News roundup, 9 Oct 2026

- The Alberta government is ordering the City of Edmonton to revert to its pre-2024 zoning bylaws and parking minimums. The city had overhauled its bylaws to allow multiplexes to be built in neighbourhoods that were formerly single-family exclusive. One might think that this is a matter that the citizens of Edmonton could decide on (and in fact already decided on when they elected the current mayor and council last year), but Danielle Smith doesn't care what Edmontonians want. No doubt she fears that if Edmonton and Calgary build more dense housing, they might grow in population by attracting urban cosmopolitan folks from elsewhere, and thus have a larger share of the provincial electorate. This would eventually leave the simple rural types outnumbered and thus make the UCP unelectable in its current form.

- An investigation by MPI and the City of Winnipeg has found that a large number of rideshare (Uber/Lyft/etc) drivers, who are required to have a higher level of insurance in order to register with the city, have been downgrading their coverage once registered so as to get out of paying the higher premiums. As many as 36 of them have gotten into accidents in a 1 year period, resulting in $189,000 in claims that MPI may now try to recover from the improperly insured drivers.

- The BC Conservatives have dropped Joachim Agou as their candidate in the constituency of Victoria-Beacon Hill following the discovery a series of offensive social media posts. These include one in which he praises a driver who ran his car into pro-Palestinian protesters, as well as several pro-Trump (and implicitly racist) posts. Unfortunately this will probably have little impact on the polls, which show the party significantly in the lead with only a couple of weeks before the election.

- Conservationists fear that a grove of blight-resistant American Chestnut trees in West Virginia could be cut down to make way for a data centre. There is a great deal of confusion and secrecy about the ownership of the land and the company's plans; activists fear clearing could start as early as next month.

News roundup,17 Aug 2026

- Negotiations with the US in an attempt to prevent the Trump regime from imposing severe tariffs this Wednesday are not going well. The US wants concessions on supply management for dairy products, something that Quebec has called a "red line", as well as on alcohol, something that is under provincial jurisdiction and which several provinces have said they will not relent on unless promised tariff relief for sectors of the economy relevant to them. The Americans also want preferential access to critical minerals, in part because these are needed to replenish weapons stockpiles that they've used up in the war against Iran. They further say that if the talks break down and they impose new tariffs, they will not tolerate retaliation. A former diplomat is predicting that this could permanently damage trade relations between the two countries, as whatever trust Canadians had for the US is fast evaporating.

- Tech companies in the US are having a hard time building AI data centres as fast as they want. It is expected that only half of the capacity scheduled to go online by 2028 is expected to actually be completed by that date. Public opposition is one factor, but even without that the companies are running into shortages of electricity, materials, and labour. Even with these barriers, though, spending on such facilities is up by 46% compared to the previous year, and is so high that it is contributing to inflation.

- Greenland Energy, an oil startup which despite its name is actually headquartered in Texas, has been rebuked by the Greenland government for moving equipment in such a way that they were suspected of planning to drill without authorization. The territory stopped issuing new licenses for exploration five years ago, but the company had acquired a smaller one that had obtained a license prior to the cutoff date. They still need further authorization to actually drill, however, and it is now expected that no such authorization will be issued until next year at the earliest. Several of the company's board members and partners have ties to the Trump regime; one wonders if they're trying to provoke a confrontation that could give the US a pretext to move militarily on the territory.

- The US moved to bail out the Japanese yen last month, by buying large amounts of the currency, but rather than using US dollars they dipped into their reserve of euros. While this in itself is not unprecedented, the difference today is that they did not notify the Europeans in advance as would have been the standard practice in normal times. The euro dropped by 4% against the yen as a result; while it has mostly recovered since, this does not help in rebuilding trust between the US and EU.

- Around 13% of credit cards in the US have balances that are overdue by 90 days or more. This is the highest delinquency rate since the "Great Recession" of 2007-2009.

- An Irish teenager on a family vacation in Greece was electrocuted while taking a shower, raising concerns about the safety of tourist accommodations in the country. The country also has a history of serving booze spiked with methanol; stuff like this ought to put a chill on tourism, but people's appetite to fly somewhere, anywhere, seems insatiable.

News roundup, 14 Aug 2026

- Count Binface came a distant second to Nigel Farage in the byelection held yesterday in the constituency of Clacton. The byelection was necessitated by Farage resigning as a political stunt; due to the boycott by serious parties there were some hopes that the satirical candidate could get enough protest votes to put him over the top, but in the end Farage secured just over 63% of the vote. Binface did get over 22,000 votes, or just under 27%, which is far more than he has received in any other campaign in which he's run. It seems, though, that the people of Clacton are too far gone to understand what they're voting for.

