Morning Update: Trump is revealing his Supreme Court pick today

Good morning,

These are the top stories:

Trump’s Supreme Court pick will be announced today

The U.S. President’s selection, set for 9 p.m. ET, will reshape the top court for generations if Democrats are unsuccessful in blocking the nomination. But their attempt to stop the pick is bound to be an uphill battle, David Shribman writes. Trump is expected to select a justice who will solidly tilt conservative voices to a 5-4 majority, which could result in the erosion or overturning of decisions on abortions, health care and same-sex marriage. (Retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, while a conservative, often voted with liberal judges on social issues.) The successful confirmation of Trump’s pick will likely hinge on two factors: whether he has the full support of all Republican senators, and whether Democrats in close midterm election races stick to the party line.

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The latest on the Thai cave rescue mission

Rescue workers in Thailand brought out on Monday the fifth boy from a group of 12 and their soccer coach trapped for more than two weeks in a flooded cave complex, a navy official said, hours after the rescue mission resumed. A Reuters witness near the Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai saw medical personnel carrying a person, wrapped in green sheets and lying flat, into an ambulance close to the mouth of the cave.

Bombardier’s CEO has addressed corruption allegations

Alain Bellemare has broken his silence on allegations that the company’s employees were involved in bribery and other wrongdoing: “Honestly, we don’t have a systemic issue here,” he said in an interview, adding that the allegations have had “very little” impact on the Montreal firm’s bottom line since they first surfaced in 2016 (for subscribers). While Bellemare declined to comment on specific cases, he said the plane and train maker is tackling the issue “head on.” Prosecutors in Sweden are pursuing a corruption case in connection with an Azerbaijani rail contract, while in South Africa a law firm found examples of apparent “impropriety” and illegality in a locomotive deal there. Bombardier has denied any allegations that it acted improperly.

Canada’s refusal rate for visitor visas has soared

Canada refused entry to nearly 600,000 people last year, according to data obtained by The Globe and Mail (for subscribers). And the number of refusals has more than doubled since 2012. Those denied entry included people looking to visit as tourists, part of school or business trips or just to see family. While part of the increase is due to a spike in applications thanks to globalization, the odds against applicants are on the rise. The highest refusal rates are for those from the Middle East and Africa, with more than 75 per cent of applications rejected from countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient has been voted the best-ever winner of the Man Booker Prize

The Canadian writer’s seminal work on love and conflict during the Second World War originally won the prestigious Booker in 1992. Now, after a public vote, it has been awarded the Golden Man Booker Prize for fiction. If you like The English Patient, you may want to read Ondaatje’s latest novel, Warlight, which was hailed in The Globe as one of his most satisfying books yet.

MORNING MARKETS

Stocks climb

Global shares hit a two-week high on Monday as favorable U.S. jobs data whetted risk appetites, while sterling brushed off the resignation of two ministers over Britain’s departure from the European Union as traders focused on the likelihood of a “soft Brexit.” Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 1.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.3 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 2.5 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.2 and 0.6 per cent by about 5:50 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up. The Canadian dollar is just below 76.5 US cents at the beginning of a key week, with a Bank of Canada rate setting on tap for Wednesday.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

A U.S. product boycott may make Canadians feel better, but it will hurt more than just Americans

“Buying a car that isn’t made in the U.S. may make you feel better. But it’s not clear it will inflict pain on the U.S. Many of the vehicles assembled in Canada, such as the Dodge Grand Caravan, Ford Edge or Cadillac XTS, may be made with mainly U.S. parts. Likewise, boycotting a particular U.S.-made vehicle is just as likely to hurt Ontario-based parts suppliers as it is to inflict pain on General Motors. The same goes for breakfast cereal. Shun that box of Cheerios and you may be hurting Manitoba farmers who supplied the oats.” – Barrie McKenna (for subscribers)

Too bad it took street protests to open Robert Lepage’s ears

“Robert Lepage is a brilliant artist, but a terrible listener. The statement the Quebec director released on Friday, two days after the cancellation of SLAV, his mostly white “theatrical odyssey based on slave songs,” suggests that he’s entirely shut his ears to criticism of his work outside of francophone Quebec for the past three decades. Or that he’s been insulated from it by his entourage, to his own detriment, as the events of the past weeks have dealt a serious blow to his reputation in North America.” – J. Kelly Nestruck

It’s feminist MMA out there, and that’s not a bad thing

“If you publish a book of essays on feminism, as I recently did, the unintended consequence is that some people will turn to you for decision-making, like you’re some kind of woman-shaped Magic 8 Ball. On my book tour, I was asked, ‘Can I still be a feminist if I want to get married? How about if I wear high heels? What if my main goal is to make lots of money?’ To which my answer was always, ‘Well, what do you think?’ I’m not feminist Solomon. None of us is. All of us contain multitudes, and sometimes those multitudes bicker. As Roxane Gay wrote in her landmark 2014 essay collection Bad Feminist, ‘like most people, I’m full of contradictions, but I also don’t want to be treated like [expletive deleted] for being a woman.’ Feminism is multirooted and multibranched; my tree might not look like yours. Together, though, we make a forest.” – Elizabeth Renzetti (for subscribers)

LIVING BETTER

Five things to do immediately if you miss your connecting flight

First, try to avoid the line-ups by calling up the airline. If you’re not getting the results you want, ask to speak with a supervisor. Reaching out to airlines on a social platform like Twitter can often lead to quicker resolutions. Go here for more tips.

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