The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/13 at 05:00 EST

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/13 at 05:00 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. NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump says he wants the war to end. Bill Blair is Canada's defense minister. The alliance has been remarkably strong and resolved to provide Ukraine with the tools that they need to defend themselves against the illegal invasion that was perpetrated upon their country. That resolve remains. But we are also watching very carefully

of the ongoing discussions that have been taking place between the president and Mr. Putin. It is essential from our perspective that Ukraine must be part of that negotiation. The U.S. says it will mediate peace talks with Russia starting tomorrow. Meantime U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsath says NATO countries should increase their spending on defense to ultimately reach five percent of GDP. Canada's premiers went to the White House Wednesday to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump's senior staff. They spoke about the threat of American tariffs. Katie Simpson reports.

It all came together at the last minute. Canada's premiers invited into the White House to make their anti-tariff pitch. The message is we're here to listen and see what the Trump administration expects off of Canada. After an hour-long security screening, the premiers headed in to meet two White House officials. James Blair, a deputy chief of staff, and Sergio Gore, a senior White House hiring advisor. There were some very frank moments across the table, and they urged us to take the president out of his word. That seems to mean Donald Trump's border security complaints need to be taken seriously, the premiers say. While they outlined the pain tariffs would inflict on both the Canadian and

American economies, and also pushed back against Trump's threats to annex Canada. We had frank conversations about the 51st State Comment where we underlined that that was a non-starter. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. 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 early today 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 U.S. government workers have accepted a deal to quit. In return, they'll get paid until September 30. We're following a deadly explosion in Taiwan.

It happened at a department store. Four people are dead, 26 are injured. Dozens of firefighters were called to the scene. Officials are blaming a gas leak. Canada is home to a quarter of the world's peatlands, but as Anand Ram reports, new research says these boggy, wet parts of our planet are not well protected. They are very wet, very squishy, and very unstable, but they are absolutely beautiful places. Lorna Harris, ecosystem scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, describes what she calls

a highly undervalued ecosystem, peatlands, not just for the biodiversity that flows in and out of these areas, but also for what they do to keep the climate stable. They're one of our most important land-based carbon stores. An estimated 600 billion tons of it worldwide, more than forests. But according to a new study by Harris and others in the peer-reviewed journal Conservation Letters, only 17% of peatlands are protected. One way to strengthen protections, the authors say, is by empowering communities that steward these areas. One quarter of global peatlands falling on Indigenous peoples' lands, that's what the paper has found.

Allowing an ecosystem that takes thousands of years to form, remain a carbon sink, and avoid becoming a source of more carbon emissions. Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto. And that is your World This Hour. and avoid becoming a source of more carbon emissions. Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Neil Herland.