Your World Tonight - Tariff deadline, Meta sued, Caitlin Clark, and more

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Down-to-the-wire: Trade talks between Ottawa and Washington intensify as the deadline for U.S.-imposed tariffs is just hours away. And: A multi-billion-dollar lawsuit is accusing Meta of trying to get children addicted to its social media platforms. The tech giant is pushing back, saying it was always honest, and had safeguards to protect minors. The lawyer for four U.S. states says Meta’s strategy was clear: “Hook the users.” Also: The fame of Caitlin Clark has expanded the reach of the WNBA. She draws massive crowds. But that intense spotlight has pushed her into a culture war that Clark never asked for. Plus: How businesses are navigating the new-normal of U.S. tariffs, new route to connect Nunavut and N.W.T., women’s baseball in full swing, and more. 

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is a CBC podcast. If you're an auto manufacturer that invests billions of dollars into an assembly plan, you need certainty on what the rules of the game are. Rules of the game that could become more clear any time before the stroke of midnight eastern. That could mean a deal between Canada and the United States and a reprieve from some or all of the threatened tariffs, or no deal, with tariffs and counter-tariffs resulting in economic damage likely to follow. This is Your World Tonight.

I'm Helen Mann. It is Tuesday, August 18th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast. It wasn't a mystery. It was a design flaw. A system built to maximize engagement, even when that engagement was cruelty, humiliation, and harm.

Unfriending meta. More than half of American states sue the company behind Facebook and Instagram, alleging it misled the public and intentionally hooked children to its products, what the outcome could mean for the company and the billions who use its apps. Donald Trump's latest tariff deadline is just hours away. Canadian negotiators are still trying to fend off these tariffs and ease others that are

already in place. If a last-minute deal is not brokered, Canada faces new 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods. As Tom Perry reports, the federal government's own advisors say if a deal can't be reached and the US president makes good on his threat, Canada must retaliate. We cannot just sit by and have the U.S. wallop us over the head with tariff after tariff after tariff and just take it, give concessions and not fight back. To Lana Payne, the time for talk is running out. Payne is head of uniform, Canada's largest private sector union and is a member of the federal government's advisory committee on Canada-U.S. trade.

She says Donald Trump's existing tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, autos and lumber are already costing Canadian workers. If the U.S. President tries to do even more damage to this country's economy, she says, Ottawa needs to respond with more than just words. And at some point, Canada is going to have to say, if we can't get a deal, we have to draw a line in the sand here, and be willing to push back and push back as hard as we possibly can. Trump has threatened 50% tariffs on 20 billion U.S. dollars worth of Canadian exports as of midnight tonight, unless Canada makes concessions. The U.S. wants Canadian provinces to lift their bans on American alcohol, for Canada to allow U.S. dairy producers greater access to the Canadian market, and for Canada to drop its retaliatory tariffs on American autos. You're a loud, boisterous person, you're fake news. Be quiet. Be quiet. Trump was not asked about Canada-U.S. trade during and at times ugly news conference in the Oval Office this week. But the U.S. outlet Politico reports today, a potential deal between Canada and the U.S. is on the president's desk and that Trump is now weighing whether to grant Canada a reprieve.

In Ottawa, the prime minister's office says Mark Carney spoke to Trump today about what the PMO calls ongoing negotiations. David Cohen is a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, he says the two sides should keep talking, and that Trump's new tariffs should be put in perspective, representing just 5% of Canadian exports to the U.S. It would be, I think, not wise to blow up the world over the additional tariffs on that particular small slice of Canadian exports to the United States. But if the world of Canada-U.S. trade does blow up, it will be, Donald Trump who lit the fuse, with workers, businesses, and consumers on both sides of the border left to assess the damage. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. Whether or not a deal comes through the effects

of existing tariffs on key Canadian sectors is already being felt. Businesses have been forced to make dramatic changes to try and stay afloat and they're bracing for more. As Sarah Levitt reports, the impact of this tariff turmoil on key Canadian industries could reverberate for generations. It's been a wild ride. At his steel factory in Toronto, Rahim Malou says he's been watching ongoing Canada-U.S. trade talks with trepidation. Small and medium business businesses don't really have the luxury of being able to make

decisions based on political deadlines. Malou owns Conquest Steel and has lost more than 20% of business due to the tariffs already in place in that sector. Across the industry, exports to the U.S. have dropped more than 30%. So Malou worries for other sectors set to get hit with new tariffs. The estimated total tariff bill facing manufacturers is in excess of US $35 billion.

