News roundup,17 Aug 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

News roundup, 23 June 2026

- The Trump regime has turned its sights on the EU again, this time looking at Germany's regulation of pharmaceutical prices. Trump claims that this practice forces drug makers to charge higher prices in the US in order to make up the difference.

- The Manitoba government is still looking at Sio Silica's bid to open a sand mine in the Rural Municipality of Springfield, but Premier Wab Kinew has dropped hints that the mine will not be approved. In an interview with radio station CJOB, Kinew indicated that the fact that the company's last bid for this is the subject of an upcoming public inquiry into the previous government's actions could impact the decision.

- The Toronto Star has an interesting take on Carney's pipeline deal with Alberta - they suggest that the proposal is not economically viable and will likely never be built. If this is true, I have to give some credit to Carney for moving to placate Danielle Smith while not doing real damage to the climate. However, as the article points out, such a move could backfire if the idea collapses before this fall's referendum.

- A blind woman was apparently denied service by the Stella's restaurant chain in Winnipeg due to her guide dog. The chain has a long history of questionable practices (including sexual harassment and union busting) so this is entirely in character for the company. That said, the article does touch on an issue with the legislation surrounding service animals - there's no standard certification process for the animals, leaving the door wide open to abuse by the kind of people who claim their dog is an "emotional support" animal. If I were to guess, I'd say someone involved in drafting the legislation thought that requiring disabled people to prove the legitimacy of their service animals constituted a "microaggression" of some sort; while this was no doubt well-intentioned, it fails to take into account the realities of human behaviour.

- A Russian journalist who reported in 2008 that Putin planned to divorce his wife in favour of Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva has died. Grigory Nekhoroshev had been living in exile in Latvia for a number of years, and allegedly died from eating poisonous mushrooms foraged from his front yard. I guess that has more plausible deniability than polonium.