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Maria Luisa Mendonça , Director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, talks to us about recent massive protests in multiple cities in Brazil against president Jair Bolsonaro over the economy, state violence, and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they included a broad coalition of indigenous groups, unions, and regular citizens. We also talk about the violent police response by the government to the protests and the state of the pandemic in the country. Nick Mottern , reporter, researcher, writer, political organizer, and coordinator of Bankillerdrones.org and KnowDrones.com, joins us to talk about recent reports that autonomous armed drones have been used by the Government of National Accord in Libya, how this technology allows drones to acquire targets with no human input, how this is changing the way wars are being fought, and the ethical implications of this kind of warfare. Lorraine Whitman , president of the Native Women's Association … [Read more...] about Brazil Protests; Autonomous Killer Drones; Canada Residential Schools Tragedy

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Sunday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available . Sunday 8:35 a.m.: Through the long winter and into the frantic first weeks of the third wave, critical care staff at the Hospital for Sick Children could only watch as their colleagues across the province struggled to keep up with the flood of COVID-19 patients streaming into overstretched ICUs. They were grateful the virus largely spared children, and that detailed plans to manage a surge of critically ill kids weren’t needed. But staff felt helpless as COVID patients threatened to overwhelm neighbouring hospitals. Then, at the beginning of April, after provincial modelling predicted there could be 800 COVID patients in ICUs and physicians worried about the grim possibility of rationing care, Sick Kids enacted its pandemic plan of last resort. For the first time in its history, the hospital would admit adult … [Read more...] about Today’s coronavirus news: The how and why Sick Kids transformed to treat gravely ill adults with COVID during the pandemic

There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to summer reading. Some see the season as a time to rest their weary minds with books that do not ask too much of them. We know the covers of these titles well: Rendered in mollifying colors like aqua, they do little but advertise their own breeziness. Others see summer, with its long days tinged with a sort of heaviness, as a chance to sit very still and give themselves over to the most demanding and long-deferred of books. “Are people going to read Proust and make a living at the same time?” Roy Blount Jr. asked in a 1985 essay published in The New York Times. No they are not, he argues, because they are waiting for the beach. But then what if, in addition to being a reader, you are also an artist, and find that other people’s creative work is not so easily separated from your own? Here, 11 artists propose a new cover design for one of their favorite summer reads. While the selections range in genre, mood and … [Read more...] about Eleven Summer Book Covers, Reimagined by Artists

“Six Degrees of Separation” — John Guare’s play about a wealthy Manhattan couple whose lives are upended by a con artist claiming to be Sidney Poitier’s son — was the toast of the town when it had its premiere in 1990. A mere six months later, Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times that “its title has passed into the language.” Mr. Guare did not invent the idea that everyone in the world is separated by only six other people, which emerged out of nearly a century of mathematical and psychological research. But it was the stickiness of his title — and the 1993 film version , starring Will Smith as the impostor — that blasted it “into the pop-culture stratosphere,” as the sociologist Duncan J. Watts put it in his book “Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age” (2003). While the idea that we’re all connected may seem old hat in the age of the internet, fascination with it has yielded its own rich web of associations over the years. On the eve of the play’s first Broadway … [Read more...] about How Six Degrees Became a Forever Meme

Keith Raniere promised a path to happiness, seducing wealthy people who felt they lacked a higher purpose in life. His company, Nxivm , offered self-improvement workshops that became popular in Hollywood and business circles. But beneath the surface, Mr. Raniere was a puppet master controlling a cultlike criminal enterprise, prosecutors revealed at his trial . Some women in Nxivm were sexually abused by Mr. Raniere, and even branded with his initials in a secret ceremony . On Tuesday, Mr. Raniere, 60, was sentenced to 120 years in prison for sex trafficking and other crimes, effectively a life sentence. The judge also ordered him to pay a $1.75 million fine. The sentencing capped a remarkable downfall for a man who was once idolized by his followers, but has since been exposed as a fraudster who exploited Nxivm’s adherents for money, sex and power. Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn determined the punishment after hearing hours of … [Read more...] about Keith Raniere, Leader of Nxivm Sex Cult, Is Sentenced to 120 Years in Prison