Your World Tonight - Canadians missing in Nepal, Ottawa’s negotiator on breakdown of talks, politics effect on health, and more

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Intensive search efforts for thousands of missing people after the terrible flooding on the border of Nepal and Tibet. More than 30 Canadians are among the nearly 2,000 still missing.And: Canada’s chief negotiator is speaking out for the first time since trade talks with the U.S. collapsed a week ago. Janice Charette says the government is willing to get back to the table, under the right conditions.Also: Politics can be stressful — reading about it, thinking about it, listening to it. Contested elections. Referendums. Trade wars. Renaming lakes. Researchers say it's also bad for our health.Plus: Canada’s GDP rebound, Alberta data centre pushback, Grand Theft Auto video game leak, and more.

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This is a CBC podcast. And, you know, all of us holding our breath, just waiting for news and holding on to hope. Hope that intensive search efforts for thousands of missing people will find survivors instead of victims of the terrible flooding on the border of Nepal and Tibet. More than 30 Canadians are among the nearly 2,000 missing and forecasts of rain threaten to make the search even more dangerous. This is your world tonight. It's Friday, August 28th, just before 6 p.m. Eastern. I'm Stephanie Skanderas. Also on the podcast, This is the fight of our lives. I think we've all felt it this past week, especially. We are in an economic war. The governments of Canada and the U.S. are painting very different

pictures of why trade talks failed. Canadian Union leaders made their views known with a rally on Parliament Hill. Rescue workers in Nepal are facing a difficult task as mud and debris block access to many areas. And the threat of more floods increases the difficulty and the danger. Nepal's government says it does not need help with the rescue efforts, but does need aid to help more than 90,000 people who have been affected by the floods and landslides. Sasha Petrissik reports on how Canada and other nations are answering that call. Amid the mud and rushing water in a mountain village, tears of joy and hugs

as a survivor is found in Nepal. An army helicopter plucks another survivor out of the devastation below as others are pulled from mud-filled tunnels. They are the lucky ones as a massive rescue effort struggles to find more than 1,900 people still missing. after a wall of ice and debris swept through the Himalaya mountains between Nepal and China on Wednesday. More than 500 villagers, trekkers and pilgrims are confirmed dead. In some areas, the search has had to be suspended.

Even worse flooding is coming, says a policeman, as experts nervously eye satellite images of water pooling in high-level valleys. At a hospital in Kathmandu, crowds form, with families posting photos of those they can't reach. He was missing from China-Naparabod. Karma's uncle went trekking. Yeah, this is the most dangerous and devastating. The worst may be in remote regions where no help has arrived, says Tamara Damuria, with the NGO Chorus International.

Further north, some of the communities have completely cut out. cannot even get there to understand what's left, and the damage is way more severe. So far, Nepal has turned down offers of search teams from other countries, including the UK, U.S., and South Korea. But aid and financial help is needed, and international agencies are responding. People need food, clean water, shelter. Canada is sending $5 million in aid, says Randip Sarai, the federal government's second. Secretary of State for international development. We have also offered to deploy relief supplies from emergency stockpiles by the Canadian Red Cross should they be requested.

But right now, officials in Nepal say they still don't even know the scale of what they're dealing with. Sasha Petrosik, CBC News, Toronto. Nearly 2,000 people are still unaccounted for, a number that includes 32 Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Officials say no Canadians have been found among those confirmed dead. As Philip Lechenneok reports, relatives here are watching, waiting, and hoping. Nisha Cotetia scans news feeds from the region, hoping to see her cousins, Megha and Davil Shah. All of us holding our breath, just waiting for news and holding on to hope. The Vancouver couple were on a tour along the Nepal-China border

when the catastrophic flash flood triggered mudslides. So far, Katatia says the information from the tour company has been sparse. That is possible that some from the tour group are on higher ground or on higher level. And if that is the case, you know, they're just waiting to be rescued. When we watch those images, we feel like we are there with them. We are there with them. Santos Pudel watches video of the rescue efforts with a sense of helplessness. He's president of the Nepalese Heritage Center of Ottawa and most of his family

is there. Fortunately, none of our immediate family were harmed. But my ancestral home where I grew up, it was close to Narany River. That's one of the riverbed system impacted by that flood. But he says his family are witnessing the tragic aftermath firsthand. They started discovering those bodies just, you know, less than one kilometer from my home. So it was very heartbreaking, very emotional. He says Canada was one of the first countries to help Napa.

