Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
The BC Wildfire Service said today that weather across British Columbia will be affected by a tropical storm in Southern California, challenging firefighters already battling hundreds of fires that forced 30,000 people from their homes and caused a provincial state of emergency.
It says the Bush Creek East wildfire in the Columbia Shuswap region, which merged and encompassed the Adams Lake wildfire this weekend, is now about 410 square kilometres in size. There are more than 380 active wildfires burning in B.C., including the 110-square-kilometre McDougall Creek fire burning on both sides of Lake Okanagan.
The Service warns that Tropical Storm Hilary is expected to bring 20 kilometre an hour winds moving east across the province, with gusts up to 40 km/h. But it says wildfire smoke may help temper the flames as two to three millimetres of rain is forecast in the region tonight.
The federal government’s wildfire tracking shows most of B.C. and much of Alberta and the Northwest Territories are at high to extreme risk of wildfires. It also shows active wildfires throughout Alberta, B.C., the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Northern Saskatchewan, B.C., Ontario and Quebec are also experiencing out-of-control wildfires. There are currently 1,042 active wildfires across Canada, 656 of which are deemed out of control.
Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed the emergency responders and everyday Canadians rallying to fight the wildfires. As well, he criticized Meta for blocking domestic news from its platforms, saying the Facebook parent was prioritizing profit over safety as the fires force tens of thousands to evacuate their homes.
Read more:
- Trudeau accuses Facebook of prioritizing profits by blocking news access during wildfires
- What to know about home insurance if you’re been displaced by wildfires in B.C., Northwest Territories
- Tropical Storm Hilary moves north after drenching Southern California, Southwest
- David Parkinson: Wildfires’ mounting damage will cloud the economic view for months
- Dave Sommer: Wildfires reveal social media as the new problem child for government communications
- Find more updates and coverage on The Globe’s wildfires page
Former Mountie targeted B.C. real estate tycoon for China, RCMP allege
The Mounties say a retired RCMP officer charged this summer with conducting foreign interference on behalf of China was targeting a wealthy Vancouver real estate entrepreneur named Kevin Sun as part of his alleged activities for Beijing.
Confidential law-enforcement information from the RCMP and FBI provided to The Globe and Mail lays out the reasons why William Majcher faces two charges for alleged offences under the Security of Information Act.
The RCMP believe Mr. Majcher used contacts and expertise to help the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) in support of its Operation Fox Hunt and Operation SkyNet projects: efforts cast by Beijing as global anti-corruption campaigns but which Western security agencies have said have also been used to target and silence dissidents.
Sudan’s civil war puts ancient treasures in the line of fire
Since mid-April, the largest East African country has been engulfed in a civil war that has claimed the life of thousands of civilians and forced more than four million Sudanese to flee their homes.
The conflict has pitted the troops of General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese army, against the upstart Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally referred to as Hemedti. There is no sign of a peaceful resolution. The Sudanese army controls the north of the country, where many archeological sites are located.
“The pyramids are not directly threatened by the fighting, but if the conflict lasts they can be affected by looting or environmental damages,” said Mahmoud Suleiman, who manages the UNESCO World Heritage Site. “Meroe suffers from sand accumulation and floods, but there is no more money to protect the sites.”
Mahmoud Suleiman is the sole guardian of the largest archaeological site in Sudan, Meroe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Arthur Larie/The Globe and Mail
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
TVO strike: Dozens of workers at Ontario’s public broadcaster walked off the job Monday morning after months of bargaining. Some of the main sticking points are the use of contracts to fill permanent positions and the wages on offer remaining below what’s needed for workers to catch up to the surging cost of living.
Niger: The Canadian government has yet to withdraw any of its military trainers from Niger, nearly four weeks after its coup, despite a decision to suspend direct aid to the new regime.
COVID-19: In a study published earlier this year in the journal JAMA Network Open, a group of doctors found a significant increase in people’s risk of developing diabetes after a COVID-19 infection.
Artificial Intelligence: A U.S. court in Washington, D.C. ruled that a work of art created by artificial intelligence without any human input cannot be copyrighted under U.S. law.
Energy: Britain’s Energy Efficiency and Green Finance Minister says a low-carbon hydrogen standard would help Canada gain a footing in the European market as it looks to take advantage of a growing global appetite for the fuel.
Media: Bloomberg LP is naming product head Vlad Kliatchko chief executive and appointing former Bank of England governor Mark Carney as chair of its new board of directors.
MARKET WATCH
The Nasdaq ended more than 1% higher and S&P 500 also rose on Monday, with shares of Nvidia jumping as investors were optimistic ahead of its earnings this week and other technology-related stocks gained. The Dow Jones industrial average was little changed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury rose to a 15-year high as investors looked warily toward a meeting of central bankers who convene on Thursday at Jackson Hole in Wyoming. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 36.97 points or 0.11 per cent to 34,463.69, the S&P 500 rose 30.06 points or 0.69 per cent to 4,399.77, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 206.81 points or 1.56 per cent to 13,497.59.
The S&P/TSX Composite index fell 33.52 points or 0.17 per cent to 19,784.87. The Canadian dollar traded at 73.82 U.S. cents
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TALKING POINTS
Survey says: Improve access to health care - now
“Canadians are losing hope in their beloved medicare system. They see access to care, from emergency rooms to primary care to surgery, deteriorating, and have little confidence that the problems will be fixed in the years to come … The public is also pretty clear on who is to blame for the crumbling health system: politicians.” - André Picard
The road to urban happiness is more than a car lane
“Civic leaders need to shake off visions of speedy roadways and expand their view of cities to include vibrant pedestrian spaces, particularly waterfronts. The first pandemic summer in 2020 saw some progress in many cities, Ottawa among them. But others, like Toronto, have curtailed such changes, from closed roads to street patios.” - The Editorial Board
LIVING BETTER
Free weights vs. machines: Which is better?
There’s a pecking order in the gym: Experts hoist the barbells and other free weights, while beginners stick to the machines. But this pattern has led to the assumption that free weights are better than machines – that, pound for pound, you get more benefits from bench-pressing a barbell than you do from the same exercise on a machine. Alex Hutchinson answers which approach might be preferred.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Inside Quebec’s crumbling pork empire
Yanick Gervais is the president and chief executive of Quebec’s pork giant, Olymel, which processes 80 per cent of the hogs in the province.Renaud Philippe/The Globe and Mail
Quebec produces 31 per cent of the pork in Canada, the most of any province. The market is export-based: 70 per cent is shipped overseas, largely to China and other Asian countries.
Exports are essential for two reasons.
First, Canada does not consume enough pork, said Yanick Gervais, the president and chief executive of Olymel. Based on 2022 data, Canadians consume 24.8 kilograms of pork per person annually. Americans consume 41.1 kg. The Chinese consume 64.4 kg. We eat a lot of tenderloin and some ribs, said Mr. Gervais, but we don’t eat bone-in unprocessed ham, which means that a lot of the pig carcass goes unused.
Canadian pork consumption is also stubborn. For example, right now the cost of pork is down compared to the prices of beef or chicken, yet consumers are not eating more, despite soaring inflation.
“It’s the opposite from what we learned in school as far as Economics 101,” said Mr. Gervais.
Read the full story by Kate Helmore.
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