Thursday, March 7, 2024

News roundup, 7 March 2024

- The World Meteorological Association has confirmed what many have already suspected - that this past February was the warmest in recorded history. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to have a good idea why, you just have to not be an idiot or an ideologue.

- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump's candidacy for president, despite having previously said that Trump was "morally responsible" for the Jan. 6 insurrection, and also despite the fact that he is stepping down from that leadership post. I guess despite the latter he still thinks he has something to lose by not endorsing Trump - his seat perhaps, or maybe his life.

- A Republican former member of Congress is warning that Trump's appeal outside the hardcore MAGA crowd might not be enough to push him over the top in November. Let's hope that's the case.

- The Manitoba NDP government is repealing a Tory-era ban on "project labour agreements". These agreements, which require non-union workers on projects be covered by the same rules as union workers, were common before 2016, and are allowed in every other province. Members of the Manitoba Building Trades agree with the repeal, however an organization called the "Merit Contractors Association", which claims to represent those non-union contractors, is not happy at the prospect of having to provide their employees with proper wages and benefits.

- The provincial Tories are trying to make hay with the Kinew government's lifting of the ban on school tax increases; the government says (I think correctly) that school boards need to catch up after years of Tory cuts. Unfortunately if you hold off on tax increases (either voluntarily or not) until you really have to, the increase will be that much harder when it comes.

- Los Angeles County has passed a law requiring that all food purchases by county departments be plant-based by default.

- A commissioner of Sussex County, New Jersey has left the Republican Party after the four other Republicans on the commission board voted to censure him for lying about his supposed military service.

- The Israeli government has ordered physicians and other healthcare workers not to cooperate with a UN commission investigating atrocities committed by Hamas in October, calling it "an anti-Israeli and antisemitic body". In other Israel/Palestine news, even Germany, which has tended to shy away from criticism of Israel owing to not wanting to remind people of their own rather problematic history with the Jewish people, is condemning new settlements planned for the West Bank.

No comments: