The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 at 11:00 EST

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 at 11:00 EST

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's Personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Joe Cummings. An Ottawa court has sentenced Pat King to three months of house arrest. King was one of the organizers of the 2022 convoy protests in Ottawa. Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!

That was the scene outside the Ottawa courthouse this morning after King's sentence was handed down. King was found guilty in November on five charges, including mischief and disobeying a court order. The Crown had been calling for a 10-year prison sentence. During the protests, hundreds of trucks and thousands of demonstrators took over downtown Ottawa for close to three weeks and were protesting COVID-19 public health measures. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced plans for a high-speed rail network between Toronto and Quebec City. It'll span a thousand kilometres with a hundred percent electric trains that will reach speeds of 300 kilometres an hour.

A reliable, efficient high-speed rail network will be a game changer for Canadians. Trudeau says the Toronto to Quebec City line will include stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Laval. He says it will involve a combination of private and public funding and the initial development of the corridor is expected to take anywhere between four to five years. U.S. President Donald Trump is brushing aside Ukraine's complaint that it has yet to be invited to join talks on ending the war with Russia. I think I have the power to end this war. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. Ukraine's complaint that it has yet to be invited to join talks on ending the war with Russia.

I think I have the power to end this war. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. Trump is not only suggesting that Ukraine is responsible for the war, he's also claiming that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has an approval rating of only 4 percent.

Zelensky, meanwhile, answered those claims today at a news conference in Kyiv. Anna Cunningham reports. The real standout line from President Zelensky this morning was when he said that President Donald Trump was living in a disinformation sphere. Now, he referenced the comments made about President Zelensky's approval ratings being at 4%. He said this was Russian disinformation. He did say that he wouldn't normally talk about his own popularity, but that it's 58%. And he said if anybody wants to replace him right now, it won't work. In terms of that meeting yesterday between US and Russian officials, President Zelensky said the US is helping Putin to end his isolation. And he did go

on to say that he would like President Trump's team to have more truth about Ukraine, something we can expect. He'll talk more about when he meets President Trump's envoy, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, who arrived in Keith this morning. Anna Cunningham, CBC News, London. With the Trump administration pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization, scientists around the world are voicing concerns as they start work on a flu vaccine for next year's flu season. Jennifer Yoon has more. For flu shots to get to Canadians' arms, it takes a whole lot of scientists from around

the world working on it every year. They're supposed to meet next week to come up with next year's flu vaccine. But there might be a key player missing. We are communicating with them, but we haven't heard anything back. Maria Van Kurkhove, who leads the World Health Organization's efforts to prevent epidemics, doesn't know if American scientists will be there next week. She says she's reached out to US agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration to radio silence. American epidemiologist Keiji Fukuda,

who's been to several of these meetings, is alarmed. He says it's crucial U.S. scientists are there. These kinds of interactions are how we come up with the best formulations for vaccines. While experts really want Americans to show up, the WHO says the meeting will go on, with or without the U.S. Jennifer Yoon, CBC News, Toronto. And that is The World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.