The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/13 at 01:00 EST

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/13 at 01:00 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 Neil Herland. Canada's premiers went to the White House Wednesday to meet with US President Donald Trump's senior staff. They spoke about the threat of American tariffs. Kate McKenna has more

from Washington. We had a very constructive conversation. Ontario's Doug Ford says the premier's afternoon at the White House was productive. We appreciate the Trump administration facilitating this literally in the last minute. And we're just, we're grateful. We listened, we're communicated and we look forward to further conversations. They met with Trump's deputy chief of staff Jim Blair and the president's hiring advisor Sergio Gore. David Eby is the premier of British Columbia. We had frank conversations where about the 51st state comment where we underlined

that that was a non-starter. That's the message from the Premiers but not necessarily the White House. Blair posted on social media soon after the meeting saying it was a pleasant chat but they never agreed Canada would not become the 51st state. Earlier in the day Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said this trip is about diplomacy. I think we're in a new reality created by Donald Trump. Canadian premiers hired a US-based lobby firm to land big meetings. They're paying $85,000 American per month.

But there are questions about whether the premier's group trip to the US Capitol is making any difference. Kate McKenna, CBC News, Washington. Canada's new Fentanyl czar says he's committed to stopping the drug flow over the Canada-U.S. border. Kevin Brousseau's new role was created to appease the concerns of President Trump. 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. Less than one percent of the fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. actually comes from Canada. A federal judge in the U.S. has removed a key legal hurdle for President Donald Trump's plan to downsize the American government workforce. Elon Musk is head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, which is helping to make the cuts. He spoke last hour by video at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

We're moving people from low to sometimes negative productivity roles in the government sector to higher productivity roles in the private sector. And the net effect of that will be an increase in the output of useful goods and services, which increases the standard of living and well-being of the average American. About 75,000 US government workers have accepted a deal to quit. In return they'll get paid until September 30th. Romance scams are on the rise in Canada. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says Canadians lose tens of millions of dollars to fake suitors every year. They're more common and more sophisticated than many people understand. Elie Chiessein reports. In 2024, Canadians reported losing over

58.4 million dollars to romance scams. Detective John Armit has been cracking down on this type of fraud for more than a decade. I had one woman in Northern Ontario who thought she was talking with Jim Carrey, pushed over to Jim Carrey's manager that said Jim Carrey needs fuel for his jet to come up to Canada and needs cryptocurrency. If you think you're immune to such a scam,

Detective Armit says, think again, these perpetrators are savvy. The AI immune to such a scam, Detective Armit says, think again. These perpetrators are savvy. The AI technology to obscure their image, AI to have scripts. There are some red flags to look out for. They'll ask you to move over to maybe WhatsApp or Signal, some sort of peer-to-peer secure encrypted communication. Another red flag is they won't be able to meet up. Detective Armit says, if you or someone you know may have fallen victim to a romance scam

and are out money for it, report it to the police sooner than later. Ali Chia-san, CBC News, Toronto. We're following a deadly explosion in Taiwan tonight. It happened at a department store. One person was killed, 11 were rushed to hospital. Some of them had no vital signs. Dozens of firefighters are on scene. A gas leak is suspected.

And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Neal Herland.