Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canada’s Jeremy Hansen is moonward bound. The 47-year-old astronaut will join the Artemis II mission, the first mission to carry humans around the the moon in more than 50 years.
No Canadian has ever ventured so far from home, and it will be a unique chance to take in Earth as a separate world traversing the dark void of space. It will be Colonel Hansen’s first flight into space, and he’ll be joined by three Americans who will be making the trip along with Col. Hansen.
Born in London, Ont., he was raised on a farm in nearby Ailsa Craig and attended high school in Ingersoll. Now he will help start a new chapter for the astronaut program, not just in Canada but in the U.S. and 21 other countries that have signed on to the Artemis program and the goal of establishing a long-term presence on the moon.
Rogers CEO Staffieri to tackle integration, debt now that $20-billion Shaw deal is closed
Rogers Communications Inc. finally completed its hotly contested $20-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. on Monday after two years of regulatory and political wrangling. For Rogers chief executive Tony Staffieri, the hard part begins now.
Key challenges: Staffieri faces a number of them, including the complex process of integrating Shaw’s business and networks into Rogers. He will also need to pay down billions of dollars of debt his company has taken on to fund the acquisition.
Competition: He’ll also have to find a way to compete against a growing rival. In order to win regulatory approval for the takeover, Rogers has sold Shaw’s Freedom Mobile, Canada’s fourth-largest wireless carrier, to Quebecor Inc.
Commitments: Rogers has made a number of commitments to the federal government in connection with the deal. They are included in written undertakings designed to impose penalties if the promises are not met. For example, the promise that it will spend $1-billion within five years to expand high-speed internet and 5G wireless in areas where that connectivity is not currently available.
Tony Staffieri, CEO of Rogers, poses for a portrait out front of Rogers' Toronto head office on Friday October 21 2022.Shay Conroy/The Globe and Mail
‘Canada is not for sale’: Keevil family has no intention of selling Teck to Glencore
On Monday, Swiss mining giant Glencore unveiled an all-share takeover proposal for Teck worth US$23.1-billion, which was a 22-per-cent premium to the Vancouver-based mining company’s close on Friday.
While Mr. Keevil said in a media release early Monday that he was opposed to the takeover offer, Glencore said it hoped to bring him around over the next few weeks as it faces a deadline to get the deal done.
But in an interview with The Globe and Mail on Monday evening Mr. Keevil made it clear that Glencore will not succeed in changing his mind, even if it increases its takeover offer significantly.
“We’re not about to be swallowed up by them,” he said. “It’s not a matter of price, Canada is not for sale.”
World Press Photo through the eyes of Amber Bracken
Each year, the World Press Photo Contest chooses the most evocative photojournalism from news events large and small. Last week, the contest announced regional winners from six areas of the world, with the four global winners to be revealed on April 20. This year’s jury for North and Central America included Amber Bracken, a Globe and Mail contributor and two-time winner in the contest.
She offers an insider’s take on what made the top entries so compelling.
A man sells flowers from his car at the Villa Guerrero flower market, Mexico, on 16 May 2021. Most flowers sold at the market are shipped around the country or exported. BEAUTIFUL POISON is a long-term photography project documenting the public health problem associated to the unrestricted use of agrochemicals by the flower industry in the region of Villa Guerrero, Mexico.Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Supplied
This is the daily Evening Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was sent to you as a forward, you can sign up for Evening Update and more than 20 more Globe newsletters here. If you like what you see, please share it with your friends.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Policing: First Nations police chiefs launch human-rights complaint against Ottawa alleging that the federal government is placing reserves in crisis by failing to deliver adequate funding.
Trump analysis, by David Shribman: The former president’s expected arraignment is a stress test for U.S. politics
Bank of Canada: Business sentiment continues to worsen with companies expecting sales growth to slow over the coming year and inflation to remain elevated until at least 2025, BoC business survey shows.
Economy: Traditional economic models are struggling to make sense of this moment. Why is this economic slowdown is so unusual?
Canada in Ukraine: Canadian doctors and a volunteer team in Ukraine are performing complex facial surgeries for those whose faces bear the scars of a Russian invasion that has dragged on for more than a year.
Policy: Ottawa stalls on measures to combat foreign interference that were presented to cabinet last summer, according to four government officials.
Listen to The Decibel: The Globe’s Atlantic bureau reporter, Lindsay Jones, on how the RCMP failed Nova Scotians during the mass shooting
MARKET WATCH
Energy, Teck Resources help lift TSX for seventh day
Canada’s commodity-heavy main stock index rose to its highest closing level in nearly four weeks as a surge in oil prices boosted energy shares and Teck Resources rejected a buyout offer from Glencore.
The surge in energy stocks, which followed surprise cuts to the OPEC+ group’s oil output targets, also boosted the S&P 500.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 178.39 points at 20,278.28, its seventh straight day of gains and its highest closing level since March 8. The TSX materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 2.2% as gold prices rose and after the shares of Teck Resources Ltd soared 18.7%
The S&P 500 climbed to end the session at 4,124.49 points. The Nasdaq declined to 12,189.45 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to 33,601.15 points.
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.
TALKING POINTS
U.S. teen birth rate could rise as Republican politicians move to strip away women’s rights
“That anyone would accept increased poverty and misery among young people as a price worth paying to win a culture war with the left is a mystery. Let this be one aspect of American political culture that Canada never imports.” - John Ibbitson
This free trip to Albania was an offer all MPs should refuse
“The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), in short, is not the hope for a new Iran. Western politicians who associate with it will at best alarm real Iranian reformers. Its events don’t advance the cause of a Free Iran. And Canadian politicians shouldn’t jet off to them – even if the trip is free.” - Campbell Clark
Turkey’s reconstruction will depend on rebuilding its democracy
“To rebuild Turkish democracy, Turks will need to remove Mr. Erdogan, confront the construction lobby, and then get to work restoring essential institutions – perhaps starting with the media.” - Daron Acemoglu and Cihat Tokgoz
LIVING BETTER
Want a healthy gut? New research shows how exercise can help
According to a new study from the University of Calgary, the health advantages of exercise also include improving your gut microbiome, the trillions of microbes, mostly bacteria, that reside in your large intestine. The results also revealed that exercise duration was more important than exercise intensity in improving the gut microbiome.
An imbalanced gut microbiome, called dysbiosis, is tied to chronic inflammation and impaired metabolism and immune function. Poor diet, heavy alcohol consumption, smoking, antibiotic use and exposure to pollutants are factors that can drive an imbalanced gut microbiome. So can a sedentary lifestyle.
TODAY’S LONG READ
In Achuar territory, plants show signs of damage from a spill a few years earlier. When The Globe and Mail visited this area, signs of contamination could be seen in several creeks and lagoons.Patrick Murayari/The Globe and Mail
In 2018, Ottawa announced a new watchdog to probe alleged abuses by multinationals. It has yet to complete a single investigation. Peru had awarded some operations to Canadian hands: Calgary-based Frontera Energy Corp.
Yet, petroleum seeps into the forest ground and creek beds, and oozes into the rivers, streams and lagoons that Indigenous communities in the area – including the Quechua, Achuar and Kichwa peoples – use to bathe, wash clothes, grow crops and drink from. They also consume the fish and wild game that subsist on these waterways.
The Globe went to Peruvian oil country to see the effects of missing Canadian oversight.
Evening Update is written by Sierra Bein. 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.