Bud Cort, Who Starred in 1971’s ‘Harold and Maude,’ Dies at 77 https://nyti.ms/3ZzKD5M

"One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consistently intensify it: In the study, employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. That may sound like a win, but it’s not quite so simple. These changes can be unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making. The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems. To correct for this, companies need to adopt an “AI practice,” or a set of norms and standards around AI use that can include intentional pauses, sequencing work, and adding more human grounding."

Harvard Business Review

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It

One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new...

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Wednesday to slap back President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare if largely symbolic rebuke of the White House agenda as Republicans joined Democrats over the objections of GOP leadership. The tally, 219-211, was among the first times the House, controlled by Republicans, has confronted the president over a signature policy. The resolution seeks to end the national emergency Trump declared to impose the tariffs, though actually undoing the policy would require support from Trump himself, which is highly unlikely. The resolution next goes to the Senate." U.S. House votes to slap back Trump’s tariffs on Canada in rare bipartisan rebuke of White House agenda https://www.thestar.com/news/world/united-states/u-s-house-votes-to-slap-back-trumps-tariffs-on-canada-in-rare-bipartisan-rebuke/article_aad1db60-30f2-5d23-b588-d4ac79d62c46.html

In Trump’s war on global justice, court staff and U.N. face terrorist‑grade sanctions https://www.reuters.com/investigations/trumps-war-global-justice-court-staff-un-face-terroristgrade-sanctions-2026-02-06/

Toronto police corruption case: Explosive allegations against officers accused of leaking information to criminals : The seven-month investigation, dubbed Project South, is one of the largest probes of criminal corruption in the Toronto Police Service’s history, involving longtime constables and sergeants as well as younger officers. https://bit.ly/45TCjRT

"Over 750 pages were cut from the earlier versions of the same orders, according to NPR's analysis, leaving only about one-third of the number of pages in the original documents." Trump administration secretly loosens nuclear safety rules https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-5677187/nuclear-safety-rules-rewritten-trump

[Short version at 29:00 of the video recording] Nick Tilsen is an Indigenous leader, organizer, and social entrepreneur from the Oglala Lakota Nation, founder, president, and CEO of NDN Collective, which he created to systematically strengthen the collective power of Indigenous peoples through organizing, financing, philanthropy, capacity building, and political narrative-building; his more than 20-year career includes community mobilization, land defense, and equitable development across Turtle Island (North America), and he has received fellowships and major foundation awards for his work. He embodies an organizing strategy rooted in Indigenous culture and solidarity, and in a recent interview he highlights the risks and challenges he faces as a visible leader, including legal charges he considers politically motivated, as well as the importance of a structured organization capable of supporting and protecting movements for justice and the LANDBACK movement. NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led advocacy and activist organization based in Rapid City, South Dakota, working with more than 200 Indigenous groups to build the power of Indigenous peoples, communities, and nations in pursuit of self-determination and a world grounded in justice and equity; its mission includes rights advocacy, sustainable community development, the decolonization of social and economic structures, and the promotion of campaigns such as climate justice, racial and educational equity, and the LANDBACK movement aimed at returning traditional lands to Indigenous peoples. (ChatGPT) Silencing a Movement Leader: Nick Tilsen’s Fight for Justice

"SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for ‘national security’"

the Guardian

‘We are not for sale’: chair of Greenland’s top labor union rebukes Trump’s call for annexation

Exclusive: SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for ‘national security’

Greenlanders ‘don’t want to be Americans’, say political leaders amid Trump threats Five parties issue joint statement after US president warns he would acquire the island ‘the nice way or the more difficult way’

the Guardian

Greenlanders ‘don’t want to be Americans’, say political leaders amid Trump threats

Five parties issue joint statement after US president warns he would acquire the island ‘the nice way or the more difficult way’

"There may still be time to stop this trajectory. When Russia invaded Ukraine, over 140 states condemned the invasion as illegal, helping avert what would probably have been a death blow to the legal order. This is what it takes to preserve the international legal system when a powerful state violates the rules. So far, however, only a handful of states have been willing to forcefully stand up to Mr. Trump. If states fail to act together to preserve the prohibition on the use of force — the bedrock of the postwar legal order — the toll will be registered in many more lives lost in conflicts that no longer have any guardrails to stop them." The Great Unraveling Has Begun https://nyti.ms/3Z5khIh

"Further unrest in Venezuela could unsettle global energy and food markets and drive more migrants throughout the hemisphere." Trump’s Attack on Venezuela Is Illegal and Unwise https://nyti.ms/49lSTKU

Pour moi c'est le film de l'année, de loin. / For me, this is the movie of the year, by far. https://www.crave.ca/fr/movie/one-battle-after-another-59332

"To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface," Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rubio-stages-font-coup-times-new-roman-ousts-calibri-2025-12-09/

"A global reporting project has obtained leaked photos of more than 10,200 bodies of those disappeared by the Assad regime between 2015 and 2024. The chilling images taken by Syrian military photographers are included in more than 134,000 Syrian security and intelligence records obtained by German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 24 media partners in 20 countries, including the Star. The files originate from Syria’s Air Force Intelligence and the General Intelligence Directorate. They comprise intelligence reports, death certificates and records of arrests written in Arabic." Thousands of leaked photos show new evidence of mass torture and murder under Syria’s Assad regime

Toronto Star

Thousands of leaked photos show new evidence of mass torture and murder under Syria’s Assad regime

There are over 10,200 bodies in the chilling trove of images. For Canadian families of the disappeared, the grim records offer a chance of closure.

