Your World Tonight - StubHub scalping, Spain wildfires, house swaps, and more

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

A CBC investigation into online ticket reseller StubHub has unearthed new information about the company and its CEO. StubHub bills itself as an online ‘marketplace for fans’ where they can buy and sell tickets. But its scalping problem goes all the way to the top.And: A devastating wildfire in southern Spain has turned deadly, marking one of the country’s worst blazes on record as an intense heat wave grips Europe.Also: With travel prices soaring, many Canadians are forgoing a pricey hotel or short-term rental and instead trading their front door keys with strangers.Plus: Conservative divisions, CRA issues, First World War soldier's funeral, and more.

I'm David Ridgeon, host of the award-winning podcast Someone Know Something. Each season, I investigate a different unsolved case, from a mysterious bomb hidden in a flashlight, to two teenagers killed by the KKK. The New York Times calls SKS a consistently rigorous, intelligent gem, and Esquire named the series one of the best true crime podcasts of 2021. Find Someone knows something wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. That doesn't seem right to me.

It's portrayed as a reliable source of buying resale tickets off individuals. But at Stubhub, that individual might be a mass scalper, who might also be running the company. A new CBC investigation reveals the industrial-level ticket scalping on a platform that builds itself as for the fans. This is Your World Tonight. I'm Stephanie Skendaris. It's Friday, July.

10th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast? What do you do? Do we tear at all? Do we gut the house? And then they come and say it's not livable. Do you go through all this work? Treading water in western Manitoba as anger grows. And people try to get their lives back together after massive flooding. And it's not over. The province says disaster assistance is on the way. But there is still concern over where all the water will go. A CBC investigation, into online ticket reseller Stubhub, has unearthed new information about the company and its CEO. Stubhubbub bills itself as an online marketplace for fans

where they can buy and sell tickets. But it turns out, Stubhub's CEO himself also has a hedge fund that is scalping millions of dollars of its own tickets on the Stubhubbub platform. Dave Seglins explains. The Toronto sports scene is hotter than ever, and Stubbhubh is your place to pick up great seats to catch hockey. Stubhub's marketing and websites say the online resale site is a marketplace where fans can buy and resell tickets. Can't make it to the game? No problem.

On Stubhub, it's easy to sell your tickets to another fan. Stubhub, the way ticket buying should be. Stubhub. But it's bigger than just fans selling to fans. Stubhub's CEO, Eric Baker, is also reselling tickets millions of dollars worth. He runs a side business, a fund called Androo. capital. It resells huge swaths of tickets on Stubhub. That's according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. And what's more, Stubhubhub also has deals in place to bankroll

other mass scalpers to resell huge inventories on the platform. I mean, I literally had no idea. Mark Gallagher of Vancouver bought World Cup tickets on Stubbub, assuming he was buying from another fan who just couldn't make the game. That doesn't seem right to me. It's portrayed as a reliable source of buying resale tickets off individuals. The reality is that StubHub is run by small groups of large ticket-scapping organizations. Randy Nichols is an artist and band manager based in New York. He studied Stubhub's business filings on behalf of a national artist's organization in the U.S. It's just very deceiving.

Stubhubs told the public there are market. they want to be treated as a marketplace. They don't sell tickets. But what they leave out is that their CEO is a large ticket seller. Stubhub and its CEO declined CBC's request for an interview. In emailed statements in recent weeks, it's told CBC that Stubhub is a technology platform. It doesn't own, sell, or possess tickets. And that information about Baker's side business, quote,

has been fully disclosed in Stubhub's public SEC filings. And we don't have anything to add beyond what's in. those filings. While not illegal, Professor Chris McDonald of the Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto says this mass scalping is problematic. It's not so much that you have some guy who got a hold of a cheap pair of Bruce Springsteen ticket then is going to sell them out of profit, but when it's happening on an industrial scale, it really does seem to be in important ways interfering with the relationship between the artist on one hand and their audience on the In Stubhubhbs scale, the company moved more than $9 billion worth of tickets last year,

an estimated 70 to 80% of them by mass scalpers. Dave Segglin, CBC News, Toronto. It's been months since the federal government ordered the Canada Revenue Agency to deal with a case backlog. Well, now, wait times are up, and so are complaints. For some people, that means it could take more than a year to get money they are owed. Philip de Montanee has a story. Thank you for calling the Canada Revenue Agency.

