News roundup, 29 April 2026

- Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with threatening the life of the president with a picture he briefly posted to Instagram last year. The image showed several seashells arranged to read "86 47"; apparently in some circles "eighty-six" is slang for "eject" or "remove". Comey says he took the picture after seeing the arrangement on a beach; he says removed it upon hearing that some interpreted it as a call for violence.

- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received a gift of £5 million from a crypto billionaire in 2024; subsequently he reversed his decision not to run in the general election that year. The donor, Christopher Harborne, also donated £9 million to Farage's party last year, the largest single donation to a party by a living person in British history; this is despite the fact that he is based in Thailand. On the other side of the world, Australia's wealthiest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has donated an aircraft as well as $2 million to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

- California is holding a referendum on a one time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires. The measure was proposed as a way to make up for the loss of federal healthcare money; the billionaires are pulling out all the stops to defeat the initiative.

- Higher oil prices resulting from the war in Iran mean that Canada's recent fiscal update, which was prepared before the latest developments, likely underestimates Canada's revenue, meaning a substantial windfall for the government.

- Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and obstruction of justice; this is related to his attempt to impose martial law in 2024. This is largely academic as he has already received a life sentence for rebellion in connection to the matter.

- Five correctional officers were injured in a confrontation with a single inmate at a prison in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. The president of the officers' union says that the use of drones to smuggle drugs and weapons into prisons has made their job more dangerous; among the measures they're calling for is the jamming of cellphone signals on the premises to make it harder to coordinate such smuggling.

- A 17 year old boy has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly intentionally running over several sleeping geese in a parking lot. This happened at night, however his vehicle was identified from security video.

- An Indian man dug up his sister's remains and brought them to a bank in order to prove that she was dead in order to close her account. 

News roundup, 12 Feb 2026

- More information is being released about the Tumbler Ridge shooting. The RCMP has identified the suspect as an 18 year old transwoman who killed her mother and stepbrother before going to the school to kill others; no motive has yet been revealed but it's a safe bet that the far right is going to use this as an excuse to opportunity up the transphobia (while being very quiet about the question of whether this might have been less likely to happen in a more accepting society, of course).

- The FAA closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas to all civil aircraft on Wednesday morning, initially saying flights were grounded for a ten day period but later reversing that position, all the while saying that there was no threat to commercial aircraft. Some reports say that this was for the testing of top secret anti-drone technology, which might be the truth, or not. As regards initially saying ten days and then reversing that (perhaps after the test was completed) maybe they thought they'd give the public the sense that they're not as bad as they seemed. And given where we're talking about, it might well work.

- The crisis now developing in the Colorado River system stands to be worsened - or at least happen sooner - thanks to the poor design of the Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back the waters of Lake Powell. The dam was designed for a narrow range of water levels - which would be problematic even in the absence of human-induced climate change. In fact, it very nearly led to disaster in 1983 when the waters of the reservoir came dangerously close to washing over the top of the dam. Now it has the opposite problem - the lowest outlets of the dam are some 240 ft above the lake bed, and water levels are getting dangerously close to that point, meaning that the lake could face "dead pool" in the near future. At that point, no more water could even reach downstream locations, and a lot of people would be leaving the American southwest and not returning. And the lake itself would become a deep, stagnant, stinking mess. Even before that point, the levels will fall too low to use the dam for hydroelectric power.

- The Winnipeg couple convicted of torturing and killing numerous animals and selling the videos online have both been sentenced to 12 years in prison following a joint recommendation of the prosecution and the defense. 

- A Ukrainian Olympian has been disqualified for wearing a helmet with pictures of Ukrainian athletes who have died in the war with Russia. Had he honoured friends who died in a car crash in the same way he'd have been fine, but the IOC considers honouring war dead to constitute political messaging, which is prohibited at the Olympics.

- Switzerland will be holding a referendum this summer on imposing a hard cap on the country's population. If passed, this would oblige the government to close the country to all immigration (including refugees and relatives of foreign residents) in the event that the population comes to exceed 9.5 million (it is currently 9.1 million). The initiative comes from the rightwing Swiss People's Party; opponents fear that if passed this move could violate agreements with the EU and harm the economy.

