Your World Tonight - Chinese AI app surges, returning home in Gaza, Holocaust remembrance, and more

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

China-based app DeepSeek was the most downloaded app in the U.S. over the weekend. The speed at which the AI app was developed puts the U.S. dominance of the market in question. We look at the implications.Also: Hundreds of thousands of people are crowding the coastal roads in Gaza – going north. Families who have not seen each other in months, and people wanting to restart their lives and rebuild – all going back to some of the most destroyed areas in the strip. The task of rebuilding will be immense. Hamas and Israel have agreed on another hostage exchange later this week.And: Eighty years on… they are still remembered. It’s the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and a day to recall the horrors of the Holocaust. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was at the ceremony in Poland, and met with survivors. Many expressed the hope humanity has learned the lessons of history.Plus: A militia group in Congo says it has taken Goma, a study on the lower life expectancy for people with ADHD, pickleball real estate, and more.

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers are finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now.

This is a CBC Podcast. This could really be a change in the script, a change in the narrative around artificial intelligence. They don't necessarily have the tens of billions of dollars that some of these companies in the US have. They were able to really do this on what some people would call a shoestring budget. There's nothing artificial about it. A very real and very big shock to the business of AI. Surprised Chinese advances and what could be a major disruption to a booming industry, rattling stock markets and raising doubt about U.S. control of a technology that could change the world. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner.

It is Monday, January 27th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. We're having private conversations and we won't negotiate, you know, in front of the public. The man who's proposing the tariffs may enjoy the spotlight but Canadian officials say they're making progress behind closed doors trying to convince the Donald Trump administration to back off the threat with the deadline for potentially devastating trade action less than a week away and later. We were victims in a moral vacuum. 80 years since the end of one of humanity's darkest moments

survivors and world leaders gather to mark the liberation of Auschwitz. A new Chinese advancement in artificial intelligence is shaking up the tech world tonight. It's called DeepSeek and its developers claim the platform is as powerful as others at a fraction of the cost. The implications are massive and it's forcing a big rethink about how AI works and how much it's worth. Peter Armstrong reports. As soon as trading opened this morning, stock markets plunged. Tech giants were routed with chipmaker Nvidia leading the fall.

You see, American tech companies had been leading the AI revolution. American companies like Microsoft, Google, and open AI have raised hundreds of billions of dollars. Former U S president Joe Biden authorized $280 billion to help manufacture the semiconductors needed to power AI. Our technology is, efficient intelligence to biotech quantum and to advance semiconductors. They're the envy of the world.

On his first day in office, current president Donald Trump announced the Stargate Initiative, a $500 billion private sector deal to expand US artificial intelligence infrastructure. But DeepSeq claims its new model was developed in just two months at a cost of less than six million dollars. China also has less access to Nvidia's most powerful chips

the Western companies have used to build their AI platforms. Now there's no way of knowing whether DeepSeek's claims are true, but if they are, the West is playing catch-up. That's Murat Kristal, the master of management in artificial intelligence programs at the Schulich School of Business. He says right now, people still think of AI as a sort of chat or search engine. The use of AI is not chatting on a computer.

The use of AI goes much larger because it impacts your design abilities. It shortens what kind of a tool that you're going to be designing, how much time that you're using, the simulation, so on and so forth. All of these things are impacted. So when you create that and then combine it with a huge industrial power, then the snowball effect will be much larger. And that is why American companies have been trying to get out in front of the AI wave. Dario Amiti, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the bigger American AI companies,

told the financial news station CNBC last week that Western dominance in this sector was crucial. If the United States can't lead in this technology, we're going to be in a very bad place geopolitically. And so, after years of convincing themselves and each other that the West was winning this race, along comes a Chinese company claiming it can do just as much in a matter of months for a fraction of the cost. Peter Armstrong, CBC News, Toronto. The cost of Trump's tariffs to Canada's economy got much of the attention in Ottawa today. He has warned they could take effect this weekend. The federal government says it has a plan but some liberal leadership hopefuls want a different approach.

Kate McKenna explains. So we just came out of another very important Canada-US meeting. The federal cabinet revived its US.S.-Canada team in November. But when Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie gave an update on Parliament Hill today, the committee's objectives are still the same. First to work on preventing tariffs and second working also on our response. After initially promising tariffs on Canadian goods when he took office, President Donald Trump has pushed back the date to February 1st, but no one knows whether he'll follow through. So we're making huge progress.

