Your World Tonight - Shooting outside White House, Chemical leak in California, Curbing Ebola spread, CBS News radio off the air, and more.

Episode Date: May 23, 2026

The White House was put on lockdown after gunshots were heard outside - sending journalists scrambling to seek shelter. The US Secret Service says a suspect was shot dead, and a bystander was also shot. We have the latest details.Also: A large chemical tank in Southern California is at risk of exploding at any moment. It's triggered a state of emergency and the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Crews are now racing the clock to cool it down before it ruptures. And: Since 1927, CBS News Radio has kept millions of Americans informed. Its had extensive reporting on everything from the Great Depression to the 2008 recession, the Second World War to the War with Iran. But now, CBS News Radio has signed off for good. We'll take a look at its legacy.Plus: South Korean submarine lands in B.C., Hezbollah's use of drones, Animal therapy in Gaza, and more.

Have you ever wondered how clean the seats on the TTC are? I found, like, chicken bones or, like, bed bogs. Or why so many Toronto restaurant bathrooms are in dank basements? Sometimes it's the most sketchy things. Like, when you go down, it's like, what is this? I'm Hayden Waters, a reporter and producer on the podcast, This is Toronto. From breaking down Doug Ford's obsession with the island airport.

We have to bring jets in. To being inside an iconic Toronto strip club in its final hours. We go beyond the headlines of the day and get to know Toronto in all its big, beautiful, frustrating, wardy, fascinating glory. So find and follow us. This is Toronto, wherever you get your podcast. This is a CBC podcast. Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us. Our goal is to find something and not allow that happen, not let it damage our community, not let it damage our environment. A toxic chemical tank in Southern California could explode at any moment.

It's triggered a state of emergency and the evacuation of 10,000. tens of thousands of people. Crews now racing the clock to cool it down before it ruptures. This is Your World Tonight. I'm Tanya Fletcher in Vancouver. Time is also ticking to get a handle on the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. Ten more countries under new threat as the virus continues its rapid spread. Plus...

There's no rust and it's very spacious. Two months and 14,000 kilometers later, a sleek black suburb. submarine from South Korea surfaces off BC's coast, part of a cell job to Canada, which is eyeing new subs to bolster its naval fleet. But we begin with breaking news out of Washington, D.C. Gunshots heard near the White House this evening sending journalists scrambling for cover. The U.S. Secret Service says a suspect was shot dead. A bystander was also shot. Let's bring in the CBC's Katie Nicholson. Katie, you're near the scene. What more can you tell us? Yeah, I'm just at 17th and age. I'm about a block north from where everything is sort of shut down right now. Police tape and National Guard all around us right now. The area is really locked down. What I can tell you is around 6 o'clock tonight local time. Reporters who are, and this is all captured on video that sort of widely circulating, were outside the North Lawn, the Pebble Beach area of the White House, where they're often doing their talkbacks, their rents, that sort of thing. And these gunshots, just sort of echoed through the area.

Many of them running for cover. The Secret Service sent sort of shut things down. What we are hearing from the Secret Service is that an individual walked up to the 17th Street gate and removed a gun from his bag and opened fire. Secret Service reporting he is now deceased and an individual, a bystander. It appears was also injured,

though it's not clear sort of where that bystander was right now and sort of how that came to be. So this is sort of a very active investigation right now. I can tell you that the FBI and the Secret Service are continuing. There is a very large police presence all around the White House right now. And I did actually talk to one of the journalists who was there when this happened. Alexandra Ingersoll, she's with one American news. There's actually quite an arresting photo of her running for cover.

As the shot started to echo out, here's a little bit of how, she says this impacted to her. And remember, Tanya, this is coming about a month after that shooting at the White House Correspondents Association, not too far from here. It's awful. I just gotten over this mild nausea it had for several weeks. So now I feel like I'll have another trauma response. Again, we don't know what any kind of motivations might have been at this point. We do know that the U.S. President was inside the White House where he's continuing to work, according to AIDS, this evening. So, of course, that sort of heightens that risk factor. We think about the number of times that the U.S. president has been the target of assassination attempts going back to his time on the campaign trail. And even just last week, as the DOJ is asserting, he was the target of that shooter at the White House Correspondence Center. So, Tony, we are expecting more information to unfold in the coming hours.

But for now, that's sort of where things lay. Okay, Katie, thank you for staying on the story for us. You're welcome. The CBC's Katie Nicholson in Washington, D.C. tonight. California's governor, meanwhile, has declared a state of emergency in Orange County. Tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate there because a large chemical tank is at risk of rupturing or even exploding. Concern is growing because so far every effort to stabilize the situation has failed.

