LOCAL
Toronto’s thunderstorm last month was the most expensive natural disaster in the province’s history, costing insurers $850-million. This has been a terrible year for insurers in Canada, who have had to cover the widespread flooding of southern Alberta and the train disaster in Lac-Megantic. [National Post]
A GTA man was fired after his tweet “any dealers in Vaughan want to make a quick 20sac chop? I need a spliff” came to the police’s attention because he included them in an earlier, unrelated tweet. It got retweeted 2700 times in the first 24 hours after the police responded to it: “Awesome! Can we come to?”. [Toronto Star]
Controversy over whether Progressive Conservative members should be allowed to debate Tim Hudak’s leadership at next month’s party convention has triggered a war of words among MPPs. Ever since the August 1 byelections, in which the Tories won one of five seats, Hudak has faced questions about his leadership. [Toronto Star]
NATIONAL
The python that killed two young boys in New Brunswick escaped because of human error involving a missing fan in its enclosure. A criminal investigation continues. [CBC]
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief spokesman, Andrew MacDougall, resigned, and will take a desk job in London, England starting September. The loss comes amid a shuffle of senior staff in the PMO as Harper tries to re-boot his government. [Toronto Star]
The Deloitte audit into expense claims by Senator Pamela Wallin costs $127,000, or slightly more than the amount she’s being asked to pay back. Financial figures published by the Senate administration shows that it’s been the most expensive of the four undertaken, and has tripled in size. [Globe and Mail]
INTERNATIONAL
Egyptian security forces crushed the camps of those who supported the deposed president Mohamed Morsi, shooting 200 dead in the bloodiest day in decades. At least 235 were killed in all, including 43 police, and 2,000 wounded. [Globe and Mail]
UPDATE: Associated Press is now reporting as many as 525 dead, 3,717 injured.
The Pentagon announced its plan to extend benefits to same-sex spouses of uniformed military personnel and civilian employees in response to June’s Supreme Court ruling to recognize same-sex marriages in states where it’s legal. The defence department will make spousal and family benefits available so long as a valid marriage license is presented. [Globe and Mail]
Bradley Manning, the former soldier convicted last month of leaking an enormous amount of classified information to WikiLeaks, said he now regrets his actions and is sorry that they hurt the United States. “When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people,” Manning told his sentence hearing, in an attempt to receive a reduced sentence. [The Guardian]
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