Your World Tonight - Carney’s Davos speech, Greenland rhetoric rattles markets, penguins’ climate race, and more

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

‘The old order is not coming back.’ Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a frank speech to other leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, urging middle powers to rebuff isolationism, and unite against powerful nations which use ‘economic integration as weapons.’ Carney did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name, but his remarks signal the Prime Minister’s latest shift from a reliance on traditional partners for trade and security.Also: Wall Street and world markets shudder over new tariff tension triggered by President Trump, and his increasing threats to annex Greenland. Trump says he’ll hit eight NATO members with new levies if they don’t fall in line.And: Penguins are shifting their sex habits. And some researchers say it’s an alarming sign.Plus: Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’, Ukrainian refugees in Canadian limbo, Sask. assist to stranded hockey team, and more.

This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always overdelivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing. Donate at lovescarbro.cairro.com.

This is a CBC podcast. Powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs is leveraged. Financial infrastructure is coercion. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. He didn't mention Donald Trump by name. He didn't have to. Prime Minister Mark Carney stepping onto a global stage

and not tiptoeing around his assessment, a broken world order revolving around the U.S. president. The old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just. The message was blunt, and at times it was bleak. But along with his warnings, the Prime Minister also offered his vision of a way forward for Canada and other nations under pressure.

How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland? You'll find out. Few places in the world are feeling that pressure more than Greenland right now. As the White House continues to pursue the territory, possibly by force, the pushback is getting stronger. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner on Tuesday, January 20th, just before 6 p.m. The speech got the attention of global leaders at the World Economic Forum. But will Mark Carney pay a price in Washington, D.C.? We have full coverage of what the Prime Minister said and the crisis his remarks were responding to,

beginning with Tom Perry in Davos, Switzerland. Please join me in welcoming Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. This was Mark Carney's keynote address to the World Economic Forum, a chance to lay out his vision of the current state of the world, a world that in his view is suddenly more dangerous. Every day, we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can

and the weak must suffer what they must. To Carney, it falls to middle powers, countries like Canada, to recognize this changing global landscape and resist the urge to deny what's going on. We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.

Instead, Carney says middle powers need to come together. Great powers can afford for now to go it alone. They have the market. the military capacity and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what's offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It's the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination. Karnie says middle powers need to form new partnerships and trading blocks that can act together to take on their more powerful global

rivals. The Prime Minister did not once mention the United States increasingly erratic President Donald Trump, but the message, however veiled, was hard to miss. On Trump's push to take over Greenland and his threat to impose tariffs on any U.S. ally that stands in his way, Carney says Canada stands firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully committed to NATO. Canada's strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focus talks to achieve our shared objectives of security and prosperity in the Arctic. Through it all, the Prime Minister making a sustained pitch for Canada as a stable, reliable partner. That is Canada's path. We choose it openly and confidently, and it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us. Thank you very much.

Carney's words brought some in the crowd to their feet. The question is whether those words will translate into action on a global scale. Carney is set to head home tomorrow as the World Economic Forum gets ready to welcome the man not named in the Prime Minister's speech. U.S. President Donald Trump. Tom Perry, CBC News, Davos, Switzerland. CBC Radio's host of the House, Catherine Cullen, has been analyzing Mark Carney's Davos speech today. she's in Ottawa. Catherine, how is this speech being framed? Well, it's being described in some quarters as the Carney doctrine, Susan,

and particularly given the international audience, it carries some heft. It certainly reads as a criticism of the United States, though Mark Carney did not explicitly call out President Donald Trump. But when Carney says hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships, many people will understand this is a criticism of Trump, trying to profit off the U.S. strength, for example, through tariffs. And yet that's not language that's likely to trigger Trump. So perhaps a question here of how far Carney wants to go in poking the bear versus, as he frames it in the speech, being pragmatic,

it does leave the question of whether anything will concretely change in terms of how the prime minister operates going forward. And how the president responds. But what do we think the goal was here, Catherine? I think it's important to think about where. this speech was at the World Economic Forum in front of so many world leaders, business leaders, thought leaders. Yes, it was about foreign policy vision, but that speech was also something of an ad for investing in Canada, trying to convince the very people listening to do just that. Carney talked about Canada as an energy superpower, a source of critical minerals, as well as a

stable, reliable partner to make this country a place to feel good about investing in and position himself as a leader of middle powers in this moment. It is also a call to action to work together and for countries to not simply isolate themselves. And how's that being received? The speech is certainly getting a fair bit of attention, in part, yes, because it was on the global stage. Here in Canada, you can see that online there are even some conservatives praising it. Former Harper staffer Dimitri Soutis called the speech worth watching. Former Cabinet Minister James Moore wrote,

