Your World Tonight - Passengers still scrambling for flights, U.S. sanctions Canadian judge, farmers adapt in B.C., and more

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Air Canada says people need to “pack their patience” as they try to rearrange their flights. Tens of thousands of passengers are calling — trying to get information now that the airline is resuming operations.And: The U.S. places sanctions on a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court. We’ll have more on who, and why.Also: Fruit growers in B.C. have had a hard few years, due to climate change — extra heat, too many fires. But this year, some orchards have gone from barren… to bursting.Plus: Israel approves a plan to build thousands of homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank, Trump moves to change museum content, fire insurance in the east, and more.

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than medicine to live a healthy life. Leave your armor at the door. Watch this paid content on CBC Jim. This is a CBC podcast. We totally understand our customers' frustrations, and it's justified that they should be frustrated and unhappy, but you know, you have to understand, you know, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people. The deal is tentative, and so are travel plans. some bumps as Air Canada attempts to get things back up and flying,

leaving many passengers up in the air about being up in the air anytime soon. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Wednesday, August 20th, just before 6 p.m. Also on the podcast. And if we don't recognize the full history, then we are doomed to repeat it. And frankly, this is a guy that is trying to do everything that he can to repeat it. If it's woke, fix it.

Trump administration takes aim at institutions, both global and local, accusing museums of overstating the importance of slavery, offering a biased view of U.S. history, and sanctioning judges at the International Criminal Court, including a Canadian. Air Canada's strike may be over, but the effects are still hovering over airports across Canada. Many passengers face a long, arduous journey to get where they want to be. Air Canada says normal flights are a few more days away. So people are scrambling to find other arrangements, which is costing more money. Air Canada is offering help, some.

As Jennifer Lagrasa reports, travelers say it's a case of too little, too late. To check out Thursday morning is about $6,000 in hotels. That's more than $1,000 over what, Carla La Pai was expecting to pay in hotel fees. The Regina resident and her family are stuck in St. John's. They were there to watch her son play basketball for team Saskatchewan at the Canada summer games. But their Sunday flight home got canceled because of the Air Canada strike.

The family is just some of the thousands of passengers still in limbo. We really want to get our customers on their way. Peter Fitzpatrick is an Air Canada spokesperson. person. Today, the company tried to extend an olive branch to travelers. It's allowing people whose plans were impacted by the strike to change their flight, book on another airline at a similar price and get reimbursed, or cancel their ticket and get refunded. It's also open to covering other sorts of transportation like a car rental. But it says this is all on a case-by-case basis. Just submit it and we can have a look and we'll do our best to get back as quickly as possible.

Under Canada's air passenger protection regulations, experts say for domestic travel, the airline is only required to rebook the travel within a period of time or offer a refund. What the company has offered goes beyond that, but some say it's still not enough. Too little too late. David Finch is a business professor in Calgary. He says this whole situation may have a big impact on Air Canada. The damage has been done. The challenge was there was a vacuum.

When you're struggling to travel and you don't know if your flight's leaving, so you just go to the airport, just looking for somebody to give you an answer, that's horrendous customer service. But that vacuum has a negative impact on brand trust and brand equity. The Canadian Transportation Agency and Oversight Group told CBC News that its enforcement team is looking into the Air Canada situation and will take action if needed. It added that people must first contact the airline directly if they don't get a response within. 30 days, then they can file a complaint to the agency. At Toronto's Pearson Airport, travelers are back in line at Air Canada terminals. Of the airlines canceled flights, 65% are back up and running. The company says it's still canceling some flights today, but hopes to keep ramping up service.

Jennifer Lagrasa, CBC News, Toronto. The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on the international criminal court. this time slapping fresh sanctions on four top court officials, including one Canadian judge. The ICC has slammed the move, calling it a flagrant attack on its judicial independence. Ashley Burke is following the story for us in Washington. Ashley, why has the U.S. targeted this particular Canadian judge? The Trump administration says it's targeting her for a decision that she made five years ago to investigate Americans for potential war crimes in Afghanistan.

Canadian Kimberly Prost was on a panel of judges which paved the way for prosecutors to look into claims that American forces and CIA officers subjected detainees to intense interrogation techniques. An international criminal court report said that there was a reasonable basis to believe that Americans were involved in torture, cruel treatment, and rape.

Now, most of these allegations are from 2003 and 2004, in Afghanistan, but also at what are called black sites, a network of secret prisons primarily in Eastern Europe run by the CIA. Now, the U.S. has called the investigation unwarranted and said it's committed to complying with the law. And today in a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Prost is among those directly involved in efforts by this international court to investigate Americans. And, Ashley, this is the second time Washington has targeted the ICC.C. with sanctions in just a matter of months, what is behind this escalation? The U.S. has long criticized the ICC for prosecuting people from countries that are not members.

The U.S. has not signed on to the court and is also targeting ICC judges and prosecutors who have taken action against Israel. The court issued an arrest warrant for two senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Today, Netanyahu posted a thank you to Trump on social media. And, Ashley, what's been the reaction? While these sanctions can have serious implications, the court's chief prosecutor was also targeted by the Trump administration earlier this year. He had his bank accounts frozen, lost access to his email account, and American staffers were told that they could be arrested if they traveled to the U.S. There were also reports that NGOs have stopped working entirely with the ICC, which is hurting the tribunal's work. Here's what a spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General had to say.

This is Stefan Dujeric. The decision imposes severe impediments on the functioning of the office of the prosecutor and respect for all the situations there are currently before the court. Judicial independence is a basic principle that must be respected, and these types of measures undermine the foundation of international justice. In a statement, the ICC says these sanctions are an affront against rules-based international order. Ashley, thank you. You're welcome. The CBC's Ashley Burke reporting from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a review of all Smithsonian exhibits and displays to ensure, in his words, they are historically accurate.

The move echoes his attacks on other cultural institutions, accusing them of having a lot of a so-called woke agenda. Cameron McIntosh reports from Washington. An American great. The warm baritone of old blue eyes drifts over the plaza of the Smithsonian's American History Museum as visitors come and go on a sweltering summer day on D.C.'s national mall.

We came because he's interested in coins. People like Emily Fox and her two grandsons. How was your visit? Good. It was good? Fox feels the American story is well told here, the good and bad. I think they try very, very, very hard to have diversity, to have equity and to have inclusiveness, and that's all part of what we need to have a full story.

U.S. President Donald Trump isn't so sure. We want the museums to treat our country fairly. Ordering a review of eight of the Smithsonian's national museums. We want the museums to talk about the history of our country in a fair manner, not in a woke manner or in a racist manner. It comes as many universities and federal agencies give in to pressure from Trump to abandon content and policies

that include diversity, equity, and inclusion. It's appalling to me, absolutely pauling and very, very frightening. A dangerous time for museums, says Janet Marstein, an expert in museum ethics. Even through his threats of censorship, he is appealing to museum leaders, fears of what might happen.

For the Smithsonian, the fear is a sanitized telling of America's complicated past, including slavery, civil rights, wars, even politics. First time here? Yes. Back on the Smithsonian Plaza, friends Danny Trelloo and Madeline Owen are impressed with how it's all told now. I really like seeing all the protest signs from like the history and like both sides of everything. It was cool that it was not just one side and got like an equal representation. From Iowa, 21-year-old Drew, wearing a black and gray mega hat.

He agrees with Trump's opposition to wokeness. He's been to other Smithsonian's. Have you seen anything like that? You know, to be honest, no. But if he feels that there's some woke things in there, then I feel like he has the right to do that. Corey Medley, an African-American visitor from Delaware, would rather the president just stay out of it.

