US federal investigators have launched a probe after two commercial flights were ordered to abort their landings at Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter approached the area en route to the Pentagon Army Heliport.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on May 2 that air traffic control told Delta Air Lines Flight 1671, an Airbus A319 that had originated in Orlando, and Republic Airways Flight 5825, an Embraer 170 that had departed from Boston, to perform go-arounds at around 2.30pm due to a priority military air transport helicopter in the vicinity.

The incident is under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the US Army are also investigating.

“While conducting flight operations into the Pentagon in accordance with published FAA flight routes and DCA Air Traffic Control, a UH-60 Black Hawk was directed by Pentagon Air Traffic Control to conduct a ‘go-around’, overflying the Pentagon helipad in accordance with approved flight procedures,” the US Army said in a statement.

“As a result, DCA Air Traffic Control issued a ‘go-around’ to two civil fixed wing aircraft to ensure the appropriate de-confliction of airspace.”

As Rudy Blalock reports for The Epoch Times, following a deadly mid-air collision on Jan. 29 involving an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, which resulted in 67 fatalities, the FAA has imposed permanent restrictions on non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan Washington National Airport.

The FAA told Congress it is reviewing the Army helicopter’s route in Thursday’s “loss of separation” incidents and is determining whether the route violated an agreement with the Army.

“It appears the Black Hawk operation did not proceed directly to the Pentagon Heliport. Instead it took a scenic route around the Pentagon versus proceeding directly from the west to the heliport,” the FAA said in a memo.

Delta Air Lines reported that Flight 1671 was carrying five crew members and 97 passengers. 

“Nothing is more important at Delta than the safety of our customers and people. We’ll cooperate with the FAA as they investigate,” the airline said on Friday.

In separate statements to NTD News, Delta and Republic Airways said they are cooperating with the authorities investigating the incident. 

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, criticized the fact that the same Army brigade flew a helicopter too close to Reagan Washington National Airport months after the fatal collision in January.

“It is outrageous that only three months after an Army Black Hawk helicopter tragically collided with a passenger jet, the same Army brigade again flew a helicopter too close to passenger jets on final approach at [the airport]. This comes less than a week after this brigade resumed flights in the National Capital Region. It is far past time for Secretary Hegseth and the FAA to give our airspace the security and safety attention it deserves,” she said in a statement.

The FAA in March permanently closed one key route and banned the use of two smaller runways at the airport when helicopters conducting urgent missions are operating near the airport.

The FAA is also investigating helicopter traffic near other major airports and recently announced changes to address safety concerns in other regions.

According to the NTSB, between October 2021 and December 2024, 85 recorded events at the airport involved a potentially dangerous near-miss between a helicopter and a plane, defined as a lateral separation of less than 1,500 feet and a vertical separation of less than 200 feet.

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

For years, our economy and our financial markets have been artificially propped up.  Since 2008, politicians in Washington have added about 26 trillion dollars to the national debt, and bureaucrats at the Fed have pumped trillions of freshly created dollars into the financial system.  If we could go back and undo just those two things, we would be living an economic horror show right now.  Piling up the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world has enabled us to live way, way, way beyond our means.  On a personal level, if you borrowed and spent millions of dollars that you did not have, you would also be able to live a lifestyle that you do not deserve.  Debt is extremely seductive, because it is a way to make the present a lot more pleasant.  But there is always a price to be paid in the end.

Here in 2025, government spending is being slashed in many areas, the Federal Reserve is choosing not to step in even though turmoil has erupted on Wall Street, consumer confidence is falling dramatically, home sales are collapsing, mass layoffs are happening all over the nation, and now a global trade war has begun.

At this stage, it should be apparent to everyone that we are headed for big trouble.  The following are 9 signs that conditions are ripe for a major economic crisis in the United States…

#1 During the first three months of this year, which was before the trade war erupted, U.S. GDP was contracting at a 0.3 percent annual rate…

U.S. economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2025 as businesses rushed to stockpile goods ahead of President Trump’s sweeping tariff policies.

The nation’s gross domestic product — the total value of products and services — shrank at a 0.3% annual rate, down from growth of 2.4% in the final three months of 2024, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday in its initial GDP estimate. It’s the worst quarterly performance for the U.S. economy since early 2022, when the economy was in recovery after cratering during the COVID pandemic.

