The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/08 at 19:00 EST

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/08 at 19:00 EST

In Scarborough, there's this fire behind our eyes. A passion in our bellies. It's in the hearts of our neighbors. The eyes of our nurses. And the hands of our doctors. It's what makes Scarborough, Scarborough. In our hospitals, we do more than anyone thought possible. We've less than anyone could imagine.

But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Chiliane Hazelwood. China may have launched a disparaging and malicious information campaign

against Liberal leadership candidate, Chrystia Freeland. That's according to a Canadian intelligence task force. Kate McKenna has the details. The task force that monitors foreign interference says an information operation was directed at liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland and the Chinese government may have been behind it.

The task force says officials detected coordinated and malicious activity targeting Freeland and the operation was traced to WeChat's most popular news account, an anonymous blog linked to the People's Republic of China. In a statement, Freeland said she won't be intimidated by Chinese foreign interference and thanked national security agencies. It's very troubling that this continues to happen. Liberal leadership front runner Mark Carney says he reached out to

Freeland last night. I absolutely support her campaign and the process that we're undertaking to have a fair election for the leadership of the Liberal Party. He thanked Global Affairs for their work to detect foreign interference. Kate McKenna, CBC News, Ottawa. On an Israeli army base. Or levy rashes into his brother's arms, hugging him tightly. He was one of three Israeli men released after almost 500 days in Hamas captivity.

Unlike hostages released earlier, the three looked gaunt, pale and weak. Their release was the latest under the Gaza ceasefire agreement and was accompanied by the release of 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. In Gaza, the released Palestinians were welcomed by hugs from friends and family. Negotiations on a second phase of the deal began this week. It's hoped the agreement would see more hostage for prisoner exchanges and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have disconnected their electricity systems from Russia's power grid. It's part of a plan to integrate the countries more closely with the European Union and boost security.

Latvia had power workers cut the wires in a symbolic gesture. The country's energy minister, Kasper Smelnis, was there. It's a historical moment and we are step forward in energy security and energy dependence and we are cutting because there's no way back. The Baltics had been debating disconnecting from Russia's grid for decades, the remaining link with Russia, but plans to act on the idea gained momentum after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and then invaded Ukraine in 2022. Microplastics are everywhere in our soil, food, animals, even in us, and it can take hundreds of years for microplastics to

completely degrade in the natural environment. But a team from Carleton University is hoping to speed up the process by engineering a yeast that could turn plastic into alcohol. Stu Mills explains. I have like the DNA stitched together. Now I just need to replicate a whole lot of it. At a Carleton University biology lab, undergraduate Ryan Lancaster is using a machine to crank out DNA copies. The lab belongs to Professor Eugene Fletcher and there's a kind of DNA Olympics underway here. Fletcher and his students are looking for the perfect

genes best suited to breaking down plastic waste. When they find the winner they'll inject that DNA into yeast. The engineered yeast will then convert the plastic into alcohol which could ultimately be used for fuel. Plastic eating yeast may sound far-fetched, but Fletcher insists it's a goal within reach. The capture of plastics is very similar to what you find in plants. It's very similar to the waxy covering on the coating of plants. Fletcher says the results so far have been promising.

He hopes the research leads to an actual plastic pollution digester that both cleans the water and creates renewable energy while it works. Stu Mills, CBC News, Ottawa. Sony's PlayStation Network is experiencing a major outage around the world. Tens of thousands of gamers are unable to access online services, stores and multimedia apps. An outage tracker says users started to report issues with PSN late Friday.

And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Julianne Hazelwood.