Good morning,
These are the top stories:
The White House is tying the border wall to migrant family separations
The White House has rejected the idea of legislation that would end its policy of separating migrant children from their parents unless it also includes broad immigration changes and funding for a wall along the border with Mexico. While lawmakers in both parties are rushing to devise a targeted legislative fix, the White House signalled it would oppose too narrow of a solution.
It’s unclear what the Trump administration’s new immigration policy, which forcibly separates migrant children from their parents, will mean for Canada, which experienced a massive surge in asylum seekers along the border after an immigration crackdown in the United States last year.
Since April, the number of border crossers from the U.S. to Canada is down, and Ottawa says the drop is a credit to the government’s efforts to discourage would-be asylum seekers from crossing into Canada between official border posts.
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said there was a 27-per-cent decrease in border crossers from 2,560 in April to 1,869 in May, with the trend continuing in June. Asylum seekers cross between border posts because of the Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires both countries to refuse entry to asylum seekers who arrive at official border crossings, as both countries are considered safe for refugees. However, since the agreement applies only to people who arrive at official ports of entry, asylum seekers can avoid being turned away by crossing between border posts.
Germany is also facing uncertainty over the global migrant crisis
Over the weekend and into Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel scrambled to broker a short-term peace agreement with the Christian Social Union. CSU leader Horst Seehofer wants to close Germany’s borders to any asylum seekers already registered in other EU countries and, as Germany’s interior minister, has executive power to do so. If Seehofer goes ahead, Merkel might have no choice but to fire him, potentially leading to a leadership crisis. Merkel hopes to avoid this by negotiating a new EU-wide asylum system or, failing that, a series of bilateral deals with the countries on the front lines of the migration crisis – Italy, Greece and Spain. At stake is not only Merkel’s own government but her legacy as a uniting force in the EU.
This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or if someone forwarded this e-mail to you, you can sign up for Morning Update and all Globe newsletters here.
Trump threatened new tariffs on $200-billion in Chinese imports
U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose new tariffs on US$200-billion in Chinese imports. The tariffs, which he wants set at a 10-per-cent rate, would be the latest round of punitive measures in an escalating dispute over the trade imbalance between China and the U.S.
Trump announced the new round of tariffs as retaliation against China’s “unfair practices related to the acquisition of American intellectual property and technology.” He said the tariffs will go into effect if China refuses to change its practices, and also if it goes forward with the new tariffs that it has recently announced; Beijing said it would slap tariffs of “the same scale and intensity” in response to the Trump administration’s move to impose tariffs on US$50-billion of Chinese goods last week.
Ottawa’s silence on the Huawei concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers
The Trudeau government won’t discuss concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers about Huawei’s activities in Canada – even as a debate is unfolding in Australia about banning the Chinese telecom giant from its next-generation 5G mobile networks. Senior lawmakers on U.S. congressional intelligence committees are warning Ottawa that Chinese smartphone maker Huawei, which has turned Canada into a key research centre for next-generation mobile technology, is a national-security threat to the intelligence-sharing network of Canada’s allies.
Australia is likely to ban Huawei from participating in a 5G mobile telecommunications roll-out in the country as it fears the company is de facto controlled by China and sensitive infrastructure will fall into the hands of Beijing, according to recent Australian media reports. Huawei has already been all but shut out of the giant U.S. market because of national-security concerns.
CSIS is purging years of communications data collected on Canadians
Canada’s spy service is destroying undisclosed volumes of records relating to the communications of Canadians gathered over the years. “Approximately 70 per cent of the data has been destroyed and the remainder is expected to be destroyed in the coming months,” said a CSIS spokeswoman. The records target Canadians who were not themselves considered threats, but who were once seen to be connected to terrorism suspects.
This controversy points to how national-security agencies are evolving, and mining growing volumes of data. Privacy advocates fear that such records about ordinary people will be gathered, kept and deleted in ways that lack transparency and accountability. On Wednesday, a federal watchdog agency is expected to release its annual report to Parliament on CSIS’s intelligence-gathering activities.
