News roundup, 13 Jan 2026

- Manitoba premier Wab Kinew is voicing solidarity with Minnesota following the killing of Renee Good last week. Less sympathetic is far-right perennial candidate Patrick Allard, who has had his membership and board position with the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party suspended following some unpleasant social media posts about the killing. One tweet quoted in the article was posted as an inquiry about whether ICE is hiring in Canada; not mentioned in the article is that he also declared that Good was "rightfully terminated". I guess stuff like that is a bridge too far even for Obby Khan. The thing is, the Cons presumably knew he was a scumbag when he was elected to their board (he hasn't exactly made a big secret of it) so they're presumably just annoyed that he said the quiet part out loud.

- The US sanctions against the International Criminal Court are making life difficult for the court's judges. They find themselves unable to do business with any American company, including credit card companies, or even buy US dollars. The court itself is having to adopt new payment systems in order to pay its employees and receive payments from the countries that recognize its authority; it has also abandoned Microsoft Office in favour of openDesk, an open source package similar to LibreOffice. This doesn't solve all their problems by any means; there are fears that even non-American companies might be reluctant to deal with them for fear of annoying the US.

- Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has managed to talk Trump down from intervening militarily in her country. Trump has mused lately about doing just that to deal with drug cartels; hopefully he can be sufficiently distracted by something else (and hopefully that something else won't be Canada).

- The US Department of Labor released a promotional video that contains the slogan "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage". The similarity to "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer" is hard not to notice; whether they're actively trying to sound like Nazis or just using punchy slogans that will resonate with the simple-minded folks that they're trying to appeal to and just end up sounding that way is uncertain. Either way, not a good thing.

- A Dallas woman who worked for a subcontractor for the Hilton hotel chain was apparently fired after posting a warning on TikTok about ICE agents staying in one of the chain's hotels. 

- A novel that had been awarded both the grand prize and "reader's choice" awards in a contest in Japan has had the prizes revoked after it was discovered that it had been written mostly by AI. 

- A 19 year old woman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was apparently irate at being blocked on TikTok by an 18 year old acquaintance. She's now accused of killing her over the matter. 

News roundup, 18 June 2025

- Israel has launched another barrage of strikes against Iran, and the latter country has responded in kind. Meanwhile Donald Trump has warned Tehran's nearly 10 million residents to evacuate, leading to huge traffic jams on the roads leading out of the city. He has also stridently called for "unconditional surrender", and while he has been sending mixed messages many suspect that Israel's attack came with his tacit approval. There are fears that the US could get involved directly, with potentially dire consequences.

- Attacks on aid convoys are increasingly common. The most high-profile examples are those seen in Gaza recently, but there have been recent occurrences in Haiti and the Central African Republic as well. Michael Fakhri, a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law currently serving as the UN's Special Rapporteur on the right to food, is calling for armed UN troops to protect the convoys. He argues that the UN General Assembly should be able to authorize this without the involvement of the Security Council.

- A bankruptcy trustee accuses conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of concealing assets to avoid having to pay Sandy Hook families. Lawsuits filed by the trustee allege that Jones transferred assets to his father, his ex-wife, and a trust fund for his children in the hope of keeping said assets out of reach of the plaintiffs.

- New York State's legislature has passed a bill to require transparency on matters concerning public safety from AI developers whose products are accessible to the state's residents. The bill is designed to address the perceived flaws of a similar bill which was passed by California's legislature but vetoed by the state's governor, Gavin Newsom. The New York bill has now been sent to governor Kathy Hochul for approval; however, it could be made moot if Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" passes, as that bill contains provisions to prevent states from regulating AI in any way. 

- The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is trying to eliminate the use of Microsoft products on its systems, replacing them with open source software. They're doing away with Microsoft Office and Teams, and have plans to shift from Windows to the Linux operating system.

-  The Recording Academy, which gives out the Grammy awards, has decided to abolish the Best Country Album award, replacing it with two awards, Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album. There are suspicions among some that Beyonce winning the award last year, and the resulting backlash, may have motivated the change.