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 and Mail. In this issue, Nathan VanderKlippe reports on an Israeli radio station creating musical playlists for a vast swath of listeners, in the background of the war in Gaza. Every week, members of the playlist committee at the military-owned Galgalatz broadcaster in Israel gather to decide what will be in the station’s rotation. In the past seven months, as VanderKlippe writes, the members have had to contend with serious considerations: the brittle mood of the country.
The music offered by the broadcaster has traced the emotional arc of an Israel that has been stunned, sad, furious, bloodthirsty and now increasingly eager for an escape from the misery. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, the station quickly shifted to songs that were comforting, funereal, slow. And lately, it’s catering more to musical requests that would lift listeners from the grimness.
Kelly Grant dives into what’s going on with H5N1 – avian flu – as cows in the United States test positive for the pathogen, setting off a race to determine how the virus is infecting cattle and what threat it might eventually pose to humans.
And, Jason Kirby, Rachelle Younglai and James Bradshaw take a look at building vacancy data in downtown Toronto, revealing a deeply divided office market.
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Israeli radio station Galgalatz channels mood of a country grappling with latest return to violence
Israeli radio host Ahinoam Baer poses for a photo in the city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 2, 2024.Oren Ziv/The Globe and Mail
Over nearly seven months of war, the radio hosts, executives and soldiers on the playlist committee at the Jaffa offices of Israeli radio station Galgalatz have found themselves having to gauge and shape the mood of a country grappling with violence. The military-owned broadcaster is by far the biggest station in Israel, commanding 28 per cent of the population’s daily listeners. Nathan VanderKlippe reports on what the music programmers at Galgalatz have had to consider in crafting the soundtrack for their country’s latest woes.
What the H5N1 avian flu found in U.S. cattle means for Canadians
A cow stands alone in an isolation pen at a farm in Rockford, Illinois, U.S., April 9, 2024. The cow is to be kept in isolation for 21 days as a precaution for the avian flu outbreak.Jim Vondruska/Reuters
Fewer cats were slinking around barns in the weeks leading up to the discovery of bird flu in cows in the United States. The missing felines turned out to be an important clue. They were going blind and dying of a highly pathogenic version of avian influenza known to infect felines. Veterinarians sent the cow’s milk for testing, expecting to rule out H5N1. But instead, the milk was found to be teeming with the pathogen. While public health leaders on both sides of the border say the risk of bird flu to humans is low, that could change if the virus mutates significantly while circulating in livestock. Experts tell Kelly Grant that now is the time to pay close attention to animal health so we can get a head start on taking action before the illness poses a threat to humans.
Downtown Toronto skyline silhouetted by the evening sky, looking along Front St. East on Nov 8, 2021.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
Four years after pandemic lockdowns turned Canada’s most important financial district into a ghost town, downtown Toronto’s commercial real estate market continues to be plagued by empty offices. One-third of the biggest office buildings in the downtown core are at least one-fifth empty, with some grappling with even larger voids of up to 50 per cent. Some towers, meanwhile, are full of tenants. Armed with data, Jason Kirby, Rachelle Younglai and James Bradshaw examine which skyscrapers have the highest vacancies and what the more packed buildings tell us about the tenant-landlord landscape. Some of Canada’s largest pension funds are prominent landlords in this market, meaning the implications go far beyond the corner of King Street and Bay Street.
The Trump-Biden rematch was a sequel no one asked for, and now no one can look away from it
POSTER PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KEVIN MUTCH FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL. SOURCES: AP PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
In Hollywood, the first movie in a series is usually the best. Now, off the silver screen, the whole world is facing a different kind of sequel, one that will touch the lives of most of the planet: a sequel to the U.S. Presidential Election of 2020. That election was framed as a battle for the soul of American democracy but once it ended, somehow the battle wasn’t done, writes screenwriter and author Elan Mastai. In recent days, every ballot has been framed as a referendum on the future of human civilization and none resolve this state of crisis, leading to something akin to chronic sequel fatigue.
Success in Venice? Canadian artists add their projects to a crowded Biennale
Ydessa Hendeles, Goose! (still), 2023. Courtesy the Artist © Ydessa HendelesSupplied
On the one hand, it seems like every art lover in the world comes to Venice’s Biennale, creating a huge potential audience; on the other, it can be hard to get attention in this throng. Several Canadian projects, however, are managing to rise above the fold. Kate Taylor analyzes the various Canadian installations running through this year’s festival that are garnering respectable attention, including Bruce Bailey’s independent show of anti-heroic war art and Ydessa Hendeles invited collateral event, Grand Hotel.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during question period, Tuesday, April 30, 2024 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The polarization of Canadian politics was already on the rise before Justin Trudeau became the Liberal leader in 2013. But, as Paul Wells writes, that doesn’t mean he didn’t notice it, act on it, or nudge it along. Trudeau led the federal Liberals into the 2015 election on a promise to give the middle ground back to Canadians, but as centrism crumbles throughout the country, the left and right are more estranged than ever, inflamed by a partisan disdain that has been growing for two decades.
The future of flower farming is female
Marni Martin-McTavish of Indigo Rain Flower Farm in Huntsville, Ont.Supplied
Flower farming wasn’t always considered a feasible option in the male-dominated world of commercial growing, especially for women. For a long time, women who wanted to work with flowers became florists. Then in the early 2010s, the slow-flower movement – a philosophy similar to the slow-food movement, encouraging consumers to purchase stems grown locally, seasonally and ethically – started to gain momentum. Gayle MacDonald reports on the rise of small-scale flower farms, and the creation of a space where women can tap into their passion for nature and build ventures where their lifestyles and values align.
Take our arts and culture quiz
Anne Hathaway stars in The Idea of You, which begins streaming on Prime Video May 3. The film is based on a novel by which author?
c. Robinne Lee
d. Jane Igharo