after a 2014 earthquake that killed thousands of people. We hope Canadian government be on the ground. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand confirmed that there are 32 Canadians and permanent residents missing. But she says that figure could rise as global affairs has fielded hundreds of calls from concerned friends and family. We know that there are more Canadians that are in the region than calls that we are receiving. Almost 900 Canadians have voluntarily registered as traveling in Nepal, and over 10,000 Canadians are in China. She says five Canadian officials are on the ground in Nepal,

plus an honorary consul. They're very much in touch with officials from the government, with the trekking and hiking companies. Obu Atikari is the managing director of Touch Khalish Travels and Tours in Kathmandu. He says the region has significance to Hindus, Buddhists and other worshippers. lot of teams were going in for the pilgrimage. All the religions, Mount Kailash is the most important one. So everyone was just heading to Mount Kailash for our pilgrimage.

The Isha Foundation reports a group of about 80 of their pilgrims from dozens of countries are missing. Twelve Canadians were part of the group. Most are from Toronto. Philip Lyshenock, CBC News, Toronto. Coming right up, the Canadian economy may be under threat, but the latest numbers suggest it's doing a. okay, with growth in the spring largely due to the energy sector. And GTA. If you know what those

initials stand for, you probably know the latest version of one of the world's most popular video games has been delayed. But just like a gas tank that's been shot by a mob boss, there's been a leak. Later, we'll have this story. The trade war with the U.S. and Alberta referendum, a Quebec election. There's a lot going on politically. these days and it's stressing Canadians out. Politics do stress me out, especially what's going on with the US right now. It is overwhelming for sure. Way too much. I'm Megan Fitzpatrick in Toronto and coming up on your world tonight, I'll tell you about the health impacts political stress can have and the research behind it. Canada's chief negotiator is speaking out for the first time since trade talks with the US

collapsed a week ago. Janice Charette says the government is willing to get back to the table, under the right conditions. Her comments come as workers held a rally in Ottawa to voice their fears and frustrations. Ashley Burke has more on that. Hundreds of workers on Parliament Hill fed up with Donald Trump, his tariffs and taunts. He thinks he has the power to control the world. Jean Walters works for Uniform and was at the rally. Trump does not have the power to make this Lake, Ontario Lake America. It's just one of his gimmicks that he used in American, put his name on every platform.

every building. So he's like a clown. That's like a clown to us. We don't worry about that. We more worry about what deal we're going to get. We are in an economic war. Unifor's president, Lana Payne, is calling on the government to protect workers and reject any future deal containing poison pills. And we can't take a goddamn bad trade deal with Donald Trump. There was no stone on turn. We did everything we thought we could. Canada's chief trade negotiator is now speaking for the first time since walking away from the table a week ago. We wouldn't even got us started in the negotiations if we had not been willing to at least understand that we were going to face some tariff for Canadian products coming into the U.S. market. Janice Charette spoke exclusively to CBC Radio's The House.

In an interview with host Catherine Cullen airing Saturday, she gave Canada's side of the story, which contrasts with the American side's account. Do you view this as a difference of opinion or dishonesty? I would see this as a difference of opinion. Yesterday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik claimed Canada waited until the final hours of talks to say it wanted to include trucks in tariff relief for the auto sector. The words, medium and heavy-duty trucks were raised in these train negotiations at Friday at 4 o'clock. It's true that Canada raised medium and heavy-duty trucks at 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon. We also raised them on Monday.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Howard Lutnik was not at the negotiating table. She also responded to the U.S. trade representative saying that the U.S. didn't push hard in the final hours to drop Canadian rules requiring streaming services to make it easy to find French programs. Right up until the final negotiating session, Friday night, the Americans were still asking

for us to remove those provisions. Asked how hard it will be to get back to the table, Charette suggested it is possible. I think of it as our pens are down, but the door is open. We're prepared to go and work with the United States on a deal that would be in the economic interest of Canadians, as long as it doesn't impact on Canadian sovereignty. But there's no sign of if and when that might happen. Ashley Burke, CBC News, Ottawa.