Alex Pillon was stunned in March of last year when he saw a $24,000 tax refund deposited into his bank account. He hadn't even filed his tax return yet. So it was clearly a mistake. He contacted the Canada Revenue Agency and returned the full amount within days. But shortly after, he lost access to his CRA account

and doesn't know why. I've been going back and forth with calling agents and being on hold for many hours. For at the end, nothing. It's been a year and a half. The Thunder Bay Ontario resident still hasn't received the tax refunds he is owed, now totaling $3,300. Well, I just bought a home, so it'd be great to use it towards it. But also in general, that's my money.

Like, you're holding onto it. The CRA did not comment on this specific case, citing privacy reasons, In an emailed statement, a spokesperson told CBC News the agency is committed to resolving reported incidents. Last fall, finance minister Francois Philippe Champagne ordered the federal agency to reduce delays and improve its service. Despite hiring 2,500 employees in its call centers, the union representing CRA workers says it didn't clear the backlog. Our members are feeling the pressure. Mark Breyer is the national president of the U.S. Union of Taxation Employees. He says it's supposed to take up to eight weeks after filing a tax

return to receive a refund and up to 20 weeks for adjustment claims. Now those can take upwards of 50 weeks, almost a year. They're short staff, especially in the taxation centers when they're processing the taxpayers' files, and there are delays and people are doing overtime. It's not acceptable. Francois Boisleau is Canada's taxpayers' umbut. person. The watchdog reported a 27% spike in complaints received by the CRA in the past year. He's currently investigating how the agency operates and what options are available to Canadians who experience issues. It may not seem important, but for those people, it is, is very important. Meanwhile, back in Thunder Bay, Alex Pilon has turned to his local MP's office for help.

I feel as a citizen, there's not much we can do. He is feeling frustrated and powerless as he waits for the CRA to resolve the problem. Philippe de Montsegis, CBC News, Toronto. Transport Canada has seized a boat operated by a BC company after another one of its vessels sank. The order says the boat, operated by top Vancouver fishing charter, is being detained for violations or safety deficiencies. The company's sister vessel sank at the end of June with 10 people on board. Six of them are missing and believed to have drowned.

Four people were rescued but one later died in hospital. Coming right up, wildfires ripped through Spain, leaving at least 11 people dead and many missing. Plus, DNA technology allows a Canadian soldier to finally be laid to rest under his own name more than a century after dying in battle in France. Later, we'll have this story. A travel trend is taking off in Canada as rising costs squeeze vacation budgets. If you were looking at a week, you're saving at least $1,500 to $1,500 in accommodations.

But would you swap homes with a stranger? I'm Aina Sedu in Calgary. Ahead on your world tonight, why more travelers are handing over their house keys to experience life like a local. A wildfire has swept through a remote community in Spain's Andalusia region. killing at least 11 and injuring many more. The fire started Thursday in one of Europe's driest landscapes and has quickly become one of the deadliest wildfires in Spain's history, the steep, arid terrain, making it harder to control.

CBC Senior International correspondent Margaret Evans reports. The crackle of flames and firefighters calling out to one another as they battle an ongoing blaze in southeastern Spain. A Friday morning, it had claimed the lives of at least 11 people and left others missing. Four of the dead were found in the charred remains of their vehicle, say local authorities. Others apparently died on foot, trying to escape the path of the flames. It may be the escape routes weren't suitable, said the emergencies minister for the region of Andalusia Antonio Sanz. A trap or a path, he said, from which.

there was practically no way out. Most of those killed are thought to be foreign nationals. DNA testing will be needed for identification. Officials say the fire may have been sparked by a downed power line connecting with dry brush. Spain, like other parts of Europe, has been experiencing a severe heat wave with temperatures regularly topping 30 degrees Celsius.

