News roundup, 16 Oct 2024

- The federal government has expelled six Indian diplomats, accusing India of involvement in "widespread violence" in this country. The violence in question apparently includes homicides, such as the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year. India has responded in kind, ordering six Canadian diplomats to leave the country.

- BC Conservative Party candidate Brent Chapman is facing calls to withdraw from the race following revelations that he circulated bizarre conspiracy theories alleging that several mass shootings, including the Quebec City mosque shooting in 2017 as well as the Sandy Hook and Pulse Nightclub shootings in the US were hoaxes. He had also made some social media posts in which he called Palestinians "little inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs". He has also alleged that the UN is somehow interfering in municipal politics. Happily, recent polling from Angus Reid as well as Research Co suggests that BC voters - or at least urban and suburban ones - may be coming to their senses.

- Hacktivists professing to be acting on behalf of Palestinians have claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the Internet Archive. What makes the archive a legitimate target for such activism is not clear, though the activists seem to be claiming that the fact that the nonprofit is based in the US is reason enough. Seems like pretty flimsy grounds to me; I guess organizations that are actually harming Palestinians have better cybersecurity, though, and they went for the low hanging fruit instead.

- The IDF appears to be using Palestinians as human shields. Not the first time such accusations have been made, but when a paper as sympathetic to Israel as the New York Times reports on them, it's a sign that the evidence is pretty hard to dismiss.

- An American journalist, Jeremy Loffredo, was detained in Israel last week; while he has been released from custody he is barred from leaving the country. The Israelis accuse him of "endangering national security" and "aiding and sharing information with the enemy" due to his having reported on Iranian strikes in the country.

- An auto parts maker, Yapp USA Automotive Systems, is challenging the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board; unfortunately the case is to be decided by the Trumper-dominated US Supreme Court.

- A four-year-old child has died after falling from the 19th floor of a highrise in downtown Winnipeg.

- After a delay resulting from the recent hurricane, Europa Clipper was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral. The probe is expected to arrive at Europa in 2030, in search of evidence of life.

News roundup, 15 Oct 2024

- Three cargo ships were hit by Russian missiles while in Ukrainian ports last week, killing at least 10 people and leading to fears that cargo operators will avoid the country.

- The BC NDP and Conservative parties remain in a statistical dead heat in the last week of campaigning. The NDP may well hold on due to greater vote efficiency and recent publicity about the Conservatives' extremism, but even if they do it's rather disconcerting that it's even a serious contest.

- The Canadian Association of Professional Employees, which represents around 27,000 federal employees, is calling for an investigation by the parliamentary Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates into a federal mandate that orders public servants back into the office a minimum of 3 days per week. Another union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, is challenging the mandate in court but this could take years to resolve due to the backlog in the courts; the parliamentary committee could potentially get quicker results.

- Following an incident last week in which a patient at St. Boniface Hospital brandished knives, some are calling for stronger security measures at hospitals. There is some discomfort about the idea of putting metal detectors at the entrances due to concern that it could make the hospital feel less safe for some, even as it makes it feel more safe for others. No statistics are given, though on whether the presence or absence of metal detectors would scare away more people, which would seem to be a pertinent piece of information. The article does note that Health Sciences Centre has been testing an "AI weapons detector" at the entrance to their ER; why AI is needed for this is not made clear, though if it somehow makes the detector less intrusive than a standard airport-style medical detector then it might have merit I suppose.

- The distribution of rapid COVID-19 tests in Manitoba is being discontinued, except for the most vulnerable people such as care home residents. I guess too much continued awareness of the disease is bad for business.

- Two middle-aged residents of Winnipeg's Lord Roberts neighbourhood have been charged with torturing and killing cats to make videos which were posted on the dark web. The suspects are known to police; disconcertingly, this appears to be unrelated to some other killings of cats that have occurred in Point Douglas recently.

