News roundup, 17 Oct 2025

 - In addition to the surviving hostages they have released, Hamas has released the bodies of 10 others, but say that they'll need specialized equipment to recover the rest due to them being buried in rubble. The Israelis also claim that one of the bodies they returned was not one of the hostages. Hamas also accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire by killing at least 24 people since Friday. It's almost as if Netanyahu doesn't really want the ceasefire to last (not that Hamas likely does either).

- The US Supreme Court is hearing a legal challenge to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which limits states' ability to gerrymander based on race. Not surprisingly, it is widely expected that the court will rule in favour of the challenge. The potential impact of this is hard to overstate - in parts of the country the Democrats could be virtually shut out. On the other hand, some are pointing out that blue states could play the same game. This could conceivably work in the Democrats' favour - but at a cost of reducing the diversity of Congress overall. Ultimately, though, I think that debate is pretty much academic - I don't see any scenario in which next year's midterms are sufficiently free and fair for the Dems to have any real chance of regaining control of either house of Congress no matter what some blue states try. Heck, I'm not 100% certain if there will be any midterms. I'd like to be proven wrong on that; I guess we'll know in just over a year.

- As of next month, the most populous and wealthiest US state will no longer be using coal to generate electricity. Some of this capacity is being replaced by natural gas, and some by hydrogen of unspecified origin (note that a lot of hydrogen is produced using carbon-heavy techniques), but a lot of it is because of huge improvements in renewables. California is also the first state to prohibit the use of AI to replicate real people. And Hollywood is having second thoughts about the technology given its implications for their intellectual property.

- Nearly every news media outlet in the US has refused to agree to new rules set by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite being told that they will have to turn in their Pentagon press passes if they don't sign on. This includes not only those you'd expect such as the New York Times, CNN, and NBC but also rightwing outlets like Fox News and Newsmax; only the One America News Network agreed. The rules prohibit reporters working at the Pentagon from using any "unauthorized" material for their work, even if it is not classified material.

The Centers for Disease Control has lost some 25% of its workforce to the Trump regime's purges. Damage from a loss of expertise like that could take decades to repair, if ever.

- The antivaxxer, far-right activist, and multiple times failed political candidate Patrick Allard has lost his defamation suit against the Manitoba NDP. Allard had sued after the party described him as someone who spouts "racist rhetoric" during the 2022 byelection campaign in Fort Whyte. The judge acknowledged that the statements the NDP was referring to were sufficiently vague to have some plausible deniability, but concluded that the doctrine of "qualified privilege" applies here. The judge also noted that Allard had breached a court rule by leaking texts that had surfaced during the trial to the Winnipeg Sun.

News roundup, 10 Oct 2025

- The Israeli government has ratified a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, calling for a "suspension of hostilities" between the two regimes within 24 hours, and the release of 20 Israeli prisoners as well as the remains of 28 others. Of course, Gaza is pretty much uninhabitable now, which presumably suits the Israelis fine, since they'll probably just send in a bunch of settlers to rebuild the place for themselves. Trump is of course talking a lot about this, presumably hoping to convince the Nobel committee to give him the Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking of which, many Norwegian politicians and journalists are seriously concerned about how Trump will react to not receiving the prize, now that it's been awarded to someone else. One columnist and analyst doesn't even rule out the possibility of Trump declaring Norway an enemy.

- Mark Bray, the Rutgers University historian who is moving to Europe to escape death threats, showed up at Newark International Airport with his family on Wednesday night, only to be told at the boarding gate that their flight had been cancelled. They were able to rebook a flight for Thursday night, which suggests that this was not the action of the regime but of one of its overly enthusiastic supporters. No doubt the MAGA crowd would still like us to believe that they aren't fascists, but they aren't making a very good case for themselves.

- FBI director Kash Patel has disbanded a working group studying corruption and fired several agents, saying that they had "weaponized law enforcement against the American people". This comes after the group had placed several Republican senators under investigation.

- Vyacheslav Leontyev, a former editor of the Russian newspaper Pravda, has died after falling from his fifth floor apartment in Moscow. Authorities have ruled his death a suicide; as we know, depression is a very common affliction among those with insider knowledge of the Russian state.

- Elections BC has ruled that signs that billionaire Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, violated third-party advertising rules when he posted signs in front of his Vancouver mansion declaring the NDP to be "Communist" during the last election campaign. He was fined $600; for perspective, the signs themselves cost him over $1,600 and the maximum penalty for a violation is $10,000.

- A licensed counsellor in Colorado is challenging the state's ban on "conversion therapy" for LGBT* minors on "free speech" grounds. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court is widely expected to rule in the counsellor's favour.

- Researchers in Switzerland are growing human neurons from stem cells in order to make artificial brains that can be integrated into computer systems.

- The mayor-elect of the German town of Herdecke suffered serious injuries in a stabbing on Tuesday. Given the current political climate around the world, an assassination attempt is the first thing that comes to mind, however she has apparently pointed the finger at her adopted daughter.

News roundup, 23 July 2025

- A Nouvelair Airbus A320-200 attempted to land on the wrong runway at Nice on Sunday and was forced to execute a last-minute missed approach, coming within three metres of another A320 operated by Easyjet that was lined up on the runway. The Easyjet flight returned to the gate because the pilots were too shaken to continue; passengers reported that the captain was crying and his hands were shaking as he exited the cockpit.

- ABC is walking back their cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and FCC chair Brendan Carr is denying that any threats were made to the licenses of ABC stations. I guess he didn't explicitly threaten to pull licenses, though when he said things like "These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead", it's hard not to interpret this as a threat. Nonetheless, the show is set to return to the airwaves tonight.

- The US Supreme Court has issued an "emergency order" allowing Donald Trump to fire Rebecca Slaughter, the last remaining Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission. The agency, like many federal agencies, was designed to be bipartisan, and a unanimous 1935 ruling of the Supreme Court forbade then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt from firing commissioners, but that precedent seems to be of no merit to the MAGA-dominated court. The court has so far indicated that the Federal Reserve will be handled differently, but it remains to be seen if this will be the case.

- Not satisfied with the existing sanctions against the International Criminal Court in the wake of their call for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump regime reportedly has a bunch more coming up the pipeline. Possible sanctions could include prohibiting banks that do business with the ICC from doing business with the US. The court has responded by paying the remainder of their staff's 2025 salaries in advance, which if nothing else gives the staff time to make alternative plans for their livelyhoods. Perhaps the court should follow the lead of New South Wales premier Jack Lang, who in 1932 withdrew the state's assets from the bank and stored it in cash at the Sydney Trades Hall in response to a threat to seize the state's bank accounts in order to move forward with their deflationary plans. Lang's government was dismissed by Governor Philip Game soon after, but Trump can't do that to the ICC, much as he'd like to.

- In other ICC-related news, the court has issued an indictment against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity, including murder.

- Winnipeg police are investigating after fires were set on four different occasions since August at the constituency office of housing minister Bernadette Smith. Damage in all cases was relatively minor and the office remains open. Police say they do not know if the fires were random or targeted. Tellingly, however, there were no signs of similar attempts on nearby buildings.

- The noted American shock-rock band GWAR beheaded Elon Musk in effigy on stage at Riot Fest in Chicago. Of course, stuff like this is nothing new to GWAR, who have previously pulled the same stunt with effigies of other people (including both Donald Trump and Joe Biden). The stunt is getting a bit more scrutiny in the present political climate, though.

- A 47 year old math teacher at a middle school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was arrested after a drug-sniffing dog brought into the school by police took an unusual interest in her purse. Police searched and found cocaine inside a wallet, and subsequently found marijuana and pipes in her car.

News roundup, 28 Aug 2025

- Someone opened fire on parishioners at a Catholic church attached to a school in Minneapolis Wednesday morning; the attacker died of a self-inflicted gunshot. The incident is being investigated by the FBI as an anti-Catholic hate crime; the shooter appears to have been a transwoman. Given the church's hardline stance on LGBT* issues, being angry is quite understandable, though I have to say that shooting kids is not a good way of expressing one's grievance with the institution. This, by the way, is apparently unrelated to another incident in the same city the previous day when a man opened fire on a group people on a sidewalk in front of a school, killing one.

- The legality of Donald Trump's sacking of Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook is almost certain to be decided by the Supreme Court sooner or later. I don't think I'd bet money on Cook winning her case. So far markets seem surprisingly unperturbed by the matter; presumably no investor wants to sell off too soon, for fear of sparking a downturn that causes securities to devalue faster than they can sell them off.

- At least 12 people have died in Kiev in the latest barrage launched by Russia against Ukraine. Despite this, Ukraine is understandably not willing to reward the Russians with land in order to end the war; unfortunately by the time this is all over there probably won't be much left of the country.

- Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 856, which represents letter carriers in Winnipeg, is calling for Canada Post to provide self-defense training for its employees after a drastic spike in attacks on carriers. In the last 12 months there have been an average of one attack per month on carriers; most recently an unprovoked one in Waverley Heights. This is compared to one or two per year before now. 

-  East St. Paul mayor Carla Devlin had a "hot mic" incident in a council meeting in which people were raising objections to a proposal to allow multi-family housing in a neighbourhood just outside the Perimeter. She suggested that people "don't want to hear the truth"; my first reaction to this was "she's not wrong, even if it was a bad idea to say that where the public can hear you". After all, more dense housing is exactly what is needed. Reading the associated Reddit thread forces me to reconsider; folks there pointed out that sewer infrastructure in the municipality might not be up to snuff. Conceivably, such a development might need to be served by Winnipeg's sewer system, adding to infrastructure costs while not paying city taxes; in any case it's not served by transit, so pretty near everyone commuting into the city from this development would be driving. Throw in the fact that Devlin is the founder and president of a company that builds exactly that kind of housing, and things do start to look a bit dubious. 

- The Lunenburg Marine Museum Society, owners of the famous Bluenose II schooner, have withdrawn the vessel from the upcoming Gloucester Schooner Festival in Massachusetts, saying that "plans involving cross-border travel come with more uncertainties this year". Yeah, you don't want your volunteers getting hauled off to El Salvador over something they posted about Trump on social media. Heck, I wouldn't put it past Trump to find some pretext to seize the ship itself, to be redecorated in his distinctive style much like he's doing with the White House.

News roundup, 30 June 2025

- The US Supreme Court has narrowed the scope of nationwide injunctions so that they only apply in the jurisdictions that brought the matter to court in the first place - severely limiting courts' abilities to stop the Trump regime's efforts to limit birthright citizenship (and potentially many other things).

- A man has been charged with mischief after allegedly vandalizing the National Holocaust Monument with red paint and the slogan "feed me" (apparently a reference to Israeli starvation tactics against the Palestinians). While anger at Israel for this is more than justified, it's hard to justify expressing said anger with an attack on a monument to a crime that was committed against the Jewish people before Israel even existed. The suspect is a lawyer who was employed by the City of Ottawa until his arrest, whereupon he was fired.

- The federal government has decided to cancel the digital services tax in the hope of appeasing the Trump regime sufficiently to get them to reopen negotiations on tariffs.

- A poll suggests that the majority of supporters of the Conservative party in Manitoba say that they would either definitely or probably vote to leave Canada. The "definitely or probably" group accounted for only 22% of Manitobans overall, but 52% of supporters of the provincial Conservatives and 56% of supporters of the federal party lean towards separatism. On the positive side, this will make it harder for the Cons to court non-extremists; on the downside, under our first past the post electoral system this will probably make it harder for reasonable alternatives to the Liberals (e.g. the NDP or Greens) to make any headway.

