News roundup, 17 May 2024

- Climate activists in Russia are taking the government to court for failing to adequately protect its citizens from climate change. I'm guessing most of those activists will, at the very least, end up on a "foreign agents" list. They'd better start carrying Geiger counters and avoiding windows as well.

- Four neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray that were destroyed in the 2016 fire have been evacuated again, though it is hoped that the measures brought in after that fire will protect the community better than last time.

- Charlie Angus has written an opinion piece for the Tyee about Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party's courting of rightwing extremists. In it he mentions that when he called out Poilievre in Parliament for the latter's refusal to disavow an endorsement from Alex Jones, Conservative supporters responded by posting photos of Angus' daughters, along with the locations of their workplaces, on social media, accompanied by thinly veiled threats. With stuff like that going on, it's no wonder Angus has decided not to run again.

- Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico is now in stable condition following yesterday's shooting. His own political career has evolved in an interesting way, to say the least - he started out as a Communist during the cold war, then continued with that party's democratic successor, the Party of the Democratic Left, after the end of the one-party state. Then in 1999 he and others left that party and founded a party called Direction - Social Democracy, which he considered a "third way" party, but as leader he has continued to take that party to the right, to the point where they're straight-up rightwing populists now. One can't help wonder if the general mood he's helped to cultivate might have helped motivate the shooter; perhaps the likes of Poilievre should take note.

- Until recently, support for Israel (at least at the official level) has been very widespread in the West. Maybe not quite so much anymore; they've alienated a lot of allies, though I suspect that when it comes down to the crunch the US and Germany, at least, will still grudgingly support them after a bit of public finger-wagging. Canada has sanctioned four individuals for their involvement in some of the more egregious acts of violence by West Bank settlers against Palestinians, though I wouldn't hold my breath for sanctions against the Israeli state.

- Despite suicide being one of the biggest causes of death among young adults, over 70% universities in Canada do not keep statistics on this rather important issue.

- Joe Biden has declared that the federal government will issue no new leases for coal mining on federal land in the country's biggest coal producing region. In contrast, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill that removes virtually all references to climate change from state legislation. The same bill also bans offshore wind turbines, among other things.

- Ten states in the US have not yet signed onto the Medicaid expansion that's part of Obamacare. Polls indicate that expansion would have broad public support, but the Republicans are apparently counting on that support not to be strong enough to get very many people to vote for the Democrats. Sadly, their confidence is probably justified; too many people think they'll be cast into a lake of fire if they do that.

- A flight instructor with the US Air Force was killed after apparently activating the ejection seat of his aircraft while it was sitting on the tarmac.

News roundup, 6 May 2024

- Three men, all Indian citizens, have been arrested in connection with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year. Police are investigating links with three other homicides as well, including the death of an 11 year old boy in Edmonton.

- The Israeli government has shut down all of Al Jazeera's operations in the country and raided its offices. They accuse the broadcaster of "incitement" and "working with Hamas", which the broadcaster denies. Notably, the BBC was not allowed to film the raid. The UN's Human Rights office as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists are condemning the decision. In other Israel news, many Bedouin citizens of that country are unable to build bomb shelters to protect themselves from Hamas-launched missiles - because even though they live in villages that predate the founding of Israel, the communities have never been officially recognized, and thus do not have the ability to issue building permits. So the Israeli state considers any shelters they build to be unauthorized structures, and demolishes them. Then they cry a few crocodile tears at best, or smile smugly at worst, when Bedouin citizens die in the attacks. Meanwhile the Globe and Mail's Marsha Lederman warns supporters of both sides of the confllict against reducing the matter to simple slogans.

- It's increasingly apparent that one of the biggest barriers to effective climate action is the agricultural sector. In the European Union, rioting farmers have been doing their damnedest to undermine efforts to make Europe a leader in sustainable agriculture. No wonder farmers have been downgraded, in the minds of a lot of people, from "salt of the Earth" to "necessary evil". On a related note, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has just signed a bill outlawing the sale of cultured meat in the state. He also  spouted conspiracy nonsense about the supposed global elite's plans to force everyone to eat it, even as he signed legislation taking away his own citizens' freedom to eat it if they so choose.

