- Some social media users are reporting that their posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict are being banned or "shadowbanned", i.e. left up but not referred to other users by the platforms' algorithms. One TikTok user says that a video about Palestine that was initially getting large numbers of views suddenly stopped getting new views; others accuse Instagram of entirely removing posts for merely mentioning Palestine. And a professor of Jewish studies at UCLA is feeling awfully isolated after an article he published in the university newspaper.
- Here at home, Hamilton MPP Sarah Jama has been kicked out of the provincial NDP caucus. This follows a social media post that she made on 10 Oct regarding Israel; the stated reason for kicking her out, however, allegedly has to do with unspecified actions since the post, which leader Marit Stiles says "have contributed to unsafe work environments for staff" and "undermined our collective work and broken the trust of her colleagues". It would be nice if we had some information about what those actions were. Now to be fair, the party has voted against a motion put forward by the Tories to censure Jama, but the publicly available information still doesn't look good on them. Then again, a left-leaning party is in a lose-lose situation here. There's a saying in politics, "if you're explaining, you're losing", and countering the dominant narrative on Israel/Palestine might require more explanation than the average Joe or Jane Sixpack is willing to listen to. So maybe the party has decided to pick their battles and that addressing the reality of the situation in the Middle East is out of their scope as a provincial party... but even so, it's an ugly situation any way you slice it, and expulsion from caucus sure looks excessive, at least from an outsider's perspective.
- Yet another strike, this time involving workers who operate the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Which means ships can't get in or out of the Great Lakes. Meanwhile the UAW strike in the US is ramping up again, this time hitting the iconic (for loogans) Ram 1500 pickup.
- A man who spent a half century in prison for what is looking like a very dubious murder conviction has been granted bail pending a new trial. Better late than never I guess...
- Two high profile members of China's cabinet, defense minister Li Shangfu and foreign minister Qin Gang, have been removed from office for unexplained reasons. Li has not been seen in public since August; perhaps he's currently undergoing some in-depth interrogation regarding matters of national security.
- Meta is being sued by 33 American states for harming the mental health of young people, due to the way Instagram has reportedly impacted many users.
- The California Public Utilities Commission is voting on a proposal that would require participants in the net metering program to sell all of the output of their solar panels to the grid, and then buy it back from the grid at market rates in order to use it. You'd think California, of all places, would be better than this; we'll have to see how the vote goes.
- An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot riding in the jumpseat of an Embraer 175 over Oregon appears to have tried to do an Andreas Lubitz impression but was fortunately subdued by the crew. Not surprisingly, there appear to have been psychiatric factors at play.
- The US Environmental Protection Agency is considering a ban for most uses of trichloroethylene, a widely used but toxic solvent.
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