Your World Tonight - Harvard vs the White House, Trump tariff threats, Ukraine/Russia prisoner swap, and more

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

A judge blocks – for now – the White House attempt to ban Harvard from accepting international students. The uncertainty about what happens next is leaving students – including Canadians – in limbo. It’s the latest front in the war between U.S. President Donald Trump and elite universities.Also: Trump is threatening the European Union with 50 per cent tariffs – saying trade negotiations are “going nowhere”. He also says Apple should face 25 per cent tariffs on iPhones not made in America.And: Ukraine and Russia trade hundreds of prisoners of war, as talks are underway to get some sort of ceasefire in place.Plus: Canada’s energy minister tries to reset the relationship with industry, Canada Post union refuses overtime, Attenborough documentary looks at ocean trawling, and more.

Other People's Problems was the first podcast to take you inside real-life therapy sessions. I'm Dr. Hilary McBride, and again, we're doing something new. The ketamine really broke down a lot of my barriers. This work has this sort of immediate transformational effect. Therapy Using Psychedelics is the new frontier in mental health. Come along for the trip. Other People's Problems Season 5, available now. This is a CBC Podcast.

It's causing a lot of personal pain and panic. It's really hard to see that this might abruptly be coming to an end because of the Trump administration. The White House and the ivory tower. Canadian students now caught in the middle of Donald Trump's showdown with one of America's most elite schools. Harvard University is suing the U.S. government for the right to keep international students in class. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Stephanie Scanderis. It's Friday, May 23rd,

just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. A lot of it's so computerized now. These plants are amazing. We're talking about the iPhone now and, you know, the iPhone, if they're gonna sell it in America, I want it to be built in the United States. Taking a bite out of Apple, the US president wants iPhones it in America, I want it to be built in the United States. Taking a bite out of Apple, the U.S. president wants iPhones sold in America to be made there too. And he's threatening one of his country's most successful companies with a 25% tariff. It is historic, prestigious, and a major destination for foreign academics.

Tonight, Harvard University is locked in a battle with the U.S. government, one that is threatening the future of international students, including many Canadians. And as the Trump administration continues to confront the U.S. education system, there are fears other schools may be next. Alexander Silberman has our top story tonight. It's causing a lot of personal pain and panic to be caught in the crossfire. Thomas Mate says he's optimistic he'll be back at Harvard University this fall, but there's still uncertainty.

As an international student from Ontario, he's required to have a student visa, now at the center of a court battle. It's really hard to see that this might abruptly be coming to an end because of the Trump administration. A federal judge issued a temporary order pausing a decision by the Trump administration to effectively ban international students at Harvard University after the school sued the government Friday. The White House is accusing the university of fostering violence, anti-Semitism,

and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party. They're screaming at the United States and screaming at, you know, they're anti-Semitic or they're something. We don't want troublemakers here. U.S. President Donald Trump is pointing to Harvard's handling of pro-Palestinian protests. Hey, hey, ho, ho! The administration is demanding information on foreign students, specifically those involved in the demonstrations.

Harvard has been fighting back, refusing to give up any academic independence. The attempted ban is the latest escalation between the Ivy League School and the White House. The Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars of federal grants, leading the school to file a separate lawsuit. This is about a vicious attack to pursue a personal agenda. Lawrence Summers is a former president of Harvard University. If we are a country of law, Harvard will prevail. The sweeping order from the White House would affect more than a quarter of Harvard students,

including more than 700 Canadians who would be forced to transfer to another school or lose legal status in the U.S. Harvard's enrollment also includes the children of some world leaders, Prime Minister Mark Carney's daughter Cleo and Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of Belgium. Marco Avinha is a Harvard PhD student from Montreal. He says he views the move from the White House as a warning to other schools. It's meant to sort of destabilize academia and sort of make it clear that

universities should comply with the administration. Trump was asked by Reporters Friday if he's considering a similar ban for other schools. He says he's taking a look at a lot of things. For its part, Harvard is pledging to support foreign students as it battles for the future of their academic careers in court. Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Regina. From foreign students to offshore production, the U.S. president is once again turning up

the heat in his global trade war. Donald Trump is now threatening the European Union with a 50% tariff, and at the same time trying to force Apple to produce iPhones in America. Aaron Collins has more from Washington. Everybody wants to make a deal. I'm sure now the European Union wants to make a deal very badly. A familiar scene, Donald Trump holding court in the Oval Office, threatening traditional allies with tariffs. Today's main target, the European Union.