- A federal appeals court in the US has ruled that a lawsuit by an organization called Our Children’s Trust on behalf of 21 young Americans lacks standing and must be dismissed by the US district judge hearing the case. The judges who made the ruling are Trump appointees, but this was an "emergency" petition filed by the Biden administration's Justice Department, who claimed that the government could be "irreparably harmed" if it were forced to waste resources litigating the case.

- The Manitoba government will be using funds from an out-of-court settlement with the tobacco companies to pay for the building of a new headquarters for CancerCare.

- Following the report of a woman being punched in a Winnipeg grocery store by an employee who suspected her of shoplifting, other members of the community say that this is not the first time something like this has happened at that store - nor even the second.

- Use of the "Community Connections" service in the lobby of Winnipeg's Millennium library are on the increase, even as the city prepares to shut it down so that Evan Duncan's constituents don't have to look at poor people when they use the library.

- In something worthy of the Piranha Brothers, a man in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland suffered potentially life-altering injuries after having his hands nailed to a fence. This has apparently happened before; there have been no official statements regarding responsibilty but many locals suspect Loyalist paramilitaries.

News roundup, 19 April 2024

- The situation in the Middle East doesn't seem to be improving, with reports of explosions in western Iran. Iran is warning that they will respond to an attack on their nuclear facilities with a like response, though whether they're holding back on something that could penetrate the "iron dome" is a good question. In Israel, the former head of their air defense forces has said that Iran's attack was a "declaration of war", though one can't help but thinking that attacking another country's diplomatic mission in a third country kind of seems like act of war in the first place... although Iran's response is clearly an escalation, and a dangerous one. It's also giving Netanyahu exactly what he wants, because remaining at war is his best chance of staying out of jail.

- Prominent members of the Kennedy family have publicly endorsed Joe Biden, mostly without mentioning their wayward relative Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A more interesting thing in that article, though, is this:

For its part, the Democratic National Committee has emphasized donations supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy from billionaire Timothy Mellon, a major MAGA Inc donor, pushing the concept that Kennedy Jr. is a “stalking horse” for Trump.

That differs from the approach of those supporting Trump, including the Make America Great Again Inc super PAC, which has aimed to paint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “leftist radical.”

The efforts by the two parties underscore concerns they both have that Kennedy could take votes away from their candidate.

Who will RFK Jr. hurt more? I guess that remains to be seen.

- They've now picked a full 12 jurors in Trump's criminal trial for the Stormy Daniels episode, though they're still looking for alternates. Opinions are divided on how strong the prosecution's case is. The thing is, the payment itself was not actually a crime; the prosecution is arguing that the falsification of business records to prevent the payment from becoming public before the 2016 election was the real crime.

- Pierre Poilievre is hinting that he just might dismantle the nascent pharmacare program upon his widely expected rise to power after the next election.

- Björn Höcke, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) leader in the German state of Thuringia, who is already on trial for using a Nazi slogan in a campaign speech, is being investigated for having used the same slogan on another occasion as well.

- An Winnipeg inner city nonprofit, Sunshine House, has been operating a converted RV as a "mobile overdose prevention site", or MOPS since 2022. Essentially it's a safe consumption site on wheels, but they also test samples of street drugs, provide clean needles, pipes, and the like. In its first year of operation they had 26,154 visits to the vehicle, of whom 7,086 involved actual drug consumption; naloxone had to be administered 82 times, out of which 4 led to hospitalization. Nobody died. That certainly suggests that they've saved a lot of lives.

- Whereas Sunshine House's service provides pretty much everything except the actual drugs, we can't forget about Spirit Rising, the for-profit foster home operator that was discovered a couple of months ago to have, in a rather bold harm reduction initiative, been giving actual drugs to the kids. Now I kinda, sorta get the idea that at least they aren't doing meth or booze and all that, but giving 15 year olds a daily marijuana allowance still seems a bit suspect to me. Evidently the Winnipeg Police think so too.

- Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill that allows schools to bring in chaplains, while vowing that the Satanic Temple will not be allowed to take advantage of this, as he does not consider them to be an actual religion. Given that they are recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt church, there may be some court battles ahead.

