Your World Tonight - Trump/Zelenskyy meet, border security measures, Prince Andrew gives up titles, and more

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Ukraine’s president goes to the White House to ask for long-range missiles to be able to strike farther inside Russia.And: Ottawa details a $600 million plan to beef up security at the border. Most of the money will go to staffing — hiring a thousand new border agents, increasing their pay, and improving benefits.Also: Prince Andrew is giving up his royal titles, saying “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.” He is still a prince — no one can take that away from him. But he isn’t invited for Christmas.Plus: Gold prices setting records, Canada’s plan to buy F35s despite trade tensions, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned from soccer match in Birmingham, England, and more.

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This is a CBC podcast. And I think it looks beautiful in his jacket. It's beautiful. I hope people notice it's a good, it's actually very stylish. I like it. U.S. President Donald Trump may be handing out fashion compliments to Volodemir Zelensky,

but as the Ukrainian president returns to the White House, what he's really looking for, are Tomahawk missiles and more military support to finally end a long and ugly war. This is your world tonight. I'm Stephanie Skanderas. It's Friday, October 17th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. These people will do critical work at our borders, ensuring the smooth movement of people and goods, all the while making sure that illegal goods, guns and drugs are stopped. and those who are trafficking are arrested and charged.

The next frontier of security on Canada's border, the federal government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars, hiring more officers, investing in training, and insisting it's not just because Donald Trump wants them to. The meeting offered the promise of high-powered American help for Ukraine and the hope of some insight into the U.S. President's next move with Russia. But tonight, after their latest face-to-face, Volodymyr Zelensky may be leaving Washington empty-handed. Paul Hunter has our top story.

Glad to me to again, Mr. President, thank you very much for the invitation. Complementary to U.S. President Donald Trump, noting his work toward the ceasefire in the Middle East and dressed in a dark business suit, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky sat down in the West Wing cabinet room with Donald Trump as Russia's assault on Ukraine raged on back home. I'm confident that with your help, we can stop this war. So what does with your help mean the expectation on Zelensky's ask? American-made Tomahawk cruise missiles,

weaponry that could strike deep inside Russia, including even Moscow. As the fighting continues in Ukraine, Tomahawks are seen by many as a potential game changer in the war. Though Russian President Vladimir Putin has already made clear giving tomahawks to Ukraine would be seen as a major escalation. Zelensky's view? We understand what we need to push Putin to negotiation table. But Trump didn't offer up any weaponry to Zelensky, at least not publicly.

So we're going to be talking about tomahawks and would much rather have them not need Tomahawks, would much rather have the war be over, to be honest. On that, Trump said Zelensky may well be part of the coming talks in Hungary announced by Trump after a lengthy phone call yesterday between Trump and Vladimir Putin. Trump now calls it a potential double meeting, strongly suggesting diplomacy is the way forward with the focus confronting the ill feelings between Zelensky, defending Ukraine, and Putin, who attacked it. I think that President Putin wants to end the war, or I wouldn't be talking this way. I think he wants to end the war.

I think that President Zelensky wants to get it ended. Now we have to get it done. They don't like each other. They have tremendous bad blood. It really is what is holding up, I think, a settlement. I think we're going to get it done. Now all they have to do is get along a little bit. Later, outside the White House, after closed-door meetings,

Zelensky told reporters, Tomahawks were discussed, and while no commitments were made, neither did Trump close the door on them. We trust the United States. We trust a president that he wants to finish this war, and it's difficult. How was the meeting? For his part, Trump posted on truth social afterward that the meeting was interesting, cordial, but that both sides should just stop fighting and both claim victory, no more death, he wrote. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington.

The Carney government is re-upping its pledge to boost Canada's border security. Officials today fanned out across the country, heralding a plan to crack down on illegal drugs and guns. While the promise is not new, the hefty price tag attached to it is, and the pushback from critics and the opposition is growing. Olivia Stefanovic reports. Making community safer is a top priority. for Canada's new government. We promised Canadians we would act decisively and we're delivering.

