The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/04 at 13:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/04 at 13:00 EDT

When Eric and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents in 1989, most people assumed they did it for the money. But over the course of their trials, the Menendez brothers told a very different story. Now, after spending most of their lives behind bars, new developments in the case could lead to the brothers getting out. This week on Crime Story, I speak with Robert Rand, the journalist who's covered this story longer than anyone else. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour.

I'm Juliane Hazelwood. China's response to Donald Trump's tariffs has led to another sell off on the global markets. Beijing says it's imposing an additional 34 percent tariff on goods imported from the US. Both the TSX in Toronto and the Dow Jones in New York were down by more than 4% in midday trading. The London Stock Exchange saw its biggest daily drop since the start of the COVID pandemic. This follows yesterday's across-the-board losses that wiped more than two trillion trillion off the books. Canada's labor market took a major hit last month, losing 33,000 jobs. This while more than

200,000 jobs were added to the American economy. Peter Armstrong has more. Two very different economies, two very different job markets. In the US, jobs came in way above what economists had been expecting, and it paints the picture of a robust American economy. Unemployment is at 4.2%, very low. The question is whether this will stop the bleeding on stock markets. And the problem here is no one seems to know what to make of these numbers. So uncertainty basically overpowers any of the good news embedded in this jobs report. Here in Canada, a very different picture. Employment fell 33,000, the unemployment rate rose to 6.7% and that weakening comes ahead of the American tariff impact.

So less cushion in an already weak economy as it's facing the potential devastation of a trade war. Peter Armstrong, CBC News, Toronto. Federal party leaders are campaigning in vote-rich Quebec today. The province is crucial to the Liberals' plans for a majority government. But as Raffy Boudjacanian tells us,

the other parties are not giving up. The Quebec people constitute a nation within Canada Canada and I observe that this is also the judgment of Parliament and the proclamation 15 years ago. Liberal leader Mark Carney trying to set the record straight. Last night during a French language interview he called the province a distinct society, an outdated term from the 90s. It's one of a few gaffes related to Quebec he has committed during the campaign. So far though, opinion polls put the Liberals ahead of their main competition here,

the Bloc Québécois. But leader Yves-Francois Blanchet says he's not worried. You know what? In 2019 and in 2021, the Bloc Québécois completed the campaign much higher than it had started it. Blanchet is also dealing with a push from the conservatives, who believe they have a shot at winning a handful of writings. Today, Pierre-Paul L'Hèvre is campaigning in Trois-Rivières, writing the Bloc barely held four years ago. Rafi Boudjikan, YonCBC News, Montreal.

The conservative leader says if elected, he would toughen the laws around intimate partner violence. Pierre Polyaev says he would create a new criminal offense for domestic violence that would include longer sentences. We will end the senseless practice of downgrading murder of an intimate partner to manslaughter simply because the murderer claims that it was a crime of passion. A conservative government will make sure that anyone who murders their intimate partner, their child or their partner's child, will have a first degree conviction. Poliev says a conservative government would also make detention, not bail, the default in cases of intimate partner violence. The United Nations says Myanmar's military tactics are preventing critical humanitarian

aid from reaching earthquake victims. Thousands are living without water or shelter after last Friday's quake. James Rodahaver is the UN's human rights envoy to Myanmar. This is part of a strategy that is used by the military to prevent aid getting to populations that it views as not supporting its seizure of power. The UN says the ruling junta's forces continued to bombard opposition strongholds in devastated areas and launched airstrikes shortly after the tremor subsided. On Wednesday, the military state announced a 20-day ceasefire to support the nation's

recovery, but warned it will respond accordingly if rebels launch counterattacks. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Julianne Hazelwood.