- Winnipeg's revamped bus network made its debut yesterday; whether it improves service for more people than it worsens it remains to be seen.

- Manitoba's Minister of Families, Nahanni Fontaine, had an unfortunate hot-mic moment when, at a graduation ceremony for indigenous women, she muttered to her assistant about the placement of the ASL interpreter in a way that could have been interpreted as a complaint about the very presence of said interpreter. Unfortunately her utterance was picked up by an APTN camera crew. Fontaine, whose responsibilities include people with disabilities, has apologized about the matter, though some members of the deaf community are not satisfied.

News roundup, 1 Nov 2024

- There is a long history of the UK Labour Party sending volunteers to Democratic campaigns in the US (as well as the Conservatives and other rightwing parties sending volunteers to Republican campaigns). Now, though, Donald Trump's campaign is calling it "blatant foreign interference" and has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

- The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) held its annual meeting in Hobart this week. Unfortunately every substantive proposal put forward, including the extension of existing measures for the conservation of krill, was vetoed by Russia and China.

- Apparently Donald Trump has promised RFK Jr. control of several public health agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Department of Agriculture, if he wins next week. As if there weren't enough other reasons to stop Trump..

- A Republican super-PAC, called Badger Values PAC, is contributing money to Jill Stein's campaign in Wisconsin. Sounds like the Republicans are borrowing a page from Gary Filmon's book.

- A coalition of 17 states, led by Ohio, is challenging California's right to regulate air pollution in the US Supreme Court. Prospects for a reasonable decision are not good. And speaking of the court, they could also be called upon to decide on a disputed presidential election, which is not reassuring. Biden should have enlarged the court while he had the chance.

- A group of American and Italian researchers have discovered a strain of cyanobacteria (often called "blue-green algae") that holds some promise for carbon sequestration. The particular strain, which has been nicknamed "Chonkus", is quite dense, and thus could either sink to the bottom of the ocean, (thus taking a lot of carbon down to a place where it wouldn't be liberated quickly) or be made into pellets that could potentially be used to make useful materials. To be clear, carbon sequestration on its own isn't going to be enough to solve the problem, but it could at least make things less bad than they will otherwise likely be in a few decades.

- Not only do many authoritarian governments have policies that exacerbate rather than mitigate climate change, the disasters resulting from climate change often help authoritarians win power. And the worst part of it is that when things get really bad, tackling the situation sufficiently to keep civilization alive will probably require some policies that we generally associate with authoritarianism.

News roundup, 7 Oct 2024

- The US Supreme Court has refused to preemptively block new EPA rules concerning methane and mercury, asking for the plaintiffs to file their claims in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia first. This is somewhat promising, though if the case does land on their desks after going through the lower court there is no guarantee that they will uphold the rules.

- While natural gas has been promoted as a somewhat cleaner alternative to coal, a recent study has concluded that the climate impact of leakage during the transportation of liquefied natural gas is actually worse, largely due to the inevitable leakage of methane (the main constituent of the fuel).

- Bubba Pollock, the man who posted a selfie with a woman's dying father in order to harass her after getting into an online debate with her, was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He has a history of other criminal activity, including bribing homeless people to steal Pride flags and to pull fire alarms in libraries where drag-related events were being held. This is on top of more mundane (but equally disturbing) convictions such as sharing intimate images without consent.

- Physicians in Manitoba are getting tired of having to waste time signing sick notes demanded by employers. The province is one of three that have no restrictions as to when an employer can demand one; Doctors Manitoba is calling for this to be changed, saying that this can open up more time for actually useful patient visits.

- The chances of averting a healthcare strike in Manitoba are quickly fading; the unions say they are nowhere near a deal as tomorrow's strike deadline approaches.

- A child in the Brantford area has died of rabies, after having apparently contracted the disease from a bat while on vacation in Timiskaming District. Disconcertingly, there was no visible sign of a bite from the animal; experts are recommending that anyone who has been in contact with bats to get immediate medical attention.

News roundup, 29 July 2024

- The fire that devastated Jasper last week went from nothing to uncontrollable in less than 48 hours. The extremely dry and windy conditions in the park, as well as the numerous dead trees from the mountain pine beetle infestation, created a 100 metre high wall of flame that firefighters could do nothing to stop. A former Parks Canada scientist believes Banff's days may be numbered as well; he thinks proper risk mitigation around that community could take 20-30 years, and the risk of another huge wildfire in the meantime is high.

- The wildfire situation in the western US is no better. The town of Paradise, California, devastated in a fire in 2018, is under notice to prepare for another evacuation, along with several nearby communities, due to a fire that has already damaged structures. Further south another fire in the Sequoia National Forest has forced more evacuations.

- Joe Biden is calling for term limits and enforceable ethics rules for the US Supreme Court. The chance of getting this through the current House of Representatives, much less meeting all the other requirements for a constitutional amendment, is pretty much nonexistent though.

- Israel blames the Lebanese based militant group Hezbollah for a rocket attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah has denied responsibility, but Israel is bombing first and asking questions later.

- A megachurch in Oakville, Ontario is "pausing" programming because their insurer is unwilling to renew coverage for liability following sexual abuse allegations against one of their pastors.

- A Westjet flight from Las Vegas to Winnipeg was cancelled due to weather, but not before the passengers were left waiting for hours in 40 degree heat in the idle aircraft without air conditioning. The flight was initially delayed due to being overloaded and having insufficient fuel, and by the time those issues were resolved the weather had taken a turn for the worse, leading to the cancellation.

News roundup, 14 June 2024

- Benjamin Netanyahu is not sufficiently hardline for Benny Gantz, who resigned from Netanyahu's cabinet on Sunday accusing Netanyahu of failing to come up with a plan for victory. The thing is, Gantz and Netanyahu may have a different idea of what constitutes "victory"; for Gantz it would be the elimination of Hamas at a minimum, but for Netanyahu it would be staying prime minister and thus staying out of jail, so perhaps it's in his interest to drag the war out for as long as possible.

- While Elizabeth May says the intelligence report on foreign interference in Canadian politics left her "vastly relieved" and that she saw no any evidence that any MP was intentionally disloyal to Canada, Jagmeet Singh says he is "more alarmed than ever", which is understandable given that he was apparently targeted by unspecified foreign agents. As for Pierre Poilievre, he is unwilling to get the necessary security clearance to read the full report; Singh thinks that both Poilievre and Trudeau are, in their own ways, putting loyalty to their party over their country.

- Shannon Phillips, the Alberta NDP MLA and former environment minister who was put under intensive and probably illegal surveillance by Lethbridge police, has announced her resignation. As reasons, she cited the viciousness aimed at politicians, especially if they are leftwing and/or female (and it's a safe bet that she doesn't trust the police to have her back). The Tyee notes that Phillips is significantly to the left of the provincial NDP as a whole, which likely didn't make her decision any more difficult.

- Even if Joe Biden prevails in November, the Democrats are unlikely to retain control of the Senate, and it could be many years before they have a realistic chance of regaining it. For this reason, some are calling for Sonia Sotomayor (69) and Elena Kagan (64) to take one for the team and step down to allow Biden to appoint two younger liberal-minded judges, on the grounds that there is a very significant chance that they will die before it's possible to appoint another liberal, and this make the rightwing stranglehold on the court that much more dire. Some disability advocates are vehemently opposed to this kind of talk about Sotomayor in particular, saying that it's ableist due to her diabetes (though the Vox article above makes no mention of it), but perhaps they should look at the bigger picture, such as what might happen to the Americans with Disabilities Act if a court thoroughly stacked with Trump appointees decides it violates some rich person's property rights.

