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Canada picks Liberals, Navy loses fighter jet and Amazon challenges SpaceX

 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

Canada's Liberals, Carney win national election

What happened
Canada's Liberal Party won the most seats in yesterday's national election, securing Prime Minister Mark Carney a full term in office, according to preliminary results this morning. The rare fourth consecutive election victory sealed a remarkable comeback for the Liberals, who trailed the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre, by more than 20 percentage points as recently as January.

Who said what
Carney, 60, became prime minister last month after Justin Trudeau stepped down amid sagging poll numbers. The combination of Trudeau's exit and President Donald Trump's "annexation threats and trade war" fueled the Liberals' "stunning turnaround in fortunes," The Associated Press said. "To say it's unprecedented is not only an understatement," Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams told The Washington Post, "it underplays the magnitude of the shift."

Trump "is trying to break us so that America can own us," Carney said in his victory speech. Canada's "old relationship with the United States" is "over," but "we are over the shock of the American betrayal" and "have many, many other options than the United States to build prosperity for all Canadians." A central banker new to politics, Carney easily won his first-ever seat in Parliament yesterday.

Poilievre — who lost his own seat to a Liberal rival, the CBC/Radio-Canada projected this morning — conceded last night that the Conservatives "didn't quite get over the finish line yet" but focused on its gain of "well over 20 seats." In a "different election," the Conservatives would have been "successful" with their vote share, the BBC said, but the Liberals benefited as voters ditched smaller parties, "especially the left-wing New Democrats." Jagmeet Singh stepped down as NDP leader after losing his seat. 

What next?
As of this morning, it wasn't clear whether the Liberals won a majority, or at least 172 seats — they were on track for at least 168, versus 144 for the Conservatives. "This is a dramatic comeback, but if the Liberals cannot win a majority," McGill University political science professor Daniel Béland told the AP, the "political uncertainty" could "complicate things for them."

 
 
Today's Health Care story

Navy loses $60M fighter jet from aircraft carrier deck

What happened
The U.S. Navy said yesterday that an F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet was "lost at sea" after slipping off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, sending the $60 million aircraft into the Red Sea along with a tractor that was towing it into the ship's hanger bay. One sailor sustained "minor injuries" in the accident, the Navy said.

Who said what
"Initial reports from the scene" indicate that the Truman "made a hard turn" to evade incoming fire from Houthi rebels in Yemen, a maneuver that "contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard," CNN said. It was the "second time in just over four months" that the Truman lost an F/A-18, Task & Purpose said. A missile cruiser from the carrier's strike group "accidentally shot down" that fighter jet in December, forcing both pilots to eject. The Truman also "collided with a cargo ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Egypt" in February, leading to the firing of the aircraft carrier's captain, USA Today said. 

What next?
The Truman strike group, in the Red Sea as part of President Donald Trump's anti-Houthi operation, and its "embarked air wing" remained "fully mission capable," the Navy said. Houthi-controlled television said a U.S. airstrike yesterday hit a prison holding African migrants in Yemen, killing at least 68 people.

 
 
Today's SPACE Story

Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellites

What happened
Amazon last night launched its first 27 Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit. The company aims to have more than 3,200 of the transmitters orbiting about 400 miles above the planet's surface within a few years, competing with SpaceX's dominant Starlink satellite constellation.

Who said what
Amazon made major upgrades since sending two Kuiper test satellites into orbit in 2023, but "there are some things you can only learn in flight," project vice president Rajeev Badyal said. Although Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns a rocket company, Blue Origin, this first batch of satellites was sent into orbit in an Atlas V rocket from the United Launch Alliance. 

The "battle of billionaires in space" has reached the satellite internet arena, though Elon Musk's Starlink has a sizable head start with more than 7,000 satellites in orbit and "several million customers around the world," The New York Times said. Still, Kuiper's integration with Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing offering "popular with large corporations and governments" worldwide, could make it "more attractive" to users like weather forecasters who need to run calculations on the large amounts of data it moves over the internet.

What next?
It will take "many hours, if not days," for Amazon to "establish contact with all 27 satellites and know if they are operational," the Times said. The company "already has purchased dozens of rocket launches from United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin" to get its other satellites in orbit, The Associated Press said.

 
 

It's not all bad

A new nonhormonal male contraceptive called Adam could soon be on the market as a reversible alternative to vasectomies. The water-soluble hydrogel is implanted in sperm ducts and prevents sperm from mixing with semen but is designed to break down in the body after a set period, restoring fertility. Initial clinical trials found that Adam's contraceptive effect lasts at least two years — "a critical milestone moment," said The Independent. Adam will enter the second clinical trial phase later this year.

 
 
Under the radar

For hundreds of years, Japan was notorious for being closed off to foreigners. But over the past decade, the country has been forced to start opening itself to immigration due to a desperate need for foreign workers amid plummeting birth rates and an aging population. Now, Japan is increasingly struggling to accommodate the newcomers.  

Japan is still "often painted as hostile, if not downright xenophobic," said The Japan Times. But the number of overseas workers has "more than doubled" over the past decade, and the foreign community, including students, has increased by 50%. Foreigners now account for about 2.4% of the total population.

In 2023, then–Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expanded the number of industries in which foreign workers and their families can get visas to stay in Japan indefinitely. Those 11 industries, from two beforehand, tend to be ones Japanese workers avoid, like agriculture and nursing care.  The country has "prioritized immigrants based on their usefulness" and focused less on their integration, "leaving newcomers to face language, cultural and social barriers alone," the Harvard International Review said.  

And there are hints of a backtrack. The government is working to introduce an electronic authentication system to strengthen checks on visa-waivered foreigners entering the country — the Japanese version of the U.S.'s ESTA — to prevent them from overstaying their welcome.  

Still, the country's "major shift in policy" has amounted to a "door being flung open and a tatami welcome mat being rolled out to the world," said Philip Patrick at The Spectator. Whether that welcome is warm or cool, "Japan has no choice."

 
 
On this day

April 29, 2011

Prince William, then the Duke of Cambridge, married Catherine Middleton in a lavish pageantry-filled ceremony. Since then, William has become the Prince of Wales and heir apparent, expected to become the next king when his father, King Charles III, dies, with Catherine as queen consort.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"100 days of Trump," the Chicago Sun-Times says on Tuesday's front page. President Donald Trump's "imperial first 100 days" have been a "blitz of job and spending cuts, executive orders and tariffs, all in pursuit of expanded power," the Los Angeles Times says. "Boom is still silent in Trump economy" as "many Americans wait for relief they were promised," USA Today says. "Second term, second thoughts," The Boston Globe says. "Trump's next 100 days to turn to tax, trade and peace deals," The Wall Street Journal says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Race to the harvest

During Sunday's London Marathon, the British startup NPK Recovery collected urine from nine women's urinals to use as a fertilizer for wheat crops. This was a "brilliant" way to utilize the "nervous wees" of thousands of participants, runner Susan Farrell said to the BBC. By converting the urine into a liquid fertilizer, NPK Recovery is reducing the marathon's carbon footprint while also giving wheat plants some of the nitrogen they need to grow.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images; Christopher Pike / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Paul Hennessy / Anadolu via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images