News roundup, 26 May 2026

- A poll of Albertans conducted by Angus Reid has found that the majority of respondents would vote no to Danielle Smith's revised referendum - but by a narrower margin than a straight up yes or no on separation. Respondents were also critical of Smith's handling of the affair. The thing is, all of this needs to be taken with substantial quantities of salt, given the "shy Tory factor". In particular I think the kind of person who would vote to secede from Canada would also be reluctant to answer pollsters at all for fear of getting on some kind of "gummint list". For his part, Mark Carney has called the referendum plan a "dangerous bluff" and is drawing parallels to Brexit; it's worth noting that polls in the UK failed to predict the outcome of that referendum.

- Uber drivers in Victoria have successfully unionized. More than 1,000 drivers in the city voted to approve a contract negotiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers local 1518. Notably, this wouldn't have been possible without changes in provincial legislation that classifies rideshare drivers as employees rather than independent contractors, limiting their ability to do this in other provinces.

- Russia is warning foreign nationals, including diplomats, to leave Kiev as they threaten a fresh waves of "systematic strikes" against the city. Strikes on the capital have been pretty much incessant, but this new warning suggests that they plan to escalate. Most recently they tested out one of their new hypersonic missiles over the weekend as part of a heavy wave of attacks that killed four people and injured over 100. Meanwhile the US is claiming self-defense in their latest wave of attacks on Iran.

- A powwow organized with Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba created a stir after a table set up by the Sexuality Education Resource Centre, a Brandon organization, distributed materials that some parents considered sexually explicit to younger kids. One parent claims that her eight year old son was given condoms and other items by the table, and that this made him "uncomfortable". I daresay that may be a bit of projection on the part of the mum. There were also documents such as this one handed out. The school division and the SERC have apologized for the incident.

- Competition was halted at the World Surf League in New Zealand, and jet skis were dispatched to get competitors out of the water as quickly as possible, after a photographer covering the event was bitten by an unseen sea creature.

News roundup, 25 May 2026

- A man is dead after allegedly opening fire on a security checkpoint at the White House. The deceased had previously been arrested in July of last year at a different White House checkpoint claiming to be Jesus Christ.

- US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra claims not to understand why Canadians are frustrated with his country. Of course, this brings to mind Upton Sinclair's remark that "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it".

- Climate scientists now say that the worst case emissions scenario, known as RCP8.5, is no longer plausible. That scenario projected an increase of 4-5°C by the end of the century, and had been considered the "business as usual" scenario, but thanks to a decline in coal and the availability of cheap solar and wind technology use it's unlikely to get quite that bad. While this is good news, things are still going to get very bad in many parts of the world and this is no time for complacency.

- Microsoft is quietly scaling back internal use of AI, apparently after finding that it's not saving them money. They're cancelling the majority of licenses for Anthropic's Claude Code.

- The Colorado Information Analysis Center, which provides resources to police on potential terror-related threats, has warned that recruitment tweets sent out by ICE contain so many white supremacist dog whistles that they could endanger the public by creating a "permissive environment to engage in vigilante action and/or violence against individuals perceived to be immigrants". You know it's bad when cops are worried about something like this.

- The inaugural Enhanced Games was held in Las Vegas over the weekend. The event, created by an Australian businessman, is an Olympic-style competition, except that participants are allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs. I remember some people suggesting that something like this might be a good idea after the Ben Johnson scandal in 1988; surprising that it's taken this long to happen.

News roundup, 22 May 2026,

- Danielle Smith has found a workaround for the court ruling that stopped a referendum on Alberta independence from going on the ballot. The new plan is to hold a referendum on whether to "commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum" on separation. This presumably will provide cover for Smith to call for a yes vote on this, all while claiming that of course she'd vote no on the actual question of secession.

- The US House of Representatives was scheduled to hold a vote on a "war powers resolution" that could potentially force an end to Trump's military adventure in Iran. The vote has been delayed though. The Republicans' house leader, Steve Scalise, says this was done to allow legislators who were absent to be available for the vote; the Democrats suspect that they feared losing the vote. Certainly Trump's efforts to defeat his critics in their primaries has left a few Republicans with a lot less left to lose by defying the regime.

- Three Toronto police officers were arrested in Spain last week on charges of sexual assault and assault causing injury. The victim was a sex worker; the incident allegedly occurred in a taxi. I guess they forgot that they were in another country and couldn't get away with their usual antics. The officers are suspended, but as is usual for cops they're still getting paid for the time being.

- Sales of electric cars are spiking in Manitoba as fuel prices continue to rise. 8.8% of new vehicles sold in the province in March were electric. This is below the national average of 12%, however, despite Manitoba's relatively cheap electricity.

- Perennial candidate Don Woodstock has entered the race for the mayor's office in Winnipeg. Woodstock is actually mentioned in the Wikipedia article on perennial candidates; not only did he run for mayor in 2018, he has run for the provincial Liberals in 2007 and 2011, for city council in 2014, for the federal Greens in 2015, and provincially as an independent in 2016.

- A tour bus chartered by a visiting baseball team, the Kane County Cougars, was torched in the parking lot as the team was in town to play the Winnipeg Goldeyes. Two people, including a 15 year old girl, have been arrested.

- A rural Minnesota man has been arrested after allegedly shooting at a firefighting aircraft as it collected water from a lake, putting a hole in the vertical stabilizer. He claims that it happened accidentally while he was hunting crows; he also claims that the aircraft somehow "endangered my life". 

News roundup, 21 May 2026

- An Air France flight from Paris to Detroit was forced to divert to Montreal after American authorities found that a person from the Democratic Republic of Congo was aboard. The US has prohibited non-citizens who have been to the DRC as well as Uganda and South Sudan in the last 21 days from entering their country. The hapless passenger, who did not have any symptoms of the disease, was removed from the flight and sent back to Europe; the flight was then allowed to continue on its way.

- Mark Carney is pressuring BC on pipelines, warning that if they keep delaying new pipeline plans, "we're going to be spending more time elsewhere in the country because we need to move forward". That sounds suspiciously similar to "Nice federal funding you've got, it would be a shame if something happened to it".

- The Manitoba government is conducting a survey on the biannual time changes. It's a voluntary survey, so it will be skewed in favour of those with strong opinions, which likely means either that we'll be adopting permanent daylight savings time or, if sleep experts succeed in convincing the government that it's a bad idea, that we'll stick with time changes. Those who wish to fill it out can do so here.

- Toronto is looking at the possibility of deploying automated cameras equipped with microphones in order to catch violators of the city's bylaw on vehicle noise. Unfortunately they have yet to receive permission from the province to do so, and given the Ford government's track record on these matters I doubt it will happen any time soon.

- Shots were fired at the Surrey, BC home of Cricket Canada's newly elected president, Arvinder Khosa. Nobody was hurt; police believe the attack was extortion-related.

- Police had to be summoned to an elementary school in Brandon, Manitoba after an 11 year old boy threw a temper tantrum so severe that he not only punched the principal but put a hole in a classroom wall clear through to the next room. Being under 12 he cannot be held criminally responsible; his mother was briefly taken into custody after interfering with police but was released without charges. Police arranged for him to meet with mental health professionals before releasing him into the custody of his father.

