Your World Tonight - Spring flood watch, Iran closes Strait of Hormuz, AI children's content, and more

Episode Date: April 18, 2026

Spring flooding is threatening several parts of central and eastern Canada this weekend. Environment Canada expects more rain to fall in the coming days. Affected communities across Quebec and Ontario are preparing for the worst.Also: Iran's Revolutionary Guard says any vessel moving towards the Strait of Hormuz will be targeted. The critical waterway was declared open for business just a day ago. But now, access is once again restricted.It's the latest bit of diplomatic whiplash, as both Iran and the U.S. extend olive branches while wielding them like clubs.And: They're catchy, colourful, and potentially harmful. AI generated content aimed at toddlers and pre-schoolers is all over YouTube. That prevalance has child development experts worried.Plus: Farmers fighting outdated tax laws, Corruption inside Cricket Canada, Cherry blossom tourists overwhelming rural Japan, and more.

Life by the ocean means embracing the fog as it rolls in when the whole city goes fuzzy, and nothing is sharp or precisely defined. While you're here, you too might fall in love with misty Halifax mornings. Fog can muffle the noise of your expectations, help you focus on the moment right in front of you. It can give you a whole new perspective if you're willing to let it cloud your judgment. This is a CBC podcast. It's really scary. Usually we see that kind of stuff around the world, but not here. The soaking continues for Ontario and Quebec.

More rain is in the forecast, raising the risk of flooding and the need for preparations in parts of both provinces. This is Your World Tonight. I'm Tanya Fletcher. Also on the podcast, grand opening, grand closing. The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz escalates as Iran-Rourald. reverses its reopening of the critical trade route. And I've seen content where it is, you know, modeling behaviors you don't want a child to do, you know, grabbing a hot pan out of an oven with bare hands, right? Like really dangerous things. Experts in childhood development warn of something called AI slop aimed at toddlers. Spring flooding is threatening several parts of central

and eastern Canada. More rain is in the forecast this weekend. And as the all Already waterlogged ground struggles to absorb more moisture. Communities in Quebec are preparing for the worst, while in Ontario, roads are being closed. Philip Lyshanak has our top story tonight. There's just a lot of unpredictability and unknown right now. Natalie Lorraine is a volunteer with Ottawa Valley Search and Rescue. She's helping deliver pallets of sandbags to residents along the river.

We're seeing a lot of community members coming to ask how they can help. The community of Gatineau, Quebec is bracing for four. floodwaters expected this weekend as more rain is forecast. Lucas Alexopoulos is a meteorologist with Environment Canada. They might see up to 30 additional millimeters of rain. So any areas that are more prone, that could definitely add to the impacts that these communities are seeing. Like it's really scary. Usually we see that kind of stuff around the world, but not here. Chloe Bourgeois is a member of Gatineau City Council who's helping coordinate the efforts.

She says residents have had to endure four floods in nine years. There's a lot of people are like, well, they should move. You know, they should just sell the house, but the house, it's impossible to sell it. They don't have insurance anymore. Some people are born in those house, so they want to stay there. A large region of Ontario from Sudbury East to the Ottawa area and south to Hamilton is under a flood warning. Already some communities are surrounded by water. I only need 7,000 more.

In the town of Minden in Ontario's cottage country, a few hours' north of Toronto, volunteers help stack sandbags along the Gull River. This is the closest the water has ever come to Tatra Palfrey's 170-year-old home. And they are doing this amazing job, sandbagging. They are in wonderfully positive spirits, considering it's been raining most of the day. Roads have become impassable. Minden Mayor Bob Carter says a bridge through the middle of town was closed as the river level rose. Last night, we had a road washed out. because of a beaver dam that let loose. So those are the things you never know where that might happen.

An evacuation center has been set up in the town's arena just in case. So far, no one has had to leave their home. People have to be very careful and we'll use in the water over the next few weeks. Professor Tom Al, a hydrogeologist with the University of Ottawa, says the floods could have a lasting impact on the groundwater. You really have to be careful because, you know, contaminated floodwires inundating the area around your well. Environment Canada expects drier weather in the coming days,

giving residents a chance to survey the damage. Philip Lishanok, CBC News, Toronto. Iran's Revolutionary Guard says any vessel moving towards the Strait of Hormuz will be targeted. The critical waterway was declared open for business just a day ago. But now access is once again restricted. It's the latest bit of diplomatic whiplash as both Iran and the U.S. extend all of branches, while wielding them more like clubs. Let's bring in our Chris Reyes, who's been monitoring this story.

