News roundup, 30 Oct 2026

- The primary Instagram account used by No Kings activists in the US was suspended earlier this month, just as the organization was busy rallying people in preparation for the midterm elections. Instagram's parent company Meta claims that this happened due to a technical glitch, but many think their "glitches" are happening too often, and disproportionately impacting opponents of rightwing extremism, both in the US and elsewhere.

- While 175 members of Congress, led by Pramila Jayapal of Washington, have signed a letter condemning the investigation of Ilhan Omar, 40 Democratic members are not among them, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. While the article rightly acknowledges that not having signed the letter doesn't prove that someone supports the persecution of Omar, one can't help but wonder if a centrist like Pelosi would secretly be happy to see Omar denaturalized and removed from the country so she won't drag the Democrats to the left and/or say mean things about Israel.

- The drama surrounding Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton AG, continues with revelations that employees who urged caution in the use of AI (as in, testing AI-developed stuff before releasing it to the public) were subjected to a torrent of abuse from Yen, who called such caution "bullshit and loser thinking". The thing is, Proton is a nonprofit that has built its brand around privacy and security, and as the folks on Reddit point out, when your brand is built around that, and your own cybersecurity people are warning you to be careful, it shows extremely poor judgment not to listen to them. Proton, in fact, was founded specifically as a platform for private and secure communications. What makes this stranger is that Yen is not a product of Silicon Valley, where that "move fast and break things" mentality is endemic - his background is as a physicist. The only way his outburst makes any sense at all is if the company is planning change to a for-profit corporation (or spin off a for-profit subsidiary the way OpenAI did) and eventually have an IPO - because investors who don't know much about tech will just assume that the more AI queries a company makes, the more forward thinking and worthy of investment it is.

- A Winnipeg synagogue has revoked the memberships of a couple in their congregation and arranged for the police to visit them to inform them that they were barred from the premises. Emet Eviatar and David Hoult had attended services at Congregation Etz Chayim for many years, but the Eviatar's involvement in Standing Together, which has been highly critical of Israel's actions in Gaza, and Hoult's criticism of the institution's security measures, were evidently a bridge too far. 

- Actor Patrick Stewart, best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, has died at the age of 86. 

News roundup, 29 Oct 2026

- Scott Gillingham has been easily reelected as mayor of Winnipeg, winning 39.8% of the vote. The second place contender, Kevin Klein, got 20.7%, barely ahead of the progressive candidate, Noah Redden, who got 19.8%. Happily, Mike Vogiatzakis was far behind at 9.7%; I guess many of the kind of people who would vote for a reactionary loudmouth like him already live outside the city like he does (he was only eligible to run because he owns a business in the city). Gillingham will be presiding over a significantly different council than last term; nine of the fifteen councillors will be new,  including four who managed to take out incumbents - Natalie Smith defeated Ross Eadie in Mynarski, Kelly Ryback took out Shawn Dobson in St James, Greg McFarlane ousted Devi Sharma in Old Kildonan, and Lora Meseman crushed sexual assault suspect Russ Wyatt in Transcona. Full results can be found here.

- The Ford government will be appointing chairs for the regional municipalities of Halton, Peel, York, Durham, Muskoka, Waterloo, and Niagara as well as the warden of Simcoe County. Previously, some of them (such as the chair of Waterloo Region) were elected by the public, while others were chosen by the regional council, but under new legislation (Bill 100, dubbed the "Better Regional Governance Act" by the government), the chairs are appointed by the province, and moreover will have powers similar to the "strong mayor" powers in some cities - they will not only be able to veto some council votes, but they will be able to force through changes with the support of only a third of the council. Presumably this is to make sure that regional governments do the bidding of Doug Ford.

- Flavio Bolsonaro, who fled Brazil following his defeat in that country's presidential election, has arrived in the US along with his family. He faced charges of tax evasion and money laundering; for his part he claims to be the rightful president-elect, claiming (without evidence) that the election was fraudulent (for their part, international observers have said that the election was fair, but Donald Trump, not surprisingly, says otherwise).

- The European Union is abandoning the term "associate membership" that had been mooted for Canada following opposition to the use of the term by some member states (notably Germany). The latest draft document calls for an "ever closer association" between Canada and the EU. Mark Carney is not concerned, saying this is merely a change in terminology.

- France is moving the entire town of Miquelon to higher ground on the eponymous island. The move will take place gradually over several decades; rising sea levels mean there is little choice in the matter, though.

News roundup, 28 Oct 2026

- Exit polls and partial results suggest that neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor Gadi Eisenkot will have enough seats to form a government without the support of MPs from the Joint List, an alliance of mostly Arab parties. Since both of the frontrunners have ruled out working with them, another election seems likely in the near future.