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
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Conservatives stole a Quebec riding from the Liberals in a federal by-election
The Conservatives swiped a Quebec riding away from Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberals. With 181 of 188 polls reporting as of late Monday night, Conservative candidate Richard Martel had captured 53 per cent of the vote in a federal by-election held in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord – more than 5,000 votes ahead of Liberal Lina Boivin, who took 29 per cent. Since Trudeau became Liberal leader in 2013, the Liberals have never lost a held-riding in a by-election.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks tumble
Global markets are also sinking fast as the trade battle escalates, with major exchanges posting heavy losses and New York poised for a weak open. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 1.8 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 2.8 per cent. The Shanghai Composite, which is in the heart of the storm, fell 3.8 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down by between 0.6 and 1.4 per cent by about 5:30 a.m. ET. New York futures were also down.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Trump’s zero-tolerance policy inflicts anguish on kids – with toxic health impacts
“Forcibly separating young children from their parents is nothing short of state-sanctioned child abuse. Housing them in cages, in abandoned stores, in tents and in all manner of kiddie Guantanamos is doubly cruel and damaging when families are seeking refuge from violence and unrest in their homelands. The evidence that traumatic experiences have lasting impacts on the mental and physical health of children is incontrovertible.” – André Picard
With his policy on immigrant children, Trump shows he has no limits
On Monday, President Donald Trump falsely claimed once again that the separations were forced on his government by law. They could only end, he said, again falsely, if the Democrats agreed to his immigration bill, which includes the construction of his notorious southern border wall. This is pure fiction. Mr. Trump could end the separations tomorrow. He just doesn’t want to. ... No one yet knows how far Mr. Trump will go in his effort to demonize immigrants in the name of protecting a “culture.” But his willingness to harm vulnerable children is a good indication that he is only getting started. – Globe editorial
Diplomacy does not equal complicity. In cases like Iran, we need it
“We must reckon with the practical consequences of severing diplomatic relations. There are many thousands of Iranian-Canadian dual citizens. For these Canadians, an absence of a formal relationship between Canada and Iran impedes the unification of their families through visits by relatives to Canada and bars access to crucial documentation like birth and death certificates. Most gravely, an absence of diplomatic relations means Canadians have no direct access to consular services in Iran.” – Andrew Stobo Sniderman, human-rights policy adviser and researcher
LIVING BETTER
Coast to coast adventure: Get ready to travel Canada this summer with this cross-country guide
Thinking of going on summer vacation? Why not treat yourself to a staycation. From brunch in Victoria to saltbox-hopping in Newfoundland − and loads of stops in between − these hidden gems are 10 of the best reasons to travel in Canada (for subscribers).
MOMENT IN TIME
Garfield comic strip debuts
June 19, 1978: He’s ornery, orange, fat and downright nasty. Garfield is the quintessential sourpuss, but despite that, readers have loved him from the moment he waddled onto the comic-strip pages in 1978. Creator Jim Davis, pictured here in 1998, originally pitched the concept of Gnorm Gnat, but was told that an all-insect cast wouldn’t fly. He came back with Garfield (named after his grandfather), who was a composite of all the barnyard felines he’d grown up with in rural Indiana. Garfield hates Mondays, adores lasagna and coffee and delights in tormenting Odie, the dog he’s forced to live with and who loves him anyway. Garfield debuted in 41 newspapers and is now featured in more than 2,100 around the world. Read by more than 260 million people and translated into 27 languages (he’s called Gustav in Sweden), Garfield holds the Guinness World Record as the most widely syndicated comic strip. When he turned 30, Garfield noted the milestone in his typical fashion: “Publicity is nice, but cake would be better.” Today he’s 40 and celebrating with the publication of a new book, its foreword written by die-hard Garfield fan Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Pulitizer Prize-winning stage show Hamilton. – Gayle MacDonald
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.