News roundup, 13 Nov 2025

- The US House of Representatives has passed the budget bill, bringing an end to the government shutdown after a record 43 days. Unfortunately the Democrats have precious little to show for the shutdown; the eight Democratic senators who broke ranks got nothing but a promise of a vote in the Senate on Obamacare subsidies at some unspecified point in the future. The party's more left-leaning members are furious; even a relative moderate like Gavin Newsom called the deal "pathetic" and a "surrender". One of the less obvious consequences of the shutdown is that economic data was not gathered, complicating policy decisions.

- In other House news, Democratic representative Adelita Grijalva has finally been sworn in, nearly two months after her byelection win, becoming the critical 218th signature on a petition that will eventually force a vote by the House on the release of the Epstein files. 

- Despite concerns about a mismatch between available vaccines and the flu strains in the wild, public health experts are still advising people to get the shot, saying that it still has some protective value even if it's not as effective as hoped.

- Keir Starmer has announced that Rolls-Royce will be building small modular reactors in Wales. The US ambassador, Warren Stephens, says that his country is "disappointed" by the decision, apparently because it won't be an American company doing the work. The labour union Unite is also disappointed, but for different reasons - they would prefer one large reactor to be built, which would be more labour intenstive than several small ones.

- Some attacks on Palestinian villages by West Bank settlers have been so egregious that even Israel's figurehead president thinks that it's going too far.

- A Hamilton man boarded an articulated bus while the driver left for a short break and took it on a joyride with passengers still on board. Nobody was injured, nor was the bus or anything else damaged; in fact the police as well as the passengers were quite impressed with his driving skills. Passengers didn't even realize that he wasn't supposed to be driving until he made a wrong turn somewhere. He was eventually arrested without incident.

- Passengers on a ferry between Dieppe, France and Newhaven, England were treated to an unusual show when the TV in the lounge, which was tuned to a Formula 1 race, went on to show a porno movie after the race ended. The crew quickly changed the channel when they realized what had happened; the ferry company has apologized and says that the channel has been removed from the list of available stations.

News roundup, 12 Nov 2025

- There are signs that the record-setting government shutdown in the US may be moving towards resolution. Eight centrist Democrats in the Senate voted with the Republicans in return for a vote on enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies at some unspecified time in the future, with no guarantees of Republican support for the subsidies. The House of Representatives is expected to approve this today. This does not sit well with the more left-leaning Democrats, though, who see it as a capitulation. Probably the fact that over 10,000 flights have been cancelled in the country due to the shortage of air traffic controllers is a factor; the US Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner, and presumably nobody wants to be the one blamed for ruining that.

- The European Union has proposed legislation that would, among other things, require satellite operators to address the space junk problem. The Americans are foaming at the mouth about this, saying that it would place "unacceptable regulatory burdens" on US companies and could threaten threaten technological advancement in space. Even if that last point is true, though, the threat to technological advancement from this is trivial compared to that posed by "Kessler syndrome"; hopefully the Europeans will stand their ground.

- Canada's top public servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council, met with the CEO of Saab recently. Now, a delegation including Sweden's king and numerous members of the country's business community are scheduled to visit next week, including a tour of aerospace plants. This is leading to speculation that the government may be considering a purchase of Gripen fighters. That would be a very interesting development; stay tuned.

- Canada has lost its status as a country free of measles transmission following over 5,000 recent cases. Of course the decline in vaccination is the reason. Meanwhile there are fears of a mismatch between the current flu vaccine and the strains spreading across the country, which could make for a very bad flu season this year.

- An event held at UC Berkeley by Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, was met with over 100 protesters, and there was at least one violent altercation between protesters and supporters. The US Department of Justice is investigating the university's preparations for the event.

- The US Travel Association is forecasting a 3.2% decline in tourism for this year, driven mostly by a decline in visits by Canadians. This is expected to cost the travel sector some $5.7 billion.

- Arizona representative-elect Adelita Grijalva is finally expected to be sworn in, potentially tipping the balance towards forcing a vote on the release of the Epstein files. 

News roundup, 10 Nov 2025

- A Montreal high school student was suspended after she posted "Fuck Israel" on her Instagram account in response to Israel's latest round of bombings in Gaza. The suspension was based on the English Montreal School Board's policy on "bullying"; the board's definition refers to the targeting of an individual or group of people, not a country, but board chair Mike Cohen says that the policy is applied based on the complainant's subjective feelings, saying that it applies "any time a student feels threatened by something another student does", and moreover can be considered "violence". Interestingly, there's a school of thought among some anti-racism activists that endorses this; ironically many of them would probably be opposed to these definitions being applied here.

