Your World Tonight - Fate of the strait, Lebanese return home, peptide dangers, and more

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Open, closed, safe, dangerous… the talk about what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz is anything but straight. Washington and Tehran say it is open to traffic, but many ships are waiting to make sure that all is well.And: Thousands of people return to their homes in southern Lebanon. The country’s health ministry released a new casualty toll from the six week war between Hezbollah and Israel: nearly 2,300 Lebanese were killed and 7,500 wounded. 14 Israelis were killed by Hezbollah over the same period. CBC is on the ground in Lebanon.Also: Peptides are showing up everywhere in the world of online wellness influencing — promising big results with little effort, for your muscles, your mind, and even your face. But Health Canada is warning those grey‑market injectables can be dangerous.Plus: B.C. launches a pilot program to analyze street drugs using artificial intelligence, flooding grips communities, controversy over Alberta election boundaries, and more.

Life by the ocean means embracing the fog as it rolls in, when the whole city goes fuzzy, and nothing is sharp or precisely defined. While you're here, you too might fall in love with misty Halifax mornings. Fog can muffle the noise of your expectations, help you focus on the moment right in front of you. It can give you a whole new perspective if you're willing to let it cloud your judgment. This is a CBC podcast. We want to see a return to talks and a lasting agreement.

The strait should be reopened immediately with no tolls and no restrictions. Anxious allies seek assurances over the Strait of Hormuz. That's despite both Donald Trump and Iran's foreign minister saying tankers can now move freely, but few ships are taking the risk. And Washington and Tehran keep feuding over who's really calling the shot. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Dave Seglins. It is Friday, April 17th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern.

Also on the podcast? Residents are pretty devastated with all the water damage and losing a lot of their personal effect. All the bags that we filled already are lining just to protect what they can and pump out as much as they possibly can. Rising waters prompt multiple emergency declarations in central Ontario,

and Montreal moves to its highest threat levels as lakes and rivers surge and more rain is expected. The U.S. President says a deal with Iran is close. Tehran says the Strait of Hormuz is open for business. Those claims stirred a lot of hope through the day as oil prices dropped and details of a possible peace plan trickled out. They also caused a lot of confusion. Katie Nicholson explains.

We're having a big day. We'll see how it all turns out, but it should be good. US President Donald Trump upbeat after Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Trump claimed Iran promised never to close the waterway again. Iran has a different take. It says it opened the strait for the duration of the 10-day Israel-Labanon ceasefire, though vessels need to clear their plans with Iran's revolutionary guard, and it isn't clear if any tolls are being charged.

And while Iran may have reopened the street... The U.S. Navy Worship 1-15. I request you return to the original port of call in Iran. I'll copy. Over. Copy, copy, sir. My alter to Iran. Thank you. The U.S. blockade targeting Iranian ports and vessels going in and out of the straight is still in place. As soon as the agreement gets signed, that's when the blockade ends.

It's a sore point. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson telling state media, if the U.S. doesn't end the blockade, Iran will take reciprocal action. Trump had lots more to say in a cascade of posts. He cast a rosy glow over the state of negotiations, claiming a deal with Iran was near, that the U.S. would get all of Iran's uranium and pushed back against reports the U.S. would exchange any money for, as he calls it,

nuclear dust. Iran says transferring its enriched uranium out of the country is not an option. But it was the streets reopening that grabbed headlines and brought swift relief to oil prices which plunged to the $90 mark. Traffic, though, slow to trickle through after warnings from maritime organizations that the threat of mines is still very much alive. News of the reopening broke during a meeting of more than 40 countries hoping to secure this rate. We welcome the announcement that was made during our meeting,

but we need to make sure that that is both lasting and a workable proposal. British Prime Minister Kier-Starmer confirmed. The U.K. and France are willing to lead a multi-country task force to protect traffic. This will be strictly peaceful and defensive as a mission to reassure commercial shipping and support mine clearance. The president in a terse morning post, however, said he received a call from NATO and called them useless and that he told them to stay away. Whatever the state of negotiations and however long the straight remains open, concerns linger. it will be forever changed. This situation will never go back to what it was before.

