Morning Update: Russian claim of 162 dead Canadian ‘mercenaries’ lacks evidence

Good morning,

Jordan Mullins doesn’t know exactly what hit him – he only remembers the pain he felt when shrapnel punctured his left calf.

Mullins, a 26-year-old from Oshawa, Ont., was fighting in Ukraine when his unit encountered a Russian armoured personnel carrier during a recent battle for a “coastal city” that Mullins prefers not to name. He said he and his unit – a volunteer formation known as the Georgian Legion, made up primarily of fighters from the country of Georgia – were “bounding across a street” when the Russians opened fire.

Now recuperating back home in Canada, Mullins is proof that there are Canadians fighting on the front lines in Ukraine. But he nonetheless scoffs at a claim by Russia’s Defence Ministry last week that 162 Canadians have been killed in the four-month-old war.

According to the Russian figures, which are unsupported by any evidence, 601 Canadians have travelled to Ukraine to fight, a number second only to the 1,831 Poles who are said to have signed up. The United States, Romania and Britain are claimed to have more than 500 citizens fighting in Ukraine. The numbers are likely intended for domestic consumption – as “proof” that Russia is fighting not only Ukraine, but also NATO and the West.

• Port of Odesa hit by missile attack as Russian forces advance in eastern Ukraine
• Canadian-made drones show promising new technology for demining efforts in Ukraine
• Nobel sold for Ukrainian kids shatters record at $103.5-million

Open this photo in gallery:

This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for Morning Update and more than 20 other Globe newsletters on our newsletter signup page.

Re-opening Keystone pipeline talks won’t address current high oil prices, Yellen says following meeting with Freeland

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have pledged to help central banks tackle inflation by cutting back on deficit spending, but Yellen was cool to reopening Keystone pipeline talks as a way to reduce oil prices.

The two politicians made the comments yesterday, during a day of events in Toronto that included private meetings, a public, hour-long armchair discussion and an afternoon news conference.

Consumer prices on both sides of the border are rising at the fastest pace in decades – pushed higher in recent months by surging oil prices. High inflation is eroding wages and forcing the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada to rapidly increase interest rates in an effort to cool down demand.

Why housing costs are driving up inflation, despite the real-estate downturn

Canada’s housing market is plunging as higher interest rates scare off potential buyers. Even so, the effects of the slowdown are not showing up in the country’s red-hot inflation numbers.

As the real-estate sector cools, the cost of owning or renting a home is climbing rapidly in the consumer price index (CPI), Statistics Canada’s go-to measure of inflation. The cost of shelter rose 7.4 per cent in April, the largest annual gain since 1983.

The increase can be pinned on several factors, from rising home energy costs to how Statscan measures the price changes facing homeowners. Making matters tougher, the housing sector is likely to continue putting upward pressure on inflation – in part because mortgage rates are rising to multiyear highs and rents are soaring in urban centres.

Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop

Also on our radar

Canada commits billions to modernize NORAD defences: The Canadian government has pledged $4.9-billion over six years to help upgrade North America’s air defences, addressing the growing threat posed by hypersonic missiles and advanced cruise missile technology developed by Russia and China.

Videos of killing of Nova Scotia mass shooter released: Videos of Nova Scotia RCMP officers fatally shooting the perpetrator of one of the worst mass killings in modern Canadian history have been released to the public. The decision yesterday from the commissioners of a public inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting reversed their previous decision to shield the videos from publication.

Liberals propose another year of hybrid Parliament: The Liberal government is proposing that MPs be allowed to participate virtually in House of Commons business for another year. Government House Leader Mark Holland announced the plan to preserve “hybrid Parliament” privileges yesterday.

• Campbell Clark: Time to wind down the hybrid Parliament

Rogers’ planned sale of Freedom enters federal review: Federal regulators kicked off their review of Rogers Communications Inc.’s planned sale of cellphone service Freedom Mobile to Quebecor Inc. yesterday, as Bay Street endorsed a deal seen as paving the way for Rogers’ proposed takeover of Shaw Communications Inc.

