News roundup, 5 Feb 2025

- Five cases of measles have been confirmed in southern Manitoba; cases appear to be associated with a church in Winkler and are thought to be linked to an outbreak in Ontario.

- While Wab Kinew is deferring the ban on American alcohol until the threatened tariffs are imposed, he recognizes the need to diversify (or, as he put it, "Trump-proof") the Manitoba economy. This would ideally not only involve finding new markets but "getting better at making stuff". Of course this is a tall order, and probably should have started decades ago.

- In response to the 10% tariff imposed on China, that country has imposed tariffs of their own, as well as export controls on certain key metals and an anti-monopoly investigation of Google. The latter, in particular, is not uncalled for, though I don't think I'd trust the Chinese state to do a balanced investigation.

- State Farm Insurance is asking California's regulators to suspend their price controls so that the company, one of a diminishing number still offering fire insurance in the state, is able to cover payouts resulting from the recent catastrophic fires in Los Angeles. Specifically, they are asking to be allowed to raise insurance by 22% for single-family homes, 15% for condos, and 38% for renters' insurance. This is despite the fact that they requested even bigger increases last year. Of course this situation isn't likely to improve for decades, if at all, nor is it limited to California. How the American economy will weather millions of people walking away from their mortgages when they can't renew due to lack of insurance remains to be seen.

- Also on the subject of the California wildfires, Trump just ordered over eight billion litres of water that was being kept in reservoirs to be released, ostensibly to help fight the fires. Unfortunately, this water is going nowhere near Los Angeles, and moreover would likely have been more badly needed in the summer, which is often very dry. You'd almost think he was actually trying to damage California; while Trump himself probably isn't smart enough to know what he's doing, some of the people behind him are.

-  Robert Reich thinks that Trump's real motivation with his numerous erratic moves and statements is simply to show strength, and to create uncertainty that he could take advantage of. For his part, Gwynne Dyer thinks that while Trump's stated desire to annex Canada is not particularly realistic, Trump is dead serious about the matter, and that we need to start preparing for the worst.

- One positive from all this madness from south of the border is that Canadians are more united than they've been in decades. This is causing some consternation for the Conservatives, whose entire campaign plan could be summed up as "fuck Trudeau", "axe the [carbon] tax", and "Canada is broken". Since the first two slogans are now obsolete, it's nice to see the third one looking silly as well.

News roundup, 4 Feb 2025

- Donald Trump has agreed to defer the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for another month, following talks with Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum in order to give time for more negotiations. The 10% tariffs on China are still going ahead on schedule; in addition he also has the EU in his sights. The chaos of the on-again, off-again tariff threats has spooked markets; presumably Trump, Musk, and their cronies are buying on the dips. In Manitoba, the Kinew government is reciprocating with a pause on the removal of American liquor from stores. Meanwhile in BC, David Eby is considering a more substantive move (assuming the tariffs come back) - he wants to ensure that sales of energy and critical minerals are directed towards other markets.

- If the current uneasy truce fails to hold, one possible target of export restrictions could be potash. The US imports around 80% of their supply, and Canada controls some 40% of global reserves of this crucial fertilizer. The prospect of this worries Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who had requested that potash be exempted from the Trump tariffs.

- The Inspector General of the US Department of Agriculture, Phyllis Fong, was escorted from her office by security after refusing to leave voluntarily after Trump fired her. I'm sure the fact that her office had investigated one of Elon Musk's companies is totally coincidental...

- After the World Federation of Advertisers suspended advertising on Twitter/X, Elon Musk launched a lawsuit last year claiming that the federation and its members were unlawfully conspiring to deprive Musk's platform of revenue. He is now expanding the lawsuit to target several companies whose ads were removed from the platform.

- The European Union is continuing with a piecewise rollout of legislation to minimize the risks from artificial intelligence. Apps with certain kinds of functions, including cognitive behavioural manipulation, classifying people based on personal characteristics, and biometric identification and categorization of people, is banned outright. Sounds eminently reasonable, but there's a lot of hand-wringing from techbros in this Reddit thread about allegedly stifling innovation (mixed in with slightly more valid concerns that more harmful uses of AI will just be developed elsewhere anyway).

- An AI chatbot created by the Israelis to disrupt online discussion of the country's policies towards Palestinians has gone rogue, at times attacking the Israeli and American governments.

News roundup, 3 Feb 2025

- Donald Trump has followed through on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on nearly all imports from Canada. This is already having an impact in some places. The Trudeau government is responding by imposing tariffs on a number of American imports, including alcohol, vegetables, and clothing; they say there may be more to come. Unfortunately, Trump may not bend easily, especially if he is serious about annexing Canada. Meanwhile Manitoba and several other provinces are pulling all American alcohol from their shelves, while BC is responding with targeted bans against liquor from red states. And fans at an Ottawa Senators game booed the American national anthem at a game against the Minnesota Wild.

- Some of the people behind Trump have mused about abolishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Given that without the FDIC people's deposits would not be guaranteed, the very act of abolishing it could very well trigger bank runs. This might serve the interests of billionaires who want to buy assets cheaply, but not anyone else's.

- A letter to the US Senate purporting to come from physicians in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services was signed by a number of former doctors whose licenses were revoked, as well as a number of people who were never doctors in the first place.

- A Learjet 55 serving on a medivac flight from Philadelphia to Tijuana nosedived into the ground just after takeoff, killing all six people aboard the aircraft and at least one person on the ground. The aircraft had reached an altitude of just over 1,600 ft before the pilots lost control for reasons yet to be explained; radar data indicates that its rate of descent exceeded 11,000 ft/min when contact was lost.

- The last of the three soldiers on board the helicopter that collided with an airliner over the Potomac has been identified. Her family had initially asked that her name be withheld;  this naturally led to all sorts of speculation about her identity. Among these were false online statements identifying her as Jo Ellis, who is a transgender pilot with the Virginia National Guard. Ellis has gone public to make it clear that she's very much alive, though.

- One of the Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump has just received a 10 year sentence for impaired driving causing death. This comes just after it came out that another pardoned rioter is facing child sex abuse charges and that a third died in a gun battle with police. I daresay there seems to be some sort of pattern here.

- Montreal has brought in a partial ban on Airbnb and other short-term rental services in order to free up housing for people who actually need it. Such services will be prohibited entirely between September and June, with the exception of certain designated tourism streets.

News roundup, 31 Jan 2025

- No survivors have been found in the midair collision near DC, and none are expected. For his part, Donald Trump is blaming diversity efforts at the FAA. I'm sure Germany's leaders probably cast a few similar aspersions about the blame for the Hindenburg disaster as well. In actual fact, the FAA may well deserve some of the blame, not because of diversity but because of short-staffing - there was only a single controller working that night in one of the busiest and most complicated airspaces in the country.