So, Chris, walk us through what led to this new development. Hi, Tanya. So the Iranian military is essentially saying that as long as the U.S. naval blockade of Iran's ports remain, the Strait of Hermuz will be closed. It also means that passage through this key waterway is, is uncertain and even unsafe. As an example, today the Iranian ambassador in India was summoned over reports that Indian tankers were hit trying to cross the strait.

The big question is, are Iran and the US even talking to work this all out? While not so much, according to the deputy foreign minister who spoke to reporters and said that they can't schedule another meeting until this. Until we agree on the framework, we cannot set the date. Now, there was significant, you know, actually progress. But then this maximilist approach by the other side, trying to make Iran an exception international law, prevented us to reach

an agreement. And to explain that a little bit, because the Strait of Hormuz is mostly international waters, it's against international law for any one country to control it. So Iran is claiming the U.S. naval blockade is illegal in addition to the attacks against them, also being illegal. One thing that we're definitely not seeing is any kind of public or high-level meeting between the two sides, as we did when U.S. Vice President J.D. Vans traveled to Islamabad about a week ago to meet with his Iranian counterparts. I start contrast to last weekend. Now, this ceasefire expires Tuesday, and these latest events only seem to highlight disconnect in terms of what progress has been made so far.

publicly Donald Trump seems very confident things are going well. Yeah, that's right. He was the one who interpreted Iran's announcement to mean that the straight is open for business. And he called that a great and brilliant day for the world. Today, he seemed to be shrugging off any messaging from Iran that the two sides have a lot to work out. It's working out very well. They got a little cute as they have been doing for 47 years. Nobody ever took them on.

We took them on. and they can't blackmail us. Trump is also sharing a lot of detail about this deal with Iran that Iran keeps refuting. Remember, this deal is still very much under negotiation. Trump has said that the U.S. will work with Iran to remove those underwater explosives from the Strait of Hormuz, even to take nuclear material from Iran to bring back to the U.S. One Iranian official came out today saying all of those claims are false. So, Tanya, anyone looking for signs that the two sides are close to a deal or even getting along will have a hard time finding them in today's developments.

Chris, thank you so much for the update. All right, thank you. CBC's Chris Reyes in New York for us tonight. Elsewhere internationally, a man has killed at least six people and injured several others during a mass shooting in Kiev. Authorities say four people were shot dead on the street. The man then barricaded himself inside a supermarket, fatally shooting another person, and taking several hostages. A sixth victim died in the hospital. Ukraine's interior ministers has police tried to negotiate with the shooter for 40 minutes before entering the store and killing him in a shootout.

The attacker has been identified as a 58-year-old man born in Moscow. Police are investigating this as a terrorist act. Still ahead, Japan's iconic Terry Blossom. attract millions of tourists every spring, and thanks to social media, many of those people are venturing out to small towns just to get that perfect Insta shot, turning charm into chaos.

We'll bring you that story later on your world tonight. The family farm is a Canadian staple and the backbone of Canadian agriculture, but it may not be for much longer. Farmers in Ontario say outdated tax laws are making it more challenging to pass down their land. to the next generation. Emma Bruton explains. Steve Cooper starts his tractor on his farm in Uxbridge, Ontario, just northeast of Toronto.

It's one of two farms he owns. He's concerned about the future of his business. His own kids may take on one farm, but the possibility of passing the other down to his nephew is slim, because it would mean a big payout to the government. You could be into tax bills, into the millions of dollars, just to keep farming the same way you've been, farming without any real change of operations. Direct descendants, children, grandchildren, and spouses that take over the farm can defer that capital gains tax because of a law in the Income Tax Act.

