Good morning,
Protests continued throughout the United States and around the world over the killing last week of George Floyd by Minneapolis police while in their custody. A medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide. One officer has been charged with third-degree murder; protesters yesterday were demanding that other policemen at the scene face charges as well.
The U.S.’s most widespread protests since the 1960s continued to grow despite unprecedented measures to shut them down. Protesters are being met with tear gas, rubber bullets and truncheon-wielding, armour-clad riot police, as demonstrations spread from major cities to suburbs and towns.
Adding fuel to the fire, President Donald Trump said he had “strongly recommended" that governors call in the National Guard to quell the protests and threatened again to send in troops if state leaders don’t comply.
”If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military quickly to solve the problem for them."
State and local authorities, meanwhile, struggled to respond to the upheaval, and to the latest manifestation of institutional racism and the epidemic of police killings of unarmed black people.
And on the streets of Berlin, in halls of power in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Beijing, a chorus of criticism has erupted alongside the unrest in the United States.
In Canada, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says the federal government must start collecting race-based data to make policy changes that will start to turn the tide on what the United Nations has called the “deplorable” treatment of African Canadians.
Singh proposed concrete steps to address anti-black racism in Canada, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised his government would do more but didn’t outline specific steps or a timeline to act. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer proposed no new policies but said all levels of government have “much more to do."
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The latest coronavirus news
Canadian municipal leaders largely dismissed a federal plan to speed up delivery of $2.2-billion in already-budgeted gas tax transfers arguing that cities need billions of dollars more in emergency funding.
Trudeau said cities are a provincial responsibility and called on premiers to “step up," exposing what Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart described as a behind-the-scenes “showdown” between Ottawa and the premiers over how to split the bill for municipal budget shortfalls.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Blood kits to be sent to 10,000 Canadians to survey extent of COVID-19 in Canada
Dr. Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, is leading one of the first large-scale surveys in the country that will examine participants’ blood for antibodies that are specific to the virus that causes COVID-19.
WHO and other experts say no evidence of COVID-19 losing potency
Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy’s San Raffaele Hospital in Lombardy, asserted that the new coronavirus “clinically no longer exists.” But World Health Organization epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, as well as several other experts on viruses and infectious diseases, said Zangrillo’s comments were not supported by scientific evidence. There is no data to show the new coronavirus is changing significantly, either in its form of transmission or in the severity of the disease it causes, they said.
Hong Kong police reject application for Tiananmen vigil; rush on for U.K. passports
It would be the first time in 30 years that the vigil is not held in Hong Kong. The decision follows a vote by China’s ceremonial parliament to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature and enact national security legislation for the semi-autonomous territory. Meanwhile, people lined up on Monday at DHL courier outlets across the city, many to send documents to the U.K. to apply for or renew what is known as a British National (Overseas) passport.
MORNING MARKETS
World shares near three-month highs: World stocks climbed towards three-month highs on Tuesday as the global coronavirus recovery effort won out over U.S.-China tensions and spreading civil unrest in the United States. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.86 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 3.40 per cent and 1.88 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.19 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.11 per cent. The Canadian dollar was trading around 74 US cents. New York futures were higher.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Presidents must know their history
David Shribman: “The President need only rely less on his instincts than on the texts of presidential statements past. There he could learn, as University of New Hampshire historian Ellen Fitzpatrick told me, that historically, ‘presidents try to de-escalate rather than to escalate.' " David Shribman is the former executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of U.S. politics. He teaches at McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.
American all-news TV is fundamentally unfit to cover this crisis
John Doyle: “American TV, especially cable news, is in as much a state of tone-deaf chaos as the country itself. Night after night, coverage of the protests, peaceful or violent, after Floyd’s death, has been woefully inadequate. There is a lust for footage of chaos, burning cars or buildings and a serious absence of analysis and explanation.”
Donald Trump is the last person who can lead a common front on China
Campbell Clark: “Mr. Trump was never interested in a common front. He cared about trade balance, not trade practices. With China, his solution was to get the Chinese to agree to buy more American goods.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Christo, artist known for massive, fleeting displays, dies at 84
On Sunday, the artist Christo passed away at 84. His projects were ambitious, but no sooner had they been erected when they suddenly disappeared.
A year ago, Johanna Schneller wrote about a conversation she’d had with the artist at the previous Toronto International Film Festival. Here’s the interview along with a look back at his installations.
MOMENT IN TIME: JUNE 2, 2004
Ken Jennings (L) a software developer from Salt Lake City, Utah poses for a photo with Jeopardy game show host Alex Trebek on the show's set in Culver City, California in this undated publicity photograph. Jennings may have ended his "Jeopardy!" streak, according to a report posted September 8 on TV Week's Web site, Jennings lost in a show taped September 7, after his 75th straight game with about $2.5 million overall in cash and prizes. The magazine based the report on unidentified sources and stated the show would air later this fall. A change in the game show's rules in the Fall of 2003 lifted Jeopardy's five-day win limit, allowing contestants the opportunity to continue earning winnings as long as they continue winning.Sony Pictures Television via Reuters
To Jeopardy! diehards, he’s a legend. But even most occasional viewers know the name Ken Jennings. On this day in 2004, the then 29-year-old software engineer from Seattle started his 74-game winning streak – still the longest in the quiz show’s history. During his unprecedented run – which took place less than two years after Jeopardy! eliminated the five-game maximum rule for winners – ratings for the show jumped; for a time it was the highest-rated syndicated TV program.
After 182 days from his first episode, Jennings lost to Nancy Zerg. The Final Jeopardy clue: “Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.” He answered FedEx, but H&R Block was correct. It was only the 10th time he had entered the final round without enough money to avoid the risk of elimination.
Jennings walked away with US$2,522,700, an average of $33,636 an episode. He has returned to Jeopardy! five more times for special tournaments, most recently winning the $1-million top prize in this year’s Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament. His combined winnings total of $4,546,300 is, surprisingly, not the game show’s record. That belongs to Brad Rutter, who has racked up $5,127,846. – Domini Clark
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