- Hunter Biden has been found guilty on federal firearm charges. In stark contrast to Trump and his supporters, Joe Biden says that he accepts the court's decision.

- Ukraine is following Russia's example in recruiting soldiers from its prisons, though they say that they aren't using coercion in the way Russia is. One of their new recruits was seven years into a ten year sentence for murdering his boss in a pay dispute; if nothing else, at least they can count on him not being too squeamish to kill people.

- Axon, the parent company of Taser, has announced an AI product that can supposedly generate police reports from body cam footage. This does not sit well with people who know anything about the reliability of AI, not least because the data the bots are trained on often has its own biases that too few cops would question.

- Winnipeg Humane Society staff arriving at work last Saturday found no less than 10 animals dropped off in front of their building, including a dog, 3 cats, and 6 rats. The notes left by the owners are rather sad (the rats' owner in particular was clearly in a bad way). It's a lot harder to sympathize, on the other hand, with puppy mill operators that abandon dogs that are no longer useful to them.

- An attempted carjacking in downtown Winnipeg failed because the carjacker didn't know how to drive a standard. To add to his misfortune, the victim was an off-duty cop, which doubtless made the police response time a little faster than usual.

News roundup, 29 Feb 2024

- The US Supreme Court has agreed to decide on whether Donald Trump can claim presidential immunity on the election interference case, which means that the actual trial will be, at best, delayed until April. This virtually guarantees that the trial, if allowed to continue at all, will not be decided until after the election in November - and if he wins, he'll likely be able to stop the trial himself. Naturally this means Trump will have a very strong incentive to win (though it's not like he'd roll over if this didn't happen). Oh, and then there's the Clarence Thomas factor.

- On the positive side, it appears that Trump doesn't have enough liquid assets to cover the bond in the New York civil fraud trial. He is, of course, now asking the court to allow him to appeal the decision without putting up the bond, and the Attorney General of the state now suspects that he's moving his assets to Florida to limit what gets seized. It seems he may not be as rich as he says he is (surprise surprise); what effect that has on his sheeple remains to be seen.

- Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, one of the most influential (and disliked) leaders this country has seen in living memory, has died at the age of 84.

- Premier Wab Kinew is looking to meet another of his campaign commitments, namely bail reform. New policies are being drafted to give prosecutors more leeway in considering the potential impact on victims and the community when a suspect is released.

- A report from CSIS states that Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, the scientist fired from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg along with her husband, may have shared sensitive scientific data with China. Besides the theft of intellectual property, there are fears that some of this data might be militarily useful.

- Joe Biden has called Chinese electric cars a "security threat" on the grounds that the tracking software on those cars might be sending information to different places than that on all other modern cars, and is looking at ways to stop the importation of such vehicles. Of course, the bigger threat they pose is probably to the economic security of Michigan.

- The crime spree in which Lauren Boebert's son and several others are alleged to have participated in included the robbery of a woman with a brain tumour. Apparently he was seen on surveillance video wearing a sweatshirt featuring the logo of his mum's former business, which made identification a lot easier. He's also alleged to have made a sex tape with an underage female co-conspirator.

- When the school board in Kingsville, Ontario wanted a name for a new school which will replace three existing facilities, they settled on "Erie Migration Academy", as a nod to the town's proximity to Point Pelee, an important migration route for birds and butterflies. Some locals are absolutely apoplectic at the fact that it does not include the name of the town; the school board says that the school will serve a large area, not just Kingsville, and thus they don't want to be seen as excluding anyone. Students in the current schools have staged walkouts in protest; more alarmingly, one trustee says that she has received threats serious enough that she's reported them to the police.

- A Canadian tourist in Hawaii took a wrong turn and drove off a 20 metre high cliff, then upon escaping from the vehicle he fell into the water and was swept out to sea. Amazingly he was rescued after 90 minutes in the water and survived with no more than minor injuries and mild hypothermia.