Evening Update: CRTC ordering Rogers to explain cause of widespread outage

Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:

Canada’s telecom regulator is ordering Rogers to respond to detailed questions regarding the widespread outage that left millions without cellphone, landline and internet service on Friday.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is giving the Toronto-based telecom until July 22 to provide a “detailed account” as to why and how the outage occurred, reports The Globe’s Alexandra Posadzki. The service disruption, which affected the Interac debit system and 911 services, occurred while Rogers is attempting to win regulatory approval of its $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. ahead of a July 31 deadline.

“Events of this magnitude, paralysing portions of our country’s economy and jeopardizing the safety of Canadians, are simply unacceptable,” Ian Scott, chairperson and CEO of the CRTC, said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Rogers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More:

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Jan. 6 committee accuses Donald Trump of inciting extremists to attack Capitol

U.S. lawmakers accused then-president Donald Trump on Tuesday of inciting a mob of followers to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a last-ditch effort to prevent Congress from formally certifying his election loss.

In video testimony, witnesses described a tense, six-hour meeting in December, 2020, where Trump dismissed their advice and instead sided with advisers who urged him to press forward with his baseless claims of election fraud.

Trump was ultimately responsible for the ensuing chaos, they said. “President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. … He is responsible for his own actions and his own choices,” said Republican Representative Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chairperson.

NASA unveils full set of James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-colour images

A multicoloured seascape of glowing gas and dust that is the chaotic cradle of new born solar systems. A delicate bubble suspended in space that represents the final act of a dying star. A slow-motion pile-up of galaxies that reveals an underlying architecture shaped by gravity. An undulating string of data points that have been decoded to identify the signature of water vapour in the atmosphere of a distant world.

With one striking view after another, the James Webb Space Telescope is ushering in an epochal shift in astronomers’ capacity to observe and understand our universe, writes The Globe’s Ivan Semeniuk.

Monday’s debut of a massive cluster of distant galaxies bending the light of objects in the background was a quintessential demonstration of Webb’s ability to perceive targets that are farther and fainter than any telescope has seen before. With four additional images released Tuesday, an international team of scientists and engineers working with Webb say they have shown off its full suite of capabilities, including each of the telescope’s instruments operating at multiple bandwidths.

Japan bids farewell to Shinzo Abe, country’s longest-serving prime minister

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, made a final passage through Tokyo Tuesday and was laid to rest after being gunned down at a campaign event last week.

Thousands of people thronged the streets of the Japanese capital to watch the black hearse carrying Abe’s body pass by. Some mourners bowed or clasped their hands, while others shouted out thanks for his contributions to the country, reports The Globe’s James Griffiths.

Abe was shot in the city of Nara while campaigning for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in Sunday’s upper-house elections. The party went on to score a convincing victory days after its former leader’s death, opening a path to finally realizing Abe’s longstanding goal of changing the country’s pacifist constitution.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to fulfill his late mentor’s goals, including amending the constitution, and encouraged the country to pull together “and strive to ensure the prosperity and security of Japan.”

ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Indian authorities using ‘bulldozer justice’ to take revenge, experts say: In a disturbing trend that opposition parties and human-rights organizations are calling “bulldozer justice,” authorities have targeted the homes and businesses of Muslim activists blamed for inciting violence in protest of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Video of police during Uvalde shooting to be shown, lawmaker says: Residents of Uvalde, Texas, will view surveillance footage from the Robb Elementary School hallway where police waited as a gunman opened fire in a fourth-grade classroom, a Texas legislator leading an investigation into the massacre of 21 people said Tuesday.

Brown’s campaign co-chair officially endorses Charest: Former MP John Reynolds, the national campaign co-chair for Patrick Brown’s bid to win the Conservative leadership, is endorsing Jean Charest as the best leader for the party. Lawyers for the Brampton mayor are attempting to appeal his disqualification as a leadership candidate.

