The WestJet flight attendants have voted in favour of a strike that could happen as soon as Aug. 2. For more on possible summer travel disruptions, aviation operations expert john Gradek joins Jaden Lee-Lincoln.
The union representing close to 4,400 flight attendants at WestJet say they have issued a 72-hour strike notice to the airline, to which WestJet responded with a lockout notice.
Both WestJet and CUPE Local8125, the union representing its flight attendants, issued statements Thursday morning confirming both the developments as a potential strike looms this long weekend.
“From the beginning, flight attendants have been clear about what they are fighting for. Unfortunately, the parties are still too far apart on some key issues,” the union said.
“The strike notice does not mean flight attendants want to go on strike. CUPE 8125 has been clear throughout negotiations that its goal is to reach a fair agreement without disrupting passengers or the travelling public,” the union said.
WestJet said it doesn’t anticipate any immediate impact to air travel, but that could change if an agreement isn’t reached by the deadline.
“WestJet today responded to a 72-hour strike notification from the union that represents WestJet Cabin Crew by issuing a lockout notice,” said WestJet.
“These notices do not immediately impact operations or mean that a labour disruption will occur. WestJet and CUPE are still actively negotiating to reach an agreement, avoiding impact to our guests.”
The airline says a work stoppage could occur as early as Aug. 2 at 12:01 a.m. Mountain time.
“The decision to issue a lockout notice, in response to the actions taken by the union, was not one that was made lightly. We sincerely regret the inconvenience and uncertainty this continues to cause for our guests,” said Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of the WestJet Group in a statement.
“We greatly value the work and contributions of our Cabin Crew, and it is our responsibility to ensure the integrity of our network and to minimize the risk of stranding our guests, crew and aircraft. Our commitment remains at the bargaining table, where we will continue to work around the clock to come to an agreement that provides value and meaningful improvements for our Cabin Crew and is sustainable for our company.”
If a strike occurs, WestJet says it “will take all necessary actions to manage the potential impacts as much as possible.”
Speaking in the CUPE 8125 statement, union president Alia Hussain said, “we have been clear about what needs to change, and we have worked hard to reach a fair deal,” adding: “there’s still time to avoid a strike.”
We’re still talking about the disaster that was the Fyre Festival earlier this year. Billy McFarland, the organizer, was arrested and charged with wire fraud. There are over a dozen lawsuits. People are calling it the biggest music scam in years. This one will be in the courts for a long time. If you know anything about the history of the event, blink-182 was contracted to play Fyre, but correctly sensing that the whole thing was going to be a catastrophe, they pulled out a few days before things were supposed to begin. Then Matt Skiba, who was still replacing Tom DeLonge at the time, went to work. I quote: “I had a bad feeling about that event,” he said. “I consider myself a pagan and a witch. With every inch of my energy, I wanted Fyre not to happen. I put all the electricity and energy in my body against that thing happening.” In case you’re wondering, there was never any legal action taken against him.
He had found Santos dead at his home on Bridlington Street in Scarborough, bound at the wrists and ankles, beaten and suffocated.
Santos was at a downtown club with friends the night before and the last communication he had before his death was with his girlfriend at 4:30 a.m.
Police believed multiple people were waiting in his backyard for him.
After his death, police discovered that Santos was involved in criminal activity involving debit card and credit card skimming.
His family didn’t know about his alleged criminal life.
After years of searching for the suspects without results, police pursued specialized forensic phenotype testing for more clues. However, police did not release an update on the results of those tests.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police.
WATCH ABOVE: Trump vows to hit Iran 'very hard' after Iranian attack on US base in Jordan
A drone strike on gas vessels in Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta signaled a potential new front in the U.S.-Iran war, raising the prospect of threats to navigation through the Suez Canal, a last remaining safe export route for Saudi oil.
The Egyptian cabinet said on Thursday that an initial investigation showed that an unidentified drone caused a fire on Wednesday on two vessels at Damietta port, near the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.
No group has claimed responsibility, the cabinet said, adding that authorities were taking measures to protect Egypt’s national security.
Trading sources familiar with the incident said the drone hit U.S.-owned gas storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that spread to another vessel.
Overnight, the U.S. military said it struck Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ military command centers and drone facilities after Tehran fired at U.S. forces in the region.
Iranian state media, quoting the Guards, said three civilians were killed and two children wounded in U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island, while three Guards members were killed in Zanjan province.
The governor of Khuzestan province, cited by Iranian state media, said two student dormitory complexes in the southwestern city of Ahvaz were damaged in the overnight attacks.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it struck the U.S.-run Azraq base in Jordan in response to the U.S. strikes.
“With the help of God, the aggressor will be punished today,” it said earlier in a statement carried by state media.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about damage at the Azraq base.
