The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/21 at 01:00 EST

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/21 at 01:00 EST

From CBC News, the World This Hour, I'm Claude Fague. Canada is once again on top of the hockey world. A star-studded group led by veterans and the next generation came together when it mattered the most, beating the U.S. in a thrilling game to capture the inaugural Four Nations Face-Off Tournament. The CBC's Jamie Strashen reports from Boston. In the end, the finals of the Four Nations Cup delivered and who else to end it but Connor McDavid.

The Edmonton Oilers superstar ripped a shot into the top corner just over eight minutes into overtime. The Canadian bench erupting in jubilation. None of it would have been possible without the overtime heroics of Canadian goaltender Jordan Bennington, who made a series of acrobatic saves to keep the game alive. The championship game was played at a feverish pace, adding fuel to the political tension that loomed over the final, driven by US President Donald Trump, who continued his jibes about Canada becoming the 51st state in the hours leading up to puck drop.

The tension carried into the heavily partisan American crowd who showered the Canadian anthem with boos. But Canada had the last laugh, quieting the American crowd and capturing the title at a tournament that far exceeded expectations. Jamie Strash in CBC News, Boston. The U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has again urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a deal for U.S. access to Ukraine's minerals to pay for support in its war against the Russian invasion. Waltz also said that Ukraine needs to tone down its criticism of the U.S.

President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelensky. The fact that he hasn't come to the table, that he hasn't been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered, I think he eventually will get to that point and I hope so very quickly. Zelensky, who has been meeting the U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg in Keith, described the talks as productive and called for strong ties with Washington, but his scheduled news conference was canceled at the last minute on Thursday. The federal government has released its long-awaited blueprint for the future of the CBC. Heritage Minister Pascal St. Onge says the national public broadcaster needs stable funding, fewer ads, and a new addition to its mandate.

Tom Perry reports. Canadians deserve their own Canadian source of information, of culture, of language. Heritage Minister Pascal Saint-Ange says it's time for an update at the CBC in her new blueprint. Saint-Ange calls for dramatically increased funding and end to ads on CBC news and current affairs and an expanded CBC mandate with a focus on fighting misinformation and disinformation. It comes as federal Liberals are choosing a replacement for Justin Trudeau. St. Ange expects a new leader will follow through on her plan, but the same can't be said for conservative leader Pierre Pagliaf.

Almost nobody watches CBC television, and yet Trudeau gives them billions more. We're going to cut wasteful spending. Pagliaf still leads in the polls and has been campaigning on a promise to defund the CBC if he wins the next election. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. Surgeons in Britain have developed a new technique to save the sight of young children born with a rare genetic condition that causes blindness. Four children were expected to lose their vision within two to three years. They've received pioneering treatment in which working copies of a faulty vision gene were

injected into the retina. Five years on, all the children have maintained their vision. Professor James Bainbridge is from Moorfields Eye Hospital, which was involved in the treatment. This is a particularly rare condition, but it lends weight, it lends confidence to the idea that this particular form of gene therapy can be effective for other children with more common diseases in the future. And that is your World This Hour. For news anytime, you can visit our website at cbcnews.ca. For CBC News, I'm Claude Fague.