Your World Tonight - Canada loses to Switzerland, major project approval, more Europe heat records, and more

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

A nation groaned as Canada fell to Switzerland in the FIFA World Cup 2026 match in Vancouver. Despite the continued Canadian pressure in the final minutes of the game, the final score was 2- 1. The loss means that Canada’s men's team finishes second in their pool and still advances to the knockout round for the first time.Also: The federal government names its first three projects for a potential listing under the Building Canada act. They would be fast-tracked for construction as they are deemed to be in the national interest.And: It’s not even July but Europe has already had to deal with multiple heat waves with temperatures in many places exceeding 40 degrees. France has already recorded its hottest day ever and records are being set all over the continent.Plus: Flooding in Alberta, President Trump’s swampy reflecting pool, airline dynamic pricing, innovative burn treatment used in Ontario, and more.

With the help of Google AI, CropMind is giving farmers early and accurate insights on crop health, helping them protect their harvests and increase yields. Innovation is Canada's story. Let's tell it together. Find out more at G.co slash Canadian Innovation. This is a CBC podcast. Today, I think we did the team proud.

We did a Schmokone proud. We did all of this without Alfonso Davies. So it's only up from here. We qualified for the knockout round. Heartbreak for fans across the country as Canada loses a high-stakes match to Switzerland. Team Canada kept fighting through the final minutes, putting continuous pressure on the Swiss, but ultimately falling short. The good news is that it's not over.

Canada advances to the second round of the World Cup. This is your world tonight. I'm Helen Mann. It is Wednesday, June 24th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast? A very, very proud day. hopefully we'll look back and say it is an historic day where we collectively decide to move forward on these essential projects.

The federal government names its first three major projects, all in Canada's north, that could soon be declared to be in the national interest. The highways, a deep seaport, and a nuclear waste site that could see their construction accelerated. A disappointing result for Canada today, two to one against Switzerland in their final group, stage match. It was a high-stakes game on home ground with fans bringing the electricity inside and outside the stadium. Canada kept pushing into the final seconds of the game with numerous changes.

Caroline Bargut is there and she joins us now. Caroline, not a win, but far from the end for Canada, it was breathtaking to watch in those final moments. Give us a flavor of what it's like there now where you are. Oh, you could just see the disappointment on everyone's face. You know, They're just still streaming down the street from BC Place. You see a lot of long faces, a lot of red T-shirts, people wearing their Canada shirts, really hoping for a different outcome, of course. You know, this was a very different game than last week's match against Qatar. The first half, of course, was scoreless.

Even though Canada and Switzerland both had some close calls, then we get into the second half. And as you know, less than a minute in and Switzerland scored the very first goal of the game. Then they scored another one. You know, there's a moment when we thought, you know, Canada might make a comeback. 30 minutes into the second half, promised David scores. He just got onto the field, replacing another player. The team rallied, but they just couldn't get another goal. Fans are super disappointed, but still very proud of their team.

A lot of energy there for them. Would have been nice to get the win for sure, but that's a tough game. I'm not disappointed, but very happy where we're at. I think honestly, if we mesh a little bit more better together, we can get through the knockout stages. Before it started, Canadian midfielder Ismail Kone, he came into B.C. Place. He was on crutches there to support his team. He had fractured his leg last week in the match against Qatar. Inside B.C. Place, fans held up his number eight just to show how much they loved and support him. Going into this match, Canada was on top of Group B. They just needed a draw. a win to stay on top. Unfortunately, they didn't get that. Switzerland was the higher-ranked

team and was favored to win. So what's next for Canada? The good news is Canada will still advance to the first round of the knockouts, but the bad news is they're going to lose their home team advantage. So instead of playing in Vancouver next week, their next game is on Sunday in Los Angeles against Group A's runner-up. So it's either going to be South Korea, Czechia or South Africa. Caroline, thank you. Thanks. Prime Minister Mark Carney promised a nation-building agenda.

Today, his government announced the first three projects to be built as his projects of national interest, allowing them to be fast-tracked for approval and construction. The aim to accelerate northern infrastructure and economic development. But as David Thurton reports, some critics say they're moving too fast. I think everybody in the Satu and down the valley are all kind of excited, I should say. Charles McNally is the chair of the Satu Secretariat. He represents five First Nations in the Northwest Territories. He says they've been waiting for years for a highway to link their communities to the rest of Canada.

