Good morning, and welcome to the weekend.
Grab your cup of coffee or tea and sit down with a selection of this week’s great reads from The Globe. In this issue, Ian Brown writes about his observations on a century of Globe and Mail photography, after helping staff cull more than 750,000 photographs down to 1,650. Leafing through the photos, Brown was shocked by his visceral reaction. Watching photographed cars and crowds go from rarity to commonplace in a matter of decades, he felt an admiration for photographers, who captured the spirit of an interconnected country through thoughtful and decisive snap curation. “That ability to go fast and slow at the same time, that requires a lot of discipline and that requires a lot of skill and talent,” he says.
Eric Reguly meets with Sergii Marchenko, Ukraine’s Finance Minister, the boss in the hottest of global-finance-ministry hot seats who has been in crisis-management mode since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
And Salmaan Farooqui looks at how the sneaker craze took off and became a multi-billion-dollar reselling industry.
Great Reads will pause between Dec. 24 and Jan. 3 for the holidays. Happy Holidays!
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The never-ending moment: A century of Globe and Mail staff photography
The Globe and Mail
News photographs stop time. It’s their most profound accomplishment. They freeze a moment of the present so that the moment can be examined more closely in the future. This December marks 100 years since The Globe hired its first staff photographer. The Globe has compiled a collection of images – a succession of stopped moments – from our staff photographers over the past century, picked from the countless stories they helped bring to life.
Meet the man in charge of keeping Ukraine from financial collapse
Sergii Marchenko and his staff have been working around the clock to prevent their country’s economy from outright collapse.Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
Sergii Marchenko has become one of the most prominent figures in global finance since the start of Russia’s war, though he’s not quite a household name. Up until two weeks ago, Ukraine’s Finance Minister was living in the ministry’s building, which had become a makeshift emergency hostel, with his staff as they worked around the clock to spare their country’s economy from outright collapse. Aside from being the boss in the hottest of global finance ministry hot seats, Eric Reguly writes, Marchenko is set to become the rotating chair of the boards of governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the global financial institutions that may play a big role in Ukraine’s reconstruction – assuming it wins the war.
Read more: Ukraine’s ex-Laker Slava Medvedenko sold off championship rings to help Kyiv teens play basketball
Opinion: My family escaped hell in Afghanistan. Now, we’re in purgatory
Portrait of Jawed Haqmal and his brothers Mumtaz and Bilal with their children in front of their house in Germany.Shirin Abedi/The Globe and Mail
Soon: that’s the word that haunts Jawed Haqmal. The former Canadian military translator and his family have managed to escape two wars through four countries, all while clinging to the hope that they would soon be resettled in Canada. Through his work with Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, Jawed, his wife and children were cleared for resettlement. But a year and half since the Taliban’s takeover, their dreams of starting a new life have collided with a bureaucratic nightmare they didn’t expect.
Why the world should be watching Germany as it re-engineers its industrial future
Employee Maximilian Bergemann checks a completed electrolyzer for hydrogen production at the test benches.CHRISTOF STACHE/The Globe and Mail
Fossil-fuel-secure countries like Canada might not relate to Germany’s scramble for greener energy supplies – a feat made more urgent after Russia’s war in Ukraine cost Germany the cheap gas that fuelled its economy. But the country is providing a case study in what works and what doesn’t for others that may need to play catch-up in order to meet emissions targets and compete in a decarbonizing world, says Adam Radwanski. If Germany is able to leverage its accumulated wealth, industrial prowess and infrastructure to transition itself off fossil fuels, it could illuminate policy pathways for governments and the private sector.
The story of sneaker culture: From niche obsession to multi-billion-dollar reselling industry
Kathy Ager/Supplied
Michael Jordan’s iconic Air Jordans might have marked the beginning of sneaker culture’s stratospheric ascent. But the start of the trend can be traced to a lesser-known player, Walt Frazier of the New York Knicks, who collaborated with Puma in the 1970s to make a buttery suede shoe with rich colours, writes Salman Farooqui. The frenzy that followed has only grown, with the sneaker-reselling industry valued at US$6-billion. Limited-edition sneakers that retailed for less than $200 might fetch thousands of dollars when they hit that market. But figuring out what might be a hit with consumers isn’t always easy.
Read more: Meet Canada’s star sneaker resellers
To save Africa’s penguins from extreme weather and heat, conservationists get creative
An injured penguin is weighed during an ICU ward round at SANCOB, a wildlife refuge in Cape Town.Karin Schermbrucker/The Globe and Mail
Climate change is just the latest threat to the survival of Africa’s penguins. For decades, the small penguins with their distinctive braying call have seen their numbers erode because of overfishing by commercial boats that trawl the waters they inhabit. Now, they also face the risks of extreme weather. With African penguins “perilously close” to becoming functionally extinct, as a recent report warned, scientists are fighting to save them – often with innovative ideas, such as heat-warning systems and new colony creation.
NASA launches mission to measure Earth’s surface water – with help from Canada
A piece of Canadian satellite radar technology will play a key role in a mission to observe 90 per cent of Earth’s water.HO/The Canadian Press
It’s one of the most basic but challenging questions in climate science: where is all the water? Thanks to a spacecraft equipped with Canadian technology, which has begun its mission, we may finally get an answer. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, or SWOT, aims to measure the water levels of rivers, lakes and coastal waters over about 90 per cent of the globe and track how they change over time. As straightforward as its task may sound, the results promise to unlock a bounty of information, reports Ivan Semeniuk.
Opinion: This World Cup has us spellbound with the beauty and elegance of the game
Argentinian fans cheer before the World Cup semifinal soccer match between Argentina and Croatia at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022.Manu Fernandez/The Associated Press
There’s no transcending the horrific deaths of migrant workers who built the Qatar World Cup infrastructure, John Doyle writes. And there’s no excuse for banning players from showing solidarity with the LGBTQ community by wearing the OneLove armband. But it’s possible to subvert cynicism with beauty. Soccer has been called “the beautiful game,” and it’s not hard to see why the description sticks. The aesthetics draw you in: the dance with the ball that seems to defy physics and the body’s limitations.
Thanks for reading this week’s issue of Great Reads! Let us know what you think by e-mailing greatreads@globeandmail.com, and see you next weekend.
– Beatrice Paez and Emerald Bensadoun