Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announces reinstating $53.6 million in grants and funding to support people with disabilities, seniors and education initiatives for 2026-27.
Notably, there’s no restoration of art funding as Tim’s hand on heart governing rule was cold & dead for the arts.
The Nova Scotia government’s “Multi-Year Fiscal Stability Plan” calls for further cuts to the provincial budget for each of the next four years, to nearly a billion dollars in the 2029/30 budget year. That also reflects a cut of about 20% of the current provincial workforce.
The government hopes to achieve these reductions by increasing productivity and efficiency, in part through the use of artificial intelligence.
Some $4.4 million is budgeted “to develop and deploy artificial intelligence enabled applications.” The Examiner asked what that means exactly, and was told that the money would be used to build in-house expertise and train staff on how to use AI, mainly with Microsoft Office AI tools.
News Content Source: The Halifax Examiner
Premier Tim can’t find it in his heart to restore Nova Scotia arts & culture funding cuts.
Scene of elementary school after attack on a school February 28 in Minab, Iran
Excerpt:
The attackers’ ability to spare newly established adjacent facilities (such as the Martyr Absalan clinic) and their glaring failure to avoid an elementary school operating at full capacity and packed with 170 girls leaves us with two scenarios, both unequivocally condemnatory:
Either US and Israeli forces relied, in striking the vicinity of the Asif Brigade, on a very old, outdated intelligence target bank (dating to before 2013), which would constitute grave negligence and reckless disregard for civilian lives; or the strike was carried out deliberately and with prior knowledge to inflict maximum societal shock and undermine popular support for Iran’s military establishment.
Meanwhile: Reported today, March 4/26
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH
BBC STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT TOM BATEMAN: Can you give us an update on what the administration knows, what you know now about the reported strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran on Saturday?
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: All I know, all I can say is that we’re investigating that. We of course never target civilian targets, but we’re taking a look and investigating that.
BBC STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT TOM BATEMAN: Just on the basis that with the information you would have your reconnaissance abilities– ability to gather information. I mean, it’s several days on now.
So is there any clarity on whose munition this was?
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: We’re investigating it.
“Blood Moon” is a descriptive phrase for a total lunar eclipse that takes place during the full moon. The reddish color is a result of the scattering of sunlight through the earth’s atmosphere, similar to what happens during sunsets that appear red.
It is said the ancient Incans and Mesopotamians believed a blood moon was an omen portending the king’s death or overthrow; some Native American tribes viewed it as a sign that the moon needed care; while Islamic cultures regard the phenomenon as a time for special prayers.
A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, with an umbral magnitude of 1.1507. It was also the 4th day of the most recent Israel/USA war with Iran.
After the initial wave of U.S. and Israeli attacks, videos circulated showing the aftermath of an airstrike that struck a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran, including harrowing images of families screaming and searching through the rubble of the collapsed building. According to state-run IRNA news outlet, the attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, a city in southern Iran, killed at least 60 students. Many more students were reportedly trapped beneath the debris; approximately 170 girls were inside the school at the time.
Within hours of bombs hitting cities across Iran, Tehran unleashed a series of ballistic missile and drone strikes aimed at Israel and U.S. military facilities across the Persian Gulf, as well as in Jordan. Iran targeted U.S. assets in Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.
Source: Drop Site News Feb 28/26
‘Acts of War Unauthorized by Congress’: Thomas Massie (R) Condemns Trump’s Iran Strikes.Massie labeled the strikes unauthorized acts of war and pushed war powers legislation to block escalation. Rand Paul (R)questioned both the constitutional authority and the strategic wisdom of expanding hostilities without Congress.
An unprovoked attempt at regime change in collaboration with Israel, with no legal foundation, launched in the midst of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American public.
In violation of International law UN Charter Article 2(4): The fundamental rule prohibiting the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state
Canada backs U.S.
“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” reads a joint statement from Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand.
Canada believes the Islamic Republic of Iran is the “principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East.”
The letter also highlights the 256 Iranian entities and 222 individuals whom Canada has levied already sanctions against. It also mentions Israel, which joined the U.S. in its attack – “Canada reaffirms Israel’s right to defend itself and to ensure the security of its people.”
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre also said he supports the U.S., Israel, and allied countries across the region to “defend their sovereignty and dismantle the clerical military dictatorship of Iran,” he wrote on X.
Ireland Makes Basic Income Program for Artists Permanent
After a successful pilot, artists will be paid hundreds of euros weekly over three years.
The Irish government will give 2,000 artists unrestricted weekly stipends, following a successful three-year basic income pilot program.
“Ireland can become a world leader through this unique scheme that ultimately benefits the whole of society through supporting our continued artistic excellence on the world stage,” the NCFA committee said.
Source: Hyperallergic Feb 24/26
MEANWHILE:
Arts and culture in Nova Scotia left reeling from ‘unprecedented’ cuts by provincial government.
Nova Scotia Premier Houston initiates major cuts to the province’s arts & culture sectors.
Nearly half of all Nova Scotia Museum sites closed.
Of 287 cuts, more than 70 are in the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage. They include an end to the Publishers Assistance Program, which paid out $700,000 a year, the Artists in Communities program ($203,000), and the Arts Nova Scotia Artists in Schools program ($135,000).
Operating grants to arts organizations were cut by 30%, and the Community Assistance Program for museums goes from $100,000 to $50,000.
In a series of the most starkly gripping images of political madness in decades, Too Mad to Fail delivers disciplined visual renderings of the epochal political figure who reliably brings the world to the brink.
Through unprecedented access to the subject, Court Painter re-creates the full drama and turmoil of President 47’s State of the Union speechifying, turbulent emotions, revealing eye catching graphic statements of the two mad-lite accomplices flanking him on both sides and how—motivated as often by ego and greed as by fear, self-preservation, and long-windedness—
the most powerful man in politics commandeered two hours of the airwaves to highlight ‘ violent pornographic riffing and luxuriating in gory details of brutal events’ while demonstrating his iron fisted grasp of madness, the teleprompter, and the podium.
I don’t see how Smith’s announcement yesterday fixes the problems she professes to be concerned about, more than ordinary politics would. I don’t see how her nine frivolous referendums will much affect the one existential referendum she’s done nothing to forestall. I don’t think her government would implement a Yes vote in that secession referendum. I think the question is moot because I don’t believe there’ll be a Yes vote.
Pandora’s Box :a process that generates many complicated problems as the result of unwise interference in something.
Original image source thanks to Dante Gabriel Rossetti‘s painting of Pandora holding the box, 1871
The White House has suggested that the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) create a dedicated section to display multiple images of US president Donald Trump, expanding beyond the single official portrait traditionally shown during a sitting president’s term. To further this idea a visit to Court Painter’s Calgary portrait studio was undertaken by the acting chief of protocol at the State Department.Upon completing that visit and in discussions with President Trump, the decision was made to have Court Painter also create a new portrait that encapsulates his 45th and 47th presidential terms.
Officials noted that the president regularly receives unsolicited portraits from Court Painter and suggested that a curated selection could be exhibited within the NPG. Contacted by The Art Newspaper, spokespeople for the Smithsonian and NPG declined to comment; before a formal proposal has been submitted, sources close to the institution told The New YorkTimes. A spokesperson for the White House said the president receives “an unprecedented amount of beautiful portraits from Court Painter’s studio” and that it is important these works be “showcased throughout the halls of our Nation’s Capital”.
The following images are just a sampling of Court Painter portraits that sensitively curated could be showcased throughout the halls of the U.S. Capital.
Screenshot
Court Painter seen with a blank canvas in anticipation of the new President Donald J Trump commission.He refused to comment on it’s diminutive scale.
Veteran Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux is crossing the floor from the Opposition Conservative Party to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberals. Carney said Jeneroux will take on a role as a special advisor on economic and security partnerships.