And if you really want to know the truth, there's a display of a beautiful display of the First Lady and Donald Trump in there as well. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Carved in stone over the museum's entrance, words from America's sixth president on the Smithsonian's purpose. Whoever increases knowledge multiplies uses to which he is able to turn the gift of his creation. Now subject to review by America's 47th.

Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Washington. Coming up, Israel approves a building expansion in the face of, widespread international criticism. Peace seems no closer in Ukraine, despite Donald Trump's meetings with the presidents of Ukraine and Russia and his push for those two to meet each other. And wildfires are hitting areas

not usually associated with such disasters, and that could lead to a surge in home insurance rates. Israel has taken another major step in its goal to take over Gaza City. Footage released today by Israel's military shows what it says are troops battling Hamas. Officials say soldiers have started the first stages of their invasion of Gaza City. Israel says the region is a Hamas stronghold. The IDF is calling up 60,000 reservists.

Many Western nations, including Canada, condemn the plan, saying it will lead to more displacement and suffering for Palestinians. Israel is also pushing ahead with a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank. It announced today work could start within weeks to build thousands of Israeli homes and apartments. Rights groups argue the plan sabotage as any hope for a Palestinian state, and at least one Israeli official says, that's the point. Our senior international correspondent Margaret Evans explains. Malia Dume rises out of the desert,

east of Jerusalem like a towering fortress. Already one of the largest Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, now on course to get even bigger. The mayor of Malayadumim, Guy Yifrak, says the decision to expand the settlement towards Jerusalem is a strategic one. I hope one day there will be an arrangement,

he says, that Malayadumim will be part of Jerusalem and the state of Israel. All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law, but it hasn't stopped Israel from building them. The Israeli cabinet minister and settler leader pushing the expansion, Bezalel Smotrich, is on the record saying it will bury the idea of a Palestinian state that there will be nothing left to recognize. Many Palestinians fear he's right.

No have anybody to help us. Nobody care about us. Nobody asking about us. Anna Samir and his staff are clearing off the shelves in their grocery store. He's one of several Palestinian shopkeepers in El Aiziria, a town opposite Malayadumim and adjacent to the E1 area, who've been given notice that Israel plans to enforce old demolition orders. Part of the town expected. to lose a slice to new roads serving the expansion. I'm asking for help from anybody can stop this. The E1 plan has been on the books for decades now,

but fearful that it could derail the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The international community has repeatedly convinced Israel to shelve it until now. Maruf Al-Rafai believes that's down to U.S. President, Donald Trump's return to the White House, widely perceived as more sympathetic to the aspirations of Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government. We reach this situation, this bad situation, because the big support, the huge support from USA, even from Trump in 2018 till now.

Al-Refai is with the Palestinian authorities, Jerusalem Governorate. He says the Smotrich Plan will cause more disruption for for Palestinians already pinned down by Israeli checkpoints, army incursions, and private roads for settlers. If he, you mean, success to make this area for Malia Dome, he will surround all Jerusalem by settlements, you know. Cutting the West Bank off from occupied East Jerusalem, he says, and further dividing it into cantons.

The mayor of Malayadomim insists Palestinians will be able to travel on new roads being built to allow them to go around an expanded settlement. Israel calls them fabric of life roads. The Palestinians call them segregation roads. Margaret Evans, CBC News, in the occupied West Bank. Russian officials are signaling they're in no hurry to set up a meeting between President's Putin and Zelensky. That's despite Donald Trump saying Russia had agreed to it.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says lower-level talks should come first to resolve the thorny issue of security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump says he believes Putin wants peace, but there's deep skepticism in Europe and Ukraine. Chris Brown reports. They're called President Putin and we're trying to work out a meeting with President Zelensky. Donald Trump has turned traditional diplomacy on its head. Preferring leaders to meet first, and then getting the detail sorted out later. It may be an effective strategy in real estate,

but whether his approach can resolve the Ukraine war has a lot of skeptics, especially in Ukraine. Alexander Kayaev is with the Ukrainian PRISM Forum Policy Council in Kiev. Classic diplomacy is all about preparation work and sum it as a result of year and a half of preparation work. Now we see no preparation whatsoever and just meetings, meetings, meetings at the highest level. It's an honor to have the president. President of Ukraine with us.

