The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/22 at 21:00 EST

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/22 at 21:00 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 Claude Fague. Doctors in Rome say these next few hours could determine the Pope's survival.

The Vatican says Pope Francis is in critical condition after suffering a respiratory crisis this morning. The 88-year-old has been in hospital for more than a week. Megan Williams has more. The Vatican statement was alarming. As we know, the Pope has double pneumonia and doctors said yesterday that he was not out of the woods. They did say however that he was not about to die but that the danger was that his infection that is in his lungs, the double pneumonia that he's suffering from, that some of those germs could travel to other organs. We don't know if that

has happened yet but what they are saying is that he had a prolonged respiratory crisis this morning. He couldn't breathe. And so they had to give him, you know, what they called sort of high flow oxygen therapy. He's had a blood transfusion. He has anemia. What doctors are looking for right now is whether or not Pope Francis is going to be responding again to this treatment. It's pretty clear that he's going to be in the hospital for the long haul if he's able to make it through these next critical hours. Megan Williams reporting from Rome. And now to an Israeli army base.

Screams of joy as Omer Wenkirk reunites with his parents after 500 days in Hamas captivity. Wenkert was one of six hostages released today, but Israel is refusing to free over 600 Palestinian prisoners in exchange. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding Hamas first stop humiliating hostages at public ceremonies. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by phone today with US President Donald Trump. Trudeau's office says the call was primarily focused on Ukraine and comes after Trump falsely blamed Kiev for starting the war.

Rafi Boudjah-Kanian has the details. The Prime Minister's office says in an official release that Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump spoke about border issues between Canada and the US, although a senior Canadian government source tells CBC News the conversation was dominated by the war between Russia and Ukraine. The source says Trudeau wanted to connect with Trump ahead of a virtual meeting of the G7 on Monday. It's Canada's turn to chair the group. As for those border issues, the source says Trump acknowledged changes along the

border and did not repeat his comments about Canada becoming the 51st state. No word yet on whether the US plans on any changes to the tariffs. It says it will implement on March 4th. The two leaders also briefly discussed the hockey rivalry between their countries. Rafi Boudjikani on CBC News, Ottawa. The US is likely to butt heads with Europe over Ukraine at the UN next week. Washington is proposing a resolution that does not call for Russia to withdraw its forces. It comes ahead of White House meetings with the leaders of France and Britain. Anna Cunningham has more.

Some 2,000 people marching to London's Russian embassy. Ukraine stays strong no matter what. It's a really scary time, especially as an American. It doesn't feel great. Washington wants Ukraine to sign a deal giving the US access to their rare earth minerals like lithium and titanium. Initially, Ukraine's president refused, but President Donald Trump says he's confident. I think they want it, they feel good about it and it's significant, it's a big deal.

The US is also pushing for a revised UN resolution to be voted Monday at the UN Security Council on the third anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Unlike a rival EU text, the US version reportedly does not call for the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine. This will likely deepen European concerns about which way the US is pivoting. Anna Cunningham, CBC News, London. And that is your World This Hour.

For CBC News, I'm Claude Fague.