- The New South Wales Police say that 51 of their officers were injured in the riot following the stabbing of that bishop in Sydney on Monday night. The article shies away from ascribing any motive, though one can't help but wonder if it resulted from the cops trying to take the accused away before they were finished with him. Apparently the bishop, Mari Emmanuel, belongs to a rather fringe (and far-right) splinter group of the Orthodox Christian tradition.

News roundup, 15 April 2024

- Iran launched a number of missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend, stating that this was retaliation for the attack on Iran's embassy in Damascus earlier this month. The attack had little effect owing to Israel's advanced air defense systems.

- Jury selection for Donald Trump's first actual criminal trial, regarding the hush money allegedly paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, begins on Monday. Finding twelve jurors who are sufficiently impartial about Mr. Trump will be a challenge, though. Some are hoping that the details that come out during the trial will be "mortifying" for Trump, but that makes the questionable assumption that he is capable of feeling shame. In other Trump news, shares in Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, are down by about 20% for the week and over 47% so far this month.

- Six people were killed and several others wounded in a stabbing attack in a mall in a suburb of Sydney before the attacker was shot to death by police. The attacker was known to police and wasn't a well fellow by the sound of it.

- Despite the fact that pretty much everyone in a position of authority knows better, new coal plants continue to be built and places that are phasing them out aren't doing it near fast enough. I hate to advocate for geoengineering given all the risks, but they're making it harder and harder to avoid that.

- Four out of the five councillors in the Rural Municipality of Armstrong, in Manitoba's Interlake region, have resigned citing a "toxic work environment" and leadership problems. Details of these issues have not been made public so far, but rural and small town politics can be a pretty nasty business (see for instance the case of St Andrews mayor Joy Sul).

- Danielle Smith hopes that Red Deer will grow tenfold from its current population of 106,000. Many locals aren't so keen. Setting that aside, one wonders if Smith is really thinking things through on this matter, since the rise of a third huge city in the province would probably require a lot of people to move there from outside the province, and this would probably not favour the UCP electorally.

- Former Thunder Bay police chief Sylvie Hauth has been charged with obstruction and breach of trust, becoming the third employee of the force to face criminal charges in the last few months. Meanwhile in Durham Region the police force there released personal information about a woman who had complained about being threatened by cyberstalkers directly to said cyberstalkers in response to a freedom of information request.

- A new law in Florida, just signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, effectively prevents civilian boards from investigating police misconduct.

News roundup, 2 April 2024

- A bill recently passed by Florida's legislature, and now awaiting Governor Ron DeSantis' signature, will ban offshore wind turbines in state waters, and will furthermore purge virtually all references to climate change from existing legislation. On the other coast, the city of Berkeley, California has agreed to repeal its recent ban on natural gas for new builds, following a court decision. Oh, and despite their constant bleating about "freedom" and "liberty", Republicans in numerous states want to take away people's freedom to buy and sell lab-grown meat. There has been the odd bit of good news too (such as the closure of the last two coal plants in the New England states) but on balance the situation is not looking good, and Gwynne Dyer is probably right in saying that we will need to resort to geoengineering, with all the risks that entails, in order to keep temperatures within acceptable limits. Or maybe someone should just release Captain Trips and hope that the survivors build a better civilization than the one we have now.

- A federal appeal court has cancelled a ban on takeout containers contaminated with PFAS (the so-called "forever chemicals"). Interestingly, the court did not deny the health concerns about these chemicals, but ruled that the EPA did not have the authority to use the legislation they did.

- The European Union subsidizes farms based on area cultivated, which means that livestock farms get far more subsidies than crop farms do. More than 80% of the subsidies in the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) program went to make meat cheaper.

- Judge Aileen Cannon, who is scheduled to hear Trump's criminal trial for retaining classified national security documents, has apparently still not decided when the hearing will happen, almost certainly meaning that he will not be tried in this case before this fall's election. According to Wikipedia this judge was appointed in 2020 by Trump, but I guess we're supposed to assume that this is a coincidence.

- The lower house of France's parliament has passed a bill that imposes penalties on the manufacturers of "fast fashion".

- Doctors working in Gaza are accusing Israeli snipers of deliberately targeting young children.