News roundup, 2 Oct 2026

- Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now spinning the attempt to crash FlyDubai flight 1073 as a terrorist attack aimed at Israelis, saying that the first officer had undergone "Islamist radical indoctrination". While it's entirely possible that this is true, and the UAE is considering this in their investigation, opposition leader Yair Lapid says that nothing of the sort was mentioned in the security briefing he was given. It seems that Netanyahu is trying to turn this into a boost for him in the upcoming parliamentary election, which recent polling suggests that Netanyahu may be at risk of losing. And given that as soon as he's no longer prime minister he'll be in danger of going to jail for past corruption, he's naturally pulling out all the stops to win. Happily Captain Smit Machchhar, who was instrumental in saving the aircraft by getting the cockpit door open, is recovering in hospital in Abu Dhabi.

- A proposed pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast, now officially named the Pacific Link, has become the first project designated to be a matter of "national interest". Under the Building Canada Act this means that the approval process will be fast-tracked, although its approval and construction is still not guaranteed. The government claims that the pipeline will reduce Canada's "emissions intensity" (i.e. emissions per unit volume of oil produced), but environmentalists warn that it will mean more oil in total will actually be extracted and burned, outweighing the benefits from a reduction in intensity.

- The Manitoba Labour Board has ruled that the work done by workers at Dynacare labs constitute an essential service and that limits must thus be placed on their right to strike. A strike might still be legal under some circumstances, but an essential services agreement must be made beforehand that sets minimum staffing levels. The company and the union had previously agreed on treating their work as non-essential because there are also public labs that do the work, but the province intervened in this, most likely because a widespread strike and the resulting slowdown in medical tests would be politically difficult for the government.

- In most jurisdictions, e-bikes and e-scooters are supposed to be speed limited, generally to 32 km/h (some provinces limit the scooters and lightweight e-bikes to 25 km/h). However, the motors in the bikes are generally capable of more than that and the limits are put in afterwards; these are often quite easily hacked to allow much higher speeds. A CBC Marketplace investigation has found that some stores, including big box stores like Best Buy, Canadian Tire, and Costco as well as specialty bike shops, have been selling the bikes with the limiters disabled and/or telling buyers how to hack them to go faster than they're supposed to. An employee at one shop in Richmond Hill told an undercover reporter that their bikes are capable of 120 km/h. Some have also marketed them as suitable for children younger than the legal age limits.

News roundup, 11 Sept 2026

- Some 40% of those believed to have died in the 9/11 attacks have not been tied to any remains found at the scene. Genetic genealogy is being used to identify some previously unidentified remains.

- Manitoba premier Wab Kinew, who is taking some understandable and legitimate flak after his government applied for a back-to-work order for Dynacare workers, is now suggesting that the government may take advantage of "off-ramps" in its contract with the company and bring the service back in-house. I would approve of that, but we'll have to see how that goes.

- A 13th candidate has entered the race for mayor of Winnipeg. Tracey Drexler says she was "hesitant to enter politics", though the good folks at r/Winnipeg have pointed out she's run previously for school board. She says she wants to solve the homelessness crisis, but does not make any specific statements about how she would do that; the Reddit folks point out that she proposed an "interesting" solution to dealing with protesters blocking roads:

 Mother f—er, seriously? I have 25 minutes to make it from Balmoral Hall to Westwood to take my special needs son off the bus… With the construction on portage its nearly impossible as it is. So just a heads up if you choose to block my roadway I will NOT be stopping.

The social media post where she said this was deleted, of course, when she entered the race for school board, as was another one where she responded to a story about Brian Pallister breaking his arm while on extended vacation in Costa Rica by saying his injury "literally made my day". The latter one I can at least sympathize with, but it indicates a volatility that may not make her suitable for the job.

- Two Winnipeg city councillors, Ross Eadie and Cindy Gilroy, are accusing the Main Street Project of getting in the way of other agencies trying to house homeless people. The councillors say that in multiple cases, St. Boniface Street Links has arranged housing for people in encampments, only to have MSP tell them that they don't have to leave. Maybe an agency like MSP that gets funding to help people living in the encampments shouldn't be the same agency that helps people get out of the encampments, as it potentially creates a conflict of interest.

- After California's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) installed gates to make fare evasion more difficult, fare evasion dropped by 60% and overall crime on the network dropped by 67%. This raises something I've hinted at before, namely that the transit fare issue is one where environmentalism and social justice are somewhat at odds. From a pure social justice perspective, it seems appealing to eliminate fares entirely, but if you want to get cars off the road you need to make public transit attractive to people who have a choice in the matter (i.e. those who can afford a car), and this means reducing crime (and even more so, perceived risk of crime) on public transit. And ultimately, not reducing the number of cars on the road is bad for everyone, including the poorest and most vulnerable, so rather than eliminating fares entirely as many suggest I'd advocate for a nominal fare (maybe a dollar or so) to act as a filter.

- A sign was posted on a public washroom on a trail in Victoria declaring it the "Donald J. Trump Memorial". The city says that they were not aware of the sign until Saturday and do not know where it came from; I hope they don't remove it though.

News roundup, 9 Sept 2026

- The crew of the Amazon freighter that overran the runway in Miami on the weekend, killing five people in a vehicle, appear to have dithered on whether to abort their landing and perform a go-around. Investigators have yet to interview the pilots on the matter; I suspect that the pilots are not looking forward to this.

- Mark Carney is warning that there will be a cost for Canada's pivot away from the US, but that the costs of not doing so will be much greater. Carney also mentioned tariffs imposed by William McKinley's administration at the end of the 19th century, which he says were intended to "pressure us into dependence and eventually annexation by the United States". The Trump regime has responded to Canada's counter-tariffs with a ban on the import of motorcycles and alcohol from Canada as well as a series of new tariffs on various other products.

- UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories and has banned the import of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Predictably, his Conservative critic has warned against making Israel a "pariah state" and expressed concerns that the move will somehow lead to an increase in antisemitic violence in the UK (the fact that Miliband is Jewish is an inconvenient fact that critics will ignore, of course).

- Lab technicians and technologists with Dynacare went on strike on Tuesday morning, leading to disruptions in non-urgent diagnostic tests across Manitoba. Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino quickly filed an application with the Labour Board, requesting that the board issue an interim order that the 350 employees remain on the job in order to "ensure the provision of essential health services"; the request was quickly granted. Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, condemned the move.

- A fatal stabbing in Winnipeg in 2022 was solved after the killer's DNA was found on a beer can in the victim's home. The suspect was subsequently arrested on another matter and confessed to the killing; she has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison.