← Your World Tonight
Your World Tonight
Trump's National Guard deployments, Alberta teachers strike, preserving culture with Elder holograms, and more
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<p>The fight between Donald Trump and Democrat-run cities is heating up. A federal judge in Oregon has blocked the president's plans to deploy federal troops in Portland. But Trump is trying to find a way around that - and is now deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago too. </p><p><br></p><p>Also: Alberta teachers been in a labour dispute with the provincial government for months. After a breakdown in talks, tens of thousands of them plan to walk off the job Monday morning. You'll hear how families are now bracing for that.</p><p><br></p><p>And: A First Nation in Yukon is trying to keep its language and traditions alive, even after the elder knowledge keepers are gone. To do that, the Na-Cho Nyӓk Dun First Nation is using technology to turn the elders into holograms as a way to pass on their stories.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus: Looking ahead to Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks in Egypt, Claudia Sheinbaum's first year in office, volunteer pallbearers, and more.</p>
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A PSA from instacart. It's Sunday, 5:00pm you had a non stop weekend. You're running on empty and so is your fridge. You're in the trenches of the Sunday scaries. You don't have it in you to go to the store, but this is your reminder. You don't have to. You can get everything you need delivered through Instacart so that you can get what you really need. More time to do whatever you want. Instacart for for one less Sunday. Scary. We're here. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Stephanie Skenderas. This is your World Tonight. We get the hostages back almost immediately. Negotiations are going on right now, will probably take a couple of days and people are very happy about it. US President Donald Trump optimistic that his ceasefire plan is going to work. Talks are set to begin in Egypt and in the meantime, Israel continues to strike Gaza. Trump is also calling two American cities a war zone, saying he'll send National Guard troops to Portland and Chicago. Also on the podcast I can't believe that there's two of me in now. It looks so real. Preserving tradition in a modern way. A Yukon First Nation is creating elder holograms so their stories live forever. On the eve of talks in Egypt to end the war in Gaza, Israeli planes and tanks have continued to pound parts of the territory. On Sunday in Washington, as you heard, is US President Donald Trump expressed optimism that the hostages held in Gaza will be released soon and once again warned Hamas to disarm, something the militant group has not yet agreed to do. Meanwhile, people across the region are watching and waiting for signs of a breakthrough. Paul Hunter has more from Jerusalem. From Gaza, yet more plumes of dark smoke on the horizon after another Israeli strike reminding everyone it's not over yet from its streets as both sides in the nearly two year war get set to maybe sort the final details of that US proposed peace plan. Frustration. Trump told Israel to stop the war, said Mohammad Awad, but we still have people being killed every day. They are dead every day in Israel. With demonstrators at hostage square in Tel Aviv last night, the again demanding an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages still held by Hamas. Word of the proposed peace plan had energized the huge crowd, Jasmine Argaman among them. I just wonder what you make of this turn of events. We need to stop this war. We need to bring everyone back. We just need to really pray really, really hard that everything will happen as fast as we can bring them back tomorrow, today, whatever. Just make it happen. To that end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending his team of negotiators to Cairo for those talks on the plan's details with intermediators who will then meet with Hamas brokered by the US In Washington, Donald Trump today called it a great deal and said everybody's pretty much agreed to it. I tell you, it's amazing. You're going to have peace if you think about it, peace in the Middle east for the first time in, they say, really 3,000. Trump also posting on social media a map of the Gaza Strip with a yellow line marking a large stretch of land in which Israeli forces could remain during the deal's early stages. That brought more pessimism back in Gaza, including from Ahmed Ghanim walking along one of Gaza's remaining cleared streets. This is reoccupying Gaza. This is not acceptable for us as a Palestinians because that means that the Israelis will stay in Gaza. This is our land. And just a few hundred meters outside the Gaza Strip, Israeli settlers such as Malkiel Barkai already pressing for exactly that, making clear no matter what the world may say, he and those with him are pushing for Israel to move in on Gaza. Even further, a demand for the government of Israel to reclaim Gaza to build settlements, Jewish cities inside Gaza. I am ready to be moving to Gaza any minute, any day. That such a thing would go directly against the proposed US Peace plan seems beside the point as so many on all sides await those talks on it and where all of this goes next. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the fight between Donald Trump and Democrat run US Cities is heating up. A federal judge in Oregon has blocked the president's plans to deploy federal troops in Portland, but Trump is trying to find a way around that and is now deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago, too. Ashley Burke has the latest from Washington. Portland is burning to the ground outside the White House with a helicopter waiting for him. Donald Trump says he's sending federal troops into Democrat run cities just like he did in Washington. Washington, D.C. went from a hellhole to a safe place. We're going to do that in Chicago. We're going to do that in Portland. He's doing that even after a federal judge in Portland ruled last night that Trump's gone too far. She issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump from sending National Guard troops to Portland. The judge said the president's claims of daily unrest were untethered to the facts and risked plunging the nation into an unconstitutional form of military rule. Today's ruling is a healthy Check on the president's power. Oregon's Attorney General Dan Rayfield, calling it the right move. Mobilizing the United States military in our cities is not normal. But hours later came news from California's governor that Trump is sending in National Guard troops to Oregon, but deploying them from California instead. Portland's Mayor Keith Wilson, against any deployments there. It is clear that deploying unaccountable federal troops and forces only inflames tensions. On Tuesday, Trump told military leaders he wants to use American cities that he calls dangerous as training grounds for troops to respond to civil disturbances. And we have to handle it before it gets out of control. And he's pointing to ongoing protests in Portland and Chicago as his justification. Holly Brown helped organize yesterday's protest in Portland against Trump's crackdown on immigration enforcement. They are being painted in some press outlets and by Donald Trump as agitators. And nothing could be further from the truth. Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem on Fox News calling Chicago a war zone after Trump today authorized deploying 300 National Guard troops there, too. This is a war zone. But Illinois's Democratic governor, J.B. pritzker says Trump gave him what he called an outrageous and un American ultimatum. Call up your troops or we will. They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago. But there's no sign Trump's backing down. His administration filed a notice. It will appeal the judge's restraining order in Portland. It expires in two weeks. Ashley Burke, CBC News, Washington. The last time they met in the Oval Office, it was all smiles, no results. Now, with Prime Minister Mark Carney going back to Washington to meet Donald Trump again, there is optimism about improvements on steel and aluminum tariffs. But even if there's a breakthrough, there's a new concern. Canadian lumber. JP Tasker has more on what's at stake. We're going to be friends with Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed back to Washington for his second high stakes Oval Office meeting. And while the last one in May was cordial, Canada is a very special place. I love Canada. U.S. president Donald Trump has only ramped up the pressure on Canada since then, adding new tariffs and hiking others, prompting more job loss and economic pain. There's one guy, maybe two guys that are a problem, and we know who they are. Ontario's Premier Doug Ford is urging Carney to take a hard line with Trump. We will not waiver a message to the prime minister. You're going down there Tuesday. You better fight like hell, don't roll over and keep fighting. Canada has been fighting behind the scenes ahead of the visit, and senior government officials tell CBC News they are feeling optimistic, saying there is the possibility of a breakthrough on the punishing steel and aluminum tariffs. Most of our product, about 90% of it, goes into the United States. But the forestry sector is also reeling from Trump's new duties and tariffs, which run as high as 45% on softwood lumber. John Brink has already laid off some 300 people from his wood products firm in northern BC. He hopes Carney can get the president to back off or else he fears the sector faces economic ruin. They trying to do as much pain as they can, apparently to anybody. Laura Dawson is an Expert on Canada U.S. relations and the executive director of the Future Borders Coalition. I think it is a time to be optimistic. I see motion in all the right directions. She expects Carney to leave D.C. having made some progress on the sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum and possibly softwood. The prime minister wouldn't be going unless there was something in the works, she says. I think they will have something to announce and it's going to be something that the president will be broadly supportive of and he will be glad to have someone of Mark Carney's stature there with him to announce whatever this is. And yet the president still seems wedded to tariffs as a big revenue generator. And they're just starting to kick kick in. But ultimately your tariffs are going to be over a trillion dollars a year, in my opinion. The last time these two leaders came face to face, Carney described the meeting as constructive. But with pressure building at home for a deal, the prime minister may have to deliver more than that this time around. J.P. tasker, CBC News, Ottawa. Still ahead, showing up for strangers they'll never meet. How volunteers in Ontario are giving dignified burials for people who have no one else. It's a bittersweet story, but beautiful, too. And it's coming up on youn World Tonight. A year after becoming Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum is still remarkably popular. Polls show about three quarters of Mexicans back her policies, and they came out to