Standing in front of the iconic Rainbow Bridge, connecting Niagara Falls, Ontario to Niagara Falls, New York, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandis Sangare outlined why the federal government believes Canada's biggest border investment needs to grow even bigger. This really is about ensuring Canada's safety and security and our sovereignty. This really is not a response to the U.S. But Liberal MP Wayne Long suggested the announcement is meant to appease Donald Trump. I mean, obviously the U.S. has raised concerns with respect to drug trafficking in fentanyl. And this is a part of our response to also address their concerns.

Ottawa already set aside $1.3 billion to improve border security. Now it's adding more than $600 million. The new money to be announced in the fall budget for five years, to hire 1,000, personnel with the Canada Border Services Agency and make their jobs more attractive. The government also plans to increase CBSA's recruit stipend from $125 to $525 per week and offer improved benefits. It's a good start, though. We have a lot of ports of entry that are very short-staffed.

Mark Weber is the president of the Customs and Immigration Union for CBSA employees. He says the next step is to scale up training. What we need to do now is actually make the hirings happen. If they hired another thousand, if they hired another 2,000, they'd still have an incredible backlog. Kelly Sunberg is a former CBSA officer. He says the plan won't fill the existing backlog of border agents or secure all of Canada's ports of entry. It's quite silly, really. We have an 89, 100-kilometer border.

We need more than two leased Blackhawk helicopters. You can't have one X-Rex machine or a few dog, a canine, teams here and there. Of the 1,000 new personnel that the CBSA is expected to hire over the next few years, public safety Canada says 80% will be uniformed officers. The rest will include intelligence officers, investigators, and security screeners. I'm really at a loss as to why this didn't happen literally months ago. The Conservatives public safety critic Frank Caputo says the government's plan is not good enough. And yet this government continually told us elbows up, where is that elbows-up mentality when it comes to getting people on the border?

The government already split its border security bill and two to see some changes pass more swiftly. Now it's struggling to get opposition support for resources it promised Canadians on the election campaign trail. Olivia Estefanovich, CBC News, Ottawa. Donald Trump is showing no signs of letting up his controversial strikes on what he calls a narco-terrorist terrorist threat. Today he confirmed the U.S. military carried out another attack on a vessel suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean. But for the first time, there were survivors who were being held on a U.S. Navy vessel. We attacked a submarine. That was a drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs. This is the

latest strike in international waters off the coast of Venezuela. Trump has also revealed there has been covert CIA action within the South American country. Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has reportedly offered business concessions to the United States in an effort to de-escalate the situation. Trump was asked about those discussions today. He has offered everything. He's offered everything. You're right. You know why? Because he is the one to fuck around with the United States. Six strikes, killing at least 28 people, have now been carried out against vessels in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, Trump's former national security advisor has pleaded not guilty to all 18 charges against him. John Bolton is accused of mishandling classified information. He worked under Trump during his first term, but has since become one of his most vocal critics. The investigation was opened in 2022 when Joe Biden, was president. In a statement, Bolton says he's a victim of Trump's weaponization of the Justice Department. Coming right up, dropping the Duke. A British royal linked to sex offender

Jeffrey Epstein gives up his royal title. And the UK Prime Minister blasts a decision to ban supporters of an Israeli soccer team from an upcoming game. Later, we'll have this story. I'm David Common in Fort Worth, Texas, where the first of Canada's F-35 fighter jets are being built. Canada is definitely a part of this F-35 platform. If the federal government cut short its order of jets, that would impact dozens of Canadian contractors who are helping build it. I mean, anybody I talk to and say that we're manufacturing F-35 aircraft parts in Nova Scotia or shopped to know that that's what we're doing. Canada's role on an American-assembled aircraft. Prince Andrew is giving up.

Prince Andrew is giving up his royal titles. He issued a statement saying accusations about him distract from the work of the royal family. CBC London correspondent Anna Cunningham is watching the story. So Anna, why is the prince doing this now? Well, clearly the question of what to do about Prince Andrew has rumbled on for far too long than it's coming. for the royal family, and it appears to have got to breaking point. The timing as well is

interesting. It comes just days ahead of the publication of the late Virginia Joufrey. His accuser's memoir, that could have some potentially difficult reading for the royals. But also, Prince Andrew just kept making headlines. There's been questions over his connection to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. There was that civil case filed against him by the late Virginia Dufre, accusing him of committing sexual assault and battery when she was a teenager, something he's always denied. We know that that was a case settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. And then last year, allegations emerged over his reported meetings with an alleged Chinese spy. But this does now appear to be his most significant

public humiliation, the statement saying he discussed it with a king, immediate and wider family. And they concluded that the accusations distract from the work of his majesty and the royal family. So he will no longer be known as the Duke of York, nor a knight of the order of the Garter. And how are the other members of his family affected? His daughters, for instance, are princesses? They are, Beatrice and Eugenie, and they will keep their titles as princesses. but his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, loses her title as the Duchess of York. She now simply will be known as Sarah Ferguson.

The prince, though, he does remain Prince Andrew because he's a prince by birthright. And how significant is this for the royal family? Well, look, I think this is really certainly a moment in history for the royal family. I know that there's royal historians digging away through the archives, and it's believed that the last time a dukedom was actually taken away from a senior royal was over 100 years ago. But, look, put this in the context of the royal family. At the moment, they will have wanted the problem of Prince Andrew concluded swiftly, particularly as the king next week, is due to make history himself.

He's going to the Vatican. He will pray alongside Pope Leo. And that's the first time that the monarch and a pontiff have done that in some 500 years. So we can assume the king would prefer headlines about that rather than his younger brother. OK, Anna, thank you. You're welcome. The CBC's Anna Cunningham in London. Hamas has handed over the remains of another Israeli hostage.

The ceasefire agreement for Gaza includes a pledge to return 28 bodies or provide information about where they are. So far, 10 have been returned. The delay has led Israel to threaten to restrict aid in. into Gaza. And a controversial decision about an Israeli soccer team has the attention of the highest levels of the UK government. Supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv have been banned from a game in England next month. The move is being criticized by the Prime Minister and other senior officials who are calling for it to be reviewed and possibly reversed. Susan Ormiston has more on the ban and the backlash. I launched a petition to oppose the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans

from coming to Birmingham. British MP Ayub Khan in Birmingham urged that fans of an Israeli team be banned from attending a soccer match against Aston Villa next month. After a police risk assessment, the local safety council supported a ban, saying the match poses a security risk. Part of that calculation were the violent clashes after a match last year in Amsterdam between some Maccabi fans and Palestinian supporters.

Over 60 were detained in the melee. But the decision in Birmingham drew a swift rebuke from British Prime Minister Kirstarmer. This is the wrong decision, he said, will not allow anti-Semitism on our streets. Under pressure, the local police commissioner ordered an immediate review as the decision was framed as an anti-Semitic attack,

a fallout from the Israeli Hamas war. Emily DiMari, a former hostage of Hamas and an avid Maccabi fan posted, this is like putting a big sign outside the stadium saying no Jews. And from another fan in Israel today? This time it's Maccabi Tel Aviv. Next time it's another game. Maybe Ukraine, maybe someone else immigrant. In the face of the controversy, the MP in Birmingham is defending the ban.

Nobody should tolerate anti-Semitism. But we cannot conflate anti-Semitism when we look at. what some of these fans did in Amsterdam in 2024. I think the Prime Minister should stay out of operational matters. So I think we need to trust the police. Dal Babu, former chief superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, says politics is complicating a risk decision. We need to understand that this is based not on politicians' views.

This is based on intelligence that the police assess and then make that decision. For the moment, the game will go on in November and until further noticed, Maccabi fans are restricted. We do have British fans who are Jewish and who are Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and they're being told that in their own country, it is not safe for them to come to watch a football match. Jack Angelides, the CEO of the Tel Aviv Football Club,

is waiting for a final determination as the British government tries to curtail the controversy. Susan Ormiston, CBC News, London. You're listening to Your World Tonight from CBC News. And if you want to make sure you never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. It is seen as a safe investment in uncertain times. Global uncertainty trending upwards, so is the price of gold. This week saw another record high for the precious medal.

