Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
A panel of U.S. senators excoriated Facebook on Tuesday, saying the technology giant puts profits ahead of user safety and called on regulators to probe allegations by a whistle-blower that the company harms children and stokes divisions.
During a subcommittee hearing, whistle-blower Frances Haugen called for transparency about how Facebook pulls in readers and targets advertisements. “As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable,” said Haugen, who said she was the one who provided documents used in a Wall Street Journal investigation and a Senate hearing on Instagram’s harm to teenage girls.
“The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed,” Haugen said.
In an era when bipartisanship is rare in Washington, lawmakers from both parties pounded the company, illustrating the rising anger in Congress with Facebook amid numerous demands for legislative reforms. Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, said he was concerned about how Facebook and subsidiaries such as Instagram affected the mental health of children. “I think we’re going to look back 20 years from now and all of us are going to be like ‘what the hell were we thinking?’”
Related:
- Facebook blames ‘faulty configuration change’ for nearly six-hour outage
- Elizabeth Renzetti: Facebook has become modern nicotine
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Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says he has support to stay on after election loss
Erin O’Toole said Tuesday he has enough support from his caucus to stay on as party leader. Facing his first major test since the party’s Sept. 20 defeat, O’Toole met with Conservative members of Parliament and senators. Mr. O’Toole was expected to make the case to his caucus why he should stay on as leader after the Conservatives lost two seats in the House of Commons, and slipped in the suburban regions where Mr. O’Toole had said he would be able to expand the party’s base.
Despite the disappointment, Mr. O’Toole told reporters he “absolutely” has support to stay on as leader. Conservative members of Parliament will vote in their closed-door meeting on Tuesday whether to give themselves the power to remove Mr. O’Toole as leader. Mr. O’Toole has urged the elected members of his caucus to give themselves that power.
Afghans who worked for Canadian military still waiting for rescue from Kabul safe house
Nearly two months after Western troops, diplomats and NGOs left Afghanistan following the chaotic withdrawal, The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon is in Kabul to document the changes as the Taliban cement their grip on the country. Today, he turns his focus to 19 Afghans who worked for the Canadian military, who are hiding in a safe house while they wait for a rescue they were promised months ago.
The guards, translators, chefs and their families – nearly 100 people in all, including 32 children – live together in the cramped house.
But with the Taliban in control of the country’s airports and borders, there are no easy ways to move large groups of people out of the country. It’s estimated that more than 10,000 people need to be evacuated from Afghanistan and brought to Canada.
More reporting from Mark MacKinnon in Afghanistan:
- Godmother of Afghan women’s rights stays to fight for the future
- What Canada’s abandoned embassy in Kabul looks like under Taliban rule
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
School board wants Alberta government to close all schools due to COVID-19 cases: Edmonton Public Schools has passed a motion to ask the United Conservative government to implement a “firebreak” lockdown. Premier Jason Kenney is to hold a new conference about COVID-19 later Tuesday with Education Minister Adriana LaGrange and Health Minister Jason Copping.
Two-time runner-up Miriam Toews among authors on Giller Prize shortlist: The Manitoban is in the running for this fall’s $100,000 honour with Fight Night. Also nominated were Ottawa-raised, London-based playwright Jordan Tannahill for The Listeners, Egyptian-Canadian author and journalist Omar El Akkad for What Strange Paradise, lawyer-cum-author Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia of Halifax and Lagos for her debut The Son of the House, and Angélique Lalonde, who is of Métis and Québécois heritage, for her first collection of short stories, Glorious Frazzled Beings.
Two Quebec Major Junior Hockey League players charged with sexual assault: Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano of the Victoriaville Tigres, both 19, appeared in court Tuesday in Quebec City, where they were formally charged with sexual assault stemming from an alleged incident that occurred after the team won the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League title.
Physics Nobel rewards three scientists for work on complex systems, such as climate: Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann were cited for their work in the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, while the second half of the prize went to Giorgio Parisi for explaining disorder in physical systems.
Russian film crew blasts off to make first movie in space: Actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko docked with the International Space Station on Tuesday for a 12-day mission. The duo will film segments of a new movie titled Challenge, in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who suffers a heart condition.
MARKET WATCH
North American stock markets bounced back from Monday’s losses as rising crude oil prices helped the energy sector while technology moved higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 131.18 points to 20,183.43. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 311.75 points at 34,314.67. The S&P 500 index was up 45.26 points at 4,345.72, while the Nasdaq composite was up 178.35 points at 14,433.83.
The Canadian dollar traded for 79.52 cents US compared with 79.47 cents US on Monday.
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TALKING POINTS
The fight in Washington is over political preferences, not the debt ceiling
“And yet the unspoken but unavoidable truth is that everyone involved in this struggle knows that the Congress eventually will raise the debt ceiling. It always does. Sometimes it requires an 11th-hour act, sometimes it requires a government shutdown, sometimes it prompts a brief but never an enduring economic crisis, though during Barack Obama’s administration it came close.” - David Shribman
Does Beijing now prefer to be feared rather than loved?
“As the French Military School Strategic Research Institute noted in a recent study, Beijing has taken a ‘self-defeating Machiavellian turn’ and adopted the 16th-century political philosopher’s admonition that ‘it is preferable to be feared than to be loved.’” - Frank Ching
U.K. Conservatives worry about the shifting political landscape
“When Mr. Johnson scored his huge election win in 2019, it was widely expected at the time that he could remain in office for much of the 2020s, yet the roller-coaster ride of his time in office means his term could end sooner in potentially ignominious circumstances.” - Andrew Hammond
LIVING BETTER
Feeling underpaid? Preparation is key before asking for a raise
Currently, half of Canadian workers polled are feeling underpaid, according to a recent survey from global staffing firm Robert Half. Among millennials, 56 per cent say they’re being shortchanged when it comes to their income.
As a result, one in five employees said they’d consider quitting if they don’t get a raise by the end of the year. That number is even higher for millennials (28 per cent) and Generation Z (35 per cent).
Here are some strategies to prepare for that often-difficult conversation.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Want to travel and help science at the same time? These citizen-science adventures might be for you
A grey wolf outside Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge.JAD DAVENPORT/Supplied
Travel has often been considered the best way to learn about the world. Now, citizen-science focused trips are available that allow travellers to learn about a destination while contributing to scientific discovery. It’s all part of a larger movement toward more purposeful travel.
Moving beyond simply supporting a destination’s conservation initiatives, citizen science trips allow people to take an active role in research that often benefits the local ecosystem. As the climate crisis intensifies, people are looking for measurable ways to create change.
“Citizen science offers people the opportunity to take direct action and be a part of the solution,” says Alix Morris, communications director at Earthwatch, pioneers in science-first experiential travel. Information collected on Earthwatch expeditions, for example, has been used to establish marine and terrestrial protected areas and bring back threatened species from the brink of extinction.
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Rob Gilroy