The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/01/13 at 13:00 EST

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/01/13 at 13:00 EST

Are you tired of asking your friends for their podcast recommendations? Well, I'm Leah, host of CBC's podcast playlist and The Secret Life of Canada. And there's actually a newsletter that can help with that. It's called Sounds Good. It features the latest industry approved podcast recommendations and behind the scenes footage of some of your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to the bi-weekly newsletter at the link in our series description. We listen to everything so you don't have to. From CBC News, the world is our. I'm Tom Harrington. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she fully expects Donald Trump to carry out his threat to impose tariffs on

Canadian exports to the US. Smith met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida yesterday. She says she's been unable to secure any concessions. But Smith says Alberta's oil and gas will be pivotal to getting Trump to change his mind. I think if we maintain a strong partnership on energy, we make the case about how much the Americans benefit from that energy relationship. We demonstrate that we are a good trade partner,

that we buy more goods and services when you take energy out. I think we can make that case. Smith also says she's concerned about what she calls the leadership vacuum in Ottawa, on the verge of the second Trump administration. Canada's parliament is prorogued and the Liberal Party is in the process of selecting a new leader and Prime Minister. Trump says on his first day in office,

he'll place 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports if Canada doesn't respond to his concerns about illegal immigrants and drugs crossing the northern border. Israel says it's waiting to hear from Hamas on a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza. Qatar's government says a draft agreement has been sent to Israel and Hamas after a breakthrough in talks. Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says a deal would include freedom for some hostages held by Hamas.

GIDEON SAAR, Foreign Minister of Israel, Israel We see some progress in the negotiations. Israel wants a hostage deal. Israel is working with our American friends in order to achieve a hostage deal. And soon we will know whether the other side wants the same thing. Some hardliners in Israel's government are opposed to any deal with Hamas. But the pressure is on both sides, with Donald Trump's inauguration just one week away. Officials in Southern California say they've made some progress battling the wildfires but the threat remains critical. Wind conditions are expected to worsen tonight and the most dangerous day will be tomorrow. Thousands

of homes have already been destroyed. At least 24 people have died in the fires. LA County Sheriff Robert Luna says more victims continue to be found. The Altadena area we are in the third day of grid searching. It is a very grim task, and we, unfortunately, every day we're doing this, we're running across the remains of individual community members. Some good news, though. The firefighting plane from Quebec, damaged by a drone last week, has been repaired. It's expected to be back in the air tomorrow and the number of people under evacuation orders has dropped somewhat to 92,000. Canada is sending 55 firefighters to

California to reinforce and supplement the efforts. 42 of them come from Alberta where the province says it is preparing water bombers and pilots in anticipation of future requests. BC is sending 23 people and Quebec is contributing two more super scooper aircraft. Those are in addition to two water bombers already working in California. As of today it costs more to mail a letter here in Canada. Canada Post is increasing the price of a single stamp by 29 cents. Youshub Patel has more. This is the largest I've seen for letter rates. Donald Chang owns a convenience store in Windsor, Ontario. He says the price of postage usually goes up by a few cents.

This latest hike is much steeper. People are surprised and a little angry that they look at it as a big money grab. Canada Post is raising the price of mailing a domestic letter with a single stamp jumping from $1.15 to $1.44. The corporation says it's facing cost pressures and the new rates will bring in $80 million this year. But small business owners like Cat Pascuatch are worried. We're looking at increases of over a dollar per package and given the volume of packages

that we send, it is going to be significant. Canada Post has lost more than $3 billion since 2018 and the strike made matters even worse. While workers are back on the job, the corporation still hasn't reached a new labour deal with its union. Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening.

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