Amidst all the trade uncertainty, there's actually some good news for the Canadian economy. Canada's GDP expanded in the second quarter of 2026. exports, business investment, and household spending all searched. But as the trade war enters a new phase, there are questions about how much of that growth can be sustained. So let's bring in CBC's Peter Armstrong. Peter, first of all, why did the economy grow so much and so well in the spring? It's a lot of different things happening all at the same time.

Oil, obviously, is the big one. We're not just shipping more oil, remember? Canadian producers are getting a better price as the price of oil went up. So the value of those exports is up significantly. And that fans out into the economy, right? Other sectors benefit as well. Machinery and equipment. They're manufactured in Quebec and Ontario.

They see their orders go up. Financial services, insurance, lawyers. They all do well. But it's not just oil, though, is it? No, this is a really broad-based gain. And at the core of all of it is business investment is up. And for a long stretch, they're Canadian businesses. We've talked about this.

We're reluctant to spend, given all the uncertainty. So what changed? We don't fully know why, but the fact that they did change matters in and of itself. Here's Douglas Porter, the chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. Yeah, I mean, I always like to say that the economy is really based on millions of decisions made every single day. I mean, and what these numbers are telling us is a lot of those decisions have actually started to turn or had started to turn positive through the spring. you know, despite what had been a somewhat uncertain environment before mid-year, businesses had decided that, you know, they had to look through this and move on. He almost seemed to hesitate there, though, and he said the businesses had started to turn positive.

Can that positivity hold? Well, on the one hand, that is the big question. But even if it doesn't, all of this does is give the economy a little bit more cushion. It can retrace a bit, given the new technology. Harris and still be okay. There was a lot of talk in the spring about a technical recession. Is that just wiped out now? Yeah. So Statistics Canada often and regularly revises its numbers as it gets more and better information, right? Today it revised first quarter growth of this year from 0.0% to 0.1%. So instead of a tiny contraction, we had a very small amount of growth. It was still

very weak, but it avoided that technical definition of a recession of two back-to-back quarters of negative growth. Okay, so let's look forward. 3.3% growth in the second quarter is great. What are we looking at in the next quarter? We're still going to see growth, just not as much, like 1% in the third quarter. Some of what we saw here were temporary gains. I mean, we saw auto exports rise by 27%. What happened there? It's really just a seasonal burst, you know, some changes to the way the plants work and then some pent-up activity. But even a temporary climb is a benefit. Canada's economy needs all the help it can get, and these quarterly numbers, they help a lot. Okay, CBC Senior Business Correspondent, Peter Armstrong, thank you so much.

You bet. Data centers have become a hot-button issue in Alberta. More than 12,000 people attended a virtual town hall this week, with many telling their government they are not happy with plans to add more. Stephanie Cramm reports. In the interest of data sovereignty, it's best for that to be stored here rather than in places like China or even the United States. Premier Daniel Smith trying to sell Albertans on the benefits of building data centers in the province.

Last night, over 12,000 Albertans attended a virtual town hall with the Premier and members of her caucus, taking questions from Albertans, many concerned with the environmental impacts. They'll be using loads of water. I mean, enormous amounts. Are there any guarantees that the public will not inherit than the environmental liability or the reclamation cost? Nate Globish, Minister of Technology and Innovation, assured there is no risk to the province. The project proponent pays for everything and bears all of the risk. And Albertans take none of the risk. When it comes to water use, the Premier says provincial legislation must be followed,

but there are no plans to restrict companies. There, of course, are other types of industrial users that do use water. We don't say that you're not allowed to use water at all. The town hall comes on the heels of the Alberta Utilities Commission rejecting a power plant, built for a data center in Olds, Alberta. And after a $13 billion meta data center was announced for Sturgeon County, last night, Premier Smith said companies creating their own power could benefit Albertans. If you want to come to Alberta, you've got to have a plan to build your own power.

