News roundup, 8 May 2026

- Elections Alberta has issued cease and desist letters to everyone known to have accessed a database compiled by the secessionist Centurion Project, which created it from illegally obtained voter lists. The lists were identified as having been legitimately issued to the Republican Party of Alberta; registered parties are legally entitled to the lists, but aren't supposed to share them. The lists were traced to the party via an interesting trick - the lists issued to each party are "salted" with a number of fake entries, and different fakes are used for each party. The potential impact on high profile individuals - such as former premier Jason Kenney who, while reliably rightwing by most standards, regularly gets death threats from extremists. And that's not even considering other criminal uses - stalking, robbery, hate crimes, etc. Meanwhile the NDP say they have obtained video evidence of two high ranking UCP members (president Rob Smith and caucus director Arundeep Sandhu) attending a Centurion meeting.

- Amsterdam's municipal government has banned public advertising of fossil fuels as well as meat. This is certainly a good move, though I'd throw airline and cruise ads into the mix as air travel is up there with meat as far as drivers of climate change go.

- The US Department of Homeland Security demanded that Google hand over information about a Canadian who has not set foot in the US in more than a decade after he criticized the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Information requested included location data and activity logs. Presumably the US authorities already know he hasn't been across the border recently, so I have to wonder if maybe they were really trying to find information on somebody else (e.g. to keep someone out of the US, or take them into custody on arrival, because they'd interacted with him).

- Air Canada is ending four seasonal routes to the American sunbelt early due to fuel prices. They currently still plan to reopen the routes on schedule in the fall, but we'll have to see how that goes.

- Manitoba has declared a public health emergency due to the high incidence of HIV in the province. The infection rate is 19.5 cases per 100,000 residents, compared to the national average of 5.5, according to chief medical officer of health Dr. Brent Roussin. He says that part of the purpose of the declaration is as an "awareness tool", however it does open more options for testing. 

- Meta is threatening to cut New Mexico off from Facebook and Instagram if prosecutors in an upcoming trial for "public nuisance" get what they are requesting. The company has already been hit with $375 million in civil penalties after it came out that they knowingly harmed kids' mental health and failed to report sexual exploitation of children that occurred on their platforms. In the nuisance trial, the prosecution is asking for the court to order the company to not allow sexual exploitation of kids, not make their apps addictive, and improve age verification. Meta claims that complying with this will be unfeasible and that they'll have no choice to leave. I do hope the court calls their bluff.

- For some unknown reason (at least none that OpenAI made public) several iterations of ChatGPT had a bizarre predilection for mentioning goblins without the subject having been brought up by the user. It also would insert unprompted references to various other creatures, both real and imaginary. This was eventually patched with a general instruction to "Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user’s query". If this actually was spontaneous, this is both impressive and unsettling. I wouldn't put it past the company to have set this up by design, though, just to get people talking.

- David Attenborough turns 100 today. 

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, 23 April 2026

- A journalist was killed by the IDF in what Lebanese officials are calling a "double tap" strike. Amal Khalil and a colleague were reporting on an Israeli attack on a vehicle, and were allegedly targeted by the Israelis when they tried to take cover in a building. The Israelis also allegedly fired on emergency workers who were trying to save her.

- Danielle Smith's government in Alberta has passed a motion to select a committee to draw up new constituency boundaries, having rejected the recommendation of the province's Electoral Boundaries Commission. The recommendation, passed by a majority of the commission (two NDP representatives and the commission's chair) drew the ire of Smith and the UCP because it increased the large cities' share of the constituencies, thus creating the risk that good sense, as opposed to mere common sense, might prevail in a future election. For the first time in the commission's history, the two dissenting members (both UCP appointees) presented their own alternative boundaries, which merged more than a dozen urban ridings with rural ones so as to dilute the urban vote.

- The captain of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 was struck on the head by a falling piece of instrumentation while climbing out of Las Vegas, suffering a concussion. The first officer took control of the aircraft and landed safely. In other aviation news, the crew of an Air Canada Jazz Embraer E175 had to take evasive action after a Republic Airways plane of the same type strayed into their path while performing a go-around.

