Your World Tonight - Best and worst of human nature in Los Angeles, insurance crisis, climate change, Liberal leadership rules, and more

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

The people of Los Angeles are pulling together as the fires burn on the outskirts of the city — volunteers, donation centres, and families helping families. But the city is also seeing some of the worst of human nature — scam texts, looting, and selfishness. Police have imposed curfews and sent in the National Guard to stop looting, and the FBI is investigating after a water bomber provided by Quebec was struck by a civilian drone.And: The disaster in L.A. is highlighting another problem: insurance. Many people in the area lost their insurance coverage because it got too expensive, or companies refused to renew it. It’s a concern elsewhere too — including Canada — as climate change makes some residential areas too risky to insure.Also: The Liberals have set some of the rules for their leadership campaign. A few people have declared their intentions to run, but another cabinet minister says she’s out: Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly. There are still no details about whether there will be a convention, or how the voting will happen, but one thing we do know… the new leader and next prime minister will be chosen by March 9th.Plus: Trump given an unconditional discharge, inauguration in Venezuela, banks bail on net zero pledge, and more.

Mama, look at me. Brum, brum. I'm going really fast. I just got my license. Can I borrow the car, please, Mom? Kids go from 0 to 18 in no time. You'll be relieved they have 24-7 roadside assistance with intact insurance. This is a CBC Podcast. I was just surrounded by flames all around me and I just started praying, please God, please just save my house. This is all I have. The scenes coming out of Los Angeles are horrifying and bleak. A city under siege and in a state of panic as relentless wildfires obliterate homes, entire neighborhoods, cherished landmarks, taking lives and hopes. It's all on a scale the city has never seen. We're living in a climate that humanity hasn't experienced before. We can say

with confidence that this is the warmest period. Scientific studies tend not to have the same visceral impact as images of mass devastation. But the authors of this one say it should. As LA burns, the rest of the world continues to heat up. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Tom Harrington. It is Friday, January 10th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Also on the podcast.

Am I ready to step away from my responsibilities as Minister of Foreign Affairs? And the answer is no. The ins and outs of the liberal leadership contest. As the race to replace Justin Trudeau starts to take off, the party is tweaking the rules on who can run and who can vote. The severe winds fueling the Los Angeles wildfires have died down just enough to allow exhausted crews to contain some of the largest ones, but not enough to get them all fully under control. Officials say at least 10 people have died and more than 150,000 are still under evacuation

order. Already on edge, the city is also dealing with looting and backlash from residents about emergency alerts. But as Lindsay Duncombe tells us, some residents are stepping up to help their neighbors. Valerie Busby came to the parking lot across from the Rose Bowl football stadium to pick up donated diapers.

Her sister's home was destroyed by fire. Ten people, including a three-week-old, are crowded into Busby's two-bedroom home. It's devastating. It's devastating, but we're trying to support them as best as we can. People started dropping off donations here overnight, responding to a post on TikTok. Community coming together at a time when nerves are frayed

and confidence in officials is fading this doesn't help and obviously you can hear all of our phones are going off some type of um of alert that evacuation alert that interrupted this local Fox News broadcast went off in error across the city several times yesterday. Busby thought she might have to leave too, until she learned it was a mistake. It's crazy. I just hope that they're able to contain that, just so that people aren't in that state of panic. The largest two fires, the Eaton Fire in Pasadena and the Palisades Fire near Santa Monica, remain uncontained.

At a news conference this morning, Los Angeles Police Chief Dominic Choi said police would enforce a curfew in the evacuated areas. Looting has zero tolerance. Anybody caught looting or committing crimes in the affected areas will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Darrell Davis owns four apartments. His tenants lost everything and some don't have insurance. I think it's crazy.

I think it's terrible of them to be trying, taking advantage of these people that are already having problems and going through things and lost everything. Another problem, people flying drones. Yesterday, a drone hit a super scooper water bomber from Quebec, piercing a hole in the wing. It will be out of service until Monday. Anthony Morrone is the Los Angeles Fire Chief. The most important thing to know is that if you fly a drone at one of these brush fires,

all aerial operations will be shut down. And we certainly don't want to have that happen. Officials set up a center for people with missing relatives to register. If we can start moving, all the donation tents... By late morning, police dismantled the makeshift donation center. It blocked access to a staging area for firefighters. Demita Goodall organized everything. You don't even know because we worked all morning to get organized because everything was everywhere.