U.S. bases in Jordan have lately become primary Iranian targets. Jordan’s armed forces said earlier on Thursday they had intercepted five Iranian missiles.
An Iranian attack also hit a building owned by a Chinese company in northern Kuwait, killing a worker and inflicting significant damage, Kuwait’s Defence Ministry said.
In a first in the five-month war, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday publicly joined strikes alongside U.S. forces, targeting Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq, in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets launched from Iraq.
After the joint attacks, Saudi Arabia’s defense minister met U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Washington on Wednesday to urge the Trump administration not to escalate the conflict further, two sources told Reuters.
The war began in February, when the U.S. and Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that U.S. President Donald Trump said would last only a few weeks. A temporary ceasefire agreement in June collapsed amid renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway that Iran says it now controls.
The latest strikes in Iraq and Egypt threatened to draw more Middle Eastern countries into the conflict after the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen declared a naval blockade last week on Saudi Arabia, threatening the alternative Red Sea route for its oil to Asia.
Attacks on ships by the Houthi militants prompted London’s marine insurance market to widen its “high risk” zone in the Red Sea to include more of the coast adjacent to Saudi Arabian ports.
Trump said he would hit Iran hard for firing missiles at U.S. forces, but that Washington was also still seeking a peace deal to end a conflict that has roiled global energy and finance markets.
Oil prices soared more than 8 per cent on Wednesday, before easing 1 per cent on Thursday in volatile trade, with benchmark Brent crude trading just below the US$90 mark.
Iran said on Wednesday that it struck three tankers attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz along an unauthorized route.
However, a QatarEnergy-controlled liquefied natural gas tanker exited the strait overnight, the first such vessel recorded by ship-tracking data leaving the waterway since July 11. Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars said Tehran had given its permission for the tanker to pass.
Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Tehran rejected the Omani proposal on Wednesday, but Iran’s semi-official ILNA news agency quoted the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying that talks with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz were continuing.
After the war exposed gaps in Iran’s ability to protect military sites and strategic infrastructure, Tehran was expected to receive within weeks a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters. Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment, while China’s Foreign Ministry denied the report.
At least 18 people are known to have died in southern Japan from a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake that rattled the country's Kyushu island. Redmond Shannon reports on the race to find survivors, the difficult conditions for search crews, and the help arriving for evacuees.
Rural communities in southwestern Japan were struggling to get their lives back to normal Thursday, two days after a powerful earthquake set off an explosion at a mall, toppled a factory chimney and flattened homes, killing at least 25 people.
Time was running out to find survivors, as rescuers continued to work in the Kumamoto area on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu, where the magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Tuesday.
The number of those missing was unclear. Of the deaths given in the latest tally, 25 have been confirmed as related to the disaster, but there were nine more deaths under investigation as likely to be connected, the Kumamoto prefectural government said. The quake left at least 86 people injured, five of them seriously, it said.
Survivors spoke about coming home and desperately pulling family members out of the wreckage. Some had suffered injuries and were rushed to the hospital.
Thousands of people spent another night at evacuation centers set up throughout the area in gymnasiums and other big spaces. Some homes were still without water or electricity, while others were simply afraid to go back.
Nearly 19,000 homes were still without electricity and more than 9,000 people were staying in the roughly 400 shelters, where power sources were being added to provide air conditioning.
Concerns were growing about illness, including from the sweltering heat. The Ministry of Environment sent out a heatstroke alert for the Kumamoto area, with temperatures expected to reach as high as 33 C (91 F) Thursday.
In the town of Hikawa, one of the hardest-hit areas in Kumamoto, many residents are without water or electricity, or both, and some are staying inside their vehicles in parks or at the town hall parking lot.
At the front entrance of the town hall, officials delivered bottled water and packaged instant rice, while the Ground Self-Defense Force service members came with a trolley to provide fresh water.
Yoshiaki Nakashima, a 66-year-old resident who came with two bottles and his beloved pet dog to get water, said he is staying in a car because of his reluctance to stay at one of the three evacuation centers in the area. He also said he doesn’t want to sleep at home because aftershocks made him feel uneasy.
“It’s difficult to turn over while sleeping in a car,” he said, but that living at a shelter is even more difficult.
Akiko Inazaki, another resident in her 30s, is living in a tent set up in the yard of her home, which has been without water and electricity since the quake. Inazaki, who also came to get water, said she will use it little by little.
“Fresh water is so valuable,” she said. Inazaki said she drank so little that she almost had a heatstroke.
Risks of heatstroke are a major concern among officials.
