Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canada entered the Women’s World Cup as the most recent national team to wear Olympic gold medals around their necks, but they’ll leave Australia and New Zealand disappointed, the first Olympic champions unable to even emerge from the group stage in the subsequent World Cup after a 4-0 loss to co-hosts Australia early Monday.
After a draw and a win in their first two matches, the Canadians came out flat against Australia, who had the home crowd on their side and opened the scoring in the match’s ninth minute.
It got worse from there, and it leaves the team’s old guard with a sour taste as they contemplate their futures.
“If this isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is,” said Christine Sinclair of how Canada can improve moving forward. The 40-year-old captain has scored more international goals than any soccer player in history, but her storied World Cup career may be over after she was subbed out at halftime Monday and previously indicated this would probably be her last World Cup.
“Things go wrong for otherwise good teams in big tournaments every once in a while,” columnist Cathal Kelly writes, reflecting on the state of the women’s program. “What matters is how you lost.”
Winds play key role as wildfire continues to threaten Osoyoos, B.C.
In Osoyoos, B.C., water bombers fly over the Eagle Bluff wildfire after it crossed the Canada-U.S. border and prompted evacuation orders on July 30, 2023.JESSE WINTER/Reuters
The threat of wildfire overwhelming the town of Osoyoos in southern B.C. appears to hinge on the direction of winds in the region, and so far Monday those winds have been blowing away from properties and residents.
The so-called Eagle Bluff fire, which spread quickly over the weekend from the U.S., has triggered an evacuation order for 700 properties in an area west of Osoyoos, and an evacuation alert for 2,000 properties including the whole of the town.
The blaze is still considered out of control, one of 350 active wildfires around B.C. Osoyoos is a normally a popular spot for vacationers this time year.
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Tentative deal reached in labour dispute at B.C. ports, averting another strike
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: The union representing port workers in B.C. has reached a tentative collective agreement with their employers.
The agreement, which has yet to be ratified by either the BC Maritime Employers Association or the 7,400 members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Canada, represents a long-term solution to a volatile month-long impasse that included a strike in the first half of July and the threat of an imposed deal by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan asked the CIRB to step in over the weekend after prior efforts to reach a negotiated deal fell apart at various stages of worker approval.
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade estimates that work stoppages in July led to the disruption of nearly $10.7-billion worth of goods, based on a rate of $800-million a day.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Zelensky’s hometown bombed by Russia
Six people, including a 10-year-old girl and her mother, were killed after Russia launched ballistic missiles at the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Monday. An apartment and a university building in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown were hit.
Paul Reubens dies at 70 after private cancer battle
Paul Reubens, the actor who created and played the whimsical character Pee-wee Herman in a TV series and movies, has died from cancer after a six-year struggle, his publicist said.
Democratic crisis in Niger deepens
A military junta that took power in Niger last week has arrested three more politicians from the ousted government. The President of Chad is trying to mediate a “peaceful solution” to the crisis, while Canada has condemned the coup but won’t yet pull aid from the country.
MARKET WATCH
Hope for a so-called soft landing for the economy following high inflation has investors’ spirits up, the recent run for the TSX suggests.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 107.27 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 20,626.64. Commodity prices led the charge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 100.24 points, or 0.28 per cent to 35,559.53; the S&P 500 gained 6.73 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 4,588.96; and the Nasdaq Composite added 29.37 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 14,346.02.
One Canadian dollar could be bought for 75.82 US cents.
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TALKING POINTS
When it comes to a COVID inquiry, we shouldn’t succumb to cynicism
“We also have to hold onto something else that might feel impossible right now: hope. If you feel disillusioned with our systems – I do too. But the idea that an inquiry won’t lead to change because some other inquiries have not is nihilism, and it won’t help us right now.” – Jillian Horton
Cities promise housing – and then make new rules that prevent it
“The main problem remains mayors and city councils that are doing as little as possible. Four homes on one lot is definitely a step forward, if the rules were crafted to actually get such projects built. But it’s not enough, when the goal is to moderate sky-high prices to buy and rent.” – The Editorial Board
Movie audience behaviour has descended into anarchy, but there is Barbenheimer-fuelled hope
“Every film is now expected to be a second-screen experience for audiences, with one eye trained on our social-media feeds and group chats, the other on whatever happens to be playing in front of us. When audiences ... encounter a film that actually requires careful attention ... they are left flummoxed, their phone becoming a safety blanket.” – Barry Hertz
LIVING BETTER
Flavonol-rich diet helps you stay strong as you age, study suggests
Frailty is a potentially serious condition that can leave those who develop it vulnerable to other health problems. It grows more common after age 65, but diet is also a factor in the level of risk. Eat foods high in flavonols – like certain vegetables, herbs and berries – to help stave off frailty.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Algonquin Power was a go-to green stock. Now, it faces pressure to jettison its clean energy assets
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.’s Riviere-du-Loup hydroelectric generating facility
The future of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. could snap into focus next month as the utility and clean energy generator is set to announce a decision on whether to sell its clean power business and concentrate on becoming a regulated utility only.
Algonquin has been battered this year by a combination of falling share prices, a big dividend cut and the challenges involved in combining regulated utility and clean power generation in one business – and some activist investors and analysts believe the only way to right the ship is to quit the uncertain renewable energy industry entirely.
Now, observers are left wondering what the market is for Algonquin’s renewable assets.
Read the insider report by David Berman.
Evening Update is compiled and written weekdays by an editor in The Globe’s live news department. 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.