Montreal

24 IDF soldiers confess on camera: strikes on Gaza were never accidental, and one calls the operations "fun." The targeting computer gets it right 85% of the time, meaning 15% of the dead weren't even Hamas.

— via CultMTL, Justine Smith

Death's actual surviving members hit Ausgang Plaza this month, decades after their proto-punk records vanished between the Stooges and CBGB's. Garage rock's supposed corpse also shows up kicking at L'Esco, plus a punk screening with The Boys and Teenage Head alumni in tow, and Chicago's Effigies prove early-'80s U.S. Oi had teeth.

— via CultMTL, Johnson Cummins

Trump calls Canada's EU outreach a "hostile act," even as he wages a trade war and floats annexation. The argument here: American hostility won't end with Trump, so Canada's real fix is decoupling from the U.S. for good.

— via CultMTL, Taylor C. Noakes

Montreal's new ban on insulting police and city officials carries fines up to $2,000, and civil rights lawyers say that's already in court as unconstitutional. They want a judge to suspend it now, even as a provincial party leader floats taking the bylaw statewide.

— via CultMTL, Lorraine Carpenter

Canada tops a global influence ranking for the 10th straight year, with 80% of respondents across 30 countries calling it a positive force. The U.S. isn't far from the bottom tier of the climb: trust in its influence dropped from 60% to 48% in a single year.

— via CultMTL, Matthew Renfrew

Mark Carney's pushback against Trump's tariffs and annexation threats has fueled talk of a Nobel Peace Prize nod, the Associated Press reports. The Canadian prime minister now holds the highest approval rating in the country's history, with the winner set to be named Oct. 9 in Oslo.

— via CultMTL, Lorraine Carpenter

Carney's Quebec approval rating hits 67%, well ahead of Bloc leader Blanchet at 47% and PQ's St-Pierre Plamondon at just 40%. The polling also puts him at the highest approval rating any Canadian prime minister has ever recorded.

— via CultMTL, Matthew Renfrew

A masked stranger in her L.A. neighbourhood gave Marci's new album its title, and its superhero-duo concept. Four years after her debut, she talks hair-metal power ballads, bicoastal living and why this record feels "bipolar" compared to the first.

— via CultMTL, Dave MacIntyre

Curry Barker's supernatural horror film Obsession has held the #1 spot on JustWatch's Canada streaming chart for two weeks running. The Prime Video hit follows a wish gone wrong, with Backrooms and Toy Story 5 trailing behind in the top rankings.

— via CultMTL, Matthew Renfrew

CBC News keeps livestreaming Donald Trump's unproven fraud claims even after some U.S. networks stopped. One critic argues that choice launders his reputation and hands Alberta separatists a script ahead of this year's referendum.

— via CultMTL, Taylor C. Noakes

Philadelphia's Making Time rave lands at the SAT for a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. marathon of house, techno and disco, split between a sweaty dancefloor and the immersive Satosphere dome. The Knife's Olof Dreijer debuts his solo project live, and Berghain regulars headline both rooms.

— via CultMTL, Stephan Boissonneault

Wab Kinew tops a new Angus Reid Institute survey with 63% approval, 15 points ahead of the next premier. Doug Ford ranks last at 31%, as Kinew rides a push on Port of Churchill shipping and a sales tax cut on store-bought food.

— via CultMTL, Matthew Renfrew

Uffie played a Montreal basement while a song she co-wrote climbed to #22 on the Hot 100, and never mentioned it. Five POP Montreal sets, from sweaty shoegaze debuts to Ghostface Killah's estranged son roasting him onstage, reviewed by the people who stood through them.

— via CultMTL, The Music Team

Montreal marks its sixth annual Every Child Matters rally on Sept. 30, starting at Westmount Park at 1 p.m. before marching to Cabot Square with speakers, performers and a call to wear orange and bring drums.

— via CultMTL, Lorraine Carpenter

Insulting a Montreal cop can already cost you $1,000. Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wants that bylaw extended province-wide, calling it a "starting point" for new civility rules, alongside a promise to hire 800 more officers if elected Oct. 5.

— via CultMTL, Lorraine Carpenter

Miss 2 p.m. Thursday and you're locked out of voting Oct. 5, no exceptions. Registration has to happen in person at your returning officer's office, with documents proving your name, birth date and address.

— via CultMTL, Lorraine Carpenter

Québec Solidaire wants 50,000 new social housing units and 2,000 more education staff, plus rent caps tied to inflation. One catch: the party's own independence referendum push has just 16% support among its supporters.

— via CultMTL, Taylor C. Noakes

Sasha Velour brings her ghost-haunted drag spectacular Travesty to Montreal on Sept. 30, having premiered it blocks from the Capitol as the Trump administration targets queer protections and the Kennedy Center's programming.

— via CultMTL, Cult MTL

A new Léger poll puts the Parti Québécois at 30% support, with projections showing 63 seats, one short of a majority. The CAQ has slid to fourth place, while the Liberals climbed to 26% and the Conservatives stretched beyond their Quebec City base.

— via CultMTL, Matthew Renfrew

Jay Baruchel says nobody could tell "what you put in the fucking sandwich" building his performance as Ken Carter, the Canadian daredevil who tried to rocket a car across the St. Lawrence River in 1976. Michael Dowse's new film uses NFB documentary footage to turn a decades-old stunt into a study of fear, fame and Canadian reticence.

— via CultMTL, Justine Smith