- Some progress has been made towards ending the government shutdown in the US, now the longest in the country's history, after a deal was made in the Senate. The House of Representatives has yet to vote in favour of the deal, however. Democrats are divided; some (notably Elizabeth Warren) see it as a capitulation while others say this is a necessary evil in order to restore SNAP benefits. Meanwhile, states that have fully covered SNAP with the intention of reclaiming the money from the feds once the shutdown ends are being threatened by the regime. Presumably the Republicans don't want to have to explain to their supporters why these mostly blue states are able to keep the food stamps coming while red states can't.

- A conference held in Vancouver this past summer by an organization called Exiles of the Golden Age called for the formation of "Männerbunds", described as "disciplined groups of men" who could rebuild the world following a crisis. The conference drew the usual kinds of far right extremists; it also drew quite a few mixed martial arts coaches and gym owners, adding to fears that MMA could serve as a recruiting tool for the far right.

- Winnipeg police officer Elston Bostock has pleaded guilty to numerous charges, ranging from such mundane matters as voiding tickets in return for bribes to sharing a photo of a dead woman with other officers. Some defense lawyers are now poring over cases in which Bostock was involved, hoping to call his testimony into question.

- Winnipeg bus manufacturer New Flyer has reported a $140.9 million loss for the third quarter of this year. This is attributable to the company being charged tariffs on buses being shipped to the US as well as tariffs on raw materials being imported by its American facilities.

- The Qantas business class lounge at Melbourne airport was evacuated after a portable power bank spontaneously caught fire in the pocket of a passenger. The passenger was taken to hospital for burns; the lounge has since reopened.

- Police in Davenport, Iowa arrested a woman who was found hiding between walls of a business. The business owner had reported hearing noises coming from the ceiling or attic, and police eventually located her and took her into custody.

News roundup, 7 Nov 2025

- Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City has spooked Steve Bannon, who is warning the Republican Party against complacency in the face of this. Bannon was impressed with Mamdani's success in bringing out "low propensity voters", including immigrants. As for his prescribed solutions, he said that "this guy’s citizenship should be checked immediately"; no doubt there are already folks doing their darnedest to find something that could be used against someone who became a citizen at 7. It might be hard to find a legitimate basis for revoking his citizenship, but fortunately for them the MAGA crowd don't care about legitimacy. They'll doubtless be pulling out all the stops to win the midterms as well.

- The federal Conservatives are losing another caucus member. Matt Jeneroux, the MP for Edmonton Riverbend, has announced that he intends to resign his seat. There had been rumours that he was planning to defect to the Liberals; he denies this, and also denies that he was coerced into quitting. He won his suburban riding by a relatively narrow margin last spring; we'll have to see what happens in the byelection.

- Hundreds of flights have been cancelled across the US due to a shortage of air traffic controllers, who haven't been paid since the start of the government shutdown, which is now the longest in US history. There are currently over 400 vacancies for controllers, and that's not counting the higher propensity of the remaining ones to call in sick.

- The City of Winnipeg is looking at installing a temporary bike lane on the section of Wellington Crescent where a cyclist was killed in 2024. The speed limit would also be reduced to 40 km/h; given the short length of this stretch and the fact that rush hour is kind of slow there anyway, it is only expected to add another 5 seconds to the average commute. More info here; the city seeks feedback through a survey here.

- Peel Regional Police attended the scene of a fatal crash in Brampton last weekend in which an Audi T-boned a Honda. The Honda's driver was declared dead at the scene; the Audi's driver was arrested and both vehicles were towed to an impound yard. Then a woman was reported missing, with her last known location being identified by a rideshare app; since the dead driver was a rideshare driver, police searched the wreckage and found the remains of the second victim, which had somehow been missed in the initial inspection of the vehicle.

- A woman who was experiencing suicidal thoughts asked ChatGPT for advice. The chatbot provided suggestions about which methods would be most reliable, and offered help drafting a suicide note, but didn't offer any of those "help is available" referrals that you're supposed to get when you type these things into a search engine or the like (heck, I got one not long ago when I searched for Ozzy Osbourne's song "Suicide Solution" on YouTube). Interestingly, at one point it also started to correct itself, saying that it "mustn't and will not describe methods of a suicide", but it seems that particular restraining bolt wasn't as reliable as the developers had hoped. Fortunately she was sufficiently shaken by this that she showed the messages to her mother, and got actual help.

News roundup, 22 Oct 2025

- Arizona's attorney general is suing to try to force House Speaker Mike Johnson to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who was elected in a special election last month. Of course, the fact that Grijalva would be the key vote needed to force a full House vote on releasing the Epstein files is widely assumed to be the reason for not seating her. Johnson says he will not swear her in while the House is adjourned; the adjournment, of course, was also his choice. The lack of a codified deadline by which a member-elect has to be sworn in is an unfortunate oversight in the system; it's almost as if the system were designed by someone who thought of political disputes as simply disagreements among people of good will, and who couldn't imagine any true American wanting to undermine democracy. Reality seems to be running up against this model, though.

