News roundup, 11 Sept 2026

- Some 40% of those believed to have died in the 9/11 attacks have not been tied to any remains found at the scene. Genetic genealogy is being used to identify some previously unidentified remains.

- Manitoba premier Wab Kinew, who is taking some understandable and legitimate flak after his government applied for a back-to-work order for Dynacare workers, is now suggesting that the government may take advantage of "off-ramps" in its contract with the company and bring the service back in-house. I would approve of that, but we'll have to see how that goes.

- A 13th candidate has entered the race for mayor of Winnipeg. Tracey Drexler says she was "hesitant to enter politics", though the good folks at r/Winnipeg have pointed out she's run previously for school board. She says she wants to solve the homelessness crisis, but does not make any specific statements about how she would do that; the Reddit folks point out that she proposed an "interesting" solution to dealing with protesters blocking roads:

 Mother f—er, seriously? I have 25 minutes to make it from Balmoral Hall to Westwood to take my special needs son off the bus… With the construction on portage its nearly impossible as it is. So just a heads up if you choose to block my roadway I will NOT be stopping.

The social media post where she said this was deleted, of course, when she entered the race for school board, as was another one where she responded to a story about Brian Pallister breaking his arm while on extended vacation in Costa Rica by saying his injury "literally made my day". The latter one I can at least sympathize with, but it indicates a volatility that may not make her suitable for the job.

- Two Winnipeg city councillors, Ross Eadie and Cindy Gilroy, are accusing the Main Street Project of getting in the way of other agencies trying to house homeless people. The councillors say that in multiple cases, St. Boniface Street Links has arranged housing for people in encampments, only to have MSP tell them that they don't have to leave. Maybe an agency like MSP that gets funding to help people living in the encampments shouldn't be the same agency that helps people get out of the encampments, as it potentially creates a conflict of interest.

- After California's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) installed gates to make fare evasion more difficult, fare evasion dropped by 60% and overall crime on the network dropped by 67%. This raises something I've hinted at before, namely that the transit fare issue is one where environmentalism and social justice are somewhat at odds. From a pure social justice perspective, it seems appealing to eliminate fares entirely, but if you want to get cars off the road you need to make public transit attractive to people who have a choice in the matter (i.e. those who can afford a car), and this means reducing crime (and even more so, perceived risk of crime) on public transit. And ultimately, not reducing the number of cars on the road is bad for everyone, including the poorest and most vulnerable, so rather than eliminating fares entirely as many suggest I'd advocate for a nominal fare (maybe a dollar or so) to act as a filter.

- A sign was posted on a public washroom on a trail in Victoria declaring it the "Donald J. Trump Memorial". The city says that they were not aware of the sign until Saturday and do not know where it came from; I hope they don't remove it though.

News roundup, 10 Sept 2026

- Donald Trump has promised every American adult $5,000 if the Republicans retain control of Congress in the midterms this November. The effectiveness of this in winning votes, and its very legality, is far from clear.

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has released 170,000 previously suppressed documents regarding the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the city's air quality. This probably would be harmful to Rudy Giuliani's legacy were it not already in ruins as a result of his support of Trump.

- Canada and France are following the UK's lead in banning imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. A good move, if overdue; notably Pierre Poilievre is not mentioned at all in the article. This is rather interesting; you'd expect him to come out with an unhinged rant about the Liberals being antisemites, but maybe in these times he is counting on actual antisemites to support him and doesn't want to give them cause to reconsider their support for his party.

- The Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University has confirmed that a tornado touched down in Winnipeg's South River Heights neighbourhood over the weekend, the second to strike the city this year. While it caused substantial damage, no injuries were reported.

- One of the pilots of the Amazon Boeing 767 that overran the runway in Miami on the weekend, killing five people, reportedly recognized that they were coming in too fast well before touchdown, but his colleague did not give a "consistent verbal response" and they proceeded with the landing nonetheless. This probably will not serve the crew well at their next employee evaluation.

- Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were denied bail by a federal judge in Miami on Wednesday, concluding (not unreasonably) that they are dangerous and could pose a flight risk. The two face possible extradition to the UK, where they face numerous charges including rape and human trafficking. No doubt we'll see more of their fanboys doing pushups outside the jail as a form of protest like they did earlier this summer; unfortunately I fully expect Trump to veto the extradition.

News roundup, 9 Sept 2026

- The crew of the Amazon freighter that overran the runway in Miami on the weekend, killing five people in a vehicle, appear to have dithered on whether to abort their landing and perform a go-around. Investigators have yet to interview the pilots on the matter; I suspect that the pilots are not looking forward to this.

- Mark Carney is warning that there will be a cost for Canada's pivot away from the US, but that the costs of not doing so will be much greater. Carney also mentioned tariffs imposed by William McKinley's administration at the end of the 19th century, which he says were intended to "pressure us into dependence and eventually annexation by the United States". The Trump regime has responded to Canada's counter-tariffs with a ban on the import of motorcycles and alcohol from Canada as well as a series of new tariffs on various other products.

- UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories and has banned the import of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Predictably, his Conservative critic has warned against making Israel a "pariah state" and expressed concerns that the move will somehow lead to an increase in antisemitic violence in the UK (the fact that Miliband is Jewish is an inconvenient fact that critics will ignore, of course).

- Lab technicians and technologists with Dynacare went on strike on Tuesday morning, leading to disruptions in non-urgent diagnostic tests across Manitoba. Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino quickly filed an application with the Labour Board, requesting that the board issue an interim order that the 350 employees remain on the job in order to "ensure the provision of essential health services"; the request was quickly granted. Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, condemned the move.

- A fatal stabbing in Winnipeg in 2022 was solved after the killer's DNA was found on a beer can in the victim's home. The suspect was subsequently arrested on another matter and confessed to the killing; she has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison.

News roundup, 8 Sept 2026

- A Boeing 767 freighter operated by Amazon affiliate Prime Air overran the runway at Miami International Airport and collided with several vehicles on an adjacent road, killing five people.

- Canada's counter-tariffs against the US came into effect today; no further talks are currently scheduled. Meanwhile Donald Trump has declared that Bombardier will not be allowed to sell aircraft in the US unless it builds them there.

- The head of the Halifax International Security forum, a DC-based think tank, believes that the Republicans will do their utmost to steal this fall's midterms, and that even if the Democrats win Trump will have a good chance of undermining public confidence in the results. He notes that, in contrast to 2020, the agencies that run elections across the US have been stacked with Trump loyalists.

- The far-right AfD won a strong plurality, though not a majority, in the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Whether Germany's traditional "firewall" will succeed in keeping them from government remains to be seen. During their campaign the party, among other things, railed against the famous Bauhaus art school, saying that the institution "always strove to avoid any sign of national rootedness". Notably, AfD's counterparts in the 1930s shut down the school for similar reasons.

- A storm that swept through southern Manitoba on Sunday caused substantial damage, most of which was concentrated in a small area of River Heights in Winnipeg.

- Thieves stole three paintings from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. A fourth painting was recovered after it was dropped by the fleeing suspects.

News roundup, 4 Sept 2026

- The UN has concluded that climate change has progressed far enough that an overshoot of the 1.5°C limit is inevitable and that people and societies will need to adapt to a hungrier and more dangerous world. Perhaps it's time to retire Rosemary Brown's remark that "until all of us have made it, none of us have made it", since it's pretty much certain now that not everyone's going to make it. Meanwhile the UK's National Audit Office says that the country has not done enough to prepare for possible food insecurity.

- Severe storms hit southern Ontario on Wednesday, with parts of Toronto getting as much rain as they would get in a typical month.

- An admiral in the US navy was asked at a press conference whether he would obey orders to attack Canada. He was quick to dismiss the question as "needlessly emotional" but went on to say that he would follow direction from his commander-in-chief.

- AI will be banned in New York City public schools from kindergarten to grade 8 for at least the next year. The impact of the ban will be studied afterwards, and it may be extended indefinitely if warranted.

- Three Ontario constituencies held byelections yesterday. Ford's PCs won two of the three, while the NDP took Scarborough Southwest. 

- The far-right AfD has the potential to win a majority in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt when that state's voters go to the polls on Sunday.

- Australia is pulling researchers from its base in Macquarie Island so that they don't have to witness a mass dieoff of elephant seals. The dieoff is anticipated due to the arrival of bird flu on the island, and the government is concerned about the psychological impact on the researchers.

News roundup, 3 Sept 2026

- The latest person to enter the Winnipeg mayoral race, Kevin Klein, used to work for convicted sex offender Peter Nygard. This point is being raised by provincial cabinet minister Nahanni Fontaine as well as incumbent mayor Scott Gillingham. Klein, for his part, argues that thousands of people have worked for Nygard's company and that he had no idea of the crimes Nygard was committing, but Gillingham points out that Klein worked as a "political fixer" for Nygard in the Bahamas, which raises questions about the veil of ignorance that he's claiming.

- Manitoba Hydro's plan to install build a new natural gas powered generating station in Brandon is coming into question following the revelations that the turbines for the plant would be built by US manufacturer GE Vernova. Environmentalists had already questioned the plan; now the premier is raising doubts about it as well. There's still a good chance the plant will still be built, of course, but some are calling for the turbines to be bought for the European manufacturer Siemens rather than from the American company (which, as some have pointed out, contributed money to Trump's inauguration).

- A Maltese businessman who had been implicated in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been acquitted. Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in 2017; several people have already been convicted in her death, but Yorgen Fenech, suspected by many of being the mastermind in the killing, managed to convince the jury otherwise.

- Former UK prime minister Keir Starmer has resigned his parliamentary seat. Green Party leader Zack Polanski intends to run in the resulting byelection.

- A 32 year old woman who rescued two people, including a toddler, from the Red River in Winnipeg's St. John's Park last week says she is uncomfortable with being called a hero.

- Noted feminist Gloria Steinem has died at the age of 92.

News roundup, 2 Sept 2026

- Solar has overtaken coal as China's largest source of installed power capacity. Its overall contribution to power generation is still lower than coal due to its intermittent nature, though.

- The death toll in flash flooding that struck Nepal last week has risen to more than 1,100 confirmed fatalities, with nearly 4,000 still missing. The flood resulted from the collapse of a glacier on the Nepal-Tibet border; China reports an additional 16 dead and 546 missing on the Tibet side.

- The BC Conservative Party has lost yet another caucus member after Chilliwack-Cultus Lake MLA Áʼa꞉líya Warbus announced that she cannot serve under leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Warbus is the seventh MLA to leave the party in a month.

- The renewed fighting in Iran has led to a spike in yields of government bonds, indicating a decline in confidence. This has impacted not only US bonds but those of other countries, including the UK, Germany, and Japan. In related news, central bankers are worried at rising pressure on governments to weaken central bank independence.

- MapQuest, which had long fallen behind Google Maps as the preferred online mapping platform, has seen a surge in downloads of its app after it refused to fall in line and rename Lake Ontario in response to Trump's declaration.

- Instagram has closed the account of a Vancouver strip club after the club posted a photo of their marquee with the slogan "Can't handle a pool, but wants our lake?" The Penthouse Night Club had previously had its account on X suspended last year when they posted a a photo with the slogan "Forever Neighbours Never Neighbors"; X had called this out as "hate speech" (while ignoring the large amounts of actual hate speech on that platform) but subsequently reversed their decision.