News Roundup: Feb 24

Written by Max Balzer, 02/24.2025

Last week, like always, had more news than one can reasonably keep up with so I’m here to sum it all up so you can enter this week up to speed!

Plane down at Pearson, Pope Francis’ health, Ontario elections, US government overhaul — Last Week’s News Roundup

We’ve all seen the photos and videos from Delta Flight 4819 which crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) on Monday. The flight was a routine service from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) to YYZ which left just after 11:45 AM CST Monday morning. Arrivals into Pearson were already complicated by the weather in Toronto the days prior — from Thursday to Sunday, the Greater Toronto Area received 53cm of snow, already complicating operations at the airport. 

The flight had a relatively normal approach into the airport, coming in to land under 60km gusts. As the plane reached the runway, it immediately tilted to the right and the cold runway gnawed the right wing off of the aircraft. Without a wing on the right side, the aircraft barrelled off of the runway and flipped upside down, leaving the passengers ‘hanging like bats,’ as one survivor described it. All 80 passengers and crew on board survived, and Delta is now offering them all $30,000 compensation for the incident. 

Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and the sovereign of the Vatican City State, has seen a decline in health in recent months, but it came to a head this weekend with a “severe asthmatic respiratory episode” and mild kidney failure, the Holy See said. His Holiness began his pontificate in March of 2013 after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and he’s known for his sympathetic views on womens’ involvement in the Church, LGBTQ rights and same-sex union, and the death penalty.

Pope Francis celebrated his 88th birthday in December and should he pass as a result of his illness, cardinals from all over the world will meet in the Vatican to choose a new pope in a papal conclave, the election of the pope held in the Sistine Chapel. Cardinals elect a new pope in as many secret ballots as it takes to choose one cardinal to succeed His Holiness as the head of the Catholic Church.

On Thursday, Ontario will go to the polls to elect a new parliament and, should the election sway away from Doug Ford’s Conservatives, a new Premier of Ontario. Premier Ford called the election for February 27, over 15 months before the set date of June 4, 2026. Bonnie Crombie, the Liberal party’s leader, will vie for the top spot against a Premier of lessening popularity. Polls have Crombie trailing Ford by over 10 points, but his lead has shrunk as of late — down three points since last week’s polling.

Elon Musk continues his attack — or overhaul — of the US government, picking apart federal agencies under the guise of dissecting ‘waste, fraud, and abuse.’ This week, the Musk-controlled Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal employees, ordering them to reply with 5 things they did in their role last week. Most federal agencies, including the FBI, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security, have sent emails to staff informing them they shouldn’t reply and staffing will be handled within the agency. This is expected to cause challenges with the OPM with the final sentence of Musk’s email, reading “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.

Musk has been picking apart the federal government under his Department of Government Efficiency, with consistent backlash from both federal employees and Democrats alike. Plentiful resignations have come from the Department of Government Efficiency, with some employees criticizing the apparent infringement of constitutional rights and societal ethics. Musk’s DOGE has been testing out what they can get away with and seeing what sticks, which has resulted in the major dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, work to take apart the Department of Education, and the buyout of tens of thousands of federal employees previously working remotely. DOGE offered the employees pay until September if they resign from their remote or hybrid roles — whether that’s allowed will be determined in state and federal court.