Presidents and CEOs Tom Enders, left, and Alain Bellemare of Airbus and Bombardier, respectively, examine a Bombardier C Series jet during a joint news conference in Colomiers, France, on Tuesday.REGIS DUVIGNAU/Reuters
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Airbus has no plans to buy out Bombardier after C Series partnership
According to the terms of the C Series deal, Airbus had the option to buy out Bombardier in about seven years and the Quebec government in 2023, but Airbus has no plans to do that. The Airbus chief executive said that's not the European giant's plan. The plan is to close the deal that gives Airbus majority control, build a second assembly line in Alabama and sell more aircraft.
Mark Milke, author of multiple reports on subsidies to business, writes on how the Bombardier-Airbus deal exposes the folly of corporate welfare.
Recently, The Globe's Eurpean bureau chief Eric Reguly wrote a column headlined, Airbus takes Bombardier to the cleaners with C Series deal. (for subscribers)
For more coverage of Bombadier and the C Series deal please visit the ROB homepage.
In Ukraine, people power rattles another government
The streets of Kiev are familiar this week with protesters flying anti-government banners as they pitch tents outside parliament vowing to stay until authorities give into their demands. This time demonstrators are angry at billionaire President Petro Poroshenko, who came to power after the 2014 revolution, for not delivering on promises made in 2014 to fight corruption. "Two revolutions, but this country didn't change at all," signed one seasoned demonstrator. But, as Mark MacKinnon writes from Kiev, the revolutions have fundamentally changed the relationship between those in power and the people they govern.
What's killing us: Study finds pollution deadlier than war, disaster, hunger
According to a new report, pollution was responsible for nine million deaths worldwide in 2015. That's three times higher than deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined and 15 times higher than from wars and other violence. The deaths are considered premature because they would otherwise not have occurred without exposure to various forms of pollution. While many of those deaths are in industrializing countries, Canada isn't immune to the harm.
'Weird'-looking Senate carpet cost $7,000 to replace (twice)
A staff member for recently appointed Ontario Senator Lucie Moncion requested a new carpet for her office and then had it torn out and replaced again at a cost of nearly $7,000. The problem was that the carpet was beige instead of red – even though both are standard Senate colours. When asked if replacing a newly installed carpet was a justified use of public resources, Ms Moncion replied: "I don't know. I have no idea. I have no idea how it's done at the Senate."
Border wall prototypes erected in San Diego
The last two of eight prototypes for U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed border wall took shape Thursday at a construction site in San Diego. The prototypes now form a tightly packed row of imposing concrete and metal panels. The models, which cost the U.S. government up to $500,000, must be between 18 and 30 feet high, be able to withstand punishment from a sledgehammer for an hour and be "aesthetically pleasing" from the U.S. side. Here is a look at the different models and the cost.
MARKET WATCH
Canada's main stock index hit its highest mark in almost eight months and recorded its sixth consecutive week of gains. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index rose 0.25 per cent to finish at 15,857.22. On Wall Street, U.S. stocks jumped on news that the Senate passed a budget resolution, leading to hopes that President Donald Trump's tax-cut plan will move ahead. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.71 per cent to 23,328.36, the S&P 500 gained 0.51 per cent to 2,575.17 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.36 per cent to 6,629.05.
WHAT'S TRENDING
Lulu, a doe-eyed black Labrador and CIA recruit for sniffing bombs, just wasn't interested in detecting explosive odours a few weeks into her training. So the CIA cut her from the program, but there is a happy ending. She was adopted by her handler and now has a new job that she definitely enjoys – playing with kids and sniffing out rabbits and squirrels in the yard. The CIA documented Lulu's short journey on Twitter.
TALKING POINTS
Please turn down the volume on the outrage machine
"Please, people. Can't we get a grip? You don't have to be an apologist for Harvey Weinstein to say things aren't quite that bad. And you've got to wonder if the #MeToo meme – as powerful as it is – is going to lead us any closer to solutions. One problem is language creep. There are degrees of harassment and abuse." — Margaret Wente
Hollywood's golden rule: 'Nobody knows anything'
"With all the serious shrapnel that's whizzing around, an everyday marketing question – 'Does it matter if a critic gets the chance to pre-screen a film?' – feels as quaint as asking, 'Are seven-button gloves more fashionable than three-button ones?'
But it's time to ask it again, because this weekend, three major movies – Geostorm, Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween and Same Kind of Different as Me – are opening without advance screenings for critics." – Johanna Schneller
Ontario's increasingly creative hydro accounting
"Ontario's Liberals have a long history of using your tax dollars to lower your hydro bills. They trumpet lower rates, without mentioning that the money suddenly in your right pocket was actually pulled out of your left." – Globe Editorial
LIVING BETTER
If you want to be happy, the answer is simple – move to one of the places that rank among the happiest in the world. In his newest book The Blue Zones of Happiness: Lessons from the World's Happiest People, author Dan Buettner says positive psychology tactics such as mindfulness and cultivating gratitude can increase happiness, but the effects are short-lived. Moving to a place like Denmark, Costa Rica or Singapore automatically boosts happiness because cultural, economic and environmental characteristics nudge people to naturally live lives filled with pleasure, purpose and pride.
LONG READS FOR THE WEEKEND
Invisible angels: Young people caring for their family members go mostly unseen
Abbigail Wright-Gourlay is like many other 14-year-olds with a paper route, but unlike many kids, she is a caregiver to her twin brother, Andrew. Figures are hard to come by, but the number of Canadians between five and 25 caring for a relative with a physical or mental disability is likely more than a million. All those carers have complex social emotional needs of their own that are, at the moment, almost certainly not being met. Elizabeth Renzetti introduces us to some of these young people.
A Home in the Flood
More than two decades ago the Saguenay region in Quebec flooded, levelling an entire neighbourhood and forcing thousands to evacuate, but one house stood nearly unharmed as water rushed around it. The Globe and Mail has invited a group of writers to celebrate the country's history in fiction for the Canada 150 series. This is the story of that house and the woman who lived there by Samuel Archibold, whose book Arvida was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2015.
Evening Update is written by Jordan Chittley and Omair Quadri. 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.