Brian Kingston is the president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association. Another industry hit hard in this trade war. The challenge is really about what's next. If you're an auto manufacturer that invests billions of dollars into an assembly plant, you need certainty on what the rules of the game are. In some cases, though, tariffs haven't gone the way Trump has wanted.

Take Canada's aluminum sector, hit with tariffs in 2018 and again in the president's second term. Jean-Simonel is the president and CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada. These tariffs have not impacted our primary production industry as they have on other sectors. The goal, as always, Trump has said, is to be able to be. build-up industry in the U.S., but 60% of aluminum used in the country is imported primarily from Canada. That in the Iran War, capping metal shipments from smelters in the Gulf has hurt aluminum prices in the U.S. while the Canadian sector has been able to pivot to Europe. We redirect the equivalent of 25% of the metal that we were shipping to the U.S.

Still, tariffs in place or not, the impact of this trade war will be long felt, says Lana pain. She's the national president of Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union. Canada is working people who are on the front lines of those attacks, losing their jobs and being very worried about their future. That future will likely include a renegotiated Canada-U.S. Mexico agreement, or Kuzma. Ian Lee is a Carlton University professor at the Sprott School of Business. This is existential for our country. This is our very future of our children, our grandchildren, because our economy is so dependent on the United States. A dependence, he says, that will remain.

Sarah Levitt, CBC News, Montreal. There are a lot of moving parts to this developing story, and there's an awful lot at stake. To understand more on what exactly these tariffs could all look like, let's bring in the CBC's Peter Armstrong. Peter, if this new trench of tariffs does go ahead, what will that mean for the Canadian economy? It's going to be significant.

You know, we keep saying these terrorists will only, apply to, what, 5% of exports to the United States? And from a very macro perspective, they hit small, right? They say it's like a 0.5% hit to Canadian GDP, but much like the existing tariffs that Sarah was talking about where they hit, they will hit hard. Canada's economy turned out to be more resilient than many expected when those first tariffs were imposed. Can that resilience be maintained? Maybe. The problem is the Canadian economy was weak before the trade war. The first tariffs made it weaker. And you're right, the economy did perform better than expected, but you shave another half a percent off Canada's GDP, and you're pretty much right back

to zero. And that's hard to maintain for a month or maybe a quarter. We're now into 18 months of this already with potentially very rough days extending that ahead. If the Americans push ahead with tariffs, the Canadian government has threatened its own countermeasures. What impact might that have on the Canadian economy? That, I think, is one of the crucial things that Canadians really need to think about going into this, because countermeasures, especially in the form of tariffs, are like a double-edged sword. We swipe back and it feels good. But remember, a tariff is just a tax.

The U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods, those are going to be paid by American businesses and American households. Whatever tariffs we have in Canada imposed on the Americans will be paid by Canadian businesses and Canadian households. It adds cost and it adds uncertainty at a time when, frankly, we can ill afford it. Yeah. Speaking of uncertainty, we are waiting minute to minute for decision out of Washington. What are the most likely scenarios?

Yeah, to be completely fair and transparent, I'm literally checking my phone in between answers here. You and me both. Because Kate McKenna and Katie Simpson and Ashley Burke and our whole team in Ottawa and in Washington are following this very closely. And there are several chats where we're just getting updates after updates. But look, when we zoom out, there really are just three main options. There is some kind of a deal and everything's good. There's no deal and tariffs are imposed, probably first thing tomorrow morning.

Then there's some kind of a pause or some kind of a delay. And we've seen that in the past. That's the scenario where Trump says, I've seen enough progress. I'll hold off on imposing these right now. If they are imposed, would they be automatically done? Yeah. So they'd have to give the tariff code to the customs officers, but they're ready. That's part of the order that set this all in motion. Peter, thank you.

You bet. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong in Toronto. Coming right up. Meta in court. The legal fight between the owner of Facebook and Instagram and more than two dozen U.S. states. Plus the proposed all-season road that could mean big changes for Canada's north.

