World Report - June 1: Sunday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

<p>Thousands of people in the Prairies are leaving their communities as wildfires threaten their homes.</p><p><br></p><p>Dozens killed by Israeli tank fire at aid centre in Rafah.</p><p><br></p><p>A brisk walk a few times a week could help keep colon cancer away, study suggests.</p><p><br></p><p>Today is date by which Hudson's Bay is to lay off more than 8,300 employees.</p>

The ocean is vast, beautiful, and lawless. I'm Ian Urbina back with an all new season of The Outlaw Ocean. The stories we bring you this season are literally life or death. We look into the shocking prevalence of forced labor, mine boggling overfishing, migrants hunted and captured. The Outlaw Ocean takes you where others won't. Available on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast.

This is World Report. Good morning, I'm John Northcott. Thousands of people are leaving their communities as wildfires threaten their homes. Evacuations underway across the prairies. Others are waiting for a way out. And the weather isn't helping firefighting efforts. Hot, dry conditions are helping to fuel the flames. The CBC's Mark Carcassol joins us in studio. With more, Mark, what's the latest? Well, John, we've got an update from Mathias Colombe, First Nation, otherwise known as Pukatawag.

We had been telling you over the last couple days about the difficulties they were having evacuating people from that First Nation. First they had no choice but to use helicopters that were taking six people out at a time, and there were over 2,000 people that needed out due to those fire, the heavy smoke conditions in the area. The Canadian Armed Forces has stepped in as of yesterday and now they're saying that they've got 1,300 people out of Pukatawagan Cree Nation and they're moving at such a rapid pace with these larger aircraft coming in,

being used by the armed forces that they expect by end of day they will have their entire population out. Now evacuees are being moved to places like Winnipeg, Thompson, the Paw, and Portage-La Prairie. Of course, Pucketewagan, not the only place in Manitoba where there are evacuations taking place. Cranberry-Portage was given evacuation notice yesterday, a population of about 600 in the town proper, but the rural municipality is warning several neighboring communities as well to be prepared to evacuate

within two hours if they get that notice. Right now they're on voluntary evacuation notice, but there's potential for a mandatory evacuation to come. So the weather playing into this as well, the wind, the dryness, the heat, not helping Manitoba right now. Heading next door, Mark to Saskatchewan. Significant challenges there for the people and a warning from the Premier. Yeah, the warning from the Premier essentially saying to be careful about your behavior around fire.

Respect any fire bans. Be careful with your campfires. If you smoke, be careful about where you ditch your cigarettes because Northern Saskatchewan has had real trouble with wildfires so far this year. Premier Scott Moe doesn't pull any punches when he says they can't afford another. There are 17 active wildfires burning across the province as of the latest update from the province this morning. Eight of those are not contained. Peter Ballentine, Cree Nation, issued a mandatory evacuation order for Sturgeon Landing. That is the latest one of several evacuations right across the province.

Mark Carcassole in studio, thank you. Thank you. To the Middle East, where at least 31 people are dead after Israeli tanks reportedly opened fire near an aid center in Gaza. An ambulance rushes some of the 150 wounded to hospital. Red Cross officials say the crowd was gathered to receive food in the southern city of Ra'afah. The CBC's Tom Perry is following the story from Ramallah. Tom, what more do we know at this point?

Right now we're getting reports out of southern Gaza near Rafa. It sounds like Israeli tanks, Israeli troops firing on people going to an aid distribution center there. Now the Israeli military says it has no knowledge of any injuries or casualties being caused by its crews, but that it's investigating. But we are seeing people being brought to hospital. We are hearing from doctors treating the wounded, and we're hearing that something clearly bad did happen there. Now, what exactly that is, they say we're hearing that this was an Israeli operation. The Israelis right now't confirming that, but we are hearing from Palestinian medical sources on the ground

something very serious did happen here. Now, Tom, you're in Ramallah because, as I understand it, Arab nations were supposed to be meeting their foreign ministers, meeting with the Palestinian Authority president, and that that meeting is not going to happen. What are the implications of that? Well, the meeting's not going to happen because the Israeli government wouldn't allow the senior Arab ministers from a number of Arab countries to come to Ramallah to take part in this meeting.

