Morning Update: Ukraine forces push further in Kharkiv region as Russia scatters in chaotic retreat

Good morning,

Ukrainian troops continued their week-long push in the eastern Kharkiv region on Sunday, liberating more villages and towns as the Russian forces that had occupied the region since March scattered in chaotic retreat.

All of a sudden, cities and towns, such as Kupyansk and Izyum, which had been centres of Russia’s political and military control are back under the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag. Cities that the Russian army spent weeks trying to capture this year, such as Lysychansk, in the neighbouring Luhansk region, are once more on the front line, this time with Ukrainian forces on the advance, reports The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon.

The Ukrainian counterattack marks the biggest shift in the front lines since April, when Russian forces withdrew from around Kyiv after a failed attempt to capture the capital.

Read more:

• Russian-occupied nuclear power plant sliding toward ‘Fukushima scenario,’ Ukrainian official says
• How has Ukraine managed to turn the tide of the war?
• Eric Reguly: Vladimir Putin’s Russia is showing little sign of defeat in the sanctions war, so far

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Sidewalk Labs project gained support from Trudeau ahead of bid process

Google parent Alphabet Inc. gained support from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for its plan to build a technology-driven community in Toronto with help from a private, undisclosed call with the company’s chairman before the project was ever made public.

The conversation took place in January, 2017, two months before the project was open for bidders, and was not proactively disclosed by the Prime Minister’s Office, Alphabet, Google or its city-building affiliate Sidewalk Labs – nor was it documented in federal lobbying records. Yet the call set into motion events that created significant public skepticism toward a project with global consequences, reports The Globe’s Josh O’Kane.

• Excerpt: Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, a book revealing the collapse and failure of Sidewalk Labs

Pierre Poilievre’s landslide victory charts new course for party

After a landslide victory Saturday night, new Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre began the job of pitching himself and his party to Canadians with a speech that leaned as heavily on the personal as it did on the political.

In his victory speech, the father of two returned repeatedly to the importance of “hard-working” Canadians getting their fair share, weaving his family narrative around promises of tax cuts, smaller government and affordable housing, report Ian Bailey and Erin Anderssen.

More:

• Pierre Poilievre’s win unlikely to alter Quebec political landscape, province’s Liberal MPs, ministers say
• Explainer: Pierre Poilievre is the new Conservative Party Leader. His policies and career so far
• Campbell Clark: The Conservative Party knows what it wants to be, and it wants to be like Pierre Poilievre
• Opinion: Four things from Pierre Poilievre’s first night as Conservative leader

Queen Elizabeth begins her final journey

King Charles III will return to Scotland on Monday to lead his family’s procession behind the Queen’s coffin as she is moved from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to Edinburgh’s historic St. Giles Cathedral for the first public service.

On Sunday, Queen Elizabeth began her final journey from Balmoral Castle and her people gathered by the thousands to say goodbye.

The sound of silence descended first on the tiny village of Ballater, home to the Queen’s beloved Balmoral estate. The villagers view the Royal Family as neighbours and their quiet gesture of respect for the Queen was repeated by well-wishers all along the nearly 300-kilometre route to Edinburgh.

While the Queen’s death has united many in their grief for the beloved monarch, a few dissenting voices have begun to emerge from those who believe the monarchy is outdated and anti-democratic, reports Paul Waldie.

Read more:

• In King Charles, Canada can expect a very different monarch
• Queen Elizabeth’s funeral to be held on Sept. 19
• Marsha Lederman: In Victoria, mourning Queen Elizabeth takes many forms – flowers, condolences, a martini at the Empress

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Also on our radar

Millions at risk as famine emerges in Horn of Africa: More than 20 million people, mostly in Somalia and Ethiopia, urgently need aid after four consecutive seasons of failed rains in the worst drought in 40 years. Meteorologists are warning of a fifth season without rains later this year.

Ottawa capped immigration program for Afghans who worked with Canada: When the program was launched, Ottawa set a ceiling on the number of people it was willing to receive at a maximum of 2,500, and then gradually increased the cap over several months.

Sam Mizrahi’s luxury condo project rocked by lawsuit from co-owner Jenny Coco: The partnership behind the The One, tallest and most ambitious luxury condominium development in Canadian history, has disintegrated, sparking a court fight and raising doubts about the future of the Toronto project.

As sports betting flourishes in Canada, other countries are cracking down: In Canada, the promotion of sports betting has already exceeded what was deemed acceptable in Britain, where authorities are now pursuing a wave of changes aimed at reducing gambling harms.

Morning markets

European markets advance: European shares jumped on Monday, while the euro added to last week’s European Central Bank inspired gains. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.31 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.66 per cent and 1.19 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei finished up 1.16 per cent. Markets in Hong Kong were closed. New York futures were positive. The Canadian dollar was trading at 77.05 US cents.

What everyone’s talking about

The harrowing, heartbreaking reality of terminating a pregnancy for medical reasons

“The doctor looked into our panic-stricken faces and told us three truths. The first: ‘There’s almost certainly nothing you could have done.’ The second: ‘Most couples in your situation would choose to terminate.’ And the third: ‘This is very hard on couples.’ In that instant, I became part of a group of thousands of Canadian women who find themselves on the receiving end of grim diagnoses of life-limiting fetal anomalies each year. Yet at first I couldn’t find any of those other women. In the coming months, I learned that most of us are silent, shamed into living our worst nightmares in the shadows.” - Emma Gilchrist

I found an education in second-hand bookstores

“When you’re young and ignorant and eager, you don’t know what you want. You don’t know what you need. That’s what was so intimidating, but also so intoxicating (and advantageous) about the smorgasbord that is a brand new hometown inhabited by an abundance of high-quality second-hand bookstores. Every time you walked through the door of one of them, you knew that this could be it, today might just be the day your life could change for good. Even more remarkably, sometimes it actually was.” - Ray Robertson

Today’s editorial cartoon

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Living better

The hip canapés this year’s TIFF celebs will be nibbling, and how to make them at home

With TIFF season is upon us, caterers and chefs dished on how they go about designing a perfect canapé for film festival parties and events – and share tips on how you can make them at home.

Moment in time: Terry Fox’s legacy

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For more than 100 years, photographers and photo editors working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at charities.

Run a marathon (42 kilometres) once in your life, you’re a great athlete. Run one every day for 143 days, while raising money for cancer research, and you’re the astounding Terry Fox. And then raise more than $800-million for that research in the 41 years since he died? That’s the greatest legacy of the late Canadian hero, shown above in a photo from The Globe’s Dennis Robinson. Before he died, Mr. Fox said, “If I don’t make it … the Marathon of Hope must continue.” At that time, he had raised $1.7-million. It has since gone on to become the world’s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. A big part of that fundraising is through the annual Terry Fox Run, held in more than 60 countries, with an estimated four million participants (this year’s run is Sept. 18). The Marathon of Hope continues. Philip King

Subscribers and registered users of globeandmail.com can dig deeper into our News Photo Archive at tgam.ca/newsphotoarchive.

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