Ideally, build more power than they need so they can sell it back to the transmission grid. Martin Carston from the University of Waterloo says companies promising to use their own power is a step in the right direction. but it doesn't go far enough. Data centers, when done right, they can be really attractive customers in the power grid because of the variety of services that they offer and the fact that this goes with sort of the capability of adjusting to supply and demand of electricity. But it all only really makes sense if you're strongly going towards renewables.

Meanwhile, the Alberta NDP raised concerns. This is amateur hour in a way that I've never seen before. Leader Nahed Nanchi. We're announcing that we're calling on government to pause new approvals to force every single AI data center project to go through an impact assessment and to develop a robust framework. The province has one more in-person meeting on September 11th in Grand Prairie. Stephanie Cramm, CBC News, Edmonton.

The four astronauts who were on the Artemis II mission have been awarded the U.S. Congressional Space Medal of Honor. They were the first humans to travel beyond the moon, in more than 50 years. Reed Wiseman was one of them. We wear these four medals, and we are going to wear them with pride. But please know,

it is not pride for ourselves that we feel, and I truly mean that. It is pride for the grit that our families had when we left this planet. It is pride for that team, this NASA team that sent us on this mission, and it is pride for the international community that stood alongside us,

got this vehicle ready, operated it, and cheered us on. Also on that team was Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. He's the first non-NASA astronaut to receive the medal, along with being the first Canadian to travel to the moon. Last month, Hansen announced he would be leaving the Canadian Space Agency to become a reservist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Ottawa is extending its Ebola travel restrictions for another month.

Canadians and permanent residents who are returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, face mandatory health assessments and quarantine. Immigration and visa applications will stay on hold. Officials in the DRC today say the virus is still spreading in their country. About 3,000 people have died. So far, there have been no cases in Canada, and the risk here remains low. The political headlines don't offer much of a break from worrying health or economic news, contested elections, referend,

trade wars, renaming lakes. Researchers say it's adding to the already stressful lives of Canadians, and that's bad for our health. Megan Fitzpatrick tells us more. Politics do stress me out, especially what's going on with the U.S. right now. On a downtown Toronto Street, it doesn't take long to find Canadians with politics on the mind. I think everyone's pretty stressed out about politics right now. It's hard not to be.

The trade war with the U.S. and Alberta referendum, global conference. these are all the kinds of political events that can trigger stress, according to academics, who studied this very topic. Dr. Alison Crawford, Chief Medical Officer for Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline. When people are distressed, if it is about politics, it manifests in very similar ways, like depression, anxiety, worry. Callers report losing sleep and feeling overwhelmed and helpless, said Crawford. Especially related to finances or people's sense of security or the safety of the world, We do often see that in our textures and callers. This type of stress is an entire field of study

that started taking off in the U.S. around the 2016 presidential election. It's growing in Canada, too. At Western University in London, Ontario, political science professor Amanda Friesen launched the Body Politics Lab in 2022. We're interested in what happens to people's physical bodies when they encounter politics. Her team demonstrated one of their studies for us when we visited the campus.

All right. So now I'm just going to put a ring on your finger that's going to measure your physiological responses. PhD students Samantha Jones slipped a ring-like device onto the finger of a fellow researcher. As he scrolled through TikTok, the ring sent real-time data on his sweat level,

skin temperature, and pulse. When the study was carried out last year, Jones said one of the key takeaways was not how people physically reacted to any political content they saw, but emotionally. They were more likely to report feeling negatively after. And they were more likely to engage with that content.

They checked the comments, reposted it, shared it, and that informs their algorithm. So despite this content making them feel negatively as they report, they are inadvertently saying that they want more. So if politics is making some people feel bad and stressed, should they avoid it? Friesen said her lab is studying how both people and democracy can stay healthy. I mean, there is evidence that shows that if politics is stressing you, out and you stop following politics, you feel less stressed, which is fine, I suppose, but it's really bad for democracy. Some cope with political stress by taking action, which is good for democracy. For others, though, experts say to take breaks from consuming news and social media

and only engage in political debates if they're respectful. Megan Fitzpatrick, CBC News, Toronto. Excited fans in Paris, calling out to Celine Dion. The Canadian legend has arrived in the City ahead of her comeback concert series. She'll perform 16 shows in Paris over the next two months. They're all sold out. Deon's career has been on pause since 2022 when she announced she has stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. Fans of the video game series Grand Theft Auto have been stuck in park for more than a decade, waiting for the next installment. Well, it's finally due for release later this fall and pre-sales have been huge. But There are some speed bumps.

