Editor’s note: The Evening Update newsletter will be paused on Monday, Sept. 5, for Labour Day, but will return Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
A U.S. federal court in West Palm Beach on Friday unsealed more documents tied to the FBI’s unprecedented Aug. 8 search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, after media outlets asked for the records to be made public.
The unsealing by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon came one day after she heard oral arguments by Trump’s attorneys and the U.S. Justice Department’s top two counter-intelligence prosecutors over whether she should appoint a special master to conduct a privilege review of the seized materials at Trump’s request. Cannon deferred ruling immediately on whether to appoint a special master, but said she would agree to unseal two records the Justice Department had filed under seal.
One of the records, released on Friday, provides a little more detail about the 33 boxes and other items the FBI found inside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, as part of its ongoing criminal investigation into whether he illegally retained national defence information and tried to obstruct the probe. It shows that documents with classification markings were at times co-mingled with other items such as books, magazines and newspaper clippings.
Read more:
Donald Trump departs Trump Tower two days after FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach home, in New York City, New York, Aug. 10, 2022.DAVID DEE DELGADO/Reuters
Russian dissidents squabble over how to ensure Putin’s defeat
As Ukraine launched a fierce counterattack this week aimed at driving back Moscow’s invading forces, several hundred Russian democrats gathered in Lithuania to debate what role they can play in the battle against President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The dissidents who attended the Congress of Free Russia were in the awkward position of cheering on the Ukrainians, hoping for their own country’s battlefield defeat. “Like Lenin,” said Dmitry Gudkov, a prominent opposition figure, adding a bitter laugh at how the democrats find themselves in a similar position to the Bolshevik leader who waited in exile for the right moment to launch his revolution, as Russia’s military collapsed during the First World War.
“Putin must be defeated. There is no other option to end this war,” said Gudkov, one of the last opposition MPs to sit in Russia’s parliament, which is now completely controlled by Kremlin loyalists. “It’s complicated for politicians, but I think I will have a chance to be elected in a new country. We will have elections only after Putin.”
To get there, Russia’s opposition forces will have to resolve their internal conflicts first: The country’s democrats sometimes seem to harbour as much distaste for each other as for the Kremlin.
Russian opposition figure Dmitry Gudkov addresses his supporters at a rally to protest against alleged violations ahead of elections to Moscow City Duma, in Moscow, Russia, July 14, 2019.MAXIM SHEMETOV/Reuters
Ready to go back to the office? Employers and workers are divided over the fate of remote work
In most parts of the country, life has resumed some semblance of prepandemic normalcy – gyms are open and filled with people; concert arenas, sports centres and movie theatres are packed; festivals of all kinds have taken place again. But the office has been an exception, and many buildings in the downtown cores of major cities are still largely empty.
Indeed, the most recent data from the real estate company Avison Young shows that foot traffic in office buildings in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver this July was still 54.7 per cent below what it was in early March, 2020, before the pandemic hit. Now, since many people aren’t voluntarily returning, some employers are beginning to make it compulsory for employees to come back into the office for a minimum number of days a week.
Read more:
- For these Canadians, returning to the ‘office’ looks a little different
- The revenge of the service-industry worker
- Tips from four chief remote officers on how to successfully manage working away from the office
The Globe and Mail
Educators are reconsidering how they grade students after COVID-19 upended school life
For the past two years, as waves of COVID-19 upended school life across the country, school boards were forced to change many of their evaluation practices – including finding alternatives to exams. Although some boards resumed those stress-inducing tests last year, many suggested teachers continue finding alternatives.
Now, as we enter what will likely be a more typical school year during which most teachers will be allowed to reinstate final exams, some school boards and educators are hoping that the lessons learned over the last two years will reshape how students are evaluated.
Read more:
- Canada risks losing its edge on international student recruitment over visa delays, universities say
- U.S. student math, reading scores plummet during pandemic
Stacie Oliver, a high-school English teacher at A.B. Lucas Secondary School stands in a hallway on Sept. 1, 2022 in London, Ont.Nicole Osborne/The Globe and Mail
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Liz Truss doesn’t have name recognition but her candour has positioned her as front-runner to replace Boris Johnson: Truss is hardly a household name, even in Britain. She also wasn’t the favourite to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader when he resigned in July. But her dogged campaign has won over party members, and polls show she will easily defeat former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak when voting results are announced on Monday.
