staff

Radio star Nikki Osborne was approached by a member of staff as she headed to the Qantas lounge ahead of her flight – and what followed left her feeling ‘angry and frustrated’

A woman has said she was left feeling ‘humiliated’ and ‘degraded’ after she was approached by an airline worker with concerns over her outfit.

Nikki Osborne has now opened up about the incident, which took place in Qantas’s Brisbane lounge. The 44-year-old was dressed in tailored white shorts, a pink lace bodysuit and a knitted white cardigan for a work trip to the Whitsundays, Australia, when she claims she was confronted by a lounge employee.

“A staff member hurried up to me, grabbed me by the arm and said: ‘Firstly, I’m a long-time fan of yours, but I’ll need you to button your cardigan up to cover yourself to protect the other cultures in the lounge,” Nikki, an Australian radio personality, wrote in her QWeekend column.

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“Other cultures I thought? All I saw in the lounge were a few FIFO workers and a mum! She was very polite about it. I however was suddenly shaken with a combination of shock, embarrassment, humiliation, anger and frustration.

“It was actually hard to process that I’d been made to feel like a tart in my hometown, in front of my male colleague too.”

READ MORE: Ryanair passenger ‘stunned’ to receive ‘worst food ever’ on flight

Nikki continued: “Now, I’m a born and bred Queenslander but I’ve always made an effort to dress well and be taken seriously in my profession as a radio host, writer and stand up comedian. I’m also a mother. To have a woman suggest that my choice of dress is inappropriate really hit hard.

“I was wearing tailored white shorts, a pink bodysuit with a knitted white cardigan over the top, which I had worn at work earlier that day. Do I have cleavage? Yes. Had I covered the top of it? Yes. Was that enough? Apparently not!”

According to Nikki, the airline later reached out with assurances the incident wouldn’t happen again. But she said the follow-up phone call left her feeling even more scrutinised when staff went through her outfit item-by-item.

But her faith in Qantas was restored when a flight attendant greeted her warmly by her comic persona ‘Bush Barbie’ and treated her with complete respect. “That air steward salvaged my week,” she said.

Nikki has now said that while she’ll continue flying with Qantas, she’ll think twice about what she wears in the lounge, the Daily Mail reports.

“I’ll continue to choose what is appropriate clothing to wear and steer clear of the high moral ground of the Lounge.”

According to the Qantas website, the airline declines entry to its lounge if “some items of clothing are too casual or inappropriate”.

Among the banned list are thongs, bare feet, head-to-toe gym wear, beachwear (such as boardshorts), sleepwear (such as Ugg boots), clothing with offensive images or slogans and revealing, unclean or torn clothing.

“These guidelines are intended to create an environment everyone can enjoy, so please be mindful of your choice of clothing and footwear when visiting Qantas Clubs and Business Lounges in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney,” the website said.

READ MORE: Mum humiliated after boy tells school he isn’t sick – he’s going on ‘Jet2 plane’

Nikki is by no means the only traveller who has come under fire for their choice of attire. A woman previously said she was “shamed” on a flight after being accused of wearing an “inappropriate” and “lewd” outfit.

Maggi Thorne, 42, boarded a Southwest Airlines flight from Orlando to Nashville when she was left shocked by the reaction to her outfit choice. The seven-time American Ninja Warrior contestant says she was approached soon after boarding by a flight attendant.

The flight attendant reportedly told Maggi to cover up, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “[Southwest Airlines] attendant just shamed me in front of passengers saying my attire wasn’t appropriate”. Maggi was wearing a black cropped top and high waisted jogging bottoms to travel, meaning most of her body was covered – apart from her arms.

READ MORE: ‘We booked a flight to Nice – but ended up 495 miles away in Tunisia instead’

She added: “A tank top and high-waisted pants. Flight 1039. Is this really happening in 2023? The passengers around me were stunned as she shamed me for all to hear.”

Maggi said she told staff she was “not ok” with being told to cover up her outfit. The AWN star maintained there was nothing wrong with her outfit. She thinks the attendant was out of line for categorising her outfit as breaching Southwestern’s clothing policy of “lewd, obscene, or patently offensive” attire, she told Insider .

Maggi reportedly refused to cover up and complained to another crew member, adding: “When I told her I wasn’t okay, I don’t think she knew what to do. I’m not a confrontational person, but what happened isn’t okay and someone should say something about it.”

Southwest Airlines has since reached out to Thorne, offering her an apology and informing her that a complaint has been filed on her behalf.

Staff who work on Jimmy Kimmel Live! must wait to find out if they still have jobs after the show was axed this week over comments that angered President Trump

Staff who work on Jimmy Kimmel Live! have been given an update on their jobs after the show was pulled off air following comments host Jimmy made about Charlie Kirk, the US political activist shot dead earlier this month.

The 57-year-old TV host and comedian’s show was axed after he suggested Kirk’s suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, 22, was Republican and that the ‘MAGA gang’ were “working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”.

During Monday’s broadcast, Kimmel opened the show saying: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterise this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”

He then went on to mock President Trump’s response to a question from the press about how he was mourning Kirk’s death, which lead to the world leader bafflingly talking about the White House’s new ballroom construction instead.

READ MORE: Jimmy Kimmel’s wife warns ‘please don’t read this’ in ‘regretful’ Donald Trump move

Kirk was killed aged 31 as he spoke at an event at Utah Valley University on September 10. Robinson has since appeared in court, facing charges of aggravated murder over his death.

ABC, which airs Kimmel’s show, said it would not be showing Jimmy Kimmel Live! “for the foreseeable future”. While the network’s affiliate group, Nexstar Communications, called Kimmel’s comments “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse”.

Disney, who owns ABC, wanted Kimmel to apologise for his comments around the killer of Charlie Kirk. While Kimmel had informed Disney bosses that he planned to address his remarks on Wednesday’s episode, he said he was not willing to say sorry.

Though the show has been axed for now and staff were seen packing up and leaving the Hollywood studio this week, it’s reported they will still be paid while an agreement for the late night talk show is reached, suggesting it could well be back on air soon.

According to Deadline, a note was sent out to staff this week to inform them of the move as talks between the company and Kimmel continue.

What Kimmel will do next remains to be seen, but he is said to be popular with colleagues and is not thought to want any decision he makes to negatively impact them, particularly after many were hit by writers’ strikes, LA wildfires and the pandemic in recent years.

But the decision to axe Kimmel’s show will likely please one person more than any other. Celebrating on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED.

“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.

“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT.”

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As a major storm rushed toward Florida last October, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the time faced a different kind of threat. Police had shown up in force to a rental property she owned as a result of a prank call, in a potentially dangerous attack known as “swatting.”

Back-to-back Hurricanes Helene and Milton had sparked a torrent of online conspiracies, with FEMA officials facing harassment and death threats, according to hundreds of pages of agency emails and other documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by Bloomberg News. The records shed new light on how disaster-related misinformation affects the government’s emergency response, sucks up internal resources, and puts staff at risk.

Deanne Criswell, who ran FEMA under President Joe Biden, learned about the swatting situation as she was about to brief TV viewers on Milton, one of the most powerful storms on record to develop in the Gulf of Mexico. “It was a very unsettling feeling,” she said in a recent interview, thinking back on how she juggled her concern for her renters along with preparing Floridians for the storm.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, November 20, 2024.

(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Many of the attacks outlined in the documents have not previously been reported, including the doxxing of at least seven senior FEMA staffers. In those incidents sensitive personal information, such as home addresses, was published online for the purpose of harassment. The records also reveal challenges the agency faced as it tried to control the situation.

The incidents followed an online wave of disinformation suggesting FEMA was mishandling the response to the hurricanes that pummeled Florida and North Carolina in the lead up to the presidential election. Among the debunked claims swirling at the time were reports that agency workers had seized property from survivors and confiscated donations.

The offensive diverted agency time and resources to set the record straight and protect personnel. “It made my staff nervous,” said Criswell. “It made people in the community nervous. They didn’t know who to believe. They didn’t know who to trust.”The threat of misinformation continues to loom over the agency at a time when President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have made steep cuts to its staffing and funding, including pulling back on some of the resources FEMA used last fall to combat threats. In the aftermath of deadly Texas floods in July, for example, conspiracy theories online blamed cloud seeding.

“The profit-driven platform model, where sensational falsehoods outperform factual updates in emergencies, ensures this problem persists across political cycles and it can put lives at risk,” said Callum Hood, head of research at the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.

A FEMA spokesperson said in an email the agency “uses internal DHS resources to identify and mitigate any personal threats to employees.”

A trail of disinformation

Workers, community members, and business owners clean up debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Marshall, North Carolina, Sept. 30, 2024.

(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Im)

Hurricane Helene made landfall in the middle of the night on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm, causing historic flooding far inland and killing at least 250 people. Western North Carolina was particularly hard hit. Flood waters swept away small towns and cut off others, while Asheville lost water for more than a month. Almost immediately, FEMA staff had to confront false rumors circulating online, including that it had stopped accepting housing assistance applications from survivors and didn’t have enough funds to help them.

FEMA officials and experts attribute the quick spread of disinformation to historic government mistrust in the area, as well as social media platforms ratcheting back moderation. High-profile figures including X owner Elon Musk and Trump, then in the late stages of his bid to retake the White House, repeated some of the false claims. Trump, for example, said multiple times during his campaign rallies FEMA was directing disaster funds to immigrants.

For example, the agency shared a screenshot taken from a TruthSocial post from Oct. 5 that stated: “Deanne Criswell needs to be executed for crimes against humanity and treason!” An Oct. 6 post on Gab, a social media site favored by the far right, called for the “Mussolini treatment” of various officials. “The only question: Is there enough rope?” read one of the responses.

Jacyln Rothenberg, the agency’s spokesperson at the time, was among the most heavily targeted, leading Homeland Security to loan Customs and Border Protection agents to provide security at her home. “Because the doxxing was so severe and my safety was at risk, I had to stop tweeting,” she said. “I had to stop doing interviews. I had to stop putting myself on the record.”

FEMA staff also found what it called “far-right” users posting possible personal information for numerous officials, including Criswell, Coen and Rothenberg, internal documents show.

Attacks on FEMA Offline

As a second powerful hurricane — Milton — developed off the coast of Florida, the attacks on staffers’ started migrating from the internet to their homes. After Criswell’s rental property was swatted, among other “serious threats,” then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas signed off on a government vehicle and extra security to protect the embattled FEMA chief.

Then it happened to someone else. “My deputy Jenna Peters’ home was swatted,” Coen told FEMA’s security team in an email on Oct. 11. Peters did not respond to a request for comment.

The most high-profile incident involved a man allegedly “hunting” FEMA staff in North Carolina’s disaster zone. On Criswell’s orders, she said in an email to other top Biden officials: “All FEMA staff and contractors working to interact with survivors and conducting housing inspections, as well as search and rescue teams stood down following the initial reports.”

Elena Gonzalez, 37, looks at their burned-out home after Hurricane Milton’s landfall on October 14, 2024, in Fort Myers, Florida.

(Eva Marie Uzcategui/The Washington Post via Getty Im)

Afterwards, FEMA put together a Workplace Protection Task Force involving security, intelligence and communications professionals to manage incoming threats. Protective measures included using specialized software to flag personnel previously targeted online as at risk of more harassment. But there were limits to how far the government could influence content moderation. At the time, outspoken Republicans led by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan were investigating tech companies, alleging that the platforms were censoring conservative viewpoints under federal government pressure.

After initially approving ZeroFox to assist with facilitating takedowns, FEMA later asked that the company end all social media content removal requests. Per internal documents, the move came after staff discussions that it wasn’t advisable for the agency to contract for services that took any action beyond passive threat monitoring. ZeroFox declined to comment.

Supporters of 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attend a boat parade near a house damaged in Hurricane Milton, Siesta Key, Florida, October 26, 2024.

(Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump’s team has already overseen a massive scale back of FEMA’s staffing, funding and programming. As part of a review of contracts, FEMA ended its agreement with ZeroFox, according to a former official familiar with the situation. A FEMA spokesperson confirmed that it ended the ZeroFox contract in April. For Melissa Ryan, founder of Card Strategies, a consulting firm that researches disinformation, the current political climate — in which public officials who attempt to provide transparency are often politicized and attacked — is a bigger obstacle than budget cuts in the fight against false claims. “So many of the new government appointees are Trump loyalists, and attempting to actually respond effectively to disinformation would make whoever made the attempt a target for MAGA and the administration,” she said.

Hirji, Alba and Leopold write for Bloomberg.

It was the end of an era on Friday night at Canoga Park High, where Mark Nogy completed his final high school football home game as the public address announcer on the 30th anniversary of his debut.

He’s a Canoga Park graduate who later became a school counselor and also announced Pierce College football games.

Former Canoga Park principal Denny Thompson wrote on Facebook, “Mark has never been shy about telling anyone who will listen just how great the community, staff, and students are. Thank you for being such a great Ambassador for our school. We will miss you on the mic at games. You are one of the reasons that ‘every day is a GREAT day at Canoga Park High.’”

The person who has been sitting next to him for 30 years in the press box running the scoreboard clock, Anthony Villalobos, will take over announcing for the rest of the season.

Canoga Park is set to get a new grass field, new scoreboard and new all-weather track next year.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Sept. 13 (UPI) — Officials at the University of California-Berkeley have shared personal information on 160 students, faculty and staff with the federal government amid an anti-Semitism investigation.

The Department of Education and Office of Civil Rights is investigating claims of anti-Semitism at the university and requested the information, which the U.C. Office of the President ordered staff to provide, The Daily Californian reported this week.

The Daily Californian is an independent student publication at the university and reported that the university shared the information in August and informed those affected in an email from the university’s Office of Legal Affairs on Sept. 4.

“As part of its investigation, OCR required production of comprehensive documents, including files and reports related to alleged anti-Semitic incidents,” the email read, as reported by The Daily Californian.

The email told respective individuals that the university included their names in reports provided by the University of California system’s Office of General Counsel, as required by law.

Those whose names were provided are among some who have been accused of anti-Semitic activities at the university, affected by such activities or complained about them, SFGate, The New York Times and The Guardian reported.

Many of those accused of anti-Semitism at the university are Muslims and Palestinians, but an unnamed graduate student said such claims often arise from classroom discussions regarding Israel and the Middle East, according to The Daily Californian.

Faculty member Judith Butler is among those named and is described by The Guardian as a “feminist philosopher and queer theorist.”

Butler also is a Jewish scholar who has criticized Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas and asked university administrators about the information disclosed.

“We have a right to know the charges against us, to know who has made the charges and to review them and defend ourselves,” Butler told The Guardian.

“But none of that has happened, which is why we’re in Kafka-land,” she said, while referencing German writer Franz Kafka and his published works.

“It is an enormous breach of trust,” Butler added.

The Trump administration has targeted many elite universities for alleged anti-Semitism, including encampments, protests and building takeovers, and has withheld federal funding from those accused of enabling campus anti-Semitism.

The Education Department began investigating U.C.-Berkeley in February, and Republican lawmakers in July accused university Chancellor Rich Lyons those at two other universities of not effectively stopping anti-Semitism on their respective campuses, according to The New York Times.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has hired Mitch Kamin, a lawyer who has fought the Trump administration and provided legal services for underserved communities, to be her next chief of staff.

Kamin, who, like the mayor, is a graduate of Alexander Hamilton High School, will be Bass’ third chief of staff in her nearly three years leading the city — a much more rapid turnover than in previous administrations.

Announcing the appointment in a press release Friday, Bass called Kamin a “seasoned leader and status quo disrupter.”

The Harvard-educated lawyer has decades of experience as an executive at nonprofits and legal services organizations and has served on several city commissions.

Most recently, he was general counsel and chief strategy officer for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a project of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas that is set to open next year.

Before that, Kamin was a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, where he helped the firm recruit for its first L.A. office and was co-chair of the global commercial litigation practice group and the entertainment and media industry group. He previously was president of Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services.

“Mitch is a passionate, committed and compelling leader,” former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was a partner with Kamin at Covington, said in a statement.

Kamin, 58, is taking charge of Bass’ office as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown in Los Angeles and across the country. During Trump’s first term, he represented the city in a lawsuit against the Department of Justice that prevented the federal government from requiring cooperation with immigration enforcement as a condition of receiving grant money.

Kamin replaces Carolyn Webb de Macias, who has led the mayor’s office since November 2023. She had been retired and was only supposed to serve in the role for a year but stayed on longer following the January wildfires, the mayor’s office said.

The mayor’s first chief of staff was Chris Thompson, who led the transition team after her election.

Chiefs of staff in recent mayoral administrations often served longer. Ana Guerrero headed the mayor’s office for eight years under Mayor Eric Garcetti, while Robin Kramer served under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for about four.

Guerrero lost her post in 2021 after revelations that she disparaged elected officials, city employees and others in a private Facebook group. She stayed on with the mayor in a diminished role.

Kamin was appointed by Garcetti in 2016 to serve on the commission that oversees the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. He also served as president of the board of commissioners for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles starting in 2011.

Kamin was on the board when the agency fired its CEO, Rudolf Montiel. The board drew criticism for providing Montiel with a $1.2 million severance package.

“The basic thing was to eliminate any legal liability … close this chapter and move forward,” Kamin told The Times in 2011.

Kamin will start his new job on Sept. 22, Bass told her staff in an office-wide email.

“Mitch has my full support and mandate to lead this team and to maximize our effectiveness and performance,” she wrote.

When Kamala Harris left the White House, she was trailed by three big questions.

She’s now answered two of them.

First off, the former vice president will not be running for California governor in 2026. After months of will-or-won’t-she speculation, the Democrat took a pass on a race that was Harris’ to lose because, plainly, her heart just wasn’t into a return to Sacramento.

On Wednesday, with publication of the first excerpts from her 2024 campaign diary, Harris answered a second question: What kind of book — candid or pablum-filled — would she produce?

The answer flows directly to the third and largest remaining question, whether Harris attempts a third try for the White House in 2028.

If she does, and the portions published Wednesday by the Atlantic magazine give no clue one way or the other, she’ll have some work to do mollifying the person who made her vice president, thus vaulting Harris to top-tier status should she run again.

That would be one Joe Biden.

Harris’ book — “107 Days” — recounts the shortest presidential campaign in modern U.S. history.

It’s no tell-all.

Surely, there’s a good deal of inside dope, juicy gossip and backstage intrigues that Harris is holding back for political, personal or practical reasons.

Still, it’s a tell-plenty.

The headline-grabbiest passage is Harris’ suggestion that Biden, felled by a thoroughly wretched debate performance that showed the ravages of his advanced age, should have stepped aside before being effectively forced off the Democratic ticket.

“ ‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision,’ “ Harris wrote. “We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high.

“This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition,” she went on. “It should have been more than a personal decision.”

The relationship between Harris and Jill Biden, which was famously glacial, will surely turn Arctic-cold with Wednesday’s revelations. And Biden’s thin-skinned husband, who still harbors the fanciful belief he would beaten Donald Trump had he been the Democratic nominee, isn’t likely to be any more pleased.

There’s more.

Harris suggests in many ways Biden was more hindrance than helpmate as she struggled to step out from the shadow that inevitably shrouds the vice president.