show their support on Sunday at a massive political rally. But as Jorge Barrera reports, Shanebaum does have her skeptics. Maria del Carmen Hubert Guevara spent the night on a bus from Boca del Rio in the state of Veracruz to get to Mexico City and show her support for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. She says the Cheinbomb government gave her ownership papers for a home she lived in for 30 years as a squatter. Huber Guevara was among tens of thousands of people who gathered in the historic heart of Mexico City for a rally celebrating the one year anniversary of Shane Bomb's presidency, El nuestro el sungo vilno del pueblo. Her government is a government of the people and for the people, shane Bomb says. Standing on a large white stage, she listed her accomplishments cutting poverty and crime rates while battling corruption. Whoever robs the people will face justice, she says. Shane Bomb is riding an over 70% approval rating according to local polls, and her party is firmly in control of both houses of Congress. She has not made big mistakes. She has kept, you know, a very responsible line. Political analyst Carlos Bravo Regidor says Shane Bomb faces serious intertwined challenges, a sluggish economy, a mercurial US Administration and deeply rooted organized crime that could mar her legacy in the remaining five years of her term. Her level of popularity is very high, but the approval of her government is not that high. We are against all this government of Mexico that is taking control of everything. Jorge Aguera Vidales is part of a fledgling anti government movement with a protest camp in a plaza by the National Palace. He says Chaimbaum's Morena Party is seizing all levers of power, passing a law to elect judges and putting the military in charge of major public works projects. Threatening democracy. There will be democracy. There will be free expression. What's happening in Mexico? Days before Sunday's political rally, thousands marched commemorating the October 2, 1968 massacre of students by the Mexican military with there were bullets, there were bullets that thundered, says 86 year old Kiquette Pastor Toledo. He saw friends gunned down that day. He says there's been little progress to changes students demanded decades ago because of drug fueled violence. He says Mexico is currently living through one of its bloodiest eras. He says Mexico still has the potential to rise and he loves his country still. Jorge Barrera, CBC News, Mexico City. You've heard a lot about how Donald Trump's tariffs have affected Canadian industries, including earlier on this show. But here's one you probably haven't considered India's seafood industry, specifically its frozen shrimp industry. India is the largest shrimp supplier to the U.S. but now its shrimp farmers are struggling. CBC's South Asia correspondent Salima Shivji explains an early weekday morning and the shrimp harvest is on at this pond in India's eastern Andhra Pradesh state. A dozen men drag the water repeatedly pulling the large nets in full of quivering shrimp. But the owner of the farm, Praveen Sabineni looks on in worry as the haul is carried out of the water. It's not the catch that's the problem. It's Donald Trump's steep 50% tariff on Indian exports that's crushing India's frozen shrimp industry, Sabineni says. We are seeing directly loss in price, nearly 40%. We are lost in production cost. Also we are losing. There's so many expenses. So many expenses. A 40% cut in the price farmers used to get for their haul. In mere weeks, with exports down dramatically, the United States was India's top market for exporting shrimp, worth more than three and a half billion dollars of sales in the last fiscal year. Most of that, some 80% of the shrimp, came from this part of the country until the tariffs took hold. The initial 25% duty already had farmers struggling, but a further 25 imposed Trump said, to punish India for buying Russian oil brought the total to 50%, a devastating blow that has forced these farmers to put much of their shrimp on ice and into storage indefinitely. As demand shrinks, Bhaskar Kokiligada throws a handful of seeds into the pond. He's a daily worker who rotates through different shrimp farms to pick up shifts, and with the tariffs, he's not sure when his next job will come. I only get 10 days of work a month now. It used to be 20, Kokiligada says. And we get paid less per day. Everyone is desperate, he says. In an industry that supports more than a million jobs. As the farmers pour hundreds of shrimp into crates and sort them, there's little hope things will get better anytime soon. Educal Bassani has a tiny plot of land with just one shrimp pond. It's too difficult these days, he says. I have loans and I'm barely earning. I'm ready to give up. The state government is subsidizing electricity bills for shrimp farmers in Andhra Pradesh, and there's a big push for India to secure a trade deal with the US after faltering in the summer, high level talks are back on. But that means little for the women with few other job options peeling and deveining at this shrimp processing plant. They make less than $10 a day. How will we survive if this place shuts down? Radhika Enti asks, not even taking a second to pause her work, peeling shrimp after shrimp. We're all worried, the young mother says. We have nothing else. Salima Shivji, CBC News, Pedapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Alberta Teachers are set to strike Monday morning. They've been in a labor dispute with the provincial government for months. And after a breakdown in talks, tens of thousands of teachers plan to walk off the job tomorrow. As Sam Sampson tells us, families are now bracing for that. Water like a penguin, blow like a whale. Nine year old Jackson Rummage has his favorite book down pat. The grade four student learned how to read in school but but an impending teacher strike will throw off his learning routine. His mother Tanya says that's challenging for a child living with autism who requires 24 hour care. Him being in a specialized class is better for him with his sensory needs related to noise and related to the anxiety. And without it it'll be difficult respite workers are not funded during school hours so the Rummags are on their own. Tanya is in school full time and her husband can't work from home. A prolonged strike would be devastating to us and to my education. Thousands of families are finding ways to deal with the province wide teacher strike starting Monday. It's a tipping point after months of negotiations between the province and the union. Teachers want more money, a cap on classroom sizes and more resources for kids with complex needs. The province's latest offer included a 12% wage increase and 3,000 more teachers. That was rejected. Rejected by almost 90% of Alberta teachers association members. We fully support the teachers. Though she now has to figure out what her three school aged children will do during the strike day, home owner Beverly McCool says she stands with educators and we're not asking for 15 student classrooms like they're asking for 25 students in the upper elementary and they're, they're not asking for swimming pools and lifeguards in every school or something like there. It's, I don't know, like it's so frustrating. To help with emergency childcare, the province promised parents of children 12 and under $30 a day per child. While the strike is underway, places like science centers and YMCAs are offering day camps to try and help parents out. Sara Shehu, who runs a Calgary based babysitting company is busier than ever. So you have a lot of parents panicking thinking of what, where they're going to keep their kids. So, so yeah, like my calls have gone from maybe five a day to 25. Fair deal now. Fair deal now. On Sunday, thousands gathered in Edmonton, Calgary and other communities to show support for the strike. Like Edmonton teacher Jill kwasniewski and her 12 year old daughter Elliot. We're looking at class sizes. Our daughter's been in class sizes with 43 children in them. And that doesn't let. Yeah, it's shocking. It doesn't let teachers do what we know how to do with kids. We can't support kids the way we want to. Monday's strike is considered historic. It will be the first time all teachers in Alberta will walk off the job at once. Sam Sampson, CBC News, Edmonton. Officials in Nova Scotia say a wildfire in Annapolis Valley is still burning out of control. The province's Department of Natural Resources says the Lake George fire grew slightly over the weekend up to 285 hectares as of Sunday morning. Firefighters have been dealing with dry and windy conditions but continue working to build firebreaks around the perimeter. About 350 homes and cottages have been evacuated, but officials say so far no structures have been damaged. You're listening to youo World Tonight from CBC News. And if you want to make sure you never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Smart Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, just find the follow button and lock us in. Many people die without any known family or friends, so there is no one to give them a proper send off or ceremony. One Ontario funeral director recently put out a call looking for volunteers to act as pallbearers at burials for unclaimed bodies. The CBC's Hayden Waters went to the cemetery for one of those burials to see who showed up. Now as soon as we do go to lift the casket, you may notice Mandy Howard is hoisting the coffin of somebody she didn't know alongside strangers she's never met. She heard about the call out for volunteer pal bearers and she knew she needed to show up. I do have family out there who are quote unquote unclaimed due to homelessness or addictions. I feel like this was healing for me because none of us are unclaimed. The strangers lay flowers, say a poem. Howard even brought her Trump. I am First Nations Mi'. Kmaq. Our way of saying goodbye is to sing a traveling song. And today I sang it for this gentleman so that he he has a safe journey back to skyworld, however long it does take him to get there and hope that that journey is one of like beauty and love. Because of privacy, few details are shared about the man they are mourning. His name was Michael, he lived in Toronto and he was unhoused. When a body goes unclaimed in Ontario, municipalities are responsible for paying for burials. They turn to funeral directors like Nathan Rogue Manoli who put out that call for volunteers. He says this is his fifth unclaimed burial this week. It happens to elderly people, mid aged people and unfortunately like this week to an infant, a baby, which we cared for as well. We profess that nobody is unknown. Not every funeral director accepts unclaimed bodies, nor does every cemetery. Rome Magnoli blames the rate municipalities pay. The cemetery is the only cemetery that would accept this individual. Danielle will help us to get organized. The number of unclaimed bodies in Ontario has spiked since the pandemic. Last year there were over 1400, according to the province's chief coroner. More than a thousand of those were in Toronto. Finding help for all those burials can prove challenging. But today, too many pallbearers turned up. About a dozen, much more than normal, says longtime volunteer Nathan Weiser. It's