Your World Tonight - Lebanon ceasefire, Artemis II crew speaks, respiratory illnesses up, and more

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire. And he says the leaders of the two countries will meet face-to-face for the first time in more than 40 years.And: The Artemis II crew reflects on their historic mission around the moon.Also: The darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic may be over, but the disease is still having a big impact on hospitals.Plus: Housing report, demands for action over RCMP spying on First Nations leadership, and more.

I'm Lisa Yuso, a digital producer at Ideas, the podcast that likes to feed your curiosity. I ask my colleagues why they think you should listen. Ideas can make you the smartest, most interesting guest at your next dinner party in less than 60 minutes. It's got the best of a storytelling podcast with the best of a great lecture. You can pretty much never predict where an episode will take you, but you can count on every episode to shift your perspective. even just a little. Find and follow ideas wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC podcast. We have a ceasefire with Israel and Lebanon and that'll be great. And they'll be meeting probably coming to the White House over the next four or five days. That'll be the first time they've met in 44 years. Donald Trump says the ceasefire has begun. Israel and Lebanon are on board, though challenges remain. If Israel and Hezbollah do halt hostilities, could it jumpstart U.S. Iran peace talks? This is your world tonight.

I'm Stephanie Skanderas. It's Thursday, April 16th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast? The sense I had was the sense of fragility and feeling small, infinitesimally small. But yet, this very powerful feeling as a human being, like as a group. Blasted into space. now back on Earth and trying to put into words the most amazing experience of their lives. Canadian Jeremy Hansen and the Artemis crew share their wonder with the world.

A ceasefire in Lebanon is apparently now in effect. Israel says it has agreed. Lebanon says Hezbollah will agree. For 10 days, the fighting in Lebanon is supposed to stop, and it could lead to new U.S. talks with Tehran. Katie Simpson dives into all the angles for us in our top story. tonight. I think there's a very good chance

we're going to make a deal. U.S. President Donald Trump appearing confident a ceasefire he brokered to stop the fighting in Lebanon will lead to a long-term peace deal. For the next 10 days, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed

militant group based in Lebanon, are supposed to be put on hold. While the agreement is technically between Israel and Lebanon, Trump says Beirut gave him assurances. It would take meaningful steps to try to get Hezbollah to cooperate. They're going to be working on Hezbollah right now, but we'll have a degree between Israel,

very importantly, and Lebanon. It is a complicated task. Lebanon does not control Hezbollah, and both of the fighting factions in this particular conflict appear to disagree about the terms of the deal. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is backing the agreement, he says Israel will not accept some of the demands made by Hezbollah. including a request to remove all Israeli troops from Lebanon. It's a condition Netanyahu says that will not be met. In the hours leading up to the announcement, Israel's bombardment of Lebanon continued.

The last remaining bridge over the Latani River, connecting Lebanon south to the rest of the country, was destroyed in an Israeli attack. While first responders in northern Israel extinguished flames, from a burning vehicle after a Hezbollah rocket struck a residential neighborhood. This front of the war began on March 2nd, after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, retaliation for Israeli and American strikes on Iran. Resolving this part of the conflict has been a key demand of Iran as part of its peace talks to end the war with the U.S. I think something's going to happen very positive.

Trump says there could be more in-person negotiations between the U.S. U.S. and Iran this weekend. And if there is progress, he'd extend that ceasefire. He also says Iran is willing to accept a key American demand. So very important is that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, and they've agreed to that. Iran's agreed to that, and they've agreed to it very powerfully. Trump has said a lot of things about what Iran is willing to do behind closed doors, and yet a deal has still not been reached. But this certainly appears to be a moment, that could spark momentum in the peace process.

Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Home sales in Canada fell for the fifth straight month in March, and now the National Real Estate Association is cutting its forecast for the rest of 2026. As Nisha Patel reports, the war in the Middle East and growing economic uncertainty are driving the decline. Not as many deals are going to get done. The housing market was expected to heat up this spring. But in many parts of the country, homes' safety. are frozen. It's a matter of these massive global disasters really that continue to unfold.

