Good morning,
Hours after the deadly suicide attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Ukrainian troops went out into the city on foot early Friday morning to find two minibuses carrying Afghan translators, including one who worked for The Globe and Mail and another who served the Canadian military, as well as their families.
The soldiers escorted the vehicles into the airport, and the 19 Afghans on board were put into a military cargo aircraft – stationed in Kabul as part of Ukraine’s little-known contribution to the NATO-led effort in the country – and flown to Islamabad along with a group of other Afghans the Ukrainians had rescued previously. In the Pakistani capital, they were transferred onto a chartered commercial plane that carried the group to Ukraine.
Senior International Correspondent Mark MacKinnon met Canada-bound Afghans the airport in Kyiv, Ukraine, and writes about the dramatic rescue effort that likely won’t be repeated because of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.
More on Afghanistan
- Rocket fire apparently targeting Kabul’s international airport struck a nearby neighborhood on Monday, the eve of the deadline for American troops to withdraw from the country’s longest war after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was hurt.
- Canada and its allies have said in a statement that they will hold the Taliban to a pledge to allow all foreign nationals, as well as Afghan citizens with travel authorization from other countries, to leave Afghanistan. Despite the pledge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that the country isn’t relying on the Taliban’s promise of safe passage.
- A U.S. drone strike blew up a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate on Sunday before they could attack the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul’s international airport, U.S. officials said. The officials said the strike may have caused ‘additional casualties’; Afghan officials say it killed three children.
- David Shribman writes: The lesson learned from pulling out of Afghanistan is that power does not translate into persuasion and long-distance engagements do not bring short-term or even medium-term triumphs.
From left: Globe reporter Mark MacKinnon, longtime Globe fixer Mohammed Sharif Sharaf and former Canadian military translator Jawed Haqmal in Kyiv on Aug. 29.Evgeny Maloletka/Evgeny Maloletka
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.
Mail-in ballots are changing how election campaigns are run
Elections Canada estimates that two to three million Canadians will stay home and mail in their ballots this year, compared to about 55,000 in the last federal election. It’s a pandemic-era shift that’s prompting the major political parties to change the way they’re reaching voters and altering the timing of their campaigns.
The shift brings warnings from voting officials to expect delays in election results after polls close on Sept. 20, and to voters in far-flung corners of the country to factor in extra time for the mail system to return their completed ballots.
Françoise Enguehard, a spokesperson for Elections Canada, says “Mail-in ballots are not a new thing. It’s been around, and it’s been proven to work.” She encourages voters to apply for their mail-in kits as early as possible, either online at elections.ca or in-person at local election offices.
Cindy Graham’s brain donation an unprecedented gift to cancer research
As gifts to science go, the late Cindy Lee Graham’s was special and rare. Before the Guelph, Ont., mother of two died of an aggressive brain cancer, she arranged to donate her brain and spinal cord to McMaster University’s Sheila Singh Lab.
The gift means Dr. Singh and her colleagues now have an significant opportunity to create a comprehensive biologic and genetic map of glioblastoma, an early but crucial step on the road to treating the insidious tumours, writes Kelly Grant.
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
Ida downgraded to tropical storm: Hurricane Ida became a tropical storm as its top winds slowed over Mississippi on Monday, 16 hours after blowing ashore in Louisiana as one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. mainland.
The Decibel podcast: Guest host and Globe national reporter Willow Fiddler speaks with environmentalist Clayton Thomas-Müller about the connection between fighting climate change and healing in Indigenous communities, and how his book Life in the City of Dirty Water is part of his own path to healing.
Alleged hate crimes rarely investigated by police, report says: Nearly a quarter-million Canadians say they were victims of hate-motivated incidents during a single year, but police across the country investigated fewer than one per cent of these events as hate crimes, according to new data from Statistics Canada. Academics and non-profits that support victims say the information is a wake-up call to the massive harms being done to the country’s marginalized communities.
