News roundup, 28 Sept 2026

- Germany now plans to phase out fossil fuels by 2045. The fact that these fuels have skyrocketed in price thanks to the US/Israeli war on Iran is a major factor, of course; I hate to have to say anything good about Trump or Netanyahu but if enough other countries follow Germany's lead those awful humans may actually have a net positive impact on humanity.

- While several executives at AI companies, including Open AI Sam Altman, have paid lip service to the need to contain the technology, one researcher at Altman's company thinks that the proposed solutions, described as "pacing the frontier", won't be enough and that progress on it must be slowed down.

- The campaign director of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party, Stephen Carter, has resigned after only nine months in the position, and a year before the next election is scheduled to occur. Both Carter and party leader Obby Khan are being tight-lipped about the reason for his departure.

- The council of the East German town of Heidenau has approved a motion to ban future installation of memorial plaques ‌commemorating Holocaust victims. The motion was introduced by an AfD councillor but was supported not only by that party but also by the Christian Democrats, who you'd hope would know better.

- A cybersecurity researcher has published a detailed map of the locations of what he says are 300,000 Flock surveillance devices (cameras and related hardware) across the US. The company wants the website taken down, claiming that the use of their name on the website is a trademark infringement.

- Researchers have tested for various illegal drugs in the wastewater of eight Canadian cities. They found that of the cities studied, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan had the highest concentration of methamphetamine as well as cocaine, while Metro Vancouver was the worst for fentanyl; Toronto and Montreal were lower in all these drugs but higher for MDMA (aka ecstasy or molly). Winnipeg was not among the cities studied; not sure if the researchers didn't ask, or if the city's administration had suspicions what the results would be and didn't want them publicized.

News roundup, 6 July 2026

- Germany's Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (also known by the German acronym BSW) is a nominally leftwing party (it's a splinter group from Die Linke, and its leader/namesake was once a member of the East German Communist Party). So it's rather odd to see them publicly expressing a willingness to make a deal with the far-right AfD should they hold the balance of power following elections in the East German states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt. This violates a longstanding taboo in European politics. It's worth noting that while superficially leftwing on economic issues, BSW is quite socially conservative, and moreover opposes efforts to get Europe off of fossil fuels. Like AfD, BSW is also quite pro-Russian, which might provide an explanation for the latter position.

- A new poll from Nanos has found that Canadians are approximately evenly split on whether or not the proposed high speed rail link between Toronto and Quebec City should be a priority. Curiously, while the poll data is broken down by age, gender, and region, it does not differentiate between urban and rural respondents, which is probably where you'd find the biggest divide.

- Residents of Winnipeg's Whyte Ridge neighbourhood are concerned that they didn't get emergency alerts on their phones in advance of the tornado that struck last week. Environment Canada says that they had a lot less warning of tornado conditions than they did for the storm in early June, but residents would understandably like to see something done about that.

- Germany's centre-right chancellor Friedrich Merz has introduced legislation to tighten up sick note requirements for workers. Currently, employers can't require a note unless a person is off for at least three days, but under the proposed legislation they would be able to require one for even a single sick day. The measure is opposed not only by unions but by doctors; the German Association of Family Physicians predicts that they "would be flooded with patients who don’t need in-person care and would be better off in bed". Merz, though, claims that Germany "can no longer afford the competitive disadvantage caused by prolonged absences from work". Perhaps he believes that work will not only make you free, but also healthy.

- The cities of Steinbach and Winkler, in the heart of Manitoba's bible belt, will be holding plebiscites on whether to allow cannabis stores to open inside their boundaries. The councils of both cities had rejected a request for this to go on the ballot, but enough signatures were obtained from residents to override this. The vote (perhaps it should be called a "reeferendum") will coincide with this fall's municipal elections.

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.

News roundup, 15 Jan 2025

- Several NATO countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, are sending troops to Greenland as a message to Donald Trump. Subsequently, France announced that they'll be sending troops as well. This follows an unsuccessful attempt by Danish diplomats to talk sense into the orange monster. There is talk of Canada sending troops as well, though Defense Minister David McGuinty says that no decision has been made on the matter.

- Unions and community organizations in Minnesota are calling for a general strike on the 23rd of January. Meanwhile, ICE is being accused of using private information, of the sort that's not supposed to be readily accessible to them, to intimidate people keeping an eye on them. Under Minnesota law, license plate readers and car registration data is only supposed to be accessible to law enforcement during a criminal investigation, but ICE seems to be getting around the safeguards. ICE has also shot another person, this one non-fatally.

- The FBI searched the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson on Wednesday and seized several devices, apparently in an attempt to find the source of a leak about a defense contractor that Natanson had covered in one of her articles.

- Trump is backing away from threats to strike Iran, saying that the government has reassured him that the killing has stopped. This is good news for international stability, unless of course it's happening because he thinks he needs to focus on Greenland. The least bad possibility (still very bad though) is that he wants his troops close at hand to use at home.

