News roundup, 9 June 2025

- Following clashes earlier this week in Los Angeles when protesters apparently interfered ICE agents' attempts at enforcing deportation orders, the Trump regime ordered the mobilization of 2,000 National Guard troops (the first time in decades that this has happened without the request of the governor of the state in question) and warned that the Marines could be next if order isn't restored soon. The legality of this is very much in question, but that question is a purely academic one unless Trump and/or his minions somehow eventually see the inside of a courtroom. In any case, the short-term effect of the move has been to intensify the protests, with thousands of people taking to the streets. A correspondent with Australia's Nine News Network was shot by police with a rubber bullet while covering the confrontations; she was not seriously hurt.

- A construction crew working at Sandy Bay First Nation in northwestern Ontario had to take shelter in a shipping container from a wildfire that swept through their work site. 

- The UK's largest water and sewer utility, Thames Water, is in financial trouble and looking for a buyer. Bidders are demanding that the government grant the company and its management immunity from prosecution for environmental offenses as a condition of buying it; if a buyer is not found it is likely to fall into administration by the government, something the Treasury wants to avoid if possible.

- The IDF stopped an aid vessel bringing food and medical supplies to Gaza and detained its crew, who included climate activist Greta Thunberg.

- Numerous people report having their Facebook accounts shut down without a satisfactory explanation. This is not limited to individual users either - the English town of North Tawton had its official page shut down. There are suspicions that this is the result of the process of scanning for inappropriate content being outsourced to artificial intelligence instead of using human moderators (which, to be fair, has a few problems of its own).

News roundup, 5 Feb 2025

- Five cases of measles have been confirmed in southern Manitoba; cases appear to be associated with a church in Winkler and are thought to be linked to an outbreak in Ontario.

- While Wab Kinew is deferring the ban on American alcohol until the threatened tariffs are imposed, he recognizes the need to diversify (or, as he put it, "Trump-proof") the Manitoba economy. This would ideally not only involve finding new markets but "getting better at making stuff". Of course this is a tall order, and probably should have started decades ago.

- In response to the 10% tariff imposed on China, that country has imposed tariffs of their own, as well as export controls on certain key metals and an anti-monopoly investigation of Google. The latter, in particular, is not uncalled for, though I don't think I'd trust the Chinese state to do a balanced investigation.

- State Farm Insurance is asking California's regulators to suspend their price controls so that the company, one of a diminishing number still offering fire insurance in the state, is able to cover payouts resulting from the recent catastrophic fires in Los Angeles. Specifically, they are asking to be allowed to raise insurance by 22% for single-family homes, 15% for condos, and 38% for renters' insurance. This is despite the fact that they requested even bigger increases last year. Of course this situation isn't likely to improve for decades, if at all, nor is it limited to California. How the American economy will weather millions of people walking away from their mortgages when they can't renew due to lack of insurance remains to be seen.

- Also on the subject of the California wildfires, Trump just ordered over eight billion litres of water that was being kept in reservoirs to be released, ostensibly to help fight the fires. Unfortunately, this water is going nowhere near Los Angeles, and moreover would likely have been more badly needed in the summer, which is often very dry. You'd almost think he was actually trying to damage California; while Trump himself probably isn't smart enough to know what he's doing, some of the people behind him are.

-  Robert Reich thinks that Trump's real motivation with his numerous erratic moves and statements is simply to show strength, and to create uncertainty that he could take advantage of. For his part, Gwynne Dyer thinks that while Trump's stated desire to annex Canada is not particularly realistic, Trump is dead serious about the matter, and that we need to start preparing for the worst.

- One positive from all this madness from south of the border is that Canadians are more united than they've been in decades. This is causing some consternation for the Conservatives, whose entire campaign plan could be summed up as "fuck Trudeau", "axe the [carbon] tax", and "Canada is broken". Since the first two slogans are now obsolete, it's nice to see the third one looking silly as well.

News roundup, 15 Jan 2024

- Special Counsel Jack Smith has delivered a report to Attorney General Merrick Garland outlining the evidence against Donald Trump related to the Jan. 6 putsch and the hoarding of classified documents. Smith says that the evidence was sufficiently strong to convict Trump had the case gone to trial, but unfortunately that is now moot as the cases have been dropped.

- There are more signs that Mark Carney plans to seek the federal Liberal leadership, with a report that some 30 MPs are willing to back him. Liberal house leader Karina Gould is also expected to announce a run for the party leadership shortly; meanwhile Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and former B.C. premier Christy Clark have announced that they will not be running. Clark was apparently planning a run but has decided not to following revelations that she misspoke herself when she said she'd never been a member of the Conservative Party.

- Janice Morley-Lecomte, who served as Minister of Mental Health and Community Wellness under Heather Stefanson, has been nominated as the federal Conservative candidate in Winnipeg South. She probably has a good chance of unseating Liberal MP Terry Duguid.

- Wally Daudrich, a businessman and candidate for the leadership of the Manitoba Tories, is in damage control mode after his campaign shared someone else's Facebook post, which just happened to contain a comment on the necessity to keep Obby Khan, a Muslim, from winning the leadership. Daudrich's campaign manager tried to downplay the issue, pointing out that the post in question originally came from outside the campaign, but it definitely raises questions about the kind of people he attracts.

- Quebec-based pilot Pascal Duclos flown water bombers for many years, and has worked 14 seasons in California alone, but he says he's never seen conditions like he's seeing now. Of course the fact that this time it's a huge sprawling city that's burning, plus the fact that the Santa Ana winds are still gusting up to 70 km/h and idiots are flying drones in the path of the planes, would tend to make for a challenging job. In related news, 93 seniors had to be evacuated from an Los Angeles care home shortly before the structure was consumed in flames. The director the facility was dreading the possibility of having to decide who would be saved, and no doubt had the fate of some residents of the Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina gnawing at the back of her mind. And the major record labels are cancelling all Grammy-related events; for showbiz to be impacted in L.A. of all places you know things are bad.

- A home security camera in PEI has been credited with the first known video and audio recording of a meteorite impact.

- A wandering senior in Guelph, Ontario was successfully located and brought home with the help of a tracking bracelet. While many praise the program for saving lives, some are also a bit uncomfortable about the privacy implications.