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Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer holds dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer holds dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship, but his campaign says he is in the process of renouncing the American citizenship.

The Globe has learned that Scheer’s father, who was born in the U.S. and holds joint citizenship, obtained U.S. citizenship and passports for his children when they were born in Canada.

The Conservatives were critical of former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion during the 2008 election over his dual Canadian-French citizenship. In 2015, the Tories also attacked NDP Leader Tom Mulcair for holding French citizenship.

Separately, Scheer clarified his personal views on abortion today after weeks of questions, saying that he is against it, but that a government led by him would not reopen a debate about the procedure in Parliament.

Opinion: "This year’s election campaign should also be remembered as the one where Mr. Singh was made to keep demonstrating the way marginalized people in this country are told to act in the face of that prejudice. That is, to be endlessly kind and forgiving, to consider constant, casual denials of our humanity as the price of being, as the man said to Mr. Singh, ‘Canadian.’ ” - Denise Balkissoon, following this incident yesterday

Also, John Ibbitson checks in with the people in the bellwether Waterloo Region in Ontario, where undecided voters are focusing on the economy and the climate.

Strategic seats: Here are the races Globe reporters are most interested in – 21 ridings from coast to coast – and what’s at stake.

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Three former St. Michael’s students plead guilty in sex assault scandal

Three former students of St. Michael’s College School pleaded guilty today in a sex assault scandal that rocked the prestigious private school in Toronto last year.

The teens each pleaded guilty to one count of sex assault with a weapon and one count of assault with a weapon. One of them also pleaded guilty to making child pornography.

The charges related to three incidents involving members of one of the school’s football teams. Police launched an investigation last fall after a video that captured an alleged sexual assault on the school’s campus was shared on social media.

One student still facing charges has a court hearing scheduled for Oct. 17.

Opinion (from the archives): I went to St. Michael’s College. I’m not surprised

Trump says he wants Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens; Volker testifies before Congress

President Donald Trump today publicly invited foreign interference in a U.S. presidential election, calling on China to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden – similar to a request that has already triggered an impeachment inquiry in Congress.

He told reporters he believed both China and Ukraine should investigate the former vice-president and his businessman son Hunter Biden. Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have offered no evidence for their assertions of corruption.

Also today, Congress heard testimony from Kurt Volker, the former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine who has become a central figure in the unfolding impeachment inquiry against Trump. It’s the first in what is expected to be a series of interviews with officials inside and outside the State Department.

Opinion: “For years, Donald Trump’s critics have charged that any number of nefarious sentiments smouldered beneath the President’s rhetoric. In recent days, the smoke has become fire – and now a president threatened with impeachment may be playing with that fire.” - David Shribman

ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Andreescu to take on Osaka: Canadian tennis phenom Bianca Andreescu has won her 17th match in a row, defeating American Jennifer Brady at the China Open today. The U.S. Open champion will next meet world No. 4 Naomi Osaka of Japan in the quarter-finals tomorrow.

Ontario school boards planning to close Monday if strike happens: The Toronto District School Board is joining several others, including the Peel District School Board, the York Region District School and the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, in announcing that schools would be closed Monday in the event of a strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

WestJet, Sunwing inspecting Boeing 737 NG aircraft: WestJet Airlines and Sunwing Vacations say they are examining their fleets of Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft for cracks after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered the inspections.

Johnson dealt another Brexit blow: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposed Brexit deal with the European Union has been dealt a blow by a key committee in the European Parliament, which said the plan wasn’t remotely workable.

Four dead in Paris knife attack: A civilian employee raged through Paris police headquarters with a knife today, stabbing four police colleagues to death before he was shot and killed, French authorities said.

Climate change protest to target Canadian bridges: Extinction Rebellion, a group of environmental activists, is planning to try to shut down some of Canada’s busiest bridges on Monday, aiming to show the public that major disruptions are inevitable if society fails to act on climate change.

Montreal’s Olympic Stadium designer dies: Roger Taillibert, the controversial French architect who designed Montreal’s spectacular but costly Olympic Stadium and Velodrome, has died in Paris at 93.

MARKET WATCH

Wall Street stocks climbed today after data showing services-sector activity at a three-year low fueled expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in an effort to thwart a wider economic downturn.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 122.42 points to 26,201.04, the S&P 500 gained 23.02 points to close at 2,910.63 and the Nasdaq Composite added 87.01 points to end at 7,872.26.

Optimism extended north of the border, where the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 58.06 points to 16,369.03.

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TALKING POINTS

Let’s clear the air: Vaping holds great promise for smokers

“While quitting combustible cigarettes without the aid of e-cigarettes is recommended, e-cigarettes provide a much safer delivery option if you are unable to quit nicotine.” - Mark Tyndall, physician and professor, University of British Columbia

Social media in Egypt: From harbinger of a revolution to weapon of authoritarian control

“Social media was celebrated after the revolution as having facilitated the overthrow of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Eight years later, the same platforms are leveraged by an increasingly authoritarian Egyptian state to stifle freedom of expression, arrest ordinary citizens and track political dissidents.” - Joey Shea, researcher

LIVING BETTER

While electric cars are still prohibitively expensive compared with their gasoline equivalents, there still are deals to be had. Using official range-estimate data from Natural Resources Canada, combined with automakers’ pricing info, we found seven electric vehicles that offer the most range for your money, including the Hyundai Kona, Kia Niro and and Chevrolet Bolt.

LONG READ FOR A LONG COMMUTE

The strange and wonderful tale of Buffalo’s Silo City

In Buffalo, so many grain elevators line the serpentine Buffalo River it could’ve become a full graveyard were it not for the strange and wonderful stewardship of Cleveland-born Rick Smith, who purchased a number of silos, mills, warehouses and office buildings on what was then Childs Street – now renamed Silo City Row – from ConAgra back in 2006 with the intention of creating ethanol industry jobs.

Shifting gears when the market crashed two years later, Smith, owner of third-generation steel fabricator Rigidized Metals, began to envision other uses. He turned to artists and musicians to animate the spaces – inside the tall silos and out in the slowly renaturalizing fields surrounding them – with art installations and concerts.

“There were very few people in the city that really paid attention to the waterfront,” Smith says, “and we have a pretty unique network of waterways.” Eventually, Buffalonians did pay attention and, now, Silo City has become a place. A weird place, yes, but a place nonetheless. Read Dave LeBlanc’s full story here.

Open this photo in gallery:

(Photo by Dave LeBlanc for The Globe and Mail)Dave LeBlanc

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