A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to defrauding music streaming platforms and his fellow musicians out of millions in royalties by flooding the services with thousands of AI-generated songs – and using automated “bots” to artificially boost the number of listens into the billions.
As part of a deal with federal prosecutors in New York’s southern district, 52-year-old Michael Smith pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Props for being an early adopter.
The Globe and Mail sparked a debate when it reported that Canada’s GDP per capita has fallen behind Alabama’s. The comparison rattled Canadians and triggered a wave of criticism about the validity of using GDP per capita as a measure of national prosperity.
Critics argue that GDP is a flawed metric, pointing to legitimate measurement challenges. But these measurement issues affect every country. The question is not whether GDP per capita is perfect but whether Canada’s trend relative to our peers signals deeper problems.
The evidence suggests it does.
A small French town has won instant internet fame because its mayor – running for re-election in Sunday’s municipal elections – goes by the name of Hittler.
Not just that. One of his two opponents is called Zielinski.
“It has gone completely crazy,” lamented Charles Hittler, mayor of Arcis-sur-Aube (population 2,785), when contacted by the BBC.
More than 20 nations spanning from Asia to Europe to the Gulf have expressed a “readiness to contribute” to the effort of opening up the Strait of Hormuz amid threats to ships by the Islamist regime in Iran.
In a joint statement released on Saturday morning, the nations of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom condemned in the “strongest terms” the recent attacks by Iran against unarmed, civilian shipping vessels, its attacks on oil and gas infrastructure throughout the Gulf, and its move to shut down traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
The criminal case against former Ontario politician Randy Hillier over his participation in 2022’s convoy protest in Ottawa is back on after the province’s top court overturned a decision to stay the charges.
The charges were stayed in late 2024 after a lower court judge ruled the case had dragged on too long, past the mandatory time limits set by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller has passed away.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump celebrates the death of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated him in the Trump-Russia hoax
WOW
"Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!" pic.twitter.com/yjEvWUNW1e
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 21, 2026
h/t Mauser
OTTAWA — Intelligence and cybersecurity experts are warning the Liberal government about national security risks posed by allowing Chinese electric vehicles onto Canadian military bases.
Critics and some experts are even calling on Ottawa to ban the cars from Canadian Armed Forces bases and other sensitive sites due to onboard sensors they say could collect and transmit sensitive information to the Chinese government.
In the dribbling and desultory release of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails over the past few months, one question has risen above the filthy froth: why did brilliant economists, doctors, and chieftains of industry seek Epstein’s counsel and kowtow to him? Shouldn’t they have known better?
Part of the answer is simple: his infamous black book of contacts. Among a certain set—particularly the one I grew up around in Manhattan—we salivated over whose name might be tarnished next. But as it played out, the little book served as a road map of who mattered.
Pierre Poilievre made his debut on the Joe Rogan Experience this week and earned the respect of many Canadians for keeping it “classy.”
The interview with Rogan dropped Thursday afternoon and included some heavy-hitting topics such as the Trump administration tariffs, as well as the 51st state jibes, Canada’s oil sands, Canada’s parliamentary system and Poilievre’s role within it. The JRE, as it’s known, boasts an audience of of almost 21 million subscribers and 11 million downloads per episode, according to Edison Research.
He should’ve smoked dope with Rogan.
“So why did you lose?” Joe Rogan seems baffled that Canadians had anything bad to say about Pierre Poilievre based on how sensible and effective his policies would be. pic.twitter.com/VuW3Yupgvj
— Jasmin Laine (@JasminLaine_) March 19, 2026
When I set out to explore the world of prepping, I was unsure of what to expect – part of me imagined something theatrical, such as zombie apocalypse kits or nuclear bunkers.
But as I ventured into the mid Wales countryside, it became clear I had fallen victim to the stereotypes.
Leigh Price, 51, from Builth Wells, said he was not prepping for hordes of the undead roaming the landscape, as many might assume, but for much more real threats.
Huh?
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is asking city council to oppose any role for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Toronto during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, arguing the agency’s presence could “create fear” among visitors.
A motion, seconded by Coun. Paul Ainslie, will go before council next week and calls on the city to reject ICE involvement, direct staff to avoid supporting the agency, and urge both federal and provincial officials to oppose any deployment in Toronto.
On a grueling 222-mile hike through California’s Sierra Nevada, Laurie Singer faced a terrifying ordeal — she was abandoned, miles from help, with no one to rely on but herself.
In 2016, the avid hiker and adrenaline junkie set out to tackle the John Muir Trail, one of America’s most famous backpacking routes, with her close friend and longtime training partner, John, with whom she had the utmost trust.
But what was supposed to be an empowering, life-changing experience for the friends turned into something straight out of an episode of “Dateline.”
Is this a thing? Really? This started with a Guardian article earlier this week …
Women are being abandoned by their partners on hiking trails. What’s behind ‘alpine divorce’?
Two Ontario grocery stores owned by Loblaw have been fined for falsely portraying imported food as Canadian.
This comes as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) probes major grocery chains accused of misleading consumers by mislabeling items as Canadian and using maple-leaf imagery in signage.
The cost of doing business is all.
Ever since the Macpherson Report of 1999, the police have been working extremely hard to reassure us that they’re not “institutionally racist”. Unfortunately, though, they’ve just hit an unexpected snag.
It seems that, quite unwittingly, they’ve been using racist cameras.
In recent years, police forces have taken to catching suspects using a technology known as LFR (live facial recognition). This week, however, police in Essex said they’d suspended its use after academics found that the LFR cameras were “statistically significantly more likely to correctly identify” people who are black than people who aren’t. The finding has given rise to fears that the technology is racially biased.