- In other western Manitoba news, a 46 year old man from the community of Russell has been convicted of uttering threats after repeatedly threatening police; the prosecution is not only calling for a two year jail term but for him to be banned from the community following his release. His defense lawyer argues that this would be harmful to his rehabilitation, as he has spent most of his life there and has no connections elsewhere.

News roundup, 20 May 2026

- An Israeli legal organization, Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center), is threatening legal action against the Canadian Museum for Human Rights over plans to host an exhibit on the Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians when Israel was formed in 1948. The exhibit isn't scheduled to open for months, but the organization has vowed to "seek instructions to pursue all available legal remedies" if the museum goes ahead with it. The legal basis for this seems rather tenuous, but several pro-Israel organizations are angry that they weren't consulted about the matter. I have to wonder if they'd be calling for Russia to be consulted over an exhibit about the Holodomor.

- Andy Burnham, the chief challenger to Keir Starmer's leadership, says that he will not pursue readmission to the EU if he becomes prime minister. This is in contrast to another potential challenger, Wes Streeting, who says he would like to see the UK rejoin. Some in this Reddit thread feel betrayed by Burnham's stance, but one poster made a very good point:

Tbh supporting the EU at this point is not a valid policy and is purely performative. You can say that you would want to join the EU, but it’s currently off the table.

With a Reform premiership likely, you would just be wasting 3 years unless there was significant evidence to show rejoining the EU could win you the election.

The EU know this and won’t bother negotiating.

I suspect that this is Burnham's reasoning. Can't really fault it, unfortunately.

- Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who had challenged Trump on the Epstein files, was defeated in his primary yesterday by Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein, demonstrating the uncanny grip that the orange monster still has on his sheeple. Meanwhile in Louisiana, Republican senator Bill Cassidy suffered the same fate.

- Experienced farmers develop an intimate knowledge of seasonal patterns that help them to optimize their business. However, farmers in many parts of the world are finding that those patterns are breaking down, thanks to climate change. And it is expected that for each additional 1°C for the average temperature, the average available food supply will decrease by about 120 calories per person per day. Of course this will not be equally distributed; the rich countries will experience inflation in food prices while poor countries face starvation. As I've said before, this also poses a conundrum for the left - the old argument that there's enough food for everyone and it just needs to be distributed properly is soon going to become obsolete, and I fear that a lot of leftists are going to be in denial about this fact.

- On the more positive side, it seems that Trump and Netanyahu's reckless attack on Iran is doing what generations of activists couldn't do - pushing the world towards renewable energy. It's enough to make a person wish that Cheney and Rumsfeld had succeeded in convincing Bush to attack Iran back in the noughties - that way the shift to green energy would have happened two decades earlier and so maybe climate change wouldn't be as bad as it's going to be.

News roundup, 19 May 2026

- Two armed teenagers attacked a mosque in San Diego on Monday, killing three people before turning their weapons on themselves. This is being investigated as a hate crime; the mother of one of the shooters found a note that he had left behind, though the content of the note has not been made public.

- Global Affairs Canada is warning Canadians to be wary about travelling overseas this summer, due to the possibility of flight cancellations as a result of skyrocketing prices of jet fuel due to the war in Iran. They also warn that fuel shortages could disrupt access to products and services at some popular destinations. 

- A Canadian who was a passenger on the plague ship MV Hondius has tested positive for hantavirus. Three others are in isolation after showing symptoms consistent with the virus.

-  An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 131 people and may be spreading faster than originally thought.

- Manitoba is temporarily suspending the ban on sale of certain American alcoholic beverages, in order to sell off stock that expires in the fall.

- Keir Starmer is facing a direct challenge of his leadership of the Labour Party from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham is running in a byelection in the constituency of Makerfield, which was vacated by incumbent Josh Simons in order to make way for him.

- Thomas Massie, a Republican member of Congress from Kentucky, is facing a tough primary today as Donald Trump has aggressively endorsed his opponent. Massie drew the ire of Trump after pushing a bill to force the release of the Epstein files.

- A car crashed into a fireworks store in Toronto on Monday, starting what became a five-alarm fire. Nobody was in the vehicle by the time fire crews arrived.

News roundup, 15 May 2026

- Some municipalities in BC, including the City of Powell River, the Village of Pemberton, and the Resort Municipality of Whistler, are imposing their own campfire bans in response to the BC Wildfire Service lifting the general ban for the south coast for the Victoria Day weekend. The fact that the province lifted the ban when local officials don't think it's wet enough to lift the ban adds to my suspicions that the Eby government has been so spooked by recent polls that they're trying to avoid anything that populists might try to rally around. This is a fool's errand, of course; populists can always find something else, legitimate or otherwise, to rouse the rabble against the government.

- The student health clinic at McGill University has said that they will not prescribe gender transition hormones to American exchange students under the age of 19 for fear of repercussions from the Trump regime. They say they are doing this based on legal advice from the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA); the most credible fear they had was about difficulty crossing the border. That said, if you care more about being able to keep vacationing in Florida than about helping your patients, maybe you shouldn't be in the business.

- Energy ministers in every Australian state except one are calling for data centres to be forced to invest in enough wind and solar energy to completely cover their energy consumption. The exception, not surprisingly, is Queensland, which is kind of the Alberta of the southern hemisphere (in terms of political culture; the weather is nicer though).

- Hotels in the US are not seeing the expected rise in bookings for the World Cup that they were hoping for. This is not a big surprise; most Americans don't like soccer (they like to see bigger numbers on the scoreboard) and most foreigners don't want to visit the US right now.

- A recent survey of adults in the US found that 7.3% of respondents had thought about shooting somebody at some point in their lives, and 3.3% had experienced such thoughts in the last year. 

- A man has been arrested in Panama after more than three decades on the lam as the suspect in the murder of Rodney Barger, aka Rawn Beauty, lead singer of punk rock band Cold as Life. He is accused of shooting Barger in the head while he slept. The motive is unclear.

- Most strippers in Montreal depend entirely on tips for their income; strip clubs generally don't actually pay their dancers, and in fact some actually charge them for the "privilege" of working there. This may be about to change though; strippers and other sex workers in the city are planning to go on strike - and just in time for the Grand Prix. I imagine there will be a lot of disgruntled Formula 1 fans in the city that weekend.

News roundup, 14 May 2026

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani managed to eliminate a $12 billion deficit inherited from his predecessor without cutting services. He did it, of course, by taxing the rich, with the help of the state government which enabled him to impose a "pied-à-terre tax" as well as other measures. It's worth noting, though, that while he hasn't cut services he's delayed the improvement of some (e.g. he negotiated a delay in the reduction in school class sizes imposed at the state level). But politics is the art of the possible; Mamdani just seems to be a bit better than most politicians at this.

