World Report - April 2: Thursday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

US President Donald Trump touts military wins in Iran but provides few details on a war strategy. Oil prices surge six percent as Trump’s speech fails to offer a clear end to the Iran war. Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne meets with business leaders on trade mission in Beijing. Russia rejects Ukraine’s Easter ceasefire proposal with a massive drone strike on Odesa port infrastructure.Health Canada slaps new conditions on plasma donation company Grifols, still reviewing 2 Winnipeg deaths. How Montreal-based GardaWorld stands to cash in on US immigration crackdown. Federal government offers 30-days-or-free guarantee for Canadian passports. Artemis II astronauts, including Jeremy Hansen, lift off for NASA's 10-day mission around the moon. 

This is really shaping up to be an incredibly consequential and potentially fast-moving week in Canadian politics. I'm Jamie Poisson, host of the Daily News podcast Front Burner and will be all over this story. The Liberals could lock a majority conservative leader Pierre Pahliav is struggling to control an insurrection in his party ranks. Can he remain party leader? Follow Frontburner for all the analysis you need to understand the moment. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning. I'm John Northcott.

We are in this military operation, so powerful, so brilliant, against one of the most powerful countries for 32 days. And the country has been eviscerated. U.S. President Donald Trump touting military wins in Iran, but providing few details on what the coming weeks of war will look like. In a prime time address last night, the president claimed the mission is nearly complete, but as Katie Nicholson reports, Trump's speech is inflaming critics who say there is still no clear endgame. We are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. In his roughly 18-minute address, U.S. President Donald Trump tried to sell the American public on his military's wins in Iran. But Americans tuning in to find out the next steps as a third aircraft carrier and more military equipment and troops amass in the region got only this.

We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong. No American is going to bed tonight with a more clear picture of what the end game is and when this is going to wrap up. Democratic Representative Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger, is among many of the vocal congressional critics of this war since it began. He's also been worried by Trump's recent comments slamming NATO for not helping the U.S. in the Iranian war, especially as Trump again floated pulling the U.S. out of the decades-old treaty.

And then he goes to our allies and he says, why didn't you come and help us? Why aren't you coming to our aid? At the same time as he's actually maligning them and calling them names and threatening them, The address came more than a month into a war which poll after poll has shown to be a deeply unpopular entanglement, still with no clear end. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Washington. Global oil prices are surging this morning following Trump's primetime address. Benchmark Brent Crude jumped 6% to over $107 a barrel after the president offered no clear timeline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

markets had hoped for a de-escalation, but instead the President's promise of more extreme strikes is fueling fears of a prolonged supply crisis. Canada's finance minister, Francois Philippe Champagne, is meeting with business leaders today during his trade mission in Beijing. The goal, to find new Chinese investment and shore-up relationships. Lisa Xing has the latest from Beijing. At the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Finance Minister from Beijing, Francois Philippe Champagne is greeted by Ambassador Jennifer May.

Champagne here to make Canada's presence known in a massive country. We think that our financial institutions or insurance company, which are already present on the Chinese market, can help to further the objective that has been set by the Prime Minister. These objectives increase exports to China by 50% by 2030 and get more Chinese investment in Canada. Part of a thaw in relations Prime Minister, Carney signaled when he met with President Xi Jinping in January.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff MacLam is traveling with the minister. We talk about diversifying our trade. We need to do it. To further that goal, Champagne and MacLam met with the heads of Canadian financial institutions who want to increase their presence in China, including CEO of Manulife, Phil Witherington. We cannot be a global giant and depend only on 40 million customers, but by accessing mega economies such as China, India and the United States, we can be a global giant. Tomorrow, the minister will meet with Chinese banks and Chinese vice-premier, Hele Feng. Lisa Xing, CBC News, Beijing.

