Your World Tonight - Big fires still burning in Los Angeles, Danielle Smith goes to Mar-a-Lago, Gaza ceasefire talks and more

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Three big fires are burning in Los Angeles, and several smaller ones as well. At least two dozen people have died. And though some evacuation orders have been lifted, officials are warning people to return yet. Many areas are still unsafe.And: Alberta premier Danielle Smith says Canadians should be prepared for tariffs imposed by the U.S. She went to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and met the incoming president. And Smith says she expects him to make good on his threats. Canadian leaders are preparing lists of retaliatory measures.Also: “Closer than ever.” Reports suggest a ceasefire agreement in Gaza could be signed before Trump takes office next week. Trump has threatened “all hell will break loose” if there is no deal by then. His vice-president J.D. Vance says that means enabling Israel to knock out the rest of Hamas.Plus: The future of pharmacare and federal dental care, the worst year for insured losses for weather events, the price of mail goes up, and more.

Are you tired of asking your friends for their podcast recommendations? Well, I'm Leah, host of CBC's podcast playlist and The Secret Life of Canada. And there's actually a newsletter that can help with that. It's called Sounds Good. It features the latest industry approved podcast recommendations and behind the scenes footage of some of your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to the bi-weekly newsletter at the link in our series description. We listen to everything so you don't have to. This is a CBC Podcast. They will have a national unity crisis on their on their hands at the same time as having a crisis with our US trade partners. We just won't stand for that.

Crossing the US-Canada border is no problem for the Premier of Alberta and right now oil and gas from her province can get into the US with similar ease. Coming out of her weekend meeting with Donald Trump, Daniel Smith is warning Ottawa to do everything it can to keep it that way. With just days until the incoming president assumes power and his tariff threat ready to rattle the Canadian economy, Canadian leaders are scrambling to come up with a unified response. Welcome to Your World Tonight.

I'm Susan Bonner. It is Monday, January 13th coming up on 6pm Eastern, also on the podcast. The anticipated winds combined with low humidities and low fuel moistures will keep the fire threat in all of Los Angeles County critical. A week into a devastating wildfire crisis, Los Angeles is bracing for more. After crews finally started to contain some of the fires, the weather is not cooperating and those hard-fought gains are in danger along with thousands of residents.

It is a critical week for Canadian politicians. By this time next Monday, Donald Trump will be officially sworn in as President of the United States. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with premiers to map out a response for Trump's trade threats. But as Tom Perry reports, there's disagreement between provinces over how far the government should go. We had a friendly conversation and I thought quite constructive during which I emphasized the mutual importance of the US-Canada relationship.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with Donald Trump over the weekend at his compound in Mar-a-Lago, her takeaway. The incoming president's threat of tariffs is very real. I think we need to be prepared that tariffs are coming. Trump has talked about imposing a 25% levy on Canadian goods on his first day in office. The federal government says if that happens it will retaliate. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie says all options are on the table but Smith is warning those options must not include any effort to restrict the flow of Alberta oil and gas into the US that her province won't stand for it.

Well they will have a national unity crisis on their on their hands at the same time as having a crisis with our US trade partners. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with Canada's premiers this Wednesday in Ottawa. They'll discuss how the federal government plans to fight back if, as expected, Trump makes good on his threat. Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants to see a detailed list of possible retaliatory measures, and unlike Smith, Ford says Canada can't rule anything out. We have to use all the tools possible when our country's under attack economically,

when our country, our province is under attack economically, you just don't roll over. You know, I have, maybe I come from a different school. I believe in negotiating through strength, not weakness. Lawrence Herman is an international trade lawyer and senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute. He says now is not the time for political bickering, that Canada's political leaders need to form a united front at what he calls a critical time in the country's history. I don't think it helps for different premiers to be delivering different messages to the United States. That just plays into Donald Trump's hands.

The new U.S. administration is taking office as federal liberals seek a new leader to replace Justin Trudeau and with a federal election just months away. Despite that, the federal government says it remains focused on responding to whatever comes out of Donald Trump's White House and on protecting Canada. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. The winds are picking up again in Los Angeles, threatening any progress in fighting the relentless wildfires. At least 26 people are confirmed dead and nearly as many people are reported missing.

95,000 people are under evacuation orders as the fire threat remains critical. Lindsay Duncombe reports. The call came in just after 10.30 in the morning. A new fire, smoke spotted between Santa Clarita and Acton. Quebec pilot Pascal Duclos rushes into the cockpit of his bright yellow Super Scooper aircraft at the Van Nuys airport. Another mission on a deployment to Los Angeles like no others. We're all pretty tired, exhausted and a little nervous right now. Over the weekend, crews made good progress on the two largest fires burning in Los Angeles. But everyone is worried about what comes next.

