Front Burner

The Gaza peace plan and ceasefire, announced last October, is in limbo.

Israeli forces have continued their strikes and expanded control of the strip beyond the lines originally agreed upon in the plan. Humanitarian aid is trickling in but there are still concerns about how it’s being distributed. The U.S.-led Board of Peace, created to handle the resolution of violence and reconstruction in Gaza, has made little progress.

But last week, Hamas announced that they are ready to hand over the authority of governing Gaza to a group of US-backed Palestinian technocrats. Is this the breakthrough needed to get things back on track?

Hugh Lovatt is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

He’s here to talk about where things stand in Gaza and what this latest announcement from Hamas means for the Palestinian people.

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

Lindsey Graham, the U.S. Republican Senator from South Carolina, died on Sunday at 71. Before Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016, Graham was a high-profile critic of the future president, calling him “hateful,” a “kook,” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.” But over time, Graham became a key ally, championing Trump through his many controversies.

Will Saletan of the Bulwark sees Graham’s trajectory as emblematic of the Republican party’s transformation under Trump. He joins Jayme Poisson to discuss the conspiracy theories swirling around Graham’s death and his political legacy.

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

It’s no secret that Prime Minister Mark Carney thinks Canada should reduce its dependence on the U.S. It’s a message he delivered on the world stage in Davos. But new reporting from the Wall Street Journal illustrates how Carney has been making this pitch to European leaders behind the scenes, and how he’s become a central figure in the attempts to reimagine the West’s alliances.

Today on Front Burner, journalists Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw on their reporting, gleaned from conversations with heads of government, ministers, top aides, as well as detailed notes of private meetings and classified intelligence assessments.

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

Mark Carney met with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia this week, aiming to strengthen ties and build up our economic relationship in areas like AI and critical minerals.

It’s been 26 years since a Canadian Prime Minister visited the country, despite the fact that they’re a major trading partner. The relationship had come with friction over things like Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, human rights abuses, and political repression.

Canadian-Saudi relations hit an all-time low during Justin Trudeau's tenure, and Dennis Horak was expelled from his post as Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 2018. Now, almost eight years later, he’s applauding this move by the current government to renew the relationship.

Horak joins us to talk about how relations soured, and why he thinks we’re headed back in the right direction.

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

The U.S. midterms are coming up this fall. They could flip control of the House and possibly the Senate. But both parties are dealing with difficult messes.

Progressive Democratic candidate Graham Platner’s Senate campaign in Maine imploded after allegations of sexual assault, which has laid bare a war in his party. Republican infighting ground Congress to a halt. And Senator Mitch McConnell has not been seen or heard by the public for weeks, following a hospitalization.

Alex Shephard, senior editor of the New Republic, joins us to break down the state of each party heading into these consequential elections.

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