Former U.S. Army General Wesley Clark. Because what's happened is Iran has exercised a weapon, and that weapon is still there. It's still like an axe hanging over international commerce and diplomacy in the region. And there may be more diplomacy in the offing. Talks are continuing behind the scenes with the potential of another round of in-person U.S.

and Iranian talks in Islamabad as early as Monday. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Washington. An open straight would help tankers move millions of barrels of fuel. So when could Canadians see relief at the gas pumps or even on the cost of flying? Let's put that to senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong. Peter, let's start with gasoline. What does an open straight mean for prices at the pumps? Well, Dave, I do wish I had better news, but the fact is gas prices in Canada is such a

yet again this weekend. So why? You would think that at least with some progress in the talks between U.S. and Iran, we would see prices stabilizing, falling. Yeah, I get it. But there's kind of a few things tied up together here that it's important to untangle. The first is that all we've got about Iran right now are statements. And until oil starts actually shipping at scale, the energy markets are going to continue to get

worse. The second is that we've got a situation where gasoline refiners are switching over. over to their summer blend. That happened this week. So a pricier blend of gasoline is hitting the pumps today and tomorrow. What about the federal relief? The government is suspending the fuel excise tax. Will that help?

It will. But remember, that doesn't kick in until Monday. And even once it does, this isn't just about gasoline. It applies to diesel and to jet fuel. And those are getting worse, too. Yeah, jet fuel up 200%. Yeah. And that's led to flight cancellations, a route cancellations.

Air Canada today suspended a bunch. Fort McMurray to Vancouver suspended effectively May 28th, Yellowknife Toronto, suspended effective August 30th. JFK Toronto and JFK Montreal, both suspended effective June 1st. And it speaks, Dave, to this kind of weird contrast where you've got markets pricing in peace today, but industries that are affected pricing in further uncertainty. They can't both be right. So let's talk about the supply chain.

We have words for now that tankers can start moving. How long will it take for energy markets to get back to normal? Well, it sort of depends on what you mean by normal, right? If you mean back to what we saw before the war, it's going to be months, right? We've blasted a half a billion barrel hole into global inventories. And remember that for every single day, we don't see normal traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz. That hole is getting worse. Okay.

So the traffic starts to move. Right. What are we looking at? I mean, look, you've got. 800 tankers just in the Gulf now. It'll take days, maybe weeks to get all of them through the narrow strait. Then you got a bunch of tankers that shipped west to the U.S. in hopes of getting oil there, and they're now stuck in the Middle Atlantic trying to decide if they should turn around. It's a bit like the pandemic where all of a sudden we had all the ships in the

wrong places. And even if you think about the tankers that are loaded up, and once they leave the Gulf, they move at about the speed of a bicycle. They're really slow. It takes days to get to the closest destinations like India and Pakistan, but Europe, Japan, South Korea, those are weeks away, and all those places, they're already facing actual physical shortages. All right. We're watching. Peter, thank you. You bet.

Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong in Toronto. One of Iran's conditions on any reopening in the Strait of Hormuz was a ceasefire in Lebanon, and that 10-day pause in fighting took effect Thursday evening and mostly held through day one. While it is a tenuous truce, it's enough for thousands of displaced Lebanese to try and get home, despite the challenges. Our Chris Brown reports from Lebanon. On Lebanon's road south, exhaustion is competing with defiance. Families piled mattresses on the roofs of cars and strap belongings onto trucks. As many waved the yellow and green flag of Hezbollah.

The militant group, Israel has spent weeks trying to destroy it. Israel has assassinated most of Hezbollah's leadership, including Hassan Nazrella. But in many Shia communities, the group is still viewed as the main shield against what they see as Israeli aggression. Our brave soldiers fought for our land, one woman told us. The path home is a bottleneck, choked with cars leading to the Latani River. It's a key symbolic and strategic boundary. and Israel repeatedly targeted the bridges that cross it. After walking for several kilometers, our team made it to the Kazmia Bridge,

which the IDF blew up just a few hours before the ceasefire. All night, the Lebanese army has been using excavators to try to fill in this area to give cars and returning families a path home. Nonetheless, the IDF is still warning people do not return to southern Lebanon. Explosions continued on Friday in the area after the ceasefire, although it wasn't clear who is responsible. In a statement, Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said there were still what he described as terrorists in an Israeli-occupied security zone, south of the Latani and north of Israel's border. He said it would be cleared, possibly, by continued Israeli military activity. Not long after, though, in an unusually sharp tone, U.S. President Donald Trump posted that Israel is prohibited from any more bombing.