- Quebec premier François Legault has announced his resignation, just under nine months prior to the scheduled election. Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec is being clobbered in the polls; only 18% of eligible voters plan to support them. If an election were held today, the CAQ would come third in the popular vote, and fifth in seat count. Also resigning is Ontario Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie, who fared poorly in a post-election leadership review.

- Winnipeg's infamous Manwin Hotel, which had been vacant since last year when it was declared unfit for habitation, was destroyed by fire yesterday morning. The fire forced the evacuation of the Main Street Project next door, and it may be several days before the facility is able to reopen. Nobody died, which is more than can be said for rather a lot of days when the hotel was actually open. Housing advocate Marion Willis of St. Boniface Street Links calls the fire a "predictable outcome" of the city's lax approach towards vacant buildings. To their credit, the city seems to be moving towards potential seizure of such buildings; we'll have to wait and see how well they follow through with that.

News roundup, 19 Nov 2025

- Both houses of Congress have now passed a bill forcing the release of the Epstein files; every member of the House except one voted in favour. However, there's a catch - the bill as passed allows the DOJ to withhold or redact any records that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution". This is relevant because Donald Trump has ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into three prominent Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton, and their connections to Epstein. This just might provide the pretext Trump needs to keep the files out of public view.

- A new poll gives the Democrats a significant advantage in next year's midterms. That's assuming, of course, that the midterms are free and fair, which may be doubtful.

- Denmark held municipal elections across the country yesterday. The governing Social Democrats have lost control of Copenhagen's council; fortunately the beneficiaries there were other leftwing parties rather than the far right.

- Germany's government, a coalition between the centre-right Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democrats, is deeply divided over the future of pensions in the country. The coalition agreement calls for pensions to be propped up at least until 2031; the Social Democrats are trying to extend it further. The Christian Democrats' youth wing is not keen on the additional expenditures that the Social Democrats are calling for, though, and the pension legislation is not guaranteed to pass.

- The Manitoba government has presented its throne speech for the new legislative session. Highlights include the opening of a supervised consumption site as well as an overpass for the intersection near Carberry where 17 seniors died in a bus crash and a new emergency room at Victoria General Hospital. More problematically it calls for the construction of a new natural gas power plant for Manitoba Hydro; it is hoped that it will eventually run on renewable fuels but there's no plans for that in the near future.

- The City of Winnipeg has cleared two homeless encampments on Monday, the first day when new restrictions were in effect. The restrictions prohibit encampments within 50 metres of schools, playgrounds, daycares and skating rinks, and within 30 metres of transit shelters, bridges, docks and similar public facilities.

- The cycling magazine Momentum has published its annual list of the 30 most bike-friendly cities around the world. 24 of the 30 cities listed are in the European Union; the only other countries with cities on the list are Canada (represented by Montreal, Quebec City, and Vancouver), Switzerland (Zurich and Bern), and Norway (Oslo).

- The Brazilian government is proposing that brazilwood, an endangered tree, be given the highest level of protection by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This is a source of alarm to many musicians, due to the wood's widespread use in bows for stringed instruments - it would force musicians to register their bows in order to travel internationally.

News roundup, 3 Oct 2025

- Two CRJ-900LR regional jets owned by the Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air collided at the intersection of two taxiways at New York City's LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday. Fortunately the collision occurred at low speed, but both aircraft were substantially damaged; a flight attendant on one of them suffered minor injuries. Juan Browne (blancolirio) offers his opinions here.

- California governor Gavin Newsom has signed the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act into law. This is a diluted version of the original bill, which Newsom vetoed last year following intense lobbying by the tech industry, but still requires tech companies to report safety protocols used and their projections of the biggest dangers that could arise from the technologies they develop. It also offers enhanced whistleblower protection for employees. Predictably, the cowboys who dominate the tech industry aren't satisfied; they've created superPACs to fight AI regulation.

- Germany plans to invest more than €2 billion in nuclear fusion research by 2029. Hopefully this will bear fruit; the world badly needs it.

- Leonardo Garcia Venegas was born in the US, but that hasn't stopped ICE from hauling him into custody twice in the last few months on suspicion of being an illegal resident. He's suing, saying his Fourth Amendment rights were violated. A reasonable court of law ought to agree; unfortunately his chances of getting a reasonable court in Trump's America are not good.

- A Benin-flagged oil tanker suspected of being part of Russia's "shadow fleet" was boarded by the French navy, and the captain and first mate were taken into custody on suspicion of espionage. The tanker, currently named the Boracay, had been blacklisted by the EU under its previous name Kiwala.

- Redditor u/-Badger3- says that they received a thinly veiled threat from the Tennessee branch of the Republican Party, reminding them that voter records are public and that "Party leadership would be VERY DISAPPOINTED" if they don't turn out to vote in an upcoming special election (byelection) in the state's 7th Congressional District. Although the district includes part of Democratic-leaning Nashville, it also includes some heavily Republican rural areas, and is considered a likely Republican hold, which raises the question about why such intimidation tactics would be necessary - except to remind potential dissidents that they're being watched.

- Following the postponement of Steinbach's Pride parade due to far-right threats following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the LGBT* community are being forced to downsize events and hire security. They are also finding that security is harder to come by; the firm they previously worked for has backed out citing "a need to protect its own staff because they aren’t armed".

