Kategori: News in English

At Shrewsbury train station, there is a poster advertising The Cure’s new album, Songs of a Lost World. The confident, monochrome minimalism of the art is at odds with the rambling Victorian brickwork, yet there is a kind of sympathy there also.

At ten on a November morning, the station isn’t the most joyful of locations and so is a suitable home for a record praised for its wintery desolation. The poster helps here.

The cover art features a sculpture called Bagatelle from 1975 by the Slovenian artist Janez Pirna, which the cover’s designer chose because he pictured it “floating in space, almost as a distant relic from a forgotten time”. It also includes a new custom font, called Cureation, which is distressed and austere, and references the font used originally by the band. Like the station, these choices call upon a previous age – a lost world.

Songs of a Lost World is The Cure’s first album in 16 years. Reaching number one in the UK and now the US, some might argue it casts a pall of darkness over the pop charts; others might say it glitters a little in their reflected light. This has always been the way with The Cure.

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On one side of their catalogue, we have what is known as the “unholy trinity” of early albums Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography: alienated, austere, thematically dark. On the other, the shambling psychedelia of The Top and Kiss Me, the latter also featuring the blissed-out pop that helped this quintessentially English band find success in America.

In his recent book Goth: A History, the band’s former drummer Lol Tolhurst charts the genre from its 18th-century literary beginnings to its modern musical incarnation. In it, he describes how The Cure’s sound sits within this history through its unexpected influences, which range from record producer Phil Spector’s “wall of sound”, the production technique behind pop hits for The Ronettes and The Supremes, to the poetry of TS Eliot.

While Tolhurst locates the band’s sound within the gothic, frontman Robert Smith has consistently rejected the label. The difficulty in framing the band and this new album as gothic is that, like The Cure, the gothic has always been made up of contradictions.

Although nostalgic for medievalism, the gothic employs imagery that was called on by the theorist Karl Marx when discussing the alienating effects of modernity, from the “spectre … haunting Europe” in The Communist Manifesto to the “vampire life” of capital in Das Kapital.

Developed in part as a reactionary response to the revolution in France in 1789, it can be politically radical. Patriarchal, yet polymorphously perverse, pared down and baroque, glamorous and gauche, the gothic is an aesthetic devised of opposing forces.

Songs of a Lost World could be seen as a return to the darkness of The Cure’s early material. Take the lead single Alone. The lyrics turn, thematically, on death and isolation. The music has the intensity and sense of glacial doom that speaks to the fatalism and claustrophobia common to novels such as Frankenstein and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, as much as classics from the “unholy trinity” including 100 Years and A Forest.

Sinking by The Cure.

The song most clearly echoed in Alone, however, is Sinking, from The Cure’s shuffling, electronic masterpiece, The Head on the Door (1985). Both songs are lengthy and stately. They let the listener wait for most of their length before introducing Smith’s brief and despairing vocals. Despite the pared-down instrumentation of both tracks, the sound created has a density that calls upon the “wall of sound” production technique that defined The Cure’s most psychedelic and joyful recordings.

But this pulling between brightness and darkness, “the unholy trinity” and the pop excess of the other half of their catalogue, represents the band’s gothic heart. This is what makes Songs of a Lost World goth and the Cure goth too, whether Smith likes it or not. Läs mer…

When Donald Trump claimed victory in the 2024 US election, he and his inner circle gathered on stage at the Palm Beach County Convention Center to thank and praise his faithful supporters: the voters, Melania Trump, his campaign staff and various other backers. But a more surprising group was singled out by Trump’s longtime friend Dana White: “I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.”

The moment was a testament to the success of Trump’s campaign media strategy. The president-elect effectively sidelined mainstream outlets in favour of alternative channels like celebrity podcasts and the livestreaming platform Twitch. His 2024 campaign pioneered podcasts as a major communication format in the same way he had with Twitter in 2016.

The influencers who host these shows are public personalities with sway over large audiences. Many of them are sympathetic to Trump’s political message. By appearing on their shows, Trump effectively secured their personal endorsement and a direct line to their loyal fan bases.

Trump appeared on 14 major podcasts or streams during the campaign. This included The Joe Rogan Experience, Logan Paul’s Impaulsive and Theo Von’s This Past Weekend – all shows with predominantly male audiences. Combined, these appearances amassed 68.7 million YouTube views, and many more on other social media platforms.

To a lesser degree, Kamala Harris employed a similar strategy. She appeared on the podcasts Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper (the second biggest podcast on Spotify after Rogan), Club Shay Shay with NFL legend Shannon Sharpe and All The Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. These shows are all popular with two of her main target demographics: young women and black men. They supplemented her appearances on mainstream broadcast programmes.

Harris turned down an offer to appear on Rogan’s podcast a fortnight out from the election, and it has been reported that the campaign’s fears of a progressive backlash formed part of the reason.

While Rogan’s audience is mostly young and male (a prime audience for Trump’s campaign), the host’s allegiance to one party or the other is not a foregone conclusion. In 2020, he endorsed Bernie Sanders for president after Sanders appeared on the podcast. This year, Rogan endorsed Trump the day before the election.

Partisan interviews

Podcasts have a very different character from traditional news interviews. They are often partisan interviews that breach journalistic norms of neutrality and objectivity.

