Your World Tonight - Iran Israel escalation, Looking ahead to the G7 summit, Grand Prix weekend, and more.

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

Neither Israel or Iran seem willing to take down the temperature. The scope of attacks is expanding. The number of people killed and wounded is climbing higher. World leaders in Europe, North America, and the Middle East continue to push for diplomacy. But the back and forth bombardment shows no signs of slowing down. Also: Kananaskis, Alberta will be commanding the world's attention this week - hosting the annual gathering of leaders of the world’s richest democracies. And in this time of Trump, tariffs and trade wars, this summit could prove to be a watershed moment. You'll hear the tricky waters G7 leaders will have to navigate over the next few days.And: Canadian Grand Prix weekend has come to a close in Montreal. It draws tens of thousands of excited racing fans to Montreal every June. After hitting some bumps in the road last year, the city is eager to be a world-class host for the F-1 event. Plus: Identifying victims of the Air India plane crash, A museum telling the stories of refugees, the unconventional method B.C. researchers are using to learn about bears, and more

Fulfilling our greatest passions is intertwined with our physical wellness. At CBI Health, our experienced physiotherapists take the necessary steps to build you a targeted recovery plan, helping you get back to the things you love the most. Book your appointment today at cbihelth.ca. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Stephanie Scanderis and this is your World Tonight. We can't have the world's most dangerous regime have the world's most dangerous weapons. We will give a powerful response to any aggression the Israelis may commit.

Neither Israel nor Iran seem willing to take down the temperature. The scope of attacks is expanding. The number of people killed and wounded is climbing higher. And global calls for a ceasefire are being dismissed. Also on the podcast, world leaders are descending on Alberta. The G7 summit gets underway this week. You can bet they're ready to talk trade, tariffs and Trump. You'll get a preview.

Plus. Start your engines. It's Grand Prix weekend in Montreal. The continued fighting between Israel and Iran is becoming more deadly. Israel says Iranian missile strikes have killed 14 people since Friday, while the number of people killed in Iran by Israel's airstrikes has topped 200. Iran's health ministry says most of those people are civilians. World leaders in Europe, North America and the Middle East continue to push for diplomacy. But as Margaret Evans reports from Jerusalem, the back and forth bombardment shows no signs of slowing down.

In Israel, a third night filled with the howl of air raid sirens followed by incoming Iranian missiles and Israeli air defenses springing to life in the skies above Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, where there was a hit of some kind. Iran answering Israel's assault on its nuclear capabilities and the top ranks of its military leadership. Assassinations that offer an echo of the way Israel dealt with the leadership of Iran's proxy militia Hezbollah in Lebanon. In a Sunday interview on Fox News, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked if regime change in Iran

is one of his goals. It could certainly be the result because the Iran regime is very weak. He also told the Fox News host that he'd just received confirmation that Israel had killed Brigadier General Mohammed Kazami, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' intelligence chief. Earlier Netanyahu visited the city of Bat Yam, which was hit by a missile making it past Israel's defenses the night before, killing at least six people and damaging several nearby buildings. Lieutenant Dean Elson is the international spokesperson for the Israel police.

Since the early morning hours today we were medically evacuating civilians who were stuck, those affected by the latest barrage and our bomb squads are working together with the home front command to remove the dangerous debris. Netanyahu accuses Iran of deliberately targeting civilians and that Tehran will pay a high price for it. Residents including this man were shocked by the scale of destruction. The boom was very huge and we thought it's quite near the shelter. It was a very huge rocket. In Iran there were also scenes of chaos and death.

Israeli attacks on Saturday night hitting the defense ministry and a fuel depot near Tehran that burned through the night. The Iranian President Masoud Pesachian says Iran is not trying to expand the war but that more innocent lives are likely to be lost. Israel knows no boundaries, he says. They intrude wherever they want with America's permission. The U.S. President Donald Trump is still insisting that Iran and Israel can reach a deal, floating Vladimir Putin as a potential mediator. Critics say there is profound confusion over Trump's intentions and

little evidence so far of a coordinated proposal on de-escalation from the international community. Margaret Evans, CBC News, Jerusalem. A massive manhunt is in its second day across the US Midwest. Its target? The man who authorities say shot and killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in their home. 57-year-old Vance Belter is wanted in the death of Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. He's also believed to have shot State Senator John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife Yvette. They remain in hospital. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota says authorities believe the shooter hasn't gone far.

We believe he's somewhere in the vicinity and that they are going to find him, but right now everyone on edge here because we know that this man will kill at a second. Police have now located a second car that they believe belonged to Belter. It was found several kilometers from his Minnesota home. The local sheriff is telling residents to keep their doors and cars locked. Still ahead, a team of researchers in northern BC wants to help stop conflicts between people in cities and bears who wander in. They're asking people to help out, but their number one research material is a lot of number two.

We'll explain coming up on Your World Tonight. A former giant of the Canadian labour movement has died. Buzz Hargrove served as the leader for the Canadian auto workers from 1992 until 2008. Born in rural New Brunswick, Hargrove grew up in poverty, the sixth of ten children. He dropped out of high school in grade 10 and drifted from job to job before landing on the

assembly line at the Chrysler plant in Windsor, Ontario. In a Facebook post announcing his death, Unifor Local 444 calls Hargrove a defender of all workers saying he was fearless at the bargaining table and relentless in the halls of power, adding that he never gave up his unwavering commitment to working-class Canadians. Buzz Hargrove was 81 years old. Cananaskis, Alberta will be commanding the world's attention this week. The resort village in the Rockies is hosting the annual gathering of leaders of the world's richest democracies. And in this time of Trump tariffs and trade wars, this summit could prove to be a watershed moment.

Murray Brewster looks at the tricky waters G7 leaders will have to navigate over the next few days. Toronto, like Canada itself, is brimming with strength, vitality and self-assurance. The late US President Ronald Reagan praising US-Canada ties at the Toronto G7 summit in 1988. We have been best friends, important trading partners, and allies for more than a century and a half. How times have changed. Another G7 and another US President. Canada has been ripping us off for years.

Donald Trump is among the leaders of the world's richest democracies, gathering in the mountains of Cananascis, Alberta for this year's G7 amid what is clearly a completely different world context. And while there have been some unusual, even testy moments over the 50-year history of the G7, experts are united in the view that there has never been a moment like this. I think the problem now, frankly, is, you know, for all of that to work, you need a level of trust among the members. Creon Butler was a G7 organizer at the UK Cabinet Office. He believes the G7 is now hobbled by the lack of cooperation and agreement from the Trump

administration. I question now whether that level of trust is there with the US to make it function in the way it has in the past. The original intent of the G7 way back in the mid 1970s was to anticipate and manage global economic shocks. It's unlikely anyone ever anticipated the U.S. would be the one delivering those shocks. I think simply to say that there really isn't that much in common anymore isn't quite true.

Senator Peter Beame was Canada's G7 Deputy Minister for years and helped organize many summits. He believes there's still room for dialogue with the U.S. despite the trade war. The challenge that the Prime Minister will have is to communicate to Canadians that we are that we're chairing this process this year and we want to make some progress and reduce the temperature. While there may not be much agreement on economy, all agree the temperature urgently needs to be lowered in the Middle East. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke in Ottawa ahead of the meeting.

Obviously the conflict with Israel and Iran is centerpiece, and this provides the opportunity to talk to our co-leaders. Prime Minister Mark Carney is slated to meet with Donald Trump one-on-one tomorrow, before the summit opens. India's Narendra Modi is also expected to be among the attendees, as is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will update G7 allies on his country's war with Russia. Marie Brewster, CBC News, Banff, Alberta. On his way to the G7, French President Emmanuel Macron stopped off in Greenland Sunday where he pledged support for the self-governing island against what he

called Donald Trump's predatory ambition. Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Greenland since taking office. Macron says those threats coming from the US should be a wake-up call for Europeans. For the families of the people killed in last week's Air India crash, the past few days have been an agonizing wait. The remains of at least 270 people have been recovered from the wreckage. DNA samples have been taken but actually identifying those remains is a monumental task. Salima Shivji is in Ahmedabad where the London bound flight crashed and brings us this report.

A coffin covered with flowers is held high as relatives carry it down a crowded street taking one of the victims of Air India flight 171 for last rites. Some breaking down in tears, the grief too hard to bear. But for others it's still an agonizing wait. In a tent set up for mourning family members, steps from the hospital's morgue.