- Donald Trump has claimed, without citing evidence, that Brazil's latest presidential election was "rigged", though he has not threatened any immediate countermeasures. The US State Department says that far right opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family will be granted visas to enter the US; Bolsonaro has been under investigation for tax evasion, money laundering, and other corrupt behaviour and had been ordered to surrender his passport.

- With the Republicans set to take a beating in the midterms, fears of election interference by the regime are greater than ever. A movement called the "Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association", which believes that sheriffs have ultimate authority in their counties regardless of what state laws might say, is encouraging its members to investigate claims by the Republicans of "voter fraud". One prominent member of the organization, sherrif Dar Leaf of Barry County, Michigan, has tried to seize voting machines in previous elections, while Riverside County, California sheriff Chad Bianco seized 650,000 ballots from the 2024 election in an attempt to prove malfeasance before a judge ruled the seizure illegal. Trump himself has raised the possibility of declaring a national emergency in order to oversee the counting of ballots.

- Municipal elections will be held across Manitoba today, except for the resort communities of Dunnottar, Victoria Beach, and Winnipeg Beach, which held their elections in the summer. In Winnipeg, a record number of votes have already been cast, with over 25,000 advance votes as of Sunday.

- Swiss tech company Proton AG, which provides privacy-focused services like the encrypted Proton Mail email service, has announced that it will "re-interview" staff about their use of AI in their jobs, saying the interviews will have an impact on "changes in roles, responsibilities, and continued employment". The company's CEO, Andy Yen, has been strongly pushing AI of late, despite fears about the implications for the privacy that Proton claims is its bread and butter. I suspect that this is a response to the demands of investors more than anything; the idea that companies are going to be "left behind" unless they fully embrace the newest and brightest is nothing new, and it's almost impossible to look at the internet these days without getting promotions for some AI product or other shoved in your face. One hopes the bubble will burst soon and that the techies will then be able to decide for themselves when using AI makes sense and when it doesn't, but until then the pressure is to be all-in, all the time.

News roundup, 27 Oct 2026

- Olivia Chow has been reelected as mayor of Toronto. The margin of victory was higher than the polls would have led one to expect; she won over 54% of the vote with Brad Bradford getting 41%. It appears that Bradford's plan to carve off Toronto Water in such a way that might facilitate future privatization (and which would limit council's ability to control whether the utility can be stopped from supplying water to data centres at the expense of the public) spooked enough voters to bury him. On the other hand, the mayors of Waterloo and Cambridge went down to defeat yesterday. In the case of Cambridge this may be a good thing, but Waterloo's mayor-elect apparently has donated to the Tories.

- In the Rural Municipality of St Clements, Manitoba, which votes for a new council tomorrow along with most other municipalities in the province, there are claims of "Trumpian" sniping between candidates. Perhaps the toxic culture seen in other small municipalities is taking hold there as well.

- Serbia's governing Serbian Progressive Party under Aleksandar Vucic was defeated in the weekend's parliamentary election, with an opposition group called the "Student List" apparently winning a majority of seats. This follows two years of student-led protests. It remains to be seen how the new group will govern.

- Israel is holding its parliamentary election today. Polls indicate an almost even split between Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and the new Yashar party, led by former IDF leader Gadi Eisenkot. Yashar is considered centrist (by Israeli standards); it's not like they're going to end the occupation, though.

- Police were called to a children's soccer game in Winter Park, Florida after a 3 year old child was removed from the game, allegedly for being too good, leading to a confrontation with the boy's mother.

News roundup, 26 Oct 2026

- Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won his runoff against far-right challenger Flavio Bolsonaro by a narrow margin. Bolsonaro is refusing to accept the results, citing an extension of voting hours (despite the fact that his own campaign as well as Lula's had requested the extension). Whether he'll be stupid enough to try to stage a coup like his father did remains to be seen; presumably he doesn't want to go to jail. Unless of course he's able to gain meaningful backing from the Trump regime, in which case all bets are off.

- David Eby's gamble in calling a snap election has backfired in the worst way possible.The BC Conservatives, whose disarray Eby was trying to take advantage of, won a majority government under interim leader Lorne Doerkson (with some 48% of the popular vote). Turnout was lower than the 2020 election, despite the former having been held while numerous pandemic restrictions were in place; it is suspected that a lot of prospective NDP voters didn't bother to show up. The thing is, Eby was born and raised in Kitchener, and you'd think a young fellow growing up in Ontario would have known of David Peterson. One wonders why Eby thought he was somehow different.

