Good evening, here’s what’s happening today:
Several developments in the Middle East, but as of yet no breakthrough allowing aid into the Gaza Strip. Follow our live updates
Late local time, the military wing of Hamas released two U.S. hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan, an American woman and her teenage daughter. It was the first such hostage release.
Israel continued to target Hamas positions, hitting the southern city of Khan Younis and levelling a northern Gaza district. At least 4,137 Palestinians have been killed, including hundreds of children, and 13,000 wounded in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry said. Israel began air strikes in Gaza after Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and abducting more than 200.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told a parliamentary committee that Israel expects three phases to its war with Hamas: defeat Hamas in Gaza; root out pockets of resistance; and finally cease its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.” Gaza has no access to the outside world except through Israel and Egypt. Gallant did not say who Israel expected to run Gaza if Hamas is toppled or what the new security regime would entail.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres visited the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, trying to facilitate aid deliveries. Later in the day, Egypt accused Western media of holding it responsible for the closing of the crossing. A foreign ministry spokesperson accused Israel of attacking the crossing at Rafah, refusing to allow aid to enter Gaza and stopping foreign nationals from leaving Gaza.
Meanwhile, The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon is in Jerusalem and reports on growing domestic anger in Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and beyond. Today another series of demonstrations took place in Middle East capitals and the stakes are high for countries trying to balance Palestinian sympathies with delicate diplomacy abroad. The fury is reshaping the politics of the broader Middle East.
Nathan VanderKlippe, reporting from Beirut, interviewed a leading Lebanese politician who fears a wider war would also spark a new refugee crisis, sending waves of Lebanon-based Syrian refugees to European shores.
In other developments today:
- Global Affairs Canada urged Canadians in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible. The Canadian Armed Forces is working on plans with allies in the event that Canadians, permanent residents and their families need to be evacuated from Lebanon.
- Israel evacuated a sizable town near the Lebanese border.
- U.S. President Joe Biden met with European leaders to assure them the U.S. can deliver wartime aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Further reading from our Opinion desk:
- John Rapley: Even as Israel-Hamas war escalates, the global economy will be fine
- Richard Poplak: The Israel-Hamas war represents the Michael Bay-ification of geopolitics
- Konrad Yakabuski: There will be a cost to eliminating Hamas
- Chris Alexander: Hamas’s attack has opened up another front in the growing war against liberal democracy
- Omar Aziz: Occupation made the two-state solution impossible. So what comes next?
- Sandra E. Martin, The Globe’s Standards Editor: Understanding the guidance behind The Globe’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war
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Trudeau says India’s actions making life hard for millions of people
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says every country in the world should be concerned about what India has done by threatening to strip Canadian diplomats of their immunity while in India and said the crackdown was making normal life difficult for millions of people in both countries. He spoke a day after Canada said it had withdrawn 41 diplomats from India. Relations between the two countries have been in crisis since last month, when Trudeau alleged that the Indian government had been behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Trudeau said the expulsion of some of Canada’s diplomats will hamper travel and trade and pose difficulties for Indians studying in Canada.
Now is not the time to abandon aid to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials say
As the world’s attention turns to the Middle East, Ukrainian officials are encouraging supporters not to forget about them, saying Russia feeds off the distraction. Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who is responsible for the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories, said the war between Israel and Hamas, is benefiting Russia. “Russia hopes for fatigue, very much hopes for another war. It really hopes to divert the attention of international partners, and that’s why focus and help to Ukraine is the most important weapon right now,” she said in a recent interview with The Globe’s Janice Dickson.
Last night, U.S. President Joe Biden called on a gridlocked Congress to send “unprecedented” additional military aid to Ukraine and Israel as part of an emergency package of national-security funding.
Christine Sinclair retiring from Canada’s national soccer team
The soccer world’s most prolific goal scorer has decided to hang ‘em up. Sort of. After 23 years with the Canadian women’s national soccer team, long-time captain Christine Sinclair is retiring from the international game. However, Sinclair does plan to keep playing professionally. A player for the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League since 2013, the Canadian star said she intends to continue in the NWSL next season. Sinclair told The Globe and Mail that she will conclude her career with the national team this year, and will not play in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Her farewell games will take place on home soil before the year is out, and Canada Soccer will announce details about that in the days to come.
Sinclair announced her retirement today, penning a poignant letter to my younger self in The Globe – lessons and advice from the 40-year-old woman she is today, to the shy 16-year-old girl who first suited up for Canada’s national women’s team in 2000.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Doubts rise over Ottawa’s ability to implement universal drug coverage if pharmacare bill passes
The federal government is expected to table universal pharmacare legislation this fall, but a string of controversies and resignations in recent months at the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, Canada’s drug price regulator, is sparking doubt among policy experts, health leaders and advocates about the government’s ability to implement universal drug coverage even if a bill passes.
Saskatchewan legislature passes pronoun bill in special sitting
The Saskatchewan Legislature has given final approval to the controversial bill on the use of pronouns in schools. The new law will prevent children under 16 from changing their names or pronouns at school without receiving parental consent. The law uses the notwithstanding clause to override sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Saskatchewan’s Human Rights Code.
Republican Jim Jordan loses third U.S. House vote as opposition grows
Republicans have dropped hardline conservative Jim Jordan after his quest to become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives ended on Friday after a third, failed vote on the House floor. The secret-ballot vote means the chamber will be leaderless and unable to respond to President Joe Biden’s request for aid to Ukraine and Israel until next week at the earliest.
Canadian retail sales down 0.1% in August, boost expectations of rate pause
Canadian retail sales fell by 0.1 per cent in August from July and look set to stay flat in September, Statistics Canada said on Friday, cementing expectations that the Bank of Canada will keep its benchmark interest rate on hold next week.
Premiers ask Ottawa for extension repaying COVID-19 small-business loans
Canada’s premiers have sent a joint letter to Justin Trudeau asking the federal government to extend the repayment period for a year for interest-free loans given to small businesses and non-profits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The repayment deadline for CEBA loans to qualify for partial loan forgiveness is Jan. 18, 2024.
MARKET WATCH
TSX, U.S. markets all lower today
Canada’s main stock index was down more than one per cent Friday with broad-based losses led by financial, telecom and base metal stocks, while U.S. markets also fell to close the week. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 233.17 points at 19,115.64.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 286.89 points at 33,127.28.The S&P 500 index was down 53.84 points at 4,224.16, while the Nasdaq composite was down 202.37 points at 12,983.81.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.02 cents US compared with 72.91 cents US on Thursday. The December crude contract was down 29 cents at US$88.08 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down six cents at US$2.90 per mmBTU. The December gold contract was up US$13.90 at US$1,994.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$3.56 a pound.
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TALKING POINTS
Why the Banff Centre’s support for literary journalism is so crucial
For many Canadians who write reported non-fiction, this program has been a beacon: a boost along the path for those fortunate enough to have attended, or a goal for potential future attendees. – Marsha Lederman
Watergate’s evidence of presidential interference was a turning point in American history
Much of contemporary American politics can be traced to a little-remembered and dimly understood event that occurred a half-century ago, on Oct. 20, 1973. – David Shribman
Australia rejected the Indigenous Voice to Parliament because it wasn’t ready to listen
By ignoring the gift of Indigenous cultural concepts, Australians left themselves open to misinformation and anxiety about what a mature, healthy relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples might look like. – Jessica Friedmann
LIVING BETTER
Top five locations for digital nomads to work abroad
Don’t hate them just because their Zoom background is a real sandy beach rather than clip art. We spoke with five remote digital nomads who log into their jobs every day from places such as Bali, Costa Rica and Greece, and speak with two experts who weigh in on the pros and cons to consider when working from remote locales. Spoiler – the pros outweigh the cons.
Take our arts and culture quiz
Do you recall which exercise gadget the late actress Suzanne Somers was famous for promoting or which historical event Zadie Smith’s new novel, The Fraud, is based on? Take our quiz to test yourself.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Morocco desperately needs more nurses. Canada is hiring them away
A program to bring Moroccan nurses to Canada has great appeal to nurses such as Manara Naji, a 34-year-old Moroccan auxiliary nurse who makes about a dollar an hour at her home hospital in Tangier. She’s applied for a new job in a long-term care facility in Edmundston, N.B., where she’d make about 20 times as much. But Canada’s efforts to recruit nurses from there are worsening a severe staff shortage in Morocco, which is hemorrhaging nurses faster than it can produce them. New Brunswick and Quebec have turned to international recruitment to staff health-care institutions with French-speaking health-care workers. And Morocco has them. But officials there say Morocco needs 65,000 nurses to fix its care deficit, making its health-care worker shortage among the worst in the Arab world. Canada scouting and scooping up their best talent, they say, isn’t helping.
Evening Update was written by Michael Snider. 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.
Michael Snider