And then there were none. O. K., “none” is a bit of an exaggeration. But with Friday’s inevitable resignation of Alexander Acosta, President Trump’s secretary of labor, it is reasonable for the public to be asking: Who the heck is running the federal government? All the best people. That’s what Candidate Trump promised the nation […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is resigning. President Trump asked Mr. Acosta to make the announcement himself, as they stood together on the White House lawn. Mr. Acosta said stepping down was “the right thing to do,” given the uproar […]

Joanne Lansdell has some very fond memories of attending the Calgary Stampede when she was growing up. “When we were kids it was like waiting for Christmas!” Lansdell said. Now, a surprise gift from the past has turned up: her dad’s old home movies of the Stampede, unexpectedly found in a box while a family […]

On Monday, Donald Trump disinvited the then-British ambassador, Kim Darroch, from an official administration dinner with the emir of Qatar, because he was mad about leaked cables in which Darroch assessed the president as “insecure” and “incompetent.” There was room at the dinner, however, for Trump’s friend Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, […]

(Reuters) – WPP (WPP.L) is selling a 60% stake in Kantar to private equity firm Bain Capital, valuing the data analytics business at about $4 billion and giving the British owner of agencies including Ogilvy and Wunderman Thompson funds to cut debt and rebuild. WPP is restructuring following several profit warnings and the abrupt departure […]

The reaction of farming leaders and some politicians to the announcement of the Mercosur trade deal bordered on the hysterical. There were cries of “sell-out”, with Agriculture and Food Minister Michael Creed vowing to “dismantle” the new agreement with Brazil and a cluster of other South American countries. Phil Hogan, long seen as a champion […]

Here is another sampling from our inbox: To the Editor: Re “The Fight Over Rescue Dogs” (news analysis, Sunday Review, June 30): We take issue with Kate Murphy’s characterization of the practice of animal relocation, which didn’t mention vital facts about the critical role it continues to play as part of a multifaceted approach to […]

The truth is out there in the Nevada desert, and there are thousands of conspiracy theorists ready to find it. Nearly 300,000 people have signed up to march on the world-famous Area 51 in September, as part of a tongue-in-cheek effort to search the secretive government base for evidence of aliens and unidentified flying objects […]

This week, the Senate is holding confirmation hearings for William Barr, Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general. At these hearings, Barr has mostly said the right things, coming off as a competent public servant who will protect the independence of the Justice Department from presidential pressure. But Barr’s words can […]

When Doug Cook needed to build a fence around his backyard pool, he decided to go a little overboard. The Winnipeg senior has constructed a full-sized boat around the above-ground pool that sits on his sprawling property near the edge of the city in Charleswood. Standing 4.5 metres at its highest point, the massive wooden […]