The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/18 at 08:00 EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/18 at 08:00 EST

Hi, Steve Patterson here, host of The Debaters, the show where we answer your most burning questions, like, do candles deserve more appreciation? Canada's best comedians wax on about it in this week's new episode, so listen wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, The World This Hour. I'm Claude Fagg. The Trump administration is making new demands of its biggest trading partners, laying out the concessions it wants from Canada and Mexico. if the U.S. is going to stay in the three-way trade agreement known as Kuzma. Katie Simpson has more. It is in the interest of the United States to keep free and open trade with Canada. As Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, was appearing on American cable news to make the case to keep Kuzma.

Her counterpart, the top U.S. trade official, was submitting a report to Congress, listing off the complaints the Trump administration has about the three-way trade agreement. Trump wants provincial business. bans on the sale of American alcohol to end. He wants it to be easier for farmers to sell American dairy products into Canada. And he has problems with the Online News Act and Online Streaming Act, which American tech giants don't like.

These issues will be discussed as part of the Kuzma Review, which begins next year. Canada has already indicated it would like to stay in the agreement and is open to making improvements to the deal. It's also demanding the U.S. end punishing tariffs hitting a wide range of Canadian industries. but there are no signs Trump is willing to budge. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Meanwhile, Trump is promising Americans an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen.

The U.S. President addressed the nation in a year-end televised speech last night. His forecast of the future comes, as some polls suggest, he's taking a hit. Willie Lowry reports from Washington. In many ways, this was a classic Trump speech. The U.S. president speaking for just 18 minutes, relatively brief for him, but spending much of that time railing against the Biden administration, blaming the former president for much of what he believes is wrong with the U.S. I inherited a mess, and I'm fixing it.

When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans. Trump kept the focus primarily on domestic issues, though he touted his foreign policy achievements, mostly helping to end or quiet conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. The speech felt hurried at times as he rushed through his list of achievements and sought to convince Americans that the economy was back on track.

Willie Lowry, CBC News, Washington. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a plan to fight anti-Semitism. after gunmen opened fire at a Jewish event in Sydney on Sunday on Bondi Beach, killing 15 people. The Attorney General and Minister for Home Affairs will develop a package of legislative reforms to crack down on those who spread hate, division and radicalization. It will target people who preach religious hate speech that promotes violence. The federal and Ontario governments are expected to sign a deal today,

one that will reduce the regulatory burden on large projects, including roads to the ring of fire. Janice McGregor reports. Doug Ford's government reached an agreement with First Nations leaders earlier this fall, laying out what northern indigenous communities would receive and return for their cooperation to build new road infrastructure, leading to the rich, critical mineral resources in Ontario's ring of fire. At the time, the Ontario Premier called on the federal government

to get out of the way and not duplicate the province's approval processes. Ontario's finance minister, Peter Bethlehem Falvi, told power and politics last night that without more efficient environmental reviews, Canada could lose the investment they need to be globally competitive. We can't spend years and years and years on process because capital has disappeared. And when capital disappears, nothing gets done. Today, the Ontario Premier is expected to sign a deal with the Prime Minister to facilitate just that, a one project, one review approach to resource development from now on. Janice McGregor, CBC News, Ottawa. And that is your world this hour. For CBC News, I'm Claude Fag.