Front Burner

Israelis will elect a new prime minister on Tuesday for the first time since October 7th. Polls suggest that many voters are ready to turf Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing criticism at home for corruption scandals and his handling of October 7th.

He also faces isolation abroad for his military campaigns in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. But while he may be sliding in the polls, it’s not clear that his main challengers will be able t...

Canada is complicated. Alberta has opinions. Ride shotgun with host Kathleen Petty on West of Centre for conversations about the state of politics in Canada, as power and influence shifts West. Whether you live here or just can't look away, you’ll get the no-nonsense analysis you need to make sense of it all.

In this episode Premier Danielle Smith joins host Kathleen Petty after a divisive Alberta referendum. Albertans are cle...

Two weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he’d struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to supply the world with millions of tonnes of Russian diesel. It stunned Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said he felt betrayed. Trump responded by saying it was time for “Ukraine to get a new president.”

Soon after, Ukraine said its access to SpaceX’s military-grade version of Starl...

France is in the midst of a weeks-long, nationwide protest that began with high school students lamenting the conditions of their public schools and issues like overcrowding, teacher shortages, and deteriorating facilities. 

But these protests quickly became a national uprising, the largest the country has seen in decades — drawing in trade unions, public sector workers, and others frustrated with the conditions of life i...

For more than a year, the Biden administration said it wanted to limit the destruction in Gaza, increase humanitarian aid and bring the war to an end. But as the humanitarian crisis accelerated, the U.S. continued to supply Israel with weapons and diplomatic protection.

In his book 'Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza' journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed draws on nearly 175 interviews to reconstruct the in...

After a historic referendum, Albertans have voted to remain in Canada. When we recorded this episode, just over a third of the votes had been counted, and 76 per cent of them were in favour of staying.

CBC Alberta reporter Jason Markusoff joins Jayme to break down what the result means for the future of the independence movement and for the country.

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

Jayme Poisson travels to Edmonton to take you inside two rallies where campaigners for a united Canada – and campaigners for Alberta independence – make their last pitch to voters before Monday's referendum. 

Plus, what we know about the deadly fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta that left four service members dead and at least 19 in critical condition. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://...

Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Alberta this week, making a final pitch for unity in the lead-up to the province's referendum on potential separation. Meanwhile, the government is threatening legal action against steel company Stelco over layoffs related to the trade war. And the U.S. Ambassador to Canada has raised concerns about potential election interference by Canadian government officials in the U.S. midterms. 

Aaron Whe...

Today we are going to spend some time trying to understand the expanding front lines of two ongoing wars, where the battlefield isn't just marked by trenches, snipers and fortifications, but also by energy infrastructure, supplies and distribution.

Think of them as energy wars, currently being fought in Ukraine, and in countries around the Persian Gulf.

We're joined by Ravi Agrawal, Editor in Chief at Foreign Policy and host of their...

Alberta's referendum is next week and advance voting is already underway. Much of the attention has centred around the separation question. But there are actually ten questions being put to a vote next week.

Today on Front Burner, Jayme Poisson speaks with CBC Calgary's Jason Markusoff about the other nine questions: what they mean, why they're being asked, and how the polling shows they could go either way.

For transcripts of Front ...

In late September, amid mounting warnings about the risks of AI, the CEOs of six of the world’s most powerful technology companies signed an agreement on artificial intelligence. U.S. President Donald Trump called the accord “morally binding”. But it isn’t legally binding – it’s essentially a pledge from the world’s biggest tech companies to police themselves.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historia...

How did sports betting go from being illegal to being EVERYWHERE? The answer lies in the convergence of daily fantasy sports apps, a bombshell New York Times op-ed, and the potential of a multi-billion dollar payout. This episode of Understood: The Big Bet tells the story of how a pivotal Supreme Court ruling set the stage for one of the biggest scandals in sports history — one involving a Toronto Raptors bench player named J...

Right now former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is on house arrest, after being sentenced to 27 years in prison. On Sunday his son Flavio won the first round of that country's presidential elections, his wife, and two more of his children were voted into office. A runoff election is three weeks away. 

It's a stunning political turnaround.

In part, because the man who could be toppled by the return of the Bolsonaros, is a tow...

Since last week, there have been a series of alarming bits of news emerging from Siberia. It began with the mysterious death of a woman who worked at a plague research institute. Russia has said she contracted pneumonia but has been slim on details. But the World Health Organization wants more information, including details about whether or not there has been a second case, which has been rumoured, but not confirmed.

All of this, in...

With the election of the Parti Québécois in Quebec Monday night, it's the first time in twelve years that Canada will have a separatist government in power. 

Over the course of the campaign, the party's leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, made clear some of the fights he could take up with Ottawa, over issues like immigration. He also vowed to hold a referendum on separation in his first term, a promise he doubled down on this we...

Ten years ago, Britain voted 52 per cent to 48 per cent to leave the European Union. The result reshaped British politics, triggered years of negotiations and remains deeply contested a decade later. Now, as Alberta prepares to vote on whether to begin a process that could eventually lead to separation from Canada, there are obvious differences between the two situations, but also some striking parallels.

We hear from three people w...

A recent terrorism arrest in Alberta has been linked to the group 764, an extremist network that coerces children into self-harming and sharing sexual material. But many of the perpetrators aren't adults, they're also minors.

Ioanna Roumeliotis, co-host of CBC's The Fifth Estate, has reported extensively on the 764 network. She joins Jayme Poisson to talk about who this group is, how it operates, and why some victims have struggled ...

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been working to bring more foreign investment into Canada. At his recent Investment Summit, he told investors from all over the world that Canada “has what the world wants." 

This got us wondering, who already owns Canada's businesses and infrastructure? And could that change now that the government is courting more outside investment? 

Earlier this year, Marc Lee, a senior economist wit...