News roundup, 3 March 2026

- Along with Mark Carney, several other leaders of countries with close ties to the US are being very circumspect about what they're saying about the attack on Iran. Leaders of the UK, France, and Germany, while quick to point out that they weren't involved in the strikes, seem very reluctant to condemn them either. French president Emmnauel Macron had initially, on Saturday, called for an end to military escalation in the region, calling it "dangerous to all" but he'd evidently changed his tune by the time the joint statement with Germany and the UK came out. In contrast, Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has not held back, calling for "immediate de-escalation and full respect for international law", while Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he was "deeply troubled" by the attack (while also condemning Iran's counterstrikes on countries not directly involved in the attack). Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz has been closed by Iran; what that will do to gas prices remains to be seen, but from a more cynical (or, as Sir Humphrey Appleby would say, "realistic") point of view, I can see Mark Carney being privately happy, since an Alberta that's flush with oil money as a result might be less fractious than the province is currently. In the US, the Democrats are divided on the matter - while Bernie Sanders condemned what he called "an illegal, premeditated and unconstitutional war", and other such as Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen have also been critical, other such as Henry Cuellar and Tom Suozzi have been supportive (presumably because of Israel's involvement, though they aren't putting it in those terms of course). In other related news, Kuwait seem to have inadvertently shot down three American fighters in the confusion.

- A judge in North Dakota has upheld a $345 million judgment against Greenpeace following a lawsuit by pipeline company Energy Transfer over the organization's actions in fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. On paper, the judgment affects not only Greenpeace USA but also Greenpeace International, which is based in Europe; one hopes the latter organization can get sheltered from the verdict by the EU, but it looks like Greenpeace USA is finished.

- Peter Thiel's company, Palantir, went to great efforts to try to sell their services to the Swiss government over several years, but Switzerland rejected their advances for multiple reasons, including legal matters concerning data sovereignty as well as straight up national security concerns, a reasonable concern when you're being courted by a company with close ties to the US government. When the Swiss online publication Republik investigated the matter and asked Palantir for comment, the company sent them what Republik’s managing director called "very lengthy" counterstatements for each of a series of articles, which she says "do not fairly address or rebut the reporting". Nonetheless, Palantir is taking the magazine to court under Switzerland's "right to reply" legislation, calling the reporting "misleading", but notably they are not suing for defamation, which you'd expect they would be if the reporting actually were misleading. Perhaps Thiel has never heard of the Streisand Effect.

- Far-right independent MLA Tara Armstrong introduced a bill in the BC legislature to repeal the province's Human Rights Code. The bill was defeated, but the entire BC Conservative caucus voted in favour. Armstrong, who represents the constituency of Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream, was originally elected as a Conservative but left that party along with a colleague to form the OneBC party. She then left that party a few months later to sit as an independent; evidently she doesn't play well with others, but the Cons are all too happy to have her drop bills that they can claim need to be debated, serving as a sort of Vladimir Zhirinovsky or Avigdor Lieberman to Rustad's Putin or Netanyahu. More info about her can be found here.

- Ivermectin, the antihelminthic drug that was touted (with zero evidence) as a treatment for COVID-19, is now being used as an alternative cancer therapy, again with no evidence that it works. It's almost as if the drug has become a sort of totem or sacrament for deplorables.

News roundup, 2 March 2026

- Israel and the US launched an extensive attack on Iran beginning on Saturday morning, killing hundreds. The US Congress has yet to vote on the matter. The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was among those killed in the attacks, as were at least 148 people at a school in the southern part of the country. Mark Carney says he supports at least one of the objectives of the attack, namely preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. It would have been nice of him to mention that this probably wouldn't be an issue were it not for Trump's tearing up Obama's deal with Iran during his first term, but he left that part out. Perhaps he's got an eye on the votes of the Iranian diaspora in the GTA and elsewhere, whose most visible members are very supportive of the attacks. In contrast, the NDP has condemned the attacks. Iran has responded with retaliatory strikes in Israel and the Gulf states; three US soldiers are among the dead. And British journalist Tariq Ali cites Iranian sources who allege that the Americans and Israelis are specifically targeting the homes of leftwing activists to get rid of the competition for their preferred choice for leader in the event that the current regime collapses. Meanwhile someone won over half a million dollars betting on Khameni's death on a prediction trading platform.

- The AI industry is funding at least two super PACs in the US, one that backs select Democratic candidates and one that backs select Republicans. They're running a whole bunch of ads for their preferred candidates, generally without mentioning AI at all.

- Manitoba's budget is set to be unveiled later this month. Premier Wab Kinew says that there are going to be some "big ticket" items included.

- A Thunder Bay police sergeant has been convicted of obstruction of justice and breach of trust as a result of an incident in 2020 when he entered a residence without a warrant and edited another officer's report.