- Several Conservative MPs are apparently privately expressing concerns about holding onto their seats if Pierre Poilievre remains leader. And Larry Brock, the MP for Brantford-Brant South, is resigning, triggering a byelection that will be an interesting test for the party in a riding they've held since 2008.

- The Ford government in Ontario is resisting calls for a moratorium on large data centres. Ford does say that the centres will need to cover the full cost of their electricity usage, but Green Party leader Mike Schreiner is calling for a ban on all AI data centres until more is known about their impact. In contrast, New York State enacted a ban last month on data centres requiring over 50 megawatts of electricity, and will be reviewing tax incentives previously given for such facilities. Maine's legislature also passed such a ban earlier this year but it was vetoed by the governor.

- The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party spent nearly $3,000 to send someone to a resort in Jamaica to keep an eye on Bonnie Crombie, who was the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party at the time. Doug Ford claims to have had no knowledge of the spying when it was occurring.

- Three bouncers have been charged with assault after Winnipeg Sea Bears player Teddy Allen was severely beaten at a nightclub. The police statement doesn't identify the club, saying merely that it was "on Main Street between Portage and William Avenues" but it's generally known to be the Palamino Club. The folks on Reddit say that bouncers there have long had a reputation for excessive force, but it seems beating up a local sports star was going too far.

News roundup, 23 July 2026

- The new tariffs threatened by the Trump regime do not hit all goods, and hence all provinces, equally. BC is expected to get the worst of it due to tariffs on wood and paper; meanwhile oil and potash aren't affected, meaning Alberta and Saskatchewan get off easy. This may be because US need for those goods is high, and/or maybe because they want to make things easier for the governments of those provinces due to their friendliness to the regime. At the Council of the Federation in Charlottetown, some premiers are suggesting that Canada should respond by blocking or taxing exports of those products, but that's a non-starter with Danielle Smith and Scott Moe. I don't think there's any reason, in principle, that the feds couldn't impose such restrictions anyway, but it might be politically difficult.

- Donald Trump is threatening to target Iran's bridges and power plants if that country attacks any more ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, meanwhile, has been hitting Amazon data centres in Bahrain and the UAE.

- The US has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia that will allow that country to develop nuclear power capability, potentially including uranium enrichment (the exact details of the agreement haven't been made public.

- Prosecutors in the UK are going ahead with criminal contempt charges against a lawyer who represented pro-Palestinian protesters in court. Rajiv Menon is accused of "misleading the jury" and ignoring instructions from the judge by advising them of their right to "give their verdict according to their convictions". This led to the acquittal of several protestors, though they were later convicted in a retrial.

- The planning commission for the Bay Area city of Hayward approved a gigantic data centre without input from city council. This was entirely legal, as data centres aren't specifically named in the city's code and are thus treated as generic office buildings, which do not require approval from council. The city has now belatedly created a new land use category specifically for data centres, requiring more oversight than offices. Makes sense; if nothing else other cities could learn from their experience and take measures before it becomes a problem.

- The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts has just approved major reforms to land-use restrictions, in order to allow more housing to be built. It's naturally provoking a backlash from the NIMBY crowd, of course, but the city is undaunted so far. Meanwhile, across the border, the other Cambridge is rejecting a recommendation from its own staff to allow the construction of a 16 storey mixed-use building in the Preston area of the city (the original plans called for 40 storeys). It would make perfect sense to build there; as some people in this Reddit thread point out, this is right next to where the planned extension of the LRT would go - but then Cambridge's mayor isn't keen on the LRT either.

News roundup, 20 July 2026

- Dutch activists threw water balloons filled with vinegar, salt, hydrogen peroxide, and acrylic paint at the foundations of a data centre under construction in Amsterdam. The mixture is intended to degrade the concrete and speed up the corrosion of the rebar. How effective this will be remains to be seen. While the city has legislation to restrict "hyperscale" data centres, this one exploited a loophole in the legislation by building it as three smaller centres.

- The BC Conservative Party has hired a member of the separatist Republican Party of Alberta as their director of operations, as well as a writer who once worked for a website called Russia Insider as their caucus communications director. They aren't even trying to hide it, it seems; they're just counting on enough people to be sufficiently angry with the government that they don't pay attention who they vote for as long as they're voting against those in power.