- The Court of King's Bench in Alberta has ruled against Elections Alberta’s approval of a pro-independence petition from Stay Free Alberta, on the grounds that it failed to take into account the impact of such a referendum on treaty rights and failed to consult with the potentially impacted First Nations. Danielle Smith has already announced the intention to appeal the decision, in case there were any doubt about where she stands. I would love to have a robotic fly on the wall of Smith's next caucus meeting. Meanwhile an organizer with another separatist group, the Centurion Project, is refusing to sign a statutory declaration that he will cease and desist from using and distributing the voter list information that the organization seems to have illegally obtained.

- Travel to the US by Canadians appears to be down even more than official stats indicate. Statistics Canada reported in February that visits are down by about 25%, however a study conducted by the University of Toronto's School of Cities that tracked cellphone data found that it's closer to 42%. The decline is even greater in sunbelt cities - around 50% in several cities in Florida, and 65% in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

- The BC Wildfire Service has lifted a fire ban along parts of the south coast of the province, just in time for the Victoria Day long weekend. They say this is because "current and forecasted" weather conditions reduce the risk. I do hope this is the real reason, and not fear of a populist backlash. Some fear that the days of the campfire may be numbered in this country.

- The University of Victoria has introduced new policies regarding use of AI to cheat. The university can now theoretically punish students for cheating even after graduation, which raises the possibility of revoking degrees. The thing is, the policy does not prohibit the use of software to detect AI use, even though such software is known to produce false positives. Someone in this Reddit thread says that they tested one such software product on papers they'd written before AI became widely available, and it concluded that up to 50% of the writing was AI-generated. Others in the same thread say that people on the autism spectrum tend to get hit with a disproportionate number of these accusations.

News roundup, 13 May 2026

- A man walked onto an active runway at Denver International Airport and into the path of a Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 on its takeoff roll in an apparent suicide. Unfortunately he was sucked into one of the engines. The cockpit and cabin immediately filled with smoke, and the pilots successfully aborted the takeoff. The ensuing evacuation of the 231 passengers and crew, however, was chaotic; not only were passengers wasting time trying to get their stuff, but three passengers jumped onto a slide before it had properly inflated, putting it out of commission (and hopefully injuring themselves in the process). Juan Browne (blancolirio), besides praising the pilots and strongly condemning the behaviour of the passengers, reports that the entire fan on the front of that engine was gone, and raises the possibility that this might have released oil that could have gone into the bleed air system, causing the smoke issue. If so it's fortunate that the crew were able to abort the takeoff; exposure to that stuff is potentially fatal.

- Another passenger from that Dutch plague ship in the Atlantic appears to be close to death. The passenger, a French woman, is said to be in the "final stage of supportive care"; the outbreak has already killed three people. The ship has now been fully evacuated and is on its way back to the Netherlands to be disinfected.

- A report the from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) concludes that the cost of battery storage has dropped by 90% since 2010, making solar and wind cost competitive with fossil fuels. Parts of Europe are already seeing drops in their electricity prices as a result.

- Residents of the Rural Municipality of Ritchot, Manitoba are up in arms about plans from a Las Vegas based company, Jet.AI, in collaboration with Vancouver-based Consensus Core, to build a data centre north of the community of Île des Chênes. The provincial government is aware of the plan but has not yet made a decision on the matter.

- A 35 year old fugitive from Greenbriar, Tennessee was arrested in Winnipeg on child sex abuse charges. The man had somehow slipped across the border, possibly through farm fields, and potentially carrying several firearms, although the guns weren't in his possession when he was caught. He was captured after getting caught speeding.

- A Winnipeg funeral home owner, who has announced his intention to run for mayor, has been accused of sexual harassment by a former employee. Mike Vogiatzakis of Voyage Funeral Homes claims that this was a disgruntled employee who only made the allegations after being fired, but then he would, wouldn't he. More info about the allegations may be found here. Even if the claims are false, he's someone that thoughtful voters will hopefully stay far away from; he's already been spreading far-right conspiracy theories about the "15 minute city", and folks here allege that he has gang connections as well.

- South Korea's military is looking at using robots in some non-combat roles (e.g. reconnaissance and logistics) to make up for declining enlistment due to the country's low birthrate. 

News roundup, 12 May 2026

- Eileen Wang, the mayor of the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia, has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to acting as an "illegal foreign agent" of China. This apparently involved the creation of a news website for the Chinese community, which carried the Chinese state's version of news and current affairs. That in itself doesn't sound like a crime, however the US alleges that she and her co-conspirator were posting specific articles requested by the Chinese government and reporting back with screenshots and hit counts, all without disclosing that she was doing so at the request of China. That definitely sounds a bit more suspect, as does the accusation that her co-conspirator is accused of "cultivating" her in the hope of strengthening China's influence in California. That said, under other circumstances I'd be suspicious of the truth to these claims; I could easily see the Trump regime manufacturing these kind of charges against a political enemy - but her plea agreement casts some doubt on that possibility.

- Winnipeg's Siloam Mission is laying off 16 staff and reducing hours at its drop-in space beginning in June. The organization is caught in a pinch between increased homelessness (meaning more demands for their services) and a decline in donations (which has been observed across the charitable sector in Canada). The organization is also riven with internal turmoil following the hiring of new CEO Sonia Prevost-Derbecker; she began her term with an organizational review to get to the bottom of the financial difficulties, but was immediately hit with accusations of making derogatory comments about indigenous people (despite being indigenous herself). Not being privy to any internal discussions, I can't say who's to blame - but in any case, as a friend of mine who used to work there says, we can expect the downtown to look worse than usual this summer.

- The backlash against the use of existing social housing stock to house previously homeless people continues. The Your Way Home program, introduced by housing minister Bernadette Smith, ultimately aims to use 20% of Manitoba Housing's stock for this purpose. Several longtime residents of Manitoba Housing buildings are up in arms - but it's worth noting that the biggest noisemaker quoted in the article lives in a building that's not part of the program. More reasonably, Erika Wiebe of the Right To Housing Coalition favours keeping 55+ buildings out of the program and improving support for residents as well as security.

- Ontario's education minister Paul Calandra is ordering school boards to make sure that graduation ceremonies remain apolitical. This follows an incident last year when an Ottawa student included pro-Palestinian remarks in her graduation speech. Calandra warns that he "will not hesitate to consider every tool available to me in the Education Act"; this comes not long after the passage of new legislation that makes it easier for the province to take over school boards.

- A new issue related to data centres has emerged - noise pollution. For one thing, many of these centres generate their own power using gas turbines, which produce a sound similar to a jet engine (since that's essentially what they are). There are also reports of low-frequency vibrations (infrasound) near these centres, which aren't audible to humans but have been associated with physiological effects like headaches and nausea.

- Country singer (and fourth-generation Albertan) Corb Lund is getting called a "woke bastard" for his stance on coal mining in the Rockies. Danielle Smith's government is lifting a moratorium on mining on the eastern slopes that was imposed by Peter Lougheed's government half a century ago and was accepted as necessary by all parties until Smith came along; Lund is among those gathering signatures to force a referendum on the matter.

