World Report - June 22: Sunday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

The Pentagon says Iran's nuclear sites were 'severely damaged' after U.S. strike. CBC News is on the ground on the Turkish/Iranian border where many Iranians are fleeing the war. Israeli forces recover bodies of 2 hostages and a soldier in Gaza.  Many of those returning home after evacuation order lifted in northern Saskatchewan find their homes destroyed. CBC Indigenous takes a look at the rich musical tradition of some communities as part of National Indigenous History Month. 

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers are finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now.

This is a CBC Podcast. This is World Report. Good morning, I'm Chris Glover. When this president speaks, the world should listen. And the U.S. military, we can back it up. Pete Hegseth speaking at the Pentagon this morning. The U.S. defense secretary says the bombing of three sites in Iran devastated Tehran's nuclear program. But military officials offered no evidence of that, saying an operational assessment is ongoing. The military intervention brings the U.S. into direct involvement in the Israel-Iran War.

The CBC's Sam Sampson has more from Washington. The operation President Trump planned was bold and it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth detailed the attack. Operation Midnight Hammer involved more than 75 precision-guided weapons. It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection and the highest of operational security. A group of stealth bombers flew to Iran, some going west as a decoy, while seven flew toward nuclear sites.

Then they dropped 14 30,000 pound bombs. A submarine also fired missiles against surface infrastructure targets in an Iranian city. U.S. forces got in and out undetected. General Dan Cain, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Iran's fighters did not fly and it appears that Iran's surface-to-air missile systems did not see us. Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise. The Secretary of Defense says this is not about regime change in Iran.

It was a close-ended mission to destroy nuclear sites so Iran wouldn't get any closer to having a nuclear weapon. American military bases in the region are on high alert over possible Iranian attacks. But Hegseth reiterated Trump's message from last night that any Iranian retaliation against the U.S. would be met with even greater force. Sam Sampson, CBC News, Washington. Hello Mr. Carney. Do you support the American strikes in Iran? Prime Minister Mark Carney would not stop to answer reporters' questions

as he boarded a plane for Brussels this morning. He instead released a statement on social media saying Iran's nuclear program is a grave threat to international security and while US strikes last night were designed to alleviate that threat, the situation in the Middle East remains highly volatile. Carney is also calling on parties to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution. Meanwhile, the war between Iran and Israel had already displaced many Iranians. Now with the US joining in, that is expected to intensify. All of this has turned the border between Iran and Turkey into a hotbed of activity. That's where we find CBC's Briar Stewart. Briar, what are you seeing there at the border?

Well, I'm at one of the three open border crossings between Iran and Turkey, and I've been here for a few hours now, and you see one of the three open border crossings between Iran and Turkey, and I've been here for a few hours now, and you see waves of people coming out of Iran and also waves of people going in. These are Iranians who were either visiting somewhere abroad, working, or as students, and they want to go back home to be with their family. Now, I've had a chance to speak to a number of people coming out from Iran. They've talked about, in many cases, their evacuation from the capital, how they were

part of a large mass exodus of people who were in a traffic-clogged road trying to make their way to safer cities further north. I spoke to one man who was here visiting his mother. His wife is in Japan, and he said he woke up this morning, and when he checked his phone and he saw what happened with the strikes overnight and the US becoming directly involved he decided it was time to go so he left. I also spoke to a 25 year old Iranian who had a visa to go to Canada he got it recently and he was supposed to fly out to get a job in Toronto where he was going to work in IT.

Obviously the airspace is closed so he came out over the land border and I talked to him about life in Tehran and what it's been like over the last week. Take a listen. In the middle of night I saw explosion in front of my home you know and it was terrible. It was so bad because suddenly I heard 10 between 15 explosions around my home. So after just one day I actually decided to go, to leave Tehran. Now I have to tell you, he was fine talking to me and being on camera, but he didn't want his full name revealed. That's because there is a lot of fear.

People that have often critical things to say about Iran and the control that the government has, they're very fearful of having their identity out there because they fear repercussions and in his case he was leaving the country but his family's still there and when it's safer he wants to be able to come back and visit them but this border crossing that I'm at is open 24 hours a day and as I said waves of people are coming in and going out as this progresses. Mm-hmm. And that fear quite understandable. Briar Stewart there at the border between Iran and Turkey. Thank you, Briar.

You're welcome. Turning briefly to Israel's other war, the Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages and a soldier from Gaza. They were retrieved in an operation yesterday This latest recovery brings the number of hostages bodies retrieved by Israel so far this month to eight About 250 people were abducted by Hamas in its October 7th 2023 attack In Saskatchewan people from two northern communities forced from their homes by wildfires are being allowed to return today.

But as Chris Edwards tells us, there are many challenges ahead, especially for those who have lost everything. My home was obliterated. It looks like, as my husband put it, it looks like the bottom of a fire pit after a good campfire. The return home for Carrie Lentowitz tomorrow will be bittersweet. Like so many others in Denarra Beach, a small community in northeast Saskatchewan, she'll be coming back to see what's left of her home and plan for what's next.

It's going to be different. Being the homes of friends that are just not there and the people who you know that were already struggling and trying to find a way to help them as well. More than 200 homes were lost in Dener beach making up the vast majority of homes lost to wildfire in the province. As of this morning, permanent residents whose homes are still standing, or have a place to stay, will be allowed to return to Dener Beach. Meanwhile, in Creighton, a 15-minute drive northeast, no buildings were lost in the fires. But its mayor, Bruce Fidler, says most services are still down, and residents still have a long road of recovery ahead.

So as long as the people are prepared, you know, bring some food with them, any medications. The Saskatchewan government says it's organizing a task force to help people rebuild once the fire season is over. Twenty-one wildfires are still active in Saskatchewan and five of them remain uncontained. Chris Edwards, CBC News, Regina. This year for National Indigenous History Month, CBC Indigenous is taking a look at music from powwow roots to rattles. It's a celebration of sacred songs, dance, and also the instruments essential to creating

the rhythms. CBC Indigenous reporter Candice Merical has more. Gunani Rice sits with her daughter in her room, Qu Kwatsirin Hawi in her lap on the living room floor. She's holding a turtle rattle and Yennarum Kwatsirin Hawi has a push pop candy and she seems eager to sing with her mom. The song Ghanane is singing today is about giving thanks to Mother Earth and all of life. Throughout my pregnancy I sang her this one lullaby that really only comes to me when

I really need it. In the springtime, Gnathne's people, the Ganyagehaga, sing seed songs to acknowledge a new planting season. Seed songs are also sung as babies are birthed into the world. The seed songs are like ceremonial songs and we don't sing them publicly. That was Bare Fox. She's a singer-songwriter whose songs are popular across Haudenosaunee communities, including this one song by Deo Suwate from Akwasasni, Mohawk territory. I've heard of a lot of families using it for the birth of their babies. And it's really nice to hear that.

Bare Fox says she wrote baby song with her own kids in mind. We have a women's group called Gundi Wanahawi, which means carriers of the words. One of the women were going to become a grandmother for the first time. So she asked me if I could write a song that we could greet the baby with. So I sat down and I wrote what I would say to my own babies.

Those lyrics remind the baby to walk a good path and that a mother's love is forever. -♪ Yo, hayo, ho, ea, yo, hayo, ea... Candice Maracle from CBC Indigenous talking about the power of a song. To hear more about Indigenous lullabies and music, check out CBC Indigenous. And that is the latest national and international news from World Report. I'm Chris Glover.

This is CBC News. Have a great Sunday.