News roundup, 18 June 2025

- Israel has launched another barrage of strikes against Iran, and the latter country has responded in kind. Meanwhile Donald Trump has warned Tehran's nearly 10 million residents to evacuate, leading to huge traffic jams on the roads leading out of the city. He has also stridently called for "unconditional surrender", and while he has been sending mixed messages many suspect that Israel's attack came with his tacit approval. There are fears that the US could get involved directly, with potentially dire consequences.

- Attacks on aid convoys are increasingly common. The most high-profile examples are those seen in Gaza recently, but there have been recent occurrences in Haiti and the Central African Republic as well. Michael Fakhri, a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law currently serving as the UN's Special Rapporteur on the right to food, is calling for armed UN troops to protect the convoys. He argues that the UN General Assembly should be able to authorize this without the involvement of the Security Council.

- A bankruptcy trustee accuses conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of concealing assets to avoid having to pay Sandy Hook families. Lawsuits filed by the trustee allege that Jones transferred assets to his father, his ex-wife, and a trust fund for his children in the hope of keeping said assets out of reach of the plaintiffs.

- New York State's legislature has passed a bill to require transparency on matters concerning public safety from AI developers whose products are accessible to the state's residents. The bill is designed to address the perceived flaws of a similar bill which was passed by California's legislature but vetoed by the state's governor, Gavin Newsom. The New York bill has now been sent to governor Kathy Hochul for approval; however, it could be made moot if Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" passes, as that bill contains provisions to prevent states from regulating AI in any way. 

- The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is trying to eliminate the use of Microsoft products on its systems, replacing them with open source software. They're doing away with Microsoft Office and Teams, and have plans to shift from Windows to the Linux operating system.

-  The Recording Academy, which gives out the Grammy awards, has decided to abolish the Best Country Album award, replacing it with two awards, Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album. There are suspicions among some that Beyonce winning the award last year, and the resulting backlash, may have motivated the change.

News roundup, 12 Dec 2024

- As expected, the new draft budget for the City of Winnipeg includes a 5.95% property tax increase. The budget includes money for 36 more police officers and 15 community safety officers, but none for the Community Connections facility in the Millennium Library lobby; it also initiates a pilot study to defer residential snow clearing until a 15 cm snowfall instead of the current 10. Even with the tax increase the city will still have some of the lowest property taxes in the country, but that may be a hard sell with a lot of residents. There seems to be little alternative, though.

- Cycling activists in Toronto have launched a court challenge against the Ford government's anti-bike lane legislation, citing the rights to life and security of the person in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Not sure what the chances of success are, but one thing they have in their favour - the fact that the government saw the need to specifically exclude lawsuits for deaths or injuries resulting from the law does suggest that it is not a good thing for the aforementioned rights.

- Doug Ford has responded to Trump's proposed tariffs by threatening to stop supplying electricity to the US. Whether he has the nerve to actually follow through on this threat is another question, though.

- A poll has found that just over a third of Canadians think the response of governments to COVID-19 was excessive. This happens to be in the same ballpark as the baseline level of support for the Conservatives, which shouldn't be surprising.

- FBI director Christopher Wray will be stepping down at the end of Biden's term in January, despite having more than two years left in his own appointment. Trump has expressed the intention to appoint former national security aide Kash Patel; RFK Jr., though, thinks his daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy would be a better choice. Trump is apparently open to the idea.

- One of the more disconcerting things about the climate crisis is that as it proceeds, it causes inflation, not least because it impacts food production and thus increases prices. And because measures to contain and mitigate climate change are expensive, inflation dampens the political will to proceed with such measures, even as they're needed more than ever; instead the sheeple are driven to vote for rightwing populists who tell them what they want to hear. This has the potential to create what some call a "doom loop" where climate change and far-right politics feed on each other.

- Teachers at the London District Catholic School Board have apparently been ordered not to teach certain books by black authors because they contain the N-word. Among them is The Book of Negroes, by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, who had this to say about the matter. A teacher who spoke to Hill about the matter was subsequently reprimanded.

- A Houston judge has rejected an attempt by The Onion to buy Alex Jones' media empire. Judge Christopher Lopez cited what he considered a "lack of transparency" in the process, as well as an alleged failure to maximize value towards Jones' creditors. It's worth noting that bankruptcy courts are federal courts, and that Lopez was appointed to the court in 2019, so it's just possible that he's not as impartial as judges are theoretically supposed to be.

- Researchers at MIT have found that people are more likely to eat vegan food if it isn't labeled as vegan. I guess some of them are worried that if they eat it they might become annoying or something.

- Tokyo University's website for graduate student applications apparently had a hidden keyword, not visible by looking at the page normally, that made reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre, thus preventing the page from being displayed in mainland China and preventing Chinese students from applying. The university says that they have since removed the offending word.