Some players are unhappy. The developer only plans to release GTA6 digitally. And some details about the game have been leaked. Cameron McIntosh has that story. I guess they're overcoming. The first official look at what will be one of, if not the biggest video games ever. Yo, what's up? A 27-minute teaser video for Grand Theft Auto 6, anticipated for years.

Like its previous editions, it appears to be full of glorified depictions of drugs, sex, and lots of violence. I'm really excited about it. I was watching most of the leaks as they came out. Like many fans, Brayden McClellan got hooked sneaking around to play earlier editions as a kid. This will be the first one he can buy as an adult. Now that I'm at that maturity level, I'm excited to enjoy the game to its whole potential. Stay down. Yeah, I know.

Starting off with a drug deal gone bad, Graham theft Auto 6 is set in a criminal underworld, centering on the partnership and romance of two new characters, Jason Duvall and Lucia Camino's, caught up in a winding criminal conspiracy. Dude could be a cop for all we know. He's not a car, all right? He's just cautious. Think of it as a modern Bonnie and Clyde,

just with lots of swearing, drugs, and yeah, stolen cars. Hey, got this raw guy's car. More than a decade in development, First-day sales are expected to be in the billions. Video game lawyer, Haley MacLean. It's reported that it's already made half a billion in pre-orders, which is just absolutely insane. Look, he could sell us out. The teaser released on Netflix in a unique video game streaming crossover,

spiked viewership 50%. Like its earlier editions, the game's graphics are cutting edge. But along with the anticipation, some backlash. Details of the game started leaking earlier this month in protests that the game will be download only. allowing the designers to upsell different features while eliminating a secondary market for used game discs. That doesn't sit well with fans like Mitchell Darcy. Nothing lasts forever, but the physical copy just,

it just adds that extra layer of you own almost a piece of it. But he's going to buy it anyway. MacLean says like other editions of the game, Grandfapt Auto 6 is poised to influence the direction of the industry. It seems like they care very much about their products being the quote-unquote best in the industry and they really are pioneers when it comes to that. Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released in November. Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Toronto.

Finally, a little bit of light music. The members of the PEI Summer Band Camp, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Kirsten McLean is the camp's director and says it's a bit different from other camps because it's not necessarily for kids who already know how to play. For over half of our campers, this is their first time playing a musical instrument. So they came in on Monday. They knew nothing. They've learned how to open their cases, assemble their instruments, make the first sounds, and they've also made some new friends. The camp is always held right before school starts. McLean says that means those friendships

are still fresh and the kids don't have time to forget all their lessons. But it is intense. The students are divided into groups based on each instrument. Then they spend the next five days trying to figure out how it works. Marin Soren Sorenson is in the French Horn group. I love French horn because it sounds like, as my teacher said, very majestic. It's one of the most hard instruments to play, but I find it a challenge, which makes me want to, motivates me to make it even better. The camp wraps up with a concert.

Imagine just learning an instrument then days later getting on stage to perform. Jacob Morse admits there are some butterflies. It's been awesome. I am learning to be a clarinetist. I'm excited, but a little nervous, but like everyone's going to squeak a lot. There are 400 students at this year's camp, many of the kids and grandkids, of some of the very first students. Rowan Fitzgerald was one of the camp founders 40 years ago. He says watching the kids go from basic to Bach in such a short time never gets old. You couldn't imagine that absolute beginners,

starting on the first day at the camp could produce such a thing. It was stunning. And I'm sure that they felt that their parents were agog. Their jaws were on their knees when they heard them because it was quite extraordinary. This has been your world tonight for Friday, August 28th. Thank you for being with us. I'm Stephanie Scandaris. Good night.