Front Burner

President Trump arrives in Beijing today for a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He's bringing with him a long list of tech and business titans like Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg.There's a lot on the line.The two countries have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat trade war for years – which escalated last year after Trump's Liberation day tariffs. They came to a truce in the fall but the relationship is still fraught. In addition, the war in Iran looms. China is an ally to Iran and the largest buyer of its oil.Jonathan Cheng is the Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief. He walks host Jayme Poisson through what to expect in the coming days.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As part of its Spring economic update, the federal government revealed that it's considering privatizing the country's airports. The Prime Minister says it could free up money to fund other major projects and improve air travel for Canadians.But a number of critics have come out against the idea. One of them is veteran journalist and activist Linda McQuaig, author of ‘The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada's Public Wealth'. She joins us to talk about what the government is proposing and how things can go when public infrastructure comes into private hands.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Recent polls show that Canadians are increasingly concerned about the growth of AI.And yet, the AI race is hurtling forward with few guardrails. In many cases, people aren't even being given a lot of choice around using it. Many jobs now include the use of AI.Today, we are talking about that tension and more with technology ethicist Tristan Harris.He's been sounding the alarm about AI growth, arguing that the tech industry is currently in a dangerous race without the proper checks and that the consequences will be profound.Harris is the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, which he founded after working at Google. He's also featured in the new documentary The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On the week where Alberta separatists should have been celebrating a major milestone on their quest to split the country apart, they are instead facing a police investigation and the anger of people across the political spectrum.Separatist group the Centurion Project released the names, addresses and phone numbers of all eligible voters in the province during a political recruitment gambit that could undermine their whole mission. We're joined by Jason Markusoff who covers Alberta politics for the CBC. He's going to talk us through what this all means for the future of Alberta's independence movement.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, passed in 1964 and 1965 respectively, marked the beginning of multi-racial democracy in the United States. But in the decades since, those achievements have been steadily contested. Just days ago, The U.S. Supreme Court dealt yet another blow to the Voting Rights Act with a decision regarding the Louisiana congressional map. Many experts say the Voting Rights Act is facing an existential moment where it stands to be narrowed, marginalized, and legislated out of relevancy, or even existence. Ari Berman is the voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones and the author of a number of books on the history of the subject, most recently Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Australia was the first country to adopt a ban. Canada's federal government is signaling that something is coming from them soon. A recent Angus Reid poll found 75 per cent of Canadians support the idea.But even among those who acknowledge the harm social media causes for young people, the answer is not so clear cut.We're joined by Taylor Owen, the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications at McGill University. He's a part of the federal government's expert advisory group on online safety and on its AI strategy taskforce. He makes the argument that a ban isn't a silver bullet and that we need to focus on making social media safer for everyone.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

He was “Captain Canada” last year and at one point, the most popular conservative in Canada.But now Ontario Premier Doug Ford's taken a hit in the polls after a series of decisions that include the purchase and almost immediate sale of a $28.9-million private jet that his critics are calling the “gravy plane”. Two recent polls have seen the Ontario PCs drop enough to find themselves almost on par with the Liberals, a party that's currently helmed by an interim leader. Doug Ford's personal approval ratings are worse, with more Ontarians unhappy with him than not. Can he turn this around? We're joined by Robert Benzie, Queens Park Bureau chief for The Toronto Star. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