Right now, during the summer months, you've got to wait for the barge with the water level low, and it's a struggle for them also. The McKenzie Valley Highway would connect those communities. communities and others across the Northwest Territories. The project is one of three that Ottawa is moving towards designating as in the national interests, a listing that could speed up approval and get the projects completed more quickly. We are gathered here today to announce good news for Canada's north and for the country as a whole. Steve McKinnon, the transport minister, says the federal government is ready to get behind the highway in a big way. And it's not the

only project Ottawa is looking to accelerate. McKinnon says it's also also considering an all-weather road leading to a deep water port in Grace Bay Nunavut. The Graze Bay Road and Port Project will help establish Canada's first overland connection to a deep water port on the Arctic Ocean. The third project Ottawa is considering for fast-track approval is an underground nuclear waste facility to store spent radioactive material from existing nuclear reactors and new ones the government hopes to build. The proposed site for this facility is in the community of Igness.

That's in Northwestern Ontario. Rick Dumas is the mayor of Marathon, Ontario, and head of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association. He supports the new facility, but still has some concerns. But with that being said, there's still going to be movement of that nuclear waste along the highway corridors, and we want to make sure that our highways are safe, not only for the nuclear waste, for all of our residents. Others say they too have questions about the impact of these.

projects on the environment, and in the case of the highways, how it could affect caribou migration. Joseph Tobac is the president of the Yamoga Lands Corporation. It represents First Nations in one of the communities near where the McKenzie Valley Highway could be built. Tobak says his community has not been properly consulted. You know, all I'm saying is that I'm looking to ensure that proper protocol engagement and consultation is followed through with. This is the first time the federal government has sought to use the power it granted itself in Bill C-5. It's one Canadian Economy Act. The purpose of that act was to get big projects built fast. But even with these new powers, it will be years before any of these new projects are completed. David Thurton, CBC News,

Ottawa. Family and friends, first responders and officials gathered in Etobico, Ontario to honor Toronto Police Constable Mark Pinozoto. Venezuela was killed while executing a search warrant related to several shootings, including at the U.S. consulate. Toronto Police estimate 17,000 people marched in his funeral procession. Funerals have also been held for the victims of Monday's shooting in Montreal. Worners gathered to remember Michel Mazrahi at a funeral home in Coteinage.

Tributes for the 68-year-old describe him as a generous and kind man. A service is also honoring 34-year-old Montreal Police Constable, Mohammed Lamin Ben-Rodwan. He's being remembered as a dedicated community member and a loving father. Coming right up. Heavy flooding drenches parts of central Alberta following days of near constant rain. The impact on people and businesses as more wet weather could be on the way. Plus, the Washington reflecting pool that has officials in the Trump administration seeing green.

The algae and peeling paint that refused to cooperate, despite recent costly work ahead of the country's big birthday. And later, this story. People who suffer the most serious burns usually receive skin grafts, but they can leave terrible scars and enduring pain. Doctors in Hamilton, Ontario seized on a recent tragedy to try something new, and the results stunned everyone involved. I have to say, I don't think anybody experienced this acceleration of regeneration of a deep burn, ever. I'm Tashauna Reed, and I'll have the story. of the pioneering use of tiny cell particles capable of healing severe wounds. That's later on your world tonight.

People in central Alberta continue to grapple with the impact of days of heavy rain. Overland flooding hit the middle third of the province, spreading the damage far beyond swollen rivers, washing out roads, turning farmland into ponds, and filling basements. The CBC's Stephanie Cram is in the town of Tofield, an hour from Edmonton. Stephanie, tell us what's happened to Tofield over the last few days. Over the weekend, the town was hit by a deluge of water. The town declared a state of emergency on Sunday because the wastewater system was at capacity.

According to the mayor, the basements of some residents flooded, but the stretch of town most impacted was off the highway. There was a gas station, a motel and the Tofield Packers, a local meatpacking company. Today, you can see sandbags still set up around the Tofield Packers building. and the parking lot of the hotel is still covered in water. This kind of weather event is uncommon for this part of Alberta. Here's Mayor Adam Hill. No, this is completely its own standalone event. Most of the residents that have lived here for generations have said

they have never seen water like this before. So this is one in 100 event, as they say. But no, this is not a norm. In fact, we were sort of preparing ourselves for the possibilities of fires because of how dry it was. So this is not something that we expected. And this has been the case across a big chunk of the province, right? Yes, on Sunday, several towns and cities in the area declared a state of emergency or an advisory asking residents to reduce their use of water.