When Biden finally spoke to the nation to explain his abdication and anointment of Harris as his chosen successor, Harris notes he waited nearly nine minutes into an 11-minute address to offer his cursory blessing.

She also expresses a deep personal pique toward Team Biden and West Wing staffers who had little faith in Harris or her political abilities and had no hesitation stating so — in private, anyway.

“When the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it,” Harris wrote. “Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.

“Worse, I often learned that the president’s staff was adding fuel to negative narratives that sprang up around me.”

Fact check: True.

But Harris also skates around certain hard truths, suggesting the staff turnover that plagued her early in her vice presidency was just the normal Beltway churn.

Harris has a reputation for being an imperious and difficult boss — it’s not misogynistic to say so — and she did suffer a notably high level of staff burnout and turnover that hindered her vice presidential operation.

Harris embarrassed herself in some stumbling TV appearances — especially early in her vice presidency — and it’s not racist to point that out. She has no one to blame but herself.

Perhaps most critically, Harris bequeathed the Trump campaign a sterling political gift late in the campaign when she appeared on the TV chatfest “The View” and, served up a softball of a question, whiffed it spectacularly.

“What, if anything,” Harris was asked, “would you have done … differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

It’s a question she could have easily anticipated. The separation of a president and the vice president looking to follow him into the Oval Office is a political rite of passage, though always a fraught and delicate one.

It’s necessary to show voters not just a hint of independence but also a bit of spine.

George H.W. Bush handled the maneuver with aplomb and succeeded Ronald Reagan. Hubert Humphrey and Al Gore did not, and both lost.

Given her chance, Harris squandered a choice opportunity to put some badly needed space between herself and the dismally regarded Biden.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” was her tinny response, and that gaffe is entirely on the former vice president.

It didn’t necessarily cost her the White House. There were plenty of reasons Harris lost. But at a time when voters were virtually shouting out loud for change in Washington it stamped the vice president, quite unhelpfully, as more of the same.

‘I am a loyal person,” Harris writes, which is not only self-justifying but has the slightly off-putting whiff of someone declaring, by golly, I’m just too honest.

Perhaps behind closed doors she screamed and raged, telling the octogenarian Biden he was old and senile and sure to cost Democrats the White House and deliver the nation to the evil clutches of Donald Trump — though that seems doubtful.

“Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity,” she wrote.

In fact, she said, Biden was “fully able to discharge the duties of president.”

“On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.”

Fact Check: Again, true.

“But at 81,” Harris went on, “Joe got tired. … I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.”

Plenty of books have been written offering insider accounts of the White House and presenting far more dire accounts of Biden’s physical and mental acuity. Many more are sure to come.

Harris’ contribution to the oeuvre remains to be seen. Her book is set for publication on Sept. 23 and there is a lot more to come beyond the excerpts just published.

What has been revealed is Harris’ eagerness to settle old scores, to right the record as she sees it and to angrily and publicly call out some of her perceived enemies — including some still active in Democratic politics.

How does that affect her prospects for 2028 and what does it say about whether Harris runs again for president?

You can read into it what you will.

Tyrrell Hatton has revealed how he got hopelessly drunk – and violently sick! – after qualifying for his fourth Ryder Cup.

Hatton said he went on a “bit of a tear-up” with Jon Rahm – the player he teamed up with in Rome two years ago – when European captain Luke Donald rang to confirm he was definitely on the team.

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That came as a surprise to the English ace. He feared he would be knocked out of the six automatic spots on the team by some of the European stars in action at last month’s Tour Championship.

He explained: “Luke called me to say the guys weren’t earning points in Atlanta, and I’d actually made the team automatically. That was a very nice phone call to receive, and I was over the moon.

“Jon had just won the LIV individual title, so we had a bit of a tear-up. Yeah, that was a messy night. I don’t ever want to get into that state again to be honest.

“When I actually got back into my hotel room, I fell across the bed sideways, face down and fell asleep in that position.

“Then I woke up throwing up in that same position.

“Then I fell back asleep, and when I woke up again, I had gotten sick all down my arms, both sides, all down my shirt.

“I get off the bed and walk around to the bathroom, look in the mirror, and I’ve got sick on my face, and in my beard.

“How I set an alarm to make a flight in a few hours’ time, I don’t know.

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“But yeah, waking up in a slightly more sober state was horrendous, and having to clean up that mess. I ended up calling my wife, Emily, and saying: ‘I don’t know what to do’.

“I was rushing to make the room somewhat more acceptable before leaving.

“So I ended up stripping the bed, leaving some cash and a note, saying I was really sorry, I was sick in the bed in the night, please throw it in the trash.

“I feel like I did the right thing but I was obviously in a pretty bad state. I do not ever want to feel as bad as I did that next day. Yeah, that was aggressive.”

Hatton, 33, who is one of the star attractions at this week’s BMW PGA Championship, proceeded to give details of just how much he had drunk – admitting the episode was like a remake of the hit film The Hangover.

He added: “I had like six glasses of wine at dinner, and then I had a double gin and tonic.

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“Drunk that at a very normal rate, and then Jon was deciding what he wanted and he said Disaronno Sours.

“And I was like, perfect, go on them. They go down very easily.

“Then I was starting the chant of basically getting someone to down it, and then every cocktail that then followed was a shot.

“So we then ran out of Disaronno Sour. The guy at the bar made some hazelnut sour which wasn’t great, but we still had a few of them.

“Then there was a margarita and then there was a strawberry vodka thing.

“God, it was aggressive. It was horrible. But I mean, it was funny at the time. Not so much the next day.”

Ryder Cup line ups

Here are the players who will be competing in the Ryder Cup…

Team Europe

• Luke Donald (C)
• Shane Lowry
• Jon Rahm
• Sepp Straka
• Viktor Hovland
• Ludvig Aberg
• Matt Fitzpatrick
• Rory McIlroy
• Robert MacIntyre
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Justin Rose
• Rasmus Hojgaard
• Tyrrell Hatton

Team USA

• Keegan Bradley (C)
• Justin Thomas
• Collin Morikawa
• Ben Griffin
• Cameron Young
• Patrick Cantley
• Sam Burns
• Scottie Scheffler
• JJ Spaun
• Xander Schauffele
• Russell Henley
• Harris English
• Bryson DeChambeau

Haru Urara, the mare who won over horse racing enthusiasts in Japan and abroad with her perpetual losing streak, has died. She was 29.

Yuko Miyahara, a representative for Urara’s longtime care facility Matha Farm in the southeast Chiba prefecture of Japan, confirmed to Japanese outlet Friday Digital that the animal athlete died early Tuesday of colic. She was surrounded by staff.

