Jarring, visceral and all too plausible, Alex Garland’s Civil War is a must see

In his filmmaking career, Alex Garland has terrified us with zombies, infectious alien hybrids, murderous men and A.I. run amuck. Civil War, the writer and director’s latest film, is not only his most ambitious entry but also his most plausible. The press notes for Civil War describe the setting as “near-future America,” but it feels like … Read more

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down at end of year amid plane-maker’s woes

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down from the embattled plane-maker at the end of the year as part of a broader management shuffle, capping a tumultuous five-plus years that have shaken faith in one of the U.S.’s most-storied manufacturers. In a letter to employees announcing his departure, Calhoun wrote that the company is focused on returning Boeing “to … Read more

Love Lies Bleeding is a bizarro, acid-tinged western set in the ’80s

Where Love Lies Bleeding ends up — full of psychedelic visions, blood-covered bodies and more than a fair amount of screaming — is very different from where the movie starts out.  That’s because the Kristen Stewart-led, Rose Glass-directed bodybuilding crime epic is a genre send-up in just about every way. The film follows Lou (Stewart), a 20-something gym manager … Read more

Left with few options, major U.S. airlines are using Boeing’s safety crisis as leverage

Airline executives are frustrated with Boeing as its safety crisis has upended their business plans. But in a tight market for large aircraft supplied by two companies, they have little choice but do business with the U.S. plane maker. Despite some public displays of alarm — United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby flew to France to … Read more

Equifax says mortgage-holders in B.C., Ontario, increasingly missed payments during Q4

Consumers in Ontario and British Columbia increasingly missed payments on mortgages and credit cards in the fourth quarter of 2023, Equifax Canada said. The fourth quarter saw a continuation of what’s been happening for a while now as the impacts of higher interest rates and inflation continue to weigh on consumers, said Rebecca Oakes, vice-president … Read more

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman, saying startup abandoned its mission to serve humanity

Elon Musk has sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, saying they abandoned the startup’s original mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and not for profit. The lawsuit filed late on Thursday in San Francisco puts the billionaire at loggerheads with the startup that he co-founded and is now the … Read more

Sooner or later, every NATO country will have to meet defence spending target, says Polish PM

All members of NATO will eventually have to fulfil the pledge to spend two per cent of their GDP on defence, Poland’s prime minister said on Monday at the conclusion of a meeting in Warsaw with his Canadian counterpart. While praising Canada as one of Poland’s “best allies,” Donald Tusk delicately avoided criticizing Prime Minister … Read more

Time in space is bad for the bones. N.S. prof’s research could help humans on Earth

For two decades, Tamara Franz-Odendaal has been studying how space travel affects the human skeleton. Because of the absence of gravity in space, astronauts experience bone loss when they get back to Earth. “We always think of it as just the scaffold that kind of keeps the body together, but it’s a really dynamic tissue,” … Read more

The Russians are spending big on infrastructure to absorb occupied Ukraine

Armies rarely measure their success by the roads they’ve paved or the rail lines they’ve laid down — but that may be the metric Russia is using in occupied portions of Ukraine, where major infrastructure projects are underway or are being planned. Over the last few months, Moscow-based media have reported on the construction of a new railway line between Rostov-on-Don … Read more