Morning Update: Donald Trump says FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida

Good morning,

Former U.S. president Donald Trump says a large group of federal agents “raided and occupied” his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida last night and broke into his safe.

The circumstances of the search were not immediately clear, though the Justice Department has been actively investigating the discovery of classified information in 15 boxes of records that were taken to Trump’s Florida residence after he left the White House. Justice Department spokesperson Dena Iverson declined to comment on the search, including about whether Attorney General Merrick Garland had personally authorized the search.

The action marks a dramatic escalation in law enforcement scrutiny of Trump and comes as he has been laying the groundwork to make another bid for president.

President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is shown on July 10, 2019, in Palm Beach, Fla.Wilfredo Lee/The Associated Press

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Out-of-control Newfoundland wildfires leave communities cut off with food running low

The worst forest fire to hit Newfoundland and Labrador in more than 60 years has stranded hundreds of travellers who had returned to the island’s south coast for a series of summer festivals and reunions, while officials scramble to airlift food to communities cut off by the massive blaze.

People who live in more than a dozen small communities on Newfoundland’s southern shore have been stuck there since last week, when wildfires once again forced the closure of the Bay d’Espoir Highway – the remote, heavily wooded artery that’s the only road link to the rest of the province.

The fire and highway closures have created a logistical nightmare for residents in parts of the province, particularly in isolated outports that still rely on a network of small ferry boats as a critical transportation link. Officials say that some communities are in danger of running out of food in their grocery stores, and are trying to plan emergency helicopter shipments of essentials.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research excluded B.C.-based researchers when recruiting for review of the province’s drug decriminalization policy

B.C. researchers are excluded from leading a federally funded evaluation of the province’s drug decriminalization policy, with the funding agency saying that those living or working in B.C. could present a conflict of interest.

The exclusion from the $2.85-million funding opportunity has baffled some researchers in the province, who say they are best positioned to do this work, given their local expertise, relationships and research infrastructure. The operating grant is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the federal agency responsible for funding health and medical research in Canada.

“It’s bordering on offensive, because it’s essentially saying that [B.C.] researchers wouldn’t be able to be impartial and arm’s-length, and manage any potential bias or conflict,” said Thomas Kerr, professor and head of the Division of Social Medicine at UBC and director of research at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use.

‘Every figure is a tragedy’: Officials struggle to identify victims of war in Ukraine’s Bucha

The Kyiv suburb of Bucha has come to symbolize the worst atrocities of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it’s only now that city officials are getting close to determining how many people died and who they were. Russian occupation of the suburb lasted from Feb. 27 to March 31.

Officials said yesterday the latest death toll has climbed to 458 people, but more bodies were still being found and 30 corpses had yet to be identified. Five had been burned so badly that officials couldn’t tell if they were male or female, and investigators are analyzing a collection of body parts that could result in many more confirmed deaths.

But establishing who was directly killed by Russian forces and who died as a consequence of the occupation has not been easy and poses a dilemma for officials trying to piece together what happened and considering the pursuit of criminal charges.

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Also on our radar

On Grand Manan, dulsers endure, despite warming ocean waters: People have been collecting, drying and eating dulse on Grand Manan since the era of the sailing schooners. Although the wooden ships are now long gone, the dulse has endured – though now faces new challenges.

U.S. launches new Africa strategy to counteract Russian and Chinese power: The strategy is the latest step in a U.S.-Russia rivalry that has become increasingly intense in Africa since the invasion of Ukraine. Two senior U.S. diplomats have accused Russia of sponsoring private mercenaries in Africa and damaging the region’s food supplies.

Canada Revenue Agency plans e-mail blitz to get Canadians to cash outstanding cheques worth $1.4-billion: The notifications will target recipients of the Canada child benefit and related provincial and territorial programs, as well as recipients of the GST/HST credits and the Alberta Energy Tax Refund.

Saskatoon woman who had been reported missing facing charges in U.S. and Canada, police say: Author Dawn Walker has been charged with public mischief and parental abduction in contravention of a custody order two weeks after she and her son were first reported missing. They were found in Oregon after illegally crossing the U.S. border.

Morning markets

Shares edged lower and the U.S. dollar hung off recent highs on Tuesday as investors eyed U.S. inflation data due a day later that will likely yield clues to any further aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes. Just before 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.09 per cent, and Germany’s DAX dropped 0.34 per cent. France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.04 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.88 per cent and 0.21 per cent, respectively. New York futures were higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 77.83 US cents.

What everyone’s talking about

Will there ever really be justice for Sandy Hook’s families?

“The Sandy Hook families endured a loss that surely levelled them to the ground, and then they had to pick themselves up to go on with their daily lives and raise their surviving children. But even while staggering under that weight, they’ve also somehow had to find the energy to deal with endless threats and accusations from Mr. Jones’s swarm of followers, forcing some families to move or go into hiding because of the screeching intensity of the harassment. That inhumanity was shovelled on top of their grief, even as Mr. Jones filled his pockets with Infowars money.” – Shannon Proudfoot

Hockey Canada is ragging the puck while losing the game

“Passing the biscuit back and forth in your own end in the dying minutes of a game you’re losing is only done if you’ve given up all hope of coming back. In this case, the judge’s review will likely just delay the inevitable: the shakeup of a leadership team that has lost the trust of Canadians – a shakeup that began Friday when the chair of Hockey Canada’s board of directors suddenly resigned.” – The Editorial Board

Today’s editorial cartoon

Living better

How florist Tina Barkley sets a summer table: Curated comfort

Florist Tina Barkley likes to use flowers to tell a story and make an impact at her events. Her personal preference is to arrange 20 different-sized glass vases with space for everyone to chat and enjoy the display. To learn more about how you can create your own “curated comfort” floral display while entertaining this summer, read this story with tips from Barkley.

Moment in time: Aug. 9, 1970

Young people from Canada and the United States attend the Strawberry Fields rock festival, promoted in the U.S. as a giant love-in, August 9, 1970. The festival was held at Mosport Park Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, about 100 kilometers east of Toronto, between August 7 and the early morning hours of August 10, 1970. It wasn't just a watching show. Fans like these brought their own instruments and hammed it up in the crowd at Mosport festival.FRANZ MAIER/The Globe and Mail

Final day of Strawberry Felds, Canada’s Woodstock

The Strawberry Fields Festival, which came to a close on this day in 1970, was not only a major multiday event of “love, sun and sound,” but a triumph of counterculture community over squares and governments. It happened at what was then known as Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ont., where an estimated 100,000 music fans camped, scored drugs and rode a Ferris wheel while taking in the grooves offered by bands Procol Harum, Jethro Tull and others. Spearheaded by promoter John Brower, Strawberry Fields began as the proposed Toronto Peace Festival earlier in the summer at Mosport. But panicky local officials, fearing for the welfare of citizens, shut it down before it could take place. The event was then shifted to Shediac, N.B., a strawberry industry stronghold. When the required permits were denied there, festival organizers tried again to hold the festival at Mosport. It took a Supreme Court of Ontario ruling for the event to proceed. “For the court to grant our event legal status was something that few could have imagined,” Mr. Brower told The Globe and Mail in 2020. “But we believed in the righteousness of the music and the times.” Brad Wheeler

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