BIG Exclusives

In a remote farm in the Canadian province of British Columbia, a flock of ostriches survived an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak, sparking a year-long battle over science, policy, and survival. An ordeal that featured widespread mistrust of public health authorities, economic trade pressures, and unexpected U.S. interventions, culminated in a controversial cull that divided a nation. Universal Ostrich Farms (UOF), located in Edgewood, B.C., and operated by Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski since the mid-1990s,...

Artificial intelligence has matured enough to influence medicine, finance, national security, and the structure of daily life, yet the systems behind these advances remain far less stable than their public reputation suggests. In the last several years, “AI safety” has become a term used by researchers, regulators, and corporate strategists to describe the growing effort to control the risks that accompany these models. But while the concept is now widely invoked, the tools and methods...

I committed my first act of climate dishonesty by omission. I stood at the front of lecture halls and projected the same graph every instructor uses: temperatures essentially flat for a thousand years, then a sharp blade upward beginning around 1900. The hockey stick. Clean. Causal. Irrefutable. I never showed the slides that should have come immediately before it. The one with vineyards flourishing in Yorkshire, England. And the slide with Viking cattle grazing on grasslands that are...

Part 2 of BIG Media’s special report on rare-earth elements Key takeaways Most of the global economic value in rare-earth elements (REEs) is captured in the midstream and downstream segments, where China controls nearly 90% of refining capacity and dominates high-purity oxide production. This remains the biggest bottleneck in global diversification efforts. China’s rare-earth dominance is the result of deliberate strategy – not geology alone. State-backed industrial policy, consolidation, cost advantages, and lower domestic prices...

In the western world, we have been trained to participate in all kinds of health screening because we are told that hidden dangers lurk inside us. North Americans are remarkably enthusiastic about screening. As a result, it is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Conventional wisdom is simple: finding disease early saves lives by catching small problems before they become big ones. But early diagnosis can have both good and bad consequences. While it can help some people...

Artificial intelligence has become the centrepiece of global business narratives, investor decks, and public‑sector strategy documents. Market forecasters predict multi‑trillion‑dollar impacts,venture capital continues to pour billions into AI infrastructure,and major vendors routinely describe breakthroughs that appear to signal dramatic progress. The momentum feels undeniable. Yet when we examine the evidence behind these claims, a different picture emerges. The gap between what AI appears to do and what it can reliably achieve has widened sharply over...

(Part 1 of 2) Key takeaways Rare earth elements (REE) are not geologically rare, but commercially viable deposits are – making economic extraction difficult and highly concentrated. China dominates the REE value chain, producing 68% of global output and controlling ~90% of global refining capacity. Global production has surged, rising from 64,500 tonnes in 1994 to ~394,000 tonnes in 2024. Growth from 2023 to 2024 was driven largely by the U.S., China, Nigeria, and Thailand. ...

Billy Simani had participated in nationwide demonstrations opposing the 2024 Finance Bill, which proposed new taxation measures in Kenya. At approximately 15:00 hours on June 21, a day after the protests, his door was knocked. Six individuals – five men in balaclavas and one woman in a facemask – restrained him, confiscated his electronic devices, and instructed him to unlock his phone. On inquiring about the reason for the invasion, he was physically assaulted,...

AI fills pitch decks with promise, then reappears in post-mortems when reality intervenes. Models perform flawlessly in demos, stumble in production, and leave expensive lessons. This article examines the most visible failures, explains what went wrong, and offers a practical playbook to prevent the next one. Why ambitious AI projects still fail Data and reality diverge. Models are trained on yesterday’s data while operations run on today’s. When the gap widens, performance collapses. Objectives get...

Health services across the Northern Hemisphere are once again bracing for what many in the media like to call the “winter crisis” – an acute, annual imbalance when healthcare demand exceeds supply.As usual, health officials warn us of the threat of hospitals being over capacity, and the media dutifully feeds us dramatic stories of people lying on beds in hallways, the floor, or any other available space. The source of the crisis? “Flu” season. Where I...