Sean Cathcart, senior economist at the Canadian Real Estate Association, says tariffs, a shaky economy and the war in the Middle East are keeping some potential buyers on the sidelines. National home sales in March were the weakest for that month since the 2009 recession. Now Korea is downgrading its forecast, predicting sluggish sales for the rest of the year. It doesn't mean it's demand that's gone forever, but just like last year, it may get pushed off until people feel more certain. There are regional outliers. Some cities in Quebec and Atlantic Canada are still seeing sales and price gains. Ontario and BC have cooled the most. And now parts of Alberta are seeing a downturn too. The latest hurdle, higher fixed mortgage rates. These are based on the bond market, not the Bank of Canada's key lending rate.

bond yields are on the rise because there's so much geopolitical uncertainty right now, certainly due to the war in Iran. Penelope Graham is a mortgage expert at ratehub.ca. She says first-time buyers may be hesitating because of those higher financing costs. They don't have any built-up equity from the sale of an existing home. So any time there's upward movement among fixed mortgage rates, they're very sensitive to that. The slow market may be frustrating for sellers, but Remax real estate agent that pin their car says it gives buyers the upper hand. They have a bit more power to negotiate. The national benchmark price is 20% lower than it was

in 2022, sitting at about $664,000. There's a lot of price cuts, especially because there's so much inventory. She's brought some homebuyers to check out homes in Caledin, Ontario, northwest of Toronto. The kitchen here is pretty spacious. Landa Thanijer has been renting for four years, waiting for the market to settle down. The situation in 2020 and 2024, the price are very high, like sky high. So that time, it was not a good time to invest. Now, even though they're concerned about the economy, she and her husband Sarassofa have been house hunting for months. I would say the detached market has come down drastically and whenever we'll see like any good deal, we will definitely go for that. Hopeful they'll find opportunity amid all the uncertainty. Nisha Patel

CBC News, Toronto. The head of the International Energy Agency is warning Europe may have about six weeks of jet fuel left. That's if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran War. Thati Birol describes a situation as the largest energy crisis ever with potential significant global repercussions. He says the Strait of Hormuz closure affects oil, gas and other vital supplies. Beryl predicts higher gasoline, natural gas,

and electricity prices worldwide. Coming right up to the moon and back to work. After a well-deserved break, Canadian Jeremy Hanson and his Artemis crewmates tell the world about their record-breaking journey and a formal apology, a public inquiry, and release of the documents. Indigenous leaders renew their demands

after CBC reporting on historical RCMP surveillance of First Nations leaders. Later, we'll have this story. COVID, flu, and more hospitalization rates for vaccine preventable illnesses have shot up. That means it's about 60,000 hospitalizations across the country in a year. Look, these can be catastrophic life-ending infections. Yet far fewer Canadians are getting vaccines that could keep them out of hospital. I'm health reporter Lauren Pelly, and I'll have that story coming up on your world tonight.

They boldly went where no human has gone before. And now they're sharing what it was like. The Artemis crew, including Canadian Jeremy Hansen, spoke to media for the first time since their historic mission. The CBC's Anandrom was listening. We went into it thinking, you know, it's not going to be perfect, but it's going to be good enough. Seems like it was good enough. Leave it to a Canadian to be so humble about something no one in human history has ever done before.

But what was clear from astronaut Jeremy Hansen about this historic 10-day mission around the moon and back, he wasn't alone. a lot better now because I don't have Reed underneath me kicking me. Oh, come on. On stage in Houston, Hansen and the Artemis 2 crew. Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook, broke down what stunned them. There's this depth to the galaxy that I just had never experienced before. When the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I think all four of us, I turned to Victor,

and I said, I don't think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we're looking at right now because it was otherworldly and it was amazing. When my husband looked me in the eye on that video call and said, no, really, you've made a difference. It brought tears to my eyes. But they also gave a masterclass on the right stuff. What does it take to really do this? For Commander Wiseman, it's talking to each other. And so we really got exceptionally good at communicating.

I didn't think we would get as exceptionally good at, like, crawling all over each other for 10 days. But we did get good at that too. And lift off. The crew of Artemis 2 now bound for. the moon. The mission from Earth seemed to go off without a hitch, but there were tense moments, for one, not knowing whether the spacecraft would separate from its boosters. Hansen helped bring the tension down. And then when it came right down to it, we're floating there, we're waiting for separation, and all of a sudden, bang, a loud bang, we're all put into the floor.

We all looked at each other, like, well, I guess we separated. Or it exploded. But things did go exceptionally well. Even the infamous toilet was defended. The toilet flushed just fine, but then when the liquid went out in the bottom of the toilet, it got clogged up in our vet line. And what remained clear was that it took a village, pilot Victor Glover. I think something that we all feel and we try to share is how much we want to reflect back to you all, how we did this. Not we as a crew, we as countries and as humans did this. Indeed, the next mission will take even more of the right stuff. Artemis 3 next year's low-Earth orbit docking test doesn't have the lunar lunar line.

lander it's supposed to connect to. For Christina Cook, however, it's a matter of when, not if. All the extra resources it's going to take to do these things that sound completely outlandish and impossible right now. But the truth is, accomplishing the near impossible is exactly what we do and what we just showed that we can do. Integrity, three miles and altitude. And if the plan is to go to the moon and stay there, as NASA has said over and over again, more than these four exceptional humans, it'll take an exceptional amount of practice, money, and commitment across countries. On the Ram, CBC News, Toronto.

April showers bring flooding to communities across Canada, and just because it happens every year doesn't make it easier. Right now, in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, where the ground is already soggy from the spring thaw, rivers are rising. And some communities have already called a state of emergency. Philip Lyshanach reports. I feel like a princess on a moat.

Caitlin Pye tries to make it fun for her four-year-old daughter, McKenzie. The pair sit on a pile of sandbags that keep water out of their home in Minden Hills, Ontario, a two-hour drive north of Toronto. And every day you kind of just wake up to more water, more water, more water, coming up from the river. The township declared a state of emergency Tuesday, as high water levels breached the banks of the Gull River. It's unbelievable almost, yeah, that this could even happen, you know. As bad as it is, Frank Ziegert worries about what happens if it keeps raining. He lives in a trailer not far from the river.

It could be getting worse progressively over the next week, so hopefully not. On Manitoulin Island, flooding forced the closure of a hospital, triggering a state of emergency. The water kind of breached the banks of our drainage ditch. Adam Smith of Jake's home center says the flooding is unlike anything he's experienced before. We have 11 stump pumps going in our beach. basement and it's managing to maintain, but we're hopeful that it continues to go down. He and other local business owners are now dealing with significant flooding and property damage. Brenda Reed is mayor of the island town of a Ciginaac.

It does flood from time to time, but I've never seen it like I've been here quite a while and I've never seen flooding like that. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is ready to respond to requests for help. It's just flooding happening all over, but we'll be there to support the kids. communities. Heavy rains also threatened communities along the Ottawa River. We'll see how it goes, but we're prepping anyways. Ken Ward lives along the river in Davidson, Quebec, where he's frantically moving things out of his basement. He says there have been floods in 2019 and 2023. My parents never struggled with floodwaters like we have in the last six, eight years. Mark Robinson of the

Weather Network says this winter, Ontario and Quebec had many record-breaking snowfalls. That very deep snowpack, and when you have a fast warm-up combined quite often with heavy, heavy rains, it's kind of a worst-case scenario. And Robinson says it's not over. More rain is forecast over the coming days. We're not out of the woods yet. In Manitoba, communities along the Fisher River north of Winnipeg are preparing for spring flooding, while in Quebec, communities north of Montreal have issued floodwatches.

Philip Lyshanock, CBC News, Toronto. Canada Post is beginning the next phase of a nationwide shift to community mailboxes. The rollout starts in 13 communities, including Ottawa and Winnipeg. Although most Canadians already used centralized mailboxes, about 4 million addresses still get mail delivered to the door. The transition is part of the corporation's plan to cut costs. The work is expected to take about five years. Indigenous leaders are inviting the Prime Minister to Manitoba to apologize

for a secret RCMP surveillance program that targeted hundreds of First Nations leaders and organizations. They're also calling for all related intelligence files to be released and for a national public inquiry. Oneita Taylor has more from Winnipeg. There can be no trust when First Nations leaders are surveilled. Grand Chiefs, of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, one of eight First Nations leaders in Winnipeg today. We acknowledge that Prime Minister Carney has studied. stated that the surveillance was wrong and that apology is needed. They are demanding justice for the RCMP's sweeping surveillance program that spied on

indigenous leaders from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. We're calling for full disclosure of all surveillance records, an independent public inquiry, public hearing so our people can speak and be heard, and clear assurances that is not continuing under a different name. Indigenous leaders are rejecting the RCMP community. Commissioner's statement of sincere regret. About the hundreds of indigenous people and at least 30 political organizations surveilled by the RCMP through wiretaps and paid informants. A CBC Indigenous investigation revealed last month that indigenous leaders were spied on beginning

in 1968 amid concerns about outside political influences from radicals and communists. Nearly 6,000 pages of RCMP security service documents were obtained by CBC, through access to information requests. Sadly, the RCMP aimed to oppress, intimidate, and harass unlawfully our leaders at the time. Cindy Woodhouse-Napak is the National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations. She has sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney demanding accountability. These actions are extremely serious violations of the most foundational civil and political rights affirmed by the Constitution and international human rights law.

Those rights are key aspects of any democracy. The Assembly of Manitoba chiefs are also calling for a joint senior working group, reporting to the Prime Minister and the Assembly of First Nations, and establishing a national inquiry into federal policing and surveillance of First Nations. And my fear now is that history is repeating itself. Ovid Mechredi is a former chief of the AFN. My advice to anyone listening to me, young people, Adults, elders of my nation and the other nations, don't be afraid to stand up for your rights.

McCready today, calling on other leaders who were spied on to join him in filing a class action lawsuit for being monitored while defending his inherent rights. Juanita Taylor, CBC News, Winnipeg. Mexico is investigating a Canadian-owned mine over allegations it hired a cartel to threaten and coerce workers. The goal? To force them to vote for a particular union. CBC's Jorge Barrera has more on what's being called an atmosphere of fear allowed by management. While facing questions at a press conference this week at the National Palace, Mexican President Claudia Shainbaum says her security cabinet is looking into allegations in organized crime group threatened workers during a battle

between unions at a Canadian-owned gold mine called Camino Rojo in Sakateca State. The mining company used its contacts with criminal groups to impose a union align with management's interests, says Napoleon Gomez Urruthia, national president of the Minero's Union, which held collective bargaining rights at the mine until it was pushed out by a vote in 2024. The Minero's Union filed a number of complaints and injunction to the Mexican government. saying that there was acts of violence and intimidation occurring at the mine. Paul Bocking is with the United Steelworkers in Canada,

which is also involved with the case that recently went before a U.S. triggered labor panel created under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement that found management at Orla Mining-owned Camino Rojo violated its workers' rights, allowing them to face threats so it could replace the Minedo's union with a more compliant organization, known as a protection union, says Bocking. In protection in the sense that it protects employers, not workers. An investigation by a U.S. government labor agency found that Camino Rojo management hired an organized crime figure known as El Moccho,

who then intimidated workers with threats of violence. If they did not join management's preferred union. El Mocchio, allegedly a member of a Sinaloa drug cartel faction known as Operativa Flechas, showed up at Los Mineros meetings with armed men, according to the U.S. labor probe. The Sinaloa cartel is a designated tear group in Canada. The Canadian company has to answer to this. It cannot wash its hands. Falking says the United Steelworkers also filed a complaint against Orla Mining

with the Canadian government in 2024, hoping to trigger a similar Kuzma Labor panel hearing. Where it's just kind of gone into limbo, essentially. Orla Mining tells CBC, it is looking into potential. criminal activity at its mind and is working with Mexico and the U.S. to improve security and labor practices. The Canadian federal government says, in a statement, it's deeply concerned by the allegations and is reviewing the Kuzma Labor Panel's findings. Jorge Berger, CBC News, Mexico City. Russia today hammered civilian areas across Ukraine with drones and missiles, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 100 others. Nearly 700 drones and dozens of bullets.

and cruise missiles were used. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says vital stocks of advanced interceptors are running low. We can destroy everything except a big deficit with anti-ballistic missiles. I hope that the United States will not stop delivering us

deficit systems. The Russian Defense Ministry says the attack was in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes inside Russia. You're listening to Your World Tonight from CBCC. 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.