- Trump is accusing the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, of causing inflation after the Fed decided to keep interest rates at their current level. On cue, he's also blaming DEI policies for the matter. No doubt Trump's supporters in Congress will be all too willing to pass the necessary legislation to weaken the independence of the central bank, assuming of course that Trump's attention span is long enough to keep him from moving on to something else before acting.

- One of Trump's executive orders mandates schools, among other things, to provide "patriotic education". The order even goes so far as to provide a definition:

(d)  “Patriotic education” means a presentation of the history of America grounded in:
(i)    an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles;
(ii)   a clear examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles throughout its history;
(iii)  the concept that commitment to America’s aspirations is beneficial and justified; and
(iv)   the concept that celebration of America’s greatness and history is proper.

Setting aside the fact that any characterizing of America's founding that is accurate and honest is almost certain not to be "unifying, inspiring, and ennobling", this whole thing sounds like it could have come straight out of the Chinese Communist Party.

- A bill before the Tennessee legislature would make make it illegal for legislators to vote in favour of immigration policies opposed by Trump, punishable by up to six years in prison and/or a $3,000 fine.

- Trump has purged the National Labor Relations Board; not only has he removed the board's general counsel (which is legal, since that is an "at pleasure" position), but he has also removed a board member who, according to legislation, has a fixed term. As a result, the board lacks a quorum and is unable to make rulings or certify union representation. Worse, since Trump is almost sure to get away with this, it is expected that he will take similar measures with other ostensibly independent government agencies.

- FCC chair Brendan Carr, appointed by Trump during his previous term (and notably not removed by the Biden administration) has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS, with the ultimate goal of slashing funding for the broadcasters.

- A priest in an Anglican splinter group has been defrocked after giving a Nazi salute during a speech at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington. Worth noting is the fact that the church in question, the Anglican Catholic Church, had actually split from the main Anglican communion because the latter wasn't sufficiently socially conservative. I guess even they have standards, though.

- Hot on the heels of one of those Dec. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump dying in a confrontation with police, it turns out that another of them is wanted for soliciting sex with a minor.

- A woman who recently died in Taber, Alberta turned out to have been a longtime fugitive from American and Mexican authorities. She was suspected of killing two people in Missouri, then after fleeing to Mexico was jailed for killing a man in a botched robbery but escaped from prison in 1969 and remained at large for the rest of her life.

News roundup, 30 Jan 2025

- A Bombardier CRJ-700 operated on behalf of American Airlines, carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew, has collided in midair with a US military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with a crew of 3 over the Potomac River near Washington, DC. Numerous fatalities have already been reported, and folks on Reddit who listen to scanners are saying that a few if any survivors are expected; EMS workers were apparently heard saying things like "Going to the firehouse to make sure the big refrigerator is turned on".

- Donald Trump has ordered his administration to look into the creation of a "national digital asset stockpile". This falls short of what the hardcore crypto bros were hoping for, which was the immediate creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve; nonetheless, the price of bitcoin briefly surged following the announcement before dropping again.

- The Trump administration, who had earlier ordered a temporary pause in a lot of federal funding, has now rescinded this following a court order. They still plan to review spending, however, and it's a safe bet that they will still make a lot of cuts, while telling people whose programs didn't get cut how lucky they are.

- Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany's Christian Democrats, has managed to push a motion on immigration through the country's parliament with the support of AfD. The motion is nonbinding, but has aroused great concern about the precedent set by cooperating with the far right. Chancellor Olaf Sholz called the move "an unforgivable mistake"; in any case, Sholz's Social Democrats as well as the Greens say that implementing the policy would violate German as well as EU law on refugees.

- Americans are souring somewhat on some of Donald Trump's policies, according to a new poll. Unfortunately, it's a bit late for that now.

- Parks Canada has concluded that it's probably too late to eradicate Zebra Mussels from Clear Lake in Manitoba's Riding Mountain National Park. As a result, the watercraft ban that had been placed on the lake will be lifted, albeit with under a "one boat, one lake" policy. How this policy is to be enforced is not clear.

- Former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting gifts from foreign governments; said gifts included a brand new Mercedes-Benz as well as cash and gold bullion. Menendez represented New Jersey, a place that makes Quebec look like Norway in comparison.

- A brawl broke out at a meeting in Thornton Township, IL on Tuesday night. One of the combatants was the mayor's boyfriend, who had recently been hired by the municipality to run a youth program but had been put on leave as a result of a motion put through by a newly elected trustee.

News roundup, 29 Jan 2025

- A total of 6 candidates have been approved to run for the Liberal Party leadership. A seventh, Nepean MP Chandra Arya, will not be permitted to run, for reasons that are not being made public; some on this Reddit thread are alleging that far-right influencers have been telling their followers to join the party ad vote for Arya, though, which just might have something to do with it. For her part, Chrystia Freeland says she's running against the "Ottawa establishment", which does sound a bit rich coming from someone who served as one of Trudeau's top cabinet ministers from the beginning of his prime ministership. Not to say that the only other candidate anyone's heard of, Mark Carney, isn't establishment; he's more "international establishment" than "Ottawa establishment", though. Not sure which is worse in the eyes of the kind of voter Poilievre is going after.

- The public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections has found no evidence of "traitors" in Parliament; while there was some evidence of attempts by foreign interests to "curry favour" with MPs, no evidence was found of MPs helping. For his part, Charlie Angus is calling for Elections Canada to investigate possible interference by Elon Musk and X. Given that Musk seems to have no compunction about such interference, this is an eminently reasonable request.

- One of the few things Doug Ford has in common with David Eby, policy-wise, is a willingness to ban American alcohol from his province if Trump goes ahead with his threatened tariffs. And as in BC, some bars and restaurants are uneasy about this, complaining that some of their top-selling cocktails can't be made without bourbon. Nonetheless, I have to give credit where credit is due; Ford has done the right thing here, showing that he is at least no lower than the third worst premier in the country after Danielle Smith and Scott Moe. The impact may be noticeable - the LCBO is one of the biggest buyers of alcohol in the world (though not the undisputed #1 that it once was).

- School districts in the US are trying to figure out how to respond when immigration officers show up at their schools (possibly for kids born in the US but whose citizenship is no longer recognized by the current administration).

- Google has reclassified the US as a "sensitive country", meaning one that gets really worked up when you don't call things by the name they prefer (like how China gets when an airline lists "Taipei, Taiwan" instead of "Taipei, China" as a destination). Presumably this is why they've given in to pressure from the administration and accepted the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

- Gwynne Dyer would like to remind us that for the most part countries still take international law seriously, even if there are a few exceptions (Rwanda, Russia, US, etc.)