The U.S. economy was forecast to show 0.8% growth in the first three months of 2025, according to the average estimate of economists polled by FactSet.

#2 Consumer confidence is absolutely plummeting…

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to 86 on the month, down 7.9 points from its prior reading and below the Dow Jones estimate for 87.7. It was the lowest reading in nearly five years.

However, the view of conditions further out deteriorated even more.

The board’s expectations index, which measures how respondents look at the next six months, tumbled to 54.4, a decline of 12.5 points and the lowest reading since October 2011. Board officials said the reading is consistent with a recession.

#3 Major layoffs are being announced on an almost daily basis.  For example, UPS just announced that it will be laying off approximately 20,000 workers…

The United Parcel Service (UPS) is expected to reduce its workforce by roughly 20,000 during 2025, citing “new or increased tariffs” and “changes in general economic conditions in the U.S. or internationally” for the cuts.

UPS announced the layoffs April 29 in its first quarter earnings report, in which the parcel delivery service said it made consolidated revenues of $21.5 billion, compared to $21.7 billion around the same time a year ago. The shipping company also said it would be closing roughly 164 facilities by the end of the year.

#4 According to the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, incoming cargo volume will be down more than 35 percent next week compared to a year ago…

Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he expects incoming cargo volume to slide by more than a third next week compared with the same period in 2024.

“According to our own port optimizer, which measures the loadings in Asia, we’ll be down just a little bit over 35% next week compared to last year. And it’s a precipitous drop in volume with a number of major American retailers stopping all shipments from China based on the tariffs,” Seroka said.

#5 It is being reported that container bookings from China to the United States have fallen “by as much as 60%”…

By another estimate, container bookings from China to the U.S. are down by as much as 60%, according to Flexport, a supply chain management company. Bookings from other Asia ports, such as Vietnam and Thailand, are up 5% to 10% as some exporters look to expand production outside of China to avoid steep tariffs.

The decline in bookings from China comes during what is usually a busy period for imports to the U.S.

“We would normally see an increase in bookings across the board, because this is the beginning of the shipping year,” said Nathan Strang, director of ocean freight at Flexport. “It’s when back-to-school items and Halloween items start to come in.”

#6 Apollo Global Management is warning that mass layoffs in the trucking industry are imminent…

The trucking industry, critical to U.S. logistics, faces significant challenges as tariffs disrupt trade, particularly with China. A sharp decline in container ship voyages from China is expected to reduce freight volumes, thereby lowering demand for trucking services. Imports account for an estimated 20% of U.S. trucking volumes, so a decline in imports will have a significant impact on the industry. With fewer goods to transport, carriers will face reduced workloads and underutilized fleets, forcing them to cut labor costs.

Apollo predicts that domestic freight activity will sharply slow by mid-May, with mass layoffs likely to follow as firms strive to maintain financial stability. The slowdown in trucking will put a lot of pressure on trucking companies that have been dealing with the Great Freight Recession, one of the longest and deepest downturns in history.

#7 One recent study found that a whopping 74 percent of all U.S. workers are currently living paycheck to paycheck…

Financial insecurity compounds these workplace stresses, with nearly three-quarters (74%) of workers living paycheck to paycheck.

#8 Student loan delinquencies in the U.S. have soared into unprecedented territory…

But even with this factored in, Nelnet’s data shows a spike in delinquencies compared with before the pandemic. A staggering 15 percent of borrowers are more than 90 days delinquent, which is reported to credit bureaus.

If this wave of delinquencies continues, the Education Department has warned that 10 million borrowers — nearly a quarter of the total — could be in default within a few months.

#9 Almost a quarter of all U.S. adults are currently facing “unmanageable” debt levels…

In honor of Financial Literacy Month, Experian offers a closer look at the financial hurdles many are facing – and how some are overcoming them.

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. adults currently have “unmanageable” debt, as of April 1, according to a survey of 1,000 respondents. Unmanageable debt is defined as when an individual is forced to choose between debt payments and basic necessities.

We have been living in an economic fantasy world.

But now the bubble is starting to burst and people are freaking out.

The only way to return the economy to the level that we have become accustomed to would be to do the same foolish things that our leaders have been doing for decades.

If our politicians in Washington borrow and spend trillions of additional dollars that we do not have, and if the Federal Reserve feverishly pumps even more fresh money into the financial system, that would buy us a little more time.

But it would also make our long-term problems even worse.

No matter how hard we try, economic reality is going to catch up with us eventually.

And when that finally happens, we are going to witness a societal meltdown that is unlike anything we have ever seen before.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Elvis Chan, the FBI’s Assistant Special Agent in Charge in San Francisco, has reportedly been placed on “terminal leave” and has not accessed agency systems for over a month, according to independent journalist Breanna Morello.

Chan has faced scrutiny for his alleged role in coordinating with social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), to censor conservatives during the 2020 presidential election, which saw President Joe Biden defeat President Donald Trump. In September 2023, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) issued a subpoena compelling Chan to testify about the FBI’s interactions with tech companies, which Jordan described as potential “coercion and collusion” to censor speech, according to the New York Post.

Chan, who served as a liaison to companies like Facebook and Twitter through the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, did not attend a scheduled interview with the committee, prompting the subpoena, Jordan said, per the Post.

During a 2023 deposition with attorneys general from Louisiana and Missouri, Chan denied having “internal knowledge” of efforts to suppress a 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Morello notes:

The controversy surrounding Chan coincides with a 2023 ruling by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the FBI, White House, U.S. Surgeon General, CDC, and CISA likely violated First Amendment rights by “coercing or significantly encouraging” social media platforms to censor content.

…

Chan, who identifies with “he/him” pronouns on his LinkedIn profile, still lists himself as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the FBI’s San Francisco Bay office, where he has served for over 19 years.

The FBI has not commented on Morello’s report.

The allegations against Chan come amid broader efforts by the Trump administration to protect free speech. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal agencies from labeling citizen speech as “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Addressing the World Economic Forum, Trump said the order aimed to “safeguard free speech” and halt practices that “stifle the exchange of ideas.”

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the Global Engagement Center, a State Department entity criticized for its role in monitoring online speech. In an op-ed published in The Federalist, Rubio cited a 2020 GEC report that flagged speculation about COVID-19’s origins, including theories about a Wuhan lab, as part of a “Russian disinformation” campaign.
“Finally, as we recommit this country to its core constitutional free speech principles at home, we will remain vigilant abroad — not just against threats from adversaries such as Communist China but also from less expected countries where authoritarian censorship is gradually strangling true freedom of speech,” Rubio added. “We are not afraid. At her birth, America was a lone beacon of freedom to the world. If necessary, we will happily be that lone beacon once again.“

Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

The European Union is set to impose sweeping Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules that will ban privacy-preserving tokens and anonymous cryptocurrency accounts from 2027.

Under the new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), credit institutions, financial institutions and crypto asset service providers (CASPs) will be prohibited from maintaining anonymous accounts or handling privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies, such as Monero and Zcash.

“Article 79 of the AMLR establishes strict prohibitions on anonymous accounts […]. Credit institutions, financial institutions, and crypto-asset service providers are prohibited from maintaining anonymous accounts,” according to the AML Handbook, published by European Crypto Initiative (EUCI).

The AML Handbook. Source: EUCI

The regulation is part of a broader AML framework that includes bank and payment accounts, passbooks and safe-deposit boxes, “crypto-asset accounts allowing anonymisation of transactions,” and “accounts using anonymity-enhancing coins.”

“The regulations (the AMLR, AMLD and AMLAR) are final, and what remains is the ‘fine print’ — aka the interpretation of some of the requirements through the so-called implementing and delegated acts,” according to Vyara Savova, senior policy lead at the EUCI.

She added that much of the implementation will come through so-called implementing and delegated acts, which are mostly handled by the European Banking Authority:

“This means that the EUCI is still actively working on these level two acts by providing feedback to the public consultations, as some of the implementation details are yet to be finalized.”

“However, the broader framework is final, so centralized crypto projects (CASPs under MiCA) need to keep it in mind when determining their internal processes and policies,” Savova said.

EU to increase oversight of crypto service providers

Under the new regulatory framework, CASPs operating in at least six member states will be under direct AML supervision.

In the initial stage, AMLA plans to select 40 entities, with at least one entity per member state, according to EUCI’s AML Handbook. The selection process is set to start on July 1, 2027.