Santa Ana Winds forecasts to pick up overnight, with gusts up to 112 kilometers an hour. We are not in the clear as of yet and we must not let our guard down. Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristen Crowley says crews will be searching for embers carried by those winds. We're going to be patrolling, taking a proactive approach. Anywhere where there's any wildland risk is where we're going to be patrolling. It's just extra set of eyes, ears. Fear of fire in a city just coming to grips with how much has been lost. Together, the Eaton Fire and the Palisades Fire burned 152 square kilometers. More than 12,000 structures, many of them homes, gone. And the search for the dead isn't over, says Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

For the El Tadena area, we are in the third day of grid searching. It is a very grim task and we, unfortunately, every day we're doing this, we're running across the remains of individual community members. The community is coming together. Danny Lee is volunteering at an LA donation center. We're like let's go help. We have to because we could easily be the next victims. How's this coming? This is the new one? This is the new one. The fight against the fire is international. At the Van Nuys Airport employees of British Columbia's Colson

Aviation prepare helicopters for their next flight. Mel Zacante is director of flight operations. The truth of the matter is the bell could ring here in the building four seconds from now and we're back in the aircraft and it's game on. And no one knows what danger and destruction that next call could bring. Lindsay Dankom, CBC News, Los Angeles. Insured losses from the ongoing wildfires in California could reach more than 28 billion Canadian dollars,

potentially making it the costliest natural disaster in the state's history. Well, a new report here is reminding Canadians of what an expensive year it was for weather-related disasters. Anand Ram explains. We had our fire department on standby, public works on standby. Raymond Rougeau, the mayor of Rodin, an hour and a half's drive north of Montreal, thought his community was well prepared for the onslaught of post tropical storm Debbie last August. Pretty intense. I mean nobody expected that much water in such a short period of time.

The rains hit hard, floodwaters rising so high it destroyed a road cutting off more than 100 households. I mean it was spectacular. The culvert, the seven-foot culvert in diameter was washed away like nothing. The road was gone. It took days and tireless efforts to get that road partially rebuilt, an unexpected disaster for the community. Meanwhile, out west, this is not what Calgarians expect to hear under their feet in August. Crunchy hail littering the ground like a bad day on a golf course. A hailstorm denting car windshields

and breaking house windows. In just over an hour, it became the costliest weather related disaster of 2024. It was a surprise to us even $2.8 billion is a lot. Jack Hamilton is the field coordinator for the Northern Hail Project out of Western University. The team spent days collecting data on the damage. Most of the houses are damaged.

They're siding, the roof shingles, and then any vehicles that were in the driveway or in the road. That hailstorm and Debbie were part of a record-setting year for insured losses, according to CAT IQ, which studies catastrophe costs. 2024 shattered the previous records with insured losses totaling over 8.5 billion dollars. Jason Clark is the Insurance Bureau of Canada's National Director of Climate Change. Summer was particularly bad, with wildfires destroying a part of historic Jasper, Alberta, and flooding in the Greater Toronto Area. We saw approximately a quarter of a million claims, 250,000 claims.

The warming atmosphere driven by humanity's greenhouse gases is raising the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. But Clark reminds us that this dollar figure is only part of the picture. The total loss is much higher. Individual families, homes, businesses, they are the ones that are feeling this on a day-to-day basis. We're not completely over the effects of Debbie yet. For Rougeau, the focus isn't just getting the money

reimbursed for the damage, but making sure parts of his community are ready for the next Debbie. You know, with climate change, we have to expect things like that are gonna happen more often. More often, more expensive too. Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto.

Coming up on the podcast, closing in on a deal, negotiators say they're close to an agreement to end the fighting in Gaza and free the hostages. Can Canada's free dental program survive the political upheaval ahead and the costs of a more expensive stamp? A phased ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas appears to be closer than ever, and pressure is mounting to secure an agreement before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office next week. Chris Brown breaks down where things stand and what's at stake for those on the ground. More so than any other time over the past 14 months, a ceasefire, along with the release

of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, appears close. All day, leaks from both Israeli officials and Hamas hinted at progress, that some kind of breakthrough had changed the dynamics. Gideon Tsar, Israel's foreign minister, gave this assessment after meeting Danish officials. Progress was made. We see some progress in the negotiations. With Donald Trump set the takeover as U.S. president in a week, his team, along with the current Biden administration, have been pressing both sides to make compromises.

White House spokesman Jake Sullivan said they are on the cusp of an agreement. It's because the gaps have fundamentally narrowed on the key issues. The formulas over prisoner exchanges, the formulas over the details of how Israel's forces will be postured in their pullback in the Gaza Strip, the details over how to conduct the humanitarian surge. But the Israeli families of dozens of hostages still believed to be alive in Gaza have had their hopes repeatedly and brutally dashed. At a Knesset meeting today,

some vented on far-right minister Betzazel Smotrich, who was already called a possible truce a catastrophe for Israel. This is a betrayal of the hostages, your position is a betrayal of the hostages, screamed Shimon Orr, whose son Avinatan was abducted from the Nova Music Festival. Israel's government says one of its war goals is to destroy Hamas, but the militant group

persists, even with Gaza in ruins and more than 46,000 dead, according to local health officials. In the last day, they say 40 people were killed in Israeli attacks on a hospital complex in northern Gaza and on a school which was being used as a shelter. Aid agencies have eviscerated Israel's government for denying aid to the northern part of the territory and creating a hunger crisis. Those who find supplies and manage to avoid bombs are being killed by being forced to live outdoors in tents

because their homes were destroyed. Noora Albatran's infant son froze to death, one of eight newborns killed because their families had no way of keeping them warm at night. My child died in front of my eyes from the cold and I couldn't do anything for him, she told her videographer.

Our only hope is that there's a ceasefire to give our children hope. It appears the deal now before Hamas and Israel's government is very close to the one the U.S. and the United Nations was pushing in May. Hamas appears to have given ground on the timing of a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Israel may have conceded on allowing Palestinians to return to their homes in the

north. Another round of negotiations is set for tomorrow to try to get it done. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. A possible ceasefire was front and center during a speech by U.S. President Joe Biden at the State Department. Biden set out to frame his foreign policy legacy. As the CBC's Paul Hunter tells us, he argued the United States is in a better place now than when he took over four years ago from Donald Trump. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's not the last time that as President Joe Biden will try to shape his legacy.

Indeed, he set for a farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday evening. But in delivering these remarks from the U.S. State Department, it was Biden's chance to frame what he's always seen as a key mission in his decades in public office, improving the U.S. standing in the world. And now America is more capable and I would argue better prepared than we've been in a long, long time. In his speech, Biden hit on a number of touchstones from the past four years. US efforts

toward the now possibly looming ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and US aid in the pushback against Russia in its continuing war on Ukraine chief among them. The truth is since that war began, I'm the only one that stood in the center of Kiev, not him, who never has. Think about it. And then there's the growing strength of China. Today I can report to the American people, we're in a better strategic position in the long-term competition with China than we were when I took office. But Biden made only passing reference to the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan,

seen by many as disastrous, leading to the Taliban regaining control of that country. Biden emphasized it also means America is no longer at war in that country, a point he highlighted as if to remind Americans Biden's work on the world stage is now handed off to Donald Trump. So it's clear, my administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play. And we're leaving them and America with more friends and stronger alliances. I will end that war in one day.

It'll take 24 hours. The incoming president has long pledged he'll end the war in Ukraine quickly, among other foreign policy remarks, though he's never said how. A little over a week from now, Biden's challenges become Trump's, including those Trump has freshly created, such as his apparent view of Canada. Because they should be the 51st state, really. It would make a great state. And the people of Canada like it. Where the US goes from there on foreign policy

is now effectively on Trump. May God bless you all. May God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Because for Joe Biden, that's a wrap. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. Advocates for the men who have been deep inside a South African mine shaft for months say more than 100 have died. We're already dead. The situation is too bad. Please help us. Please. In a video sent to the surface and released by the advocacy group, miners look painfully thin and plead for help.

There are dozens of wrapped forms that appear to be bodies. Officials say the miners went underground illegally. Police launched an operation to get them out, including blocking supplies of food and water. Many still refuse to come to the surface for fear of being arrested. Over the weekend, a court in Pretoria ordered the uninterrupted delivery of food and medical aid. A new operation started today to bring the man up. He made history in 2019 as Canada's first Mi'kmaq MP. Now Jaime Batiste wants to do it again as the first Indigenous Prime Minister.

The Cape Breton MP has declared his intention to run for leader of the Liberal Party. Batiste says he's received what he calls an outpouring of support from Indigenous leaders and others, encouraging him to put his name forward. He says he would restart national negotiations for a multi-billion dollar deal to reform the on-reserve child welfare system. With Canadians likely heading to the polls for a federal election this spring, the future of two high-profile government programs is a lot less certain. Parliament has approved legislation and billions in spending for both dental and pharmacare,

but Ottawa has yet to expand dental care to most eligible Canadians, and not a single drug has been covered through the pharmacare program. Marina von Stackelberg reports. Is it giving you any pain? Nova Scotia dentist Brandon Doucet says he witnesses firsthand why the Canadian dental care plan is needed. I've seen dozens of times people try to extract their own teeth with pliers and I'm left trying to dig out whatever's left.

