News roundup, 17 Feb 2024

 - The Trump regime has a proposal for Ukraine. Essentially the proposal is, "you give us a 50% interest in all of your rare earth deposits, and we'll politely ask Putin not to take any more of your territory than he already has". Not surprisingly, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is less than impressed with the idea.

- JD Vance has met with AfD leader Alice Wiedel, and is condemning the "firewall", that unwritten rule that German mainstream parties will not form coalitions with extremist parties such as Wiedel's.

- WestJet is reporting a 25% drop in inquiries about tickets to US destinations since Trump's aggressive moves against Canada, and a duty-free store on the BC-Washington border has lost 80% of their business since the tariffs were imposed. And not only are individual Canadians thinking twice about US spending, municipalities are as well - for instance, the City of Surrey has cancelled a $740,000 contract for American-made bleachers.

- Elon Musk's close ties to the regime are seriously impacting Tesla sales in many places, as people increasingly don't want to be associated with Musk. There has also been a rash of vandalism at Tesla stores; unusually for cases of vandalism, the FBI is getting involved.

- Aisha Ahmad, a political scientist at the University of Toronto, has studied insurgencies for many years. She thinks (no doubt rightly) that an attempt by the US to militarily invade Canada would be catastrophic for both countries:

 Even if one per cent of all resisting Canadians engaged in armed insurrection, that would constitute a 400,000-person insurgency, nearly 10 times the size of Taliban at the start of the Afghan war. If a fraction of that number engaged in violent attacks, it would set fire to the entire continent.

While the prospect of a military invasion still seems far off, it's worth noting that many didn't think Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was very likely either. Gwynne Dyer thought, in February 2022, that the idea that Russia would actually invade Ukraine was preposterous, because it would be harmful to Russia's interests. And if you consider the fact that the people pulling Trump's strings may not actually care about the well-being of the US anyway...

News roundup, 8 Aug 2024

- Justin Trudeau was in Winnipeg earlier this week, attending several Folklorama pavilions and a Black History Manitoba event. He did not, however, make an appearance in the Elmwood-Transcona riding where a byelection is in progress. This is probably a good thing given that the NDP is the only party with a realistic chance of beating the Conservatives, but it's a sign of how toxic Trudeau's brand has become.

- A law passed last year in Minnesota that requires schools to provide menstrual products such as tampons to students in grades 4 and up is being used by the Republicans as "evidence" of Gov. Tim Walz's supposed radicalism; they've given him the nickname "Tampon Tim". The Democrats, though, don't consider this to be the insult the Republicans think it is. Analysts are still trying to figure out whether Walz was a good choice for a running mate; his lack of ties to the "coastal elites" is definitely a positive, though some wonder if his relatively progressive policies will spook voters. The latest polls, though, suggest a positive trend for the Harris/Walz ticket. Walz is also well liked by environmentalists, though this may not be as big a selling point as it ought to be.

- Carla Devlin, the mayor of East St. Paul (and a potential candidate for the leadership of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party) has been hired by Sio Silica as its vice-president for Manitoba. This doesn't help the Tories in their attempt to distance themselves from their attempts to ram through the approval of a sand mine during the dying days of their government.

- The BC government is using Singapore as a model for housing policy. The plan calls for the use of "government, community and non-profit owned" lands to increase the availability of rental housing. Critics argue that this will be hard to replicate. This seems counterintuitive on the face of it, since it ought to be easier to take action when there's more land actually available, but maybe the real problem is in convincing the masses that it's necessary. Singapore does have the advantage of being a unitary city-state and thus does not suffer from the jurisdictional and funding issues involved with a federal system like we have in Canada, though.

- Several books by Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, and other authors are now banned in all of Utah's public schools. The law even specifies that the books cannot be sold but must be "legally disposed of". But yeah, we're supposed to believe that the Republicans are all about "freedom".

- Fugitive Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont made an appearance in Barcelona to address a crowd of thousands. He slipped away before the police could get their hands on him; a police officer has been arrested for allegedly helping him escape. A massive manhunt is now on for him.

- Three Taylor Swift concerts scheduled in Vienna have been cancelled after organizers were warned of plans for a terrorist attack. One suspect has been arrested and found in possession of possible bomb-making substances; two others remain at large.

- A Russian chess player has been accused of attempting to poison one of her rivals with mercury at a tournament in Dagestan. Amina Abakarova has reportedly confessed to the crime after her actions were caught on video.