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Canada's government forced Air Canada and its striking flight attendants back to work and into arbitration Saturday.
Why it matters: The work stoppage stranded more than 100,000 travelers around the world during the peak summer travel season.
SoCal impact: More than 20 flights were cancelled on Saturday at LAX, according to data from FlightAware.com.
What's next: The full resumption of services could take days, according to Canada's Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu.
Canada's government forced Air Canada and its striking flight attendants back to work and into arbitration Saturday after a work stoppage stranded more than 100,000 travelers around the world during the peak summer travel season.
Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said now is not the time to take risks with the economy while announcing the intervention. It means the 10,000 flight attendants will return to work soon.
"The talks broke down. It is clear that the parties are not any closer to resolving some of the key issues that remain and they will need help with the arbitrator," Hajdu said.
Hajdu said the full resumption of services could take days, noting it is up to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The shutdown of Canada's largest airline early Saturday is impacting about 130,000 people a day, and some 25,000 Canadians may be stranded. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.
The bitter contract fight between the airline and the union representing 10,000 of its flight attendants escalated Friday as the union turned down the airline's request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which would eliminate its right to strike and allow a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.
Keelin Pringnitz, from Ottawa, was returning with her family from a European vacation when they became stranded at London's Heathrow Airport after flights were canceled. She said there was an option for the travelers in line to go the United States, but they were told there wouldn't be any further assistance once they landed in the U.S.
"It didn't go over well with the line. Nobody really seemed interested, everybody seemed a little bit amused almost at the suggestion, or exasperated, because it is a bit ridiculous to offer to take stranded passengers to a different country to strand them there," she said.
Montreal resident Alex Laroche, 21, and his girlfriend had been saving since Christmas for their European vacation. Now their $8,000 trip with nonrefundable lodging is in doubt. They had a Saturday night flight to Nice, France, booked.
Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr has said it could take up to a week to fully restart operations once a tentative deal is reached.
Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports.
Ian Lee, associate professor, Carleton University's Sprott School of Business, earlier noted the government repeatedly intervenes in transportation strikes.
"They will intervene to bring the strike to an end. Why? Because it has happened 45 times from 1950 until now," Lee said. "It is all because of the incredible dependency of Canadians."
Canada is the second-largest country in the world and flying is often the only viable option.
"We're so huge a country and it's so disruptive when there is a strike of any kind in transportation," Lee said.
The government forced the country's two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union last year during a work stoppage. The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union's leverage in negotiations.
The Business Council of Canada has urged the government to impose binding arbitration in this case, too.
Passengers whose travel is impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.
The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. But it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full "due to the summer travel peak."
Laroche said he considered booking new flights with a different carrier, but he said most of them are nearly full and cost more than double the $3,000 they paid for their original tickets.
Laroche said he was initially upset over the union's decision to go on strike, but that he had a change of heart after reading about the key issues at the center of the contract negotiations, including the issue of wages.
"Their wage is barely livable," Laroche said.
Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal.
Both sides say they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren't in the air.
"We are heartbroken for our passengers. Nobody wants to see Canadians stranded or anxious about their travel plans but we cannot work for free," said Natasha Stea, a Air Canada flight attendant and local union president.
The attendants are about 70% women. Stea said Air Canada pilots, who are male dominated, received a significant raise last year and questioned whether they are getting fair treatment.
The airline's latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions over four years, that it said "would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada."
But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn't go far enough because of inflation.
"We're the national carrier and we have people operating in poverty. Like that's disgusting, that's very problematic," Wesley Lesosky, President of the Air Canada Component of CUPE, said at a news conference.
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Nearly three dozen lobsters were seized and six people were arrested for poaching at the Santa Monica Pier, state wildlife officials announced Tuesday.
The details: The poached crustaceans were hidden in duffel bags, backpacks, vehicles and a baby stroller, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The 34 lobsters were returned to the ocean alive, including several females, which can have 50,000 to 800,000 eggs each year.
