The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/12 at 11:00 EST

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/12 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. We start with the war in Ukraine and at NATO headquarters today in Brussels. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Ukraine shouldn't expect its bid for NATO membership to be included in any possible peace agreement. The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. Instead any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. Hegseth also says any peacekeeping troops deployed in Ukraine would have to be part

of a non-NATO mission and he says U.S. troops would not be involved. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is also in Brussels and he says it's up to Ukraine to determine what it can accept in a peace deal. Ukrainians are busy defending their sovereignty, their democracy, they're busy standing up for the rule of law as it applies in all of our democracies. Ukrainians get to decide what the outcome of that peace process must be. Earlier today Trudeau and Defense Minister Bill Blair met with NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta. Meanwhile, a tonian foreign intelligence is suggesting that China is playing a significant role

in Russian military drone production. Some critical components of the drones are made in Western countries, and they are subject to sanctions. But according to the intelligence, China has essentially become a smuggling hub. Now as much as 80% of those drone components are reaching Russia via China. With the clock ticking down on the Trump administration's tariff threats, another Canadian lobby campaign is underway in Washington.

The Canadian premiers are in the US Capitol today, and they're looking to win over Republican members of Congress whose districts will feel the effect of any Trump trade action. Janice McGregor has more. This assumes though that voices in Congress are prepared to stick their necks out and use their authority to push back against this tariff strategy and so far we haven't seen very much of that. Still, efforts continue to find Americans who get it. And are prepared to be honest with Trump supporters that this isn't going to make US

industries rich. It's going to inflict great harm for manufacturers and consumers too. The difference between what we heard from premiers last week and this week, no premier is making big threats to retaliate. At least not yet. The strategy behind Canada's campaign is premised on presidential power still being capable of being influenced, constrained by checks and balances.

Unfortunately, so far, Trump's been unimpeded in his authoritarian push, with executive order after executive order flooding out of the White House. Janice McGregor, CBC News, Ottawa. Now to Nova Scotia, where CBC News has carried out an analysis on the stability of the province's power grid. There were thousands of unplanned power outages across Nova Scotia last year, with temporary blackouts reported almost every day. Nicola Sagan has more. When the power goes out, cattle farmer David Meister loses his watering system, fences and barn cleaner.

So caring for the animals at his ranch in New Ross, Nova Scotia gets a lot harder. Don't know when it's going to go out or for how long it's going to be back. A CBC News analysis identified more than 4,700 power outages in Nova Scotia last year, with a median 65 customers affected each time. Nova Scotia Power has been fined four times since 2019 by the province's regulatory body for falling short of some performance standards. The utility says trees on power lines, high winds and fires are top outage causes. Matt Drover is the senior director of energy delivery at Nova Scotia Power. Drover says in the next five years, Nova Scotia Power is planning to spend $1.3 billion on

power reliability upgrades. We're out cutting trees every single day. We're replacing power poles. Some in rural areas say the work seems to be paying off so far. Nicholas Sagan, CBC News, New Ross, Nova Scotia. And that is The World This Hour. For news anytime, go to our website cbcnews.ca. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.