Podcast hosts often display their own readings of politics, and commonly draw on their personal and emotional responses to politicians in a way that a dispassionate journalistic interviewer is not permitted to.

They tend to opt for more of a friendly chat than aggressive questioning, using what research calls supportive interactional behaviour: expressing agreement, displaying active listening (hm, umm, yeah, go on), and laughing and nodding along with politicians. This “softball” questioning can result in the host becoming an accomplice to the politicians’ positive self-presentation rather than an interrogator.

These interviews also have a long and relatively uncontrolled format in which nearly anything can be discussed. This is well-suited to Trump’s rambling, often unfocused, says-whatever-he’s-thinking conversational style.

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Podcasts appeal to candidates as a lower-risk, more feel-good alternative to news interviews. Hosts are more likely to ask them about their childhood pets or the leadership lessons their parents taught them, than use aggressive accountability questioning designed to provide close scrutiny of their policy agenda. Their guests become personal storytellers whose thoughts, emotions and personalities are brought to the fore above issues of current affairs.

On Call Her Daddy, Harris discussed her relationship with her single mother and the values she had instilled in her growing up. When the interview did focus on policy, notably reproductive rights and abortion, Harris received little pushback from Cooper about how she would achieve her goal of reversing the effects of the overturning of Roe v Wade in policy terms.

In Harris’s own words, the podcast allowed her “to be real, you know, and to talk about the things that people really care about”.

Trump was very comfortable in this setting, appearing as one of the “bros”. In his conversation with Theo Von, Trump turned the tables and started asking Von questions about his experience of addiction, coming across as genuinely curious and emotionally attuned to Von’s struggles.

A side effect of this friendly demeanour and overall lack of adversarialism was that hosts did not call Trump out when he brazenly lied on issues such as vaccinations and electoral fraud. For instance, when Trump told Rogan, “I didn’t lose”, referring to the 2020 election result, Rogan just laughed and smiled. Trump left these interviews completely unscathed, having ridden out a series of softball, feel-good conversations that played well with his base.

Are podcasts a problem?

Traditional candidate interviews are meant to be combat zones, where journalists and politicians spar over key issues. They are democracy in action – and should be serious and focused on policy, political record and suitability for office – everything these podcasts are not.

There is value in getting to know politicians better as everyday people outside of politics. But this can become a problem when podcasts flood the media landscape or fully replace meaningful media scrutiny (as was the case in this election).

Outside of the debates, Trump’s only appearances on broadcast news were on Fox, a network favourable to him. Harris participated more in traditional interviews, including CBS’s long-running 60 Minutes, a programme Trump initially agreed to take part in before dropping out. But she was still criticised for not doing enough media interviews.

Candidates must meet voters where they are. By avoiding podcasts like Rogan’s and not addressing audiences beyond her immediate political base, Harris and the Democrats failed to do that. This allowed Trump to take full advantage of Rogan’s platform without any resistance.

It is likely that podcasts will start to play more of a role in future campaigns. Candidates should not be afraid to open themselves up to questioning from podcast hosts who don’t necessarily share their views. Imagine a world where Harris appeared on Joe Rogan and Trump appeared on Call Her Daddy. That could add some spice to electoral processing and re-enliven the political conversation.

It is certainly more appealing than the alternative – where political conversations become increasingly insular, with groups talking among themselves and no one reaching across the political aisle, further entrenching the divides of a highly partisan alternative media landscape. Läs mer…

Yahya Sinwar, the former leader of the Hamas militant organisation, was killed by the Israeli military in the south Gazan city of Rafah in October 2024. Given the role Sinwar played in the planning and execution of the October 7 terrorist attack, as well as his role in the development of Hamas’s military wing, his killing was seen as a possibly game-changing victory for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But, for all sides in the conflict, debate quickly turned to the consequences of his death. Would it change the political possibilities for a resolution to the war in Gaza? And would it transform him into a powerfully symbolic martyr inspiring new generations of militants?

My research and teaching at Lancaster University develops what could be described as “war futurism”. It explores the possible futures ahead of us in times that might be shaped in dramatic and unpredictable ways by AI, climate emergencies, space wars and the technological transformation of the “cyborg” body.

In 2023, I wrote a book titled Theorising Future Conflict: War Out to 2049. It included a fictional scenario involving a leader in a terrorist organisation who was rumoured to have been generated by AI as a means of producing a powerful figurehead for a group that was losing leaders to drone strikes.

Sinwar’s death prompted me to again think about what the age of generative AI tools might mean for strategic thinking and planning within organisations losing key figures.

Will there soon be a situation in real life whereby dead leaders are replaced by AI tools that could produce virtual figures that circulate through deepfake videos and online interactions? And could they be used by members of the organisation for strategic and political guidance?

People look at paintings depicting two late Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, and the now dead military commander of Hezbollah, Ibrahim Aqil, in Sana’a, Yemen.
Yahya Arhab / EPA

American cyberpunk author Rudy Rucker has written before about the possibility of producing what he calls a “lifebox”, where a person could be simulated in digital worlds. Movies like the 2014 US science fiction thriller Transcendence have also explored the possibility of people being able to “upload” their consciousness into digital worlds.

Rucker’s idea is not so much about uploading consciousness. It is instead about creating the simulation of a person based on a large database on what they’ve written, done and said.