People loaded up trucks to take the donations to a different location. Kindness interrupted by chaos. Lindsay Duncombe, CBC News, Los Angeles. It is almost impossible to estimate how much will be lost by the time the smoke settles. One insurance company says the L.A. wildfires could be the costliest in American history. Today, stocks for American insurers went down. And as the cost of climate disasters goes up, so does the anxiety for homeowners in high-risk areas, not just in the United States, but in Canada

too. Alexander Silberman reports. It's an inferno. Lynn Levin-Guzman stands in thick smoke in the yard of her 90-year-old parents' Alta Dena County home, trying to protect it from ravaging wildfires with a garden hose. And these insurance people decided to cancel their fire. We're going through this and they have no fire insurance. Levin Guzman's family's experience is increasingly common in California.

The rising threat of wildfires has many private insurers opting not to renew policies for large parts of the state, creating a crisis for homeowners. I'm sure there's thousands of people that are suffering right now. For those still able to purchase coverage, premiums are skyrocketing. Horry and Charles Sadler say they paid $65,000 U.S.

for a new policy after their previous coverage was not renewed. It's an enormous amount of money. It's a whole year of income. Insurance companies declined to renew 2.8 million homeowner policies in the state between 2020 and 2022 according to the California Department of Insurance. Today Ricardo Lara, the state's insurance commissioner, said companies should do the right thing. I am using my moratorium power to stop all non-renewals and cancellations.

The problem of canceled policies has forced many homeowners to use a program set up by the state called the California Fair Plan. The public insurance option was set up to be a last resort decades ago, but demand has soared now covering more than $450 billion U.S. worth of residential property. California is rolling out sweeping new insurance regulations, trying to force private companies to take back much of the coverage now handled by the state. What we're seeing in California is approaching a crisis point for insurability for wildfire. Craig Stewart is Vice President of Climate Change and Federal Issues

at the Insurance Bureau of Canada. He says California failed to collaborate with private insurers and warns Canada could soon face a similar situation. Insurance will only remain affordable if governments invest in risk reduction, flood mitigation and defense, prioritizing building codes that protect homes from hail. Stewart says Canada needs its own public insurance program to help fill in gaps as more high-risk areas are identified. He says keeping private insurance affordable in the face of climate disasters is a growing challenge.

Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Regina. Those disasters are all too familiar in this country. Last year alone saw wildfires in Jasper, Regina. Those disasters are all too familiar in this country. Last year alone saw wildfires in Jasper, Alberta, atmospheric rivers in B.C., and heat waves in the Arctic. Driving it all? Climate change. Today came official word last year was the warmest on record, beating out 2023.

CBC News international climate correspondent Susan Ormiston has more on a worrying trend. This is no longer an esoteric academic exercise for us. This is now quite personal. 2024 was the hottest year on record, confirmed by the world's top monitoring agencies today, piling on to a disturbing pattern year over year, says Gavin Schmidt, a director at NASA. It's the same story every year or so because the long-term trends are being driven by our emissions of fossil fuels and they have not stopped. Data released today shows harmful greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are still at record levels in

spite of government's commitments to reduce emissions. On one day in July last year alone, 44 percent of the globe experienced extreme heat stress. Like scorching temperatures in India which killed, and throughout the year record-setting rain and floods in Spain, floods and landslides in southern U.S., multiple typhoons in the Philippines and here in Canada, the devastating Jasper fire. Undeniable evidence says Samantha Burgess of Copernicus Climate Change Service, that our climate today is not that of our grandparents. We're living in a climate

that humanity hasn't experienced before. We can say with confidence when we look at ice core records, when we look at other data sets, that this is the warmest period for at least the last 100,000 years or so. For the first time, average global temperatures have exceeded a long-term target set in the Paris climate agreement 10 years ago. We can say with confidence that 2024 was the first calendar year above 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial level.