“Urara was 29. In human years that’s almost 90, but really, until yesterday she was doing really well,” Miyahara said in the article, which was translated to English. “It was so sudden … lately Uhara was getting visitors even from outside Japan. It’s really unfortunate.”

The horse, whose name translates to Glorious Spring, debuted in 1998 at the Kochi Racecourse. The track advertised its resilient star’s losing streak as part of its efforts to stay in business. Urara’s reputation — bolstered by her signature pink racing accessories and fan merchandise — breached the perimeters of the Kochi racetrack and made her a global phenomenon. In 2004 former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi even expressed his support for the mare.

“I’d like to see Haru Urara win, even just once,” Koizumi said. “The horse is a good example of not giving up in the face of defeat.”

Trained by her longtime trainer Dai Muneishi, Urara kept racing — she lost a total of 113 races and finished second in only four of those — until her retirement in August 2004. Her owner at the time parted ways with the Kochi racetrack and Urara disappeared for several years after her retirement. Since 2014 she had been receiving care at Matha Farms.

Her career and unexpected global fame were the subject of the 2016 ESPN documentary “The Shining Star for Losers Everywhere.”

“At the time, Haru Urara must have been a star of hope for the losers,” trainer Muneishi said in the documentary.

Interest in Urara’s legacy of losing and resilience reignited earlier this year with the global release of the mobile game “Uma Musume: Pretty Derby” in June. “Uma Musume,” initially released in Japan in 2021, is a racing simulator that re-imagines real-life racehorses as anime horsegirls. Players are “trainers” who support racers, leveling them up to climb the ranks. In the video game, Haru Urara is a horsegirl whose features are various shades of pink. Her character is also featured in the “Uma Musume: Pretty Derby” anime series.

The game’s official X (formerly Twitter) account shared the news of the racehorse’s death “with heavy hearts” and mourned the “legendary” athlete.

“We share our condolences to all the staff involved in Haru Urara’s care,” the post said.

Times staff writer Tracy Brown contributed to this report.

“The Paper,” premiering Thursday on Peacock, is a belated spinoff of “The Office,” much as Peacock is a sort of spinoff of NBC, where the former show aired on Thursdays from 2005 to 2013. In the new series, Dunder Mifflin, the office in “The Office,” has been absorbed into a company called Enervate, which deals in office supplies, janitorial paper and local newspapers, “in order of quality.” The newspaper at hand is the Toledo Truth Teller, sharing space with the toilet paper division.

Created by “Office” developer Greg Daniels with Michael Koman, “The Paper” is shot in the same documentary style, ostensibly by the same fictional crew, and imports “Office” player Oscar Núñez as head accountant Oscar Martinez, not at all happy to be back on camera.

In the first episode, Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), a starry-eyed journalism school graduate turned cardboard salesman turned toilet paper salesman, arrives as the new editor in chief of the Truth Teller, not exactly taking charge of a staff that consists entirely of narcissistic interim managing editor Esmeralda Grand (Sabrina Impacciatore), whose sole prior media experience is as a contestant on a dating reality show called “Married at First Sight”; ad salesman Detrick Moore (Melvin Gregg); subscriptions person Nicole Lee (Ramona Young); compositor Mare Pritti (Chelsea Frei), who wrote for “Stars and Stripes”; accountants Adam Cooper (Alex Edelman) and Adelola Olofin (Gbemisola Ikumelo); and Duane Shepard Sr. as Barry Stokes, the only official reporter, whose beat consists of high school sports and falling asleep. In the sitcom logic of the show, they will all be drafted as volunteer journalists, joined by Travis Bienlien (Eric Rahill), from the toilet paper division.

Times television critic Robert Lloyd and news and culture (and former television) critic Lorraine Ali have worked in many newspaper and magazine offices between them, and come together here to discuss how “The Paper” compares to “The Office,” its journalistic veracity and whether or not it’s funny.

The journalist recruits in “The Paper,” from left: Chelsea Frei as Mare, Ramona Young as Nicole, Melvin Gregg as Detrick, Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adelola, Alex Edelman as Adam, Eric Rahill as Travis and Oscar Núñez as Oscar.

(John P. Fleenor / Peacock)

Ali: I’ll start with my favorite quote about journalism from “The Paper”: “The industry is collapsing like an old smoker’s lung.” Hack, hack, cough, I say from inside the beast. This half-hour comedy offered so many great moments of spot-on commentary about the state of legacy journalism that I wasn’t sure if I should weep or laugh. I chose the latter, most of the time. The first couple episodes are clever, funny and charmingly clumsy — if not too close to the bone for folks like us. I’ll get to the rest of the series in a minute, but how did the satire about a contracting newsroom strike you, Robert?

Lloyd: There are a couple of moments in the pilot episode where it flashes back to an old black-and-white documentary on the Truth Teller in an earlier age when 1,000 people worked for the paper, before the internet destroyed print journalism and the newspaper, which once occupied a whole building, and was eventually reduced to sharing a corner of a floor with the toilet paper division. It gave me a little shock. I feel like I caught the end of that analog era, at the L.A. Weekly, when it was a thin, then a fat alternative paper, and the Herald Examiner, where there were typewriters that must have been sitting there since the ’30s, a sort of piratical “Front Page” energy and tons of talent. (Much of which migrated to The Times when the Herald folded.)

Ali: I felt a tinge of sadness and loss watching those flashback scenes. Then they cut to present day, and the marbled halls of the once-great Truth Teller newspaper are empty. What struck me is how much the fictional paper’s lobby looked like the old Globe Lobby of the L.A. Times’ building downtown. I also got a lump in my throat when they went down into the basement where the old giant presses sat frozen. We had those relics in the old Times building too. For readers who don’t know, the L.A. Times hasn’t been in that landmark building since 2018. We’re now in El Segundo. Sounds like a great setup for a sitcom joke, right?

Lloyd: Most — all? — newspapers have felt the stress of shrinking staffs and resources, of doing more with less. But the Truth Teller starts with almost nothing — that it comes out at all, apparently daily, is something of a joke in itself; at least Ted Baxter was the only knucklehead working at WJM on “Mary Tyler Moore,” but there are more than a few of them here. “The Office” wasn’t about the work, but about surviving the environment. It didn’t really matter what did or didn’t get done. But this is a show about a business — a noble institution, however ignobly served — with deadlines, some of which one would rightly regard as impossible, having met hundreds, if not thousands, in one’s life — even without a skeleton crew that has no idea what it’s doing. But it just sort of wishes them away. Then again, it is a sitcom.

