Friday, September 20, 2024

News roundup, 20 Sept 2024

- Dozens of pagers and similar devices used by Hezbollah members have simultaneously exploded in two waves, killing over 30 people and injuring many more. Experts think this is a case of the Israelis playing the long game to get explosives into the supply chain for the devices; this may have been in the works for years. Gwynne Dyer has some ideas on the matter here.

- The fallout related to Mark Wasyliw's expulsion from the Manitoba NDP caucus continues. Caucus chair (and Riel MLA) Mike Moyes says that Wasyliw's conduct towards his colleagues and the premier shows a pattern of disrespect. Now if it's a longstanding issue, then the decision to expel Wasyliw may well have been correct - but in that case mentioning the tenuous Nygard connection, which has aroused the ire of law societies across the country, should have been avoided.

- Manitoba Hydro has plans to add 600 megawatts of wind power to the grid in cooperation with several First Nations and Metis governments. They are also trying to promote the use of heat pumps. The government concedes, however, that they won't be able to completely eliminate fossil fuels in the short term, though they want to make the power grid clean by 2035 and bring the entire province to net zero by 2050.

- Despite pulling out of the supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is not going to back the Cons' non-confidence motion, and neither is the Bloc Québécois. Not surprisingly, the Cons are enraged by this, and some of their brownshirts tried to confront Singh on Parliament Hill on Tuesday (the Cons deny any connection with them, of course).

- South Carolina is preparing to execute a man even after new evidence, including his co-defendant admitting to having lied about his presence during the trial, has come forth. I guess they can't risk admitting that they could be executing an innocent man, otherwise there might be questions about all the other people they've executed over the years.

- A Kentucky sheriff has been charged with fatally shooting a judge following a confrontation in the judge's chambers at the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg. There have been no official statements about the motive so far, though there's some speculation here.

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