A warning that we are failing to arrest the warming and an admission that keeping to that target is increasingly remote. Burgess describes 1.5 degrees as akin to a planetary fever. The temperature of the human body is around 37 degrees. If we have a fever at 39 degrees, it doesn't sound like much but we're feverish and the body is doing everything possible to fight that infection. And every decimal point above 1.5 magnifies the consequences. Extreme events like wildfires, heat waves, severe storms, droughts, they're likely to

get more frequent and they're likely to be more intense. As for this year, Schmidt says based on a slight early cooling. 2025 is less likely to be a globally warmest year. But it will be, he predicts, in the top three. Susan Ormiston, CBC News, Toronto. record. Later, not taking it to the bank, American financial institutions are walking away from climate change initiatives. The federal liberals are on the clock to select a new leader. The party says in less than

two months, we will know Justin Trudeau's replacement. Tom Perry has the story from Ottawa. So good, good to see you. I hope you're well this morning. Just because that is. Melanie Jolie on her way into a meeting of a special cabinet committee on Canada U.S. relations with Donald Trump set to return to the White House threatening Canada with tariffs and

blustering about making this country America's 51st state. Jolie says she needs to focus on her role as Foreign Affairs Minister rather than making a run for the leadership of the Liberal Party. And the reality is I can't do both. So I'm heading into the Canada U.S. Committee in the cabinet room and we will be talking about retaliatory measures against potential tariffs from President-elect Trump. And we will be ready.

And I'll do my job. Jolie is the second member of Justin Trudeau's cabinet who was seen as a contender to replace him, who's decided now is not the time. Finance Minister Dominique LeBlanc announced this week he's not running like Jolie to keep an eye on what's happening south of the border. While LeBlanc and Jolie are out, the Liberal leadership race is now in full swing. The party has released a campaign video along with rules and a timeline for how the contest will unfold. A new party leader and prime minister will be announced March 9th. The entry fee for the race is steep, $350,000.

Candidates will have until January 27th to sign up new members who will need to be 14 years of age or older. The party is also limiting voting to Canadian citizens and permanent residents, something it didn't do before. Some Liberal MPs urged party officials to change that this time to guard against foreign interference. Health Minister Mark Holland says the party has done the right thing. I am very confident in the processes and assurances that have been given to me that only people

who should be voting and will be participating in that process. For liberals, the question now is who will run? So far, only two lesser-known candidates have come forward, former MP Frank Bayless and Liberal backbencher Chandra Arya. Liberals are still waiting on high-profile contenders like former Deputy Prime Minister Christy of Freeland, former BC Premier Christy Clark, and former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, who sources

say is expected to announce his candidacy late next week. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. Christy Clark ran BC from 2011 to 2017. She has given her first interview since Justin Trudeau's resignation, and some of her answers raise questions about her political affiliations. The host of CBC Radio's The House, Catherine Cullen, did that interview. She's in Ottawa with the details. Catherine, what can you tell us?

Well, Tom, Christy Clark says she is very seriously thinking about running, and she certainly talked like she was campaigning. But the discussion took a surprising turn when I asked Clark about her political affiliation. Clark often describes herself as a lifelong federal liberal, but in the last Conservative leadership campaign, the one that elected Pierre Pauliev, she very publicly endorsed former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, saying she was voting for him. Now, in order to vote in the Conservative leadership, you have to be a party member and you cannot be a member of any other party. This is important

because this question of whether Clark truly is a federal liberal, it's something that might matter to a lot of liberal party members that are about to choose a new leader and the next prime minister. So I asked her how long was she a conservative party member? Here's her answer in a bit of our exchange. Never. But you voted in the race, did you not? No I didn't. I didn't.

