News roundup, 4 Sept 2026

- The UN has concluded that climate change has progressed far enough that an overshoot of the 1.5°C limit is inevitable and that people and societies will need to adapt to a hungrier and more dangerous world. Perhaps it's time to retire Rosemary Brown's remark that "until all of us have made it, none of us have made it", since it's pretty much certain now that not everyone's going to make it. Meanwhile the UK's National Audit Office says that the country has not done enough to prepare for possible food insecurity.

- Severe storms hit southern Ontario on Wednesday, with parts of Toronto getting as much rain as they would get in a typical month.

- An admiral in the US navy was asked at a press conference whether he would obey orders to attack Canada. He was quick to dismiss the question as "needlessly emotional" but went on to say that he would follow direction from his commander-in-chief.

- AI will be banned in New York City public schools from kindergarten to grade 8 for at least the next year. The impact of the ban will be studied afterwards, and it may be extended indefinitely if warranted.

- Three Ontario constituencies held byelections yesterday. Ford's PCs won two of the three, while the NDP took Scarborough Southwest. 

- The far-right AfD has the potential to win a majority in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt when that state's voters go to the polls on Sunday.

- Australia is pulling researchers from its base in Macquarie Island so that they don't have to witness a mass dieoff of elephant seals. The dieoff is anticipated due to the arrival of bird flu on the island, and the government is concerned about the psychological impact on the researchers.

News roundup, 3 Sept 2026

- The latest person to enter the Winnipeg mayoral race, Kevin Klein, used to work for convicted sex offender Peter Nygard. This point is being raised by provincial cabinet minister Nahanni Fontaine as well as incumbent mayor Scott Gillingham. Klein, for his part, argues that thousands of people have worked for Nygard's company and that he had no idea of the crimes Nygard was committing, but Gillingham points out that Klein worked as a "political fixer" for Nygard in the Bahamas, which raises questions about the veil of ignorance that he's claiming.

- Manitoba Hydro's plan to install build a new natural gas powered generating station in Brandon is coming into question following the revelations that the turbines for the plant would be built by US manufacturer GE Vernova. Environmentalists had already questioned the plan; now the premier is raising doubts about it as well. There's still a good chance the plant will still be built, of course, but some are calling for the turbines to be bought for the European manufacturer Siemens rather than from the American company (which, as some have pointed out, contributed money to Trump's inauguration).

- A Maltese businessman who had been implicated in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been acquitted. Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in 2017; several people have already been convicted in her death, but Yorgen Fenech, suspected by many of being the mastermind in the killing, managed to convince the jury otherwise.

- Former UK prime minister Keir Starmer has resigned his parliamentary seat. Green Party leader Zack Polanski intends to run in the resulting byelection.

- A 32 year old woman who rescued two people, including a toddler, from the Red River in Winnipeg's St. John's Park last week says she is uncomfortable with being called a hero.

- Noted feminist Gloria Steinem has died at the age of 92.

News roundup, 2 Sept 2026

- Solar has overtaken coal as China's largest source of installed power capacity. Its overall contribution to power generation is still lower than coal due to its intermittent nature, though.

- The death toll in flash flooding that struck Nepal last week has risen to more than 1,100 confirmed fatalities, with nearly 4,000 still missing. The flood resulted from the collapse of a glacier on the Nepal-Tibet border; China reports an additional 16 dead and 546 missing on the Tibet side.

- The BC Conservative Party has lost yet another caucus member after Chilliwack-Cultus Lake MLA Áʼa꞉líya Warbus announced that she cannot serve under leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Warbus is the seventh MLA to leave the party in a month.

- The renewed fighting in Iran has led to a spike in yields of government bonds, indicating a decline in confidence. This has impacted not only US bonds but those of other countries, including the UK, Germany, and Japan. In related news, central bankers are worried at rising pressure on governments to weaken central bank independence.

- MapQuest, which had long fallen behind Google Maps as the preferred online mapping platform, has seen a surge in downloads of its app after it refused to fall in line and rename Lake Ontario in response to Trump's declaration.

- Instagram has closed the account of a Vancouver strip club after the club posted a photo of their marquee with the slogan "Can't handle a pool, but wants our lake?" The Penthouse Night Club had previously had its account on X suspended last year when they posted a a photo with the slogan "Forever Neighbours Never Neighbors"; X had called this out as "hate speech" (while ignoring the large amounts of actual hate speech on that platform) but subsequently reversed their decision.

News roundup, 1 Sept 2026

- Three federal byelections were held yesterday, in the ridings of Vancouver-Capilano, Beaches-East York, and Chicoutimi-Le Fjord. All three were won by the Liberals. In the case of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, the byelection was necessitated when the Conservative incumbent Richard Martel was "kicked upstairs" earlier this year, so this is a net gain for the Liberals.

- Kevin Klein, a former councillor and Tory MLA (and current CEO of the Winnipeg Sun's parent company) has entered the race for mayor of Winnipeg. Hopefully this means there will be a split in the rightwing vote between him and Mike Vogiatzakis (and maybe also Brad Gross) but this remains to be seen.

- Russia has responded to Ukraine's strikes on the warehouses of online retailers by hitting food distribution centres, leaving many grocery store shelves empty. 

- Another tornado has been reported in Manitoba. This one touched down near the community of Elkhorn in the RM of Wallace-Woodworth.

- A pedestrian was killed after walking in front of Waterloo's ION LRT over the weekend. The victim has not been identified and it is unclear if this was an accident or a suicide.

- Montreal's former anti-racism commissioner is suing the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) for defamation after the organization allegedly compared her to Hitler. Bochra Manaï says that the comparison was made in materials published by the organization; she is asking for $125,000 in damages.

- A 68 year old man has been charged with arson following a fire that destroyed a church in St. Simon, New Brunswick. Several social media posts subsequently made false allegations about the suspect, some saying that he was Israeli while others said he was Palestinian.

News roundup, 31 Aug 2026

- The Carney government is asking a court to throw out a lawsuit from activists who argue that the government's failure to update their emissions plans is in violation of the Canada Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act. The activists say that the elimination of various measures needed to meet targets in the legislation is prohibited under the legislation, but the government argues that the legislation gives the minister the power to amend plans and targets and that the courts "should not dictate climate policy".

- Many of the forested areas in the western US, from Oregon to New Mexico, that have been burned in recent years are not growing back, with shrubland replacing the forest. This is expected to accelerate spring melting, worsening the water crisis in the region; worse, it means the carbon sink benefits of the forests are no longer there.

- Toilet paper prices are spiking in the US thanks to the Trump regime's tariffs on paper products from Canada. Some think that this may have even more impact on the fortunes of Republicans in the midterms than fuel prices; it affects everyone, even those who don't drive, and the average American uses 25 kilograms of toilet paper per year. The fact that the country is experiencing an outbreak of explosive diarrhea thanks to the rollback of food safety measures probably does not help matters.

- The US is considering abandoning its neutral position on UK sovereignty over the Falkland Islands as a possible source of leverage over British policy. This was initially hinted at in a leaked Pentagon memo in April, which Marco Rubio downplayed at the time, but the Americans are now threatening to oppose the British on the issue if they don't commit to spending more money on "defense".

