BIG Exclusives

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...

I have seen the PowerPoint slide too many times. Another perfect circle adorned with cheerful arrows. "Take-Make-Dispose becomes Take-Make-Use-Return,” the chief sustainability officer explains to nodding heads – mostly the same nodding heads on the same conference circuit. The room smells of expensive coffee and cheap promises. The circular economy has become the corporate world's favourite bedtime story, replete with a soothing narrative that lets us sleep peacefully while the world falls apart. Eventually, you outgrow the pacifiers...

Ken Dryden, superstar goalie of the Montreal Canadiens and Team Canada in the 1970s, passed away last month at age 78. Far too young, but cancer does that with distressing regularity. Dryden was a childhood hero for me. Standing tall in his crease, staring down the big bad Boston Bruins and guiding the fleet and elegant Habs to victory, he won six Stanley Cups in his short eight-year NHL career. He also backstopped Team Canada...

Vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection were widely regarded as the best means for controlling COVID-19. Since their emergency authorization, billions of doses have been administered worldwide, accompanied by declarations of safety and efficacy. However, no studies on either medium- or long-term risks were conducted prior to the rollout, leaving significant gaps in our understanding of potential harms. Population-wide vaccination programs began swiftly, but concerns soon emerged about the lack of comprehensive, published clinical trial reports....

After exploring AI's limitations – from hallucinations and context blindness to black box opacity – it is time to examine where AI actually delivers results. Despite significant challenges, AI has achieved remarkable successes across industries, delivering genuine value and transforming operations. Understanding these successes reveals patterns that help organizations deploy AI more effectively. The key to AI's success stories is not overcoming fundamental constraints. Rather, these victories share common characteristics: well-defined problems, abundant high-quality data,...

Key takeaways Angola imports 70% of its fuel due to a mismatch between refinery output and domestic consumption. Fuel subsidies became fiscally unsustainable as rising demand, a weaker kwanza, and higher global oil prices pushed Angola’s fuel import bill above $3 billion annually. Declining oil reserves and production threaten fiscal stability – reserves have shrunk, and output has fallen nearly 40% from peak levels, undermining revenues. Subsidy removal is economically necessary but politically...

Since 2020, Haiti has not had a functioning parliament or elected officials, and leader after failed leader, no lasting solution has been found. The most populous country in the Caribbean (11.4 million), Haiti has been disintegrating to anarchy, a failed state where criminal gangs reign. The last holder of the prime minister office was ousted while in Kenya on a mission to secure assistance to fight raging gangs in Port-Au-Prince. With over 7,000 deaths reported...

Measles outbreaks in late 2024 and early 2025 have reignited media-driven panic. Infectious disease experts are back in the spotlight, warning of a public health crisis. Are we losing control of measles? Is vaccine coverage across the world irreversibly trending away from public health goals? How terrified should we be? The requests for interviews have likely spurred a lot of discussions on how to handle the measles “situation”. Public health spokespeople are thrilled to be...

Last year on BIG Media’s site, I talked about CCUS – carbon capture, utilization and storage. It is the process of extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) from smokestacks, refineries, cement plants, biofuel facilities, and other human-made sources, then using it to make new products, or storing it permanently underground in geological formations. CCUS is an important strategy for reducing net CO2 emissions from human activity, as I said then: “CCUS encompasses established, reliable technologies and innovative new...

Picture a vast wheat field under a clear sky, where a farmer in a tractor cabin releases from a large herbicide sprayer implement a fine mist of Roundup. It is harvesting time, and glyphosate – the active ingredient in Bayer's (formerly Monsanto’s) blockbuster herbicide –doesn't just kill weeds; it forces the crop to ripen uniformly and according to a schedule that works best for the farmer, reducing losses and increasing yield. This scene, repeated across...