The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/04 at 18:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/04 at 18:00 EDT

How do you know when an idea is worth your time? I'm Nala Ayed, host of Ideas. Join me as we deep dive into the stories and ideas that shape us. No topic is off limits, from the allure of authoritarianism to what we can learn from the average cat. Find and follow Ideas wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Julianne Hazelwood. It's a second day of huge drops on financial markets around the world.

American markets are plunging even further than yesterday after China announced new counter tariffs against the United States. Anis Haidari reports. The market's reaction is delivering a verdict and we should take that seriously. According to Brendan LaSerta, global investors do not like what they see right now. He's a senior economist with Moody's Analytics. This is sort of a new stage of the tariff war with China being very forceful in their response.

Markets around the world started the day with big drops. Today responding to Chinese counter tariffs on anything imported from the US. The New York Stock Exchange, down. NASDAQ, Toronto Stock Exchange, down. Some of these losses, the biggest since 2020. And it's not just market investors facing financial problems. US Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell. It is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected.

And the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth. As for how much inflation, how much of a slowdown and how long it lasts, Powell says, unclear. And he's hit our CBC News, Calgary. Federal party leaders are campaigning in Vote Rich Quebec today. Liberal leader Mark Carney says he'll increase funding of CBC Radio Canada. He also promises to ensure long-term stable funding. And Carney says a Liberal government will develop a new governance plan for CBC Radio Canada to improve and streamline accountability. New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh promises an NDP government will take steps to keep Canadian money

from ending up in offshore tax havens. We've got large corporations in Canada that purposely continue to avoid paying their fair share by using tax havens and other loopholes. It is wrong. We're losing billions of dollars a year. Singh is promising to launch review of all tax loopholes currently being exploited by big corporations.

And he'll require all businesses to publicly justify the use of offshore accounts. The conservative leader says if elected he would toughen the laws around intimate partner violence. Pierre Polyev 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.

Paulyev says a conservative government would also make detention, not bail, the default in cases of intimate partner violence. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has visited some areas affected by prolonged power outages. More than 100,000 people are still in the dark after an ice storm hit central and northern parts of the province last weekend. Hydro One says power has been restored for more than 85 percent of nearly a million affected customers. But Ford says there's still work to be done. We still have a long ways to go, making sure that we make it safe to get in there and cut the trees. They're half fallen over. To make sure that we do it safely. That's the number one priority. Another storm system that moved through parts of Ontario midweek caused more outages and

slowed down restoration efforts. 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 for Myanmar. James Rodahaver, UN Human Rights Envoy for 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 continue to bombard opposition strongholds in devastated

areas and launch 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 Juliane Hasele-Wood.