Why it matters: Losing a lobster with eggs can have a “substantial impact” on the health of the local lobster population and anglers who are following the law, the department said on social media.
“Lobster poaching is high priority for CDFW and Wildlife Officers are diligently working to apprehend those who violate our resource laws,” the department said in a statement to LAist, adding that there were others illegally taking lobsters who officers weren’t able to catch.
Why now: The alleged poachers were arrested last Wednesday, about four months after the recreational spiny lobster season closed. They’re accused of taking lobster out of season, taking undersized lobsters and possessing more than triple the daily bag limits, among others. Each violation can bring up to one year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
How you can help: If you see someone poaching or have information about a wildlife crime, you can make an anonymous tip to department officials by calling (888) 334-2258 at any time. You can also submit it through the “tip411” app from the Apple or Google Play stores. If you don’t want to download, you can submit the anonymous tip by texting 847411.
If the information you provide leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward. Previous rewards have reached up to $3,500, according to the department. You can find more information here.
Go deeper: The most polluted beach in SoCal won't shock Angelenos. But what are the cleanest ones?
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One Los Angeles contractor found a planet-friendly solution to a problem many California mobile home park residents face: dangerous heat and unaffordable cooling.
No cost equipment: Ben Shamoon's home upgrading business, Bryge, uses state and federal money to help deploy appliances like heat pumps and HVAC systems that cut pollution. He could install the units at no cost to the customer and the roughly $8,885 incentive per job would be enough to pay for the equipment, labor, permits and profit. Residents paid nothing. Low-income customers receive the highest incentive.
Benefits beyond cooling: What Shamoon is doing, swapping gas-powered heating and cooling for electric versions of appliances, lowers carbon pollution by pulling from the state’s mostly green grid. But it also could improve indoor air quality. Residents often reduced monthly utility bills when old, inefficient equipment were replaced.
Maria Franco has lived in the Park Royale Mobile Home Community for 25 years, in the Van Nuys neighborhood in north Los Angeles. The community has just under 150 rectangular homes, lined up neatly on a large field of mostly asphalt, with fruit trees popping up here and there.
Two years ago, Franco faced a string of bad luck. The 65-year-old lost her long-time job packing orders at a distribution company when it abruptly moved to another county, a commute too far for her to make.
Then her hot water heater clonked out, so she hauled warm water from her stovetop to her bathroom, scooping it over her head for a shower.
“I was depressed,” Franco said in Spanish. “I was in shock.”
The Southern California summer bore down harshly where she lived in the San Fernando Valley, its temperatures regularly 10 to 15 degrees higher than those on the coast.
To cool off, Franco relied on a fan and a partially functional window air conditioning unit. When her adult kids and grandchildren came by, they found the heat inside oppressive.
A knock on her door changed all that. A young contractor named Ben Shamoon stood on her step, wanting to know if he could install a new water heater, and an HVAC system that both cooled and heated her home. The cost to Franco? Absolutely nothing.
“It was an inexplicable experience, a blessing from heaven,” Franco said.
Shamoon won over customers by canvassing trailer parks. By working with families who lived in close proximity, he could buy in bulk and work more efficiently to complete projects faster. The approach maximized incentives from a state program — aimed at supercharging heat pump adoption — to improve homes at no cost to owners.
He found a climate solution with a lot of wins — for customers, tradespeople and the planet. The approach cracked the nut of one way to bring heat pumps, which run on electricity rather than gas, to low-income Californians.
Best of all, Shamoon brought safety and comfort to families.
In July of 2024, Shamoon was working to get his home upgrading business Bryge, then called LivSmart Home Services, off the ground. Tons of state and federal money was flowing to homeowners and contractors at the time through an initiative called TECH Clean California, to help deploy appliances like heat pumps that cut pollution. Low-income customers received the highest incentive.
