The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/07 at 00:00 EST

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/07 at 00:00 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. In a week of whiplash developments about trade, today delivered another head shaker.

US President Donald Trump is pausing those punishing levies on Canadian goods for one month. But as Peter Armstrong reports, there are questions about what this new order includes. It basically makes it more fair for our car manufacturers during the short-term period before. US President Donald Trump has led North American businesses down one of the weirdest most volatile weeks in modern history. He unleashed the biggest set of tariffs the continent has seen in a hundred years, at

least in theory, because he was trying to get Canada and Mexico to curb fentanyl smuggling. But now he says any goods covered by the Canada US free trade agreement will be exempt for a month. Just it's just a modification short term because it would have hurt the American car companies if I did that. In the end, tariffs, at least most of them, have been lifted, at least for now. That will help exporters, but it didn't exactly mollify nervous investors. Stocks continued to sell off, with the NASDAQ slipping into official correction territory

this afternoon. Peter Rundjieff, CBC News, Washington. President Donald Trump's constantly changing tariff threats are making it harder each day for Canadians running businesses. Big and small, they're trying to adapt. And as Anis Haidari tells us, rising to that challenge has challenges of its own. It's not just the tariffs, it's the exchange rate, it's the reciprocal tariffs, it's, it's, uh, is there a recession? That phone call is from KP Tissue reporting its earnings to shareholders on Wednesday.

CEO Dino Bianco says one third of the company's revenue is exposed to tariffs in some way. Say, you know, 600 or 700 million, these are all Canadian dollars, 600 or 700 million dollars. KP Tissue is Canadian and makes Scotty's tissue in Purex toilet paper, employs 3,000 people across Canada and the U.S. All that back and forth on tariffs mean it's delaying a decision on where

a multi-million dollar plant will go. There is just so much fog right now in the business environment. Simone Godreau is chief economist with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. He says economic decisions are impossible to navigate lately. Because there are so many decisions that are being overturned or changed, businesses have a hard time actually adjusting. And he said, CBC News Calgary.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will charge 25% more for electricity shipped to the U S the price increase starts Monday, despite the reprieve announced by Trump. Ford says the surcharge will stay in place for as long as the threat of U S tariffs is looming over Canada. Ontario provides electricity in Minnesota, New York and Michigan for over 1.5 million customers. Pope Francis has thanked those who've been praying for his recovery in an audio message after spending nearly three weeks in hospital

with double pneumonia. This is the first that we've heard from the Pope in three weeks and it's a short message of thanks delivered from his hospital played out to all those who have gathered at St. Peter's Square to pray for his health as they have every night. Different kind of blowback for Elon Musk today. Getting video down from the ship, you can see we've lost several engines and we've lost attitude control of the vehicle. His aerospace company suffered another setback. A SpaceX Starship rocket was launched in Texas

but lost contact minutes into the flight, as the spacecraft went tumbling back down to Earth, breaking apart. Some of the spacecraft's debris scattered over parts of the Caribbean, forcing several flights to be diverted around Turks and Caicos and ground stops at four Florida airports. This is the second time in less than two months that a SpaceX mega rocket has exploded during a test flight. The last misfire occurred on January 16. And that is Your World This Hour.

For CBC News, I'm Claude Fague.