The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/19 at 08:00 EST

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/19 at 08:00 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 is sour. I'm Neil Kumar. European leaders now have an agreement on a funding scheme to cover Ukraine's massive wartime deficit following a marathon meeting in Brussels. Kiev is getting 90 billion euros to keep it afloat for the next two years.

However, the loan will not be secured against frozen Russian assets. Crystal Kumansing has more from London. And I'm very pleased to say we made it. Emerging from the 17-hour summit, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union Commission President, detailed the new financial lifeline for Ukraine. Very important here. Ukraine would only need to pay back the loan once it receives reparations. 90 billion euros as promised. In the end, European leaders abandoned a much-touted idea to fund Ukraine with Russian frozen state assets. A move Russia fought against threatening,

retribution. Hungary's leader Victor Orban was against that idea and is against the loan borrowing against the EU budget. Alexander Moreshko, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Ukrainian Parliament, says his country was in such a desperate situation.

They're happy to just have the money. They still feel Russian frozen assets should be turned over to Ukraine, but understand some countries have concerns requiring more timed. Crystal Gamansing, CBC News. London. 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 his mega allies had demanded they be made public. On Thursday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee release more images of Epstein, along with tech titan Bill Gates, philosopher Nome Shonsky, and other notables. But they did not provide any evidence of wrongdoing.

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 the 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, now with a prime suspect dead, the focus this morning has turned to finding a motive. Steve Futterman 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. You ran in a car in Boston. We were able to find that car in New Hampshire. After the university killings authorities say Valente drove to the Boston suburb of Brookline,

where he allegedly killed an MIT physics professor, Nuno Larero, also Portuguese. Valenti 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. And that is the world this hour.

For CBC News, I'm Neil Kumar. more.