News roundup, 11 June 2025

- The Trump regime has ordered 700 US Marines to be deployed in California, without even bothering to invoke the Insurrection Act which could theoretically, maybe, provide some limited justification for deploying the military against residents of the homeland. It's almost as if they want to rub protesters' faces in the fact that what the Constitution and other laws say no longer matters.

- Ever since his highly visible public spat with Donald Trump a few days ago, Elon Musk has been doing his darnedest to try to get back into the president's good graces. Arwa Mahdawi was hinting at the possibility of this as soon as it happened. Presumably he's only belatedly realizing that he's not going to win such a fight, and that if anyone can deprive him of what remains of his wealth and influence, it's Trump. So he's going to see if behaving himself like a good little oligarch can save him.

- Canada has joined the UK, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand in imposing sanctions against two Israeli cabinet ministers, prohibiting them from traveling to Canada or doing business with Canadian companies. The ministers in question both have a clear track record of inflammatory statements, inciting violence by West Bank settlers. NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson is calling for the sanctions to be applied to the entire cabinet, including Netanyahu. The US, of course, is crying foul.

- Chris Wiebe, a former vice-president of the Manitoba NDP (and the party's candidate in Dawson Trail in the last election) has quit the party in protest of what he sees as the lack of a climate change plan. The last straw seems to have been Premier Kinew's openness to shipping oil through Hudson Bay.

- Instances of assault and harassment at Winnipeg's Millennium Library have dramatically increased in the first three months of 2025. Probably not coincidentally, the Community Connections service hub in the lobby of the library closed at the end of last year when funding ran out, something omitted in the CTV article on the matter. Alarmingly, the Millennium saw a 7.5 decrease in attendance even as the library system across the city saw a slight increase.

- Alberta now has over 800 cases of measles, a figure that doctors expect to worsen once people start traveling more this summer. Meanwhile in the US, RFK Jr. has dismissed every member of a CDC committee on vaccines, planning to replace them with his flunkies.

- Alberta is abandoning their boycott of US alcohol and gambling machines. Because nobody does vice like the Americans, I guess. Other provinces (even Ontario!) are standing firm, though.

- Home ownership among young adults in Canada surged during the intense phase of the pandemic. The reason, of course, is Mummy and Daddy helping pay for houses for their kids during times of record low interest rates. Of course, not all kids have an equal crack at this sort of thing, leading to fears of a new "landed aristocracy" forming.

- People are going to AI chatbots such as ChatGPT for advice on mental health. This is going about as well as you'd expect. Meanwhile a study by Apple has thrown cold water on the idea that "large reasoning models" are actually good at reasoning when dealing with difficult problems. This last point could be good news, since it might reduce the risk that AIs will be able to replace us as effectively as some people fear. On the other hand, it also limits their ability to help us get out of the mess we've made of the world (not that I ever thought the scenario in "The Evitable Conflict" was realistic; the idea of super smart AIs that are still Three Laws compliant seems like more than one could reasonably hope for).

- A teenager sustained serious injuries when he was attacked with a sword by a fellow student at a high school in Brandon, Manitoba.

News roundup, 5 May 2025

- Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail argues that the Conservatives would be well-advised to ditch Pierre Poilievre based solely on his lack of likeability, but that they are unlikely to do so. I agree with Martin on both counts, but he pulls his punches somewhat on the second part - the only reason he gives for the party not being willing to select a new leader is that there's no obvious successor waiting in the wings. That may well be true, but I think there's a deeper reason, even if it's impolite to say so - the very things that make Poilievre unlikable to the likes of you, me, or Lawrence Martin make him more likable to the folks of the rural "heartland" who make up the Conservative base. Those people don't want someone polite and civil, they want someone mean, driven by what Hunter S. Thompson would call an "ethic of total retaliation". And Poilievre delivers that in spades. Another sign that Poilievre is unlikely to be dropped is the fact that Damien Kurek, the MP for Battle River—Crowfoot, has already resigned his seat to make way for the leader after the Prime Minister said that he would quickly call a byelection in the event of such a resignation.

- Anthony Albanese's Labor Party has won a second term with a majority in Australia's parliamentary election. Much as was the case here, the incumbents were trailing the opposition in the polls until people started noticing how much their leader, Peter Dutton, looked like a Trump wannabe. And like Pierre Poilievre, Dutton ended up losing his own seat.

- The US House of Representatives has voted to revoke California's ability to regulate vehicle emissions, including the state's planned phaseout the sale of gasoline-powered cars. There is some question whether the rules the House is using to do this actually give them the authority to stop California's measures; in a country where rule of law still applied that might be a factor.