You may have thought the pandemic is in the rear view. The worst is over. But a new report suggests COVID is far from behind us. Hospitalizations for all vaccine preventable respiratory illnesses have more than doubled. COVID makes up a large portion and seniors are bearing the brunt. Lauren Pelly reports. These can be catastrophic life-ending infections. As an internist at St. Michael's Hospital in downtown Toronto, Dr. Vajad Razak says he sees the sickest patients, suffering from respiratory infections like COVID and influenza. People coming in severely shorter breath, very weak, very low blood pressure. Often we're not even able to manage them on our standard medical ward. They have to go into the ICU and many of those patients unfortunately die or never fully recover. He says most of those patients are

older and typically not vaccinated. That reality echoes a new report, which shows hospitalization rates for all vaccine-preventable respiratory infections in 2024 were double pre-pandemic levels. It reinforces really in hard numbers the thousands of Canadians now who are impacted by this, who could be protected, there is a therapy, but unfortunately are not. It's about 60,000 hospitalizations across the country in a year. Melanie Jose Davidson is with the Canadian Institute for Health Infan. The team's data shows cases of influenza and respiratory syncyticial virus or RSV combined totaled half of those hospital stays, while COVID infections alone were more than 40%.

People assume that COVID-19 is done. We're done with the pandemic, but what our data is showing is that it's still having a big impact on our hospitals. Older adults are among those most at risk. The report showed nearly half of hospitalizations were among people age 75 and up. We see risk really start to climb after 65, but especially sort of after 75, very, very steeply. McMaster University immunologist Matthew Miller says vaccines remain the best form of protection for seniors to ward off serious illness. But unfortunately, vaccine uptake has declined across all age categories. Roughly half of adults age 65 and older reported getting a COVID vaccine during the 24 season, according to federal figures, while only 63% reported getting a flu shot. Canada's current flu season is still underway, and experts expect more waves of COVID as well.

What happens is as those waves happen, it could be early spring, it could be late summer, it could happen at any point. Susceptible people who haven't been recently vaccinated are still vulnerable. Resauks says older adults and other high-risk groups should consider getting a COVID shot this time of year as well, not just in fall or winter. COVID is still not a seasonal virus. And it's here to stay, sending thousands of Canadians into hospital every year. Lauren Pelley, CBC News, Toronto. Finally, for Toronto Blue Jays fans, it's been tough going so far this season.

But Blue Jay Davis Schneider, you know, the one with that mustache, is thrilled to be back. And he's full of gratitude for the family who supported his big league dreams, particularly his older brother, Stephen. When I was like six years old, he would be, you know, 11, 12, bring me with his buddies playing basketball, playing baseball in the street, and I feel like competing with them at such a young day. It's kind of made me a little bit better. It never made me feel smaller than I was.

He never bullied me. Stephen died in 2020 of an accidental overdose. Davis says he lost his role model, mentor, and best friend. But he uses his brother's memory as motivation. and his dad also feels Stephen's presence. He remembers Davis' first Major League series against the Boston Red Sox when he hit two homers, including one in his very first at bat.

And it is gone! When he hit the home run at Fenway Park against Stevens' favorite baseball team and the second home run was 425 feet, same date as his birthday, April 25th. It's like something was going on. Davis' parents were also in the stands for the World Series,

game five leadoff Homer, and now part of Major League history, as is his dad's video of it. When I checked my phone after the game, after game five, I had like 500 texts. And like some of the texts were like, oh, you see your dad's video. They've been through a lot and they deserve, you know, just as much as me because they've been up here every step in the way. From little steps with his big brother, all the way to the big leagues. No doubt Stephen would be proud of Davis too. This has been your world tonight for Thursday, April 16th.

I'm Stephanie Skanderas. Thank you for being with us. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.