- Calgary is planning a new LRT line. Since that sort of thing does not sit well with the provincial government, due to running contrary to the interests of the only people the UCP cares about, the province imposed limits on the project that amount to a poison pill. City council, though, recognizing that the line is needed regardless, has voted to move ahead with the project anyway.

- When office space becomes vacant, it's not always feasible to convert it into apartments due to design constraints for residences. An alternative, though, is to use it for food production instead.

- The prospect of a casino opening in Tysons Corner, Virginia (a short drive from Washington) is causing unease in some former intelligence officers. They figure that, James Bond movies notwithstanding, having your spies, military, and defense contractors get the gambling bug is not a good thing from a security standpoint. It would be interesting to know who is bankrolling this casino and/or lobbying in its favour.

News roundup, 28 Jan 2024

- The latest poll from EKOS has the Liberals recovering some lost support. The party now sits at 32%, only seven points shy of the Conservatives, and is statistically tied with them in Ontario. Perhaps Poilievre's courting of the MAGA crowd will turn out to be his downfall? Doubtful, but stay tuned.

- Following Mexico's refusal to accept a deportation flight, Colombia attempted to follow suit, only to cave after Trump threatened the country with massive tariffs. Nice coffee industry you've got, it would be a shame if something happened to it...

- The EU's top military official believes that EU countries should station their own troops in Greenland instead of leaving the military presence on the island to the Americans. I guess until now it never occurred to them that they might have to defend the territory from the Americans.

- A man arrested in the UK on hacking charges has claimed to have been hired by ExxonMobil to obtain information from environmental activists - including people assisting in lawsuits against energy companies.

- The introduction by China of the low-cost DeepSeek AI chatbot has caused panic selling of AI-related stocks in the US.

- An Indiana man who was among the Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump has been shot dead in a traffic stop after allegedly resisting arrest.

- The CIA, which had previously been skeptical of the "lab leak" theory of the origin of COVID-19, has suddenly reversed their stance. I'm sure their new Trump-appointed director has something to do with this.

- BC premier David Eby has proposed a ban on the sale of American alcohol in the province as a response to Donald Trump's tariff threats. The proposal is getting good reviews from domestic alcohol producers, but some industry groups are alarmed by the idea - the B.C. Alliance of Beverage Licensees has expressed concerns that it could reduce selection for consumers (but then, that's kind of the point here). They also fear that it could force some bars to import more expensive products from elsewhere and thus cut into their profits.

- Toronto Animal Services have seized a Spectacled Caiman that was being kept as a pet. Caimans are relatives of alligators, and can grow to more than 2 metres in length. Apparently the owner had kept it for 12 years without knowing it was prohibited in the city; the animal has been turned over to a reptile zoo outside of Peterborough.

News roundup, 27 Jan 2024

- Advisers to UK prime minister Keir Starmer were reportedly left in "tears of laughter" after hearing a phone conversation between their boss and Donald Trump. Across the North Sea, however, Danish officials were not so amused, saying that Trump was "aggressive and confrontational" in discussing the status of Greenland with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen. The Danes had previously been fairly dismissive of Trump's musings, but are described as "utterly freaked out" by the president's aggression. Some in this Reddit thread think that part of the issue is that Trump has a hard time being told no by anyone, but especially by a woman. For his part, Trump says the failure to turn the territory over to the US would be a "very unfriendly act". One thing is clear - if he does decide to use military force to take the island, there's little that could stop him - not even Article 5 of the NATO treaty, for it requires unanimity among NATO members in order to compel action. The fact that the US was the aggressor apparently wouldn't disqualify them from the vote - apparently nobody thought to consider the possibility of aggression between NATO members, so they didn't make a rule about that when they drew up the treaty.

- Trump is openly calling for ethnic cleansing in Gaza, suggesting "We just clean out that whole thing" and asking for Jordan to take in the territory's residents.

- Days after ordering an end to his country's membership in the World Health Organization, the president is having second thoughts about his decision. Perhaps there's still one or two people around him that can talk sense into him; how long that situation will last remains to be seen, though.

- Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's centre-right Christian Democratic Union, wants to introduce an immigration bill and has expressed willingness to work with anyone in order to get it passed, including the far-right AfD. This is raising additional fears that the "cordon sanitaire", the unwritten rule in most of Europe that you don't work with Nazis, is breaking down and that the CDU might be willing to seek AfD support to form a government after the coming election.

- US Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to head any division of the US military, has been removed by the Trump administration. An official quoted by Fox News attributed her sacking to "excessive focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion" as well as failure to address "border security threats"; just as likely, though, the MAGA crowd wanted her gone simply because she was a woman leading one of the armed services.

- The Anti-Defamation League, perhaps realizing that their initial handling of Elon Musk's Nazi salute with kid gloves was not a good look for a Jewish organization that claims to be all about promoting human rights, is now being a tiny bit more critical, calling Musk's gesture an "inappropriate and highly offensive joke". I guess that's a bit of an improvement, but I'm not so sure he was joking.

- Mark Carney seems to be the front runner in the federal Liberal leadership race, at least among MPs. He has won the endorsements of 16 cabinet members, while Chrystia Freeland has gained five. Another prospective candidate, Nepean MP Chandra Arya, has had his run blocked by the party for reasons that have not been made public.

- A Hamilton man who attempted to rob a bank, but came away empty-handed, was forced to flee on foot after the bike he had left waiting for him outside the bank was stolen; evidently there is no honour among thieves. Both the would-be robber and the bike thief remain at large.

News roundup, 24 Jan 2025

- Solar power generated 11% of all electricity in the European Union in 2024, having overtaken coal's 10%. Wind power (17%), exceeded natural gas (16%) for the second year in a row, and gas experienced its fifth year of decline. The combined output of solar, wind, and hydroelectricity now accounts for 47% of the federation's power grid. Besides the obvious climate benefits, this saved the bloc €59 billion in fossil fuel imports last year (and no doubt is making the Russians very angry indeed).

- A judge has temporarily blocked Donald Trump's executive order in which he tried to do away with birthright citizenship. Judge John C. Coughenour (who ironically received his first judicial appointment from Ronald Reagan) characterized the order as "blatantly unconstitutional", saying "I've been on the bench for four decades, I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is". Of course, Trump will no doubt direct the Justice Department to appeal until they get a judge that he appointed during his last presidential term...

- The National Institutes of Health cancelled numerous scientific meetings that had been scheduled, with little explanation. The meetings, called "study sections", are supposed to be held on a regular basis to help plan where to focus scientific research for the greatest benefit. Of course, stuff like that is seen as un-American by the MAGA crowd, so it's no great surprise that the Trump administration is doing away with them. Neither is the fact that Trump has withdrawn from the World Health Organization; MAGA also believe that "international" is a four letter word.