- Las Vegas is experiencing a dramatic decline in tourism thanks to the reluctance of Canadians and others to visit the US. Canadian visits to the city declined by over 17% last year thanks to the aggressive stance of the Trump regime, and Nevada now has the highest unemployment rate in the country. 

- Canada's lumber industry is looking at the possibility of needing to retool their sawmills to produce lumber in metric sizes so as to be able to more easily export it to countries other than the US. This has not been seriously considered before, despite Canada having formally adopted the metric system decades ago, because the vast majority of softwood exports have until now gone to the US. However, with that market no longer being reliable, the industry needs to find new markets, which means changing to metric.

- A group of teens on ebikes took over the runway at a small general aviation airport in Oakland County, Michigan, forcing a pilot planning to land there to do a go-around to avoid the need to clean blood off of his propeller.

News roundup, 28 Aug 2026

- Donald Trump has signed an executive order officially renaming Lake Ontario as "Lake America". Some folks on social media are suggesting that we should respond by closing the Welland Canal to American vessels, which would create a rather awkward situation for the US Midwest as they depend on the canal to ship their goods overseas. On a related note, Danielle Smith, predictably, continues to be vehemently opposed to using oil and gas exports as a bargaining chip with the US, and her fellow collaborator Scott Moe has similar opinions about potash.

- The investigation into the runway collision between an Air Canada jet and an airport fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing the pilots and injuring more than 40 other people, has found that two air traffic controllers had clocked out early, leaving the tower seriously understaffed. The FAA is looking to fire the controllers. Other factors in the accident, including the fact that the truck lacked a transponder, are still under investigation.

- Some Republican strategists are sufficiently concerned about Trump's collapsing approval ratings that they favour focusing on specific races. Trump's ego, of course, can't tolerate that, so his PAC, aptly known as MAGA Inc, is reportedly planning to bombard the country with ads making it all about himself.

- The spike in fuel prices resulting from Trump's war in Iran has led to a surge in the popularity of electric vehicles in pretty much every country except the US. This bodes poorly for the long term future of the American auto industry unless something changes soon.

- A civilian professor at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY has been fired for continuing to teach about human-caused climate change. Adam Kalkstein, who taught at the institution for 17 years, compares the prohibition to "trying to teach the law without being able to even mention the Constitution"; he is suing for reinstatement and requesting a jury trial.

- UK prime minister Andy Burnham is facing pressure from his MPs to move ahead with electoral reform. Burnham has advocated doing away with first-past-the-post for quite some time, and now nearly 100 of his MPs are calling on him to create a commission on the subject in his first 100 days in office. This is a refreshing stance for Labour; the party has long benefited from the status quo, but perhaps they're now realizing that this might be the best defense the country has against the rise of Reform UK.

- A car belonging to Salma Zahid, the Liberal MP for Scarborough Centre, was torched early Thursday morning by person or persons unknown; the fire spread to two other vehicles before being extinguished. Toronto police have not yet confirmed that Zahid was the target.

- A security guard at a Dollarama in suburban Winnipeg was stabbed after confronting a shoplifter. The suspect, who has a significant criminal record already, was captured quickly and charged with aggravated assault as well as robbery and failure to comply with a probation order.

News roundup, 27 Aug 2026

- Mark Carney's willingness to walk away from US trade talks is drawing praise from many former European leaders, many of whom see the EU's recent deal with the States as capitulation. Current leaders are being far more discreet, but observers say that they are quietly admiring Canada's resistance.

- The Pentagon apparently keeps a list of journalists whose questions it will not answer. Richard Allee, an official with US Central Command Public Affairs, reportedly threatened a reporter with being added to the list if they keep asking the wrong questions.

- BC premier David Eby is calling on the federal government to shut down US coal shipments through the Roberts Bank port in Delta. According to someone in this Reddit thread, the Americans depend on the port for access to Pacific markets, as Washington, Oregon, and California have blocked the development of infrastructure needed to export coal. If true this would make it an excellent and effectively targetted measure against the coal producing states, which lean Republican.

- BC MLAs Teresa Wat and Brennan Day have left the BC Conservative caucus, becoming the third and fourth MLAs the party has lost in a three day period. Both say that they have lost confidence in party leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay and can no longer serve under her. One observer says that Findlay has gone "out of her way" to alienate those she disagrees with.

- Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is calling on Danielle Smith to cancel, or at least postpone, a referendum question scheduled for October which asks voters whether they favour starting the legal process to hold a future binding vote on independence. Nenshi argues that Canada needs to show unity in the face of American aggression; Smith, not surprisingly, refuses to consider doing this.

- Former Conservative MP Inky Mark, already facing numerous firearms charges, has been re-arrested and hit with 26 new charges. These include weapons trafficking, three counts of knowingly possessing a prohibited weapon, nine counts of possessing a restricted/prohibited weapon with ammo without a licence or registration, nine counts of possessing a firearm knowing it is unauthorized, possessing a firearm with a tampered serial number, two counts of failing to report a lost firearm, and having more than six kilograms of explosives.

- There's a street in Ottawa named after Donald Trump. The street is in a neighbourhood with several New York-themed street names, but not surprisingly many want it renamed. An attempt to do so in 2021 failed, but the area's councillor believes that it's time to put an end to this "embarrassment".

News roundup, 26 Aug 2026

- California governor Gavin Newsom believes that Donald Trump will restart trade talks with Canada quite quickly, alleging that the Republicans are turning on Trump as the possible consequences of the trade war hit their constituents. Whether this is really the problem for Trump that Newsom claims is unclear, though; the assumption that it is hinges partly on this fall's midterm elections being free and fair, which is not safe to asume.

- An officer in the US Air Force is facing criminal charges after calling for the impeachment of Trump. Maj. Jason Watson had initially done an interview with a Substack blog called Defenders of Our Republic, then was arrested at a demonstration on the steps of the Capitol in July and again a week ago. After the most recent arrest he was placed into pretrial confinement, where he has been held without bail ever since. 

- A journalist who was found in contempt of court for refusing to disclose her confidential sources is appealing the finding to the US Supreme Court. Catherine Herridge had been found in contempt in 2024 over sourcing for her coverage of Chinese-American scientist Yanping Chen, who had been investigated for possible ties to China's military; Chen had sued the US government for allegedly illegally disclosing information to Herridge. Herridge was ordered to pay $800 for each day she refused to identify her sources, though the payments have been suspended pending the appeal.

- Loblaws, the parent company of Superstore and a number of other regional chains, is reversing its decision to remove country of origin labelling on produce displays. The company had removed the labelling in every province except Ontario and Quebec, both of which make this information mandatory. The company had removed the labelling in other provinces after getting caught mislabelling foreign products as Canadian.

- Six employees at Frankfurt Airport were recently infected with malaria, and one has died. The source of infection is believed to be mosquitoes that arrived by aircraft.

- A ramp agent at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport was killed on Monday when he was run over by a plane. To the shock of many passengers, the aircraft's external cameras captured the accident and showed it on screens in the cabin. The TSB as well as the federal labour department are investigating.

- Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80 from cancer.

