The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/01/23 at 18:00 EST

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/01/23 at 18:00 EST

Some people say the end is near. Some say that it's already here. Wildfires across Canada are burning hotter and faster than ever. I'm Adrienne Lamb, the host of the podcast World on Fire. We'll meet the reporters who run towards the danger and hear the stories of their harrowing escapes and finding resilient communities. That's World on Fire, wherever you get your podcasts.

From CBC News, the World This Hour. I'm Tom Harrington. Donald Trump says America doesn't need anything from Canada. The president spoke virtually to a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump complained about U.S. trade deficits with other countries, adding that Canada has, in his words, been unfair to America. It's not fair that we should have a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit. We don't need them to make our cars and they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber because we have our own forests, etc., etc. We don't need their oil and gas. We have our, we have more than anybody. Most economic data show the U.S. trade

deficit with Canada last year at about 45 billion U.S. The Prime Minister continues to say everything is on the table when it comes to responding to Trump's threats. Justin Trudeau says the best strategy for both countries is to avoid the tariffs altogether. It would be bad for Canada, yes, but it would also be bad for American consumers. And that's why we are continuing to make the case that rather than restrict the goods coming from Canada, the U.S. should be working even more with Canada. Audit Wall reportedly identified $37 billion worth of goods for the first round of counter tariffs that could grow to $110 billion by implementing additional retaliatory measures.

NATO's new Secretary General was asked about President Trump's call for peace talks on Ukraine. Mark Rutte says it would depend on the terms. If we get a bad deal, it would only mean that we will see the president of Russia high-fiving with the leaders of North Korea, Iran and China. And we cannot accept that. That would be geopolitically a big mistake. It has to be sustainable. And for it to be sustainable, we have to make sure that Putin will never ever, ever again try to get a square kilometer of Ukraine in the future.

In the meantime, Rutte is urging all NATO members to increase their defense spending as the alliance faces a number of crises. Trump is pushing them to increase their share of GDP spent on defense from 2% to 5%. Exhausted firefighters battling deadly wildfires in and around Los Angeles for weeks are now grappling with more of them. The Hughes fire is churning through rugged mountains north of the city while the Sepulveda deadly wildfires in and around Los Angeles for weeks, and now grappling with more of them. The Hughes Fire is churning through rugged mountains north of the city, while the Sepulveda Fire is roaring near Bel Air.

Steve Futterman has the latest. Throughout the day, fire crews here have been making progress on the largest of these new fires, the Hughes Fire. It's now 24% contained, and homes are no longer in imminent danger. Another fire that had officials extremely concerned the Sepulveda fire near the exclusive residential area of Bel Air is essentially out. Firefighters quickly jumped on that fire preventing it from threatening hundreds of multi-million dollar homes. The red flag alert issued by the National Weather Service remains

in effect until Friday. Also on Friday President Trump is set to come here to A good news this weekend, there is some rain in the forecast. Steve Futterman for CBC News, Los Angeles. A former Catholic priest pleaded guilty to charges he sexually abused children in an Inuit community in Nunavut. And it's not for the first time. GDTJ Deer has the story. Eric Deager has pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault. The charges deal with his time as a priest in Igluwik Nunavut between 1978 and 1982. Most of the victims were children, with the court hearing that some were as young as four years old.

Victims told the court details of the abuse they endured in impact statements. Some said they were injured or passed out from the pain during the assaults. Multiple people were crying in the courtroom as they heard the statements and charges. One person even yelled at De Jager in Inuktitut. Throughout the proceedings, the 77-year-old showed no emotion. The now defrocked priest was previously convicted of 32 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 19 years in prison. He was released on parole after seven years. It's expected he'll be sentenced on the most recent charges on Friday.

TJ Dears, CBC News, Iqaluit. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening.