World Report - May 15 : Thursday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to meet Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Istanbul to negotiate ceasefire. Officials in Gaza say multiple Israeli strikes have killed more than a hundred people in Khan Younis. The Bloc Quebecois intends to launch a legal challenge to the election results in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne. Canada's finance Minster says the Liberals aren't planning to table a budget this year. Enbridge sells minority stake in its Westcoast natural gas pipeline system to 36 First Nations in BC. Glut of condo units in Toronto and Vancouver causing condo market turmoil. Maori MPs in New Zealand temporarily suspended from parliament, after they performed the haka to protest a government bill. 

In 1977, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club opened up a chapter in Montreal. Their enforcer was a man named Yves Trudeau. And over the course of his criminal career, Trudeau would murder no fewer than 43 people. And he would only spend seven years in prison. I'm Kathleen Gholtar, and this week on Crime Story, the soared tale of Canada's deadliest assassin. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast.

This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Marcia Young. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will not go to Istanbul, but he is sending his delegation to meet with the low-level officials representing the Kremlin. Zelenskyy was supposed to meet face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, but Putin didn't go to Turkey. And US President Donald Trump says peace talks are effectively stalled for now. Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay? And obviously he wasn't going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go.

He wasn't going if I wasn't there. Zelensky is accusing Trump of putting more pressure on Ukraine than Russia, but he confirmed the Ukrainian delegation is authorized to discuss terms for a ceasefire and if they can hammer out the technical details, Zelensky says it will not be necessary to meet with Putin. Officials in Gaza say multiple Israeli strikes on the southern city of Kanyunas have killed more than 100 people. Medics care for dozens of wounded people inside a hospital reception area. There are reports of at least 10 separate airstrikes among the victims where women, children and an infant. This is the second consecutive night of heavy bombing

in Gaza. Yesterday attacks on northern and southern Gaza killed at least 70 people, including almost two dozen children. Israel says its military is targeting Hamas command centers across the territory. Manitoba's premier is calling on the province's residents to help with the wildfire crisis. Big part of the message today is asking folks who I know want to do the right thing and want to do what we can to help to listen to evacuation orders,

particularly the latest orders that are coming in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. No matter where you are in Manitoba, we're also asking no fires, please. WAP canoe says there are 21 fires burning across Manitoba. Five are considered out of control. Canoe says a state of emergency will be declared in the White Shall area.

That is about 130 kilometres east of Winnipeg. About 1200 people have been ordered to leave their homes in the eastern part of the province. Yesterday RCMP said it had found bodies of two people in the Lactobani region. It is believed they had been trapped by fast moving flames. Police say it will take some time to identify them.

Our colleagues at Radio-Canada have learned the Bloc Québécois intend to launch a legal challenge to the election results in the Montreal area riding of Turbonne. The Bloc candidate there lost by just one vote, and a voter has come forward saying her mail-in ballot was sent back to her. She says she voted for the Bloc. Elections Canada has said the results in Turbonne are final. Conservative leader Pierre Poliev says the Liberal government should table a budget this year. A budget informs Canadians of the size of the debt and the deficit, of the future interest

rate and inflation costs, of the tax policies that determine whether companies hire or fire employees. But Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says a budget is not the priority. Instead, he will release an economic statement in the fall. Janice McGregor is in our parliamentary bureau and Janice, the liberals were elected on a platform full of budgetary promises. What's going on here? Marcia, it was clear from the photo op yesterday that Mark Carney's government intended the day's headline to be that they're dropping the income tax payable on Canadians' first

$57,000 of income from 15% to 14%. But without including this as part of a larger budget, the House of Commons is going to be asked to approve it without clarity on how it fits into the government's bigger fiscal plan. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne was out defending this as a consequence of the spring's tight schedule. Timing issue in the sense that first you need to re, you know, Parliament is going to come back. We're going to table the legislation to enable the tax cut.

