The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/22 at 02:00 EST

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/22 at 02:00 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 Neil Hurland. We begin in Australia where urgent gun reform is on the political agenda one week after the deadly shooting in Sydney. The New South Wales State Parliament is reconvening to debate gun control and restricting protests that promote hate. Phil Mercer has more. I think it's really important that we take action in relation to guns. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns is promising Australia's toughest gun laws that would restrict the number and types of firearms that individuals can own. He also wants to give the police more powers to ban protests, which could affect large-scale marches.

I know that there's a deep concern about international events and wars and that people's passions are heightened and there's genuine concern about it and I'm not criticising them for holding those views. My responsibility is in Sydney right now We need to make sure that the community is not divided. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was geared as he arrived at a memorial to remember the victims of the Bondi Beach shootings. His critics have accused him of failing to curb rising anti-Semitism. In response, he's promising to crack down on extremism,

Phil Mercer for CBC News, at Bondi Beach in Sydney. The US Coast Guard is still pursuing an old. oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela. A U.S. official describes it as a, quote, sanctioned dark vessel that is part of Venezuela's illegal sanctions evasion. Karen Paul's reports. Amid the growing U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, officials had a third tanker in their sights Sunday. The Bello 1 spotted leaving Venezuela. This, after seizing a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker on Saturday and another earlier this month. Well, this is part of what President Trump has declared as a full naval blockade of Venezuela,

which is an act of war. Ben Rosewell is a former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela. He believes Trump's goal is to ultimately put the U.S. in control of the entire continent. I think they've chosen Venezuela because it's the weakest country that it could have this show of force to demonstrate to all the other countries of the Americas. Watch out. We can do this to Venezuela. we could potentially do this to you as well. Karen Paul's, CBC News, Washington.

The U.S. Justice Department has reposted a photo of President Donald Trump that had been removed from the Jeffrey Epstein files. The photo showed Trump with various women and was flagged by prosecutors for a review to protect potential victims. Todd Blanche is the Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He's pushing back on criticism that the U.S. government was trying to hide Trump's connection to the late Jeffrey Epstein. We learned after releasing that photograph

that there were concerns about those women and the fact that we had put that photo up. So we pulled that photo down. It is nothing to do with President Trump. There are dozens of photos of President Trump already released to the public seeing him with Mr. Epstein.

He has said that in the 90s and early 2000s, he socialized with him. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case and has denied knowing about Epstein. crimes. Health Canada says flu cases are surging this year, with the highest rates the country has seen in three seasons and even some deaths. Dr. Brian Conway is medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Center. A lot of the transmissions did occur among school children at school.

And now that school is over, that transmission network should be interrupted. Not time to let down our guard. There are many cases outside of that demographic. And it's important to Stay home if you're sick, wear masks, and please go out and get your shot. This myth that the vaccine doesn't work this year, it's a myth. Last year's flu season peaked in February, but this year, doctors say it came early. We're following a tragic story in Indonesia tonight. A passenger bus has crashed, killing at least 16 people. It happened on Indonesia's main island of Java.

And that is your world this hour. For CBC News, I'm Neil Hurland. It.