What did Just Stop Oil actually accomplish?

It’s over. Just Stop Oil is “hanging up the hi-vis” and will cease its campaign of direct action by the end of April. But after three years of throwing orange paint at things, why is the group throwing in the towel now?

Of course, it doesn’t help that the vanguard of JSO activists — including the organisation’s leader, Roger Hallam — are currently in prison. The plan was that their high-profile stunts would inspire enough acts of civil disobedience to gum up the court system and challenge the authorities, but the hoped-for scale of resistance never materialised.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Environmentalists"

Poilievre needs to ‘put some new material in the window’ as polls narrow and Carney gains ground, say strategists

In his first week as prime minister, Mark Carney cancelled a planned capital gains tax increase, cut taxes on housing, and scrapped the consumer carbon tax—undercutting core Conservatives campaign promises. As Carney dismantles his opponent’s key attack lines, strategists say Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre needs to recalibrate his message to find new ground—starting with Canada-U.S. relations.

Support for Poilievre, whose catchy slogans and promise for “change” kept him ahead of the Liberals in the polls for more than a year, has been fading since Carney won the Liberal leadership on March 9. The two are running in neighbouring Ottawa ridings, with Poilievre aiming to retake his long-held Carleton seat and Carney in Nepean.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inElection 2025

Swiss suicide clinic helps British woman die because she was depressed without her relatives’ knowledge

An assisted dying clinic in Switzerland has helped a British woman to end her life without informing her family, despite reportedly claiming to have changed its practices after a similar incident in 2023.

Anne Canning, 51, from Wales, travelled to the Pegasos clinic near the Swiss city of Basel in January to end her life.

She chose to do so after the death of her son plunged her into depression, according to her sister Delia, who told ITV News that Anne had no terminal illness and had assured her family she was travelling to Switzerland for a holiday.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMAiD Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Flight bookings between Canada and US down 70% amid Trump tariff war

Airline travel between Canada and the US is “collapsing” amid Donald Trump’s tariff war, with flight bookings between the two countries down by over 70%, newly released data suggests.

According to data from the aviation analytics company OAG, airline capacity between Canada and the US has been reduced through October 2025, with the biggest cuts occurring between the months of July and August, which is considered peak travel season. Passenger bookings on Canada to US routes are currently down by over 70% compared to the same period last year.

Comparing the available bookings from March 2024 to March 2025, OAG looked at how many people have booked trans-border flights in the six-month period between April through September. It found that the number of tickets booked was down anywhere from 71% to 76%.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Trump demands Ukraine’s minerals and oil in exchange for ceasefire

President Trump has told Ukraine to hand over more of its minerals, oil and gas reserves as part of a revised economic deal that offers Kyiv no security guarantees in return.

In a draft text sent to Ukraine, the United States demanded a greater share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth and compensation of over $100 billion (£77 billion) for previous American support.

The move is a further blow to British and French efforts to secure a “just” peace for Ukraine amid a growing rift between Washington and its European allies.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia", USA, WTF?

The Cover-up of Biden’s Cognitive Decline Was Even Worse Than We Thought

While we’ve all witnessed Joe Biden’s countless gaffes, confused wanderings, and incoherent ramblings over the past three years, what’s been happening behind the scenes is far more disturbing than anyone imagined. A bombshell new book reveals that while the White House was busy assuring Americans that Biden was a “vigorous” leader fully capable of executing his duties, Kamala Harris’s team was secretly planning for his potential departure — or death — as early as January 2023.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

‘People close to Trump have respect for Poilievre,’ says Tory candidate for N.D.G.–Westmount

N.D.G.–Westmount Conservatives have picked a candidate who said last month that key Trump adviser Elon Musk holds leader Pierre Poilievre in high esteem — and that a Conservative MP’s close relationship with J.D. Vance is a bonus.

“People close to (Donald) Trump have respect for Pierre Poilievre,” said lawyer Neil Drabkin, who is listed on the Conservative party website as the candidate in the Montreal riding. “Elon Musk, in particular, who has become the bestie with Mr. Trump … has said very favourable things about Mr. Poilievre. And perhaps we don’t need to go further than that kind of relationship for Mr. Musk to whisper in the ear of Mr. Trump.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Fewer Americans now see Canada as a US ally as Trump strains a longtime partnership

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are less likely to see Canada and the U.S. as close allies than they were two years ago, the latest indication that President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and talk of taking over a neighboring ally are souring a critical economic and military relationship.

The U.S. shift in viewpoint comes primarily from Democrats, though Republicans are less likely to see Canada as America’s ally now too, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While about 7 in 10 Democrats saw Canada and the U.S. as close allies before Trump returned to office, now that number is down to about half. For Republicans, the number dropped from 55% to 44%.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Pete Hegseth’s cool tattoo a ‘clear symbol of Islamophobia’

Critics say US defense secretary’s tattoo of the word kafir, meaning ‘infidel’ or ‘non-believer’ could offend Muslims (GOOD!)

The US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth has a tattoo that appears to read “infidel” or “non-believer” in Arabic, according to recently posted photos on his social media account.

In photos posted on Tuesday on X, the Fox News host turned US defense secretary had what appears to be a tattoo that says “kafir”, an Arabic term used within Islam to describe an unbeliever. Hegseth appears to have also had the tattoo in another Instagram photo posted in July 2024.

Some people on social media criticized Hegseth for getting a tattoo that could be considered offensive to Muslims, especially as the US military seeks to represent a diverse pool of faiths. It is estimated that upwards of 5,000 to 6,000 US military members practice Islam.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", USA

Donald Trump says he had an ’extremely productive’ call with Mark Carney

OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump says he had “an extremely productive call” this morning with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

In a shift in tone, Trump is referring to Carney as Canada’s prime minister instead of the governor of an American state.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

PBS Hosts Hard-Left Hysteric Yale Professor Jason Stanley on His Flight From ‘Fascist’ USA to Canada

Jason Stanley Left Wing Lunatic

Hard-left hysteric and Yale professor Jason Stanley is fleeing to Canada and tax-funded television is on it. Amanpour & Co. trumpeted that night’s guest, Yale professor Jason Stanley, absconding the US in the subject line of the show’s promotional email: “EXCLUSIVE: ‘How Fascism Works’ Author Jason Stanley Plans to Leave the U.S.”

Score 1 for Team Trump.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

End of an era for Canada-US ties, says Carney, as allies worldwide decry Trump’s car tariffs

Canada’s prime minister has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over”, as governments from Tokyo to Berlin to Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.

Mark Carney warned Canadians that Trump had permanently altered relations and that, regardless of any future trade deals, there would be “no turning back”.

He told reporters: “The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over.”

Sounds like Carney is pulling us out of Norad and even NATO! We can forget about Aukus too. China loves this guy!

If I were Smith and Moe I’d open up a backchannel.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA