This and that for your Tuesday reading.

– Jan-Werner Muller discusses Pete Hegseth’s development of a nihilistic death cult. Dave Levitin comments on the connection between the elite choice to keep us dependent on dirty fossil fuels and the death and destruction arising from the Iran war today. And Damien Gayle notes that the war in turn is producing catastrophic environmental effects, as attacks on oil and gas infrastructure result in fires and uncontrolled emission releases. 

– Josh Gabbatiss points out how AI data centres are likely to end up causing far more carbon pollution than advertised. And Rory White and Natasha Bulowski document how the vast majority of planned data centres in Alberta are set to cause even more severe problems in areas whose water supply is already under severe threat. 

– Meanwhile, Emma Roth discusses how the current obsession with age verification may threaten virtual private networks and any other means of preserving privacy or security online. 

– Finally, Michelle McLean writes that Canada’s universal system is the type of nation-building project we should be working to emulate – even as numerous premiers have set out to destroy it with two-tiered structures and corporate ownership models, and the Carney government (in keeping with its fundamental neoliberalism) has acquiesced in the carnage.