AMLA will use “materiality thresholds” to ensure that only firms with “substantial operations presence in multiple jurisdictions are considered for direct supervision.”

The thresholds include a “minimum of 20,000 customers residing in the host member state,” or a total transaction volume of over 50 million euros ($56 million).

Other notable measures include mandatory customer due diligence on transactions above 1,000 euros ($1,100).

These updates come as the EU ramps up its regulatory oversight of the crypto industry, building on previous measures such as the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

Global food prices surged to a two-year high in April, driven by U.S. tariff policy uncertainty that has injected turmoil across markets. The latest spike brings prices dangerously close to levels that helped fuel the Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2012.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported on Friday that its Food Price Index—which tracks monthly changes in international prices of globally traded food commodities—averaged 128.3 points in April, up 1% from March and 7.6% from the same month last year.

The Food Price Index (FFPI) subcomponents, including cereals, meat, and dairy, mainly were up, while vegetable oils and sugar were down. 

Here’s a breakdown of how FFPI’s subcomponents performed in April:

• Cereals: Up 1.2% from March; wheat rose on tighter Russian exports, rice up on demand for fragrant varieties, maize higher due to low U.S. stocks.

• Meat: Up 3.2%; pig meat led gains, bovine prices firmed in Australia and Brazil on strong demand and limited supply.

• Dairy: Up 2.4%; butter hit an all-time high due to declining inventories in Europe, dairy index now 22.9% higher year-over-year.

• Vegetable Oils: Down 2.3%; palm oil fell with rising Southeast Asian output, soy and rapeseed oil up on strong demand, sunflower oil steady.

• Sugar: Down 3.5%; decline driven by fears of weakened demand from beverage and food sectors amid uncertain global economic outlook.

At 128.3, the FAO said FFPI moved to a two-year high on “currency fluctuations influencing price movements in world markets, while tariff policy adjustments raised market uncertainty.” 

Those prices are nearing 2010-12 Arab Spring levels…

Bloomberg quoted Monika Tothova, an economist at the FAO, as saying that short-term demand for some ag products has been visible amid the tariff war between President Trump and China.

The lingering question is whether the FFPI will continue rising amid tariff uncertainty—or if potential signaling around new trade talks between the U.S. and China suggests this price surge may be temporary. Still concerning is the level at which prices linger and how higher food prices can trigger social destabilization in weak countries.

Authored by Vincent Geloso via the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER),

Last month, a video was trending on social media showing a Canadian woman explaining that she had a 13-month wait for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test to check for a brain tumor.

Canada healthcare is horrifying

“Today on how f*cked is Canadian healthcare: I need an MRI to see if I have a f*cking brain tumor. Go ahead guess when it is? Go ahead, guess. It’s in 2026”

“My MRI to see if I have a brain tumor is in 2026. It’s March 2025 right now”

“If you… pic.twitter.com/fX1S0MD9EP

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 23, 2025

On X, formerly known as Twitter, community notes popped up to say that the video was misleading. “Priority is decided by physicians, not the province,” wrote one commenter. Another noted that wait times did vary by province.

None of this, however, detracts from the core truths:

• Canadian health care is not free and it has two prices: 

  • the taxes Canadians pay for it

  • and the wait times that make Canadians pay in the form of service rationing.

Canada’s publicly provided health care system actually requires rationing in order to contain costs. Because services are offered at no monetary price, demand exceeds the available supply of doctors, equipment, and facilities. If the different provinces (which operate most health care services) wanted to meet the full demand, each would have to raise taxes significantly to fund services. To keep expenditures down (managing the imbalance from public provision) and thus taxes as well, the system relies on rationing through wait times rather than prices.

The rationing keeps many patients away from care facilities or encourages them to avoid dealing with minor but nevertheless problematic ailments. These costs are not visible in taxes paid for health care, but they are true costs that matter to people.

All this may sound like an economist forcing everything into the “econ box,” but the point has also been acknowledged by key architects of public health care systems themselves. Claude Castonguay, who served as Quebec’s Minister of Health during the expansion of publicly provided care, conceded as much in his self-laudatory autobiography. The reality, he explains, is that eliminating rationing would imply significantly higher costs—costs that politicians are generally unwilling to justify through the necessary tax increases. Multiple government reports also take this as an inseparable feature of public provision—even though they do not say it as candidly as I am saying it here.