- The Conservative opposition in BC seems to be siding with Danielle Smith against Premier David Eby (and every other premier in the country, even Saskatchewan's Scott Moe) on the matter of how to handle the threat of massive tariffs being placed on Canadian exports to the US. Party leader John Rustad attacked Eby for his support of retaliatory tariffs, saying that he was being "too combative" and would "expand" the trade war just by talking about it. One thing that is worthy of note - because of the way pipelines are routed through the US, the Americans could potentially retaliate against any escalation by cutting off the supply of Alberta oil to eastern Canada. Stuff like this is probably why Doug Ford wants to get an election out of the way before major economic disruption occurs.

- Trump is vowing to "demand" that the Federal Reserve drop interest rates immediately. Of course, the independence of the central bank is ensured by actual legislation; that said, Trump's puppets have control of both houses of Congress as well as the Supreme Court, so he will be able to get it done eventually if his attention can focus on the matter long enough. Or maybe it's just another of his hollow threats to distract the public's attention from what he and his cronies actually doing.

- CNN has announced that they will be laying off around 200 people, representing about 6% of their staff. NBC are also expected to announce some layoffs soon, albeit a smaller number. This is not expected to affect too many recognizable figures, who are mostly under contract, but a lot of the most important work in a big news organization is by researchers and fact checkers, and I wouldn't be surprised if people like that account for a lot of the layoffs. Pity, because they're needed more than ever.

- A sociology professor from the University of New Brunswick was scheduled to speak at the Washington, DC launch of his new book The End of College Football, but learned that he was barred from the US as he attempted to board his flight. He believes the ban was motivated by his pro-Palestinian comments.

- Some Facebook and Instagram users, both in the US and abroad, are finding that their accounts are spontaneously following Trump's and Vance's accounts. Some are even finding themselves unable to unfollow the accounts. This is not universal; it hasn't happened to me, for instance (perhaps they're worried that I'm going to blog about it).

News roundup, 23 Jan 2025

- Many of Donald Trump's promised changes would require a major overhaul of how government works. In particular, the political independence of various government agencies is in the firing line, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission, and potentially the military as well. This could potentially enable the Trump regime to, for instance, follow through on hints that he might get the FCC to pull the licenses of broadcasters that are insufficiently loyal to the regime (which might explain why a CBS affiliate in Wisconsin just fired their meteorologist for calling Musk out on his Nazi salute), or to purge the military of generals that are too "woke". And, of course, Trump has ordered all federal staff devoted to anything that he lumps under "DEI" to be put on administrative leave (with permanent dismissal expected to follow).

- One of the prisoners pardoned by Trump is Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road website on the "dark web". Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on charges related to facilitating drug trafficking, hacking, and money laundering; he was also alleged to be involved in up to six homicides. But he's a hero to the crypto bros, so obviously he had to be released.

- The White House has removed the US Constitution from its website; they insist that it will be back soon. No word on whether the new page will say "no animal may kill another without cause", though.

- Despite the new administration's attack on clean energy, many in the industry say that progress is unstoppable. Whether this is true or just an attempt to put on a brave face, one thing is clear - China is moving full steam ahead on solar and wind power in any case; in addition to the climate costs of delays in the US, the Americans will risk permanently ceding the industry to the Chinese if they don't change course.

- Germany's parliament will be debating a bill to ban the far-right AfD. Under Germany's constitution, for such legislation to be legal it must be shown that the party is "aggressively opposed" to the constitution itself. The bill is supported by the Social Democrats, Greens, and Left Party. Some members of the centre-right Christian Democrats also favour the move, but not all - one senior CDU MP fears that this could "allow the AfD to represent itself as martyrs".

- The ceasefire in Gaza was followed shortly thereafter by a major military operation in the West Bank; in addition to the above-board operations there are reports of rampages by Israeli settlers in Palestinian villages in the territory.

- A planned ecological corridor along the Little Saskatchewan River in western Manitoba has been cancelled following an outburst of populist rage from the locals.

- Amazon is closing its warehousing facilities in Quebec and laying off around 1,500 people. The company is returning to the contracted-out delivery model that they used in the province before 2020. They insist that it's not because the facility recently unionized, but not too many people believe them.

- A US border patrol agent was fatally shot in Vermont close to the border with Quebec during a traffic stop; the killing is under investigation.

News roundup, 22 Jan 2025

- Donald Trump has issued pardons for over 1,500 rioters who participated in the Jan 6 coup attempt, as well as commuting the sentences of several leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were imprisoned for their part in the putsch.

- European leaders are not giving up on the Paris agreement despite the US withdrawal. This is reassuring, but it should be noted that Europe is not immune to the kind of madness that has swept the US (some may recall that they had problems of that kind before). And those problems just keep threatening to come back. Austria's centre-left, centrist, and centre-right parties just failed to piece together a coalition following last September's election, meaning that the far right Freedom Party (FPÖ) will have a crack at forming government. There are fears that Germany could be at risk of a similar takeover.

- French President Emmanuel Macron is concerned at the possibility of the US withdrawing forces from Europe, perhaps to focus on China, and called for EU countries to increase their defense spending. That in itself would be fair enough; more worrisome is the fact that Macron, who is in command of the world's third largest combat-ready nuclear arsenal, is talking about possibly sending troops to Ukraine, which while easy to sympathize with would pose unacceptable escalation risks. Evidently too many people have forgotten the lessons of Cold War era war simulations like Proud Prophet, which among other things concluded that "relying on escalation as a means of conflict resolution" would likely lead to all-out nuclear war.

- Another of Trump's executive orders blocks the leasing of any federal land for wind farms, and could potentially even lead to the removal of existing ones by not renewing their leases.

- For all you can say about Joe Biden's handling of the Israel-Palestine situation, he did at least impose sanctions on far-right settler leaders in the West Bank. Yet another of Trump's executive orders has lifted those sanctions, though.

- The Manitoba RCMP has deployed a Black Hawk helicopter to the Canada-US border to monitor the smuggling of people and other commodities across the border, perhaps in an attempt to placate the US.

- A Winnipeg man has pleaded guilty to several offenses, including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, mischief over $5,000, and assaulting a police officer following a crack- and meth-fuelled rampage with an excavator at a water treatment plant, which caused damage to 5 buildings, as well as several vehicles and pieces of heavy equipment.

News roundup, 21 Jan 2024

- Well, it's now official - Donald Trump is President of the United States once again. In preparation for this, Joe Biden issued last-minute preemptive pardons to public health physician Anthony Fauci and former Joint Chiefs of Staff director Mark Milley, as well as all of the members of Congress who served on the Jan. 6 committee, some staff of said members of Congress, and some DC police officers who testified at committee hearings. He also pardoned members of his own family, suspecting (probably rightly) that there's no limit to how low the Trump administration will go to exact revenge on their perceived enemies. In addition he has commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier to house arrest, much to the annoyance of outgoing FBI director Christopher Wray.

