News roundup, 14 Nov 2025

- A full vote in the House of Representatives on the full release of the Epstein files appears imminent after Donald Trump failed to convince Republican representatives Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert to remove their names from the discharge petition. Of course, a yes vote in the House won't force the release; it would still have to be voted on in the Senate, where it is expected to be blocked, but some in the Trump camp fear that this could open divisions in the Republican Party that might get out of control. In other Epstein-related news, Steve Bannon reportedly sought advice on political messaging from him during a pro-Trump media campaign in 2018.

- Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey are arguing for the dismissal of charges against their clients on the grounds that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan's appointment was illegitimate. Halligan was installed on an interim basis without Senate approval after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned after refusing to proceed with the prosecutions.

- Saab CEO Micael Johansson has confirmed that his company is in talks with the Canadian government as well as with Bombardier for a licensing deal to build the Gripen fighter in Canada. There are suggestions that this could not only provide fighters for Canada, but also for Ukraine, who have announced the intention to buy at least 100 of the aircraft.

- Winnipeg's 2026 budget is expected to include a 3.5% increase in property taxes. The city has a lot of catching up to do, given that taxes were frozen for many years while expenses kept creeping up, and time is running out for upgrades to the North End Water Pollution Control Centre, among other things.

- Toronto's city council has voted to relax zoning restrictions that prevented new retail stores and cafes from opening on residential streets, despite the best efforts of NIMBYs like these people. There will still be restrictions; for instance, they can only open on corner lots, or lots next to parks or locations that are already zoned commercial. Food services will be limited; while cafes and the like are OK, large commercial kitchens will not be allowed. And councillors will have a veto on new facilities in their wards.

- The Silicon Valley crowd is apparently looking for ways to get around legislation prohibiting genetic engineering of human embryos. I guess we can add Gattaca to the list of science fiction dystopias that the techbros see as utopias.

- Sonder, a chain of boutique hotels, suddenly went bankrupt on Monday after defaulting on payments and losing their licensing deal with Marriott, stranding thousands of guests in over 40 cities around the world.

- After an intoxicated woman fell while disembarking from a carnival ride in Port Hardy, BC, sustaining significant injuries, investigators learned that the ride attendant had left his nine year old child in charge of operations while he went to "wash up". The company involved is no stranger to such investigations; earlier this year one of their employees was killed when he was hit by the same ride involved in the most recent incident.

News roundup, 21 March 2025

- Manitoba's efforts to address the homelessness crisis are starting to pay off, albeit slowly. About a dozen people from five encampments in downtown Winnipeg have been moved into housing. The availability of housing units is the main bottleneck, though housing minister Bernadette Smith says that 40 more units are expected to become available soon.

- Manitoba's 2025 budget forecasts a deficit that could range from $800 million to as high as $1.9 billion, depending on how badly things go with Trump's tariffs. Some of the costs result from efforts being made to cushion the economy against the tariffs; there is also a lot of money going into infrastructure. As it should be, though I suspect that there will be pressure for austerity soon enough.

- Amtrak's CEO, Stephen Gardner, is resigning from his position, saying that he is doing so "to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration". Given that Elon Musk has called for Amtrak to be privatized, it's probably a futile move, unfortunately.

- Germany as well as the UK have issued travel warnings about the US to their citizens, advising that they are not guaranteed entry to the country even with a visa or travel waiver and that they often detain people, sometimes in appalling conditions, for small errors or misunderstandings.

- Austin's efforts to increase housing availability by relaxing zoning laws are paying off in spades, as thousands of new apartments have been built and rents in the city have declined 22%. No doubt landlords are frantically lobbying their state legislature to limit the city's ability to do this.

- An examination of Tesla's accounting practices has found that some 1.4 billion dollars can't be accounted for. Normally this would mean serious trouble for the company, but since the SEC is being kneecapped by Trump and Musk, that isn't likely to happen. That said, the company's share price continues to decline, even after Trump's commerce secretary Howard Lutnick went on Fox News to beg viewers to buy the stock. Meanwhile vandalism at Tesla dealerships continues, most recently in Hamilton where 80 cars were damaged.

- The 2025 World Happiness Report has concluded that Finland's people are the world's happiest, followed by Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden. The US has dropped to its lowest ever position at 24, just behind the UK. Canada is also declining, falling to 18th place.

- A fire at an electrical substation forced the closure of Heathrow Airport, the world's 5th busiest. Diverted flights have led to cascading disruptions around the world due to aircraft and crews not showing up where they're needed.

- Some of Trump and Musk's more vocal supporters are finding themselves getting "swatted". I can't say I advocate this, since such a move can have fatal consequences (possibly for someone other than the target of the attack) but nobody should be surprised when this sort of thing happens.

News roundup, 13 Feb 2025

- Donald Trump is now threatening to impose a tariff of up to 100% on cars manufactured in Canada. People with actual knowledge of the auto industry are warning that such a move could shut down the entire auto industry in the US as well as Canada. Tesla might be an exception to the rule, which would make such a move that much more explicable.