- A 37 year old woman has been charged with assaulting another woman with her car in an Edmonton parking lot. The victim was wearing a hijab and the suspect allegedly subjected her to racist abuse before hitting her with the vehicle; fortunately it appears that the victim was not seriously injured.

- While homelessness is a crisis across North America (and probably in most places around the world), Denver has made some progress in threading the needle between helping people and satisfying other residents. The city has created around a thousand shelter spaces, which crucially provide support as well as housing. On the other hand, once an encampment is cleared from an area they take measures to ensure no new encampments set up in that location, which some activists aren't comfortable with. More substantively, there may be limits to the success of the program unless more permanent housing can be made available.

- L7 bassist Jennifer Finch has died at the age of 59. 

- A 72 year old Winnipeg man has been charged with theft and extortion after he allegedly stole his neighbour's cat and held it for ransom. The cat was recovered by police and returned safely.

- Country singer Charley Crockett had second thoughts about his choice of opening act for a couple of shows on his current tour. Twin Temple, described by Loudwire as an "openly satanic doo-wop revival act", were dropped from the tour, and Crockett has since deactivated most of his social media. It's not like Twin Temple are particularly subtle about the matter; anyone checking out their website or their songs should be able to tell. They don't seem to be suffering for it; in fact Jack White has just invited them to open for him in LA later this year. It's also something of a testament to the weirdness of our times that the phrase "openly satanic doo-wop revival act" actually refers to a real-world entity.

News roundup, 30 June 2026

- Federal heritage minister Marc Miller is bothered by the fact that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights' exhibit on the Nakba does not describe Hamas as a terrorist group. Perhaps he needs to do some brushing up on his history; the Nakba took place in 1948 and Hamas was not founded until 1987. I guess Miller is more concerned about virtue signalling to those who might donate to his campaign (or to his opponents) than actual history.

- Politicians in the US are starting to lose elections over their support of AI data centres. The president of Utah's state senate and a county commissioner were defeated in primaries; both believe that this resulted from their support of Stratos, a large data centre planned for near Great Salt Lake that was backed by Dragon's Den and Shark Tank investor (and former Conservative leadership candidate) Kevin O'Leary.

- The attorneys general of 17 Republican-dominated states are suing California over that state's Plastic Act. The legislation requires an immediate 25% reduction in single use plastics for packaging and requires all packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. The Republican AGs claim that California's law will significantly increase product prices in their own states, and that this constitutes a violation of the US Constitution's "Commerce Clause".

- A data breach at Crime Stoppers has aroused fears that the lives of informants could be at risk. The breach occurred several months ago; the Canadian branch of the organization says that it's unsure if tipsters' info was part of the breach, but there are allegations that this information has been offered for sale on the dark web. Canadian Crime Stoppers Association president David Forster declined an interview and told board members across the country to do the same. Reports from the US say that decades worth of information was stolen, and Portland's police service is warning people not to submit tips using the organization's platform while the matter is being investigated.

- Manitoba's Hanover School Division, which covers Steinbach and surrounding area, has introduced a new policy on student activism that it claims is meant to support "age-appropriate activism". Given that the division keeps getting hauled into the minister's office over possible censorship, this bears close watching.

- Courts are seeing an increase in the use of phony, AI-generated case law. This happens most often with people representing themselves, but actual lawyers have been taken in by this as well.

News roundup, 9 June 2026

- Around 150 people in the Swan Valley area of western Manitoba were evacuated due to flash flooding after the area got 72 millimetres of rain in only a few hours on Sunday night. 

- A BC man could be facing up to 20 years in a Georgian prison after a border search turned up a bottle of Adderall. Simon Rovensky had been prescribed the amphetamine cocktail to treat ADHD, and had brought along a receipt from when he had purchased the drug, but that wasn't enough for the authorities, and his family apparently weren't given enough time to send supporting documentation before a court hearing. He is set to be sentenced later this month.

- A Palau-flagged oil tanker, the MT Marivex, was attacked by an American fighter off the coast of Oman. Fortunately the crew, all Indian nationals, were successfully rescued by Omani forces, and there was no oil in the ship's tanks at the time of the attack. The US says the ship was attacked for attempting to sail to an Iranian port.

- China has built an undersea data centre off the coast of Shanghai. Besides using wind power to generate the 24 megawatts of power it consumes, it is cooled by seawater. If you're going to have AI data centres that's probably the least bad way of doing it, but I suspect the heat it generates will be considerable and could have a significant effect on the local ecology.

- A former Air Canada pilot is facing fraud charges after it was discovered that he did not have the proper license to serve as a captain, which he did for several months before getting caught.