In his 2021 novel, Juicy Ghosts, Rucker explores the ethical and economic problems that could result from people producing lifeboxes to live on after their deaths. These range from how you might pay for your digital “life” after death, and whether you would you be able to control how your lifebox might be used.

The era of digital immortality

The possibility of an AI-assisted lifebox in the future isn’t so far-fetched. Technological change is happening at a rapid pace and tools already exist that use AI for strategic planning and guidance.

We already get a sense of the ethical, legal and strategic challenges that might be ahead of us in the concern surrounding the Israeli military’s use of AI tools in the war in Gaza. In November, for example, the military claimed it was using an AI-based system called Habsora – meaning “the Gospel” in English – to “produce targets at a fast pace”.

It goes without saying that using AI to identify and track targets is vastly different to using it to create a digital leader. But, given the current speed of technological innovation, it’s not implausible to imagine a leader generating a post-death AI identity in the future based on the history books that influenced them, the events they lived through, or the strategies and missions they were involved in. Emails and social media posts might also be used to train the AI as the simulation of the leader is being created.

If the AI simulation works usefully and convincingly, we could arrive at a situation where it even becomes the leader of the organisation. In some cases, deferring to the AI leader would make political sense given the way the non-human, virtual leader can be blamed for strategic or tactical mistakes.

It could also be the case that the AI leader can think in ways that exceed the human origin and will have greatly enhanced strategic, organisational and technical capacities and capabilities. This is a field that is already being considered by scientists. The Nobel Turing challenge initiative, for example, is working to develop an autonomous AI system that can carry out research worthy of winning the Nobel prize and beyond by 2050.

A virtual political or terrorist leader is, of course, currently only a scenario from a cyberpunk film or novel. But how long will it be before we begin to see leaders experiment with the emerging possibilities of digital immortality?

It may be the case that somewhere in the Kremlin one of the many projects being developed by Putin in preparation for his death is the exploration of an AI lifebox that could be used to guide Russian leaders that follow him. He could also be exploring technologies that will enable him to be “uploaded” into a new body at the time of his demise.

How long will it be before we begin to see leaders experiment with the emerging possibilities of digital immortality?
Marzufello / Shutterstock

This is probably not the case. But, notwithstanding, strategic AI tools are likely to be used in the future – the question will be who gets to design and shape (and possibly inhabit) them. There are also likely to be limits on the political and organisational significance of dead leaders.

Concerns may arise that hackers could manipulate and sabotage the AI leader. There will be a sense of uncertainty that the AI will be manipulated through operations to influence and subvert in a way that erases all trust in the digital “minds” that exist after death. There could be a concern that the AI is developing its own political and strategic desires.

And it may well be the case that these attempts at AI immortality will be seen as an unnecessary and unhelpful obstruction by whoever replaces figures like Sinwar and Putin. The immortal leader might remain simply a technological fantasy of narcissistic politicians who want to live forever. Läs mer…

For the first time since 2021, a pill used to help people quit smoking – varenicline – will again be available on the NHS.

Varenicline is one of the most effective ways to quit smoking and is deemed an “essential medicine” by the World Health Organization.

What is this “new” smoking cessation pill?

Varenicline, is a once-a-day pill that was first available in 2007. It was withdrawn in 2021 after testing revealed higher-than-permitted impurities in certain batches.

These impurities are called nitrosamines and are in food, drink and medicines, but are not allowed to be over a certain level in these products. This is because animal testing has indicated that nitrosamines could be linked to cancer in humans if they are exposed above certain levels over long periods.

Now, a new version of varenicline has been approved for use by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and it will be available once again through the NHS.

How does it work?

Varenicline belongs to a group of drugs known as “nicotine receptor partial agonists”. It works by blocking the addictive nicotine in cigarettes from binding to receptors in the brain, reducing the pleasurable effects of smoking.

At the same time, it acts on these brain receptors to ease withdrawal symptoms and lower cravings to smoke. This makes quitting more manageable. By reducing cravings and the rewarding effects of nicotine, varenicline increases the chances of successfully quitting smoking.

How effective is it?

For every 100 people using varenicline, about 12 to 16 successfully quit, compared with around six in 100 who manage to quit without any aids. This means that varenicline can double, or even triple, a person’s chances of quitting.

How does it compare with other smoking cessation treatments?

Varenicline isn’t the only option to help people stop smoking in the UK. Evidence suggests that nicotine vapes help about ten to 19 people per 100 quit. Using two types of nicotine replacement therapy together, such as a patch with gum, also gives similar results.

Using a single type of nicotine replacement therapy, such as patches or gum on their own, and another medication called bupropion, are a bit less effective, helping around eight to nine people per 100 quit.

Are there any side-effects?

As with all drugs, varenicline can have side-effects. Common non-serious side-effects include nausea, trouble sleeping, vivid dreams and changes in mood. Previously, there were concerns that varenicline could cause thoughts of suicide or suicidal behaviour. However, a large, well-conducted study found no evidence of this.

Like all drugs, varenicline has side-effects, but they are mostly mild.
Antwon McMullen/Alamy Stock Photo

How many lives might it save?

Having access to varenicline for quitting smoking could have a huge effect on the health of the public. Smoking is uniquely deadly, with at least one in every two people who smoke dying of smoking-related disease.