The worry being the wastewater systems were at capacity and were at risk of flooding. By Sunday night, even Edmonton released an advisory asking residents to reduce their water use by avoiding taking long showers and refraining from doing laundry or running their district. wash washers. So what are people being told to do now? It looks like more rain may be coming. Yeah, the mayor told me the town is prepared for more rain that's on its way. He said the system has been working as it should. In the forecast, it looks like the area might get about 30 to 60 millimeters of more rain. And the ground here is already saturated from the rain that they had last weekend. So there is a risk of flooding in the area. But because of all the rain, the residents here in Tofield,

are now battling the mosquitoes. Gosh, okay, Stephanie, thank you very much. Thank you. The CBC's Stephanie Cram in Tofield, Alberta. A brutal heat wave is gripping parts of Europe today, shattering multiple records. The soaring temperatures have forced school closures, strained power grids,

and contributed to dozens of deaths. Chris Brown is in London in the middle of this extreme heat, hearing from people just trying to cope. The elementary school, school kids at Le Col de Petit, a bilingual school in London, may have fared best today. No classes and teacher Elise Messnage spraying them with a water hose to keep them cool. Each pupil has their own bottle of water, the teacher have also waters. We keep water, of course, for everyone if needed.

Britain smashed its record for its all-time hottest day in June, just over 36 degrees near Portsmouth in South England, making it a brutal commute into London on trains that aren't all air-conditioned. I'm absolutely sweating. I'm practically swimming in my own sweat, which is not pleasant. UK officials issued an exceptional red, extreme heat warning, the highest level possible. Construction workers were among those who had no choice but to push through it. Awful, to be honest. It's horrible to shape. Britain isn't built for hot weather. The buildings are old and trap heat.

air conditioning is rare and London's density with so many concrete buildings seems to make hot weather worse. In Hackney in East London, Krista Brown offered her community centre as a shelter from the hot weather. I think that with climate changing, the way it is changing and we're facing more adverse, we're facing more adverse weather conditions like all the time. Tracy Daly had her granddaughter with her because her school closed. Yeah, buildings are not designed for hot weather. Like for instance, I've had to pick her up from school early, and that's because their school is from the 40s.

More records are being set in mainland Europe, where an estimated 94 million people are enduring temperatures over 35 degrees. More than 50 people have died in France from the heat wave, most from drowning. Some cities have banned swimming, but many people are ignoring the order. From Switzerland to the Netherlands, it was like being in a blast furnace. And Michael Ivanacic wondered how his dog would cope.

It presents quite a challenge for pet owners. Like the asphalt gets really warm. They need to cool off. So you try to find the spots of shades because you still need to go out to urinate and to poop. Major tourist attractions such as the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower in Paris have scaled back their hours or shut completely.

and the stifling weather may still have a few days to run. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. A Russian opposition party member has been sentenced to seven years in prison for anti-war social media posts in 2022. Maxim Kroglov is a former member of Moscow's regional parliament. He was arrested in October under charges of lying about the army. Sergei Matroken, a member of Kroglow's, party says the court's decision is a repressive sentence and a return to the darkest times.

The Kremlin says its censorship laws are necessary to keep Russia united. France has its first ever confirmed case of Ebola. The patient is a doctor who recently returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The World Health Organization says the global risk remains low, but it warns the spread of Ebola in the DR Congo outpaces the country's ability to respond to it. The virus has killed more than 260 people in the country. Canada has never recorded an Ebola case. Fencing now blocks access to the troubled reflecting pool in Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump claims vandals wrecked the new paint job and fouled the water. His critics say it was mismanagement. At the pool today, workers continued to remove algae in hopes of making it presentable for the upcoming celebration of America's 250th birthday. The CBC's Katie Simpson reports on the challenges they face. The hum of heavy machinery interrupts the calm at what is typically one of the most serene places in all of Washington, D.C. Hoses pump a white liquid into the reflecting pool.

No longer is the water a Kermit the Frog green. The algae is mostly gone now, Triveled up and dead collecting in beige-colored piles underwater waiting to be vacuumed up. So the water, as you can see, is crystal clear. Erin Kramer is a spokeswoman for green water, the company hired to get rid of the algae. It's owned by a Trump donor, which won a no-bid contract to get the work. We are just the algae people, but we love to talk about algae. Underway right now, she says, is a highly technical process,

pumping ozone into the water through something called nanobble technology. teeny tiny particles allows the ozone to permeate the rest of the water. It breaks up and kills the algae. The pool still has issues. You can see plenty of chunks of peeling paint. Meme makers have dubbed it the art of the peel. Tests are also being done after a dead duck was found in the pool and two more dead ducks were found nearby.

