News roundup, 12 Aug 2025

- Anthropic AI is trying to appeal the class certification of up to 7 million potential claimants in a class action against the company for massive copyright infringement. AI industry people are weighing in heavily on the side of the company, calling for the appeals court to reject the certification lest it destroy not just Anthropic but the entire AI industry. They accuse the district court judge, William Alsup, of failing to apply "rigourous analysis"; unanswered is the question of whether the "rigourous analysis" they're referring to is with regards to whether the actions of Anthropic are illegal, or with regards to the consequences for Anthropic and the rest of the industry. If the latter, I'd assume the reason he didn't apply rigourous analysis is that it would be irrelevant to the case - presumably he operates on the principle that if an industry can't exist without massive theft then perhaps it shouldn't exist. The techbros, on the other hand, operate on the principle that only little people pay royalties.

- The Trump regime is deploying about 800 National Guard troops to the District of Columbia, ostensibly to deal with rampant crime. In actual fact the crime rate in DC is already on the decline, but don't expect the truth to get in the way of Trump's narrative.

- Two more candidates have entered the race to replace the late Jason Schreyer as city councillor for Elmwood-East Kildonan. One is Kyle Roche, who currently works as a city planner for the city's Planning, Property, and Development department, while the other is Braydon Mazurkiewich, who most recently worked on Colin Reynolds' successful campaign to become the Conservative MP for Elmwood-Transcona. Mazurkiewich also has a bit of a history, having once served as the head of the youth wing of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party until he was forced to resign in 2012 over racist comments made on social media.

- Two Chinese warships collided while pursuing a Philippine patrol boat near the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. 

- CUPE Local 500, which represents most City of Winnipeg workers, is considering legal action on behalf of library staff in the hope of bringing security improvements in the wake of an incident last week in which a man jumped to his death from the fourth floor of the downtown Millennium Library. The union wants a redesign of the building's lobby to minimize the risk of another such incident, as well as the return of restoring funding for Community Connections. The recent death was not the first suicide to occur there, and library staff have been asking for years for the railings to be improved to make such an act more difficult.

- A longtime Hamilton police constable has been suspended (with pay of course; he's a cop after all) while the force investigates extremist online activity. He had apparently reposted a large amount of far-right content, including one post calling for a coup against the Canadian government. A coup would of course be a criminal act, and last time I checked cops generally weren't supposed to be promoting illegal activity, but what do I know?

- The remains of a British man who fell into a crevasse in a glacier in Antarctica in 1959 were recovered as the glacier continues to melt. 

News roundup, 18 Feb 2024

- Donald Trump, his company, and two of his sons have been hit with a $364 million judgment in the civil fraud case, most of which is owed by Trump himself and the company. This is on top of the $83 million he owes to E. Jean Carroll as a result of last month's ruling by another court. While he's expected to appeal, he could well have to front the money. No doubt he can find someone, somewhere, who will help him out, but there will likely be conditions on that assistance, and that could get mighty awkward for national security if he regains the presidency (and the associated access to state secrets) while owing large amounts of money to shadowy operatives somewhere.

- Professors at Brandon University have voted 87% in favour of a strike, with a 76% turnout. Pensions are one of the biggest issues; retirees currently receive between $30,000 to $40,000 a year, a figure unchanged in a decade in a half despite recent inflation.

- Besides the devastating consequences for Gaza, the conflict there has inconvenienced Israeli businesspeople who depend on Palestinians for cheap labour. So they're hiring migrant labourers from overseas to make up for the loss.

- The Philippines is accusing China of using cyanide to destroy the fishery at the Scarborough Shoal, which falls into the Philippines' 200 NM exclusion zone but is claimed by China as their own territory. After all, they need those pesky fishers to go away if they want to be able to "properly" make use of their claim.

- Controversy has arisen over the 2023 Hugo Awards, which were held in Chengdu, China. It has come to light that the organizers of the event excluded numerous authors, including Neil Gaiman, R.F. Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao, and Paul Weimer from the awards, despite getting enough fan votes, out of fear that honouring them and/or their works could upset the Chinese authorities.

- Australia's new government is following France's lead in giving workers the "right to disconnect" so as not to be bothered by their bosses once they finish work for the day. The opposition is already vowing to support those poor beleaguered bosses by repealing the legislation if they regain power in the next election, but the claims that this will destroy productivity are very much open to question.

- A WestJet flight from Vancouver to Toronto was forced to divert to Winnipeg after a passenger decided they couldn't take another minute in the air and tried to open a door. This seems to be happening a lot nowadays. It's as if the people who were freaking out at the height of the pandemic because they couldn't travel are losing their minds now when they discover that flying isn't the pleasant experience that their rose-coloured nostalgic memories tell them it is.