Good morning. Ottawa’s push for major projects just delivered a new deal. More on that below, along with a big day in soccer politics and a strike notice at WestJet.

Two sources told The Globe and Mail that the federal government has given Canada Nickel Co. Inc. the go-ahead to build a new nickel mine in Northern Ontario. Crawford, located about 40 kilometres north of Timmins, contains the world’s second-largest nickel reserve, and is expected to be the biggest nickel mine in the Western world.

The context: The mine is part of the efforts to build major resource projects and counter the economic pain from Donald Trump’s trade war. Ottawa last November referred the mine to its Major Projects Office for regulatory fast-tracking.

The timeline: The approval will be formally announced today, the sources said. First production from the Crawford mine is expected in 2029.

A Canadian NATO intern arrested in Belgium is accused by prosecutors in that country of spying for China, a national-security source told The Globe and Mail.

The details: Since announcing the arrest of the intern on Saturday, Belgian authorities have not released the name of the woman, but the source identified her to The Globe as Biwei Zhang, who also goes by the name Claire Zhang. Public records and Zhang’s social-media profiles indicate that she has a history of working at federal agencies in Ottawa, including at the national space agency and Statistics Canada.

European countries agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in soccer’s biggest tournament to private equity investors. The North American soccer body and Asia’s Football Confederation president rejected his plan as well.

The plan: Infantino’s secret project, revealed yesterday, would spin off FIFA’s commercial operations in a new subsidiary that would be 20 per cent owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Canadians are increasingly turning to the freezer sections in an attempt to stretch their budgets, Loblaw Cos. chief executive officer Per Bank said during a conference call to discuss the company’s second-quarter results. The country’s largest grocer is benefiting from the trend, and plans to continue expanding its discount store footprint to win more customers away from its competitors.

For you: Barry Choi has been covering credit cards and loyalty programs for more than a decade. For The Globe, he ranked Canada’s grocery loyalty programs – and the top pick offers incredible flexibility.

Major travel disruption could ensue this weekend if negotiations between WestJet and the union representing more than 4,000 flight attendants fail to make progress toward a new collective agreement. A work stoppage could begin as soon as Sunday at 12:01 a.m. MT.

The issues: CUPE and WestJet are at odds primarily over what flight attendants get paid before a plane departs the gate and after it has landed. That period of compensation during active-duty time is known as ground pay.