NHS England estimates that varenicline could help more than 85,000 people quit smoking each year, potentially preventing up to 9,500 smoking-related deaths annually.

The benefits of quitting start almost immediately: within minutes heart rate can drop to healthier levels and within just a few years of quitting, the risk of heart disease is cut in half. Overall health continues to improve beyond this.

There are more ways to quit smoking than ever before, from nicotine vapes to pill-based medications. All of these quitting aids work best when combined with counselling.

While it can take several attempts to quit, many people who have tried unsuccessfully eventually manage to stop smoking for good.

In the UK, support to stop smoking is available at www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/. Accessing these services can make quitting easier and more successful. Läs mer…

Sugar addiction is on the rise. Globally, sugar intake has quadrupled over the last 60 years, and it now makes up around 8% of all our calories.

This sounds like sugar’s keeping us fed, but added sugars are actually empty calories – they are bereft of any nutrients like vitamins or fibres. The result is massive health costs, with sugars linked to obesity around the world. Some estimates suggest that half the global population could be obese by 2035.

A limited 20% reduction in sugar is estimated to save US$10.3 billion (£8.1 billion) of health costs in the US alone. Yet, sugar’s impacts go far beyond just health and money.

There are also many environmental problems from growing the sugar, like habitat and biodiversity loss and water pollution from fertilisers and mills. But overall, sugar hasn’t received a lot of attention from the scientific community despite being the largest cultivated crop by mass on the planet.

In a recent article, we evaluated sugar’s environmental impacts and explored avenues for reducing sugar in the diet to recommended levels either through reducing production or using the saved sugar in environmentally beneficial ways.

By phasing out sugar, we could spare land that could be rewilded and stock up on carbon. This is especially important in biodiverse tropical regions where sugar production is concentrated such as Brazil and India. But a different, more politically palatable option might be redirecting sugar away from diets to other environmentally-beneficial uses such as bioplastics or biofuels.

Sugar consumption is rising and that’s an environmental issue as well as a public health concern.
hxdbzxy/Shutterstock

Our study shows that the biggest opportunity is using sugar to feed microbes that make protein. Using saved sugar for this microbial protein could produce enough plant-based, protein-rich food products to regularly feed 521 million people. And if this replaced animal protein it could also have huge emission and water benefits.

We estimate that if this protein replaced chicken, it could reduce emissions by almost 250 million tonnes, and we’d see even bigger savings for replacing beef (for reference, the UK’s national fossil fuel emissions are around 300 million tonnes). Given sugar has a far lower climate impact than meat, this makes a lot of sense.

Another alternative is to use the redirected sugar to produce bioplastics, which would replace around 20% of the total market for polyethelyne, one of the most common forms of plastic and used to produce anything from packaging to pipes. Or to produce biofuels, producing around 198 million barrels of ethanol for transportation.

Brazil already produces around 85% of the world’s ethanol and they produce it from sugar, but instead of having to grow more sugar for ethanol we could redirect the sugar from diets instead. This estimation is based on a world where we reduce dietary sugar to the maximum in dietary recommendations (5% of daily calories). The benefits would be even larger if we reduced sugar consumption even further.

Supply chain challenges

This sounds like a big win-win: cut sugar to reduce obesity and help the environment. But these changes present a huge challenge in a sugar supply chain spanning more than 100 countries and the millions of people that depend on sugar’s income.

National policies like sugar taxes are vital, but having international coordination is also important in such a sprawling supply chain. Sustainable agriculture is being discussed at the UN’s climate summit, Cop29, in Azerbaijan this week. Sustainable sugar production should factor into these global talks given the many environmental problems and opportunities from changing the way we grow and consume sugar.

We also suggest that groups of countries could come together in sugar transition partnerships between producers and consumers that encourage a diversion of sugar away from peoples’ diets to more beneficial uses. This could be coordinated by the World Health Organization which has called for a reduction in sugar consumption. Some of the money to fund these efforts could even come from part of the health savings in national budgets.

We can’t hope to transition the way we produce and eat sugar overnight. But by exploring other uses of sugar, we can highlight what environmental benefits we are missing out on and help policymakers map a resource-efficient path forward to the industry while improving public health.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far. Läs mer…

Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock recently warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is facilitating crime on an “industrial scale” using deepfakes, voice simulation and phony documents.

Police around the world are also turning to AI tools such as facial recognition, automated licence plate readers, gunshot detection systems, social media analysis and even police robots. AI use by lawyers is similarly “skyrocketing” as judges adopt new guidelines for using AI.

While AI promises to transform criminal justice by increasing operational efficiency and improving public safety, it also comes with risks related to privacy, accountability, fairness and human rights.

Concerns about AI bias and discrimination are well documented. Without safeguards, AI risks undermining the very principles of truth, fairness, and accountability that our justice system depends on.

In a recent report from the University of British Columbia’s School of Law, Artificial Intelligence & Criminal Justice: A Primer, we highlighted the myriad ways AI is already impacting people in the criminal justice system. Here are a few examples that reveal the significance of this evolving phenomenon.

The promises and perils of police using AI

In 2020, an investigation by The New York Times exposed the sweeping reach of Clearview AI, an American company that had built a facial recognition database using more than three billion images scraped from the internet, including social media, without users’ consent.

Policing agencies worldwide that used the program, including several in Canada, faced public backlash. Regulators in multiple countries found the company had violated privacy laws. It was asked to cease operations in Canada.

Clearview AI continues to operate, citing success stories of helping to exonerate a wrongfully convicted person by identifying a witness at a crime scene; identifying someone who exploited a child, which led to their rescue; and even detecting potential Russian soldiers seeking to infiltrate Ukrainian checkpoints.

A notice by the Metropolitan Police in London, England on police facial recognition activities in May 2023.
(Shutterstock)

There are longstanding and persistent concerns, however, that facial recognition is prone to false positives and other errors, particularly when it comes to identifying Black and other racialized people, exacerbating systemic racism, bias and discrimination.

Some law enforcement agencies in Canada that were caught up in the Clearview AI controversy have since responded with new measures, such as the Toronto Police Service’s policies on AI use and the RCMP’s transparency program.

Others, however, like the Vancouver Police Department, promised to develop policies but haven’t, while at the same time seeking access to city traffic camera footage.

The regulation of police uses of AI is a pressing concern if we are to safely navigate the promise and perils of AI use.

Deepfake evidence in court

Another area where AI is presenting challenges in the criminal justice system is deepfake evidence, including AI-generated documents, audio, photos, and videos.

The phenomenon has already led to cases where one party alleges that the other party’s evidence is a deepfake, casting doubt on it, even if it’s legitimate. This has been dubbed the “liar’s dividend.”

A high-profile example of allegations involving deepfake evidence arose in the case of Joshua Doolin, who faced charges related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol for which he was ultimately convicted. Doolin’s attorney contended that prosecutors should be required to authenticate video evidence sourced from YouTube, raising concerns about the potential use of deepfakes.

Jurors could be especially prone to doubts about potential deepfakes given high-profile deepfake incidents involving celebrities or their own use of AI technologies.

Judges are also sounding the alarm about the challenges of detecting increasingly sophisticated deepfake evidence admitted in court. There are concerns that a wrongful conviction or acquittal could result.

I’ve personally heard from a number of legal practitioners, including judges and lawyers, that they are struggling to address this issue. It is a frequent subject at legal seminars and judicial training events. Until we have a clear statement from appellate courts on the matter, legal uncertainty will remain.

Risk assessment algorithms

Imagine an AI algorithm that you couldn’t understand deemed you a flight risk or at high risk to re-offend, and that information was used by a judge or parole board to deny your release from custody. This dystopian reality isn’t a fiction but a reality in many parts of the world.

Automated algorithmic decision-making is already being used in various countries for decisions on access to government benefits and housing, assessing domestic violence risk, making immigration determinations and a host of criminal justice applications from bail decisions to sentencing to prison classification to parole outcomes.

People impacted by these algorithms typically fail to gain access to their underlying proprietary software. Even if they could, they are often “black boxes” that are impossible to penetrate.

Even worse, research into some algorithms has found serious concerns about racial bias. A key reason for this problem is that AI models are trained on data from societies that are already embedded with systemic racism. “Garbage in, garbage out” is a commonly used adage to explain this.

Research into some algorithms has found serious concerns about [racial bias.
(Shutterstock)

Fostering innovation while safeguarding justice

The need for legal and ethical AI in high-risk situations pertaining to criminal justice is paramount. There is undoubtedly a need for new laws, regulations and policies specifically designed to address these challenges.

The European Union’s AI Act bans AI for uses such as untargeted scraping images off the internet or CCTV, real-time remote biometric identification in public (with limited exceptions), and assessing recidivism risk based solely on profiling or personality traits.

Canada’s laws have not kept pace, and those that have been proposed have challenges. At the federal level, Bill C-27 (which includes an Artificial Intelligence and Data Act) has been stuck in committee for over a year, and it is unlikely to be adopted by this Parliament.

Ontario’s proposed AI legislation, Bill 194, would exempt police from its application and fails to include provisions on ensuring respect for human rights.

Canada should vigorously enforce existing laws and policies that already apply to AI use by public authorities. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes numerous fundamental freedoms, legal rights and equality protections that bear directly on these issues. Likewise, privacy legislation, human rights legislation, consumer protection legislation and tort law all set important standards for AI use.

The potential impact of AI on people in the criminal justice system is immense. Without thoughtful and rigorous oversight, it risks undermining public confidence in the justice system and perpetuating existing problems with real human consequences.

Fortunately, Canada has not yet gone as far down the road of widespread AI adoption in criminal justice as other countries. We still have time to get ahead of it. Policymakers, courts and civil society must act swiftly to ensure that AI serves justice rather than undermines it. Läs mer…

Where would you like to be when you die? Seven out of eight people in Canada would choose to pass away at home where they and their loved ones would be more comfortable.

And yet 56 per cent of people in Canada actually die in hospitals.

If dying at home could be made more feasible and well resourced, both the dying and the living would benefit.

First and foremost, it would be more peaceful and consistent with what we value. A community-based palliative approach keeps our values, goals and dignity at the core of care.

Secondly, whether you’re in an early, middle or late stage of life, staying in hospital is extremely expensive. A single bed in a Canadian hospital costs about $1 million a year to operate, so we have to use each one judiciously.