Yutaka Kobayashi, a doctor dispatched from central Japan’s Aichi prefecture, said he was touring evacuation centers Thursday to assess the condition of evacuees, especially elderly people and those with injuries as they cope with a harsh environment.
“We have to make sure elderly people are not developing heatstrokes or dehydration,” he said in Hikawa.
While the town parking lot was nearly packed the first night, some residents have moved to three public schools where air-conditioning is running, Hikawa officials said.
A town official, Yuzuru Tamura, said they are starting to run out of emergency food supply, such as canned bread and instant rice.
The most serious damage was at the Aeon Mall shopping center in the town of Kashima, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake struck in the late afternoon.
The company said some 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before the explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some people were still working. The mall’s second floor collapsed, trapping people.
As of early Thursday, six people were confirmed to have died at the mall site among the 11 people pulled out of the wreckage, according to Kumamoto authorities.
In the Yatsushiro area, where a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, 10 people were rescued, but eight others died, and one remained missing, according to the Kumamoto prefectural government disaster team.
Footage provided by the Japanese government and military showed rescue workers drilling through the collapsed parts of the building in an attempt to get to anyone who may still be trapped inside.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters the central government will take a lead role in coordinating the various rescue efforts. Restoring electricity, gas and water to stricken areas, while providing a supply of fresh water is key, she said.
“The needs on the ground are constantly changing. To put to rest the people’s feelings of uncertainty, we will do all that needs to be done,” she said.
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There’s still plenty of summer left–and with end-of-season markdowns in full swing, it’s an ideal time to pick up a new pair of sandals for less. Whether you’re after everyday slides, versatile leather flats or vacation-ready platforms, retailers are offering impressive discounts on styles you’ll reach for now and well into next year. From Coach and Simons to budget-friendly favourites like Dream Pairs, these six deals deserve a closer look.
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Crafted in Spain, these leather sandals with crossed straps create a clean, minimalist profile, while the ultra-cushioned leather footbed offers lasting comfort. At 35 per cent off, they’re the sort of timeless purchase that earns its place in every warm-weather wardrobe.[/product_listing]
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WATCH: Ontario sets date to reveal companies breaking ticket reselling rules
Just days after the Ford government tabled the 2026 budget, including a populist measure to cap the prices of resale tickets, the premier received a personal visit from one of Canada’s most powerful CEOs to discuss the law and its potential impact.
Premier Doug Ford’s itinerary, obtained by Global News through freedom of information laws, shows Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri met with Ford and Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery Steven Crawford on March 29.
Sources said the hour-long meeting, which took place on a Sunday at Ford’s Etobicoke home, was partly focused on the government’s new ticket legislation, which prevents sellers from listing tickets above face value.
This copy of Doug Ford's itinerary obtained by Global News shows a meeting scheduled with Rogers Communications CEO Tony Staffieri.
As it tabled the legislation, the government promised that individuals and companies caught breaking the law could face massive fines.
“The rules are clear and so are the consequences: The days of scalpers ripping people off in Ontario are done,” Ford declared earlier this year.
But, according to sources, for the company that owns Ontario’s major sports teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and Toronto Blue Jays, the law appeared to come with unintended consequences.
Season ticket holders who bulk purchase seats at a discounted rate months before a season begins could have difficulty reselling their tickets for high-value games.
In effect, the law would penalize individuals who sell a portion of their tickets for a profit in order to subsidize the rest of their season ticket package.
According to Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner, Staffieri registered as a lobbyist on behalf of Rogers Communications for a range of issues that intersect with the provincial government.
Staffieri, the filing said, would be “communicating with the Government of Ontario about changes to the Ticket Sales Act.”
While it’s unclear when the Sunday morning meeting between Staffieri, Ford and Crawford was scheduled, sources with knowledge of the conversation said the Rogers CEO wanted to discuss the impact on season ticket holders.
Rogers Communications, which said it received $11.7 million in funding from the Ontario government in 2025, noted that “season ticket holders are among the most loyal fans,” who make a “significant commitment to support their teams year after year.”
“As with many topics that affect our customers, fans and communities, we regularly engage with government and other stakeholders,” the company said in a statement to Global News.
The premier’s office said while he often meets with businesses and stakeholders “no changes came as a result of this meeting,”
Critics of the Ford government said the meeting is emblematic of the government’s priorities.
“The premier is willing to meet with the head of Rogers and not listen to the everyday fans,” said NDP MPP Tom Rakocevic.
“If people buy season tickets and they want to resell those tickets, let them sell them at face value. We don’t want to see tickets going up two, three, four times and essentially some fans making profits on the back of other fans.”
Months after the law was introduced, the bill is now set to undergo a regulatory overhaul as the province discovered the policy has been nearly impossible to enforce.
