Episode Transcript
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0:00
Okay, don't skip ahead. I'm going to talk to
0:02
you about climate change, and I
0:04
know it can get depressing or infuriating, but
0:06
our show takes a different approach. It's
0:10
Laura Lynch, and I'm the host of What
0:12
on Earth, and we're all about solutions and
0:14
hope. And I promise, no
0:16
matter how overwhelming climate change might feel,
0:18
we're with you on the journey to
0:21
fix this mess. So listen now, wherever
0:23
you get your podcasts. This
0:30
is a CBC Podcast. The
0:39
bill is passed without objection. A motion to reconsider is
0:41
laid on the table. Next stop,
0:43
the Senate. The US House
0:45
of Representatives approves billions in
0:47
foreign aid for Ukraine, ending
0:50
a months-long political deadlock. Welcome
0:52
to your world tonight. I'm
0:54
Edo Musa. Also on
0:56
the podcast, a major soccer tournament
0:58
promises to give Germany a major
1:00
tourism boost. But more people means
1:03
more problems. We'll tell you how
1:05
that country is beefing up security.
1:08
And later, an ancient game is
1:10
attracting a young fan base. I'm
1:13
waiting for pregnant Nanda, for
1:15
Rosa, Alexandra and Tan. International
1:19
chess superstars are going head to
1:21
head in Toronto. Kief
1:30
finally has the answer it's waited
1:33
months for, one that
1:35
Ukraine's president says will save tens
1:37
of thousands of lives. After
1:39
fraught negotiations and delays, the
1:42
US House of Representatives today
1:44
approved 61 billion dollars
1:46
of military aid. It
1:48
is all but guaranteed to pass the
1:51
Senate and make its way to the
1:53
president's desk. Sasha Petrasik reports. On
1:55
this vote, the A's are 311 and the nays are 112. The
1:57
bill is passed. With
2:02
cheers and lots of
2:04
Ukrainian flag waving, Democrat
2:06
and Republican lawmakers overwhelmingly
2:08
supported 61 billion
2:11
dollars U.S. in aid
2:13
to Kiev, the most contentious part
2:15
of a complicated package of bills
2:18
that sparked much drama and took
2:20
months to pass the House of
2:22
Representatives. If we turn our backs
2:24
right now, the consequences could be devastating. Pushed
2:27
through by embattled Republican Speaker Mike
2:29
Johnson, who was still arguing with
2:32
some in his own party after
2:34
the vote about what's at stake.
2:36
It's a dangerous time. Three
2:39
of our primary adversaries, Russia and
2:41
Iran and China, are working together
2:44
and they're being aggressors around the
2:46
globe. The bills also include eight
2:48
billion dollars for Taiwan and 26
2:50
billion for Israel, whose support rose
2:53
here this week after
2:55
it was targeted by Iran.
2:57
For Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,
2:59
this is a lifeline which
3:01
he immediately acknowledged with Thank
3:03
You, America. Thank you, America.
3:08
I thank all American hearts who, like
3:11
us, feel that Russian evil must
3:13
not win, he says. In
3:17
recent weeks, the prospects of
3:19
a Russian military victory seemed
3:21
more likely, as Ukraine ran
3:23
low on ammunition and struggled
3:25
to repel Russian drones and
3:27
missiles. Zelensky pleading with
3:29
Washington for the kind of
3:32
defensive weapons Israel has. We
3:34
are telling this directly
3:36
to defend. We need
3:38
seven more patrols or
3:40
similar air defense systems,
3:43
and it's a minimum number. But
3:46
U.S. lawmakers dragged out debate in
3:48
a house narrowly controlled by Republicans.
3:51
Bogged down by a split among
3:53
them. Supporters of Donald
3:55
Trump, like Marjorie Taylor Greene,
3:57
who calls today's vote a...
4:00
sell out. We had members of
4:02
Congress in there waving the Ukrainian flag
4:04
on the United States House of Representatives
4:07
floor. While we're
4:09
doing nothing to secure our border, I think
4:11
every American in the country should be
4:13
serious. She's part
4:15
of a Republican faction trying to
4:18
oust Johnson, who succeeded in rallying
4:20
conservative hawks like Colorado's Doug Lamborn
4:22
for the vote to pass. Our
4:25
standing in the world is at stake.
4:27
The bills now go to the Senate,
4:29
where majority Democrats are likely to pass
4:32
them quickly. The White House says
4:34
it's ready to ship Ukraine's
4:36
military hardware right away. Sasha
4:39
Petrasik, CBC News, Washington.
