World Report - July 28: Monday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

US President Donald Trump meets with British PM Keir Starmer in Scotland, after reaching EU trade deal yesterday. France and Saudi Arabia chair UN conference on a two-state solution between Israel and Palestinians. Houthis in Yemen to start targetting ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality or destination. New study shows clear-cut logging may raise flood risks worse than previously thought. British Columbia combines virtual and in-person care to improve its under-resourced rural healthcare systems. Summer McIntosh claims her second gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships in the 200m IM; teammate Mary-Sophie Harvey wins bronze.

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This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Ethel Musa. The countdown is on to this Friday, August 1st. Deadline day for Canada to reach a trade deal with the United States before President Donald Trump imposes a 35% tariff on all non-Kuzma goods. Other countries have already negotiated their. way to a lower rate, including Japan. And yesterday, the European Union announced it has a new deal

with the U.S. Janice McGregor is in Washington, ready to take a closer look at that agreement. Janice, what do we know so far? Ethel, we almost need to make air quotes with our fingers every time we say the word deal here, because we have no text, no signature, no ratification through any legislative body. We're not even sure what they shook hands on. Ursul Fonderline here. appears to have entrenched 15% as a new baseline tariff that Trump wants applied across the board, but it's unclear that it really does apply to everything. Is the price of pharmaceuticals, a huge European export going up 15%?

Or is the U.S. still studying separately how much Trump's really going to spike the cost of drugs for Americans? It is unclear also if alcohol tariffs, which are always politically sensitive, are sorted out in this deal. the European Commission President steered away from talking about concessions yesterday and framed this compromise using Trump's language. It is about rebalancing. So you can call it fairness. You can call it rebalancing. We have a surplus.

The United States has a deficit and we have to rebalance it. Canadians are going to note this morning that it's not clear the EU had to give up taxing or regulating tech companies. Or it's right to regulate generally, which, as the Americans may find out, gives all sorts of scope for, EU members to not really be as open to U.S. goods, particularly agriculture products, as Trump may assume. Analysts suggest that the new foreign investment isn't wildly off what European countries could generally be expected to pump into the American economy over a four or five-year period. The CBC's Janice McGregor in Washington. Thank you. You're welcome. A United Nations conference is trying to revive a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. France and Saudi Arabia

are co-chairing the three-day meeting in New York starting today. French President Emmanuel Macron said last week, France would recognize a Palestinian state in September. This all comes as the World Health Organization says malnutrition in Gaza has reached alarming levels. Blake Sifton is in Tel Aviv with more. Blake, what can we expect from today's conference? So this conference is meant to try to set out concrete steps

towards a two-state solution. The prospects of a two-state solution actually coming into existence anytime soon is viewed as being extremely unlikely given the Netanyahu government's opposition to the idea. But now, with international scrutiny over Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza, mounting, the conference has become much more relevant. The French foreign minister has said that he expects other European countries to announce their plans to recognize the Palestinian state during the conference. Of course, Israel and the United States are not attending. But according to the French, the disarmament of Hamas will also be discussed, and Arab countries are expected to condemn Hamas and call for them to be disarmed for the first time. The conference is

happening as Israel begins to allow aid deliveries into Gaza. What's the latest there? On Sunday, the Israeli military began limited pauses in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza to allow for the distribution of humanitarian aid, part of measures that also included air drops of aid. Now, these steps have come as international condemnation has mounted on Israel over the spreading starvation crisis in Gaza. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyahu insisted on Sunday that Israel had always facilitated the shipment of aid into Gaza and that the situation is not as bad as eight agencies and the people on the ground say. Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold face lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza.

And there is more starvation in Gaza. Eight organizations have previously said that some 600 trucks of aid need to enter Gaza per day to meet the population's needs. And even with these new measures, the number of trucks entering per day is still far below that number. Reporter Blake Sifton in Tel Aviv. Thank you. Thank you.

The rebel Houthi group in Yemen says it is entering a new phase of operations against Israel. A Houthi spokesperson warns, the group is a new phase of operations against Israel. person warns, the group is going to start targeting ships that belong to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of their destination or nationality. For the past two years that Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting merchant ships in the Red Sea in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. There is a new warning about increased floods in areas where there is clear-cut logging. Environmentalists and forest managers have long had issues with the practice.

A new Canadian study, published in the Journal of Hydrology, shows clear-cutting can make catastrophic floods up to 18 times more frequent for decades. Sharia Chitri reports. The northern-oriented watershed was super sensitive. Yonis Alila is a hydrologist at the University of British Columbia. His team of researchers studied two adjacent watersheds in North Carolina, clear-cut in the 1950s. One face to north, the other south,

they confirmed the direction of slope faces when it's logged greatly affects flood risk. On north-facing slopes, flooding became 18 times more frequent and more than twice as large. Because the north side gets less sun than the south, the soil stays wetter year-round and can't absorb more water.

Lila says current flood models don't account for this and warns that clear-cutting in BC may be far riskier than assessments suggest. We can use the way Mother Nature design the landscape to better manage the forest. He wants BC to require full watershed and terrain reviews before logging, especially in flood-prone areas. Yen's Wheating with Sierra Club BC says the study backs what environmental groups have long warned about.

Clear cutting can make climate change impact worse. He says there is a better path forward. One of the most important things we can do is move away. from clear-cutting towards selective logging. Forestry is a major industry in BC and the province says it welcomes the findings and is advancing new forest planning tools and logging strategies to reduce flood risk. So Rish Chedri, CBC News, Vancouver. British Columbia is trying something new to improve its overstretched

and under-resourced rural health care systems. It's combining in-person and virtual care, particularly for emergencies and complex care. cases. Health reporter Jennifer Yoon has the details. It's a different experience. Dr. Amy Sautchuk had delivered hundreds of babies, but never like this. You just have an emergency room beds. The mom was supposed to be flown down from her rural B.C. community for the birth. But the baby had other plans. It was coming right there and then. We're on an iPad in the back corner. So there Sotchuk was on a video call from

her living room, helping a doctor on the ground who hadn't delivered a baby since residency. We're saying like, hey, if you get a chance, can you please listen to the fetal hurt right now? It's part of a program in British Columbia, connecting rural doctors and nurses with specialty doctors virtually, a way to support health care workers in remote parts of the province who are often overstretched hopes Dr. Kendall Ho, who co-authored a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on it. It's not about virtual versus in person, but as well, how do we combine them best to serve our patients? I think anything that provides better access to rural patients is an advantage.

The program is like a lifeboat for health care workers who really need the support, says Dr. Gavin Parker, who heads the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada. He thinks it could be useful in other parts of the country, but he says it can't replace long-term solutions for staff shortages. The real solution is getting more family physicians that are better paid and better support. supported in more rural communities. Also important, Parker says, making sure rural doctors are given

training support so they can brush up on any skills they need to serve their communities. Jennifer Yun, CBC News, Toronto. Summer Macintosh is now a double world champion. Macintosh is too good. And Summer Macintosh

is going to win it and win it very, very well. It's Walsh in second place. McIntosh takes another old medal to Macintosh claimed gold in the 200-meter individual medley at the World Aquatics Championships today. She was joined on the podium by teammate Mary Sophie Harvey, the native of Tuare-Rivier, Quebec won bronze. McIntosh is going for five gold medals in Singapore. The 18-year-old from Toronto won the 400-meter freestyle yesterday.

And that is the latest national and international news from World Report. I'm Ethel Musa. This is CBC News.