Your World Tonight - Gordie Howe Bridge deal, premiers talk tariffs, OpenAI agent goes rogue, and more

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

A look at the art of the deal for the newest border crossing between Canada and the U.S.. Ottawa reveals who gets the revenue from the tolls on the Gordie Howe Bridge between Ontario and Michigan.And: While Trump’s trade rep defends the latest tariff threat, Canada's premiers say they are a united Team Canada, even though there’s disagreement on how to respond.Also: AI gone rogue. OpenAI says an autonomous agent powered by artificial intelligence hacked into another company’s servers without being told to.Plus: Fires in B.C., more tornadoes this year, Trump threatens retaliation on Iran if any ships are hit, and more.

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Ultimately, the goal of the government has always been to make sure that we would be able to get good value for many, but also knowing that there's a lot of unpredictable. on the part of U.S. administration. We've seen the admission that this has not been the deal that was promised, that indeed Canada would not be paid back until after 15 years. Canada's industry minister defends the Gordy Howe Bridge deal with the U.S. While the opposition says Canada got shortchanged, just like on other American deals,

by agreeing to split revenues for a multi-billion dollar bridge that Canada paid for. But there are still some details to work out. This is Your World Tonight. I'm Salima Shivji. It's Wednesday, July 22nd, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. Think of it as the door was open and it was literally able to escape, find other sites, platforms, vulnerabilities, and then exploit it. Artificial intelligence gone rogue. It sounds like science fiction. An AI model escapes its guardrails and attacks another company's servers. Now Open AI says it's happened in reality, originating from its own systems. Some experts. The experts worry this could just be a taste of what's to come.

The Gordi Howe Bridge between Ontario and Michigan is set to open on Monday, but what was meant to be a celebration has become a bridge over troubled water for Mark Carney. Canada paid the full $6.4 billion price tag to get it built. Now, new documents suggest the U.S. could get a bigger share of the revenue than the Prime Minister initially claimed. J.P. Tasker walks us through the deal and the political fall. out. The prime minister is dealing with more or less an irrational actor. A new cross-border bridge intended to further bind Canada and the U.S. has exposed new fault lines in the bilateral

relationship. A joint ribbon cutting ceremony for the Gordy Howe Bridge has been called off, says Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkins. Canada will stage one of its own after the latest U.S. tariff threat. And it would seem awful odd that we're going to get in the middle and celebrate, you know, this particular binational relationship at a time when the president continues to threaten Canada. But there are new questions about just how much Prime Minister Mark Carney gave up to

get it open. Canada financed the $6.4 billion Windsor Detroit crossing alone. But to appease the Trump administration, Carney's government said it would split net profits with the Americans. After factoring in debt payments, here's finance minister Francois Félafélip

Champagne last week. Net profits. That's what we're sharing. But new documents show the federal government will actually share 50% of net revenues after deducting some operating costs, and there's no mention of any debt charges. To be fair to the Prime Minister, one thing that he is right about is that the operating costs of the bridge are going to be very substantial. Ben Hampson, an expert on Canada-U.S. issues, says the Americans stand to gain little money from the deal, at least initially. This is a memorandum of understanding. There's still a lot of details that have to be worked out,

and that includes how operating costs are going to be defined and how they're going to be covered. While the government's explanation of who gets what has evolved, industry minister Melanie Jolie says that's the nature of doing business with Donald Trump. There's a lot of unpredictability on the part of US administration dealing with the world as it is. At a war of 1812 Cemetery in Hamilton, Ontario, the opposition conservatives sounded. off on the terms. It's an unfortunate price to bay.

Shivaloy Majumdar, the party's Canada-U-S. Critics, says the Prime Minister is rolling over. It's a very bad deal for Canada in the string of a long list of bad deals for Canada over the last year and a half. But Mayor Dilkins argues whatever the cost, it was worth it. The structure will funnel tens of billions of dollars worth of goods across the border, juicing the economy on both sides. He had to find a pathway that allowed the bridge to open. I think he did it. I think it's sensible. More than 25 years after it was first pitched and a bumpy road to the finish line, officials on both sides say the Gordy Howe Bridge will open to traffic next Monday, July 27th. J.P. Tasker, CBC News, Ottawa. Canada's premiers are working to bridge their divide over Trump's latest tariff threat. Today, they tried to get their agenda back on track after the U.S. President sent their P.E.I. meetings off the rails. Our Janice McGregor is in Charlottetown once again following the talks.