- The College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba has suspended the license of a man who was found not criminally responsible for killing his parents and attacking a former coworker. Seems like a reasonable decision to me...

News roundup, 29 Nov 2024

- Vladimir Putin is threatening to use Russia's new hypersonic Oreshnik missiles, recently demonstrated in a strike on Dnipro, to strike targets in Kyiv, potentially including political targets as well as military ones. Due to the high speed (around Mach 10 according to some reports) an explosive warhead is not even needed if the targeting is effective. A spokesperson for Volodymyr Zelenskyy is downplaying the possibilities for these weapons; I don't know if he's actually right about this or just trying to put on a brave face, though.

- Australia's parliament has now passed landmark legislation that bans those under the age of 16 from most social media. The bill was passed with the support of most of the main opposition parties, but was opposed by most of the independents and smaller parties in the Senate. Exemptions are made for apps that are primarily for messaging (such as WhatsApp), online gaming services, and educational services, and services such as YouTube that do not require a login. Awkwardly, one of the authors of the study cited as a reason for the ban is now saying that the study's findings do not justify it - but the author in question is British, and for all we know he might be trying to cover his butt in case some social media company decides to exploit the UK's libel laws (which are notorious for favouring the plaintiff) to claim damages for lost profits arising from the use of his research. As well, Elon Musk is opposed, so I'd be inclined to support the legislation based on that - except that Debra Soh is in favour, so maybe not.

- France's government is requiring all outdoor parking spaces larger than 1,500 m² to have canopies of solar panels built over them. Not only will this generate a lot of electricity, it will make it a lot less uncomfortable to get into your car after leaving it parked on a hot day (and maybe mean a few fewer infants and pets getting cooked).

- There are fears that Donald Trump's proposed new tariffs may provoke China into what some call "supply chain warfare" - cutting American companies off from needed materials and components. It's tricky, though, because China also depends on things like microchips that are sold by American companies.

- A news station in Washington, DC ran several stories about a report on the impact of gas stoves on indoor air quality - only to then scrub them from their website apparently to avoid offending their sponsor, which happened to be the local natural gas utility.

- There have been some abrupt changes in X (the former Twitter) recently, including the ability to turn off engagement numbers, leading some to think that Musk and co. are worried about the recent exodus of users to Bluesky. Interestingly, over at Meta, Mark Zuckerberg seems concerned about the fact that Bluesky is picking up the slack instead of his own company's counterpart, Threads.

- First United American Companies, a limited liability company affiliated with Alex Jones' dietary supplements business, is attempting to block the purchase of Jones' Infowars website by The Onion in favour of their own bid. Elon Musk is also trying to interfere, saying that Infowars' X accounts cannot be transferred according to X's terms of service.

- A former employee of Boston College is trying to sue the institution for religious discrimination after he was fired for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The employee, a landscaper, is a member of a fringe religious sect derived from Bogomilism, a neo-Gnostic sect that had its heyday in 10th century Bulgaria. The college is using an interesting defense - as a Catholic institution, they say that they are bound by their own religious duty following Pope Francis' 2020 decree that Catholics are obligated to protect their own and others' health.

News roundup, 27 Sept 2024

- A new Leger poll raises serious questions about the political judgment of BC voters, giving the extremist BC Conservatives a 45-42 lead over the NDP. Paradoxically, the premier, NDP leader David Eby, still has a higher personal approval rating than Conservative leader John Rustad, further adding to the impression that the people really don't understand what they're doing when they vote. Possibly the greater efficiency of the NDP vote will prevent the worst from happening, but that remains to be seen.

- A global declaration on antibiotic resistance was weakened at the insistence of the US. The reason? The initial draft called for a 30% reduction of the use of antibiotics in agriculture (one of the biggest offenders on this file) by 2030, and the American ag lobby was having none of it. Therefore, the offending section was replaced with the anodyne recommendation to "strive to meaningfully reduce" the use of antibiotics, without specifics.

- Some Silicon Valley techbros aren't prepared to wait for proper research into geoengineering to be done - they're starting to do it themselves. Naturally, the existence of such rogue operators adds urgency to the need for a sensible study of the matter.

- At least three people were killed when Hurricane Helene struck northern Florida, with winds of 225 km/h (120 kt). It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.

- The assets of Alex Jones' Infowars are being auctioned off following the ruling of a Houston judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Jones and his media empire. Proceeds will be paid to the relatives of Sandy Hook shooting victims who were defamed by Jones when he repeatedly claimed the massacre to be a hoax.

- The woman killed by a runaway pickup truck in Winnipeg's Westwood neighbourhood two weeks ago was a newcomer to Canada, who was going to be married in October. At the time of her death she was a few weeks away from the end of her probation period at her new job and qualifying for benefits, which ironically would have included life insurance.