- The US Department of Health and Human Services stopped the publication of a study on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. The study was going to be published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an in-house publication of the Centers for Disease Control, but the department pulled it citing vague concerns about the methodology.

- Virginia has passed legislation that ends the tax exemptions for pro-Confederate organizations, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society.

- A 73 year old man from the Rural Municipality of Dauphin, Manitoba (which surrounds the city of the same name) was charged with stealing a handgun at a gun show in Newfolden, Minnesota. He was released on bail and returned to Canada, but after the RCMP were notified of this, they searched his home and found a substantial cache of weapons, several of them stolen from the US.

- An Indian medical student in need of extra cash decided to try selling bikini photos of an AI-generated woman, but he wasn't getting much of a response until he asked Google's AI chatbot Gemini how to fix that and it suggested that he create a MAGA persona for his next attempt. The chatbot referred to this as a "cheat code", adding that "the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal". So he researched MAGA culture intensively and created an Instagram profile for a fictitious nurse who looked like actor Jennifer Lawrence and dispensed such words of "wisdom" as "If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported". This succeeded beyond his wildest dreams; the account racked up 10,000 subscribers within a month, and in no time he was making money hand over fist by selling softcore images, T-shirts, and the like. He says that he also experimented with creating another, more liberal persona, but that one didn't do nearly as well. He noted that "Democrats know that it’s AI slop, so they don’t engage as much", whereas "The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people—like, super dumb people. And they fall for it". The Instagram account was eventually taken down for failure to disclose AI-generated content; its creator has no regrets and is now focusing on his studies.

News roundup, 17 April 2026

- The continued war in Iran is causing serious concern for commercial aviation. Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency warns that Europe has "maybe six weeks or so [of] jet fuel left" and that flight cancellations may start to occur if the situation isn't resolved soon. And John Gradek of McGill University calls the situation the "worst crisis we've had in aviation, ever", pointing out that with 9/11 and the pandemic there was never an issue with supply.

- Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10 day ceasefire, with the possibility of extension if progress is made in the meantime. 

- Canada's federal government is considering acquiring more office space in order to accommodate the employees that they're forcing back to the office. Anything to prop up the commercial real estate sector I guess...

- Residents of Winnipeg's West Broadway neighbourhood are creating a community land trust which will buy up land and rent it out at affordable rates.

- The RCMP detachment in Thompson evidently did a rather substandard job of searching a teen they'd taken into custody in December 2024. It seems that they somehow overlooked the fact that he was carrying a gun; fortunately the firearm was not used and was later discovered hidden behind a toilet while the suspect was in court.

- Former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax killed his wife and then himself on Wednesday night. The two were going through what was describe as a "complicated" divorce.

- Some residents of Peguis First Nation may need to evacuate as early as this weekend due to flooding.

- The singer D4vd has been charged with murder following an investigation into the discovery of the remains of a teenage girl in a car he owned. Why it took as long as it did to press charges is an interesting question.

News roundup, 24 March 2026

- New York's LaGuardia Airport has reopened after Sunday's fatal collision between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck. The NTSB is investigating the accident; they are expected to scrutinize the role of the air traffic controller who cleared the truck onto an active runway as well as staffing levels that may have led to the controller being overworked.

- The funding shortfall for the Department of Homeland Security continues, with TSA workers still not receiving paycheques. Trump has insisted that any funding deal has to allow his "SAVE America Act", which complicates voter registration for many voters (significantly, those whose current legal name differs from that on their birth certificate, such as the majority of married women in the country) to move ahead. However, some Republicans in the Senate are getting antsy as more people's flights down to resorts get delayed or cancelled, fearing that said voters might turn on them.

- The European Union and Australia have signed a trade agreement. Negotiations on the agreement had been going on for eight years, but the rise of the Trump regime seems to have focused their minds on getting a deal.

- The Carney Liberals continue to lead the Conservatives by a significant margin. Of course, voters are a fickle lot, and this could change easily based on outside factors (e.g. high fuel prices resulting from the war in Iran).

- Amanda Lathlin, who represented The Pas-Kameesak in the Manitoba legislature for the NDP, has died at the age of 49. She was the first First Nations woman to serve in the legislature.

