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There exists no coherent notion of what AI is or could be, and no meaningful effort to coalesce around a set of practices, because to do so would be to reduce the opportunity for grift.

What AI is is an ideology—a system of ideas that has swept up not only the tech industry but huge parts of government on both sides of the aisle, a supermajority of everyone with assets in the millions and up, and a seemingly growing sector of the journalism class. The ideology itself is nothing new—it is the age-old system of supremacy, granting care and comfort to some while relegating others to servitude and penury—but the wrappings have been updated for the late capital, late digital age, a gaudy new cloak for today’s would-be emperors.

It's so emblematic of the moment we're in, the Who Cares Era, where completely disposable things are shoddily produced for people to mostly ignore.

The extreme heat caused illness, death, crop losses, and strained energy and health care systems, according to the analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central and the Red Cross.

“Although floods and cyclones often dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event,” the report said. Many heat-related deaths are unreported or are mislabeled by other conditions like heart disease or kidney failure.

Caribbean islands were among the hardest hit by additional extreme heat days. Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, endured 161 days of extreme heat. Without climate change, only 48 would have occurred.

While some in the waste industry say incineration is ‘low-carbon,’ climate advocates say it is highly polluting

One of the teen girls accused in the fatal swarming attack on a homeless Toronto man has been found not guilty of second-degree murder, but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

She was one of eight girls between the ages of 13 and 16 who were arrested and charged with second-degree murder after Lee's death. The other seven girls have pleaded guilty to lesser charges – five to manslaughter, one to assault and one to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.

"She had a weapon and a demonstrated willingness to use it against Mr. Lee," he wrote in his verdict, referencing surveillance video footage of the attack that was central to the trial.

Lee was living in the city's shelter system and was at the parkette near Toronto's Union Station with a friend when they encountered the group. He died in the early hours of Dec. 18, 2022, after undergoing emergency surgery at St. Michael's Hospital, court has heard.

The judge said Friday that watching the video of the attack left him "struck by the irrational viciousness" of the group's conduct and the girl's use of the scissors as a weapon. "Yet, this does not lead me to the conclusion that she had the state of mind for murder," he said. "The word 'murder' is not a shorthand for an extreme level of moral failure or a high degree of viciousness."

The "luxury belief" framing matters. Rob Henderson coined the term to describe beliefs that function as status symbols—conveying social class, identity, and tribal belonging without directly affecting the people who hold them. In this case, rejecting vaccines while trusting your child will never be exposed to a disease that requires one.

We imagine disinformation as a symptom of ignorance. But more often, it’s a symptom of insulation. If you live in a community with 98% vaccination rates, you can afford to be the 2%. You can post wellness memes about "natural immunity" and still get herd immunity as a side effect. Your child is statistically safe, not because of your parenting, but in spite of it.

In lower-income communities, vaccine skepticism exists too, but it often stems from different roots: mistrust of institutions, historical medical abuses, or practical barriers like access and transportation. What makes affluent anti-vaxxers distinct is their belief that they are the ones questioning the system, when in fact they’re coasting on its success.

This is the tragedy of the commons, redrawn in immunological terms. Each person who chooses not to vaccinate imposes a small, cumulative burden on the group. Alone, it’s negligible. In aggregate, it’s disaster.

What makes it all so brittle is how unequal the burden becomes. Not everyone gets the same leeway to make these choices. An affluent parent who skips a vaccine because of "gut instinct" faces few consequences when the community uptake is high. But a child in a poor neighborhood with poor access to healthcare and low community coverage? Their odds are worse - through no fault of their own.

So the luxury belief isn’t just a personal delusion. It’s a redistribution of risk. It transfers danger from those with options to those without. From the people choosing to free-ride to the people holding the line.

Their economy produces more GDP per worker than any other. The economic pie they bake is bigger than ever. But the average Albertan’s standard of living is lower than a decade ago.

It wasn’t Ottawa that laid them off, cut their pay, froze the minimum wage, drove up electricity and insurance costs, and put their health care at risk. It was the enemy within.

Alberta’s oligarchs aren’t speaking for the province, they are speaking for themselves.

And the sooner the rest of the population can get past the phoney Alberta versus Canada narrative, the sooner they’ll start toward a genuine solution to their woes: namely, winning a fairer share of the abundant wealth they already produce.

China is poised to be the next big donor to the World Health Organization after Trump abruptly withdrew the US from the United Nations health agency on his first day in office, leaving a critical funding gap and leadership void.

Although the US has cut all ties with the WHO—and reportedly still owes the agency $260 million in 2024–2025 dues—US health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made an unexpected appearance at the WHA via a six-minute video. Isolated

In the abrasive, pre-recorded speech, Kennedy described the WHO as "moribund" and "mired in bureaucratic bloat [and] entrenched paradigms."

"WHO's priorities have increasingly reflected the biases and interests of corporate medicine," Kennedy said, alluding to his anti-vaccine and germ-theory denialist views. He chastised the health organization for allegedly capitulating to China and working with the country to "promote the fiction that COVID originated in bats."

Kennedy ended the short speech by touting his Make America Healthy Again agenda. He also urged the WHO to undergo a radical overhaul similar to what the Trump administration is currently doing to the US government—presumably including dismantling and withholding funding from critical health agencies and programs. Last, he pitched other countries to join the US in abandoning the WHO.

"I would like to take this opportunity to invite my fellow health ministers around the world into a new era of cooperation.... we're ready to work with you," Kennedy said.

Canada Pension Plan Investments has dropped a net-zero by 2050 target for carbon emissions, according to an annual report released on Wednesday, following several Canadian financial institutions that have backtracked on climate commitments.

Several major Canadian banks, including BMO, TD Bank and CIBC, have also backtracked on climate commitments this year, announcing they were leaving a Net-Zero Banking Alliance backed by the United Nations.