World Report - December 24: Wednesday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reveals details of 20-point peace plan, as Russia mulls response. Australia's New South Wales has now passed the toughest gun laws in the country. A strong winter storm is beginning to drench parts of Southern California that could see more than a month's worth of rain fall in just one week.A family's new start turns to tragedy after an 11-year-old boy killed by a carbon monoxide leak in Regina.  The Rooms asks Newfoundlanders to help identify the 17th-century coastline depicted in Dutch master paintings. Ashley MacIsaac concert cancelled after AI wrongly accuses him of being convicted sex offender. 

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Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Ithel Musa. The spotlight is on Moscow today as it prepares to deliver its response to a newly refined peace plan. It was hammered out during marathon negotiations in Florida. World Report co-host John Northcott is in London following this story. John, John, some deep.

details are being unveiled by Ukraine's president. What are we learning? Ethel, Ukrainian President Vladimir 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 it. keep its army at 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. On the one hand, we have this detailed 20-point diplomatic roadmap being reviewed in Moscow today. But on the other, the Russian capital is facing a sudden and unexplained spike in violence, which many people are connecting to the war in Ukraine. What's the latest? Ethel, early this morning, authorities approached a man they deemed to be suspicious near some parked cars not far from a police station.

A bomb went off, killing two police officers. This latest explosion happened very close to a car bomb explosion on Monday that killed a senior, Russian military commander. The third Russian general killed in the last 12 months. Russian authorities have pointed the finger of blame at Ukrainian intelligence services for the attacks. The CBC's John Northcott in London. Thank you. Thanks, Ethel. Australia's state of New South Wales has just passed the toughest gun laws in the country. The new laws were passed 10 days after 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration

at Bondi Beach. They include a ban on firearms that allow multiple shots without reloading, a limit to the number of gun licenses a person can own. And those licenses will need to be renewed every two years. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns. 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. The state has also passed new laws giving police more powers to restrict protests for up to three months after a terror attack is declared. Several groups say they will be filing a constitutional challenge to those laws.

A strong winter storm is beginning to drench parts of Southern California. The state is expected to be hit hard and fast by an atmospheric river over the next few days. Some areas could see more than a month's worth of rain in just. a week. Evacuations have been ordered for several communities and officials warn of potentially deadly flooding. Let's go to Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. Steve, what can you tell us? Well, I can tell you 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. Take a listen to the L.A. Mayor,

Karen Bass. This is her warning. All Angelinos to take this one seriously during this holiday week. 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 ten years or so. There will almost certainly be numerous rock slides and mudslides along with areas of severe flooding. And one person who lives in the mudslide area had this to say, joking a bit, but he's concerned.

Well, we just built the arc, and it's right back there. You know, in all seriousness, you've got to worry about what, you know, the what if. If there is a month's slide in the area, that's, you know, going to be catastrophic for anybody. So people are obviously concerned in some areas. People have already put up some sandbags. People are aware what a storm can do here. And in some cases, people are evacuating from their homes. Now, there are major concerns about parts of the state that are more vulnerable because of past wildfires.

Can you explain more? Well, exactly. 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, 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 sites. that's what has people really the most concerned. Reporter Steve Futterman in Los Angeles, thank you.

Thank you. A family in Saskatchewan is grieving the death of their 11-year-old boy. He died from carbon monoxide poisoning just as the family was setting up in their new home. They moved from Newfoundland to Regina to fulfill their son's soccer dreams. Laura Sharpelletti spoke to the boy's devastated mother. I didn't want to leave them, but they started working on it. Someone came up to me and said that my son was dead. When Morena Hills returned home from work last Friday, she found her husband and son unresponsive.

She pulled young Henry Lasko into the hallway and screamed for help. A neighbor rushed to her side. I said, here, keep doing compressions. I got to go back in and get my husband. I got to get Sergio. And she said, no, don't go in there. But I was able to drag him out of there with all my might. First responders arrived and began working on her husband.

He's now in stable condition in hospital. Regina Fire Chief Lane Jackson says mechanical work was being done in the building and a piece of service equipment may have been the carbon monoxide source. Firefighters along with gas inspectors were able to isolate it, shut it down. The family moved to Regina partly for an elite competitive soccer program. Henry was a gifted athlete with dreams of competing in the Olympics. He was very good. He brought the team many gold wins. The St. John Soccer Association were Henry played.

before moving, says he was a force to be reckoned with on the field with a heart of gold. CBC has reached out to the owner of the building but did not receive a response. Police say the investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, Hills mourns her son, who she calls her best friend. Laura Sharp-Litty, CBC News, Regina. A master painter, a mysterious coastline, a riddle for people in Newfoundland to solve. A painting, believed to be centuries old, is now on display in St. John. and the public is being asked to help identify the location.

Julia Israel has that story. Almost 20 years ago, I began working on this painting, and there was a very particularly odd anomaly happening with the varnish. Heidi Sobel is a conservator with the Royal Ontario Museum. She's searching for answers that could paint a picture of Canada, dating back to the 1600s. I rarely come across paintings this old in Canada, and to have that of Canada is pretty exceptional.

Two paintings of majestic yet rugged coves, people waiting through the bay, fishing on wooden platforms. One painting looks out to infinite sea, the other peers inland. Sobel was just the right set of eyes to date and place the works of art. My mom's from Newfoundland. My mom's from St. John's.

It feels like a little bit of a homecoming for me. I have to be honest. Now the paintings have arrived in St. John's for people to get a closer look. Mark Ferguson at the Rooms Museum is keen on identifying the Canadian coasts in Dutchman Gerard van Edema's paintings. Because of all the fishing structures and the flakes, it's, again, clearly a newfoundland fishing scene.

So I would really love to have people come in and have a look at that one and say, yeah, that could be this place or that place kind of thing. In colonial times, merchants commissioned painters to bring home a visual of the future that awaits. Now, four centuries later, it's up to Canadians' tell that story. Julia Israel, CBC News, St. John's. Kate Breton-Fidler, Ashley McIsaac is looking for a lawyer who is willing to take on Google for free. He says the company produced an AI-generated summary that falsely identified him as a convicted

sex offender, and that may be defamation. McIsaac says he only learned about the online misinformation last week, after a first nation north of Halifax showed him the AI overview and cancelled his planned concert. The Juno Award winning musician says someone needs to stand up and hold artificial intelligence companies accountable. And that is the latest national and international news from World Report. I'm Uthel Moussa. This is CBC News. For more CBC podcasts, go to CBC.