Nisha Patel has more on gold's surge in value and how long it could last. Chains, bangles, sets and a lot of bullion as well, like gold bars. Glittering 22-carat gold is flying off the shelves at Singapore Jewelers in Mississauga, Ontario. Owner Rajan Duna says business lately has been brisk. So I've been surprised, like, as everyone would think, like, prices are going up, like, people would buy less gold. But during this time, like, we've been the busiest we've ever been. The precious metal hit a new record high this week, surging past 4,300 U.S. dollars an ounce. Prices have climbed 10% just this month and 60% since January. I'm literally holding maybe three bangles in my hand right now. It's probably worth about $20,000.

Many investors are buying physical gold like bars, coins and jewelry as a store. of wealth. Others are piling into gold mining stocks and exchange traded funds. An awful lot of what we're seeing is about fear right now. Veronica Brown covers the global metals market for the Reuters News Agency. She says investors have a lengthy list of concerns, from the trade war to the U.S. government shutdown, to warnings of a bubble in AI stocks. If you think about gold as a mirror onto the rest of the world, you could really describe it as being the sum of all fears.

whether they be geopolitical or economic. Gold has long been seen as a safe haven, an asset that will hold or increase its value during times of economic uncertainty or market turbulence. With a weaker U.S. dollar, it's also considered a way to protect against inflation. Quentin Mai is CEO of Vancouver-based gold company West Point Gold. Because of these mounting worries about debts,

until we see a rationalization of the debts, whether it's by raising taxes, cutting spending or just a currency devaluation, I think gold will continue to be a popular choice. Central banks led by China, India and Turkey are stockpiling the medal too, as they try to diversify their holdings. Gold is a finite metal.

It is, there are not a lot of gold in the world. John Ng is the president of Maison Plasement Canada, an investment firm in Toronto. He says prices could see pullbacks in the short term. Back in 2022, Gold plunged 20% when the U.S. Central Bank hiked interest rates to curb inflation. Nothing goes straight up. Trees don't grow to the sky. There's no question that there are opportunities to take profits. But I believe that gold's in a solid uptrend in a bull market and the best times are ahead.

Still, no one can say with certainty just how long this gold rush will last. Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. Along the St. Lawrence River, it was an unusually dry summer, but the area is about to get a massive rush of water. It's needed to help stranded boats stuck in shallow water or exposed lake and river beds. Alison Northcott has more on the operation to get them floating again. It's pretty tough, you know, to move the boat around.

At his marina northeast of Montreal, Yvonne Vanini says the water is far lower than usual, making it hard to get boats out for the winter. If you wanted to get out at the exit, there is not enough water, so they stuck over there. It was a dry summer in parts of Quebec, Ontario and the Great Lakes region, with drought conditions and low water levels. Boat owners on Lake St. Louis, southwest of Montreal, have been having trouble since July.

Some boats are stuck. To help, the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board, which manages water levels of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River has increased the flow of water to let more of it into Lake St. Louis. We are raising artificially the level in the St. Lawrence River so that people can take their boat out of the water. Jerome Marty, with the International Association for Great Lakes Research in Ottawa, says two dams, one in Ontario and one in Quebec,

will have 500 cubic meters more water per second flowing through them than usual. It's a temporary fix, 36 hours altogether. It is certainly not addressing the problem of low water levels that we've seen. It's just one drop here to allow people to do what they need to do before the winter. The board says the impact on commercial navigation is expected to be minimal. Marty says the shipping industry has also been affected by low water levels in recent months, with cargo ships forced to reduce their weight to avoid hitting the bottom of the St. Lawrence Seaway. We are coming live from the wheelhouse of the Coorthoizure presently on.

Buckhorn Lake. For decades, Captain Mark Ackert has taken passengers on cruises along the Ride and the Trent Severn Waterway. But this year, his company had to change plans and roots because there just wasn't enough water. The water levels got to a point that we had to suspend operations for safety concerns of the existing depth on some of the lakes. And we ended up having to bypass four of our fall trips on the Rideau Canal. At another marina, Pierre Champo points to a boat propeller damaged after it hit a rock in low water. Shampu says the boat's owner was probably in an area he'd been before, but this time hit rocks and got stuck.

