World Report - October 23: Thursday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney begins selling his government's upcoming budget to Canadians.Prospective NDP leaders introduce themselves to Canadians.Former Raptors player Chauncey Billups arrested as part of FBI investigations looking into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games.U.S. imposes sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies to force Kremlin into peace talks with Ukraine.King Charles on historic visit to the Vatican where a British monarch will pray with a Catholic pope for the first time in 500 years.A new report from Human Rights Watch is a warning about press freedom under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.The Canadian Opera Company's Centre Stage Gala holds its national competition tonight.

This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always over-delivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing.

Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Marcia Young. Mark Carney is starting the work of selling next month's budget to Canadians. The Prime Minister spoke about it last night at an event at the University of Ottawa. He talked about what you could expect when the budget is unveiled November 4th. Janice McGregor is covering that story from Ottawa.

And Janice, what did? Did this speech tell us about what will be in the budget? Marcia, old hands will tell you that one of the first things you look for in a budget is where the economic growth is coming from. And from Mark Carney last night, we heard a similar formula to what the Americans are trying right now. Import less, export more. The prime minister talked about how other countries make much more of their own stuff when it comes to what key industries need.

He cited steel as a top example. And he repeated that Canada's new strategy for defense purchases is going to try a lot harder to shop at home too. But as much as this might disappoint international trading partners, Carney's also expecting that they're going to be willing at the same time to buy a lot more from Canada. Way more. He set a target of doubling non-US exports over the next decade. That's probably impossible without huge gains in major Asian consumer markets like China, India. I'd expect to hear a lot more about this as Carney heads to Asia for a pair of key regional summits over the next week and a half.

Last night's speech also signaled a shift in liberal climate policy. With a focus on results over objectives, on investments over prohibition, we will build sustainably. And that suggests a future that's less about banning things outright or limiting production and appears to tell companies instead put together a responsible business case and we'll consider it. What happens if Canada's growth does not match Carney's plan, Janice? There's the rub, because he's still maintaining his campaign pledge to bring government revenues in line with its operating expenses within three years. But without growth, without more taxes from that,

he's going to have to raise other taxes, make even bigger spending cuts than are already contemplated, or punt on this budget balancing promise. As Carney put it, We will have to do less of some of the things that we want to do so we can do more of what we must do to build a bigger and better Canada. At times, this speech seemed to be preconditioning Canadians to accept that some of what liberals promised in the past is not going to be possible now.

Thank you, Janice. You're welcome. The CBC is Janice McGregor in Ottawa. The Prime Minister in Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced what they call a major investment to power the clean energy transition. An investment that will extend Canada's world leadership in clean energy. We are an energy superpower and we are only getting stronger. Ottawa is investing $2 billion to build the Darlington Nuclear, new nuclear project in Bowmanville, Ontario. Carney says that makes Canada

the first G7 country to bring small modular reactor technology online. Premier Doug Ford also announced a $1 billion investment from Ontario. The leaders say this is part of an investment to build Canada strong. The NDP is beginning its rebuilding process. It lost official party status in the last federal election. Last night, the five people vying for the party's leadership had a chance to speak to Canadians. David Thurton has more. The forum was light on policy, but the five leadership candidates

each share their vision for the NDP and how to fix it. Union leader Rob Ashton wants a party that's unapologetic about its message. We're in a class war. It's the ruling class versus the working class. We all have to understand that. We have to be loud about it. We've got to rally the troops. Over the years, parties like the NDP, according to leadership hopeful, and Edmonton MP Heather McPherson, have pushed people the way, excluding them.

Her campaign, she says, is about building a bigger template. This party is for everyone, and it is not about changing our values. It's not about changing what we believe. It's about changing how we talk to people and where we talk to people. Unlike the other candidates, Abby Lewis, a well-known TV presenter, did speak in detail about his policies, like a public option for grocery stores and cell phone providers. And we feel that it's time for some straight talk, because we know why. We have every sector of our economy dominated by a handful of.

full of small players. Five big banks, five big grocery chains, three phone companies, giving us the highest prices and the worst customer service anywhere. There's still time for NDP candidates to talk about their big ideas to remake the party. New Democrats won't choose a new leader until March. David Thurton, CBC News, Ottawa. A former Toronto Raptors player is among those arrested in an FBI gambling probe. Chauncey Billups played in Toronto in the late 1990s. He He was one of several current and former NBA players indicted. Two separate investigations looked at illegal sports betting and alleged riged poker games. FBI director Cash Patel says there are 31 defendants across 11 states.

And the fraud is mind-boggling. It's not hundreds of dollars. It's not thousands of dollars. It's not tens of thousands of dollars. It's not even millions of dollars. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery. across a multi-year investigation. Billups was arrested as part of the poker investigation.

The FBI alleges several mafia families were involved in the rigged poker games. Prior to his arrest, Billups had been head coach of the Portland Trailblazers. Miami Heat Guard Terry Rosier is also among those indicted. He's accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information. An organ in the Sistine Chapel marks a historic visit by King Charles. The king is the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a Pope in 500 years. Let us pray. God, our Father, you have created the heavens. Pope Leo, the 14th, leads in prayer with Charles seated by his side.

Such a prayer service has not happened since Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534. to form the Church of England, the schism was over his desire to annul his marriage. Today's visit is considered a symbolic display of unity between the two churches. A new report from Human Rights Watch is a warning about press freedom under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The CBC's Chris Reyes has more. I'm able to speak with my name, with my own identity. However, this is not the reality for my colleagues in Afghanistan. Zara Nader is an Afghani journalist in exile from Edmonton.

covers human rights in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan for the outlet Zan Times. The Taliban is actively looking for any journalist that is collaborating and working for exile media, and the Taliban have made this into a law that they are not supposed to be working with media in exile. A new report from Human Rights Watch is sounding the alarm over that very issue. The group interviewed dozens of journalists in Afghanistan and those in exile. John Sifton contributed to the report. They're facing Taliban abuses. The authorities have been routinely surveilling and censoring news outlets.

And then they're even subjecting some journalists to arrest and torture and enforce disappearance. Sifton says those journalists are the country's last best hope to expose other abuses. Since taking over in 2021, the Taliban has enforced authoritarian rule, cracking down on rights and freedoms, especially for women. and girls. Hundreds of Afghan journalists and media workers against tremendous odds are continuing to report the news. So it's absolutely essential that these reporters both inside and outside the country get supported. Nader hopes her work will raise awareness about what's happening in the country. The reason I'm doing this work is because I'm hopeful that the Taliban is not the future of Afghanistan and we will pass the start times. More than 1,000 journalists left Afghanistan in

2021, many of them continue to do their work in secret. Chris Reyes, CBC News, New York. And finally. Canada's biggest night for opera happens in Toronto. The Canadian Opera Company's Center Stage Gala holds its national competition tonight. Rising artists compete to launch their international careers. Many of them are graduates of the C.O.C. Seas Ensemble Studio. You're listening to one of those celebrated graduates, Jamie Groot, singing Voie Kesapeete from the Marriage of Figuro.

That is the latest national and international news from World Report. I'm Marcia Young. For more CBC Podcasts, go to CBC.A.