News roundup, 11 May 2026

- Municipal elections were held across the England on Thursday; Scotland and Wales held their parliamentary elections on the same day. The results show crushing defeats for Labour across much of the country. The blogger behind Council Estates Media seems to think Starmer's unwavering support of Israel has something to do with it; I'd say it's a stretch to say that's a big factor in the defeat, but it definitely says something about the way the party has gone when they tried to play the antisemitism card against Green leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish. Ironically, while the Greens did respectably well in the elections, the main beneficiary was Reform UK, which has a fair number of actual antisemites. While it's fair to say the swing away from Labour is an indictment of that party, the fact that a plurality of those voters chose Reform is an indictment of the English people. The Scots and Welsh did a better job in their parliamentary elections, though.

- Three more passengers on board that Dutch plague ship now moored in the Canary Islands have tested positive for hantavirus, all after flying home. The incubation period for this virus is substantial; four Canadians who were on the ship have been ordered to isolate for 21 days.

- An Edmonton couple on vacation in Mexico got notifications from WestJet saying that their flight home from Los Angeles was cancelled; they had to be rerouted through Victoria and got home some 16 hours late. Under Canadian legislation this is a long enough delay to trigger compensation as per the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) - but the airline claims to be exempt because the cancellation was due to an unexpected safety-related issue with the aircraft. The problem is, the aircraft in question had been grounded several days previously; WestJet apparently switched which aircraft was to be used for the flight immediately before cancelling it in the hope of getting around paying compensation to passengers.

- Jana Ronne, a high school teacher in BC, got in hot water after confronting a student for the use of the word "pussy" as an insult. She responded by saying "Do you think women are weak? Women can be stronger than men"; somehow the discussion got steered into religion, and she responded to this by disputing the validity of religion (not clear how she got there; I suspect the kid cited the Bible/Koran/whatever). Subsequently she appears to have brought up the incident in class, unprompted. Apparently this made students who witnessed the interaction feel "uncomfortable", and they complained to the vice principal; the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation has given her a one day suspension of her teaching certificate and forced her to take courses on "creating a positive classroom" and "intercultural dialogue".

- A motorcyclist was seriously injured in a collision with a car on Scott Road, which forms the boundary between the cities of Surrey and Delta, BC. What is remarkable about this case, though, is that the motorcycle somehow ended up hanging from a traffic signal standard.

News roundup, 8 May 2026

- Elections Alberta has issued cease and desist letters to everyone known to have accessed a database compiled by the secessionist Centurion Project, which created it from illegally obtained voter lists. The lists were identified as having been legitimately issued to the Republican Party of Alberta; registered parties are legally entitled to the lists, but aren't supposed to share them. The lists were traced to the party via an interesting trick - the lists issued to each party are "salted" with a number of fake entries, and different fakes are used for each party. The potential impact on high profile individuals - such as former premier Jason Kenney who, while reliably rightwing by most standards, regularly gets death threats from extremists. And that's not even considering other criminal uses - stalking, robbery, hate crimes, etc. Meanwhile the NDP say they have obtained video evidence of two high ranking UCP members (president Rob Smith and caucus director Arundeep Sandhu) attending a Centurion meeting.

- Amsterdam's municipal government has banned public advertising of fossil fuels as well as meat. This is certainly a good move, though I'd throw airline and cruise ads into the mix as air travel is up there with meat as far as drivers of climate change go.

- The US Department of Homeland Security demanded that Google hand over information about a Canadian who has not set foot in the US in more than a decade after he criticized the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Information requested included location data and activity logs. Presumably the US authorities already know he hasn't been across the border recently, so I have to wonder if maybe they were really trying to find information on somebody else (e.g. to keep someone out of the US, or take them into custody on arrival, because they'd interacted with him).

- Air Canada is ending four seasonal routes to the American sunbelt early due to fuel prices. They currently still plan to reopen the routes on schedule in the fall, but we'll have to see how that goes.

- Manitoba has declared a public health emergency due to the high incidence of HIV in the province. The infection rate is 19.5 cases per 100,000 residents, compared to the national average of 5.5, according to chief medical officer of health Dr. Brent Roussin. He says that part of the purpose of the declaration is as an "awareness tool", however it does open more options for testing. 

- Meta is threatening to cut New Mexico off from Facebook and Instagram if prosecutors in an upcoming trial for "public nuisance" get what they are requesting. The company has already been hit with $375 million in civil penalties after it came out that they knowingly harmed kids' mental health and failed to report sexual exploitation of children that occurred on their platforms. In the nuisance trial, the prosecution is asking for the court to order the company to not allow sexual exploitation of kids, not make their apps addictive, and improve age verification. Meta claims that complying with this will be unfeasible and that they'll have no choice to leave. I do hope the court calls their bluff.

- For some unknown reason (at least none that OpenAI made public) several iterations of ChatGPT had a bizarre predilection for mentioning goblins without the subject having been brought up by the user. It also would insert unprompted references to various other creatures, both real and imaginary. This was eventually patched with a general instruction to "Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user’s query". If this actually was spontaneous, this is both impressive and unsettling. I wouldn't put it past the company to have set this up by design, though, just to get people talking.

- David Attenborough turns 100 today. 

News roundup, 7 May 2026

- The Trump regime is once again claiming that the war they helped start in Iran will be "over quickly"; they have offered another ceasefire proposal, which Iran says it is "considering". 

- The MV Hondius, that Dutch cruise ship with the hantavirus outbreak, has left Cape Verde en route to the Canary Islands after Spain granted the ship permission to dock there. This was done after three more infected people, two passengers and a crew member (reportedly the ship's doctor), were removed from the ship prior to setting sail to be flown to hospitals in Europe. And a flight attendant with KLM, who was briefly in contact with one of the patients who was flown to Johannesburg (and who later died) has now been hospitalized due to suspected hantavirus infection.

- Recent polling has the Ontario Liberals and PCs at a statistical tie in the wake of Doug Ford's incautious purchase of a private jet (nicknamed the "gravy plane" by critics). This marks the first time in quite a while that the Tories have looked vulnerable. The extent to which polls can be trusted is unclear, mind you; the "shy Tory factor" has been known for decades, and given that contemporary rightwing politics is full of paranoid conspiracy theorists, many people who might be inclined to vote for such parties would be too paranoid to answer a poll at all. Meanwhile in BC, support for David Eby's NDP has cratered in spite of any shy Tory factor (and in spite of the fact that the BC Tories are a party that any sensible person ought to be pretty shy about admitting a desire to vote for). As in Ontario, this seems to be driven largely by a single issue, in this case the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), which the Eby government has also partially backed away from after a couple of court rulings spooked some people about the possible impact on their property rights.

- A teenager has been charged with firing shots at two synagogues in Toronto and Vaughan in March. The shootings took place late at night and nobody was hurt. The suspect, reportedly of no fixed address, has not been publicly named because he was a minor at the time of the attacks.

- The resort community of Winnipeg Beach has been placed under provincial administration after the town's council, already short two members, lost quorum after the resignation of a councillor.

- The hospital in the town of Carman, Manitoba has cancelled all surgeries until further notice due to an infestation of ants. Southern Health, the regional health authority responsible for the hospital, insists that there is no threat to the health of patients or staff, or to the integrity of the building, but says that the facility does not meet the sterility standards for surgery. Meanwhile another hospital in southern Manitoba, this time in Morris, activated safety protocols after someone was threatened with what turned out to be a replica handgun. The suspects fled but crashed their vehicle into a road sign and were quickly tracked down.

