The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/18 at 12:00 EDT

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/18 at 12:00 EDT

Hey, it's me, Michael Buble. You hear that? That's the sound of the Junos, the biggest party in Canadian music. I'll be there hosting. Sum 41 will be rocking out on stage for the last time, plus a whole lineup of amazing performances. And guess what?

You're all invited. All bring the tux, you bring the snacks. Let's make it a night to remember. Don't miss the Junos, live from Vancouver, March 30th at 8 Eastern on CBC and CBC Jam. From CBC News, it's the World This Hour. I'm Joe Cummings. After flying out of London early this morning, Prime Minister Mark Carney is in a caloi.

Sovereignty reinforce and affirm our sovereignty in Nunavut, but more broadly in the Arctic, protect our people. That's Carney arriving in the territorial capital and outlining what's on the agenda for his visit. It's expected he'll be making a security and sovereignty announcement later this afternoon with Defense Minister Bill Blair. It appears Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are speaking this hour by telephone. The White House says the two leaders have been talking now for close to an hour, with the U.S. president believed to be pushing his Russian counterpart

to agree to a proposed ceasefire agreement with Ukraine. Here is Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrei Sbeya. Now is the time for diplomacy. We do really believe that with the leadership of President Trump, we could achieve long-lasting just peace. It's an American ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has agreed to, but it's believed Russia continues to demand a series of concessions.

Following the deadly Israeli airstrikes on Gaza overnight, the United Nations today is issuing three demands. Here is Secretary General Antonio Guterres. First, for the ceasefire to be fully respected. Second, for humanitarian aid to have access to Gaza in an unimpeded way. And third, for the unconditional release of hostages. And we will not give up on these objectives. Health ministry officials in Gaza say the Israeli airstrikes killed more than 400 people. The assault breaks the Gaza ceasefire and Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Oran Mormestin

says there could be more strikes to come. Oran Mormestin, Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Gaza, Israel From this point forward, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military intensity. All this comes as Israel has been pressuring Hamas to continue with phase one of the ceasefire and release more hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. However, Hamas wants to move into phase two, as the two sides had previously agreed. Canada's inflation rate took a big jump last month. Statistics Canada says it surged to 2.6% up from 1.9 in January.

Anissa Dari has more. 2.6% in February. That's how much the consumer price index increased by. That's a jump from the month before. So that means prices went higher faster in February than they did in January. While 2.6 is higher than that dead center Goldilocks just right 2% the Bank of Canada likes for inflation, it is still within their target range. And in particular, Statistics Canada points out the end to the temporary cut on GST and

HST spiked inflation, because they calculate it based on many after-tax prices. That's possibly one reason restaurant food prices contributed the most to inflation speeding up in February. Now, with inflation ticking up in February, Economist Eyes and the Bank of Canada will be watching to see what happens with things like tariffs in the coming months because those could also increase inflation. The Bank of Canada makes its next decision on interest rates in March. Anis Hadari, CBC News, Calgary. After being stranded on the International Space Station for months, two NASA astronauts are now on their way back to Earth.

To Crew 9, safe journey home. It's been the honor of a lifetime to cross your path up here on the space station. We'll miss you, but have a great journey home. It is Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore getting a fond farewell as a SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked early this morning. They were originally scheduled to spend a week aboard the space station, but after a capsule failure, that visit ended up lasting nine months. The ride back to Earth will take about 17 hours.

We splash down off the coast of Florida set for 6 o'clock p.m. local time. And that is The World This Hour. Remember, you can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. The World This Hour is updated every hour, seven days a week. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.