- A consortium including Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has taken over video game giant Electronic Arts. This is not the Saudis' first venture into the sector; they already own significant stakes in Nintendo and Take-Two Interactive as well as other gaming companies. Some Redditors are afraid that the new owners' socially conservative values will leak into the games, notably the Sims franchise, though it seems doubtful that existing titles will be impacted due to the difficulty of changing the code to, say, prohibit premarital sex or LGBT* content. It's possible that the products will be discontinued, though, or that future releases will be less inclusive. 

News roundup, 3 Sept 2025

- Berlin police are investigating after a pro-Palestine demonstrator was beaten up by an officer last Thursday. Another activist was quoted as saying that German police are particularly brutal in dealing with such activists. Germany is also apparently standing in the way of the EU imposing sanctions on Israel. It seems that the Germans are trying to atone for the Holocaust by giving the Israeli leadership whatever they want.

- Russian opposition activists are urging Canada to give asylum to several hundred dissidents who applied for asylum in the US but now are at risk of being sent back to Russia 

- The City of Winnipeg is running out of deltamethrin, the insecticide that it has used to fog for mosquitoes approval for malathion fogging was withdrawn some years back. As a result, they're looking at expanding their larviciding program; this would require an expansion of the city's helicopter base in Elmwood (or an entirely new facility). In truth, larviciding (much of which is done with a bacterial agent) is not only safer from a health and environmental point of view, it's much more effective; fogging is what they do to show the public that they're doing something to control mosquitoes more than anything.

- Winnipeg police took out a search warrant to investigate a suspected bicycle chop shop at a homeless encampment by the Red River along Waterfront Drive. Legal experts are calling this a smart move to maximize the chance that charges stick; on the other hand the local residents' association is worried about the precedent that this could set by treating the encampments as legitimate housing.

- The fourth floor of Winnipeg's Millennium Library has been reopened to the public following the installation of construction fences as a temporary measure to stop people from jumping. Many are saying that what's really needed is the restoration of the Community Connections services on the main floor; as one witness to last month's suicide pointed out, if the service had been available at the time, the unfortunate chap might have gotten help before it was too late.

- Online clothing retailer Shein is investigating after an image used by one of the vendors listing on their platform showed Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, wearing one of their shirts. The image, thought to have been AI generated, has been removed.

News roundup, 7 May 2025

- India launched missiles into the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, killing a child and injuring two other people in a major escalation of tensions following terrorist attacks in the Indian-controlled part of the territory last month. Pakistan claims to have shot down two Indian aircraft in retaliation.

- Mark Carney met with Donald Trump yesterday as planned. Carney was diplomatic in discussing how the talks went; he did say they were "wide ranging" and "constructive", and said that the two leaders had "agreed to disagree" on whether Canada should join the US.

- Trump is considering imposing a 100% tariff on all foreign-produced films; exactly what would count as "foreign" for these purposes is a work in progress - the status of co-productions is uncertain. This could, however, be extremely damaging to the Canadian film industry. Myself, I'd be all in favour of slapping hefty reciprocal tariffs on American films if this were to occur - though that might be a hard sell for the masses if it meant that they didn't get to see the latest Marvel superhero flick.

- The Conservatives have chosen Regina-Qu'Appelle MP (and former leader) Andrew Scheer as their interim leader in Parliament until Pierre Poilievre can get elected in the coming byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot. Whether this will spur a new burst in sales of Queen's third album in Canada remains to be seen.

- Friedrich Merz has been elected chancellor of Germany following a second vote in the Bundestag. It's not clear who changed their votes the second time around, as this election is conducted by secret ballot. The resolution of this crisis has not silenced AfD leader Alice Weidel, who is calling for a new election.

- The municipality of Oak Bay, a suburb of Victoria, has passed a bylaw limiting noise from heat pumps - and only heat pumps (not regular air conditioners, for instance). They are limited to 50 dB, and 45 dB at night; for comparison, an average conversation is 60 dB. This apparently follows a complaint from a NIMBY named Thorsten Hanisch; I haven't been able to locate any social media from the guy, but I'd wager donuts to dollars that if it were unlocked we'd see a lot of pictures of big trucks on his page - trucks that make a heck of a lot more noise than any heat pump.

- Punk band Propagandhi has announced that they are cancelling all US dates of their upcoming tour due to "circumstances beyond our control". I assume this means either they were denied visas, or else a not unreasonable fear that they could end up in El Salvador. 

- A woman in Rochester, Minnesota who was caught on video screaming racial slurs at an autistic five year old child claims to have been doxxed online and that she needs help to relocate somewhere in the hope of avoiding the consequences of her behaviour. She has gone to GiveSendGo (basically GoFundMe for deplorables) to finance her relocation; so far she's raised over $700,000.