- Despite recent reports that the closures of several 7-Eleven stores in Winnipeg were due to crime, it appears that this is actually part of a company-wide shakedown. Some folks in this Reddit thread think that the plan is to move towards making the chain more upscale (as it apparently already is in Japan) and that they're closing locations that they don't consider suitable for this. It's also pointed out there that the red herring of crime has been tossed out in similar situations before, such as the closure of the Osborne Village Starbucks location (stories about this made reference to crime but left out the fact that Starbucks has been trying to eliminate locations without drive-thru service) and similar stories about various Target locations in the US (many of which were apparently in over-saturated markets). In any case, Canadian convenience store chain Couche-Tard has been trying to buy 7-Eleven for some time, but getting rebuffed, and might well leap at the opportunity to take over the closed locations as a consolation prize.

- Alexandre Brassard, a biologist at St. Boniface University, was alarmed to find that a new book, entitled Mushrooms of Manitoba, contains multiple errors and makes no mention of several deadly poisonous species. The book appears to have been written with AI; Amazon delisted the book after CBC contacted them about the matter.

News roundup, 11 Oct 2024

- The captain of a Turkish Airlines A350 flying from Seattle to Istanbul died mid-flight. The aircraft was successfully landed in New York by the first officer and a relief pilot.

- Despite the ravages of hurricanes like Milton, there is skepticism in some circles about the idea that the rich will abandon the state. Contrary to the view that the rich will take advantage of their superior mobility and leave while the poor will have no choice but to stay, the argument is that the rich are the only ones who will be able to afford to stay as insurance becomes more expensive. Of course, as some here point out, there are limits to this, not least the fact that if the poor are forced out, there'll be no one to serve the rich their iced coffees.

- The Manitoba government seems to be making substantial progress in improving access to physicians. There has been a net gain of 133 doctors between April and August of this year; there's still a long way to go, though, as nearly three times that number are still needed in order to reach the national per capita average.

- Cleanup is finally underway at the location where three businesses were destroyed by fire early last year. Some of the delay resulted when the owner of one of the buildings tried to challenge findings by the government that there was asbestos at the location, which requires additional expenditures in order to clean up safely. In related news, a report presented to the city on the policy of billing owners of vacant properties for the cost of firefighting claims the measure may have done more harm than good; the city has been paid less that $79,000 out of $1.15 million billed to property owners last year and has apparently been forced to dedicate resources to deal with appeals by the owners. Given how early it is in the game, it seems premature to declare the policy a failure, though - and as numerous folks in this Reddit thread are arguing, maybe the city should just move along with seizing properties from delinquent owners and use the properties to build affordable housing.

- BC Conservative Party leader John Rustad recently claimed that foot traffic in downtown Victoria has declined 60% in the last couple of years. Thing is, like a lot of things rightwing politicians say, it simply isn't true. There was a slight increase from 2022 to 2023; data from this year is not yet available. As regards Rustad's motives for making up such nonsense, it may be partly just an attempt to create a general impression of failure on the part of the incumbent NDP government. It may also be a way of signalling to people who are resentful of WFH that he's their guy. Or maybe, as some folks on Reddit think, as a rightwing politician he just lies by default. Who knows?

- An in-service held by the Winnipeg School Division at the Canada Life Centre on Wednesday created a stir when, during a speech by an American educator about matters related to indigenous education, the slogan "Resistance to colonialism is not terrorism" was displayed on a screen. This immediately raised the hackles of some members of the Jewish community, and the school division promptly apologized for this. You could argue that the slogan is over the top, but it's kind of telling that members of that community felt singled out by it notwithstanding that it makes no mention of Israel or Palestine and was displayed during a speech related to actual consequences of colonialism.

- A Nebraska woman is attempting to sue every gay person on the planet for breaking "religious and moral laws". She claims to be acting as the "ambassador" for the true plaintiffs, "God and His Son, Jesus Christ". That may be a bit much even for Nebraska; a statement from the court indicated that no summons will be issued to the defendants.

