The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/21 at 04:00 EST

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/21 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. Bro.C.a. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Mike Miles. We begin in South Africa, where police say at least nine people are dead after a mass shooting in Beckerstall, 40 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. Ten others are wounded. It happened overnight at a tavern. Authorities say a pair of vehicles pulled up and ten gunmen got out, one brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle. The rest had handguns. The victims were shot randomly, inside. and outside the bar. This is the country's second mass shooting this month. Twelve people were killed at a hostel near Pretoria two weeks ago.

And this is a day of morning in Australia. Vigils have been held all day today in Sydney's Bondi Beach, seen of last weekend's mass shooting that happened on the first night of Hanukkah. Fifteen people were killed with dozens more wounded. It's being investigated as anti-Semitic terrorism. Security is also being probed, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ordering a review of intelligence and law enforcement agencies. He was booed at a ceremony tonight where the eighth candle was lit, followed by a minute of silence.

In Germany, Saturday marked one year since the deadly car ramming attack at a Christmas market. Those bells tolling at a candlelight vigil held at a church near the market. Six people were killed, more than 300 others injured, when a rented SUV drove through the crowd. A Saudi National is on trial for that attack. During the memorial, Chancellor Friedrich Mers called for peaceful coexistence, calling Germany a country that stands shoulder to shoulder when violence erupts. A musician nominated for seven Grammys this year is a Canadian who isn't a household name.

Songwriter and producer Henry Walter goes by the moniker Surcut. For the past decade and a half, he's had a hand in some of music's biggest hits. Richard Woodbury reports. You may not know the name's circuit, but if you know music by Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, The Weekend, or Maroon Five, chances are you've heard a song Henry Walter had a hand in. Born in Ottawa, he spent his childhood in Montreal.

Walter says the high school years he spent in Halifax played a key part in his musical development. No real formal training back in that time. I guess a lot of it was just trial and error, you know? Walter's big break was his music being, being used for a 2000 date, Brittany Spears' song. His seven Grammy nominations this year include Album of the Year for Lady Gaga's Mayhem

and Song of the Year for Lady Gaga's Abra-Kadabra. She's become just a friend and a close collaborator. I do often take time to reflect and be like, wow, I can't believe I'm here. The Grammys will be held February 1st. Richard Woodbury, CBC News, Halifax. Many indigenous communities across the country are working to revitalize their languages. And for Lennox Island, a McMaw community on Prince of Rhode Island, a high point in these efforts was their local schools' bilingual Christmas concert.

Delaney Kelly was there. Students loudly and proudly sing classic Christmas carols in Megmaugh. The community school's Christmas concert is almost entirely in their language. And the theme of the concert was Winter Wonderland as a way to honor the land. Edwin Campbell is a grade 6 student, and for him, speaking migma is meaningful. So when I'm saying the words, I think about the people that don't know it and hoping to them that they would learn it. Nancy Peters Doyle is the school's migma teacher. She says the performance is a way to make sure the language and culture lives on.

Sometimes the lines can be difficult. The words can be hard to pronounce that kids kind of have a moment trying to learn it, but it's like you are so lucky that you get to stand here and sing this. Peters Doyle says students are not just singing for the people in the gym, but they're ancestors too. Delaney Kelly, CBC News, Lennox Island. And that is The World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Mike Miles.

Thank you.