Liberals unveil climate plan, pledge cap on oil sector emissions: In April, Mr. Trudeau’s government set a new target to cut emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. But until now it hadn’t revealed any new policies to reach the higher target, reports Marieke Walsh.
Five leaders made their pitch in national French-language interviews: Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole faced a barrage of questions about the views of his candidates on climate change and social issues, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was asked if the spike in the national debt because of COVID-19 spending will leave the next generation with tremendous costs and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was asked about his opposition to private long-term health care homes for seniors.
Alberta, B.C. universities struggle with how to implement and pay for testing mandate: Classes are resuming in a week, COVID-19 infections are rising across the continent and major universities in Western Canada are still tinkering with the mechanics of their coronavirus vaccination and testing requirements.
MORNING MARKETS
Cautious Fed buoys global shares: World stocks hovered around record highs on Monday, confident the U.S. Federal Reserve is no rush to step away from massive stimulus, while oil prices fell as Ida, downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, weakened after forcing precautionary shutdowns of U.S. Gulf oil production. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Germany’s Dax gained 0.25 per cent while France’s CAC 40 added 0.12 per cent. Markets in London were closed. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei finished up 0.54 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.52 per cent. New York futures were modestly higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.24 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Vitriolic protesters give Trudeau a welcome foil and campaign prop
“The protesters all had one focal point, Mr. Trudeau, but a lot of different shouting points.” - Campbell Clark
Let’s make emergency food lineups history
“Since COVID-19, Canada has seen a 39-per-cent increase in food insecurity. That’s one in seven people in Canada. If you’re Black, Indigenous or racialized, the numbers are exponentially worse.” - Nick Saul
For federal leaders, trying to win favour with Quebec City is a mug’s game
“Quebec is not like the other provinces. It’s a battleground state, for one, holding almost a quarter of the seats in the House of Commons. There may not be a lot of them in play this election, but there are enough to make a difference.” - The Globe Editorial Board
Third COVID-19 shots must be offered to immunocompromised Canadians
“While regions across Canada reopen and loosen pandemic restrictions, people with fragile immune systems remain in grave danger.” - Kristen Hopewell
Canadians deserve to hear how parties will keep them safe
“Trust has been eroded, and paternalistic Ottawa-knows-best attitudes no longer hold. The public is much more engaged on formerly secretive and low-profile issues.” - Wesley Wark, Aaron Shull
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
The make-up test: When Canada’s schools open again, how will they catch students up after a year of lost learning?
Canadian children have missed months of in-person education since the pandemic began last year. Now, a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections threatens to upend a third year of schooling, reports Caroline Alphonso.
The impact of these disruptions on learning is still unclear, and governments, educators and other experts are now grappling with how to close that achievement gap. If their efforts aren’t enough, education advocates fear that an entire generation of children could grow steadily more disengaged from learning.
More: Five back-to-school tips for parents to help kids catch up
MOMENT IN TIME: 2015
Fighting forest fires
Will Grimm with BC Wildfire Services doses hotspots as crews mop-up after a successful controlled burn at the North end of the Sechelt forest fire on B.C.'s Sunshine coast. July 9, 2015.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
For more than 100 years, photographers and photo librarians have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography for The Globe and Mail. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at eating and drinking outdoors.
Forest fires are a scourge that has afflicted Canada for generations. There was the Great Fire of 1919 in Saskatchewan and Alberta (two million hectares), the Fort McMurray wildfire of 2016 (590,000 hectares and $9.9-billion in damage) and the inferno that destroyed the B.C. town of Lytton two months ago. The blazes require firefighters to use water bombers and chemicals, and items as old-fashioned as a shovel or axe. Sometimes, they even fight fire with fire. In the 2015 photo above from The Globe’s John Lehmann, Will Grimm of B.C. Wildfire Service douses hot spots as crews mop up after a successful controlled burn, to deprive any future fire of combustible material. In 2021, the B.C. wildfire season started a month early and raged throughout the summer. And with climate change now making conditions hotter and drier, it’s expected wildfires will only continue to get worse. - Philip King
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.