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, Kelly Grant reports on promising new clinical trials for the prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia.
The medications she writes about target beta amyloid, a protein that congeals into sticky clumps in the brain, eventually leading to brain cell death. These drug trials, plus a proliferation of new blood tests in the U.S. that diagnose Alzheimer’s, may bring us a tiny step closer to the dream of approaching the devastating disease in the same way as Type 2 Diabetes: by detecting it early and possibly mitigating its symptoms with drugs and lifestyle changes.
But there is still a way to go toward this dream. “It’s a very tantalizing prospect, even if we know that these trials may not succeed,” says Grant, “That this is something that medical science might be able to achieve.” Many of the experts she spoke to “still feel very stung” by how often Alzheimer’s drugs have failed in the past. Still, Grant hopes her story does elicit some optimism that the field is in a better place than it’s been in a long time.
Business reporter Jason Kirby takes a close look at Canada’s public sector, in which the number of workers has soared, led by the swelling ranks of the federal civil service.
And Cathal Kelly writes about Alex Ovechkin’s slow but steady progress towards surpassing Gretzky’s all-time goal record.
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Alzheimer’s trial brings at-risk patients hope for the future, but new doubts in the present
At a Toronto memory clinic, Tyson Haller waits for infusionist Sharanka Langstaff to prepare his dose for the AHEAD 3-45 study, a clinical trial of anti-Alzheimer's drugs.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
There are two major clinical trials for the prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia that experts are watching closely – and with renewed but cautious optimism. While the AHEAD 3-45 trial is not the first to test the theory that treatment for Alzheimer’s is best tackled years before people start noticing symptoms, it is the first to attempt prevention with an FDA-approved drug that has succeeded in slowing the progression of the disease in early-stage patients. Experts tell Kelly Grant that the new treatments could mark a turning point for Alzheimer’s drug research.
How a ballooning public sector is reshaping Canada’s economy
SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA, SEAN KILPATRICK/CP/The Globe and Mail
Under the Trudeau government, the number of workers in Canada’s public sector has exploded, led by the swelling ranks of the federal civil service. With private sector employment falling behind, Canada’s economy is more dependent on government jobs than it has been in decades, which explains part of Canada’s weak productivity. With federal and provincial finances strained, economists say the pace of public sector growth is unsustainable, not to mention that it’s also unclear whether Canadians are getting any more value from government services than they were before.
Trump’s history-making criminal trial set to open Monday, as he fights to return to the White House
Former President Donald Trump comments as he leaves a pre-trial hearing during a recess with his defense team at Manhattan criminal, March 25, 2024, in New York.Mary Altaffer/The Associated Press
Next week, Donald Trump will become the first former U.S. president to face criminal trial. New York state prosecutors contend that he falsified business records to cover up the hush-money payment, and that the transaction itself constituted an illegal campaign contribution. The proceedings begin Monday with jury selection in a Lower Manhattan courtroom. While the case is only one of four prosecutions against Trump, it may ultimately be the only one to reach its conclusion before voters cast their ballots in the November presidential election.
McNally Robinson is an indie bookstore that figured it out: Focus on books
Chris Hall, co-owner of McNally Robinson Booksellers, at the company’s Grant Park location in Winnipeg on March 4, 2024.Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
For more than 40 years, McNally Robinson has been one of Canada’s preeminent retailers of books. But the Winnipeg-based store with locations from coast-to-coast doesn’t have a secret hack to share when it comes to explaining how an independent Canadian bookstore has both weathered the rise of online retail and managed to avoid crowding its shelves with household items. Their strategy, Temur Durani reports this week, has been simple: they just kept selling books.
A photographer’s wander in Bhutan
Taktsang Monastery (The Tiger’s Nest), Paro, Bhutan, is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites around the world. Legend states that Guru Rinpoche, founder of Buddhism, flew on the back of Tigress to meditate here and ultimately brought Buddhism to Bhutan. The monastery, built in the late 17th century, is 3,000 ft above the valley floor.Solana Cain/The Globe and Mail
During a recent trip to Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan kingdom tucked between India and Tibet, The Globe’s photo editor Solana Cain was so mesmerized by the people and landscapes that she took more than a thousand photos. “Everywhere you look, there’s a photo to be captured,” she wrote in this travel piece. “Bhutanese culture is vibrant, the architecture is breathtaking and the country is teeming with ecological diversity.”
Alex Ovechkin is a new kind of sports celebrity, a legacy-maker that nobody wants to talk about
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) in action during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, April 4, 2024, in Washington.Nick Wass/The Associated Press
Alex Ovechkin has 852 goals, but his pace has become a jog. He will probably break Gretzky’s all-time record (894) the season following next. Two years is a long time when you’re a 39-year-old pro athlete, but few players have ever been more reliable than the Russian. He’ll get there. And then what? Will the league stop to fete him? Will the wise men of the game line up behind him? Will people be able to separate the art from the artist? Cathal Kelly explores some of those questions.
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