News roundup, 2 July 2026

- Russia, despite being one of the world's largest oil producers, is experiencing fuel supply issues as a result of the latest wave of Ukrainian strikes on refineries. The Putin regime has outlawed the export of gasoline and jet fuel and is considering importing these products from elsewhere. The impact on public opinion in Russia may be significant, but the extent to which this will matter is unclear. Even many critics of the regime remain in favour of the war, they just don't think Putin is doing a good enough job fighting it. Russia has, of course, retaliated on a large scale for the latest intrusions, killing 18 people and causing widespread damage in Kyiv.

- Still on the subject of great powers getting in over their heads, the US attack on Iran has led many of America's allies to question whether it's such a great idea to host bases that might become targets of counterattacks. This could significantly impact their ability to "project power".

- A tornado struck in the Rural Municipality of Rossburn in western Manitoba on Sunday night, destroying a house. The next day, another tornado struck in the affluent suburban Winnipeg neighbourhood of Whyte Ridge on Monday evening, also destroying one house and damaging several others. Torrential rain also caused some flooding in Brandon and Dauphin; the latter city has declared a state of emergency, as has the town of Swan River. No injuries have been reported, however.

- Brian Mayes, who has represented St. Vital on Winnipeg's city council since 2011, has announced that he is not running again this fall. He leaves behind a mixed legacy; he was progressive in some ways, and definitely very responsive to his constituents' wants, but that latter point is also part of what was wrong with him; whenever there was a tension between the desires of his NIMBY constituents and the needs of the city as a whole (e.g. on infill housing), the NIMBYs tended to win out.

- Establishment Democrats are less than pleased with the recent success of leftwingers in Democratic primaries. Letitia James, the attorney general of New York State, went so far as to claim that some of the candidates endorsed by NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani "do not understand the politics of New York City"; if that were true, though, you wouldn't expect them to have been as successful as they in fact have. Meanwhile Democratic House member Greg Meeks said that "if you’re a socialist, you’re not a Democrat". Ironically, people like James and Meeks are the first to get angry at third party campaigns (not without some cause given how badly locked in the two-party system is in that country), but in their mind such people should only work within the party so long as they don't actually succeed there. The most charitable interpretation of these bleatings is that they're scared that leftwing Democrats might gain a national profile that will scare off swing voters, but that seems like a stretch. More likely they're scared of what will become of AIPAC funds.

News roundup, 24 June 2026

- Donald Trump, having previously fulminated about the tolls that Iran had imposed on the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict, is now threatening to impose his own tolls on the strait unless a peace deal can be signed within 60 days. This worries many who fear this could set a precedent that could encourage other countries to impose tolls on what were previously accepted as international waterways, including the Malacca Strait in Indonesia and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti. This comes as Marco Rubio says that "no country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway"; no doubt Rubio will be forced to clarify this and say that "no country but America is allowed to charge tolls or fees".

- The heatwave sweeping Europe continues. Highs of around 40°C are expected in western France today while Belgium and the Netherlands are getting temperatures in the high thirties. Even in Ireland temperatures may edge into the thirties, something almost unheard of there. Two children died after being left in a hot car in the French town of Carpentras; some 40 people have also drowned in France since the start of the heatwave.

- Several leftwing candidates have scored victories in Democratic primaries in New York. Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier had all been endorsed by NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani. Lander defeated congressman Dan Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune (and staunch Israel supporter); Lander, Valdez, and Chevalier have all accused Israel of genocide. The party's leadership have expressed concerns that this will be alienating to swing voters (but are probably more worried about donors than voters).

- The city of Waterloo is looking at allowing churches to build housing on their properties as a way of expanding the housing supply. Predictably, local NIMBYs are bleating about notions such as "neighbourhood character" (which generally means "keeping the poors out", of course).

- The Manitoba NDP has nominated Jennifer Flett as their candidate in the upcoming byelection in The Pas-Kameesak. The byelection was called after incumbent Amanda Lathlin died in March. Flett's background includes serving as a band councillor in OCN as well as working for the Correctional Service of Canada.