Authorities began, evacuating areas in Andalusia's Almaria province on Thursday. The situation is terrifying, said Francisco Reyes, mayor of the village of Los Gallardo, because there's a lot of wind, he said, and the fire started and spread very quickly. On Friday, Jose Antonio Flores watched from a distance as firefighters battled flames near the village. He once had 600 orange trees there. It rips your soul out, he said. This is what you left with. The president of Andalusia's government told reporters that more than 3,000 hectares have been

burnt so far. All of this is dry, because of the heat waves we've had, said Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla. He called it perfect fuel, which became a ticking time. time bomb when combined with the wind. He predicted a difficult summer ahead, not just for Spain, but across Europe. Margaret Evans, CBC News, London. Manitoba Premier Wab Canoe is promising victims of flooding won't be forgotten. Late last month, a series of storms dropped more than a month's worth of rain in just a few days.

Damage is extensive. And as Cameron McIntosh explains, communities in the Assiniboine River, basin are bracing now as all that water is on the move. You want to see our disaster? It's in here. Do you want to go through the house? Bad as it sounds, it looks even worse. Here, this was the kitchen. You can see a line here where the water was on the mirror. Yeah, everything's molding. That line is chest high and all through the main floor of Jackie and Dean Moran's home near Grandview, Manitoba, flooded last week.

There's still water lying here. The carpet squishes underfoot. Furniture and belongings are soaked, strewn everywhere by floodwater. We've been trying to save all the other stuff that we know we can save. But really, they're questioning if it's even worth trying. Like, what do you do? Do we tear at all? Do we gut the house? And then they come and say it's not livable. Do you go through all this work? Similar stories all across Western Manitoba's Parkland region,

where a wet June ended with a series of storms, dropping more than a hundred, 100 millimeters of rain in less than a week, leading to widespread flooding, swamping homes, washing out highways, train tracks, and damaging bridges. Even knocking out the region's main hospital in Dauphin, now expected to be closed 9 to 12 months. David Boziak is mayor of Doffin. So it serves about 45 or 50,000 people, and there's a huge economic impact to our community, but just a sense of safety and security. Many help can't come fast enough as the province assesses the extent and cost of damage. $7.8 million has been rushed to communities for urgent and immediate repairs.

Right now our focus is on helping families to recover as quickly as possible. Manitoba Premier Wob Canoe says the province has received about 1,800 disaster assistance claims so far. The province is also rushing initial payments to those people, $500 to help get started on cleanup. Help is here. More help is coming. All that water has to go somewhere, much of it flowing into western Manitoba's Stinawayne River and heading towards Brandon, the province's second largest city, which is expecting near record river levels early next week. The city is shoring up its dikes.

About 4,000 people have been told to be ready to evacuate their homes as a precaution. Mayor Jeff Fawcett. We could have high water for quite some time, so we're prepared for that. Back at the Morans. This stuff's toast. It's going to go to garbage. Jackie and Dean sorting through a lifetime's worth of waterlogged possessions, trying to find comfort and humor. We knew our house and garage needed to be cleaned up,

but we didn't think it was going to happen this way. No, this wasn't the way we want to do it. Their home and many others, very likely lost. Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Winnipeg. What should have been a straightforward, BC conservative leadership transition, has spiraled into an intra-party feud following Pierre Polyev's comments at the Calgary Stampede, where he dismissed the runner-ups campaign team as liberal lobbyists from out east. As Olivia Stefanovic reports, it's made some conservatives angry and exposed widening riffs in an already fractured party.

Thank you very much, Calgary. It's great to be home. At first, conservative leader Pierre Pauliev's stampede speech started off with a routine shout out to special guests. The future premier of British Columbia, Carolyn Finley. But then it took a turn. Fresh off a big win against liberal lobbyists from out east. That reference set off a firestorm within the conservative movement online. Hi, Pierre. Caroline Elliott here. The runner-up in the BC conservative leadership race interpreted Pollyev's comments as a swipe against her and posted a video response.

