Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Europe’s senior diplomat Josep Borrell are visiting the Middle East today in a new push to stop the war in Gaza from spilling over to the West Bank and surrounding areas.
Their visits are taking place three months after Hamas militants attacked Israel, setting off a military offensive from Israel that has killed 22,600 people, according to Palestinian officials. Israel says 8,000 militants have been killed in their efforts and has announced a more targeted approach under global pressure to limit civilian casualties. However, Gazans still report Israeli air strikes targeting densely populated areas in the centre of the coastal strip.
The conflict has led to one of the deadliest years for journalists. By Dec. 31, at least 77 journalists and other media workers had been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That’s out of a total of 95 killed globally last year.
Meanwhile, Palestinians seeking safety in southern Gaza say every day has become a struggle to find basic necessities such as food, water, medicine and working bathrooms.
- As Israel seeks allies’ support against UN genocide charge, Canada won’t say whether it will intervene in case
- Opinion: When protests become acts of intimidation
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Canada’s job growth stalls in December, while wages accelerate
Canada added just 100 net new job positions in December, according to Statistics Canada. That’s a far cry from the 13,500 jobs economists expected employers to add last month, according to a Reuters poll. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, held steady at 5.8 per cent.
The labour market stall at the end of 2023 is part of a broader slowdown in the economy as high interest rates weighed on consumer spending and business investment.
A weakening labour market could lead the Bank of Canada to start cutting interest rates in the coming quarters. But the central bank remains wary of rapid wage growth, which can feed into inflation.
- Opinion: Why the BoC will be forced into cutting rates sooner – and to lower levels – than most people think
FDA allows Florida to import Canadian drugs, but Canada unlikely to support it
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way today for Florida to import pharmaceuticals from Canada.
The state has been seeking to import prescription drugs from Canada since 2019 as a way to access cheaper medications.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
U.S. Supreme Court to decide on Trump ballot issue: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of a judicial decision barring the former president from the state’s Republican primary ballot, taking up a politically explosive case with major implications for the 2024 presidential election.
Pistorius freed on parole: Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius was released from prison today after serving nearly nine years for killing his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp.
Russia fires North Korean missiles at Ukraine: Russia has hit Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion, a senior Kyiv official said on Friday, corroborating an earlier assertion by the U.S. White House.
NRA chief resigns before trial: The long-time head of the National Rifle Association said Friday he is resigning, just days before the start of a civil trial over allegations he diverted millions of dollars from the gun rights organization to pay for personal travel and perks.
Iran arrests 11 suspects over bomb blasts: Iranian authorities said today that security forces had arrested 11 people suspected of involvement in two bomb blasts that killed nearly 100 people at a memorial service for a slain military commander. The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Maersk is diverting all container vessels from Red Sea routes: The company is warning customers of major disruptions. Shippers around the world are switching away from the Red Sea – and therefore avoiding the shortest route from Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal. Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have been stepping up attacks on vessels in the Gulf region to show their support for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fighting Israel in Gaza.
MARKET WATCH
U.S. stock indexes endured a topsy-turvy session on Friday but ultimately closed marginally higher, as investors absorbed the latest macroeconomic data which offered contrasting views on when interest rate cuts may begin.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 25.77 points at 37,466.11. The S&P 500 index was up 8.56 points at 4,697.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 13.77 points at 14,524.07.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 66.20 points at 20,937.55.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.92 US cents compared with 74.88 US cents on Thursday.
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TALKING POINTS
Attacks on Trump from main rivals suggest Republican presidential race has entered a desperate phase
“With the Iowa caucuses, the first test of the 2024 Republican primaries, a little more than a week away, Donald Trump’s principal rivals for the party nomination have begun to open fire on the former president. The ceasefire that has been in effect for almost a year suddenly seems over.” – David Shribman
Hate not, for humanity is our tribe
“For many of us, we feel we are almost herded into sides and tribes. But what if our tribe is simply that of humanity? In the end, all the death and destruction won’t change the fact that we all share this shrinking planet. Even the most ardent allegiance to my side won’t alter that plain terrestrial reality.” – Dany H. Assaf
Big Tech really is stealing our content, only it’s not who you think
“But all the while the industry has been embarrassing itself with this nonsense, Big Tech really has been stealing our content. Only instead of search and social media, the villain this time is OpenAI, developer of the wildly popular ChatGPT, and other purveyors of artificial intelligence-based chatbots, trained on billions of pages of text scraped from the web – much of it from news sites.” – Andrew Coyne
The Liberals are running out of time to Poilievre-proof the CBC
“There was a time when the CBC provided a forum for rich and spirited democratic debate, where experts and ordinary citizens holding diverse points of view could express them freely. Those days are long over. But a reimagined CBC could still play a unifying role in Canadian democracy.” – Konrad Yakabuski
LIVING BETTER
Nine notable Canadians share their secrets to success
A key ingredient to success is often boldness. We asked a Grammy nominee, a fashion trailblazer, an Olympic-bound surfer and more how they surprised themselves in 2023 and how they deal with failure. Singer-songwriter Allison Russell’s way of dealing with failure is “by taking ego out of it. So often, when people feel a paralyzing sense of failure, it’s about insecurities.” Read the full story.
TODAY’S LONG READ
How a guy from New Brunswick turned Canadian culture into an Instagram sensation
John Batt poses for a photo before the first of two live comedy shows at the Owl’s Club, an old legion hall in Toronto, Dec. 2, 2023.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
John Batt runs Instagram account @canada.gov.ca, where he shares a tongue-in-cheek version of Canadiana. His posts are filled with niche regional trivia and historical narratives that have slipped past traditional historians. It’s the kind of place where followers can learn about everything from Pierre Trudeau’s dating life to the history of ParticipACTION exercise-promotion commercials. In doing this, Batt has become an accidental historian – and cultural curator. Batt speaks to The Globe’s Josh O’Kane on building his following and why despite it all, he’s not traditionally patriotic. “I’m not a pro-Canada account; I’m a pro-Canadian account,” he says.
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.