Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Ukraine attempted once more to evacuate citizens from its shattered cities Wednesday while continuing to plead with NATO to close its skies to Russian aircraft.
Ten humanitarian corridors were supposed to open at 9 a.m. local time, five of them to allow women and children to leave the war-battered suburbs of Irpin, Hostomel, Bucha, Borzel and Borodyanka – all northwest of Kyiv – and travel to the relative safety of the centre of the capital.
Separate corridors were due to see civilians leave the front-line cities of Mariupol, Sumy, Enerhodar, Izyum and Volnovakha, all in eastern Ukraine.
“I appeal to the Russian Federation: You have undertaken official public commitments to cease fire from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. We have had negative experiences when the commitments that were undertaken did not work,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, referring to previous evacuation efforts that collapsed when Russian forces continued to fire in the direction of fleeing civilians.
A Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital Wednesday in the besieged port city of Mariupol and injured at least 17 people, Ukrainian officials said. Police and soldiers rushed to the scene to evacuate victims, carrying out a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says leaders of the military alliance will make a decision by June on transforming its massive defence buildup in the Baltics and Eastern Europe into a more permanent presence and boosting its ability for rapid response to crises.
Mr. Stoltenberg, the top civilian at the 30-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, told an Ottawa defence conference that Russia’s military assault on Ukraine will require longer-term changes at the 72-year-old alliance.
More Ukraine-related news and analysis from The Globe’s journalists:
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday and promised to send more military equipment to Ukraine, including cameras for surveillance drones, political correspondent Marieke Walsh reports from Berlin.
- Reporter Emma Graney in Helsinki describes how hundreds of Russians have fled for Finland, a country with its own conflict-ridden history with Moscow.
- Business reporter Susan Krashinsky Robertson writes that Rogers Communications Inc. has told Canada’s broadcast regulator it supports pulling TV channels off the air when they are owned by a country subject to Canadian sanctions, including but not limited to Russian state-owned news channel RT.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ontario lifting COVID-19 mask mandates in most public settings, including schools, on March 21
In announcing the decision, Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, said loosening restrictions will likely result in more cases and hospitalizations, but that the province’s high vaccination rate and access to antiviral medications should help manage the virus.
- Listen to The Decibel: This doctor wants to write prescriptions for housing
B.C. urged to expand safe supply drug programs after increase in overdose deaths
A panel struck to examine the deaths of thousands of British Columbians from toxic illicit drugs is recommending the province rapidly expand access to a safer drug supply and develop a governance framework with clear goals and targets to hold health officials accountable.
Shackleton’s ship Endurance found beneath Antarctic ice, more than 100 years later
The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank some 3,000 metres to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found, a team searching for it said on Wednesday.
MARKET WATCH
U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday led by financial and tech shares, rebounding from several down days as oil prices pulled back sharply after fanning inflationary fears and investors gauged developments in the Ukraine crisis. The S&P 500 posted its biggest one-day percentage gain since June 2020, while the Nasdaq tallied its biggest rise since March, 2021.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 653.61 points, or 2 per cent, to 33,286.25, the S&P 500 gained 107.18 points, or 2.57 per cent, to 4,277.88 and the Nasdaq Composite added 460.00 points, or 3.59 per cent, to 13,255.55. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 261.20 points or 1.2 per cent to 21,493.23.
The Canadian dollar traded for 78 cents US compared with 77.72 cents US on Tuesday.
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TALKING POINTS
Andrew Coyne: “There is no rule book for these things. Maybe Vladimir Putin’s red line is direct involvement of NATO forces. But who’s to say he might not decide to draw the line somewhere else – at supplying weapons, say? Or at sanctions, which he has already described as being ‘akin to a declaration of war?’ Suppose he did: Would we withdraw them?
The point is not that we have to be willing to call his bluff. It is that we already are. Put it this way: Why hasn’t Mr. Putin drawn the line before this? Why wait until no-fly zones? Why not demand the West pay him $1-trillion, while he’s at it, or he blows the place up? Because he knows not to make a threat he’s not prepared to deliver on. He’s not the only one with nukes. It may be true, as some suggest, that he has a greater appetite for risk than we do. But unless the risk to him is zero – unless he knows with certainty we won’t retaliate – then he faces his own risk calculus.”
Fen Hampson and Janice Gross Stein: “So far there is no evidence that Russian nuclear forces have taken steps to increase their readiness, and skeptics insist that Mr. Putin and his colleagues are bluffing in order to deter NATO. But Russia’s military doctrine sets a lower threshold for the use of tactical weapons than does NATO, in part because Russia’s forces are vastly outnumbered by NATO’s collective military manpower and firepower. Mr. Putin knows that he is outgunned, and is frustrated that the invasion of Ukraine is proving to be a much tougher battle than he was led to believe, due to the extraordinary bravery of Ukrainian fighters and the massive airlift of supplies by the United States and its allies to Ukraine. If Mr. Putin is backed into a corner, it is possible that he may resort to using tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield.”
LIVING BETTER
The 20 best Toronto movies ever made
On the screen, Toronto can be Chicago, New York, Hong Kong, even Kandahar. But in those rare opportunities where Toronto gets to play itself, what image does the “world-class” city offer to audiences at home and abroad? What is, even, a “Toronto movie”?
With the release of Turning Red and Scarborough, Film Editor Barry Hertz has a good excuse to suggest the 20 best Toronto movies ever made.
TODAY’S LONG READ
The International Space Station orbiting above the Tyrrhenian Sea on Dec. 6, 2021.The Associated Press
Globe science writer Ivan Semeniuk reports on the uncertain future of the International Space Station, the multination orbital outpost where seven crew members – two Russians, four Americans and one German – are working and living in close quarters.
The facility has never had to weather a schism as bad as the one that now divides Russia from the rest of the station’s partners, including the United States, Canada, Japan and the 22 member countries of the European Space Agency.
Evening Update is compiled by Tu Thanh Ha. 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.