News roundup, 25 Aug 2026

- Doug Ford declared on a Toronto radio station that Donald Trump "can kiss my ass" in response to the latest tariffs from the US. Wab Kinew, who doesn't agree with Ford on very much, doesn't fault him at all for his comments. For his part, the Mango Mussolini now says that he wants to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America", saying "we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer".

- Jeff Leiper, an Ottawa city councillor turned mayoral candidate, is promising to end return-to-office mandates for municipal employees where possible, if elected. Incumbent mayor Mark Sutcliffe is crying foul - a statement from his campaign bleats that this matter is "the decision of the city manager"; another source cites him as calling the promise "counterproductive and performative". Despite this, though, the folks on Reddit say that Sutcliffe has been a vocal supporter of RTO at the federal level.

- The American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is heading home from a lengthy deployment in the Middle East due to the ongoing war in Iran, having been relieved by another carrier, the USS George Washington. The deployment has become notorious for the horrific living conditions on the vessel; many sailors apparently reported suicidal thoughts, with at least one having to be stopped from jumping overboard. Democratic senators are demanding that the Pentagon investigate; the Pentagon's response so far has been to fire the editor-in-chief, publisher, and a reporter from the military newspaper Stars and Stripes which reported on the conditions, allegedly for "insubordination".

- Two MLAs who left the BC Conservative caucus intend to form a new party. Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar, considered one of the party's moderates, left the party earlier this month in response to the hard-right shift under leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay. He was joined on Monday by Ian Paton, who represents Delta South and who, like Milobar, previously represented the centre-right BC United (the former BC Liberals). They acknowledge concerns about vote splitting but say they want to "give a home to those who feel politically homeless" in the province.

- There's an old joke about a guy who's coming out of anesthesia and the doctor says to him "Well, I have some good news and some bad news. What would you like to hear first?" The patient says "Give me the bad news first", so the doctor says "We amputated the wrong leg." He asks what the good news is, and the doctor says "Your other leg might not need to be amputated after all. Unfortunately, this scenario played out for real at a Winnipeg hospital, according to a lawsuit currently before the courts.

News roundup, 24 Aug 2026

- Trade talks between Canada and the US, which showed signs of going somewhere at one point, collapsed at the last minute, with the US slapping 50% tariffs on a wide range of products. Mark Carney says that he suspended talks after the Americans brought in new conditions that Canada considered unacceptable in the final hours before the deadline. Reportedly these conditions included relaxing the laws concerning French-language requirements for appliances and instruction manuals, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed agreement, which may be a factor. Carney says that the tariffs will be matched dollar for dollar; his full speech following the collapse of negotiations may be found here. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy responded to Carney's vow to match tariffs by saying that this was "foolish" because "Canada doesn't have a military".

- This year's El Niño appears set to be the strongest in living memory, and next year is likely to be the hottest in recorded history as a result. Panama is already limiting transits through the Panama Canal as the lakes that replenish the canal aren't getting enough rainfall.

- Russia is experiencing fuel shortages as a result of Ukraine's recent strikes on oil refineries. People are crossing the border into Kazakhstan to fill their tanks; Kazakhstan has prohibited exports of gasoline but their border guards have found hundreds of attempts to smuggle gasoline back into Russia in everything from jerry cans to tanker trucks. Kazakhstan is relatively fortunate in having their own oil reserves. Other central Asian states have a bigger problem - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been heavily dependent on Russia for their fuel supply, and are now facing severe shortages.

- Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, which represents Winnipeg Transit drivers, is again calling for full shields after a someone threatened a driver with a hatchet for not going fast enough. The city has promised to install full shields, but has been slow to implement this; meanwhile 64 drivers are currently on stress leave, amounting to 225,000 hours of lost time.

- Research from China indicates that the batteries in electric vehicles last considerably longer if you drive reasonably than if you always accelerate aggressively. Worth noting that the kind of people who tend to hate EVs also tend to drive in the latter way.

News roundup, 21 Aug 2026

- Mark Carney is still urging the provinces to allow American alcohol back on the shelves. Wab Kinew says that Carney told the premiers that there "will be no trade deal" unless the provinces capitulate on this. Kinew has not made an absolute commitment on the matter yet. He says he's "reluctantly open" to the idea but urges Manitobans not to buy it even if it becomes available, and further says that given Trump's untrustworthiness "we reserve the right to take the US booze off the shelves again" if Trump reneges on the deal.

- The Manitoba government is looking into the possibilities of extending the shipping season from Churchill and reducing the need for expensive icebreakers as a result of declining sea ice.

- The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is filing a constitutional challenge over Manitoba's inadequate legal aid system. The organization says that the inadequate representation provided by legal aid violates the right to a fair trial and to the presumption of innocence.

- An American computer manufacturer reports that the Fedora Linux version of their laptop is outselling the Windows 11 version by ten to one. Some important context, though - Framework Computer is no ordinary computer manufacturer; founder Nirav Patel is a former Apple employee who is reacting against the industry's planned obsolescence model and has designed his products to be easy to disassemble, repair, and upgrade. So naturally the company is going to attract the kind of people who are more inclined to use Linux anyway.

- Swedish startup Heart Aerospace successfully conducted a test flight of the largest electric aircraft to date, flying for 27 minutes. The company plans to develop a 30 seat aircraft with a hybrid drivetrain, which it hopes to have in service within five years.

- Two members of Milligan University's cycling team were killed and seven injured when a car plowed into them. The suspect, a 69 year old North Carolina man, is in custody and facing multiple charges, including reckless vehicular homicide. His bail was initially set at $150,000 but was doubled at his arraignment; evidence was presented that he made no attempt to brake or take evasive action and that officers detected the smell of marijuana in his vehicle. So much for the idea that pot makes you peaceful...

News roundup, 20 Aug 2026

- Kyiv suffered heavy bombardment overnight, with apartment buildings among the targets. At least 13 people were killed and 40 injured; Ukraine says they are experiencing a shortage of air defense missiles, and were unable to intercept the missiles that hit the city. The country depended on the US to supply many of these, but they are now hard to come by thanks to the US attack on Iran which has depleted much of their supply of Patriot missiles.

- The US has sanctioned two more judges with the International Criminal Court, one from Senegal and one from Japan, due to their work on the case against Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. They will be unable to obtain US visas, and furthermore will have any assets they own in the US frozen and will have their banking access restricted.

- Several former chairs of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) fear that the Carney government's proposed amendments to Canada's Species at Risk Act will severely weaken the legislation. These changes include exempting projects deemed to be "in the national interest" from the "jeopardy test" required under the law, as well as allowing the federal government to establish "federal economic zones" where development could be pre-approved.

- The Ontario Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling from a lower court last year that stopped the province from forcing Toronto to remove bike lanes from three major Toronto streets. The lower court had ruled that the removal was unconstitutional because it would put people at increased risk of death and injury, and thus violated the right to security of the person, however the appeal court ruled that since cyclists could avoid injury by avoiding the routes, no rights were violated. That may be technically true, and I guess there's no basis for declaring a law unconstitutional simply on the basis of it being stupid (which this certainly is).

- A bagpiper busking in downtown Ottawa on the weekend was wounded and his bagpipe bag slashed in an unprovoked knife attack. The suspect, a 25 year old man, was quickly apprehended and faces numerous charges.