4:42
As Sasha mentioned, the U.S. House is pledging
4:44
$26 billion for Israel, about one-third of which
4:49
is for people in need of
4:51
humanitarian aid, including in Gaza. Officials
4:55
from the territory's health ministry says
4:57
an Israeli airstrike on Friday killed
4:59
at least nine people. The
5:01
conflict has led to a dramatic
5:03
escalation of tensions in the Middle
5:06
East, with Israel and Iran launching
5:08
tit-for-tat strikes against one another. Sarah
5:11
McMillan has more. Bodies
5:15
covered in white sheets are transported
5:17
on stretchers outside a hospital in
5:19
Rafa. Local officials say
5:22
most of the victims in this latest
5:24
airstrike are children. A
5:28
man surveys rubble as people collect
5:30
belongings from destroyed buildings. We are
5:32
civilians, he says. How can they
5:34
bomb us like this? This
5:36
latest attack comes in a week where
5:39
many in the region have been watching
5:41
Israel and Iran and the mounting tensions
5:43
between those countries, with a series of
5:45
airstrikes threatening to engulf the Middle East
5:48
in a wider regional war. Yesterday,
5:51
Iran played down an apparent
5:53
Israeli airstrike near a major
5:55
airbase and nuclear site, indicating
5:57
they were pulling back from what could have been a an
6:00
all-out conflict. Meanwhile in Iraq,
6:02
authorities are investigating an explosion
6:05
there. Things
6:08
don't ever stay quiet. Sajin
6:10
Gohal is the International Security Director
6:12
at the Asia Pacific Foundation. He
6:14
says there seems to be a
6:17
moment of calm between Israel and
6:19
Iran, but says history shows that
6:21
likely won't last. Each side
6:23
seems to want to stoke
6:25
up tensions, be seen to
6:27
not lose face not
6:30
lose their own ability to
6:33
operate militarily and also to have
6:35
a deterrence. But with
6:37
the countries appearing to pull back
6:40
for now, attention is again turning
6:42
to Rafa. The city is the
6:44
last refuge for displaced Palestinians in
6:47
Gaza. With more than half of
6:49
the enclave's population of about 2.3
6:51
million now sheltering there. Earlier
6:54
this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
6:56
Netanyahu said a date was set
6:58
for a ground operation in Rafa.
7:01
There's a sort of been an eerie silence on that.
7:03
We have to watch this space to see whether they
7:05
go through with that or not. The
7:08
US and other allies have
7:10
urged restraint, saying that a
7:12
wide-scale Israeli military operation in
7:14
Rafa could make an already
7:17
dire humanitarian crisis much worse.
7:20
Sarah McMillan, CBC News, Toronto.
7:23
A prominent British-Palestinian doctor has
7:25
been denied entry into Germany.
7:28
He was set to speak at
7:30
a pro-Palestinian conference, which was shut
7:33
down by police. It's the
7:35
latest example of how Germany is struggling
7:37
to balance the right to free speech
7:39
with its historic support for Israel. Rebecca
7:42
Collard in Berlin has more. I
7:45
was asked what I was doing in Germany.
7:47
I told them that I'm here attending a
7:49
congress. Dr. Rassan Abusita recounts his
7:52
arrival in Berlin this month. The
7:55
British-Palestinian doctor was meant to be
7:57
the keynote speaker at the Palestinian
7:59
Congress. three-day conference in
8:01
the German capital. The surgeon
8:03
had spent more than 40 days
8:05
in Gaza, helping the injured and
8:07
speaking almost daily to international media.
8:09
But as a witness to
8:12
the crimes happening in Gaza,
8:14
I've been asked by the Congress
8:17
organizers to give my evidence to
8:20
what I had seen at Shifa and at Ali
8:22
hospitals. A German government spokesperson told CBC
8:24
News they could not comment on
8:26
why Abu Sita was denied entry
8:29
to the country, citing data protection
8:31
reasons. The conference organizers and
8:33
activists say it's a sign of
8:35
growing repression here of any criticism
8:37
of the war in Gaza or
8:39
German policy toward Israel. As
8:43
Abu Sita was being held in the Berlin airport,
8:45
German police shut down the conference he was meant
8:47
to attend. Organizers say when they
8:49
arrived at the venue, they were met by hundreds
8:52
of German police officers. News
8:56
posted online show police carrying a
8:58
well-known Jewish-Israeli activist in a watermelon
9:00
kippah out of the conference. According
9:02
to a government spokesperson, the
9:05
conference was shut down because
9:12
of Islamist propaganda and hatred
9:14
towards Jews. But Matt Devliger,
9:17
another Jewish activist attained by
9:19
police at the conference, disagrees.
