The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/15 at 23:00 EST

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/15 at 23:00 EST

It's the epitome of classical ballet, beloved the world over. The National Ballet of Canada invites you to experience Swan Lake, revel in Tchaikovsky's glorious score, and an unforgettable production directed and staged by Karen Kane, whose vision emphasizes the love story at the heart of the ballet. Presented by Nicola Wealth Management, on stage March 8th to 22nd, tickets are selling fast. Secure your seat now at national.ballet.ca. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Claude Fague.

Canada first. That was the message today from Pierre Pauliev. The Conservative leader held a rally in Ottawa. Surrounded by supporters and standing in front of a massive Canadian flag, Polyev outlined his vision for the country. Kate McKenna was there. Pierre Polyev's key message was he's the guy best positioned to take on Donald Trump and build a stronger, more economically resilient Canada.

He dropped his slogan, Canada is broken, but kept a lot of his other messaging. He wants to cut taxes to make Canada more competitive. He wants to expedite permits to get more mining projects going. He's unequivocally in favour of a pipeline running from the west to east. All of these things, he says, would help make Canada more resilient in the face of Trump's tariff and annexation threat. And he says these are conservative ideas. In fact, the Trump tariff threats have proven conservatives right on everything. It's true. It's worth mentioning though on retaliation, diversifying trade,

and trying to negotiate with the Trump administration, Poliev shares a lot of common ground with the liberal strategy. His goal will be trying to convince Canadians that he's best suited to handle whatever comes next. Kate McKenna, CBC News, Ottawa. US government agencies are being crippled as the Trump administration's cost-cutting team continues to make cuts. The fallout from those cuts to the US Agency for International Developments means that staff can no longer respond to natural disasters. Caroline Malone has more. The Trump administration's efforts to slash spending now means a highly regarded international

disaster response team can no longer function. The DART or Disaster Assistance Response Teams were deployed to help people in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and Japan after its 2011 quake and tsunami. But the DOJ or Department of Government Efficiency is dismantling the USAID aid agency. That means DART teams working in Afghanistan, Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine can no longer function. Each overseas team had a support team in Washington, but those staffers are not allowed into their offices. Tech billionaire Elon Musk and his team are moving at lightning speed to reduce the workforce across many government agencies, including those protecting the environment, health and consumers, sending out thousands of termination notices.

Caroline Malone for CBC News, Washington. A 23-year-old man stabbed six people in southern Austria today. A 14-year-old was killed and others were wounded in what police are calling a random attack. Police also say a food delivery driver intervened driving his car towards the attacker, preventing the situation from getting worse. The suspect was taken into custody. Police are investigating a motive for the attacks. Staff at two Loblaw stores in Abbotsburg, V.C. are now using bodycams.

The company says the move is in response to increasing theft and violence. Brian Kinney is an associate criminology professor at Simon Fraser University and says a better crime deterrent would be a larger staff presence, especially when it comes to the checkout area. They could also fix it without cameras and having more people back at tills, more people helping people in the aisle. These are where you're going to save loss through theft. Loblaw says it plans to expand the body cam program to stores across Canada.

The federal government's holiday tax break on certain goods comes to an end at midnight. The tax break on groceries, restaurant meals, gifts and children's clothing was introduced two months ago. Jennifer LeBlond is a business owner in Calgary. She says her store did not see a boost in sales tied to the GST cut and it took a lot of staff time and effort to sort through what did and did not get taxed. I think if you're going to really take a big chunk out of our taxation, it should be more productive. There's many more other areas I think that would have been helpful.

Initial data from credit card processor Monera says in late December and early January, spending actually dropped compared to the previous year. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Claude Fague.