Nothing unites like a common opponent. And there's no more popular opponent in Canada right now than Donald Trump. Manitoba Premier Wob Canoe turned up this morning with a pretty blunt take on why premiers may try to get along this week. As siblings will often always have, you know, differences of opinion on smaller matters. But if somebody from outside the family tries to interfere, well, then they're dealing with a problem.

Confronting Donald Trump's tariff attacks is so economically fraught that it could have overshadowed other issues where premiers try to lobby with a united front against the federal government. PEI Premier Rob Lance is this year's chair. We're living in a time when uncertainty is the new norm. Decisions made beyond our borders have real impacts. Canadians expect their governments to steer them safely through this difficult time. Premiers landed on a series of familiar demands for flexible federal housing investments,

infrastructure cash, stable child care funding, and a renewed call for Ottawa to shoulder more of the burden for rising health care costs before their current deal expires next year. Health care is a human right, and we are going to defend it. Healthcare advocates and public sector unions held a noon rally to push back against privatization in Alberta and bolster the Premier's case for increased federal transfers. Canadian Labor Congress, Vice President Chavon Bypond,

came to Charlottetown to lobby for health care, but unions also pivoted, joining the call for stronger retaliation in the wake of Trump's economic bullying. I do think people are concerned about we don't have energy for anything except for it to respond to the tariffs, right? So we can't talk about public services. We can't talk about public health care.

But the reality is that they're connected. Those are jobs. Those are investments. Today's talks may have been a prelude ahead of a candid discussion tomorrow at the First Minister's table on trade strategy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Well, I'm looking forward to sitting down

with the rest of the premiers and the Prime Minister. He needs to lead the way. He needs to come up with a strong plan over the next 29 days, and everything's on the table. We can't keep rolling over for Donald Trump. But with national unity more urgent than ever, did premiers discuss rising separatist movements? Quebec's election? Alberta's referendum? Apparently not. Quebec Premier Christian Frischette.

No, I didn't hear any comments on that topic. And Alberta Premier, Daniel Smith. No, it didn't come up. Mark Carney's joining premiers this evening for a private dinner at a seaside hotel. While the venue may be festive, the common front they're working to forge could be strategically critical. Janice McGregor, CBC News, Charlottetown. The mood at the U.S. Capitol was less than festive today. Trump's trade czar faced a Senate hearing and some tough talk over the president's tariff agenda.

Katie Nicholson has the details from Washington. The committee will come to order. Right out of the gate, grilling the U.S. trade representative Jameson Greer, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden made it clear how he felt. It just seems to me that on tariffs, the administration has lost the plot. Dunking on Donald Trump's newly proposed 50% tariffs on a wide array of Canadian products. time when it comes to China, one of the biggest trade cheats there is, it seems that the administration rolls out the red carpet. Wyden seized the moment to announce a new bill aimed at cutting Trump's

terrifying tendencies off at the knees. It's well past time to put Congress back in the driver's seat on trade. That's why today I'm able to introduce the Congressional Trade Powers Reform Act. And things got testy when Democrat Rafael Warnock pushed Trump's U.S. trade representative on the cost of his tariff force. Has the U.S.T.R. ever produced any rigorous peer-evaluated study refuting the fact that the president's tariffs have contributed to inflation, or is your rebuttal to these conclusions just based on vibes, people's feelings, politics? So, no, we don't do vibes, Senator. Greer shed some new light on trade deal timelines for Canada and Mexico, even if only short-term agreements. I'm hopeful that before the end of the year,

we can have at least options for President Trump and the leaders of Canada and or Mexico to consider potential interim arrangements. After the hearing, still more questions about those new tariffs, a response to Canadian trade practices and retaliatory measures that have irked U.S. negotiators. So we're... You've 50% tariffs on Canada. Can you explain the timing? Why now?