News roundup, 10 Oct 2024

- Hurricane Milton hit Florida last night as a Category 3 storm, with winds up over 160 km/h (86 kt, 100 mph). Fortunately the worst of it did not hit Tampa directly, hitting instead in the smaller city of Sarasota, 112 km to the south. Nonetheless, St Petersburg still got 41 centimetres (not millimetres) of rain. Several fatalities have been reported from the hurricane and spin-off tornadoes, and power is out for more than 3 million people.

- Federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the Trudeau government is "seriously considering" a high speed option for the proposed high frequency rail link between Toronto and Quebec City. Certainly this is a good idea, but it's a bit late in the game to be doing something like this given that they've been in power since 2015 and are almost certain to be replaced next fall by the Poilievre Conservatives, who will likely cancel the project.

- The former clerk of Mesa County, Colorado has been sentenced to 9 years in prison for her role in a breach in the security of the county's electoral system. Following the sentencing, staff at the county courthouse have reported being threatened by members of the public.

- The landlord who evicted dozens of people from his apartment complex in Winnipeg's North End earlier this year has been fined $9,000. This is apparently the largest fine ever issued by the Residential Tenancies Branch; apparently all previous fines for this sort of thing add up to a total of $28,000. Nonetheless, it's probably pretty much a rounding error for the landlord. Current legislation only allows a fine of $1,000 for each tenant who actually comes forward. And according to Street Links, who had made the arrangements to house several previously homeless people in the building, several of those people are now back on the street following the eviction, and thus probably have bigger things on their mind than talking to authorities.

- A 10 year old boy in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil was severely scalded when boiling water was poured over him. A woman in her 40s has been arrested. The accused apparently claimed that the boy had been knocking on her door as a prank for "the last three years"; according to the boy's family they haven't even lived in the area for that long. Most likely racism as well as psychiatric factors played a role here.

- A researcher at the University of Michigan proposes that autonomous vehicles be required to take a national driving test in order to be certified for road use. Seems eminently reasonable, even if the Silicon Valley boys think rules cramp their style.

- The Trump Bible (which Oklahoma was originally going to make required reading in state schools before a backlash forced them to amend the requirements to allow other editions) was printed in China. That's awkward...

News roundup, 9 Oct 2024

- One noteworthy thing about the far-right orientation of the American countryside - it wasn't always this bad. In 2000, Republicans only had a five point lead over Democrats in rural America - but today they lead by 25 points. How much difference the folksiness of Tim Walz will make in that regard is doubtful, though the Democrats are hoping that it will help in places like Nebraska which doesn't use a winner-takes-all system for their electoral votes. One wonders how much longer this will matter; the shift of the population towards large cities may not be as pronounced in the US as in a lot of countries, but it's still happening there, and the more that happens, the more irrelevant rural voters will become. Of course they will also become even angrier than they already are as that happens.

- The Manitoba government is putting $10 million into the Collaborative Housing Alliance Real Estate Investment Trust. The trust is being created by the Business Council of Manitoba and will assist community groups in the creation of affordable housing; Housing Minister Bernadette Smith hopes to have three projects going within a year.

- The Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba, which recently passed a motion banning all flags except the Canadian, Manitoban, and school flags despite not having a quorum, says that the motion was meant to "foster inclusivity" and "promote unity". An employee of the school division believes otherwise, though, saying that this is a veiled attack on the LGBT* community. I suspect that the employee is right.

- The BC Conservatives are vowing to "end tent cities" in the province; they plan to achieve this via policing to eliminate encampments, and involuntary treatment in secure facilities. Party leader John Rustad was evasive when asked about how they plan to get around recent court decisions such as the one last year which ruled that municipalities cannot evict encampments if they don't have sufficient shelter space for the residents; the folks in this Reddit thread suspect the notwithstanding clause will likely be used if deemed necessary.

- A new Leger poll in BC has the NDP up 5 points over the BC Conservatives; perhaps the Cons' extreme positions are starting to worry voters. Let's hope so.

- The Halifax Chronicle-Herald has fired award-winning editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder, who had worked for the paper for almost 30 years. The paper's parent company was recently taken over by Postmedia, and maybe the new owners didn't like cartoons like this one.