News roundup, 25 Feb 2025

Donald Trump says that the 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports (on top of tariffs that are already in place) will come into effect on schedule next week. This is despite the fact that even the US ambassador admits that there has been noticeable progress in limiting the smuggling of drugs and people into the US. Of course, if you assume that the drugs and migrants were a pretext and that the real goal is to break our economy to the point where we capitulate so that they don't have to suffer the inconvenience of invading us, the move makes perfect sense. Meanwhile, a substantial number of Canadian snowbirds have been cancelling their plans to winter in Florida, to the consternation of one Trump-supporting resort owner who has been coasting for decades off the money rich Quebecois spend there. He just can't understand why people don't want to visit a country whose strongman president has been repeatedly threatening to take over their homeland.

- The Trump regime has ordered the removal of 8,000 EV charging stations from federal properties, and is expected to sell off a large fleet of newly purchased vehicles. Kind of like how Reagan ordered the removal of solar panels from the White House, but on a much larger scale.

- It appears that CDU leader Friedrich Merz will be Germany's next chancellor, likely by cobbling together a very thin coalition with the SPD. To get an idea of just how divided a country he will be inheriting, scroll down to the interactive map in the article; it has an awfully familiar look to it.

- The platform variously known as X, Twitter, or (colloquially) Shitter has turned into such a wretched hive of scum and villainy under the stewardship of Elon Musk that even a conservative suburban city like Cambridge, Ontario has announced that they will no longer be using the platform due to the amount of hate-related content and general misinformation on it, and the abject failure to moderate such content. Hopefully many more will follow.

- A woman who attended a town hall meeting held by the Republicans in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho was forcibly removed from the event by private security, and then charged with battery after it was alleged that she bit a security guard. The fact that even the city's police chief doubts that the charge is warranted should say a lot about how credible the allegation is. Video of the event can be seen here. 

- A lawsuit against Greenpeace by Texas-based Energy Transfer, owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline, accuses the organization of "unlawful and violent scheme to cause financial harm" by their opposition to the project, and is demanding approximately $300 million in damages, enough to wipe the organization off the map. Both Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace International are named as defendants, though since the latter is based in the Netherlands it is interesting to consider what would happen if a European court refused to recognize the ruling in this case.

- Former city councillor Shawn Nason is running for the Tories in the provincial byelection being held in Transcona next month as a result of the death of incumbent NDP MLA Nello Altomare.

- The potentially city-destroying asteroid that some feared could be a threat in 2032 has had its orbit calculated more accurately, and the risk of an impact has now been reduced to 0.005% (earlier data had the risk as high as 3%). Some might raise their eyebrows at the changing numbers, but that's just how it works - when you get more data, you can calculate where the asteroid is going to be with greater precision, and more often than not this narrows the range of places to be to the point where it can safely be considered to be no significant risk.

News roundup, 13 Feb 2025

- Donald Trump is now threatening to impose a tariff of up to 100% on cars manufactured in Canada. People with actual knowledge of the auto industry are warning that such a move could shut down the entire auto industry in the US as well as Canada. Tesla might be an exception to the rule, which would make such a move that much more explicable.

- China is creating a planetary defense agency in response to the discovery of an asteroid that is thought to pose a risk in 2032. The asteroid is about 100 metres in diameter, and if it were to hit Earth it would be the equivalent of a large nuclear weapon going off - not enough to destroy the biosphere, but definitely enough to destroy a city in a direct hit. The ESA has estimated that the probability of an impact is about 1.2%, which while not high is high enough to worry about. So it's good that China is taking it seriously, especially given that NASA is not likely to be in any condition to properly deal with it given the chaos of the Trump regime.

- Elon Musk is apparently in favour of having former Texas Republican congressman Ron Paul appointed as chair of the Federal Reserve. Given that Paul is the author of a book entitled End The Fed, this has spooked a lot of people; notably, the price of gold as well as bitcoin have spiked dramatically in recent days.

- Germany's federal intelligence service, the BND, fears that climate change could threaten the stability of the European Union due to its likely effects on food prices, migration, and conflict. All of this is, of course, stuff some have been warning about for years. Gwynne Dyer, for instance, predicted almost a decade ago that climate-induced migration could be a threat to the union if its leaders don't prepare for it.

- Cambridge, Massachusetts has eliminated exclusive single-family zoning across the entire city, allowing buildings up to six stories in any neighbourhood. This is expected to create over 4,800 units over the next quarter century. A bold step in the right direction (and a rare one for North America).

- Buyers of new Jeeps are incensed at the fact that the vehicles' infotainment systems are force-feeding ads to the occupants every time the vehicle comes to a stop. So much for your nice uninterrupted stream of music or podcasts. Besides being annoying, this is raising privacy concerns, as the vehicles are also gathering data about drivers' behaviour in order to curate the ads.

News roundup, 30 Jan 2025

- A Bombardier CRJ-700 operated on behalf of American Airlines, carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew, has collided in midair with a US military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with a crew of 3 over the Potomac River near Washington, DC. Numerous fatalities have already been reported, and folks on Reddit who listen to scanners are saying that a few if any survivors are expected; EMS workers were apparently heard saying things like "Going to the firehouse to make sure the big refrigerator is turned on".