To illustrate the magnitude of rationing (and the trend), one can examine the evolution of the median number of weeks between referral by a general practitioner and receipt of treatment from 1993 to 2024. In most provinces (except one), the median wait time in 1993 was less than 12 weeks. Today, all provinces are close or exceed 30 weeks. In two provinces, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, the median wait times exceed 69 weeks. For some procedures, such as neurosurgery, the wait time (for all provinces) exceeds 46 weeks.

Estimating the full cost of health care rationing is far from straightforward. The central challenge lies in balancing data reliability with the breadth of conditions considered. While some procedures and ailments are well documented, they represent only a subset of those subject to rationing. For many other conditions, data quality is limited or inconsistent, making comprehensive analysis difficult. As a result, most empirical studies focus narrowly on areas where measurement is more robust, leaving much of the total cost unaccounted for.

In 2008, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) released a study estimating the economic cost of wait times for four major procedures: total joint replacement, cataract surgery, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), and MRI scans. For the year 2007, the CMA estimated that the cost of waiting amounted to $14.8 billion (CAD). Relative to the size of the Canadian economy at the time, this represented approximately 1.3 percent of GDP. That study did not include, as one former president of the CMA noted, $4.4 billion in foregone government revenues resulting from reduced economic activity. It also does not include the cost of waiting times for new medications.

These procedures do not capture the full scope of delays in the system and only a few procedures—and the analysis focused only on an arbitrary definition of “excessive” wait times. In 2013, the Conference Board of Canada found that adding an extra two additional ailments boosted the cost from $14.8 billion to $20.1 billion.

Another study used a similar method, but considered the cost in terms of lost wages and leisure. It arrived at a figure, for 2023, of $10.6 billion or $8,730 per patient waiting.

One study attempted to estimate the cost of rationing in terms of lives lost. 

This may seem callous, but lives lost means lost productivity—a way to approximate the cost of wait times. One study found that one extra week of delay in the period between meeting with a GP and a surgical procedure increased death rates for female patients by 3 per 100,000 population. Given that the loss of a life is estimated at $6.5 million (CAD), this is not a negligible social cost in terms of mortality.

And all of this for what? One could argue that these wait times come with good care once obtained. That is not true either. 

Adjusting for the age of population, Canada ranks (out of 30):

• #28 in doctors

• #24 in care beds

• #25 in MRI units

• #26 in CT scanners

In one comparative study examining care outcomes—such as cancer treatment, patient safety, and procedural success—“Canada performed well on five indicators of clinical quality, but its results on the remaining six were rated as either average or poor.” This is despite, after again adjusting for population age structure, Canada ranking as the highest spender among a group of 30 comparable countries. The reality is that, whatever nuances one wishes to introduce—whether in good faith, pedantically, or simply to troll—the core message of the viral video remains accurate: Canadian health care works well for those who can afford to wait. To which I might add: wait very long.

Via The Cradle

The Iranian Foreign Ministry affirmed on Friday that Tehran is committed to continuing the diplomatic process and negotiations regarding its nuclear program but that it “will not accept pressure and threats that violate international law and target the rights of the Iranian people.”

In a statement, the ministry condemned the continued illegal sanctions on Iran and the “pressure on its economic partners,” viewing them as “further evidence that the United States is not serious about adopting a diplomatic approach toward Iran.”

It also stressed that the continuation of these policies “will not change Iran’s firm positions in defending its legitimate rights,” and that “testing failed methods will only lead to a repetition of past failures.”

The Foreign Ministry went on to say that the Iranian negotiating delegation, during the first three rounds, attempted to “reach a fair agreement that guarantees the rights of the Iranian people, within the specified frameworks that allow Tehran to use peaceful nuclear energy.”

Tehran entered indirect negotiations with Washington following US President Donald Trump’s letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to “resolve a fabricated crisis through diplomacy, based on good faith,” the statement added.

The Ministry’s statement came after Trump announced on Thursday that all purchases of Iranian oil or petrochemical products must stop, warning that any country or individual continuing such trade would face immediate secondary sanctions and be barred from doing business with the US.

“They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form,” he wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. Secondary sanctions are a powerful tool for the US because of the size of its economy.

Trump’s comments follow the postponement of the latest US talks with Iran over its nuclear program. The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that the fourth round of talks, which were due to take place in Rome on Saturday, had been rescheduled at the suggestion of the Sultanate of Oman for “logistical reasons.”

Sources speaking with Al Mayadeen explained that the postponement came “against the backdrop of the conflicting positions taken by the US administration regarding the talks, and Washington’s efforts to change the general framework for negotiations that had been previously agreed upon.”

In a related development, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted on Thursday that Iran must “walk away” from both uranium enrichment and the development of long-range missiles. 

“They have to walk away from sponsoring terrorists, they have to walk away from helping the Houthis (in Yemen), they have to walk away from building long-range missiles that have no purpose to exist other than having nuclear weapons, and they have to walk away from enrichment,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox News. 

Iran has always been five years away from a nuclear weapon, and we’ve always been at war with Eastasia https://t.co/ZSt8KzQ1iC

— Liam McCollum (@MLiamMcCollum) April 21, 2025

His comments came as the fourth round of nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington, set to take place in Rome on Saturday, were postponed. 

An Iranian official cited by Reuters said a new date for the talks would be set “depending on the US approach.” Tehran has repeatedly affirmed that both its uranium enrichment and its defense capabilities are non-negotiable in the talks with the US.

Thought leaders dubbed ChatGPT’s emergence – and subsequent generative AI proliferation – as the “fourth industrial age.”

Whether it will re-shape the economy entirely still remains to be seen. But there’s no denying that most people are familiar with, and are actively using AI.

What are they using it for?

This ranking tracks the most popular AI use cases as sourced from an analysis done by Marc Zao-Sanders for Harvard Business Review. He examined thousands of forum posts over the last year in a follow-up to his 2024 analysis.

The top 30 ranks from this report have been visualized in this graphic via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao. Labels have been edited lightly from the source for readability. 

This visualization is part of Visual Capitalist’s AI Week, sponsored by Terzo.

Here’s How Everyone is Using AI in 2025

People are using AI for support (both professional and personal) in 2025

In fact, the top three use cases (therapy, life organization, and finding purpose) all show that AI can assist humans in managing both emotions and their life.

And aside from therapy, these were not the top uses in 2024: which revolved around idea generation and search.

Speaking of AI search, its popularity has fallen 10 spots. People are still interested in learning and making AI explain concepts or add context for them. But they’re not actively looking up information as much.

(This may also be because of Gemini’s integration in Google Search).

AI For Mental Health: Good or Bad?

With mental health support severely underfunded and the Loneliness Epidemic only continuing, it’s no surprise AI has emerged as a viable outlet for people to get some support in their life.

Experts say they can see its usefulness for teaching mindfulness or cognitive behavioral therapy to users.

However, the problem occurs when AI is used as a replacement for actual human relationships, preventing deeper human connections, in turn exacerbating loneliness.

Need More AI Insights? From our AI Week coverage, brought to you by Terzo, check out the Countries Accumulating the Most AI Patents and much more on the AI content hub and discover where the future of AI is going to emerge.

Authored by Jonathan Lesser via RealClearEnergy,

A recent article published in Nature claims that climate liability lawsuits, such as the ones various U.S. states and municipalities continue to pursue, are on rock-solid legal grounds, thanks to the authors’ new research “proving” that the world would be $28 trillion richer today but for carbon emissions from fossil fuels over a 30-year period, 1991 -2020. Ignoring the emissions from developing countries, notably China, which today accounts for one-third of all energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the authors focus instead on oil companies, which they call the “carbon majors” – especially Saudi Aramco, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, and Gasprom.

For example, according to the authors Chevron has caused an estimated $2 trillion in damages, and perhaps as much as $3.6 trillion. Exxon Mobil is right behind at $1.9 trillion. Similarly, Saudi Aramco and Gazprom are each responsible for $2 trillion in damages. BP is the laggard, at just under $1.5 trillion in damages. Levying fines of those amounts, which greatly exceed these companies’ market values, would lead to their immediate bankruptcy. While the authors may consider such an outcome a “win,” bankrupting these companies would not change the physical and economic realities that the world depends on fossil fuels and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. (Moreover, it is not clear who would levy the fines and who would receive the monies received – other than trial lawyers.)