Public Safety Minister David McGinty says Canadian officials are working around the clock to convince Trump the border is safe, his key demand when he threatened the tariffs. We have officials who are in and out of Washington DC working with our American counterparts and operationally the CBSA and the RCMP are in and out of Washington D.C. working with our American counterparts. And operationally, the CBSA and the RCMP are in constant touch with their counterpart organizations in the United States. Despite this being the central focus of Canadian politics since Trump made the threat, there's no evidence he has responded in any way to Canada's push to dissuade him,

even after the federal government announced a new $1.3 billion plan to tighten border security. The tariffs risk throwing Canada into a recession and killing hundreds of thousands of jobs. We know that President Trump is using tariffs as a way to put pressure on countries. On Sunday, Trump said he'd hit Colombia with heavy tariffs if the South American nation

didn't accept two deportation flights. The two sides eventually came to an agreement. But Jolie says Canada's situation is different. We have leverage. How to handle Trump's threats has emerged as a central question in the liberal leadership race. I recognize really profoundly that this is a critical moment for Canada. Contender Christia Freeland published her plan today and spoke to CBC's The

House late last week. I know these guys I've negotiated with them and their strategy is so chaos. She says Canada must respond with dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs, ban American companies from bidding on Canadian government contracts, and publish a detailed list of American products Canada would target. Jolie dismissed that suggestion today. We're having private conversations and we won't negotiate in front of the public. Meanwhile, another Liberal contender, Mark Kearney,

also proposed dollar-for for dollar retaliatory tariffs and says he's open to slowing the flow of electricity to the United States to add extra pressure if necessary. Kate McKenna, CBC News, Ottawa. Manitoba is the latest province responding to Trump's tariff threats with more measures at the border. Trump has said Canada must do more

to prevent illegal migrants and illicit drugs from heading south. Premier Wab Kinew says provincial conservation officers will patrol areas used by people to cross the border between official ports of entry. He says they will increase security, but will also help people who are in trouble. The realistic thing that we have to prepare for

is to deal with people who are not prepared for a Manitoba blizzard or a Manitoba winter. And so yes, we are responding to a new administration in the U.S., but we're responding in a way that's consistent with who we've always been as Manitobans. And that's to be a friendly people who have a big heart. Conservation officers are primarily peace officers, but carry weapons and can make arrests in circumstances involving drugs and weapons smuggling. Canoe says they will flag anything appearing to be criminal to the RCMP and Canadian Border

Services Agency. Coming up on the podcast, on the move, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians allowed back to northern Gaza, chaos in Congo as violence erupts, and world leaders gather in Poland to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Thousands of Palestinians displaced by months of war are re-entering Gaza's bombed out north. The column of humanity stretched kilometers as people hauled what little they have back to what's left of their homes.

Their emotional return comes as Israeli families of the remaining hostages are delivered some devastating news. Chris Brown has more from Jerusalem. In a significant development in this tenuous ceasefire, Israel removed barricades from a coastal road and hundreds of thousands of uprooted Palestinians streamed into Gaza's north. Most walked and pulled, carried or wore everything they owned.

Sara Radhi held a cat in her arms as she walked and told our CBC videographer she felt indescribable happiness mixed with sadness as she hopes for a new beginning. Along the way there were emotional reunions including two brothers who reconnected after being separated for more than a year. Those fortunate to have transportation were searched by private security guards for weapons

at checkpoints before being allowed through. I'm excited, said Faraz Makdad, even though I've lost people and my home in the war. Northern Gaza communities such as Jabalia and Gaza City suffered some of the worst destruction. Three quarters of the buildings are rubble, so many people will simply go from sleeping in a tent in the south to another in the north. But coming a day after US President Donald Trump publicly mused about cleaning out Gaza of Palestinians and moving them to neighboring countries, Ahmed Chaka said it demonstrates resilience. It's our land, it's where we were born, it's where we were raised, he said.

Hamas remains in control though, and there was video of its fighters welcoming people back. Israeli military historian Danny Orbach says unless the militant group is replaced, Gaza has no future. I don't see anybody investing in reconstruction now as long as Hamas will be in power. Israel has to take care to keep that it will actually be the case. The path north was unblocked after last-minute negotiations involving Qatar concerning hostage Arbel Yehud, whose captors released a proof-of-life video. She and two others will now be freed Thursday and three more hostages on Saturday, much to the relief of protesters in Jerusalem.