And I never got a membership and I never got a ballot. What I did though is... I will say, Christy Clark, we reached out to the Conservative Party who told us, in fact, that your membership was cancelled. Oh, well, why don't they come out and show my membership or my ballot? They never sent me any of those, although I wouldn't put it past them to manufacture one of them. Now, she went on in the interview to say that she called the Conservative Party at the time,

several times, asking for her ballot but didn't get one. I pointed out she would have to be a member in order to get a ballot. I also asked her if she cancelled her Liberal Party membership. She said no. Her team now says she was not a registered Liberal when she supported Charret. Now we also asked the Conservative Party about this inconsistency. They sent us an image of her membership file with the party from their data management system. It seems to suggest she was a party member with the Conservatives for over a year. There's also reporting at the time where Clark

says she has a ballot and there are clips like this. I'm joining the party so that I could support my friend Mr. Chiray and you know what I what I think he can bring to the national dialogue. I mean I do think he'd be a devastating opponent for for Mr. Trudeau. The Conservatives also sent out a statement saying that Clark's kickoff to her leadership campaign is about misleading not just liberals but Canadians. Okay, awkward. So how is Clark planning on winning over liberals in light of this? Well, she did say in the interview in terms of her vision for the country, she would cancel what she called the Trudeau carbon tax, saying it was different than what was done in BC while she was leading the province.

She said the plan, as it is federally, needs to be scrapped. She promised to deliver an alternative plan to drive down emissions at some point. She also said she is the one best positioned to take on Donald Trump because she has experience in office. She says it's important that Canada not, in her words, fold like a cheap suit in the face of Trump's threats around tariffs, as well as becoming a 51st state. She says it's important that Canada not, in her words, fold like a cheap suit in the face of Trump's threats around tariffs, as well as becoming a 51st state. Catherine, thanks for this.

Thank you. That's Catherine Cullen, host of The House in Ottawa. You can hear more of her interview with Christy Clark on tomorrow's edition of the program. Donald Trump was known in his first term for breaking with presidential norms. And he's doing it again as president-elect. Trump was sentenced today in his hush money case. As expected, he avoids jail time or fines, but he does have a criminal record, a first for an American president.

As we hear from Katie Simpson in New York, Trump supporters don't think the label will hurt him. Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances. And so began Judge Juan Merchan's historic sentencing, delivered in a lower Manhattan courtroom filled with reporters and lawyers. Donald Trump was spared the spectacle of an in-person appearance. He learned his fate watching by video feed from his Florida estate. The only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is an unconditional discharge.

There will be no jail time, no fines and no real punishment after being found guilty on 34 felony charges for hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep their alleged affair quiet during the 2016 election. The judge explaining Trump's re-election factored into his decision, acknowledging there are protections that come with being the occupant of the Oval Office. Though Trump is a convicted felon, the first-ever American president with a criminal record, Trump's team plans to appeal the decision which he again railed against in court.

This has been a very terrible experience. I'm totally innocent. I did nothing wrong. The unconditional discharge means Trump can essentially go about his business as per usual, according to Anna Kamisky, a law professor at New York University. She says the felony record probably won't hurt him either. He is truly in a unique position where it seems totally unlikely that this will actually have any negative effect on him. He's going to take office in a few days and this does not prevent him from taking office or serving in office. Though Trump could face some headaches when traveling abroad,

some countries, including Canada, have rules against visits by convicted felons. To enter Canada, Trump may have to seek permission first from the immigration minister. Trump loves Trump! Trump! Trump! He loves Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! America great again ball caps. Others had homemade signs reading kangaroo court. They largely remain frustrated that Trump was prosecuted in the first place. It makes me feel actually very sad because the judge who's giving him this

record that he doesn't deserve should be the one behind bars. And it doesn't really matter okay in terms of the American public, most of the American public, we don't care, okay? With sentencing now complete, the last of Trump's major legal problems is over. His other three criminal cases have been wiped out, and he returns to the White House more powerful than ever in just 10 days. Katie Simpson, CBC News, New York. Canada, the U.S., and the European Union have all announced new sanctions against Venezuelan