Finally, we could help reduce health care’s massive environmental impact. If health care were a country, it would be the fifth-largest producer of carbon emissions in the world, responsible for 4.4 per cent of the global total.

The high cost of hospitals

Health care is responsible for 4.4 per cent of the global carbon emissions.
(Sergeant, Ly, Kandasamy, Anand, de Souza), CC BY

An article my colleagues and I wrote for The Lancet points out that providing end-of-life care in a community setting, such as home care, uses much less greenhouse gas. Hospitals draw disproportionate amounts of energy for ventilation, heating and equipment, and they use more disposable supplies.

One patient’s day of hospital care generates an estimated 30 kilograms of greenhouse gas, compared to eight kilograms for long-term care and just two kilograms for home care.

Almost all of us need to spend some time in a hospital at some point in life, whether it’s when we’re born, giving birth or being treated for an injury or illness. By far, though, the greatest amount of time most of us spend in hospital is in the last year of our lives, whether that time comes in our 40s or our 90s.

The medicalization of death

Providing end-of-life care in a community setting, such as home care, uses much less green house gas than hospital care.
(Shutterstock)

A typical person’s use of the medical system rises very gradually with age, but in the final few months, it increases rapidly as we turn to the hospital system and the resources that come with it.

This reflects what some refer to as the “medicalization of death.” A palliative medicine physician in the United Kingdom, Dr. Libby Sallnow, has summarized this succinctly:

“How people die has changed dramatically over the past 60 years, from a family event with occasional medical support, to a medical event with limited family support.”

Certainly, those who need complex pain management or other special care should receive it in the setting that best suits their needs, which is often a hospital.
But of all the people in a typical Canadian hospital — and we are not alone in this situation — about one in six are not even benefiting from being there.

In my own practice, which includes working in a complex care facility in Hamilton, Ont., there are typically many patients who have been medically approved for an alternative level of care, or ALC, meaning they could return home or be placed in a long-term care facility.

And yet, even though most patients would rather spend their final days at home, we have difficulty sending them there, because there aren’t enough community care resources to care for them at home.

Care at home

Important components of home care include: an integrated team, proactive care, management of physical symptoms and caring and compassionate providers.
(Shutterstock)

We need dedicated home-care teams that can provide care in line with patient wishes. Important components of home care include: an integrated team, proactive care, management of physical symptoms and caring and compassionate providers.

Primary-care teams can act as informal managers of home care through facilitating the medical, social and comfort components of care. All of this would still add up to far less than the financial and environmental cost of hospitalization.

At a time when we’re pressured to cut costs and reduce harm to the environment, and when we know dying patients would rather be at home, why can’t we help?

Places like Germany make it easier by paying family caregivers to look after patients at home, reducing the financial barrier that keeps many people in hospital.

The experts in gerontology and epidemiology who direct the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging advocate for planning communities with home-based and neighbourhood-based care in mind, making care both more humane and efficient.

A family medicine colleague, Dr. Henry Siu, is investigating ways to reduce the number of long-term care patients who are mistakenly transferred to hospital because of misunderstandings related to consent.

These and other ideas are available if we want to take advantage of them.

Meanwhile, though, we keep building or expanding hospitals, following the same puzzling and counter-productive logic that causes us to widen roads and highways instead of finding better ways to get around.

This month, I will be representing McMaster University Planetary Health in the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan. Within the sustainable health sector at COP, the end of life is a topic that is rarely discussed, but it needs to be. Läs mer…

The mood of Americans has been a hot topic in the news lately, especially following the recent United States presidential election. Enter the term “vibecession,” which describes the disconnect between people’s personal financial situations and the broader economy.

This disconnect, however, isn’t limited to the U.S. In fact, it may be even more pronounced in Canada. While my research has found that Americans’ outlook has shifted dramatically in recent years, it pales in comparison to the pessimism felt by Canadians.

As a sociologist who studies what people think and feel about getting ahead in life, I’ve been tracking perceptions of the quality of work and economic life in Canada and the U.S.

Read more:
New research debunks the ’unhappy worker’ narrative, but finds most still believe it

Since 2019, I’ve partnered with two research firms — Angus Reid Global and YouGov — to lead a series of nationally representative surveys of roughly 42,000 Canadian and American workers. I’ve repeatedly asked about their personal experiences with work and money, as well as their views about how other Americans and Canadians are faring on these same measures.

A striking pattern has emerged from my most recent surveys: there is a significant gap between individuals’ personal assessments and their beliefs about the financial well-being of others.

Financial struggles

In my 2024 surveys, Canadians and Americans reported similar financial struggles when asked: “How often in the past year did you not have enough money to buy food, clothes, or other things your household needed?”

About 70 per cent of Canadian and 62 per cent of American works said they “rarely” or “never” had insufficient money for household necessities. But almost no one believes that most others share the same experience. In both countries, 43 per cent of respondents believe that most people frequently can’t afford basic necessities.

How often respondents did not have enough money to buy food, clothes, or other household needs in the past year.
(Scott Schieman)

I also asked respondents: “How do your finances usually work out at the end of the month? Would you say you don’t have enough to make ends meet, barely have enough to get by, have just enough to make ends meet, have a little money left over, or have a lot of money left over?”