Many in Israel wanted the war to continue to weaken Hezbollah further, and Trump's post will add to the sense that the deal was imposed on the country. In a national address tonight, Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun emphasized his government must control all of the country's territory. A message to Israel and Hezbollah, which has defied Aoun's calls to cease its military activities. Hezbollah has indicated it will respect the ceasefire, but it intends to keep its weapons. So while the fighting is paused, those on the road know their time back at home may not last. Chris Brown, CBC News at the Latani River in southern Lebanon. Coming right up, BC launches a new pilot program to save lives by tracking and tracing toxic street drugs. And thousands of sandbags, millions of liters of water, and volunteers working

around the clock, new emergency declarations in central Ontario and Quebec as the flooding worsens. Then later, we'll have this story. I'm health reporter Christine Birak. Peptides are the latest wellness obsession, marketed as shortcuts to strength, focus, and even anti-aging. But researchers say the science doesn't always back the claims. What you don't know can hurt you. and we don't know what's in those vows. We don't know how pure it is. We don't know how safe it is. And we don't want people to get hurt.

Health Canada is warning some online injectable peptides may be causing adverse reactions. I'll have that story later on your world tonight. BC is enlisting the help of artificial intelligence in its fight against toxic drugs. It's partnering police with an AI nonprofit to help figure out what's in the drugs and then pinpoint how they're moving across.

the province. Michelle Gassoub has the story. And what makes this work so important from a health perspective is the speed and precision that it brings to understanding the drug supply. BC health minister Josie Osborne speaking at the University of British Columbia about a new program that will track and trace toxic drugs. That will allow us to act faster and so importantly to save lives. The two-year pilot project is a collaboration between the province, law enforcement, and AI company Aidos Innovations. Street drugs seized by police will be sent to researchers and their findings plugged into a database

where AI will analyze the drugs. We can look at a broad spectrum of chemicals, catalysts, and solvents. Matthew Roberts is a director with Aidos innovations. And it is that complex fingerprint that allows AI then to back-calculate what the recipe was. was to make that sample. That analysis, he says, is different from existing methods for analyzing drug samples. For example, he says AI can identify a new toxic additive that could provide geographic clues

about where it was made. I actually compare it to the advent of DNA when it first emerged. Chief Constable Fiona Wilson from the Victoria Police Department says the technology will help police track a drug supply that is constantly evolving. We may be able to determine that a significant portion of the fentanyl circulating in Victoria is connected to a common source, or that drugs found there are chemically identical or similar to those found in Vancouver or Surrey or Prince George. This helps us better understand how the illicit drug supply is structured

and where the greatest risks are emerging. The earlier those risks are identified, the faster, public health warnings can be issued. She says what the program won't track is people. This initiative is not about tracking individuals, and it is not about criminalizing people who use drugs. This week, BC marked a decade since toxic drugs were declared a public health emergency. Since April 2016, 18,000 people across the province have died.

The partners here hope tracking and tracing the deadly drugs can help prevent more. Sub-CBC News, Vancouver. More communities are trying to get ahead of the spring flooding that has started in some provinces and could cause a lot of damage. Across Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, from smaller towns to bigger cities, people are quickly preparing, worried about what this weekend will bring. Philip LeShanock reports. The water came through the door.

Montreal resident Maurice Van Tampsch remembers the flood of 2017. That's helping him prepare for the flood threat today. That side door is now waterproofed. We took all the measures, so we did some, you know, renovations. He's happy to see the city has also taken precautions, unloading sandbags along the many rivers through the city. I think they're like one ton of bags, you know, so they made like a wall, and they had huge pumps,

like pumps that are like 18 inches diameter, you know. Montreal mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada says the city, like its citizens, is prepared. You know, citizens are resilient. They know where they live and the potential risk. We have even more experience. Fire chief Richard Liebman says crews are preparing for Sunday when the water levels are expected to be the highest this spring.

