Morning Update: Turkish strikes on Kurds; Grassy Narrows 50 years on; the B.C. spending scandal

Good morning,

These are the top stories:

The latest on Turkey, Syria and the Kurds and the international reaction

Open this photo in gallery:

Turkish forces have launched air strikes and a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria after President Donald Trump abandoned the long-time U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State.

On the ground: The Turkish military has hit 181 targets of the Kurdish militia with its air force and artillery since the start of operation into northeast Syria, the ministry said. One of the prisons where Islamic State detainees are held was hit by a Turkish air strike, the Syrian Democratic Forces said on Twitter.

Condemnation: Turkey says its actions are meant to eradicate “the threat of terror” it faces in the region, but Western countries are voicing concerns that it could further destabilize an already fragile region. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada “firmly condemns” Turkey’s actions.

Trump: The U.S. President continued to reject criticism from Republicans, and defended the decision by saying the Kurds “didn’t help us with Normandy.”

The view from our editorial board: “The U.S. has gone from asking for the Kurds’ help, funding and training them, and boasting of how they helped to defeat IS, to offering them up as cannon fodder, for no strategic reason. Trump’s statements since Sunday’s reversal are neon-bright testimony to the incoherence of his decision.”

Here’s today’s editorial cartoon:

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 more Globe newsletters on our newsletter signup page.

Election: Grassy Narrows, Peter MacKay, candidates under scrutiny

Fifty years after Grassy Narrows residents learned their fish were poisoned, research suggests the mercury damage is being handed down from parents to children. And the crisis is emerging as a federal election issue, with residents and activists demanding a treatment centre and hospice be built on the land of the Ontario First Nation.

Allies of Peter MacKay are mulling a Tory leadership bid if Andrew Scheer isn’t able to defeat the Liberals in the federal election, party insiders tell The Globe. Scheer would face an automatic leadership review in 2020 should he falter on Oct. 21. MacKay said he’s “doing everything I can to help Andrew” and isn’t aware of Tories organizing on his behalf.

Four Bloc Québécois candidates have expressed or promoted views that attacked Islam or were supportive of far-right groups, a review of Twitter and Facebook pages shows. One posted a link in 2016 to a blog that claimed Muslims have a lower IQ; another praised far-right French politician Marine Le Pen in 2016 for being vocal in her convictions.

Liberal candidate Judy Sgro has apologized after saying the black community has “more love” for Justin Trudeau because he wore blackface. Sgro is running for re-election in a Toronto-area riding where 74 per cent of the population identifies as a visible minority.

John Horgan declined to be briefed on B.C. Legislature spending allegations

The Premier turned down an offer from the Speaker of the House to share details of alleged wrongdoing months before two top officials were escorted from the legislature by police.

“Out of an abundance of caution, I said, ‘Don’t talk to me about this,’ ” Horgan said, adding he didn’t want to be involved in allegations against the clerk of the House “because it was well known that I didn’t like the guy and I didn’t think he should be appointed.”

Instead, Horgan left the file in the hands of his chief of staff, Geoff Meggs, who shredded the documents that detailed the allegations.

Horgan’s confirmation of details in an independent report released this week contrasts with his comments in November of last year, when he expressed shock when Craig James and Gary Lenz were suspended.

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

Hundreds exempt from tighter Alberta trucking rules: The province is allowing large numbers of new drivers to skip a mandatory training course put in place after the Humboldt Broncos crash. At least 777 people were granted exemptions, a larger figure than the 503 individuals who completed an updated 113-hour training course.

Yom Kippur attack in Germany: Two people are dead after an armed assailant unsuccessfully attempted to enter a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle on Yom Yippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The attacker, who live-streamed his efforts, said Jews were “the root” of “problems” like feminism and mass migration.

MORNING MARKETS

U.S. dollar takes a dive, euro catapulted higher as U.S.-China talks start: A dive in the U.S. dollar catapulted the euro higher and flattened stocks on Thursday, as the first U.S.-China trade talks since July and a report accusing the European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi of going rogue jostled for attention. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.1 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.8 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was down marginally by about 4:45 a.m. ET, with Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 up by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent. New York futures were down slightly. The Canadian dollar was above 75 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

There’s a way to fix the Hong Kong crisis

Maya Wang: “the Beijing leaders need to understand why they have lost the support of some of the very people who might have cheered at the National Day celebrations – that the people of Hong Kong expect accountability and freedoms. Continuing to deny those rights is likely to fuel more protests.” Maya Wang is a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Where is Andrew Scheer going to find $15-billion to pay for all his promises?

Campbell Clark: “Up to now, Scheer has been telling reporters he will pay for his promises by cutting $1.5-billion from ‘corporate welfare’ and $1.5-billion from foreign aid. But that will only pay for a fraction. There is still that $15.6-billion shortfall in the year the budget is supposed to balance.”

Roger Avary’s Pulp Fiction wannabe Lucky Day is one of the worst movies of the year ⁠– and Canada is partly to blame

Barry Hertz: “...Lucky Day is the kind of national disaster that should prompt questions about what exactly Telefilm funds and how. The $3,007,815 that Telefilm spent on the production budget will certainly go down as one of the most wasteful expenditures of our federal film agency’s resources since last year’s rom-com disaster Little Italy.”

LIVING BETTER

Why the silence over tax discrimination faced by solo seniors?

More than one in four people who are 65 and up live alone, a figure that’s expected to grow as a greater percentage of the population reaches retirement age. But while retired couples are able to take advantage of pension income-splitting, solo seniors have no equivalent tax break.

Rob Carrick argues that this is “one of our biggest personal finance injustices” and says it’s high time federal leaders offer solutions to address the inequity.

MOMENT IN TIME

United Airlines Boeing 247 explodes mid-air

Open this photo in gallery:

Oct. 10, 1933: The United Airlines Boeing 247 took off from Newark, N.J., on Oct. 10, 1933, carrying four passengers, three crew members and one bomb. The airliner, destined for Chicago, was cruising 1,000 feet high over Indiana farmland when the explosion inside the aircraft blew out the tail section and ripped the plane in two. The rear fuselage of the plane and two passengers fell to earth. The front section of the plane plunged into the woods on James Smiley’s farm at 150 miles an hour, hurtling the two pilots from the cockpit moments before the wreckage burst into flames. The crash killed everyone on board. FBI investigators swiftly targeted 45-year-old passenger Emil Smith as a suspect. He had declined to leave his seat during a stopover in Cleveland, and clung to a small package wrapped in newspaper on his lap, the FBI investigators noted. However, Smith was ruled out as the bomber, as were the rest of the plane’s occupants. Investigators pegged the cause on a bomb, likely made from nitroglycerin, placed just in front of the washroom. But that’s all they concluded before closing the file two years later, leaving unsolved what is believed to be the first case of aviation terrorism. – Eric Atkins

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.