The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/23 at 13:00 EST

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/23 at 13:00 EST

Hey, I'm Gavin Crawford. Each week I quiz a panel of comedians. All About the News. This week, Steph Tolliv makes her debut. Her Netflix special is just named by The L.A. Times is one of the best comedy specials of the year. She's joined by Miguel Revis and Andrew Fung. The news is pelting us with coal, so we're looking for the candy canes. How are Canadians altering their holiday plans? Does the Prime Minister have a secret plan to turn us all British? And what AI slop do we have to look forward to from Person of the Year?

Follow us on Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts to find out. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Martino Fitzgerald. The federal government spent nearly $80 million in deportation costs in 2024. The Canada Border Services Agency says it removed more than 18,000 people from the country last year. An experts say that number may go up as Ottawa tightens immigration targets at limits new study and job permits. Evan Dyer reports. The last fiscal year was the busiest for removal since 20. 12, part of a steady uptick that followed a lull during the pandemic.

CBSA says the increase reflects the larger numbers of non-citizens allowed into the country in recent years, some of whom made asylum claims that were rejected or failed to comply with the conditions of their entry. It costs between $3,000 and $4,000 to remove a person who's willing to leave the country unescorted, but removals requiring a CBSA escort are more than three times as expensive. CBSA says it's currently deporting 400 people a week and is on track to remove over 20,000 people in the current fiscal year. Evan Dyer, CBC News, Ottawa. Canada's economy shrank by a greater than expected 0.3% in October.

It's the biggest slump in almost three years. The economy was dragged down by the decline in wood manufacturing following new U.S. tariffs in mid-October. But statistics Canada says when the November numbers are released, we should see that the economy made up most of that lost ground. The U.S. Department of Justice has released the latest batch of files involving sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. This time, they contain a number of references to U.S. President Donald Trump. As J.P. Tasker reports, the DOJ insists the documents contain untrue

and sensationalist claims against the president who denies all wrongdoing. What this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has. U.S. President Donald Trump says he isn't happy with what authorities have been forced to release in the Jeffrey Epstein case. New documents posted Tuesday show Trump traveled on the sex offenders' private plane at least eight times. So a lot of people are very angry that this continues.

The document dump also includes a jailhouse letter Epstein wrote to Larry Nassar, a U.S. Olympic doctor convicted of sex crimes. Epstein wrote, Our president also shares our love of. young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by, he loved to grab snatch, whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system. He signed the handwritten card, life is unfair. There's also new material about Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor. Under an alias, the former prince allegedly asked Epstein's co-conspirator Geelaine Maxwell to find him inappropriate friends. J.P. Tasker, CBC News, Washington.

An Ontario lawyer has been granted bail ahead of his extradition hearing. Deepak Parodkar is accused of playing a key role in an international drug smuggling network. The FBI has identified him as an associate of the fugitive drug lord Ryan Wedding. Parodkar is accused of having advised wedding to murder a federal witness and also of drug trafficking and conspiracy to tamper with a witness. Bradcar is one of eight Canadians arrested last month as part of an FBI investigation into wedding. The United Nations Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on growing tensions

between the U.S. and Venezuela. Since September, the U.S. has attacked boats off the Venezuelan coast that it accuses of smuggling drugs. And earlier this month, the U.S. military sees two oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude. A growing number of American politicians accused the president of increasingly dictatorial behavior. Brad Schneider is the Democratic representative for Illinois. We've moved from attacking boats that were reportedly carrying drugs to now taking oil tankers. And at the end of the day, what you're seeing is it's about enriching Trump and his friends. They've already talked to companies about taking the soil.

Venezuela accuses Washington of committing acts of piracy. The Trump administration argues its actions are legal. And that is your world this hour. For CBC News, I'm Martina Fitzgerald. Thank you.