World Report - December 4: Thursday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Canada's Food Price Report predicts grocery prices will rise 4-6% next year. Despite trade tensions, Prime Minister Mark Carney, US President Donald Trump, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will all be on stage together tomorrow for FIFA World Cup Draw. Ukraine's lead negotiator is preparing for a high-stakes meeting with US Envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami today.Officials say five people, including two children, were killed in Israeli air strikes near Khan Younis.Social media giant Meta begins to remove access to its platforms for young Australians, ahead of world-first social media ban. A Prince Albert retiree is speaking out, after falling victim to a cryptocurrency scam involving a deep-fake CBC news report. Steve Cropper, song writer, guitarist with Booker T and the McG's, dies in Nashville at age 84. 

Hey Canada. It's me, Gavin Crawford, host of Because News. Each week, I put comedians on the spot with a pop quiz about the headlines. This week, we're talking about the monster of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's own making, Wayne Gretzky's incredible pronunciation skills, and the one kind of Christmas toy experts are all calling dangerous. Miguel Revis, Emma Hunter, and Gene Yune are here, so laugh along as we try to make sense of the headlines. Follow Because News on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts for free. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Marcia Young. Canada's food price report is out and it predicts 2026 will be another year of high grocery bills. The report involves 10 universities across Canada. And after factoring in supply chains, climate and geopolitics, they say food prices will rise again. next year. Nisha Patel reports.

Please place item in the bagging area. Inflation continues to take a bite out of budgets, especially at the grocery store. Now researchers forecast food prices will jump 4 to 6% in 2026. The cost of meat could see the biggest hike as much as 7%. We're expecting another difficult year due to beef prices, and because people are pivoting towards chicken, chicken prices are also on the rise. Silvan Charlebois is a professor at Delhousie University in Halifax. He says a lot of cattle ranchers are leaving the industry, and that's impacting inventory.

Climate change is having a significant impact, too, especially on products like coffee and cocoa. So that's not going to stop. So we need to think about how to make our supply chain more resilient from Farmgate to store. A family of four is expected to spend $17,600 on food in 2026, almost $1,000 more than this year. As Sabra Al-Harthi shops for her groceries in Toronto, she says she'll have to make some adjustments. Well, maybe change diet. I think I might just cut off the meat a little bit, make it a weakened thing. As the cost of food has soared 27% over the past five years, she's looking for a little relief.

The prices are up, the rent is up, but the paycheck is still the same. When it comes to food, she says there's only so much you can cut back. Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. Prime Minister Mark Carney is preparing for another face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. But this time, trade will not be their focus. Carney will be in Washington briefly on Friday to take part in the FIFA World Cup drop. It's supposed to be a celebration. But as Katie Simpson tells us, it may be.

be hard to overlook the politics of the moment. Mexico and Canada have taken advantage of the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump is once again casually floating the idea of abandoning Kuzma, the three-way trading deal with Canada and Mexico that he personally negotiated. It expires at about a year and we'll either let it expire or will maybe work out another deal with Mexico and Canada. While Trump's framing is off, the deal doesn't expire. His sentiment underscores the tension in the relationship.

relationship, tension that will be put on the back burner during Prime Minister Mark Carney's brief visit to Washington Friday. Two senior Canadian government sources say there is little to no expectation of any sort of trade talk breakthrough and that Carney will focus on the FIFA celebrations. He will be on stage with Trump and Mexico's president, Claudia Shanebaum, for at least two hours during the FIFA World Cup draw. While one source says there is an expectation Carney and Trump will find a moment to chat privately. Both sources emphasized this is a FIFA event. I'm actually not optimistic we're going to come out a Friday with the talks resuming. Brian Clow, the former deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, says Trump likes his tariffs, and that's part of the reason

why it's so hard for Canada to get the talks back on track. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Ukraine's lead negotiator is preparing for a high-stakes meeting in Miami today. Rustem U.Morov will sit down with U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law. This next round of talks is part of Trump's push for peace in Ukraine. Whitkoff and Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin two days ago today. Putin is calling that meeting very useful. There are more allegations of ceasefire violations in Gaza today. Officials say five people, including two children, were killed in Israeli air strikes near Han Yunus.