Alon Shamovitz was among those demanding Benjamin Netanyahu's government negotiate phase two now to get all the captives back. We're waiting for everybody. We're waiting for the kids, we're waiting for the adults, we're waiting for the men. But there was tragic news for hostage families. While seven hostages have been released, of the remaining 26, eight are dead. Who is alive and who is not has not been made public,

creating agonizing moments of hope and dread in the coming days. Chris Brown, CBC News, Jerusalem. The United Nations has called an urgent Security Council meeting for tomorrow to discuss what it calls a volatile and dangerous situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A dramatic escalation between a militia group and Congolese troops has turned the eastern city of Goma into an active combat zone. Senior international correspondent Margaret Evans has more. The sound of heavy gunfire at the airport in Goma. It was recorded on social media today and shows armed men running across an adjacent field.

The Rwandan-backed rebel group known as M23 claims to have captured the city after days of advancing on it. But the Congolese government has disputed that. Fighting has people fleeing the city, many on foot carrying their children and whatever else they can manage. The rebels have pressed on despite calls yesterday by UN Security Council members to stop, and today by European Union foreign ministers.

France's Jean-Noël Barreau expressing solidarity with DRC's territorial integrity. France strongly condemns the offensive led by M23 supported by Rwandan armed forces, he says. Conflict between rival militias has raged in Congo's mineral-rich east for decades now, turning it into one of the world's worst humanitarian disaster zones. The city of Goma is home to more than a million people, many of them already refugees from fighting in other parts of the region, including 27-year-old Alice Fizades. We're suffering a lot, she says.

People are fleeing everywhere and we don't know where to go anymore because we started fleeing a long time ago. The war even catches us here. M23 is made up of mainly ethnic Tutsis who've long claimed to be fighting to protect a minority from Hutu rivals responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide and who sought shelter in neighboring DRC. The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, denies backing M23, but UN experts cite a systematic presence with as many as 4,000 Rwandan soldiers deployed in Congo. International peacekeepers in the East have been unable to halt the rebel advance.

Thirteen peacekeepers killed in recent days, nine of them South African. I call for the immediate and unconditional cessation of hostility. Kenya's president William Ruto will make a stab at diplomacy. We will be convening an extraordinary East African community summit within the next 48 hours to deliberate on this crisis. More than 400,000 people have been displaced by the fighting along DRC's border with Rwanda since the start of this year alone. Margaret Evans, CBC News, London. Every year fewer survivors attend International Holocaust Remembrance Services.

Today marks 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, where more than one million people were starved, tortured and killed. The vast majority were Jews. Today, world leaders gathered at the ceremony not to speak but to listen. Tom Perry reports from Poland. A lament for all who died. Music echoing through the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland where watchtowers and barbed wire still stand, 80 years after the camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army. More than 50 survivors of the camp made the journey to mark this anniversary,

among them Tova Friedman, who shared stories of loss and horror. On an icy windy day, I stood and watched helplessly as little girls from the nearby barrack were marched away crying and shivering to the gas chamber. In the audience, dignitaries from around the world, including King Charles, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It's a time in the world where we need to be reminded of what never again means more. Earlier in the day, Trudeau met with two Canadian survivors. 96-year-old Howard Chandler spent two years at a Nazi slave labor camp before being taken to Auschwitz with his father and brother.

It was absolutely unbelievable. Every day became worse than the day before. Chandler's mother, father and sister were all murdered along with his youngest brother Sam. Sometimes when I think about my little brother, I wonder what contribution he would have made to humanity had he not been murdered at the tender age of maybe 10, 10 and a half. This is what the world was coming to. Miriam Ziegler spent a year at Auschwitz and was just nine years old when she was freed. As a survivor, she says, she has a duty to her fellow prisoners

to keep their memory alive. Well, I felt that I had to honor the people that had died there that had no families. And the same, you know, my family perished there. And to me, God left me. They left me for a reason. That's the way I feel. Both Ziegler and Chandler say a rise in modern-day anti-Semitism has them feeling fearful.

That feeling was echoed throughout today's ceremony, with speaker after speaker raising the alarm about increasing levels of extremism and hate and where history is shown that can lead. Tom Perry, CBC News, Auschwitz. And just to reinforce, about a million Jews died at Auschwitz. A report we ran on Friday had an incorrect number. A new study out of the UK has found adults with ADHD have notably shorter lifespans. This data is sparking calls for better treatments and earlier diagnoses. Jennifer Yoon reports.

I found out I had ADHD this year too. Does anybody have that? Yes sir. Yeah. Stand-up comic Gavin Stevens jokes about his ADHD. It's a coping mechanism, but he often wonders what his life would have been like if he had received treatment earlier.