Via Rail averts strike: Montreal-based Via says it has reached two tentative labour pacts with its workers, allowing the passenger train service to prevent a strike that would have piled onto the delays already plaguing summer travel in Canada.

Succession leads Emmy nominations: The HBO satirical drama scored a leading 25 nominations, but Succession has a landmark rival in Squid Game, a South Korea-set drama and the first non-English language series in contention for television’s top honour. Sandra Oh and Martin Short are among the Canadians in the running at this year’s Emmys.

MARKET WATCH

Wall Street ended in negative territory on Tuesday as growing signs of recession kept buyers out of the equities market ahead of inflation data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 192.51 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 30,981.33, the S&P 500 lost 35.63 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 3,818.8 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 107.87 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 11,264.73.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 138.16 points to 18,678.64.

The Canadian dollar traded for 76.83 cents US, compared 76.92 cents from Monday.

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TALKING POINTS

Ottawa says it stands with Ukraine. Its decision to return turbines to Russia suggests otherwise

“… Ottawa’s flawed decision is consistent with its bungled approach to the Ukraine war, as overseen by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly. It was late to approve the provision of lethal weapons to Kyiv earlier this year; it was one of the first to withdraw our diplomats from Kyiv and one of the last to send them back to their desks. And then there was the inexplicable appearance of a senior Global Affairs official at a Russian embassy party in June.” – Michael Bociurkiw

It’s time to treat cellphones and the internet like the essential infrastructure they are

“Ottawa has two choices: It can allow more competition in Canada and make the system more reliable that way; or it can step in and do the job in the absence of a real marketplace. For the safety of Canadians, it can’t have it both ways.” – Editorial

Community health workers are the key to expanding medical care

“With lack of effective integration within health systems structures, CHWs are not always properly identified or recognized as a key part of the health workforce. The vast majority remain underpaid, or altogether unpaid – in Africa, for instance, only a dismal 14 per cent of CHWs are salaried. In essence, most often, community members are shouldering the daunting responsibility of leaving no one behind, while unpaid, with little to no incentive, without adequate equipment, no continuous training and non-existent career prospects. This defies all common sense, and it must change.” – Rosemary Wanjiru and Hanna Belayneh

LIVING BETTER

How to confidently spend your money in retirement

For many retirees, spending money can be hard, especially after decades of thrift.

Warren MacKenzie, a financial planner, says it’s not uncommon for people who are used to being frugal to go to lengths to save money for their retirement. He tells the story of one Ontario-based retiree in his late 60s, with a net worth of $8-million, who has the cashier at McDonald’s ring through his breakfast order in separate transactions. That way, he can avoid paying the provincial sales tax, which doesn’t apply to restaurant meals under $4 – a saving of 56 cents on a total food bill of $7.

“People have learned a lot about how to accumulate wealth and how to manage wealth, but they have very little information about how to use wealth wisely to maximize happiness,” MacKenzie says.

TODAY’S LONG READ

Opinion: Sri Lanka’s mass uprising against its ruling family is 13 years in the making

It might look as if the economic tensions of 2022 have come home to roost on an island at the bottom of the Indian subcontinent, where thousands of protesters this weekend stormed the presidential palace, took a swim in the president’s pool and torched his documents as he fled to an unknown location.

In fact, Sri Lanka’s popular uprising, which appears to have driven president Gotabaya Rajapaksa out of office, is far more dramatic than that, as it puts a cap on a long “lost decade” that has turned a moment of great optimism at the end of the country’s civil war into 13 years of economic mismanagement, lavish corruption and precipitous decline under one family’s rule.

By reportedly confirming on Monday that he will be resigning the presidency, following the similar protest-driven departures this spring of his brothers from the offices of prime minister and finance minister, Mr. Rajapaksa effectively put an end to nearly 17 years of his family’s control of the island nation. Read the full piece by Doug Saunders.

Evening Update is written by Beatrice Paez. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.