- The Ontario government's move to allow alcohol sales in convenience stores includes fortified wine. So you'll be able to pick up a bottle of Westminster at your local 7-11 to drink under a bridge. Ain't that grand?

- A Republican candidate for the US Senate has some awkward questions to answer about a social media post from a couple of years ago in which he said that "the bad guys won" in WWII.

News roundup, 8 Oct 2024

- Hurricane Milton is bearing down on the Tampa area, expected to hit late Wednesday or early Thursday. It is currently a Category 5 hurricane, with winds reaching 180 mph (290 km/h or 156 kt). The barometric pressure in the hurricane's eye has been measured at 897 millibars (standard pressure is 1,000). Some people think this could wake people up to the seriousness of climate change, but given that the MAGA crowd are claiming that the Feds are somehow controlling the path of the hurricane, presumably in order to influence votes this fall, this might be a bit much to hope for.

- With less than a month to go before the US election, polling numbers are remarkably close. Key swing states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina are all too close to call. You'd think that the choice between a competent (albeit centrist) candidate and a raving fascist lunatic would be a pretty straightforward one, but this is America we're talking about...

- BC Conservative leader John Rustad indicated that he would be open to "Nuremberg 2.0" trials for those responsible for public health measures during the height of the pandemic. He subsequently backed away from this, presumably after advisors warned him that suggesting that making things inconvenient for the unvaccinated is just like stuffing them into gas chambers is not a good look. In other Rustad news, he called the Eby government's housing policy "Soviet-style housing", falsely suggesting that premier David Eby "thinks that the private sector has no role in providing housing" when in fact one of the biggest things the government has done is removed restrictions on the kind of housing that can be built by the private sector. Unfortunately, all this nonsense doesn't seem to be significantly hurting Rustad in the polls. For their part, the NDP is trying to get Elections BC to put the party's name on the ballot as "BC Conservative Party" rather than just "Conservative Party"; they are presumably resigned to the popularity of the federal Conservatives but want to draw a distinction between the federal and provincial parties. It's hard to see positives in the way this is going.

- The "Victims of Communism" memorial commissioned by the Harper government was scheduled to be unveiled last November, but has been beset by controversy following revelations that more than half of the 553 names that were supposed to go on the memorial belonged to people associated with the Nazis or other fascist organizations.

- The looming strike by healthcare support staff in Manitoba seems to have been averted, as a tentative agreement was reached at 4:25 this morning, with only 95 minutes to go before the strike deadline. CUPE and MGEU leaders are urging their membership to approve the deal.

- The newly elected mayor of the Mexican city of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos, was beheaded just days after taking office, possibly having run afoul of local drug cartels.

News roundup, 7 Oct 2024

- The US Supreme Court has refused to preemptively block new EPA rules concerning methane and mercury, asking for the plaintiffs to file their claims in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia first. This is somewhat promising, though if the case does land on their desks after going through the lower court there is no guarantee that they will uphold the rules.

- While natural gas has been promoted as a somewhat cleaner alternative to coal, a recent study has concluded that the climate impact of leakage during the transportation of liquefied natural gas is actually worse, largely due to the inevitable leakage of methane (the main constituent of the fuel).

- Bubba Pollock, the man who posted a selfie with a woman's dying father in order to harass her after getting into an online debate with her, was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He has a history of other criminal activity, including bribing homeless people to steal Pride flags and to pull fire alarms in libraries where drag-related events were being held. This is on top of more mundane (but equally disturbing) convictions such as sharing intimate images without consent.

- Physicians in Manitoba are getting tired of having to waste time signing sick notes demanded by employers. The province is one of three that have no restrictions as to when an employer can demand one; Doctors Manitoba is calling for this to be changed, saying that this can open up more time for actually useful patient visits.

- The chances of averting a healthcare strike in Manitoba are quickly fading; the unions say they are nowhere near a deal as tomorrow's strike deadline approaches.