- A poll indicates that more Americans blame the Republicans than the Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown. Paradoxically, though, Donald Trump's personal approval rating is increasing at the same time. Of course, the poll question specifies Democrats or Republicans in Congress, and members of Congress tend not to get the same level of adulation from their supporters as an actual president. Additionally, the question could be skipped, so some people who skipped it may have been among those who said they approve of Trump. This does lend support to the idea that much of MAGA's success comes from Trump's own personality and that the movement might falter if they lost him somehow; on the other hand, by the time he's out of the picture American democracy might be so damaged that charisma is no longer needed to retain power and even the likes of JD Vance could hold office with no effective opposition.

- Part of the East Wing of the White House, which was added in 1902, is being demolished to make way for a huge ballroom that Trump wants to construct. Given what we know about the president's sense of style, the ballroom will probably have a very high cost to aesthetics ratio. The work being done is visible from the offices of the US Treasury, whose employees have been told not to share photos of the work, ostensibly for security reasons.

- The federal Liberals' house leader, Steve MacKinnon, is expressing concerns about the prospects of getting the upcoming budget through the House of Commons. The Liberals only have 169 seats in the House, with 172 constituting a majority; neither the NDP nor the Bloc have shown enough willingness to suport the budget for MacKinnon's comfort. My guess is that enough NDP MPs will be come down with "diplomatic flu" and be absent from the House on the day of the vote for the budget to pass; I don't see them wanting to hold an election right now given that they only have an interim leader right now.

- Daniel Naroditsky, an American grandmaster and chess streamer, has died suddenly at the age of 29. A cause of death has not been disclosed but Redditors are reading between the lines, citing in particular the unfounded accusations of cheating against Naroditsky by Russian grandmaster (and former world champion) Vladimir Kramnik.

- Marvin Winans, pastor of the Perfecting Church in Detroit, has gone viral in a way he probably didn't want after criticizing a parishioner for tithing "only" $1,235 instead of the $2,000 he had asked for. Unfortunately for him, the service was livestreamed, and the clip was copied to various video sharing sites.

News roundup, 7 Oct 2025

- South Korea's Ministry of National Defense is giving medals to 11 soldiers who refused unlawful orders when President Yoon Suk Yeol attempted to declare martial law last year. This has not been without controversy; some soldiers and online commenters fear that rewarding disobedience and encouraging soldiers to think for themselves will erode military discipline and even harm national security. I'd wager that most of those complaints come from Yoon's rightwing supporters. 

-  The control tower at the airport in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank was unstaffed Monday evening, after all the controllers scheduled for that shift called in sick. Of course, when controllers are being expected to work despite not getting paid due to the government shutdown, stuff like this is bound to happen. ATC operations for the airport were being handled out of San Diego.

- The home of South Carolina judge Diane Goodstein was destroyed by fire on Saturday; she was not home at the time of the fire but her husband, son, and one other relative were seriously injured. While arson has not been confirmed as the cause of the fire, Goodstein had received death threats in recent weeks after ruling against the federal Department of Justice last month. The DOJ had requested detailed personal information of over three million registered voters, ostensibly to prevent voter fraud; Goodstein had ruled that this violated privacy rights.

- California governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill that allows drivers in ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft to unionize. To placate the companies he also signed a measure that significantly cuts their insurance requirements.

- Newly appointed French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu, a member of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party, has resigned mere hours after being appointed, after concluding that he would be unable to win the confidence of the country's parliament. Left leaning parliamentarians are calling for Macron to appoint one of their number as prime minister; National Rally leader Marine Le Pen is calling for snap parliamentary elections and for Macron's resignation. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far-left La France Insoumise party is making the same demand as Le Pen.

- The Trump regime has cancelled nearly $8 billion in clean energy projects. This in itself is par for the course; one thing that stands out though is that all of the states affected voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Presumably the regime is aware that the projects are creating badly needed jobs in red states, and they're leery of angering those states until they've tightened their grip on power. It's reminiscent of mid-20th century Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis, who paved roads right up to the boundaries of constituencies that voted for his party while leaving them unpaved in places that voted for the opposition.

- An executive order from Trump earlier this year has targeted 100 million acres of forest for logging. This order was followed by a memo from agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins that specifically identifies the Wayne National Forest, Ohio's only national forest, as a site for lumber production. Over 80% of the forest has deemed suitable for logging, which could mean the end of the forest as we know it.

- A 17 year old boy has been charged with two counts of first degree murder after allegedly running over two teenage girls in New Jersey, one of whom he had been accused of stalking. Not mentioned in the CBS article are allegations that the accused, Vincent Battiloro, was a Charlie Kirk fan and may have been partially motivated by that victim's mocking of Kirk. I guess the folks at CBS don't want to open that can of worms.

News roundup, 1 Oct 2025

- The US has entered a government shutdown due to the failure to get a budget through Congress. Among other things, this means that air traffic controllers and TSA workers, who are considered "essential", will be expected to show up for work despite not getting paid; it is widely expected that many of them will call in sick and flights will be grounded. Other federal workers will simply be laid off until the budget crisis is resolved, and programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also referred to as "food stamps") are expected to run out of money. 

- Donald Trump is again expressing a desire to annex Canada. He had stopped talking about that for a while after the election of Mark Carney, but his mind has wandered back in that direction. Carney, for his part, is hoping to placate the Americans by lifting or reducing restrictions on US dairy sales in Canada.

- A bill before the North Carolina legislature will, if passed, prohibit overseas citizens from casting a ballot in that state. This is part of a broader push by the Republicans to disenfranchise overseas voters. Until 2016, the majority of overseas voters were military personnel stationed abroad, but now the majority are civilians; presumably they fear that people exposed to foreign media without the countervailing influence of the military might be too reasonable (read: anti-Trump) for comfort.

- Winnipeg police are investigating after a fire broke out at the constituency office of  Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine on Tuesday morning. This comes a week after the windows were smashed at the same office, and also follows several fires at the office of Housing Minister Bernadette Smith.

- South Africa's ambassador to France, Nathi Mthethwa, fell to his death from the 22nd floor of the four star Hyatt Hotel in Paris. One naturally wonders if maybe he annoyed the Russians in some way, however his wife had reported receiving a "disturbing message" from him and had reported him missing, which seems to suggest a more mundane (though no less tragic) explanation.

News roundup, 23 Dec 2024

- Justin Trudeau's new cabinet includes eight MPs who have never served in cabinet before. Given that Jagmeet Singh has decided that enough is enough and that the NDP is ready to vote non-confidence at the first opportunity, they may have little more to show for it than the right to say that they were once a cabinet minister.

- Manitoba's government hopes to have some movement on the homelessness file in the near future; they plan to have people moving from encampments into more stable housing within the first few months of 2025.

- The US narrowly averted a government shutdown after passing a budget at the last minute in the wee hours of Saturday morning with some provisions sought by the Democrats removed.

- Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates so as to deprive Trump of the pleasure of kicking off his second term with an orgy of executions.

- Ukraine's prosecution service says that at least 147 Ukrainian POWs have been executed by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Of those, 127 occurred just this year.

- In a rare bit of good news on the invasive species front, a population of the Asian Giant Hornet (often known as the "murder hornet") that got established in Washington State a few years ago has apparently been eradicated, as has another population in BC. Across the Atlantic, a population in England seems to have been contained as well. Of course, it's a lot easier to locate nests to eradicate when the target is a spectacular orange and black wasp that grows up to 5 cm long and is active out in the open during the daytime than it is with many invasive animals.

- A 31 year old employee of a manufacturer in Michigan is accused of stabbing his boss at a staff meeting.

News roundup, 19 Jan 2024

- The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is said to be investigating the Conservative Party's nomination in Oxford County, Ontario, in which Arpan Khanna was selected as the party's candidate last year. Khanna was subsequently elected in a byelection; he has ties to Pierre Poilievre's leadership campaign.

- The US Congress has kicked the can down the road to prevent a government shutdown, but this measure only lasts till March. The Republicans' real goal seems to be to tie any long term solution to cuts to Medicare and Social Security. They're also trying to tie any aid to Ukraine to immigration reform, which does not bode well for Ukraine.

- Electoral reform advocates are appealing the decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice which dismissed their attempt to have single member plurality (first past the post) elections declared unconstitutional.

- The Winnipeg Police Association has filed a grievance over the city's new Community Safety Team which is set to be deployed on Winnipeg Transit buses. I guess the cops are worried that they might look bad if unarmed security people are able to deescalate or detain people as effectively as a cop with a sidearm.

- Liberal MPs from Toronto are furious that Olivia Chow is calling the federal government out on its inadequate support for the city. Chow is asking for $250 million to cover the costs associated with housing immigrants and refugees who end up in the city; I guess the Liberals are sensitive about that topic given the overheated rhetoric that we've been seeing about immigration in recent months.

- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that a Palestinian state is essential for Israel's long-term security. He's probably not wrong, but Benjamin Netanyahu certainly does not agree, and I doubt the US will go beyond strong words in pushing for such a state.

- The Committee to Protect Journalists has ranked Israel the sixth worst country for imprisoning journalists, after China, Myanmar, Belarus, Russia and Vietnam, and just ahead of Iran.

- A midwife from Long Island has been accused of falsifying the vaccination records of about 1,500 kids in the state to enable them to attend school. Meanwhile there are outbreaks of measles happening in various parts of the US.

- The northern parts of Western Australia are facing a severe heatwave, with forecast temperatures being as high as 50°C in some places.