Put down your partisan swords today and take a moment and listen to this speech and what is being framed. These times are not like any other. And the big question, what about how it might land with the American president? Well, he has not responded yet. And it is striking that Carney is also likely not to cross paths with Trump while in Davos. The prime minister is leaving tomorrow. Trump is just arriving. It was only months ago, Susan, that everything seemed to hang on whether Carney could get Trump's attention.

get negotiations on tariffs restarted. Now, the Prime Minister has clearly judged that face time with Trump may not be the best path forward, at least for now, Susan, we do recall that the review of Quisman, that crucial free trade agreement, that is still in the weeks to come. Thank you, Catherine. Catherine, Colin, the host of CBC Radio's The House in our Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa. Financial markets had their own message for Donald Trump today,

and it was not positive. US stocks tumbled as investors reacted to the U.S. President's threats of a reignited trade war with Europe. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong is following this angle for us. So, Peter, what was the message from investors today? How did the day end? Well, the sell-off steepened at the close season. The Dow was down like 870 points. The S&P was down 2%. NASDAQ down 2.3%. And it feels more like investors are almost kind of testing the waters here and seeing just how serious.

this Greenland Adventure really is? Okay, that's stocks. But what about the bond market? That's a big part of this story. How should we interpret the moves there? We should interpret them very carefully, because the bond market is hugely consequential. It is, as you know, orders of magnitude larger than the stock market.

So even little tiny moves have an enormous impact. And when bond yields rise, of course, that increases borrowing costs, not just for households, but for governments as well. And, of course, the U.S. is running a, what, $1.3 trillion deficit. this year, so that's an awful lot of borrowing. And is it right to say that the only time President Trump back down on policy was when the bond market sold off after that so-called liberation tax tariff day? Yeah, and I think that moment kind of looms large in this moment.

You'll remember in the wake of those tariffs on basically the entire world, it was that wild scramble. As everybody was trying to figure out what was going on, what was going to happen in response to that, bond yields then climbed to 4.8 percent as investors sold off U.S. debt today, bond yields hit 4.2%. And you've got your eye on at least one Danish pension fund? Yeah, this Danish pension fund has announced that it's planning to exit U.S. treasuries altogether by the end of this month.

And while the world is focused, of course, on the threats around Greenland, the fund's chief investment officer went on Bloomberg and told them that the bigger picture here is that the policies of President Donald Trump have created a credit risk. He says it's just too big to ignore. The quote is, the U.S. is basically not a... good credit and long term the U.S. government finances are not sustainable, he told Bloomberg. And Peter, these are the kind of people that are at Davos right now, hedge funds, pension funds,

financial institutions. How rattled do we think they are? Yeah, certainly concerned. But there's a sense that maybe the bond market hasn't at least yet turned here, but they're watching this very, very closely. And, you know, you combine the bond movement with the stock market. And it really does set up a bumpy road ahead to test where markets and where investors feel this is going, but also how much wiggle room President Trump feels he has and whether he'll have to pivot again and make some kind of a step down off of the ledge. And it's important to note, amidst all this, Mark Carney was also speaking to that exact same audience saying, look, if you're going to move your money, Canada's a place I'd like you to move it too. So much uncertainty ahead. Indeed.

Thank you, Peter. Yeah, you bet. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong here in Toronto. There could be more destabilization to come with the United States continuing to threaten that takeover of Greenland. What Donald Trump might do next was a key question for reporters at the White House today. But as the U.S. President marks one year into his second term, Trump was more focused on what he says. He's already accomplished. Katie Nicholson reports. These are rough people.

In a silent White House press briefing room, President Donald Trump flipped through pictures of people arrested by ICE. This is all Minnesota, every one of them. An 80-minute long list at times rambling of the accomplishments of his first year in office. We withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization and the fake Paris Climate Accord. We bans transgenders from the military. Before opening the floor to questions, one in particular kept coming up. How far are you willing to go to acquire green?

You'll find out. This evening, Trump will fly to Davos, where European leaders are wrestling with this question. And Trump's threat of slapping tariffs on nations who oppose his bid to own the vast frozen island. European Commission President Ursula Fonderline says the tariff threat is a mistake. We consider the people of the United States

not just our allies, but our friends. and plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries, we are both so committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape. That means surging Arctic security, she said, and full solidarity with Greenland and Denmark. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his own concerns. It's as well a shift towards a world without rules, where international law is trampled underfoot, and where the only laws it seems to matter is that of the strongest.

European leaders will try to sway President Trump over the next few days, while within the U.S. Congress bipartisan conversations are happening. This is crazy, and President Trump should change course. Democratic Senator Chris Coon says Congress has a number of bills on the table, challenging tariffs or seeking to limit Trump's war powers. Though so far, the legislative branch has done little to curtail. the president's agenda. What's important is for Americans, for business leaders, for elected leaders, to see this clearly for what it is. A risk of huge loss for the United States, financial loss,

security loss, over really nothing, an enormous piece of rocket ice. Not far from where Trump was listing his many wins in the White House, a thousand or so rallied in frigid temperatures against his administration and his new territorial ambitions. It's kind of strange biblildering and scary. Protester Bo Dobson had this to say to those outside of the U.S. I'm sorry. A small apology lost in a worsening geopolitical crisis. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Washington.