News roundup, 14 May 2026

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani managed to eliminate a $12 billion deficit inherited from his predecessor without cutting services. He did it, of course, by taxing the rich, with the help of the state government which enabled him to impose a "pied-à-terre tax" as well as other measures. It's worth noting, though, that while he hasn't cut services he's delayed the improvement of some (e.g. he negotiated a delay in the reduction in school class sizes imposed at the state level). But politics is the art of the possible; Mamdani just seems to be a bit better than most politicians at this.

- The Court of King's Bench in Alberta has ruled against Elections Alberta’s approval of a pro-independence petition from Stay Free Alberta, on the grounds that it failed to take into account the impact of such a referendum on treaty rights and failed to consult with the potentially impacted First Nations. Danielle Smith has already announced the intention to appeal the decision, in case there were any doubt about where she stands. I would love to have a robotic fly on the wall of Smith's next caucus meeting. Meanwhile an organizer with another separatist group, the Centurion Project, is refusing to sign a statutory declaration that he will cease and desist from using and distributing the voter list information that the organization seems to have illegally obtained.

- Travel to the US by Canadians appears to be down even more than official stats indicate. Statistics Canada reported in February that visits are down by about 25%, however a study conducted by the University of Toronto's School of Cities that tracked cellphone data found that it's closer to 42%. The decline is even greater in sunbelt cities - around 50% in several cities in Florida, and 65% in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

- The BC Wildfire Service has lifted a fire ban along parts of the south coast of the province, just in time for the Victoria Day long weekend. They say this is because "current and forecasted" weather conditions reduce the risk. I do hope this is the real reason, and not fear of a populist backlash. Some fear that the days of the campfire may be numbered in this country.

- The University of Victoria has introduced new policies regarding use of AI to cheat. The university can now theoretically punish students for cheating even after graduation, which raises the possibility of revoking degrees. The thing is, the policy does not prohibit the use of software to detect AI use, even though such software is known to produce false positives. Someone in this Reddit thread says that they tested one such software product on papers they'd written before AI became widely available, and it concluded that up to 50% of the writing was AI-generated. Others in the same thread say that people on the autism spectrum tend to get hit with a disproportionate number of these accusations.

News roundup, 1 May 2026

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, long a bogeyman for the political right and centre, is now taking some flak from left-identifying folks over plans to build a "climate innovation hub" on vacant city property. The concern seems to be that the area surrounding the site is a traditionally working-class area and that by bringing highly paid professional jobs into the area it will fuel gentrification. I can understand the concern to a degree, but this is New York we're talking about; the gentrification ship sailed long ago.

- Besides oil, among the most important commodities shipped through the Strait of Hormuz are fertilizers; around a third of the world's supply passes through the strait. If this goes on it will mean lower crop yields around the world. This is not expected to cause food shortages in rich countries, which will be able to outbid others, but the global cost could be up to 10 million meals per week.

- A use of force expert testifying at the inquest into the fatal police shooting of teenager Eisha Hudson says that the shooting was not justified. The officer who shot her claimed that the vehicle Hudson was driving was moving towards officers, however video taken by a witness appears to contradict this, with the shots being fired as the vehicle was reversing away from the cops.

- Winnipeg's Red River College Polytechnic is shutting down several programs, some of them permanently, and laying off 26 staff. Several other programs are having their capacity reduced. Both the Manitoba Government Employees' Union, which represents staff at the college, and the provincial government are blaming the caps placed on international student visas by the federal government.

- Winnipeg city council has removed Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt from all city committees following sexual assault allegations against him. 

- Intercity bus service is returning to Manitoba after an eight year absence, as the German company FlixBus (which purchased Greyhound in 2021) has announced a route between Winnipeg and Regina with a stop in Brandon.

- The Toronto suburb of Brampton leads the country in mortgage delinquencies among medium to large cities. The city was considerably below the national average only seven years ago; housing prices there surged in 2022 and some of those mortgages are now renewing at higher rates as a result of the Iran war.

