World Report - December 27: Saturday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting prime minister Mark Caney in Halifax ahead of trip to Mar-a-Lago.Thailand and Cambodia agree to 72-hour ceasefire in deadly cross-border dispute.Nigerian officials say there could be more strikes against Islamist militants in the country’s north.African regional bodies reject recognition of Somaliland by Israel.The navy is considering an all-Canadian built ice-capable amphibious ship to defend the Arctic. Last surviving Dionne quintuplet, Annette Dionne, has died.How many daily steps do we need to be healthy?

This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always over-delivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing.

Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Jennifer Yun in Ottawa. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Canada today to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney. They're meeting in Halifax, ahead of talks with U.S. President Donald Trump

on a 20-point peace plan. World Report co-host John Northcott is following the story from London. John, what might Carney and Zelensky be disgusting? Jennifer, this is a busy 24 hours for Ukrainian President Zelensky. He's on a plane. He's going to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney. And at some point today, he's also expected to speak to the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, other European leaders, and potentially U.S. President Donald Trump. All of this in advance of his face-to-face meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow.

So what's going to be on the agenda? A lot of it's going to be around that 20-point peace plan, but also potentially around guarantees from the West for security in Ukraine should there be some kind of peace worked out. He is pushing, Zelensky is, for Western countries. He says they have the power, and he wants them to help exercise that power as and if this process moves forward to the next stage. And all this is happening as last night, Kiev was hit by a barrage of Russian strike. So how could this latest attack affect the peace talks?

Significant strikes, Jennifer. Around 1 a.m. local time, Russia launched what monitors are describing as a mass attack. President Zelensky saying that Russia deployed roughly 500 drones and 40 missiles. This has seen widespread power outages in Kiev and the Kiev region itself. Zelensky again reacting to this today, saying that the overnight strikes at a holiday season, arguably in view of the furious diplomatic efforts that are underway, calling them sick, saying that if the world wants to know what Russia's approach to peace is, just look to the missiles. So that's the opinion of Zelensky, and that's the message he says the Russians are sending

as these talks take place over this, what will be a very busy diplomatic weekend. All right. Thanks, John. Thank you. Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to a temporary ceasefire after nearly three weeks of deadly border clashes. The fighting has killed scores and forced over a million people from their homes. The two countries now face a 72-hour period that will determine whether the truth can hold. Dominique Volaitis reports from London. Today's agreement between Thailand and Cambodia ends 20 days of fighting that's killed more than 100 people. and displaced more than a million others.

It was the worst fighting between the two southeastern Asian countries in years. Speaking to reporters, after meeting his Cambodian counterpart in Chantaburi, Thailand's defence minister, Natapon Narg Panit, said the ceasefire would begin with immediate effect. There will be monitoring an observation of the ceasefire for 72 hours to confirm that it is,

taking place and remains in effect, he says. Once the situation has stabilized, civilians will be able to safely return to their homes. For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undermarkated points along their 800-kilometer border, a dispute that's occasionally exploded into skirmishes and fighting. Clashes re-ignited early this month, after a breakdown in a ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump helped to broker. Although Trump was not reportedly involved in this latest agreement, the U.S. State Department was. Dominic Volitis for CBC News, London. Nigerian officials say there could be more strikes against Islamist militants in the country's north.

The U.S. attack jihadist sites on Thursday with the support of the Nigerian government in Abuja. President Donald Trump says the attack had originally been planned for. Wednesday, but he ordered a one-day delay to give ISIS fighters, quote, a Christmas present. Trump has said the militants are persecuting Christians, but Nigerian officials say innocent Muslims have also been affected. Several regional powers led by Somalia are condemning Israel's recognition of Somaliland as an independent state, calling it a violation of Somalia's sovereignty. Israel became the first country to recognize the breakaway region, which declared independence in 1991. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced full diplomatic relations

