Liberal incumbent candidate Judy Sgro has offered conflicting stories about who paid for a 2017 trip she took to Italy, a trip the Conservatives now want the ethics commissioner to investigate because of allegations that she accepted free travel without reporting it to authorities as required under Canada’s conflict of interest code. Sgro, another Liberal incumbent, Franceso Sorbara, and a then-Toronto city councillor, Vincent Crisanti, travelled to Matera in the picturesque region of Basilicata as part of an “economic development” trip to strengthen bilateral ties between Toronto and this Italian city of 60,000 people. Sorbara paid for the trip himself, Cristani billed city taxpayers for the costs he incurred, and the Toronto Star reported in 2018 that the Basilicata Cultural Society of Canada, a group that promotes the culture of this Italian region in Canada, paid for Sgro’s travel.
Travel & Leisure
Apparently duct tape is the tool of choice for flight attendants when it comes to dealing with disruptive passengers. An American Airlines flight from Maui to Los Angeles was diverted to Honolulu after a 13-year-old boy started causing trouble. Witnesses told CBSN that the boy tried to kick out the window next to his seat, and became physical with his mother about an hour into the flight. That’s when fellow passengers stepped in to help restrain the boy, and a flight attendant appears to duct-tape him to his seat. Footage posted by the station shows masked passengers restraining the wild teen. One flight attendant is seen leaving the group, then returning with a roll of grey duct tape. The boy was reportedly taken into custody in Honolulu and no one was injured.
Cats on leashes go hiking, kayaking and more as the ‘adventure cat’ trend takes hold. Canadians have embraced the outdoors in droves over the past year-and-a-half due to pandemic-related lockdowns — and their fluffy, tree-climbing, bird-watching feline companions have been tagging along. These intrepid animals are known as “adventure cats,” as they are put on leashes to explore the outside world with their owners, whether they are hiking, kayaking or even skiing. Many have gained large social media followings in the process; the hashtag #adventurecats on apps like Instagram and TikTok brings up hundreds of thousands of results.
In a move that pours cold water on the dreams of a few billionaire space explorers, the US has tightened its definition of the word “astronaut”. New Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules say astronaut hopefuls must be part of the flight crew and make contributions to space flight safety. That means Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson may not yet be astronauts in the eyes of the US government. These are the first changes since the FAA wings programme began in 2004. The Commercial Astronaut Wings programme updates were announced on Tuesday — the same day that Amazon’s Mr Bezos flew aboard a Blue Origin rocket to the edge of space. To qualify as commercial astronauts, space-goers must travel 50 miles (80km) above the Earth’s surface, which both Mr Bezos and Mr Branson accomplished. But altitude aside, the agency says would-be astronauts must have also “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety”. What exactly counts as such is determined by FAA officials.
Most famous vacation spots suck. It’s just a fact. They used to be great but time and opportunism have reduced them all to expensive, crowded, commoditized versions of themselves. Nowadays taking the family to see Mount Rushmore is not so much about admiring the megalithic majesty as it is about taking a photo, buying a shirt, complaining about parking, heading home, and editing out the crowd of tourists in the photo. That’s not to say that there aren’t hundreds of amazing sights, activities, and memories waiting for you on your future vacations, just that those good times aren’t exactly where they used to be. New must-see spots pop up all the time while the old standbys march past their prime. Here are ten of those so-called must-sees that aren’t worth the hype, i.e., ten of the worst vacation spots in America.
The number of planes landing at Canada’s airports with COVID-19 infected passengers is on the rise. Health Canada reported that as of July 20, 161 flights landed carrying passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 so far this month. That’s compared to 111 recorded during the first 20 days of June, and 78 from May 1-20. Travellers flying into Canada — currently only open to citizens, permanent residents and those whose travel is deemed essential — must present a recent negative COVID-19 test before being allowed to board their flight. Health Canada doesn’t make public the number of infected passengers on each flight, providing only a range within two or three rows of where infected passengers supposedly sat. Of the four Canadian airports permitted to accept international flights, Toronto currently sits at 74 as of July 20, followed by Montreal with 46, and 20 each from Vancouver and Calgary.