- Trump, for his part, seems to be following through on his promise to be a dictator; he has a huge number of executive orders lined up already. Among these are withdrawing (again) from the Paris climate agreement, declaring a "national energy emergency" in order to get around environmental legislation, an attempt to find a workaround for the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in order to end birthright citizenship for those born in the US to undocumented parents, and cancelling the TikTok ban. This last order evidently did not come soon enough for one teen in Wisconsin, who is accused of torching the office of a congressman who voted for the ban. In so doing the lad inadvertently made one of the best arguments in favour of the ban.

- One executive order that Trump did not issue on the first day was his threatened 25% tariff on Canadian goods. He's still saying, though, that tariffs could come shortly.

- Elon Musk was not subtle in how he expressed his enthusiasm in the leadup to Trump's inauguration. The crowd were evidently unfazed by this - to the contrary, they seem to have been swept up in his enthusiasm. The ADL, usually the first to fulminate about the slightest whiff of antisemitism, seem strangely reluctant to condemn him for this; perhaps they hope the Trump administration will be useful to them in their efforts to defend the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. On the other hand, maybe they (like so many others) just terrified of what will happen if they cross him.

- Scientists are calling for the United Nations to take on the space junk problem, as it is a matter of critical importance to humanity as a whole. Of course, you can be sure that Elon Musk will resist this by any means necessary, and acting against the perceived interests of their biggest source of funding has not historically been one of the UN's strengths.

- The International Criminal Court fears an intensive sanctions regime by the new administration, possibly including a prohibition for American companies to do business with the court. This could include banking, but also IT - and like most large organizations, the ICC is highly dependent on Microsoft software. In an ideal world, of course, this would be resolved by a comprehensive switchover to open-source software, but (as recent events make apparent) this is not an ideal world. Such a shift is not the sort of thing that can be done overnight, and depending on the whims of Trump, "overnight" could well be what is needed to keep the court functioning. Of course existing software would continue to work, but security updates might well not be forthcoming - and without security updates, state-sponsored hackers (whether from the US, China, Israel, Russia, or goodness knows where) would have a much easier time at, say, finding the identity of witnesses.

- Donald and Melania Trump each launched their own cryptocurrencies, a day apart. The website of the company that has the largest holdings in these products has an interesting bit of fine print saying that they are not an investment or security but "an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol '$TRUMP'." Of course, it's a safe bet that most of the rubes who buy these products don't read this, and moreover that they will believe Trump when he inevitably says that the only reason they're losing value is because the evil globalists are shorting them. Interestingly, this is a source of alarm to serious crypto enthusiasts, who fear that the reputation of cryptocurrencies in general could suffer; if that does come to pass I'll file it under "silver linings", though.

- American activists are seriously wondering if mass protest has any future as a tactic against the Trump regime. As one activist wondered, "Is the goal to demonstrate you are an activist and to self-actualize, or is the goal to actually effect change?" Many are seeing the need to "get creative" and work on a smaller scale. Not sure what "getting creative" might entail, but given that this is the US we're talking about there's a good chance that at least some of these measures will involve violence.

News roundup, 20 Jan 2025

- As expected, both Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney have announced their candidacy for the federal Liberal leadership. Health Minister Mark Holland and Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Diane Lebouthillier have endorsed Freeland, while Holland has the support of several backbenchers but no ministers so far. Globe and Mail columnist Robyn Urback notes that Carney might benefit from having a greater distance from Trudeau's policies and personality; while nothing is likely to keep the Liberals in government, the party's time in the political wilderness might be shorter under Carney than Freeland.

- The pundits are still trying to work out what's behind Donald Trump's obsession with Greenland. One hypothesis is that this centres around security concerns. Greenland has deepwater harbours that might be seen as necessary to maintain a military presence in the area; while the US already has full access to this, there are concerns in some circles that an independent Greenland might not continue with Denmark's tolerance of this. Perhaps more significant, though, is the prospect for harvesting resources left behind as the ice cap melts; in addition to such things as rare-earth metals, there is the debris left behind by the glaciers themselves, known as "rock flour", which has proven to be useful for improving the productivity of agricultural soils - something that will no doubt be crucial in the coming decades, and which the Americans most definitely want a part of.

- An oil embargo might be the strongest response Canada can make to the tariffs Trump is vowing to impose on imports, as the costs of retooling refineries to use oil from other sources would be high. Of course, this would cost the Canadian oil industry dearly, since there are few other places to export the oil to; of course this is the reason Danielle Smith is so intransigent on the matter. There's also the scenario envisioned by Richard Rohmer in his 1973 novel Ultimatum, but you'd hope it wouldn't come to that...

- The US Supreme Court has upheld the bipartisan legislation that bans TikTok from being downloaded in that country as of today. In fact, even existing American users are finding that the app is not working for them; perhaps the company is hoping that this will strengthen opposition to the ban. Some critics think that notwithstanding the concerns raised about espionage, the real motivation may be to do the bidding of Silicon Valley; however, the fact that Trump isn't so sure about upholding the ban suggests otherwise, given that Silicon Valley has their own representative pulling many of Trump's strings.

- The Gaza ceasefire has taken effect. Whether it will last long enough for anything more than for the two sides to reload remains to be seen.

- Apparently it's become trendy for people in the US to give their sons weapon-related names such as Wesson, Caliber, and even Gunner (not to be confused with Gunnar, which is a legitimate name in Scandinavian culture). One hypothesis is that this is a hope on the parents' part to nip any less-than-masculine tendencies in the bud.

News roundup, 17 Jan 2024

- The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas (which both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are trying to take credit for) has experienced a last-minute hiccup after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu delayed the cabinet meeting where this was supposed to be ratified. Netanyahu claims that Hamas made demands for a "last minute concession"; Hamas denies this, and Netanyahu refuses to discuss what part of the agreement Hamas has reneged on. Extremist members of his cabinet had allegedly threatened to resign if the agreement is ratified, which would bring down the government and possibly end Netanyahu's premiership - and with it the protection from prosecution that he has enjoyed until now. In any case, these issues seem to have been contained; Netanyahu now expects the deal to be approved today.

- South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, who is suspended pending his impeachment trial in the country's Constitutional Court, has been arrested following a lengthy standoff, something that has never previously happened to a sitting president in the country.

- Residents of the Ukrainian city of Kherson are accusing Russian drone pilots of using civilians for target practice. Local officials say that at least 16 people have been killed and 144 injured in this way.

- The City of Winnipeg has cancelled a plan to save money for the snow clearing budget by deferring residential plowing until 15 cm of snow have fallen, instead of the current 10 cm. Mayor Scott Gillingham says that his office received more complaints about this proposal than about a planned tax increase.