This is something that's been in preparation for some time. We have tried for over a year to get the Canadians to eliminate these things. Again, we've given them the best treatment available in the world in the past year or so, and despite that, they've still taking these actions, so we thought it was necessary

to elevate this. Despite this escalation, Greer insists he's still having great interactions with his Canadian counterparts. And that for the Americans, this is all about business, economics, and the bottom line. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Washington. Coming right up, multiple wildfires in BC's southwestern interior,

including one that has quadrupled in size since yesterday, the warnings to people who have refused to seek safety. Plus, the U.S. and Iran trade threats to target civilian infrastructure if the other doesn't get in line. And later, an artificial intelligence model goes on the attack, Open AI reveals that one of its models went rogue and targeted a startup servers. Some say it should be seen as a cautionary tale. Just like any tool that humans make, it can be used for good and you can be used for bad and it can use for malicious things.

And in some cases, if it's so powerful, it may even do things unintentionally that we would not like it to do. Aina Sidu has more on the calls for greater accountability for AI ahead on Your World Tonight. A significant threat to life and safety. That's the warning to people in BC's Fraser Canyon as yet another fire bears down. Residents of Boston Bar were told last night to get out immediately. The CBC's Troy Charles is watching developments for us. Troy, this fire developed really quickly. What does that mean for the people in the area?

Yes, the roughly 200 residents of Boston Bar were already issued an evacuation order last Thursday when high winds pushed another fire close to town, but not everyone listened. some stayed behind. Late last night, those who stayed got an urgent alert message to their phones from the local regional district saying, you are in danger and need to evacuate now. For your safety, residents who have remained in the community must leave now. That spurred some who'd stayed to finally leave. We talked to one man who left in a hurry last night.

His name is Mark Smith. He described what it's like being surrounded by wildfires. The smoke coming out of North Bend was so thick. that you couldn't tell where it was coming from. We're literally sandwiched. We have fire on both sides to the north to the south and have had since July 2nd. How do you know a new one has started up?

You just don't, not until that warning comes through. Mark says he was driving all night as he went north to evacuate. That's because the highway south of the fires is now closed. And what are officials saying about just how aggressive this fire is? Well, Morgan Blois is a fire information officer with the BC Wildfire Service. She says the new wildfire was discovered yesterday afternoon by aircraft. Typically what we see when a fire ignites at the valley bottom, fire loves to run upslope. So what we saw yesterday was Anderson Creek Wildfire igniting at the bottom,

kind of in the ditch area along Highway 1. And with the hot and dry conditions that we have in this area right now, that fire just ripped up the hillside. Blois added the fire is burning above Boston Bar, roughly 500 to 800 meters from the town site, where there are many structures. She says the main objective is to keep those buildings out of harm's way. Okay, and officials are also warning

that the hot and dry conditions are not going to get better. That's right. Smoke will moderate temperatures somewhat, but those conditions could lead to aggressive fiber behavior similar to yesterday. Smoke also is expected to make it difficult for the helicopters being used to fight these fires and that heat. It's supposed to be close to 40 degrees in the Fraser Canyon, which is not ideal for firefighting efforts. These residents have been on edge for the last three weeks. The last thing they needed was a third fire threatening their community.

Okay, the CBC is Troy Charles in Chilac, BC for us. Thanks for this. Thank you. As you heard there, BC's wildfire situation is coinciding with this week's heat wave. Environment Canada has issued dozens of warnings about heat and poor air quality for about two-thirds of the province, including Metro Vancouver. Over in Ontario, more than 180 wildfires are burning in the north. Early estimates suggest this is the worst wildfire season Ontario has ever recorded. Today, the Prime Minister convened the Incident Response Group to review worsening wildfire conditions,

all across the country. Mark Carney directed officials to continue working closely with provincial, territorial, and indigenous partners to support affected communities. There have been an unusual number of tornadoes in Canada this year, hitting the prairies in particular, but also all the way east to Quebec. Experts say a particular combination of weather conditions is helping to turn storms into tornadoes, but they're less sure of the long-term causes. Inayat Singh reports. A tornado touches down in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta over the weekend, part of a spate of actual tornadoes and tornado warnings stretching from the prairies all the way to southern Ontario and Quebec. It's part of an escalating catalogue of extreme weather hitting Canadians,

wildfires that have sent smoke to large cities like Toronto and forced people to evacuate from northern communities and extreme heat waves that hit much of central and eastern Canada. If it continues on like it has been, the last several months. We're looking at a record season here. Dave Sills is the director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University. The project estimates there have been 83 tornadoes so far in Canada, significantly more than the 63 there had been by this time last year.