The jokes are well-timed and reliably funny, but like “The Office,” it’s all down to the characters, which are wonderful company. Oscar, of course, we already know and love. But I especially liked Gregg as the soft-edged Detrick, with an awkward crush on the wry Nicole. Ned, whom the Irish Gleeson plays like someone out of a Frank Capra pastiche, can be a little competitive, but he’s no Michael Scott; neither is he exactly Jim to Mare’s Pam, though obviously they occupy a similar position, being relatively normal and attractive. But as the One Who Needs to Be Noticed, Impacciatore’s Esmeralda does have more than a little Michael Scott in her, though turned up to 11, insanely glamorized and in an Italian accent. It’s a hilarious performance. Her delighted scrolling through a thicket of ads on a clickbait article on a tip Brad Pitt left someone is a little comic gem. It’s not unlike the way Janelle James pops out as Ava on “Abbott Elementary.”

Sabrina Impacciatore, left, plays managing editor Esmeralda, who has more than a little Michael Scott in her.

(John P. Fleenor / Peacock)

Ali: It’s impossible not to compare “The Paper” to “The Office.” It’s unfair yet inevitable, and “The Office” wins, though my favorite version of that show was the British version with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. But I do like what Gleeson does in “The Paper” with Ned Sampson, portraying him as an enthusiastic editor in chief born about 50 years too late to experience the Woodward and Bernstein glory days of print journalism. The deflated expression on his face is priceless when he advises his lost “reporters” to rely on the Five Ws of reporting, and one asks, “Is that a gang?” Gleeson has an impressive range. He was haunting as the conflicted foodie/serial killer in psychological thriller “The Patient,” where he co-starred, ironically, with Steve Carell. I also really like Young as Nicole, who I admittedly had an affinity for as a drama club nerd in “Never Have I Ever.”

My issue with “The Paper” isn’t the cast, but the pacing. It starts off strong. The first two episodes are filled with sharp writing and build a strong foundation for what we expect to see: the hilarity of an inexperienced, underdog staff turning a local rag into a real source of news. But the momentum doesn’t quite sustain. I felt myself losing interest in the story as the series progressed because their ensuing assignments, setbacks and interpersonal trajectories weren’t all that compelling.

I do, however, appreciate that “The Paper,” like “Abbott Elementary,” mines the tragic humor of a crumbling American institution while also pointing out that this thing is happening under our noses, and shouldn’t we do something — anything — to save it? Turning that tragedy into a sitcom is one answer.

For two years, labor organizers tried to unionize employees at a trio of celebrated California national parks, but they couldn’t reach critical mass.

Then came mass firings of National Park Service employees in February under the Trump administration. Many employees were reinstated, but litigation concerning the legality of the firings winds on. The park service has lost about a quarter of its staff since Trump reclaimed the White House, and that’s on top of a proposed $1-billion budget cut to the agency.

This summer the scales tipped. More than 97% of employees at Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks who cast ballots voted to unionize, with results certified last week. More than 600 staffers — including interpretive park rangers, biologists, firefighters and fee collectors — are now represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees.

Steven Gutierrez, national business representative with the National Federation of Federal Employees, said it took mass firings to “wake people up.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

“Culture is hard to change,” said Steven Gutierrez, a national business representative for the union. “It takes something like this administration firing people to wake people up, to say, ‘Hey, I’m vulnerable here and I need to invest in my career.’”

The unionized employees work at some of California’s most celebrated and highly visited national parks. Yosemite is famous for its awe-inspiring valley, while Sequoia and Kings Canyon are known for their giant sequoia trees.

Amid that beauty is a workforce that is frustrated and fearful. Two employees at Yosemite National Park described rock-bottom morale amid recent turmoil — and a sense that the union could provide an avenue for change. Both are union representatives and requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

“With this administration, I think there’s a lot more people who are scared, and I think the union definitely helps towards protections that we really want,” said one employee.

National Park Service Ranger Anna Nicks walks through a grove of sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park in May 2024.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Despite staff being depleted by buyouts and a hiring freeze, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered parks to remain “open and accessible.” As a result, the employee said visitors may not notice something is off.

“There’s a lot of folks doing multiple jobs and just trying to hold up the park,” she said, adding that she believes that the union will help ensure people get paid properly for the work they do and that their duties don’t shift.

The employees stressed that many workplace problems they want to see fixed — including low pay and squalid living conditions — predate Trump’s second stint in the White House. But recent developments have exacerbated the situation.

Because pay hasn’t kept pace with inflation, one employee said he’s unable to pay rent and lives out of his car for most of the year. Meanwhile, he said, those in park housing face safety threats such as hantavirus-carrying rodents that invade living spaces, caving-in roofs and unstable decks. Understaffing has plagued Yosemite for years.

“People that you see working here, they’re really at their wit’s end,” he said. “Personally speaking, it’s just a lot of work to handle. Years ago, we had twice as many people doing this work.”

Staffers are “worried about their futures,” he added.

The National Park Service did not respond to a request for comment. But in a statement to a Senate appropriations subcommittee in May, Burgum said the Trump administration remains committed to supporting the parks, while looking for ways to cut costs.

A waterfall is reflected in water in the meadow in the Yosemite Valley as the snowpack melts in April 2023.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

“Since becoming Interior Secretary, I’ve traveled to National Parks, historic sites, and wildlife refuges to learn and hear from leadership on the ground,” Burgum said. “We’re instituting changes to get more people actually working in the parks and are looking forward to what Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly forecasted to be an ‘outstanding summer.’ ”

The unionization vote comes as the Trump administration seeks to strip federal employees of labor protections many have long enjoyed. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order that directs certain federal agencies — including NASA, the National Weather Service and the Bureau of Reclamation — to end collective bargaining agreements with unions representing federal employees.

The Department of Veterans Affairs previously moved to terminate protections for more than 400,000 of its workers. The president’s overall effort on this front is being fought in court, although federal judges have so far sided with the administration.

As labor unrest mounts, Americans and foreign tourists are visiting national parks like never before. In 2024, there were a record 332 million visits to national parks, including 4 million to Yosemite. Crowds continued to stream into national parks over Labor Day weekend.

Groups that advocate for public lands say that short staffing is quietly adding to long-standing problems.

Preventative Search and Rescue Program Coordinator Anna Marini gives the Lutter family children junior guide books after they finished a hike in August 2024 in Joshua Tree National Park.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s clear staffing shortages are directly impacting park operations across the system,” the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Assn. said in a statement Wednesday.