So your MPs, and now you personally, celebrating my defeat in the BC conservative leadership races, Disappointing. The race is over and it's time to unite, not divide. That call backed by her campaign team made up of big-name conservative organizers, including some of Pollyev's former staff and others who worked with Ontario progressive conservative Premier Doug Ford, who've criticized Pollyev in the past. Or if he cannot have his political house in order, how is he going to have the country in order? Dimitri Soudaz was the director of communications for former conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. He says Pollyev didn't have anything to gain by his controversial stampede comments,

the result of which he says hurts the conservative leader's support. There's some very basic rules in politics. And the most basic rule is make additions, not subtractions. And treat people with respect on your way up, because ultimately they will treat you exactly the same. on your way down. CBC News asked Polyev's office for the leader to clarify his remarks and respond to criticism, but hasn't yet heard back.

The leader should be spending their time leading and building bridges. Laura Kirkamaki held several high-level positions within the Conservative Party, including Deputy National Campaign Director for the 2021 federal election under former leader, Erin O'Toole. She says the incident is a distraction for Pauliath. I think it's unnecessary and unhelpful in terms of, increasing the party's numbers in the polls, increasing support. It also takes him off of his own message on affordability, on crime, on immigration,

on other things that party members want to be talking about. Earlier this year, Pollyev passed a leadership review handily, but his MPs reserve the right to trigger another one at any time. So far, there's no sign yet of that happening anytime soon. Olivia Stefanovic, CBC News, Ottawa. A CBC News analysis has revealed dozens of Canadian senators are missing votes on government legislation. Attendance records show the Senate convened for just 76 days in the year after the last federal election. And out of 105 senators, only eight had a perfect attendance record during that time.

Some missed more than 50 sitting days. Internal sources told CBC some senators show up to be marked present but routinely. leave before votes are held. The spotty attendance means some legislative changes pass with barely half of all senators casting a vote. With travel prices soaring, many Canadians are rethinking how they spend their time off and where they stay, foregoing a pricey hotel or short-term rental, and instead trading their front-door keys with strangers.

Business reporter Aina Sidu has more on an old-school, even movie-worthy travel concept that's seeing a massive surge in demand. The cottage is really only available for home exchange. Home exchange, what is that? What was depicted 20 years ago in the Hollywood vacation fantasy, The Holiday, is now gaining traction with Canadian travelers. It's a very different way to travel. Instead of paying for hotels or vacation rentals,

members of home exchange platforms swap keys, often paying only an annual fee of a few hundred dollars. Tatiana Geiberson is currently swapped. her Calgary home with a family in Medford, Oregon. So the appeal is twofold. The primary appeal is immersion. Guyberson has completed about a dozen exchanges as far away as France and Mexico. The secondary factor is obviously cost savings. Calgary teacher Christy Moore says that's what enticed her. The rising cost of airfare and accommodation have really put a damper and also hindered where I can go. So this really opens up the door to places all around the world. Platforms behind the trend say

seeing strong demand in Canada. Drew Satem, founder of Australia-based people like us, says membership has grown about 20% in the past year. Canada used to be our fifth largest country in the world, and now it's our second largest. Emmanuel Arnaud, CEO of Home Exchange, says they expect 15,000 exchanges in Canada this summer, a 30% jump over last year. It's the most cost-effective way for you to put a roof on top of your heads during your travel. A recent CIBC poll finds affordability is shaping travel plans, with 65% of people saying they're putting saving ahead of spending.

Frederique Dimonsch is a hospitality professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. He says the trend reflects a broader shift in how Canadians are traveling. People are looking for what we call authentic experiences. They want to be within the community. So at least they have a chance to pick and choose some neighborhoods, in cities where they will feel like they live like a local. Like any sharing platform, trust is still the biggest hurdle. Users like Geberson say reviews and video calls help build confidence before handing over the keys.

