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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a defiant tone in response to U.S. President Joe Biden’s pledge to stop at least some shipments of weapons to Israel if the country proceeds with plans to invade the city of Rafah.
Despite pressure from the U.S., Israel’s long-time ally and military supplier, the Israeli army bombarded parts of the outskirts of the city on Friday. Rafah, the biggest Gazan population centre not overrun by Israeli forces, is where Palestinians displaced from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip have gathered. Israeli officials have said Hamas fighters are hiding in Rafah, and that a military operation in the city is necessary to achieve Israel’s stated aim of defeating the militant group.
In a video statement Netanyahu vowed Israel would plow ahead with or without U.S. support. “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he said. “If we must, we shall fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than our fingernails.”
Read more:
- Jewish students testify that they feel unsafe on Canadian university campuses, with some hiring private security
- Police in riot gear order pro-Palestinian protesters to leave University of Calgary
- Israeli strike kills Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon; group responds with drones
- Opinion: Hamas is in trouble with Palestinians in Gaza
- UN to vote on resolution that would grant Palestine new rights and revive membership bid
Palestinians work to remove debris following an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on May 9, 2024.Hatem Khaled/Reuters
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Canadian Cancer Society calls for routine breast screening at 40
Canada’s largest cancer charity is urging provinces and territories to offer mammograms at age 40 in order to save lives and appease a growing appetite for earlier interventions.
Breast screening has become a highly charged and divisive topic that has been in the spotlight in recent months, following a draft decision by a national U.S. task force to call for mammograms starting at age 40. That decision was finalized with the publication of new guidelines last month.
A radiologist uses a magnifying glass to check mammograms for breast cancer in Los Angeles on May 6, 2010.Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press
Midwives, faced with Canada’s gaps in maternity care, say they could be doing more to close them
A growing chorus of medical experts who specialize in pregnancy care and childbirth say midwives are in a unique position to help provinces alleviate the strain of an ongoing shortage of family physicians while providing high-quality care.
In 2021, nearly 1,900 midwives provided care during 48,420 births, up from 40,939 in 2019. In Ontario, nearly one in five births (18 per cent) was supported by a midwife in 2022, up from 16 per cent in 2015-16.
Midwives are health professionals who provide care during pregnancy, labour and during the postpartum period, typically for women who have low-risk pregnancies. Unlike obstetricians, midwives typically visit individuals in their homes and can facilitate either home births or hospital births. But some midwives say they aren’t being properly utilized and can’t work to their full potential because they aren’t always recognized or compensated in the same way as other health professionals.
Carmi Magnaye is attended to by midwife Mahnaz Donyadideh-Torei, left, while giving birth to her third child at home in Toronto, on Feb. 10, 2022.
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Also on our radar
FinTRAC fines crypto firm Binance $6-million over anti-money laundering shortfalls: Canada’s anti-money-laundering agency has imposed a roughly $6-million fine on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance Holdings Ltd., the first monetary penalty issued by the financial-intelligence unit against a virtual currency trading platform.
Court hears how Winnipeg man killed, dismembered, disposed of four First Nations women: Forensic evidence about how and when exactly a man killed, dismembered and disposed of the bodies of four First Nations women in 2022 was presented in a Winnipeg superior court for the first time on Thursday.
Canada’s oldest power plants are getting major facelifts to bring them into the 21st century: Dams still generate about 60 per cent of Canada’s electricity, four times the global average, but they require overhauls roughly every 25 to 40 years to keep them in service.
Antitrust watchdog to study competition in Canadian airline industry: The federal antitrust watchdog is launching a study of airline competition in Canada, three months after the shutdown of low-cost carrier Lynx Air.
Afghan family of Operation Abraham co-founder finally makes it to Canada: ‘The biggest joy of my life’: The Globe and Mail first met with the Samims in November, 2022, when they were living in a squalid room in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, praying that they would be resettled in Canada. More than two years later, after persistent advocacy by Operation Abraham, they have arrived and are starting their new lives in Ottawa.
Rex Murphy, veteran broadcaster and proud Newfoundlander, dead at 77: Rex Murphy, the irascible, irrepressibly proud son of Newfoundland who parlayed a cutting wit and generous spirit into a decades-long career as a broadcaster and columnist, died Thursday of cancer at the age of 77.
Which company set off a storm of outrage this week with a “shockingly bad” commercial that featured a massive compressor crushing musical instruments and works of art?
a) OpenAI
b) Spotify
c) Apple
d) Red Bull
Morning markets
Global shares rose to one-month highs on Friday while the dollar held steady, giving commodities a boost, after softer U.S. jobs data gave investors confidence that interest rates will start to decline this year.
In morning trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.8 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.62 per cent and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.82 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.41 per cent higher at 38,229.11, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 2.3 per cent to 18,963.68.
The Canadian dollar traded at 73.05 U.S. cents.
What everyone’s talking about
The economy we have taken for granted is not coming back
“The world is engulfed in an ever-escalating global trade war. Virtually every day, new sanctions are being imposed, triggering reciprocal actions against Western goods. Where will this lead? Can the West still win such wars, as it has done before? If not, what are the consequences of losing?” – Jeff Rubin
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
Ten wines to enjoy as part of Mother’s Day celebrations
Various wines will likely be served this coming Mother’s Day. There are different preferences to consider – including year-round rosé devotees, many aromatic white-wine fans and surprisingly few red drinkers. Those inclinations guide which bottles will be opened before, during or after the meal. The meal is often an afterthought. Christopher Waters’s assumption is the wines available will work with the variety of flavours on people’s plates; certain wines will work better than others.
For this weekend’s celebration of mothers and inspirational mom types, he has yet to decide. His mood and the weather forecast will factor into the final selections. The short list includes these 10 wines that have impressed in recent tastings or through past performances. Some are new releases, others such as Henkell Trocken and the Belleruche red have been served countless times before. As Waters writes, each is an opportunity to spread more cheer on a special occasion.
Moment in time: May 10, 1996
Disaster strikes on Mount Everest
U.S. climber Jonathan R. Krakauer, 42, a writer from Seattle, speaks to journalists on May 16, 1994, after he was flown to Kathmandu from Mount Everest.DEVENDRA M. SINGH/Getty Images
Twenty mountaineers clambered toward the sunny apex of Mount Everest on this day in 1996, unaware that a deadly storm was approaching. Journalist and climber Jon Krakauer, who had summited Everest earlier that day and returned to camp, chronicled the harrowing events that then unfolded. In an article and later a book, Into Thin Air, he described in painstaking detail how hurricane-force winds suddenly whipped up and a blizzard blinded his fellow climbers. Oxygen-starved, exhausted and freezing in the -73 C (-100 F) wind chill, several of them became incapacitated during the descent and lost their way. Some were located and ushered to safety. But in the end, eight climbers – two Americans, two New Zealanders, one Japanese and three members of an Indo-Tibetan Border Police team – died. Mr. Krakauer’s description of the traffic jam of climbers that day prompted criticism about the commercialization of climbing Earth’s highest mountain. “With so many marginally qualified climbers flocking to Everest these days,” he wrote, “a lot of people believed that a tragedy of this magnitude was overdue.” The situation has not improved. Outside magazine described the 2023 climbing season on Everest as a “chaotic mess”; there were 18 fatalities. Danielle Adams.
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