- A Belgian car salesman has been legally recognized as a prince after his royal ancestry was proven by a DNA test. Clément Vandenkerckhove was born as a result of an affair between Prince Laurent and Belgian pop singer Wendy Van Wanten. He will not be part of the line of succession, however, though that's probably academic as his father is only 15th in line for the throne anyway.

News roundup, 19 Aug 2026

- The Trump regime is delaying the 50% tariffs on Canadian goods for three days. The announcement came less than two hours before the tariffs were set to take effect, with Trump saying that there is a "deal" pending the finalization of some documents. Mark Carney did not say that there was a deal, though he did say that "substantial progress" had been made. Whether the progress in question has to do with actually reaching a deal, or merely with Trump's stock portfolio, is unknown at this time.

- Canadian researchers have concluded that foreign actors, from the US as well as Russia, have been pushing pro-separatist content in Alberta. Danielle Smith has acknowledged this, but it's not clear what can or will be done about the problem.

- ABC (US) is suing the FCC in an attempt to stop the early review of the licenses of eight of their TV stations, whose licenses were originally not scheduled for renewal until after 2028. 

- Declining church attendance across Canada means that a lot of old churches are closing. Some of these buildings, however, are being converted to affordable housing. This article focuses on a particular church in Winnipeg's North End; I'm aware of at least two others (one is now a co-op while another, just down the street from me, is owned by Manitoba Housing).

- Columbia House, the storied mail-order provider of music (and later DVDs) posted, and then removed, an announcement on its website indicating that it was shutting down. The company, not surprisingly, had difficulty competing with online retailers.

- A pharmacist in Portage la Prairie has been fined and hit with heavy license restrictions after it was found that he improperly dispensed controlled substances to patients (while also using several of these drugs himself). Some 39,000 doses of various controlled drugs went missing under his watch, including over 2,500 that went to the same individual.

- Erin Patterson, the Australian woman convicted of fatally poisoning three of her husband's relatives with the aptly named Death Cap mushroom, is appealing her conviction on a couple of grounds, most notably that the jury was sequestered at the same hotel where the prosecutors and a key witness were staying. The Director of Public Prosecutions argues, however, that while this was an error there is no evidence of communication between the parties.

News roundup, 18 Aug 2026

 - Canadians who sell goods to the US, including everything from jewelry to power cables, fear that they could lose up to half their business if the Trump regime's widespread tariffs go ahead as planned today. One would like to think Canadians will know enough to blame Trump rather than the Canadian government, but I wouldn't count on it.

- Russia has made its usual vague warnings about "consequences" after British-made drones were used in recent strikes by Ukraine. Meanwhile Germany says that a drone wired with explosives was found at Leipzig airport, with Ukrainian cargo aircraft being the suspected target.

- Negotiations between the US and Iran seem to have broken down again, with the Americans saying that they will not be extending the existing ceasefire agreement and the Iranians vowing to shift to a "fully offensive" military stance.

- New legislation proposed by Reform UK would make it a criminal offense to distribute campaign literature in any language other than English or Welsh, with penalties of up to six months in jail. That was too much even for some Conservative MPs, who have made an alternate proposal that exempts Cornish, Scots Gaelic, Irish, and Ulster Scots, but still bans campaign literature in any other language.

- A library in the Sydney suburb that includes Bondi Beach has removed a book about the Israel-Palestine conflict from its shelves following a social media complaint from someone who claimed to be a survivor of the mass shooting at the beach last year. The book, How to Sell a Genocide, accuses American media of complicity in the destruction of Gaza; the complainant (in a Facebook post that seems to have been subsequently removed) reportedly considered its existence "distressing" for survivors and bereaved families of the Bondi attack.

- A Winnipeg man has been arrested in Minnesota after allegedly faking his own abduction. The suspect was found after he claimed to have escaped from the abductor in the town of Alexandria, but eventually confessed to making a false report. The background and motive are not clear.

News roundup,17 Aug 2026

- Negotiations with the US in an attempt to prevent the Trump regime from imposing severe tariffs this Wednesday are not going well. The US wants concessions on supply management for dairy products, something that Quebec has called a "red line", as well as on alcohol, something that is under provincial jurisdiction and which several provinces have said they will not relent on unless promised tariff relief for sectors of the economy relevant to them. The Americans also want preferential access to critical minerals, in part because these are needed to replenish weapons stockpiles that they've used up in the war against Iran. They further say that if the talks break down and they impose new tariffs, they will not tolerate retaliation. A former diplomat is predicting that this could permanently damage trade relations between the two countries, as whatever trust Canadians had for the US is fast evaporating.

- Tech companies in the US are having a hard time building AI data centres as fast as they want. It is expected that only half of the capacity scheduled to go online by 2028 is expected to actually be completed by that date. Public opposition is one factor, but even without that the companies are running into shortages of electricity, materials, and labour. Even with these barriers, though, spending on such facilities is up by 46% compared to the previous year, and is so high that it is contributing to inflation.

- Greenland Energy, an oil startup which despite its name is actually headquartered in Texas, has been rebuked by the Greenland government for moving equipment in such a way that they were suspected of planning to drill without authorization. The territory stopped issuing new licenses for exploration five years ago, but the company had acquired a smaller one that had obtained a license prior to the cutoff date. They still need further authorization to actually drill, however, and it is now expected that no such authorization will be issued until next year at the earliest. Several of the company's board members and partners have ties to the Trump regime; one wonders if they're trying to provoke a confrontation that could give the US a pretext to move militarily on the territory.

- The US moved to bail out the Japanese yen last month, by buying large amounts of the currency, but rather than using US dollars they dipped into their reserve of euros. While this in itself is not unprecedented, the difference today is that they did not notify the Europeans in advance as would have been the standard practice in normal times. The euro dropped by 4% against the yen as a result; while it has mostly recovered since, this does not help in rebuilding trust between the US and EU.

- Around 13% of credit cards in the US have balances that are overdue by 90 days or more. This is the highest delinquency rate since the "Great Recession" of 2007-2009.

- An Irish teenager on a family vacation in Greece was electrocuted while taking a shower, raising concerns about the safety of tourist accommodations in the country. The country also has a history of serving booze spiked with methanol; stuff like this ought to put a chill on tourism, but people's appetite to fly somewhere, anywhere, seems insatiable.

News roundup, 14 Aug 2026

- Count Binface came a distant second to Nigel Farage in the byelection held yesterday in the constituency of Clacton. The byelection was necessitated by Farage resigning as a political stunt; due to the boycott by serious parties there were some hopes that the satirical candidate could get enough protest votes to put him over the top, but in the end Farage secured just over 63% of the vote. Binface did get over 22,000 votes, or just under 27%, which is far more than he has received in any other campaign in which he's run. It seems, though, that the people of Clacton are too far gone to understand what they're voting for.

- Several Conservative MPs are apparently privately expressing concerns about holding onto their seats if Pierre Poilievre remains leader. And Larry Brock, the MP for Brantford-Brant South, is resigning, triggering a byelection that will be an interesting test for the party in a riding they've held since 2008.

