Raised in Saskatchewan, Joshua Haldeman was a tech-utopian, politician and apartheid fan

Joshua Haldeman was just one of thousands of Saskatchewan farmers who lost their land in the drought of the Dirty Thirties.

While that trauma shaped the lives of everyone who went through it, the crisis affected Haldeman in an exceptional way — he never stopped raging at what he perceived were the causes of the Great Depression.

. . .

Over his lifetime, Haldeman would lead two Canadian political parties (one of which he founded), campaign against Canadian prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and John Diefenbaker, write a book defending South Africa’s system of apartheid and spend years flying and driving across the African wilderness with his family — hunting for the Lost City of the Kalahari.

MBFC

Raised in Saskatchewan, Joshua Haldeman was a tech-utopian, politician and apartheid fan

Joshua Haldeman was just one of thousands of Saskatchewan farmers who lost their land in the drought of the Dirty Thirties.

While that trauma shaped the lives of everyone who went through it, the crisis affected Haldeman in an exceptional way — he never stopped raging at what he perceived were the causes of the Great Depression.

. . .

Over his lifetime, Haldeman would lead two Canadian political parties (one of which he founded), campaign against Canadian prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and John Diefenbaker, write a book defending South Africa’s system of apartheid and spend years flying and driving across the African wilderness with his family — hunting for the Lost City of the Kalahari.

Exiled Russian journalists are being left “high and dry” and at risk of being stranded overseas without any legal status after the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw funding from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The Guardian understands that some Russian journalists working for RFE/RL, which was founded during the cold war and broadcasts to countries including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, will face imminent problems over their legal status should the broadcaster shut down.

Many of RFE/RL’s Russian journalists operate from Prague, Riga and Vilnius, with their work visas often tied to their employment. Terminating the broadcaster’s funding would trigger visa expirations, leaving them without legal status within months.

Deportation to Russia for any of them would expose them to criminal prosecution.

MBFC
Archive

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for a new ceasefire in Gaza and to protest against what they say is an attack on the country’s democracy by the rightwing governing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Key highways have been blocked and police have made at least 12 arrests amid heated scenes in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. More protests were expected in the coming days as the campaign “gathers momentum and energy”, campaigners said.

The immediate trigger for the anger was Netanyahu’s attempt to dismiss Ronen Bar, the head of the internal security agency, but the prime minister’s decision to shatter a two-month-old truce in Gaza with waves of lethal airstrikes has fuelled the demonstrations.

MBFC
Archive

In October 2023, three days before Hamas fighters attacked Israel, Columbia University’s new president stood outside Low Library and posed a foundational question.

“What,” she asked, “does the world need from a great university in the 21st century?”

. . .

Seventeen months later, Dr. Shafik is gone and the Trump administration is offering a far different answer. The ideal Dr. Shafik described, much of it historically bankrolled by American taxpayers, is under siege, as President Trump ties public money to his government’s vision for higher education.

That vision is a narrower one. Teach what you must, defend “the American tradition and Western civilization,” prepare people for the work force, and limit protests and research.

. . .

The outcome of this clash over the purpose of higher education stands to shape American culture for a generation or more. If the president realizes his ambitions, many American universities — public and private, in conservative states and liberal ones — could be hollowed out, imperiling the backbone of the nation’s research endeavors.

MBFC
Archive

President Trump’s angry call on Tuesday for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled against his administration on deportation flights has set off a string of near-instant social media taunts and threats, including images of judges being marched off in handcuffs.

The call came against an ominous backdrop. Nine days earlier, police officers in Charleston, S.C., had been dispatched to the home of one of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s sisters because of a threat that there was a pipe bomb in her mailbox. “The device’s detonation will be triggered as soon as the mailbox is next opened,” the emailed threat read.

The pipe bomb proved to be a hoax, but the threats and intimidation faced by judges and their families in recent weeks are real, judges say. At a moment when the judiciary is weighing pivotal decisions on the legality of Trump administration policies, the potential for violence against judges seems to be rising.

