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A drone view shows a flooded area in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, in Houston, Texas.
Hard Numbers: Doctors at a distance, US inflation falls again, Beryl barrels through insurers, Virginia bans smartphones in schools
670,000: Is there a doctor in the house? Maybe, but if you’re an Ontarian, you might have to travel. At least 670,000 residents of the province live more than 50 kilometers from their family physician, according to a new report. Meanwhile, the number of Ontarians who have no family doctor at all has risen by a third since 2020 to more than 2.5 million people.
3: Annual inflation in the US fell for the third straight month in June, coming in at 3%, down from 3.3% in May. That will give the Fed room to start cutting rates again soon, but popular perceptions of inflation persist. Polling earlier this spring showed that two-thirds of Americans consider high prices a top problem, even after months of declining inflation. Why? Because things cost significantly more than they did before the pandemic-driven price surge.
2.7 billion: Damage inflicted by Hurricane Beryl will cost US insurers at least $2.7 billion, according to initial estimates. The storm, which slammed into southeastern Texas on Monday, lashing the Houston area with heavy wind and rains, destroyed property and left millions without power. For more on how climate change is cooking US insurers, see our special report by Ian Bremmer here.
1.2 million: Virginia will limit or ban cellphone use in public schools, a move that would affect 1.2 million students. Earlier this summer, the Los Angeles city school system issued a similar ban, amid heightened attention to the ways that smartphone use by adolescents can interfere with learning and threaten mental health. In Canada, Alberta will soon join Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia with a similar measure.
Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin speaks during his election night party at a hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, U.S., November 3, 2021.
Big Republican win, shock Dem loss in Virginia
GOP wins Virginia gubernatorial race. In a stunning upset, Republican Glenn Youngkin won Virginia's highly-anticipated governor's race. Youngkin beat Democrat former Gov. Terry McAuliffe by two points, a wider-than-expected margin. The result — in a purple state that President Joe Biden bagged by a comfortable 10 percent a year ago — is very bad news for Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms. Biden didn't get the boost he was hoping for to turn the tide on his poor approval rating and his domestic political agenda, stalled by deep divisions within the party over two landmark infrastructure and social spending bills. What's more, McAuliffe underperformed with suburban voters and independents — crucial to Biden's 2020 victory and whom Democrats must woo to keep control of Congress a year from now. Republicans now gain momentum because winning back suburbanites and independents who hate Donald Trump improves their (already good) odds for the midterms. More broadly, the outcome in Virginia also shows the GOP a new electoral college pathway to win the presidential race in 2024... as long as Trump himself isn't on the ballot.
Campaign signs for Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin stand together on the last day of early voting in the Virginia gubernatorial election in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S., October 30, 2021
What We're Watching: Virginia gov election a test for Biden
A nail-biter in Virginia. The campaign for the 2022 US midterm elections officially kicks off Tuesday, when Virginia votes to elect a new governor in a race widely seen as a temperature check on Joe Biden's popularity after 10 months. Democrats hope that former Gov. Terry McAuliffe wins back his old job so that the purple state does not slide into Republican hands ahead of presidential elections in 2024. But GOP challenger Glenn Youngkin, a millionaire businessman supported by Donald Trump, has caught up in the polls once led comfortably by McAuliffe in a campaign marked by education culture wars. Now both are in a dead heat, and the result will likely be very close. A Youngkin victory would be a big boost for Republicans, who'll gain momentum going into the midterms next year, where the Dems face long odds of keeping control of both houses of Congress. What's more, it would add pressure on Biden to mediate between the moderate and progressive wings of his party to pass a social spending bill, the hallmark of his policy agenda. With his own approval rate plummeting, the president needs a big win that Democrats can sell to voters a year from now.
Virginia’s governor race tests Democrats ahead of 2022 midterms
Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, shares insights on US politics:
Why should all eyes be on the Virginia suburbs?
I'm here in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Arlington, Virginia, where the state will be having a gubernatorial election on November 2nd. The Virginia governor election is held in the year after the US presidential election typically, and is generally seen as a bellwether for how popular the incumbent president of the United States is. In 2009, the Republican candidate won by a commanding 16 points despite the fact that Virginia has been trending more and more Democratic in recent years due to the population growth here in the suburbs, which tend to be more blue than rural areas of the state.
The race is close, which is a little bit surprising because last year, Virginia went [Democratic] by for 10 points. So the competitiveness of the Republican candidate is being seen as a sign of weakness of Joe Biden, potentially correlated with his slide in approval ratings and also an indication that maybe some of the strength of a Democratic Party is related to backlash against Donald Trump who's not on the ballot this time around.
The Democrats are running a former governor and an insider's insider, who was the former head of the Democratic National Committee. The Republicans are running a private equity executive who looks a lot like a reborn version of Mitt Romney, the former presidential candidate for the Republicans, which is surprising in a party that's been trending more and more in Donald Trump's favor.
A win or a narrow loss for the Republican would be seen would affirm a narrative of backlash against Joe Biden and his policies, would affirm that his low approval rating could potentially be a weight on Democrats in next year's midterm elections and show that voters are getting frustrated both by COVID, high energy prices, and potentially school board issues, issues of education, which has been a major issue in this election. If the Democrat wins comfortably, then all that narrative will be largely deflated. Democrats can prove that they can continue to win in Democratic areas by running against Donald Trump, and it will help Joe Biden going into the midterm elections.- Is Donald Trump returning to social media? - GZERO Media ›
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Virginia Dems in Trouble: US Politics in 60 Seconds
Both the governor and lieutenant governor face calls to resign.
It's US Politics in 60 Seconds with Ben White!
And go deeper on topics like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence at Microsoft on The Issues.