Coming right up, France is rejecting the invite to join Donald Trump's Board of Peace, fearing the organization could strongarm the United Nations, and how penguins may. be adapting their breeding habits to better align with a warming planet. Later, we'll have this story. I'm Rafi Bucci Canyon in Montreal. Immigration backlogs in Canada are hitting record highs. Some migrants told they'd have to wait five decades.

They haven't changed the intake. So that means that the same number of people can be applying, but there's a huge bottleneck. Now that's starting to impact Ukrainians who have fled a war and are trying to stay here. I would be 95 by then. And even if I make it until 95 by some chance, well, that immigration status, that age probably doesn't matter that much anymore. That story coming up on your will tonight. A demolition has started in East Jerusalem at the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinians.

Israel accuses UNRah of providing cover for Hamas. It also believes some of the agency's staff were involved in the October 7th attacks. Unra denies those allegations. Foreign-led investigations did find some issues but none supporting Israel's claims. Israel justified today's tear down, saying it owns the land the compound is on. The buildings have been empty for months. The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the future of Gaza is supposed to be the focus of the American-led Board of Peace. But as other countries weigh their invitations, there are concerns. There are concerns. about the organization's creeping scope and the cost of being a permanent member.

Sasha Petrasek has more from Jerusalem. Storm after storm batters Gaza, pushing temperatures down, misery way up. But some expect change to blow in from a new high-level Board of Peace and its local Palestinian administrators. Hosni al-Magani is one of these. Maybe these countries on the board will be tough and force Israel to let Gazans have a life, he says.

But U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace is having trouble too, getting world leaders to accept invitations. Their fear, the board is designed to push aside the UN and its peacemaking efforts worldwide. Trump was asked about that today. Well, my, I mean, the UN just hasn't been very helpful. I'm a big fan of the UN potential, but it has never lived up to its potential. Speaking in Davos, French President Emmanuel Macron says he won't accept this law of the strongest. But we do prefer respect to bullies. He's rejecting the invite, say, officials, because he doesn't want the UN weakened.

Trump answers with a threat. You know, that's all right. What I'll do is if they feel like costo, I'll put a 200% tax. paraphran is wines and champagnes, and he'll join. Others have second thoughts because they reject the billion dollars reportedly demanded for a permanent seat. Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne says Ottawa does not plan to pay.

And some don't like the invitation list, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who's waging war in Ukraine. Canada is qualifying its earlier acceptance. We have been invited. Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to focus on getting aid to Gaza. It needs to coincide with the immediate full flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. We are still not where we need to be.

And that is why Canada and others aren't rejecting the plan flat out, says Canada's former UN ambassador, Bob Ray. Nobody wants to upset that apple cart because there is no other Middle East peace plan in place. and there is no other basis for the quasi-seas fire that we have. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. Indeed, peace in Gaza has many other hurdles beyond the board. Sasha Petrissik, CBC News, Jerusalem. Russian attacks on Kiev have plunged much of Ukraine's capital into darkness.

The strikes knocked out heating and electricity to hundreds of buildings, including Ukraine's parliament. President Volodemir Zelensky says one million people in Kiev are now without power. He again called for more air defense equipment from the U.S. and Europe, as talks to end the nearly four-year war remain at an impasse. As the war grinds on, thousands of Ukrainians in Canada are struggling with their temporary immigration status. Unable to become permanent residents, they're stuck in limbo right now, with Ottawa saying applications could take years, even decades, to process.

Rafi Bujikhanian has that story. The world was peaceful. It's not so anymore. Oleg Zararetsky is losing hope about returning to Ukraine or even nearby Latvia, where he used to sometimes go for work before Russia's invasion of his home country brought him and his family to Canada. It's a safe country. Thousands of Ukrainians initially came to Canada under temporary immigration programs.

close to four years ago. Now, like many, Zataretsky is trying to find a way to stay here. He's applied for permanent residency for himself, his wife and two daughters. Only to find out wait times in the Canadian immigration system have gotten so long it could take up to five decades for their requests to be processed. I would be 95 by then. And even if I make it until 95 by some chance, well, that immigration status, that age probably doesn't. It doesn't matter than much anymore. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing down, with regular Russian strikes on its biggest cities.