- A "fact sheet" circulated by the US embassy in Ottawa uses quotes from MPs Melanie Joly, and Anthony Housefather, Ontario premier Doug Ford, and Canada's consol in Boston, Bernadette Jordan to argue that Canada is trying to influence the US midterms. The fact that Donald Trump himself is not shy about endorsing candidates in other countries doesn't seem to matter. The document has been dismissed as "not credible at all" by a political scientist at the U of T; nonetheless, the government is trying to avoid further accusations of this sort by ordering Canadian diplomats to avoid contact with candidates.

- A new poll from Abacus Data indicates that incumbent Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham has the support of 36% of respondents. Kevin Klein is in second place at 19%, while Noah Redden and Mike Vogiatzakis are tied for third at 14%. The election will be decided on Wednesday. Meanwhile in Toronto, which along with the rest of Ontario will be holding its municipal election today, a poll from Pollara puts Olivia Chow in the lead once again, with 55% support compared to 44% for Brad Bradford among decided voters. This poll seems to be an outlier, though, as other polls put the race as too close to call.

- Air Canada appears to have been trying to game the system to avoid paying compensation that would be owed to passengers for cancelled flights. The Air Passenger Protection Regulations exempt airlines from the need to compensate beyond the cost of the ticket if a flight needs to be cancelled due to safety-related maintenance. The airline, however, seems to have avoided the need to cancel lucrative flights when the plane goes out of service by reassigning planes from less lucrative ones, then telling the passengers on the latter flight that it's a "maintenance related" cancellation.

News roundup, 23 Oct 2026

- Elon Musk is threatening unspecified retribution if the Democrats win control of Congress and open investigations into his activities (such as the recent throttling of Starlink in Ukraine and the actions of DOGE). In a recent tweet he declared, "Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets".

- Environmentalist David Suzuki is joining Olivia Chow and 15 incumbent councillors to condemn Brad Bradford's plan for Toronto Water. Bradford, for his part, denies that the plan will lead to privatization, but CUPE local 416, which represents most of Toronto's municipal staff, has a legal opinion that separating it from city operations could enable a future provincial government to privatize it, and there are fears that since the utility will be allowed to use debt to finance its operations, this will lead to higher bills in the long run. There is also some speculation on Reddit that this could be tied to Bradford's support of building AI data centres in the city; even if the utility isn't actually privatized, removing it from the direct control of council could potentially make it easier for water to be diverted to them for cooling. Disturbingly, recent polls have Bradford within striking distance of winning.

- Google has been ordered to stop work on the construction of two data centres in Finland following revelations that they cut down 330 hectares of forest without getting the required environmental assessment. Silicon Valley people definitely still like to "move fast and break things", even if "don't be evil" is now passé.

- Police suspect arson in a series of fires at construction sites in Winnipeg. Builder Rupinder Brar, whose company was working at one of these sites is hiring extra security to prevent recurrence. It's unclear whether these fires were set by squatters trying to keep warm, or if they were cases of true arson (i.e. intentional destruction of property). Notably, these fires have occurred in parts of town where there has been a great deal of agitation against infill housing, and at least one of the sites destroyed was a sixplex under construction; I do hope this is properly investigated.

News roundup, 22 Oct 2026

- A post-referendum press conference by Danielle Smith opened with a question from Rebel "News" that insinuates that the Forever Canadian campaign was funded by the far right's favourite bogeyman, George Soros. Smith actually handled the question relatively well under the circumstances, but this is to be expected when she treats the outlet as a legitimate news source that's invited to press conferences. Meanwhile seppie leader Mitch Sylvestre is also trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the vote due to the large number of mail-in ballots; this should not be a serious consideration but it's been one of Donald Trump's favourite talking points any time an election doesn't go his way. Speaking of Trump, it remains to be seen what he has to say about this one.

- Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, is running an ad featuring his opponent's estranged mother. Democrat Amy Acton was removed from her mother's custody as a child after her stepfather was convicted of raping her; her mother evidently can't accept the truth about the guy she took up with and is accusing her of being a serial liar. Even some Republicans think the ad goes to far, but Ramaswamy's campaign is doubling down and plans to run the ad on TV (it has previously only been seen online). The thing is, with many Republicans cruelty is seen as not only OK but as a virtue so long as it's directed at the enemy. Whether Ohio voters will agree remains to be seen.

- A bill before Parliament would put limits on gambling ads. This follows revelations that problem gambling has skyrocketed since restrictions on online casinos were lifted in 2022; in Ontario the incidence of gambling-related suicide has tripled since then. All too predictably, the governments of Alberta and Ontario oppose the bill.

- Several people have been attacked by a rabid skunk in Vancouver. Public health officials are warning that anyone who had contact with a skunk that was behaving abnormally or appeared to be sick over a period of several weeks to seek immediate medical attention.

- An acupuncturist in Dawson Creek, BC has been suspended for two months by the College of Complementary Health Professionals of BC after prescribing ivermectin and another livestock medication to her patients.