Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Allison Hanes reminds us that there is no escaping the reality of COVID-19 - and any attempt to take a vacation from the measures needed to keep people safe will only ensure that it does more damage. John Michael McGrath argues that Ontario (like other provinces) should be prioritizing education over the reopening of bars. And Katherine Scott examines how any recovery so far has been distinctly weighted against women.

- Meanwhile, Ailsa Chang interviews Monica Gandhi about new research showing that masks protect their wearers as well as the people around them - making them as important from the standpoint of naked self-interest as from a more altruistic point of view. And Marc Frank reports that Cuba's focus on public health has allowed it to stop the local transmission of COVID-19.

- Karen McVeigh reports on António Guterres' call to remediate the gross inequalities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. And Jason Hickel warns against accepting that we're making meaningful progress in alleviating global poverty based on arbitrary definitions which leave billions short of the necessities of life.

- Liette Gilbert and Anna Zalik discuss why oil spills and train derailments are continuing to happen - with a focus on regulations aimed only at financial risks rather than environmental ones. And Megan Evans writes that corporate forces will never produce just environmental outcomes without governments taking the lead role in regulating and shaping economic development.

- Finally, Emma McIntosh reports on the finding of Ontario's Auditor General that the Ontario PCs have broken the law in granting themselves unilateral authority to gut environmental regulations without consultation or review. And Dan Bloom reports that having plunged their country into both a chaotic Brexit and a public health nightmare, the UK Cons have now voted to allow their public health system to be put on the auction block in trying to salvage trade deals.

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