But nieces and nephews, they're stuck with the bill. What 25 to 30-year-old farmer is going to have a million dollars kicking around to keep the same operation going? Adding nieces and nephews to the deferment is a small but significant change. It's something Darren Shrews has been taken. trying to do. He's a vegetable farmer in Mount Forest in southwestern Ontario. He advocates for farmers across the country and says the update to the law is needed because the farming landscape has changed. Let's go back one generation. People were having a lot more children, like eight, 10,

12 kids. Now they're down to sort of two, four, maybe six at the max. This means some farmers are relying more on extended family to work on the farm and eventually take over the farm. That's why Shrosbury is petitioning the federal government to change the income tax act, so it includes nieces and nephews. He says financial pressures are one of the main reasons that around 3,000 farms are closing each year in Canada, and the exclusion in the Tax Act is hurting family farms. You drive through villages in southwestern Ontario, some of them are boarded shut because folks are leaving the agricultural sector, which is avoidable if we could add nieces and nephews. An official from the Federal Finance Department told CBC News the department continually reviews tax rules to make sure they're fair and appropriate.

The official could not comment whether the finance minister has considered changing the Income Tax Act. Back at Cooper's Farm, the exclusion in the Tax Act is causing uncertainty about the future of the family farm and his nephew's stake in it. Maybe down the road he becomes part of the operation, makes it a career, and we want to move some land. to him. Right now, that is not in place. I can't pass him any land, my nephew, without triggering a large capital gains bill. He says the change needs to happen soon, or it could cost Canadian farmers more than just a tax bail. Emma Berton, CBC News, Kitchener. In British Columbia, 10 years after the province declared a public health emergency over toxic drugs, drug-related deaths remain a major concern. According to a report released this week, overdose is now the leading cause of maternal

death for people who live inside Vancouver's coastal health authority. The CBC's Georgie Smyth brings us that story. It doesn't really feel real until you're actually holding them and they're there. Wind Dancer is remembering holding her newborn sun lightning who just turned three. When she was pregnant, she was using drugs and had no place to live other than the streets of Vancouver's downtown The outreach workers were helping me, and then my close friends were always making sure that I eaten and I was fed. She's actually lucky. A new report from Vancouver's Coastal Health Authority shows that as toxic drug deaths climbed in BC, so too did the harms done to mothers and babies. Dr. Patricia Daly is the chief medical health officer. Drug-related overdoses is now the leading

cause of maternal death in Vancouver Coastal Health. For the purpose of this investigation, which examined preventable harms in pregnancy between 2014 and 2024. Its authors say maternal deaths are when a woman dies within one year of a delivery or termination. The report does not include death during pregnancy, which lead author Dr. Althea Hayden says is harder to measure. So we're talking about between 90 and 120 women a year who have really significant substance use disorder and are pregnant. and in this population we're seeing about one mother die a year and about one infant die a year. The report serves damning numbers like in a decade in the health authority. 14 mothers died from an overdose after giving birth.

12 babies died too. So this is a wildly imbalanced rate of maternal death and of infant death. It is very similar to the rates we would see in some of the poorest nations in the world. One of the key findings points to how indigenous women are disproportionately affected. like CJ Jandrew who got pregnant after she was assaulted. They didn't know what to do. It's because I was pregnant. Jandrew said it was hard to find places to get help with her addiction when she was pregnant with her daughter, Alex Lee. I cried because I was already five months, so I ended up relapsing.

Some services in Vancouver don't serve pregnant women with an addiction. Dr. Hayden says part of that could be blamed on how the province measures the need for services. Monthly numbers by BC's coroner show that males in their 40s, and 50s are the most affected by addiction here. Like, we're not creating an addiction system of care aimed at these women. This report comes in the week of BC marking 10 years since declaring a public health emergency over its opioid crisis. Its pages underscore how this still unsolved tragedy is unraveling the lives of the next generation.

Georgie Smyth, CBC News, Vancouver. Cricket is one of the fastest growing sports in Canada and the south. second most watched in the world. Now an investigation by the Fifth Estate finds cricket Canada, the sports governing body in this country, is plagued by allegations of match fixing and possible influence by organized crime. Our Stephen D'Souza has that story. It's Canada's third match at the T20 World Cup in India in February. Canadian captain Dilpride Badua has just bowled a no-ball, an illegal delivery that is often flagged a suspicious, possibly fixing part of a match.