Multiple industry sources told Global News that Ford’s office has instructed Crawford to prepare regulations to fix the law, with options still to be determined.
That legislation, multiple industry sources suggested, was rushed through during the spring at the behest of the premier, who wanted a cap in place before Toronto hosted six matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The resale rules came into effect as soon as the budget received royal assent on April 24. The government made efforts to educate resale platforms. Letters were sent to 27 secondary sellers, including SeatGeek, StubHub, FIFA and VividSeat, to ensure they got in line.
However, despite the letters, the government determined that tickets on some sites continued to be sold well above face value. In early June, the provincial government named SeatGeek and StubHub on its Consumer Beware list as a punishment for selling tickets above face value.
The government has not fined either company and has not been able to offer an explanation of whether it will under the existing rules.
A month after they were named on the list, the companies appear to have faced no consequences and have repeatedly claimed the rules the government has written are simply unenforceable.
“We have been seeking guidance on key details that are fundamental to compliance, such as what constitutes acceptable proof of a ticket’s original price,” StubHub wrote in a statement in June.
“We received partial answers to these questions today and are continuing to work with the Ministry toward full compliance.”
The rules, one advocate for secondary sellers said, have been a nightmare to enforce.
“It’s been messy to say the least,” Brian Berry, of the advocacy group Ticket Policy Forum, told Global News.
“The law was finalized, and enforcement has been expected of companies before the rules of how to apply were really developed. It has been messy, there’s been some frustration.”
Now, it appears the government is accepting that the law it rushed through in the spring was at least partially flawed.
Industry sources told Global News the premier’s office had instructed Crawford’s office to draft regulations to work out how to define the face value of a ticket and how secondary markets will have to verify it.
The concern from resale sites is that they currently have no way to verify the original price of tickets because they can’t access the e-tickets or metadata from primary sellers.
People looking to resell tickets could use artificial intelligence or Photoshop to edit the price of their original ticket, for example, to resell it for more with no easy way to spot the change.
“(It) is a wrinkly policy that requires some ironing out,” Berry added.
“We warned that this is exactly what would happen: that there would be frustration, that enforcement would be difficult, that compliance would be difficult. And that’s exactly what’s playing out.”
He said he was reassured that it seemed the government was moving to make changes.
“Cooler minds will prevail,” he said. “Now the ministry, it appears, does want to sit down and reopen the rule, not necessarily to do away with it.”
Rakocevic called on the government to make any changes it’s contemplating, along with who’s pushing for it, public.
“Make this accountable, transparent, let the public know and make changes that benefit the majority of everyday fans, not just the super rich and the big corporate executives,” Rakocevic said.
WATCH: Trial of Montreal man accused of murdering his young daughter begins in New York State
The trial of a man accused of killing his nine-year-old daughter last summer during a trip to New York is scheduled to continue Thursday.
Luciano Frattolin is charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse in the death of Melina Frattolin, who lived in Montreal.
His trial began last week.
Frattolin has pleaded not guilty to both charges and has been held without bail since his arrest in July 2025.
On Wednesday, the jury heard testimony from two investigators who challenged the version of events presented by Frattolin, who said his daughter had been abducted.
The prosecution also presented more details on the events that led to the recovery of Melina’s body in a wooded area near Ticonderoga, N.Y.
WATCH: Concerns about wildfire smoke and tourism in the Okanagan
A resident from British Columbia’s Cariboo region says there’s nothing left around her property on Six Mile Lake other than her burnt-out chimney stack and her neighbour’s propane tank.
Carol Senzeni says she got the news by watching the neighbour’s video posted to Facebook, days after she escaped from the home on Friday with her two cats and anything she could throw in her vehicle.
Senzeni, whose home is about 10 kilometres away from the village of Clinton, says she watched the flames as they neared her home, sending large plumes of smoke into the sky.
Senzeni, who has found refuge north at 108 Mile Ranch, says the experience was “very daunting” and “very scary.”
She says her cats are homesick, and they’ve been “keeping me up at night crying.”
Officials with the Village of Clinton have said they would be calling residents who lost buildings on their properties from the Pear Lake wildfire, which has grown to about 670 square kilometres.
Just under 50 of 130 wildfires burning in B.C. are out of control, and the weather in the central Interior is expected to return to hot and dry conditions through the August long weekend.
Senzeni says many people in her neighbourhood went through trauma when they were evacuated during the Elephant Hill wildfire in 2017, which threatened numerous communities across the Interior as it grew to more than 191 square kilometres.
“This wave of wildfires that has come through Clinton and is moving northward and onward into other areas in the north, it’s rekindling old trauma, but also with new dangers,” she says.
Senzeni says the danger isn’t over yet and people in the village have been supporting each other during this difficult time.
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