- Over 300 migrants attempting to make their way to the UK were kidnapped in Libya last summer and threatened with having kidneys harvested if their families didn't pay up. Apparently some of them did end up having a kidney removed, and at least one has died.

- A Somali soccer referee who was set to officiate at the World Cup has been dropped after the US denied him entry. Omar Artan had been honoured as Referee of the Year by the Confederation of African Football last year, but we all know what Donald Trump thinks of Somalis.

News roundup, 15 May 2026

- Some municipalities in BC, including the City of Powell River, the Village of Pemberton, and the Resort Municipality of Whistler, are imposing their own campfire bans in response to the BC Wildfire Service lifting the general ban for the south coast for the Victoria Day weekend. The fact that the province lifted the ban when local officials don't think it's wet enough to lift the ban adds to my suspicions that the Eby government has been so spooked by recent polls that they're trying to avoid anything that populists might try to rally around. This is a fool's errand, of course; populists can always find something else, legitimate or otherwise, to rouse the rabble against the government.

- The student health clinic at McGill University has said that they will not prescribe gender transition hormones to American exchange students under the age of 19 for fear of repercussions from the Trump regime. They say they are doing this based on legal advice from the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA); the most credible fear they had was about difficulty crossing the border. That said, if you care more about being able to keep vacationing in Florida than about helping your patients, maybe you shouldn't be in the business.

- Energy ministers in every Australian state except one are calling for data centres to be forced to invest in enough wind and solar energy to completely cover their energy consumption. The exception, not surprisingly, is Queensland, which is kind of the Alberta of the southern hemisphere (in terms of political culture; the weather is nicer though).

- Hotels in the US are not seeing the expected rise in bookings for the World Cup that they were hoping for. This is not a big surprise; most Americans don't like soccer (they like to see bigger numbers on the scoreboard) and most foreigners don't want to visit the US right now.

- A recent survey of adults in the US found that 7.3% of respondents had thought about shooting somebody at some point in their lives, and 3.3% had experienced such thoughts in the last year. 

- A man has been arrested in Panama after more than three decades on the lam as the suspect in the murder of Rodney Barger, aka Rawn Beauty, lead singer of punk rock band Cold as Life. He is accused of shooting Barger in the head while he slept. The motive is unclear.

- Most strippers in Montreal depend entirely on tips for their income; strip clubs generally don't actually pay their dancers, and in fact some actually charge them for the "privilege" of working there. This may be about to change though; strippers and other sex workers in the city are planning to go on strike - and just in time for the Grand Prix. I imagine there will be a lot of disgruntled Formula 1 fans in the city that weekend.

News roundup, 13 May 2026

- A man walked onto an active runway at Denver International Airport and into the path of a Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 on its takeoff roll in an apparent suicide. Unfortunately he was sucked into one of the engines. The cockpit and cabin immediately filled with smoke, and the pilots successfully aborted the takeoff. The ensuing evacuation of the 231 passengers and crew, however, was chaotic; not only were passengers wasting time trying to get their stuff, but three passengers jumped onto a slide before it had properly inflated, putting it out of commission (and hopefully injuring themselves in the process). Juan Browne (blancolirio), besides praising the pilots and strongly condemning the behaviour of the passengers, reports that the entire fan on the front of that engine was gone, and raises the possibility that this might have released oil that could have gone into the bleed air system, causing the smoke issue. If so it's fortunate that the crew were able to abort the takeoff; exposure to that stuff is potentially fatal.

- Another passenger from that Dutch plague ship in the Atlantic appears to be close to death. The passenger, a French woman, is said to be in the "final stage of supportive care"; the outbreak has already killed three people. The ship has now been fully evacuated and is on its way back to the Netherlands to be disinfected.

- A report the from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) concludes that the cost of battery storage has dropped by 90% since 2010, making solar and wind cost competitive with fossil fuels. Parts of Europe are already seeing drops in their electricity prices as a result.

- Residents of the Rural Municipality of Ritchot, Manitoba are up in arms about plans from a Las Vegas based company, Jet.AI, in collaboration with Vancouver-based Consensus Core, to build a data centre north of the community of Île des Chênes. The provincial government is aware of the plan but has not yet made a decision on the matter.

- A 35 year old fugitive from Greenbriar, Tennessee was arrested in Winnipeg on child sex abuse charges. The man had somehow slipped across the border, possibly through farm fields, and potentially carrying several firearms, although the guns weren't in his possession when he was caught. He was captured after getting caught speeding.