- The Ford government in Ontario is resisting calls for a moratorium on large data centres. Ford does say that the centres will need to cover the full cost of their electricity usage, but Green Party leader Mike Schreiner is calling for a ban on all AI data centres until more is known about their impact. In contrast, New York State enacted a ban last month on data centres requiring over 50 megawatts of electricity, and will be reviewing tax incentives previously given for such facilities. Maine's legislature also passed such a ban earlier this year but it was vetoed by the governor.

- The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party spent nearly $3,000 to send someone to a resort in Jamaica to keep an eye on Bonnie Crombie, who was the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party at the time. Doug Ford claims to have had no knowledge of the spying when it was occurring.

- Three bouncers have been charged with assault after Winnipeg Sea Bears player Teddy Allen was severely beaten at a nightclub. The police statement doesn't identify the club, saying merely that it was "on Main Street between Portage and William Avenues" but it's generally known to be the Palamino Club. The folks on Reddit say that bouncers there have long had a reputation for excessive force, but it seems beating up a local sports star was going too far.

News roundup, 13 Aug 2026

- This week's Democratic primaries have had mixed results for leftwing candidates. In Minnesota, sitting lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan soundly defeated establishment candidate Angie Craig, while climate activist William Lawrence won the primary for a House seat in Michigan. On the other hand, Francesca Hong was narrowly defeated in the primary for Wisconsin governor by centrist David Crowley.

- Winnipeg city councillor Russ Wyatt is facing new charges of sexual assault and related crimes distinct from other similar charges laid earlier this year. In both cases he has also been charge with administering a "noxious thing", i.e. drugging the victims.

- A new poll in Alberta has found that 52% of respondents would have voted in favour of a ban on coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies had the question been allowed onto the ballot. Of course the usual caveats about "shy Tories" apply here.

- Environment Canada has adopted a new system for its severe weather alerts that's supposed to take a more granular look at the weather in the hope of reducing false positives. The embedded video does a good job of explaining; I guess we'll have a better idea of how it works after a few storms. 

- A French vintner has arranged solar panels in a five metre high canopy over his vineyard; interestingly, energy production was actually a secondary reason for doing so. The main reason is to protect the crop from excessive heat and hail. He's paying a price for this, though - he's not allowed to call it cognac, since 2002, France's strict appellation d’origine contrôlée laws prohibit the application of a regional label to any wine grown under cover, so it has to be sold as generic wine without geographical indication. While the country's National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) has expressed willingness to look at exceptions to the rule, some appelations have already explicitly excluded agrivoltaics from their own specifications, citing concerns about damage to the landscape; there are concerns about the effect of the visual impact on tourism. In any case, the French have a concept called terroir that assumes that such changes will have an impact on the wine quality, and this is a huge factor in these laws. Given how much climate change is already locked in, though, they may need to adjust these rules to allow for adaptation, or else face the extinction of many vintages.

News roundup, 12 Aug 2026

- The Canadian Association of Professional Employees has confirmed what many of us have suspected for a while, saying they were told by a source in the federal government that officials were "very worried" about risks to the financial sector from remote work due to the decline in value of commercial real estate. The Bank of Canada had reported in 2024 that some pension funds and insurers had reduced their exposure to commercial real estate due to the high office vacancy rate. It sure looks like that governments were unprepared to deal with such a shift and decided to address the problem with return to office mandates.

- A working group led by former federal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy is examining the feasibility of relocating Winnipeg's rail yards to bypass the city. Such a move would take many years to implement, but would free up valuable land within the city and would also be beneficial to the railways in the long run, since it would remove the necessity for trains to slow to a crawl as they pass through built-up areas.

- Evacuees from the wildfires in northern Ontario have led to a severe shortage of hotel rooms in Thunder Bay, creating problems for people who have to visit the city for medical appointments.

- Spain is being bombarded with tourists in the midst of one of the worst wildfire seasons in living memory, due to a total solar eclipse that will be the first one visible from the Spanish mainland in more than a century.

- The war in Iran and the resulting spikes in fuel prices have led to a surge in sales of electric motorcycles in much of the world. Motorcycles are much more common than cars in less affluent countries, and improvements in electric vehicle technology have now made it cost-effective to make the switch. For instance, in Kenya at least 25% of new motorcycles sold are electric.

- Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her wife, Rebecca Marodi, in February of 2025. The victim, a decorated firefigher, was stabbed to death in her mother's home shortly after announcing her intention to file for divorce; Oleiniczak Marodi fled to Mexico but was captured after more than a month on the run. She had previously served nine years in prison for manslaughter in the death of her husband, James Olejniczak, who like Rebecca had planned to end the marriage.

News roundup, 11 Aug 2026

- Water levels in the Danube River are now so low due to drought that the wrecks of warships scuttled by the Nazis during WWII are resurfacing. More seriously, the situation is impacting irrigation as well as power generation.

- The Launchpad, a yacht owned by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, apparently failed to respond to a call for assistance as required by maritime law. A skiff that had run out of fuel had made a mayday call; its occupants were rescued by a cruise ship despite the fact that Zuckerberg's yacht was closer. A representative for Zuckerberg claims that the crew of the Launchpad initially didn't hear the call and that by the time they did, the cruise ship had already responded.

- Leftwing candidates will again be challenging the Democratic establishment in primaries this week. Francesca Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is leading in the polls for the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor against establishment choice David Crowley, while Minnesota's left-leaning lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan is facing the more centrist House member Angie Craig in the primary for the Senate seat vacated by Tina Smith.

- There are now a total of 11 candidates in the running for mayor of Winnipeg in this fall's municipal election. The latest person to enter the race is Brad Gross, a realtor notorious for having the buildings he's listed burn down. These include the Sutherland and Manwin hotels as well as a Main Street apartment building. Some folks on Reddit also think Winnipeg Sun owner and former Tory MLA Kevin Klein is considering a run, based on the fact that they're suddenly getting polled on his potential candidacy.

- Manitoba Hydro CEO Allan Danroth's claim before the Public Utilities Board that new gas turbines are essential to maintain a reliable supply, already disputed by critics, is being further called into question with revelations that the existing Brandon gas plant underperforms during cold weather. As I've indicated before, Danroth previously worked for private energy companies in Alberta, so there's a good chance that he has friends and investments in that province's natural gas industry. I do hope the PUB digs deeper into these matters.

News roundup, 7 Aug 2026

- The heat wave striking Europe continues to rage. Temperatures as high as 42°C have been recorded in Slovakia; in Poland two coal-fired power plants were forced to shut down due to low water levels in the Vistula River, removing 1.3 gigawatts of power from the country's grid.

- Danielle Smith is criticizing the Edmonton Police Service for a video that encourages people to report hate speech. Smith posted on X (the former Twitter) that the police should focus on crime, not "free speech".

- A judge in New Mexico has slapped Meta with a $567 million fine for failing to warn the public about the possible harm that its social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, can do to children. This is on top of another $375 million in fines related to the same case. The judge compared the psychological harm done to young people to pollution, calling it a "public nuisance".

