Front Burner

As the planet heats up, wildfire seasons are getting worse. Wildfires have caused mass destruction to homes and community infrastructure in Collins First Nation. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their communities across Northern Ontario. Fires continue to rage across the country.

Even those of us living in cities, safe from the flames, are feeling the effects. Toronto briefly had the worst air quality in the entire world this week, which led to government warnings to limit time outside, cancelled World Cup screenings and shutdowns of public pools. And it’s more than a nuisance. The Canadian Climate Institute estimates that wildfire smoke is associated with about 2,500 premature deaths per year across the country.

David Wallace-Wells is a climate journalist and author of The Uninhabitable Earth. He joins us to talk about what it means that wildfire smoke is becoming a more regular part of our lives, and its place in the larger battle for clean air around the world.

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

Recently, in the U.S., there’s been a wave of self described democratic socialists running for and winning elected office.

There is the improbable case of Zohran Mamdani who won his New York mayoral campaign. But there are other high profile races where establishment incumbents are being unseated by much younger insurgents. From Denver to New York, Washington D.C. to Seattle.

Even here in Canada, NDP leader Avi Lewis is a long-time self-described democratic socialist.

According to new Gallup polling, “socialism” is officially viewed more favourably among democratic voters than “capitalism.” It’s a big shift from where we were not too long ago.

So what exactly is democratic socialism? How does it differ from socialism, communism, or social democracy? Why has it returned now? And what does its resurgence reveal about this hour of history?

Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of The Nation magazine, founder and editorial director of Jacobin, the former Vice-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America and the author of books including ‘The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality.’

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

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