Good morning, and happy new year. Before we settle firmly into 2025 (!), let’s take a last look at some of the enduring images of 2024, captured by The Globe’s photographers – that’s below, along with the biggest changes in personal finance and promising data for drug overdose deaths. But first:
Today’s headlines
- Police look for a motive in the New Orleans truck rampage
- Canada’s chief electoral officer wants a crackdown on ballot-related protests
- A beloved teen was killed by his classmate. A year later, a cloud of mistrust still hangs over their PEI town
The Northern Lights in Ontario in October.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
So long, 2024
Snapping into focus
2024 brought with it elections, protests, war, wildfires, hurricanes, pilgrimages, high-profile resignations, the Paris Olympics, many Taylor Swift concerts and a pretty decent solar eclipse. It also took The Globe’s staff photographers across the country – to the eastern edge of Lake Superior, where Algoma Steel is going electric; to the remote Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation in Manitoba, where diabetes runs rampant – as well as to some of the most dangerous corners of the world. The photos they sent back capture the celebrations, breakthroughs, heartache and loss of the past year.
A few of those shots were entirely serendipitous. In October, photographer Fred Lum – who marked his 40th anniversary as a staff photographer in 2024 – happened to be at his cabin up north in Ontario when a text from his partner came through: He should head outside immediately for an incredible display of the Northern Lights. “Because I bring my camera everywhere, I hurriedly set up the tripod and started taking photographs,” Lum says. Turns out there wasn’t much need to rush – he spent a total of seven hours under the aurora borealis, snapping pictures of the shifting lights and just enjoying the show.
You’ll find one of Lum’s shots from that night above, and you can read more below about our photographers’ most memorable images of 2024.
Kevin Nadarajah and Shakina Rajendram – with son Adrial and daughter Adiah – celebrated the twins’ second birthdays last March.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Last March, Melissa Tait travelled to Pickering, Ont., to attend the second birthday party of two adorable world-record holders. Adiah and Adrial Nadarajah were born 22 weeks and zero days into their mother’s pregnancy, the most prematurely born twins ever to survive. Adiah emerged at 1:22 a.m. on March 4, 2022, weighing 330 grams, or a little less than a can of pop. Adrial followed about 20 minutes later, weighing 420 grams.
Now, Adrial – the risk-taker of the pair – is walking with confidence, something doctors feared he might never do. And though the past two years have not been without their challenges, Kevin Nadarajah and Shakina Rajendram told Tait that they’re relieved to feel like typical parents. “Instead of worrying about medications and constant appointments, they worry about toddler tantrums and which toy the kids are fighting over,” Tait says.
A Haitian gang member at a gas station in Mariani, outside Port-au-Prince.GORAN TOMASEVIC/The Globe and Mail
Goran Tomasevic has photographed conflict and crisis around the world for three decades, and in 2024, he spent more than 60 days covering the gang takeover in Haiti – perhaps the hardest assignment of his life, he says. Civil authority has collapsed across much of the country and especially in the capital, allowing armed groups to kill, rape and steal with impunity. Just getting into Port-au-Prince – where the international airport is closed because gang members had started shooting at the planes – proved to be a struggle. Tomasevic had to go the long way.
First, he flew to the Dominican Republic, crossing the border with Haiti by foot. Then, he caught a ride on a leaky boat until he was within driving distance of the capital. From there, he hired two motorbikes – one for him, one for his cameras – to take him through the mountains and into the city. Most of the fighters Tomasevic photographed wear scarves, balaclavas or even a Ghost Face mask from the Scream films to hide their faces, so they’ll be harder to prosecute if law and order in Haiti are ever restored.
Residents were scarce in southern Lebanon last October, but animals remained.Goran Tomasevic/The Globe and Mail
In October, after Israel intensified its attacks on Lebanon, Tomasevic spent three weeks in the country capturing the devastation and displacement. He began at the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, travelled north past Beirut to reach Maaysrah in the mountains, moved south through the ancient port city of Tyre, then returned with his local fixer to the south. By then, residents had largely fled, leaving their animals – like the horse above – to wander the abandoned streets. “It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in past assignments,” Tomasevic says, “a horse inside a store stall. Just surreal.”
Algoma Steel’s No. 7 furnace takes in iron ore, limestone and coke and turns out the red-hot iron used to make steel.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Photo and video journalist Deborah Baic returned in June to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where she grew up, to document Algoma Steel’s $825-million project to go electric. After 120 years making steel – and sending black dust downwind to blanket homes, cars and backyards in nearby neighbourhoods – the company is modernizing its mill to be powered by the grid. Once upgraded, the plant will dispense with its blast furnaces, which use coal to melt iron into steel and leave behind a giant carbon footprint. Instead, Algoma will harness scrap metal and a massive charge of electricity to produce what’s known in the industry as green steel. When it’s fully operational, the project is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 70 per cent, or three million tonnes each year.
The Chart
‘It’s not something we can hang our hat on yet’
Drug overdose deaths are falling across Canada, including in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, where the majority of fatalities take place. Researchers aren’t yet sure what’s behind the decline but say it’s a good reminder to strengthen interventions that are known to work, such as access to addiction services and overdose-reversing naloxone medication. Read more about the numbers here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: It’s a bad start to the year for wind and solar farms – Alberta’s new energy regulations will put renewables at an even bigger disadvantage.
Abroad: Foreign affairs experts and business leaders agree: Donald Trump represents “the most serious threat” to Canada’s economic prosperity since the Second World War.
Big change: All sorts of new rates and rules for personal finance come into effect this year, including adjusted tax brackets, anti-home-flipping fees and public dental care for everyone eligible.
Big gains: A tech boom in the weight room means AI is now telling us how many dumbbell presses to do. It’s working.
Big reveal: Five years after shutting down @SussexRoyal, Meghan Markle has returned to Instagram – and somehow managed to snag the handle @Meghan.