Local wildlife officials are trying to determine whether chemicals in the pool, the construction, or the peeling paint may be factors in the deaths. Somebody went in with a knife and cut it. They cut it up good. Donald Trump has repeatedly accused vandals of slicing the pool's liner, though he has provided no evidence, no suspect descriptions have been released, and no surveillance or social media footage has surfaced.

He is not blaming Atlantic Industrial Codings, the company that won a no-bid contract to do the renovation, which he originally said would cost under $2 million, but ended up being roughly seven times higher. It's beautiful. And it makes you think of your country. and he moves your heart. Plenty of curious tourists,

check out the reflecting pool with mixed reactions. I don't mind saying it's an embarrassment. I was amazed. We did a quick tour when I was here, and this is beautiful. I just love it. Some supporters of Donald Trump also think the criticism has been overblown.

The left-wing media will hit him on everything he does. And if he tried to cure cancer, they will find a problem. This is a shame. Oh, boy. I just wish we can become united again as one country and not fight each other. As America approaches its 250th birthday, unity seems highly unlikely. Divisions are far deeper than the reflecting pool here.

Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Olympic athletes could soon be paid after competing at summer or winter games. The International Olympic Committee is going to. creating a grant program. Athletes will be eligible to apply for $10,000 grants after their events. The IOC will pay out more than $100 million U.S. Athletes who competed in this year's Winter Games in Italy will be eligible. The program will run through the 2028 summer games in Los Angeles. The IOC has faced growing calls to award prize money to athletes.

A Montreal couple is speaking out against Air Canada after a sale left them paying more instead of less. As Sophia Harris reports, dynamic pricing was behind the higher cost, prompting calls for better transparency. Well, they're saying, oh, you get 25% off. I thought, okay, I can save some money and doing this. Dan Pomerantz and Melanie Lyman Obramovich thought they'd scored a deal. The Montreal couple booked a trip with their Canada. But about 15 hours later, they learned about a new promotion, 25% off base fares. So they immediately canceled their tickets at no charge and rebooked. This is great. We'll just cancel it, rebook, and we'll get 25% off. Fantastic. And then, yeah, it was very quickly disappointed. Turns out the new tickets were more expensive,

even with the discount. I was pretty angry. I was very unimpressed. I felt misled. In an email, Air Canada said the couple's original booking included an undisclosed 20% discount, which didn't show up on their receipt. But that doesn't explain why the base fare for the couple's new tickets, the steeper, 25% discount, cost almost $6 more. Not much money, but for Pomerantz and Lyman Obramovich, it was a question of principle. That, like, the sale wasn't really a sale at all. Air Canada attributed the higher cost to dynamic pricing, a widespread industry practice, where the base fair climbs in real time when there's increased demand, like during a sale. That's dynamic pricing. The pricing will change depending on what the market demands for that,

and that's legit. Former Air Canada executive John Graddock says dynamic pricing can cause confusion for customers. How you base a sale has morphed into something today that is incomprehensible to the traveling public. It is the Wild West, as I call it. There is no transparency. Lyman Abramovich and Pomerantz agree. We have no way to see how dynamic pricing is actually affecting the prices of things. So we can't truly be an informed consumer in that sense. I am very frustrated with the industry and I would like to see some change.

Law Professor Pascal Chapelin says one solution is to mandate that businesses be upfront about the use of dynamic pricing during a sale. Yes, disclosing this could help consumers to make, I think, a more informed decision. It's more complicated. It's not as clear-cut as in another era where we didn't have dynamic pricing. Canada's Competition Bureau says dynamic pricing is a legally accepted practice. but it can raise red flags if it leads to unfair competition and that the Bureau continues to monitor its use in the country. Sophia Harris, CBC News, Toronto. Sources are telling CBC News that Prime Minister Mark Carney

will make an announcement about the future of 24 Sussex Drive in the coming weeks. The residents, which is supposed to house the Prime Minister, has been in disrepair and vacant for over a decade. Successive Prime Ministers have been unwilling to invest money in the property worried about the political impact of such a decision. In April, Carney told the CBC's Adrian Arsenault, he wants his successors to live in the house. Are you going to fix it up?

