The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/17 at 14:00 EST

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/17 at 14:00 EST

Choose clicks, choose the algorithm, choose doom scrolling at 3am, eyes tired, brain rewired, choose headlines that scream, choose fake friends, deepfakes, bots, and comment wars that never end. Choose truth bent and broken until you can't tell up from down or write from wrong. Choose the chaos, choose the noise. Or don't. Choose news, not noise. CBC News From CBC News, the world this hour.

I'm Kate McGilfrey. Canada's population has been going down. Country lost tens of thousands of people in the third quarter of this year, most of them non-permanent residents. Catherine Tunney has more. Statistics Canada is reporting a change Canada hasn't seen in years.

A drop in its population. New data out Wednesday shows a loss of about 76,000 people. is mainly due to a reduction in the number of non-permanent residents, which Staskan attributes to shifting government policy. In 2024, the federal government announced it would be slashing the number of non-permanent residents and lowering the cap on international students. The new numbers show every province and territory had fewer non-permanent residents on October 1st, then on Canada Day, with Ontario seeing the largest decrease. The recent liberal budget promises to continue slashing

the number of temporary residents allowed into Canada over the next few years, and the opposition conservatives are calling for the temporary foreign worker program to be dismantled. Catherine Taney, CBC News, Ottawa. Sources tell Radio Canada that Quebec Liberal Party leader Pablo Rodriguez has decided to resign. The former federal MP and Trudeau Cabinet Minister took over the party leadership in June. In recent weeks, the party's been in turmoil over claims of illegal campaign donations. Rodriguez ordered an internal investigation into that. Quebec's anti-corruption police is also.

looking into those allegations. Police in Ontario say they've broken up an auto theft network responsible for sending stolen cars to destinations as far away as West Africa and the Middle East. 20 people have now been arrested and millions of dollars' worth of luxury cars recovered. Megan Fitzpatrick has the details. We have sent a clear message. Ontario will not be a source for criminal profits. OPP Commissioner Thomas Creek says investigators have dismantled a sophisticated,

auto theft ring operating out of the greater Toronto area. Business owners and others tied to the shipping industry were allegedly laundering money and using false documents to send stolen cars overseas. Police tracked shipping containers to ports in Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver and executed multiple search warrants in the Toronto area. Detective Inspector Scott Wade says the investigation's results are significant. 306 stolen vehicles were recovered, valued at more than $25 million. 20 people were arrested. They're facing more than 100 charges. Police say auto theft in Canada is on a downward trend, but it's still a massive problem that adds up to a billion dollars worth of stolen vehicles every year.

Megan Fitzpatrick, CBC News, Toronto. About 50,000 homes and businesses in BC have no power after a fierce windstorm overnight. That's down from 120,000 who were out a few hours ago. The bulk of the outages are in BC's Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast, B.C. Hydro says all available crews and contractors are mobilized to deal with the outages. Nick Reiner made his first appearance in court three days after he allegedly killed his parents in Los Angeles. The 32-year-old is the son of prominent Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer-Riner. He's charged with two counts of murder, and today declined to enter a plea.

His lawyer, Alan Jackson, spoke to reporters. There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case. They need to be thoroughly, but very carefully, dealt with. Reiner's being held without bail. His arraignment hearing will continue on January 7th. And one of television's marquee events is changing its home base. And the Oscar goes to? Are they playing a show?

No. Well, maybe. Oh, Nora. Starting in 2009, the Academy Awards will begin streaming exclusively on YouTube. That includes all Oscars content, including the Red Carpet, the Governor's Awards, and the nominations announcement. ABC will continue to broadcast the annual ceremony

through 2028. The year the awards show marks its 100th anniversary. That's the world this hour. For CBC News, I'm Kate McGill. free.