We are entering week two of a dramatic trial that pits two of the biggest names in tech against each other: Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Musk is suing OpenAI, a company that he co-founded, claiming they betrayed their original mission in order to chase profits. According to him, the fate of the world is at stake. But OpenAI says it's all sour grapes, and that he's just upset that they did so well after he stepped down. New York Times technology correspondent Mike Isaac has been covering the trial in Oakland, California. He joins us to break down the stakes of the trial, as well as what it's taught us about the AI race. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Following the recent shooting connected to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, false-flag conspiracy theories emerged almost instantly online. A false-flag is a covert operation designed to appear as though it was carried out by someone other than the true perpetrator.And the complicated thing is that false-flag operations are not just the figments of paranoid imagination. Throughout history, governments have used deception, staged attacks, and manipulated attribution to justify war, consolidate power, and shape public opinion.Today, we're joined by Kathryn Olmsted, author and distinguished professor of history at University California, Davis, to discuss the history of false flag operations, conspiracy culture, and the relationship between real government deception and modern political paranoia.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The shockwaves triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran have made clear the extent to which the global economy relies on oil, and the U.S. dollar. It's no accident. So today we are going to try and understand how and why the U.S. and Saudi Arabia created this system, and how severely it's being tested by this war. David Wight is our guest. He's a lecturer at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and the author of Oil Money: Middle East Petrodollars and the Transformation of U.S. Empire, 1967–1988.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Mark Carney's government has delivered its spring economic update amidst an unpredictable global backdrop. It included a better-than-expected deficit figure and billions of dollars for skilled trades workers, as well as a sovereign wealth fund. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong breaks down what the document tells us about Canada's finances and the Liberal government's priorities.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For years, Jim Balsillie has been one of the loudest voices in the country to speak out about how data is being used to concentrate wealth and power, and to manipulate our behaviour.That's included helping the province of Manitoba take aim at algorithmic or surveillance pricing, where businesses offer different prices based on consumers' personal data.As well as being the former Research In Motion co-CEO, Jim is the founder of the Canadian Shield Institute, which is a non-partisan organization that aims to build economic resilience and sovereignty in Canada.He joins us to talk about his efforts to fight surveillance pricing, as well as how he thinks Canada is poised to give up our digital sovereignty and more in the upcoming CUSMA talks. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Saturday night, as U.S. President Donald Trump sat on a dais in front of a room full of journalists, gunshots were heard inside the building. An armed man was taken down by Secret Service members, and the President was evacuated, unharmed. Paul Hunter was there, and describes what happened in that room, and what to make of what may be the third attempt on Trump's life. Paul is CBC's senior Washington correspondent and co-host of the podcast Two Blocks from the White House.Find Two Blocks from the White House here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Nearly two months into the war on Iran one thing remains clear: Iran has secured strategic leverage that before this war began, seemed unlikely.And it's left many asking why the United States' military - the most powerful in the history of the world — so often finds itself unable to win wars or satisfy its strategic objectives?All kinds of military analysts and historians believe the U.S. has lost or failed to meet its strategic objectives in virtually every war it has participated in since 1945. This includes the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, we're joined by Seth Harp, journalist, and author of the bestselling book ‘The Fort Brag Cartel'. Seth served one tour in Iraq as a member of the U.S. military, and previously worked as the assistant Attorney General for the state of Texas.

In his 14 months as director of the FBI, Kash Patel has not only overseen a radical transformation of the bureau, but has also embroiled himself in a seemingly endless list of controversies.Late last week, The Atlantic published a scathing story with allegations of erratic behavior, excessive drinking, and unexplained absences. In response, Patel filed a $250 million defamation suit against the magazine, accusing it of publishing false and damaging claims.Reporter Marc Fisher joins us to talk about the controversies, the transformation of the FBI, and the implications. Fisher is a former senior editor with the Washington Post, and co-author of “Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power”. He reported and wrote a piece for the New Yorker last fall called “Kash Patel's Acts of Service.”For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A conflict playing out in British Columbia is testing the limits of reconciliation in the province. It's a fight that involves resource extraction, democracy, political flip-flops, and a test of values. It has set off fears that people may not own their homes and raised the legal prospect that Indigenous groups could veto laws around resource extraction. Others have called this fearmongering, and it has many Indigenous people and leaders asking if the province takes reconciliation seriously. Rob Shaw, who covers politics for CHEK News and Glacier Media, walks us through how we got here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Jayme sits down with Nobel laureate economist, Daron Acemoglu, a professor at MIT, and one of the leading thinkers about labour, politics and technology. He's the author of the best-selling book “Why Nations Fail” and the forthcoming work “What Happened to Liberal Democracy?”. They talk about the decline of western liberal democracy, the alienation of the working class, AI, and more.This was a live conversation at a summit put on by OCAD and Toronto Metropolitan University called the Democracy Xchange.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

During the spring, farmers around the globe work to get the seeds and enough fertilizer in the ground to maintain the growing season. If that doesn't happen, food prices spike and farmers could face lower crop yields. That is very much at risk of happening right now because of the Strait of Hormuz's closure. About a third of the world's seaborne fertilizer goes through the strait and prices have skyrocketed. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warns that this could lead to a global food catastrophe. Marcia Brown covers food and agriculture for Politico. She's here to explain. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

