Morning Update: B.C. port workers return to picket lines after union rejects tentative deal

Good morning,

B.C. port workers returned to the picket lines instead of reporting for their night shifts on Tuesday after their union rejected a tentative deal that was announced last week.

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union Canada, which has 7,400 members, says contracting out, cost-of-living wage increases and the impact of automation on job security are its three main concerns. The union was also hoping for a two-year agreement rather than a four-year agreement as proposed by employers.

Business groups were warning even before the resumption of the strike yesterday that clearing the cargo backlog caused by the work stoppage could take up to September or even longer.

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.

Canada’s inflation rate falls to 2.8%

Canada’s inflation rate has fallen to 2.8 per cent, its lowest level since March, 2021. The June Consumer Price Index was down from May’s 3.4 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

This means that inflation has entered the Bank of Canada’s target range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent for the first time in more than two years.

While much has changed to help lower Canada’s inflation rate since it peaked at 8.1 per cent in June, 2022 (including many interest rate hikes by the central bank), the fight to curb inflation isn’t over. The Bank of Canada doesn’t see it returning sustainably to the 2-per-cent target until mid-2025.

Read more:

• The Editorial Board: There’s no free lunch, and other lessons from Canada’s inflation debate
• David Jones: In fighting inflation, the Bank of Canada might find hiking interest rates too blunt a tool
• Rob Carrick: Mortgage rates today range from bad to horrible, but there is a sweet spot

Russia targets Ukrainian port city Odesa in continuing attacks

Russia has bombarded the port city of Odesa for a second consecutive night, continuing what the Kremlin has described as retributive strikes for a Ukrainian attack that partially disabled a key bridge to Crimea. Most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts on and off starting soon after midnight on Wednesday.

The targeting of Odesa, the main centre of operations for what was known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, early Tuesday and Wednesday comes on the heels of a Kremlin announcement on Monday that it was ending the year-old pact that allowed for the safe transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products through a Russian naval blockade. The move, which several G20 members condemned, would significantly impact food availability and affordability in Africa and Asia.

Read more:

• Russia strikes Ukrainian grain ports after withdrawing from export deal
• Russia pulls out of deal that allowed safe exportation of Ukrainian grain through Black Sea

Open this photo in gallery:

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

Toronto area Metro grocery strike: Workers at 27 grocery stores across the Greater Toronto Area reached a deal with the grocery giant just after midnight when they were set to go on strike.

Trump says he expects to be arrested over Jan. 6 probe: The former president says he expects to be indicted again, this time on charges related to his role in the push to overturn the 2020 presidential election that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trudeau calls for deeper co-operation with Australia: The Prime Minister said that Australia is a “like-minded partner” that is able to uphold democratic values, unlike authoritarian regimes, while also supplying minerals that could help reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Second heat wave in weeks grips Mediterranean: Officials warned residents and visitors in the Mediterranean to stay indoors during a heat wave that is expected to persist for days. Meanwhile, Greece, Spain and Switzerland battled wildfires.

C’mon, Barbie: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie “wants to heal the world, but it also knows the world won’t like that, so it dresses up its intentions in even more existential hand-wringing and postmodern irony, taking something beautiful out of its plastic shell and rolling it around in the muck,” writes Chandler Levack. Read the full review of one of the summer’s most anticipated films.

Morning markets

European markets advance: European stocks and government bonds rallied on Wednesday as good news on British inflation added to a picture of cooling price pressures globally.

Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.45 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were up 0.21 per cent and 0.59 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 1.24 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.33 per cent. New York futures were modestly higher.

The Canadian dollar was little changed at 75.91 US cents.

What everyone’s talking about

There is no ‘convention’ that the party with the most seats gets to govern

“What will govern events, as always, is the numbers. If the Liberals are too far behind the Conservatives in seats, Justin Trudeau may well decline, like his predecessors. At some point, a thing may not be viewed as legitimate, even if it is constitutional.” – Andrew Coyne

Canada’s plentiful access to fresh water is an illusion in Iqaluit

“Worrying about water access seems especially dissonant at this time of year in the Arctic. The month of July has seen more rain than sun. Frobisher Bay has nearly thawed for the summer, as have the ponds around the city. The creeks are rushing with water. But this appearance of plenty is an illusion.” – Jane George

Justin Trudeau should listen to Justin Trudeau on temporary foreign workers

“The Mr. Trudeau of 2014 would not be happy. Amid debate at the time over rising reliance on foreign workers, Mr. Trudeau’s position on the opposition benches was clear. “The Temporary Foreign Worker Program is broken,” he declared.” – The Editorial Board

Today’s editorial cartoon

Open this photo in gallery:

Living better

High rates spell mortgage payment shock at renewal: Here’s how to prepare

Experts say it’s time for Canadian mortgage holders to prepare for a possible financial crunch at renewal time, as hopes for a rapid return to low interest rates fades. Among homeowners with fixed payments, those who bought early in the pandemic and will renew a five-year mortgage in 2025 and 2026 may be in for some of the steepest increases. If you’re facing a potentially large increase in your mortgage rate, plan for the worst-case scenario, says president of mortgage lender CanWise, James Laird. “Be conservative with your assumptions so that the numbers are better than your assumptions,” he says.

Moment in time: July 19, 1595

Open this photo in gallery:

If planets orbit the sun, as Nicolaus Copernicus famously asserted, then why are their orbits so unevenly spaced? On this day in 1595, more than 50 years after the death of Copernicus, German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler was teaching a class in the central European city of Graz when he suddenly realized he had an answer. Kepler knew there are only five shapes that can be constructed in three dimensions with all faces and angles equal. His insight was that six spheres carrying the known planets at the time (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) might be kept apart by celestial versions of the five perfect shapes. “What a delight I have found in this discovery,” wrote Kepler, who documented the epiphany in his book Mysterium Cosmographicum. But despite its aesthetic appeal, the theory did not fit with astronomical observations. Fourteen years later, Kepler abandoned it when he derived his laws of planetary motion, which showed that planets move along elliptical rather than circular paths, thereby setting the stage for Isaac Newton’s discovery of the law of universal gravitation. – Ivan Semeniuk

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.