Champagne said his economic update isn't going to come until the fall. Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page finds that unsustainable and unacceptable. The bond rating agencies, they're not going to like the fact that the government is not producing this type of financial document. The government has been financing its operations using special warrants all spring. The Commons has to pass a series of votes to properly authorize ongoing spending before the summer. But without a budget, MPs are going to vote on those without critical context. When Parliament comes back, the Liberals need to establish that they have the confidence

of the House. How will this decision affect that? Well, if that first confidence vote is about this income tax cut, well, that's pretty hard for conservatives to vote against. Pierre Pollyet, though, was scathing in a social media post saying, Mark Carney had campaigned on the slogan of plan beats no plan. But he's now confirmed that in fact he has no plan by not tabling a budget and abandonment of the leadership that the prime minister had promised. Thank you, Janice. You're welcome. The CBC's Janice McGregor in Ottawa. Enbridge has agreed to sell a minority stake in its West Coast

natural gas pipeline. A group of 36 First Nations in BC will buy a 12% stake. The sale is worth more than $700 million. The pipeline runs from Fort Nelson all the way south to the Canada-U.S. border. The federal government is supporting the deal with a loan guarantee. Enbridge says the agreement builds on its existing relationship with Indigenous communities and helps to advance reconciliation. Canada's condo market is cooling in some of the country's most unaffordable cities. Toronto is reporting the steepest drop in prices and sales with Vancouver not far behind. The problem is not enough buyers. Nisha Patel explains why. We haven't seen that

much inventory in 20 years. Toronto real estate agent Sean Miller says new listings are piling up on the condo market. Units that once would have sold in days can now take weeks. We've got seven months of inventory, which is insane, and we just don't have the buyers to absorb it. Experts say it's a buyer's market, but there are few buyers to be found, says Bank of Montreal senior economist Robert Kavchik. Federal policy makers have put a cap on immigration. Population growth is falling off very quickly.

You have a historically high number of purpose-builder rental units. Investors are trying to unload their units, turned off by falling rents and higher borrowing costs. Demand for pre-construction condos has almost entirely disappeared. We're pretty much at a recession in the condo market. The downturn is concentrated in the largest cities where condo sales have tumbled. In Toronto, prices have slipped 16% from the market peak in 2022. In Vancouver, they're down 9%.

And there's another factor that's chilling the market. Tariffs, it's a beautiful word, isn't it? Amid the trade war with the U.S., unemployment in Canada is on the rise and consumer confidence is shaky. Miller, the real estate agent, says many buyers have put major purchases on hold. A small interest rate reduction in June could make things improve a little bit for a period of time. Still, economists forecast that in some markets condo prices could fall another 10% this year. Nisha Patel CBC News Toronto. New Zealand's Parliament is temporarily suspending three Maori MPs. The trio are

being reprimanded for performing the haka in Parliament. The ceremonial dance is often seen on sports fields before games in New Zealand. But as Georgie Smythe explains, these MPs used it to protest a government bill. SINGER SINGER SINGER SINGER SINGER

In New Zealand's parliament, a member of the Tipari Maori Party begins performing the traditional haka song and dance while tearing up a draft bill that sought to reinterpret New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi. This happened in November, but a 21- and 7-day ban for the three participants has just been handed down. Judith Collins, the head of the committee that recommended the punishment, says the decisions were not made lightly. We've never seen action like this in parliament.

It's a stricter ruling than I think a lot of people expected outside of the party. FoxMire is a political reporter with the media organisation Newsroom in Wellington. He says the suspensions are the longest in parliamentary history. It was the setting itself that was what the Privileges Committee saw as the problem. It was the advancing across the floor of the House, the pointing and gesturing at another party in the middle of a debate. The bill the group was protesting, which sought to change the rights of Maori and non-Maori in the country, was eventually defeated, but not before sparking massive protests across New Zealand. The decision of whether to carry out the temporary suspension of the Maori Party members

will be voted on next week. And like the defeated suspension of the Modi Party members will be voted on next week and like the defeated bill, the fallout from this debate around indigenous issues might last longer than any suspensions. Georgie Smythe, CBC News, Vancouver. And that is the latest national and international news from World Report News anytime at cbcnews.ca. I'm Marcia Young.