News roundup, 25 June 2026

- Oil prices have dropped back to the prewar baseline following the memorandum of understanding signed between the US and Iran that has led to a resumption in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Wholesale prices of fertilizer are coming down as well, though many farmers say they have yet to see any real relief at the retail level.

- At least 164 people were killed and 971 injured after two earthquakes struck within a minute of each other in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

- The Red River Co-op has plans for a badly needed downtown grocery store at Portage Place. The 22,500 ft² facility is expected to open in 2029.

- Winnipeg city councillor Janice Lukes, who represents the suburban Waverley West ward, has announced that she is not running again in this fall's election. Folks on the r/Winnipeg subreddit are mostly rejoicing, though some warn that you should be careful what you wish for. As one person says, "I wasn't a fan, but progressives/urbanists may need to face up to the fact that she was possibly the best we were going to get out of Waverley West." River Heights-Fort Garry councillor John Orlikow isn't running again either; to date Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt has not ruled out running again despite facing sexual assault charges.

- Calgary's chamber of commerce has released a report concluding that secession could cost Alberta's economy $62 billion a year. They also surveyed their members; as this was a self-selecting survey it isn't definitive, but among those who responded more than 75% thought that the very discussion around separation was negatively affecting the province's economy.

- The heatwave in Europe continues, with temperatures hitting the low forties in parts of France yesterday. Even in the normally moderate UK, the town of Gosport recorded a temperature of 36.1°C, and it could get even hotter today.

- A mosque in Regina that got approval from the city to play their call to prayer from a speaker atop the building over the noon hour is getting threats from members of the public. I'd bet you donuts to dinars that the people doing this do not make similar threats to churches that ring bells.

News roundup, 26 Feb 2026

- Anthropic AI, which has generally tried to position itself as the AI company with a conscience, has announced that it has abandoned its promise to never train AI systems unless adequate safety measures could be guaranteed in advance. The company was founded by people who left other AI companies that they believed weren't taking safely seriously; the reversal comes immediately after Pete Hegseth threatened to cancel the company's contract with the Pentagon if they didn't lift the limits placed on the military's use of their technology. Meanwhile, it has come out that AIs used in wargame simulations by the US military are way too quick to recommend nuclear escalation for comfort.

- A data centre under construction in Olds, Alberta is expected to consume as much electricity as Edmonton, a city of over a million people. And of course, Alberta being Alberta, it's going to be powered by natural gas.

- A Florida-registered speedboat entered Cuban territorial waters and its occupants apparently exchanged gunfire with the country's military. Four people from the boat were killed and six injured; one Cuban soldier was also wounded.

- Following a pilot study conducted in four neighbourhoods in 2023, City of Winnipeg staff have recommended that the default speed limit on residential streets be reduced from 50 to 40 km/h. This would require changes to provincial legislation to allow it, however. More promising, perhaps, is the fact that Coun. Janice Lukes, of all people, now claims to believe that a permanent bike lane on Wellington Crescent is warranted. Many of the folks in this Reddit thread are skeptical whether she's really onside, though. Given her suburban ward and sensibilities, some skepticism is probably warranted.

- A Hamilton police officer has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography. He's been suspended without pay, something pretty rare in the police world, so I have to assume the evidence against him is pretty damning. I daresay he's not going to enjoy his time in jail. 

- When the US men's Olympic hockey team was invited to the White House, five members of the team declined the invitation. Probably no coincidence that all five have strong ties to Minnesota.

- Three people face charges of uttering threats after a series of hoax calls targeting Winnipeg schools. Two of them are teenagers, who probably thought it would be a clever way to get a day off school; oddly enough the third is a 30 year old woman from Toronto.