U.S. President Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, following diplomatic talks in Washington. This follows an intense period of violence, in which more than 2100 people have been killed in Lebanon, including a Canadian citizen.Prime Minister Mark Carney has condemned Israel's actions in Lebanon, which he characterized as an illegal invasion. CBC's Evan Dyer says that's a major change from how Prime Ministers Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau spoke about Israel. He discusses why that change came about, and what it says about how Carney views Canada's place in the world.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The energy crisis spurred by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz is wreaking economic havoc on much of the world; especially in Asia and Europe, where shortages have already forced people to ration fuel, travel less for work, and pay more for food. And it could all get even worse, because this week, after ceasefire talks fell apart, the Trump administration imposed a blockade of its own. Now, as both countries play a high stakes game of chicken on the Strait, many questions remain. What ships can and can't be allowed through? Will the blockade actually pressure Iran to capitulate? How much worse could this crisis get? We're joined by Ian Ralby, a leading expert in international maritime law and security. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Pope Leo has once again criticized the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, saying “I don't think the message of the gospel is meant to be abused in the way some people are doing, and I will continue to speak out loudly against war.” This is not the first time the pontiff has criticized Trump's behaviour and policies.Trump responded with a Truth Social post calling the Pope “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”. Trump later posted and deleted an image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure. Reporting also suggests Trump officials issued a veiled threat involving military force against the Vatican.Today, we look at the President and the Pope's competing visions of the world. Our guest is Christopher Hale, a democratic political operative and author of the Substack ‘Letters from Leo' which focuses on the intersection of Catholicism and U.S. politics.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

With last night's byelection wins, Prime Minister Mark Carney is now leading a majority government. But after five floor crossers joined the Liberals, spanning from the NDP to the social conservative wing of the Conservative party, there are questions around what exactly that government stands for.Aaron Wherry is a senior writer with CBC's parliamentary bureau. He's here to talk about how a majority will change things for the Liberals, and what Carney's big tent looks like.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After a fourth Conservative MP crossed over last week, the Liberals are now only one seat shy of an official majority. And with two out of three byelections taking place today in safe Liberal ridings, it's widely expected that Mark Carney and the Liberals will get their majority government after the results come in.Tonda MacCharles is the Toronto Star's Ottawa bureau chief. She's here to talk about the challenges facing Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, whether he can keep his caucus in line, and if there's a case for pushing him out now.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After six weeks of war and a fragile ceasefire Iran is going into high-level talks with the U.S. battered but defiant. Whether any kind of real agreement can be reached remains to be seen. The U.S. and Iran are extremely far apart in their demands.Vali Nasr is a professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University and the author of “Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History”. He joins us to talk about why Iran's leadership remains steadfast and what the war has meant for its domestic and international standing. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

By the end of the day on Wednesday, the tenuous ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. was already being tested. Israel continued to bomb Lebanon heavily, and Iran attacked Gulf countries. There was confusion over whether the Strait of Hormuz was open or not. And then there are the larger questions. What was the real cost of this war? Who came out on top?Today on the show The Economist geopolitics editor David Rennie is here. He also talks about the shape of this deal and whether it resolves any of the big issues that existed before the fighting started.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today on the show we are going to talk about a grave threat made by U.S. President Donald Trump towards Iran where he wrote that unless the Strait of Hormuz is opened up “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”It set off a whole day of worried speculation. Could this mean the obliteration of Iran's energy grid and water plants? A nuclear strike? Or could it be some incredibly high stakes bluster in search of an off-ramp?On Tuesday evening the picture got marginally clearer when Trump said he'd extended his self-imposed deadline by two weeks.Alex Shephard from The New Republic is back on the show. He joined us before Trump's deadline extension offer, and the conversation remains very helpful.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today, a check-in on Israel's expanding wars in Iran and Lebanon, violence in the West Bank and details of a new law that could see the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks.Jayme welcomes Israeli journalist Meron Rapoport back to the show. Meron has been reporting on Israel for over 30 years, and was formerly the head of news at Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper. He's now an editor with the Hebrew-language news site Local Call.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Deepfake porn is a billion-click industry built on stolen faces, while the people making it hide theirs behind screens. Hosted by journalist Sam Cole, Understood: Deepfake Porn Empire traces the decades-long rise of synthetic porn, the targets who are fighting back, and the global investigation that led to its Canadian kingpin.Understood takes you deep inside the seismic shifts reshaping our world right now. From online porn and crypto chaos to the rise of tech oligarchs, deepfake AI, and the broken promises of the internet — we explore the stories that define our digital age with hosts and characters embedded in the heart of the action. More episodes of Deepfake Porn Empire are available wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/DPExFB

