Canadian border trouble, July job numbers, women of Team USA: 5 things to know Friday
US travelers to Canada may face 'lengthy delays' as strike looms
Strikes set to begin at Canadian airports, land borders and commercial shipping ports on Friday could cause long lines and delays when Canada's border with the U.S. reopens next week. Nearly 9,000 Canada Border Services Agency employees are set to begin strikes, arguing that unionized employees have worked without a contract for over three years and should get "greater parity with other law enforcement agencies across Canada." Two labor unions, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Customs and Immigration Union, warned that the strikes could have a "dramatic impact" for U.S. travelers on Aug. 9 and could affect Canada's supply chain by slowing down commercial travel.
- Canada is easing travel restrictions for vaccinated Americans. Here are 10 things to know before a trip
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- Did you keep up with this week's news? Take our quiz to find out.
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Economy adds 943,000 jobs in July despite COVID surge, worker shortages as unemployment falls to 5.4%
U.S. hiring surged again last month as the economy continued to reopen, with employers adding 943,000 jobs despite a spike in COVID-19 cases and persistent worker shortages. The unemployment rate, which is calculated from a different survey of households, tumbled from 5.9% to 5.4%, the Labor Department said Friday.
The coronavirus triggered a brief but intense recession last spring, forcing businesses to shut down and consumers to stay home as a health precaution. The economy lost more than 22 million jobs in March and April 2020. Since then, it has recovered nearly 16 million jobs, leaving a 6.8 million shortfall compared to February 2020. U.S. hiring accelerated in June as employers added 850,000 jobs.
- Fewer jabs mean fewer jobs: States with lower vaccination, higher COVID infection rates are behind in growth this summer
- The economy needs millions of workers: So why can't college grads find jobs?
- Notable milestone: Flush with COVID-19 stimulus money and boosted by reopenings, the US economy grew sharply in the spring but slower than projected
Friday in Tokyo: Women of Team USA dominant in volleyball, basketball
The U.S. women have been golden Friday at the Tokyo Olympics. Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman, known as the "A Team," cruised to the women's beach volleyball gold medal, beating Australia's Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy in straight sets. They became the first American women to win gold in the event since Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings in 2012. The dominance in volleyball wasn't limited to the beach either as the U.S. women won their indoor volleyball semifinal, grabbing a victory over Serbia in straight sets. The U.S. will to try to win the gold medal Sunday. On the basketball court, the U.S. women jumped out to a big lead early and never looked back, defeating Serbia 79-59. They will play for the gold medal in their seventh consecutive Olympics. Later sday, track and field fans will get to see the finals of some key events, including the women's 400-meter, 1500-meter, and 4x400-meter relay.
- 'I feel like that’s going to be an easy fight': American boxer Keyshawn Davis looks forward to Olympic gold medal bout
- Opinion: Kevin Durant one win away from becoming America's greatest international basketball player
- Money for medals: Olympic glory can also be very lucrative for athletes from these countries
- How future Olympics and athlete health could be threatened by climate change
'This is not our proudest moment': Spirit Airlines sees more cancellations
Saying, "This is not our proudest moment and we know that," Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie publicly addressed this week's operational meltdown for the first time Thursday, blaming the more than 1,700 flight cancellations on a variety of factors that left it short on staff as August began. Bad weather at the end of July, a time when flight crews start to run out of eligible hours to work, caused cancellations and "tipped us over, Christie said. Pilots and flight attendants timed out, leaving the airline with no slack in its system and forcing cancellations. Things began falling apart on Sunday, Aug. 1, and have gotten worse as the week's dragged on. Spirit has canceled more than half of its flights for three consecutive days. The bad news for Spirit passengers: the mess isn't over. As of 4:15 a.m. ET, the airline has already canceled 253 Friday flights, or one in three flights, according to FlightAware.
- Airline cancel or delay your flight? Here's what airlines owe you (and how to get it)
- Previous coverage: Spirit Airlines cancels half of Thursday flights, bringing weekly total to over 1,700
- 'I was completely flabbergasted': A year into pandemic, travelers finding some flight credits are expiring
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally returns, and delta will be there
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a massive annual gathering of bikers in South Dakota, is back on Friday with the highly infectious delta variant threatening to turn the event into a superspreader of huge proportions. About 700,000 people are expected to attend the weeklong event, which has become a haven for people eager to escape coronavirus precautions. Those hardly deterred participants last August, when roughly 460,000 attended. Masks were mostly ditched as bikers crowded into bars, tattoo parlors and rock shows. Contact tracers reported 649 infections from every corner of the country linked to the 2020 rally, including one death. A team from the CDC concluded in a published study that the gathering “had many characteristics of a superspreading event.”
- Poll: Vaccinated adults are more concerned about delta variant of COVID -19 than the unvaccinated
- 'Delta plus' is 'not a problem': Everything to know about the subvariant and why experts aren't worried, yet
Contributing: The Associated Press