- A Winnipeg funeral home owner, who has announced his intention to run for mayor, has been accused of sexual harassment by a former employee. Mike Vogiatzakis of Voyage Funeral Homes claims that this was a disgruntled employee who only made the allegations after being fired, but then he would, wouldn't he. More info about the allegations may be found here. Even if the claims are false, he's someone that thoughtful voters will hopefully stay far away from; he's already been spreading far-right conspiracy theories about the "15 minute city", and folks here allege that he has gang connections as well.

- South Korea's military is looking at using robots in some non-combat roles (e.g. reconnaissance and logistics) to make up for declining enlistment due to the country's low birthrate. 

News roundup, 12 May 2026

- Eileen Wang, the mayor of the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia, has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to acting as an "illegal foreign agent" of China. This apparently involved the creation of a news website for the Chinese community, which carried the Chinese state's version of news and current affairs. That in itself doesn't sound like a crime, however the US alleges that she and her co-conspirator were posting specific articles requested by the Chinese government and reporting back with screenshots and hit counts, all without disclosing that she was doing so at the request of China. That definitely sounds a bit more suspect, as does the accusation that her co-conspirator is accused of "cultivating" her in the hope of strengthening China's influence in California. That said, under other circumstances I'd be suspicious of the truth to these claims; I could easily see the Trump regime manufacturing these kind of charges against a political enemy - but her plea agreement casts some doubt on that possibility.

- Winnipeg's Siloam Mission is laying off 16 staff and reducing hours at its drop-in space beginning in June. The organization is caught in a pinch between increased homelessness (meaning more demands for their services) and a decline in donations (which has been observed across the charitable sector in Canada). The organization is also riven with internal turmoil following the hiring of new CEO Sonia Prevost-Derbecker; she began her term with an organizational review to get to the bottom of the financial difficulties, but was immediately hit with accusations of making derogatory comments about indigenous people (despite being indigenous herself). Not being privy to any internal discussions, I can't say who's to blame - but in any case, as a friend of mine who used to work there says, we can expect the downtown to look worse than usual this summer.

- The backlash against the use of existing social housing stock to house previously homeless people continues. The Your Way Home program, introduced by housing minister Bernadette Smith, ultimately aims to use 20% of Manitoba Housing's stock for this purpose. Several longtime residents of Manitoba Housing buildings are up in arms - but it's worth noting that the biggest noisemaker quoted in the article lives in a building that's not part of the program. More reasonably, Erika Wiebe of the Right To Housing Coalition favours keeping 55+ buildings out of the program and improving support for residents as well as security.

- Ontario's education minister Paul Calandra is ordering school boards to make sure that graduation ceremonies remain apolitical. This follows an incident last year when an Ottawa student included pro-Palestinian remarks in her graduation speech. Calandra warns that he "will not hesitate to consider every tool available to me in the Education Act"; this comes not long after the passage of new legislation that makes it easier for the province to take over school boards.

- A new issue related to data centres has emerged - noise pollution. For one thing, many of these centres generate their own power using gas turbines, which produce a sound similar to a jet engine (since that's essentially what they are). There are also reports of low-frequency vibrations (infrasound) near these centres, which aren't audible to humans but have been associated with physiological effects like headaches and nausea.

- Country singer (and fourth-generation Albertan) Corb Lund is getting called a "woke bastard" for his stance on coal mining in the Rockies. Danielle Smith's government is lifting a moratorium on mining on the eastern slopes that was imposed by Peter Lougheed's government half a century ago and was accepted as necessary by all parties until Smith came along; Lund is among those gathering signatures to force a referendum on the matter.

News roundup, 30 April 2026

- The price of oil has reached its highest level since 2022 following reports that the US is considering new attacks on Iran and that the country's ports could be blockaded for months.

- The United Arab Emirates has announced that they will be withdrawing from OPEC as of tomorrow. While this will probably not have an immediate impact on oil prices (UAE oil still has to pass through the Strait of Hormuz) it will be perceived as a win for Trump, who has railed against OPEC for a long time.

- Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have issued travel advisories for the US in the leadup to the World Cup.

- Buying a business jet to fly himself around in is far from the worst thing Doug Ford has done in terms of actual impacts on Ontario and its people (just consider all the measures he's taken against sensible urbanist policies by municipal governments, for instance), but it seems to be the one thing that could cause problems for his reelection - his party is now in a statistical tie with the Liberals according to a recent poll. That said, the jet purchase was bad enough, especially given that the aircraft wouldn't have been able to use small airports anyway.