Spinners, this a heinous crime. Sources tell the Fifth Estate that after this play, Bajua missed a team meeting. He was called in by the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption Unit. He was interviewed and had his phone searched. He was there to fix matches or to spot-fix? That's my personal belief, yes. This person is an insider with cricket canning.

the sports governing body. We've protected his identity and changed his voice because he's afraid for his safety. We're calling him Graham. Why do you think Duprid Baja was chosen as captain? Simply a matter of somebody having influence on what's going to happen to the games and who's going to play and who's not going to play. The Fifth Estate tried to reach Bajwa for comment, but he didn't reply. We wanted to get his response to sources who say his place as captain was allegedly helped by threats from people claiming to be the Bishnoi gang, the violent criminal group declared a terrorist entity by the Canadian government. He's like, if you don't support these two guys in the team, then we will tell you who Lawrence Bishnoy is. That's a source we're calling Noah. We've also changed

his name and voice because he too fears for his safety. He works in cricket in British Columbia and says he faced death threats for opposing Bajwa as captain of a provincial. team. We warned you and you didn't obey. Your time is over now. You want to run anywhere, run. You will not survive. In March during an urgent board meeting near Toronto, we try to interview then Cricket Canada President Amjad Bajwa about the threats. He's no relation to Dopee. Is the Bishnoi gang calling the shots at Cricket Canada? Not as far as I know. But you know about threats against a national team player by people claiming to be the Bisholai game. Our sources alleged the threat.

can be traced through various people in the province to our Vinder Khosa. He was president of Cricket BC when we spoke to him in March. Are you connected to the Bishnoi gang? That's my very straight question to you. No, no, no, no, no, no, never, never. Can you tell us, are you aware of cricketers or anyone in Cricket BC facing threats from the Bishnoi gang? Noe, no idea.

He calls the accusations that he's connected to the threats and the Bishnoi gang, political propaganda. In December, a group of provincial associations went to court against Cricket Canada, claiming it's mismanaged and needed a change at the top. In March, a judge agreed, ordering a vote. The president Amjad Badgwa was out. The new president, selected by the provinces, Arvindercosa, the same man alleged to be connected to the threats. While some in the community welcomed his appointment,

our Cricket Canada insider Graham says the entire system needs to be reset. So you have to change the system. It's not worked so far. So to do the same things and expect a different result will be the height of stupidity. He says many suffer because of the turmoil. Future players, current players, and parents who have invested a lot of money trying to get their kids to play cricket and do the right thing. After the leadership change, but before the Fifth Estate's investigation was published, Cricket Canada posted a statement, saying the organization is focused on strengthening governance and is committed to integrity, transparency, and open communication. Stephen DeSuza, CBC News, Toronto. And you can watch the Fifth of State's full investigation called Corruption, Crime, and Cricket Canada on YouTube or CBCJM.

It's the most Instagramable time of the year in Japan. Millions of people visit the country each spring to long. look at and post pictures of those pink cherry blossoms in full bloom. But those travelers are overwhelming smaller communities. Malone Mullen reports from one of them. That's the sound of arguably too many people. They've come and droves to a little town called Fuji Yoshida, and nothing, it seems, can stop them. Town officials are calling it a crisis. At the base of Japan's most iconic mountain, Masatoshi Hada tells us the noise and litter from thousands of people a day are making life here unbearable. At least one tourist even defecated on someone's lawn.

All of the chaos is because of one picture, he says, a photo that went viral. It's a red pagoda with cherry blossoms, Mount Fuji in the background. People are lining up for hours just to get the shot. I don't really want to say this, but the quality of tourists are, getting lower and lower each year. Sarah Miziguchi runs a small tour company out of Tokyo. She says the weak yen and Japan's popularity on social media are ruining parts of the country. Exactly. So they want to eat the same food. They want to go to the same attractions and they want to shoot the same Instagramable photo.

At the University of Greenwich in London, that's what Lauren Siegel has been studying, the Instagramability theory of overtourism. You see a beautiful place online. It's just a beautiful place online. It's just, geo-tagged, so you know exactly where the picture was taken, you then travel to that same place, create the same type of content while you're there, often disrupting local life, then you post your content online showing none of that, showing none of the overcrowding. Segal says travel has become a thing to consume and show off, like a Rolex or Lamborghini. It's a digital vaguelyn good that turns real places into playgrounds for social media feeds, and Japan is the

latest victim. Elsewhere in the country, some communities are issuing fines to content creators who misbehave and even erecting barriers to block viral views from camera lenses entirely. But there is one upside for Fuji Yoshida. The crowds bring money. Hotels and restaurants are springing up and people are moving in. Besides, not everybody's upset about it. 94-year-old Mory Hitoshi has lived here his whole life.