They don't take our cars. They don't take our agriculture. They don't take anything, but we take their cars by the millions. And therefore, they have the jobs, they get the money, and we get clothes plants. Not gonna happen that way anymore. Well these tariff threats began as they often do with Trump online.

The president lashing out on social media, decrying the U.S. trade deficit with the European Union, floating a 50% tariff on EU imports starting June 1st. U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Besson suggesting today's demands are an attempt to move trade negotiations with the EU. The President believes that the EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we've seen from our other important trading partners. I'm not going to negotiate on TV, but I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU. A reaction to today's tariff threats swift.

Major European stock markets were down, but reaction from policymakers inside the 27-member bloc measured. Poland's trade minister unsure if Trump's tariff threats will turn into actual tariffs, a sentiment echoed by some academics too. I think there's significant uncertainty on whether they will happen. Gunter Wolf is a public policy expert based in Brussels. We know that he's very volatile and we know also that he's blinking once he sees the consequences.

Wolf is certain that if imposed, tariffs will hurt consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. And there are worries the economy won't be all that's damaged in this trade dispute. Brad Setzer is a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. The biggest problem here is that it is a long-term erosion of the credibility of America when America is dealing with countries that have long considered the United States a friend, an ally." Europe wasn't the only target for the U.S. president today. Donald Trump taking aim at American tech giant Apple, too, threatening a 25% tariff on the

company's products made outside the U.S., a threat that in the short term caused Apple's share price to tumble, but could likely mean higher prices for Americans in the short term caused Apple's share price to tumble, but could likely mean higher prices for Americans in the long term. Erin Collins, CBC News, Washington. Coming up, the new federal energy minister lands in Calgary promising to boost an industry some thought the previous government neglected. Plus, legendary 99-year-old documentarian David Attenborough takes to the seas for his latest film. We'll tell you about its warning and its solutions.

A sold-out business crowd in Calgary welcomed Canada's new federal energy minister today and what they got from Tim Hodgson was enthusiastic support for Alberta's oil and gas industry. As Kyle Backs tells us the new Liberal government is trying to move quickly to reset Ottawa's image in the oil patch. A warm reception this morning in downtown Calgary for Tim Hodgson, the new federal energy minister appointed by Prime Minister Mark Carney. The Canadian energy industry is the best in the world. We will treat it that way. Hodgson is a former investment banker, familiar with the oil patch as a financial player

and as a former board member of Meg Energy, an oil sands producer. Canada will remain a reliable global supplier not just today but for decades to come. Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce event where tickets had sold out in minutes, Hodgson didn't make any new announcements but vowed to take action to ensure the industry grows. That includes pipelines and increasing energy exports. We will identify and fast-track projects of national interest. These are the projects that matter to our economy. It's a noticeable change of tone from Ottawa which has introduced several policies over the last decade that the oil patch opposes such as the clean fuel

regulations, a proposed cap on emissions and changes to permitting of major projects. Suncor CEO Rich Krueger praised Hodgson and the Liberal election promises. Your boss, Prime Minister Carney, said that the new government wants to build baby build that is music to Alberta's ears. Even the Alberta government routinely critical of the federal liberals is welcoming the new message cabinet minister Ray John Sawhney. I think a lot of the messages that we heard were very encouraging. The oil and gas industry represents about 30% of the country's

total emissions. Hodgson wouldn't say whether the new government will get rid of certain environmental policies such as the emissions cap or the industrial carbon tax. For now the oil patch is happy with the new direction. I haven't seen a federal cabinet minister talk about rig workers as much as the minister did in the last 10 years so I would say it was a very encouraging speech. Mark Schultz is president of a lobby group representing drilling companies. We're willing to work with the government. We want to see big projects built. Hodgson is meeting with industry, government and Indigenous leaders during this trip to Alberta.