- A child in the Brantford area has died of rabies, after having apparently contracted the disease from a bat while on vacation in Timiskaming District. Disconcertingly, there was no visible sign of a bite from the animal; experts are recommending that anyone who has been in contact with bats to get immediate medical attention.

News roundup, 4 Oct 2024

- The BC Conservatives have been quietly editing their platform on their website, removing nearly half of the content in an attempt to make themselves look a bit more moderate. The party's leader is also refusing to answer questions about one of their candidates' claims that vaccines cause AIDS. In a sane world this kind of evasive behaviour would hurt their chances, but the latest polls suggest that they're gaining popularity and are now slightly favoured to win. It's as if the perceived momentum the Cons have gotten since the collapse of BC United is triggering the herding instinct of the electorate to rally around the party that's making gains.

- Following a recent mandate, many federal civil servants in Canada have been ordered back into the office for a minimum of three days a week. The government is not ruling out further moves in this direction; it seems a strange choice, given that a lot of those workers are likely to be Liberal-NDP swing voters and may throw their lot in with the NDP out of frustration. There's a lot of discussion over on Reddit about this; some think the NDP could make big gains by campaigning on this, though I fear that this could alienate some of their traditional labour base who can't work from home due to the nature of their jobs. The commercial real estate angle is also prominent in those discussions; some in that same thread point out Mark Carney's role at Brookfield Corporation, which has rather a lot of those holdings. A more charitable take could be that a collapse in commercial real estate could be bad for the tax base of many municipalities, not to mention that things like pension plans are probably heavily invested in the same thing.

- California governor Gavin Newsom has followed through on his vow to veto the new AI safety bill passed by the legislature, saying that the bill could "stifle innovation" (presumably we're supposed to believe that innovation is a good in and of itself, as opposed to something that could be good or bad depending on the nature of the innovation) and "prompt AI developers to move out of the state". This is despite the urging of numerous people in the entertainment industry who signed an open letter calling for him to allow it to be passed; I guess tech trumps entertainment even in California though. It also comes despite disturbing revelations about the internal workings of OpenAI.

- To many observers, Donald Trump doesn't seem to be seriously trying to win the election. This does not make much sense in terms of his ego, much less in terms of the legal troubles he could face in the near future. It might, however, make sense if he is sufficiently confident that his pre-stacked Supreme Court will hand the presidency to him anyway.

- Clarence Woodhouse, who served 12 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, has finally been exonerated, more than a year after two equally innocent co-accused. His brother, who was also convicted of the crime, died in prison before he could be exonerated.

- Hockey has sometimes been described as "soccer on ice"; some parents at a kids' game in Hamilton last weekend seem to have taken that to its logical conclusion and brawled like soccer fans.

News roundup, 3 Oct 2024

- The House of Commons has passed a motion from the Bloc Quebecois that calls on the government to "take the necessary steps" to pass Bill C-319 and ensure it is signed into law. The Conservatives, NDP, and Greens all voted in favour of the motion, as did five Liberal MPs. The actual bill, a private member's bill introduced by the Bloc, would boost benefits for seniors aged 65 to 74; since it involves expenditures it cannot actually be passed without the support of the government. The bill is controversial, with some warning that it is a fiscal disaster waiting to happen.

- Manitoba premier Wab Kinew has apologized to the legal community for his comments related to the expulsion of Mark Wasyliw from the NDP caucus. The affair doesn't seem to have harmed the premier's popularity, though.

- Community health services in much of Manitoba could face significant disruptions as CUPE and MGEU threaten to go on strike effective October 8. MGEU head Kyle Ross believes a strike is likely based on the offers from Shared Health.

- As more disasters like Hurricane Helene take their toll, we can expect to see a lot of migration as people leave the most vulnerable areas. And once it starts, it will tend to feed on itself. Not everyone is equally mobile, though, and it's likely that those who don't leave early will be unable to sell their properties. Meanwhile the tax base in the affected areas will collapse, making it harder to cover costs associated with climate change even as those costs keep increasing.