The bodies of the plane crash victims are slowly being released after DNA tests confirm a match to surviving relatives. The process of extracting DNA from the victims so badly burned after the fiery crash and testing it has been excruciatingly difficult. It's very difficult. It's very like how to explain, no any words with me. Neelai Patel and his family have been here for days waiting for the body of his cousin.

This is Harsit. This is Harsit's wife. Nearby, Pragnesh Patel shows a photo of his nephew Harsit and Harsit's wife Pooja, both on board the ill-fated flight. We haven't received the bodies, he says, so it still feels like maybe they are alive. The plane went down and exploded in a ball of fire in a residential area close to the airport, mere moments after takeoff, killing more than 270 people, 30 victims on the ground and everyone on board,

except one lone survivor. Narendra Singh Chauhan has been trying to forget the destruction the plane left behind, but it's seared into his mind. He was one of the first people to rush to the scene. You couldn't even tell if you were picking up bodies or parts of the plane. Everything was burnt, he says, choking up. He feels broken that so many people were beyond saving. The investigation into the plane's final moments that brought it crashing to the ground continues. The focus is on analyzing the flight's data recorder retrieved on Friday, says India's aviation minister Ram Mohanaidu. This decoding of the black box is going to give in-depth insight into what would have actually

happened during the process of the crash or moments before the crash itself. Specialized teams have also now found the cockpit voice recorder which would have captured the entire conversation between the pilots. As investigators picked through the wreckage this weekend, authorities confirmed the pilot's final call was May Day, May Day, May Day. Local media is reporting he also said thrust not achieved, falling before all communication was lost. Salima Shivji, CBC News, Ahmedabad, India. With cooler temperatures in BC and evacuees in parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan returning home, some are finding a reprieve from wildfires in western Canada.

But with hot and dry conditions predicted throughout the summer, others aren't so relaxed. Cameron Moller has more. Peter Thibodeau says returning home feels strange, even if he's glad to be back. It was good to be back home, but the whole experience was kind of not too good. Two weeks after being forced from their communities by wildfire threats, hundreds of Manitobans are going home. For Peter, home is a rural municipality of Kelsey.

Hopefully go back to work and cut my grass and try to be normal. It's not really sunk in yet. Peter and about 440 others were ordered out of Kelsey, 35 kilometers southeast of Flintlawn, on May 31st, after fires took out hydro poles and threatened to cut off roads. I'm really glad to be able to tell these residents that they can head home. Laurie Forbes is a municipal emergency coordinator for Kelsey. She says after key services like power and water treatment were confirmed to be safe,

Manitoba Wildfire Services and Parks Canada cleared the area for people to return. She said it's about time people get back to normal. Being an evacuee for two weeks is extremely long and extremely tiring. They're going home to a community that's ready to receive them, get them lawns mowed, get some gardens put in and carry on with everyday life." Thousands of Saskatchewan evacuees are also returning home this weekend. Further west, the Dryden Creek wildfire near Squamish, B.C. has been classified as held.

That means it's expected to stay where it is. B.C. Coastal Fire Center Information Officer Sarah Budd says crews dug fire lines and dropped water from the air. She said cooler weather has helped, too. Sarah Budd, B.C. Coastal cooler weather has helped, too. We've also had aviation resources working hard on sort of the northern part of the fire where we have seen the most recent growth happening. Smoky skies have cleared and fire maps are slightly less red, but signs still point to a fierce wildfire season ahead.

It is very clear that this wildfire season is off to a very challenging start. Federal Minister of Natural Resources Tim Hodgson addressed the media in a technical briefing earlier this week. According to government data, the area expected to burn this season is projected to be Canada's second largest on record. More than 3.7 million hectares have been burned and wildfire smoke is affecting air quality across the country. In Manitoba, where fires are off to an early start,

Environment Canada meteorologist Jennifer Smith says long-range forecasts aren't offering much relief. Things that we look for are hot conditions, dry conditions, and windy conditions. I think it would be wise for Manitobans, for Canadians, to be prepared for a warmer summer that is also drier. As some Canadians return home, others may soon be packing up. Canada's wildfire season is just getting started. Cameron Mahler, CBC News, Kitchener, Ontario.

CBC's climate dashboard provides live updates on wildfire smoke and active fires across the country. You can find it at cbc.ca.com. Then just set your location for information on temperature and air quality where you live. This coming Friday is World Refugee Day. According to the United Nations, there are more than 120 million people worldwide who have been forced from their home countries by war, disasters and political persecution. At the same time, the UN warns that racist and anti-immigrant sentiments are growing globally.

A new museum in the Netherlands is trying to change that by telling the human stories behind the numbers. Reporter Lauren Comito takes us there. This suitcase belonged to Ari van der Most. He traveled to Canada by boat with a group of young Dutch farmers just after the Second World War. There was no more land available in the Netherlands, but in Canada there was plenty. Ari's is just one of some 2,000 pieces of luggage in Phoenix's suitcase labyrinth,

an interactive installation featuring both battered trunks and shiny new trolleys that tell the stories of where they and their owners came from or where they were going. We really want to show that migration is a human story and it's a very personal story. And Kramers is the director of Phoenix. As long as we exist as human beings, we move, we migrate. From the museum's massive windows overlooking Rotterdam's harbor, you can see the iconic Hotel New York, once home to the Holland American Line.

It was from there that some three million migrants set sail in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Albert Einstein, Johnny Weissmuller and Willem de Kooning. They were mostly destined for the U.S. and Canada. Those same docs welcomed just as many newcomers into the country over the decades. Its role as both departure and arrival point earned it the moniker, Pier of Tears. Hanneke Mantel is Phoenix's head of exhibitions and collection. We really want to show the scale of migration. It's migrating for adventure. It's being forced to move. It's happiness and it's deeply sad. And you can find all of these emotions here. What you won't find is politics. While the

political landscape in much of the world has become more anti-immigration since the museum was conceived, the political story, says Mantel, has never been Phoenix's focus. I think what you could say maybe is that being neutral and presenting the facts is in a way controversial right now. So what we really want to show is humanity and I think that's a stand in itself. Everything at Phoenix is heavy with symbolism, meaning and metaphor. There is the gelato on offer made from grandpa Luigi's recipe that he brought to the Netherlands in 1929. Artist Red grooms the bus, a life-size recreation of a New York City bus filled with multicultural New Yorkers is displayed near a piece of the Berlin Wall.

But most symbolic of all is the tornado, a double-heel stainless steel structure that dominates both the building and the area skyline. Its two winding wooden staircases take visitors up to a rooftop platform. Chinese-based architect Ma Yansang designed it. There's a two-staircase. You will meet other people. You will see yourself. You will make a choice on your way. So it reminds people of the journey of migrations. And in the end, you will meet all together at the highest platform, which is, I think, metaphor for hope.

It's the journey up there he says that matters. Lauren Comito for CBC News, Rotterdam. The head of Canada's cyber defence agency is offering some insight into a recent ransomware attack on Nova Scotia power in March. The breach went undetected for over a month and compromised the personal data of about 280,000 customers, including names, addresses, birth dates and social insurance numbers. Rajiv Gupta says Nova Scotia Power reported the incident to the agency and encourages other organizations to do the same.

We hope that they share information about the compromise as well, because we can take that and share that with other critical infrastructure organizations in Canada as well and help them protect themselves before they also get victimized. So it's kind of like the broader good of Canada if organizations reach out to us and in this case they did so we appreciated that. Gupta says all organizations should prepare themselves for potential attacks. A ransomware playbook can be found on the Center for Cybersecurity's website. 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. If you've been in Montreal this weekend you probably heard this. The city was transformed for the annual Canadian Grand Prix with fast cars, tight turns, revving engines. It draws tens of thousands of racing fans to Montreal every June. And after hitting some bumps in the road last year, the city is eager to be a world-class host for the F1 event. Quabino Oduro reports. For George Russell and his victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. Mercedes driver George Russell finished the Montreal Grand Prix exactly where he started it, first place.

It's amazing to be back on the top step. His fourth career victory comes at Montreal's biggest tourism event of the year, which sets the tone for the summer season. Tourism Montreal's Yves Lallumière expects this weekend will generate $185 million for businesses in the city, about $23 million more than last year. It's going to be a good year, not necessarily a record year. Last year's race came with its share of challenges. Confusion between organizers, police and transit made site access difficult.

Fans jumped barriers and rain flooded newly renovated paddocks. Even downtown patios were shut down mid-service by the fire department over bylaw violations. But this year, a big improvement, says Peel Street Merchants Association president, Alain Creighton. We finish at four in the morning and people didn't want to leave the place, you know. It was great. Some are considering this year's Grand Prix a redemption for the city, while others question Montreal's capability to modernize and host the event long term. CEO of the Octane Racing Group Sandrine Garnot says she's not worried.

We have a contract until 2031 right now, which is good and set in stone. F1 hasn't commented on the future of Montreal's race beyond the deal. Piero Faccion, an auto racing expert, is cautiously optimistic. It's not set in stone. Technically it is, but anything can happen. But fans say it belongs in Montreal. It's great to bring all of this Grand Prix energy to Crescent Street. The Odyssey kind of teared up when I saw the Ferrari on the track.

It was really great. And to be able to live in Montreal for the Grand Prix is amazing. This is the last year that fans will be able to enjoy the Canadian Grand Prix in June. After more than 40 years, Montreal's race is moving into a new slot. Starting in 2026, it will be in May, to cut down on travel between North American events. Kubino Duro, CBC News, Montreal. It's a classic retort to an obvious question. Do bears poop in the woods?

The actual answer, of course. And bears do their business in the city, too. Researchers in northern BC want people in Prince George to collect and drop off those bear droppings. The scientists hope it could give clues as to what sets urban bears apart from their country cousins. Bill Fee has the scoop. This is our little storage shed.

This is our little poop freezer. Actually more samples than I thought we would have at this point in time. Researchers Vanessa Ushenko and Dr. Laura Graham opened a standup freezer at the Prince George campus of the College of New Caledonia. The top shelf contains a number of labeled plastic bags containing dark masses of, as you might have guessed by now,

bear poop. So the date and the general location, so this was actually taken on a forest service road just north of Prince George on our way to one of our research forest units. Yushenko and Professor Graham from the CNC Biology Department are co-leading a study hoping to gain insight into the health and behaviour of bears living in the city compared to those living outside Prince George.

Professor Graham says the secret of that can be revealed in their scat, specifically hormones related to sex, stress and metabolism. Looking at those hormones, we're going to see their relationship to environmental factors, so like air quality. And then we're hoping to take this information and determine how we can potentially mitigate human-wildlife conflicts and then how we can make our city safer for bears. Researchers will then compare hormone levels with samples taken from the college's research forest outside the city. But to get that information, the team needs a steady supply of poop. So they put out a call to Prince George residents

to call, text, or even bag it up themselves. We do call it the poop hotline, yeah. So we've had a couple phone calls, but we do prefer text messages. Vanessa says people have stepped up or stooped and scooped in a big way so far. Oh yes. For the most part, people call us with the location and we go collect the poo for them. We actually have got a couple people that are volunteers, people that have called to be volunteers. They're more than willing to go out and collect poo. We've had a couple people that have collected it and put it in

their freezer for us in the meantime. Professor Graham says the study will likely take a few years to yield results, but the payoff could be fewer conflicts between people and urban bears, and the team already has plans to dig into another familiar northern resident. Yeah, we're going to do moose. Yeah, yeah. That's all right. We've already started collecting samples of moose. Bill Fee, CBC News, Prince George, British Columbia. A rallying cry for new metal fans everywhere. The band Korn emboldened

people to launch themselves into a mosh pit and start throwing their weight around. Back in 94 when this song came out, there wasn't much to hold a person back. But in 2025, there's a new consideration, not just the risk of injury. Now, moshers need to think about their smartwatches. need to think about their smartwatches. It's a plea coming from police in Leicestershire, England, ahead of a major rock festival called Download, where 75,000 people could be bodies slamming and crowds surfing to the music of bands including

Korn and Green Day. Because what happened at last year's festival gave the force a real headache after it gave them a scare. They thought something bad was happening when 700 emergency calls started to come in from the festival grounds. Turns out they were automatic calls made from wearable tech like smartwatches that assumed the people in the mosh pits had been in a collision. That tech often has a feature to auto call a number like 911 when it thinks a crash has happened. Good in theory, but each of those mistake calls from the mosh pit

had to be assessed and dealt with, tying up resources. So police are asking people to please put your smartwatch on airplane mode or disable that feature when you jump into a mosh pit. And if your phone does accidentally sound the alarm, stay on the line to confirm you're safe. And now that you know, you're ready to mosh yourself. Here's some more corn to help with that. This has got the life on your world tonight. I'm Stephanie Scanderis. Thanks for listening. I'll never ever find out. So give me something that is the real...

I'll never ever find out.