Emergency crews in the Odessa region are on the scene of a major port fire this morning. Video released by Ukraine's State Emergency Service shows firefighters dousing the flames burning through rows of shipping containers. Russian drones hit early today, just as Ukraine was calling for a humanitarian ceasefire to mark the Easter weekend. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy says he proposed a truce, but Moscow's response was a wave of more than 300 drones launched at targets across the country. Health Canada is slapping new conditions on plasma donation company Griffles. We told you last month about a review of two deaths, just four months apart,

at the company's locations in Winnipeg. Health Canada says it did a virtual inspection of Griffle's head office in Oakville, Ontario in January. The company failed. Investigators said it wasn't accurately assessing a donor's suitability, did not thoroughly investigate errors and accidents, and didn't have enough properly trained staff. Griffles runs 16 Plaza Collection Centers in Canada.

They must now reduce their number of appointments, so staff have the capacity to fully follow procedures. A Montreal-based private security firm is the winner of a contract to operate an ICE detention center in the U.S. Garda World received financing from the investment arm of the provincial government in 2022, and that's leading to calls for greater scrutiny over its activities outside Quebec. Ben Schengler reports. It is just a massive, empty warehouse.

Brent Peak is with Northwest Valley Indivisible, a citizens group in Arizona fighting plans to convert that warehouse in the town of surprise into an ice detention center. Last month, the American subsidiary of Garda World won the contract worth more than 300 million U.S. to run a 1,500 bed facility providing services like medical care and processing detainees. The idea of a company with the reputation of Garda World coming in here and being a part of that just makes it something even more unfit for this community. Part of his concern comes from the company's work at what's known as Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, a state facility facing legal challenges for alleged human rights abuses. Garda World is not a defendant in those lawsuits, and there's no evidence of their involvement in alleged wrongdoing at Alligator Alcatraz. But corporate watchdogs in Canada say the contracts should get more scrutiny here after the Quebec government's investment arm gave $300 million in financing to the company in 2022. Karen Hamilton is Director of Above Ground, a Canadian human rights and corporate accountability project.

I think that there are questions that need to be asked, and I think that they need to be asked both of Garda World and of the Quebec government. A spokesperson for Quebec's economy minister says the financing came with conditions, including keeping the company's headquarters in Montreal, and that the deal is not tied to its U.S. operations. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says its new converted warehouses will meet regular detention standards. Gardeworld said its U.S. subsidiary operates independently, and always with respect for human rights. Ben Schingler's TBC News, Montreal.

Ottawa is offering a new guarantee to people applying for a Canadian passport. 30 days or it's free. The federal government says most passport applications are processed within 10 to 20 business days and applicants will get a full refund of their fee if it takes more than 30 days. That does not include mailing time. The countdown starts when the government receives

a complete application. The Artemis II mission is up in space after blasting off last night from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Three, two, one, lift off. People at the University of Toronto cheer on the successful launch. One of our fellow Canadians is on board.

Jeremy Hansen, part of the four astronaut crew. For nearly 10 days, Hansen and the team will work, sleep, and eat together in the close quarters of NASA's new Orion capsule. The CBC's Nick Logan takes us inside the state-of-the-art spacecraft. Boosters in ignition and lift off. The crew of the Artemis 2 mission will travel more than 1 million kilometers, around the moon and back to Earth in the Orion capsule. So it's more like a road trip in a minivan.

David Saint-Jacques is with the Canadian Space Agency. He spent 204 days on the International Space Station. Space Station is huge. It's the size of five, six school buses. Orion is just five and a half meters at its widest and 3.3 meters high. When you're in zero-g, it will feel bigger than what it looks like. This is Orion's first human test flight. is our toolbox for survival.

NASA's chief exploration scientist, Chris Bleacher, in January. During this flight, we will learn how the spacecraft behaves. We will also learn how we, human beings, behave in that same environment. It's not just where they'll work. We'll all string a sleeping bag up more like he would string up a hammock. That's Jeremy Hanson giving a video tour of Orion's living space. Right now, let's think of it as our kitchen. The only privacy.

So here you can see the toilet. The Orion crew has been preparing since 2023, and that included doing something most astronauts don't get the opportunity to do. The fact that they were able to participate in the design of the mission, the design of the spacecraft is a huge privilege. Once they're back on Earth, work begins on the next phases of Artemis, eventually putting humans back on the surface of the moon and deeper into space. Nick Logan, CBC News, Vancouver. And that is the latest national and international news. News from World Report. I'm John Northcott. This is CBC News. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca