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, investment reporter Ian McGugan lays out the perhaps surprising reality for retirees in Canada: While planning is essential, there’s every reason to believe the golden years can be a time of financial security and happiness.
Ian has been covering investing for many years and he says not much has changed when it comes to building a nest egg and retiring with it. “There is a lot of anxiety around retirement and much of it is nothing more than fear-mongering,” he says. “Poverty rates among seniors are lower than among younger age groups and life satisfaction is higher.”
This week his coverage, which can be found here, focuses on five areas: satisfaction levels in retirement, how much is needed to retire (less than you may think!), revising an outdated savings rule, annual savings goals and what to do if you’re late to the retirement-savings game.
“People get happier as they get older,” Ian says. “Chances are you will, too.”
In Ukraine, Mark MacKinnon visits Izyum nearly a year after the small Kharkiv region city was liberated from a brutal Russian occupation. There he finds a sharp divide between the people who stayed (some welcoming the Russian forces) and the ones who left then returned. Reintegration, he writes, may be even more challenging than rebuilding.
The Women’s World Cup is now under and Canada is fighting to emerge from Group B against Nigeria, Ireland and tournament co-host Australia. Shelina Zadorsky is expected to take to the field against Ireland on Wednesday after a series of illnesses forced her to sit out for Tottenham Hotspur in England, where she is the team’s captain. Marty Klinkenberg tells the story of Ms. Zadorsky’s journey to get on Canada’s World Cup roster – one steep hill after another.
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The Possible Dream: Why you can retire richer and happier than you think
Illustration by Sam Island
Leaving the working world is meant to be a relief, a long sunset to be enjoyed with loved ones in comfort and leisure. But some surveys suggest Canadians tend to be worried they won’t have enough money to retire happily. Fortunately the reality is a lot brighter than that, provided a little retirement planning has been done beforehand. Here, Ian McGugan outlines why a happy retirement doesn’t cost as much as you might think, and offers four other reassuring truths about your golden years.
A Ukrainian city divided between those who fled the Russian invasion and those who stayed
Alona Yakovenko surveys the rubble of the Izyum apartment building where she grew up – and where her parents and grandmother were killed by a Russian airstrike.Anton Skyba
Russia’s occupation of Izyum, a small city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, was brutal. After it was liberated last September, 445 makeshift graves were found outside of town, three of those containing the remains of Alona Yakovenko’s mother, father and grandmother. But since Kremlin propaganda dominated Izyum during Russian rule, many who stayed instead of fleeing have been convinced Ukraine, controlled by fascists, is the enemy. “This is the price of some people’s desire to be part of Russia,” said Ms. Yakovenko. “People died here screaming under the debris.”
Canada’s Shelina Zadorsky ready for the World Cup field after string of illnesses
Shelina Zadorsky, a member of Canada Women's Soccer team, at the BMO Training Field in Toronto, on June 21.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Shelina Zadorsky has played on Canada’s national women’s soccer team for 10 years. Over the past nine months she was nearly broken mentally and physically. It was no sure thing that she would even be fit enough to be on Canada’s World Cup roster. After a series of illnesses, Zadorsky finally went to her coach and told him she was too sick to play. As she put it, she had “every sick symptom you can name.” She was also in a dark place mentally. She sat out for nearly three months as Tottenham’s medical staff worked with her extensively. In June, she was invited to Canada’s pretournament preparation camp and a few weeks ago learned she was on the World Cup team.
Cool pavement is like sunscreen for streets. Can it take the heat out of concrete cities?
In June of 2019 "StreetsLA" completed the first of three neighbourhood-level cool pavement projects across the San Fernando Valley, in Canoga Park, Sun Valley and Pacoima. Each project received cool pavement treatment on 10-12 contiguous city blocks. StreetsLA is working with researchers at UCLA, USC and Arizona State University to quantify the heat comfort benefit of these projects.Supplied
The blistering heat wave has affected hundreds of millions of people across the world, but can technology offer some relief? Some southern cities in the U.S. are experimenting with “cool pavement,” which uses reflective coatings to change how roads absorb heat. The makers of pavement coatings promise their products can reduce surface temperature by up to 14 degrees Celsius, and extend a road’s life. Nathan VanderKlippe looks at the billion-dollar plans some U.S. cities are considering to ensure they remain habitable in the heat.
The pain, the gain: Why did it take so long for the world to accept the dangers of OxyContin?
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRYAN GEE/THE GLOBE AND MAIL. SOURCE PHOTOS: Getty Images
The deep pockets of Purdue Pharma fuelled the myth that OxyContin was relatively addiction-proof – a story the company paid to propagate even after reports about abuse of the drug emerged. Addictions and overdoses were also allowed to continue for reasons that had little to do with money. In an essay, author and former New York Times reporter Barry Meier sheds light on the pain-management ideologies at play, and one Canadian doctor’s role in spreading distorted science.
Residents look on as police officers search the home of Rex Heuermann on July 15, 2023, in Massapequa Park, N.Y.Jeenah Moom/The Associated Press
When a bedroom community not far from New York shows a big-city underbelly – in the case of Massapequa Park, bodies dumped on Gilgo Beach and the arrest of a community member, Rex Heuermann – perhaps the resulting media circus is unavoidable. But that doesn’t make it any more comfortable for those who live near the run-down bungalow where Mr. Heuermann raised a family. “We’re still in shock,” says one neighbour, giving voice to local residents struggling to reconcile the quiet life they thought they were choosing with the reputational and human damage inflicted by an alleged serial killer.
A day at Stratford Festival with Rent’s Nestor Lozano Jr.
Nestor Lozano Jr. in the dressing room, getting ready to play percussionist drag queen Angel Dumott Schunard in the Stratford Festival’s production of Rent. “I do all my own makeup,” he says. “It’s so much faster.”Carlos Osorio/Carlos Osorio for The Globe and
This summer, The Globe sent photographer Carlos Osorio to spend a day with Nestor Lozano Jr., one of the stars of Rent, the iconic nineties musical currently playing at the Stratford Festival. Lozano Jr., from Scarborough, Ont., shines in the demanding role of Angel and let Osorio get an intimate glimpse at his routine, from breakfast to a typical workout to preparations for the show.
Road trip: Looking for Black joy deep in the American South
Writer Natalie Preddie poses with the statue of B.B. King at B.B. King Centre in Indianola, M.S.Supplied
The racial tension that allowed two white assailants to be acquitted in Emmett Till’s 1955 lynching may never resolve completely, but for travel writer Natalie Preddie, it was always going to be the painful backdrop for a driving trip she hoped would reveal a different Mississippi. In short order, local residents proved that the state is now better understood as a haven for Black joy and positive community spirit.
Drawn from the headlines
Almost 900 wildfires burning across Canada as provinces and territories set record temperatures. The Globe and Mail, July 17, 2023, as drawn by Hanna Barczyk for The Globe and Mail.
Illustration by hanna barczyk