In the aftermath of his meetings with Putin, Zelensky, and the European leaders, Trump is now trying to broker a summit between Zelensky and Putin, two men who despise each other. They've only ever met once in person in Paris in 2019 in a high-profile summit that failed to head off Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years later. Since then, Putin's demands of Zelensky have only increased, insisting he hand-profile. over Ukrainian territories, Russia hasn't even occupied. The only commitment Russia's foreign minister could give Wednesday was for a meeting, not between presidents, but higher-level officials.

Ukrainians see that as another stalling tactic, and of little faith anyway. Alexander Ponymerov, a 37-year-old soldier, said there must be guarantees of peace, so Russia does not have the opportunity to attack and kill our people. In the past, the only security guarantees Russia has supported for Ukraine were those requiring United Nations approval, giving Russia veto power over future military aid. It underscores just how much diplomacy is still required to bridge immense gaps. German officials were among the Europeans today,

demanding Putin demonstrate his desire for peace, with deeds, such as an immediate ceasefire, which he's rebuffed. Indeed, Russia is continuing to bomb Ukrainian cities every night and is pushing deeper into eastern Ukraine with grinding attacks on the ground. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and 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. Atlantic Canada is battling some of the worst and most destructive fires the region has ever seen. It's estimated over 200 structures have been destroyed by the biggest fire, still raging in Newfoundland. It's something insurance providers and homeowners in the province are dealing with more often. And as Nicholas again reports, increased risks could mean higher costs. We could see embers falling. We could see ash falling. The pine needles were hitting. Our houses sounded like hail. Trisha Murray stands near the edge of her Halifax area property,

pointing to the bare branches of blackened trees. Her new home stands behind her, built on top of her old house, reduced to rubble two years ago, when the Upper Tantalin Wildfire tore through subdivision. destroying 151 homes. We were traumatized, honestly. We were traumatized from the evacuation itself. We were traumatized afterwards by the fact that we lost everything.

Murray says she had insurance, but the process took hundreds of hours, and it took her over 20 months to rebuild. It's a reality that others in the Atlantic region may be facing as fires become more frequent and intense. The federal government. government is labeling this wildfire season the second worst on record in terms of hectares burned, meaning insurance companies in the east are having to adapt to a risk that was previously concentrated in the West.

Insurance providers are adapting in the Atlantic and that they are bringing all of those processes from out west when wildfire happens and how we serve our customers. Amanda Dean is the Insurance Bureau of Canada's Vice President of Ontario and and Atlantic. She says some insurance companies will be getting more claims when a wildfire rips through a region and paying out more losses. They all need to make decisions based on their losses for how they can serve their customers going forward. Paul Kovacs, the executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University, says this could mean premiums go up. I'm anticipating as more structures get damaged in different parts of the country.

including Atlantic Canada, insurance companies will think about is the price they're charging the right price for the risk. But Kovac says if homes can avoid burning, owners can avoid the insurance process altogether. But installing fire-smart upgrades like a metal roof or concrete siding can be costly, so he's advocating for funding or rebates. We really believe that government incentives

for wildfire protection for homes is a good thing to do. As homeowners in Newfoundland start to pick up the pieces, Some with no insurance at all. Those like Murray who have been through it before say coming together as a community is the best support for the long journey ahead. Nicholas Sagan, CBC News, Halifax. Some potentially good news about the weather.

After years of climate-related crop damage, British Columbia's fruit industry is again starting to bear fruit. On many farms, trees have gone from barren to busting, all in just one season. Financially, the sector may not be out of the woods. But as Brady Stracken explains, growers are showing their resilience

in finding new ways to handle weather extremes. So these are Glowhaven peach trees. Vince Kuyper's family has been growing fruit in Colonna, British Columbia for three generations. Just one year ago, an extreme winter cold snap wiped out almost all the fruit in his orchard, resulting in devastating losses for his farm. We had way more customers than fruit, and every cherry got picked in one day.