I want you to bring your ideas. I want you to bring your ambitions. And together we will build. So far a rosy response in Alberta to his first foray west as Energy Minister. Kyle Backs, CBC News, Calgary. Four weeks after the federal election we have a final tally. The Conservatives today won two judicial recounts, one in the Ontario riding of Windsor to Cumsee Lakeshore, the other in Terra Nova, the peninsulas, in Newfoundland and Labrador. That leaves the Conservatives with 144 seats

and the Liberals with 169, three short of a majority. Parliament resumes Monday. On Tuesday, King Charles will deliver the speech from the throne. Your World Tonight and CBC Radio will be there with special coverage of the event starting at 11 a.m. Eastern. Canadian mail is still moving.

You just might have to wait a little longer for parcels, bills and those grocery store flyers. Canada Post and its workers avoided a full strike last night, but the company is still warning of potential delays, with the union telling employees not to work overtime as labour negotiations continue. Sophia Harris has the latest. We can't take the chance of putting shipments into the post office right now. Canada Post is delivering mail for now, but that's no solace for Don McCowan, owner of a Toronto hobby store.

He says online orders make up half his sales, and right now, many online shoppers are leery of the postal service. They can say there's no strike but to the customer they're afraid of placing orders that are going to go through Canada Post because the last time some of their orders got held up for up to six weeks during a strike. So to us it's not helping us at all. The 18-month labour dispute between Canada Post and its workers' union has no end in sight. Stop the strike for 32 days. Renewed talks last night sparked hope of a resolution, which never came, leaving workers

in a legal strike position at midnight. Instead, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers instructed employees to start refusing overtime work, which may delay mail delivery. Now, that may sound terrible to you, but at this time of the year, this is not a really busy, busy time for town to post. Marvin Rider is a business professor at McMaster University in Hamilton. He says the two sides remain far apart. I'm not even sure they're talking, so to speak.

They sort of show up in the same room, yell at each other and march out. On Wednesday, Canada Post made its latest offer. It includes a 13.5% wage increase over four years, up from 11.5% proposed late last year. Still, the union says workers deserve more. Another sticking point, the Crown Corporation says it wants to hire part-time workers to deliver packages on the weekend to help save the corporation, which is deep in debt.

John Hamilton is a Canada Post spokesperson. We're trying to bring more flexibility to our delivery model so that we can compete in the parcel business, which is the that we can compete in the parcel business which is the only area of growth in the delivery business. But the union continues to resist part-time hires. Mark Lebinski is president of the Toronto Chapter. We need good stable jobs for Canadians

and that's what the union strives to do. The union has offered for full-timers to work those weekend shifts. Canada Post says it hopes for more fruitful talks this weekend. The union says it's still reviewing the corporation's latest offer. The overall performance of our business is going to be hit pretty hard actually. All the while the threat of a strike lingers, already impacting sales for small business owners like McCowen. Sophia Harris, CBC News, Toronto. Legal arguments over a witness's text messages have been the focus for much of the week

at the trial of five former World Junior Hockey players. The Crown wants the messages from a teammate of the accused entered as evidence. Two attempts have been rejected by the judge. Now she's taking the weekend to consider a third. Karen Pauls explains what the texts say and why they're so important to the prosecution. Certainly that's an extra hurdle for the Crown. In a high profile trial that has already hit

more than its share of roadblocks and delays, another one this week, with the Crown's witness having memory problems. Sam Pujala is a London, Ontario criminal defense lawyer who is not involved with this trial but is following it closely. So the Crown is exercising every possible and available option to them to try to get these text messages made as an exhibit and admissible evidence in the trial and that's because Brett Howden is not giving the Crown the evidence that they anticipated.

