The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/11/19 at 19:00 EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/11/19 at 19:00 EST

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I'm Kate McGilvery. Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to announce that Canada is starting free trade talks with the United Arab Emirates. Carney arrived in the Gulf State today, and Karina Roman has more details from Abu Dhabi. Canada-UA-E talks towards an expedited free trade pact would aim to ease trade around AI, aerospace, intellectual property, and labor mobility. mobility. A senior government official speaking on background says that Prime Minister Mark Carney will announce the talks by the end of his visit. Carney is also expected to sign an investment agreement with the UAE. The Gulf State is home to some of the world's largest sovereign wealth

funds and Carney's growing list of major projects needs capital. But human rights groups say Carney is putting profits before principle. Unhappy with allegations that the UAE funds a paramilitary group committing atrocities in Sudan. The senior government official says Carney will raise a number of security issues in his meetings and points out Canada is currently the third largest humanitarian aid donor to Sudan. Karina Roman, CBC News, Abu Dhabi. The U.S. Justice Department is now offering $15 million for information leading to the arrest of alleged Canadian drug lord Ryan Wedding. The 44-year-old is a former Olympian who competed for Team Canada. at the 2002 games in Utah.

He's currently on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list and he's thought to be hiding out in Mexico. Attorney General Pam Bondi says wedding is believed to be responsible for several murders. He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world. He is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada. RCMP have also arrested seven Canadians in relation to the drug trafficking probe.

Among them, a man wanted for allegedly murdering a key witness against wedding. The UK says a Russian spy ship pointed lasers at Air Force pilots tracking its movement. The British defense minister warned the UK was facing a new era of threat from hostile actors. John Healy says he's changed the Navy's rules of engagement to allow the military to follow the Russian ship more closely. He says military options are ready if the ship changes course. So my message to Russia and to Putin is this. We see you. We know what you're doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.

Russia claims the Yantar is a research vessel. Alberta's fiscal watchdog has released a scathing report on a botched plan to privatize the province's medical testing labs back in 2022. Alberta's Auditor General says it costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars while slowing down test times and adversely impacting patients. That report on the testing labs is coming as Alberta begins another experiment with private medicine. The province is now expected to table legislation allowing some doctors to work in both public and private health care, which it says will speed up surgery wait times.

Julia Wong has more. Waiting for a needed surgery is a painful and often frustrating. experience. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government's plan will fix that. In a video posted to social media, Smith says doctors who wish to perform elective surgeries in both public and private settings must agree to a minimum number or ratio of publicly funded surgeries annually. She says this could increase the number of operations done every year. That means everyone on the public wait list moves up in the queue. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Wolston Holmes says he doesn't think it's a bad idea, but says the devil

will be in the details. And we figure out how to do the ratio correctly. And we figure out how to have enough human resources that we can still safely staff the public system. Alberta's hospital and surgical health services ministers says the province will be mindful of that. And its family physicians

could also be included in the legislation. Julia Wong, CBC News, Edmonton. And that is The World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Kate McGilfrey. Thank you.