Responses were categorized into four groups:

Struggling: Having not enough to make ends meet or barely enough to get by
Just getting by: Having just enough to make ends meet
Slightly getting ahead: Having a little money left over
Comfortable: Having a lot of money left over

Once again, Canadians and Americans report similar personal financial well-being: 27 per cent in both countries said they are personally struggling, while half said they are slightly getting ahead or comfortable.

However, perceptions of others’ experiences diverged sharply between the two countries. While 43 per cent of Americans thought most others were struggling, a striking 65 per cent of Canadians thought the same about their peers.

Perceptions of financial well-being of Canadians compared to Americans.
(Scott Schieman)

All about the cost of living

Why might Canadians have such a distorted view of others’ financial well-being? A major factor is the cost of living, which continues to weigh heavily on many households.

While inflation has eased in recent months, this positive development has done little to shift Canadians’ pessimistic views about the economy.

This gloomy perspective is not new for Canadians. In 2020, 62 per cent believed the cost of living had worsened recently, compared to 46 per cent of American workers who felt the same.

Fast forward to October 2024, and the numbers paint an even darker picture: 84 per cent of Canadians said the cost of living has worsened, with 51 per cent believing it has become much worse. When factoring in those who were already sour about the cost of living and now characterized it as having “stayed the same,” it’s clear how deeply rooted this pessimism is.

By comparison, Americans remain less pessimistic. In October 2024, 65 per cent of Americans said it had worsened in comparison to 2020, with 35 per cent believing it got much worse.

How respondents’ experiences of the cost of living have changed in recent years.
(Scott Schieman)

Political consequences

My broader research seeks to understand how distorted perceptions about money shape the ways people think and talk about getting ahead in life, especially through their attitudes about work.

In this current moment, however, there’s an understandable focus on how such pessimism shapes political consequences — a topic relevant on both sides of the border. Both U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau know well the political weight of these “bad vibes.”

Every election cycle, the old political adage “it’s the economy, stupid” seems to crop up again in relevancy. Perhaps a more apt version right now might be: “It’s people’s perceptions, stupid.” Public sentiment about financial well-being can weigh as heavily on political fortunes as the hard numbers themselves. Läs mer…

A literary subgenre that emerged in the 2010s and gained widespread popularity in the 2020s, dark romance falls under the umbrella of unhealthy love stories. These novels often depict relationships that challenge moral and legal boundaries, raising questions about their growing appeal. What does the success of these provocative stories, frequently marked by violence and complex power dynamics, reveal about contemporary society?

Fueled by social media platforms such as TikTok – particularly under the hashtag #BookTok – the meteoric rise of dark romance underscores a shift in how narratives about love and desire are consumed. The genre’s ability to provoke intense emotional responses has captivated a predominantly young, female, and highly engaged audience. While controversial, these novels allow readers to explore forbidden or complex emotions within a controlled, fictional environment. How can society better understand this phenomenon, and more importantly, guide young readers toward critical engagement without dismissing their preferences?

A genre on the rise

The success of Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James in the early 2010s helped establish new romance as a dominant force in publishing, paving the way for subgenres like dark romance. Series such as 365 Days by Blanka Lipińska and Captive by Sarah Rivens have garnered millions of readers, cementing dark romance as a popular niche.

By 2023, romance accounted for 7% of the French book market, with dark romance representing a significant portion. Once relegated to the fringes, the genre is now widely available in bookstores, libraries, and even boasts its own event – the Festival New Romance in Lyon.

Central to dark romance’s success is the role of online literary communities. Platforms such as TikTok amplify these novels’ visibility through thousands of videos featuring recommendations, excerpts, and emotional analyses. Enthusiastic readers become influencers, driving interest and propelling titles to success – sometimes even before official publication. Viral sensations like Captive owe much of their popularity to this digital word-of-mouth model.

The allure of emotional intensity

Dark romance explores the murky areas of love and desire, often characterised by fraught power dynamics and implicit or explicit violence between protagonists. Yet, these stories typically have a positive, albeit complicated, conclusion.

Protagonists in these novels are often young women in submissive roles paired with dominant male characters. Despite frequent criticism for their portrayal of toxic relationships, these narratives resonate with readers by offering an emotional intensity unmatched by other romance subgenres.

For many, the appeal lies in the safe exploration of extreme emotions within a fictional framework. Similar to the thrill of horror movies, readers can experience fear, tension, or desire, knowing they remain in control of the story. This emotional catharsis may reflect broader societal unease, particularly among young people navigating conversations around gender equality, consent, and power dynamics in the post-#MeToo era.

Recognising excess without normalizing it

Contrary to fears that dark romance promotes violence or unhealthy relationships, many readers engage critically with these narratives. A 2024 study of high school students revealed that young readers often interpret such content through a lens of awareness, acknowledging the troubling dynamics while recognising their fictional nature. “It’s good to show readers the violence of these acts so they can understand how absurd it is,” one student told Arnaud Genon, a professor at INSPÉ in Strasbourg. This sentiment underscores the idea that reading these novels can foster a critical awareness of harmful behaviours rather than normalising them.