The Crown told court she believes Howden a forward for the Vegas Golden Knights is pretending not to remember details that would hurt his former World Junior teammates. This led to days of complicated legal arguments. Nick Cake is a former Crown attorney, now criminal defense lawyer, who's also watching the case. Essentially, what the Crown wants to do is take an out of court statement and admit it into the court record for the truth of its contents. And they're saying that they need to do that because there is necessity. The necessity being Mr. Howden's lack of recollection.

That piece of evidence, text messages Howden sent to a teammate after the alleged assault, describing Dylan DuBey hitting the complainants buttocks. She's known as EM under a publication ban. In one, Howden tells Taylor Radish she was happy he left the hotel room when he did because DuBey was smacking the girls behind so hard. It looked like it hurt so bad. Howden and Radish were both members of the 2018 World Junior Hockey Team. They are witnesses in this case not charged with any wrongdoing.

Cake says there's a lot at stake for both sides. I think it's important for the Crown and EM because it works to corroborate some of the things that she was saying. Is it corroborated by any other piece of evidence? So this definitely helps. The defence has been fighting the Crown's applications. This is an important piece of evidence to keep out as would any piece of evidence that implicates your client. The Crown has managed to get some admissions from Howden on the record.

She had him read from previous statements he gave to police and Hockey Canada investigators. One included hearing the complainant crying. Another where he described feeling uncomfortable by Dubay's alleged slap. Justice Maria Caracciaga will give her decision Monday on whether the text messages can be admitted as evidence. Karen Pauls, CBC News, London, Ontario. To Germany now. Police and emergency services were on the scene after 12 people were injured in a knife attack

at a train station in Hamburg. Six people sustained life-threatening injuries while several others were seriously hurt. The attacker targeted people on the platform at the downtown terminal, a major hub for local and regional travelers. Police arrested a 39-year-old woman who they say acted alone. There was no information on a possible motive. In a rare moment of cooperation, Russia and Ukraine each swapped 390 prisoners. Both countries say they'll free more in the coming days. And once the exchange is complete, Russia

is promising to deliver a draft document outlining conditions for long-term peace. Philipp Lyshenok reports. The first busloads of prisoners arrive from Russia, greeted by people lining the streets, waving Ukrainian flags. Alexander Nahir, who spent 22 months in a POW camp, was asked how he kept going. My family gave me strength, he says. You have to believe every day. Similar scenes played out as busloads of Russian soldiers and civilians arrive in Belarus.

I'm happy that I will see my family, children and relatives, this soldier says. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says once the prisoner swaps are completed, the next step is for both sides to draft documents outlining their conditions for a ceasefire. With the goal of achieving a sustainable long-term comprehensive agreement, he says. It's the first stage. We didn't yet achieve the ceasefire. Ukraine wants the ceasefire. Ukraine's defense minister, Rustam Umarov, says he hopes this prisoner swap, expected to be a thousand people from each side, will lead to the next steps in the peace process. Firstly, the exchanges. Second, the ceasefire. And third step is a leaders meeting.

Umarov says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was willing to meet in Istanbul, as suggested by Russian President Vladimir Putin, for face-to-face talks. But Putin didn't show up, instead sending lower-level diplomats. Zelinsky says he's happy the prisoner exchange is underway, which he calls the only significant result of the meeting in Turkey. And he says Russia's proposal for draft conditions for negotiating a ceasefire is a mockery. Well, that's basically talking about talking. Jack Cunningham, who teaches international relations at the University of Toronto's