- Bell Canada is opening a data centre in the Centreport complex in Rosser, Manitoba, just outside Winnipeg. While this is in keeping with an announcement last fall from the premier that more data centres would be built to support "sovereign AI", many are questioning whether this is the best use of the 5.5 MW of electricity it requires (enough to power thousands of homes).

- Former Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson, who has come under fire for her, er, "alternative" understanding of the residential school system, was escorted off the University of Lethbridge campus and fined $600 for trespassing. Widdowson had been the subject of a trespass notice by the university since February when she attempted to hold an unsanctioned event on campus that drew a large number of protesters.

News roundup, 20 April 2026

- The US captured an Iranian container ship that was planning to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has called the seizure "piracy" and has announced that they will not be going back to the negotiating table any time soon.

- Mark Carney has recognized that Canada's trade ties to the US have become weaknesses, due to the erratic nature of that country's leadership in these times. This follows an outburst by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in response to Canada's trade breakthroughs with China.

- To the surprise of few, the BBC has found that there is often a large spike in securities trading activity in the leadup to major announcements by Donald Trump. This might seem pretty trivial compared to some of Trump's crimes, of course.

- The uncontrolled building of data centres is becoming a potential issue in the US midterms as opposition grows to the impacts of these centres on energy prices, water use, and other matters. No doubt Silicon Valley will be pulling out all the stops to nip this in the bud, though.

- Two First Nations in Manitoba's Interlake region have declared states of emergency due to impending flooding. Peguis and Fisher River are both anticipating evacuations in the aftermath of a late snowstorm that affected the region. Peguis in particular has been calling for federal assistance towards a permanent solution for years, to no avail. Flooding is also causing disruptions in northeastern Ontario and in Gatineau, Quebec.

- A Chinese-born artist who emigrated to the US in 2022 was arrested while visiting family back in China in 2024 on charges of "insulting revolutionary heroes and martyrs". This is in response to works he exhibited back in 2009 that satirized Mao Zedong.

- A couple from Kelowna, BC were hit with a huge bill by Enterprise Rent-A-Car for allegedly damaging their rental vehicle by filling it up with diesel. The thing is, they had kept receipts from the gas station, and even taken a photo of the gas pump, showing that it doesn't even dispense diesel - and yet the company still sent them a bill for $9,500. Evidence was also provided that the fuel filler could not accommodate the larger nozzles from diesel pumps. The company only backed down after they hired a lawyer and the CBC started asking the company questions. I can confirm that this sort of thing isn't that uncommon in the car rental business; a number of years ago I had a disconcerting experience with a different company when I rented a truck and then was sent a bill claiming that I'd racked up a huge amount of mileage on the vehicle. Fortunately they immediately reversed this when I called them and pointed out that there was no way I could have driven thousands of kilometres in the couple of hours that the truck was in my possession. One is left with the impression, though, that these companies like to throw something at the wall and see if it sticks every so often.

News roundup, 9 April 2026

- An Israeli bombardment of Lebanon on Wednesday has killed over 250 people and injured hundreds more. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, says that the inclusion of Lebanon in the ceasefire with the US is essential, but JD Vance is urging Iran to throw Lebanon under the bus. Meanwhile, uncertainty arising from the conflict is driving banks to raise their lending rates, which could have significant implications for those who have to renew their mortgages soon.

- Marilyn Gladu, until now the Conservative MP for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong, has become the latest to cross the floor and join Mark Carney's Liberals. This brings the Liberals up to 172 seats, one short of a majority.

- A study at Tufts University on how to increase election turnout among students has been halted by a federal order, ostensibly because the feds are concerned about the privacy of students. I think we all know the real reason though.

- The Manitoba government is warning that the flood situation in the Interlake region could be severe this spring, possibly as bad as 2014 when much of Peguis First Nation had to be evacuated. In other parts of the province, conditions are drier - so dry, in fact, that people are already getting anxious about the coming wildfire season.

- A referendum in the Milwaukee suburb of Port Washington to restrict the construction of data centres in the city has passed by a large margin. It will require any future data centres to win the approval of voters. A regional business organization is fighting the initiative in court, fearing that it will set a precedent for other forms of development.

- Danhao Wang, a semiconductor researcher at the University of Michigan, has died after falling from a campus building, apparently intentionally. This came shortly after he was subjected to "hostile questioning" by authorities. Wang is not the first Chinese-born researcher to die in this manner recently; Jane Wu of Northwestern University killed herself in 2024 while under investigation by federal authorities.