Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A path for additional U.S. aid to Ukraine appears increasingly fraught after the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, with many House Republicans opposing help for the war-torn country as they search for a new leader.
Tuesday's historic vote to remove McCarthy as speaker comes at a critical time, with a deadline for funding the government little more than a month away, and as opposition to aiding Ukraine's defensive war against Russia slowly gains momentum among Republicans in both chambers of Congress.
Leaders dropped $6 billion in Ukraine aid from the temporary funding measure passed Saturday as they focused on passing it quickly, just hours before the government would have shut down.
Congress will have to figure out by mid-November how to pass another spending bill to keep the government open. Supporters of Ukraine aid -- including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited the Capitol to plead for the money in person just two weeks ago -- say it's essential that additional funding is included.
But the House is leaderless for now, halting legislation. And it is unclear when the next speaker will be elected.
Because the eight Republican lawmakers who voted to oust McCarthy were upset with his decision to work with Democrats on funding the government, his successor will likely fight the Senate and House Democrats on many issues, including funding for Ukraine.
"It does worry me," President Joe Biden said Wednesday. He said he would address Ukraine aid soon.
"We cannot and should not again be faced with an 11th hour decision of brinksmanship that threatens to shut down the government," Biden said.
In the Senate, where bipartisan support for Ukraine is stronger, Democrats and Republicans also expressed alarm.
"The fight in Ukraine is a century-defining moment," said Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. "The rest of this century looks radically different if the United States abandons Ukraine. ... If the decision in the House is to elect a speaker who will fight against Ukraine funding, that's a decision that will be written about in the history books."
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he hopes House Republicans "come to their senses." If the U.S. can't help a country that is willing to sacrifice its own people to fight Russia, Manchin said, then "God help us all."
Senate Republicans who support Ukraine aid have increasingly said it should be tied to increased money or policy changes to help manage the southern U.S. border. They see the pairing as a possible compromise that could politically benefit members of both parties. But any dealmaking is on hold as House Republicans try to find a new leader.
"Because of the chaos in the House today, it makes it harder to talk about the failed Biden Presidency and address our broken southern border," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
So far, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise have both announced that they will run for speaker. Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern is also weighing a bid.
Jordan has made clear his opposition to additional Ukraine aid and reiterated it Wednesday. "The most pressing issue on Americans' minds is not Ukraine, it is the border situation and crime on the streets and everybody knows that," Jordan told reporters.
Before the Ukraine money was dropped from the temporary funding bill, the House last week approved $300 million for a program that provides Ukrainian troops with training on the use of American-made weapons systems. The vote that was set up to allow some Republicans to register their opposition.
More than half of the Republican conference, 117 of 221, voted against the measure, including Jordan and Hern. Scalise voted for it.
Hern said Wednesday that Biden needs to "sit down in a classified setting, and tell those of us that have not supported, for the same reason time and time again, we want to know what the American taxpayer dollars are going and what's the end game."
Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., voted for the $300 million in training funding, but said the Biden administration needs to do a better job of making the case.
"People have had enough over here. They want to hear a plan. They want to hear a message. They want to understand what we're doing. And there's a case to be made. Go make the case," Armstrong said.
Some Democrats weren't sure if the situation was better or worse in McCarthy's absence, noting that McCarthy was the one who dropped the Ukraine aid from the government funding bill.
"Let me put it this way, we're no worse off," said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
But House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who backs the assistance, said he knew that McCarthy was committed to funding Ukraine's war because of his private conversations with him. Amid the chaos, he said, he fears that the government will shut down in November and that spending decisions will be punted until the end of the year in one massive funding package.
McCaul said support for Ukraine would be a major factor in whom he supports for speaker.
"It's going to be even harder now with McCarthy gone," McCaul said. "We're running out of time."
------
Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and Josh Boak and videojournalists Dan Huff and Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.