It's a set up to a meeting that's happening later this month in New York to discuss the possibility of Palestinian statehood. But the Palestinians are hoping that this meeting in New York will go ahead. But they say the fact that Israel wouldn't allow these ministers to come here is unacceptable. They're also talking about a plan announced this week by Israel to expand or establish 22 more settlements in the West Bank. These settlements are considered illegal under international law. Canada has taken a very strong stance against them. The Canadian government issued a joint statement with the UK and France calling on the Israeli military to step back from Gaza,

but also to cease expanding settlements in the occupied territories. We spoke this morning to the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Palestinian Authority. He wants to see Canada and these other countries take steps, impose sanctions against Israel in response to what he calls a provocation. The CBC's Tom Perry in Ramallah. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. Poland is choosing its next president today.

It's a largely ceremonial post, but the vote is being closely watched. Today's result will decide whether the country will cement its place in the European Union or move towards a MAGA style nationalism. Reporter Dominic Valletis has the latest. This election sees two candidates with very different political visions going head to head for the presidency. Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski is the son of a famous jazz musician, a centrist, backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform Party, who is pro-EU and supports Ukraine's bid to join NATO. He is up against the former boxer and conservative

historian Karol Nawrowski. Backed by the nationalist Law and Justice Party, he's skeptical of the EU, and although he's in favor of supporting Ukraine, opposes the country joining NATO over fears of angering Russia. The outcome of this contest will have significant implications for Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist government. If Navrovsky wins, he'll likely use the presidential veto to block Tusk's reforms and hamper his goal of reversing the nationalist trajectory Poland

has taken in recent years, a direction which could complicate the country's relations not just with the EU, but NATO too. Dominic Velaitis for CBC News, Riga, Latvia. Dominic Velaitis for CBC News, Riga, Latvia. A new study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine is highlighting the significant impact of exercise on cancer survival. Health reporter Christine Bierach explains the research, the results and why doctors say it's time to start prescribing exercise programs as a standard part of patient care. I think this is a real game changer for patients. Kerry Kearnyay teaches in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Alberta. He led a landmark trial examining whether exercise can help colon cancer patients live longer. Kearnyay says he found the magnitude of the results surprising. Exercise can result in substantial improvements in cancer recurrence risk,

second cancers and improved survival. Seven years later, 90% of patients in the exercise group were still living, compared to 83% of patients who received the educational materials, a 7% difference. It's quite an impressive study. Dr. Sami Chatty is a colorectal surgeon at the University Health Network in Toronto. He says seven percent is as good as some cancer drugs. I think exercise and a structured exercise program after surgery and after treatment, we should be recommending it as strongly as we recommend

chemotherapy to our stage 3 patients. It was hard to go at first. At 59, James Smith was diagnosed with colon cancer. Researchers recruited nearly 900 patients in several countries. Half were randomly assigned to receive booklets promoting exercise and healthy eating. The other half took part in a structured exercise program, including check-ins with a trainer. Smith spent about 45 minutes walking briskly up to four times a week for three years. It gives you a better chance. He still worries his cancer will return, but now feels exercising can help keep it away.

Christine Birak, CBC News, Toronto. And finally, by the end of day today, almost 90% of Hudson's Bay employees will be laid off. After more than 350 years in business, the company is winding down operations. As Cubina Oduro reports, it's been a difficult time for the company's staff. Some of the girls from the Bay downtown here were bridesmaids at my wedding. Megan Carrier worked at the Bay in downtown Montreal for 23 years. She is among 8,300 employees laid off by the end of the weekend. Carrier says it's been a roller coaster of emotions. The highlight, our customers, the staff,

you know, we're gonna, we'll miss each other. It's a big family. Now that the liquidation sales are over, stores are shutting their doors. Once the company's distribution centers close in mid-June, an additional 900 employees will also be let go. Some days I think that this is sort of, it's ruined it for me, but I love it so much and I love the clients so much. So a lot of the clients do follow us, or have said that they will follow us wherever we go. There's that to look forward to.

Some longtime customers are sad to see the demise of the iconic department store. The employees really made this store for me. They were so attentive. We knew when sales were happening. I've always been well treated and went out of their way to help when I was looking for something. Some workers are eligible for compensation under the Wage Earner Protection Program. The law firm representing workers says compensation varies and is not guaranteed, leaving many employees wondering what comes next once the doors of Canada's oldest company close for

good. Kubito Duro, CBC News, Montreal. And that is the latest national and international news from World Report. If you're enjoying the World Report podcast, and we hope you are, please tell a friend or rate and review us. it helps to spread the word. 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 slash podcasts