Low-lying bridges, including the crossing to El Mersier, could be forced to close. So we're preparing for that. We're going to have our water rescue teams on standby as of tomorrow and we'll close the bridge as necessary. All you can do is prepare, then react, and then manage that situation. In the town of Minden, Ontario, a few hours north of Toronto, a bridge through the town is closing this evening.

As the Gull River overflows its banks, Minden Mayor Bob Carter says an evacuation center is being set up in the town's arena just in case. You know, these used to be the 1 in 100. Now they happen a little bit more often than that. Stephen Flissfetter is a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada. He says, in the Muscoca areas have had more rainfall than the saturated ground can absorb.

So those areas have received somewhere between 150 or 200% of what is typical for a complete month of April. And Moore's expected before a drying trend arrives next week. In Manitoba on the Peguus First Nation north of Winnipeg, resident Marilyn Spence says her home was flooded in 2019, forcing her family to flee. But now every year it's just about flooding bad. It's like a lake around here, you know. Premier Wab Canoe was in the area helping fill sandbags. He says since the last flood, dikes have been built. This year, the sandbags are in place before the floodwaters arrive, and then that way we can protect people's homes,

but also their stress level and well-being. In many provinces and communities, preparations needed as those once-rare occurrences become more common. Philadelphia's Ghanock, CBC News, Toronto. Alberta's governing party is being accused of trying to reach the province's electoral map for its own political gain. An independent panel had made suggestions based on population changes, but Daniel Smith's government decided not to adopt those

and instead is creating a new panel with a new mandate. Aaron Collins reports. It's obvious that the UCP wants to rig the next election. Nahed Nenshi not pulling punches in question period. The leader of Alberta's opposition NDP upset at the rejection of an independent commission's suggestions to redraw Alberta's political map. Why is the government so afraid of democracy? They won't simply adopt the commission's report. That report recommended adding two new ridings to keep up with the province's population growth.

To get there, the panel would have increased the number of urban ridings in the province by four, while reducing the number of rural ridings by two. But the UCP government that created the commission, rejected its findings. The commissioners made it very clear. They did not want to lose two rural writings, and that's why Recommendation 5 is supporting. Premier Daniel Smith referring to an addition to the main findings of the report by the commission's chair that suggests even more seats be added to the legislature.

The judge in his recommendation implores us to go from 89 to 91 seats, so we do not lose two rural seats. Smith says a new committee of five MLAs, the majority of which would be from her United Conservative Party, will now redraw the province's political map. UCP MLA Brandon Lenty will chair that committee. We look forward to ensuring that effective representation through 91 ridings is a key part of this process.

Thanks folks. Why won't you explain to Albertans why you're... Reporters in the official opposition not the only people with questions. I watched it live on TV yesterday. Susan Sampson is one of the commissioners of the nonpartisan report. She says its rejection is unprecedented and potentially dangerous. It's a very, very slippery slope. When we have MLAs redrawing their boundaries, they are picking their voters.

The voters are not picking their MLA. At the heart of this political dust up is Alberta's early. rural divide that sees the NDP performing better in the major cities, with the UCP dominating in more rural areas, a fact that makes how the political map changes key to those parties' political fortunes. We do have what looks like a competitive two-party system in the province. Lisa Young teaches political science at the University of Calgary. People are worried about this process because it seems to be moving in the direction.

of making it more political and the stakes are high. The new electoral boundary committee will likely present its findings in November. The next provincial election is set for October 27. Aaron Collins, CBC News, Calgary. Vancouver's mayor is making a pitch to bring a Major League baseball franchise to the city. Ken Sim says a motion will go before city council next week, And if it passes, city staff will begin the process of identifying an ownership group that can advance the bid. In an interview with the CBC's Rosemary Barton, BC Premier David Eby says he's on board with the idea.

