News roundup, 15 Sept 2025

- Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election. He is also barred from running for public office until eight years after the end of his sentence. Evidently Brazil has learned from America's failures; unsurprisingly the Trump regime is not happy, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the sentence "unjust" and a "witch hunt". The regime had already imposed a 50% tariff on all goods from Brazil in July after the government refused to stop the trial.

- A suspect is in custody in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson is a 22 year old resident of Utah with no previous convictions and from a "respectable" Mormon family; his parents are registered Republicans but he is registered as an independent. Despite previous bleatings from the MAGA crowd blaming the left and calling for "war", the slogans engraved on the shell casings left behind at the murder scene don't have a consistent leftwing message but rather betray a lot of influence from online culture with no clear political leanings. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said that he had prayed that it wouldn't turn out to be a native Utahan; I guess it's harder to whip up a lynchmob against one of your own than against the "other".

- People who have made online posts critical of Charlie Kirk in the wake of his death have come under heavy fire. Manitoba's Minister of Families, Nahanni Fontaine, shared a post on Instagram from US based activist @che_jim, which (not inaccurately) called Kirk "racist", "sexist", "transphobic", and a number of other bad things. Following this, many accused her of "celebrating" Kirk's assassination, and called for her removal. Premier Wab Kinew has refused to fire her, though he did ask her to apologize as a means of "taking the temperature down". One person who probably can be accused of celebrating Kirk's death is University of Victoria art history professor Melia Belli Bose, who posted this. It remains to be seen whether Bose's tenure will protect her.

- Those investigating the other shooting that occurred at a US educational institution last Wednesday say that the shooter had been radicalized by an online network of some sort, though they declined to provide specifics.

- Following an ICE raid on a Hyundai plant in which around 475 people, mostly South Koreans, were rounded up for deportation, the Trump regime attempted to reverse this, but only one of the workers accepted the offer. Hyundai had apparently been working in legal grey areas with their subcontractors, but at least one of the workers had a valid visa, adding to the outrage. Some think this could lead foreign companies to reconsider whether it's worth building a plant in the US.

News roundup, 11 Sept 2025

- American far-right commentator/activist Charlie Kirk was killed in spectacular fashion at a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University in Orem. A man was detained, then released without charges; the suspect remains at large. Many have remarked on the fact that Kirk once said that his country's enormous number of gun-related deaths (such as the school shooting in Colorado that happened on the same day as Kirk's death) are "worth it" to ensure that people (well, his kind of people at least) have unfettered access to firearms. The far right, of course, is screaming for vengeance. One thing seems clear - political violence is now firmly embedded in the culture of present-day America and isn't going away any time soon.

- An Ottawa man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for promoting antisemitic violence and helping to recruit members for the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division (AWD).

- European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is calling for suspension of trade between the EU and Israel in response to the catastrophe in Gaza. Whether such a move will win enough support from EU member states to pass is another question.

- A security guard at Winnipeg City Hall was attacked with pepper spray on Monday afternoon. The assailant allegedly made "racial comments" about city hall security in the course of the attack.

- A private contractor providing security at aid distribution sites in Gaza appears to have hired a lot of members of the Infidels, a motorcycle gang formed by veterans of the Iraq war that is overtly hostile to Islam.

- A Grade 9 student at Winnipeg's College Jeanne-Sauve was assaulted on Tuesday while participating in an outdoor gym class. The class had been taken from the school to the nearby Dakota Park; when a group of students walked by a tent, the resident of the tent apparently ran out and attacked the group, causing minor injuries to the student. At least, that's how it was reported in the article; in the related Reddit thread several people reported that the students had been harassing the homeless guy for some time, and throwing stuff at him. Nonetheless, this will doubtless add ammunition to arguments in favour of restricting where homeless encampments will be allowed, even as housing advocates question whether the city's proposal is such a good idea.

- An Oregon man who won what he was led to believe would be "$5,000 a week for life" back in 2012 got a nasty surprise when the cheques suddenly stopped. Turns out Publishers Clearing House, the company that ran the contest, had declared bankruptcy. It doesn't help his situation that he hasn't worked since the win and thus is not a prime candidate for employment now.

News roundup, 16 June 2025

- Israel launched a series of attacks on Iran starting Friday; Iran has responded in kind. Iran reports at least 224 fatalities, most of them civilians; Israel has experienced a number of fatalities as well. Donald Trump has hinted at the possibility of the US joining the conflict.

- A Democratic member of the Minnesota legislature was shot to death along with her husband in their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park. The suspect is also accused of the attempted murders of another legislator and his wife; he was reportedly disguised as a police officer and left behind an SUV that had been equipped and painted like a police car. He remained at large until surrendering to police on Sunday. A hit list including several other politicians, as well as Planned Parenthood locations, was found in the vehicle; evidently this guy is so pro-life he'll kill you.

- A man showed up to a "No Kings" protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday and pointed an AR-15-type rifle at the protesters. It is believed that a member of the protesters' "peacekeeping team" opened fire with a handgun in response, wounding the attacker and killing a bystander. The attacker was only slightly wounded; he has been arrested on a murder charge. The person who opened fire has yet to be identified.

- The valedictorian at an Ottawa high school says that she was phoned by the principal and told not to come to school today after her speech made reference to the more than 17,000 children who have died in Gaza since the most recent conflict. Elizabeth Yao says that the principal told her that her statements had "caused harm"; the principal and the school board have declined a request for comment.

- Buzz Hargrove, who led the Canadian Auto Workers (now Unifor) from 1992 until his retirement in 2008, has died at the age of 81.

- An internal memo in Nigeria's agriculture ministry has called for all department staff to pray for food security. This has led some Nigerians to wonder how about the department's commitment to actually do something about the problem.

Details of accused gunman in Tucson rampage slowly emerge

Definitely some serious issues here:

Loughner lives with his parents about a five-minute drive from the shootings, in a middle-class neighbourhood lined with desert landscaping and palm trees. Sheriff’s deputies blocked off much of the street Sunday.

Neighbours said Loughner kept to himself and was often seen walking his dog, almost always wearing a hooded sweat shirt and listening to his iPod.

His high school friends said they fell out of touch with Loughner and last spoke to him around March, when one of them was going to set up some bottles in the desert for target practice and Loughner suggested he might come along. It was unusual — Loughner hadn’t expressed an interest in guns before — and his increasingly confrontational behaviour was pushing them apart. He would send nonsensical text messages, but also break off contact for weeks on end.

“We just started getting sketched out about him,” the friend said. It was the first time he’d felt that way.

Around the same time, Loughner’s behaviour also began to worry officials at Pima Community College, where Loughner began attending classes in 2005, the school said in a release.

Between February and September, Loughner “had five contacts with PCC police for classroom and library disruptions,” the statement said. He was suspended in September 2010 after college police discovered a YouTube video in which Loughner claimed the college was illegal according to the U.S. Constitution. He withdrew voluntarily the following month, and was told he could return only if, among other things, a mental health professional agreed he did not present a danger, the school said.

From the Star. Politically, he seems a bit confused as well:

Mistrust of government was Loughner’s defining conviction, the friends said. He believed the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and worried that governments were manoeuvring to create a unified monetary system (“a New World Order currency” one friend said) so that social elites and bureaucrats could control the rest of the world.

On his YouTube page, he listed among his favourite books “Animal Farm” and “Brave New World” — two novels about how authorities control the masses. Other books in the wide-ranging list included “Mein Kampf,” “The Communist Manifesto,” “Peter Pan” and Aesop’s Fables.

The mere fact that The Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, and Animal Farm are all among his favourite books suggests that he doesn't fully understand any of those works. On the other hand, his views on monetary policy seem to be in line with a lot of the teabaggers. There are also suggestions that he thinks he's Earl Turner. And there are other odd things; he's an ardent atheist (a decidedly un-teabagger-like trait, incidentally), but evidently also a pro-lifer:

When other students, always seated, read their poems, Coorough said Loughner “would laugh at things that you wouldn’t laugh at.” After one woman read a poem about abortion, “he was turning all shades of red and laughing,” and said, “Wow, she’s just like a terrorist, she killed a baby,” Coorough said.

Given that one of the people he's accused of killing was a nine year old girl, there's more than a little irony in that.

In case anyone doubted that teabaggers could be dangerous...

I think it's safe to assume that the shooter isn't a Democrat:

An outspoken Democrat congresswoman was gravely wounded after an assassin opened fire with an assault rifle at grocery store in Tuscon, Ariz., on Saturday.

At least six others were injured in a burst of gunfire in what may be the first shooting of a federal politican since former president Ronald Reagan was shot two decades ago in Washington, D.C.

Gabrielle Giffords, 40, an Arizona congresswoman, was shot at close range in the head, according to eyewitnesses. She was greeting constituents at a grocery store. Some of her aides were reportedly among those wounded.

From the Globe. The shooter has apparently been captured alive, so we should know more soon. This is a huge escalation, but it's not really novel; Giffords has been targeted by teabaggers before:

Last March, vandals stoned the front of Ms. Giffords' Tuscon office – one of several Democrat storefronts attacked – when at least 10 members of Congress reported death threats and attacks over the contentious health care reform bill that was the centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s first two years as president.

The question is, how much longer will this go on?

Edited to add: There's a bit more information now. It seems that a total of 18 people were wounded in the shooting, several fatally, including a US federal judge as well as a nine year old child. There's some information about the suspect as well:

Giffords's assailant was last night named as a 22-year-old Afghanistan veteran Jared Lee Loughner. He was described by witnesses as a young white man who looked like a "fringe character", clean shaven with short hair and wearing dark clothing.

Sounds a lot like Timothy McVeigh actually. PTSD and inflammatory rhetoric can be a bad mix it seems...

Columnist calls for the assassination of Julian Assange

Naturally, American right wingers like Jonah Goldberg really dislike Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and would like something done about this. But what Goldberg says in this National Review article (h/t Ezra at Popehat) is quite disturbing:

So again, I ask: Why wasn’t Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago?

It’s a serious question.

Yeah. What the heck is the CIA for, if not for rubbing out people who embarrass the US?

Activist says Israelis shot webmaster in flotilla raid

The Israelis claim the shootings that occurred in the raid were self-defense; however this must be some strange new use of the term "self-defense" that I've never heard before:

Athens - Israeli commandos killed a Turkish activist on a ship trying to ferry aid to Gaza last week in order to halt the transfer of video images to the internet, a Greek activist said on Sunday.

"Up to half an hour after the attack, despite the electronic warfare measures, the Mavi Marmara continued to send images to the internet thanks to an ultra-modern system run by a Turkish volunteer," Greek activist Dimitris Plionis told the Eleftherotypia newspaper.

"Then, I saw him dead, with a bullet wound in his torso," said the mechanic, one of two Greeks on board the Mavi Marmara.

"The Israelis above all wanted to shut down the transfer of images. The Turks had installed maybe a hundred cameras that continuously broadcast images. The system went silent after its administrator was assassinated," he added.

Source (h/t -=+=- at babble).