The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/18 at 05:00 EDT

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/18 at 05:00 EDT

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 Neil Herland. The fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas

appears to be over. Last night, Israel launched a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, says 326 people are dead. The CBC's Sasha Petrasek joins me now in studio. Sasha, did we see this coming? Well, there have been hints. All day long, the Israeli government has said that Hamas is preparing to attack Israel again, though it hasn't presented any proof of that. But it did sound like something was going to happen. And indeed, by the end of the day, we had a statement from the Prime Minister's office saying that the IDF,

the Israeli military, had been preparing for this all day long. Also signals that there is support from the United States, from the White House. The White House said that Israel has the right to defend itself and to act against any security threats. Also some statements out of Israel that sounded an awful lot like the American speaking, saying that the gates of hell would be opened and Hamas would be hit with a huge force unless it released all the 59 hostages that are left right now. And what is the fate of those hostages? Well, that's a very good question.

Hamas said that they face an uncertain fate. And that is the big question. There's been a huge amount of pressure on the government by people in Israel, the majority of people in Israel, who have been out on the streets pushing the government for a continuation of the ceasefire so that all the hostages could be released. Thank you, Sasha. My pleasure. The CBC's Sasha Petrasek in studio. With a federal

election call likely just days away, no political party has found candidates for all 343 writings yet. And despite rising liberal polling numbers, the party is behind the conservatives in finding candidates. Rafi Boujikanein reports. Prime Minister Mark Carney just after being sworn in, as close as he's come to admitting ballot boxes are in the near future for Canadians. They certainly should expect to go to the polls before November. The Liberals have received a shot in the arm, bouncing in opinion polls from what looked like a sure loss to neck and neck with the Conservatives.

But they're still far behind in nominating candidates, 178 ready to go, out of a total 343. Many MPs before the resignation of Mr. Trudeau were clearly dissatisfied. Christine de Clerci is a political scientist at Trent University. It's difficult to recruit candidates when you're not sure if the incumbent is leaving or not. Since Carney became leader, the party has nominated more than a dozen candidates. Some incumbents who had previously declared they would not run again have

also changed their minds. But meanwhile the conservatives have at least 258 candidates signed up. Rafi Boudjikan, YonCBC News, Ottawa. U.S. President Donald Trump says he will release all the government files today on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. So people have been waiting for decades for this. We have a tremendous amount of paper, you've got a lot of reading. I don't believe we're gonna redact anything. I said just don't redact, you can't redact, but we're going to be releasing the JFK files. During the first Trump administration, the White House released some JFK files, but the FBI and CIA asked him to hold back thousands of pages. Well, they weren't lost in space, but they were stuck for nine months.

And undocking confirmed. Freedom is free of its moorings. This morning, a capsule left the International Space Station with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams finally returning home to Earth. Helen Charman was the first British person in space. Well they'll be first of all given a quick medical checkup to make sure that they're coping okay with life back in the wanty environment of Earth and we think they probably will. They've been into space a few times before. They're very experienced. And that is your World This Hour.

For CBC News, I'm Neil Herland.