And later, we'll have this story. Women are stepping up to the plate and rounding the bases, and for the first time in 70 years, they're getting paid to do so. The professional women's pro baseball league is in full swing in Springfield, Illinois. It's pretty cool that we are able to have professional women's baseball and have that be our only responsibility for these two months. I'm Sabrina Fabian in Halifax. Later on Your World Tonight, we'll hear how 11 Canadian women are inspiring a new generation of young baseball players.

It's a legal fight over youth safety and could change the way Facebook and Instagram operate. 29 U.S. states accuse Meta, the company behind the social media giants, of deliberately designing them to keep children hooked and misleading the public about the risks. Four of those states presented their case today inside a California court. Colin Butler reports. In front of a federal courthouse in Oakland, families unfurled a long banner, a roll call of grief. Names and ages of dozens of children, they allege, were harmed by social media. My name is Erin Popolo, and I lost my daughter, Emily Marillo.

Beside a photograph of her daughter Emily, known as Emmy, Popolo described a daughter who loved her family, her pets and life at the lake. She was in high school when she died by suicide. After relentless cyberbullying, her mother alleges met as design helped amplify. It wasn't a mystery. It was a design flaw. A system built to maximize engagement, even when that engagement was cruelty, humiliation and harm. Inside the courthouse, lawyers for four out of 29 states suing the company are trying to prove

META deliberately built Facebook and Instagram to keep children and teens coming back, concealing what it knew about the risks and collecting data on children under 13 without their consent. Meta denies the allegations. The company says it spent years developing safeguards for young users and calculates if it loses could face penalties of $1.4 trillion U.S. dollars. Meta doesn't have a trillion dollars lying around. James Grimmelman is a law professor at Cornell University in New York. He compares this case to the tobacco settlements of the 1990s.

They had some changes in how they did business, and they paid an immense amount of money, but not enough to bankrupt them. Meta has already lost two youth safety trials this year, one in Los Angeles, the other in New Mexico. The company is also named in a lawsuit by a group of Ontario school boards. Grimmelman says mounting losses could push meta to the bargaining table, accepting binding federal rules in exchange for protection against an expanding wave of lawsuits. But some lawmakers aren't waiting. California assembly member Josh Lowenthal says he's working on two laws to rein social media in. The first will limit companies from deploying addictive features against kids under 16.

Infinite scroll, auto play, recommended algorithms, notifications, the very design choices engineered to hook developing brains. The second bill would make platforms pay for the harm their designs cause. Lowenthal wants both measures copied around the U.S. Canada has introduced similar legislation through its safe social media act, but its protections remain months, maybe years away. This trial is expected to last six weeks, with met as money, reputation, and the future design of its platforms all at stake.

Colin Butler, CBC News, London, Ontario. Open AI has launched a version of Chat GPD tailored for teens with a range of new safety features, including parental controls. The new Chat GPT for Teen's mode will automatically engage when a user's estimated to be under 18 or self-identifies their age as between 13 and 17. Parents can set quiet hours. It will also limit conversations about high-risk topics such as self-harm, violence, and eating disorders, and will remind users to take a break from using the tool. A new Arctic Economic and Security Corridor is one step closer to reality. Indigenous leaders in the Northwest Territories have agreed to a proposed route for a four-season road. Kate Kyle tells us more about the potential economic impacts of the project

and the roadblocks that still remain. Friendly handshakes and smiles in Yellowknife, leaders from the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and the Klicho government, mark a milestone with the territorial government. We achieve our vision, our dream. We came together. The project is the Arctic Economic Security Corridor. The two First Nations behind the project have agreed on a route for a proposed 400-kilometer all-season road. If built, it would connect the Northwest Territories to Nunavut,

the first-ever all-season road between the two territories. The project is on the federal government's list of nation. nation-building projects. Yellow Knives-Dené chief, Ernest Betzina. How we got here matters. Too often major projects are designed first and indigenous governments are asked later. This process began differently from the start. Both nations brought their knowledge and priorities to the table. The proposed corridor mitigates impact to Caribou and their migration routes. Elders and harvesters helped identify the route. Jackson Lafferty is the Grand Chief of the Cleo Nation.