The people that tend to want to do this, the personality types, are very, like, we're like Labrador Retrievers, we're friendly, we're trusting, we want to do this, we think the best of the world. Giving more people the confidence to try a holiday that once seemed like something out of a movie. Ina Sadiou, CBC News, Calgary. Speaking of out of a movie, a passenger on board a Ryanair flight is receiving medical attention after a window dislodged in flight. The man was partially sucked out of the window

and his wife is said to have held onto his legs to keep him on board. The incident happened shortly after taking off from an airport in Greece where the plane was able to return for an emergency landing. King Charles has visited with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Prince Harry and Megan returned to the UK with their children this week. It's the first time they came back to England as a family since Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee. It's also the first time the King has seen his grandchildren in person in more than four years. Family relations have been strained since Prince Harry and Megan stepped away from Royal Duties in 2020. But Prince Harry

has said he'd like to reconcile with his father who is being treated for cancer. In next 1917, a Canadian soldier died on a French battlefield. His identity lost for generations. This week, Private Albert Detmold was finally buried under his own name. And as researchers worked to track down his family, they also uncovered a mystery about who he was. Breyer Stewart reports. Soldiers from the North Saskatchewan Regiment carry a casket draped in a Canadian flag

in a cemetery in northern France. It's part of the internment for private Albert Henry Detmold who was killed more than a century ago. Watching on is his great niece, Leanna Walters. Representing the family has just been such an honor and seeing what everybody has put in effort to identify the remains has been phenomenal.

Walters is from central Alberta, and up until a few months ago, she had never heard about her great-uncle Detmolt. until researchers from Canada's casualty identification program reached out to her family. And to think that they've connected the dots, like they said, through DNA, anthropology. It's almost like a movie that you would see the plot unfold. Detmold was born in Germany and grew up in the UK. He immigrated to Manitoba when he was 18, where he farmed until war broke out in Europe.

He served with the 107th Battalion and was killed. killed on August 15th, 1917, the first day of the Battle of Hill 70. Depp mold's remains were never found until 2020 during construction on a new hospital. You have what we call a Canadian button. That's extremely helpful. Inside a lab in Bahrain, France, Lorelei, Marjali, L'Anjali, Londairey, show CBC some of the artifacts that were found with Deppmold.

She's an anthropologist with the Commonwealth Graves Commission. And his body, he was lying on his back. He had his hands joined. So we knew he was buried at the time. But he was probably forgotten. Deadmold's identity was eventually confirmed through DNA tests. Another part of his history remains unclear. Detmold was born into a prominent Jewish family,

but when he enlisted, he wrote down that he was Presbyterian. Because of that, there were two chaplains presiding over the service, including a rabbi, Major Notet, Glowauer. He believes Detmold was very likely trying to obscure his faith to avoid any discrimination. It's something especially that it's been documented both in the First World War, more so in the Second World War, to be able to identify as Protestant at their attestation. I had a fear for whether it's being captured, you know, to have an ID-disc, that you are Jewish. Deadmold's headstone now stands alongside

more than 3,000 others at the cemetery. Many of them belong to soldiers who have never been identified, but in the neatly lined rows, now stands one morning. Breyer-Stewart, CBC News, Los Angoel, France. A flowing creek, a small bridge,

on a country road. Trucker Brian Hart was driving a familiar route near Lytton in BC's interior, when he came across something not familiar, a horse in distress, lying on its side, its head stuck in the gap between the wooden railing and the concrete surface hanging over the edge.

Hart described the encounter to CBC's Radio West. I walked up to it and I was, oh my God, it's dead. So I looked over the edge and the thing looked up at me and just tongue hanging out and just exhausted, right? Yeah. And it just gave me that look of get me that. Heard knew he had to jump into action for a few reasons. Why wouldn't you stop to help?

Besides, I couldn't get across the bridge with him on the bridge. Right. So Hart decided to use a crane on his truck to try to tear the plank off the bridge that was trapping the horse. I nose my truck down to the edge of the bridge. And I was just setting up the crane. And as soon as I hit the RPM, that horse went absolutely insane. And I go, no, no, no, no. So about three minutes later of that, he finally calmed down, pulled his head out, finally caught his breath and pulled his head up and said thank you.

Just walked away. Hart says he's pretty sure it was a wild horse, since there aren't any ranches in the area. He believes it was galloping down the hill and lost its footing on the concrete. But don't bother asking how he thinks the horse ended up sideways its head under the railing. I don't know. I wasn't there. I didn't ask him. Maybe he was just horsing around.

This has been your world tonight for Friday, July 10th. I'm Stephanie Skandaris. Thank you for being with us. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca.