The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/12 at 19:00 EST

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/12 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 is our. I'm Tom Harrington. Canada's premiers say their meeting with White House officials was a good, positive conversation. The gathering is part of the offensive to convince Donald Trump to hold off on those threatened 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports.

They've been put on pause but are now supposed to take effect on March 4th. BC Premier David Eby says efforts to strengthen border security is only the beginning. My impression was that there was an understanding that what candidate done around the border had caught the president's attention resulted in the pause but that work needed to continue and that we should continue to return for these meetings and discussions, especially once the key personnel were confirmed for us to be able to engage with a little more constructively. This week Trump also imposed 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. Those are in addition to the proposed levies on everything

America imports from Canada. Canada's Fentanyl czar says he's committed to stopping the drug flow over the Canada-U.S. border. Kevin Brosseau's new role was created in part to appease the concerns of the president. If it's one pound, ten pounds, we all know the amount of deaths that that possibly could represent. This is a national security and a public safety crisis. We should be focused on eliminating the scourge that is fentanyl in this country and in the United States. Brasso was appointed to the position on Tuesday.

Less than 1% of the fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. actually comes from Canada. Donald Trump spoke to the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine today. The president says negotiations to end their nearly three-year-old war will begin Friday in Munich, adding they will be mediated by the United States. Richard Madden has more on the developments. The president spoke to President Putin of Russia.

They spoke at length. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt confirms President Donald Trump discussed arranging formal talks on ending Russia's bloody war in Ukraine with separate calls to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. They were very good calls, they were very positive, and the administration is wholeheartedly committed to a peace deal to end, once and for all, the Russia-Ukraine war. This is Trump's first acknowledged call to Putin since he began his second term.

And it comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO allies the U.S. would not support Ukraine joining the alliance as a way to ensure Russia doesn't restart the war at a later date. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has now been tasked with leading negotiations on a peace deal. Ukraine's President Zelensky posting on social media, let's get it done. Richard Madden, CBC News, Washington.

President Trump's plan to downsize the federal workforce can proceed. A federal judge in Boston ruled a group of labor unions didn't have legal standing to challenge the buyout program. Under the plan, employees can stop working and get paid until September 30th. The White House claims tens of thousands of workers have taken the government up on its offer. For the first time in four years, auto theft is down in Canada. That's according to the insurance fraud prevention group Equité Association. The report says there's been an 18 percent decline nationally between 2023 and 2024.

Brian Gass is the vice president of its investigative services. I mean, it really shows the collaboration and cooperation and the investment by law enforcement and government and CBSA and teams, our teams working with our partners across the country. I think we're seeing some positive signs. I don't want to have a false sense of security that the crisis is over because the numbers are still very high compared to over the last 10 years, but it is promising that we're starting to see a decline. More than 55,000 passenger vehicles were stolen in Canada in 2024. The Four Nations

Face-Off Tournament gets underway tonight in Montreal. The Four Nations face-off tournament gets underway tonight in Montreal. The opening game has Team Canada taking on Team Sweden. Tomorrow, Finland takes on the United States. The round-robin event continues into next week with a championship game scheduled for February 20th in Boston. The tournament is replacing the annual NHL All-Star Game. NHL players will take part in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening.