The Strait of Hormuz showcases a global issue

The world is learning a painful lesson about the precarity of the energy supply — a supply that millions depend on.

The world breathed a sigh of relief Friday when Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the Strait of Hormuz is “completely open” for foreign vessels after a blockade which choked some parts of the world of a much-needed oil supply. The strait will remain open for the duration of the 10-day Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, agreed upon by the two countries Thursday.

But by the time the strait was declared open again, panic had already begun to set itn. International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol said Thursday that Europe had “maybe” six weeks of remaining jet fuel amid the blockade of the strait, triggered by conflict between Iran and the U.S.

“…(I)t is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world,” Birol told the Associated Press.

Politicians and religion: a bad mix

Just about the most honest thing you can say about the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is that its members seem to like some parts of Christianity — they just don’t know very much about what it is meant to be.

Non-apology means comments will continue to sting

It seems pretty clear, based on the way events have unfolded over the past couple of weeks, that Manitoba Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan messed up.

Pierre Poilievre’s latest bad day

As expected, the Tories went zero for three in Monday’s federal byelections, meaning that the federal Liberals, through a combination of byelection wins and floor-crossings, have managed to turn their minority government into a clear majority.

A war without goals or successes

The collapse of weekend peace talks between the United States and Iran is less a surprise than a grim confirmation of what many feared from the outset: that this war was launched without a clear, attainable objective.

A horror movie, starring you and your money

Many of the best horror movies depend on the fear of the unknown.

Ground squirrels and city sports fields

Winnipeg has a problem and there doesn’t seem to be a universally acceptable solution.

Granted, that could refer to quite a bit. In this case we refer here to the problem of ground squirrels, the risk they pose on the city’s athletic fields, and what to do about them. As it stands, the ground squirrel population is in for a miserable future: the city began using rodenticides to control the population on Tuesday, using Rozol RTU field rodent bait and RoCon concentrate rodenticide at parks throughout the city.

The reason for the control effort is straightforward. Ground squirrels are burrowing animals, and the holes they dig in the city’s athletic field are a safety hazard for those who use the spaces. The city also said Tuesday it was forced to close fields in recent years because of damage caused by the squirrels.

The Winnipeg Humane Society, Animal Justice (an animal law group) and a University of Manitoba biologist are appealing the city’s provincial permit to carry out the program. They argue the rodenticides being used are unnecessarily cruel to the squirrels — Rozol in particular will result in a slow and agonizing death for ground squirrels exposed to it, argues U of M professor emeritus of biological sciences James Hare.

The Trump administration and the pope

Among all of the odd and peculiar actions of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration — its starts and stops, its lurches forwards and backwards, its threats of annexations and tariffs and retribution — this has to rank as one of the strangest.

Finding hope in space, if not on Earth

As was the case half a century ago when a manned spacecraft first travelled past the moon and then negotiated a precise orbital U-turn en route to a splashdown return to Earth, it’s hard to be anything but awestruck by what is occurring far beyond our planet’s atmosphere this week.

After lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center on April 1, the Artemis II mission — NASA’s long-awaited rekindling of humankind’s space-exploration ambitions — carried a four-person crew of astronauts 406,771 kilometres from Earth, the farthest anyone has travelled into space. The previous mark was 400,171 km, achieved by Apollo 13 in 1970.

(The mission’s name is, as before, inspired by mythology, with Artemis being the ancient Greek goddess of the moon and twin sister to Apollo, the namesake of the earlier NASA program that first landed humans on the lunar surface.)

During Monday’s lunar fly-by, which included 40 minutes of radio silence as the Orion space capsule carved its sweeping arc around the far side of the moon, the spacecraft got as close as 6,550 km from the surface, allowing crew members to capture stunning images of the lunar landscape, as well as pictures of a full solar eclipse and a breathtaking “Earth rise” as their home planet came back into view.

Broad-based tax cuts not the answer

There is a familiar political reflex in times of economic strain: cut taxes and promise relief. It sounds simple, immediate and, on the surface, compassionate.

Trying to read the budgetary tea leaves

It’s not even a month past the tabling of Manitoba’s 2026-27 budget and there’s already been some good news — and some bad news.

On the good news front, the Morningstar Dominion Bond Rating Service, one of the world’s largest credit rating agencies, felt that the spending and revenue plan tabled by the NDP government last month put the province “within reach” of being balanced.

The budget featured a massive reduction in the overall deficit, going from a projected $1.6 billion for the end of the last fiscal year to roughly $500 million. Those intentions were enough to convince Morningstar DBRS that Premier Wab Kinew’s pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term — which would come in the 2027-28 fiscal year — was achievable.

That’s a fair assessment of the budget, as long as GDP growth projections come to fruition. And that’s where we get to the bad news.

A legal reckoning for social media firms

It has been referred to as a bellwether case, a landmark decision and a profound “enough is enough” moment.

Guilt, innocence and the role of courts

There is a foundational principle in criminal law — that everyone is innocent until they’re found guilty in a court of law.

Health care delayed, health care denied

Manitobans have grown accustomed to hearing about long wait times in emergency rooms, delayed diagnostic tests and months-long backlogs for surgery. They are often framed as inconveniences — frustrating, yes, but often manageable.

Prison overcrowding has no simple fix

Rarely, if ever, does government respond so quickly to a demand for more money. On March 20, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said that overcrowding in provincial jails was causing mayhem and putting their members at risk.