News roundup, 28 Jan 2024

- The latest poll from EKOS has the Liberals recovering some lost support. The party now sits at 32%, only seven points shy of the Conservatives, and is statistically tied with them in Ontario. Perhaps Poilievre's courting of the MAGA crowd will turn out to be his downfall? Doubtful, but stay tuned.

- Following Mexico's refusal to accept a deportation flight, Colombia attempted to follow suit, only to cave after Trump threatened the country with massive tariffs. Nice coffee industry you've got, it would be a shame if something happened to it...

- The EU's top military official believes that EU countries should station their own troops in Greenland instead of leaving the military presence on the island to the Americans. I guess until now it never occurred to them that they might have to defend the territory from the Americans.

- A man arrested in the UK on hacking charges has claimed to have been hired by ExxonMobil to obtain information from environmental activists - including people assisting in lawsuits against energy companies.

- The introduction by China of the low-cost DeepSeek AI chatbot has caused panic selling of AI-related stocks in the US.

- An Indiana man who was among the Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump has been shot dead in a traffic stop after allegedly resisting arrest.

- The CIA, which had previously been skeptical of the "lab leak" theory of the origin of COVID-19, has suddenly reversed their stance. I'm sure their new Trump-appointed director has something to do with this.

- BC premier David Eby has proposed a ban on the sale of American alcohol in the province as a response to Donald Trump's tariff threats. The proposal is getting good reviews from domestic alcohol producers, but some industry groups are alarmed by the idea - the B.C. Alliance of Beverage Licensees has expressed concerns that it could reduce selection for consumers (but then, that's kind of the point here). They also fear that it could force some bars to import more expensive products from elsewhere and thus cut into their profits.

- Toronto Animal Services have seized a Spectacled Caiman that was being kept as a pet. Caimans are relatives of alligators, and can grow to more than 2 metres in length. Apparently the owner had kept it for 12 years without knowing it was prohibited in the city; the animal has been turned over to a reptile zoo outside of Peterborough.

News roundup, 16 May 2024

- Mary Robinson, the former Irish president who has also served as a climate envoy for the UN, warns of the impact of investment treaties such as the Energy Charter Treaty. Like many modern trade agreements, these treaties enable corporations (such as fossil fuel firms) to sue countries that take measures that cost them money. This is a strong deterrent for signatories who want to take meaningful action on climate. The oil barons aren't satisfied with that, though; ExxonMobil launched a lawsuit earlier this year, not against a government but against actual investors who filed shareholder proposals to be voted on at annual general meetings. The shareholder organizations targeted by the company withdrew their proposal, but ExxonMobil is still pursuing the lawsuit. They were also careful to file the lawsuit somewhere where they could count on it being heard by a Trump-appointed judge. And speaking of Trump and the oil companies, concerns are being raised about Trump's promise to gut climate regulations if the companies can raise a billion dollars for his campaign.

- Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot and seriously wounded at a campaign rally in the leadup to EU parliamentary elections. A 71 year old suspect is in custody.

- The Manitoba government is changing the school tax rebate system. Starting next year, the existing rebate and credit will be replaced with a flat credit of $1,500 applied towards school taxes, but only for your primary residence. So people with expensive houses (over about $400,000) will pay more, as will people who own multiple properties, while those with less expensive houses as their primary residence will pay less. Seems more equitable, but of course that's not stopping the Tories from whining about "the middle class".

- The University of Winnipeg has closed its doors to the general public over perceived "safety concerns" stemming from the protest encampment on the front lawn, despite the fact that no violent incidents or threats have been reported so far.

- The Food Fare grocery store on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg had another incident on Tuesday evening; apparently a teen who had been kicked out of the store earlier in the day came back with brass knuckles and attacked three staff. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who had cut ties with the chain following the earlier incident when a staff member apparently assaulted someone he suspected of shoplifting, announced a joint press conference with store owner Munther Zeid, but then cancelled it; neither the AMC nor Zeid has commented on the reason for the cancellation. Meanwhile, a Shoppers Drug Mart location in Steinbach say they've been able to greatly reduce shoplifting by prohibiting unaccompanied minors from entering the store.

- Following reports of high levels of H5N1 in unpasteurized milk, there has been a dramatic increase in the sale of said milk, as people have been buying the stuff in the hope of giving themselves immunity. One would be tempted to say, "so a bunch of Trump supporting morons will get sick and die. Where's the problem?" except that every human that gets infected is a potential "patient zero" for a new variant that spreads from person to person more easily than avian influenza currently does.

News roundup, 3 April 2024

- An earthquake measured at between 7.2 and 7.4 on the Richter scale has caused significant damage in Taiwan, including at least 9 fatalities and hundreds of injuries.

- The new provincial budget presented by the Kinew government includes money for major healthcare projects, including a new ER at Victoria General Hospital and one in Ericksdale. Perhaps more important, it includes funding for a thousand sorely needed healthcare workers, including 100 doctors, 90 paramedics and 600 healthcare aides. It also includes funding for a supervised consumption site in the North End. The 50% education property tax rebate is being replaced with a flat $1,500 for all homeowners (the profiteers are predicting apocalyptic results from this, of course). I'm less keen on the fact that they're extending the gas tax holiday until September, although to be fair they're taking other more positive measures on climate as well. The full document is here.

- The City of Winnipeg will be considering several apartment projects planned for vacant properties, including one the Norwood East neighbourhood of St Boniface, one in West Broadway, and one in East Elmwood. The West Broadway one is drawing some local opposition despite the underused nature of the affected land. This has led to a fair bit of skepticism about the opposition to the project on this Reddit thread. Perhaps the best summary there was this:

Winnipeg needs to densify if it's ever going to get in front of its annual operating cost. Poverty is a larger and complicated issue that I certainly don't have all the answers to but preventing this development doesn't solve it.

- Doug Ford wants to get international students out of Ontario universities, even as the universities need their money more than ever thanks to inadequate funding from... Doug Ford and his government.

- A bill expected to pass the Vermont legislature shortly will require fossil fuel companies to contribute to the cost of damage resulting from increasing natural disasters as a result of climate change. Several other states have similar bills, albeit not as advanced as this one. Vermont's governor, a Republican, is expressing concerns about the bill, but given that this is Vermont he has to try not to sound crazy, so he's arguing that a small state shouldn't be the one to go first because whoever does will face a fierce legal battle from the affected companies. His opposition is probably moot, though; the Democrats have the supermajority needed to override his veto should that occur.

- ExxonMobil has an ad campaign in the UK where they talk a lot about carbon capture, but there's no sign that the project they refer to will ever get off the ground, leading to accusations of greenwashing.

- The Israelis are apparently using AI to select targets in Gaza. Not everyone is reassured by this.

- Germany is considering a ban on the import of hunting "trophies". This does not sit at all well with the president of Botswana; his country gets a lot of revenue from that trade, and he's threatening to send 20,000 elephants to Germany if they go ahead. How he plans to accomplish this is not clear.

- Police in Fontana, California managed to fatally shoot the kidnapped teen they were trying to rescue as she ran towards what she thought was safety.

Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study

Not that it's all that surprising:

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Those arseholes are really getting desperate, aren't they? When they so openly try to bribe scientists, it's a sign that they figure they have nothing to lose now. Which means they know they're losing the battle for public opinion. And that is a damn good sign.

Via skdadl at pogge.