The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/05/30 at 11:00 EDT

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/05/30 at 11:00 EDT

Okay, so I'm Tom Power. I host the award-winning interview show Cue, and it's not just about art. It's also a podcast that delves into conversations with artists as to why we create at all. Like you'll hear boy genius member Lucy Dacus open up about why she's dead dissatisfied with the way we talk about love. You'll hear Cate Blanchett describe what it's like to forget the sound of your own voice. And you'll hear how Coleman Domingo actually honed his acting skills in the circus. Listen to Q with me, Tom Power, wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Joe Cummings.

The latest update on the state of the Canadian economy is out today and the numbers are surprisingly good with first quarter growth coming in at 2.2 percent. But as we hear now from Peter Armstrong, there are dark economic clouds on the horizon. The first quarter, January, February and March of this year saw the very first earliest impacts of the trade war, but the real damage and the real uncertainty didn't really start to bite until April. So economists expected to see a bit of a surge in activity as exporters tried to get ahead of those tariffs and get products out the door before tariffs kicked in.

And we saw that in spades. The economy expanded in March and SatKan says the preliminary figures show it expanded again in April, but the forecast for the rest of the spring and the rest of the summer show Canada is likely now to slip into a recession from here. The bank of Canada meets next week to decide its path on interest rates. And after this report markets assume about a 75% chance that the bank will leave those rates unchanged at 2.75%.

Peter Armstrong, CBC News, Toronto. Across the country, six provinces are now dealing with out of control wildfires. In total, more than 17,000 people are currently under evacuation orders. And across the Prairie provinces alone, 600,000 hectares currently under evacuation orders, and across the Prairie provinces alone 600,000 hectares of land have been consumed. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have both declared province-wide states of emergency, and in Ottawa the federal government is in the process of delivering support. Janice McGregor has more.

So far, Manitoba is the only jurisdiction that's requested federal assistance. Emergency preparedness minister Eleanor Olszewski approved that request early yesterday morning, specifically to assist with the mandatory evacuations of two Indigenous communities in northern Manitoba where the wildfires now alarmingly close – the Pimichikamak First Nation and the Mathias Colombe First Nation. The minister told reporters after question period yesterday the

Canadian Armed Forces has already mobilized. Those Air Force planes were deployed and they were in the process of evacuating people from those communities at

this time. Neighbouring Saskatchewan has also declared a state of emergency. Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media last evening that he's spoken with Premier Scott Moe and federal assistance

is ready to mobilize. The province has the federal government's full support. Janice McGregor, CBC News, Ottawa. Anticipating a wave of wildfire smoke, the US National Weather Service has issued air quality alerts for parts of Minnesota between Lake Superior and the Canadian border. As well, forecasts are calling for air quality to be affected in the coming days in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. The collapse of a glacier in Switzerland this week has renewed focus on the role global warming plays in such collapses and the increasing dangers. The village of Blattin was evacuated as a nearby mountainside gave way and buried much

of the community. Scientists say melting glaciers will raise sea levels for decades, but the loss of inland glaciers impacts communities that rely on them for drinking water and agriculture. A Canadian team has made it to this year's Stanley Cup final. And the Oilers are headed for a rematch with the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final. That's from Dallas last night where the Edmonton Oilers were on their way to a 6-3 win over the Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. The Oilers end up taking that best of seven series four games to one. And they advance now to play, as you heard there there for the Stanley Cup against the Florida Panthers. This is a repeat remember from last year's final.

That series went to seven games with Florida coming out on top and winning their first cup. Game one of this year's final is set for Wednesday in Edmonton. And that is the World This Hour. Remember you can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. The World This Hour is updated every hour, seven days a week. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.