News roundup, 4 May 2026

- An outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship has killed three people so far and sickened at least three others, one of whom is now in intensive care in a South African hospital. There are plans to evacuate the other infected people as well.

- The US is withdrawing around 5,000 troops from bases in Germany; this follows a remark by German chancellor Friedrich Merz that the US was being "humiliated" in Iran. The Trump regime has also announced another round of tariffs on European vehicles, a move which will hit Germany hard. Despite all this, Merz says he is "not giving up" on working with Trump. Merz, of course, is in the awkward position of any non-crazy right-of-centre leader - it's so deeply embedded in the minds of such people that the Americans are the good guys that they have no idea what to do when it becomes blatantly obvious that this isn't true anymore (if indeed it ever was).

- A United Airlines Boeing 767 clipped a pole and a truck after coming a bit too low on its final approach to the runway at Newark. Nobody on board the aircraft was hurt; the driver of the truck was treated for minor injuries.

- Support among Albertans for secession from Canada continues to languish, with 27% saying that they would vote yes to separation (only 6% say they're undecided on the matter). Among admitted UCP supporters, however, 57% say they would vote for independence. The strongest predictor of someone being a separatist seems to be someone whose income is high but who is nonetheless having trouble meeting expenses (perhaps because they were a bit too free with credit over the last couple of decades).

- A Nova Scotia woman booked a flight to Toronto for herself and her daughter, to see a Sabrina Carpenter concert. After her daughter died, she faced a months-long fight with Air Canada to get a refund for her ticket. The airline quickly reversed their position after the CBC started asking questions, though, saying the bereavement policy was not applied correctly.

News roundup, 21 Nov 2025

- While polls point to a favourable outcome for the Democrats in the midterms, this is contingent on the actual elections being held freely and fairly. With Donald Trump in the White House, though, that is far from guaranteed. One Trump ally, lawyer Cleta Mitchell, is promoting the idea that declaring a national emergency could enable the regime to take over the electoral functions that constitutionally are supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the states. While most legal experts are skeptical, that might not matter if Trump's hand-picked judges come through for him.

- The US has moved a large number of military assets to within striking distance of Venezuela. These include the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest warship. This suggests that they may have plans for more than just a few random strikes at the fishing boats that they claim are full of drugs.

- The US and Russia have drafted a new peace plan for Ukraine that calls for the country to cede territory, including the entire Donbass region, to its invader, as well as reduce the size of its military. Ukraine is naturally not keen on this, but they're also concerned about Trump's growing impatience.

- A man charged in a string of arsons in Winnipeg had worked at two of the businesses he is accused of targeting. He had also posted on social media about his objections to a supervised consumption site that the provincial government had been planning to open, which might point to a motive for attacking the constituency offices of two cabinet ministers.

- The Canadian Museum of Human Rights is hosting an exhibit on the Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians from present-day Israel in 1948. In response, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada is cancelling all future collaboration with the museum, perhaps fearing that their version of the story won't be the dominant one for once.

- This past summer has been a record-breaking one for tourism in Canada, both because Canadians chose to spend their money at home, and because overseas visitors have chosen Canada instead of the US, even as fewer Americans visited.

- For decades, veterans in Canada were overcharged for long-term care due to an error in the use of a formula that determines how much they're supposed to be charged. The new federal budget contains a provision that "fixes" the issue by retroactively changing the formula. Veterans' organizations are not impressed.

- A United Airlines Boeing 767 on a flight from London to Washington turned around over the Atlantic and diverted to Dublin after a passenger dropped a laptop down the side of a seat. Since the laptop was not accessible, the crew were forced to assume the worst in case the battery was damaged when it was dropped, which could lead to a fire that would be difficult to extinguish.