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Front Burner is a daily news podcast that takes you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Each morning, from Monday to Friday, host Jayme Poisson talks with the smartest people covering the biggest stories to help you understand what’s going on.

Front Burner

A mass protest movement has gripped Iran and is shaking the foundations of that country’s ruling regime. Thousands of protesters have been detained and rights groups say more than 2,500 people are dead, including one Canadian citizen.

With Iranian officials signalling plans for “quick” executions, U.S. President Donald Trump issued threats of his own, hinting at military intervention.

Will the U.S. throw its military weight behind Iranian protests? Will Iran’s regime fall, or will it manage to weather the storm like it did in 2018 and 2022? Gregg Carlstrom, a Middle East correspondent for The Economist, answers those questions, and more.

Iran revolt: What’s the endgame?

Potential American military intervention in Iran amid ongoing protests and violence. The shooting death of a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis at the hands of an ICE agent. A criminal investigation into the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Astead Herndon is a podcast host and editorial coordinator with Vox. He breaks down another seismic week in American politics. 

Our colleagues in CBC's Washington bureau — Katie Simpson, Paul Hunter and Willy Lowry — have launched a brand new podcast, Two Blocks from the White House. It's American politics with Canadian context. Listen to this week's episode "Could America First mean Canada's next?" here.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

U.S. politics! Iran crisis, ICE, Trump vs. the Fed

Mark Carney arrives in Beijing today to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It’s the first time in nearly a decade for a Canadian Prime Minister to do so, and the stakes are high.

Carney has to balance his handling of two problematic superpowers during these talks.

On the one hand, he wants to double non-U.S. exports abroad in the next decade and China is the second largest market in the world. On the other, a closer relationship with China could set Canada on a collision course with a U.S. administration set on curtailing and containing it. Additionally, Canada must also contend with the national security threat China poses – from intellectual property theft or meddling in Canada’s democratic processes.

Vina Nadjibulla is back on the show to discuss all of this. She’s the Vice President of Research & Strategy for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Stuck in the middle: Mark Carney in China

The seizure of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by military force. Promises to "take back" the Panama Canal. Massive tariffs on Brazil. Threats to take action against cartels in Mexico.

Donald Trump's foreign policy in Latin America in recent months has been chaotic, even contradictory at times. But it all seems to be part of what Trump has referred to as the "Donroe Doctrine": a reinvention of the Monroe Doctrine that saw America looking to exert hegemonic dominance across the entire western hemisphere.

John Feeley worked as a diplomat for the American government for nearly 30 years, including serving as ambassador to Panama. He breaks down the current geopolitical situation and lays out the Trump administration's goals for the region — and beyond.

A veteran diplomat explains the 'Donroe Doctrine'

Right now, the future of Greenland hangs in the balance. 

And with it, an entire system of military and political alliances that has underpinned the global order since the end of the Second World War.

So when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he’s going to meet with Danish leaders to talk about Greenland this week, that’s what diplomats, historians and politicians the world over say is at stake.

This could have massive implications for Canada, both as a NATO member and target of Trump’s expansionist appetites.

Casey Michel joins us. He’s a journalist and author of the upcoming book ‘United States of Oligarchy’. He recently wrote a piece for Foreign Policy titled “Annexing Greenland would be a Strategic Catastrophe.”

What if Greenland’s next?

Whether you think it’s world-changing or over-hyped, it’s undeniable that artificial intelligence has transformed the tech industry.

But as tech companies chase the dream of building a human-like intelligence and revolutionizing everything from doctor’s visits to movie-making, the industry continues to face big questions around things like the mental health of users, copyright infringement, reliability of large language models, and its financial future.

Murad Hemmadi, a reporter with The Logic, is here to talk about how all of these questions could play out in the year ahead.

Where is AI headed in 2026?

In 1999 Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela, beginning a years-long ‘Bolivarian Revolution,’ following multiple coup attempts, and time in prison. Chavez would go on to govern the country as President until his death in 2013 — passing sweeping anti-poverty programs, nationalizing oil and industry, and opposing US hegemony in the region.

 

Just before his death, Chavez hand selected Nicolas Maduro as the person to carry forward his political program and legacy. Maduro’s time in power was hamstrung between domestic mismanagement, US sanction regimes, and authoritarian crackdowns. But at the core of his time in power was the ‘Chavismo’ political ideology, created in the image of his predecessor. 

For a better sense of Venezuela’s modern political history, we have a look at its central characters: Simon Bolivar, Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. Today, we’re joined by Alejandro Velasco, a professor of Latin American history at New York University, and author of ‘Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela.’

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Chavez, Maduro, and the making of Venezuela

Today, Gerry Butts – former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau and current adviser to Prime Minister Carney – is on the show.

Butts is also the vice chairman of the global political risk firm, the Eurasia group, which releases a “Top Risks” list every year. We’ll drill down on a few of them, including their number one risk, the “U.S. political revolution”. The report makes the case that, outside of the U.S. itself, America’s political upheaval has the greatest impact on Canada. We’ll also discuss the “Zombie USMCA” deal and the future of NATO.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The world’s biggest risks, with Gerry Butts

In the wake of the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, there has been a flurry of concern about what that country’s oil could mean for the Canadian economy.

Is American access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves a major threat to Canada? Have we lost leverage with the U.S. as we move forward in trade negotiations? 

Over the last few days, Trump has threatened Cuba, Greenland, Iran, Colombia and Mexico. What are Canada’s primary concerns as we navigate this new reality?

 

From CBC’s Parliamentary bureau, senior reporter Evan Dyer is here. Evan has a lot of experience covering Canadian foreign policy, Latin America, and has reported extensively from the region.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada’s Venezuelan oil problem

After months of rhetoric, military presence and strikes, U.S. forces have launched an attack on the Venezuelan capital Caracas. They seized the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, and flew him to New York to face narco-terrorism charges.

U.S. officials say Maduro heads up a cartel responsible for flooding the United States with drugs, but critics — and Maduro himself — say the charges are just a pretext for regime change — and access to the country's vast oil reserves. U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States will "run" Venezuela for the immediate future, and that American oil companies will move in to take over the country's oil industry.

Jon Lee Anderson is a staff writer with the New Yorker who has covered conflict in Latin America for decades. He explains the complicated power dynamics at play with Maduro out of the picture, and what we might see in the weeks ahead.

What will follow Trump's Venezuela attack?

“A breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

That’s how a statement from a UN special rapporteur described Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program last week, focusing particularly on low-wage and agricultural workers.

The TFWP allows Canadian employers to bring in workers from abroad if they couldn’t fill a position domestically, and Canada has recently expanded the program to allow more workers to stay longer. But migrant workers have complained about abuse and exploitation, as well as a reliance on employers that can leave them powerless. 

Today, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Tomoyo Obokata explains his findings from two weeks on a fact-finding mission in Canada, and why some migrant workers’ situations amount to debt bondage and slavery.

Transcripts of this series are available here

Modern ‘slavery’ faced by Canada’s migrant workers: UN report

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