Megan Fitzpatrick has the latest. I know you're out of your houses. I know there's a lot of anxiety. over this. I just need you to understand. We are not giving up. Incident commander Craig Covey trying to reassure the residents of Garden Grove, California. He says his crews are working around the clock at a manufacturing plant for GKN Aerospace and Aircraft Parts and Technology Company. The problem there started Thursday when a giant storage tank containing more than 25,000 liters of a toxic chemical began overheating. A broken valve on the tank means the heat and pressure inside keeps building and can't be

relieved. And that means one of two scenarios is likely to happen. Either the tank will eventually crack and spill its hazardous contents to the ground or it will explode. If you ever seen videos of tank cars on a railroad track blowing up and that fireball it puts out and it blows half the tank car a half a mile down the train track, that's the incident potential we are dealing with. The chemical is methyl methyl- methylrylate. It's often used to make resins and plastics. It's highly flammable and according to Orange County's health officer, it can cause serious health problems if inhaled. It can cause significant irritation in the lungs, the nasal passages. At very high levels, it can really cause severe respiratory distress and hospitalization. Fire and hazmat specialists,

along with a response team from the company, are consulting with experts around the United States to find a safe way out of the dilemma. Discouraging news was reported Saturday. Covey says a sprinkler system spraying the tank's exterior has failed to cool its contents. It's been averaging about a degree an hour increasing. So that's the bad news. As crews try and find a way to avoid disaster, preparations are being made for one. Firefighters and medical first responders are standing by. Dikes and dams are being built around the factory in case there's a spill. The goal there is to prevent a stream of toxic liquid from entering storm drains and local rivers. The potential for a massive explosion.

triggered the decision to order 40,000 people to evacuate. I'm scared and worried about my home. These evacuees are worried about what lies ahead. I'm praying that it doesn't explode and hit my neighborhood, my home and ruin and destroy everything that I have. I'm hoping that it would be contained, not cause any damage, not cause any environmental damage, not harm any people. The company GKN Aerospace Apologize to evacuees in a statement

and said they're working tirelessly to resolve this situation as safely and quickly as possible. Megan Fitzpatrick, CBC News, Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump says a peace agreement with Iran has been, in his words, largely negotiated. On social media, Trump says a deal is being finalized between American and Iranian negotiators. His post came after a call with a number of Gulf leaders, including Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman. Trump says the deal would include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran's Farsi news agency says is inconsistent with reality.

Three Red Cross volunteers have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo from suspected Ebola. It's believed they contracted the disease from handling dead patients. There have been more than 170 suspected deaths from the outbreak in DRC, with the World Health Organization raising its risk in the region to its highest level. Health authorities say the virus could spread to 10 more. Central African countries if coordinated action is not taken immediately. The CBC's Philip Lyshanock has the latest. Any time lost, our lives lost.

So we need to work together quickly. At a meeting of the Africa CDC in the Ugandan capital Kampala, Uganda's health secretary, Dr. Diana Atweeney says countries threatened by the outbreak must act in solidarity and shared responsibility. No single country can be safe until all of us are safe and we deal with a problem because it is not a DRC problem, it is not a Ugandan problem, it is our problem. This has new cases linked to the Democratic Republic of Congo,

rise in Uganda, including a Congolese national who traveled to Kampala seeking treatment. DRC has at least 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths since the Ebola virus was detected in the country's northwest at the end of April. Gene Kasea, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says at least 10 African countries could be at risk, including the Central African Republic, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Zambia. Why am I saying that if today we have so many cases that can spread to other regions of DFC or other places,

our countries. Healthcare workers say misinformation and cultural burial practices have made containing the spread difficult. Three Ebola treatment centers were burned in eastern DRC on Saturday. Bronwyn-Nichael is with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in DRC's capital, Kinshasa. Someone you love dies and people show up head to toe in full PPE and are changing the way you typically bury a body, your cultural traditions, the way you you deal with the funeral. Because the bodies of victims are highly contagious, loved ones are not allowed to carry out traditional burial rights. Dr. Zahid Bud is an infectious disease expert at the University of Waterloo.