In particular, Alberta and Saskatchewan are seeing a lot of tornadoes. Alberta is at three times its 30-year average. Janelle Gergley is a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. It's hard to say exactly what is creating more thunderstorms or more severe thunderstorms and more tornadoes this season than previous seasons. But one thing I think we all notice in the air is that it's moist. All that rain we got in June through much of central Alberta is providing available moisture for those storms. This year, Western Canada got relief from drought conditions and has seen wet weather, but that's held. helping create the thunderstorms behind the tornadoes. Add to that heat domes settled onto parts of the

western U.S. Storms and tornadoes can form along the northern edges of these heat domes by funneling air upwards, and this has happened across the southern prairies. The conditions are just right. You can get what's called the supercell. It's the most highly organized thunderstorms of thunderstorms, and that can produce updrafts that are so strong that it can suspend very large hail and allow it to grow before falling and also generate really powerful tornadoes. Heat domes have been linked to global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Climate change is also causing more extreme rain and storms in parts of the country. But it's harder to find a direct link between tornadoes and climate change.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done to try to untangle all of the factors involved. The tornado season typically runs until October in Canada and July is usually the peak. In Ayat Singh, CBC News, Toronto. Firefighters across southern Europe are battling wildfires as temperatures top 43 degrees Celsius. A fire in Spain's Guadalajara province has burned more than 32,000 hectares, forcing thousands of residents to flee. It's the second largest fire the country has ever recorded. Evacuations are also underway in France and Italy. That extreme heat is having other consequences too.

France says it recorded 5,700 more deaths than usual during a historic heat, just last month. A 33-year-old Toronto man has been charged with terrorism for public statements during pro-Palestinian rallies in 2024. Police say he used what they called amplification devices to make the statements and that he acted in association with Hamas, which Canada has designated a terrorist group. It's not clear why the investigation has lasted two years. Donald Trump is issuing new warnings that the U.S. will target Iranian bridges and power

plants each time Tehran fires at a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. As Sasha Petrissik reports, Iran is responding with its own threats of retaliation, both sides showing little sign of backing down. On his way to transfer the bodies of four U.S.

soldiers killed in the war with Iran to their families. To honor our heroes. U.S. President Donald Trump insisted the U.S. is winning the fight and that he has public support. Americans don't want had gasoline prices, but they're not against the war.

Renewed fighting over the past week and a half, including Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, has put more pressure on oil prices, and it's prompted Trump to issue more threats on social media, vowing to bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant in Iran every time it shoots at a ship. On Iranian TV, Tehran has already blamed the U.S. for hitting bridges, and today its foreign minister answered with threats of his own, promising online to keep targeting the civilian infrastructure of American Mideast allies. Water and power plants are all legitimate targets, says Zabasarachi,

and to stop the flow of all oil out of the Persian Gulf. They're sanctioning the world in the way that they were sanctioned. Mid-east expert Jeremy Wildeman teaches at the University of Ottawa and Carlton. They're used to this economic pain, and they've discovered that they can inflict economic pain back on the rest of the world in order to try to achieve their aims vis-à-vis the United States. In what could be a major escalation, Iranian allies in Yemen, the Houthi militants, say they fired at two-savis. Saudi tankers in another key passageway for 7% of the world's oil, the Red Sea. They've threatened to block this alternative route for exports from the Gulf.

Last month's ceasefire agreement and ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran were supposed to end the blockades and the fighting. But Trump says the U.S. won't participate. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists there's no trust left. The problem we're having right now is that they're not serious about talks. If they're serious, we're serious. If they're not, then we will do what is necessary to protect that, our interests and also the interest of our allies. Another relentless night of U.S. bombing and Iranian drones and missile fire is underway.