9:22
Any German power
9:25
is going to call anything. They don't
9:27
like anti-Semitic. They've been calling Jews anti-Semitic.
9:29
Jews have been disproportionately canceled in this
9:31
country over the last month. And
9:34
they've used the term anti-Semitism against everything that
9:36
they don't like. Dr. Rosana Boussita
9:38
says at the end of his interrogation in
9:41
Berlin, he was told not only was he
9:43
banned from entering Germany until the end of
9:45
April. That they
9:47
threatened that even if I
9:50
tried to speak through
9:52
Zoom in Germany during that
9:54
period Or send
9:57
a recorded video to Germany from somewhere
9:59
else. That I would be
10:01
breaching the German law with the
10:03
risk of a fine or a
10:05
years in prison. And he is
10:07
not alone. Former Greek Finance Minister Yannis
10:09
out of focus was also supposed to
10:12
speak at the event, was informed he
10:14
was banned for making any political speeches
10:16
in Germany. Of the Federal
10:18
Republic of Germany burstyn and
10:21
prevented jews by the stadiums
10:23
and the rest of us
10:25
who wanted to have a
10:27
congress during which Skus peace,
10:30
reconciliation for Existence, universal Human
10:32
Rights and. Let Abu sitter their
10:34
focus was told he's not even
10:36
allowed to speak by video call
10:38
to Germany or send pre recorded
10:41
speeches from outside the country. With.
10:43
As a collared for Cbc News. Berlin.
10:50
Many young Canadians say home
10:52
ownership is simply unattainable, and
10:54
some experts agree. We
10:56
have allowed the dream that a good home to be
10:59
in reach for what hard work than or and will
11:01
allow their dreams and really with away. Coming
11:03
up, we'll explore the Federal government's
11:06
budget promise to help move again
11:08
Canadians eight. Is. Rentals and into.
11:10
The had diluted. Millions.
11:20
Of soccer fans will be flocking
11:22
to Germany in June. For the
11:25
twenty twenty four you waste. A
11:27
European Football Championship one of the
11:29
sport's biggest of than to the
11:32
Euros will pit the Continent's best
11:34
teams against one another. Nearly three
11:36
million people are expected to attend,
11:39
with millions more visiting Justice soak
11:41
up the atmosphere, but as Lauren
11:43
Sprawl in London reports, the huge
11:46
numbers are also bringing increasing security
11:48
and safety concerns. Insubordinate
11:53
insulin and intoxicated
11:55
thousands. Of England soccer fans
11:57
knocking other boundaries and hurdling past.
12:00
security guards in neon yellow vests. These
12:03
were the scenes at Wembley Stadium in London
12:05
just before the final match of Euro 2020.
12:08
Scenes the organizers of this year's Euros
12:11
are keen to avoid. Germany's
12:14
Interior Minister told members of the press
12:16
last month that the host nation would
12:18
work tirelessly to ensure Euro 2024 would
12:21
be a peaceful, memorable event. Which
12:24
might be easier said than done. Ultimately
12:26
what you're dealing with is largely
12:29
a bunch of drunken men transporting
12:31
themselves around a country. The Euros
12:33
are expected to welcome as many as 12 million people
12:36
just to soak up the atmosphere. Analyst
12:39
Martin Lodge says there is an inevitable
12:41
risk of violence when that many football
12:43
fans are in attendance. The
12:46
world cup final of 2006. The
12:48
last event of this magnitude Germany hosted was the
12:50
2006 World Cup which
12:53
Lodge says left little to improve upon.
12:55
In many ways this was such a successful event.
12:58
The problem is it went too well. In
13:01
that sense there was very little crowd
13:03
violence. Everyone was happy so it seems
13:05
like a very different world from
13:08
the present. The
13:10
pandemic, economic instability and the rise
13:12
of populist, sometimes extreme
13:14
politics in Europe, continues to divide
13:17
society according to analysts. Some
13:19
also blame these trends and an upset in
13:22
soccer-related violence. Data
13:26
released from the UK's home office last
13:28
year showed the number of arrests at
13:30
football matches in England and Wales was
13:32
the highest it's been in nine years.