- Donald Trump has ordered his administration to look into the creation of a "national digital asset stockpile". This falls short of what the hardcore crypto bros were hoping for, which was the immediate creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve; nonetheless, the price of bitcoin briefly surged following the announcement before dropping again.

- The Trump administration, who had earlier ordered a temporary pause in a lot of federal funding, has now rescinded this following a court order. They still plan to review spending, however, and it's a safe bet that they will still make a lot of cuts, while telling people whose programs didn't get cut how lucky they are.

- Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany's Christian Democrats, has managed to push a motion on immigration through the country's parliament with the support of AfD. The motion is nonbinding, but has aroused great concern about the precedent set by cooperating with the far right. Chancellor Olaf Sholz called the move "an unforgivable mistake"; in any case, Sholz's Social Democrats as well as the Greens say that implementing the policy would violate German as well as EU law on refugees.

- Americans are souring somewhat on some of Donald Trump's policies, according to a new poll. Unfortunately, it's a bit late for that now.

- Parks Canada has concluded that it's probably too late to eradicate Zebra Mussels from Clear Lake in Manitoba's Riding Mountain National Park. As a result, the watercraft ban that had been placed on the lake will be lifted, albeit with under a "one boat, one lake" policy. How this policy is to be enforced is not clear.

- Former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting gifts from foreign governments; said gifts included a brand new Mercedes-Benz as well as cash and gold bullion. Menendez represented New Jersey, a place that makes Quebec look like Norway in comparison.

- A brawl broke out at a meeting in Thornton Township, IL on Tuesday night. One of the combatants was the mayor's boyfriend, who had recently been hired by the municipality to run a youth program but had been put on leave as a result of a motion put through by a newly elected trustee.

News roundup, 28 Nov 2024

- The Canadian dollar has dropped to its lowest level in four years following Donald Trump's threats to impose massive tariffs. Meanwhile, many are pointing out that if these tariffs are imposed, the damage will not be limited to Canada and Mexico; the American auto industry is highly integrated with that of its NAFTA partners.

- The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, which represents Winnipeg Transit drivers, is calling for an expansion of the community safety team, as well as improvements for the shields that protect drivers from attacks. However, there are concerns about whether there's enough money in the budget for this. On a related note, the city is testing shatterproof glass in bus shelters to limit vandalism, something that's long overdue.

- Labour negotiations at Canada Post are not going well; the federally appointed mediator is backing away until the two sides can come up with positions that can be worked with.

- The German government is probably hoping that Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't set foot in their country, as they seem to be tying themselves in knots trying to reconcile their support for the International Criminal Court with their efforts to atone for the Holocaust by their unconditional support of Israel.

- Calin Georgescu, a far-right candidate who is running as an independent, has come out on top in the first round of presidential elections. The second round will be held on 8 December.

- Nova Scotia's Conservatives won their second successive majority government on Tuesday. The opposition Liberals suffered severe losses and have fallen into third place behind the NDP; their leader lost his own seat.

- The Winnipeg couple charged with killing and torturing animals and selling footage on the "dark web" now face additional charges; these include bestiality and accessing child pornography. In addition, there is evidence that they planned to torture a child. I daresay this lends support to my initial suspicion that they are not good people.

- Oddly enough, Winnipeg is the only municipality in Manitoba that is authorized to use photo radar enforcement. The mayor of Brandon would like that to change.

- A city councillor in Sarnia, Ontario has been expelled from a council meeting following an unhinged, profanity-laden rant in which he insulted most of his colleagues. He will not be allowed back until he apologizes, something he has so far refused to do. He apparently intends to run for mayor in the next municipal election; some folks on Reddit fear that his behaviour will help his cause more than it hurts him. Sadly, they may be right; Sarnia is not a big city and its economy is dependent on very dirty industries, both of which make for a lot of the kind of people who see this kind of rude and childish behaviour as a sign of authenticity.

News roundup, 1 Oct 2024

- Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist and former Mexico City mayor, has been elected as president of Mexico. She becomes the country's first female leader as well as its first Jewish one. While a protege of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, she does plan on going beyond AMLO's excessive emphasis on fossil fuels; we'll have to see.

- In 2019 the BC legislature unanimously passed legislation to implement the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among those who voted to pass it was an MLA by the name of John Rustad, then a member of the BC Liberals. Now, however, as leader of the BC Conservatives, he's vowing to repeal the legislation, claiming that the issues it was meant to address don't apply to Canada. And the property rights of resource companies are more important than indigenous rights anyway, right?

- Ukraine is accusing Russia of deliberately poisoning a river by dumping industrial wastes. The river in question, the Desna, connects with a reservoir that supplies water for millions of people.

- Germany reserves the right to deny a citizenship application on the basis of antisemitism. That's fair enough, especially given their history. However, some of the things that are taken as prima facie evidence of antisemitism include not only clear examples like Holocaust denial, but the use of slogans such as "from the river to the sea..." and "Israel, child murderer".

