Good morning,
A month after Niger’s military coup, the country is facing a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis, the United Nations refugee agency said in a report Tuesday. More than 20,000 people have fled their homes since the coup because of attacks by insurgent groups, and soaring prices for many commodities have worsened the already dire situation, according to the report.
Thousands of trucks, including many with humanitarian aid, have been stranded at Niger’s closed borders, and UN aid flights have been grounded because of a lack of jet fuel. The UN is seeking an exemption from the ECOWAS sanctions to allow food and medicine into the country, one of the poorest in the world.
Emmanuel Gignac, the UN refugee agency’s Niger representative and a Canadian, said the agency’s staff have also witnessed a sharp increase in kidnapping, sexual violence, human trafficking and other dangers since the military takeover. Analysts say the violence is worrisome because such attacks had been in decline before the coup.
A moto-taxi carries a passenger past the French Embassy in Niamey on August 28, 2023.AFP Contributor#AFP/AFP/Getty Images
This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for Morning Update and more than 20 other Globe newsletters on our newsletter signup page.
Pierre Trudeau’s office ran secret intelligence unit to quell separatist movement in Quebec, researchers find
New research based on previously classified documents has revealed a secret operation within the office of prime minister Pierre Trudeau to gather intelligence about Quebec separatists after the 1970 October Crisis through a task force that was strongly opposed by a senior RCMP official at the time.
The effort appears to have lasted only between 1971 and 1972, however, before it was undone by John Starnes, then head of the Mounties’ intelligence wing. Starnes, the RCMP Security Service’s director-general, kept notes on his meetings with top political officials, which were accessed by Dennis Molinaro of Ontario Tech University and Philip Davies of Britain’s Brunel University through records released under access-to-information laws. Their paper, published this week by the journal Intelligence and National Security, is titled The FAN TAN File – a reference to the RCMP’s code name for the special task force established within the PMO.
One outside researcher said the new essay fills in some key gaps in the public’s understanding of a highly secretive time.
Twelve new charges against Kenneth Law, accused of selling deadly substance
Kenneth Law now faces 14 counts in total of counselling and aiding suicide, police said, with the cases involving deaths across Ontario. He is accused of sending a lethal substance to those at risk of self harm and was charged in 12 new deaths on Tuesday as police outlined the growing scope of what has become an international investigation.
Police allege the 57-year-old from Mississauga operated several websites starting in late 2020 that were used to sell sodium nitrite and other items that can be used for self harm. Investigators have said Law allegedly sent at least 1,200 packages to people in more than 40 countries.
The charges announced Tuesday involved Ontario residents between the ages of 16 and 36 who had died in communities as far north as Thunder Bay and as far southwest as London, police said. British police revealed last week they had identified 232 people who bought products from Canadian-based websites allegedly linked to Law, 88 of whom had died.
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop
Also on our radar
Greenbelt: Doug Ford says his government is looking at returning two parcels of land swapped out of the protected Greenbelt after discovering the properties have been listed for sale.
Gabon: Crowds celebrated in Gabon after mutinous soldiers said Wednesday they were seizing power in order to overturn the results of a presidential election, seeking to remove President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has held power for 55 years.
Florida: Hurricane Idalia strengthened early Wednesday as it steamed toward Florida’s Big Bend region, according to the National Hurricane Center. Residents living in vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to pack up and leave.
China: There’s a glut of highly educated job seekers in China, with millions more due to graduate next month. Many of them are taking up menial jobs as a result, and turning to prayer for help.
Carbon tax: Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are digging in on their campaign to scrap the Liberal carbon-pricing plan and say the government’s approach amounts to a tax that will not stop wildfires playing out in parts of Canada this summer.
Wildfires: Lightning strikes have sparked dozens of new wildfires in British Columbia, as officials in Northwest Territories begin preparing to lift evacuations.
COVID-19: The BC Centre for Disease Control has detected Canada’s first known case of a new COVID-19 variant that has swiftly circled the globe, in what one expert says is a reminder the virus never went away.
Morning markets
World shares head for losing month: Global equities edged up on Wednesday as data suggested U.S. inflation pressures were moderating, but were on course to end August with their worst monthly performance of 2023 so far. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.13 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 slid 0.51 per cent and 0.50 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended up 0.33 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was essentially flat on the day. New York futures were slightly lower. The Canadian dollar was down modestly at 73.72 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Just a kiss? That moment at the Women’s World Cup was toxic masculinity on full display
”Rather than admit wrongdoing and apologize for ruining what should have been the biggest moment of these women’s lives (not to mention the country’s), he dug in. He called the uproar ‘false feminism.’ Mr. Rubiales does not get to make that call.” - Marsha Lederman
Canada’s foreign aid is in decline – again
”The federal Liberals have promised annual increases to foreign aid through 2030, to support the UN’s sustainable development goals, but last year may turn out to be a high-water mark. And that’s bad news.” - The Editorial Board
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by Brian Gable
Living better
Three life lessons I picked up while travelling with my mom
Illustration by Marley Allen-Ash
Carol Linnitt has learned three important life lessons while travelling with her mother, despite not always seeing eye to eye with her:
1. It’s beautiful. All of it. And it’s right in front of you;
2. Try it all. And try to love it all;
3. Your limits are yours, so do with them what you will.
Read more here.
Moment in time: Aug. 30, 2015
British neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks dies
Dr. Oliver Sacks in his office in New York City.Michael Falco/The Globe and Mail
Oliver Sacks introduced the world of neurology to lay readers, revealing the marvels of the human brain through the stories of his patients. The London-born neurologist wrote multiple bestsellers but was best known for those that explored exceptional medical cases, such as An Anthropologist on Mars and Awakenings, which inspired the 1990 film of the same name. In an updated 2013 preface to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, originally published in 1985, he acknowledged some of the terms he had used to describe his patients had since, thankfully, become outmoded. And he admitted he no longer agreed with some of the things he had written. But he also expressed modest satisfaction that the book had played a role in convincing new generations of neurologists that personal, detailed case histories were a crucial part of medicine. “With the rise of neuroscience and all its wonders, it is even more important now to preserve the personal narrative, to see every patient as a unique being with his own history and strategies for adapting and thriving,” he wrote. Dr. Sacks died from cancer on this day in 2015. He was 82. Wency Leung
Read today's horoscopes. Enjoy today's puzzles.
If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday morning, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.