News roundup, 7 June 2026

- Another severe storm hit southwestern Manitoba on Sunday night. No tornadoes have been confirmed, but strong winds and hail caused substantial damage to property and cut power to about 6,000 customers. Floodwaters also came dangerously close to breaching dikes in the community of St. Lazare.

- The mayor of St. Andrews, Manitoba is suing her own municipality to recover legal fees incurred during her ultimately successful fight to regain powers that the RM's council had stripped from her. The episode began within a year of her election in 2018, after she clashed with five council members over a wastewater treatment project.

- Several centrist Democrats (who, it should be noted, are only "centrist" in the American context; they'd be considered moderate rightwingers in most countries) are running scared at the success of left-leaning candidates in several recent Democratic primaries. In an open letter called "The Promise to America" they explicitly declare themselves "capitalist, not socialist" and talk about "extremes on right and left". Well, they're  half right there, I suppose, in that the present day right really is extreme. But to imply that people like recent primary winners are just as extreme as the MAGA crowd one has to be either disingenuous or delusional.

- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has been in hospital since mid-June and very little information about his condition has been made public, at least at an official level. However, NBC has apparently gotten hold of a recording of EMS communications indicating that CPR was performed on a person at an address associated with McConnell on the day that the senator was hospitalized. The lack of information from his office since then has led some to speculate that he's being kept on life support to avoid forcing a special election (i.e. byelection); Kentucky law requires one if a vacancy occurs more than 3 months before the next election. Since McConnell's seat is one of those up for grabs in November, this would mean he'd have to be kept alive till August in order to avoid the kind of awkwardness that might result if, say, recently primaried representative Thomas Massie were to run for the seat. Speculative for sure, but not implausible.

- Far right fundamentalist Christian nationalist pastors/podcasters Wesley Todd and Joel Webbon called for churches that display Pride flags to be seized by the state and transferred to more pliant churches and their pastors defrocked and prosecuted. What's perhaps more interesting is that they warned allies who are running for political office to refrain from saying things like that out loud, because the voters aren't ready for such overtly totalitarian messaging. Webbon has said some other "interesting" things, such as telling parents that they're failing in their duty if they don't warn their kids to stay away from black people and that women shouldn't be allowed to vote.

- Donald Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after Team USA striker Folarin Balogun was given a red card during the match against Bosnia-Herzgovina; subsequently, FIFA then reversed the suspension in time for the Americans' match against Belgium. It wasn't enough to stop Belgium from giving them a 4-1 thrashing and eliminating them from the World Cup, though.

News roundup, 20 May 2026

- An Israeli legal organization, Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center), is threatening legal action against the Canadian Museum for Human Rights over plans to host an exhibit on the Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians when Israel was formed in 1948. The exhibit isn't scheduled to open for months, but the organization has vowed to "seek instructions to pursue all available legal remedies" if the museum goes ahead with it. The legal basis for this seems rather tenuous, but several pro-Israel organizations are angry that they weren't consulted about the matter. I have to wonder if they'd be calling for Russia to be consulted over an exhibit about the Holodomor.

- Andy Burnham, the chief challenger to Keir Starmer's leadership, says that he will not pursue readmission to the EU if he becomes prime minister. This is in contrast to another potential challenger, Wes Streeting, who says he would like to see the UK rejoin. Some in this Reddit thread feel betrayed by Burnham's stance, but one poster made a very good point:

Tbh supporting the EU at this point is not a valid policy and is purely performative. You can say that you would want to join the EU, but it’s currently off the table.

With a Reform premiership likely, you would just be wasting 3 years unless there was significant evidence to show rejoining the EU could win you the election.

The EU know this and won’t bother negotiating.

I suspect that this is Burnham's reasoning. Can't really fault it, unfortunately.

- Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who had challenged Trump on the Epstein files, was defeated in his primary yesterday by Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein, demonstrating the uncanny grip that the orange monster still has on his sheeple. Meanwhile in Louisiana, Republican senator Bill Cassidy suffered the same fate.

- Experienced farmers develop an intimate knowledge of seasonal patterns that help them to optimize their business. However, farmers in many parts of the world are finding that those patterns are breaking down, thanks to climate change. And it is expected that for each additional 1°C for the average temperature, the average available food supply will decrease by about 120 calories per person per day. Of course this will not be equally distributed; the rich countries will experience inflation in food prices while poor countries face starvation. As I've said before, this also poses a conundrum for the left - the old argument that there's enough food for everyone and it just needs to be distributed properly is soon going to become obsolete, and I fear that a lot of leftists are going to be in denial about this fact.

