🗞️ August slipped away

Good morning Halifax!

I have two monumental pieces of information to share with you this morning and if you’ve been around a while, I bet you can guess the first one.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged! That’s right, Taylor Alison has entered her bride era and the world truly needed this. The couple announced their engagement yesterday in this Instagram post:

For those of you that are rolling your eyes, cracking your knuckles, hovering your little fingers over the keyboard getting ready to @ me for celebrating the happiness of a billionaire that you hate, blah, blah, blah, please keep in mind what Tay herself once said: "The worst kind of person is someone who makes you feel bad, dumb, or stupid for being excited about something".

Plus, I have even more big news! Drum roll 🥁🥁🥁

Nominations are officially opened for the 31st annual Best of Halifax Readers’ Choice Awards! That means that you—our faithful Coast readers—get to pick the people, places and businesses that go for BOH gold, silver and bronze.

Fill out the nomination form in the page below. You can skip over any categories you don't have a nominee for, but make sure you make it to the end of the form and submit it so all your nominations count!

Have a great day out there and get nominating!

Love and light 💍

– Julie

📷 @editorjulesl

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: 🌦️ 23°

Tomorrow: ☀️ 25°

Next Day: ☀️ 24°

7-day forecast

🚗 Driving, biking or busing today? Check out the current traffic conditions and ongoing road closures.

💨 Here is Halifax’s Air Quality Index and the smoke report.

CITY

Palestinian solidarity groups demand cancellation of Canada-Israel Davis Cup match in Halifax

Palestinian solidarity groups in Halifax are demanding the cancellation of next month’s Davis Cup match between Canada and Israel, arguing that Israel’s actions in Gaza are incompatible with hosting its athletes on Canadian soil.

“Going forward with this event normalizes Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” says Em Bailey, founding member of Palestine Solidarity Halifax. To drive the message home, the group and other organizations have put up posters across the city, hoping that Haligonians will come forward with their support, join the protest and add their names to the open letter.

Over 780 organizations and individuals have signed the open letter, meanwhile Tennis Canada has released a statement about why the event will move forward. Read the full story by The Coast’s Warren D’Silva.

🤔 Need To Know

🚨 An evacuation order was put in place in part of Dartmouth as emergency crews respond to a natural gas leak—Halifax police said the leak is in the area of Pinecrest Drive and Jackson Road in Dartmouth.

😮‍💨 Halifax County is under a special air quality statement, warning of a reduction in air quality as southwesterly 20 km/h winds gust to 40 km/h over the day—smoke was also making its way into Lunenburg County on Tuesday morning.

🔥 While the fire in Annapolis Valley is now estimated to be more than 8,000 hectares in size, Nova Scotia officials say no more homes have been damaged as a result.

🍻 Hungry? Thirsty? Patio calling? The Pint’s got you covered—stacked plates, frosty pints, and Halifax’s best summer energy.*

*Sponsored Post

🗞️ In Other News

🚜 The president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture says more support is needed to help farmers as the province continues to experience a prolonged drought—last week, the province announced a $475K investment to help farmers increase their water supply.

🎒 The government of Nova Scotia announced it will be adding the before and after school child care program to 21 schools across the province—the program will also add more than 1,200 new spaces at current locations for the 2025-26 school year.

🔋 Johnny Johnston—the newly appointed CEO of a new entity that is taking over control of the energy grid from Nova Scotia Power—says he's going to have to work "incredibly hard" to hit the province's 2030 renewable energy target. 

⛵ The Lunenburg-based Bluenose II will no longer make its long-awaited return to an American festival this week—the vessel's operators cite, in part, "uncertainties" that come with cross-border travel these days.

🚨 A 37-year-old man is facing charges after he allegedly threatened residents with a crowbar in the parking lot of an apartment building in Dartmouth Sunday morning—officers responded to a weapons complaint in the parking lot on Kennedy Drive around 8:20am.

🗓️ Things To Do

Looking for something to do this week? Check out these Coast picks:

🗓 Emerging Digital Artists Award Exhibition: An annual celebration of advanced creativity and critical experimentation in digital media. Proudly sponsored by EQ Bank, the prize recognizes the exceptional talents of emerging artists in Canada working at the forefront of the genre, highlighting the prolific and dynamic ways in which technology and art intersect. | Aug. 12-29 | 

🗓 The Comedy Stand Presents Chris Halef: Chris is an Assyrian-Canadian comedian who’s quickly become a Halifax favourite. A regular at Yuk Yuk’s and a staple on the Atlantic Canadian comedy scene, Chris brings a sharp mix of conversational jokes and storytelling that hits on everything from his Middle Eastern heritage to relationships and family life. | Aug. 28 | 7pm | $25 |

🗓 Rich Aucoin - Live at the Shore Club: Core Memory: Gym class, 1999, You + Friends = first time under a multi coloured parachute. Pure joy, fun. For possibly the last time ever, come jump again, together with all your friends. This may be the last time you can party under that parachute of your memories! | Aug. 29 | 9pm | $20 |

Have an event to share? Let us know at [email protected].

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️ The Zim Atlantic container ship leaves Halifax for Norfolk at 12:30am.

🚢 The Algoma Acadian container ship arrives in Halifax from Saint John at 1:40am.

🚢 The APL California container ship arrives in Halifax from Bremerhaven, Germany at 6:15am.

🚢➡️ The Majestic Princess cruise ship arrives in Halifax at 7am and leaves for Canadian seas at 4pm.

➡️ The Algoscotia oil tanker leaves Halifax for Sydney at 12pm.

🚢 The Oceanex Sanderling container ship arrives in Halifax from St. John’s at 12:15pm.

➡️ The Augusta Luna container ship leaves Halifax for Villagarcia, Spain at 6pm.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🦀 Grab those last bites of summer while you can with the Snow Crab Croquettes at Water Polo: fresh Cape Breton Snow Crab, scallion, parsley, citrus aioli. 

🍩 The donut of the week at Total Donut Solutions is Chocolate Custard: light and fluffy outside filled with silk milk chocolate custard, dusted with sugar.

👀 In Case You Missed It

👔 Otni Chinenere is known for commanding rooms, captivating audiences, and bringing events to life across Atlantic Canada. Chinenere is turning her spotlight onto others, with one-on-one communications sessions designed specifically for women in the community. The Coast’s Warren D’Silva spoke with Chinenere about how she is giving back to the community with coaching sessions for women.

⚖️ Newly released court documents are revealing previously unreported details of the investigation into the disappearance of two young children from their home in rural northeastern Nova Scotia more than three months ago.

🙄 One of four teens involved in a deadly attack outside a Halifax mall last year burst into tears Friday in Nova Scotia youth court when she realized she would not be immediately released from jail—the girl landed back in custody last month after allegedly breaching the conditions of her release.

That’s it!

Thanks for reading The Coast Daily today.

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