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Apr 3 2023

Moon Monday. Close Finnish. Blue checks.

Apr 3, 2023
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Canada
Artemis II: Why NASA is sending a crew around the moon after 50 years
Back to the moon? Not quite, but close. Here's what NASA wants from the lunar orbit program known as Artemis II and why a Canadian will be on board. [Global]
Interim RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme says multiple investigations remain underway that he's confident will lead to criminal charges, though he did not give specifics. [Global]
Le ministère fédéral de l’Environnement et du Changement climatique dit avoir besoin de six mois pour transmettre un document à La Presse, affirmant que le faire dans les délais prescrits par la Loi sur l’accès à l’information perturberait son fonctionnement. [La Presse]
From the provinces
Tories look to keep majority as voters go to the polls in Prince Edward Island
Voters in Prince Edward Island will go to the polls today after a nearly month-long provincial election campaign. [CP]

In a Facebook post, Tunde Obasan wrote that he was withdrawing due to unspecified personal reasons. [Edmonton Journal]
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Elsewhere
Finland’s centre-right party claims election win over Sanna Marin
Sanna Marin's Social Democrats were fighting to secure a second term and her party's conservative opponent took an early lead in the vote count. [Global]
Milo Djukanovic, who led the Balkan nation into Nato, was in power for over three decades. Jakov Milatovic was the winner and while Milatovic is committed to bringing the Adriatic state into the EU, his candidacy was backed by some pro-Russia parties. [BBC]
While pro-West parties won the most votes, Revival, a nationalist party sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war, was in third place, potentially allowing it to play a kingmaker role in the new parliament. [Al Jazeera]

Russian nationalist politicians and commentators accused Ukraine of the crime and called for retribution. [Reuters]
Republicans are still trying to figure out how to run against Donald Trump. Their calculation has only grown more complicated now that a Manhattan grand jury has indicted the former president. As the 2024 field takes shape, candidates and potential contenders are trying to heed lessons learned from 2016. [AP]
Media
Twitter has removed the verification check mark on the main account of The New York Times, one of CEO Elon Musk’s most despised news organizations.  Musk, who owns Twitter, set a deadline of Saturday for verified users to buy a premium Twitter subscription or lose the checks on their profiles. The Times said in a story Thursday that it would not pay Twitter for verification of its institutional accounts. [AP]
And yet Twitter keeps the blue check on my account as a 'legacy verified' account or some such 👇  If anyone asks: No. I'm not paying Twitter for that and they're free to take it if they want.

Quelques jours après le triomphe de Pierre Poilievre à la chefferie du Parti conservateur, la PDG de CBC/Radio-Canada, Catherine Tait, lui a expédié une lettre pour le féliciter, et le convier à une rencontre. Le leader de l’opposition, dont l’un des engagements phares est d’arrêter de financer CBC, a refusé, suscitant l’ire de la patronne du diffuseur public. [La Presse]

“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the vote.” [United States Attorney]
Tech

General Motors plans to phase out widely-used Apple CarPlay and Android Auto technologies that allow drivers to bypass a vehicle's infotainment systems, shifting instead to built-in infotainment systems developed with Google for future electric vehicles. [Reuters]
Issued this day ...
... in 1987: Sc #1131: 1988 Olympic Winter Games. Design: Pierre-Yves Pelletier.
One of nine stamps Canada Post would issue to mark the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. 
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