Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Europe was investigating leaks in two Russian gas pipelines that churned up the Baltic Sea on Tuesday and raised concerns from Copenhagen to Moscow about sabotage on infrastructure at the heart of an energy standoff.
It remained far from clear who might be behind any foul play, if proven, on the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia and European partners spent billions of dollars building. Poland’s prime minister blamed sabotage for the leaks, without citing evidence, while the Danish premier said it could not be ruled out. Russia said sabotage was a possibility and that the incident undermined the continent’s energy security. A senior Ukrainian official called it a Russian attack to destabilize Europe, without giving proof.
Meanwhile, first partial voting results from four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – showed majorities of more than 96 per cent in favour of becoming part of Russia after so-called referendums.
Russian-installed officials took ballot boxes from house to house in what Ukraine and the West said was an illegitimate, coercive exercise to create a legal pretext for Russia to annex the four regions.
Read more:
- Russia issues new nuclear warning as it wraps up contested Ukraine referendums
- Anxiety rises in Germany as residents prepare for winter without Russian gas
- Opinion: Why the ‘nuclear option’ of banning Russia from SWIFT failed to have a real fallout
Scotiabank Giller Prize short list announced
Rawi Hage, Suzette Mayr and Kim Fu are among the finalists for this year’s $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Hage, a four-time Giller nominee, is recognized for Stray Dogs, published by Knopf Canada, a globe-spanning short story collection that follows an array of travellers searching for connection.
Calgary-based Mayr earned a nod for her novel The Sleeping Car Porter, from Coach House Books, which follows a queer, Black sleeping-car porter making a treacherous trip from Montreal to Vancouver in 1929. She was previously longlisted for the prize in 2011 for her novel Monoceros.
Fu, who was born in Canada and is based in Seattle, landed on the list for Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, a book of short stories that blurs the lines between the real and the fantastic, published by Coach House Books.
Read more:
‘Shocking’ erosion of sand dunes in Prince Edward Island National Park due to Fiona
The scale of sand dune erosion in Prince Edward Island National Park owing to post-tropical storm Fiona is “shocking” and has dramatically changed the landscape of some beaches, Parks Canada says.
Jennifer Stewart, external relations manager with Parks Canada in P.E.I., said the storm has caused the most severe coastal erosion she’s seen since she began her career in 2000.
The erosion is particularly significant at Dalvay Beach, she said, where dune systems used to block the view of the water from the nearby roadway.
Read more:
- Trudeau says stronger infrastructure needed after inspecting post-tropical storm Fiona damage
- Insurance claims from Fiona could reach $700-million, but flood damage from storm surge won’t be covered
- Atlantic Canada takes stock of devastation caused by Storm Fiona’s wrath
- University students in Atlantic Canada navigating Fiona disaster
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
After triple femicide inquest, advocates press Ontario to act on ‘the gift of solutions’: Three months after an inquest into a rural Ontario triple femicide, anti-violence advocates are pressing the provincial government to commit to the jury’s recommendations, which included declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic and imposing a raft of policies designed to prevent similar deaths.
National average base salary to increase by 4.2 per cent next year, according to projections: Canadian employers are anticipating the highest salary increase in two decades as they try to balance inflationary pressures, surging interest rates, recession risks and a tight labour market, a new survey has found.
Canada’s West Coast can export LNG globally, but East Coast faces pipeline constraints: Canada’s West Coast is positioned to become a reliable supplier of liquefied natural gas, but transporting natural gas from Alberta to the East Coast would be difficult financially and logistically, compared with shorter distances for pipelines within B.C. or from Alberta to the West Coast, says TC Energy’s CEO.
Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe honoured at divisive state funeral: Japan’s assassinated hawkish former leader, Shinzo Abe, was given a rare state funeral Tuesday that was full of military pomp and surrounded by throngs of mourners as well as by widespread protests, with thousands taking to the streets in opposition.
