Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
People across Atlantic Canada were stocking up on last-minute essentials and storm-proofing their properties Friday ahead of the arrival of Fiona, which forecasters say will hit the region as a “very powerful” post-tropical storm.
The storm, characterized as “historic” in magnitude by meteorologists, is expected to make landfall early Saturday morning, bringing hurricane-force winds and more than 100 millimetres of rain to much of the region and eastern Quebec. Closer to the path of Fiona, more than 200 mm of rain is expected to fall –potentially leading to the washout of some roads.
Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Fiona is shaping up to be a bigger storm system than Hurricane Juan, which caused extensive damage to the Halifax area in 2003. He said it’s about the same size as post-tropical storm Dorian in 2019.
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Putin’s nuclear threats put world on verge of new Cuban Missile Crisis, Ukraine warns
The world is heading into a new Cuban Missile Crisis now that Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, a top official in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office has said.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to chief of staff Andriy Yermak, has compared Russia’s latest sabre-rattling to the Soviet Union’s deployment of nuclear weapons to Cuba in 1962. Mr. Podolyak is calling on the West to respond, just as it did then, by making it clear that it is also willing to use nuclear weapons if Russia does not back down.
“A new Caribbean Crisis is already developing, and the West needs to understand this,” Mr. Podolyak said in an interview inside the presidential administration building in Kyiv, which has sandbagged windows and is surrounded by checkpoints. “Like it was before, there is a moment when the club of nuclear states should make a hard decision against the Russian Federation, to underline that if they attack with weapons of mass destruction, they will receive a symmetrical reply.”
Read more:
- Occupied Ukraine holds Kremlin-staged vote on joining Russia
- Putin’s mobilization of military reservists triggers exodus of Russians who fear they may be called to fight
- Opinion: The ‘friendship’ between Xi and Putin has hit a rough patch
- Listen to The Decibel: Putin doubles down on the war in Ukraine
TSX suffers worst session in three months as oil dives 5% and recession worries linger
Wall Street and Bay Street’s main indexes all tumbled to close well down on Friday, as rattled investors continued to reposition themselves amid fears the U.S. Federal Reserve’s hawkish rate policy will help tip the American economy into recession. The S&P/TSX Composite underperformed U.S. stocks, as energy and materials stocks nosedived and the price of oil fell 5.7 per cent. It was the Canadian benchmark’s steepest percentage decline in more than three months, and brought the index to its lowest level since July 15.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average narrowly avoided ending more than 20 per cent lower than its Jan. 4 record all-time closing peak of 36,799.64 points, meaning the blue-chip index did not attain a bear market label, according to a widely used definition. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are already in a bear market.
The S&P/TSX Composite ended down 521.70 points, or 2.75 per cent, at 18,480.98 in broad-based declines led by the energy sector.
In New York, the Dow closed down 486.27 points, or 1.62 per cent, at 29,590.41. The S&P 500 was down 64.76 points, or 1.7 per cent, at 3,693.23, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 198.88 points, or 1.8 per cent, at 10,867.93.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.69 cents US compared with 74.18 cents US on Thursday.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
The Canadian tech boom is fizzling out as more startups cut jobs, fight to survive: Faced with sudden shifts, tech companies have cut deeply. More than 81,000 people have been laid off from the sector worldwide so far this year, including thousands in Canada, and further cutbacks are likely.
Canada’s oil sands are making billions – and very little of it is going to net-zero commitments: Canadian oil sands companies have done little to follow through on their public pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, despite raking in historic profits in 2022, a new analysis shows.
Ontario posts $2.1-billion surplus with higher-than-expected revenue: Ontario says it took in 20 per cent more revenue than anticipated last year, wiping out what it had predicted would be a $13.5-billion deficit and replacing it with a surplus of $2.1-billion.
RCMP ‘did their best’ in response to N.S. mass shooting according to Justice Department: The RCMP’s response to the 2020 shooting rampage that left 22 Nova Scotians dead was far from perfect, but police did their best, the federal Justice Department said Friday on the final day of the inquiry into the tragic event.
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TALKING POINTS
We need to talk about the big lies behind freezing your eggs
“I have no doubt that for some women, egg freezing will prove to be a good decision. But I worry that for the majority, it will be a misstep, and for a few, a tragedy.” – Alison Motluk
Why doesn’t Pierre Poilievre seem to care about climate change?
“While a lot of attention has been focused on some of Mr. Poilievre’s more controversial statements and decisions – courting support among the so-called freedom convoy participants; promoting bitcoin, promising to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada – little has been said about his complete lack of a clear plan for climate change.” – Gary Mason
Want more civility in Parliament? Give MPs meaningful work
“But Parliament has become so irrelevant, and members of Parliament so impotent, that it is impossible to escape the impression that, if you will, the show is all for show. They fight, not for any difference it will make to anybody, but to give themselves something to do.” – Andrew Coyne
I lost my son to a drug overdose. But the crisis is everyone’s problem
“The epidemic of overdose deaths is often talked about in terms of statistics and policy. But I know firsthand about the unseen human impact carried by those left standing, alone in our grief, set apart by the same stigma that isolated our children.” – Tara McGuire
LIVING BETTER
Five frequent flyers share their business travel essentials
During the NBA season, Kayla Grey flies at least once a week. The journalist and sports broadcaster, who tries to pack “as light as possible,” typically travels with only a carry-on for trips up to seven days. Her go-to is a Samsonite suitcase that “looks like a little bullet” and “is super, super durable.” Grey and four others share their most indispensable travel items.
TODAY’S LONG READ
A Newfoundland hospital switched them at birth. Fifty-three years later, a DNA test brought them together
Illustration by Nikki Ernst
It was the middle of the night on Sept. 24, 1969, when Jessie Rowsell, a 31-year-old woman from Beachside, arrived at the Springdale Cottage Hospital, according to birth records shared with The Globe and Mail.
Rowsell, a free-spirited woman who partied hard and fished with the men, delivered a baby girl just after 5 a.m. At the same time, Ruth Lush was in the throes of labour, according to her hospital birth records. An hour and 15 minutes later, Lush’s daughter took her first breath of air. The babies both had blonde hair and blue eyes. There was just an ounce difference in their weight.
In the room where the babies were born, a nurse was supposed to write the name on a plastic identity bracelet and snap it on the baby’s ankle, said Rita Rideout, who was a 23-year-old navy-trained nurse who worked at the Springdale Cottage Hospital at the time of the mistake. Then the baby was taken to the nursery to be cleaned and weighed. The two mothers were discharged three days later at the same time. It’s impossible to know exactly when, over those three days, a switch occurred but one possibility is that the babies’ identity bands somehow became mixed up.
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.