He says this Ebola, the Bundabugyo strain, is different from the Zaire strain and may be difficult to contain. There is no vaccine and no treatment for the strain. So that makes it difficult to control and prevent infections. But he says since there's no asymptomatic spread, screening for the virus is straightforward. Canada put screening procedures in place last week, although health officials say the risk here is low. Philip Lishirok, CBC News, Toronto. Still ahead, a rabbit, a turtle, and some birds. We'll tell you how a Palestinian man is using animal therapy to help children of Gaza displaced by war. That's later on your role tonight. A South Korean submarine has just completed a two-month journey across the Pacific.

The vessel now on Vancouver Island will take part in joint exercises with the Royal Canadian Navy. It's all part of a push to secure a Canadian government contract worth tens of billions of dollars. Our Lindsay Duncombe was at CFB as Squymelt when the sub arrived. So, Lindsay, why is the submarine here in BC? Well, Tanya, a big part of the reason is because South Korea wants to sell these subs to Canada. And what a great way to show it off. They had the sleek black three-ton vessel emerged from the sea in the beautiful sunshine with a mountain backdrop.

There were sailors waving on the deck. The fact that this sub, the Dosan-on-Chang-ho, can make such a long journey. We're talking 14,000 kilometers, is key to the Canadian Navy's needs, especially in the Arctic. Canada is planning to buy as many as 12 submarines in the next decade and a half. The Navy wants to keep six here on the West Coast and six on the East Coast. There are two companies in the running, the Koreans, and then another bid from Germany and Norway. Right now, Canada has four Victoria-class subs. We bought them used and they barely work.

Only one is operational right now. Rear Admiral David Packett was among the Canadian delegation that met the submarine today. To be perfectly clear, one is not enough. 12 is a good start to have a submarine at sea in all three oceans 365 days a year. So that is why we're investing. That is why Canada is investing in a new submarine capability. There were two Canadian submariners on board the Korean vessel. They joined in Hawaii.

Lieutenant Commander Brittany Bouchois was on board, and it was really interesting, Tani, to hear how she compared this new Korean sub to Canada's current one. There's no rust, and it's very... Spacious. Being on a state-of-the-art submarine like this has really shown us that we have a great future ahead. Pretty amazing site indeed, no doubt.

Now, South Korea, we understand, is not the only contender for this contract. What's the status of the procurement process? It is expected that the prime minister will make a decision by the end of June. So right now is crunch time. The other bid comes from European

company, TKMS. That is a joint bid from Germany, and Norway. The 212 CD boat is an updated version of submarines that are already in service with three NATO allies. So that is a selling point. And in both cases, the companies are promising more than submarines here. The German government has proposed a multi-billion dollar industrial benefits package. That includes investments in EV battery production and critical minerals. And the Koreans say they will build armored vehicles in Canada. And they're promising to use Algoma Steel from Sue St. Marie when they build the subs.

And both are saying that this will create thousands of jobs. Interestingly, though, Tanya, I spoke to one defense analyst from UBC, Michael Byers. He said all these extras just complicate things and could mean delays when it comes to making decisions. His advice to the prime minister is just to pick the best boat. We'll see what happens. Lindsay, thank you so much for telling us about this. You're welcome.

The CVC's Lindsay Duncombe and Esquimalt, British Columbia. Overseas to China now, at least 82 people have died in a gas explosion at a coal mine. It happened in the northern province of Shanxi late Friday night. More than 120 miners have been taken to the hospital. Nearly 250 workers were on duty at the time. Rescue efforts are now underway for at least nine who are unaccounted for, believed to still be trapped underground. The cause of the explosion is under investigation. A gathering of Germans in Czechia is reopening old wounds. They are the descendants of millions of

ethnic Germans forced out of Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. Organizers say the gathering is about fostering Czech German reconciliation. But as freelance reporter Rob Cameron tells us, many Czechs see it as an insult. The post-war expulsion of Czechoslovakia's German-speaking population is still an emotive topic, 81 years on, as you can hear from this rowdy Brno council meeting. This local councillor spoke for most opponents. The Sudeten Germans present themselves as champions of reconciliation, but the ones who can ask for that reconciliation are long dead,

and we do not have the right to speak or act for them. Yes. Named for the mountainous Sudetenland border region where ethnic Germans settled over centuries, the Sudaten Germans were Czechoslovakia's largest ethnic minority, but in the 1930s they fell under the spell of Hitler and voted overwhelmingly for the separatist Sudeten German party. Some three million fled or were expelled after the war

and their property was confiscated. Most settled in Bavaria. They included the parents of Bres. Bernd Posselt, head of the Sudeten German Landsmanchaft, the main organization representing them today. He spoke to me from Munich. In a time where war and nationalism is growing up worldwide, this meeting between our Czechs friends and us is very important to show that we as Europeans have learned from the history. For the first time, the Sedation Germans are holding their annual gathering.

where they remember their lost homeland in the Czech Republic as part of the Meeting Brno Intercultural Festival. Petakalosek is one of the co-founders. Why it should be here? The question is why it has never been here, because that's the country of their origin. All these people are the ancestors and their family. We live together in the same country for more than 800 years.