- China is creating a planetary defense agency in response to the discovery of an asteroid that is thought to pose a risk in 2032. The asteroid is about 100 metres in diameter, and if it were to hit Earth it would be the equivalent of a large nuclear weapon going off - not enough to destroy the biosphere, but definitely enough to destroy a city in a direct hit. The ESA has estimated that the probability of an impact is about 1.2%, which while not high is high enough to worry about. So it's good that China is taking it seriously, especially given that NASA is not likely to be in any condition to properly deal with it given the chaos of the Trump regime.

- Elon Musk is apparently in favour of having former Texas Republican congressman Ron Paul appointed as chair of the Federal Reserve. Given that Paul is the author of a book entitled End The Fed, this has spooked a lot of people; notably, the price of gold as well as bitcoin have spiked dramatically in recent days.

- Germany's federal intelligence service, the BND, fears that climate change could threaten the stability of the European Union due to its likely effects on food prices, migration, and conflict. All of this is, of course, stuff some have been warning about for years. Gwynne Dyer, for instance, predicted almost a decade ago that climate-induced migration could be a threat to the union if its leaders don't prepare for it.

- Cambridge, Massachusetts has eliminated exclusive single-family zoning across the entire city, allowing buildings up to six stories in any neighbourhood. This is expected to create over 4,800 units over the next quarter century. A bold step in the right direction (and a rare one for North America).

- Buyers of new Jeeps are incensed at the fact that the vehicles' infotainment systems are force-feeding ads to the occupants every time the vehicle comes to a stop. So much for your nice uninterrupted stream of music or podcasts. Besides being annoying, this is raising privacy concerns, as the vehicles are also gathering data about drivers' behaviour in order to curate the ads.

News roundup, 16 Jan 2025

- Premiers of all Canadian provinces and territories, with the glaring exception of Alberta's Danielle Smith, have pledged to stand together on the tariff threat from the incoming Trump administration. Smith is unwilling to accept any measures that have even the slightest impact on Alberta's oil and gas exports.

- Transcona MLA and Minister of Education Nello Altomare has died at the age of 61, apparently as a result of complications from chemotherapy after being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

- Chrystia Freeland is expected to announce her candidacy for the Liberal leadership this week. Meanwhile two MPs - Chandra Arya and Jaime Battiste - as well as former MP Frank Baylis have already announced that they're in the running - not that anyone's noticed.

- The City of Winnipeg will need to implement zoning changes in order to qualify for federal money for the much-needed upgrade of the North End sewage treatment plant. Specifically, the city will need to allow four units per lot; this does not sit well with some of the more NIMBY-friendly councillors, though.

- Manitoba's new homelessness strategy is getting good reviews from many, though not all, organizations that are dedicated to the issue. Detractors include University of Winnipeg professor Shauna MacKinnon, who has concerns about the fact that established residents in Manitoba Housing may be moved on, possibly into more precarious housing situations, in order to make way for people with more immediate needs; this could be problematic given the low vacancy rate in the city.

- Ontario premier Doug Ford is musing about calling an early election, ostensibly in order to secure a mandate to take action to address Donald Trump's tariff threats. Many question the need for an election in order to take action; more likely, Ford sees bad economic times coming due to the tariffs and wants to ensure he's reelected before that happens.

- While fires ravage the Los Angeles area, the Bay Area city of Pacifica has a different climate-related problem - increased erosion from tides due to sea level rise threatens to destroy the coastline and the houses built there. The situation is sufficiently dire that there is talk of "managed retreat", i.e. moving residents and public infrastructure away from the coast, but not surprisingly this is a highly divisive topic - so much so that police have had to be called to council meetings to keep the peace. Nor is the problem limited to that city, state, or country - on the other side of the planet, the community of Port Waikato in New Zealand is facing similar concerns. The very term "managed retreat" is becoming politically toxic in some places, and there are attempts to rebrand it as "resilient relocation" in the hope of sounding less defeatist - even if defeatism is the only rational response in many such situations.

- RFK Jr. has been slow to admit how much money he's made promoting anti-vaccine disinformation. The antivax nonprofit he founded, Children’s Health Defense, earned him $1.2 million, considerably more than he had previously stated.

- The California Air Resources Board was hoping to phase out diesel trucks and impose strict emission restrictions on locomotives, and had applied to the EPA for permission to do so. Unfortunately approval didn't come in time, and they're now withdrawing the request in the face of the incoming Trump administration (which would doubtless veto the move).

- Israel and Hamas have signed a ceasefire agreement; the agreement has yet to be approved by Israel's cabinet though. Netanyahu seems to be getting cold feet about the deal, presumably realizing that he needs to stay at war to stay in office and out of prison. Meanwhile, the bombs keep dropping as usual.

- The former mayor of Woodstock, Ontario, Trevor Birtch, has been convicted on two of three sexual assault charges he was facing. Prosecution errors led to a mistrial on a separate, unrelated sexual assault charge; an impaired driving charge against him is scheduled to be heard next month.