“Parks like Joshua Tree and Yosemite are struggling with search and rescue, law enforcement and even basic medical services, while some parks have no maintenance staff at all. Seasonal roads, trails and campgrounds like those at Sequoia and Kings Canyon remain closed due to unaddressed damage.”

The union voting took place July 22 to Aug. 19, and included permanent and seasonal employees. The National Federation of Federal Employees represents workers at several other national parks, including Yellowstone and, in Ohio, Cuyahoga Valley, as well as those in the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

A union sign hailing federal workers is displayed at Sequoia National Park.

(Steven Gutierrez)

Federal employees don’t have the right to strike, Gutierrez said, meaning that much of employees’ advocacy has to happen in Washington, D.C. He said the union can bring workers face to face with congressional leaders to explain why their jobs matter — including the tourism dollars they help generate.

Next steps will include hammering out labor contracts for Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon, which can provide job protections.

Gutierrez said he’d like to see one drafted by December but acknowledged that it can be a long process.

“If Trump puts his fingers into it, it’s going to take longer,” he said.

Los Angeles classical music station KUSC-FM (91.5) has laid off employees after Republicans cut federal funding from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.

James A. Muhammad, president of Classical California, the entity that operates the nonprofit KUSC and its sister station, KDFC in San Francisco, confirmed the workforce reduction in a note sent Thursday to its listeners.

“Despite our best efforts, the fact is that Classical California has experienced a reduction of $1.1 million in support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Muhammad wrote. “This, along with other impacts, requires us to make difficult decisions across KUSC-FM and KDFC-FM.”

A representative for Classical California did not respond to questions on the number of employees cut. A person briefed on the move who was not authorized to comment publicly said it was eight positions, including two department managers, all based in Los Angeles.

None of the announcers at the two stations were included in the cuts.

Classical California is among the many public media outlets that are scrambling to fill the budget gaps caused by the decision by the Trump White House and the Republican Congress to claw back the $1.1 billion in federal money allocated to the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.

The nonprofit entity administered the funds for public radio and TV stations, mostly affiliates of NPR and PBS.

Conservatives and libertarians have long called for the end of public funds supporting media organizations, especially ones they view as politically left-leaning. Trump has called NPR and PBS government-funded “left-wing propaganda.”

The Corp. for Public Broadcasting was also a vital revenue source for cultural and fine arts programming that often struggles to sustain itself in the commercial media marketplace.

Both KUSC and KDFC, which are owned and operated by the University of Southern California, play classical music 24 hours a day and are not NPR affiliates. They are the most-listened-to classical radio stations in the U.S.

Muhammad’s note to listeners included a plea for contributions to make up for the shortfall caused by the cuts.

“We remain committed to continuing to be your home for classical music,” Muhammad said. “As a listener-supported station, we need your support of KUSC and KDFC, now more than ever.”

An experienced flight attendant has revealed the one thing to avoid doing on airplanes if you don’t want to risk sharing other people’s bodily fluids and germs

A flight attendant who shares her adventures in the sky on social media has provided some insider advice on what passengers should definitely avoid while onboard.

Natalie Magee has been flying for 20 years so certainly knows what she’s talking about. She’s seen the good, the bad and the very ugly during her time looking after airline travellers.

However, there’s one particular freebie that Natalie recommends refusing, especially on shorter flights because the risk of getting up close and far too personal with other people’s germs is horribly high.

Zooming through the clouds can often mean that it gets a bit nippy at times in the cabin, particularly if flying at night when the sun has gone down. So passengers may need a blanket to keep warm and cosy.

Complimentary blankets used to be provided by airlines on most flights for chilly customers but these days because of cost-cutting and environmental concerns it’s usually only international, long-haul and first-class passengers that they are available too.

You may not think that’s such a bad thing though when you discover what could be found on them either. According to Natalie, hair, food, bodily fluids and mould could all be lurking in the folds of the material.

She says travellers use them to wipe their nose, clean up spills and even to catch their toenail clippings but that’s not all. “Probably one of the grossest things I’ve seen is someone using blankets to change their baby’s diaper,” Natalie, who is from Colorado, US, told Travel + Leisure.

That wouldn’t be such a problem if they were laundered after every use but that doesn’t always happen, according to the expert. “Most airlines have contract cleaners that take the blankets off after international flights and wash them in hot water, then seal them in plastic bags to be reused,” she explained. “However, on domestic flights, I’ve had blankets on my flights that we are instructed to just refold and put back in the bin.”

As a general rule she says if they aren’t in a sealed bag, they aren’t sanitary. So if you are someone who feels the cold when flying or needs to be covered to have a snooze, she recommends taking your own blanket. This way you know it’s clean and you won’t be snuggling up with someone else’s germs or illnesses.

Natalie has previously shared some of her many in-flight “peeves” and the most annoying things that passengers do. Along with parents changing babies on tray tables, people walking to the toilet barefoot and clipping their toenails while on board, she reveals one of her biggest pet hates is also hygiene related.

In a TikTok video she said she hates it, “when people don’t shut the bathroom door or leave the bathroom a mess. Also when you can hear it flush but not the sink so you know they didn’t wash their hands.”

Despite the niggles of life in the air with total strangers in a confined space, she reckons most flight attendants think of the aircraft as their own domain, which is why they want people to treat it well. “We would love it if people treated the space as their home and were tidy and respectful,” she said.

Natalie also believes it makes such a difference when passengers are polite and kind. “Honestly, when people say ‘thank you’ when they are getting off the plane (it is really great),” she reveals. “Or when they take the time to look at us when we are doing the beverage service and say please and thank you, we really appreciate it. I also like people who help others with their bags, especially mums and the elderly as we can’t always help everyone when boarding.”

Jeremy Clarkson has been inundated with congratulations from fans after he made a rare social media statement

Jeremy Clarkson has made a sudden declaration about his pub, The Farmer’s Dog, on social media this week as he praised staff who have made its inaugural year of trading a triumph.

The Clarkson’s Farm star launched his Cotswolds watering hole in August 2024, documenting the adventure on his Prime Video programme as workers at the time mounted a significant walkout.

Now Jeremy, 65, has shared a photograph of the pub’s signage on Instagram and informed followers: “Exactly a year ago, we opened The Farmer’s Dog to back British farming.

“Today, there are 146 people on the payroll, and I’d like to thank every single one of them for making it such a roaring success.”

Supporters hurried to praise the former Top Gear presenter on his accomplishment, with one retailer of his Hawkstone beer disclosing they have also been marking his triumphs in the commercial realm.