- The Manitoba government is reviewing the provincial Mental Health Act to find ways of reducing the role of police in dealing with people in a state of mental health crisis. Currently, only peace officers are able to carry out orders under the Act; given the toll this takes on police resources, not to mention the tendency of many cops to shoot first and ask questions later, the province is looking to change this.

- Caroline Giuliani, daughter of Rudy, has endorsed Kamala Harris in an article in Vanity Fair, saying "I’ve been grieving the loss of my dad to Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him too".

News roundup, 3 July 2024

- Hurricane Beryl is moving towards Jamaica as a category 4 hurricane, with winds of up to 270 km/h (145 kt). The storm has already killed at least six people and caused widespread devastation on smaller islands.

- Joe Biden's fitness to serve as the Democratic presidential candidate continues to be the subject of intense discussion. A longtime member of the DNC, James Zogby, is calling on the party to establish a process to replace him as candidate in the event that he drops out; Gavin Newsom has hinted that he is "ready to step up". All this, of course, presupposes that Biden is willing to go quietly; unfortunately all evidence suggests otherwise.

- Given the increasing chances of a second Trump presidency, the recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity is all the more alarming. Consider this:

The text of the ruling states: "Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority."

So much for checks and balances and all that good stuff.

The ruling goes on to specify that, while a former president is "entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts", there is "no immunity for unofficial acts'. But in distinguishing between "official" and "unofficial" acts, where the hell does one draw the line?

As it turns out, the Supreme Court doesn’t really know either. Several pages down in the ruling, we find the ostensible lead-up to an explanation: "When the President acts pursuant to ‘constitutional and statutory authority,’ he takes official action to perform the functions of his office. … Determining whether an action is covered by immunity thus begins with assessing the President’s authority to take that action."

So far so good. But then some confusion arises because "the breadth of the president’s 'discretionary responsibilities' under the Constitution and laws of the United States frequently makes it 'difficult to determine which of [his] innumerable "functions" encompassed a particular action'".

In other words, because the president is the president, any of his actions can at least to some extent be construed as official. The ruling concludes: "The immunity the Court has recognised therefore extends to the 'outer perimeter' of the President’s official responsibilities, covering actions so long as they are ‘not manifestly or palpably beyond [his] authority'".

Never mind that if you abolish the rule of law, the "outer perimeter" of authority is not exactly, um, palpable.

That has the potential to undermine many of the criminal cases against Trump as well, though that is probably academic if he wins the election anyway. Andrew Coyne goes so far as to say that the decision has "removed the last bar to Trump's dictatorship".

- The news is somewhat more promising in France, as leftist and centrist parties have withdrawn hundreds of candidates from the second round of parliamentary elections, to avoid vote-splitting that could give Marine Le Pen's National Rally a majority. Of course the French have a rather deeper cultural understanding than the Americans do of what it means to live in a fascist state.

- German industry is strongly embracing solar power, as companies generate their own power to minimize costs. In fact, the country plans on meeting 80% of its electricity needs by renewables by 2030. Ambitious, but some much-needed good news.

- The dysfunctional state of American politics is undermining plans for a global minimum corporate tax agreement. Biden is in favour of it but Congress isn't; of course if Trump wins in the fall it's dead for the foreseeable future.

- Oklahoma's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, is ordering teachers in the state's public schools to teach the Bible in grades 5-12, and says that teachers who refuse could be stripped of their licenses. The state Attorney General's office says that there is no legal authority for the Superintendent to specifically mandate the content of classes, but Walters is confident that Trump's Supreme Court appointments will solve that problem for him.

- BC's building code has been updated to allow apartment buildings with a single staircase, something common in much of the world but prohibited in new construction in most of North America. At one time there was a good reason for the rule, since it was a fire safety rule, but new building materials mean that this is less relevant today, and it contributes to the shortage of "missing middle" housing. More info on this in this video.

- In what can only be a positive move, another school board has banned cellphones.

News roundup, 27 June 2024

- The  American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent nearly $15 million to ensure that New York Democratic member of Congress Jamaal Bowman was defeated in a primary. They succeeded.

- Denmark may become the first country in the world to apply carbon taxes to livestock emissions, beginning in 2030. By way of compensation, farmers will be able to an income tax deduction and will be able to access funding to change their operations to reduce their emissions. New Zealand had similar plans, but the new rightwing government there scrapped them earlier this month.

- Climate activists in Germany are taking the government to court for failing to take adequate action on climate change, after one of the coalition partners, the neoliberal Free Democrats, managed to get proposed legislation watered down.

- A wax sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC has partially melted due to the ongoing heatwave. Given that many of the people who fiercely resist climate action also would probably like to undo Lincoln's signature achievement, there's something symbolic about this.

- North Carolina's Democratic governor Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that would outlaw wearing a mask in public in most cases; unfortunately the Republicans will probably be able to override the veto. The ostensible justification for the bill is as an anti-crime measure; Cooper says he vetoed the bill partly because of insufficient protection for medical users, but mostly because of a campaign finance provision tacked onto it. More alarming is that relatively liberal New York State is considering similar legislation, largely because of allegations that over-zealous pro-Palestinian protesters are using them. Even without actual bans, many people across the US report harassment and discrimination over mask wearing.

- The first ever sample return mission from the far side of the Moon has been successful as China's Chang’e 6 spacecraft landed successfully in Inner Mongolia.

- Prosecutors have recommended against charging the bus driver in last year's disastrous crash near Carberry, Manitoba that killed 17 people. Apparently the driver suffered a severe brain injury in the accident and is likely never going to be in any condition to be interviewed by police. I guess the survivors, and families of the dead, can take comfort in the fact that he's already effectively serving a life sentence.

- A house in Transcona was destroyed in an explosion yesterday that also severely damaged neighbouring homes; however nobody appears to have been injured; neighbours believe the sole resident of the house was not home at the time.

News roundup, 3 Feb 2024

- Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill has become the First Minister of Northern Ireland, the first nationalist to do so. Whether this means the imminent reunification of Ireland is doubtful, though.

- More than 150,000 people protested against the far right in Berlin today. Reassuringly, this seems not to be an isolated incident either. Must be nice to live in a country that actually learned from its history.

- BC's Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Selina Robinson, has come under fire for comments made at a pro-Israel rally in which she described pre-1948 Palestine as "a crappy piece of land with nothing on it" which didn't produce anything. I guess maybe she was channelling John Locke, whose "labour theory of property" has been used in the past to justify taking land from people who weren't seen as making sufficiently good use of it.

- The conflict in Gaza has led to bitter divisions among scholars who study the topic of genocide. Some fear that the entire field of "genocide studies" is at risk from those divisions.

- An outbreak of measles in Europe has public health officials worldwide concerned about possible spread. Ironically, efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 are a contributing factor, due to delays in vaccination that resulted. The disease is one of the most contagious known and is fatal in 3 out of 1,000 cases, not factoring in nonfatal but still serious complications.

- Cryptocurrency "mining" is now responsible for over 2% of all electricity consumption in the US. 

- A Kenyan scientist is making building materials from waste plastic.

- The bar and vendor at Winnipeg's Sherbrook Hotel has closed, possibly for good. Not everyone in the neighbourhood is sorry to see it go.

- An oral surgeon in Newfoundland has pleaded guilty to allowing an unqualified prison guard to remove four teeth from a sedated prisoner.

One of the more interesting things to come out of the latest batch from Wikileaks

It seems the US did some serious arm-twisting to avoid the prosecution of some of their agents in Germany:

The messages also reveal some of the diplomatic pitfalls of America's so-called "war on terror". In 2007, the US fell out with Germany over arrest warrants that were issued for CIA agents accused of being involved in rendition. A senior US diplomat told a German official "our intention was not to threaten Germany, but rather to urge that the German government weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the US".

From the Independent. I wonder what those "implications" would have been? Perhaps new regulations such that BMW, Mercedes, and VW don't meet new safety and emission standards?

Vigilante hunt for puppy tosser targets wrong person

You've probably heard of the awful story of the girl throwing puppies in the river. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of folks out there who are out for blood. What's really unfortunate is that their wrath targeted the wrong person (translated from the original source):

A bad joke? Or real? An internet video shows a young woman laughing while drowning puppies. Now the users are hunting for the supposed perpetrator - and are threatening a girl from Aying near Munich.

The video is not for tender sensibilities: A blond girl in a red hooded pullover is standing on a bank, next to her a white bucket with fluffy, fidgeting puppies. She graps one after the other and throws them in the water. The controversial animal rights organisation Peta offers a reward for identifying the teenager. "Peta offers a reward of 2000 dollars for information which could lead to arrest and conviction of those persons" responsible for the content of the video.

Since then, a downright hunt for the girl is taking part on the net: "I hope they find you and throw you into jail, you evil, repulsive creature!" writes a user on the Peta site. Consecutively, a girl from the community Aying in the Munich area came to the attention of the riled-up internet community: A user published name and telephone number of the eighteen-year-old student on the web.

Since then, the internet has developed into a nightmare for the girl: She is insulted by phone by callers from all over the world, even her life is threatened. Now, the police must protect the young woman. And all that just because an unknown person on the video platform Youtube claims that she is the girl who in a movie laughs while throwing cute puppies into a river.

"Since then, the girl is being strongly threatened," says police spokesman Peter Reichl. Police met with the family for a counselling conversation, instated various protection procedures and is investigating for insult, threatening, and false accusation. For one thing is certain: The blonde girl from the video certainly does not come from Aying. "The film has apparently been recorded in Bosnia," says Reichl.

Stuff like this is one of the reasons why vigilante justice should not be taken likely. I hope they nail the real perpetrator, but equally I hope that poor German girl's reputation is restored... and that nobody hurts her in the mistaken view that they're doing the world a favour.

More info on that German peak oil study

Robert Rapier at The Oil Drum has obtained a translation of the main points in that report (not the entire document, but I imagine we'll see that eventually). Here are some highlights:

Overall, higher volatility and loss of trust are seen as possible outcomes in a world where oil supplies are limited, increasing the need for “oil related diplomacy” and thus increasing the risk of moral hazard among all actors, which in turn decreases overall global supply security.