- A man suspected in the murder of a five year old indigenous girl in the Australian city of Alice Springs was beaten unconscious by a mob; after he was taken to hospital a riot occurred outside the facility. Protesters were calling for traditional "payback"; the child's family have, however, appealed for calm.

News roundup, 10 Feb 2026

- Rightwing populist André Ventura has been soundly defeated in Portugal's presidential runoff by centre-left candidate António José Seguro. This is more important than it would be in many European countries (though less so than in the US) due to the fact that Portugal has a semi-presidential system, and the president has the power to veto legislation and dissolve parliament at will.

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has introduced an executive order prohibiting ICE agents from municipal property without a warrant as well as several other measures aimed at limiting the power of the agency to conduct "abusive immigration enforcement". Interestingly, apart from a single article on CBS, there seems to be very little coverage online from the US - nothing from the New York Times, NPR, NBC, Associated Press, or any of the other usual suspects - and there's surprisingly little international coverage either, just stuff from places like this Spanish website and this Turkish one. I'm always a bit leery when someone on Facebook or whatever claims stridently that there's a "news blackout" about a subject, because generally a simple Google search brings up something - but this comes a lot closer than most to being the real deal. And yes, I tried the built-in search features of those American sites named above, just in case it was Google rather than the sites themselves burying the story, but it seems not.

- Dr. Philippe Lagacé-Wiens, a microbiologist at St Boniface Hospital, warns that the measles exposure at Brandon's Ag Days has the potential to be a superspreader event. Some 35,000 people attended the trade show, and in this day and age there's a definite correlation between attending agricultural trade fairs and not getting vaccinated.

- The Canadian government appears to have made advance payments for parts for 14 additional F-35s, seemingly still wanting to hedge their bets on the matter. The parts are needed in order to keep Canada's place in the order queue.

- Canada's airlines are cancelling flights to Cuba as Havana's airport runs short on jet fuel following the country's loss of access to Venezuelan oil in the wake of the US attack. This comes after a travel advisory was already issued for the country due to the fuel shortage.

- NBC appears to have altered the audio of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics to cut out the boos from the audience directed at JD Vance.

- Donald Trump is threatening to cancel the planned opening of a second bridge between Windsor and Detroit. The Gordie Howe International Bridge is scheduled to open in the next few months, but has become the latest fixation for the orange monster.

News roundup, 7 Nov 2025

- Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City has spooked Steve Bannon, who is warning the Republican Party against complacency in the face of this. Bannon was impressed with Mamdani's success in bringing out "low propensity voters", including immigrants. As for his prescribed solutions, he said that "this guy’s citizenship should be checked immediately"; no doubt there are already folks doing their darnedest to find something that could be used against someone who became a citizen at 7. It might be hard to find a legitimate basis for revoking his citizenship, but fortunately for them the MAGA crowd don't care about legitimacy. They'll doubtless be pulling out all the stops to win the midterms as well.

- The federal Conservatives are losing another caucus member. Matt Jeneroux, the MP for Edmonton Riverbend, has announced that he intends to resign his seat. There had been rumours that he was planning to defect to the Liberals; he denies this, and also denies that he was coerced into quitting. He won his suburban riding by a relatively narrow margin last spring; we'll have to see what happens in the byelection.

- Hundreds of flights have been cancelled across the US due to a shortage of air traffic controllers, who haven't been paid since the start of the government shutdown, which is now the longest in US history. There are currently over 400 vacancies for controllers, and that's not counting the higher propensity of the remaining ones to call in sick.

- The City of Winnipeg is looking at installing a temporary bike lane on the section of Wellington Crescent where a cyclist was killed in 2024. The speed limit would also be reduced to 40 km/h; given the short length of this stretch and the fact that rush hour is kind of slow there anyway, it is only expected to add another 5 seconds to the average commute. More info here; the city seeks feedback through a survey here.

