“Canada’s strict gun laws include a ban on assault-style firearms and a national freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns. The Canadian government has banned more than 2,500 makes and models of assault-style firearms in recent years. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban of more than 1,500 models on May 1, 2020, two weeks after a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. The ban included two weapons used by that gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States. ‘Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers,’ he said at the time. More than 12,000 guns were collected and destroyed as part of a compensation program for businesses that ran between November 2024 and April 2025. A similar program for individuals opened last month …. Those who do not participate must dispose of or permanently deactivate their prohibited guns before an amnesty period ends Oct. 30.” (02/11/25)
“President Trump is on the brink of ordering a massive policy shakeup — ‘the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States,’ says Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin. When Trump’s EPA orders the end of a 2009 finding that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are a threat to public health, it will halt 16 years of federal efforts to mandate vast changes in American life without legal justification. The so-called Endangerment Finding led to a host of regulations whose estimated costs exceeded a trillion dollars. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. Early in his administration, President Barack Obama tried to get Congress to pass an expansive climate change law. When the bill stalled, Obama charged ahead with executive action. The EPA’s December 2009 Endangerment Finding said greenhouse gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.” (02/10/25)
“Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history. The attack brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighboring United States, and was carried out by a shooter described as female, police said. Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge, in British Columbia, two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.” (02/11/25)
“The San Francisco cryptocurrency startup Archblock just filed for bankruptcy, throwing millions of dollars into question and continuing a slog of legal woes. Archblock has been plagued with legal trouble over the past few years, facing fraud allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission and in a civil lawsuit from another crypto company. On Friday, Archblock and its subsidiaries filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which lets a company reorganize its debts. The company’s filing makes its financials look dire: It estimates that its assets are worth between $1 million to $10 million, against liabilities between $100 million to $500 million. But one subsidiary, TrustToken, claims in its own filing to have $100 million to $500 million in assets against just $10 million to $50 million in debt. The other subsidiaries tack on millions more for each column — it’s as yet unclear how the overall company will aim to reorganize in this bankruptcy process.” (02/11/25)
“Marta Jiménez, a hairdresser in Cuba’s eastern city of Holguín, covered her face with her hands and broke down crying when I asked her about Trump’s blockade of the island—especially now that the U.S. is choking off oil shipments. ‘You can’t imagine how it touches every part of our lives,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s a vicious, all-encompassing spiral downward. With no gasoline, buses don’t run, so we can’t get to work. We have electricity only three to six hours a day. There’s no gas for cooking, so we’re burning wood and charcoal in our apartments. It’s like going back 100 years. The blockade is suffocating us, especially single mothers,’ she said crying into her hands, ‘and no one is stopping these demons: Trump and Marco Rubio.'” (02/11/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Australian authorities were fully aware that inviting Israel’s president for a visit was going to ignite unrest and furious opposition. They invited him anyway, and sent in the police to assault the protesters. I saw a video of two cops pinning a kid in a keffiyeh face down on the ground and proceeding to punch him over and over again long after he’d been subdued. I saw another video of police repeatedly punching a middle-aged man who was holding his hands in the air until he fell to the ground. I saw another video of police repeatedly pepper spraying a demonstrator directly in the face as he was visibly complying with their demands to move and providing no resistance whatsoever. I saw another video of police manhandling Muslim men who were literally on their knees praying, presenting no possible threat of any kind.” (02/10/25)
“Today, during my slog through the Substack messages, newspaper headline notices, and podcast reminders that hit my inbox every morning, two stories drew my attention. Both had to do with the fact that human beings have always moved around this planet …. I was reminded of a decades-old song by the Venezuelan singer Soledad Bravo, ‘Punto y Raya’ (‘The Dot and the Dash’) … ‘Between your people and mine’, says the song, ‘there’s a dot and a dash. The dash says, ‘No entrance’ and the dot, ‘The road is closed’…’ Bravo goes on to say that, with all those dots and dashes outlining the borders of nations, a map looks like a telegram. If you walk through the actual world, though, what you see are mountains and rivers, forests and deserts, but no dots or dashes at all.” (02/10/25)
“The brute who threw acid in an Elmont college student’s face has finally been arrested — nearly five years after the sickening attack that left the young woman permanently disfigured, authorities said. The wannabe rapper appeared in Nassau County Court Tuesday, marking the first arrest in a case that shocked Long Island and drew national attention over four years ago. Prosecutors claimed the suspect, a wannabe rapper, boasted about an acid attack in one of his songs posted to social media. The victim, Nafiah Ikram, previously condemned prosecutors for dropping the ball in the case, allowing the sicko to remain on the run while she suffered second- and third-degree burns and lost vision in one eye” (02/10/25)
“A top Iranian security official traveled on Tuesday to Oman, the Mideast sultanate now mediating talks between Tehran and Washington over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program aimed at halting a possible American strike. The visit by Ali Larijani, a former Iranian parliament speaker who now serves as the secretary to the country’s Supreme National Security Council, likely focused on what comes next after the initial round of indirect talks held last week in Muscat with the Americans. Larijani’s entourage shared photos of him meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, the chief intermediary in the U.S.-Iran talks, with what appeared to be a letter sheathed in plastic and sitting alongside the Omani diplomat.” (02/10/25)
“In the aftermath of the big layoffs at The Washington Post, there has been an explosion of commentary — again — about the decline and often the death of newspapers. But if you are reading this, it came to your attention via some means other than a subscription to a legacy newspaper. And there, in a sentence, is the dilemma for legacy ‘news,’ and indeed any written product for which a reader has to pay: There is so much ‘free’ content that it is very, very difficult for a high-overhead text product that depends on subscriptions to succeed. By ‘succeed,’ I mean at least break even.” (02/10/26)
