Morning Update: Leaders square off over child care, federal spending, in first official French-language debate

Good morning,

Federal party leaders battled over child care, the pandemic recovery and Quebec identity politics in the first official French-language debate.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, the Bloc Québécois’ Yves-François Blanchet, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh and Annamie Paul of the Green Party took part in the widely-broadcast debate that could have a significant influence on a campaign where the outcome is viewed as uncertain with less than two weeks left.

More elections coverage:

Campbell Clark: Justin Trudeau pushes his way to centre of debate like a leader running out of time

Conservatives’ Erin O’Toole pledges lower deficits by cutting child-care spending, doubling workers benefit

Jagmeet Singh on Animal Crossing? NDP to harness SnapChat, video games to attract young voters

John Ibbitson: Erin O’Toole is the most Liberal leader the Conservatives have ever had

Lawrence Martin: If the campaign becomes a culture war, it’s advantage Liberals

Konrad Yakabuski: The CBC’s mandate should be a bigger issue in this election campaign

Editorial: By calling the shortest possible election, Justin Trudeau may have guaranteed low voter turnout

Open this photo in gallery:

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.

UN report urges Canada to stop fuelling war in Yemen with Saudi arms sales

Canada for the second year in a row is named as one of the countries helping fuel the war in Yemen by a panel of experts monitoring the conflict for the United Nations and investigating possible war crimes among combatants.

The UN panel included Canada on a list of five countries selling arms to those waging the conflict in Yemen: a coalition led by Saudi Arabia versus Houthi rebels backed by Iran.

Arms sales from Canada and countries that include the United States, the United Kingdom and Iran continue “with little regard for the immense suffering caused to the people of Yemen,” says the latest report by the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen.

The father-daughter relationship behind the success of Canadian tennis player Leylah Fernandez

Rising Canadian tennis star Leylah Annie Fernandez talks to her father, Jorge, three or four times a day. They are close, even if the man who doubles as her head coach is home in Boynton Beach, Fla., while she’s in New York playing in the U.S. Open, prepping for her first Grand Slam semi-final.

Sometimes Jorge gives his daughter coaching advice, such as how to anticipate what’s about to open up on the court. Other times, it’s more personal, such as this week, when he advised her not to get distracted, saying, “fame is a traitor.”

Leylah, who turned 19 on Monday, is only 5 foot 6, but a giant when it comes to her skills, chasing down impossible balls and fighting off the comeback attempts of her bigger and far more experienced opponents.

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

Record-breaking magnet speeds up the quest to realize fusion’s promise: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have made a key advance in their effort to build a nuclear-fusion-powered reactor at commercial scale. The development could speed the way to reliable, carbon-free energy without the constraints of renewables or some of the downsides associated with conventional nuclear energy.

Canada donates soon-expiring vaccines to Africa: Millions of vaccines donated to African countries by Canada and Britain will expire within a few weeks, triggering a rush to administer them before they are wasted, an African Union health expert says.

Naturalists see sign of climate change in dragonflies sweeping across the U.K., Ireland: Scientists often measure the impact of climate change by monitoring glaciers, tracking temperature changes and recording extreme weather conditions. But a group of naturalists in Britain has found a new yardstick: watching dragonflies.

MORNING MARKETS

Global shares slide ahead of ECB decision: World share markets slipped for a third straight day as investors braced for European Central Bank signals about a gradual withdrawal of its stimulus. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 1.19 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.23 per cent and 0.37 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.57 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.3 per cent as big tech names came under pressure amid renewed regulatory concerns. New York futures were weaker. The Canadian dollar was trading at 78.83 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Robyn Urback: “It is with some irony then that the tribe of protesters – the self-declared anti-vaccine freedom fighters – who have been following Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as he campaigns across the country have gone beyond the finger-wag and adopted slogans and tactics familiar to some of the most repressive and autocratic places around the world.”

Rita Trichur: “Diversity and inclusion have become buzz words in corporate Canada. But business leaders who wilfully ignore systemic discrimination in their workplaces, including by downplaying the harmfulness of microaggressions, will experience higher turnover of top talent and expose their companies to legal and regulatory problems. Microaggressions aren’t just about bruised feelings – they also create business risks.”

Rob Carrick: “The federal government should stop dictating how seniors manage their retirement savings. Annual mandatory minimum withdrawals from registered retirement income funds must go. They’re out of touch with today’s rising lifespans and level of stock market volatility.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

Open this photo in gallery:

LIVING BETTER

The beauty of pizza is that there is one perfect for everyone’s taste. Pizza czar Anthony Falco offers up one for vegetable lovers

Since leaving his position at the popular Brooklyn restaurant Roberta’s five years ago, Anthony Falco has travelled the world advising restaurateurs on how to make best pizza possible. He’s poured all of that accumulated knowledge into his first cookbook, aptly called Pizza Czar: Recipes and Know-How from a World-Travelling Pizza Chef, a useful guide for aspiring pizza cooks.

MOMENT IN TIME: SEPT. 9, 2014

Open this photo in gallery:

Harper announces discovery of lost Franklin expedition ship

For almost 170 years, the fate of the final Franklin expedition was one of the world’s great maritime mysteries. In 1845, Sir John Franklin departed England leading HMS Terror and HMS Erebus in search of a passage through Canada’s Arctic from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two years into the voyage the vessels became icebound in Nunavut’s Victoria Strait, trapping the ships and 129 seamen. Dozens of search missions were launched, by the British Admiralty, and others sponsored by private subscription. The British government offered the then-astronomical sum of £10,000 (now worth about $2.4-million) to anyone who could ascertain the fate of the mission. Several expeditions in the ensuing years found only a cairn, some graves, personal possessions and skeletal remains. In 2014, using sonar technology, and informed by accounts of the fate of the crews passed down through Inuit oral history, a Parks Canada expedition made a discovery. On this day in 2014, then-prime minister Stephen Harper announced that a Franklin expedition wreck – later identified as the Erebus – had been found off the coast of King William Island in Nunavut. Two years later, the Terror was discovered 50 kilometres away. Ian Morfitt

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.