The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 at 13:00 EST

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 at 13:00 EST

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers are finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now.

From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Tom Harrington. A high-speel rail corridor between Toronto and Quebec City is one step closer to reality. The Prime Minister laid out the plans for the project today in Montreal. Justin Trudeau says the rail line would be a game changer for Canadians. It could get passengers from Montreal to Toronto in three hours. A high-speed rail network between Quebec City and Toronto with stops in Trois-Rivières, Laval, Montreal, Ottawa and Peterborough. It'll span a thousand kilometers with a hundred

percent electric trains that will reach speeds of 300 kilometers an hour. This initial design phase is expected to take four to five years and will cost an estimated three point nine billion dollars. Trudeau says the rail service will be known as Alto. An Ottawa court has sentenced Pat King to three more months of house arrest. King was one of the organizers of the 2022 convoy protest in Ottawa. He 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.

In total, King was given 12 months, with 9 months credit for time served. President Donald Trump is calling Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator. The post on his platform Truth Social comes a day after he suggested it was Ukraine who started the war with Russia. Anna Cunningham has the latest from London. This is a scathing post by the US President Donald Trump calling the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator without elections. Trump said Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.

The post follows comments Zelensky made this morning saying Trump was living in a disinformation bubble after the US President on Tuesday seemingly blamed Ukraine for starting the war, saying Ukraine could have done a deal to prevent it, a line well used by the Kremlin. President Putin praising the outcome of Tuesday's talks in Saudi Arabia and saying no one is excluding Ukraine. Trump also writes that Europe has failed to secure peace. That will not go unnoticed by EU and Western leaders including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who joined a meeting virtually in Paris to discuss Ukraine's future and Europe's security.

Anna Cunningham, CBC News, London. Flu cases are rising across Canada and the United States. Already there are plans to update next year's shots but But the U.S. hasn't committed to being part of a critical meeting to decide on those vaccines. Jennifer Yoon reports. 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 Kurkoff, 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. Officials in Australia have decided to euthanize dozens of stranded false killer whales. False killer whales are a species of oceanic dolphins. More than 150 of them were found on an isolated beach in Tasmania. Rescue crews attempted to save some of the 90 whales that survived the ordeal without success.

Shelly Graham is with the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with that as the ocean conditions were preventing the animals from getting out and they were continually re-stranding. Reasons for the beaching are unclear. Officials say it is the first mass stranding of false killer waves in five decades. And that is your World This Hour.

For CBC News, I'm Tom Harrington.