It’s a cold, rainy Wednesday, and this newsletter writer is beginning to suspect the old saying about “April showers bringing May flowers” is merely a suggestion, not a guarantee. But let’s get on with the news:

The astronauts who captured the world’s imagination with their journey to the far side of the moon last month visited Ottawa to talk about the future of space travel Wednesday.

Canadian Jeremy Hansen and his Artemis II crewmates have a series of events scheduled in the capital that began with a morning meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in his office.

The 10-day mission took Hansen, mission commander Reid Wiseman and astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch farther from Earth than any humans before them.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jenni Gibbons, who was part of the team at NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston during Artemis II’s journey, is taking part in the Ottawa tour.

Carney said it was an honour to welcome the crew to the capital and they would discuss what Canada can offer in future space missions with NASA.

The Canadian Press has more. 

The Canadian military is formally asking the defence industry to identify what companies can offer to either upgrade or replace Canada’s aging fleet of tanks.

The federal government published a request for information from potential suppliers so Ottawa can analyze options available on the market and to start drawing up plans for future armoured land vehicle fleets.

A Canadian Army document published last year called “Inflection Point” warns that decades of fine tuning the military for counter-insurgency and peace operations had the side-effect of creating serious gaps in the military’s store of heavy arms.

The army’s armoured regiment has been left with a single squadron of decades-old Leopard tanks.

CP’s got this one. 

Also, Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith confirmed on Tuesday that he still intends on resigning his Toronto seat this summer.

This will open up what’s expected to be a competitive race in Beaches-East York.

Liberal sources told iPolitics that lawyer and former senior staffer Claire Seaborn is considering running for the Liberal nomination there.

Seaborn is an environmental and climate change lawyer who advises on complex energy and mining projects at Torys. She served as chief of staff to Jonathan Wilkinson when he was natural resources minister.

Sources say she hasn’t made a decision just yet, however.

Sydney Ko has more. 

Meanwhile, amid strained trade talks, U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra struck a conciliatory tone Tuesday, expressing deep appreciation for the longstanding military partnership between Canada and the United States during an Armed Forces Day ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa.

“It is an awesome relationship,” Hoekstra said. “We are very, very appreciative of the partnership that we still see today.”

More than 20 Canadian service members were honoured at the U.S. Embassy. While most recipients typically receive their medals directly through a U.S. military command, some were recognized during the embassy ceremony instead.

The awards recognize “exceptional contributions to bilateral defense cooperation” and advancing “shared security objectives.”

Ko’s got this one too. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed he made a secret trip to the United Arab Emirates at the height of the Iran war to meet president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

“This visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement on Wednesday night.

The two leaders met for several hours in Al Ain, an oasis city by the Oman border, on 26 March, Reuters reported.

A source told the news agency that Mossad director David Barnea made at least two visits to the UAE during the war with Iran to coordinate military actions. The intelligence chief’s visit was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The covert visit and meeting between the two leaders is the latest milestone in a rapidly developing Middle East alliance. On Tuesday, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, disclosed that Israel had shared its air defence system with the UAE, sending Iron Dome batteries and military specialists to operate them over the course of the war.

The Guardian has more.

President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve won Senate confirmation on Wednesday, just in time to officially take over as the leader of the central bank this week.

Trump is hoping Kevin Warsh can lead the Fed into much lower interest rates — but the president could be frustrated by persistent inflation.

Warsh was confirmed on a 54-45 vote, mostly along party lines. He has argued there’s room to lower rates, but he also promised to use his own judgment in setting monetary policy — and not to take orders from the White House. Warsh denied charges from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that he would be Trump’s “sock puppet.”

Warsh will replace Jerome Powell, who has led the Fed since 2018. Although Trump appointed Powell to the job, he has relentlessly criticized the outgoing Fed chairman for not moving more aggressively to lower borrowing costs. Powell’s term as chairman ends on Friday.

Read more from NPR. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

There’s a lot of buzz about which city should host the new international defence hub.

The Defence Security and Resilience Bank will provide lower interest loans to companies in NATO countries as a way to develop military and security technology and infrastructure.

The feds have yet to say where the big financial institution will be, but some major Canadian cities are already lobbying for the get.

The DSRB is aiming to have U.S.$135 billion in assets and could employ 3,500 people.

iPolitics want to hear from the readers, where do you think the defence hub should be? Let us know here.