The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/16 at 15:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/16 at 15:00 EDT

Readers have been waiting for a new novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for 12 years. On my podcast Bookends, Chimamanda tells me what was happening behind the scenes, about the sudden loss of both of her parents and how her mother's spirit brought her back to fiction. Sometimes I do not even want to talk about my mother because I get ridiculously emotional. But she kind of helped me start writing because she realized that I might go mad if I wasn't... If the thoughts all had to stay inside. Yes. Search for bookends with Matea Roach to hear the rest of that conversation. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Julianne Hazelwood. Four leaders are getting ready to

square off in the first debate of this election campaign. The field was reduced to buy one after the exclusion of Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneau. Tom Perry has the latest. What matters most here isn't a fair debate. It's a debate, the one that they're trying to create, that protects the status quo. The Green Party's co-leader Jonathan Pedneau not happy about his last-minute exclusion from both the French and English language debates.

The commission overseeing the events ruled the Greens aren't running enough candidates to qualify. That leaves the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécois with Liberal leader Mark Carney the least experienced debater and the least fluent in French. I work on my French every day. I improve. But I think I improve. All four leaders have a lot riding on tonight's debate as they make their case to French-speaking voters who have another important matter on their minds. The debate starting early to overlap less with a crucial Montreal Canadiens game

that could determine whether the team makes the playoffs. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. The Bank of Canada has announced it's holding its current interest rate at 2.75 percent. Its decision favours caution in the face of unpredictable American trade policy. Governor Tiff Macklem says the bank is waiting to see the effect of the tariffs on the Canadian economy. Faced with pervasive uncertainty, governing council will proceed carefully with particular attention to the risks. That means being less forward-looking than usual until the situation is clear.

Macklin maintains monetary policy can't resolve trade uncertainty, but it can control inflation. This is the first time since June the bank won't be cutting its rate. The UK Supreme Court has ruled on the legal definition of a woman. The High Court determined it's based on a person's sex at birth. But the judges emphasised trans people still have existing legal protections against discrimination. Anna Cunningham has more. For Women Scotland, the group that led this legal appeal, celebrating outside the UK Supreme Court. They appealed to the UK's highest court after a long running battle with the Scottish government.

Their dispute was over its argument that transgender people with a gender recognition certificate are entitled to sex-based protections. Judge Hodge says the ruling was unanimous. The terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex. The UK government says this legal ruling provides clarity for services including hospitals and sports clubs.

But for the trans community across the UK, it could have far-reaching consequences. Anna Cunningham, CBC News, London. US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. blames the environment for causing autism. The politician says he's committed to identifying the root causes by September and he insists autism is a man-made epidemic. This is coming from an environmental toxin. And somebody made a profit by putting that environmental toxin into our air, our water, our medicines, our food.

And it's to their benefit. The health secretary's comments clash with decades of research and scientific consensus that genetics play a large role. A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control The United States and the United States have been working on a series of research projects that have been published in the United States and the United States. The United States has been working on a series of research projects that have been published in the United States and the United States. The United States has been working on a series of research projects that have been published in the United States and the United States. The United States has been working on a series of research projects that have been published in the United States and the United States. screening. Scientists have caught a colossal squid on camera for the first

time. An international research team cited the elusive creature from a remote controlled submarine. Video captured the young squid at a depth of more than half a kilometer in the South Atlantic Ocean. Full-grown adults are about as big as a fire truck. They are the largest invertebrates in the world. And that's your World This Hour. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts updated every hour, seven days a week. For CBC News, I'm Julianne Hasell Wood.