News roundup, 16 Dec 2025

- A proposed 800 unit housing development in north Toronto is at risk as the provincial government considers imposing a municipal zoning order that would limit the height of the complex to 33 metres (around 10 storeys). The developer wants three connected towers, with the largest being 133 m tall (39 storeys); the proposed height limit would kill the viability of the development. The pretext that the government is giving for considering killing the project is an odd one - Sanofi Pasteur, a pharmaceutical company that neighbours the project, allegedly fears that allowing tall residential buildings near their facility would be a security risk. It's not entirely clear that this is the real reason, though; it doesn't make much sense. Do the folks at Sanofi Pasteur really think people in the apartments will be able to sit there with binoculars and read their employees' notes and sample labels? I kind of doubt that, even if they're so careless as to do all their top-secret work next to windows. More likely the Ford government has another reason for wanting to kill the project (e.g. not wanting to normalize the kind of housing that would make their opponents' votes more efficient).

- Winnipeg councillor Janice Lukes has hired private security for a community consultation event related to the recent changes to the Winnipeg Transit network. Lukes, who is chair of the city's public works committee, has been harshly criticized for the way the changes have been implemented.

- The suspects in the Bondi Beach terror attack had apparently undergone paramilitary training in the Philippines last month. The younger of the two was apparently a follower of Wisam Haddad, an extremist imam based in Sydney. Haddad is thought to have connections to the Islamic State but denies any involvement in the recent attack. The surviving suspect is apparently now conscious and under guard in hospital.

- A Canadian military counterintelligence officer has been charged with leaking operational secrets to Ukraine without getting the approval of his superiors. Prosecutors say that he "was not motivated by personal or financial gain or to cause harm"; nonetheless, this would seem to be a significant overstep on his part. It could also have backfired; it's not hard to imagine a scenario where a Russian agent poses as a Ukrainian agent to get backdoor information.

- A consortium consisting of Vancouver-based Consensus Core and Las Vegas-based Jet.AI wants to build a data centre near Île-des-Chênes, in the rural municipality of Ritchot, Manitoba. What makes this problematic, though, is that they want to generate their own electricity from natural gas; under new legislation companies wanting to connect highly energy-intensive projects to the power grid are subject to added scrutiny, so the consortium wants to get around this by generating their own power instead.

- Nick Reiner, the middle child of Rob and Michelle Reiner, has been arrested for the murders of his parents. He has a long history of homelessness and substance abuse. For his part Donald Trump says that Reiner, who had long been a vocal support of Democratic candidates, may have died "due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with... Trump Derangement Syndrome".

News roundup, 5 Dec 2025

- Waymo, the robotaxi subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, wants to get a foothold in Toronto. They just registered as a lobbyist; caution is definitely recommended here. Fortunately I think Olivia Chow is the sort to be cautious about this sort of thing; unfortunately Doug Ford is not, and it's a safe bet that Waymo is going to be registering as a lobbyist at Queen's Park very soon if they haven't already.

- The UK's harvest of several key staple crops (wheat, barley, oats, and canola) fell by 20% this year compared to the 10-year average due to drought; reported losses by the country's farmers total about £800 million in one of the worst harvests on record. Moreover, three of the five worst harvests on record have occurred since 2020; the other two examples (2020 and 2024) resulted from too much rainfall. The irony, of course, is that many farmers have opposed measures to address climate change.

- The US State Department is ordering staff to deny visa applications for people who have been involved in fact checking and content moderation on social media platforms and the like, which they consider to be "censorship".

- A grand jury has rejected an attempt by the US Department of Justice to have New York Attorney General Letitia James prosecuted for mortgage fraud. The DOJ is expected to try again. And federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, who was involved in the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, has been fired by the DOJ, apparently because she's the daughter of former FBI director James Comey (who the DOJ is also trying to indict).

- Samantha Fulnecky, a psychology student at the University of Oklahoma, was directed to submit an essay, worth 3% of the final grade, responding to an academic study that examined whether conformity with gender norms was associated with popularity or bullying among middle school students. She proceeded to write a screed declaring anything related to trans people to be demonic, citing the Bible as a reference (just the Bible as a whole, mind you, not any specific verse). Unsurprisingly, she received a failing grade on the paper; sadly but also unsurprisingly (given that it's Oklahoma) the instructor (a graduate student, who is trans) was placed on leave and the paper will not be counted against Fulnecky's final grade as she claimed "religious discrimination". Turns out that the student's mother is a lawyer and sometime municipal politician who, among other things, once served as the defense attorney for a Jan 6 putsch suspect. As in the case of Lindsay Shepherd, you have to wonder if the whole thing wasn't intentional.

- Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries is following the lead of Nova Scotia in selling off their existing stock of American liquor and donating the proceeds to charity. The province estimates that this will bring in around $500,000. Charities such as the Christmas Cheer Board are very pleased with the decision.

- The Winnipeg Parking Authority is considering making it possible to ticket vehicles based on photo submissions from the public. Currently, a ticket can't be issued unless a parking officer actually attends. Councillor Janice Lukes is a bit uneasy with the idea, perhaps realizing that it will open the door for a lot of petty vendettas between her suburban constituents. Nonetheless, she raises some real issues here, pointing out that AI-generated photos could be used to frame neighbours, and that this could lead to dangerous confrontations between residents.

- A three year old chess prodigy in India has become the youngest player to obtain an official FIDE rating. Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha obtained a rating of 1,572 in rapid (with short time limits), meaning he would be at least competitive with virtually anyone I know.

News roundup, 16 Feb 2024

- The federal Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, said earlier this week that the federal government would stop investing in new road infrastructure, then revised this statement to say that the government would not invest in "large" road projects. This has led to a backlash from many politicians. Winnipeg councillor Janice Lukes, who represents the suburban Waverley West ward, nattered on about how we "need to move goods" (not that Guilbeault or anyone else is saying we don't, but whatever), while Mayor Scott Gillingham said Guilbeaut is "out of touch" with the reality of what Winnipeg and other cities need. In fact he isn't, though perhaps he is out of touch with the reality of what suburbanites want. Or maybe he no longer cares; given the dismal situation of his party in the polls, perhaps he figures the best that he can do is kick the can down the road a bit. Unfortunately, the present political culture combined with first past the post voting means that it's suburbanites who determine the results of most elections.

- The Manitoba government has rejected Sio Silica's application to mine sand in Springfield (the one the Tories tried to push through during the transition period). They have, however, approved Canadian Premium Sand's application to mine sand near Hollow Water First Nation; a notable difference is that the First Nation itself has agreements with the company (though not all of its residents agree with the decision). This project is also linked with plans to create a solar panel manufacturing facility in Selkirk; if nothing else solar panels are a far better use for sand than fracking is.

- The cyclotron at Health Sciences Centre, which is critical for the production of isotopes needed for PET scans, has failed a safety audit by Health Canada for the fourth time in a decade. This could theoretically lead to it being shut down, which would not be good news for cancer patients in this province.

- Several mayors in BC are complaining about the provincial government's abolition of exclusive single-family zoning. Tellingly, most of the cities in question are suburbs; the exceptions are Nanaimo and Nelson.

- Alexey Navalny has died at the gulag where he was imprisoned; official Russian reports make no mention of radioisotopes or defenestration.

- Some people involved with the "Freedom Convoy" plan to be back in Ottawa to mark the second anniversary of their protest/occupation, despite the fact that the mandates that they were protesting are long gone. It's as if this has become their entire identity and they don't know what else to do with themselves other than to make lots of noise and disruption to stick it to the big city libtard ay-leets.

- The credit union that sponsored Tucker Carlson's recent visit to Alberta is reaping significant rewards, as Carlson fans move their money to the institution, though other members are repelled by this.

- A New York City resident apparently bought three young Burmese Pythons in Montreal, then tried to smuggle them home in his pants. Unfortunately for him US customs officers noticed something amiss and he was fined $5,000 US as well as getting a year of probation.