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

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

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

Choose clicks, choose the algorithm, choose doom scrolling at 3am, eyes tired, brain rewired, choose headlines that scream, choose fake friends, deepfakes, bots, and comment wars that never end. Choose truth bent and broken until you can't tell up from down or write from wrong. Choose the chaos, choose the noise. Or don't. Choose news, not noise. From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Nuruddin Khorane.

The European Union has condemned a visa ban, issued by the United States to former European Union Commissioner Thierry, Breton, and four other citizens. Breton helped shape Europe's digital rulebook, which the Trump administration says is unfairly targeting American companies. William Denslow reports. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls former EU Commissioner Tieri Britain and others ideologues and accuses them of leading organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints their pose. Britain helps shape the European Union's digital laws aimed to address issues including unfair competition and harmful online content.

Several US tech giants such as meta and X have been handed substantial fines under these regulations. The EU maintains that it treats all companies fairly, but insists that any tech firms seeking to operate in Europe must play by the rules. The blocked Foreign Affairs Chief Kyakales caused the visa ban unacceptable and a challenge to the EU sovereignty. Breton has also hit back at the decision, taking to social media to question whether the McCarthy witch-hunt era seen during the Cold War had returned to the US.

For CBC News, I'm William Denzlo in Brussels. The future of a $29 million border security team in Alberta is unclear. The patrol was introduced a year ago. It is supposed to intercept illegal border crossers as well as firearms and drug smuggling. But as Andrew Jeffrey reports, the Premier is signaling it may not be needed. After Alberta made a $29 million investment into border security, Premier Daniel Smith said earlier this month that Coots, the site of Alberta's busiest border crossing, isn't the hotbed of activity they suspect.

What we learned from that is that the border at Coots is not the huge traffic or transit route for either human smuggling or drug smuggling or trafficking. Last winter, after Donald Trump was elected to his second term in the White House, Alberta announced a border security plan. Its team includes roughly 51 officers patrolling southern Alberta. The province has said it would consider redeploying the team. and Coots Mayor Scott McCumber says that could be a good decision. The province says its team apprehended five suspected a legal border crossing since launching this year. Andrew Jeffrey, CBC News, Calgary. Venezuela's National Assembly is bringing forth a new bill to criminalize the seizure of oil tankers.

The new laws aimed to stop activities that hinder navigation and commerce, such as U.S. blockades and seizures of Venezuelan oil tankers. Just last weekend, the United States attempted to interpret. intercept vessels linked to Venezuela. The Maduro regime has slammed the move as a lawless act of piracy, while Washington says the move is about stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S. A strong storm is beginning to drench parts of Southern California. The state is expected to be hit hard by an atmospheric river over the next few days. Steve Futterman has more from Los Angeles. The rain is coming down right now. I'm standing in the middle of it, and it's going to be going on

throughout the day and into tomorrow. It's going to be a very, very powerful storm dropping lots of rain in some areas more than 250 millimeters. Ariel Cohen is the meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Service here in Southern California. This is what he has to say about this storm. This is the type of storm system that affects the area approximately every five to 10 years or so. There will almost certainly be numerous rock slides and mudslides along with areas of severe flooding The areas here in Southern California, of course, are the areas hit by the January fires, Pacific Palisades, Altadena. Basically, there's not much vegetation on the mountains, so the mountains can't absorb much water. And this is the big concern about mudslides.

When you don't have vegetation on the mountains, the mountains are very, very vulnerable to these mudslides, these rock sides. That's what has people really the most concerned. Steve Futterman, CBC News, Los Angeles. And that is your world this hour. For news any time. visit our website, cbcnews.ca.ca. For CBC News, I'm Nududadine Korane.