News roundup, 6 May 2026

- Longtime Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour has been appointed as Canada's next governor general. Hard not to approve of the choice, not only because of her competence but because it's something of a statement in this geopolitical context to choose someone who served as an international war crimes prosecutor.

- Governments of numerous countries including Brazil, Canada, Germany, and Nigeria are sending representatives to discuss how to go about actually phasing out fossil fuels rather than setting warming targets by consensus and letting everyone figure out on their own how to do it, which has been the standard approach by the UN. Now it's easy to be a bit cynical about a bunch of elite types flying down to Colombia, mostly in gas-guzzling business jets, to discuss climate solutions, but such are the realities of diplomacy for the time being. Notably absent from the conference are the US, China, and the Gulf states, which is a positive development on all counts.

- A new paper suggests that even in the best-case scenario, New Orleans is not going to be one of those places that survives climate change. One of the authors says that "Even if you stopped climate change today, New Orleans’s days are still numbered". The city may find itself surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico by 2100; the paper's authors recommend that efforts be made to start relocating its residents now. This concept, known as "managed retreat", has come up a lot in the last while. Naturally, a lot of people are not comfortable with the idea for a lot of reasons, but I don't see how it will be possible to avoid some kind of retreat, managed or otherwise, in a lot of places around the world.

- Reform UK has vowed to put migrant detention centres in ridings that elect Green MPs if they win the next general election. This is kind of ironic given that the kind of climate policy advocated by that lot (i.e. "let it burn" in every sense of the phrase) will inevitably lead to huge amounts of migration.

- The US National Transportation Safety Board has released the findings from their part of the investigation into the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 in 2022 which killed 132 people. The NTSB was involved in the investigation as the home country of the manufacturer; they reported that the engines were suddenly shut down, and that this looked like a deliberate act of murder-suicide by one of the pilots. If so it would be far from the first time that something like this has happened - see for example this, this, and this, and probably also this. China's own Civil Aviation Administration has yet to make a ruling on the cause of the crash, which makes me wonder if they suspect a political motive, or if they just don't want their citizens thinking too much about why a highly skilled professional would just decide to kill himself and take a planeload of people with him.

- Health officials now suspect human-to-human transmission of hantavirus in the fatal outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic, but are quick to say (perhaps at the urging of the cruise industry) that they don't think it's a big concern.

- A Toronto woman is seeking an exemption to the restrictions in MAID legislation in order to get herself put to sleep for mental health disorders; the legislation specifically disqualifies patients whose only major health issues are psychiatric. This is a highly contentious issue; on the one hand, organizations like Dying With Dignity Canada are calling for it to be allowed, while on the other side some argue that the very conditions often complicate the matter of informed consent.

- A new viral fad has groups of young people arranging a time to get out of their mums' basements and conduct what twenty years ago would probably have been called a flash mob but is now called a speedrun (named, of course, after a term from the video game community) in which they try to get into Scientology facilities and film themselves. Most recently this happened in Vancouver on the weekend; up to 300 people apparently showed up. A 16 year old was arrested at the scene but later released with no charges. Some people say they know more about the motives for this stunt/protest, but are reluctant to speak on the record due to Scientology's famously litigious nature.

News roundup, 5 May 2026

- The US military is making moves to open the Strait of Hormuz to their vessels by force. This is going about as well as you might expect. Iran claims to have hit a US frigate; the US denies this. The UAE intercepted several missiles that it says were launched at it by Iran. While they did not reach their targets, a drone was able to set fire to an oil facility in the emirate of Fujairah. Trump is responding to all this in his trademark style, naturally; he's also proposing to use his navy to escort ships through the strait (people who actually know anything about warfare are skeptical, of course). I guess the one good thing is that at least this is happening in the spring, though there's no guarantee that this will be over by the fall when the need for natural gas for heating is going to spike.

- Another building owned by the nonprofit Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation is getting attention for all the wrong reasons after the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has deemed the building too dangerous for their home care staff to visit. Residents have to go to the nearby Indigenous Family Centre in order to meet with staff; this is obviously suboptimal since people who need home care are generally, well, housebound.

- The Manitoba government has proposed changes to drinking water safety legislation that have sent a lot of rural folks into a tizzy. Among the changes - it clearly specifies that property owners are responsible for the safety of wells on their property. Usually rural types like to natter about "personal responsibility", especially when someone talks about things like systemic causes of crime, but evidently they don't like it when it's applied to them. The legislation also allows medical officers to order chlorination for any well that serves more than one residence - something that worries many Hutterite colonies.

- A Toronto prosecutor was caught apparently berating a police officer who was a witness for the defense in the case of a man accused of deliberately ramming another officer with a motorcycle. There was no sound on the video, but witnesses say that she was swearing at him and, in response to him saying "What am I supposed to do, lie?" she allegedly said "We protect our own!" The judge has tossed the case; folks in this Reddit thread say that the prosecutor in question is married to a cop.

- New legislation being introduced by the Kinew government in Manitoba will require anyone who causes death or bodily harm by impaired driving, in the event that they get their license back, to have a zero blood alcohol content while driving. The government has previously added a provision that anyone convicted a of impaired driving a second time within a ten year period will be permanently banned from driving. 

- A 41 year old man in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba has been arrested after filming himself kicking a 71 year old stranger. The motive is not clear, but I'd hazard a guess that it's a modern version of "happy slapping", a rather unpleasant activity that became trendy in the UK in the mid-noughties.

News roundup, 4 May 2026

- An outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship has killed three people so far and sickened at least three others, one of whom is now in intensive care in a South African hospital. There are plans to evacuate the other infected people as well.

- The US is withdrawing around 5,000 troops from bases in Germany; this follows a remark by German chancellor Friedrich Merz that the US was being "humiliated" in Iran. The Trump regime has also announced another round of tariffs on European vehicles, a move which will hit Germany hard. Despite all this, Merz says he is "not giving up" on working with Trump. Merz, of course, is in the awkward position of any non-crazy right-of-centre leader - it's so deeply embedded in the minds of such people that the Americans are the good guys that they have no idea what to do when it becomes blatantly obvious that this isn't true anymore (if indeed it ever was).

- A United Airlines Boeing 767 clipped a pole and a truck after coming a bit too low on its final approach to the runway at Newark. Nobody on board the aircraft was hurt; the driver of the truck was treated for minor injuries.

- Support among Albertans for secession from Canada continues to languish, with 27% saying that they would vote yes to separation (only 6% say they're undecided on the matter). Among admitted UCP supporters, however, 57% say they would vote for independence. The strongest predictor of someone being a separatist seems to be someone whose income is high but who is nonetheless having trouble meeting expenses (perhaps because they were a bit too free with credit over the last couple of decades).

- A Nova Scotia woman booked a flight to Toronto for herself and her daughter, to see a Sabrina Carpenter concert. After her daughter died, she faced a months-long fight with Air Canada to get a refund for her ticket. The airline quickly reversed their position after the CBC started asking questions, though, saying the bereavement policy was not applied correctly.