They'll meet Holocaust, survive. and walk the route of the infamous 1945 death march, in which hundreds of local German men, women and children died. But they'll do so days after the Czech Parliament passed a resolution calling on the organizers to abandon the gathering of reconciliation, saying it was an insult to those Czechs who were imprisoned, tortured or killed by the Nazis. Rob Cameron for CBC News, Prague. Hezbollah says it still has the support of Iran.

In a statement, the Lebanon-based militant group says it received a message of support from Iran's foreign minister, and that Iran is reiterating its demand that Lebanon be included in any peace deal with the U.S. Meanwhile, in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah is turning small drones bought over the internet into deadly weapons. On a single day this week, 10 Israeli soldiers were injured in drone attacks, two of them seriously. and Israeli media reports indicate that several soldiers killed in action in recent weeks were struck by drones. Our Chris Brown has more on the changing battlefield. The small quadcopter drones can be bought online and delivered to militants through services like Ali Express. And in Lebanon, they're managing to pierce the most modern air defense system on the planet,

says Robert Tallest. He's a land warfare expert with the British think tank Rusi. We've seen scores and scores of attacks on Israeli soldiers, armored vehicles, tanks, air defences as well, or short-range air defences. It creates quite a serious tactical problem for the Israelis. For most of its history, Pesbalah, the Iran-backed militant group with a strong footprint in southern Lebanon, was feared for its arsenal of thousands of powerful rockets. But Israel has killed its key leaders and its destroyed a lot of. lot of the militants heavy weapons. So its surviving fighters have innovated, says Yakov Lapin, an Israeli military analyst. It's literally duct taping an RPG warhead to one of these quadcopters

and crashing it into the forces. And it's very difficult to detect these quadcopters. They don't leave much of a radar signature. Typically, drones rely on a radio frequency to guide their flight path, but signals can be jammed. Now, these first-person View or FPV drones use fiber optic cables, sometimes dozens of kilometers long, that physically tether the operator to the drone. It's an innovation pioneered in Ukraine after Russia's invasion. So you get that high-resolution video feed, which is very good for finding targets because the tether, the fiber optic tether, gives it such high resolution and a stable connection. So far, most of the drone attacks have been on its.

Israeli soldiers in occupied southern Lebanon, and some have been highly coordinated. In one instance, a Hezbollah video shows a drone flying at and then hitting an Israeli military vehicle, injuring soldiers. Hezbollah then followed up with a strike on the evacuation team. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's created a special project to counter the drone threat with an unlimited budget, as Israel's famous eye. Iron Dome and other sophisticated defense systems aren't useful against low-flying maneuverable drones. We are going to be entering a situation where basically any adversary, non-state, you know, terrorists, some of them supported by nefarious actors, are going to be able to deliver air threats pretty much anywhere

in the world. This is like a poor man's air force. Israel's military has pushed deep into southern Lebanon, demolishing Shia villages to try to drive Hezbollah militants back from Israel's northern border. But that leaves Israel's soldiers vulnerable to the drone attacks, says Tallest from Russey. The longer that they can persist with this threat, then it does start to have strategic implications, I think. As more Israeli soldiers are killed and wounded, then yes, the effects will add up.

The IDF has given no indication. Hezbollah's drones are causing it to rethink its strategy of occupying southern Lebanon. but the IDF is scrambling to adapt and to improvise as its losses from Hezbollah's small drones mount. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. To the Gaza Strip where a Palestinian man is using animals to spread joy and comfort to displace children. He says the animals help the children learn and play, yes,

but they also provide much-needed psychological support after years of war. Yasmin Hassan has more. A rabbit atturial. and a few birds. One by one, Ammou, or Uncle Rashid, as the kids call him, brings out the animal and places it in the center of the circle of excited children. One bird perches itself on a girl's hand.

The rabbit hops towards a little boy where he's surrounded and pet, and the turtle slowly but surely marches to his match. Rashid Ambar runs this animal therapy project out of a tent in the Gaza Strip. He says he hopes. to help kids cope with the after effects of the war with the help of these animals. We teach the children to live with animals, he says. We enhanced their sense of compassion.