- China's demand for oil seems to have peaked in 2023; an increase in aviation fuel consumption was more than offset by a decrease in other fuel use, as surface transportation has been increasingly electrified. This is good news for the climate, though nowhere near good enough to prevent an awful lot of bad stuff in the coming decades. I suspect it's got the Russians worried too.

- A Donald Trump campaign rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota last summer has left the city wondering how to collect on a $209,000 bill for measures taken to accommodate the rally. Trump's campaign says the costs are the responsibility of the Secret Service; the SS, for their part, claim that the agency "lacks a mechanism" to reimburse states or municipalities for these costs.

- Trump wants to stop the impending TikTok ban, presumably because no other social media platform is as effective at rallying the sheeple for him.

- A SpaceX rocket disintegrated shortly after launch, forcing several flights to alter their courses to avoid falling debris. In response Elon Musk, trying to put the best possible face on the situation, tweeted that "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!"

- The Washington Post has scrapped the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" in favour of a new one, "Riveting Storytelling for All of America". Because journalism is just storytelling, right? I guess in Trump's America, Jeff Bezos doesn't want it to be more than that - certainly not any journalism that the administration can associate with him, lest he fall out a window or something. One is also reminded of Google's abandonment of their old motto "don't be evil" a few years back.

- An employee of a flight training school in St. Andrews, Manitoba was severely injured after attempting to hand-prop an aircraft and getting hit by the propeller.

News roundup, 16 Jan 2025

- Premiers of all Canadian provinces and territories, with the glaring exception of Alberta's Danielle Smith, have pledged to stand together on the tariff threat from the incoming Trump administration. Smith is unwilling to accept any measures that have even the slightest impact on Alberta's oil and gas exports.

- Transcona MLA and Minister of Education Nello Altomare has died at the age of 61, apparently as a result of complications from chemotherapy after being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

- Chrystia Freeland is expected to announce her candidacy for the Liberal leadership this week. Meanwhile two MPs - Chandra Arya and Jaime Battiste - as well as former MP Frank Baylis have already announced that they're in the running - not that anyone's noticed.

- The City of Winnipeg will need to implement zoning changes in order to qualify for federal money for the much-needed upgrade of the North End sewage treatment plant. Specifically, the city will need to allow four units per lot; this does not sit well with some of the more NIMBY-friendly councillors, though.

- Manitoba's new homelessness strategy is getting good reviews from many, though not all, organizations that are dedicated to the issue. Detractors include University of Winnipeg professor Shauna MacKinnon, who has concerns about the fact that established residents in Manitoba Housing may be moved on, possibly into more precarious housing situations, in order to make way for people with more immediate needs; this could be problematic given the low vacancy rate in the city.

- Ontario premier Doug Ford is musing about calling an early election, ostensibly in order to secure a mandate to take action to address Donald Trump's tariff threats. Many question the need for an election in order to take action; more likely, Ford sees bad economic times coming due to the tariffs and wants to ensure he's reelected before that happens.

- While fires ravage the Los Angeles area, the Bay Area city of Pacifica has a different climate-related problem - increased erosion from tides due to sea level rise threatens to destroy the coastline and the houses built there. The situation is sufficiently dire that there is talk of "managed retreat", i.e. moving residents and public infrastructure away from the coast, but not surprisingly this is a highly divisive topic - so much so that police have had to be called to council meetings to keep the peace. Nor is the problem limited to that city, state, or country - on the other side of the planet, the community of Port Waikato in New Zealand is facing similar concerns. The very term "managed retreat" is becoming politically toxic in some places, and there are attempts to rebrand it as "resilient relocation" in the hope of sounding less defeatist - even if defeatism is the only rational response in many such situations.

- RFK Jr. has been slow to admit how much money he's made promoting anti-vaccine disinformation. The antivax nonprofit he founded, Children’s Health Defense, earned him $1.2 million, considerably more than he had previously stated.

- The California Air Resources Board was hoping to phase out diesel trucks and impose strict emission restrictions on locomotives, and had applied to the EPA for permission to do so. Unfortunately approval didn't come in time, and they're now withdrawing the request in the face of the incoming Trump administration (which would doubtless veto the move).

- Israel and Hamas have signed a ceasefire agreement; the agreement has yet to be approved by Israel's cabinet though. Netanyahu seems to be getting cold feet about the deal, presumably realizing that he needs to stay at war to stay in office and out of prison. Meanwhile, the bombs keep dropping as usual.

- The former mayor of Woodstock, Ontario, Trevor Birtch, has been convicted on two of three sexual assault charges he was facing. Prosecution errors led to a mistrial on a separate, unrelated sexual assault charge; an impaired driving charge against him is scheduled to be heard next month.

News roundup, 15 Jan 2024

- Special Counsel Jack Smith has delivered a report to Attorney General Merrick Garland outlining the evidence against Donald Trump related to the Jan. 6 putsch and the hoarding of classified documents. Smith says that the evidence was sufficiently strong to convict Trump had the case gone to trial, but unfortunately that is now moot as the cases have been dropped.

- There are more signs that Mark Carney plans to seek the federal Liberal leadership, with a report that some 30 MPs are willing to back him. Liberal house leader Karina Gould is also expected to announce a run for the party leadership shortly; meanwhile Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and former B.C. premier Christy Clark have announced that they will not be running. Clark was apparently planning a run but has decided not to following revelations that she misspoke herself when she said she'd never been a member of the Conservative Party.

- Janice Morley-Lecomte, who served as Minister of Mental Health and Community Wellness under Heather Stefanson, has been nominated as the federal Conservative candidate in Winnipeg South. She probably has a good chance of unseating Liberal MP Terry Duguid.

- Wally Daudrich, a businessman and candidate for the leadership of the Manitoba Tories, is in damage control mode after his campaign shared someone else's Facebook post, which just happened to contain a comment on the necessity to keep Obby Khan, a Muslim, from winning the leadership. Daudrich's campaign manager tried to downplay the issue, pointing out that the post in question originally came from outside the campaign, but it definitely raises questions about the kind of people he attracts.

- Quebec-based pilot Pascal Duclos flown water bombers for many years, and has worked 14 seasons in California alone, but he says he's never seen conditions like he's seeing now. Of course the fact that this time it's a huge sprawling city that's burning, plus the fact that the Santa Ana winds are still gusting up to 70 km/h and idiots are flying drones in the path of the planes, would tend to make for a challenging job. In related news, 93 seniors had to be evacuated from an Los Angeles care home shortly before the structure was consumed in flames. The director the facility was dreading the possibility of having to decide who would be saved, and no doubt had the fate of some residents of the Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina gnawing at the back of her mind. And the major record labels are cancelling all Grammy-related events; for showbiz to be impacted in L.A. of all places you know things are bad.

- A home security camera in PEI has been credited with the first known video and audio recording of a meteorite impact.

