Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Liberals ease EI eligibility as part of $37-billion in new emergency income support
The Liberal government has announced $37-billion in new income support, extending the Canada Emergency Response Benefit for another month and easing eligibility rules for Employment Insurance.
After the CERB winds down, workers who remain unemployed will have the option of applying to a revised EI program or one of three new income-support programs related to the COVID-19 pandemic:
- The Canada Recovery Benefit is for workers who are self-employed or are not eligible for EI and cannot resume work.
- The Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit is for workers who are ill or who must self-isolate for reasons related to COVID-19.
- The Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit is for workers who are unable to work because they are caring for a child, dependent or family member because schools or daycares are closed due to COVID-19.
The temporary changes to EI dramatically lower the number of hours required to qualify for benefits.
Opinion: Canadians risk becoming addicted to pandemic aid
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Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in a coma after apparent poisoning
Russia’s top opposition figure is fighting for his life, after an apparent poisoning that his allies blame on the Kremlin, Globe senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon reports.
Alexey Navalny, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, collapsed while flying home to Moscow from a tour of Siberia to support anti-Kremlin candidates ahead of local elections next month.
In a video posted to social media by passengers on the plane, the 44-year-old Navalny can be heard howling in pain from the bathroom. Other videos, taken after the plane makes an emergency landing in the city of Omsk, show a seemingly unconscious Navalny being lifted onto a stretcher, and then into an ambulance.
By evening local time, he was in a coma and breathing with the support of a ventilator.
U.S. politics: Steve Bannon arrested, Trump lawsuit dismissed and more
President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon was pulled from a yacht today and arrested on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors to an online fundraising effort to build a privately funded southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be charged with crimes.
The organizers of the “We Build The Wall” group raised more than US$25-million from thousands of donors. According to the charges, little of the money went to the project, and Bannon allegedly took more than $1-million, using some to secretly pay a co-defendant and to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.
Trump quickly distanced himself from Bannon. “I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time,” he said today.
Meanwhile, Trump’s long-standing effort to keep his finances under wraps suffered another setback after a federal judge ruled that he cannot block a prosecutor’s subpoena for eight years of tax returns. He rejected Trump’s claims that the grand jury subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. was “wildly overbroad” and issued in bad faith, writing: “Justice requires an end to this controversy.”
The Democratic National Convention wraps up, tonight with Joe Biden set to formally accept the party’s presidential nomination, the night after running mate Kamala Harris took on her historic role as the first Black and South Asian female vice-presidential nominee. Catch up on five key takeaways from last night’s action, including Barack Obama’s impassioned speech.
Read more: What does Steve Bannon want with this Italian monastery? Inside his fledgling school for populism
Morneau urged Trudeau to stop leaks from senior PMO staff to media
Bill Morneau walked into Justin Trudeau’s home Monday to resign as finance minister, after a recent direct appeal to the Prime Minister to stop leaks about him failed to end the stream of negative stories he believed were orchestrated by top officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, according to an account by a senior government official close to Morneau.
Read more: Bill Morneau’s office, Kielburgers described as “besties” in newly released documents
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Deal on N95 production: The federal and Ontario governments have secured an agreement with 3M that will see it produce up to 100 million N95 masks a year at a facility in Brockville, Ont.
Manchester bomber’s brother sentenced: The brother of the suicide bomber who set off an explosion at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds, has been sentenced to a minimum of 55 years in prison.
Broadcaster suspended for slur: Cincinnati Reds broadcaster broadcaster Thom Brennaman has been suspended from working the team’s games after using an anti-gay slur on air last night, prompting the team to apologize for the “horrific, homophobic remark.”
MARKET WATCH
North American stock markets closed higher today, with Nasdaq ending at a record high, as gains in heavyweight tech stocks outweighed downbeat data that affirmed the Federal Reserve’s view of a difficult road to economic recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46.85 points or 0.17 per cent to 27,739.73, the S&P 500 gained 10.66 points or 0.32 per cent to 3,385.51 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 118.49 points or 1.06 per cent to 11,264.95.
Canada’s main stock index also saw gains as shares in Shopify rose 2.6 per cent. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 29.38 points or 0.18 per cent, to 16,606.76.
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TALKING POINTS
Chrystia Freeland excels at fixing things. Why is she not in charge?
“We’re okay with women being handmaidens to power – enabling it, smoothing its passage, standing at its shoulder – as long as they’re not at the controls themselves.” - Elizabeth Renzetti
The Masai Ujiri incident shows success doesn’t shield Black leaders and athletes from racism
“Administrators take note. Recruiting Black players and presidents solves only one problem: representation. Black bodies deserve the right to safety and respect, period.” - Janelle Joseph and Sabrina Razack, IDEAS Lab (Indigeneity, Diaspora, Equity and Anti-Racism in Sport)
LIVING BETTER
If you’re feeling priced out of owning a home in a big city, Rob Carrick presents seven housing markets across the country where a millennial or Gen Z buyer can buy an average-price home and still have money to save and enjoy: Lethbridge, Alta., Saskatoon, Winnipeg, St. John’s, Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton. And here are few things you can do with the savings:
- Save more: for emergencies, retirement and your children’s postsecondary education.
- Spend more: Affordable upgrades can fit in with your other financial priorities, rather than replacing some of them.
- Travel more: If you need a big-city weekend, just do it.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Laurentian University suspends admissions to 17 programs
Laurentian University is suspending admissions to 17 programs as it grapples with a deficit and the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for postsecondary institutions.
The programs no longer accepting students include anthropology, archeology, geography and a host of others from business to music, languages and mathematics. Many courses are in French, which may limit the options of the roughly 20 per cent of the university’s 6,000 students who are francophone.
Laurentian, located in Sudbury, was among the first Canadian universities to warn that the pandemic and the risk of an enrolment drop posed a threat to institutional viability. It’s in a region with a small university-aged population and is among the schools most threatened financially by the pandemic. Read Joe Friesen’s full story here.
Evening Update is written S.R. Slobodian. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.