The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/01/26 at 11:00 EST

Episode Date: January 26, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/01/26 at 11:00 EST

I'm Jonathan Goldstein, host of Wiretap. You're invited to listen in on my telephone conversations, whether funny, sad, wistful, or even slightly strange. You never know just what you might hear on Wiretap. I mean, I knew you had on a show. I just didn't think that people actually listened to it. That's the breath of your genius, Jonathan. It's not just that you're funny, but you can be cripplingly, pointedly depressing. The Wiretap Archives, wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Gina Louise Phillips.

It's literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything's demolished. Donald Trump assessing the situation on the ground in Gaza, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One. He says the answer is to send Palestinians to their Arab neighbors. The CBC's Satra Peshatrushisic is in Jerusalem and explained why it's a controversial solution. What he's suggesting is basically that Gaza be emptied of Palestinians, that they be moved

to Egypt or Jordan. He is not the first US president to suggest this. Biden suggested moving some Palestinians out of harm's way temporarily. But this sounds much more like it's an idea that extremist settler groups here have been floating, which is to empty Gaza and to put settlements in. It's very controversial because many Palestinians, and in fact, other Arabs in the

region remember what happened 75 years ago when some 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from here in order for Israel to be set up. It is called the great catastrophe, the Nakba, and still talked about today as part of what's happened to the Palestinian people. Trump says he has already spoken with Jordan's king on the matter and he will be meeting with Egypt's president today. Meanwhile inside Gaza, crowds of displaced Palestinians, about 650,000 of them, waiting to return to their homes in northern Gaza. They're being told to stay put. It's after Israel accused Hamas of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement after it failed to release a female

Israeli civilian as part of its hostage and prisoner exchange yesterday. In return, Israel has halted plans to reopen the northern part of the territory, the area worst hit in the war. The CIA believes the COVID-19 pandemic started with a leak from a laboratory in China. That assessment was made public Saturday with the disclaimer the spy agency has low confidence in that conclusion. The report was ordered released by Donald Trump's newly appointed director of the CIA,

John Ratcliffe, who says the agency should end its neutral stance on COVID's origins. A change in Alberta's coal mining policy is getting a lot of pushback. Earlier this month, the provincial government lifted a ban on coal exploration in parts of the Rocky Mountains, allowing suspended projects to resume. Sam Sampson has more. This crowd of about 200 does not want coal mining in the Rocky Mountains eastern slopes. In 2020, Alberta tried to scrap the original coal exploration ban from the 70s. That angered ranchers, First Nations and environmentalists.

So the province reinstated the policy. Alberta's government says the move was housekeeping, aligning with the previously announced modernized coal policy. That's a fundamentally dishonest characterization of what happened. Nigel Banks, professor emeritus of law at the University of Calgary, says the province made an immediate policy shift without debate in the legislature. He also says this move could lessen the blow of lawsuits against Alberta. When asked recently how those court cases factored into the decision, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said,

It's 16 billion dollars with the potential liability. We have to make sure that the taxpayers are protected. At the same time, metallurgical coal is incredibly valuable. Sam Sampson, CBC News, Edmonton. Paul McCartney is urging the UK government to stop an incoming change to copyright law. He says it could let artificial intelligence companies rip off artists, giving BBC this example. You get young guys, girls coming up and they write a beautiful song and they don't own

it and they don't have anything to do with it and anyone who wants can just rip it off. I mean, the truth is the money's going somewhere. You know, it gets on the streaming platforms, somebody's getting it, and it should be the person who created it. The government is consulting on whether to let tech firms use copyrighted material to help train AI models. Creators would have the option to opt out. And that is Your World This Hour.

Thank you so much for listening. I'm Gina Louise Phillips. Music .