News roundup, 1 May 2026

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, long a bogeyman for the political right and centre, is now taking some flak from left-identifying folks over plans to build a "climate innovation hub" on vacant city property. The concern seems to be that the area surrounding the site is a traditionally working-class area and that by bringing highly paid professional jobs into the area it will fuel gentrification. I can understand the concern to a degree, but this is New York we're talking about; the gentrification ship sailed long ago.

- Besides oil, among the most important commodities shipped through the Strait of Hormuz are fertilizers; around a third of the world's supply passes through the strait. If this goes on it will mean lower crop yields around the world. This is not expected to cause food shortages in rich countries, which will be able to outbid others, but the global cost could be up to 10 million meals per week.

- A use of force expert testifying at the inquest into the fatal police shooting of teenager Eisha Hudson says that the shooting was not justified. The officer who shot her claimed that the vehicle Hudson was driving was moving towards officers, however video taken by a witness appears to contradict this, with the shots being fired as the vehicle was reversing away from the cops.

- Winnipeg's Red River College Polytechnic is shutting down several programs, some of them permanently, and laying off 26 staff. Several other programs are having their capacity reduced. Both the Manitoba Government Employees' Union, which represents staff at the college, and the provincial government are blaming the caps placed on international student visas by the federal government.

- Winnipeg city council has removed Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt from all city committees following sexual assault allegations against him. 

- Intercity bus service is returning to Manitoba after an eight year absence, as the German company FlixBus (which purchased Greyhound in 2021) has announced a route between Winnipeg and Regina with a stop in Brandon.

- The Toronto suburb of Brampton leads the country in mortgage delinquencies among medium to large cities. The city was considerably below the national average only seven years ago; housing prices there surged in 2022 and some of those mortgages are now renewing at higher rates as a result of the Iran war.

- A man suspected in the murder of a five year old indigenous girl in the Australian city of Alice Springs was beaten unconscious by a mob; after he was taken to hospital a riot occurred outside the facility. Protesters were calling for traditional "payback"; the child's family have, however, appealed for calm.

News roundup, 30 April 2026

- The price of oil has reached its highest level since 2022 following reports that the US is considering new attacks on Iran and that the country's ports could be blockaded for months.

- The United Arab Emirates has announced that they will be withdrawing from OPEC as of tomorrow. While this will probably not have an immediate impact on oil prices (UAE oil still has to pass through the Strait of Hormuz) it will be perceived as a win for Trump, who has railed against OPEC for a long time.

- Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have issued travel advisories for the US in the leadup to the World Cup.

- Buying a business jet to fly himself around in is far from the worst thing Doug Ford has done in terms of actual impacts on Ontario and its people (just consider all the measures he's taken against sensible urbanist policies by municipal governments, for instance), but it seems to be the one thing that could cause problems for his reelection - his party is now in a statistical tie with the Liberals according to a recent poll. That said, the jet purchase was bad enough, especially given that the aircraft wouldn't have been able to use small airports anyway.

- Bell Canada is opening a data centre in the Centreport complex in Rosser, Manitoba, just outside Winnipeg. While this is in keeping with an announcement last fall from the premier that more data centres would be built to support "sovereign AI", many are questioning whether this is the best use of the 5.5 MW of electricity it requires (enough to power thousands of homes).

- Former Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson, who has come under fire for her, er, "alternative" understanding of the residential school system, was escorted off the University of Lethbridge campus and fined $600 for trespassing. Widdowson had been the subject of a trespass notice by the university since February when she attempted to hold an unsanctioned event on campus that drew a large number of protesters.

News roundup, 29 April 2026

- Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with threatening the life of the president with a picture he briefly posted to Instagram last year. The image showed several seashells arranged to read "86 47"; apparently in some circles "eighty-six" is slang for "eject" or "remove". Comey says he took the picture after seeing the arrangement on a beach; he says removed it upon hearing that some interpreted it as a call for violence.

- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received a gift of £5 million from a crypto billionaire in 2024; subsequently he reversed his decision not to run in the general election that year. The donor, Christopher Harborne, also donated £9 million to Farage's party last year, the largest single donation to a party by a living person in British history; this is despite the fact that he is based in Thailand. On the other side of the world, Australia's wealthiest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has donated an aircraft as well as $2 million to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

- California is holding a referendum on a one time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires. The measure was proposed as a way to make up for the loss of federal healthcare money; the billionaires are pulling out all the stops to defeat the initiative.

- Higher oil prices resulting from the war in Iran mean that Canada's recent fiscal update, which was prepared before the latest developments, likely underestimates Canada's revenue, meaning a substantial windfall for the government.

- Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and obstruction of justice; this is related to his attempt to impose martial law in 2024. This is largely academic as he has already received a life sentence for rebellion in connection to the matter.

- Five correctional officers were injured in a confrontation with a single inmate at a prison in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. The president of the officers' union says that the use of drones to smuggle drugs and weapons into prisons has made their job more dangerous; among the measures they're calling for is the jamming of cellphone signals on the premises to make it harder to coordinate such smuggling.

- A 17 year old boy has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly intentionally running over several sleeping geese in a parking lot. This happened at night, however his vehicle was identified from security video.

- An Indian man dug up his sister's remains and brought them to a bank in order to prove that she was dead in order to close her account. 

News roundup, 28 April 2026

- The suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner incident has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president as well as several firearms offenses. People from his hometown, the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, seem for the most part not to know him very well, saying that he lived with his parents and didn't interact with very many people.

- Mark Carney has announced plans to create a sovereign wealth fund for Canada. Unlike the one so successfully operated by Norway over the decades, it doesn't sound like it will be filled up with oil royalties - under our federal system, these kind of resources fall largely under provincial jurisdiction (as frothing-at-the-mouth Albertans are all too keen to point out whenever any plans to federally manage that sector of the economy are made). Instead, it sounds like it's going to just be some kind of investment fund that you (as well as "the private sector and international partners") buy units of the way you would for a mutual fund or ETF. Ironically, Norway's own sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world (which does get much of its money from oil), was initially inspired by the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust fund as initially set up by Peter Lougheed (but sadly nerfed by Ralph Klein). Now, unfortunately, that sort of thing is anathema to that province.

- Water levels in Ontario's Lake Simcoe are at their highest level in decades, with the potential to cause flooding in parts of Barrie and Orillia as well as the towns of Innisfil and Georgina and the township of Ramara. This is threatening croplands in an area sometimes called the "salad bowl", a major producer of vegetable crops.

- State Farm Insurance is facing hundreds of lawsuits from people who were denied coverage for hail damage, including over 600 in Oklahoma alone. There are allegations of a "wide-ranging program" by the company to avoid claims for such damage, as well as for wildfires. Perhaps the company can see a rise in such claims coming due to climate change and wants to make sure they don't have to pay them. Meanwhile millions of properties in the US are uninsured because the owners can't afford the premiums.