13:34
But the behaviour of fans at the Euros
13:37
is not the only thing keeping organizers on
13:39
high alert. Major
13:43
sporting events have long been a
13:45
common target for terror attacks. A bomb
13:47
planted by the IRA during the 1996
13:50
Euros destroyed a shopping centre in Manchester,
13:52
although luckily no one was killed. In
14:00
2015, a suicide bomber was stopped
14:02
as he tried to enter the Stade de
14:04
France during an exhibition match between France and
14:06
Germany. But not before the
14:08
bomb detonated, killing one passerby. Of
14:11
course, the terrorist threat has changed. David Hawley
14:13
worked as a security advisor for the BBC during
14:15
the 2006 World Cup. Terrorist
14:18
groups are now operating in Europe. They
14:20
have sleeper cells. They obviously hit Moscow
14:22
recently and have hit all over Europe
14:25
in the last few years. So it
14:27
is a much higher, more
14:29
visible threat this time around. He says the
14:31
main challenge with preparing for these kinds
14:33
of mega events is how spread out
14:35
everyone is. There's going to be so
14:37
many targets. It's not just the Stade
14:39
de France. There are going to be
14:42
thousands of fans in fan zones, market
14:44
squares, wherever there's an open cafe or
14:46
pub. Germany has announced temporary border
14:48
controls for the duration of the tournament.
14:51
The interior minister says this is
14:53
to prevent possible perpetrators of violence
14:55
from entering the country. Lauren
14:59
Sproul, CBC News, London. A
15:03
New Brunswick man who spent decades
15:05
trying to clear his name after
15:07
a wrongful conviction has died. Last
15:10
month we brought you the story of Walter
15:12
Gillespie. He and his friend Robert
15:14
Mailman were convicted in the 1983 murder of a man
15:16
in St. John. Gillespie
15:20
spent 21 years in prison. The
15:23
two men got a new trial last
15:25
December and in early January they were
15:28
acquitted of all charges. Gillespie
15:30
died Friday at his home in St. John. He
15:33
was 80 years old. The
15:35
federal government's budget is promising
15:37
fairness for every generation and
15:39
two in particular are being
15:41
targeted. The Liberals laid out
15:43
a plan to help boost housing supply
15:46
and make home ownership a reality for
15:48
young Canadians. Evan Dyer looks
15:50
into that for us tonight. The
15:52
economy doesn't seem fair to young adults. This
15:55
week's budget rolled out with a new focus,
15:57
no longer the middle class and those working
15:59
to join it, but millennials and
16:01
Gen Z. That demographic,
16:04
in all honesty, we need
16:07
to beg their forgiveness. Paul Kershaw is a
16:09
professor at the University of British Columbia's School
16:11
of Population and Public Health and founder of
16:13
the group Generation Squeeze. We have allowed the
16:16
dream that a good home should be in
16:18
reach for what hard work can earn. We've
16:20
allowed that dream to really slip away. The
16:22
problems have been accumulating for decades, says Kershaw.
16:25
Under Prime Minister Harper, average home prices went
16:27
up 60%, according to the Canadian Real Estate
16:29
Association. Under Prime Minister Trudeau, they've gone
16:31
up another 54%. Kershaw says
16:33
a whole generation has benefited even as the
16:36
young have lost ground. I live in Metro
16:38
Vancouver, and I've gained about a million and
16:40
a half wealth in the last 20 years
16:42
while I've been watching TV, cleaning
16:45
in the kitchen and sleeping. And
16:47
that's come at the expense of a younger
16:49
person being able to be just as smart
16:51
as me, just as hardworking as me, but
16:53
now can't live where I am. But Kershaw
16:55
says housing is only one of the ways
16:57
in which the baby boom generation picked the
16:59
best fruits of the economy and left behind
17:01
mostly scraps or even a clean-up bill for
17:03
those who followed after. He calls it overextraction.
17:06
And it can also be seen in the
17:08
legacy of environmental damage and climate change, which
17:10
surveys show have left younger Canadians pessimistic for
17:12
the future. It can also
17:14
be seen in fiscal overextraction, the way
17:16
in which the boomers use their numbers and
17:18
voting power to prioritize their own needs. And typically,
17:20
governments come in, and one of the rules of
17:23
government is to try and smooth
17:25
over differences that generations faced
17:27
simply because of when they were born.
17:29
Robin Bodway is an economist at Queen's
17:32
University in Kingston. He says during two
17:34
world wars and a depression, governments used
17:36
borrowing to spread heavy burdens over time.
