The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/18 at 14:00 EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/18 at 14:00 EST

If you want to hear daily news that doesn't hurt your soul and might even be good for your soul, check out As It Happens. I'm Chris Howden. And I'm Neil Kokesal. Every day we reach people at the center of the most extraordinary stories, like the doctor who restored a patient's eyesight with a tooth. Or a musician in an orchestra that plays instruments made out of vegetables. Take the scenic route through the day's news with As It Happens, and you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Kate McGilfrey.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says there likely won't be relief on U.S. tariffs until next year at the soonest when the free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. comes up for review. Right now, goods and services covered by Kuzma, aren't subject to tariffs. But everything else, things like car parts, steel, and lumber are. Carney says he thinks those sectors will be part of Kuzma talks. My judgment is that that is now going to roll into. into the broader Kuzma negotiations. So we're less likely, we're unlikely,

given the time horizons coming together, to have a sectoral agreement. Although if the United States wants to come back on that in those areas, we're always ready there. We're very ready. Conservative leader, Pierre Pahliav, has criticized Carney for failing to get a faster deal removing the sectoral tariffs.

Ottawa and Ontario have agreed on a way to significantly speed up approvals for infrastructure projects, They are dropping federal impact assessments altogether, hoping to make construction move faster on things like access roads into the ring of fire. That's an area rich with critical minerals that Ontario is keen to mine. Philip Lee Shanik has more. Ontario government ads tout the ring of fires promise. It has the critical minerals the world needs and wants.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says an agreement that will defer the federal government's approvals on key infrastructure plans to the province will get those minerals out of the ground faster. President Trump is taking direct aim at our economy every second counts. Along with streamlining the approvals process for these special economic zones, the Ontario government is trying to get legal action

from several Treaty 9 First Nations dismissed. Kate Kemptim is a lead lawyer for 10 First Nations challenging the Ontario and Canadian governments. Bulldozing ahead in the ring of fire. Not one step without First Nations consent. Ford says he already has agreements with two First Nations and could start building an access road by the summer. Philip Lyshanock, CBC News, Toronto.

I took this decision solely out of a sense of duty for my party, for Quebec and for my country. Pablo Rodriguez made it official today, announcing his resignation as the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. Pressure had been mounting after allegations surfaced that some liberals were paid to vote for him in last summer's leadership race. Today, Rodriguez repeatedly said he'd done nothing illegal or unethical, but said he'd become a distraction at a time when the party needed to concentrate on winning the next election. The Quebec Liberal Party is bigger than any of us.

It has weather storms. It has risen time and time again, and it will rise again. Quebecers go to the polls on October 5th of next year. The U.S. says it will sell a massive package of weapons to Taiwan worth more than $10 billion. It will include medium-range missiles, howitzers, drones, and military software. The State Department says this sale is in the United States' economic and security interest. But China is slamming the move. A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry says the sale sends the wrong. wrong message to pro-independence groups in Taiwan. Beijing has long said Taiwan must

reunify with the mainland. Israel conducted a series of airstrikes in southern and northeastern Lebanon today, injuring at least four people. The Israeli military says it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and military sites. The United Nations says Israel has been conducting almost daily airstrikes, killing Hezbollah members and more than 125 civilians since the ceasefire with Lebanon began. And in Brussels. Protesting farmers clashed with police near the European Parliament. They're upset about a proposed trade agreement

between the European Union and a group of South American countries known as Mercosur. The farmers worry that chief commodities will flood the European market. That's the world this hour. I'm Kate McGilvery. Thank you.