- Tenants at a North End apartment building operated by the nonprofit Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation, are raising concerns after the organization began housing homeless people in vacant units in cooperation with social service agencies. Several longtime tenants report that they no longer feel safe; a representative of the nonprofit acknowledges the concerns, saying that while they have been working to house the homeless for several years the situation has worsened in the last year. In contrast to this, organizations in Steinbach are proposing a dedicated building for people in such situations, which would have onsite psychiatrists. This sounds like a better way of dealing with the situation; while I can see some having concerns about the segregating effect of this, that may be a necessary evil in order to maintain a satisfactory level of buy-in from the public.

- A man in his 70s has been arrested following the fatal shooting of a 62 year old man in Mississauga. Police believe the shooting was targeted; you'd think one would outgrow one's gangster phase by that age.

News roundup, 27 April 2026

- Trump was rushed out of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday after a shooting incident. He escaped unscathed; a suspect is in custody and has been identified as a part time teacher and game developer. Investigators believe he was targeting administration officials but haven't said if Trump himself was among those he was after.

- Municipal leaders in Manitoba want provincial legislation amended to allow municipalities to ban disruptive people from public meetings. This follows an attempt to do so by the Rural Municipality of Alexander that was nixed by the courts.

- Alexandre Boulerice, the only NDP MP from Quebec, reportedly plans to step down and run provincially for the leftwing Quebec Solidaire party (there is no provincial wing of the NDP in Quebec). This will leave the NDP with only 5 MPs.

- The Kinew government in Manitoba plans to follow Australia's lead in banning social media for youth. The proposed legislation also covers things not covered by Australia's law, most notably AI chatbots. Interestingly, many young people asked by the CBC about this draw a distinction between the two, being in favour of restricting chatbots but not social media. No timeline for a ban has been announced so far.

- The Carney government has released a fiscal update indicating a deficit of $25.5 billion for the period from April 2025 and February 2026. This is considerably lower than the forecast from November, which projected a deficit of $78.3 billion for that time period. Poilievre, of course, is never satisfied on such matters and is calling for the cancellation of the high speed rail plan as well as the gun buyback program and a hard cap of $31 billion for deficits.

- A French teenager has been arrested in Singapore after posting footage on Instagram of himself licking a straw from a vending machine and putting it back in the dispenser. He has been charged with mischief and being a "public nuisance"; he could face up to two years in prison and thousands of dollars of fines if convicted. That does seem a bit excessive, but these sort of social media-fueled pranks are definitely a plague.

News roundup, 24 April 2026

- Some reports allege that Donald Trump wanted to use nuclear weapons in Iran and was blocked from doing so by a general, Dan Caine. Fact checkers have not confirmed this; the folks at Snopes are calling the story "false", but it's worth noting the basis for this rating:

We found no evidence from reputable news outlets or official sources supporting the claim, which appeared to stem from a dubious source. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly also told Snopes via email that the claim was "totally false." We have also reached out to the Pentagon for a response to the claim and await a reply.  

Given the above, we've rated this claim false.

I'd be inclined to rate it as "unconfirmed" rather than "false"; the White House's denials (or any other statement from there) are hardly something that can be taken at face value. That said, the original source of this story is a blogger who has been caught up in falsehoods before; hopefully this is another one, but given everything we do know about Trump I wouldn't put it past him.

- US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is threatening retaliatory action against Canada if the provinces that have refused to stock American liquor don't lift the bans. Mark Carney retorted that the bans could end quickly if the US lifts tariffs on such things as steel, aluminum, and vehicles. Certainly neither BC nor Ontario has any plans to reverse their policies.

- The International Criminal Court is proceeding with charges against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte. A panel found that the evidence suggests that Duterte was responsible for dozens of murders, as a result of a policy during his reign of "neutralizing" alleged criminals.

- Only 25% of American 16 year olds had a driver's license in 2022, compared to nearly 50% in 1983. On the face of it this might seem to be good news, however biking and walking rates are down as well; the implication seems to be that they just aren't going out at all.

- The Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool in inner-city Winnipeg has installed buzzers for pool users to request admittance to the facility, following a series of concerning incidents including theft, threats, and assaults against staff and patrons. Unfortunately this is causing collateral damage for some users; the automatic opener previously used by people with disabilities was itself disabled in the course of the change. On the face of it I don't see why this is necessary; it shouldn't be difficult to set it up so that the person inside who responds to the buzzer could activate the opener from inside. If this isn't possible for some reason, then this might be a necessary evil, assuming that it excludes fewer people than would be excluded due to fear if such measures weren't in place (or by reduced hours if it becomes hard to staff the pool due to employee concerns). But this should be looked at before settling on the current situation.

- An intoxicated man who showed up at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg was found to be in possession of a smoke grenade. How he obtained it has yet to be determined.

- French authorities are investigating after someone allegedly made a bet on the temperature in Paris on the online betting site Polymarket, then used a hair drier to warm the sensor so that the recorded temperature would be in line with the bet. 

News roundup, 23 April 2026

- A journalist was killed by the IDF in what Lebanese officials are calling a "double tap" strike. Amal Khalil and a colleague were reporting on an Israeli attack on a vehicle, and were allegedly targeted by the Israelis when they tried to take cover in a building. The Israelis also allegedly fired on emergency workers who were trying to save her.

- Danielle Smith's government in Alberta has passed a motion to select a committee to draw up new constituency boundaries, having rejected the recommendation of the province's Electoral Boundaries Commission. The recommendation, passed by a majority of the commission (two NDP representatives and the commission's chair) drew the ire of Smith and the UCP because it increased the large cities' share of the constituencies, thus creating the risk that good sense, as opposed to mere common sense, might prevail in a future election. For the first time in the commission's history, the two dissenting members (both UCP appointees) presented their own alternative boundaries, which merged more than a dozen urban ridings with rural ones so as to dilute the urban vote.

- The captain of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 was struck on the head by a falling piece of instrumentation while climbing out of Las Vegas, suffering a concussion. The first officer took control of the aircraft and landed safely. In other aviation news, the crew of an Air Canada Jazz Embraer E175 had to take evasive action after a Republic Airways plane of the same type strayed into their path while performing a go-around.

- The US Department of Health and Human Services stopped the publication of a study on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. The study was going to be published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an in-house publication of the Centers for Disease Control, but the department pulled it citing vague concerns about the methodology.

- Virginia has passed legislation that ends the tax exemptions for pro-Confederate organizations, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society.

- A 73 year old man from the Rural Municipality of Dauphin, Manitoba (which surrounds the city of the same name) was charged with stealing a handgun at a gun show in Newfolden, Minnesota. He was released on bail and returned to Canada, but after the RCMP were notified of this, they searched his home and found a substantial cache of weapons, several of them stolen from the US.

- An Indian medical student in need of extra cash decided to try selling bikini photos of an AI-generated woman, but he wasn't getting much of a response until he asked Google's AI chatbot Gemini how to fix that and it suggested that he create a MAGA persona for his next attempt. The chatbot referred to this as a "cheat code", adding that "the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal". So he researched MAGA culture intensively and created an Instagram profile for a fictitious nurse who looked like actor Jennifer Lawrence and dispensed such words of "wisdom" as "If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported". This succeeded beyond his wildest dreams; the account racked up 10,000 subscribers within a month, and in no time he was making money hand over fist by selling softcore images, T-shirts, and the like. He says that he also experimented with creating another, more liberal persona, but that one didn't do nearly as well. He noted that "Democrats know that it’s AI slop, so they don’t engage as much", whereas "The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people—like, super dumb people. And they fall for it". The Instagram account was eventually taken down for failure to disclose AI-generated content; its creator has no regrets and is now focusing on his studies.

