The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/05/23 at 12:00 EDT

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/05/23 at 12:00 EDT

How did the internet go from this? You could actually find what you were looking for right away, bound to this. I feel like I'm in hell. Spoiler alert, it was not an accident. I'm Cory Doctorow, host of Who Broke the Internet from CBC's Understood. In this four-part series, I'm going to tell you

why the internet sucks now, whose fault it is, and my plan to fix it. Find Who Broke the Internet on whatever terrible app you get your podcasts. From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Joe Cummings. The judge in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial has decided some text messages Vegas Golden Knights forward Brett Howden sent to a teammate are not admissible as evidence. Howden was a member of the 2018 World Junior Hockey Team. He is not charged, but is a crown witness in the sexual assault trial of five of his

former teammates. Karen Pauls reports. The Crown wanted to introduce the text as evidence and ask Brett Howden questions about them, but now she won't be able to, and legal experts say that will weaken her case against Dylan DuBey. In one of the texts, Howden wrote that he was happy he left the hotel room when he did because Duber, or DuBeyay was smacking the girls behind so hard it looked like it hurt so bad. The defense argued those texts should not be entered as evidence

because Howden says he can't remember writing them, can't now confirm the details are accurate and never expected them to be used as evidence seven years later. Howden told court he believes he was being truthful in what he texted. The complainant has testified someone slapped her on the buttocks without her consent. Other players have also testified she was spanked and at least one identified Dubay. Dubay and the other players have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Karen Pauls, CBC News, London, Ontario. Canada's postal workers had planned to walk off the job today, but at least for the time being, that strike action is on hold, while the union considers the latest contract offer

from Canada Post. The postal workers have been without a contract now for close to a year and a half. In a social media post overnight, US President Donald Trump is threatening to put a 25 percent tariff on all Apple products unless the company agrees to start making its iPhones in the United States. Scott Peterson has more. He wants all the iPhones, if they're sold in the U.S., to be built in the U.S. This is the worst possible case scenario as a CEO.

You go to bed at night, you wake up in the morning, you find the U.S. president has posted about your company. Apple, for their part, have promised $500 billion in research and to create jobs and things, but their manufacturing is still in China. They're trying to transition to India, but they've been doing everything they could to avoid the pinpoint and the laser focus of Donald Trump, but they've been unsuccessful clearly in his post this morning. So now the question is, is this going to punish a very successful U.S. company that's taking advantage of lower labor costs overseas? Or is this potentially

going to hand over more business to a Chinese upstart that are very eager to take Apple's product and Apple's market share? And so there's a lot of worry about this and there's a lot of surprise at this tweet overnight. Scott Peterson, CBC News, Toronto. And along with taking aim at Apple, Trump is also threatening today to impose a 50% tariff on all products coming out of the European Union. Now to Ottawa, and as part of its promised response to the threat of foreign interference, the federal government announced last year it would be establishing a foreign agent registry. But now, months later, it's not clear where

the government is on that promise. Catherine Tunney reports. I declare the motion carried. It's been nearly a year since the Liberals foreign interference legislation sailed quickly through the House. But getting a core part of that bill I've been running appears to have stalled. The Foreign Transparency Registry would require agents acting on behalf of foreign states to register with the federal government or face deep fines and jail time. But a spokesperson for public safety says several steps are needed before that can start happening, like finding a commissioner and building the IT needed to support the office.

Gloria Fung speaks for a coalition of community groups calling on the government to bring in the registry. She says it could help diaspora communities who are the direct victims of foreign-ordered harassment, including from China. And if we do not take concrete action, it's going to get worse. The government did not respond when asked when the registry will be operational. Catherine Tunney, CBC News, Ottawa. And that is The World This Hour.

For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.