News roundup, 30 Oct 2026

- The primary Instagram account used by No Kings activists in the US was suspended earlier this month, just as the organization was busy rallying people in preparation for the midterm elections. Instagram's parent company Meta claims that this happened due to a technical glitch, but many think their "glitches" are happening too often, and disproportionately impacting opponents of rightwing extremism, both in the US and elsewhere.

- While 175 members of Congress, led by Pramila Jayapal of Washington, have signed a letter condemning the investigation of Ilhan Omar, 40 Democratic members are not among them, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. While the article rightly acknowledges that not having signed the letter doesn't prove that someone supports the persecution of Omar, one can't help but wonder if a centrist like Pelosi would secretly be happy to see Omar denaturalized and removed from the country so she won't drag the Democrats to the left and/or say mean things about Israel.

- The drama surrounding Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton AG, continues with revelations that employees who urged caution in the use of AI (as in, testing AI-developed stuff before releasing it to the public) were subjected to a torrent of abuse from Yen, who called such caution "bullshit and loser thinking". The thing is, Proton is a nonprofit that has built its brand around privacy and security, and as the folks on Reddit point out, when your brand is built around that, and your own cybersecurity people are warning you to be careful, it shows extremely poor judgment not to listen to them. Proton, in fact, was founded specifically as a platform for private and secure communications. What makes this stranger is that Yen is not a product of Silicon Valley, where that "move fast and break things" mentality is endemic - his background is as a physicist. The only way his outburst makes any sense at all is if the company is planning change to a for-profit corporation (or spin off a for-profit subsidiary the way OpenAI did) and eventually have an IPO - because investors who don't know much about tech will just assume that the more AI queries a company makes, the more forward thinking and worthy of investment it is.

- A Winnipeg synagogue has revoked the memberships of a couple in their congregation and arranged for the police to visit them to inform them that they were barred from the premises. Emet Eviatar and David Hoult had attended services at Congregation Etz Chayim for many years, but the Eviatar's involvement in Standing Together, which has been highly critical of Israel's actions in Gaza, and Hoult's criticism of the institution's security measures, were evidently a bridge too far. 

- Actor Patrick Stewart, best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, has died at the age of 86. 

News roundup, 14 May 2024

- The wildfire situation is not improving. The entire population of Cranberry Portage, a community of about 600 people, have been evacuated; the fire in the area could take weeks to put out. In BC the fire threatening Fort Nelson is getting closer to the town and adjacent reserve, forcing more evacuations, while in Alberta the entire municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, remains on evacuation alert.

- BC's measures restricting short term rentals like Airbnb are upsetting people who hoped to make money renting out their properties. A new organization, calling itself the "West Coast Association for Property Rights", has formed to fight this; of course their executive director declares that restricting short term rentals won't solve the problem, but then he would say that, wouldn't he. The organization is seeking an injunction to stop the enforcement of the law.

- Teresa Ribera, Spain's deputy prime minister, is hoping to be appointed the EU's commissioner for the Green Deal. She is not pulling her punches in criticizing EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for her deference to the far right and the rural dinosaurs in particular.

- In recent years many corporations have at least gone through the motions of being concerned about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) matters. However, corporations aren't generally a reliable ally on such matters, especially when there's a very aggressive push in the other direction from the far right. Even companies that remain (somewhat) forward thinking on these matters are a lot quieter about it than they were a few years ago.

- David DePape, the man who showed up at Nancy Pelosi's home with a hammer in 2022 and then beat her husband with it upon finding that she wasn't there, is set to be sentenced on Friday. Prosecutors are asking for a 40 year sentence.

- Deomcratic Senator Bob Menendez goes on trial on Monday for accepting large amounts of money in bribes. Of course, he represents New Jersey, a place whose corruption makes Quebec seem like Norway in comparison; he's just one of the unlucky ones to get caught.

- An 8 month old child in the UK, who was born deaf, is now able to hear without any assistance, thanks to gene therapy. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the folks who call themselves Deaf with a capital D and who have at times characterized cochlear implants as genocide.

Interesting...

According to this article, Nancy Pelosi is saying that health care reform will continue regardless of what happens tonight in Massachusetts. Not everyone agrees, though, as evidenced by this snippet from Stockhouse.com:

U.S. investors returned to trading today in a much better mood than they finished off with last week. Today’s earnings slate helped to boost sentiment with no major negative surprises out of the banking sector, as Citigroup’s (C) TARP losses came in even with expectations, and First Horizon (FHN) reported an improvement in its loan loss provision. Industrial manufacturer Parker-Hannafin (PHN) posted strong earnings (62 cents vs. Street 34 cents) and guidance. The health care sector has also been rallying, led by Coventry Health (CVH) and Eli Lilly (LLY) ahead of a key Massachusetts senate by-election, which may have a major impact on pending health care legislation.

In other words, the potential failure of health care reform is good news in the eyes of those arseholes.