The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/25 at 08:00 EDT

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/25 at 08:00 EDT

The world we live in isn't perfect. This is all wrong. I say put mental health first. But it doesn't get any better on its own. I stand before you as a concerned citizen. That's why we talk to activists about how they do what they do and what inspires them to keep going. Because we're all about change.

Listen to stories that give us all hope on all about change wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, it's the World This Hour. I'm Joe Cummings. Ukrainian and US officials are meeting again today in Saudi Arabia for a third day of ceasefire talks for the war in Ukraine. And as the negotiation continues, the Canadian military is preparing for the possibility of joining any peacekeeping mission that may come out of it. Murray Brewster reports.

Lieutenant General Steve Boivin is Canada's military operations commander. We are working off a number of assumptions and developing contingency plans. Boivin has been given the unenviable task of planning for a deployment of Canadian troops should there be a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. A ceasefire is not a give-in. Even still, in early March, Canada signaled it is willing and ready to contribute soldiers. There is broad skepticism about the coalition of the willing. The U.S. envoy overseeing Russia-Ukraine peace talks has

dismissed it outright. Defense Minister Bill Blair has said U.S. backing of the plan is critical. There's important discussions that need to take place with respect to security guarantees for Ukraine. A recent report by a Washington-based think tank has warned that given the 2,000-kilometer front line, the peacekeeping force might have to be massive, as many as 100,000 troops. Marie Brewster, CBC News, Ottawa. Now to the federal election campaign and the Bloc Québécois.

It is looking to capitalize on the Liberal Party's decision not to take part in a French language leaders debate. Rafi Boujikanean has more. Yves-François Blanchet! Yves-François Blanchet had a rally in Quebec City looking to mark this moment. Mark Carney comes irrevocably from being disqualified. telling his supporters' liberal leader Mark Carney

just disqualified himself as a voice to represent Quebec after the grids refused to pay $75,000 to take part in a French language debate that would've been hosted by the private network TVA. It, in turn, cancelled the event. This guy is supposed to be strong enough to face Donald Trump and then we say, hey, come in Quebec and discuss with us because you want us to vote for you. Oh, I won't go.

There is still one official French debate scheduled for April 16th. Rafi Boudjikani on CBC News, Quebec City. Now to Washington, where Capitol Hill is buzzing with the news that a journalist was inadvertently added to a classified group chat that included the US Vice President and the Secretary of Defense. Sarah Lovett has more. The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, came out with this story yesterday, a real bombshell, explaining that he'd been added to a text thread, one that apparently included

high-level members of the Trump administration. We're talking Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussing operational details about an imminent U.S. military strike on the Houthis in Yemen. Goldberg says at first he didn't think the thread was real until the exact details shared were confirmed later with the successful attack. And a National Security Council spokesman has said it appears the text thread is authentic. So now two members in the chat, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence

Tulsi Gabbard, they'll appear at a Senate Intelligence Committee where no doubt the bulk of the questions will be about this breach. Sarah Levitz, CBC News, Washington. A portrait of US President Donald Trump hanging at the Colorado State Capitol building is being taken down. This after Trump complained that his face had been, quote, purposely distorted. The painting was done by artist Sarah Boardman and was commissioned by former state Senator Kevin Grantham.

Listen, this is a artist with a great reputation. She's got a great body of work. If I remember correctly from a prior conversation, she's also a Republican and a Trump supporter. The idea that anything was done with ill intent I don't think is correct. Sarah Boardman has also done a portrait of Barack Obama, which Trump calls wonderful,

but he says on social media that Boardman must have, quote, lost her talent as she got older. And that is The World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.