very special to all of us who do show up each time because it means that the people who are supposedly labeled as unclaimed actually have a family, even if it's not a chosen family. The strangers stand around Michael's casket. Some are sobbing. Another starts humming. Then everyone else joins in. Weezer has been to many unclaimed burials, but he says this one is special. The turnout has him emotional. It is a family of strangers coming together and a common purpose to show respect for this person and to lay them to rest with dignity. Hayden Waters, CBC News, Oshawa, Ontario. Beyond a Burial A First Nation in Yukon is trying to keep its language and traditions alive even after the Elder Knowledge Keepers are gone. To do that, the Nacho Nayak Dun First Nation is using technology turning the elders into holograms as a way to pass on their stories. Juanita Taylor reports. I think it's amazing. I'm really excited about it. I actually have goosebumps. Crystal Proffitt is reacting to seeing her 70 year old uncle as a hologram image. I had tears. Sitting lifelike in a white box, this digital version of Franklin Lee Patterson shares how to make medicine from plants around Mayo, Yukon. It's something that I learned from my elders that I want to pass on. Patterson from the Natsanoyuk Dunfurs Nation also came out to the community hall to see the demonstration. I can't believe that there's two of me in Mayo technology. It looks so real. Touch screen allows the user to select one of the elders to hear a story. Hello, my name is Walter Peter. I'm from Mayo and Maternal Citizens. A little boy stands in front of the screen in awe, listening and watching another elder, Walter Peter, share a story to give me a name which means which means dirty Dish Rag Knowing he is sitting at a table close by, another young boy tries to touch the hand of an elder on the screen, checking to see if he's real. It's a collaborative project between the First Nation of NHA Nayak Dan and Carleton University, a relationship that's been building over 40 years. But they're not just generating holograms. They're also building a digital archive of community objects and constructing a digital language model supported by artificial intellig. The project is called Kwan Daek do or to Keep the Fire Burning, Vital for the citizens of NHA Nayaktan, where there are fewer than a dozen speakers of their Northern Tacony language. The sense of urgency is felt very strongly here. Troy Anderson is a Carleton University professor who is working on the project. In just the year that we have been working on this project, several who speak Northern Chichoni have left us to build a language model. Data out of old interviews has been collected, old cassette tapes and archives. That model, supported by artificial intelligence, should one day be able to allow conversations with learners, suggest interpretation, translate handwritten letters, and even generate new words and phrases. The software will be open source, and while NHA Chonayagdan information can only be accessed by community members, the system will be accessible to other First Nations. Teresa Sampson is the Naa Cho Nayak Dan's heritage Manager. We are actually speaking our truth and knowing that we've lost access to our language. But we're not going to let it go. We're going to bring it back and it is our little fire and we're going to tend to it until it's strong again. Important too, for elder Franklin Lee Patterson, who is getting used to seeing himself as a hologram. When I leave to the spirit world, I'm going to leave my knowledge behind on on that machine. Juanita Taylor, CBC News, Mayo, UConn the story told on her back stays true to this world, and she carries that truth through centuries and centuries and centuries. Here's another way of keeping traditional teachings alive, a more classic way than holograms. This is a new symphonic work called Granddaughter's song. It's a 53 minute blend of song and story rooted in the Seven Grandfather Teachings Anishinaabe principles for living a balanced life represented by animals. The cow trotted off a little ways and stood still. After a few moments of silence, a rhythmic splashing emerged from the fog and the largest bull moose I'd ever seen slowly walked into view. The piece was performed with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Its co creators are two artists based in northwestern Ontario. Pianist, composer Micah Pollack and singer songwriter Cheyenne Havorka who is Anishnabe Kwe from the Red Rock Indian Band. She spoke to CBC Radio's Superior Morning about the story and its deeper meaning. So the story actually takes place over a very long period of time with this young girl just kind of living kind of preteenish through her teens into early adulthood. And as she's trying to really navigate living in a colonial setting. And throughout the story as well, we're not only just learning about the teaching, we're also really feeling how youth today, Anishinaabe youth, Indigenous youth, are trying to walk these two roads, right? Trying to walk in this kind of settler world while also trying to hold on to traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. She says that woven into the story are references to racism, intergenerational trauma and missing Indigenous peoples done so in a way that non indigenous people can learn more. Javorka and Pollack say they want Granddaughter's Song to be widely accessible so you can find it online for free on major streaming platforms and YouTube. And we'll play you a little more of it here on youn World Tonight. I'm Stephanie Skenderas. Thank you for listening. For more CBC Podcasts, go to CBC CA Podcasts.