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These are the top stories:
Bianca Andreescu’s path to her Grand Slam victory
All of Canada now knows the name Bianca after the 19-year-old upset tennis legend Serena Williams on Saturday, claiming the U.S. Open title and a US$3.85-million paycheque.
How did Andreescu get here? It all started in the early nineties, when her mother, Maria, decided she wanted to move from Romania to Canada. Maria and her husband, Nicu, arrived here in the mid-nineties, settling in Mississauga, Ont. Bianca was born in 2000 and split her childhood years between Canada and Romania, where she stayed with her grandparents.
By the age of 14, Tennis Canada paired Andreescu with coach Nathalie Tauziat, a former world No. 3. “When I first saw Bianca, she was already special because she could do so many things with her hands on the court compared to other girls her age,” Tauziat said. By 15, Andreescu had already won several elite youth tournaments.
Cathal Kelly tries to explain Andreescu’s success: “The bottom line is that you can’t make a Ms. Andreescu. She is born. Through some unrepeatable combination of genetics, upbringing, experience and outlook, we have arrived at a nearly perfect athletic competitor.”
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Dorian has left hundreds of thousands without power in the Maritimes
Halifax residents help clear a tree downed by Dorian on Sunday. (Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail)Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
Despite reaching Canada’s east coast as a post-tropical storm, Dorian hit some areas with winds as high as 150 kilometres an hour – on par with the strength of a Category 2 hurricane. That caused serious damage to properties and power lines; at one point, 500,000 homes and businesses left without power. Hundreds of thousands are still in the dark.
In the Bahamas, the death toll has climbed to at least 44. Relief efforts continue in full force to assist those remaining on some of the worst-hit islands, with many residents being evacuated after their homes were destroyed.
Brexit: What to expect this week as Boris Johnson lost more allies
First he kicked out 21 Tory MPs that voted against him. Then his brother, Joe, quit. And over the weekend, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd resigned from cabinet, saying she doesn’t believe Johnson wants an exit agreement with the European Union, but instead a no-deal departure.
Still, the Prime Minister remains steadfast in his plans: The British Parliament will be suspended at the end of business on Monday until the middle of next month, his spokesman said. Johnson will once again call for an election today, even though the opposition has indicated that it won’t support a vote ahead of the Oct. 31 EU deadline.
A bill to prevent Britain leaving the European Union on Oct. 31 without a deal by forcing Johnson to seek a delay is due to become law on Monday but the spokesman said the government would not seek any extension to the deadline.
The EU’s member states could scuttle an extension. Yesterday, France’s Foreign Minister expressed frustration over the saga and threatened to veto any further delay.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Vaping and your health: Reports of respiratory illnesses linked to vaping in the U.S. have Canadian officials on high alert. There have been at least 450 possible cases south of the border, mostly involving teenagers. There haven’t been any reports of incidents in Canada, but public agencies here have issued health warnings and are closely monitoring the situation.
Hong Kong protests continue: Hundreds of uniformed students, many wearing masks, formed human chains in districts across Hong Kong on Monday in support of anti-government protesters. On Sunday, demonstrators marched to the U.S. consulate, calling on Washington to “liberate” the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Violence later broke out in the city’s business district, with police firing tear gas after protesters vandalized subway stations and set fires. Beijing warned that it wouldn’t tolerate any attempts to separate Hong Kong from China.
Suburban Toronto home sales on the rise: Sales of detached houses in the 905 region – which includes communities like Newmarket, Brampton and Mississauga – are back on the upswing after a two-year slump. But while August sales increased 20 per cent compared with the same month last year, prices climbed just 1.3 per cent.
MORNING MARKETS
World stocks gain on hopes of central bank stimulus: Global stock markets gained on Monday as investors pinned their hopes on stimulus that’s expected from the world’s central banks to support slowing growth. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.6 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.8 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped slightly. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 and the Paris CAC 40 were down by about 4:45 a.m. ET, though by less than 0.1 per cent, with Germany’s DAX up 0.1 per cent. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was at about 76 US cents.
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WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Return to Gilead: Why The Handmaid’s Tale still endures
Omar El Akkad: “It is a strange trick very few books ever pull – to suddenly become the centre of public attention again long after publication. Often it is dystopian or speculative novels that do this, and often the circumstances that prompt their revival are dismal. In the case of The Handmaid’s Tale, it was the election of a misogynist to the most powerful political office on Earth.” Omar El Akkad is the author of American War. He lives in Portland, Ore.
As rising sea levels threaten our cities, we must take the higher ground – in both senses
Elliott Cappell: “Canada is warming at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world – and in the North, three times as fast. Climate change’s effect on Canadian communities is really just emerging, in the sense that we are only starting to experience and understand what may be the 'new normal’ of flooding, wildfires or sinking – a mari usque ad mare.” Elliott Cappell is an international climate-change specialist and the former chief resilience officer for the City of Toronto.
LIVING BETTER
TIFF’s opening weekend, and what’s still to come
Cineplex’s feud with Netflix has reached the screens of the Toronto festival, with the streaming giant’s productions barred from playing at Cineplex-owned Scotiabank Theatre.
Among those Netflix productions is Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, a Kramer vs. Kramer-esque dramedy starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson that film editor Barry Hertz says was one of the highlights of opening weekend. Read all about the hits and misses of the festival so far.
Hyped-up films still to come include the Meryl Streep comedy The Laundromat from Steven Soderbergh, the Natalie Portman-starring NASA drama Lucy in the Sky, and the Joaquin Phoenix-led Joker.
MOMENT IN TIME
Jack Nicholson interview, 1971
For more than 100 years, photo librarians working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. In September we pay tribute to Hollywood North.
(Dennis Robinson/The Globe and Mail)Dennis Robinson/The Globe and Mail
There’s always been something deliciously naughty about Jack, with his slow, disreputable grin and eyebrows that look like they’re about to fly off his face. In this photo, taken by Globe photographer Dennis Robinson, the actor was holed up in a Toronto hotel room, stogie in hand, to discuss Drive, He Said, a 1970s counterculture film about radicalism and his directorial debut. Nicholson was flying high after his breakthrough role in Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970), but this film didn’t make the cut and quickly faded into obscurity. Jack, however, emerged unscathed. The legendary lothario went on to star in countless classics (Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and, at the age of 82, has lost none of his bad boy vibe, flirting shamelessly with Jennifer Lawrence a few years ago at the Oscars, telling her, “You look like an old girlfriend of mine." – Gayle MacDonald
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