Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Justin Trudeau announces pact with NDP to keep Liberals in power until 2025
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a deal has been struck with the NDP to prop up the minority Liberal government until 2025 in exchange for parliamentary co-operation and progress on key NDP policies, including an income-based dental care program, and issues such as housing and climate change.
Trudeau held an early Tuesday morning news conference to announce the Liberal-NDP pact that commits the New Democrats to pass its budget bills and to vote with the government on any non-confidence motions that could lead to a general election
- Explainer: What is the Liberal-NDP deal? The supply-and-confidence agreement explained
- Paul Wells: With his deal with the NDP, Justin Trudeau gets to go back to sunny ways
- Lori Turnbull: The Liberal-NDP deal is all about politics, not policy – for both sides
Today in Ukraine
Members of the Territorial Defense Forces participate in training exercises, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 22, 2022.STRINGER/Reuters
Ukrainian forces fought off continuing Russian efforts to occupy Mariupol and claimed to have retaken a strategic suburb of Kyiv, mounting a defence that it is stoking fears Russia’s Vladimir Putin will escalate the war to new heights.
Former U.S. military commanders who are critical of NATO’s passive stand in the Ukraine war are now calling for humanitarian airlifts to Kyiv and other cities facing Russian attacks.
At the same time, Georgia’s aspiration to join NATO was underscored this week by the country’s joint military exercises with the Western alliance, as Russia, which occupies about a fifth of Georgian territory, escalated its attacks on Ukraine.
From Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador has launched a recruitment campaign encouraging Ukrainian war refugees to relocate to the Rock. Newfoundland is the first Canadian jurisdiction to send officials to Poland to actively recruit refugees, but it’s far from alone.
On Energy: The European Union is moving toward the joint purchase of natural gas and ensuring its storage facilities are nearly full to try to avoid another crisis tied to its dependency on Russian energy.
Also: Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny urged his supporters to show their opposition to the Russian government after a court sentenced him to nine years in prison on Tuesday for fraud and contempt.
Opinion
- The United Nations can use its blue helmets to save lives in Ukraine
- Will Putin use nuclear weapons in Ukraine?
- ‘Sister city’ relationships in the spotlight after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
With no survivors found after China Eastern Airlines crash, investigators searching for answers
Two thousand emergency workers and soldiers scoured a mountain in China’s Guangxi province on Tuesday, picking through a plane wreckage and surveying the site by drone in hopes of finding answers to what caused the country’s first air disaster in more than 10 years.
There is no sign of survivors from the crash of China Eastern Airlines flight 5735, officials said at an evening news conference in Wuzhou, a city near where the plane came down. All that remained of the 132 people on board appears to be a handful of burned and damaged ID documents, wallets and other personal belongings scattered across the crash site and surrounding jungle, along with badly mangled sections of fuselage.
Boeing had been making efforts to regain ground in the world’s biggest aircraft market and deliver more than 140 of the 737 Max jets already constructed for Chinese customers. The crash on Monday does not have the equipment that led to 737 Max crashes more than three years ago, but that may not make a difference to Chinese passengers and a national regulator known for scrupulous safety requirements.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Catholic religious order to open Rome archives for search of Canadian residential school records: The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have agreed to grant the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation full access to their records in the Italian city.
Peter Nygard set to be extradited to U.S. after Canadian case completed: The former Canadian fashion mogul is set to be extradited to the U.S. to faces sex-related charges there, once his criminal case In Canada is completed. The extradition request laid out allegations from seven complainants who are expected to testify at his trial in that country.
Pfizer to sell up to four million courses of COVID-19 pills to UNICEF this year: The deal accounts for just over 3 per cent of Pfizer’s projected production of 120 million Paxlovid courses for this year. The company said the 95 countries covered in the UNICEF deal account for around 53 per cent of the world’s population.
MARKET WATCH
The TSX rose to another record high on Tuesday, as tech shares also rallied, including a 6% rise in shares of heavyweight Shopify. It was the sixth day in a row that the Canadian benchmark closed higher. Financial shares also advanced in both the U.S. and Canada, as government bond yields continued their ascent to multi-year highs.
U.S. stocks meanwhile, ended higher, led by a sharp gain in the Nasdaq, as technology and shares of other big growth names rebounded from recent losses and Nike rose after it reported upbeat results. According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 51.38 points to end at 4,512.56 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 270.91 points to 14,109.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 263.63 points to 34,816.62.
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TALKING POINTS
Appointing a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court opens the door to better jurisprudence
Antara Haldar: “Far from being a tokenistic nod to left-wing identity politics (as right-wing critics inevitably will contend), Judge Jackson’s appointment would reinforce an essential but undertheorized feature of well-functioning legal systems: affective appeal.”
In India, the government’s election machine is humming – but the economy and democracy are at risk
Sanjay Ruparelia: “The BJP vowed to turn India into a great power. But these geopolitical dilemmas, on the back of its democratic backsliding and faltering economic transformation, have lessened the country’s strategic autonomy.”
LIVING BETTER
Lower daycare fees may remain years away for many parents
For some, the federal government’s push for universal $10-a-day child care has been the difference between struggling to pay the bills and knowing she can now reliably make the rent. Ottawa’s aim is to drive down the cost of child care in regulated spaces for children under the age of 6. But the uneven pace of the federal plan rollout across the country and severe shortages of child-care spaces and staff mean many families are wondering whether they will be able to access subsidized care while their kids are young enough to be eligible for it.
As provincial and territorial governments begin to lay the foundations for the child-care plan, people like Maria Rodriguez’s experience is far from universal. Read her story, and others who are worried about falling through the cracks.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Photo shows the male narwhal that joined the group of belugas in the St. Lawrence River, taken in 2016.Robert Michaud/Supplied
Is this the year a narluga will be conceived?
During a routine observation of the St. Lawrence River beluga whales in 2016, marine biologist Robert Michaud noticed the pod had acquired a peculiar straggler.
Swimming with the belugas was a male narwhal: a spiral-tusked, 2,000-pound mammal whose kind is seldom seen wandering this far south of the Arctic Ocean. To Mr. Michaud, the visitor clearly stood out from the pack for his obvious tusk, mottled grey complexion and deeper vocalizations. The narwhal is also showing interest in mating with a beluga. Is this the year a narluga will be conceived?
Evening Update is written by Sierra Bein. 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.