Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
The latest COVID-19 developments: Canada pausing AstraZeneca shots for those under 55, requires new analysis
Canadian health officials said today they would stop offering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to people under age 55 and require a new analysis of the shot’s benefits and risks based on age and gender.
The moves follow reports from Europe of rare but serious blood clots, bleeding and in some cases death after vaccination, mainly in young women. No such cases have been reported in Canada, with about 307,000 AstraZeneca doses administered.
Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, Howard Njoo, said Canada was taking this “prudent” approach because alternative vaccines are available.
The National Advisory Council of Immunization, an independent expert panel, said the rate at which the clotting complication happens is not yet clear. So far, 40 per cent of people who have developed it have died, but that may fall as more cases are identified and treated early, it said.
Meanwhile, this country is scheduled to receive a flood of new vaccine doses this week, with about 3.3 million shots due for delivery from different pharmaceutical companies.
Provincially, British Columbia has imposed a three-week “circuit breaker” on some activities to stop an “exponential growth” of COVID-19 cases, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says. Ontario is also taking an “emergency brake” measure, tightening restrictions in the Middlesex-London region following an increase in cases.
In the United States, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pleaded with Americans today to not to let their guard down in the fight against COVID-19. Speaking at a virtual White House briefieng, Rochelle Walensky said she has a recurring feeling “of impending doom,” even as President Joe Biden announced further efforts to expand access to vaccines.
Read more:
- Tam criticized for supporting ‘indefensible’ assessment of COVID-19 risk
- Ontario COVID-19 surge could force doctors to use online calculator to make life-and-death decisions
- Opinion: Why people with obesity need priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine
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Chinese diplomat cranks up rhetoric with insults against “boy” Justin Trudeau
Li Yang, China’s consul-general to Rio de Janeiro, called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “boy” in a sneering attack on Twitter over the weekend, yet another example of Beijing’s shift to confrontational diplomacy.
China has responded to foreign criticism with increasingly sharp rhetoric and muscular action, including sanctions against foreign politicians last week – among them Canadian opposition foreign affairs critic Michael Chong and the members of a foreign affairs human-rights subcommittee. It also deleted clothing retailer H&M from domestic online stores after Chinese social media circulated a year-old statement in which H&M said it would not source cotton from China’s Xinjiang region because of the alleged use of forced labour there.
Opinion: China’s clumsy sanctions on Canada’s opposition backfires - Campbell Clark
Read more: Canadians can buy Xinjiang cotton products despite Ottawa’s vow to stop forced labour imports
Ever Given freed, Suez Canal authority says traffic can resume
Salvage teams have freed a colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.
Helped by the high tide, a flotilla of tugboats wrenched the bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank and guided it through the water. At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, are backed up as they wait to traverse the canal.
Opinion: Suez Canal snarl-up highlights the risks of cost-cutting in the name of efficiency - Eric Reguly
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Trial in death of George Floyd begins: The trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd started today, with prosecutors showing the jury the video of Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on the Black man’s neck for several minutes as onlookers yelled at him to get off and Floyd gasped that he couldn’t breathe.
Visa to accept crypto: Credit-card company Visa says it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry.
Doctor’s alleged murder victim identified: Brian Nadler, a doctor who works at a hospital in Hawkesbury, Ont., allegedly murdered Albert Poidinger, an 89-year-old Quebec man, police say, as they probed multiple suspicious deaths at the facility.
Snowbird crash report released: A final report on last year’s deadly Snowbird crash in British Columbia is flagging the pilot’s actions in the moments after his plane struck a bird while taking off
Coderre to run for Montreal mayor again: Former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre says he’s running again in a municipal election set for November against Valerie Plante, who made him a one-term mayor in 2017.
Captain Underpants book pulled: The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, a graphic novel for children from the wildly popular Captain Underpants series, is being pulled from library and book store shelves after its U.S. publisher said it “perpetuates passive racism.”
MARKET WATCH
The S&P 500 and Canada’s TSX ended slightly in the red today, with the banking sector under pressure amid warnings of potential losses from a hedge fund’s default on margin calls, while optimism over the U.S. economy limited the day’s declines.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 98.49 points or 0.3 per cent to 33,171.37, the S&P 500 slipped 3.45 points or 0.09 per cent to 3,971.09 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 79.07 points or 0.6 per cent to 13,059.65.
The S&P/TSX Composite index slid 33.36 points or 0.18 per cent to 18,719.22.
Looking for investing ideas? Check out The Globe’s weekly digest of the latest insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and what investors need to know for the week ahead. This week’s edition includes soaring global ETFs, regulatory nightmare and “the worst kind” of market selloff.
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TALKING POINTS
Anti-Asian microaggressions are racist – period
“They are not an insignificant, dismissible form of racism; they are a slippery slope from everyday slights to something more sinister and overt.” - Joseph Wong, University of Toronto’s interim vice-president, international
Defining “Métis” will defend our community
“Across Canada, pretenders are benefiting from federal and provincial dollars, or – as in the case of trickster writers and other artists – accessing advantages that come with Indigenous heritage.” - Shannon Moneo, descendant of the Manitoba Hamelin Métis family
LIVING BETTER
You can help preserve muscle strength and function as you age by adding more nitrate-rich leafy green vegetables to your diet, a new study suggests. Nitrates improve mitochondrial function, the power plant inside every cell, which could allow for better muscle strength. Vegetables that deliver the most nitrates include leafy greens such as spinach, arugula, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard and collard greens, as well as bok choy, celery, radish and carrots.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Telling my husband I was gay was the first step to a new and happier life
I had nothing to be unhappy about. I had a wonderful family, a husband who adored me, children who respected me, friends who cherished our time together. I had the freedom to explore interests and hobbies. There was no jealousy or distrust. It was a good life.
Why then was I crippled with loneliness? Why was I continuously searching for something to fill this aching void?
Until a girl kissed me.
Then I knew.
I knew what I’d been missing. I understood what I’d been longing for. I recognized why I could never be happy in the life I’d created because it wasn’t the life meant for me. It was a life made for someone raised to believe a heterosexual life is what life was supposed to be. Read Marissa Campbell’s full essay here.
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