I don't think the government is going to let that many people fall completely out of status. Elizabeth Wozniak is an immigration lawyer. She says generation-spanning delays are becoming more common for many applicants trying to get residency, not just Ukrainians, as Ottawa tightens immigration. I think it's to do with government prioritizing certain categories over others, and what they've done is they have allowed the people to submit applications. They haven't changed the intake, so that means that the same number of people can be applying, but there's a huge bottleneck. With no ceasefire in sight, the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress is trying to figure out ways to clear that bottleneck. The lobby group's Orest Zakedalski wants a special pathway for Ukrainians,

dedicating more federal resources to clear their files faster. Our hope is that that will help alleviate some of the pressure. But there is no such commitment from the government. There's always ongoing discussions. Lena Diab is the federal immigration minister. We have opened temporary pathways, as you know, when the war first started. As for those long wait times, Diav's department says they can fluctuate based on the number of overall applications in the system,

but it also notes there are currently more applications from Ukrainians than available spots in its immigration levels plan. Rafi Bjukan, on CBC News, Montreal. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. Geopolitics may be heating things up in the Arctic, but at the other end of the planet,

rising temperatures in Antarctica are being blamed on climate change, and it may be causing a dramatic swing in the behavior of penguins. An Ayat Singh looks at how the animals are adapting to warmer weather and what that could mean for the future of the species. A colony of chinstrap penguins on an Antarctic island, enjoying the extreme cold near the Earth's south. pole, an area warming up to three times faster than the rest of the world. And new research suggests these birds are changing their breeding seasons in response at record

speed. We don't know whether to be happy or very sad yet, but for now we are alarmed. Ignacio Martinez is a biologist at the University of Oxford. He led a decade-long study on three species of Antarctic penguins, chin strap Adelaide and GENToo. They use 77 remote cameras to observe 3,000. 37 colonies across the region while measuring how much hotter the local weather was getting. They found all three moved up their breeding seasons.

Gentus had the biggest change 13 days earlier on average and up to 24 days for some colonies. When we looked at the time series of 10 years one after the other, we realized like, oh, damn, this is the fastest change in any vertebrate ever. Shifting breeding patterns could help species adapt to climate change, and has been seen in other plants and animals, but not this extreme. It's rarely one species being there on its own, right? In the communities, everything is interdependent. Victoria Ratchuk is a scientist at Berlin's Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. She led a separate study on how animal and plant species have responded to warming weather

and how their numbers fared. If you tweak a bit, do something to one thing in the machinery, and it changes a lot, then of course it can propagate and have perhaps even drastic effects on some species that are loosely connected. For now, it seems the gentoo penguins have an edge. Unlike the other two, they can eat fish in addition to krill and don't migrate over long distances. The gentos who are more sub-Antarctic, they don't like the cold so much. So with these new more temperate climate, we are finding that the gentos are thriving. They are establishing new colonies.

Martinez says the findings suggest there could be winners and losers of climate change, bringing the Gentus into conflict with the other species over scarce food and land and hurting the chances of survival for penguins as a whole. In Ayat Singh, CBC News, Toronto. We closed tonight with a Saskatchewan High School hockey team that got a big assist from a small community. The roads were a little dicey. There was a little snow out there and went through a bit of a whiteout and hit some snow when the bus ended up getting stuck on the side of the road.

and then it was just a matter of plan A, plan B, plan C to try and get back on the road. That's head coach of the Notre Dame Hounds, James McGuigan. The team was heading to Winnipeg last Friday for a weekend tournament, but a nasty winter storm got in the way, and the team's bus got stuck on a rural highway in southern Manitoba. So I thought I'd give it a try. I went there with my loader, and I realized right away that pulling this bus out is not going to happen. Volunteer firefighter Jeff Jammot lives near the spot where the bus got lodged in about two meters of snow.

It wasn't moving, so Jemot started making calls to the nearby community of Rathwell. Well, what community wouldn't open up their doors to help out? We only did the best we could. Brenda Nosted is the vice president of the local event hall. It usually hosts dances and bingo nights. But Nosted opened up the space so the team could sleep there. Then she called the owner of the community's only store asking if he could help feed 26 hungry hockey players. Because they hadn't had any supper, so we made them a quick meal.

And the grocery store opened up our local grocery store and let them come and buy some more food. Nosted and some friends helped cook weaners, beans and frozen pizzas. Others dropped off blankets and pillows. One resident even babysat for the young parents who were pitching in. By morning, the bus was out of the ditch and the team left a thank you note signed by each player. It was nothing big.

I didn't have a thank you card in my backpack so it was just written on the back of one of our lineup cards, just a little thank you for everything. And sometimes when you go through a situation like that, it builds a lot of character and the hockey guys smiled down on us. Now, you might think getting stranded

in a snowstorm and sleeping on the floor of a community center would hurt a hockey team's chances. But the hounds may made their game in Winnipeg the next morning, and they won in a shootout. Thank you for joining us on Your World tonight for Tuesday, January 20th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again.

For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.com.