Shamoon is based in Los Angeles, but the government incentives in the current funding cycle were exhausted in most parts of the state. He saw that there was some money left — about a million dollars to install heat pump water heaters for low-income customers in San Diego.
Shamoon often passed by a mobile home community at the end of his street. One day, an idea came: why not pitch mobile homeowners on the upgrades?
He could install the units at no cost to the customer and the roughly $8,885 incentive per job would be enough to pay for the equipment, labor, permits and profit.
Shamoon and a colleague found a list of San Diego mobile home parks and started cold-calling managers’ offices. Most said no, he could not go door to door, hoping to keep predatory schemes away from residents. Shamoon’s offer of free upgrades was hard to believe.
But a few said yes.
Door-knocking his way through each community, Shamoon picked up clients.
He found that — along with a higher concentration of potential customers — the mobile home parks were home to many families who made under 80% of the median income in the area, which meant they qualified for state assistance, and higher incentives.
“We started to see a trend,” Shamoon said. Not only did most customers qualify for incentives, but like Franco, they needed the help.
He met senior citizens who’d been living without working hot water heaters for months. And people with no air conditioning on days when outside temperatures exceeded 100 degrees.
“It was just one door after the next, after the next,” Shamoon said. He started to see his work as not just about comfort, but about dignity.
As installations began, Shamoon stumbled on wins. Sending contractors to one community cut down on commute times and meant he could get three to four jobs done in a day, as opposed to just one or two. He could bulk order supplies and get lower prices.
After he and his colleagues first canvassed mobile home parks, word traveled fast through the tightknit communities.
People who had initially turned his company away visited their neighbors’ homes and were assured that they had indeed paid nothing for their fancy new appliances. They called Shamoon back and wanted in.
For most customers who had older, inefficient air conditioners and live in hot, dry areas, their monthly bills went down noticeably.
The process was not without challenges: electrical panels in some homes did not have capacity to power the upgrades. Different mobile home parks had restrictive rules about where appliances could be placed on the outside of homes.
But Shamoon was not deterred. He repeated the process, adding installations of heat pumps to warm and cool homes.
In the beginning, he worked with homeowners of all income levels, as there were incentives for people with high incomes too, but he eventually zeroed in on low-income homeowners.
Wealthier clients proved high-maintenance, despite getting free appliances, he said. Low-income families were incredibly grateful, and experienced a dramatic improvement in their quality of life.
Consultant Evan Kamei started to take notice.
He had never met Shamoon, nor heard of his company before he started seeing its name pop up on spreadsheets. Kamei works in Oakland for Energy Solutions, an environmental consulting company that implements the state’s incentive program.
He keeps track of where heat pumps are being installed and how that impacts customer bills.
Kamei realized more and more mobile homeowners were participating in the program thanks to Shamoon.
His company has installed the majority of the roughly 1,500 TECH-funded heat pump HVAC and water heaters in mobile homes statewide. California’s incentive program has funded about 80,000 heat pump installations on all types of homes.
In Franco’s mobile home park, Shamoon has completed 38 projects.
“That’s the beauty of having a market-based solution of enabling contractors to figure out something that could work,” Kamei said, reflecting on contractor creativity, “It’s not something you typically see with an incentive program like this.”
What Shamoon is doing, swapping gas-powered heating and cooling for electric versions of appliances, lowers carbon pollution by pulling from the state’s mostly green grid. But it also could improve indoor air quality.
Esperanza Sanchez is breathing easier after she upgraded her HVAC system to a heat pump with Shamoon’s help. Sanchez lives in the Blue Star Mobile Home Park in the San Fernando Valley’s Sylmar neighborhood.
Sanchez had previously avoided using her gas heater because it triggered her asthma. “It stung my nose and I couldn’t stand it,” Sanchez said in Spanish. After making the switch, she said her respiratory issues were gone.