17:39
Governments are also building up debt for
17:41
reasons that have nothing to do
17:43
with spreading burdens across generations, but have more
17:45
to do with providing current
17:48
services to existing generations. The
17:50
budget goes some way to help the young,
17:53
the economists say, but old-age security spending has
17:55
its own momentum and will continue to grow
17:57
much faster than other programs. their
18:00
source in failures of planning decades ago.
18:02
Kershaw says that by 2028, for
18:05
every new federal dollar spent
18:07
on the environment, housing, defense,
18:09
childcare and healthcare for people
18:11
under 45 combined, nearly three
18:13
new dollars will go to
18:15
old age security, healthcare for
18:18
over 65 and debt servicing.
18:21
Nothing any government can do will change the demographic
18:23
fact that there are more old people than ever
18:25
before. That reality is here
18:27
to stay, say economists, and government will
18:29
need to shift their priorities or face
18:31
more disillusionment from the young. Evan
18:34
Dyer, CBC News, Ottawa. A
18:51
centuries-old strategy game is growing
18:53
in popularity among young people.
18:55
The prestigious candidates chess tournament
18:58
is happening in Toronto. It's
19:00
the first time the tournament has been
19:03
held in North America. Hayden Waters spoke
19:05
to some young fans and brings us
19:07
this report. A
19:10
group of kids are swarming in front
19:13
of a concert hall in damn-tam Toronto.
19:15
Eduardo is campus and his sister April
19:17
flew from Calgary to be here. Both
19:19
are eager to get autographs, but it's not
19:21
rock stars they are waiting for. I'm
19:24
waiting for Pranamanda, Feruza,
19:26
Alexandra and Stan. Eduardo
19:29
is ryming off a list of the
19:31
best chess players in the world. They've
19:33
been in Toronto for the past few weeks
19:36
competing in the candidates tournament. If you follow
19:38
chess, you know it's a huge deal. Players
19:40
and media are here from around the world.
19:43
Aria Antari is a chess grandmaster
19:45
visiting from Norway. This is like
19:47
the most prestigious tournament in the
19:49
chess world. The winner here plays
19:51
the world championship match. It's really
19:53
prestigious. In
20:00
chess with, Jan Nopomnichy has won
20:02
the last two candidates tournaments. He's
20:04
here again, eyeing a third victory.
20:06
But many are excited by the
20:08
prospect of a new, younger winner.
20:11
Like 17-year-old phenom Gekash Deep. Anna
20:16
Bosesoevy is helping win the event. She's
20:18
also a grandmaster, who moved from Russia to
20:20
Toronto. I think this change
20:23
of generations, these new young players
20:25
coming in, they're helping to
20:27
keep this tournament more
20:30
lively, let's say, with more interesting
20:32
games. And we can see
20:34
every day we have a lot of decisive results. So
20:36
it's not just draws, draws, draws, and it's an amazing
20:38
chess. Her
20:45
de Silva worked with the Annex Chess Club in
20:47
Toronto. Over the past few years,
20:49
she has seen the game take off.
20:51
She credits the boom in internet chess during
20:54
the pandemic, and of course the Netflix
20:56
show, The Queen's Gambit. It's all helped
20:58
introduce a new generation. As
21:02
the games drag into their fourth hour,
21:04
Eduardo Iscampo continues to patiently wait out
21:07
front. He dreams of competing one
21:09
day too. I hope that I
21:11
can have the same
21:13
level that they need. I
21:16
love chess and I want to be
21:19
like them. In
21:21
waters, CBC News, Toronto. Under
21:24
the bright lights of New York Times
21:27
Square, a Nigerian chess master has broken
21:29
the record for the longest chess marathon.
21:39
It happened at about 12.40 a.m.
21:42
eastern this morning. Tunde Onokoya
21:44
played chess nonstop for 60
21:46
hours to break the Guinness World Record.
21:49
The 29-year-old is hoping to
21:51
raise US$1 million for children's
21:54
education across Africa. The
21:56
Guinness World Record organization has yet to publicly
21:58
comment about the chess battle. on Okoye's
22:00
attempt among the dozens who
22:03
cheered him on at the scene with
22:05
Nigerian music star DeVito. We'll
22:07
leave you with a song unavailable off his
22:09
2023 album, Timeless. This
22:19
has been your World Tonight for April 20, 2024. I'm Ethel
22:21
Mooza. Good night. I'm
22:30
Ethel Mooza. I'm Ethel Mooza. Good
22:32
night.
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