The report then refers to already existing actions of the German government to tie close economic relationships with energy suppliers, and to the tendency of consuming countries to reduce oil dependency, trying to steer clear of risks of future supply shocks.

The Middle East is identified as a very dangerous region with high external involvement from many players and thus a very unstable overall situation.

Overall, the report expects a reduction of the importance of “Western values” related to democracy, and human rights in the context of politically motivated alliances, which increasingly are driven by emerging economies such as China – likely leading to double standards. Emerging economies are equally expected to receive higher recognition in international organizations, particularly those with strength in resources (such as Russia).

That sounds bad. This sounds worse:

In addition to the gradual risks, there might be risks of non-linear events, where a reduction of economic output based on Peak Oil might affect market-driven economies in a way that they stop functioning altogether, leaving the possibility of a relatively steady downward trajectory.

Such a scenario could develop through an initially slow decline of trade and economic activity, combined with higher stress on government budgets from lower tax income, higher social cost and growing investment into alternative technologies.

Investment will decline and debt service will be challenged, leading to a crash in financial markets, accompanied by a loss of trust in currencies and a break-up of value and supply chains – because trade is no longer possible. This would in turn lead to the collapse of economies, mass unemployment, government defaults and infrastructure breakdowns, ultimately followed by famines and total system collapse.

Will it actually come to this? Maybe. Of course, this is a bit vague as to where those famines would occur; would they happen in the developed world? Not out of the question, and if it comes to that a lot of other bad things could happen as well. The biggest question is the matter of widespread international conflict. Some examples:

4.6 Growing conflict potential concerning the Arctic Circle

Germany might have to take positions in case of an upcoming conflict regarding resources in the Arctic Circle, where multiple countries (including Russia) have open claims for accessing oil and gas fields. This requires further research.

4.7 Nuclear technology proliferation

The risk for nuclear technology proliferation and thus more countries with the potential for nuclear weapons (and the risk for terrorists having access to nuclear material) is growing due to the proliferation of nuclear technology for energy generation. Equally, risks for terrorist attacks and accidents on German soil are rising. Both scenarios require more surveillance, intelligence and preventive action.

4.8 Higher conflict potential regarding critical infrastructure

Energy delivery infrastructure for all sources including electricity will have a higher importance in an oil constrained world, thus, securing its reliability, security and availability becomes mission-critical. International cooperation is needed to secure large international supply paths (pipelines, sea routes).

Scary stuff. The Doomsday Clock currently stands at six minutes to midnight, but it could get a lot worse in the next while as tensions over diminishing resources increase.

German study warns of consequences of peak oil

We've already told of the UK's concerns; now it seems that Germany's worried too:

A study by a German military think tank has analyzed how "peak oil" might change the global economy. The internal draft document -- leaked on the Internet -- shows for the first time how carefully the German government has considered a potential energy crisis.

The term "peak oil" is used by energy experts to refer to a point in time when global oil reserves pass their zenith and production gradually begins to decline. This would result in a permanent supply crisis -- and fear of it can trigger turbulence in commodity markets and on stock exchanges.

The issue is so politically explosive that it's remarkable when an institution like the Bundeswehr, the German military, uses the term "peak oil" at all. But a military study currently circulating on the German blogosphere goes further.

The study is a product of the Future Analysis department of the Bundeswehr Transformation Center, a think tank tasked with fixing a direction for the German military. The team of authors, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Will, uses sometimes-dramatic language to depict the consequences of an irreversible depletion of raw materials. It warns of shifts in the global balance of power, of the formation of new relationships based on interdependency, of a decline in importance of the western industrial nations, of the "total collapse of the markets" and of serious political and economic crises.

From Der Spiegel. The article goes into a fair bit of detail, postulating that countries that still have a lot of oil will wield a great deal of influence in the coming years, among other things. Even more interesting is one of the report's recommendations:

The scenarios outlined by the Bundeswehr Transformation Center are drastic. Even more explosive, politically, are recommendations to the government that the energy experts have put forward based on these scenarios. They argue that "states dependent on oil imports" will be forced to "show more pragmatism toward oil-producing states in their foreign policy." Political priorities will have to be somewhat subordinated, they claim, to the overriding concern of securing energy supplies.

For example: Germany would have to be more flexible in relation toward Russia's foreign policy objectives. It would also have to show more restraint in its foreign policy toward Israel, to avoid alienating Arab oil-producing nations. Unconditional support for Israel and its right to exist is currently a cornerstone of German foreign policy.

One hopes that Israel is taking these issues seriously as well; their current favourable treatment in the foreign policy of most Western countries (not just Germany) is bound to be weakened by this. How they handle this, of course, could make all the difference, not just for them but for much of the world. If they completely pull out of the West Bank, for instance, they'll likely be fine (or at least no worse off than a lot of countries), as much of the animosity the Islamic world has towards them will be dissipated. On the other hand, if they refuse to do so, they could become vulnerable as Western aid starts to decline. The consequences of this could be catastrophic, and not just for Israel (Samson is still lurking, you know).