- A Wisconsin man who bikejacked a Mexican immigrant, wounding him with a box cutter in the process, then posed as the victim to send letters threatening to kill Donald Trump in the hope that he would be deported (and thus presumably unable to testify against him in the bikejacking case). Fortunately, the victim was exonerated when it was shown that his English wasn't good enough for him to have written the letters. The perpetrator has now been sentenced to over 16 years in prison for the crime.

News roundup, 27 Feb 2026

- The Trump regime has ordered its diplomats to lobby against efforts by other countries to regulate American tech companies' handling of people's personal information. Secretary of State Marco Rubio singled out the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an example of the "unnecessarily burdensome" legislation that needs to be stopped. Rubio has previously condemned Europe's Digital Services Act for its requirement that social media firms remove illegal content such as child pornography and extremist materials. The US is also developing an online portal that's intended to allow people to get around such restrictions.

- Pakistan has launched airstrikes against Afghanistan after the latter country launched an offensive against Pakistani bases near the border. A representative of Pakistan's government says that 133 Afghan troops had been killed and over 200 wounded. The regime in Afghanistan denies any provocation, but also claims to have inflicted heavy losses, something Pakistan denies. Pakistan has launched strikes in the country previously, but this time government facilities have been hit. Their defense minister now describes the country as being in a state of "open war" with their neighbour. I guess the good part is that while they're fighting with Afghanistan they're less likely to enter hostilities with nuclear-armed India.

- Iceland's government, which had previously promised a referendum on entering talks to join the European Union by 2027, now hopes to move up the date to as soon as this August. Given that the country has essentially no military and the country to which it has outsourced most of its defense keeps threatening to invade neighbouring Greenland, this is quite understandable.

- The Green Party's Hannah Spencer has been elected to the UK parliament in a byelection in the constituency of Gorton and Denton, in Greater Manchester. Spencer, a plumber by profession, had previously led her party in the council of the Manchester suburb of Trafford.

- A new law in Kansas declares trans people's driver's licenses to be invalid if the licence does not correspond with their sex at birth. The state's governor, Laura Kelly, had vetoed the bill but her veto was overridden by the legislature.

- Vancouver's rightwing mayor, Ken Sim, has accused an opposition councillor, without evidence, of distributing illegal drugs. Sim claimed that Coun. Sean Orr of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) was "handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets". COPE calls Sim's claim "a clear violation of the city's code of conduct" and suggests that it may constitute defamation.

News roundup, 26 Feb 2026

- Anthropic AI, which has generally tried to position itself as the AI company with a conscience, has announced that it has abandoned its promise to never train AI systems unless adequate safety measures could be guaranteed in advance. The company was founded by people who left other AI companies that they believed weren't taking safely seriously; the reversal comes immediately after Pete Hegseth threatened to cancel the company's contract with the Pentagon if they didn't lift the limits placed on the military's use of their technology. Meanwhile, it has come out that AIs used in wargame simulations by the US military are way too quick to recommend nuclear escalation for comfort.

- A data centre under construction in Olds, Alberta is expected to consume as much electricity as Edmonton, a city of over a million people. And of course, Alberta being Alberta, it's going to be powered by natural gas.

- A Florida-registered speedboat entered Cuban territorial waters and its occupants apparently exchanged gunfire with the country's military. Four people from the boat were killed and six injured; one Cuban soldier was also wounded.

- Following a pilot study conducted in four neighbourhoods in 2023, City of Winnipeg staff have recommended that the default speed limit on residential streets be reduced from 50 to 40 km/h. This would require changes to provincial legislation to allow it, however. More promising, perhaps, is the fact that Coun. Janice Lukes, of all people, now claims to believe that a permanent bike lane on Wellington Crescent is warranted. Many of the folks in this Reddit thread are skeptical whether she's really onside, though. Given her suburban ward and sensibilities, some skepticism is probably warranted.

- A Hamilton police officer has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography. He's been suspended without pay, something pretty rare in the police world, so I have to assume the evidence against him is pretty damning. I daresay he's not going to enjoy his time in jail. 

- When the US men's Olympic hockey team was invited to the White House, five members of the team declined the invitation. Probably no coincidence that all five have strong ties to Minnesota.

- Three people face charges of uttering threats after a series of hoax calls targeting Winnipeg schools. Two of them are teenagers, who probably thought it would be a clever way to get a day off school; oddly enough the third is a 30 year old woman from Toronto.

News roundup, 25 Feb 2026

- The Starmer government in the UK is refusing to allow the US to make use of bases at Fairford, Gloucestershire as well as at Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territory in any impending attack on Iran. In response, Donald Trump is withdrawing his support for a prospective handover of the BIOT to Mauritius, not that it's supposed to be up to him of course. This could actually lead to something resembling justice for the Chagos Islanders, though only for a few decades at best because the islands only rise a few metres above sea level.