He's never seen this many people, but he understands why they've come. After all, there's nowhere else in the world like his hometown. Malone Mullen, CBC News, Fuji Yoshida, Japan. Oh, they're catchy, colorful, and potentially harmful. AI-generated content aimed at toddlers and preschoolers is all over YouTube. And as Deanna Sumanak Johnson tells us, worrying child development experts. Learning letters no looking back.

Their brightly colored animated video set to nursery rhymes showing worlds populated with plump babies, adorable animals and technicolor cars and trains. But a closer look reveals bizarre details. The choo-choo train goes into a tunnel backwards. Its wagons

purporting to teach kids their ABCs display nonsensical sequences of letters and numbers, telltale signs that these videos were made by AI. Now what we're seeing with AI and AI slop is that it's become so easy to make content. Carla Englebrecht knows a thing or two about educational entertainment for young children. She's created content for Netflix, Sesame Street, and PBS. But she says what your toddler or preschooler might be watching online now are different than typical animated YouTube shorts for kids they're made to resemble.

So I've seen content where it is, you know, modeling behaviors you don't want a child to do, or where it's like, you know, grabbing a hot pan out of an oven with bare hands, right? Like really dangerous things. And while it may appear simply bizarre or annoying to an adult or an older child, experts say this kind of low quality entertainment can be downright dangerous for a very young child who's just learning about the world. Earlier this month, a group of more than 200 experts and educators signed. a letter to CEOs of Google and YouTube, alleging that so-called AI slop harms children's development by distorting their sense of reality, overwhelming their learning processes, and hijacking their

attention. The group asked Google to make AI content available only to users over 18. It's garbage, and young children cannot learn from garbage. Dr. Michelle Ponte is a pediatrician based in London, Ontario. She co-signed the letter. She says excessive screen time of any kind is damaging to young developing brains who benefit most from face-to-face interaction with a human. This AI-generated material is so fast-paced and it's nonsensical. It makes really no sense when they're watching it. So they can't transfer that over to real-life experiences. In an email to CBC News, a YouTube spokesperson said, we have high standards for the content in YouTube kids, including limiting AI-generated content in the app, to a small set of high-quality,

channels and added that they're working on developing labels for YouTube kids that would further limit AI slop. Calgary-based mom Sarah Rimbi Verklund would welcome both government policy and efforts by tech companies. For kids, it's just, it's so pervasive in their everyday lives and in schools and in friends' houses. And it's something that, you know, I just feel like it's this avalanche. An avalanche that's getting even faster, more impactful and possibly more damaging with a proliferation of AI content for children. Deanna Suminac Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. We end on a sweet note tonight

about one man's mission to protect and preserve the legacy of a Canadian treat, the butter tart. Ontario's John Meisner has a soft spot for the pastry. He's had it his whole life, so much so. In fact, he's served as a butter tart judge twice. But at a festival in February, he tasted one that was downright offensive. Automatically, all six judges, after we took a bite, we just spat it right back out on the plate. Like, it was so bad. It was so bad. And I'm like, if this is what people are

selling as butter tarts, that's concerning. The experience left such a bad taste in his mouth. He decided to do something about it. An attempt at National Butter Tart Day. And he's got his local MP on board to try to make it happen. Adam Chambers is member of Parliament for Simcoe North. Any time I receive correspondence about butter tarts, my interest is immediately peaked. You know, in a country where we celebrate Putin and we celebrate Nanaimo bars, the butter tart is a quintessential Canadian delicacy. And so was born a formal butter tart petition to the House of Commons. Now, in order for chambers to bring it forward in Parliament, it needs at least 500 signatures by the end of June. Spoiler alert, it already has more than

than a thousand. Well, for Meisner, the whole point is to honor the legacy of the Barry Ontario woman believed to have come up with the original butter tart filling recipe. According to the county of Simco, the first known public recipe was from a Mary McLeod, as documented in the Women's Auxiliary of Royal Victoria Hospital in 1900. So then I started thinking to myself, well, how do we preserve Mary's legacy? How do we, A, make it something that's recognized across Canada, but then how do we celebrate that pioneering heritage? Mary died on April 19th, 1915, which is why he wants to celebrate that day from here on out as National Butter Tart Day.

This has been your world tonight for Saturday, April 18th. I'm Tanya Fletcher. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca. Podcasts.