Trinity College, agrees. It's not very concrete. And I think it basically indicates that the whole negotiating process of the last week or so has been something of a charade. Cunningham says while the prisoner swap will be a happy occasion for many families on both sides it won't change the diplomatic stalemate and he suggests the European Union should follow through on its threat to continue to rearm Ukraine and ramp up sanctions against Russia. So that even if Putin doesn't call a halt to the hostilities he's paying a price for

continuing them. But Cunningham says the wild card as always is US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to abandon the process. Filthy Shannock, CBC News, Toronto. You're listening to Your World Tonight from CBC News. And if you want to make sure you 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. His name is synonymous with stunning documentaries capturing the natural

world in all its glory. Now David Attenborough is turning his lens to a man-made threat, the dangers of overfishing in the world's oceans. Anand Ram reports on the film's message and the solutions it offers. After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea. Quite a statement from a voice that has brought us closer to the natural world for decades. For once you've truly seen the sea, you'll never look at Earth in the same way again. In his latest documentary, Ocean, David Attenborough shows us the

Interconnected nature of our seas and the creatures that call it home. We put all these lines Atlantic Pacific You know the fish don't know that they don't need visa actually to move Rashid Sumela is an ocean and fisheries economist at the University of British Columbia he says this notion of one global ocean is critical to understanding how to care for it. Because for all the film shows of life, From the surface, you would have no idea that this is happening. Death looms, and you know the bad guy by now. It's us and our hunger. A modern industrial bottom trawler scours the ocean floor, he smashes its way across the seabed,

destroying nearly everything in its path. Some of us see bottom trolling as clear cutting of a forest. It grinds the bottom, right? And they do it many times. Beyond the blanket scoop which research puts at millions of tons of unwanted fish killed a year, trolling also disturbs buried carbon, contributing to climate change. Anna Kerozs is with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in England. There are areas that are indeed hold very old

and very long carbon stores, and there are areas that, because of the physics of that particular system, they hold less carbon. She says more needs to be done to map out where this carbon is so we can continue to feed a hungry world that depends on this invaluable source of protein.

In a time when we can't really choose not to troll, you know, can we at least make more informed decisions that limit that impact? To be clear, the film isn't anti-fishing. It says current methods are unsustainable. But expanding marine protected areas could be a win-win. Akash Maharaj is director of policy at Nature Canada. All scientific research shows that having marine protected areas actually increases the catch in the surrounding areas.

But experts warn many of these are paper parks where both legal and illegal activity continues. It's not enough to draw a line on a map and say this area is now protected. There has to be a rational use framework. And above all, there has to be enforcement. The ocean can recover faster than we had ever imagined. It's why the film is pushing for action as countries come together for the UN Ocean Conference in June

so they can create more protections to sustainably feed our future. Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto. Finally tonight, a young, Indigenous La Crosse player is breaking down barriers in a sport where that takes a lot of muscle. I was like, no, like I'm a girl. I don't know if I can fit in. And I was like, why don't I just try it?

Like, why not? Like, nothing's, it's not going to hurt to try. That was Ava Gabriel's attitude. It's not going to hurt to try. That was Ava Gabriel's attitude. It's not going to hurt to try. Even if lacrosse often does hurt. But the 19-year-old from Ganas Adage near Montreal was up for the challenge. And now she's making history

in the Ontario Lacrosse Association. Before her, women had only played junior-level lacrosse in the province as goalies. But Gabriel is on offense, playing full contact with men on the Junior C, Ganaugua Hunters, and her teammates are impressed. It sounds funny, but she has balls to be able to play with men, so it's honestly really cool. We were all welcoming in. We didn't make it seem like she wasn't supposed to be here or she's part of our team now. I feel like I have to prove that we are able to do it and girls are capable of doing this.

Even before suiting up with the men, Gabriel was already making an impact in the sport. She won a bronze medal at the World Championships with the Haudenosaunee Nationals last year and will be inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame. This has been Your World Tonight for Friday, May 23rd. I'm Stephanie Scanderres. Thank you for being with us. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

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