Sasha Petrosake, CBC News, Toronto. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have reached a nuclear cooperation agreement. The U.S. Department of Energy says the deal will give American-competition. companies access to the Saudi nuclear energy program and that the deal will enhance U.S. and regional security and support non-proliferation. There are a few details so far, but earlier reports suggested the deal could allow Saudi Arabia to build a uranium enrichment facility with the help of the U.S. A cybersecurity incident involving the company behind ChatGPT is raising new questions about the safety of artificial intelligence. OpenAI says one of its

advanced systems broke free during a test and hacked into another technology company's systems. As Aina Siddu tells us, it's fueling new fears about AI security. They're already better than us. They're in a better way of doing learning. And if we make them bigger, they'll get much smarter than us. It's what Jeffrey Hinton, the so-called godfather of AI, has been warning about. Now, Open AI, the San Francisco Tech Giant, says one of its autonomous AI models jumped the installed guardrails during a security test and hacked into AI startup hugging face. In a blog post, OpenAI says the system is designed to operate by itself after some human

instruction. One of the biggest concerns has been, could these models go rogue and find security vulnerabilities on different platforms? And that's what's happened here. OpenAI says the system broke out of what's known as its digital sandbox and access the internet to look for solutions outside the testing. parameters. Retash Kotak is a cybersecurity tech analyst. Instead of it being completely inside a room with the doors closed and the window shut, just think of it this way. One of the doors might have been slightly left open and the AI was able to get loose and find these vulnerabilities. The startup hugging face says it caught the attack quickly and the investigation is ongoing. But the incident

has prompted new questions about the capabilities of advanced AI systems and whether there are enough safeguards in place. Chris Powell is a professor at Polytechnique, Montreal. His work looks at computer security at the intersection of AI. Just like any tool that humans make, it can be used for good and can be used for bad and it can use for malicious things. And in some cases, if it's so powerful, it may even do things unintentionally that we would not like it to do. Many believe accountability rests on governments to regulate AI. In a statement, the Office of the Federal Minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation, Evan Solomon, says his department is assessing the incident and its implications and is in touch with open AI. The lack of legislation is allowing this

to progress in such a rapid way that protections aren't really going to catch up for some time. Robert Falson is the head of engineering at Checkpoint Software Canada. He says for now, businesses need to step up their cyber defenses. Even something just a few years old is now so out of date because it's incapable of protecting them against these types of modern frontier-level attacks. In this case, OpenAII says no customer data was compromised. Ina Sedu, CBC News, Calgary. And finally, an unexpected duet at a St. John's bar

between 18-year-old Newfoundland singer and songwriter Julia Dawson, an American singer and rap superstar Kesha. Dawson was performing a paid gig with guitarist Bruce Smith on Friday when she saw a woman walk by with a team of people. At first, Dawson didn't make much of it, she told the St. John's Morning Show. She just danced and she gave us a bit of eye contact and smiled at me when I was singing. And I never thought really much of it. I was just like, oh, she's going to the Kesha concert.

How nice is that? That's when things started to take a turn. The woman made her way through a number of tables toward the front of the stage. She was like, can I sing with you and pointed at me? And I was like, just not in my head. I was like, sure. Like, I don't know who this is still. still not making the connection.

And then she comes up on stage with Bruce and I, and she just starts singing. And as soon as she started singing, I was like, oh my God, it's Kesha. She is two feet from my face. It is freaking Kesha. The trio performed The Beatles Come Together. Kesha staying for the entire song

before heading off to her own show at the Churchill Park Music Festival. Dawson admits having Kesha on stage with her definitely had an impact on her singing. I sang the same verse just over and over and over. I couldn't think of anything else to do because I was like freaking out. I kept looking at Bruce and I was like, are you making this connection right now? Like, do you know this is Kesha?

And we were just smiling. We played along. She was dancing with me. We got into the groove of things. It was so cool. And here's the thing. Dawson had actually almost canceled her gig because she wanted to go see Ketchap or form. But the singer's mom convinced her not to.

And it turned out she was far from alone on stage, like her song of the same name. But when circulating in my cell, Love again, I tell myself. Thanks so much for being with us. This has been your will tonight for Wednesday, July 22nd. I'm Salima Shivji. Good night.