"(...) retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and historian William Astore reminds us so vividly today (...) that our country is still investing an unbelievable fortune in that modernization process for an arsenal already big enough to destroy not just this planet but several others as well. So, take a moment to accompany him briefly into the past and to Cheyenne Mountain as he offers his own countdown on this strange, strange planet of ours." (Tom Engelhardt) Apocalypse Soon? Returning a Final Time to Cheyenne Mountain

TomDispatch.com

Apocalypse Soon?

It’s been 20 years since I retired from the Air Force and 40 years since I first entered Cheyenne Mountain, America’s nuclear redoubt at the so...

Band of brothers: how the war crushed a cohort of young Ukrainians "Reuters tracked the fortunes of Broshkov and 10 of his comrades who were among a few dozen raw recruits that received a crash-course in warfare at a military training camp in spring before being deployed to the front. None of the 11 are still fighting. Four have been wounded, three are missing in action, two are absent without leave (AWOL), one fell sick and another recruit has killed himself, according to interviews with soldiers, their relatives and government records. The fates of the soldiers provide a snapshot of the carnage wrought on Ukraine by the grinding war against Russia, in which both sides closely guard casualty figures." - https://www.reuters.com/investigations/band-brothers-how-war-crushed-cohort-young-ukrainians-2025-12-01/

"Un rapport commandé par la présidence sud-africaine du G20, le club des vingt pays les plus avancés, et publié mardi 4 novembre, alerte sur les conséquences – économiques, sociales, démocratiques – d’inégalités extrêmement profondes à l’échelle globale. Près de la moitié des richesses créées entre 2000 et 2024 ont été accaparées par 1 % de la population la plus riche, tandis que les 50 % les plus pauvres n’en ont reçu que 1 %, selon ce rapport rédigé par un groupe d’experts chapeauté par le Prix Nobel d’économie Joseph Stiglitz. Les inégalités se sont réduites entre les habitants de la planète, en grande partie grâce au recul de la pauvreté de la Chine, mais elles se sont creusées dans la plupart des pays et elles « sont bien plus élevées » pour le patrimoine que pour les revenus. Le rapport préconise la création d’une task force internationale, inspirée du Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (GIEC), pour analyser l’évolution des inégalités et formuler des recommandations aux gouvernements. « Le monde comprend que nous sommes confrontés à une urgence climatique, explique M. Stiglitz, il est temps que nous reconnaissions que nous sommes également confrontés à une urgence en matière d’inégalités. »" (Le Monde) ⁦

Client Challenge

"🪓 Bitcoin community divided over “anti-spam” soft fork" (Unchained Daily)

Unchained Daily

Bitcoin Proposal to Restrict Onchain Data Draws Censorship Concerns

Plus: 💵 Fed reserves hit “danger zone,” 🧱 Solana vs Ethereum heats up, 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan rolls out a stablecoin, and more!

I tried three times, using Bitcoin Core, to download the Bitcoin chain but couldn't. Now I'm trying using Bitcoin Knots. Don't know if it will work. https://g.co/gemini/share/85b75107a5c1

From the point of view of what is happening in Russia, the authors—among them Boris Kagarlitsky, a Marxist dissident imprisoned for his opposition to the war in Ukraine—distinguish two tendencies “within the Russian power camp”: those who hold to an “anti-imperialist” discourse and those who embrace a “messianic-conservative” discourse. In reaction to Donald Trump’s overtures, the former have shown a “pro-Chinese” tendency, while the latter a “pro-American” one. It is worth noting their claim that “By giving us Ukraine (…) Trump could then set about annexing Canada and Greenland” (I'm Canadian). As for the division, and later the rallying, of the Russian oligarchy around Putin, I recall—and deplore—that it dates back to the moment when, although the article does not mention it, an oligarch who had shown pro-Western sympathies at a critical juncture had his throat slit along with his wife’s and all his children’s, in their home. This act confirms some of the analyses found in Machiavelli’s The Prince, but it is also a nameless horror and an abomination. I add, in my own name, that the Word of God condemns such deeds (Rev. 21:8). Russia’s elite at odds on future ties with West (Subscribers)

Le Monde diplomatique

Russia’s elite at odds on future ties with West

Subscribers // by Boris Kagarlitsky & Alexey Sakhnin (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, August 2025)