MBFC
Archive

Canada is in advanced talks with the European Union to join the bloc’s new project to expand its military industry, a move that would allow Canada to be part of building European fighter jets and other military equipment at its own industrial facilities.

The budding defense cooperation between Canada and the European Union, which is racing to shore up its industry to lower reliance on the United States, would boost Canada’s military manufacturers and offer the country a new market at a time when its relationship with the United States has become frayed.

Shaken by a crisis in the two nations’ longstanding alliance since President Trump’s election, Canada has started moving closer to Europe. The military industry collaboration with the European Union highlights how traditional U.S. allies are deepening their ties without U.S. participation to insulate themselves from Mr. Trump’s unpredictable moves.

MBFC
Archive

Canada is in advanced talks with the European Union to join the bloc’s new project to expand its military industry, a move that would allow Canada to be part of building European fighter jets and other military equipment at its own industrial facilities.

The budding defense cooperation between Canada and the European Union, which is racing to shore up its industry to lower reliance on the United States, would boost Canada’s military manufacturers and offer the country a new market at a time when its relationship with the United States has become frayed.

Shaken by a crisis in the two nations’ longstanding alliance since President Trump’s election, Canada has started moving closer to Europe. The military industry collaboration with the European Union highlights how traditional U.S. allies are deepening their ties without U.S. participation to insulate themselves from Mr. Trump’s unpredictable moves.

MBFC
Archive

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced fury from protesters outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, a day after he resumed the war in Gaza, shattering the two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.

On Highway 1 – the main road connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – protesters held a banner reading: “The future of the coalition or the future of Israel.”

The banner underlined a message delivered by thousands of people to the capital on Wednesday: That over nearly 18 months of war and fragile ceasefires, Netanyahu continues to prioritize his political survival over the security of his country, the lives of Israeli hostages and those of Palestinians in Gaza.

MBFC
Archive

Turkish police have arrested the mayor of Istanbul, detaining the primary challenger to the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in dawn raids that also ensnared 100 politicians, businesspeople and municipal officials accused of corruption and links to terror groups.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor, released a video statement as police gathered outside his residence in Istanbul, speaking to the camera as he put on a shirt and tie before his arrest. In a caption accompanying the video posted to social media, he wrote: “This is a blow to the will of the people.”

. . .

The Istanbul mayor was detained along with about 100 others, including his chief spokesperson, Murat Ongun, the head of the İmamoğlu construction firm, Tuncay Yılmaz, and the head of the Istanbul municipality sports club, Fatih Keleş, all accused of corruption, embezzlement and bribery.

The Istanbul public prosecutor’s office added that İmamoğlu was charged as “the leader of a criminal organisation” accused of extortion, fraud and corruption.

MBFC
Archive

No recent precedent for a major party barring reporters from accompanying campaign

The Conservative national campaign director told media outlets Tuesday their journalists won't be allowed to travel with leader Pierre Poilievre on his campaign plane and bus during the upcoming election, ending a decades-old tradition of reporters embedding with a prospective candidate to lead the country.

There is no recent precedent for a major federal party barring reporters, producers, camera operators and broadcast technicians from travelling with a leader during a national election campaign.

In the most recent federal campaigns in 2019 and 2021, for example, major broadcasters, including CBC/Radio-Canada, CTV and Global, a number of print outlets and the wire service, The Canadian Press, had journalists with past Conservative leaders Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole throughout the campaign.

Will Arnett’s animated comedy Super Team Canada is set to bow May 16 on Canadian streamer Crave, just in time to ride a surge in Canadian nationalism amid an escalating cross-border tariffs war with the United States.

The series about six Canadian superheroes saving the world from giant evil robots has an all-Canadian cast that includes Cobie Smulders voicing the role of Niagara Falls, Kevin McDonald as the Canadian prime minister and Charles Demers as Poutine, a French Canadian crime fighter.

Arnett voices the role of Breakaway, a former minor league hockey player who uses his skates, stick and special pucks to fight crime as the unofficial leader of Super Team Canada. The ensemble voice cast also has Brian Drummond, Ceara Morgana, Veena Sood and guest star Jay Baruchel.