- The US military is testing robot dogs with rifles. They say the robots will only be used against drones. And of course the US military would never lie about something like that, right?

- A Pickering man seems not to have realized that modern cars keep a record of when you overrev them and that manufacturers may not honour the warranty when you do that. You'd think he'd know better, being a student of auto mechanics...

News roundup, 2 Oct 2024

- Three young boys who disappeared Ontario last December have been recovered alive; their mother has been charged with abducting them. She has ties to Stand4Thee, a far-right organization dedicated to keeping sexual orientation and gender identity out of schools. The group was also involved with the infamous "Freedom Convoy". Putting two and two together, I have to assume that the motive was either to keep the kids out of public schools where they might be exposed to the real world, and/or to keep them from being vaccinated.

- A medical resident in Manitoba is calling for a restoration of the "return of service agreements" that were used in this province until the previous government got rid of them in 2017. These offer new medical graduates money (e.g. to pay off their student loans) on the condition that they agree to be deployed in underserved areas. Staff in the provincial health department are somewhat skeptical, saying that there is a "revolving door" effect where doctors stay only long enough to meet the terms of the agreement and leave; nonetheless, that would still seem to be preferable to not having doctors in those areas at all.

- A huge solar panel manufacturing facility has done wonders for the economy of Dalton, in northwestern Georgia. The company is a beneficiary of Joe Biden's climate legislation - but most of its employees plan to vote for Donald Trump, despite the latter's disdain for said legislation. When residents were asked about this, the only thing any of them could come up with as a reason to vote for Trump was "inflation"; I guess even in their less-evolved minds they know better than to talk to outsiders about the other reasons for voting for Trump.

- A man paralyzed in an accident was able to walk again thanks to the ReWalk Personal exoskeleton - until the device needed repairs. The manufacturer, Lifeward, refuses to do any repairs on any product of theirs over 5 years old - and is under no obligation to make it possible for anyone else to repair it either. Similar things have happened in the past with bionic eye implants.

- A Montana man conspired with others to obtain tissue from the Marco Polo Sheep from central Asia. This tissue was used to create a cloned sheep, which was then hybridized with other species to make huge hybrid sheep for "canned hunts". Unfortunately for him, his scheme fell afoul of the several laws, and he has received a 6 month jail sentence for his crimes.

- A man in Texas paid $4,000 at an auction for a Taylor Swift-inspired guitar, just so that he could destroy it and upload the video to TikTok.

News roundup, 1 Oct 2024

- Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist and former Mexico City mayor, has been elected as president of Mexico. She becomes the country's first female leader as well as its first Jewish one. While a protege of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, she does plan on going beyond AMLO's excessive emphasis on fossil fuels; we'll have to see.

- In 2019 the BC legislature unanimously passed legislation to implement the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among those who voted to pass it was an MLA by the name of John Rustad, then a member of the BC Liberals. Now, however, as leader of the BC Conservatives, he's vowing to repeal the legislation, claiming that the issues it was meant to address don't apply to Canada. And the property rights of resource companies are more important than indigenous rights anyway, right?

- Ukraine is accusing Russia of deliberately poisoning a river by dumping industrial wastes. The river in question, the Desna, connects with a reservoir that supplies water for millions of people.

- Germany reserves the right to deny a citizenship application on the basis of antisemitism. That's fair enough, especially given their history. However, some of the things that are taken as prima facie evidence of antisemitism include not only clear examples like Holocaust denial, but the use of slogans such as "from the river to the sea..." and "Israel, child murderer".

- The Manitoba government is reviewing the provincial Mental Health Act to find ways of reducing the role of police in dealing with people in a state of mental health crisis. Currently, only peace officers are able to carry out orders under the Act; given the toll this takes on police resources, not to mention the tendency of many cops to shoot first and ask questions later, the province is looking to change this.

- Caroline Giuliani, daughter of Rudy, has endorsed Kamala Harris in an article in Vanity Fair, saying "I’ve been grieving the loss of my dad to Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him too".