- A wandering senior in Guelph, Ontario was successfully located and brought home with the help of a tracking bracelet. While many praise the program for saving lives, some are also a bit uncomfortable about the privacy implications.

News roundup, 14 Jan 2024

- Donald Trump is claiming that the US needs nothing from Canada, even as Canadian firefighters are playing key roles in the fight against wildfires in California. Part of Trump's bluster, of course, has nothing to do with the fires and everything to do with the exports that will become considerably more expensive if Trump goes ahead with his tariff plans. However, a case can be made for the idea that the assistance Canada is providing for California is part of what Trump is talking about - many Republicans actually want California to suffer, and Canada is, in a small way, getting in the way of that.

- There is a frenzied rush across the US to get solar panels installed before the incoming Trump administration has the chance to cancel the tax credits for their installation. Meanwhile, his vow to prevent the installation of any more wind turbines is meeting with the approval of Germany's far-right AfD. Presumably the idea of big strong Aryan men digging coal out of the ground appeals to that party's rank and file members, while the idea of keeping Germany dependent on Russian natural gas appeals to its leadership. Despite all this, though, it's hard to keep good ideas down indefinitely; renewables constitute the vast majority of new power installation in the US, and electric cars are unlikely to be stopped either. Both will, however, be slowed down sufficiently that climate change over the next century or so will be far worse than it otherwise would have to be, and millions if not billions of people will suffer as a result.

- Jenni Byrne, a senior advisor to Pierre Poilievre, is singling out former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole for criticism. Why? Because O'Toole, upon hearing of Liberal cabinet minister Anita Anand's decision to step down, made a gracious if anodyne "thank you for your service" tweet, and apparently being gracious towards political opponents is simply beyond the pale for modern conservatives.

- Mark Carney seems to be interested in the federal Liberal leadership; he made an appearance on Jon Stewart's Daily Show last night. While he did not definitively say he was going to run, there were some hints. Presumably he plans to play the long game, running in a safe seat in the coming election and dragging the party back from the brink to take power again after a couple of Tory terms.

- A pilot study to move towards a four day workweek is getting favourable reviews in Germany. Under the scheme, workers get the same pay as before, but get an extra day off during the week; nearly three quarters of companies participating in the scheme intend to continue with it. The reason, counterintuitive though it might seem, is that productivity has actually increased. The frequency and duration of meetings has been reduced by 60%, which might have something to do with the increase in productivity. It's worth noting that the article doesn't give much in the way of details regarding the kind of companies participating in the study; many folks on Reddit strongly suspect that this is skewed in favour of white-collar jobs and fear that this could worsen some social divides.

- Mark Zuckerberg, having already declared the intent to eliminate fact checking for posts on Facebook and Instagram, also wants Donald Trump to somehow stop the EU from making him follow their own rules. He has also gone on Joe Rogan's podcast to declare that corporations need more "masculine energy"; whether he sees the fascists on the ascendance and wants to stay in their good books by saying stuff like that, or whether this is something he's always believed and just feels more comfortable saying so now, I don't know, but neither interpretation looks good on him.

News roundup, 13 Jan 2025

- At least 24 people are now confirmed to have died in the wildfires sweeping the Los Angeles area, and 12,000 structures have been destroyed. Officials warn that everyone in Los Angeles County - population 10 million - should be prepared to evacuate at short notice. Notably, one climate scientist saw this coming years ago, and moved out of the area in 2022. Probably a wise move, since the risks are only going to get worse for the foreseeable future, and people leaving now may have a hard time selling their properties - especially if prospective buyers can't get affordable insurance. Elon Musk, on cue, is saying that this is all because of woke fire departments hiring black people. Meanwhile idiots playing with drones are interfering with firefighting efforts. On a more positive note, a Winnipeg firefighter who was on vacation in LA has risen to the occasion - he, along with his girlfriend and their host, got to work and have been credited with saving several houses.

- The prospect of the next federal election coming earlier than expected has worried several housing organizations, who fear that the almost certain defeat of the Trudeau government will cut off funding for their organizations.

- The fact that there seems to be a fair bit of lithium in Greenland has led to speculation that this may be the real reason why the incoming Trump administration is so interested in taking over the territory.

- Ryanair is calling for a two drink limit for alcohol sales at airports, to avoid situations like a recent case where one of their flights was diverted due to a drunken idiot, which the airline says cost them €15,000. Of course, when your business model consists of trying to pack as many soccer hooligans as possible onto an airplane, you have to expect troubles like this.

- A Winnipeg man who spotted a broken window on his vehicle investigated and found a man sleeping in the car. The man was armed with a machete and an air pistol; he faces several charges.

News roundup, 10 Jan 2024

- Economic losses from the fires in the Los Angeles area are now estimated to be at least $135 billion. Thousands of buildings, including celebrities' homes, have been destroyed; at least five people have died.

- Justin Trudeau now calls abandoning electoral reform his "biggest regret". And indeed, it was one of the more regrettable aspects of his tenure; too bad he's only acknowledging this now when there's no time to do anything about it. Of course, up until recently he didn't have to worry about his party being pushed into third place; coincidentally, the Liberals had fewer seats than the NDP at the time they promised electoral reform in the first place. And it turns out that his decision to abandon electoral reform came not long after a committee recommended some form of proportional system, rather than the instant-runoff system preferred by the Liberals. Meanwhile the party plans to have Trudeau's replacement selected by March 9, giving the winner 15 days before Parliament reconvenes (and probably votes non-confidence in the government).

- Elon Musk has heaped praise on Pierre Poilievre. This should come as no surprise to anyone, of course, except maybe those who hoped that he would be too busy heaping praise on the likes of Alice Weidel of Germany's AfD to remember who Poilievre is. I guess it's possible that stuff like this might harm the Tories somewhat after a while, but it's unlikely to hurt them sufficiently to stop them from winning a pretty solid majority.

- While most have until now dismissed Donald Trump's musings about annexing Canada to be a joke, some federal cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Domenic LeBlanc, aren't so sure anymore now that Trump has repeatedly declared the intent to "use economic force" to compel Canada to join. One thing that's kinda, sorta reassuring is that he says he wouldn't use military force against Canada, even if he won't rule out using it against Denmark or Panama if they won't hand over the territories he wants to take from them. Perhaps he's seeing from his buddy Vlad's experience that invading and taking over your next door neighbour isn't as easy as it might look on paper. Or, more likely, Musk and Vance are seeing it and talking him down; I'm not sure Trump has the mental capacity to figure that out on his own, even with the evidence right in front of him.

- At a sentencing hearing for the Coutts border blockade trial, the prosecutor has called for prison time for two men convicted of mischief over $5,000 as a result of their actions during the protest. They're still likely to get off pretty lightly compared with two others who each got 6½ years each for weapons charges related to the same protest.

