News roundup, 8 Oct 2026

- The latest polling for the US midterm elections suggests that the Republicans are heading for a severe beating, and that more than 60% of the electorate now disapproves of Donald Trump's performance as president. Even the billion dollars available to the campaign might not be enough if the midterms are run fairly, which is far from a given. And if they do lose the midterms, that's not going to stop Trump from issuing all kinds of executive orders, some of which might be vindictively directed against us.

- One of the numerous candidates on Toronto's mayoral ballot is someone named Braeden Chow. He claims that incumbent mayor Olivia Chow is his aunt, something denied by the mayor's campaign. More interesting (and disconcerting) - someone on this Reddit thread reported that his Instagram page was full of "Ford Nation" hashtags, but most of those posts now seem to have been removed. He claims to be entirely independent, and perhaps he is - but it sure looks like an attempt to sabotage Olivia Chow's reelection chances to me.

- Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in its latest round of attacks, which have killed at least 30 people and injured 18. One of the targets hit was a transit bus; I'm sure the Russians will claim it's somehow justified though.

- The Chalmers neighbourhood in the Elmwood district of Winnipeg has long been something of a food desert. The local neighbourhood association, however, is trying to change that by opening a low-cost grocery store. It remains to be seen if this will succeed; Neechi Commons in North Point Douglas failed a number of years ago, and the failure has been attributed to widespread theft.

- Five suspects have been arrested in the art heist at the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France. The missing paintings have yet to be located, however.

News roundup, 8 Sept 2026

- A Boeing 767 freighter operated by Amazon affiliate Prime Air overran the runway at Miami International Airport and collided with several vehicles on an adjacent road, killing five people.

- Canada's counter-tariffs against the US came into effect today; no further talks are currently scheduled. Meanwhile Donald Trump has declared that Bombardier will not be allowed to sell aircraft in the US unless it builds them there.

- The head of the Halifax International Security forum, a DC-based think tank, believes that the Republicans will do their utmost to steal this fall's midterms, and that even if the Democrats win Trump will have a good chance of undermining public confidence in the results. He notes that, in contrast to 2020, the agencies that run elections across the US have been stacked with Trump loyalists.

- The far-right AfD won a strong plurality, though not a majority, in the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Whether Germany's traditional "firewall" will succeed in keeping them from government remains to be seen. During their campaign the party, among other things, railed against the famous Bauhaus art school, saying that the institution "always strove to avoid any sign of national rootedness". Notably, AfD's counterparts in the 1930s shut down the school for similar reasons.

- A storm that swept through southern Manitoba on Sunday caused substantial damage, most of which was concentrated in a small area of River Heights in Winnipeg.

- Thieves stole three paintings from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. A fourth painting was recovered after it was dropped by the fleeing suspects.