To derive their damage estimates, the authors combine bad science with bad economics. First, they use simplified climate models to predict what average world temperatures would have been had there been no GHG emissions from fossil fuels. Next, they use other models to determine how many fewer extreme heat events, which they define as the hottest five days of each year, there would have been absent GHG emissions from fossil fuels. Finally, they calculate the damages in terms of lost GDP based on a simplistic regression model that assumes lost GDP increases in proportion to the square of temperature increases, and which ignores the myriad other economic factors that affect economic growth. They justify this absurd specification, which has no economic basis, on “peer-reviewed research” – a previous article they published.

The approach used by these authors is a form of “attribution science,” which attempts to link specific weather-related events to GHG emissions. That approach, which was first developed about two decades ago to attribute a 2003 European heat wave to climate change, is statistical legerdemain that depends on counterfactual models, just as the authors use here.

Ironically, the authors acknowledge the benefits of fossil fuels, stating that “fossil fuels have also produced immense prosperity.” Yet, they purposefully ignore those benefits because, as they state, “these companies have already been handsomely paid.” This latter statement reveals further economic ignorance. Without fossil fuels, modern life would be impossible. The benefits of fossil fuels to modern society are probably incalculable, but they far exceed the profits these companies have made, and far exceed the damage estimates the authors calculate.

The authors claim that fossil fuel damages are what economists call an “externality” and that “Courts may need to consider how the benefits of energy use are balanced against its externalities and the potential duty of care these companies have to the public.” (They also raise the discredited claim that oil companies “knew” about climate change and hid the evidence from the public.)

Externalities are a real phenomenon of energy development and use. But in this case the externalities are unobservable and instead estimated based on theoretical models having little accuracy. Moreover, levying penalties to “internalize” an externality that would cause far greater economic losses is unjustified.

Ultimately, this article is simply an advocacy piece for specious lawsuits against oil companies with deep financial pockets. Nature should be ashamed of itself for publishing it.

Jonathan Lesser is a Senior Fellow with the National Center for Energy Analytics. His report, “The Social Cost of Carbon: A Flawed Measure for Energy Policy,” was released on April 23.

The mid-1990s feel like a different world. In the 30 years since, the global economy has shifted dramatically, across sectors and markets.

But headline stats like GDP, GDP per capita, or growth rates don’t always reflect what’s happening at the individual level.

So, has life actually improved over time?

To help answer that, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao visualizes figures from Our World in Data to show how daily median incomes have changed in 20 of the world’s largest economies from 1994 to 2024.

All figures are in PPP-adjusted International dollars per person. They are also adjusted for inflation, taxes, and benefits.

ℹ️ PPP-adjusted International dollars reflect purchasing power by accounting for local prices and cost of living.

Important note: #4 Japan, #11 South Korea, and #19 Saudi Arabia are excluded due to missing data. Poland, Taiwan, and Belgium are included in their place.

Countries by GDP, Daily Median Incomes, and Income Growth

There’s two different takeaways from this chart. One is which top 20 economies have the highest average incomes in 2024.

The other is where incomes have grown the most.

Note: *Australia’s change is between 1994–2023 due to data restraints.

For example, incomes in China have grown 6x between 1994–2024, after adjusting for inflation. However in 2024 this still only amounted to $12 (international dollars) per person on average.

ℹ️ Per capita income is attributed to all residents including children and retirees. The median income could theoretically be between 2–4x for a working individual.

In other developing countries (Indonesia, Poland, and Türkiye), daily incomes have tripled. Of these three Poland is the only one that’s moved from a low- to high-income country by 2024.

In the U.S., the daily average income has only gone up about 30% over the same period. But the country is second-richest in this dataset, after Switzerland.

How the U.S. Ranks in Income Growth vs. Peer Countries

Interestingly, the U.S. has the least median income growth versus peers like Germany, UK, and France.

In other social metrics, the U.S. is lagging its counterparts. Its life expectancy is a full four years below its high-income counterparts.

And this despite having the highest health expenditure in a similar group.

It also has one of the highest inequality scores amongst its peers.

While a lot of American media is focused on income and wealth inequality, U.S. incomes far outpace many other countries. Check out: Ranked: Daily Incomes of the Richest & Poorest in 25 Countries to see how much richer even the bottom 10% Americans are.