linking the move to the Abraham Accords. But Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Djibouti have all rejected the decision and Somalia's government has called it unlawful. The Canadian Navy is weighing the idea of building an ice-capable amphibious ship, a vessel designed to operate in the Arctic. It's one of several major projects being studied as the Carney government commits more than 80 billion dollars to defense over the next few years. Murray Brewster reports. U.S. amphibious armored vehicles rolling down the back ramp of the USS Portland off California last summer. The U.S. Marines able to deploy troops and equipment on a beach anywhere in the world. It's a capability Canada doesn't have, and the Navy is wondering

whether it should. We examined what would happen if we had a small community in distress in the high Arctic in February. How could we get capability there? Vice Admiral, Topshy is commander of the Navy. To sustain an operation up in the north, we sort of realized that some form of Arctic mobile base probably made a lot of sense, and that is effectively what an amphibious ship is. Topshi says an amphibious ship would also be useful for humanitarian relief operations overseas. The best example, during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Canadian Army had to fly all of

its equipment over several weeks into the country because it had no ability to be able to land vehicles quickly through the destroyed port infrastructure. Most of the world's navies, including more recently Australia and China, are headed in the same direction, building their own amphibious ships. Topshe says the Navy has not formally pitched the proposal yet to the federal government for inclusion in the upcoming defense policy. It's still doing research and has spoken to two of the country's shipyards, which have said some of their existing icebreaker designs could be modified to create an ice-capable landing ship. The concept would solve a decades-old transportation problem for the military, one that until now it hasn't had the money to address. Marie Brewster, CBC News, Ottawa.

Annette Dion, the last surviving Dionne Quintuplet, has died at the age of 91. She and her four sisters were the first quintuplets known to have survived infancy, but their fame came at a great personal cost. Tricia Kindleman has more. With concerns around the family's ability to care for the quintuplets in the Depression era, the Ontario government took them away from their parents, who already had five children, placing them under the control of a board of guardians. The Dion parents then fought a nine-year battle to regain them,

while the government put them in a nursery-style exhibition where millions of tourists lined up. Emily and Epileptic entered a convent and died in August 1954. The four survivors told their own often bitter story in We Were Five, which was published in 1965. Five years later, Marie died in February of 1970. In 2001, Yvonne died of cancer, and Cecile died this July at a hospital in Montreal. And now Annette Dion, the last surviving Dionne Quintuplet, has died at the age of 91. The Dion Quince Home Museum is the Dionne Quintuple's original family home.

It was moved from its original site to North Bay where the family legacy lives on. Tricia Kindleman, CBC News, Toronto. It's the time of the year when people head back to the gym or hit the pavement. For many Canadians, that means a New Year's resolution to get more steps in. But just how many steps do we actually need each day to stay healthy? Lauren Polly reports. He is step like you're stepping over a puddle. Along a chilly Toronto Trail, a walking group for people 55 and up focuses on staying independent through their steps.

Member Karen Whitney. At one point, the idea was everyone should do 10,000, and now there's some query back and forth. Does everybody need 10,000 steps? The notion of getting 10,000 steps per day dates back decades, but modern research shows a number doesn't tell the whole story. Various recent studies suggest daily step counts in the thousands may cut mortality rates to a point. At around 7,000 steps a day, we start to see a little bit plateauing of health effects.

Researcher Melody Ding is with the University of Sydney. Her team conducted a systemic review of dozens of step studies for a paper published earlier this year. One of the key findings, she says, was that it's all about hitting realistic goals. Lee Vanderloon agrees. She's the scientific director for participation, a Canadian nonprofit that encourages health and fitness.

Look for those little opportunities where you can break up those extended periods of sitting. Can you get off a transit stop sooner or a little bit later? Can you park further away? Walking a bit faster or skipping the escalator for stairs are also simple swaps. Since when it comes to staying healthy, it's all a step in the right direction. Lauren Pelley, CBC News, Toronto.

That's World Report. I'm Jennifer Yun. This is CBC News.