Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Canada scrambles as U.S., Mexico ink NAFTA pact
The U.S. and Mexico have reached a sweeping deal to overhaul the North American free-trade agreement and are pressing Canada to accept it by the end of this week or risk getting kicked out of the pact. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is heading to Washington today in a bid to salvage the trilateral agreement after its negotiating partners arrived at a deal without Canada at the table. U.S. President Trump announced on Monday that the new deal with Mexico centres on new content rules for the automotive sector aimed at moving auto assembly jobs out of Mexico and to the U.S. and will also include a “sunset clause” that would see NAFTA ended in 16 years unless all countries agree to keep it.
“We will have a deal with Canada. It will either be a tariff on cars or it will be a negotiated deal,” Trump warned on Monday, adding that the U.S. will hit Canada with 25-per-cent tariffs on auto imports if Ottawa does not reach an agreement on overhauling the 24-year-old pact. Several major NAFTA issues remain unresolved and require Canada at the table to sort them out, such as the pressure on Canada to give up its supply management system for dairy, which Trump claims is a “protectionist” measure.
While the U.S. is angling for a final NAFTA deal by the end of this week - to trigger a mandatory 90-day notification period with the U.S. Congress - Lawrence Berman writes that a new NAFTA deal being concluded in the next few weeks seems unlikely. To get caught up on all things NAFTA, read our explainer that breaks down the saga so far.
Saudi Arabia allows medical trainees to stay in Canada
More than 1,000 Saudi Arabian medical trainees will be allowed to stay in Canada to complete their training, a much-needed reprieve for teaching hospitals that were unsure how they would handle the sudden and significant loss of staff. Thousands of other Saudi students studying at Canadian universities will, however, still have to leave the country. The medical residents and fellows in Canada received an e-mail late Monday afternoon from the Saudi Ministry of Education “indicating that they may continue in their positions until an alternative assignment is arranged,” said Andrew Padmos, chief executive of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The kingdom initially told the medical trainees to leave Canada by Aug. 31 because of a diplomatic dispute that erupted after Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland publicly called on Saudi Arabia to release jailed human-rights activists.
Myanmar military leaders should be tried for genocide against Rohingya: UN
Some of Myanmar’s most senior military officials should be investigated and prosecuted for “gross human rights violations,” a report from a United Nations fact-finding mission said on Monday. The landmark report names specific officers to be investigated, including commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, and placed under scrutiny for “genocidal intent”. The report comes just a few days after the one-year anniversary of a horrific outburst of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that, in the ensuing months, prompted nearly 725,000 people to flood Cox’s Bazar in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Bob Rae, special envoy to Myanmar for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said the “challenges ahead are very great.” Because Myanmar has not signed on to the International Criminal Court, “it’s exceptionally difficult to get it in front of the ICC,” he said. The UN Security Council can refer the matter to the ICC, but that has not happened. The UN fact-finding mission echoed calls by Mr. Rae and others to nonetheless begin assembling the components for a legal case, as countries look to use the Security Council or other mechanisms to launch international criminal proceedings.
Toyota to invest US$500-million in Uber for self-driving cars
Toyota, one of the world’s largest automakers, and Uber, the leading ride-hailing service, are widely seen as lagging the competition in developing self-driving cars. But the partnership between the two companies, strengthened by Toyota’s US$500-million investment, will deepen their existing relationship and will also reflect Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi’s strategy of developing autonomous vehicles through partnerships, rather than the company doing so on its own. Since a self-driving Uber SUV killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Ariz., in March, Uber has removed its self-driving cars from the road, laid off hundreds of test drivers and shuttered operations in Arizona, its autonomous testing hub. This new investment will see the two companies merging their already existing technologies into one, with the goal of getting Toyota’s Sienna minivans outfitted with self-driving technology and deploying the vehicles on Uber’s ride-hailing network by the start of 2021.
This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or if someone forwarded this e-mail to you, you can sign up for Morning Update and all Globe newsletters here.
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
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Death of a Calgary titan: The spectacular rise and tragic fall of George Gosbee
In many ways, George Gosbee epitomized the wealth and swagger of the Calgary oil patch boom years, taking risks and making both friends and enemies. He was a skillful deal maker who founded two mid-size independent investment banks, AltaCorp and Tristone Capital. He achieved a boyhood dream of owning a National Hockey League team by buying the Arizona Coyotes. He had a voracious appetite, whether it was for red meat, fine wines or mountaineering books. He had a hyena-like laugh, he bragged about his three children and he revelled in the kind of rugged adventure found at the bottom of the world. Read about the spectacular rise and tragic fall of Gosbee here.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks climb
Global stocks rose to a six-month high on Tuesday, lifted by investor optimism that a U.S.-Mexico deal to overhaul the North American free-trade agreement will go some way to averting a global trade war. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained less than 0.1 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite lost 0.1 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.1 and 0.4 per cent by about 5:20 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up, albeit slightly. The Canadian dollar is at 77.26 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Take off the rose-coloured glasses – and the world’s still a lot rosier
Recognizing the better doesn’t make us blind to the bad. To the contrary, seeing how much progress we have made should arm us with the confidence to tackle the problems that remain. Alive to what we have achieved, we can do almost anything – even slide a sword down our throat. - Marcus Gee
New research concludes there is no safe level of alcohol. But look beyond the alarmist headlines
Where the authors of the new research went astray was with the suggestion that public-health officials should promote abstinence. There is no justification for that recommendation in the data. It is gratuitous moralism. - André Picard
Doug Ford is failing on the education file
Good teachers use the curriculum as a scaffold with which to build an edifice. Under Mr. Ford, Ontario will have no edifices, just a scaffold, re-engineered to reflect the grievances of cranky parents, the insecurities of social conservatives and the Premier’s personal convictions. - Naomi Buck, a Toronto-based writer
LIVING BETTER
If you’re like most parents who struggle to get their kids to eat a healthy and well-balanced meal at least once a day, peanut butter sandwiches are usually your saving grace. But when back-to-school season rolls around, this old faithful can be pulled out of the rotation, as peanut butter (and other peanut-containing products) are restricted from many elementary school classrooms because of the growing number of children with peanut allergies. Peanut allergies, now affecting 2.4 per cent of Canadian children, can cause life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. The good news: There are many nutrient-packed substitutes for nut butters that make tasty companions for sliced bread, celery sticks and apple slices. Here, we list five nut-free butters and their notable nutrients.
MOMENT IN TIME
When Ringo Starr sang, “I get high with a little help from my friends,” he could well have been referring to Bob Dylan. It was the Minnesotan troubadour that introduced the Beatles to marijuana in the first place. It happened at New York’s Delmonico Hotel, where the Beatles were unwinding after the first of two shows at Forest Hills Stadium. The band and others were enjoying a room-service dinner when Mr. Dylan arrived at the hotel with a music writer (Al Aronowitz) who introduced the famed folk singer to the group. Drinks and amphetamines were hospitably offered, but the visitors suggested they smoke grass instead. The Beatles were wary – they’d never indulged in weed previously – but with the Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right singer as their guide, joints were rolled and high times ensued. After the maiden high, the Day Tripper boys experimented with other drugs and began creating music in a hugely influential, far-out vein, with the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band perhaps the group’s psychedelic pinnacle. Mr. Dylan had blown their minds; the Beatles, in turn, blew everybody else’s. - Brad Wheeler
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.