National News

Sunwing says it has completed all of its scheduled recovery flights to bring home passengers stranded in Mexico after winter storms disrupted its operations during the holidays.

The travel company says in a statement that its teams have worked around the clock to return its affected customers home.

Some travellers from Saskatchewan say the airline has left them at airports in other provinces, while one says her flight from Mexico made it to Regina with dozens of empty seats.

While enrolled in university, Eloho Orogun was approached on campus to apply for a $500 student credit card, advertised as a means to improve his credit score.

Met with a self-described shopping problem, it was not long before Orogun opened a second student card with a larger limit.

"The more money I had, the more debt I would get myself into," he said. 

Poor spending habits and a lack of understanding of how credit cards work led him down a debt spiral that took him seven years to break.

As 2022 comes to a close and the cost of living continues to climb, many Canadians are looking for ways to cut back on spending — and some are looking to trim down on subscriptions.

But with subscription services offered in almost every category these days, it can be hard to keep track of exactly how much you're spending on a monthly basis.

Heading into the new year, freelance journalist John Loeppky took stock of his finances and noticed a lengthy list of regular credit card charges.

“It can very easily get away from you," he said.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has passed away at the age of 95.

Pope Benedict became Pope in April 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II. He resigned in 2013.

Before becoming Pope, his given name was Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger. Born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany, he lived through World War II and in 1951 was ordained as a priest. 

He was the oldest Pope ever to be elected in a papal conclave at the age of 78. As Pope, he presided over the beatification of his predecessor Pope John Paul II, as well as canonizing 45 people.

Iconic journalist and news anchor, Barbara Walters has passed away at the age of 93.

Walters was the first woman to co-anchor an evening news program in 1976 (ABC news) and continued to be a trailblazer in an industry that was dominated by men. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989 and won numerous awards throughout her celebrated career, including 12 Emmy Awards. Walters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.

Sunwing Vacations Inc. is sending out dozens of recovery flights this week to bring home thousands of passengers stranded in Mexico after winter storms disrupted its operations. 

"We continue to navigate unprecedented operational challenges, resulting in a number of ongoing flight delays," said airline president Len Corrado in a statement. 

"We deeply apologize for the impact to our customers’ travel plans over the holiday season."

The airline said Thursday that it has 40 recovery flights planned this week with 24 expected to be completed by the end of the day.

David Saint-Jacques says he has always been "obsessed" with the notion of perspective — from the physical, like understanding where we are in space and what's beyond the clouds, to the philosophical.

The Canadian astronaut and physician has had more opportunities than most to explore all the meanings of that word. He orbited Earth for 240 days and saw "just how exposed we are in the cosmos."

Premier Danielle Smith’s wood-panelled third-floor legislature office is bereft of bric-a-brac. 

There are no pictures, mementoes or books — only a small stack of Alberta sovereignty act bills perched on her desk. 

The décor is less by design and more by default.

“If I was spending a lot of time in the office, I wouldn’t be doing my job. I’ve got to meet a lot of people offsite and do a lot of work out there,” Smith said in a year-end interview. 

She laughed when recalling her attempts at personal touches.

Utility crews in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick are still working to restore electricity to thousands of customers who have been in the dark for days after last week's fierce winter storms knocked out their power.

As of Tuesday morning, power is still out for nearly 33,000 Hydro-Québec customers and more than 13,000 Hydro One customers.

New Brunswick Power has restored electricity to a majority of customers who were impacted by the storm, which it has said was one of the largest provincewide outage events of the last 25 years.

Canadian Blood Services says it's in need of blood and plasma donors after the winter storm disrupted donations over the holidays. 

Severe wind, snowfall and icy conditions that hit many parts of the country meant that about 10 per cent of expected blood and plasma donations did not happen. 

There's a critical need for platelets for patients undergoing cancer treatments and O-negative blood for newborns and emergencies. 

Canadian Blood Services says it has lost thousands of regular donors since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.