The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/01/28 at 11:00 EST

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/01/28 at 11:00 EST

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers are finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now.

From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Joe Cummings. The final report is being released today from the public inquiry into foreign interference. It will include recommendations on what steps need to be taken to better protect Canadian democracy. As Janice McGregor reports, implementing those recommendations before the next federal election will be difficult if not impossible. If the commissioner recommends things that require legislation, well, it's hard to imagine

that passing before the House of Commons pulls the plug this spring and heads to the polls. A bill with some changes that authorities wanted died when Parliament was prorogued. A new foreign influence transparency registry became law last June, but no Commissioner was appointed since to do that work. So the fixes are slow here, while the new threats pop up quickly. That's not to say that some vulnerabilities aren't being addressed. For example, after a barrage of criticism, the Liberal Party reversed itself and only Canadian citizens and permanent residents now are voting in the race on this spring to pick the next prime minister. Janice McGregor,

CBC News, Ottawa. An Ontario election is being called today. Premier Doug Ford is going to the lieutenant governor this afternoon to dissolve the legislature and the campaign will be underway. Ford says he needs a new majority mandate to deal with the challenges of the Trump White House. Election day will be February 27th which is a year and a half ahead of the fixed election date. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is closing out his visit this week to Poland by issuing a warning about rising levels of hate and anti-Semitism.

Tom Perry reports. The tools that AI and social media are bringing to bear on populations as ways of creating more anger, more fear, more division are truly alarming. Trudeau stressed the need to challenge messages of hate, but when asked about recent incidents involving billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, Trudeau was more circumspect. Musk, who is a close confidant of US President Donald Trump, was photographed offering what looked to some like a Nazi salute, something Musk denies.

Musk later appeared via video link at a conference of Alternative for Germany, or AFD, a far-right political party. He told party supporters Germany was too focused on its past guilt, an apparent reference to its Nazi era. Trudeau didn't mention Musk or AFD and spoke instead about democracies being influenced by messages of division. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was more direct, calling the rise of AFD in Germany an exceptionally dangerous trend.

Tom Perry, CBC News, Warsaw. Humanitarian concerns are mounting across the Democratic Republic of Congo as Rwandan-backed M23 rebel fighters step up their campaign against government forces. Chris Ochamringa has the latest now from Kinshasa. The Congolese government has urged people to remain calm and avoid acts of vandalism, but the call has gone unheeded. Protesters attacked foreign missions in the capital, Kinshasa, accusing them of supporting Rwanda.

Civil society activists have condemned the armed conflict in the east. Ani Modi is a director of one of the NGOs in Kinshasa. We are calling on parties to allow to open a humanitarian corridor to allow interventions, and we are calling on peace. Right now, what is more of concern is peace. The UN has condemned the violence and urged Rwanda to immediately withdraw its troops

from Congolese territory. Humanitarian agencies say more than 400,000 people have been displaced by the violence in the east of the Congo over the past 25 days. Chris Ochamringa for CBC News, Kinshasa. Sentencing is scheduled today for one of the gunmen who admits to killing former Air India bombing suspect Raputaman Singh Malik. Tanner Fox and accomplice Jose Lopez pleaded guilty last fall to second degree murder. Fox is being sentenced today in New Westminster, B.C. Lopez is due back in court on Friday. Malik, who was acquitted on charges related to the 1985 Air India bombing, was shot and killed in Syria in July of 2022.

And that is The World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.