The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/21 at 05:00 EST

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/21 at 05:00 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. from cbc news the world this hour i'm mike miles we begin in australia where a minute of silence was observed with the victims of the bondy beach mass shooting please rise as we light the memorial candle followed by observing a minute of silence the eighth candle of honica was lit it was on the first night last sunday when gunmen opened fire on a beach site ceremony this time there's tighter security australia's prime minister anthra Alpanese has announced a review of intelligence and police agencies aimed at exploring what went wrong. Phil Mercer now with more from Sydney. A day of reflection comes at the end of the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah. Flags are flying at half-mast on government buildings. It's been a week Australia will never forget. Funerals for the victims of the Bondi shootings have been held.

The nation's political leaders are promising to make a... Australia safer, with urgent reforms to firearms laws and measures to combat radicalisation. Fifteen people were murdered here. Thirteen others wounded in the shooting remain in hospital. One gunman was shot dead by the police. The other alleged attacker faces multiple charges, including murder and terrorism. Phil Mercer for CBC News at Bondi Beach in Sydney. South Africa is dealing with its second mass shooting in a month.

This one, happening overnight in Backersdall, 40 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. At least nine people are dead, ten others wounded. Police say two vehicles pulled up to a tavern and several suspects got out. Here is what local police commissioner Fred Kakana told South Africa's public broadcaster. Ten males alighted, nine of them with pistols, one of them with AK-47 rifle. They entered the tavern and randomly shot. at the patrons unprovoked. What's not clear yet is why it happened.

Well, it's almost winter, but when the summer sun returns to the Yukon, some residents will be fighting a ban on installing solar panels. A call comes down to balancing the sun's power with an electrical grid that can't handle it. Rachel Sanders from CBC's One on Earth has the story. Graham Key has been wanting to install solar panels on his roof for months now. The White Horse resident hopes to reduce emissions and save money. Now I'm retired, I'm on a fixed income, everything is going up. But right now, solar panels aren't an option.

In 2023, the Yukon government paused a program that let people install rooftop solar. They can use the electricity they generate and sell some of it back to the Yukon's electrical grid. But for Yukon Energy, it was too popular. It was concerned that rooftop solar was making the electrical grid unstable. According to Phil McKay with the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, there are solutions that help keep the grid stable as more renewables are added. Some of the smaller utilities might get caught off guard because this happens so quickly to them. The Yukon's new territorial government says it's now looking to restart the program

after it's made sure the grid can handle it. Rachel Sanders, CBC News, Vancouver. You can find out more on what on Earth at 11 a.m. on CBC Radio 1 or wherever you get your podcasts. Blue Origin has made history with the first space flight by a wheelchair user. That applause as space passenger Mishi Benthouse merges from a capsule shortly after it landed in the Texas desert. She's one of six passengers taken by a Blue Origin rocket on a brief journey into space. She's been in a wheelchair since a mountain biking crashed seven years ago and has become an advocate for accessible space travel. I think you should never give up on your dreams, right?

But, I mean, there's also sometimes just a low probability that it comes true. And it was the coolest experience ever, honestly. The crew experienced just a few minutes of weightlessness in space. That is the world this hour. Get all the news you need anytime, anywhere. Download the free CBC News app today. For CBC News, I'm Mike Miles. Thank you.