The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/17 at 08:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/17 at 08:00 EDT

Just weeks after 9-11, letters containing anthrax were sent all over America, and it would go down as the deadliest biological attack in U.S. history. I'm Kathleen Goltar, and this week on Crime Story, I speak with Jeremiah Kroll about a long-forgotten story that's had a lasting impact on American life. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Claude Fague. Federal party leaders squared off

in the first debate of the election campaign. The leaders of the four major parties went head to head in French last night. As Raffy Boutchacanion reports, Liberal leader Mark Carney was the main target. We shake in our pants when Ontario's auto industry is not doing well, said Yves-François Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, trying to paint Liberal Mark Carney as someone who does not have Quebec's interests at heart, saying he's helping the auto industry with massive counter tariffs but not his province's

aluminum sector. Your numbers are off, Carney pushed back. Blanchet also attacked him and other party leaders on their finances, accusing them of making Harry Potter budget promises. Conservative leader Pierre Palielyèvre did reveal where he would make some cuts. We'll get rid of government consultants, he said, and added he would also cut down on bureaucracy by attrition, not replacing every public sector worker who retires. He will cut health services. Mark Carney also made it clear. The NDP's Jagmeet Singh accusing both Paulièvre and Carney of targeting health care for cuts,

something both men deny. Rafi Mujikhan here on CBC News, Montreal. Susan Bonner and Pia Chatopayet will bring you full coverage of the federal leader's English language debate tonight. Then it's your chance to weigh in with a special debate edition of Cross-Country Checkup. It all begins at 7pm Eastern on CBC Radio 1 and the CBC Listen app. A crucial battleground in the federal election

is the 905 area code. That's the ring of cities around Toronto. It's been dominated by the liberals for the past three elections, but it was key to conservative victories under Stephen Harper. Mike Crawley takes us to a writing that's seen as a must-win for Pierre Pauliev's team. Drivers commuting home in the riding of Aurora Oak Ridge's Richmond Hill, a prime target for the conservatives.

The Liberals won this seat by fewer than 1,500 votes last election, their slimmest margin of victory in the Greater Toronto area. That is the battleground. Fred DeLorey is a former National Campaign Director for the Conservatives. He says the 31 seats in this region are pivotal. There's tight, tight races and any path to government goes through the 905. What's on voters' minds here?

Number one that we do not become the 51st state, for sure. I am not happy with the liberals. They just seem to do the same thing over and over again. Currently, I'm undecided. We'll see what they say in the next coming weeks. The Tories have had success in this riding before, as recently as 2019, and in 2011, took every seat in the 905 but one.

Mike Crawley, CBC News, Richmond Hill, Ontario. This morning, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney is in Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, hoping to position herself as a key broker between the EU and Trump after his threats of tariffs. But as Megan Williams reports from Rome, some worry she'll put Italy's interests ahead of EU unity. Among Europe's major powers, Italy's right-wing leader, Giorgia Miloni, is the most ideologically aligned with President Trump. They're both nationalist, anti-immigration, and frequently accuse mainstream media of bias. Miloni was the only EU leader to attend Trump's inauguration. And now she's

the first to meet him face to face since he announced steep new tariffs on European goods. With Italy's export driven economy at stake and a $60 billion trade surplus with the U.S. to protect, she's walking a diplomatic tightrope. Still, French officials worry she could break EU ranks and push for Italy to have a bigger transatlantic role. It's a scenario former head of the Bank of Italy, Pierluigi Ciocca calls unlikely. I don't think Maloney will risk alienating Europe over Italian parmesan and Prosecco, he said. Megan Williams, CBC News, Rome. And that is Your World This Hour.

You can listen to us anytime on voice-activated devices such as Google Home. For CBC News, I'm Claude Fague.