World Report - October 31: Friday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney opens door to a new, more constructive relationship with China after meeting with President Xi Jinping. Angus Reid poll finds Canadians support Ontario's anti-tarrif ad, despite US President Donald Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on Canada by 10 per cent. Statistics Canada says real gross domestic product was down 0.3 per cent in August as both the goods and services side of the economy contracted.Millions of Americans are on the verge of losing the support they need to buy food as a result of the U.S. government shutdown.Toronto Blue Jays fans hope for World Series celebration ahead of Game 6 against Los Angeles Dodgers. Shrinkflation haunts trick or treaters this Halloween. 

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Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning, I'm John Northcott. Prime Minister Mark Carney is opening the door to a new, more constructive relationship with China. This morning at the APEC summit, Carney had a one-on-one meeting with President Xi Jinping. It's the first formal leader-to-leader contact between the two countries since 2017. The CBC's Murray Brewster has the deed.

details. This meeting today is long overdue. Going into this high-stakes meeting, Mark Carney tried to temper expectations by saying this was a reset of relations with China, a first step, if you will. He was pleased with the result. We now have a turning point in the relationship, a turning point that creates opportunities for Canadian families, for Canadian businesses. At the outset, while the media was still, in the room, President Xi Jinping spoke first, acknowledging the rift between Canada and China. He said Beijing wanted to push the relationship back onto a healthy, sustainable path. Relations between China and Canada have been strained, defined by almost a decade of

mistrust and sporadic economic engagement. Carney was invited to visit China for further talks, and he says he'll go. The dialogue with Xi comes one day after the Chinese leader sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump, a meeting that dialed back the trade war between the two economic superpowers for the time being. Carney didn't say precisely what was accomplished with Xi and if or when any of the costly sanctions on Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian canola would be lifted. Marie Brewster, CBC News, Kiyongju, South Korea.

The Angust Reed Institute is asking Canadians how they feel about the Ontario government's anti-terror fan. The commercial angered U.S. President Donald Trump, and he responded by threatening to raise the tariffs on Canada again. According to the poll, about 43% of respondents believe that ad put Canada in a worse negotiating position. But only 13% said that they were strongly against the Ontario government's decision to run the ad. On the other side of the equation, 31% strongly supported it. The latest GDP numbers just out this morning show Canada's real GDP shrank by 0.3% in August.

Now, that's mostly offsetting a comparable rise in July. The CBC's senior business correspondent, Peter Armstrong, breaks down the numbers. These numbers paint a picture of an economy that's really struggling. The weakness is pervasive. Just about every sector is showing signs of trouble, signs of the trade war. Goods producing industries decline for the fifth straight time since the beginning of the year. Wholesale trade is down, mining and oil and gas extraction, that's down too. There's no question.

It's rough out there. And remember, second quarter GDP. contracted between April and June, and a recession, of course, is just two back-to-back quarters of negative growth. Today, we got not just the numbers for August, but a preliminary look at September. Now, all told, it looks like the economy will have edged up 0.1% in the third quarter. That means we would avoid an outright recession, but only by the slimmest of margins. So in many, maybe most parts of the country, the fact that we appear to have dodged a recession is cold comfort because it really does feel like one in so many sectors of the economy.

Peter Armstrong, CBC News, Toronto. Millions of Americans are on the verge of losing the support they need to buy food. The government shutdown means a halt to payments to the program called SNAP. Now, that's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps low-income Americans buy food. That means the program runs out of money tomorrow. The CBC's Willie Lowry covering the story in Washington Forest. Willie, what's happening there?

So it's another side effect of what has become the second longest government shutdown in this country's nearly 250-year history. Starting tomorrow, the federal government says it can no longer fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once known as food stamps. On its website, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says simply, the well has run dry and blames Democratic lawmakers for voting against the continuing resolution, that would fund the government for the next seven weeks. But a federal judge in Massachusetts has pushed back. Democratic governors from roughly two dozen states sued the government to keep snaps running. Judge Indira Tolwani indicated that she is likely

going to call on the Trump administration to use emergency reserves to at least partially fund snap through November. Some 42 million Americans rely on the program. Well, they unpack the politics around all of this. Absolutely. So both Republicans and Democratic lawmakers are blaming each other and working on separate legislation, calling for SNAP to be funded despite the shutdown. Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of wielding the threat of Americans losing food benefits as a means to try and force their political will. His intention really is to use hunger as a political weapon, hunger of our children, families, disabled. It's really striking to me.

That was New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Speaker Mike Johnson defended his party's decision. Because if you deviate from the goal of reopening the entire government, Chuck Schumer and the radicals over there will continue to play games with people's paychecks, their livelihoods. Across the country, states are scrambling to try and cover the cost of SNAP benefits to ensure that their residents get the food they need. But in most cases, it's not possible to cover it all. CBC's Willie Lowry in Washington.

Thanks, Willie. My pleasure. In a matter of hours, the Blue Jays will attempt to win it all. Game 6 of the World Series goes tonight in Toronto. The Jays need just one more win for their first series win in 32 years. The CBC's Thomas Deglet sets the scene for the biggest night in Toronto sports in decades. With a Blue Jays win tonight on Halloween, celebrations would be sure to spill out into the streets.

of downtown Toronto. We're going to do it. Blue Jays all the way! The Jays have done away with any perception. The team is competing as underdogs against the Dodgers, returning home with a 3-2 series lead. Game six and a six?

Heck yeah. As for the fans, they always believed. I still think it'll go seven, but I think the Jays will pull it off. The last time a World Series game six was played in Toronto, this happened. Swinging a belt. The field, way back.

Blue Jays win it. Joe Carter's famous three-run walk-off Homer in 1993 handing the Jays their second straight title. Tonight manager John Schneider is sending in veteran pitcher Kevin Gosman to silence L.A.'s bats. Kevin will be ready to go. I can't wait to see what the Rogers Center is going to look, feel, and sound like. Let's go, Jays! For a team that finished last place last season, it's a date with history, a chance to thrill baseball fans in every corner of Canada. Thomas Dagg, CBC News, Toronto. Well, it's more of a trick than a treat.

Shrinkflation is taking a bite out of candy bars this Halloween, with big candy makers selling smaller packages this year. And consumer advocates say that quietly shrinking a product without alerting consumers is anything but sweet. Sophia Harris reports. There's been an inflationary pressure on cocoa prices. And that may mean some frightening prices this Halloween for chocolate treats. Food marketing expert Jordan LaBelle says extreme weather conditions in West Africa,

Coco's main global supplier, are largely to blame. The harvest has been hit and miss for the last little while. Prices for confectionery items, which include chocolate, increased 10% over the past year, according to Statistics Canada. And if you don't get hit with higher prices, you may still wind up paying more due to shrinkflation. That's when companies quietly reduce the weight of a product but not the price. making it hard to detect. To the naked eye, you don't necessarily pick it up.

CBC News dug up online ads for Halloween candy from October 2024 and discovered that this year, two major companies, Marys and Hershey's, reduced the weight of several Halloween chocolate bar variety packs. Both companies said their products may change due to changing customer preferences. Neither provided specific examples. The problem with shrinkflation or downsizing is that it's not really, really transparent. Consumer advocates like Sylvie DeBelfield say, companies need to be more up front when they shrink a product, regardless of the reasons why. Sophia Harris, CBC News, Toronto.

And with that, we've reached the end of our newscast. Wherever you are celebrating, we wish you a safe and spooky Halloween night. But tonight, the little trick or Treaters may be feeling some pressure to hurry up with their candy gathering as anxious Blue Jays fan parents hope to wrap things up in time to catch the big game. Scream with support, we hope. This time out, as Canadians coast to coast to coast, route for the Blue Jays. That is the latest national and international news from World Report.

on Northcott, this is CBC News.