“It’s a public health thing. It’s an equity thing,” said Ethan Elkind, a UC Berkeley lawyer and policy researcher who’s studied how low-income Californians can adopt more planet-friendly appliances.
“It’s almost a human rights thing in these really hot climate zones — giving people access to reliable air conditioning,” Elkind said. “It checks a lot of boxes for what we need to do.”
But there are limits to this solution. There’s no way for the state to provide incentives for every low-income Californian to make the switch. California has doled out more than $219 million so far, but bringing electric appliances to all low-income residents would cost in the hundreds of billions of dollars, Elkind said, money the state does not have.
A settlement from a 2016 gas leak in the San Fernando Valley will funnel roughly $30 million in incentives to nearby residents through TECH starting late this summer. It’s unclear when these funds will again be available for Californians who live outside that region, and are not eligible for the settlement money.
One way to stretch the state’s limited funds is to use public dollars to attract private investors, Elkind said. Under this model, the state pays the interest upfront — giving low-income homeowners access to no-interest loans — and covers the loss if a borrower defaults. This safety net eliminates risk for private lenders, allowing them to finance the initial equipment upgrades. Homeowners would then pay back the loan principal over time, using the savings many see from now lower utility bills.
But that could only go so far. National policies incentivizing heat pump adoption like those in the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, done away with under the Trump Administration’s tax bill, would need to be reinstated to achieve large-scale adoption.
Reaching renters is another story. Gas appliances are cheaper upfront. So landlords have little financial incentive to make the switch — while there are bill savings, those go to renters.
Elkind said achieving this shift would take policies like those slated to roll out in the Bay Area in 2027, requiring all new water heater installations be electric.
The most glaring limit is California’s high cost of electricity. For many, monthly bills for a gas appliance are lower than electric alternatives. But for Californians like Franco, who replaced old, inefficient window air conditioners, their bills often go down. That’s because new technologies use less energy to do the same – and often a better – job.
Three months after that knock on her door, Franco watched two men install her new water heater. It had been half a year since she had the ability to step into her shower, turn a knob and have hot water come out.
“That first time using the shower was beautiful,” Franco said.
A month later, she welcomed a new mini-split heating and cooling unit, blowing crisp air in her living room.
The single unit is powerful enough to transform her two-bedroom home from oppressive to refreshing in just 15 minutes.
Before the changes, her gas bill, which covered her furnace, water heater and stove, was $40 to $50 per month. It is now just $10. Her electricity bill went from $150 to around $80. The savings are meaningful given her monthly social security benefits of $1000.
Without Shamoon and his coworkers, Franco would have never learned about the state incentives, and never made the change.
“When I needed help the most, it came,” Franco said. “If it weren’t for them, we’d be suffering from the heat.”
Topline:
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new housing affordability law on Monday, aiming to cut red tape and spur housing construction.
Reduced construction costs: The reforms signed into law are expected to reduce the per-unit cost of affordable housing by $60,000 to $70,000, the governor said. One primary change is slashing impact fees, which local governments add onto new housing developments to generate tax revenue. The one-time fees levied on developers are used to support municipal services — including schools, public parks and sewage — for residents in the new affordable housing units.
Read on... for more about the new law.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new housing affordability law on Monday, aiming to cut red tape and spur housing construction.
At a press conference in Oakland’s Chinatown, the governor didn’t mince words when it came to confronting the state’s cost-of-living crisis, which is top of mind for residents.
“It’s Econ 101,” Newsom said. “We need to build more damn housing, and we need to lower the cost of construction.”
The reforms signed into law are expected to reduce the per-unit cost of affordable housing by $60,000 to $70,000, the governor said. One primary change is slashing impact fees, which local governments add onto new housing developments to generate tax revenue.
The one-time fees levied on developers are used to support municipal services — including schools, public parks and sewage — for residents in the new affordable housing units.
