🛍️ You may have to start paying a fee to return those clothes you bought online “just to try.” H&M, Urban Outfitters, and Foot Locker are all charging for at least some returns. 

⛏️ It takes up to 25 years for a mine to get approved in Canada due to a complex process that can be nearly five times longer than miners face in Australia.

🎧 There are around 4 million podcasts in the world, a number that’s likely to boom as people have begun using AI to generate more audio content (though we cannot attest to the quality).

💵 Canadians hold the dubious distinction of having the most household debt as a share of GDP in the G7 with a ratio of 107%, nearly 20 percentage points more than the next-most-indebted population of the UK.

📊 Bond markets are now pricing in a roughly 30% chance of an interest rate hike at the Bank of Canada’s next meeting on June 7th after inflation came in hotter than expected in April.

It’s time to update the old warning, “Don’t believe everything you read,” to “Don’t believe everything you see.”

Driving the news: Image editing tools that use AI to generate convincing—but fake—visuals are going mainstream with Adobe’s announcement that it is adding a “Generative Fill” feature to its popular Photoshop software.

• Generative Fill lets users edit real photos with nothing more than text prompts, producing images that look more realistic than those generated entirely through AI in tools like Midjourney.
   
• Tutorial videos posted online show people using the tool to add animals to their landscape photos, change outfits, and place people in fake background scenes.

Why it matters: Photoshopped images circulating online are nothing new, but the latest crop of AI editing tools has dramatically expanded the pool of people who can create convincing fakes. That’s already having real-world consequences.

• Earlier this week, an AI-edited image that purported to show the Pentagon on fire went viral on Twitter and caused markets to dip briefly.

• Filters used to change people’s appearance on apps like TikTok have become so realistic some experts warn they could have harmful psychological effects on users.

Yes, but: Most people will use these tools for non-evil, creative endeavours. The Photoshop subreddit is filled with examples of art users have created with Generative Fill, as well as more pedestrian uses like expanding photos or enhancing headshots.

Bottom line: We still don’t have any consistent way of quickly verifying the authenticity of an image (though some ideas for fixing this are floating around). Until that changes, a healthy skepticism about what you see online is warranted.

🇫🇷 France bans short-haul flights. France has banned domestic flights for trips that can be done in two-and-a-half hours or less by train. Under the rule, aimed at reducing carbon emissions, flights between most regional hubs in the country and Paris will no longer be permitted. (Le Monde)

🇮🇹 Pasta showdown in Italy. A consumer rights group in Italy is calling for a 15-day “pasta strike” to protest soaring pasta prices in the country, which rose 16.5% in April despite wheat prices falling. The Italian government convened an emergency meeting to discuss the price problem earlier this month. (NBC)

🇨🇳 China’s first jet takes off. The first large made-in-China passenger jet will make its inaugural commercial flight this weekend, carrying 164 passengers from Shanghai to Beijing. The aircraft, which has been in development since 2008, is seen as a landmark project for China’s domestic aerospace industry. (FlightGlobal)

🇩🇪 Boiler blowback. Germany’s government is facing a political crisis over a bill that would effectively ban new gas boilers in homes to promote the adoption of heat pumps. According to a recent survey, 70% of Germans oppose the measure, which many say would cost them tens of thousands of dollars to comply with. (FT)

🇹🇷 Turkish lira drops. The currency continued to weaken in anticipation of a victory by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sunday’s run-off presidential election, hitting a record low this week. Investors are worried about Erdogan’s economic policies, which led to inflation that reached as high as 85% last year. (Reuters)

We sat down with Kent Roach on Free Lunch By The Peak to dive into how the Canadian policing system works, and his argument on why and how it should change for the better. 

At a high-level, how does policing work in Canada? 

“We have about 136 police services, and about 30 Indigenous self-administered police services, generally falling under provincial jurisdiction. Then, of course, we have the RCMP, which covers areas of federal jurisdiction. All these services enforce criminal law, but the RCMP has special jurisdiction over matters of national security. There is lots of overlap.

What are some of the big issues with policing today? 

“In the book, I talk about a combination of over-policing and under-protection. As an example, let’s say you have police issuing tickets to unhoused people for camping. Most tickets will never be paid, so the public is basically paying for an expensive police officer to write a ticket that doesn't have much effect. Meanwhile, those people are then under-protected when they are victims of crime because they migrate to places where the police won’t bother them.”

How do officers feel about the state of policing? 

“Police officers that I've talked to would be more than happy to cede some of their activities. to those who are better trained at dealing with, let’s say, addictions or mental health. I think that they feel just as overwhelmed by it as the public. It’s very important that those other agencies can get the funding that they need. I so get the sense the police know that they are dealing with problems that they were probably never really designed to deal with.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. You can listen to the episode here, or search "Free Lunch by The Peak" wherever you listen to podcasts.

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