Good. Right now, the insurance program helps pay for dental work on three million seniors, children and disabled Canadians. It was supposed to expand early this year to six million more people but so far that hasn't happened. Doucet wonders if it ever will. I absolutely do think that this program is at risk of being cut, especially if we don't get all nine million people signed up for the program before the next election. And I will be relentless in making sure that we finish it. But Health Minister Mark Holland may only have months before his government falls.

The clock is ticking to expand dental care and bring in pharma care. That program's future is also unsure. Ottawa hasn't reached a single deal with provinces or territories to pay for contraceptive and diabetes drugs. I am very excited and confident that we're going to be able to get that done. And I think then there will be a choice for Parliament. You know, do we get a little bit more time to get all of the pharmacare deals done and really make sure that everybody gets those drugs?

All it takes is will on behalf of this Liberal government. The NDP's health critic Peter Julian says his party won't be giving the Liberals any more time. The New Democrats supported the Liberal government for more than two years in return for bringing in the two programs. Julian says even with Parliament prorogued, the legislation and money had already been approved. All the tools are there for this Liberal government to implement things immediately and we are saying that there is no excuse for delay on this.

Dr. Carlos Quiñones, a dental public health expert at Western University, says the dental care plan came about because of politics. He hopes politics doesn't undo it. With respect to health and social services historically, once these programs are in place, they tend to stick around, even with changes in government. The issue though becomes how they look once a new government for example is in place. The Conservatives did not respond to CBC's multiple requests for comment. The party has openly criticized the Liberals dental and pharmacare plans

but the Conservatives have never answered questions if they would keep, change or outright cancel the two programs if they win the next election. Marina von Stackelberg, CBC News, Ottawa. The price of a stamp has just gone up and the complaints are building. Many customers are still dealing with the fallout from a national strike that halted mail delivery across the country for weeks. Nisha Patel reports. the country for weeks. Nisha Patel reports. These are the U.S. international and oversight stamps. Donald Chang sells a lot of stamps at his convenience store in Windsor, Ontario.

He says the price of postage usually only goes up by a few cents. Now it's increasing by 25 percent. But this is the largest I've seen for letter rates. There are hikes on all mail products. To mail a domestic letter, a single stamp will jump from $1.15 to $1.44. People are surprised and a little angry that they look at it as a big money grab. Canada Post said the change will better align stamp prices with the rising cost of providing letter mail service.

The corporation expects the move will bring in $80 million in new revenue this year. So that's going to affect 75% of our business. Cat Pasquatch sells Indigenous beading supplies. The bulk of her sales are through the mail serving customers in rural communities. We're looking at increases of over a dollar per package and given the volume of packages that we send, it is going to be significant not just to us, but to everyone in rural Canada.

For small business owners like her, this price hike on the heels of the postal strike is frustrating. And it would be really great to see some actual reform in the way that Canada Post operates. We need reliable, affordable service. That reform may need to come soon, says Ian Lee, a management professor at Carleton University. The volumes of the Post Office do not support and are not sustainable to support the existing system. Private couriers continue to grab up Canada Post's market share, while letter mail has

plummeted 60 percent over the past two decades. Right now, Canada Post doesn't use federal funding to operate. It relies on revenue from selling products like stamps. Lee says there could be a future where the service is entirely restructured. It's going to be much smaller. It's going to be mostly servicing rural and remote communities. And it probably will be subsidized by the taxpayer. Canada Post has lost more than $3 billion since 2018.

And the strike made financial matters even worse. While workers are back on the job, the corporation still hasn't reached a new labour deal with its union. Nisha Battelle, CBC News, Toronto. Finally, a pro football player going from catching passes to catching up? On his reading. So AJ Brown, while we're figuring that out, he's a little frustrated. Obviously he hasn't seen too many balls today. He's going to read a little passage here.

I haven't seen too many people read books. Certainly not in the playoffs. That's cool comic collected. During last night's NFL playoff game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, the broadcast crew caught Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown on the sidelines sitting alongside his quarterback and cracking open a paperback. Not the playbook but from the self-help section. Inner excellence, train your mind for extraordinary performance and the best possible life. By Jim Murphy. After the game Brown told reporters he likes to read and the book helps

him focus between plays. Why do you read during the games and what does it bring to you? Man, it gives me a sense of peace. That's a book that I bring every single game. My teammates call it a recipe. It's got a lot of points in there. It's a lot of mental game, a lot of mental parts about it. It's a lot of mental game, a lot of mental parts about it. And you know, what's the meaning? You know, this game is mental. The Eagles won the game and will move on to the next chapter of the playoffs. But the biggest winner of the night may have been the book's author and publisher who scored a publicity touchdown.

Prior to the game, Inner Excellence was a relatively obscure title, ranked number 552,497 on Amazon's best seller list. By this morning, it was number one. Thank you for joining us. This has been Your World Tonight for Monday, January 13th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. MUSIC