Hockey Canada executives testify about alleged assault by players: Two Hockey Canada executives say they do not know the identities of the Canadian Hockey League players who are alleged to have sexually assaulted a young woman in 2018. Officials were invited to testify before the Commons heritage committee about their organization’s response to allegations that eight CHL players sexually assaulted a woman after a Hockey Canada Foundation gala and golf event.

Scientists gain important climate data from ice core: Scientists at the University of Alberta brought home a 327-metre-long ice core this week, extracted from the glacier at the summit of Mt. Logan, the country’s tallest peak. The ice core is the longest and most pristine ever obtained from the mountaintop, and its frozen layers are believed to encase up to 30,000 years of past climate history.

France risks political gridlock after hung parliament: President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist grouping is under pressure to secure support from rivals to salvage his reform agenda after weekend elections delivered a hung parliament. If the effort fails, France could face a long spell of political paralysis.

• Konrad Yakabuski: French legislative vote casts a dark shadow on Macron’s second term
• Israel to dissolve parliament, call fifth election in three years
• Colombia’s new leftist president Gustavo Petro faces challenges to deliver on promised change

Morning markets

Slight recovery in global markets: World stock markets edged higher on Tuesday, but experts predict it’s a pause in the ongoing trend as recession worries keep investors cautious. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.67 per cent. France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX grew 1.72 per cent and 1.17 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei advanced 1.84 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.87 per cent. U.S. markets reopened today with higher futures. The Canadian dollar was trading at 77.41 U.S. cents.

What everyone’s talking about

Editorial: “According to a City of Toronto estimate from March, staging five [World Cup] games will cost a mere $290-million, split among the province, the feds and the city. Toronto will be on the hook for $93.8-million (before cost overruns). So pencil in a bill to city taxpayers somewhere north of $100-million. Maybe a lot more: in 2018, Toronto estimated a cost of $30-million to $45-million. That’s inflation of more than 100 per cent, in four years. To govern is to choose. Is this really the right choice?”

Jessica Davis: “... we have to accept the realpolitik of the situation: To stop a humanitarian catastrophe and to help refugees, we have to accept some benefit to the Taliban. The amount of aid from Canadian organizations is unlikely to make or break the Taliban, but a continued refusal to allow this aid to be delivered will most certainly mean that Afghans, including prospective Canadian refugees, are suffering unnecessarily.”

Today’s editorial cartoon

Open this photo in gallery:

Living better

Here’s how to start working out again after a break

Thoughtful and consistent effort may be the not-so-secret recipe for achieving your fitness goals, but we have to make room for unplanned interruptions. Whether it’s an illness, an injury, or a major life event that takes up all your mental and physical bandwidth, bouncing back after an extended layoff can feel like an onerous task. It doesn’t have to, though. Here’s a strategy to rebuild all that lost momentum whenever your workout schedule comes screeching to a halt.

Moment in time: June 21, 1948

Open this photo in gallery:

Columbia Records announces new long-playing record

Not all records were made to be broken. On this day in 1948, at a news conference at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, CBS board chairman Ted Wallerstein announced that Columbia Records had come up with a new “long-playing” record format that would spin at 33⅓ revolutions per minute (RPM), to be made from unbreakable Vinylite. The industry standard at the time was 78 RPM discs made of brittle shellac. More important than the LP’s durability was its capacity to hold as much as 22½ minutes of music per side, compared with 78s, which had room for only five. It was a revolution in revolutions. The LPs were cheaper to purchase too: Where a package of five 78s containing a complete symphony would cost more than $7, one 12-inch LP featuring that same symphony would cost less than $5. The first vinyl 33⅓ disc issued was Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor played by Nathan Milstein with Bruno Walter conducting the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York. The new album format was a hit; the last U.S.-made 78 record was produced in 1959. Brad Wheeler

Read today's horoscopes. Enjoy today's puzzles.

If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday morning, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.