The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/17 at 10:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/17 at 10:00 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 Rafi Bouja-Kanian reports, Liberal leader Mark Carney was the main target of his three opponents. On shake dans nos culottes quand l'automobile va pas bien? 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 Polièvre 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 Pooulièvre and Carney of targeting health care for cuts,

something both men deny. Rafi Mujikhan here on CBC News, Montreal. Susan Bonner and Pia Chattopadhyay 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 7 p.m. Eastern on CBC Radio 1 and the CBC Listen app. A crucial battleground in the federal election is the 905 area code, the ring of cities around Toronto. It's been dominated by the Liberals for the past three decades,

but it was key to conservative victories under Stephen Harper. Mike Crawley takes us to a riding that's seen as a must-win for Pierre Balliev'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. In Paris today, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff will be there to meet with European officials and security experts. This as the U.S. and Europe search for common ground on ending the Ukraine War.

Anna Cunningham has the details. It's the first time since February that the US has directly engaged with Europe on peace in Ukraine. The talks come days after one of the biggest attacks of this war by Moscow on civilians in Ukraine. The Sumy attacks shows that Russia is not willing to cease fire. Says Eleanor Caro, an MP with the French President Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble Alliance party. The very fact that these talks are happening, Kaur believes, demonstrates that the U.S.

is struggling to bring Russia onside. It shows the failure of Donald Trump's diplomatic efforts. Rubio will meet with Macron. Talks will then be held with French, British and German foreign affairs ministers, along with EU national security advisers. Ukraine's foreign and defense ministers are in Paris for the talks. European diplomats say they will urge the U.S. to put more pressure on Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire. Anna Cunningham, CBC News, London. And that is your World This Hour. You can listen to us anytime on voice-activated devices such as Google Home.

For more information on the talks, visit us at www 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.