Donald Trump wins ruling in rape accuser Carroll’s defamation lawsuit: A federal appeals court set aside a judge’s ruling that Donald Trump could be sued for defamation by E. Jean Carroll after denying he raped her, though it stopped short of declaring the former U.S. president immune from the author’s lawsuit.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street sank deeper into a bear market on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 recording its lowest close in almost two years as Federal Reserve policymakers showed an appetite for more interest rate hikes, even at the risk of throwing the economy into a downturn. The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield touched its highest level in more than 12 years, while the TSX finished lower for the sixth straight session.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 19.13 points or 0.1 per cent at 18,307.91.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 125.82 points or 0.43 per cent at 29,134.99. The S&P 500 index was down 7.75 points or 0.21 per cent at 3,647.29, while the Nasdaq composite was up 26.58 points or 0.25 per cent at 10,829.50.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.85 cents US compared with 72.91 cents US on Monday.
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TALKING POINTS
Welcome to the resistance, Pierre Poilievre
“This week surely marks the beginning of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s membership to the anti-fascist, anti-extremist, and anti-far-right resistance. Welcome, sir. What a journey it has been for you to get here.” – Robyn Urback
If Jason Kenney calls, think twice before answering
“Once upon a time, Alberta didn’t need a pricey ad campaign to entice young people to come and work there.” – Gary Mason
Liz Truss’s wager on the U.K. economy is already failing. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni take note
“Welcome to government, Ms. Truss, and the harsh realities of economic programs deemed unhealthy – or brain dead – by the financial markets.” – Eric Reguly
How to fight inflation? Look at Britain, and do the opposite
“This tug of war, between central banks trying to extinguish a fire and governments inadvertently but unmistakably pumping it up, is happening to some degree across the world, including in Canada. But in the United Kingdom, it’s taking place on an extreme, and extremely self-destructive, scale.” – The Editorial Board
LIVING BETTER
Artificial sweeteners tied to increased heart risk, new study finds
Short-term randomized controlled trials have mostly shown that, when substituted for sugar-sweetened beverages, artificially-sweetened drinks help prevent weight gain.
Findings from numerous observational studies, however, suggest that over the long-term, a regular intake of these substances can have harmful effects on cardiometabolic health including increased waist circumference, elevated blood sugar, insulin resistance and inflammation.
Now, new research published in The British Medical Journal adds to growing evidence that a high intake of artificial sweeteners may harm cardiovascular health.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, 11, and Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, 3, pose in this undated handout photo released by the RCMP on Jan. 27, 2022.RCMP/The Canadian Press
An Indian family sought a new life in the U.S., but never made it out of Canada alive
The mystery set in on Jan. 7 when 11-year-old Vihangi Patel, a straight-A student, missed an assignment. At first, her teachers at Joyful International Learning Academy, a school in Kalol, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, weren’t concerned. Classes had moved online the week prior while India dealt with a surge of Omicron cases, and the Patels had recently relocated to their native Dingucha, a village 12 kilometres from the town. However, when Vihangi missed another two days of schoolwork, her class teacher, Sonal Kumpavat, phoned home. “Please don’t worry,” Vihangi’s mother Vaishali Patel said to Ms. Kumpavat, citing poor connectivity in Dingucha as the reason her daughter was behind on work.
Nothing seemed amiss to the school or even the neighbours.
But days later, gossip trickled into the neighbourhood – the Patels had left Dingucha for Canada without telling anyone. By Jan. 19, no one was able to get in touch with them. The same day, Canadian authorities reported finding a family of four frozen to death near Emerson, Man. When Canadian authorities finally confirmed that the family was the Patels – Jagdish, 39, Vaishali, 37, Vihangi, 11 and Dharmik, three – the news brought Dingucha to a standstill. The Patels are believed to have been victims of a major human smuggling operation spanning India, Canada and the U.S. Read the full story.
Evening Update is written by Prajakta Dhopade. 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.