The retailer wrote: “Congratulations! We are proud sellers of Hawkstone and have sold almost 6000 bottles in just over a year! Good going for a small indie shop,” reports the Express.

“Not only are you providing jobs, you are helping small businesses like mine keep going during tough times. Cheers.”

Another person added: “Happy first birthday! We just visited yesterday, what a wonderful creation.”

A third admirer commented, “I hope everyone within the farmers’ cooperative is thriving through the enterprise, too. I’ve visited twice and had a great time. Lovely staff, great location, wonderful food.”

Someone else expressed support by saying, “I look forward to visiting soon; it’s just up the road for me.”

The Farmer’s Dog, a mere 10 miles south of Diddly Squat Farm and nestled in the Oxfordshire countryside along the A40, was formerly known as The Windmill.

Jeremy reportedly paid “less than £1million” for the property, only to find that it had been a popular spot for particularly exhibitionist locals.

Thankfully, the pub has undergone a complete makeover, including the addition of a massive chrome tractor hanging in the bar area.

Hundreds of flights have been grounded after Air Canada’s unionised flight attendants went on strike after talks over an increase in wages with the country’s largest carrier stalled.

“We are now officially on strike,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants, said in a social media post just before 01:00 ET [05:00 GMT].

The airline said on Saturday it had suspended all flights for Air Canada and its budget arm Air Canada Rouge due to the strike, which is the first since 1985.

“About 130,000 customers will be impacted each day that the strike continues,” Air Canada said in a statement.

“Air Canada is strongly advising affected customers not to go to the airport unless they have a confirmed ticket on an airline other than Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge,” the airline added.

Flights for regional operators Air Canada Jazz and PAL Airlines would continue to operate.

Air Canada had announced its latest wage offer to flight attendants in a statement on Thursday, specifying that under the terms, a senior flight attendant would, on average, make CAN$87,000 ($65,000) per year by 2027.

CUPE has, however, described the airline’s offers as “below inflation (and) below market value”.

The union has also rejected requests from the federal government and Air Canada to resolve outstanding issues through independent arbitration.

In addition to wage increases, the union has said it also wants to address uncompensated ground work, including during the boarding process.

Rafael Gomez, who heads the University of Toronto’s Centre for Industrial Relations, told the AFP news agency that it is “common practice, even around the world” to compensate flight attendants based on time spent in the air.

He said the union had built an effective communication campaign around the issue, creating a public perception of unfairness.

An average passenger, not familiar with common industry practice, could think, “‘I’m waiting to board the plane and there’s a flight attendant helping me, but they’re technically not being paid for that work,’” he said, speaking before the strike began.

“That’s a very good issue to highlight,” Gomez further said, adding that gains made by Air Canada employees could affect other carriers.

On Saturday, flight attendants will picket major Canadian airports, where passengers have already been trying to secure new bookings earlier in the week, as the carrier gradually wound down operations.

Passenger Freddy Ramos, 24, told the Reuters news agency on Friday at Canada’s largest airport in Toronto that his earlier flight was cancelled due to the labour dispute and that he had been rebooked by Air Canada to a different destination.

“Probably 10 minutes prior to boarding, our gate got changed, and then it was cancelled and then it was delayed and then it was cancelled again,” he said.

Canadian businesses reeling from a trade dispute with the United States have urged the federal government to impose binding arbitration on both sides, which would end the strike.

In a statement issued before the strike began, the Business Council of Canada warned that an Air Canada work stoppage could add further pain.

“At a time when Canada is dealing with unprecedented pressures on our critical economic supply chains, the disruption of national air passenger travel and cargo transport services would cause immediate and extensive harm to all Canadians,” it said.

Air Canada has asked Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority Liberal government to order both sides into binding arbitration, although CUPE, which represents the attendants, said it opposed the move.

Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge normally carry about 130,000 customers a day. Air Canada is also the busiest foreign carrier servicing the US by number of scheduled flights.

Protesters in New York City rallied outside The New York Times over the killing of Al Jazeera journalists including Anas al-Sharif in a targeted Israeli air attack in Gaza, accusing US media of shielding Israel from genocide allegations. Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo was there.

Richard Madeley is among names remaining in roles on ITV programmes, like Good Morning Britain, despite a huge cull this summer – a bloodbath which will see more than 200 off-screen roles cut

Backroom staff at ITV are reportedly “furious” to see “the little people get the boot” in favour of “the big names” amid the broadcaster’s bloodbath.

ITV is making huge changes to its daytime programming, and is axing more than 200 off-screen roles as a result. Good Morning Britain is merging with ITV News, but all of their top presenters – who include Susanna Reid, Richard Madeley, Julie Etchingham and Tom Bradby – will remain in post for now at least, it is said.

Madeley, 69, penned a short-term deal to remain in his position for six more months at least. It is understood Kate Garraway is safe – as is presenter Adil Ray, who looked set to be axed. Instead, insiders say his shifts will be cut. Yet, ITV was brutal to axe Noel Edmonds’ big TV comeback after just one series despite its huge launch.

And the daytime cuts primarily affect tireless production staff, who work off screen. The consultation period, which will determine who will be the victims of these brutal financial cuts, has been underway for some months and employees are said to be angry with the situation.

READ MORE: Frank Grimes dead: Coronation Street actor dies after short illnessREAD MORE: The Chase’s Shaun Wallace surprises followers with move away from ITV show

One insider told Mail Online: “All the big names are staying while the little people get the boot. It is horrendous. You’d think if you wanted to save a big lump of cash you could get rid of some of the presenters. There are loads of them. But no, instead they’ve all been told they are safe.”

For now, everyone on Good Morning Britain and ITV News will continue their separate shows. This Morning’s presenters will also stay in situ. In response to this, he insider added: “The cuts will fall to those who earn pennies in comparison. When this was all announced, we thought some of the stars would go – and rightfully so. Some of them are rubbish. Rather than there being three or four backstage workers doing a certain job, there will be one – but there will still be loads of presenters.” The source did not identify names when using the word “rubbish”.

ITV has always said it has to slash costs. Some onscreen journalists are also facing the axe in a bid to balance the books, but it is thought none of the mainstay hosts are affected.

One presenter told Mail Online: “It’s awful to see, awful. These people work so hard and they’ve still lost their jobs. And where are they going to go?… The industry is getting smaller and smaller for production staff.”

Loose Women and Lorraine have also been decimated by the cuts, with presenters on the former facing the prospect of only being aired for 30 weeks a year. Lorraine, too, is going from 52 weeks a year to 30, as well as being cut back from an hour to just half an hour in transmission time.