Anbar owned a farm before the Israel-Hamas war broke out in 2023, and when he was approached to lead this initiative, he was hesitant at first. The idea was bothering me, he says, I lost all my animals in the war, and I was hesitant to work with animals again. The Samir Project is an initiative led by volunteers overseas who want to provide animal therapy to kids affected by the war in Gaza.

It works with people on the ground in the strip who rescue animals from rubble and take care of them. And some end up in Ambar's tent. Some of the children are isolated and depressed, he says. This program helps them build relationships with other children through building relationships with the dog or the bird. Eight-year-old Rukaya Al-Azmi comes to play. with the animals after she lost her father during the war.

When my father was murdered, I was very scared, she says. I used to cry. Uncle Rashid and his animals help me feel better. 13-year-old, Noor Dhaman, says she comes here to get away from her reality. We feel happy when we come here to see the animals, she says. We forget there is a war. the bloodshed. After the day ends, the children walk back to their reality. But they know that tomorrow, they'll make their way back to

Uncle Rashid's tent where their worries will be pushed aside. By a bunny and a turtle and a few birds. Yasmin Hassan, CBC News, Otto. Since 1927, CBS News Radio has kept millions of Americans informed with extensive reporting on everything from the Great Depression to the 2008 Reception. the Second World War to the war with Iran.

But now CBS News Radio has signed off for good. Erdogana Sumanak Johnson has a look at its legacy. Hello, America. This is Edward Murrow speaking from London. For almost a century, CBS News Radio provided American listeners with a window to the outside world and to their own communities. The storied network where Edward R. Murrow brought Americans' reports about what the Nazis were doing, in the Second World War. This is Edward Murrow, speaking from Vienna,

and their Hitler has not yet arrived. This is how legendary broadcaster Dan Rather remembered CBS Radio News in his childhood. My father and mother were very interested in what was happening in Germany. He and my mother viewed radio as a kind of magic carpet. They would take you there. But as of May 22nd, CBS Radio News is silent.

Journalists working at its 700 local affiliated stations laid off. Richard John teaches history at Columbia University School of Journalism. Impressive stable of reporters, very reliable radio news. So a sign of the Times, I guess it's a sign there really is a lot of financial trouble at CBS, and I'm not surprised, given the recent changes. Those recent changes involve both a dwindling and splintering audience for traditional news radio, as well as the change in CBS News leadership, polarizing commentator Barry White, became the editor-in-chief of CBS News in late 2025, despite having no prior experience in broadcast journalism.

Weiss oversaw a series of reorganizations and structural changes that she said were to make CBS News fit for purpose in the 21st century. Though some critics suggest it was also to silence voices opposed to Donald Trump's administration, as Richard John from Columbia University sees it. Recent changes at CBS do raise questions. about its autonomy. I hope for the sake of the journalist there, and I hope for the sake of democratic experiment in the United States that it can write itself. I would guess that the radio unit was not particularly attracted to advertisers at this moment. Deadlines, Ted Johnson,

says some criticize the management for not trying to parlay CBS News Radio's trusted brand into newer formats. Why didn't they, you know, perhaps think that there's a way of of getting this radio news service onto podcasts. While some of the best-known CBS radio journalists have already been scooped up by other organizations, some observers fear that its fate is a bellwether of other radio news in the U.S., making that famous sign-off line by Edward R. Murrow

as much a farewell as a warning. Deanna Sumanack Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. Well, finally tonight, as if being the top international goal scorer in history, isn't enough. A short animated film is now being released about soccer legend Christine Sinclair's accomplishments and honoring her first coach, her mother. My parents were very involved in my brother and I's sporting endeavors as kids. They coached our baseball teams, our soccer teams. And if my mom was here, she'd be like, I'm the one that

taught you everything. But no, my mom, she played such an important role in my life. After Sinclair captained Canada to Olympic gold, she was inspired by her mother, Sandra, to write her memoir playing The Long Game, which was released a few months after her mother died in 2022. Sandra also plays a prominent role in this new seven-minute documentary. Six World Cups, four Olympics, 23 years in red and white. And you may recognize that voice, also a very famous and very proud British Columbian. Ryan Reynolds. We needed a narrator, Canadian, wanted a Canadian superstar, and obviously he's like number one on the list. Obviously, he's a huge soccer fan. The animated short called Christine Sinclair, kind of a big deal, was released Friday. This has been your world tonight for Saturday,

May 23rd. I'm Tanya Fletcher in Vancouver. Thanks for being with us. Have a good night.