Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
The latest in COVID-19 developments: Canada reports first AstraZeneca-linked blood clot case, U.S. calls for pause on J&J vaccine and more
A Quebec woman is the first in Canada to develop a blood clot after being vaccinated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The province said the patient, whose age was not revealed, is recovering at home, and had received the vaccine produced at the Serum Institute of India, known as Covishield.
The news came as Health Canada said it was investigating reports of clots linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the United States. The U.S. is recommending a “pause” in using that vaccine as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration probe unusual clots in six women that occurred six to 13 days after vaccination.
Internationally, while Canada and other countries grapple with the third wave of the pandemic, Britain has hit a milestone in its vaccination program earlier than expected, allowing the government to ease more lockdown restrictions. The government has announced that everyone over the age of 50 has been offered a vaccine, two days ahead of schedule.
In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King says the goal of reopening the regional travel bubble by April 19 is “precarious,” and he expects a formal announcement after the four premiers meet. That’s bad news for many in PEI’s tourism industry, who were counting on a revival of crucial summer tourism season after a devastating 2020.
Read more:
- Critical-care COVID-19 cases surpass peak of second wave
- When workers comp claims for COVID-19 fall through the cracks, the costs often land on sick employees and taxpayers
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Retail magnate W. Galen Weston dies at age 80
W. Galen Weston, the patriarch of one of the country’s wealthiest families and one of the architects of modern food retailing in Canada, has died at the age of 80.
Through a long career in retail, food distribution and real estate, he helped to build the Loblaw, Choice Properties, Selfridges Group and Weston Foods brands, before retiring as chairman of George Weston Ltd. in 2016. Weston and his wife, former lieutenant-governor of Ontario Hilary Weston, have also been known for their dedication to philanthropy.
Weston, who had faced a long illness, died at home on Monday. In addition to his wife, he leaves son Galen and daughter Alannah.
‘War is already here’: On the Russian border, Ukrainian troops wait for Putin’s big push
The Globe and Mail’s Mark MacKinnon has toured one of the border outposts where Kyiv fears Moscow’s proxy war could turn into an invasion. He reports: “The jagged lines of trenches, pillboxes and pre-dug tank positions stitched through brown farmers’ fields are a reminder of how much has changed in the Russia-Ukraine relationship since 2014, when Moscow seized and annexed Crimea, and sent troops to aid a separatist uprising in Ukraine’s Donbass region.”
Today, U.S. President Joe Biden called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate tensions around Ukraine, the White House said, and proposed a summit meeting in a third country “to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia.”
Update and reaction to the Air Canada relief package
The federal government announced last night that it will take an equity stake in Air Canada as part of a multibillion-dollar pandemic rescue plan for the country’s largest airline. Reaction was swift from analysts and investors, who sent the stock sharply lower in early trading. It closed at $26.88, down 0.44 per cent on the day.
The good news for consumers is that Air Canada has revised its COVID-19 refund policy to cover eligible customers who bought non-refundable airline tickets or vacation packages between Feb. 1, 2020, and April 13, 2021, the company says. It will accept online refund requests until June 12 at www.aircanada.com/refund.
Opinion: Ottawa takes a step toward renationalizing Air Canada - Konrad Yakabuski
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Iran to escalate its nuclear program following sabotage on facility
On the heels of an attack on its Natanz nuclear facility, Iran will begin enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity, pushing its program to higher levels than ever before though still remaining short of weapons-grade.
China warns U.S. ‘not to play with fire’ over Taiwan
China has lodged a complaint after Washington issued guidelines that will enable U.S. officials to meet more freely with officials from Taiwan, which China claims as its own. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said that China is urging the United States “not to play with fire on the Taiwan issue, immediately stop any form of U.S.-Taiwan official contacts, cautiously and appropriately handle the matter, and not send wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces so as not to subversively influence and damage Sino-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Biden plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11
Sources say the withdrawal would be based on certain security and human-rights guarantees. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are expected to brief NATO allies in Brussels on Wednesday. President Biden may also publicly announce his decision, the sources said.
MARKET WATCH
The S&P 500 closed at another record high today and the Nasdaq composite index jumped, as investors shook off concerns about a pause in Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and strong U.S. inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68.13 points or 0.2 per cent to 33,677.27, the S&P 500 gained 13.60 points or 0.33 per cent to 4,141.59 and the Nasdaq Composite added 146.10 points or 1.05 per cent to end at 13,996.10. The S&P/TSX Composite index closed up 2.42 points or 0.01 per cent at 19,203.70.
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TALKING POINTS
Ontario’s COVID-19 strategy: waiting for catastrophe, then enacting preventative measures
Robyn Urback: “Over the course of the past year, Ontario’s government has made a habit of cordoning off train tracks only after massive accidents, seemingly never learning, from one collision to the next, of the importance of paying attention to the lights and sounds in the distance.”
Canadians have tragically tuned out their public-health officials
Gary Mason: “The authority of our public-health officials has also been undermined by fellow medical professionals – epidemiologists, internal-medicine specialists, virus-transmission modelers – who have often publicly challenged their facts and advice.”
To spur the postpandemic recovery, let’s cut the GST
Michael Smart: “A GST cut would encourage consumers to go back into stores and to take vacations, thus unlocking some of the extraordinary level of personal savings accumulated during the pandemic.” Michael Smart is an economics professor at the University of Toronto and co-director of the Finances of the Nation project
LIVING BETTER
Toronto company Treasured builds virtual spaces for museums
Two weeks after Vito Giovannetti pitched his startup Treasured as a platform for turning family histories into virtual museums, the world shut down. Giovannetti and his team soon realized there was a whole other audience for their product: real museums that were physically shuttered and struggling to get online. So the small Toronto-based tech company pivoted from family histories to local stories, and it has now started to bring some of its new projects to digital life.
Globe Craft Club
Bring the vibrant colours of spring indoors all year round by learning how to make paper flowers at the latest Globe Craft Club event. Join host Jana G. Pruden and Chantal Larocque, the New Brunswick artist behind Paper and Peony, this evening at 7 p.m. ET live on Facebook and at tgam.ca/craftclub. Find out here what materials to have on hand, and catch up on other activities in our Facebook group.
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