8 Things You Need To Know For July 28

Good morning — Andrew from Narcity here! ☕

Off The Top: A TikToker says she and her boyfriend haven't kissed in two years of dating — and if we're being honest, there's a non-trivial likelihood that she'll eventually walk in on him making out with the crease of his elbow at some point.

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In Case You Missed It

1. Drake Pumps The Brakes On Criticism About His Private Jet

Toronto's very own Drake insists that by no means is he regularly firing his up private jet for quick jaunts over to Hamilton. "This is just them moving planes to whatever airport they are being stored at... Nobody takes that flight," the rapper wrote in response to info shared by a celebrity-flight-tracking social media account, per Brooke Houghton. Whether that makes it better or worse, the fact remains that such a short trip has a massive environmental impact.

• Context: Kylie Jenner garnered the label "climate criminal" last week after the Twitter account @CelebJets tracked her plane taking a 17-minute trip between two California cities when simply driving was estimated to take about 40 minutes.

2. Is The Pandemic Over? No, COVID-19 Is Still Crushing Ottawa

More than two years after the COVID-19 outbreak, we're finally emerging from the darkness... right? Uh, not exactly. Thanks to the breakneck transmissibility of the BA.5 subvariant, Ottawa has actually seen more deaths due to COVID-19 in 2022 than all of 2021 — and it's still only July. Discouragingly, Sarah Crookall reports, all numbers point to COVID-19 cases rising in our nation's capital.

3. Here's Why Shawn Mendes Has Now Fully Cancelled His Tour

Less than three weeks after postponing his upcoming tour, Pickering-raised pop superstar Shawn Mendes announced on Wednesday that he is now pulling the plug altogether, Janice Rodrigues writes. The 23-year-old wrote in part that "it has become more clear that I need to take the time I've never taken personally, to ground myself and come back stronger." Here's what's happening if you had tickets.

What Else You Need To Know Today

🎉 HOLIDAYS
The final Thursday in July marks both National Intern Day and National Chili Dog Day. What better way to celebrate the most poorly compensated of your colleagues than setting them up for an afternoon of side-splitting diarrhea?

🎪 EX GAMES
After a two-year hiatus (thanks, COVID), the Canadian National Exhibition returns to Toronto from August 19 through September 5, giving you just over three weeks to prepare your stomach for eating things that not even Guy Fieri would touch. Check out the ride and event lineup here.

🏖️ LIFE'S A BEACH
East of Toronto, near the persistently popular Sandbanks Provincial Park, is North Beach Provincial Park, a lesser-known sandbar boasting hundreds of metres of sandy, Lake Ontario shores. Madeline Forsyth says it's worth a visit this summer.

📌 JOB BOARD
Calgary feels like it's having a bit of a moment. If you're looking to move to the southern Alberta city in time for next year's Stampede, a good place to start is Charlie Hart's list of City of Calgary job openings, some of which pay six figures.

🎂 BIRTHDAYS
Watch Soulja Boy crank that and roll his way into 32 years old. Brain-damage-adjacent UFC president Dana White is 53. Amateur college admissions counsellor Lori Loughlin turns 58 today. Terry Fox, on his own tier as the most important athlete in Canadian history, was born on this day in 1958; he would have been 64 today. Lasagna-loving Garfield creator Jim Davis is 77.

Thanks for reading Narcity's Canada Morning Brief — the newsletter that credits Soulja Boy for making it OK for suburban kids to invent terrible TikTok dances.

Let me know what you liked (and disliked) about today's edition at andrew.potter@narcity.com.

Have a great day and see you back here tomorrow!