News roundup, 22 April 2026

- The European Union is working on a carbon pricing scheme known as EST2, scheduled to come into effect in 2028. The scheme includes rebates to offset the impact (which will potentially leave lower income households better off); there are concerns, though, that far too little effort is being put into public education, especially regarding the rebates. One of the weaknesses of democracy is that it's not enough to have a good policy, you have to sell that policy to the public - and the more complicated the policy, the harder it is to do that. There's a saying in politics - "if you're explaining, you're losing"; that doesn't mean you should never explain things, but that when your explanation is a response to something that your opponents have already put out there, you have a problem. Given that fact it's especially important to work on educating the public about the tax and the rebates well before the pricing scheme takes effect. Otherwise, opponents of the policy may be able to whip up a populist fury before the actual facts can get out the door.

- Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz today, and has reportedly seized at least two of them.

- The Trump regime is demanding what they call an "entry fee" before reopening talks with Canada on renegotiating the Canada-United States-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA). The "fee" would not be monetary, but rather trade concessions; normally one would expect concessions to be made in the course of trade negotiations rather than as a condition of entry into said negotiations, but that's how Trump rolls I guess. For their part, Canadian negotiators say that they've already offered some concessions to no avail. 

- When Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), the metro system serving the San Francisco Bay Area, conducted a review that concluded that conventional fare enforcement disproportionately affected ethnic minorities due to the human judgment aspect, they decided instead to upgrade the gates at their stations, replacing the easily-jumped waist-high barriers with metal-framed Plexiglas doors. Besides being more effective and less inequitable than what went before, they found that vandalism dropped dramatically under the new system. Not to say that most fare evaders are vandals, of course, but it seems that a disproportionate number of the vandals are fare evaders.

- A 72 year old Winnipeg man has been arrested after unsigned, threatening letters sent to NDP MLA and cabinet minister Nahanni Fontaine were traced to him. The suspect is facing charges of criminal harassment and uttering threats.

- Chip Roy, a far-right Republican member of Congress from Texas, has introduced a bill which he has dubbed the "Measures Against Marxism’s Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists" (MAMDANI) Act. This bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow for, among other things, stripping the citizenship of any immigrant who is a member of a socialist party or who "advocates" for socialism (as well as communism or Islamic fundamentalism).

- Tucker Carlson has apologized for his past support for Donald Trump, as the consequences of the war in Iran become more apparent. Better late than never I suppose, but he should have seen something like this coming.

News roundup, 21 April 2026

- A Canadian tourist was shot dead at a popular tourist site in Mexico. Another Canadian, as well as three Columbians (one of them a child), a Russian, and a Dutch national were wounded; the shooter, a Mexican citizen, killed himself. The motive for the attack is unknown.

- The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz threatens to significantly disrupt food production around the world, due to the huge amounts of fertilizer shipped through the strait. In wealthy countries this will primarily mean higher prices, but in poorer countries it could very well lead to famine. 

- Florida's orange industry is undergoing a catastrophic decline, due to a combination of invasive pests, excessive glyphosate use, hurricanes and other weather events, as well as changing public tastes. The state produced 242 million boxes in 2003; this year's harvest is being optimistically projected at 12 million. 

- Doug Ford has abruptly backtracked on a plan to spend nearly $30 million of public money on a business jet to fly him around (dubbed the "gravy plane" by critics), while continuing to spout a torrent of whataboutery and claims of persecution regarding the matter. This includes a claim that Quebec did the same thing, when in fact the jets purchased by that province were for medevac purposes, not for the premier's use.

- Brokenhead Ojibway Nation has purchased a Winnipeg clothing manufacturer. Freed & Freed International Ltd. manufactures jackets for the Canadian Armed Forces as well as the RCMP and Canada Post; the First Nation hopes that this will provide their community with employment opportunities.

- The Rural Municipality of Alexander in eastern Manitoba attempted to ban a disruptive resident from council meetings, but a court has ruled that while they can remove him from a meeting if he actually behaves in a disruptive manner, they do not have the authority to ban him from future meetings, at least without an injunction or similar measure.

- Residents of the Rural Municipality of Sherwood in Saskatchewan are up in arms about the approval of a Bell Canada data centre in the municipality. Adding to residents' frustration is the fact that most of the councillors were appointed by the province to replace councillors who resigned en masse last month, leaving the council without quorum.

- An Israeli soldier took an axe to a statue of Jesus in the predominantly Christian Lebanese village of Debel. This was too much even for Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed that the soldier will be punished.

News roundup, 20 April 2026

- The US captured an Iranian container ship that was planning to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has called the seizure "piracy" and has announced that they will not be going back to the negotiating table any time soon.

- Mark Carney has recognized that Canada's trade ties to the US have become weaknesses, due to the erratic nature of that country's leadership in these times. This follows an outburst by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in response to Canada's trade breakthroughs with China.

- To the surprise of few, the BBC has found that there is often a large spike in securities trading activity in the leadup to major announcements by Donald Trump. This might seem pretty trivial compared to some of Trump's crimes, of course.

- The uncontrolled building of data centres is becoming a potential issue in the US midterms as opposition grows to the impacts of these centres on energy prices, water use, and other matters. No doubt Silicon Valley will be pulling out all the stops to nip this in the bud, though.

- Two First Nations in Manitoba's Interlake region have declared states of emergency due to impending flooding. Peguis and Fisher River are both anticipating evacuations in the aftermath of a late snowstorm that affected the region. Peguis in particular has been calling for federal assistance towards a permanent solution for years, to no avail. Flooding is also causing disruptions in northeastern Ontario and in Gatineau, Quebec.

- A Chinese-born artist who emigrated to the US in 2022 was arrested while visiting family back in China in 2024 on charges of "insulting revolutionary heroes and martyrs". This is in response to works he exhibited back in 2009 that satirized Mao Zedong.

- A couple from Kelowna, BC were hit with a huge bill by Enterprise Rent-A-Car for allegedly damaging their rental vehicle by filling it up with diesel. The thing is, they had kept receipts from the gas station, and even taken a photo of the gas pump, showing that it doesn't even dispense diesel - and yet the company still sent them a bill for $9,500. Evidence was also provided that the fuel filler could not accommodate the larger nozzles from diesel pumps. The company only backed down after they hired a lawyer and the CBC started asking the company questions. I can confirm that this sort of thing isn't that uncommon in the car rental business; a number of years ago I had a disconcerting experience with a different company when I rented a truck and then was sent a bill claiming that I'd racked up a huge amount of mileage on the vehicle. Fortunately they immediately reversed this when I called them and pointed out that there was no way I could have driven thousands of kilometres in the couple of hours that the truck was in my possession. One is left with the impression, though, that these companies like to throw something at the wall and see if it sticks every so often.