- Several legislators in the US are concerned that "prediction markets" such as Polymarket and Kalshi allow people to place bets regarding wildfires, possibly providing an incentive for people to deliberately start said fires. They are calling on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates the industry, to prohibit the practice. Similar concerns are being raised about such bets on the outcome of clinical trials, with fears that researchers could have an incentive to tamper with trials in some way.

- Toronto police have charged two people, aged 19 and 15, in connection with the recent gunfire incident at the US consulate in that city. The two are believed to have been hired for the job; police are still trying to determine who hired them.

- A 14 year old Thai boy killed his grandparents, then went on a rampage at the prestigious school he attended outside Bangkok. Five teachers were fatally shot and more than 30 teachers and students were wounded before he turned the gun on himself. The murder weapon was a 9 mm handgun owned by his grandfather.

News roundup, 6 Aug 2026

- Much of the UK, including over half of England and all of Wales, is officially in a state of drought. England received only 7% of its average July rainfall last month.

- Even if the war in Iran were to end immediately, experts think that it is unlikely that fuel prices will drop significantly before this fall's midterm elections in the US. That might be a problem for the Trump regime given that much of the public seems to actually recognize the president's role in the recent price spike. Whether this will impact the outcome of the elections remains to be seen, though; it's safe to assume that the regime will do their darnedest to suppress the Democratic vote.

- Abdul El-Sayed has won the Democratic primary for the Michigan Senate seat up for grabs this fall, defeating his AIPAC-backed opponent Haley Stevens by a narrow margin. El-Sayed is actually moderate compared to some of the people who backed him; he does not identify as a socialist, though he supports many policies favoured by those who do and was backed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Also in Michigan, Donavan McKinney (who does call himself a democratic socialist) won the primary for the state's 13th congressional district, defeating incumbent Shri Thanedar. While Thanedar was considered something of a progressive himself on many issues, they strongly differed on the Israel question. How they will fare in November remains to be seen, of course; McKinney probably won't have a problem, but El-Sayed will face a tough fight. Notably, polling predicted a considerably higher margin of victory than he actually got, and some think this may reflect rural voters being less willing to participate in opinion polls. And should he win, he'll probably need an extra security detail any time he leaves the Detroit/Dearborn area.

- The Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will vote today on whether Anthony Fauci is in contempt of Congress after he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions in a hearing last week. Fauci believes that the hearing was a setup, intended to trick him into saying something false so that he could be found guilty of lying under oath, hence his refusal/

- Manitoba's Hanover School Division, which serves the city of Steinbach and surrounding areas, attempted to introduce a policy ordering staff to ignore a longstanding provincial law that entitles "mature minors" to confidential healthcare. Education Minister Tracy Schmidt has overruled the board, and has warned that she is willing to dissolve the board and appoint a provincial trustee to oversee the division if they continue to flout the law.

News roundup, 5 Aug 2026

- Over 80% of the new vehicles registered in Denmark in July were electric. For cars purchased by individuals rather than corporations, this rises to 97%. EVs also account for nearly 25% of new vehicles purchased in Australia in the first half of this year. Doubtless the spike in fuel prices as a result of the US/Israel attack on Iran is a major factor.

- Leftwing candidate Abdul El-Sayed appears to be in the lead in the Democratic primary for a Michigan Senate seat that will be up for grabs this fall. Should he win the primary and the election he will be the first Muslim senator in the US.

- St. Catharines, Ontario was hit by severe flooding after two major storms hit the city within a few days. Thousands of homes were damaged

- A Russian soldier in Crimea reportedly opened fire on his comrades as well as on civilians, killing four people and wounding four others. 

- Both Morocco and Spain are saying that the surge of migrants into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta was not spontaneous, but rather was driven by online misinformation, possibly spread by people in the human smuggling business. This has yet to be confirmed, however.

- The Winnipeg Sea Bears have confirmed suspicions that it was nightclub security who injured star player Teddy Allen on the weekend. Allen's injuries were significant enough that he will be missing Thursday's playoff game; police are investigating the incident.

- A Florida evangelist took advantage of an Alaska Airlines plane whose takeoff was delayed in San Diego last week to stand in the aisle and preach at her captive audience. The airline was less than amused and removed her from the flight.

News roundup, 4 Aug 2026

- A test of GPS jamming techniques by the US military may have contributed to the fatal crash of a Beechcraft King Air medivac aircraft in May. The aircraft was flying to pick up a patient in Ruidoso, New Mexico, but the pilots appear to have become disoriented due to the lack of availability of GPS in the area which forced them to rely on older and less precise technology which modern pilots seldom use in their day-to-day operations, and crashed into a mountainside killing themselves and two nurses on board. While the crew will likely get some of the blame, it will be interesting to see how much the NTSB's final report talks about the reason for GPS not being available.

- Ukraine continues to hit Wildberries warehouses with drones, under the suspicion that they are being used to supply the Russian military (which Russia denies). The latest strike has killed at least five people at a warehouse near Moscow. 

- Hungary was forced to shut down a nuclear power plant after water levels in the Danube River dropped to a point that risked cutting off the plant's access to cooling water. The plant normally supplies 44% of the country's electricity; this comes at a time when temperatures in excess of 40°C are in the forecast.

- A law in California intended to limit the use of the recycling symbol to things that can actually be recycled has run into trouble after a federal judge ruled that the legislation likely violates the free speech rights of food and packaging manufacturers.

- A decorated US Army veteran who was detained by the DC National Guard in her front yard in May is suing for injuries sustained in the attack. The ostensible reason for this was that she was suspected of assaulting a member of the guard a few days previously, but she was never charged with anything, and suspects that the attack was motivated by her public criticism of the deployment of the guard in the city.

- Winnipeg Sea Bears player Teddy Allen was hospitalized after being attacked in downtown Winnipeg on Sunday night. While this fits in with a lot of stereotypes of the city, some folks on this Reddit thread say that footage previously posted on Instagram and subsequently deleted shows a belligerent Allen being ejected from the Palamino Club that night.

News roundup, 31 Aug 2026

- Wildfires continue to rage in southwestern Europe. 183 houses in the French town of Le Porge were destroyed on Wednesday; its residents felt abandoned as firefighters were focused on Lège-Cap-Ferret. The national government says the decision to focus on the latter community was based on it being on a peninsula that's harder to evacuate people from, however many residents of Le Porge suspect that the affluence of the latter community was the real reason, and are planning a class action.

- At least 19 people are dead after a surge of migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta and clashed with authorities. Spain's interior ministry at one point said that over 49,000 people crossed the border. Some link this to a recent court ruling saying that people intercepted at sea while crossing into Ceuta and the nearby territory of Melilla cannot be summarily deported but rather need to be assessed for refugee status. Many, however, are skeptical that this information would have been known to these people, implying that new "push factors" may be in play. Italy's rightwing prime minister Giorgia Meloni is threatening to suspend Italy's recognition of Spain as part of the Schengen Area, and other rightwing leaders across the EU are taking similar stances.