- Frances Haughen, the whistleblower who reported a few years ago about how Meta knew that their products were harming children and teens and damaging democracy, thinks it's no surprise that Meta is now doing away with fact checking in jurisdictions where they can get away with doing so. She believes that the company has "heard the message" from Trump; perhaps Zuckerberg isn't keen on the idea of falling out of a window.

News roundup, 9 Jan 2024

- A middle-aged man died in the emergency waiting room at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre on Tuesday morning; the matter is being investigated as a critical incident. Some, however, are concerned that the role of racism won't be looked at; while the deceased has not been publicly identified and his ethnicity isn't known, many in the indigenous community have their suspicions and are drawing parallels with the case of Brian Sinclair in 2008.

- Wildfires are sweeping through parts of Los Angeles County, including the upscale Palisades neighbourhood. Over 10,000 ha (25,000 ac) have been burned so far; at least two people have died and over 1,000 structures have been burned. Some 70,000 people have evacuated so far. Intense winds of up to 160 km/h (100 mph or 86 kt) aren't making the situation any easier.

- The Heritage Foundation, a rightwing think tank perhaps best known for helping draft the infamous Project 2025, is planning to dox editors at Wikipedia because they voted to label the Anti-Defamation League as an unreliable source of information on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The methods they plan to use to identify the editors, who usually use pseudonyms, include such things as "creating fake Wikipedia user accounts to try to trick editors into identifying themselves by sharing personal information or clicking on malicious tracking links". The latter trick, in particular, sounds illegal, but don't expect anything to happen to the perpetrators.

- Donald Trump has outright said that he wants no wind turbines constructed during his presidency. Stuff like this rightly worries any sensible person, both because climate change is certain to be worse under Trump than it would had Harris won the election, and also because to the extent that we do motor through without the US, we'll be dependent on China for the transition.

- France is calling on the EU to get serious about defending the federation from foreign interference, in particular that coming from Elon Musk. New French legislation regarding such matters could allow assets to be frozen under some circumstances.

- Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc has ruled out a run for the Liberal leadership, saying he wants to focus on his current responsibilities in cabinet. Several other ministers, including Steven MacKinnon, Anita Anand, Jonathan Wilkinson, François-Philippe Champagne, and Karina Gould are still weighing their options.

- In response to Donald Trump's musings about annexing Canada, Green Party leader Elizabeth May has suggested that we should instead allow Washington, Oregon, and California to join Canada. Of course, she was probably being facetious; there is little or no chance of this actually happening, and moreover it might not be as great an idea as it seems on the surface - in particular, importing all those techbros from the Bay Area could be problematic for our politics, and importing all those guns wouldn't be so great either.

- Turns out the guy who blew up his rented Cybertruck and himself in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was actually a Trump supporter; he left behind letters calling on Americans to rally behind Trump and Musk.

News roundup, 8 Jan 2024

- Joe Biden has tried to throw a monkey wrench into any plans Donald Trump might have to drill for oil in offshore waters, by using his powers under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to withdraw areas without existing leases from availability. It's unclear from the article why Trump can't just reverse the decision by a similar executive order, though, and Trump has vowed to do just that.

- Trump has refused to rule out military action in order to secure control of Greenland and the Panama Canal. Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen is calling his bluff, saying that she doesn't believe the US will use military or economic power to seize the territory. Probably true, but she'd have to say that even if she thought otherwise...

- The City of Winnipeg is looking at introducing speed limits for e-bikes and e-scooters on multi-use paths, perhaps going with the 25-30 km/h limits used in Quebec. While an experienced cyclist on a good road bike can go faster than that, many e-bikes enable someone who isn't experienced to go that fast, which is problematic. Enforcement will likely be an issue in any case, though.

- Some legal experts fear that the use of anti-terrorism laws in the prosecution of Luigi Mangione could backfire on the prosecution by motivating one or more jurors to refuse to convict him and force a mistrial. Meanwhile, moderators on the various social media platforms are having a hard time figuring out how to deal with some Mangione-related content.

- Meta's plan to pad their engagement statistics by flooding everyone's Facebook and Instagram feeds with bots has encountered a setback - the first batch of bots they released is so lame and/or creepy that nobody wants to interact with them. In other Meta-related news, they're doing away with fact checking for their American users - but leaving fact checking in place in the EU, where it's required by law. No doubt this is being done to stay in the good books of the incoming president.

- Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre is concerned about Elon Musk's willingness to openly meddle in other countries' domestic politics (notably his endorsement of the far-right AfD in Germany and his call for King Charles III to use his reserve powers to dismiss Kier Starmer's government).

- Those Waymo robotaxis running around San Francisco have a rather significant problem - they aren't very good at yielding to pedestrians. I guess that's what happens when AIs are trained by techbros who don't like following rules at the best of times.

- Kentucky State Police showed up at the wrong address to execute a search warrant over the theft of a Weed Eater, seemingly unaware that the actual thief was already in custody. The guy who got raided responded the way any red-blooded American would when a bunch of armed strangers showed up on his property without warning - and got killed for it. Since the victim in this case was white it's possible that the cops responsible will face justice, but probably not; they're still cops after all.

News roundup, 7 Jan 2024

- Justin Trudeau has finally seen the writing on the wall and announced that he will step down as Liberal leader and prime minister once the party has chosen a successor. He has also prorogued Parliament until the 24th of March to give the party time to make that selection. The leader will be selected according to existing rules, despite fears that this facilitates foreign interference by allowing non-citizens to buy party memberships and vote for the leader. As to who might run for the position, it's kind of hard to say; the usual suspects might not be quick to step up to the plate. After all, whoever wins will have virtually no chance of beating Pierre Poilievre, though they will have an excellent chance of beating Sir Charles Tupper for the title of shortest serving prime minister in Canadian history.

- New York City has followed the lead of London, England by introducing congestion pricing for approximately half or Manhattan. This hasn't gone through without a fight; several legal challenges, including one from the State of New Jersey, were launched in the hope of derailing the plan, but they were defeated. The plan is expected to reduce the number of vehicles entering the congestion zone by at least 13% while bringing much-needed revenue to pay for transit improvements; behavioural changes are expected to take some time, though, and as Paul Krugman points out, people really don't like these sorts of nudges, no matter how beneficial they are.

- Ann Telnaes, who has worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post since 2008, has resigned in protest of the paper's refusal to publish a cartoon that showed several billionaires (including Post owner Jeff Bezos) lining up to offer Trump money.

- Hot on the heels of allegations that an oil tanker was used to sabotage an undersea cable by dragging its anchor, Taiwan is claiming that a Chinese ship did the same thing to a telecom cable connecting the island with the US.

- Since Pornhub pulled out of Florida in response to a new piece of legislation, use of VPNs in the state has surged by 1150%.