- Peel Regional Police attended the scene of a fatal crash in Brampton last weekend in which an Audi T-boned a Honda. The Honda's driver was declared dead at the scene; the Audi's driver was arrested and both vehicles were towed to an impound yard. Then a woman was reported missing, with her last known location being identified by a rideshare app; since the dead driver was a rideshare driver, police searched the wreckage and found the remains of the second victim, which had somehow been missed in the initial inspection of the vehicle.

- A woman who was experiencing suicidal thoughts asked ChatGPT for advice. The chatbot provided suggestions about which methods would be most reliable, and offered help drafting a suicide note, but didn't offer any of those "help is available" referrals that you're supposed to get when you type these things into a search engine or the like (heck, I got one not long ago when I searched for Ozzy Osbourne's song "Suicide Solution" on YouTube). Interestingly, at one point it also started to correct itself, saying that it "mustn't and will not describe methods of a suicide", but it seems that particular restraining bolt wasn't as reliable as the developers had hoped. Fortunately she was sufficiently shaken by this that she showed the messages to her mother, and got actual help.

News roundup, 5 Nov 2025

- Zohran Mamdani has won the New York City mayoral election, despite Trump's threats to cut funding to the city (evidently New Yorkers are less easily cowed than Argentinians). He will be the city's first south Asian and Muslim mayor as well as its youngest in over a century. The turnout was the highest in decades as well. He's got a big job ahead of him, in any case. This may also set up a confrontation between Trump and state governor Kathy Hochul, who has so far managed to deal more effectively with the orange monster than most blue state governors.

- California voters have voted "yes" in a referendum on gerrymandering House seats in order to fight similar gerrymandering by Republicans in other states. The referendum was necessary because the state has an independent electoral commission; the commission will resume its redistricting duties in 2030.

- The Carney government has presented its budget. It appears to be a pretty small-c conservative budget, with cuts to the size of the public service expected in the next few years and more spending shifted towards defense, as well as significant cuts to immigration. Most ominously, there are hints of doing away with the emissions cap for oil and gas (though it is being spun as something that "would create the circumstances whereby the oil and gas emissions cap would no longer be required"). And stupidly, it also includes the elimination of a tax on underused housing and luxury taxes on private aircraft and yachts. Evidently some moderate conservatives like it; a longtime Conservative MP, Chris d'Entremont, who represents the Nova Scotia riding of Acadie—Annapolis, has resigned from his party's caucus and is considering crossing the floor to join the Liberals.

- A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter, operated by UPS, crashed into an industrial area moments after takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky. At least 7 deaths have been reported so far; this number is expected to rise, however, as the aircraft was carrying enough fuel to get it to Honolulu.

- The Ford government is taking away Toronto's power to require green roofs on new construction. The move was made by order in council; they seem to be justifying it in terms of the costs of building new housing.

- Some pro-Israel organizations are calling for the head of Toronto mayor Olivia Chow after she dared to use the G-word to describe what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. The B’nai Brith’s director of research and advocacy says Chow has "chosen to instigate those who engage against the Jewish community". 

- A Toronto woman whose "pitbull-like dog" attacked a child in a playground, causing life-altering injuries, may be facing prison time following her conviction for criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Prosecutors are calling for a three year sentence due to the egregiousness of the situation; the dog had been previously deemed dangerous after it attacked another dog and its owner in the elevator of her building, but nonetheless she let it off leash in a playground where dogs of any sort, much less dangerous ones, are prohibited. Oh, and the dog's name was Capo, which leads one to believe that its viciousness was not a bug but a feature. The fact that she has 15 previous criminal convictions doesn't help her case either.

- Former US vice-president Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84.

News roundup, 4 Nov 2025

- The Carney government is initiating a dispute resolution process with Stellantis after the company, which had received subsidies for the retooling of its plants in Brampton and Windsor, announced that they will be moving production of the Jeep Compass to a plant in Belvidere, Illinois. Stellantis claims that no jobs are being lost as a result of the move, and that the plant is "paused" rather than closed.

- Zohran Mamdani remains the front runner in today's municipal election in New York City. Donald Trump has endorsed former governor (and suspected sexual harrasser) Andrew Cuomo in the race and is threatening to withhold federal funding to the city if Mamdani wins, calling him a "communist".

- Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, is also the seventh largest shareholder in Tesla. The fund plans to vote against a pay package for Elon Musk that could make him the world's first trillionaire. Several other large shareholders, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) and the American Federation of Teachers, also plan to vote against the package. The company's chair claims that the package is necessary to retain Musk as CEO, and that the share price could drop significantly if he leaves.

- A Ukrainian citizen awaiting extradition to Germany on charges of sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline is now on a hunger strike in Italy. Poland, meanwhile, has blocked the extradition of another suspect and ordered his release.

- The display of municipal politicians hanged in effigy in the RM of Tache has been removed; no charges are expected. 

- Doug Ford claims that Mark Carney asked him to pull the anti-tariff ad that ran in the US during the World Series. The Prime Minister's office has not commented directly on the matter.

- A police car hit a suspect and arresting officer in Toronto on the weekend after the driver apparently neglected to put it in park. Neither was seriously injured.

News roundup, 31 Oct 2025

- Kat Abughazaleh, a journalist turned podcaster who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Illinois' 9th congressional district, has been indicted on charges of conspiring to impede a federal officer following a protest in September in which Abughazaleh and others allegedly slowed the progress of an ICE vehicle towards a facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview.

- Some National Guard members in the US are vowing to defy illegal orders from the Trump regime if ordered to deploy in Chicago. Two of them say they have already received written warnings about this; one, who is also running for the Democrats in Illinois' 13th district, has had his security clearance suspended and an investigation opened against him. The deployment is currently on hold pending a Supreme Court decision, but given Trump's stacking of the court that may not last much longer. Even if the court rules against the regime, they might simply invoke the Insurrection Act in order to get around the ruling.

- Airports in Winnipeg and Kelowna are so short of air traffic controllers that they had to briefly close their control towers on occasion. Perhaps NAV Canada should be trying to poach controllers from the US, where they are currently not being paid as a result of the government shutdown.

- The Times of London has removed an interview in which former New York mayor Bill de Blasio was quoted as criticizing current mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. De Blasio is actually a supporter of Mamdani and says that the quotes were fabricated. The Times was once a highly respected if somewhat conservative paper, but under Rupert Murdoch's ownership it has fallen a long way. For their part, they claim that their reporter was "misled" by someone "falsely claiming" to be the former mayor.

- King Charles is stripping Prince Andrew of all his royal titles and kicking him out of his official residence following revelations linking him to Jeffrey Epstein. The evidence against Andrew must be pretty damning for it to go this far.

- For a long time it has been accepted wisdom that a plot of happiness against age produces a U-shaped curve, with happiness being high in teens and young adults, declining through middle age, and then gradually increasing again in old age. This has been found in numerous cultures, not only of humans but even other great apes - but a recent study now suggests that this once ironclad rule is breaking down. This is not because middle-aged people are getting happier, but because young people are miserable. And this seems to be the case in more than 80 countries, including some of the poorest countries as well as some of the richest. This trend apparently started around 2014; a definitive reason for this dramatic shift has not been found, but one of the researchers mentions the rise of smartphones as a possible cause.

- The City of Winnipeg has released details of a plan to deal with homelessness. Encampments will be sorted into three categories, with the highest priority being encampments that are in "sensitive" locations (defined based on proximity to everything from schools and playgrounds to bus stops, as well as those with active safety hazards such as fires); these will trigger an "urgent" and "coordinated" response. At the other end of the spectrum are small sites in low-risk areas; these will be monitored rather than actively cleared. A major caveat is the fact that the plan does not include any new staff or funding. One encampment resident suggests that the city should provide a designated location for encampments as some other cities have. Meanwhile, south of the border, Utah is building a large internment camp for the homeless, complete with forced labour, in response to federal threats to withhold funding for states and municipalities that fail to crack down on people camping in public places.

News roundup, 24 Oct 2025

- Donald Trump says that he is ending trade talks with Canada over a recent ad campaign launched in the US by the Ontario government. The ad uses a recording of Ronald Reagan speaking about how tariffs are harmful to American interests. Trump has of course declared it to be "FAKE" and accuses Canada of launching the ad specifically to influence the Supreme Court, which is set to decide on the legality of some of his tariffs in the near future. For his part, Mark Carney is vowing to double exports to other trading partners in order to make up for the increasing unreliability of the US in that regard. Will this be enough to convince Carney to lift or reduce tariffs on Chinese cars in order to get China to do the same for our canola? That remains to be seen.

- A bill to formally annex the entire West Bank has passed first reading in Israel's parliament against the wishes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party. Think about that for a moment - there's now a slim majority in the Knesset that's too extreme even for Netanyahu.

- Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder who is running as the Republican candidate for mayor of New York, is being pressured to drop out of the race and endorse centrist candidate Andrew Cuomo in order to keep Zohran Mamdani out of the mayor's office. Sliwa, for his part, says he'd sooner be tortured to death than drop out.

- The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has answered the question of whether it can be ethical to genetically alter wild organisms with a qualified yes. Evidently they figure that genetically altering mosquitoes to reduce their ability to carry diseases, for instance, would do more good than harm (it would mean a lot less pesticide use, for one thing); further down the line, this could include measures to enable organisms to tolerate higher temperatures in anticipation of a warming world. Stuff like that will probably be necessary, but it will definitely have its risks (this is a "Godzilla threshold" sort of thing, not something to be taken lightly) and will raise the question in some people's minds whether it will still be "nature" after it's been tinkered with to such an extent.

- The management committee of the BC Conservative Party is calling on leader John Rustad to resign, citing severe internal divisions in the party. Among other things, five MLAs have either left or been expelled from the party caucus just since the last election. Rustad says he has no plans to resign, having received 70% support in a recent leadership review (albeit with a turnout of only 15% of the party's membership).

- Manitoba is managing to attract badly needed doctors from the US. Several of them are former Manitobans who had accepted positions in the States but now fear the rising hate and political instability in that country.

- Winnipeg Transit is replacing the glass in 30 high use bus shelters with polycarbonate, which is 15% more expensive than safety glass but which is very difficult to break and thus will likely have to be replaced a lot less often. I've thought this to be a good idea for quite some time; the only possible downside I can see is that it could displace aggression onto other potential targets for vandalism.

- A man was arrested in Selkirk, Manitoba after allegedly slashing the tires of 23 vehicles with a knife; the one thing that all the targetted vehicles had in common was that they were red in colour. 

News roundup, 19 Sept 2025

- Denmark held a large military exercise in Greenland this week, the largest in the territory's history. They invited several NATO allies, but pointedly left the US off the invite list.

- Alberta premier Danielle Smith's approval rating has declined to 46%. Despite this, other polling indicates that Smith and her United Conservative Party would win handily over Naheed Nenshi's NDP if an election were held today.

- The New York Times reports that the Trump regime approved the export of advanced computer technology to the United Arab Emirates only two weeks after the UAE invested $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency startup founded by Trump, his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and their families.

- Elon Musk spoke at the gigantic anti-immigration rally held in the UK by far-right activist Tommy Robinson over the weekend, and declared that "violence is coming" to the country. This brings to mind the notorious "rivers of blood" speech given by MP Enoch Powell in 1968. Musk also called for a change of government, and it's a safe bet that he will do his utmost to ensure that happens.

- Insiders reporting on the executive meetings following the Jimmy Kimmel episode that got the show cancelled say that multiple executives acknowledged that Kimmel hadn't said anything that crosses a line, but that senior execs feared retaliation from Trump. The fears may not have been unfounded; FCC chair Brendan Carr had hinted in an interview that ABC affiliates might have difficulty renewing their broadcast licenses if something wasn't done to "take action" on Kimmel.

- Two Utah men were arrested after an incendiary device was placed under a vehicle owned by a media outlet in Salt Lake City. The device did not go off. And a Texas man was arrested for making threats against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. I guess they're all counting on getting a presidential pardon.

News roundup, 10 July 2025

- Four men from Quebec have been arrested over a plot to forcibly seize land near Quebec City; they appear to have been trying to start an American-style far-right militia. They had stockpiled 83 firearms and 16 bombs, as well as such things as smoke grenades and night vision goggles; all four have ties to the military.

- Donald Trump is musing about a federal takeover of New York City and the District of Columbia. In the case of New York, he suggested that it might be necessary if Zohran Mamdani (who he called a "communist") gets elected mayor. He also fulminated about the city's use instant-runoff (ranked choice) voting. In the case of DC, he tries to justify a takeover on the basis of excessive crime (despite the fact that overall crime in the federal district is down 8% compared to last year, and violent crime is down 25%). That said, there might well be a legal route to a takeover of DC (they could theoretically repeal the Home Rule Act). Ultimately, though, even in the case of New York the ability to stop a takeover depends on the whims of the courts, which have disproportionately been stacked with Trump loyalists.

- During the Biden years, the Democrats designed their climate law in such a way that many of the new green jobs would be in red states. The idea was that the Republicans, when they took power, would be reluctant to undo work that had created so many jobs for their supporters. Unfortunately the Democrats seem to have given voters too much credit for understanding this; the Republicans are betting on the bleating masses continuing to support them. Sadly it's probably a safe bet, even supposing that next year's midterms and the 2028 presidential election are fair (which seems unlikely in any case).

- A 25 nation survey by the Pew Research Center found that 59% of Canadians now view the US as the greatest threat to the country. Canadians' resolve to boycott as many American goods as possible and to avoid travel to the country seems to remain strong as well.

- Vaccination rates in the Maritimes are too low to reliably control the spread of measles. In Nova Scotia, about 23% of children have less than the requisite two doses of the vaccine; New Brunswick and PEI are somewhat better, but 10% of kids aren't fully vaccinated. The rate should be below 5% to keep the disease under control.

- The developer of ICEBlock, an app that allows people to share sightings of ICE officers has been threatened by the Department of Justice; Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that "he better watch out". Moreover, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem is threatening CNN for reporting on the very existence of the app. Admittedly, there are people out there who would happily do harm to ICE officers, but the people who lured a bunch of them out of a detention facility in Texas and opened fire on them didn't need an app to find them in any case.

News roundup, 3 July 2025

- A severe heatwave is sweeping through much of Europe as it has so often in recent summers. Temperatures in the Spanish town of El Granado hit 46°C, and a municipal employee in Barcelona collapsed and died shortly after completing her shift operating a street sweeper.

- Having cleared the Senate, Donald Trump's "one big beautiful bill" is expected to be passed in the House of Representatives by tomorrow. Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly had to make some unspecified concessions to get compliance out of a few Republicans; the exact nature of the concessions is not public, but probably something like "we won't back your opponent in the primary".

- Trump is now musing about revoking the citizenships of people he doesn't like, including New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, and possibly also Elon Musk.

- Ukraine successfully carried out a drone attack on a military factory in the Russian city of Izhevsk, killing three people. The operation was carried out from 1,300 km away, some 300 km inside the Ukrainian border.

- Edward Kelley, a man who participated in the Jan 6 putsch, was of course pardoned by Trump along with all his co-conspirators. Unfortunately for him, that pardon probably doesn't apply to crimes committed since his arrest on those charges, such as his involvement in a conspiracy to attack an FBI office with car bombs and drones, for which he was just handed a life sentence. Of course, Trump could very well pardon him for that too if the case manages to hold his attention long enough.

- Two Alberta MLAs now sitting as independents after being kicked out of the UCP caucus for dissent are petitioning to restore the old Progressive Conservative party. In order to accomplish this they will need to collect signatures representing 0.3% of eligible voters, or 8,819 people. Amusingly, two other splinter parties are trying to use the Wildrose name as well. I wish all of these little parties a modest amount of success; not too much though.

- Brendan Berg, the bassist for Winnipeg band Royal Canoe, was killed in a car accident along with his partner Olivia Michalczuk on Highway 10 near Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Their vehicle was stopped on the side of the road when a vehicle coming in the other direction crossed the centre line and hit them at high speed. Berg would have turned 43 the following day.

News roundup, 27 June 2025

- A 49 year old Canadian citizen has died in ICE custody in Florida. He had been a permanent resident since 1991 and was in custody pending deportation, having been convicted of drug offenses; he suffered from epilepsy and needed a medication to control his seizures, though it is not yet known if this is the reason for his death.

- Even as the IDF continues to demolish Gaza, their irregulars (the nominally civilian West Bank settlers) held a vicious pogrom in the town of Kafr Malik. When the locals responded by throwing stones at the attackers, the official wing of the army opened fire, killing three people. It's stuff like this that has led many to question whether the settlers should be considered to be civilians (and thus whether killing them counts as terrorism).

- The so-called "revenge tax" provision of the "One Big Beautiful Bill", which would have taxed US investment income for residents of countries that had annoyed Trump, has been removed by Republican senators following a recommendation from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Evidently the prospect of foreign investors divesting from US securities en masse didn't seem like such a good thing after some consideration.

- New York City's establishment, including the likes of hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, are freaking out over Zohran Mamdani's victory in the Democratic primary for mayor, and are getting in line behind incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Better a crook than a lefty in their minds, I guess.

- Winnipeg's most famous intersection, Portage and Main, is reopening to pedestrian traffic after 46 years. 

- A report submitted to Winnipeg's Public Works Committee has recommended the installation of bike lanes and the lowering of the speed limit to 40 km/h on the part of Wellington Crescent where a cyclist was killed last year. The proposal is for the changes to be in place by next spring, to give time for consultations; activists think a better approach would have been to provisionally make the changes and then see what people think of the reality of it rather than the idea of it, but that would make too much sense I guess.

- Trump Mobile, the president's venture into cellphone services, has removed the phrase "made in the USA" from its website, though they still insist that the phones are "brought to life" in the US, and that there will be "American hands behind every device". A cynic might wonder if the hands in question are the users' hands; if that were the case it would probably be technically accurate (who but an American would be fool enough to buy one?)

- Chinese authorities have declined a request for information about the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 in 2022 that killed 132 people, citing "national security". Based on information that has already leaked out about the crash, there are suspicions that it may have been a case of pilot suicide; perhaps the authorities don't want to have to answer any hard questions about that.

News roundup, 25 June 2025

- The ceasefire in the Israel-Iran conflict seems to be holding for the time being. Meanwhile there are some doubts about whether the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites were as effective as Trump claims.

- Heat warnings are in place for a large portion of North America, including the US Midwest and east coast as well as parts of Ontario, Quebec, and even Nova Scotia. Even overnight temperatures are hovering in the high twenties in some cities.

- Kat Cammack, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Florida who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, found herself in a dangerous situation due to experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. It seems doctors were initially reluctant to treat her due to fears that new anti-abortion legislation could be used against them, although they eventually went ahead and saved her life. For her part, Cammack blames the messaging from Democrats and pro-choice activists for the doctors' fears, which she says are unfounded.

- A Norwegian tourist says he was denied entry into the US because a search of his phone revealed a meme that made fun of JD Vance. This is DPRK-level pettiness, and his handling while they were waiting for a flight to deport him on, while not yet in DPRK territory, certainly doesn't sound like how a well-functioning democracy is supposed to behave.

- Leftwing candidate Zohran Mamdani has won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, defeating former state governor Andrew Cuomo. In the general election he will be facing off against incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels vigilante organization. The possibility has also been raised of Cuomo also running as an independent. Meanwhile another Democratic primary, for a seat in Florida's state senate, featured two siblings facing off against each other. LaVon Bracy Davis defeated her brother Randolph Bracy in that contest.

- Flin Flon residents who were evacuated due to wildfires will be able to return home as of this morning. The city was spared direct damage from the fires, though residents fear smoke damage, not to mention the prospect of cleaning out the contents of freezers and the like.