News roundup, 2 Jan 2025

- The US job market is, by some measures, the worst it's been since 2010. While the actual unemployment rate was only 4.6% in November, a mere 50,000 net new jobs have been added per month across the entire country since May, meaning that those not currently employed find a hard time getting work. This is based on official stats, but Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell thinks this is an overestimation - and that there may in fact be a net loss in jobs. Regardless, about half the country will say it's all Biden's fault anyway...

- A Norwegian startup, Flocean, claims to have developed a desalination technology that cuts the (very considerable) energy consumption by half. According to the company, the technique takes advantage of the pressure of the ocean itself at depths of 300 to 600 metres. They plan to have a proof of concept up and running within the year.

- The BC government has conducted its first comprehensive assessment since 1997 of potentially catastrophic risks facing the province. Among other things, the report has concluded that if a 9.0 magnitude quake were to strike off the coast of Vancouver Island the province would suffer $128 billion in economic losses in addition to the deaths and injuries - and the entire property and casualty insurance industry across Canada could be threatened.

- A travel website called "The Travel" published an article that tries to claim that Canada's boycott of US travel is "backfiring" - partly because it has become more unpleasant to cross the border now that agents have more time to interrogate each person. I dunno, sounds more like the boycott will just strengthen further if that's the case. The article also claims that it's driven up the price of domestic travel in Canada, leading boycotters of the US to travel elsewhere (such as Europe). Again, though, if the demand for domestic travel is up, there's no reasonable basis to say the boycott is "backfiring" - rather, travel to the US is being replaced both by domestic and overseas travel. It reads like the author is in denial of the possibility that there's any good substitute for the US as a travel destination. However, one group who are taking a hit are snowbirds who want to sell their vacation properties in Florida.

- A police vehicle fatally hit a pedestrian in Surrey, BC on Christmas, less than a month after the last time this sort of thing happened. I daresay Surrey's police force might benefit from some driving lessons.

- Around 40 people have died in a fire at a Swiss ski resort on New Year's Eve. Officials say it could be days before all of the bodies have been identified; the cause is under identification.

- A Florida-based YouTuber is under investigation for animal abuse after posting video of the operation of a trap he had developed called the "Opossum Launcher". He had apparently lured the animal onto a makeshift catapult; it appears to have survived the incident but that's probably not the sort of thing that should be encouraged.

- In a story that sounds like it should be from Florida, a man in Brandon, Manitoba was arrested after attempting to pay a business with drugs instead of any conventional method of payment.

News roundup, 18 Nov 2025

- Mark Carney's first budget passed by a margin of 170 to 168, averting an election, after two NDP MPs and two Conservatives abstained.

- The UN Security Council has approved the Trump regime's plan for an international "stabilization force" for Gaza; Russia and China abstained. A lot of the details still have to be worked out, of course, but it almost certainly won't do the Palestinians any good in the long run (it wouldn't have passed otherwise).

- The Palestinian flag was raised at the Manitoba legislature for the first time in history, on the anniversary of Palestine's declaration of independence in 1988. This is consistent with flag-raisings held on national days of more established countries, but of course the rabidly pro-Israel B'nai Brith was not pleased.

- Several former officers in the Canadian air force are urging the government to go ahead with F-35 purchases and not get sidetracked by Sweden's Gripen. I can't help wonder, though, if they're stuck in a past when the US was thought of as a reliable ally. They do argue that the F-35 has better technology, but one has to ask, better for what? Its much-touted stealth capabilities are more important for attack than for defense, for instance; meanwhile its limited range and single engine make it less suited for Arctic operations. Even its communications are ill-suited to the task. Perhaps it's better at attacking people in their own countries than the Gripen, but should that be what we want in a fighter? I guess that has to be weighed against American threats about what will happen if we don't buy it though.

- The Manitoba Municipal Board has given the Granite Curling Club everything they wanted in terms of stopping an affordable housing project if it's going to cost the club even a single parking space. The fact that the club operates out of a building on city-owned land, and that the parking spaces they'd lose are also on city-owned land, seems not to matter. Premier Kinew says he's "open to looking at" the ruling, but is also a bit leery about interfering in a heavy-handed way. 

- Prosecutors in Milan are investigating reports that wealthy Italians paid large amounts of money (around £70,000 each) to participate in "human safaris" run by the Bosnian Serbs in which they would get to shoot at Bosnian civilians from rooftops during the siege of Sarajevo. Not surprisingly, many of these tourists had ties to the far right.

News roundup, 17 Nov 2025

- Mark Carney's budget is expected to pass today, as while none of the opposition parties are expected to vote in favour of the budget, none of them are election-ready either, so enough abstentions are expected for the budget to pass.

- Donald Trump is now saying House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files. Presumably he's hoping that it will be blocked in the Senate and wants to repair divisions in the Republican Party over the issue (including a high-profile spat with Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene). Whether this will get people to move on from the issue is a fair question, but one should never discount the stubbornness and pig-headedness of the MAGA crowd.

- Chile held the first round of their presidential election yesterday. With nobody winning a majority, it will come down to a runoff between the far left and the far right as Jeannette Jara, a Communist Party member who served as labour minister in a centre-left coalition under the incumbent president, faces off against José Antonio Kast, a rabid opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage. The second round will be held on 14 Dec. Unfortunately Kast is thought to have the edge there as he is expected to win support from several other rightwing candidates who got around 30% of the vote.

- Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently living in exile in India, has been sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity related to a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year.

- A Polish rail line which is used to transport military supplies to Ukraine was damaged by an explosion on the weekend; Polish authorities suspect sabotage.

- Liberal-minded folks, people of colour, and LGBT* people in the US have been buying guns in record numbers as the political climate in the country grows more hostile towards them. The Liberal Gun Club says that requests for firearms training have quintupled since Trump's reelection last year.

- A Winnipeg couple have pleaded guilty to numerous counts of animal cruelty after torturing and killing over 90 animals and selling footage on the dark web. Their victims included 67 cats as well as seven birds, six rabbits, six hamsters, three goldfish, a frog, and an axolotl; they were apparently paid a total of around $2,800 via PayPal for the videos. Their pleas mean that several other charges, including accessing child pornography and some bestiality-related offenses, will not go ahead. This is significant because the maximum penalty for animal cruelty in Canada is 5 years in prison.

News roundup, 24 March 2025

- As expected, Mark Carney has called a general election for the 28th of April. Carney is running to replace outgoing Liberal MP Chandra Arya in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, a riding that happens to be right next door to Pierre Poilievre's. Notably Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and prominent gun control activist, is running for the Liberals in the riding of Châteauguay–Les Jardins-de-Napierville, something sure to send Alberta into conniptions. Speaking of Alberta, their premier apparently tried to convince the Trump regime to put tariffs on hold pending the outcome of the election. She vehemently denies that this constitutes asking for the US to intervene in the election though.

- A new poll in Manitoba by Probe Research lends support to the idea that the federal NDP could face a wipeout in the province. In Winnipeg, the Liberals have the support of 54% of decided and leaning voters; the NDP is at 9%.

- Green card holders in the US are being warned against leaving the country for fear that they won't be allowed back in.

- A food bank in BC is benefiting from the boycotting of American produces, as stores unable to sell the products are donating them so as to at least get the tax break for the donation.

- The young man facing terrorism charges over antisemitic graffiti apparently suffers from "global developmental delay" as well as ADHD. Shades of Stevie from Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent.

- The parents of the 6 year old Texas child who died of "freedom freckles" last month are telling people not to vaccinate their kids out of panic, saying that measles still isn't that bad (after all, all their other kids survived) and that the vaccine is somehow worse.

- A 57 year old Florida woman has been charged with aggravated animal cruelty following an investigation to an incident at Orlando's airport in December. It appears that she showed up to board a flight with her 9 year old miniature schnauzer in tow, only to be told that she didn't have the right paperwork to board with the dog. So she did what I assume she figured that any reasonable person would do and drowned the hapless creature in a toilet before going to board her flight. Unfortunately for her she discarded the dog's body along with a collar with her name on it in the garbage in the washroom, where it was found by cleaning staff.

News roundup, 3 Jan 2024

- A warrant has been issued for the arrest of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. The president, who is suspended from his duties pending his impeachment trial, faces corruption charges; thousands of his supporters have vowed to protect him. 

- The FBI believes with a high degree of confidence that the man behind the truck attack in New Orleans was inspired by ISIS, though they believe he acted alone.

- The man who set off an improvised explosive device in a Cybertruck in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas was a US military veteran who served in Afghanistan. His motives have yet to be determined; he will not be available for questioning due to his having shot himself.

- The Manitoba government is working on legislation to address improve the integrity of elections, including a ban on disseminating false information about election officials and on the use of cryptocurrency, gift cards, or money orders for campaign donations.

- Nearly 90% of all new cars sold in Norway in 2024 were electric; EVs are expected to represent 50% of all vehicles on the road in that country within a couple of years.

- An appeals court has struck down the FCC's net neutrality regulations, saying the agency lacked the authority to regulate internet service providers as utilities.

- Winnipeg Police are investigating after six dead cats, showing clear signs of abuse, were found under a bridge in northwest Winnipeg. Disconcertingly, there is no indication that this is related to the cat killings in Point Douglas or the ones in Lord Roberts.

News roundup, 28 Nov 2024

- The Canadian dollar has dropped to its lowest level in four years following Donald Trump's threats to impose massive tariffs. Meanwhile, many are pointing out that if these tariffs are imposed, the damage will not be limited to Canada and Mexico; the American auto industry is highly integrated with that of its NAFTA partners.

- The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, which represents Winnipeg Transit drivers, is calling for an expansion of the community safety team, as well as improvements for the shields that protect drivers from attacks. However, there are concerns about whether there's enough money in the budget for this. On a related note, the city is testing shatterproof glass in bus shelters to limit vandalism, something that's long overdue.

- Labour negotiations at Canada Post are not going well; the federally appointed mediator is backing away until the two sides can come up with positions that can be worked with.

- The German government is probably hoping that Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't set foot in their country, as they seem to be tying themselves in knots trying to reconcile their support for the International Criminal Court with their efforts to atone for the Holocaust by their unconditional support of Israel.

- Calin Georgescu, a far-right candidate who is running as an independent, has come out on top in the first round of presidential elections. The second round will be held on 8 December.

- Nova Scotia's Conservatives won their second successive majority government on Tuesday. The opposition Liberals suffered severe losses and have fallen into third place behind the NDP; their leader lost his own seat.

- The Winnipeg couple charged with killing and torturing animals and selling footage on the "dark web" now face additional charges; these include bestiality and accessing child pornography. In addition, there is evidence that they planned to torture a child. I daresay this lends support to my initial suspicion that they are not good people.

- Oddly enough, Winnipeg is the only municipality in Manitoba that is authorized to use photo radar enforcement. The mayor of Brandon would like that to change.

- A city councillor in Sarnia, Ontario has been expelled from a council meeting following an unhinged, profanity-laden rant in which he insulted most of his colleagues. He will not be allowed back until he apologizes, something he has so far refused to do. He apparently intends to run for mayor in the next municipal election; some folks on Reddit fear that his behaviour will help his cause more than it hurts him. Sadly, they may be right; Sarnia is not a big city and its economy is dependent on very dirty industries, both of which make for a lot of the kind of people who see this kind of rude and childish behaviour as a sign of authenticity.

News roundup, 15 Oct 2024

- Three cargo ships were hit by Russian missiles while in Ukrainian ports last week, killing at least 10 people and leading to fears that cargo operators will avoid the country.

- The BC NDP and Conservative parties remain in a statistical dead heat in the last week of campaigning. The NDP may well hold on due to greater vote efficiency and recent publicity about the Conservatives' extremism, but even if they do it's rather disconcerting that it's even a serious contest.

- The Canadian Association of Professional Employees, which represents around 27,000 federal employees, is calling for an investigation by the parliamentary Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates into a federal mandate that orders public servants back into the office a minimum of 3 days per week. Another union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, is challenging the mandate in court but this could take years to resolve due to the backlog in the courts; the parliamentary committee could potentially get quicker results.

- Following an incident last week in which a patient at St. Boniface Hospital brandished knives, some are calling for stronger security measures at hospitals. There is some discomfort about the idea of putting metal detectors at the entrances due to concern that it could make the hospital feel less safe for some, even as it makes it feel more safe for others. No statistics are given, though on whether the presence or absence of metal detectors would scare away more people, which would seem to be a pertinent piece of information. The article does note that Health Sciences Centre has been testing an "AI weapons detector" at the entrance to their ER; why AI is needed for this is not made clear, though if it somehow makes the detector less intrusive than a standard airport-style medical detector then it might have merit I suppose.

- The distribution of rapid COVID-19 tests in Manitoba is being discontinued, except for the most vulnerable people such as care home residents. I guess too much continued awareness of the disease is bad for business.

- Two middle-aged residents of Winnipeg's Lord Roberts neighbourhood have been charged with torturing and killing cats to make videos which were posted on the dark web. The suspects are known to police; disconcertingly, this appears to be unrelated to some other killings of cats that have occurred in Point Douglas recently.

- Despite recent reports that the closures of several 7-Eleven stores in Winnipeg were due to crime, it appears that this is actually part of a company-wide shakedown. Some folks in this Reddit thread think that the plan is to move towards making the chain more upscale (as it apparently already is in Japan) and that they're closing locations that they don't consider suitable for this. It's also pointed out there that the red herring of crime has been tossed out in similar situations before, such as the closure of the Osborne Village Starbucks location (stories about this made reference to crime but left out the fact that Starbucks has been trying to eliminate locations without drive-thru service) and similar stories about various Target locations in the US (many of which were apparently in over-saturated markets). In any case, Canadian convenience store chain Couche-Tard has been trying to buy 7-Eleven for some time, but getting rebuffed, and might well leap at the opportunity to take over the closed locations as a consolation prize.

- Alexandre Brassard, a biologist at St. Boniface University, was alarmed to find that a new book, entitled Mushrooms of Manitoba, contains multiple errors and makes no mention of several deadly poisonous species. The book appears to have been written with AI; Amazon delisted the book after CBC contacted them about the matter.

Vigilante hunt for puppy tosser targets wrong person

You've probably heard of the awful story of the girl throwing puppies in the river. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of folks out there who are out for blood. What's really unfortunate is that their wrath targeted the wrong person (translated from the original source):

A bad joke? Or real? An internet video shows a young woman laughing while drowning puppies. Now the users are hunting for the supposed perpetrator - and are threatening a girl from Aying near Munich.

The video is not for tender sensibilities: A blond girl in a red hooded pullover is standing on a bank, next to her a white bucket with fluffy, fidgeting puppies. She graps one after the other and throws them in the water. The controversial animal rights organisation Peta offers a reward for identifying the teenager. "Peta offers a reward of 2000 dollars for information which could lead to arrest and conviction of those persons" responsible for the content of the video.

Since then, a downright hunt for the girl is taking part on the net: "I hope they find you and throw you into jail, you evil, repulsive creature!" writes a user on the Peta site. Consecutively, a girl from the community Aying in the Munich area came to the attention of the riled-up internet community: A user published name and telephone number of the eighteen-year-old student on the web.

Since then, the internet has developed into a nightmare for the girl: She is insulted by phone by callers from all over the world, even her life is threatened. Now, the police must protect the young woman. And all that just because an unknown person on the video platform Youtube claims that she is the girl who in a movie laughs while throwing cute puppies into a river.

"Since then, the girl is being strongly threatened," says police spokesman Peter Reichl. Police met with the family for a counselling conversation, instated various protection procedures and is investigating for insult, threatening, and false accusation. For one thing is certain: The blonde girl from the video certainly does not come from Aying. "The film has apparently been recorded in Bosnia," says Reichl.

Stuff like this is one of the reasons why vigilante justice should not be taken likely. I hope they nail the real perpetrator, but equally I hope that poor German girl's reputation is restored... and that nobody hurts her in the mistaken view that they're doing the world a favour.