News roundup, 24 Dec 2025

 Just a note that I plan on this being the last blog post until the new year. That may change if something happens that seems worthy of interrupting the break, but otherwise I will resume posting in January. For now, though, here's the latest:

- A Perimeter Airlines Dash 8 preparing to take off from Winnipeg on a flight to Thompson via Manto Sipi and Shamattawa was stopped on a taxiway and evacuated on Monday after a flight attendant and ground control reported that the aircraft was on fire. There were no injuries in the evacuation, and the fire was limited to the right main landing gear assembly.

- The executive of Winnipeg's Granite Curling Club is requesting a judicial review of the city's plans to fight the ruling of the Manitoba Municipal Board regarding an affordable housing project planned for an adjacent city-owned parking lot. The city has received advice suggesting that the board's ruling can be ignored; the executive wants this reviewed by the courts. Notably, a substantial minority of the club's members are in favour of the housing project. If I had to guess, the members in support of the development probably live mostly in Wolseley, West Broadway, and Osborne Village and see homelessness every day as they walk or bike through their neighbourhoods, while those in opposition live in the suburbs and thus find homelessness less inconvenient for them than having to take the bus to the curling club.

- The waters around southwestern England are seeing a huge surge in the octopus population. The Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) accounts for most of the surge; this species is not unknown in British waters but has historically been more common in the Mediterranean. Since they prey on other molluscs as well as crustaceans, this may have implications for the shellfish industry if the "bloom" persists. Warmer winters due to climate change are the suspected reason, though maybe they're just the advance party for the Cthulhu as he gets ready to come out of the seabed and ravage the world. We'll have to see.

- The FBI and a New York prosecutor sought to interview the Andrew formerly known as Prince over possible connections to Peter Nygard. It's like all the rich scumbags out their know each other or something.

- A raid on a house in Winnipeg's North Point Douglas neighbourhood last Friday resulted in arrests and the seizure of two crossbows and a grenade as well as more conventional weapons including several firearms, brass knuckles, and a canister of bear spray. Two people are facing multiple charges for the weapons as well as methamphetamine, fentanyl, and lockpicks. Meanwhile in the suburban neighbourhood of Westwood, a cop apparently managed to lose their service weapon with 17 rounds of ammunition in it.

- Far right influencers Andrew Tate and Jake Paul both got soundly beaten in separate boxing matches. It's almost as if hypermasculine macho nonsense isn't enough to actually win a fight.

- A mall Santa in the Edmonton suburb of Sherwood Park was fired after allegedly slapping the hand of a child who tugged at his beard. I could certainly see the temptation, but really, all he needed to say was "No presents for you!"

- A driver in Salmon Arm, BC cut off a vehicle at high speed, flipping the bird while doing so. Unfortunately for him and his passengers, the vehicle turned out to be an unmarked police car, and when they were pulled over the police noticed some unstamped (i.e. black market) cigarettes in their car. Upon further investigation they found cannabis that was also from non-approved sources; they also found 29 grams of cocaine and a wad of cash.

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.

News roundup, 22 July 2025

- The evacuated town of Leaf Rapids, Manitoba is now surrounded on all sides by fire and winds are picking up. There are also concerns about Snow Lake and Garden Hill First Nation, as well as the generating stations at Kettle Rapids and Laurie River.

- Canada now has three times the number of confirmed measles cases as the US. In fact, Alberta on its own has more cases than the States - assuming of course that the Americans are accurately keeping track of their cases, which is far from clear.

- U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said that Canadians' boycotts of US travel and the removal of American liquor from stores are "mean and nasty". BC Premier David Eby sees this as a sign that these moves are having an effect.

- The FAA is investigating after a B-52 bomber doing a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair in Minot came dangerously close to colliding with a commercial jet that was preparing to land at the local airport.

- A 9 year old Montreal girl whose father had told police she had been abducted has been found dead, and her father has been charged with murdering her after inconsistencies were found in his account. 

- Far-right Christian rock musician (and failed Republican congressional candidate) Sean Feucht has a concert scheduled for the York Redoubt National Historic Site overlooking Halifax Harbour. Many locals are calling on Parks Canada to cancel the gig, saying that Feucht's extremist views are at odds with Parks Canada's guiding principles of inclusion and safety for all visitors.

- Police in the Quebec town of Deux-Montagnes have found a vehicle at the bottom of a river that belonged to a man reported missing in 1988. Divers reportedly found suspected human bones in the vehicle, though they have not been officially identified to date. 

News roundup, 9 July 2025

- Two single-engine Cessna aircraft collided in midair in the Rural Municipality of Hanover, Manitoba, just outside Steinbach. Both pilots were killed.

- Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, is condemning Greece, Italy, and France for allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to fly through their airspace when as signatories to the Rome Statute they are obligated to hand wanted war crimes suspects over to the International Criminal Court. One can't help but contrast this with the time when several countries, including France and Italy, refused to allow Bolivian president Evo Morales' plane into their airspace because they believed (wrongly) that Edward Snowden was aboard.

- Toyota is considering possible "adjustments" at their plants in Cambridge and Woodstock if US tariffs aren't scaled back. It's a pretty good bet that any such "adjustments" will involve job losses.

- The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, a federal agency that investigates accidents involving hazardous substances, is the latest agency on the Trump regime's chopping block.

- A series of widely circulated TikTok videos of a white guy who says he can't get a job at Tim Hortons because all those dirty brown people are taking all the jobs has been found to be an AI-generated hoax. TikTok has now taken them down, not because of the racially charged claims but because of the undisclosed use of AI. Ironically, AI is likely to be a much bigger threat to the job market than immigration ever was.

- A man drove the wrong way up to the terminal at Milan's Bergamo airport, abandoned his car, then ran through a security door and threw himself into an engine of an Airbus A319 that was waiting on the taxiway. As suicide methods go, this is an expensive one; I do hope that the airline and/or their insurers aren't so callous as to go after the estate for the cost of repairs to the engine, but I'd be surprised if they don't at least consider it.

News roundup, 4 July 2025

- The Trump regime is trying to shut down the Mauna Loa laboratory in Hawaii, which has been measuring atmospheric CO₂ concentration since the 1950s. Of course this is no doubt because he doesn't like the implications of what the laboratory is documenting. In a better world someone else (like, say, the UN) would step in and take over the lab's operations, but I suspect Trump would actively seek to dismantle it before that becomes a possibility.

- The US dollar has lost over 10% of its value when compared to those of its closest trading partners - the most dramatic loss of value since 1973. Trump's tariffs are one plausible reason. There are concerns about inflation, and even more so, concerns that foreign investors are avoiding the US. 

- California governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law two bills that make significant changes to the California Environmental Quality Act. While the existing law has drawn praise from some environmentalists, some provisions in it have been weaponized by NIMBYs, not only against affordable housing but even against clearly pro-environment measures like bike lanes. The amendments are intended to fix these issues; among other things they exempt infill housing from the Act's requirements for environmental review (since such housing is by its very nature not constructed on pristine land anyway).

- Russia bombarded Kyiv overnight with hundreds of drones and several larger missiles, injuring at least 23 people and causing widespread damage. This would seem to be a lot less indiscriminate than Ukraine's recent strikes on military factories; one could be forgiven for thinking that the real goal is to destroy Ukraine's viability as a country.

- Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, says that he was brutally beaten and subjected to various psychological torments while incarcerated at the CECOT facility there.

- Flights in Canada were heavily disrupted on Thursday as bomb threats were called into airports in six major cities. 

- Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham plans to seek a second term in next year's municipal elections. 

News roundup, 13 June 2025

- All but one of the 242 people aboard the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed in Ahmedabad have died. The survivor, a 40 year old man, was injured and dazed but walked away from the wreckage and up to an ambulance that took him to a hospital. In addition to most of the other passengers, at least five people on the ground are believed to have died when the aircraft slammed into the dining area of a medical college. One Canadian, a Mississauga dentist, is known to have been on the plane.

- California Senator Alex Padilla was dragged out of a press conference and handcuffed after attempting to ask a question of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

- Wab Kinew is now hinting at using emergency powers to force hotels to make rooms available for wildfire evacuees. 

- Cycling activists in Winnipeg made a makeshift separated bike lane on Wellington Crescent last Friday, one year to the day after cyclist Rob Jenner was killed by a speeding vehicle at that location. City staff quickly removed it, with Coun. Janice Lukes claiming that it posed a hazard; advocates are unimpressed with the contrast between how fast it was removed and how slowly the city is moving to create one properly.

- Two BC MLAs who were elected as Conservatives have formed a new party, One BC, apparently because the BC Conservatives aren't extreme enough for their liking.

- Environmentalists on both sides of the Canada-US border are concerned about two gigantic dairy projects moving forward in North Dakota, with a total of 37,500 head of cattle.

- A San Francisco-based robotics company has developed a countertop robot that it claims can make up to 100 pizzas an hour.

News roundup, 2 Jan 2025

- There was yet another aviation accident/incident on the weekend, when a de Havilland Dash 8, operated by PAL Airlines on behalf of Air Canada, landed at Halifax without its left main gear extended. Despite a fire breaking out, passengers were successfully evacuated without serious injury.

- The Jeju Air Boeing 737 that crashed at Muan International Airport in South Korea had passed a pre-flight inspection with no apparent issues prior to the fatal flight. The government has ordered that airline as well as another one, Aero K, to suspend operations while the matter is investigated; several safety violations not directly related to the crash have been found so far.

- There have been 16 major disease outbreaks on cruise ships in the last year; diseases include norovirus, salmonella, and pathogenic strains of E. coli. 

- Joe Biden has said that he could have won the election; he has, however, expressed regret for going along with advice to appoint Merrick Garland as attorney general. While I have my doubts that the first part is correct, Garland's failure to aggressively prosecute Trump seems worthy of regret.

- Finnish investigators have found a 100 km long seabed trail where the anchor of that Cook Islands-registered oil tanker seems to have been dragged, adding to suspicions that the undersea electrical cable to Estonia was the target of sabotage. Estonia has been trying to make its power grid independent of Russia, and many suspect that this didn't sit well with the Kremlin.

- Fifteen people are dead and around 30 injured following a vehicle attack on New Year's revellers in New Orleans on Wednesday morning. The driver, who was killed by police, was American-born, but a flag associated with ISIS/Daesh was found at the scene. Meanwhile in Las Vegas someone detonated a primitive device in a rented Cybertruck in front of the Trump Hotel in that city, killing the driver and injuring several other people; police are still investigating whether the two events are connected.

News roundup, 22 May 2024

- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is suspending its operations in the city of Rafah, saying that they do not have the supplies or security necessary. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that Israeli soldiers have been taking it upon themselves to tip off the settler mobs regarding the location of aid convoys.

- A major donor to the University of Manitoba is in high dudgeon about the Faculty of Medicine valedictorian's speech daring to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The donor, Ernest Rady, accuses the valedictorian of "hateful lies" and "calling for the destruction and elimination" of the Jewish people (to my knowledge he didn't, but when you donate $30 million to a university I guess they aren't going to question what you say). He's demanding, among other things, that the university edit the speech out of the official convocation video recording. The recording is apparently no longer on the university website, so I guess Rady's donation paid off.

- Justin Trudeau has come out with an expression of concern that the ICC is moving to prosecute both Likud and Hamas leaders. He says he's troubled by what he sees as the "sense of an equivalency" between the two. Of course no equivalency is being declared, merely that both Hamas and Likud leaders appear to meet the threshold for prosecution - but don't expect Trudeau to draw a distinction like that. The Biden administration, meanwhile, is moving to potentially sanction ICC officials in response.

- Evacuees from the Cranberry Portage area are returning to their communities, though not everyone has a home to return to. In Fort Nelson, BC a number of homes have been lost as well.

- The fact that a former (and possible future) US president is undergoing a criminal prosecution for the first time in history is making far less of an impact on the public consciousness than you might expect.

- Russia has begun conducting drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons; this was motivated in part by French President Emmanuel Macron musing about the possibility of sending European troops. Unfortunately, this illustrates very well why NATO powers can't send troops - the risk of escalation is just too great.

- A passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore was killed and several others injured when turbulence unexpectedly struck the flight. The victim was a 73 year old UK citizen. It's suspected that climate change is making turbulence worse; I guess it would be impolite to point out that it's pretty much certain that excessive air travel is making climate change worse, though.

- The Manitoba NDP has selected nurse Carla Compton to be the party's candidate in the Tuxedo byelection.

- Shop owners in Winnipeg are reporting that shoplifters are becoming "more brazen" and more likely to threaten store staff.

News roundup, 11 March 2024

- Israel's claim that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) included Hamas militants apparently is based partly on "confessions" made when agency employees were subjected to what the Brits like to call "in-depth interrogation". In response, Canada is restoring funding to the agency after previously suspending it based on Israel's allegations. Meanwhile the US airdrop of aid supplies to Gaza appears to have actually caused more civilian deaths, as the parachutes on the aid packages failed to open. 

- Pope Francis has raised more than a few eyebrows with his suggestion that Ukraine should have “the courage to raise the white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia. The most charitable interpretation is that he's viewing the conflict in pragmatic terms and has concluded that Ukraine can't win in the long run (which may well be true), but even by those criteria it's a questionable recommendation, since if Ukraine simply surrenders, rather than tying the Russians down in a long drawn-out guerilla conflict, Russia might possibly be motivated to have a go at someone else like Georgia or, much worse, the Baltic states. On the other hand, a drawn-out guerilla war would sap Russia's resources and make them less of a threat to the rest of the world (much as in the case of their attempt to conquer Afghanistan almost half a century ago). It'd be nice if there were a better role for Ukraine to play than as Europe's sacrificial anode, but that is the world we live in I guess.

- Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew remains popular with the electorate; a recent poll gives him a 63% approval rating, up six points since the last poll.

- Sarah Guillemard, the former Tory MLA for Fort Richmond, says that she was sexually assaulted by an "older former MLA" several years ago.

- Naheed Nenshi has made it official - he's off and running for the leadership of the Alberta NDP.

- At least 50 people were injured, 13 seriously enough to require hospitalization, when a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by the Chilean carrier LATAM Airlines suffered a sudden loss of altitude on the Sydney to Auckland leg of a flight to Santiago. The airline attributed the incident to "a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement", though no more details about the cause were made available.

- Mahikan Bus Lines, a partnership owned by several First Nations and based in The Pas, has purchased a bus terminal in Brandon that had been mothballed following Greyhound's departure from the Canadian market a few years ago. 

- Joe Biden made it through his State of the Union address, described by David Shribman as "the most important speech in his political career", without any major gaffes. The same cannot be said for the response to the speech from rookie Republican senator Katie Britt, which was ridiculed by friends and foes alike.

- Donald Trump has posted a bond in the E. Jean Carroll case in order to be able to appeal the decision, after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan refused his request for a delay.

- The number of unclaimed dead bodies is on the rise in Ontario. According to the province's Office of the Chief Coroner, 1,183 bodies went unclaimed last year, compared to 983 in 2022 and 438 in 2019.

Heathrow third runway gets go-ahead

Which is kind of odd; given that the UK's economy is almost as bad as that of the US, who the hell can afford to fly anyhow?

The transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, gave the go-ahead to a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow airport today as opponents promised a decade of legal protests and direct action.

Hoon brushed off concerns over the environmental impact of the decision to announce that a third runway should be built by 2020, adding an estimated 400 flights a day at the west London site and increasing annual passenger numbers through the airport from 66 million to around 82 million.

"Doing nothing will damage our economy and will have no impact whatsoever on climate change," he told the Commons.

However the government attached three conditions to the announcement, alongside confirmation that a company would be formed to build a high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham via Heathrow. The three conditions were:

• The third runway will operate at half its capacity when it opens in 2020, raising the total number of flights from 480,000 to 600,000, rather than the 702,000 intended

• Aircraft using the new runway will have to meet strict greenhouse gas emissions standards

• Total carbon emissions from UK aviation must fall below 2005 levels by 2050

"This gives us the toughest climate change regime for aviation anywhere in the world," said Hoon.

From the Guardian. The bit about requiring aircraft using the new runway meet "strict greenhouse gas emissions standard" is a bit odd. Will they refuse to allow half-empty aircraft to use the runway? Will they only allow turboprops to use it? Somehow I doubt it.