World Report - April 4: Saturday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

Two U.S. aircraft down in Iran as air war reaches new peak overnight.Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen shares phenomenal update from deep space.Family holds onto hope as RCMP reveal grim new details in the murder of an Inuk mother and her missing baby.As the Indian Act marks 150 years — First Nations leaders weigh the cost of its control against the challenge of its removal.Canada’s oldest person — Second World War veteran Burdett Sisler — dies at 110.Changing weather patterns in the Himalayas threaten the future of India's iconic Darjeeling tea.

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 Pollyev 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.

A high-stakes race is underway in the Middle East as Iranian and American forces hunt for a missing U.S. service member. One crew member of the F-15 downed Friday has been rescued, but a second remains missing. The shootdown comes as President Donald Trump has just warned that time is running out for Iran, giving the country 48 hours to make a deal before, quote, all hell will rain down. This, as Julia Chapman reports, the search for the downed pilot continues. A reward for capturing an American airman, Iranian State TV telling citizens to hand over any enemy combatant they may find. The F-15E Strike Eagle is the first American warplane to be brought down by enemy fire in this war.

The pilot has already been found and taken. to safety, but the weapons system officer flying with him is now being hunted inside Iran. The rescue mission is fraught with danger. As part of that operation, another pilot was rescued in the Persian Gulf after crashing in an A-10 wharthog plane. Iran claims to have shot it down. US media also report that an Air Force helicopter narrowly escaped the country after being fired at by Iran. Shashank Joshi is the defense editor at The Economist. The rescue mission itself is liable to become a source of considerable problems to the Americans. If it fails, the fear is that Iran could use the officer as a bargaining chip and a propaganda tool.

This would be a huge prize for them if this airman is captured by Iran. Laurel Rapp is a former State Department official. She says photographs of a U.S. service member in Iranian custody would have an impact on American perception of the war. If those images were to come forward, those would be incredibly sort of shifting from an American viewpoint perspective. It's an outcome the White House desperately wants to avoid. Experts say the result of this search and rescue operation could become a turning point in this war. Julia Chapman, CBC News, London. And we're closer to the moon today than we are to Earth.

This is a big milestone for us. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen speaking from the O'Brien. Ryan spacecraft. He's currently more than halfway to the moon alongside the three NASA crewmates. During video connection overnight, Hansen answered questions about the mission. Gosh, in our first day in space, we just saw some extraordinary things. The Earth up close, and then by the time we had a bit of a nap and got up, the Earth was just so far away again. And then to come in for that transuter injection, we came all the way back to Earth again. So to take all of that in was really phenomenal.

Hanson is the first Canadian to ever travel into deep space. In this country, the family of a mother killed near Edmonton says they're clinging to hope that her child is still alive. Earlier this year, 23-year-old Ila Egotech Lern was found dead in her apartment. Her baby was gone and is still missing. RCMP have now released more information about the search for the child while revealing disturbing allegations about the suspect's behavior. Sam Sampson has the story. I like to think that she's still alive. Ross Lern wants to believe his granddaughter is okay.

Whether that's realistic or not, there's another story, but that's what I'm clinging to. Learn is the stepfather of Aela Egotic Learn, the 23-year-old Enuk mother from Nunavut, who was found dead in her apartment in January. Her infant daughter, Braley, is still missing. RCMP arrested Egotik Lern's common law partner, Christopher Beasley, who's also the baby's father. He's charged with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of indignity to a body. RCMP now believe the infant may have been placed in a waste disposal bin near the apartment. A detail Lern does not want to accept.