Far from being a mere incitement to violence, dark romance can serve as a tool for introspection and emotional processing – though its impact varies significantly based on the reader’s maturity and age. Concerns often arise regarding very young readers, particularly girls who may lack the emotional tools to process such content effectively. This underscores the importance of providing guidance and fostering environments where young people can discuss these narratives openly, whether with trusted individuals or within critical reading communities. Such approaches mitigate risks of superficial interpretations or unchecked immersion, especially on platforms like Wattpad, a collaborative storytelling site where moderation can be minimal.

Dark romance often serves as a form of catharsis, allowing readers to engage with powerful and conflicting emotions in a controlled and safe environment. The genre enables readers to navigate themes of control, freedom, and submission – concepts many young women grapple with amid societal pressures. Within these fictional realms, readers remain in control of the narrative, creating a boundary that separates fantasy from reality.

This exploration is particularly relevant in a society where young women are often subjected to paradoxical expectations. Dark romance provides a space to examine these tensions without real-world repercussions, making emotional engagement the cornerstone of the reader’s experience.

One of the reasons dark romance maintains its popularity is its ability to offer a sense of reassurance amid the complexities of real-world relationships. The recurring theme of the heroine “healing” her abuser or gaining control over the relationship provides a redemptive arc that appeals to readers seeking resolution. While the initial depictions of violence may be troubling, the eventual mastery and closure provide a controlled space for readers to explore challenging emotions without endorsing such behaviours in real life.

In many households, the introduction to dark romance comes from familial connections, such as mothers or older sisters sharing their own discoveries. These shared experiences often lead to discussions, fostering critical thinking and reflection on the content. In more open-minded environments, such exchanges transform reading into a communal and analytical activity, steering readers away from simplistic or potentially harmful interpretations.

Toward a more nuanced approach

Rather than condemning dark romance, society should focus on guiding its readership. Demonising the genre risks alienating young readers, while fostering open dialogue encourages critical reflection.

Teenagers often engage with these stories as a form of experimentation, rather than a desire to emulate the characters or relationships depicted. Social media reactions like “Oh, Ash is so handsome; I’d love a guy like that” are frequently playful provocations rather than genuine aspirations.

As Hervé Glevarec, a CNRS sociologist specialising in contemporary cultural practices, observes: “Cultural tastes cannot be understood independently of the context in which they are expressed; they are shaped by social situations and networks of sociability.” Dark romance, in this light, becomes an emotional playground where readers can safely explore desires, frustrations, and fantasies while remaining grounded in the understanding that these stories are fictional.

The challenge lies in ensuring young readers encounter dark romance within frameworks that encourage thoughtful engagement. When supported by open discussions and critical analysis, this provocative genre can serve as a space for readers to confront complex emotions on their terms – and ultimately dominate the narrative. Läs mer…

Have you ever gazed out at the sea and felt the world become smaller? Perhaps you have swum in its waters and felt that time stood still, that the noise and chatter of the world faded away to a distant whisper, or you have marvelled as the sun slid gently beneath its horizon.

In these moments, we often feel a sense of admiration or amazement, a feeling of smallness in the face of something so immense that it leaves us speechless. Maybe this is because we are ourselves 70 % water, or because the sheer scale of the sea puts us in perspective, reminding us of our connection to something much larger. This range of feelings – referred to as “awe” – has been extensively researched by psychologists.

Being near natural bodies of water, especially the sea, has proven health benefits. This effect has been dubbed “blue health”.

Scientists have offered a number of explanations for these benefits. Being near water often means we do more physical activity, while natural surroundings also have a restorative effect on our mental wellbeing and social lives, meaning they also have mental health benefits. Furthermore, blue spaces can improve overall environmental quality, which brings indirect health benefits.

The origin of life itself

Life on Earth began in the oceans. In addition to being a vital source of nutrients and resources, the sea is therefore our biological point of origin.

Our sweat and tears share the sea’s salty composition, and there is a surprising similarity between how elements of the sea and our bodies work. Applied to natural surroundings more generally, this link even has a name: biophilia.

The biophilia hypothesis is one of the three main theories that explain humans’ attraction to the sea. The other two are the theory of psychophysiological stress recovery, and attention restoration theory. These ideas are not mutually exclusive, and all three contribute to the sense of wellbeing that the sea gives us.

Be it walking on the sand, in a boat on its surface, diving beneath the waves, or just observing or meditating on it, the sea allows us to set our mental struggles to one side and to feel free. It can help us to find what psychologists call “restoration”, and this sense of wellbeing is something we often struggle to find on our own.

Blue health can be a powerful tool in reducing stress and improving our moods. Our connection to nature helps us to put our own worries in perspective – it restores our attention by warding off the preoccupations that dominate our attention in our daily lives.

Sea, sport and disability

Many people with disabilities or injuries that prevent them from walking or moving easily on land can bathe in the sea. It can offer them a moment to close their eyes, breathe, and perhaps even feel a sense of bodily freedom or autonomy.

For this reason, water sports (especially in the sea) can play a huge role in promoting psychological wellbeing for disabled people. Boats, equipment and activities can be adapted to include everyone, no matter their abilities.

From specialised sailboats and diving therapy to yoga and meditation on stand up paddle boards, there are many activities that can help people to connect with the sea and feel its benefits.

Not only do they bring physical and emotional wellbeing, these activities also allow a person, regardless of their limitations, to experience the freedom and connection that the sea can offer. The sea belongs to everyone, and we all deserve to feel its immense, transformative power. Läs mer…