The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/18 at 10:00 EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/18 at 10:00 EST

Quincy Cross is in prison for the murder of Jessica Curran. But the story of what happened that night keeps changing. Quincy's attorney did try to flag that. I mean, these attorneys, for the five of them, were really trying to flag. There's something really wrong here. This week on Crime Story, could Quincy Cross be innocent? Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour.

I'm Claw Fade. 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., Kirste, Houston 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 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. Also in Washington. Good evening, America. 11 months ago, I inherited a mess, and I'm fixing it. U.S. President Donald Trump painted a rosy picture of the U.S. economy and a speech from the White House last night. And Trump announced that he was sending bonus checks to U.S. troops this Christmas. One year ago, our country was dead.

We were absolutely dead. Our country was ready to fail. Totally failed. Now, we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. and that's said by every single leader that I've spoken to over the last five months. Now, in his speech last night, Trump did not mention Venezuela and its ongoing conflict. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a plan to fight anti-Semitism after gunmen opened fire at a Jewish event at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday,

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 and increase penalties. The United States says it will sell a massive package of weapons to Taiwan. The arms are worth more than $10 billion, and they include military software, medium-range missiles,

howitzers, and drones. The State Department says this sale is in the United States' economic and security interests. but China is slamming the move. A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry says the sale undermines national security and sends the wrong message to pro-independence forces. Beijing has become increasingly aggressive towards Taiwan, insisting that it must reunify with the mainland. The federal and Ontario governments are expected to sign a deal today

on the one that will include 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 Political, 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. And that is your world this hour. For CBC News, I'm Claude Faye. Thank you.