Israel says it was in retaliation for an attack that injured five of its soldiers. Tom Perry has more. Flames leap high into the night at a sprawling tent city near Han Yunus in Gaza, a line of man ferries buckets of water to try to douse the stuff. fire. As ambulances carry burned and bandaged victims to hospital, Israel says it was targeting a Hamas terrorist in retaliation for what it calls a blatant ceasefire violation and attack that injured five Israeli soldiers, one seriously, near Rafa. Sifting through charred rubble, Jihad Samir al-Arja wonders when the violence will end.

Where are those who sought a ceasefire here? he asks, there is nothing. We do not see a ceasefire. We do not see calm in Gaza. This latest bloodshed comes as Hamas turned over the remains of one of the last hostages held in Gaza. 42-year-old Suntyaz Grintalak, a Thai farm worker killed in the October 7th attacks, leaving just one hostage, Israeli police officer Rangivili, who was killed in the attacks and whose body is still missing. Tom Perry, CBC News, Jerusalem. META says it is beginning to remove access to its platforms for young Australians. A world-first ban on social media for kids under 16 goes into effect in the country next week.

Tech companies will have to make sure children in Australia cannot set up accounts and that all existing ones are deactivated or else they could face multi-million dollar fines. Phil Mercer reports. My daughter has come home and told me, Oh my God, I can't believe they're doing this. they're taking away all of our rights to human interaction. Like many other Australian parents, Brittany Fontana is dealing with the fallout from the social media ban. They believe it's going to be the last time they can speak to each other in the longest time.

So it's a very doomsday panic among teenage girls. From today, Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, will start closing accounts in Australia of users under the age of 16. Belinda Barnett from Swinburne University of Technology says teenagers will need to find new ways to stay in touch. You're going to need to transition to an alternative way of keeping in contact with friends after this point and you can come back to your account when you're 16. Which social and gaming platforms are included?

Facebook, Instagram, threads, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, Reddit, Kick and Twitter. which are all going to be included. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says young Australians need to be protected from cyberbullying, violent content and other online threats. Our social media ban is about making sure kids have a childhood. Social media companies say Australia's ban is difficult to implement and easy to circumvent. There are signs many under 16s are moving to other platforms

that aren't covered by the new rules. Phil Mercer for CBC News. Sydney. A Prince Albert retiree is speaking out after falling victim to a cryptocurrency scam. It all started when he saw a fake news segment made with AI. Katie Swires has his story. They could have just been pointing at me and going, ha, he's one of them. Lin Phineuf learned exactly how he had been scammed through a cybersecurity course for seniors.

His teacher, Natalia Stahanava, says scams are becoming harder to spot. A lot of people don't realize the extent of, AI these days, and the capabilities are growing daily. Finoff watched the AI video that duped him on his smart TV. He thought he was watching a CBC segment. Rosemary Barton was interviewing Mark Carney, and Mark Carney said there's a great investment for Canadians. But the video was a deep fake, designed to direct Canadians to fake investment sites.

The earnings were not great, but it was an earning every time. $800 in profits was deposited into his bank account. That gave him the confidence to invest $3,000, money the company pocketed. Researcher Matthew Levine monitors these types of online ads. He says social media companies are only reactively taking them down, and there are a lot of them. About 24% of Canadians, and it's said that they've encountered them. Finolf is now warning others. I didn't lose my life savings, but if somebody else can not lose anything, that would be good. Katie Swires, CBC News, Prince Albert.

Musician, songwriter, and producer, Steve Cropper, has died. He co-wrote and played guitar on some of the most loved songs of the 60s and 70s, including this one. Cropper also helped write Otis Reddings sitting on the dock of the bay. He played with one

of Seoul's great backing bands, Booker T and the MGs. He also joined the Blues Brothers in the late 70s and played on their cover of Soul Man. Kropper died overnight in Nashville. Steve Kropper was 84. That is World Report. I'm Marcia Young. to cBC.ca slash podcasts.