The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/12/24 at 09:00 EST

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/12/24 at 09:00 EST

Dragon's Den is celebrating 20 years of supporting Canadian entrepreneurs, 20 years of innovative ideas, groundbreaking products, and inspiring stories from Canadian businesses. And this season has all of the wheeling and dealing that's changed the lives of countless dreamers. Now, with Celebrity Dragon Drew Scott from Property Brothers. Don't miss Season 20 of Dragon's Den. Watch free on CBC Gem. From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Nudududdin Khorane.

Today, Moscow will respond to a new 20-point peace framework aimed at ending the nearly four-year conflict. The proposed peace plan reached during talks in Florida between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators. It intertwined security guarantees with massive commercial interests. But as John Northcott reports, there are still important details that have not been agreed upon. Ukrainian president, Vlomir Zelensky, telling journalists

that there has been, quote, significant progress towards finalizing the documents. Those documents, a 20-point plan reworked from the earlier contentious 28-point plan. Unlike that previous plan, this latest was hammered out between Ukraine and U.S. delegations. It's aimed at a deal that would include Ukraine, Russia, the U.S., and Europe. It proposes that Ukraine would keep its army at its... its current strength of 800,000, with the U.S. and European allies providing security guarantees. Still outstanding, though, several significant issues, the future of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Donbass, as well as control over the Zaporizia nuclear power plant.

So far, no robust response from the Russian government other than from President Putin's spokesperson who noted that the key aspects of Russia's position are well-known to their U.S. colleagues. John Northcott, CBC News, London. three people have been killed by an explosion in Moscow. It's the second bombing in the city this week. Investigators say two of the victims were traffic officers. An explosive device was detonated as the officers approached a suspicious vehicle. Earlier this week, a car bomb killed a senior Russian general. While Moscow said it suspected Ukraine in that instance, Kiev has not taken

responsibility. Australia's state of New South Wales has passed tougher gun laws. They come 10 days after 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. The new laws ban firearms that allow multiple shots without reloading, as well as limit the number of individual gun licenses a person can own. Chris Minns is the premier of New South Wales. We know it's our responsibility to do everything we can to keep the people of New South Wales safe and that means further change in the new year. We've given a commitment to that. We're currently looking at other areas of the law that are urgently required to confront hate speech. New laws allowing police to restrict protests for up to three months after a terror attack were also passed.

Several groups say they will be filing a constitutional challenge to those laws. Global Affairs Canada says it strongly condemns Israel's decision to approve new settlements in the occupied West Bank. 19 settlements were announced yesterday, while overnight there was another attack on a Palestinian home in the south of the territory. Police arrested five Israeli settlers. Officials say they smashed a door and a window, fired tear gas into the home and killed livestock. Meanwhile, Christians in Gaza are preparing for the territories,

are preparing the territory's only Catholic Church for Christmas celebrations. The festivities will be held for the first time since the ceasefire began in October. Sasa Petrissic has more. Latin hymns and prayers in Arabic filled. the stone hall of the church, along with lights and a huge Christmas tree. But the roof is still scarred from an Israeli strike in July. Christians who numbered only 1,000 in Gaza when the war started, have paid a heavy price. Fatten Salfitti lost her son and husband.

There's no happiness here, she says through tears, no Christmas preparations, no nothing. The ceasefires brought some relief, but airstrikes have not stopped entirely, and living conditions are nothing short of catastrophic, says visiting Cardinal Pierre Batista Pizabala. Still, he sees a glimmer of hope. We saw that the resilience of these people is what at the end will prevail. Sasha Petrissik, CBC News, Toronto. And that is your world this hour. For news any time, visit our website. cbcnews.ca. For CBC News, I'm Norcorane.