He hopes the higher water levels will help other boats avoid similar problems. Alison Northcott, CBC News, Montreal. It's another twist in the long and complicated. saga of Canada's purchase of F-35 fighter jets. Trade tension is creating new questions about the contract for the U.S. aircraft, but backing out could have major consequences for Canadian companies because the F-35s aren't entirely made in America. David Komen explains. It may seem at odds, but just a few minutes drive from Lunenberg's tranquil and touristy

Harbor, a factory is helping to build the F-35, one of the world's most advanced fighter jets. I mean, anybody I talked to and say that we're manufacturing F-35 aircraft carts in Nova Scotia, or shop to know that that's what we're doing for work. Miranda Lones runs quality control for the composite panels built here, weapons, doors, and more, all stealth, so very secretive. It's a very complex program with very stringent. requirements. So it's very rewarding because it's military and it's proprietary and for nation. As an originating partner, Canadian firms have had preferential access to help build the F-35.

The jet's tails come from Winnipeg, simulator parts from Kitchener, wing parts from Delta BC, not just for the planes built for Canada's Air Force, but hundreds of others built for customers globally. Three million bucks worth of every F-35 comes from Canada. that Canada is definitely a part of this F-35 platform. Chauncey McIntosh is a vice president at Lockheed Martin. We met him in the massive Texas facility where the planes are being assembled. One of the very first of Canada's orders is underway here. Ottawa has committed to buy 16 of them,

but has the option to increase that to 88. But with such cross-border tension, some argue Canada should cut the order short. All I'm saying is, let's be truly objective. Everything has a price to it. Alan Williams once ran procurement for Canada's Department of National Defense. He says Ottawa could still look at a cheaper jet like Sweden's Grypen, which costs less both to buy and operate.

You save billions of dollars than one thing. You can use it for other things too. So there's a cost to everything. One cost of going with another plane could be the loss of contracts in Canada to supply parts for the F-35. Williams argues that would be more than made up by building parts for another plane. Well, that would be disappointing.

No, that's a government decision. Canada is also pushing Lockheed Martin to build more of the plane in Canada. But if the contract is cut short, Dave Mitchell, senior program manager of defense at Stelia in Lunenburg, says he'd be concerned. Hopefully we would retain the work

before all the other countries that are going to buy the aircraft. Stelia's parts are already on planes used by or built for an array of air forces, Canada's, the U.S., Singapore, Israel, and more. David Kahnman, CBC News, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. So we're nearing the end of the program when a host could start to get tired. But are we calling in a Your World Tonight reliever? Whoa, no, no way, let's go.

I think Max made his feelings known very clearly to John Schneider. Whoa, whoa, Skipper. Let's go. That's right. I'm channeling my inner Max Scherzer, the Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher against the Seattle Mariners last night. Along with his pitches, Jay's fans are loving Scherzer's reaction to an on-field visit from manager John Schneider.

That usually means a pitcher is done, But the veteran, Scherzer, whose nickname is Mad Max, politely told his boss, yeah, that's not happening. I thought he was going to kill me. It was great. You know, there's numbers, there's projections, there's strategy, and there's people. So I was trusting people. People online are calling the video the next heritage moment. That decision, whoever made it, paid off.

Scher struck out the next batter and the job. Jay's went on to win. Oh, it was amazing. Like, we thought we wanted to go watch the Jay's play in Rogers Center, but we're finding that it's actually more exciting to watch them in enemy territory because we're one of the few fans actually cheering for them. And we have our Canadian flag, and you can feel it in 44,000 fans in the stadium. It's awesome.

Rebecca Livingston had a front row seat to it all. The Blue Jays fan from Castlegar, BC, is part of the loud and proud contingent of Canadians making their presence felt in Seattle. Even breaking out in song as they left the game. This has been your world tonight for Friday, October 17th. I'm Stephanie Skanderas, and just like Mad Max, I'm not going anywhere here all weekend. Let's go. For now, good night.