He says the road would make land rich in minerals accessible for resource development, improve northern transportation, and strengthen Canadian Arctic security. We want to create opportunities such as employment training, business prospects. This is a lasting legacy. The government of the Northwest Territory sees benefits too, with the territory's diamond mines closing. Deputy Premier Caroline Woznik says the project could help create new mines. I can tell you that having a road going through this region is going to accelerate having mines.

West Kitikmient Resources Corporation is behind the Grays Bay Road and Port Project. It would continue from the NWT border all the way to the Arctic Ocean. Brendan Bell is the chief executive officer. This project is much more compelling if it goes from the Arctic coast to the National Highway. system. Ken Coates chairs the Yukon Arctic Security Advisory Council. He says having both projects go ahead will send an important message. You start building a road network and you start building a port. You start getting larger and more prosperous indigenous communities where the people don't lead to find work but stay. You're going to solidify Canada's presence in the Arctic in a major way.

A key next step would be more financial backing from Ottawa. Kate Kyle LCBC News, Yellowknife. They were forced out more than a week ago by wildfires, and now most residents of Summerland, BC, can return to their homes. One woman died as the community of more than 12,000 fled the Bald Range wildfire. About 150 structures were damaged or destroyed. Mayor Doug Holmes says now it's time for people to be able to go back and try to restart their lives.

It's the news that we've all been waiting for for the last week, And it's, you know, we had to do it very carefully. I know there was a lot of frustration, you know, people waiting. I was feeling frustrated myself. And but we just have to do it. We had to do it properly and orderly. But this is the big day. BAC's Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, Kelly Green,

says, while the return is good news, people should stay prepared. I wish that I could tell you that the wildfire season is over, but it isn't. Conditions across much of the province remain incredibly dry, and the risk of new fire starting is very real. Just over 500 properties in Summerland are still under evacuation orders, as experts assess debris on the surrounding slopes. The drummer for Boogie rock band Zizi Top has died. Frank Beard kept the beat on the trio's biggest team.

hits, including sharp-dressed man, legs, and give me all your loving. Beard joined Zizi Top in 1969. He was with the band until earlier this month when it canceled a concert because of his health. The group had six number one singles on the Billboard charts and sold more than 50 million records. Beard died today at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. He was 77. Caitlin Clark is a huge name in basketball, arguably the WNBA's brightest

star. She's playing in Toronto tonight, her first time in Canada. But as Jamie Strasson tells us, being the face of a sports league isn't all fun in games. You've probably heard of Caitlin Clark. The sharpshooting superstar has almost single-handedly boosted the reach and profile of the WNBA, says sports journalist Savannah Hamilton. The WMBA would not be where it is today without Caitlin Clark. It just went from a slow uphill climb to then all of a sudden a speed train because everybody want to follow the narrative of Caitlin Clark. This season, much of the attention has focused on a seemingly never-ending series of soap opera-like

storylines that have thrust the league into the 24-hour news cycle, says the Guardian's Andrew Lawrence. The season has been marked by incredible leaps and bounds sort of progression of quality of play on the court that has been totally overshadowed by this. sort of political culture wars off the court and online. Clark has been front and center, not always by choice. Take this incident involving Clark and the Phoenix Mercury's Alyssa Thomas, where Thomas appears to punch Clark's neck.

I mean, Caitlin to the ground and boom. It was seized upon as another example of Clark as the victim, treated with a degree of physicality not fit for a superstar player. The other more uncomfortable conversation that followed the incident focused on race. And Clark's place, Lauren says, is a straight white player in a league made up of predominantly black players, many of them queer and out. The American conservative class has really latched on to her as sort of like a great white hope. They can pit as sort of the David in this Goliath battle with the WNBA establishment.

Yahoo's Cassandra Negali says the fierce fallout from the Clark incident and others, a signal of the league's growing impact and reach. Clearly it has some power because you have these political entities looking to utilize the WMBA for their own gains. Clark has tried to stay above the fray, wary to wade into the political storm, but it's had an impact. It's emotionally exhausting and it's draining. It makes your shoulders tense because, you know, people don't want to talk about the basketball. They just want to stir it up. Behind the scenes, all of it has taken a toll on players and coaches like the Indiana fever's Stephanie White. The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness. the stuff that's trying to hijack our league will not win.