Mississippi’s capital is dealing with its fifth water crisis, leaving citizens with dry faucets: Mississippi’s capital has been on a boil water advisory since late July because of problems with the pumps at its aging water treatment plant. Then, this week, heavy rains caused the Pearl River to rise sharply and overwhelm the plant, leaving the entire city with little or nothing coming from faucets.
Toronto home sales edge up, but prices are still down 15.8 per cent from March peak: After several months in a slump, the Toronto-area housing market showed signs of strength in August as sales increased and price declines moderated on a month-over-month basis.
The Canadian film industry’s biggest drama? Itself: On the eve of the first real-deal Toronto International Film Festival in three years, Barry Hertz writes about the major challenges – and possible solutions – to getting the industry back to a place where Canadian culture, and business, can thrive.
Mercury levels in the Arctic put wildlife, Indigenous communities at risk, landmark report says: A landmark report reveals that atmospheric mercury in the Arctic Circle has swelled tenfold since the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s, posing increasing health risks for wildlife and Indigenous communities in the region.
MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index snapped a five-day losing streak Friday, led by gains in the energy and mining sectors.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 128.13 points at 19,270.85.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 337.98 points at 31,318.44. The S&P 500 index was down 42.59 points at 3,924.26, while the Nasdaq composite was down 154.27 points at 11,630.86.
The Canadian dollar traded for 76.21 cents US compared with 75.95 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude contract was up 26 cents at US$86.87 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down 48 cents at US$8.79 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$13.30 at US$1,722.60 an ounce and the December copper contract was up one cent at US$3.41 a pound.
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TALKING POINTS
Amid Earth’s profane scrums, Artemis has recaptured the public’s fascination with space
“Here on Earth, Americans are fighting about abortion and gun control, lining up to oppose Donald Trump or to stand in solidarity with him, hurling brickbats in fractious midterm congressional elections and tossing around easy talk about civil war. But for one brief moment in the country’s current civic hell, Americans’ eyes will be on the heavens.” – David Shribman
Elizabeth May’s leadership is the paper straw of Canadian politics
“What [Elizabeth May’s] proposing is the old Green Party but with a twist, sort of like when Apple promoted its coveted iPhone 5C in 2013 as ‘the most colourful iPhone yet,’ or like that episode of The Simpsons when the Malibu Stacy doll was reimagined, owing to a single unique accessory. It’s the Elizabeth May Party, circa 2006 to 2019 – but with a new hat.” – Robyn Urback
Mikhail Gorbachev didn’t end history – but he did move it forward
“[Mikhail Gorbachev] was not the only member of the Politburo to recognize that the communist experiment had failed, both materially and spiritually. But had it not been for him, the end of the Soviet empire could have been a drawn-out and bloody affair.” – Konrad Yakabuski
LIVING BETTER
How to spruce up a less-than-ideal rental space without breaking the bank
Not long ago, looking for a new place to live signalled possibility and a fresh start. Now, bidding wars, multi-month down payments and complicated applications are making it difficult to secure an affordable apartment, let alone one with natural light and good design bones. With a rental crisis upon us – and many Canadians saying yes to less-than-ideal spaces – Beth Hitchcock asked the experts for ways to make a blah space feel more blissful.
TODAY’S LONG READ
The 1972 Summit Series brought hockey and the Cold War together. Five decades later, Canada’s victory is still celebrated
Team Canada celebrates a goal on Sept. 28, 1972, at the Luzhniki Palace of Sports in Moscow, during Game 8 of the Summit Series against the Soviet Union.TASS
Fifty years ago, in the middle of the Cold War, Canadian and Soviet hockey teams captivated the world with an eight-game battle on the ice.
An estimated 13 million out of 22 million Canadians watched Game 8 of the Summit Series on TV from Moscow. Classes were scuttled so children could watch at school. Businesses shut down so employees could take in the action from home. During an Air Canada flight between Los Angeles and Toronto, flight attendants broke out bottles of champagne when the final score – 6-5 – was announced. After losing three of the first five games, Canada won the series 4-3-1.
Marty Klinkenberg writes as Paul Henderson, Bobby Clarke and others look back at the path to victory.
More Summit Series coverage:
- The Summit Series may not have changed the world, but it changed what it meant to be Canadian: “The Summit Series gave us an international style – ‘Canadian’. This was a new way for us to be in the world. ‘Canadian’ means you put one of ours in the hospital, we put one of yours in the morgue, and then we show up the next morning with flowers. ‘Canadian’ is the stand-up fight, followed if necessary by the righteous sucker punch. Because ‘Canadian’ means you never give up.” – Cathal Kelly
Evening Update is written by Emerald Bensadoun. 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.