- On the more positive side, it seems that Trump and Netanyahu's reckless attack on Iran is doing what generations of activists couldn't do - pushing the world towards renewable energy. It's enough to make a person wish that Cheney and Rumsfeld had succeeded in convincing Bush to attack Iran back in the noughties - that way the shift to green energy would have happened two decades earlier and so maybe climate change wouldn't be as bad as it's going to be.

News roundup, 19 May 2026

- Two armed teenagers attacked a mosque in San Diego on Monday, killing three people before turning their weapons on themselves. This is being investigated as a hate crime; the mother of one of the shooters found a note that he had left behind, though the content of the note has not been made public.

- Global Affairs Canada is warning Canadians to be wary about travelling overseas this summer, due to the possibility of flight cancellations as a result of skyrocketing prices of jet fuel due to the war in Iran. They also warn that fuel shortages could disrupt access to products and services at some popular destinations. 

- A Canadian who was a passenger on the plague ship MV Hondius has tested positive for hantavirus. Three others are in isolation after showing symptoms consistent with the virus.

-  An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 131 people and may be spreading faster than originally thought.

- Manitoba is temporarily suspending the ban on sale of certain American alcoholic beverages, in order to sell off stock that expires in the fall.

- Keir Starmer is facing a direct challenge of his leadership of the Labour Party from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham is running in a byelection in the constituency of Makerfield, which was vacated by incumbent Josh Simons in order to make way for him.

- Thomas Massie, a Republican member of Congress from Kentucky, is facing a tough primary today as Donald Trump has aggressively endorsed his opponent. Massie drew the ire of Trump after pushing a bill to force the release of the Epstein files.

- A car crashed into a fireworks store in Toronto on Monday, starting what became a five-alarm fire. Nobody was in the vehicle by the time fire crews arrived.

News roundup, 23 Oct 2025

- Earlier coverage of the Trump regime's bailout of Argentina stated that the bailout "doesn’t appear to have any strings attached", but that seems not to be the case. There is one string so large as to be more of a cable - President Javier Milei's La Libertad Avanza party must prevail in that country's upcoming midterm elections in order for the bailout to be considered worthwhile. Now it should be said that this sort of thing is not as Trump-specific as many Americans would like to admit (the US has a long and unsavoury history in Latin America) but this is by far the most blatant example of it. The fact that the bailout includes plans to increase beef imports from Argentina does not sit well with many ranchers who were among Trump's strongest supporters, but given people's general unwillingness to admit that they've been had, this isn't going to have much effect on Trump electorally (assuming that the next election is even free and fair, which is doubtful at this point). And there's reason to believe that part of the motivation for the bailout is to protect the interests of hedge fund billionaire Rob Citrone, who is a friend and onetime colleague of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and who has speculated big time on Milei's economic "reforms".

- Following a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump has called for Ukraine to accept Russia's terms for an end to the war - meaning handing over the entirety of Donbas to the invaders.

- Kentucky representative Thomas Massie often serves as the lone voice of reason in the Republican caucus. Besides criticizing the aforementioned bailout of Argentina, he opposed Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" this summer and - perhaps most crucially - is one of those calling for the release of the Epstein files. So not surprisingly, Trump is calling for Republicans to remove him in the primaries for next year's midterms. Unfortunately, polling suggests that Trump will get what he wants. 

- A Boeing 747 freighter operated by the Turkish carrier ACT made what seemed to be a normal touchdown at Hong Kong's airport, only to veer off the runway and into the sea during its landing roll. The crew survived, but two airport workers were killed as the aircraft crossed a service road and collided with their vehicle. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

- The people of Chicago have taken to carrying whistles which they blow loudly upon seeing signs of ICE activity. Some organizations are handing them out for free, with help from participating businesses. 

- The world chess governing body, FIDE, says that it is "looking into" reports of bullying by former world champion Vladimir Kramnik against American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky in the months leading up to Naroditsky's sudden death this week. Kramnik, for his part, is vowing legal action against "all those falsely blaming me".