I grew up a Blue Jays fan. I'm a big Blue Jays fan. I'm a big professional baseball fan. But I am thrilled at the idea that there could be a professional baseball team in British Columbia. It is the only thing they could get me to even consider hanging up my Blue Jays. his hat. And so I wish him and any proponents the best of luck. That would be very exciting. The commissioner of the MLB has expressed interest in expanding the league, but no changes can happen until after the current collective bargaining agreement expires in December.

While they're naturally occurring inside your body, and they help to form the building blocks for proteins. Peptides do everything from regulating hormones to supporting the immune system. But in the world of online wellness gurus, there's a big push promoting unregulated injectable synthetic versions promising big results with little effort. Health reporter Christine Birak looks at the peptide hype and risks. This little bottle of clow is magical. It does it all. She's talking about injectable peptides. They're being marketed on social media for everything, from bodybuilding and mental focus to tanning, often by paid influencers. Peptide hacks and they actually work. Health Canada now says it's received four complaints of adverse reactions in just six months,

with injectable peptides suspected to be the cause. Health officials are warning Canadians to think twice before injecting peptides bought online, saying they can cause serious harms. What you don't know can hurt you. Dr. Daniel Drucker understands the power of peptides. His early lab work at the University of Toronto paved the way for GLP1 drugs. Peptide-based drugs, like OZemPEC, can change how your body works. Drucker says GLP-1s are backed by large human trials and over a decade of evidence showing safety and effectiveness.

But peptides sold online without a prescription are not well studied. It hasn't been checked carefully as to how will this affect your immune system. You might be allergic to it. And it can have unintended side effects on many parts of your body that can be potentially even fatal. Health Canada says it has seized several unauthorized injectable peptide drugs. Still, several Canadian companies are selling them. We ordered products claiming to improve sleep, boost muscle, and slow aging. What arrived was a powder in a small vial.

The vial is labeled for research purposes only. One even states it's not for human or veterinary use. And because there's no regulation, that's essentially why these folks are able to sell them. Stuart Phillips holds the Canada Research Chair in skeletal muscle health. He says unauthorized peptides are being made in compounding labs with no oversight. And they're also being promoted by some medical professionals, personal treatment, trainers and there's a lot of pushback on peptides high profile Americans like joe rogan and u.s health secretary rogbert f kennedy junior yeah i mean i'm a big fan of peptides if these things really and i

mean really were as effective as people think why weren't they sewed up by pharmaceutical companies a long time ago uh the notion is that you can't patent these these uh compounds that's completely false Phillips argues pharmaceutical companies have likely examined popular injectable peptides but moved away from them because of weak results or safety concerns. Some experts say Health Canada needs to go beyond warnings and tighten regulations to better protect Canadians from experimenting on themselves. Christine Beirak, CBC News, Toronto. And finally tonight, some Edmonton students are getting a unique chance to try out a job that most adults will never experience. To me, the cadet program is all about giving experience to high school work experience students, give them a chance to see what it's like to be a firefighter, what it's like to challenge themselves,

put themselves in an uncomfortable position, and learn what they can do from that. Captain Chris Turner is the coordinator of the city's fire cadet program. Teenagers, 14 to 18, gear up and learn the job, hands on. All in a supervised environment, of course. The teens run hoses, crack open hydrants, and swing fire axes. I thought it would be more like what you'd think of regular cadet class with like air cadets or something, but I've realized that it's a lot more physically demanding in a good way. As a little girl, I've always wanted to be either a firefighter or an astronaut.

So I was like, oh, being in this program would be so cool. I've gotten to be able to learn how to communicate as a team and as like a leader. For some students, this is personal. Kobe Badger was inspired to sign up after her family was caught up in wildfires a couple of years ago, 400 kilometers to the north near Grand Prairie. I'm from one of the reserves close to there, and my grandma's house almost burned down. The firefighters were able to protect the house and protect the area, and I thought that was amazing, and I wanted to do something like that for other people.

The commitment to the program is serious. They are required to put in one full year, enough time to decide whether firefighting could be their future. Thanks for being with us. This has been your world tonight for Friday. Friday, April 17th. I'm Dave Seglins. Have a good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca slash podcasts.