At the same time, Negley says there is a feeling of what's next. Everyone is very on edge about what narrative is going to come out of a single play that happens on a basketball court. And at this point, it seems like it can be any play that spirals out of control. 22 has done it again. And suck attention away from what Clark and others are doing on the court. Jamie Strash in CBC News, Toronto. Beyond basketball, women's sport is having a real moment. moment with a success of professional women's hockey and soccer leagues. And now another sport is joining

those ranks, baseball. The inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League is in full swing in Springfield, Illinois. But as Sabrina Fabian explains, the sport still has room to grow here in Canada. That's down the third base line off the glove. Three weeks into the Women's Pro Baseball League's inaugural season and these ladies are swinging for the fences. From August to September, four American teams are playing 15 games each, all at a stadium in Springfield, Illinois, then playoffs. Jada Lee of St. John's is one of 11 Canadians stepping up to the plate. It's pretty cool that we are able to have professional women's baseball and have that be our only responsibility for these two months. She plays for the New York Heights. Players earn between

$3 and $500 U.S. per game plus some meals and accommodation. For me, any money is welcome. I'm in university so much. My jobs that I'm working are part-time anyway. But getting here wasn't easy. For the most part, everyone here has played with boys their whole life, and we've all dealt with the struggle of being told consistently that we shouldn't be there, that we have to fight extra hard for our positions. Keith Stein is a Canadian co-founder of the league who saw it as a business opportunity

despite early skepticism. When you're starting a professional sports league, you need money, so you need investors. And investors would say to us, do you win, play baseball. Don't they just play softball? With a sold-out home opener, swift merchandise sales, and even a broadcast deal, it exceeded his expectations. He says they're planning on growing the league while maintaining ownership. So we're a single entity ownership model,

which is also considered the optimal way to build out a league these days. Next year, teams will host games in their own cities and more teams could be added. But at the grassroots level in Canada, girls who want to play baseball often strike out, says Dana Bookman, CEO of Canadian girls baseball. I think that there's a real lack of consistency and opportunity for girls still across the country. Madeline Hanscombe joined the Halifax Mets 14 U girls team this year. She's among the lucky ones.

In some provinces and age groups, girls still play with boys. Well, I feel a lot less pressure when I'm playing with other girls, and I think it's great to, like, pay up with other girls so I can make new friends. Nova Scotia is considered a leader in girls' baseball and registration is climbing. And now they can see a future if they continue with the sport as they watch professional Canadian women take to the field. Sabrina Fabian, CBC News, Halifax. And finally.

What? Cheers and jubilation as 33-year-old Taylor Carter sinks a hole in one after driving the ball down the 135-yard-16th hole at the National Special Olympics in Medicine Hat, Alberta on Friday. My family started going bananas, and then I just really didn't know what to do or say, but I kind of freaked out. I was like, this is crazy to me.

I ran and accidentally body-slam my friend, which I wasn't really trying to do, but it was just crazy. The moment made even more special, given what it helped him achieve. The Regina man took heart, home gold in his division, finishing the competition with a two-stroke lead. His nephew Ashton was there as his caddy.

Lots of shock. Lots of just, like, did it really happen? Like, is that, like, are we going to go up there and it's going to be in the hole, like, what's going to happen next or whatever? But, no, it was, like, 90% just excitement and the rest was just shock and, like, standing there, like, that's crazy kind of thing. His mom, Charlene says the ace shot was indescribable. Each time Taylor competes, he was at Worlds in 2023. And each time he competes, he seems to manage to pull it together and bring home a goal.

So I'm very proud of him. It's actually Carter's second ever hole in one. He scored his first one when he was four with a plastic club. The athlete says he's not entirely sure when his next tournament will be. For now, he is going to practice, celebrate with his family and friends, and cherish his perfect shot. It's still surreal. I still look at it and think I didn't even do it. But every time I watch the video, it just makes me emotional. Like, I want to cry every time I see it. It's that important.

Thank you for being with us. This has been your world tonight for Tuesday, August 18th. I'm Helen Mann. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.com.