It was crazy. This summer, though, his trees are groaning under the weight of a bumper harvest. Peaches bursting with color and flavor dot the branches as they ripen in the Okinawagon sunshine. I would say this year would be one of the best year, I would say, so far. Across the lake in West Colonna, customers at Painter's Fruit Market have a wealth of options to choose from. Owner Janae Oliver says much of the local fruit here just wasn't available last year. This year, just everything was perfect. It was mild. It wasn't extreme. We had crops on everything. The Bountiful harvest comes after several years of extreme climate and crop losses in B.C.

From heat domes that wilted vegetables and tree fruits to winter cold snaps that decimated cherries and wine grapes. Data from Statistics Canada shows B.C. farms as a group haven't turned a profit in 80s. years. The sector has seen growing net losses every year since 2020, reaching more than $450 million in losses last year. So the turn of fortunes now is a huge relief for many growers just trying to stay in business. It's pretty easy to want to quit when you have these couple of bad seasons in a row. And I think this season has kind of pulled everybody back together and like, hey, this is awesome. Farmers and scientists know this kind of year is rare, so they are preparing for hardships to come. This is one of the really remarkable training

systems here. Researcher Kirsten Hanim is studying ways of adapting orchards to a changing climate, including the use of retractable shutters that can close to protect trees from rain, hail, or intense sunlight. It's incredibly important to consider climate adaptability, climate resilience in our research projects moving forward. This work helps farmers thrive, finding new ways to mitigate weather extremes. We are known in the Okinawagon Valley as a wonderful place to come and buy and eat tree fruit fresh off the tree. It's a part of our identity. The thought of having that threatened is really heartbreaking. These ones are grown in Peachland. Back at the market, Janay Oliver directs customers to some of the last remaining cherries. Although the growing season is far from over,

she says there's a renewed sense of optimism among farmers. This is a great lifestyle. And if you can make it work financially. It's fantastic. Brady Strack and CBC News, West Colona, British Columbia. Finally, something is lurking in the woods outside Beattie Lake campground in British Columbia. Something spiky. Something hungry. Got there around dinner time, so we set up our tents. I took my boots off after a long day hiking.

It was a pretty great feeling. And left them by the tent, as you would usually do. Finish my dinner, went back to my tent. By the time I'd gotten there, the porcupine had already gotten at my camp boots. That's Jordan Hilderman. And yes, in case you missed it, his hiking boots were eaten by a porcupine. Hilderman says he was actually worn to be careful by some fellow campers who'd seen the hungry critter lurking about,

but also perhaps by something more nefarious. Funny enough, I was joking with my compatriots on a hike that I'm a little suspicious now that there's a cabala porcupines out there that are out to get me. because just the previous month, a porcupine got one of my dogs, spinder. So at this point, I'm starting to put a conspiracy together that the porcupines are out there to get me. It turns out this isn't a strange act from some rogue porcupine

or cabal of porcupines. John Pachkoski is the Human Wildlife Co-existence team lead with Alberta Parks and Canaanascus. He's seen such things happen in his woods as well. He says the culprits love the taste of salt, sweat, and leather and woe to those who don't take the proper precautions. In hiking, we set up our tent. I had a sweaty black t-shirt. I hung it up on a string line just above the ground to let it dry out.

In the morning, it looked like fishnet stockings that had been shredded. I don't really know the reach of a porcupine. But if you got it up maybe three or four feet above the ground, you'd be safe from marauding porcupines. Marauding porcupines. With that image, we bid you good evening and sweet dreams. Thanks for joining us. This has been your world tonight for Wednesday, August 20th.

I'm Susan Bonner. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.