I think it's a responsibility of, yeah, to hand off things better than you found them, and certainly the current state of 21 Sussex. It couldn't be any worse. It's an embarrassment. Carney and predecessor Justin Trudeau have lived at Rideau Cottage on the grounds of Rideau Hall. An Ontario hospital is heralding the remarkable recovery of a young woman whose face had been horribly burned. Doctors credit a radical departure from the practice of applying skin grafts, opting instead to inject her with tiny parts of human cells that allow burned skin to grow and heal itself with stunning results.

The CBC's to Shauna Reid has the story. This is early on during the hospital stay. Burn surgeon Dr. Mark Yeshkeh, scans through images on his laptop. They show patient Caitlin Jeffrey with severe burns to her neck and face. The 18-year-old was injured, days before, when a fire broke out at a fraternity party in London, Ontario. I remember driving home and I was like, I do not accept to do a skin graft. I don't want her face to hear with scars. Determined to find a better outcome, his medical team at the Hamilton Health Sciences Burn Center acted quickly,

getting approval from Health Canada for an experimental treatment using exosomes. They're tiny particles produced by cells in the body that carry signals from one cell to another, repairing tissue. I have to say, I don't think anybody experienced this acceleration of regeneration of a deep burn, ever. Through injections under the skin, the medical team applied one trillion exosomes over two sessions in a first of its kind treatment. And then after the second exosome, really it unfolded that she healed remarkably and to the level that nobody did expect it. For Jeffrey, already dealing with the trauma of the incident, a remarkable result. I had thought that, like, my face was going to look the way it did for the rest of my life. But pretty much, like, right after I got out of the treatment, like, the difference from, like, before and after was, like, night and day.

She avoided skin grafting surgery, parts of her face seemingly back to normal after a few weeks. And just every day got better and better. Exosomes have proven effective in treating wounds. But researchers had yet to test them in human burns until now. Dr. Alex Morgiski is a plastic reconstructive surgeon with the University of Alberta. He commended the work of the Hamilton medical team. If you do the best skin graft, you still end up with scar and problems, and it's never going to return back to exactly how it was.

So it's incredible to see this technology being used. Still, he says, there's a lot more to learn. It's going to be really interesting to see what exactly the depth of burn, can be used on and really their capacity to regenerate tissue. Spencer Beach underwent numerous skin grafts after a workplace fire nearly killed him. You know, 20 seconds and a fire added up to five years of my life in recovery. 90% of his body was severely burned. It took a toll physically and mentally. If we can find ways to speed up the recovery and improve the outcomes, it's an amazing thing

we're doing. Researchers at Hamilton Health Sciences hope to publish their findings. then do clinical trials to better understand exosomes and prove they can work for others. Toshana Reid, CBC News, Toronto. Finally tonight, would you watch every World Cup game from a glass cube in the middle of New York's Times Square for $50,000 U.S.? That would be great, you know. I think it's lovely. If they could pay me to watch the games, I'm ready to do it. I would do it. Well, I think it's nice, but it might just be kind of weird sitting there and everyone can just look at you and you don't really have any privacy.

The idea getting mixed reaction from passers by. But 29-year-old Austin Franklin and 26-year-old Kevin Okoto were quick to say yes. They beat out thousands of people to become co-chief World Cup Watchers, an effort by U.S. broadcaster Fox to drum up interest in the tournament. That means taking in all 104 games over 39 days and creating content for fans from a temporary glass-walled studio. For Franklin, that's just fine. Yeah, the craziest part of it is how frequently I forget that I'm in Times Square with people watching me.

Like, I'll be watching a match for 10, 15 minutes, he gets sucked into it, and I look to my right and see Kevin and then see all of these people walking around Times Square, and you totally forget that you're in a cube in the middle of Times Square with people watching it. The Fishbowl's face includes all the essentials for professional soccer viewer, two leather couches, a pair of large TVs, along with a front of, foosball table and all sorts of soccer memorabilia. For food, there served dishes from each of the countries at play. If that all sounds pretty good, Okoto says it's still a lot of work.

Kind of gotten worn down a bit. You know, I've gotten worn down. Austin's gotten a bit worn down. So just learning how to, you know, keep up with everything that's going on. The men also have a memory wall, not taking any moment of the unique experience for granted. We try to take a Polaroid for each match. So just getting some memories, our memories in. and also taking photos with our guests as well.

So once we get to the final, we can recount on the journey that we've been on. Thank you for being with us. This has been your world tonight for Wednesday, June 24th. I'm Helen Mann. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.com.