I think a lot of things would have changed. And I went through that process of like, just kind of mourning that life. People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are more likely to have health issues, like reduced sleep, substance use, and a higher risk of suicide. It's long been known that people with ADHD

have shorter lifespans. Now, a new study suggests just how many years are lost on average. British researchers compared about 30,000 adults with ADHD to about 300,000 people without the diagnosis and found men with ADHD lived 4.5 to nine fewer years on average. For women, it was 6.5 to 11 years.

I was surprised by the amount. Josh Stott is one of the authors of the study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. He says because ADHD is often under-diagnosed and the symptoms of the disorder can vary greatly, this may not reflect everyone who has ADHD, especially those who have milder symptoms. We'd be cautious about applying it to the broad spectrum of people with ADHD who are not diagnosed because they might be quite different as a sample, those that manage to get a diagnosis. Dr. Nick Gruich, a psychiatrist at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, says he's not surprised

by the finding. He's hoping this will get primary care and mental health workers to be more mindful of the diagnosis. Identifying ADHD as a legitimate medical illness that does compromise people's longevity and can impact mortality. And there are treatments and lifestyle changes that can help address many of the risk factors. A really good throw, yeah, good job. Like regular exercise, William Harvey is a kinesiology professor at McGill University. He has been teaching skills like running, throwing and jumping for kids with ADHD who

sometimes struggle in gym class. We know that physical activity can help to mitigate some of those modifiable risk factors. So what we're hoping is that the people that we teach over time will stay active. Therapy and medication can also help those with ADHD lead full, healthy and long lives. Jadafah Yoon, CBC News, Toronto. It is one of the fastest growing sports in North America and finding a place to play pickleball can be a challenge. A U.S. company is betting it can make big bucks off Canada's court-hungry pickleballers. But the ambitious growth plans won't be easy to roll out here.

CBC's Paula Duhaczek explains. Even at noon on a Tuesday, the Calgary Pickleball Centre is chock full of players. The supply is not enough to meet the demand. So usually people have to wait for a while. 70 year old William Shim says he plays nearly every day but usually has to book about two weeks ahead of time. You want to play you make sure you'll be ready to get everything organized and play. The sport is soaring in popularity. Pickleball Canada estimates 1.4 million Canadians play at least once a month, and court space

can be hard to find. Now, an American company is hoping to cash in. The Pickler, which started in 2021, has built a network of pickleball franchises across the US, from Alabama to Wyoming. Chief Development Officer Chris Walker says the company wants to do the same thing in Canada. With our expansive growth through the US, it's a natural business move to come north. Walker was recently in Toronto, making his pitch to potential franchise owners like Randy Kufsky. I've been retired for two and a half years and I play a lot of pickleball. Kufsky wants to open a facility in Kitchener

Waterloo Ontario. Actually our only stumbling block right now is there's limited space that is available to accommodate the requirements of what we need to set up a pickler. That's a common problem. To build a pickleball facility, you need a big space with high ceilings. Alex Edmison is senior vice president with the commercial real estate firm CBRE. He says Canada just doesn't have that much empty real estate that fits the bill. The issue is, is you can be quote-unquote hungry for space but if there's no food on the table you can be as hungry as you want there's nothing to eat. Back in Alberta, Randy Popplestone, general manager of the Calgary Pickleball Centre,

says he had a similar problem. Finding the space is a tough one. Finding space is a really tricky one if you're not going to build it yourself. Eventually he found space in an old HVAC supply warehouse. It just happened that this space was vacant for a pretty significant amount of time. So landowner was a little bit more motivated to take a chance. Chris Walker with The Pickler says he understands Canada doesn't have quite as many empty big box stores.

The U.S. is way overdeveloped in comparison to Canada, right? So we're going to have to be very strategic on our real estate moves. Still he's optimistic. The company has just signed an offer to lease its first Canadian location in Winnipeg. Paula Duhaczek, CBC News, Calgary. This is Lament by Simon James, a German Jewish composer, pianist and musicologist who was imprisoned and murdered at Auschwitz. His composition was performed today at the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation. Those gathered at Auschwitz also heard from survivors. Although thousands of prisoners

were freed from Auschwitz, just a small number remain. 86-year-old Tova Friedman is one of the youngest, born in Poland. She was taken to Auschwitz as a young girl, and she spoke today with concern about recent trends that echo what led to the Holocaust including the rise of anti-semitism and nationalism. We all, all of us must reawaken our collective conscious to transform this violence, anger, hatred and malignancy that has so powerful gripped our society into a humane and just world. It is an enormous task. But our Jewish sages teach us the time is short. The task is great. We may not be able to complete it, but we have an obligation to start. Thank you. And thank you for joining us. This has been Your World Tonight for Monday, January 27th.

I'm Susan Bonner.