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DIA and the SCOND Committee 2024 Report

The longer the gap between pledges and action is allowed to remain, the greater the risk of a disastrous failure of deterrence – Zack Cooper At a meeting of the Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on 10 February 2026, Stephen Fuhr (Secretary of State for Military Procurement) spoke about the creation and planning of the new Defence Investment Agency (DIA) which was announced in October 2025. He was accompanied by Mr. Doug Guzman, the CEO of the DIA and Siobhan Harty, the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Defence and Marine Procurement in Public Services and Procurement Canada – the latter who had focused before her latest appointment on developing a strategy for military procurement reform for more than a year. At one point in responding to a committee member’s question regarding the work of the DIA, Minister Fuhr stated that the intent was to address the findings of the report by the Standing Committee on National Defence (the Committee) of last summer. I believe h...
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Cesar Chavez Mural Painted Over in San Francisco Amid Growing Fallout from Abuse Allegations

A mural of Cesar Chavez in San Francisco’s Mission District was painted over this week, becoming one of the first visible public reckonings with newly surfaced allegations of sexual abuse against the labor leader. The artwork, which covered the facade of the Latin Rock Music House at 25th and York Streets, was removed Wednesday by the building’s owner, Richard Segovia, along with artist Carlos “Kookie” Gonzalez, according to  ABC7 Eyewitness News . The decision came days after a New York Times investigation detailed allegations that Chavez abused women and girls connected to the United Farm Workers movement.  “I did this to let everyone know,” Segovia said. “Let’s get the ball rolling.”  Gonzalez, who has painted Chavez multiple times over the past three decades, said the allegations prompted an immediate reassessment. A planned new mural featuring Chavez has already been revised to instead center labor leader Dolores Huerta, who has publicly said she was among those...
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Aisle be Back: Hurricanes v Highlanders in Dunedin

By Kevin McCarthy  Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Or tops the Super Rugby Pacific table – with a game in hand. Wise heads, and myself as well, are treating tonight’s excursion by the Hurricanes to the Highlanders as the first real test of their title credentials. Especially with those teams nipping at...
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Met Museum to Acquire Rediscovered Renaissance Painting Admired by Vasari

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced Thursday that it had acquired a recently rediscovered Renaissance painting of significant art historical importance. Layers of paint were removed during a recent conservation to reveal the figure of Saint John the Evangelist in the canvas’s lower-right portion. With the overpaint now gone, the painting has now been identified as Madonna and Child with Saint John the Evangelist (1512/1513) by 16th-century painter Rosso Fiorentino. The painting’s attribution had previously been questioned, with some scholars assigning it to Rosso and others to a contemporary; it had also been dated to 1520 and titled Madonna and Child . The Met has already put the work, which was believed to have been lost for centuries, on view in its European painting wing. In his foundational text Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , Giorgio Vasari, often credited as the first art historian, describes Rosso as having secured his fir...
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Fort Lauderdale Still Fighting Removal of Rainbow Crosswalks: ‘We Are the Last Man Standing’

The legal battle between Fort Lauderdale and state officials over a recent crackdown on street art may conclude in May, when both parties may have a one-day final hearing. The crackdown began in August 2025 under Governor Ron DeSantis, with roughly 100 public artworks across Florida slated for removal under his Safe Streets program in collaboration with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The directive reportedly stems from an FDOT memo prohibiting painted pavement featuring “social, political or ideological messages”—itself issued following guidance from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who said last July that “roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork.” Cities that oppose the removal risk losing millions of dollars in state and federal transportation funding. Critics of the program have framed it as a veiled attempt to scrub LGBTQ history from public view, as the majority of artworks deemed in violation of the directive are overwhelmingly Pride...
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Dizzy, Nauseous Columbus Art Museum Workers Issue Complaints About Chemical Fumes

Workers at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio have complained to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) about headaches, nausea, and dizziness thought to be caused by a chemical sealant used on gallery floors. As reported Tuesday by the Columbus Dispatch , the museum used the floor sealing product GT 275 during recently commenced renovation work on its Ross building, and employees have complained about fumes throughout the institution in the weeks since work began. A former gallery associate told the paper that several museum workers have called in sick and that the “maintenance team gave the workers information on the sealer and handed out N95 masks.” According to the Dispatch , which cited safety information from the manufacturer of GT 275, “Inhalation of the sealer can adversely affect the central nervous system, causing symptoms like drowsiness, dizziness, headache, nausea and ‘lowering of consciousness.’ Acute overexposure via inhalation can cause respiratory...
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Club Rugby Rugby Highlights Series: Raking It In

Celebrating community rugby 2016-25 in highlights. As we continue to go through our library of highlights clips, part 11 of this series for the first part of 2026 is looking at a compilation of tries that were scored by happy hookers. See below for these – clips are in no particular order.  Footage: Club Rugby,...
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