News roundup, 19 May 2026

- Two armed teenagers attacked a mosque in San Diego on Monday, killing three people before turning their weapons on themselves. This is being investigated as a hate crime; the mother of one of the shooters found a note that he had left behind, though the content of the note has not been made public.

- Global Affairs Canada is warning Canadians to be wary about travelling overseas this summer, due to the possibility of flight cancellations as a result of skyrocketing prices of jet fuel due to the war in Iran. They also warn that fuel shortages could disrupt access to products and services at some popular destinations. 

- A Canadian who was a passenger on the plague ship MV Hondius has tested positive for hantavirus. Three others are in isolation after showing symptoms consistent with the virus.

-  An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 131 people and may be spreading faster than originally thought.

- Manitoba is temporarily suspending the ban on sale of certain American alcoholic beverages, in order to sell off stock that expires in the fall.

- Keir Starmer is facing a direct challenge of his leadership of the Labour Party from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham is running in a byelection in the constituency of Makerfield, which was vacated by incumbent Josh Simons in order to make way for him.

- Thomas Massie, a Republican member of Congress from Kentucky, is facing a tough primary today as Donald Trump has aggressively endorsed his opponent. Massie drew the ire of Trump after pushing a bill to force the release of the Epstein files.

- A car crashed into a fireworks store in Toronto on Monday, starting what became a five-alarm fire. Nobody was in the vehicle by the time fire crews arrived.

News roundup, 30 June 2025

- The US Supreme Court has narrowed the scope of nationwide injunctions so that they only apply in the jurisdictions that brought the matter to court in the first place - severely limiting courts' abilities to stop the Trump regime's efforts to limit birthright citizenship (and potentially many other things).

- A man has been charged with mischief after allegedly vandalizing the National Holocaust Monument with red paint and the slogan "feed me" (apparently a reference to Israeli starvation tactics against the Palestinians). While anger at Israel for this is more than justified, it's hard to justify expressing said anger with an attack on a monument to a crime that was committed against the Jewish people before Israel even existed. The suspect is a lawyer who was employed by the City of Ottawa until his arrest, whereupon he was fired.

- The federal government has decided to cancel the digital services tax in the hope of appeasing the Trump regime sufficiently to get them to reopen negotiations on tariffs.

- A poll suggests that the majority of supporters of the Conservative party in Manitoba say that they would either definitely or probably vote to leave Canada. The "definitely or probably" group accounted for only 22% of Manitobans overall, but 52% of supporters of the provincial Conservatives and 56% of supporters of the federal party lean towards separatism. On the positive side, this will make it harder for the Cons to court non-extremists; on the downside, under our first past the post electoral system this will probably make it harder for reasonable alternatives to the Liberals (e.g. the NDP or Greens) to make any headway.

- Winnipeg's revamped bus network made its debut yesterday; whether it improves service for more people than it worsens it remains to be seen.

- Manitoba's Minister of Families, Nahanni Fontaine, had an unfortunate hot-mic moment when, at a graduation ceremony for indigenous women, she muttered to her assistant about the placement of the ASL interpreter in a way that could have been interpreted as a complaint about the very presence of said interpreter. Unfortunately her utterance was picked up by an APTN camera crew. Fontaine, whose responsibilities include people with disabilities, has apologized about the matter, though some members of the deaf community are not satisfied.

News roundup, 25 June 2024

- The Conservatives have captured the former Liberal stronghold of Toronto-St. Paul's in yesterday's byelection. This is likely to increase internal pressure on Justin Trudeau, but one recent poll has suggested that even getting rid of him may not help their electoral chances very much.

- American journalist Rachel Maddow fears that Donald Trump is not bluffing when he talks about building camps capable of holding millions of people and about "rooting out" the "enemy from within". Someone in this Reddit thread points out that Trump has already talked about putting the homeless and mentally ill into camps, and that fascists usually start with people who have very few allies before going after others.

- Julian Assange has made a plea deal, in which he has agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of violating the American espionage law and be sentenced to time served. He is expected to return to his native Australia afterwards.

- A 42 year old woman in Euless, Texas has been arrested after allegedly attempting to drown a 3 year old Palestinian child in an apartment complex pool following a racially charged confrontation with the girl's mother. She has been charged with attempted capital murder, injury to a child, and public intoxication.

- A fraudster who pleaded guilty to forging Norval Morrisseau paintings has said that a painting held by the Winnipeg Art Gallery is among the forgeries. The gallery has placed the painting into storage while they decide what do to next.

- An OPP officer who fatally ran over a man in Midland while speeding on a run to get coffee for another officer at a crime scene in 2020 has been found to have committed "discreditable conduct", however the OPP has declared that the misconduct was "not serious" and can be handled internally by the force. Somehow I doubt a courier, Amazon driver, or the like would get the same consideration.

- More than 1,100 people have died from the heat in the course of the haj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.