- AI companies are buying rare books to scan and then destroying them. Used booksellers report that these companies are sending them extensive lists of specific hard-to-find works. In some cases they seem to be using front companies - one German bookseller reports getting a surge in orders of obscure books every night at around the same time from a Canadian -based company calling itself "Zoom Books", with each list containing numerous rare, and moreover unrelated, titles. Anthropic AI (which, it should be noted, is considered to be one of the less unethical companies in the business), has admitted that it has spent millions of dollars in the last couple of years on so-called "destructive scanning". This emerged during a copyright lawsuit; while Anthropic ended up settling that case, the judge made a ruling before it got settled that this practice constitutes "fair use" based on copyright laws, possibly implying that nondestructive scanning would not be protected in the same way. In other unsettling AI-related news, some systems designed by Anthropic and OpenAI have reportedly escaped from what was supposed to be an isolated test environment and hacked into other companies' systems.

- The leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski, is refusing to apologize for reposting a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a guillotine and the caption "We're only making plans for Nigel". Of course the slogan alludes to an old XTC song, but the reference to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is pretty obvious, and the party reported this to police saying this could constitute "incitement to murder". Polanski say he has not been contacted by police about the matter so far. He says the photo, one of several in the post of images from a party made by another person, was included by mistake, but accuses Reform of editing the image to make it appear that it had been posted by Polanski himself rather than reposted from someone else's post. He says he'll be happy to apologize if Farage apologizes "for all the times that he's put other people in danger".

News roundup, 30 July 2026

- A tornado watch was issued for the city of Thompson yesterday, meaning that conditions created the potential for tornadoes to develop. While tornadoes are not uncommon in southern Manitoba, it's quite unusual that far north.

- The US has launched a new wave of attacks on Iran following Iranian strikes on American bases in Jordan and ships in the Strait of Hormuz. This likely reduces the chance of Trump being able to get fuel prices down in time for the midterms; how that will impact the elections remains to be seen.

- The union representing WestJet flight attendants has issued a 72 hour strike notice, meaning a walkout could occur as soon as Sunday if a deal isn't reached. The airline responded by issuing a 72 hour lockout notice.

- A number of "centrist" Democrats (who would be considered moderate rightwingers in most functioning democracies) are questioning their commitment to the party as leftwing candidates keep winning primaries. Longtime Democratic consultant James Carville even brought up the possibility of a split in the party.

- A man who tried to help a woman suffering from an apparent drug overdose in a Winnipeg park was stabbed by her companion for his trouble. The woman and her would-be rescuer were taken to hospital; a suspect is in custody.

- A man charged in a spree of theft and vandalism in Winnipeg's Crescentwood neighbourhood has been denied bail. The judge issuing the decision says this is because of his lengthy criminal history; while I think it's reasonable to deny bail under the circumstances, one can't help but wonder if the affluence of the neighbourhood where he ran amok had something to do with the decision.

- Research at McGill University has found that large stands of aspen can make a forest more resistant to wildfires. They tend to have higher moisture content, and their leaves tend to be higher off the ground, reducing the risk of a crown fire. Unfortunately the forestry industry hates aspen due to it competing with more commercially valuable species, and sprays forests with herbicides to control it.

News roundup, 29 July 2026

- BC Conservative Party leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay has directed the party's MLAs to stop using the term "First Nations". The terms "indigenous" and "aboriginal" are still considered OK, along with the antiquated and widely deprecated term "Indian". I suspect that part of the motivation is to avoid giving any legitimacy to the idea of them as sovereign nations, but even so she could have avoided suggesting "Indian" as an alternative. I suspect the latter is motivated as much by desire to appeal to the more openly racist voters as anything. Some folks in this Reddit thread suggest another factor - Findlay herself ended up declaring bankruptcy following a legal fight with Musqueam First Nation in 2001 and may carry some residual animus (not that the bankruptcy stopped her from serving as Minister of National Revenue in the Harper government). What's especially worrisome is the fact that Premier David Eby is tanking in the polls, and when average voters get into a "throw the bums out" mood, they stop caring about who they're voting in (if indeed they ever did).

- The Ford government is considering withdrawing support for the Alto high speed rail project in revenge for the federal government's rejection of the expansion of Billy Bishop Airport. This is pure spite, of course; if you're actually concerned about making it easier to get around the country, trying to stop high speed rail isn't going to make things better.

- At least 13 people are dead and numerous others missing after an earthquake struck the Japanese city of Kumamoto.

- Atlanta activist Samuel Tunick, upon returning from overseas, was pulled aside by Customs and Border Protection last year and ordered to provide access to the data on his smartphone. The phone was running GrapheneOS, which allows you to set up a "duress code" that wipes the contents of the phone when entered; he allegedly gave this code to CBP officers when they demanded access. Following this they let him go, but he was subsequently charged with a felony for destruction of evidence. Tunick had been involved in protests against the construction of a police training facility called "Cop City" by critics, and suspects that this was a fishing operation.

- Around 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians who had been given "temporary protected status" in the US due to the conditions in their homelands have had their status cancelled. Their chances of admission to Canada are minimal due to changes to the Safe Third Country agreement. The changes are definitely unfortunate, but were probably inevitable in this political climate; it's unrealistic to expect the federal government to simply accept an influx of people comparable to a medium-sized city, no matter how deserving they are of refuge. This is something that's only going to become more common in the coming years as climate change displaces vast numbers of people.

- A volunteer with the animal rescue organization K9 Advocacy Manitoba was killed by dogs earlier this month in Sandy Bay First Nation. She had apparently visited a home to pick up some puppies, but the owner wasn't home and their own dogs, described as "protective and aggressive", attacked and killed her.

News roundup, 28 July 2026

- For the second time this year, shots were fired at the US Consulate in Toronto on Monday morning. Police are seeking a vehicle with no license plates that fled the scene at speeds of up to 140 km/h; they abandoned the chase due to safety concerns and did not have aerial support at the time. The coverage on the radio seems to be trying to tie this to two attacks on Jewish-owned bakeries; while they acknowledge that no actual evidence has been found to tie these events together, they keep talking about them in the same breath as if to imply otherwise. That's not to say they couldn't be connected, of course. In any case, nobody was injured in any of these events.

- Ukraine's latest efforts in the war against Russia have targeted warehouses owned by the Russian online retailer Wildberries. The company is the largest of its type in the country, described as "the Amazon of Russia" by some. As every real time strategy player knows, targeting civilian infrastructure to damage the enemy's economy can be quite effective, but it's frowned on under the rules of war. However, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy argues that the facilities targeted supplied gear to the Russian military, making them legitimate military targets.

- Manitoba Hydro's CEO, Allan Danroth, argued before the Public Utilities Board that three proposed gas turbines that would be built in Brandon are "absolutely necessary" to ensure that there is sufficient supply over the coming years. Danroth says that Hydro doesn't have the time to build enough nuclear capacity to cover the potential shortfall; that much is no doubt true (nuclear takes forever to construct) but he also claims that a combination of wind, solar, and battery storage wouldn't do an adequate job, and that the only alternative to building the turbines is buying electricity from neighbouring jurisdictions, which is expected to become more difficult in the coming years as well (presumably because of crypto and data centres, though he doesn't say that. In any case, some dispute whether he's up to speed on renewables; a lawyer with the Public Interest Law Centre called into question the cost projections used, given that batteries are getting cheaper while turbines are getting more expensive. Given that Danroth's past resume includes working for private energy companies, it's possible that he's not impartial on the matter.