- McDonald's has reported their worst 3 month decline in sales since 2020; this is largely a result of a decline in domestic consumption among middle-income customers due to economic uncertainty, though they have also noticed signs of a shift away from American companies in the international market (especially in Canada and Europe).

- Autonomous semis are now driving their first regular long-haul routes, between Dallas and Houston.

- A Toronto man has been arrested after launching a shopping cart into the path of an e-bike in a bike lane, injuring the rider. The suspect faces charges of assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, and mischief endangering life.

- A Vancouver teen who lost his father, sister, and stepmother in the vehicle attack on the Lapu Lapu festival last week is offering half of what was raised in a GoFundMe campaign for him to other victims, saying he recognizes that he isn't the only one suffering. Meanwhile, it has come out that the suspect in the attack was on leave from a psychiatric facility at the time of the attack, but that there had been no previous indication that he was a public safety risk. It should be pointed out that most patients in such a situation really aren't a danger; whether this unfortunate exception will make it more difficult for other patients to be released remains to be seen.

News roundup, 1 Oct 2024

- Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist and former Mexico City mayor, has been elected as president of Mexico. She becomes the country's first female leader as well as its first Jewish one. While a protege of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, she does plan on going beyond AMLO's excessive emphasis on fossil fuels; we'll have to see.

- In 2019 the BC legislature unanimously passed legislation to implement the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among those who voted to pass it was an MLA by the name of John Rustad, then a member of the BC Liberals. Now, however, as leader of the BC Conservatives, he's vowing to repeal the legislation, claiming that the issues it was meant to address don't apply to Canada. And the property rights of resource companies are more important than indigenous rights anyway, right?

- Ukraine is accusing Russia of deliberately poisoning a river by dumping industrial wastes. The river in question, the Desna, connects with a reservoir that supplies water for millions of people.

- Germany reserves the right to deny a citizenship application on the basis of antisemitism. That's fair enough, especially given their history. However, some of the things that are taken as prima facie evidence of antisemitism include not only clear examples like Holocaust denial, but the use of slogans such as "from the river to the sea..." and "Israel, child murderer".

- The Manitoba government is reviewing the provincial Mental Health Act to find ways of reducing the role of police in dealing with people in a state of mental health crisis. Currently, only peace officers are able to carry out orders under the Act; given the toll this takes on police resources, not to mention the tendency of many cops to shoot first and ask questions later, the province is looking to change this.

- Caroline Giuliani, daughter of Rudy, has endorsed Kamala Harris in an article in Vanity Fair, saying "I’ve been grieving the loss of my dad to Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him too".

News roundup, 13 May 2024

- People are being evacuated as a wildfire threatens homes and cottages near Flin Flon. The smoke is noticeable as far away as Winnipeg. The situation is worse in BC, where thousands have been evacuated from Fort Nelson and the adjacent First Nation.

- Joe Biden's reluctance to provide Israel with certain kinds of bombs while they're moving in on Rafah is being hailed by some as the first significant crack in the rock-solid alliance between the countries. Others, however, point out that plenty of other weapons shipments that are unaffected, suggesting that Biden's move is more for show than anything.

- The "Never Trump" Republicans are split on whether to actually do something about the Trump problem by voting for Joe Biden, or at least on whether to publicly admit a willingness to do so.

- Another pro-Palestinian encampment has been set up, this one at the University of Winnipeg. There has been no disruption to classes; the activists say they intend to stay until their demands, which include cutting "all academic and economic ties with Israeli institutions", are met.

- Some may recall the story of programmer Eugenia Kuyda who, after her best friend was killed in an accident, created a chatbot with all the texts he'd sent her over the years so that she could still have text conversations with him. A few years after that, Joshua Barbeau went a step further, creating a chatbot that actually spoke to him in the voice of his dead fiancee. Such "deadbots" are now commercially available, as are services that will do things like make an animated video from an old photo. Some in the mental health community are wondering if this is such a great idea.

- The village of Sainte-Pétronille, Quebec cut funding to the local newspaper, Autour de l’Île, and threatened to sue the paper in attempt to prevent the publication of a story about the municipality's general manager, who had been fired from her previous job for misconduct. Moreover, they also threatened to sue almost 100 of their residents who raised concerns about the hiring at a council meeting. An investigation has concluded that the village did nothing actually illegal but warned about the potential implications for press freedom.

- At a rally in New Jersey, Donald Trump stated his admiration for Hannibal Lecter (not for the first time, apparently). I'm not sure whether his inability to know the difference between reality and fiction, or his choice of a fictitious character to praise, is more disconcerting.