officials. The economic penalties are for alleged human rights violations and an election result most Western nations contest. Today, President Nicolas Maduro brushed off that international outcry as he was sworn in for a third term. I swear by the eternal memory of our beloved chief and commander Hugo Chavez. Many countries support the opposition contention. Edmundo Gonzalez won the election in July. As Los Angeles burns and climate scientists paint a darker vision of the future, the heat is on the world's financial leaders to help solve the crisis. But after committing to the cause a few years ago, big American institutions are now getting

cold feet. And as Anand Ram explains, a similar chill in Canada may be on the way. Right here, right now is where finance draws the line. A splashy statement from a different time. That's former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney on stage at a UN climate conference in 2021, spearheading a huge alliance of financial institutions committed to getting emissions down. Quite frankly, facilities that do not scale up aren't relevant to the scale of the problem. Fast forward and some of those facilities, those banks, have bailed on this so-called

Net Zero Banking Alliance. From Goldman Sachs to Citigroup, every major US bank has left. JP Morgan Chase, the last to quit this week, saying little more than it'll still focus on low-carbon technologies while advancing energy security. Disappointing if not surprising. Patti McCulley is with the French nonprofit Reclaim Finance. The idea of the voluntary alliance was for banks to focus money into renewables and eventually away from fossil fuels. But in the US the winds have shifted. All the US banks are running scared of Trump 2.0. Their fear over being attacked by Trump is much greater than their climate commitment.

The entire ESG scheme is designed to funnel your retirement money. During his last campaign, President-elect Donald Trump galvanized voters against ESG – environmental, social and governance – investing. But Adam Scott, climate finance expert and executive director at Shift Action, says the backlash isn't driven by public desire. It's not a real political movement of citizens. It's a cynical attempt by fossil fuel industry in collusion with governments to try to slow down this inevitable transition.

The fear is that all of Canada's major banks might follow suit, though some critics say that's not necessarily a bad thing, considering these institutions continue to fund fossil fuel projects. Ultimately, these are supposed to be coalitions of leaders. Their commitments are meaningful, and it's not helpful to pretend that these institutions are taking this seriously. The Canadian Banking Association says its members know they have a role in the energy transition but decide their alliance participation individually.

Another factor experts say is the complexity of net zero itself. Diane Laure-Ragelies is with Western University's Ivy Business School. There were new forms of climate exposure, new carbon emissions that were not really anticipated so for them right now it's extremely difficult to commit to net zero. But she adds all institutions need to shift to longer-term thinking as climate change raises financial risks such as property loss from fire disasters. It's a very rational economic decision. Each day we wait it's a loss of opportunity and it's gonna be more costly in the future. But even with these

high-profile exits experts see hope with European Alliance members carrying the net zero torch forward. Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto. It's a Saturday night tradition for Canadian hockey fans going back to 1952, even longer on radio. And Hockey Night in Canada keeps evolving, from black and white to colour, from the old theme to a new one, from only CBC to cable sports channels. Well, this season, another new era is coming to Saturday, HockeyNet in Canada will be broadcast in Inuktitut. It's a partnership between the Aboriginal Peoples TV Network and SportsNet, aimed at

revitalizing Indigenous languages. For the past two seasons, certain NHL games have been broadcast in Cree. Now the networks are including a slate of games in the language spoken by thousands of people across the north. Hockey is big in many communities there but the sport doesn't have a long tradition in Inuit culture. That means the broadcast crew has been busy figuring out Inuktitut terms for hockey jargon. Colour commentator Pujut Kusigak says that's a good thing for the language. It really means a lot to us to be able to use our language to hopefully encourage more people to learn it and understand it.

Our language very much comes from the land terminology for hunting, fishing, whatever there was in our environment. And now being able to do something such as hockey, it helps us modernize and adapt and advance our language so that it's relevant to the daily conversations we do have. Kusagak says young Inuit hockey fans will be able to learn from the broadcasts. But he's also thinking about elders who speak only Inuktitut, finally being able to follow the action in their own language. The first Hockey Night in Inuktitut is on March 8th, when the Edmonton Oilers take on the Dallas Stars. This has been Your World Tonight for Friday, January 10th. I'm Tom

Harrington. Thanks for listening tonight. Stay safe and take care of each other.