- A vehicle was driven through a park full of pedestrians in the Toronto suburb of Ajax earlier this month. The vehicle fled the scene but later returned to the park and was driven across a pedestrian bridge. Durham Regional Police later found the vehicle and attempted to box it in; the driver fled but collided with another vehicle and was apprehended. Nobody was hurt; a 23 year old man from Aurora was arrested.

- Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke apparently thinks your vote should be weighted based on how much income tax you pay - and that people whose income is below the tax threshold, as well as people on a locked-in pension, shouldn't get to vote at all. Such beliefs are probably fairly common among billionaires like Lütke, but they usually don't say them out loud.

News roundup, 27 July 2026

- The US and Iran paused their attacks against each other over the weekend. The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, claims that this is being done to "give talks some space", and was dismissive of the idea that the US stockpile of interceptors is running low.

- The federal government has rejected the proposed expansion of Billy Bishop Airport on the Toronto Islands. The plan called for a runway extension to allow jets to use the airport; the decision followed consultations in which nearly 87% of respondents opposed the expansion.

- A national survey of emergency room physicians has found that 1 in 10 have left the specialty (some of them leaving medicine altogether) and most others are reducing their hours to avoid burnout. While things are definitely worse since 2020, the study's authors say that this should not be considered a "pandemic phenomenon"; unfortunately the CBC article didn't dig into what they did mean by this but I assume they mean that the pandemic simply laid bare existing weaknesses in the system.

- The Asper family is pausing donations to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights over the Nakba exhibit. Family spokesperson Gail Asper admits that parts of the exhibit are compelling, but says that important context is missing. Strangely, one of the things she thinks needs to be part of it is the fact that Hamas is listed by the Canadian government as a terrorist entity - but the Nakba happened in 1948 while Hamas wasn't founded until 1987. Of course, the founding of Hamas was a consequence of the Nakba, but including that context probably wouldn't make Asper any happier.

- The parents of a five year old child who was expelled from a Winnipeg daycare after multiple instances of violent behaviour towards other children as well as staff are appealing to the provincial government for his reinstatement. The child's behaviour had been so violent that a workplace safety and health officer was sent to check on the situation at the daycare; given that I would hope that the province will not force the daycare to take him back. While something needs to be done this is well above the average daycare worker's pay grade. Not surprisingly, some of the reaction on Reddit lacks nuance; one person responded by saying "fuck inclusion". I'd say a better way to word that would be "there are limits to inclusion", rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

- Longtime Progressive Conservative MP Elmer McKay has died at the age of 89. I didn't realize he was still alive actually; I'd assumed that he must have died of shame after his son Peter sold the party out to the Canadian Alliance in 2003.

News roundup, 24 July 2026

- Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated from several communities in southwestern France due to wildfires. The situation is not being helped by the weather, with temperatures as high as 37°C and winds of up to 50 km/h. Spain has also seen significant evacuations due to fires in the last few days. More disturbingly, several wildfires in southern Italy are being attributed to arson, sometimes committed by tying rags soaked with accelerants to the tails of cats and lighting them on fire. It's suspected that mobsters are hoping to buy land cheaply after fires go through.

- Mark Carney says that retaliatory measures are being considered if Trump's planned 50% tariffs on pretty much every Canadian export that the US can get elsewhere come into effect later in August. Predictably, Danielle Smith says she's opposed to using tariffs for this purpose. Carney isn't saying yet what measures are being considered.

- A high school student in Marin County, California was given an assignment for his journalism class, namely to tell a news story in the form of an Instagram slideshow. Living in an extremely wealthy area, he figured he'd search the Epstein files for references to his county and see what came up. He ended up making a lot of people very angry, much like the protagonist of the German film The Nasty Girl whose high school project shines unwanted light on her town's Nazi past. A modelling agent named Gisele Attias Bonnouvrier threatened to sue the school district for defamation after being named as having supplied models to Epstein; she didn't go ahead with her lawsuit, presumably because she actually was named in the files for this. Perhaps she'd never heard of the Streisand effect.

- A bar in Toronto just got caught buying stolen booze at a homeless encampment. The owner claimed that he was doing this to "keep the peace" because people from the encampment retaliated against his earlier refusals; a provincial tribunal didn't buy his explanation, though, and the bar's license has been revoked. None of this would have happened in Manitoba thanks to the MLCC's security measures; interestingly, the Ford government shot down a plan by the LCBO to introduce similar measures a couple of years ago. As I said at the time, the most likely reason for this is because Ford wants to sell more alcohol in convenience stores, who would probably not be able to compete with the LCBO on security and many would thus decide that selling it wasn't worth the risk.

- Orcas have been observed ganging up on ocean sunfish and ramming them so hard that they explode. Scientists are divided on the reason; some think it's simply practical to break them up into smaller pieces to be easier to eat, but others say it shows signs of being a sort of social game; orcas are among the few animals (alongside humans and cats) that will kill for fun.

News roundup, 23 July 2026

- The new tariffs threatened by the Trump regime do not hit all goods, and hence all provinces, equally. BC is expected to get the worst of it due to tariffs on wood and paper; meanwhile oil and potash aren't affected, meaning Alberta and Saskatchewan get off easy. This may be because US need for those goods is high, and/or maybe because they want to make things easier for the governments of those provinces due to their friendliness to the regime. At the Council of the Federation in Charlottetown, some premiers are suggesting that Canada should respond by blocking or taxing exports of those products, but that's a non-starter with Danielle Smith and Scott Moe. I don't think there's any reason, in principle, that the feds couldn't impose such restrictions anyway, but it might be politically difficult.

- Donald Trump is threatening to target Iran's bridges and power plants if that country attacks any more ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, meanwhile, has been hitting Amazon data centres in Bahrain and the UAE.

- The US has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia that will allow that country to develop nuclear power capability, potentially including uranium enrichment (the exact details of the agreement haven't been made public.

- Prosecutors in the UK are going ahead with criminal contempt charges against a lawyer who represented pro-Palestinian protesters in court. Rajiv Menon is accused of "misleading the jury" and ignoring instructions from the judge by advising them of their right to "give their verdict according to their convictions". This led to the acquittal of several protestors, though they were later convicted in a retrial.

- The planning commission for the Bay Area city of Hayward approved a gigantic data centre without input from city council. This was entirely legal, as data centres aren't specifically named in the city's code and are thus treated as generic office buildings, which do not require approval from council. The city has now belatedly created a new land use category specifically for data centres, requiring more oversight than offices. Makes sense; if nothing else other cities could learn from their experience and take measures before it becomes a problem.

- The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts has just approved major reforms to land-use restrictions, in order to allow more housing to be built. It's naturally provoking a backlash from the NIMBY crowd, of course, but the city is undaunted so far. Meanwhile, across the border, the other Cambridge is rejecting a recommendation from its own staff to allow the construction of a 16 storey mixed-use building in the Preston area of the city (the original plans called for 40 storeys). It would make perfect sense to build there; as some people in this Reddit thread point out, this is right next to where the planned extension of the LRT would go - but then Cambridge's mayor isn't keen on the LRT either.