The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have won the Spruce Woods byelection, but by a surprisingly narrow margin. Colleen Robbins defeated the NDP's Ray Berthelette by only 70 votes.

- Danish authorities have found evidence of Americans conducting covert operations in Greenland, apparently in an attempt to sway public opinion in the territory in favour of US annexation.

- A man who sent letter bombs to his ex-wife and two lawyers, one of whom lost a hand in the explosion, has been denied parole. Guido Amsel had been sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 10 years, something usually reserved for those convicted of second-degree murder; then again, the fact that nobody died is not for want of trying on Amsel's part. The parole board concluded that while he hadn't caused any problems while incarcerated, he showed no sign of remorse and in fact tried to argue in his parole hearing that the police had planted his DNA during the investigation; he was deemed a high risk to reoffend.

- A law firm that represents several anti-wind power organizations is trying to pressure Brown University to retract a report published by the university's Climate and Development Lab. The report pointed out the similarities between statements from the organizations and from fossil fuel organizations, and uses Marzulla Law LLC in a case study to map connections between different organizations. The firm is threatening to go to the university's funders to pressure them; so far the university is standing firm.

- The Carney government is considering major upgrades to the Port of Churchill. Wab Kinew called this an exciting moment for the province; he's not wrong, though it's unfortunate that much of the incentive for the upgrades is LNG exports.

- Ireland's Central Statistics Office reports that while the total number of people emigrating to the country has decreased by 16% compared with the same time last year, the number emigrating specifically from the US has almost doubled. I'm pretty sure that weather isn't the reason.

- An autopsy has concluded that Norwegian hiker Steffen Skjottelvik died from drowning. It's thought he may have been swept away while trying to cross the Hayes River. 

- Police in the Australian state of Victoria are seeking a man suspected of shooting three cops, two of them fatally, following an attempt to execute a search warrant related to historical sex crimes on his rural property. The suspect is thought to be associated with the so-called "sovereign citizen" movement.

News roundup, 30 Aug 2024

- Users of X/Twitter were warned by the platform that NPR's article about the Trump campaign's altercation with staff at the Arlington National Cemetery was "unsafe". Now it's true that sometimes the AIs that scan links for potential risks (such as malware) get it wrong, and an X representative said that this was indeed one of those false positives. It's hard not to wonder, though, if this was a direct move by Elon Musk to suppress a story that's potentially damaging to Trump. Without a doubt, there's potential for damage in the story; given the near-sacred status of the military in American mythology, having a Trump staffer shove a female employee of the cemetery who was just trying to ensure that rules set up to ensure respectful behaviour around the graves of fallen soldiers is not a good look. And some observers think Trump himself is in a state of panic as he loses it on his Truth Social platform. Perhaps the fact that new registrations by Democratic voters have dramatically increased in some swing states is contributing to his declining mental state.

- Republican Royce White, who is trying to unseat Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, went on a rant on his podcast about how Republicans trying to appeal to suburban women are "delusional" and "living in a cucked mentality". Given the electoral system and the demographics, though, you have to win over a fair chunk of that vote to get elected (even Trump knows that), yet White continues to push on. It's as if the far right true believers are the delusional ones.

- Cornel West seems to have been afflicted by RFK Jr.'s wild delusions about vaccines - or at least he's trying to pick up some votes that would have gone to Kennedy had the latter not dropped out of the race.

- A South Korean court has ruled that the country's climate legislation's lack of legally binding targets for greenhouse gas reduction is unconstitutional, because it violates the rights of future generations.

- Israel is buying Google ads to discredit the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), trying to present the agency as being in the pocket of Hamas.

- BC Conservative leader John Rustad is refusing to moderate his position on climate change. Notably Rustad was kicked out of the BC Liberals (who were already considerably to the right of their federal counterparts) over this very issue, yet now he's trying to get former supporters of that party to vote for his. One hopes it won't work, though you can't always count on voters to do the right or sensible thing.

- A youth pastor at Oak View Baptist Church in High Point, North Carolina has been charged with 30 counts of sexual battery against teenage victims. You can be sure, though, that the church will continue to say that drag queens are the real threat.

- The mayor of a municipality in New Zealand gave a nice concise response to a "sovereign citizen" who requested personal information about council staff.