- The US Department of Justice removed several documents from the Epstein files that draw connections between Epstein and their Fuhrer. Others, some of which suggest that Trump may have abused a child, were withheld entirely despite legal direction from Congress, but NPR got their hands on them anyway. Not that Trump loyalists will listen to NPR anyway...

- A man has been charged with assault following a confrontation with striking municipal employees in the Rural Municipality of Tache, Manitoba. The man allegedly aggressively drove through a picket line at the municipal office, then shoved a union leader and took his phone after the union leader took video of his actions. The suspect is a 68 year old man from the neighbouring RM of Ste Anne.

- Conservationists as well as hunters are concerned about a federal proposal to amend migratory bird regulations to allow the hunting of Tundra Swans and Mourning Doves in the Canadian prairie provinces. In the case of the swans, there are fears that misidentified Trumpeter Swans, which are not allowed to be hunted anywhere in North America. In the case of the doves, there are concerns about the impact on the public perception of hunters, as they're the sort of birds that join songbirds at feeders.

- US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is threatening to blacklist Anthropic AI from working with the Pentagon because the company has ethical standards such as not allowing their products to be used to control weapons or for mass surveillance.

News roundup, 24 Feb 2026

- Most folks associated with the Republicans will vehemently deny any Nazi sympathies. Maybe some of them are even telling the truth and are just extremely ignorant, but it's getting harder and harder to give them the benefit of the doubt. The Trump regime seems to be very clearly copying Nazi aesthetics and phrasing, for instance. It's getting to the point where thoughtful, reasonable conservatives like the author of this article - of whom there seem to be fewer and fewer these days - are leaving the Republican Party in disgust.

- The Conservatives have introduced several proposed amendments to the Carney government's budget implementation bill, which would impose limits on the government's proposed power to exempt corporations from some regulations. Perhaps the only thing more surprising than the Conservatives proposing something half-decent is the fact that the Liberals have accepted the amendments. Maybe politics in this country isn't quite as far gone as it is in the US.

- The would-be assassin who was killed by security at the Mar-a-Lago compound appears to have come from a family of Trump supporters in North Carolina, but left behind a bunch of writings expressing rage over the Epstein files. 

- The Macron government issued a summons to US ambassador Charlie Kushner (father of Jared) following comments regarding the killing of far-right activist Quentin Deranque in Lyon. Kushner, however, refused to attend and has had his access to French officials blocked in response.

- An 11 year old boy in Perry County, Pennsylvania apparently was displeased when his parents took away his Nintendo Switch. Police believe he was so displeased, in fact, that he shot his father to death. Interestingly, in Pennsylvania minors charged with murder are tried as an adult by default, though the case can be moved to juvenile court under some circumstances. In Canada he couldn't even be charged criminally, though one would hope other measures would be taken.

News roundup, 23 Feb 2026

- Iran's air defense systems have shot down three Israeli F-35s in Iranian airspace since last summer. Setting aside the question of what those fighters were even doing in Iranian airspace, it ought to be another nail in the coffin for Canadian plans to purchase more of the darned things. Whether it will be remains to be seen of course.

- New polling from Politico shows the severity of Canadians' alienation from the US. Among the findings, 48% of Canadians consider the US to be the biggest threat to peace, with Russia a distant second at 29%, and 57% consider China to be a more reliable partner than America under Donald Trump. Perhaps even more telling are the results by political inclination - a plurality, though not a majority, of Conservative supporters doubt their ability to depend on the US.

- An outbreak of violence in the Mexican state of Jalisco has led to the closure of schools and public transit. The violence follows the death of drug lord Oseguera Cervantes at the hands of Mexican authorities. The decapitation of his organization seems to have sparked a power vacuum in the world of organized crime; Global Affairs Canada has issued a travel advisory and airlines are cancelling flights to and from the state.

-  Manitoba's Southern Health Region, which includes the cities of Winkler and Morden, has seen over 50 measles cases so far this year, but a reporter sent there found that people aren't expressing much concern - when they are willing to talk to reporters about the matter at all. Winkler's deputy mayor Andrew Froese claims to have heard little about the matter from his citizens, and also claims that the townspeople "follow public health guidelines" (except the ones that recommend vaccination, presumably). Morden's mayor Nancy Penner declined to comment on the matter at all.

- The city of Powell River, BC is named after the province's first superintendent of Indian Affairs, Israel Powell. Given that Powell was a big supporter of the residential school system, the neighbouring Tla’amin First Nation has urged that the city's name be changed. The proposal was defeated in a vote last fall, and the council has deferred any discussion on the matter until after the next election. What's interesting, though, is that a lot of the pressure to keep the old name seems to come from outside the area; the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (a major player in the anti-public health movement, among other things) has been involved, and this organization appears to get a lot of money from the Atlas Network, an American organization of rightwing think tanks. It's almost as if these foreign influencers are trying to stir up rage against anything that can be called "woke". Most likely they want to tip the balance in favour of the Conservative Party.

- An armed intruder was shot to death after breaching the security perimeter around Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida.