News roundup, 26 June 2024

- One thing that we see a lot of these days are analogies with the world wars of the last century. In particular, with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, some of the more hawkish folks out there are talking a lot about the leadup to WWII, and the popular Coles Notes interpretation of the Munich Conference of 1938. But the popular interpretation of the conference isn't necessarily correct, and as I've said a number of times before, even if it were it is not correct to apply the rules of the pre-nuclear age to the present day. It seems that Gwynne Dyer agrees with me on this matter.

- Some hopeful signs on the climate front - the production of electricity from geothermal energy got a big boost from a utility in California, Southern California Edison. The company is backing the construction of a 400 megawatt plant by Fervo Energy, which will produce enough power for around 400,000 homes. Besides producing power as consistently as coal, natural gas, or nuclear power, geothermal has an additional advantage in that many of the skills useful for drilling oil and gas wells are readily transferable to drilling wells for geothermal plants - making it a bit easier to contain the blind populist rage that results when one talks about cutting fossil fuel production. Also potentially good news - a biotech firm has received a significant investment to build a bioreactor for the production of synthetic meat, giving hope that economies of scale will kick in and eventually undercut conventional meat. Unfortunately these improvements probably come far too late for a lot of people, even in rich countries like the US - but hopefully not too late for a lot of other people.

- A former Liberal MP, Frank Baylis, says he will consider a run for the party leadership if Trudeau steps down. One unnamed MP has expressed the opinion that Baylis may not have the necessary experience, but maybe that's missing the point. While ousting Trudeau probably wouldn't get the party returned to office next year, it's possible that ditching Trudeau now might steal a little bit of the Tories' thunder, since Trudeau's persona is probably one of the Cons' biggest fundraising assets. Then, following a less devastating election than is currently expected, he could graciously step aside and make way for the likes of Mark Carney to take over the party and eventually bring it back to power.

- The City of Winnipeg is working on setting up a residential composting program as found in some other cities. Unfortunately the program isn't expected to be up and running until 2030; the city says that the time is needed to construct an industrial scale facility to process the material; they intend to find a private contractor to build and operate the facility. Apparently, though, other cities, such as Regina, make do with a big concrete pad, which could presumably be constructed a lot sooner than that. To be fair, though, Winnipeg is over 3 times as big as Regina and maybe that wouldn't be feasible with a larger amount of waste, especially if it were constructed at Brady or somewhere else close to residential neighbourhoods who might not appreciate the smell of an open-air facility.

- The woman who ran a crack ring in my neighbourhood and famously branded her crack by dying it pink has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

News roundup, 6 May 2024

- Three men, all Indian citizens, have been arrested in connection with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year. Police are investigating links with three other homicides as well, including the death of an 11 year old boy in Edmonton.

- The Israeli government has shut down all of Al Jazeera's operations in the country and raided its offices. They accuse the broadcaster of "incitement" and "working with Hamas", which the broadcaster denies. Notably, the BBC was not allowed to film the raid. The UN's Human Rights office as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists are condemning the decision. In other Israel news, many Bedouin citizens of that country are unable to build bomb shelters to protect themselves from Hamas-launched missiles - because even though they live in villages that predate the founding of Israel, the communities have never been officially recognized, and thus do not have the ability to issue building permits. So the Israeli state considers any shelters they build to be unauthorized structures, and demolishes them. Then they cry a few crocodile tears at best, or smile smugly at worst, when Bedouin citizens die in the attacks. Meanwhile the Globe and Mail's Marsha Lederman warns supporters of both sides of the confllict against reducing the matter to simple slogans.

- It's increasingly apparent that one of the biggest barriers to effective climate action is the agricultural sector. In the European Union, rioting farmers have been doing their damnedest to undermine efforts to make Europe a leader in sustainable agriculture. No wonder farmers have been downgraded, in the minds of a lot of people, from "salt of the Earth" to "necessary evil". On a related note, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has just signed a bill outlawing the sale of cultured meat in the state. He also  spouted conspiracy nonsense about the supposed global elite's plans to force everyone to eat it, even as he signed legislation taking away his own citizens' freedom to eat it if they so choose.

- A federal appeals court in the US has ruled that a lawsuit by an organization called Our Children’s Trust on behalf of 21 young Americans lacks standing and must be dismissed by the US district judge hearing the case. The judges who made the ruling are Trump appointees, but this was an "emergency" petition filed by the Biden administration's Justice Department, who claimed that the government could be "irreparably harmed" if it were forced to waste resources litigating the case.

- The Manitoba government will be using funds from an out-of-court settlement with the tobacco companies to pay for the building of a new headquarters for CancerCare.

- Following the report of a woman being punched in a Winnipeg grocery store by an employee who suspected her of shoplifting, other members of the community say that this is not the first time something like this has happened at that store - nor even the second.

- Use of the "Community Connections" service in the lobby of Winnipeg's Millennium library are on the increase, even as the city prepares to shut it down so that Evan Duncan's constituents don't have to look at poor people when they use the library.

- In something worthy of the Piranha Brothers, a man in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland suffered potentially life-altering injuries after having his hands nailed to a fence. This has apparently happened before; there have been no official statements regarding responsibilty but many locals suspect Loyalist paramilitaries.