I have a hard time believing that somebody who's a father drew that to their child. He says Egotik Lern had a protection order against Beasley and says he had used her cell phone for months, sending messages to her family to keep them from visiting. Police also revealed Egotik Lern had been dead. since September. This was very evil. Josie Nipanak is the president for the Native Women's Association of Canada. She says Egotik Learn's case highlights how current legal and social resources are not working for at-risk women, especially when they're far from family. But it underscores the critical need for early intervention. What systems do we need to coordinate to ensure that there is

follow-up to her life after the protection order went through? Egotik Learn's step father says he never got to meet his granddaughter. He hopes someone can step forward with information that will at least bring the family some closure. Sam Sampson, CBC News, St. Albert, Alberta. This coming week marks 150 years since the Indian Act became law. The legislation widely decried by First Nations, but getting rid of it poses major challenges. Catherine Cullen has more on the history of the act and the difficult path towards replacing it. The dictatorship, as far as I'm concerned, Aboriginal people were dominated and controlled.

Zhangi White Duck has seen firsthand how the Indian Act has been used for control. He's chief of Kittaghan Zibi First Nation in Western Quebec. If you want to leave this community, you have to get permission. Up to the 1960s, you had to get permission from the Indian agent to leave. You couldn't leave without their authority. This month marks 150 years since the Indian Act became law. Residential schools were tied to the act, but there were many, many other restrictions imposed too,

author Bob Joseph. You couldn't go to a pool hall, you couldn't drink at a public place, post-secondary education. If you got a post-secondary education, you had to leave the reserve and become like everybody else. You gave up your status. Even today, the act is still key in deciding who qualifies for what is officially known as Indian status.

It also imposes restrictions on how First Nations are governed, enforcing a ban council and limiting what that council can do. Still, there's resistance to just getting rid of the act, since it does offer some protections of indigenous identity and impose some obligations on the federal government. There is no one-size-fits-all model to replace the Indian Act, says National Chief Cindy Woodhouse-Nepinac, who represents more than 630 nations with the Assembly of First Nations.

Their languages may be different, their cultures may be different, but they will know the path forward if you just ask them instead of trying to shove down a paternalistic system on our people. That may be complex, but she says it's important the Indian Act not endure for another 150 years. Catherine Cullen, CBC News, Ottawa. And Catherine has more about 150 years of the Indian Act on a special edition of The House right after the 9 o'clock edition of World Report or wherever you get your podcasts. Burdette Birdseller, Canada's oldest person, is dead at the age of 110. The Second World War veteran famously never drank, never smoked, and rarely saw a doctor.

Last year he shared his simple secret to a long life. You have to look after your body. Sistler was born in 1915 and joked that his streak of staying out of hospitals started on day one. I wasn't even born in a hospital. I was born on the kitchen table. He is survived by a massive family, including 14 great-great-grandchildren. And finally, in India, changing weather patterns are causing concern at the foot of the Himalayas. It's a particular worry for producers of a world-famous premium brew,

the lack of rain and hotter temperatures, a new reality for families who have run these estates for generations. Salima Shivji has more. Due to climate, the pattern has changed now. Mithruca walks through his tea garden in d'arjeling at the foot of the Himalayas in northeastern India. His workers are busy plucking tea leaves during the important first flush that usually yields the most premium and expensive dardgling teas prized around the world. But unpredictable weather patterns are now having a major impact on quality Mithruca sets.

The climate has changed drastically. And over the years we have seen there's an erratic rainfall. When we need rainfall, there's no rainfall. When we don't need rainfall, there's over. dry winters are starving the tea bushes, lowering production and altering the taste that Darjeeling, the champagne of teas, is famous for. Over at the Rohingi estate, third-generation tea harvester Rishi Saria has the same worries. After four out of the last five tea seasons were hit with drought-like winter conditions. There's no moisture in the leaf and it gets very hard. It becomes difficult to roll. All that results in very, very mean. medium and plain teeth. See, that is not the cup that is expected from a high-end d'arjoling tea.

And then his buyers don't want to pay top price. With the entire Himalayas region warming faster than the global average, Sariah fears for his industry if their first flush is consistently damaged. And the famous dardgling taste keeps slowly fading. Salima Shivjee, CBC News, Dharjaling, India. And that is the latest national and international. National News from World Report. Remember, four news anytime. Go to our website, cbcnews.ca. I'm John Northcott. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with us here at CBC News. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca.com.