The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/19 at 04:00 EST

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/19 at 04:00 EST

This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always over-delivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing.

Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. borough.ca. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Mike Miles. Australia is launching the biggest gun buyback program in almost 30 years following the Bondi Beach massacre. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also announced a crackdown on hate speech. Georgie Smyth has a story from Sydney. For decades, Australians believed their gun laws were strong enough to keep people. safe until 15 people were gunned down while celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach.

The Australian government will now provide funding to buy back guns from the public. Here's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the plan. To purchase surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms, the largest buyback since the Howard government initiated one in 1996. That buyback followed Australia's worst mass shooting where 35 people were gunned down at a tourist spot. The reforms come on the heels of proposed new federal laws to crack down on hate speech, as well as state laws to restrict the types of guns people can own, as the tragedy at Bondi forces a policy catch-up for governments. Georgie Smyth, CBC News, Sydney.

Turning to another mass-shooting investigation, the Brown University case. With the prime suspect dead, the focus this morning has turned to finding a motive. Steve Utterman reports. The suspect in the mass shooting, 48-year-old Claudio Nevis Valenti, a Portuguese national and former Brown University graduate student, was found dead in a storage unit. The break in the case came from a tip that led law enforcement to his vehicle, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Nerona. He ran in a car in Boston. We were able to find that car in New Hampshire. After the university killings authorities say Valenti drove to the Boston suburb of Brookline, where he allegedly killed in M.I. physics professor, Nuno Larero, also Portuguese. Valente and the professor attended the same

school in Portugal in the late 1990s. Last night in Providence, Brown University students were glad the ordeal has ended. I mean, I definitely think there's a sense of relief in the community, having found the person. Officials say Valenti tried various methods to evade police, including changing license plates. Steve Futterman, CBC News, Los Angeles. Today is the deadline. for the U.S. Justice Department to release its files on financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Since becoming president, Donald Trump had sought to keep them secret, even though before that, he and other mega mouthpieces had to demand that they be made public. Yesterday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released more images of Epstein,

along with tech-titan Bill Gates, philosopher Noam Chomsky, and other notables, but they did not provide any evidence of wrongdoing. New Brunswick's local governance commissioner is warning municipality, they've been violating provincial law. The commission issued an advisory last month asking councils to stop handling complaints about their mayors and counselors privately. As Erica Butler reports,

elected officials support the move towards transparency. Everything was done behind closed doors. Andy McGregor says he couldn't believe it when he went to a closed meeting shortly after being elected, only to find out the meeting was called to discuss a complaint against him. The local governance commission later determined that the complaint was not handled properly,

the commission says many municipalities have been incorrectly treating their elected mayors and counselors as employees and citing HR confidentiality in handling complaints against them. Jeff Martin teaches politics at Mount Allison University. He calls the advisory disruptive and almost courageous, in light of a trend away from openness and transparency in municipal politics. It's refreshing that someone says very clearly municipal counselors are not employees. The city of Moncton is one of many local governments in New Brunswick that has been holding Code of Conduct proceedings in private. This week, the city started the process to change its bylaw, citing the advice of the commission.

Erica Butler, CBC News, Moncton. And that is The World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Mike Miles. Thank you.