FRONT PAGES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
MONDAY Guardian, London Olympic rings leave Rio
Goodbye, then, Rio 2016. Higher, faster, stronger, bigger, messier — and now finally over. After 17 days of intoxicating sport, billions spent, 306 gold medals doled out and a vast dying sea of congealed IOC-approved deep-fried cheese balls consumed by a half a million spectators, the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a wrap.
Workplace discrimination
The National Health Service has been accused of a “disgraceful” failure to use the talents of women and people from ethnic minorities after new research revealed they are badly underrepresented in senior positions. Despite a two-year drive to rectify the problem, far fewer people from both groups chair an NHS acute hospital trust or ambulance trust in England than would be proportionate to their numbers in the population, freedom of information responses show. They are also much less likely to be non-executive directors of them than white men.
TUESDAY Globe and Mail, Toronto Opioid epidemic
The front-page photo shows Betty-Lou Kristy of Georgetown, Ontario, who lost her son Pete to an overdose of painkillers. Spending on drugs to treat patients suffering from addiction to opioids soared 60 percent over a four-year period, revealing the toll opioid abuse is taking on Canada’s health-care system. Public programs spent $93 million on medications for prescription painkiller addicts and illicit opioids in 2014, compared with $77.3 million in 2011 in every province except Quebec, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The figures shed new light on a mounting problem, one that medical experts say was created by the pharmaceutical industry and doctors. In 2015, doctors wrote 53 opioid prescriptions for every 100 people in Canada, according to figures compiled by IMS Brogan, which tracks pharmaceutical sales.
WEDNESDAY Dominion Post, Wellington, New Zealand Driverless cars
If Minister of Transport Simon Bridges has his way, New Zealand will be testing driverless cars before the end of the year. Bridges, who says the technology already exists, wants to see such vehicles on Wellington streets by the early to mid-2020s. His ministry is looking to test the vehicles from Europe and North America with trials on private roads.
Handicapped access
A front-page photo shows Erin Gough, a Wellington woman, whose wheelchair couldn’t enter a local pub because of a step in its doorway. Pub staff then promised her that they would fix the problem. Gough, who works for the Human Rights Commission, returned after the pub installed a ramp. “They made their business accessible because it’s the right thing to do,” she said.
THURSDAY ADN, Bogota, Colombia No more war
A front-page photo shows Bogota residents holding letters that form the word PAZ (Peace) as they celebrate a final peace deal announced Wednesday in Havana that ended a five-decade old war between the government and leftist guerrillas. The headline — “Peace is With You” — is accompanied by photos of President Obama, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and EU Commission Vice President Federica Mogherini all offering congratulations for the end of a conflict that began in 1964. President Juan Manuel Santos also announced that the people must now approve the peace accord in an up-or-down referendum on Oct 2.
Editor’s note: For most, the question is not whether the war should end, but how. Even among those who want peace, many worry that the deal will result in amnesty for the rebels after the 52-year war left 220,000 dead and displaced more than 5 million people. Polls, however, show approval is likely.
FRIDAY Manila Bulletin Quake toll rises
The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Italy rose sharply to almost 250 Thursday. A front-page photo shows rescuers working in the night at a collapsed house in Pescara del Tronto, one of the towns that suffered extensive damage in Wednesday’s quake.
Editor’s note: As of Saturday, the death toll had risen to 291.
Cease-fire announced
President Rodrigo Duterte has directed government forces to avoid “hostile actions” and be “friendly” with communist rebels following his formal declaration of a cease-fire with the revolutionary group.
Editor’s note: After a weeklong meeting in Norway, negotiators for the Maoist rebels and the government issued a joint statement pledging to accelerate the peace process for a conflict that has killed tens of thousands since the late 1960s.