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

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

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

Okay, so there's this new play about the Rogers family and their battle for control over the gigantic telecom empire, and I cannot stop thinking about it. I'm Alameen Abdul-Mahmoud. I host a pop culture show called Commotion. This week, we're talking about Rogers v. Rogers, and on the show, we'll get into what this corporate story actually tells us about our national mythology and why Canadian theater audiences are craving more and more homegrown stories. Find and follow Commotion on YouTube or 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 incorporated into the Kuzma talks. My judgment is that that is now going to roll 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 Pollyev has criticized Carney for failing to get a faster deal, removing those sectoral tariffs.

And when those trade talks do begin in the new year, Canada has a better idea of what the U.S. wants to discuss. The U.S. trade representative laid out a series of conditions yesterday, including more access for American dairy products in Canadian markets. The Prime Minister has said he's unwilling to budge on that, saying he stands by the supply management system, which limits imports. Albertans pushing for province-wide referendums will soon have to shell out a lot more money for the opportunity. The Alberta government has hiked the application fee for new citizen initiatives. As Sam Sampson tells us, it will now be 50 times higher than the current fee. The provincial government outlined the changes in an order and counsel posted online yesterday. It states any Albertan who wants to apply for a citizen's initiative will now have to pay a $25,000 application fee.

The cost used to be $500. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Minister of Justice says petitions are caused. and the higher fee was added to discourage, quote, frivolous applications. The spokesperson added the new fee will only be tacked on to new applications, meaning those currently in play have to refile within a set time frame to avoid the big jump in fees. That includes the Alberta Prosperity Project's independence petition and the petition from country singer Corb Lund to stop new coal mining in the Rockies. Sam Sampson, CBC News, Edmonton.

Quebec's health minister says he's quitting cabinet and will sit as an independent. Christian Dubay passed controversial law, Bill 2, that infuriated the province's doctors. It led some to apply for medical licenses in Ontario and New Brunswick, saying they'd rather practice elsewhere. The Lago government is in talks with family doctors on changes to that law. Dubei says he is not the right person to conduct those negotiations. Manitoba was hit hard by a blizzard closing schools today for the first time in three years and leading officials to ask people to stay off the roads.

Paul Menegra with the Manitoba RCMP. Ideally, you want to get off these roads, with that wind being almost 80 kilometers now, or visibility is next to nothing. Blizzard conditions are moving east in Canada tonight, with yellow winter storm warnings now in place in northern Ontario and Quebec. Parts of Manitoba have been left

with different severe weather alerts, this time for extreme cold, with wind chill temperatures expected to hit as low as minus 50. 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 the sales in the United States'

economic and security interests, but China is slamming the move. A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry says the sale sends the wrong message to pro-independence groups in Taiwan. Beijing has long said that Taiwan must reunify with the mainland. And Washington's trying to make it easier to do medical research involving marijuana.

President Trump signed an executive order today, downgrading cannabis from the most restrictive category of drugs. It doesn't legalize it, but does make it easier to access for health care and research. And that is the world this hour. The latest headlines are on our website anytime. For CBC News, I'm Kate McGilfrey. Thank you.