A report by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, a UC Berkeley think tank focused on housing challenges, recently found that across the state, affordable developments paid an average of roughly $300 million in impact fees annually. In his announcement on Monday, the governor called the fees “comical.”
“They’re outrageous. It makes it quite literally impossible to build an affordable unit,” Newsom said.
State Sen. Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, and other officials at the conference credited the state’s investments in housing with alleviating some of the heavy burden of the housing crisis on residents and municipalities — and resulting in a 9% drop in unsheltered homelessness statewide over the past year, Arreguín said.
This announcement was also an opportunity for Newsom to trade barbs with President Donald Trump after he refused to sign a major housing bill from Congress, which became law over the weekend.
“The President may not be familiar because he did not take the time to sign a bill,” Newsom said when asked about the federal legislation, but “it looks a lot like what we’ve been doing here in the state of California.”
Topline:
We're at the final stretch of the World Cup. The semi-finals are Tuesday when France and Spain face off and Wednesday where England goes up against Argentina. By Wednesday night, we'll know who's heading to the final, which is this Sunday at 3 pm EST in New Jersey. Here's what to know about the teams going into the last four games.
France vs Spain: Reaching the final will be a chance at rewriting history for France. The team made it to the last match in 2022 but lost to Argentina. Spain last won the World Cup trophy in 2010. One of the tournament's highlights has been watching Spain's 19-year-old star Lamine Yamal take on titan after titan. Now, his team is facing its biggest contender yet.
England vs Argentina: A trip to the final would perhaps be sweetest for England. The team hasn't won a World Cup in 60 years — despite reaching the quarter or semi-finals multiple times since then. All eyes are on Argentina to see if the team can be the first to win the World Cup back-to-back in decades.
The following was originally published in the Up First newsletter as part of the NPR Network's coverage of the World Cup, Soccer Edition. For more updates from Juliana throughout the games, subscribe to Up First, or check out the new World Cup tab in the NPR app.
We're at the final stretch of the World Cup. It feels like just yesterday, international fans were arriving in the U.S. and marveling at Buc-ee's and unlimited free soda.
The semi-finals are:
By Wednesday night, we'll know who's heading to the final, which is this Sunday at 3 p.m. EST in New Jersey.
Here's what to know about the teams going into the last four games:
Last World Cup trophy: 2018
Reaching the final will be a chance at rewriting history for France. The team made it to the last match in 2022 but lost to Argentina.
This time, France has returned with a vengeance — particularly thanks to Kylian Mbappé, who's responsible for eight goals.
Last World Cup trophy: 2010
One of the tournament's highlights has been watching Spain's 19-year-old star Lamine Yamal take on titan after titan. Now, his team is facing its biggest contender yet.
While this will be the first time Yamal and Mbappé are battling at the World Cup, the two have played against each other before. Most recently, in 2024, when Yamal helped his team come out on top.
Last World Cup trophy: 1966
A trip to the final would perhaps be sweetest for England. The team hasn't won a World Cup in 60 years — despite reaching the quarter or semi-finals multiple times since then.
Nearly all of England's goals were made to Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. My eyes will be on the duo and my ears on the fans in case they sing "Hey Jude" like they did at the last game.
Last World Cup trophy: 2022
All eyes are on Argentina to see if the team can be the first to win the World Cup back-to-back in decades. To do so, the defending champion will face England. The two haven't competed on the global stage in 24 years. "It'll be a special match because I've never played against England," Lionel Messi told FIFA.
What we know for sure: Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira and BTS will be there, performing at the World Cup's first-ever final half-time show.
What else to watch this week:
🎉 The global sleepover at our house is wrapping up. So many international visitors from across the globe visiting cities coast to coast, has left many feeling like this summer has been one big party at our place. For immigrant communities in New York, it's been a welcome respite.
💻 The World Cup has been the perfect distraction for so many it has actually cut into the productivity of the global economy. While some are watching to see if it bounces back, we're curious what will bring us together and captivate our collective attention next?
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