HellsBelle

A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests.

Robby Starbuck, 36, of Nashville, was appointed in August as an adviser by Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms – in an August lawsuit settlement.

Starbuck’s online posts have not changed in tenor since the “anti-DEI agitator” was brought into the Meta fold, and his Trump administration connections raise broader questions about the extent to which corporate America has capitulated to the Maga movement.

The Guardian repeatedly contacted Meta for comment on Starbuck’s role, and his rhetoric online, but received no response.

An expert on Canadian mammals says the beaver has leucism — a genetic condition that causes a loss of pigmentation. Leucistic beavers are so rare the Canadian Museum of Nature has a pelt in its collection that's more than a century old.

Sex charges against former fashion mogul Peter Nygard were stayed in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday after the judge ruled the convicted sex offender’s right to a fair trial has been breached because of lost evidence.

“I am satisfied that (Nygard’s) right to a fair trial has been substantially prejudiced and will be further aggravated by allowing the trial to proceed,” provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie said.

Nygard had been set to stand trial in December on charges he sexually assaulted and forcibly confined a woman, who was then 20, at his former corporate headquarters in Winnipeg in 1993.

Court previously heard Winnipeg police visited the woman for a “wellness check” on the day of the alleged assault after family members reported they could not reach her, and she was interviewed by RCMP after she returned home to Vancouver days later. Records of the two meetings were later destroyed, crippling Nygard’s ability to mount a full defence, Wiebe told court last month. She argued the destruction of the evidence amounted to “unacceptable negligence.”

By 1998, vaccination rates were already high enough that Canada declared measles eliminated, meaning the virus could still be brought in from abroad but no longer spread within our borders. That happened because a strong majority of people here were immune: when more than 85 percent of people are vaccinated, community-level outbreaks can typically be controlled; if more than 95 percent are vaccinated, few if any measles outbreaks will happen at all.

But over time, vaccination rates began dropping. In 2015, 87 percent of kids in Alberta had received their first dose of the measles vaccine by age two, and 81 percent had received their second dose by age seven; by 2024, those numbers had dropped to 80 and 72 percent respectively—well below the so-called herd immunity rate.

That Alberta’s vaccine uptake reportedly remains among the lowest in Canada is not surprising. The province has become a case study in declining trust in science at the highest levels. Alberta was a hotspot for resistance to vaccines and public health restrictions during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Church services, rodeos, and protests were common here. In July 2021, Health Canada reported that 60 percent of Albertans had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The province was tied with Saskatchewan for second lowest rate in the country, ahead of only Nunavut’s 53 percent; Newfoundland and Labrador led the pack with 73 percent.

Jeffrey Kriv, one of Chicago’s most prolific drunk-driving enforcers during his more than 25 years as a cop, was sentenced to 18 months’ probation and ordered to pay $4,515 in restitution after pleading guilty last week to a lesser charge of felony theft. A plea agreement with prosecutors in Cook County, where Chicago is located, allowed Kriv to avoid jail time and ended the criminal case against him, but the implications of his actions go far beyond his own case.

A ProPublica analysis of court and police records has found that prosecutors have dropped at least 92 traffic and criminal cases that were based on arrests Kriv made and tickets he wrote. Most of the cases that were dismissed involved drunk and dangerous driving. Defense attorneys in those cases have cited Kriv’s perjury case and his credibility issue.

ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune previously detailed Kriv’s history of alleged misconduct as an officer, including that he’d been investigated at least 26 times over allegations of dishonesty for falsifying records, making false arrests and other matters. He was the subject of nearly 100 complaints from citizens and fellow officers in his career; most officers face far fewer.

The US government shut down on Wednesday, after congressional Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to extend funding for federal departments unless they won a series of concessions centered on healthcare.

The GOP, which controls the Senate and the House of Representatives, repudiated their demands, setting off a legislative scramble that lasted into the hours before funding lapsed at midnight, when the Senate failed to advance both parties’ bills to keep funding going.

"Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America’s healthcare,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday evening, as it became clear a shutdown was inevitable.

MyPillow CEO, 2020 election denier, and alternative Covid-treatment champion Mike Lindell says he is “99% there” on committing to run for Governor of Minnesota.

The Star Tribune reported that Lindell has moved his residency from Texas to his native Land of 10,000 Lakes and has polled hypothetical matchups between himself and Governor Tim Walz, who is running for a third term. Lindell—who does not believe the outcome of most recent elections, even the ones Trump won—previously floated gubernatorial runs in 2018 and 2022 that ultimately never materialized.

He announced he was “considering” a 2026 run in March, saying to potential opponents, “Well, what are they going to do? ‘Well, Mike Lindell, you know he was a crack addict?’ Yeah, what else you got?” Lindell has openly discussed recovering from cocaine and crack addiction as he built MyPillow.

By 2050, the number of cancer cases and deaths are expected to balloon, according to a new report from The Lancet medical journal published today. Researchers say the trend is expected to play out in Canada, too — and health-care systems need to start preparing now to avoid preventable cancer deaths and avoidable health-care expenses.

In 2023, there were 18.5 million new cancer cases globally, excluding non-melanoma skin cancers. By 2050, that number is expected to grow to 30.5 million.

The number of cancer deaths are expected to increase even more dramatically by 2050. In 2023 there were 10.4 million cancer deaths. In 2050, researchers project 18.6 million people will die of cancer.

That reflects a 75 per cent increase in cancer deaths since 2024, say the researchers.

Proposals to expand the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba could bring an increase in shipping traffic and commercial activity — and some experts suggest that could affect the behaviour of the whales that are not only a major draw in the area's nearly $100-million tourism industry, but an important food source for some in the North.

"Living up north is so expensive, the food we buy is so expensive — that's why we need to hunt to survive up north."

(Johnny Mamgark, an Inuk [who] grew up in Arviat, Nunavut) is worried more shipping and marine traffic around the Port of Churchill would disrupt the beluga whale population in the area where his family and ancestors have hunted them for centuries.

All settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories are considered illegal under international law. But the planned expansion of Ma'ale Adumim is especially controversial, not least because the Israeli government has boasted it will bury the idea of a Palestinian state — as countries including Canada prepare to recognize one at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

"It is a retaliation, in a way, to the announcement by Canada and other Western states," Palestinian lawyer Hiba Husseini said in an interview at her law offices in Ramallah, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"[It] sends a strong message to the West: 'If you recognize the State of Palestine, it's really irrelevant for us on the ground. We do whatever we want to do because we control this entire land.'"

(Doug Kobayashi, mayor of Colwood, B.C.) idea was straightforward. After talking to doctors in 2022 about what was important to them, many said less paperwork, more financial stability and a better work/life balance.

Kobayashi's response: Make them municipal employees. This differs from the usual system where many family doctors in Canada are independent contractors and responsible for all aspects of the business plus seeing patients.

"As an employee, we want you to be a doctor 100 per cent of the time. No more administration, we'll look after this. We'll look after hiring your medical office assistants. We will give you a salary, a fixed salary. We will give you benefits, all the benefits," Kobayashi said.

A U.S. appeals court declined on Monday to allow Donald Trump to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook — the first time a president has pursued such action since the central bank's founding in 1913 — in the latest step in a legal battle that threatens the Fed's longstanding independence.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit means that Cook can for now remain at the Fed ahead of its policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, when it is expected to cut U.S. interest rates to shore up a cooling labour market.

The court denied the Justice Department's request to put on hold a judge's order temporarily blocking the Republican president from removing Cook, an appointee of Democratic former president Joe Biden.