Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
About 1,000 civilians remain trapped at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, after a Russian ultimatum to surrender expired on Wednesday.
Mariupol authorities said today they hoped to evacuate about 6,000 people under a preliminary agreement with Russia on establishing a safe corridor.
But the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment in Mariupol, Svyatoslav Kalamar, told Ukrainian TV that civilians were too frightened to make their way to the evacuation points because the steel plant was under constant bombardment. Reuters witnesses said a few dozen civilians managed to leave the city on Wednesday in a small bus convoy.
The United Nations said the total number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February had now topped five million, with more than half being children.
As well, Russia said on Wednesday it had conducted a first test launch of its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a new addition to its nuclear arsenal. The Sarmat has been under development for years but its test-launch comes at a moment of extreme geopolitical tension due to Russia’s eight-week-old war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey walked out of a G20 meeting as Russian delegates spoke. G20 finance ministers and central bank governors met on the sidelines of a conference held by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, with the Ukraine war, food security and ongoing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic being the key topics.
Read more:
- For patriotism and profit, Ukrainians line up to buy wartime stamp
- Opinion: Of course ‘never again’ is an empty slogan. And Vladimir Putin knows it
- Opinion: The destruction of my hometown of Mariupol is something I can never forgive
- Opinion: Wimbledon’s plan to ban Russian players may not be fair, but it’s the right thing to do
- Watch: Apartment block in Lviv reflects the new Ukraine
Canada’s annual inflation rate spikes to 6.7% in March, highest since 1991
Canada’s inflation rate hit a new three-decade high in March, rising 6.7 per cent last month from a year earlier, a full percentage point higher than February’s 5.7-per-cent pace, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.
Financial analysts were expecting an annual inflation rate of 6.1 per cent. The March rate was the highest since January, 1991, when the federal goods and services tax took effect.
Inflation has now exceeded the Bank of Canada’s target range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent for a full year, and in fact, the central bank expects inflation to average more than 5 per cent this year.
The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point last week to 1 per cent in an aggressive move to rein in runaway price growth. But as supply-chain disruptions persist and the Russia-Ukraine war pushes up commodity prices, steep inflation is proving hard to rein in.
Read more:
- Millions of Canadian workers are taking an inflation-driven pay cut, report says
- Inflation nation: Why the price of seemingly everything is on the rise
Rise in hate crimes connected to pandemic and greater political polarization, Trudeau says
The reported spike in hate crimes in Canada can be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and greater political polarization, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters during a news conference in Waterloo.
He was asked about Ottawa’s plans to increase funding for anti-racism measures in Canada in light of recent attacks at Ontario mosques.
Statistics Canada reported this year that hate crimes jumped 37 per cent in 2020.
Trudeau said the government will continue to support a federal program that funds projects aimed at helping cultural and religious organizations to better protect themselves against hate-motivated crimes.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Possible burials found at former residential school site in Saskatchewan: Chief Byron Bitternose, following months of work, is to outline the first findings of a ground search on the George Gordon First Nation, one of the worst run in the entire residential school system.
Netflix’s nosedive: Netflix Inc. shares lost over a third of their value on Wednesday after the company reported its first drop in subscribers in a decade, leaving Wall Street questioning its growth in the face of fierce competition and post-pandemic viewer fatigue.
Sunwing faces data breach: The technical problem at Sunwing Airlines Inc. that has grounded flights and stranded thousands of passengers this week is being blamed on a data security breach.
Toronto’s real estate market gears down: The deceleration in the Toronto-area real estate market continues as buyers and sellers come to grips with the most recent interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada. Meanwhile, homebuyers priced out of Ontario are turning their eyes to the Calgary real estate market.
Wave of privatization could come as Canadian tech stocks crash: The pandemic-era boom in technology initial public offerings is set to give way to a reverse trend: a re-privatization of many companies that went public but have since seen their share prices crash.
MARKET WATCH
The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down on Wednesday, weighed by streaming giant Netflix’s surprise drop in subscribers which shook investor confidence in other high-growth companies, fearful they may face similar post-pandemic performance issues.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 20.44 points or 0.09% to 21,998.38.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 249.59 points or 0.71% at 35,160.79. The S&P 500 index was down 2.76 points or 0.06% at 4,459.45, while the Nasdaq composite was down 166.59 points or 1.22% at 13,453.07.
The Canadian dollar traded for 79.99 cents US compared with 79.21 cents US on Tuesday.
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TALKING POINTS
Jyoti Gondek could be the most transformative – and controversial – mayor that Calgary’s ever seen
“A mayor with as little political experience as Ms. Gondek might be rattled by the latest polling feedback. But far from being spooked, she seems determined to see that her agenda isn’t pushed off-track by a timid need to please. To that end, she is preparing to make a bold foray into rebranding her city.” – Gary Mason
Why is Canada still telling people that two shots is ‘fully vaccinated’ against COVID-19?
“...Millions of Canadians with two doses may be under the impression they are “fully” protected against COVID-19 – even though Health Canada knows that’s likely not true. This semantic failure is no doubt contributing to the fact that the effort to get third shots into Canadians has all but stalled out.” – The Editorial Board
The Charter was more evolution than revolution
“Common to its old-line critics and newfound friends, however, is a view of the Charter as marking an abrupt departure, for good or ill, in Canada’s constitutional evolution. What is surely at least as striking, however, is its continuity with what went before.” – Andrew Coyne
LIVING BETTER
Travel is ramping up again as COVID restrictions are dropped around the world. With that rise in air traffic comes an increase in demand for airport lounges. At least four new lounges have opened in Canadian airports in the past 18 months. While many airport lounges are only available to business- and first-class travellers, some, like a new WestJet lounge in in Calgary and Air France lounge in Montreal are offering walk-in passes for economy travellers looking for a premium experience.
TODAY’S LONG READ
The bold, varied visions for Ottawa’s Block 2
Architectural design competition for Block 2 and shortlisted are Watson MacEwen Teramura Architects (Ottawa, Canada) in joint venture with Behnisch Architekten (Boston, United States)Watson MacEwen Teramura Architects/Behnisch Architekten
For the last half a century, public architecture in Ottawa has been unambitious, underwhelming and largely forgettable. That may be about to change with the construction of Block 2, a new office complex to be built across from Parliament Hill. Top architects from around the world are vying to lead the Block 2 design, in an international competition conducted in collaboration with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Next week, a 25-member jury of parliamentarians, academics and architects, led by the philosopher and novelist John Ralston Saul, will announce a winner from among six shortlisted teams. The teams unveiled their designs last week. See their plans here.
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.