As the Iran war wraps up its fifth week, the increasing price on fuel and food is wreaking havoc on consumers and businesses around the world. Global markets are also incredibly volatile.Right now, the economic fallout is more pronounced in the Gulf, Asia, and Europe, but analysts say the shockwaves could soon be felt in North America.Liz Hoffman is the business and finance editor at Semafor, and the host of their podcast, Compound Interest.She talks to host Jayme Poisson about how close we are to a full blown global economic disaster.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war, Iran has been publishing AI propaganda videos online trolling the United States, and Donald Trump. Conversely, the U.S. military, and Donald Trump specifically, have spent the better part of the last year publishing all kinds of war and military content and propaganda of their own. Propaganda has always been part of war. But in 2026, something about it looks and feels different: it's shorter, funnier, more synthetic, and tailored to the algorithm. Nicholas Cull is an authority on propaganda and has written a number of books on the subject including ‘The Cold War and the United States Information Agency.' He's a professor at the University of Southern California.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today we're joined by Alex Panetta, journalist and former Front Burner guest host. You may remember him as a regular on this show when he was a CBC Washington correspondent.Alex is now on sabbatical studying artificial intelligence and has been grappling with a lot of the big questions we have been thinking about too.So today we're going to talk about the ways he's been using AI in his own life and interrogating how this technology can impact our ability to think critically. Will AI make us all dumber?For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Nearly a year after the federal NDP's most devastating election result in history, the party declared Avi Lewis – who ran on a campaign of democratic socialism – its new leader.It was a decisive win – Lewis won over half of the 70,930 eligible votes cast. The turnout was high – at about 70 percent of membership.Avi Lewis talks to host Jayme Poisson about his vision for the federal NDP's future, the challenges ahead for the party, and what pressures he plans to put on Prime Minister Carney's Liberal government.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Experts, market watchers and the authorities in Iran have accused the U.S. President of engaging in market manipulation surrounding the Iran war by timing military announcements around market opens and closes.On top of that, there have been questions of possible insider trading in connection to Trump's moves. Last Monday, a spike of highly suspicious and extremely lucrative oil futures trades and prediction market bets took place minutes before Trump posted about the war winding down. It follows a pattern seen before around tariff policy, and the attack on Venezuela. To parse the accusations of market manipulation and insider trading, we're joined by Mike Bird, the Wall Street editor at The Economist and co-host of The Economist's Money Talks podcast. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Operation Epic Fury, is nearly one-month old and the shadow of another war looms over this one: Operation Iraqi Freedom, George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq.Today on Front Burner, a documentary about the Iraq war and its parallels and differences with what is happening now. Featuring interviews with three veteran reporters: Jane Arraf, Jonathan Landay, and Jeremy Bowen.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Newly declassified documents reveal the extraordinary depth and reach the Canadian government took to spy on Indigenous leaders in the ‘60s and ‘70s. This new reporting is the result of a years-long effort by CBC Indigenous and CBC Investigates.Today we hear how the RCMP infiltrated and sought to disrupt legitimate political Indigenous organizations, in an extensive program of covert surveillance, informants and countersubversion.Brett Forester with CBC Indigenous is our guest.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

“I do believe I will be having the honor of taking Cuba.”Those are the words of U.S. President Donald Trump spoken to a group of reporters assembled at the White House.For more than a century Cuba has remained a fixation of American foreign policy. The U.S. has tried everything from buying the island to taking it by force.Today the country faces the worst economic crisis in its modern history, and U.S. officials say Cuba could face a similar fate to Venezuela, where the Trump administration launched a military operation and removed its president from power. We sort through the history with our guest Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive and author of ‘Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana.'For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This spring, just outside Regina, construction is set to begin on Canada's largest data centre. Many of these massive server farms, that train and power AI, are being built or proposed across the country.They're all part of a global infrastructure supercycle. In the U.S. alone, data centres have nearly quadrupled since 2010. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta plan to spend more than $600 billion on their expansion in 2026.But as they grow – so does resistance to them, as communities begin to ask what they're giving up to power the world's chatbots.Ellen Thomas is an investigative reporter with Business Insider. She's been covering the AI data centre boom in the U.S. for years.Ellen spoke to host Jayme Poisson about the true cost of building data centres, and what it takes to keep them open.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As the world watches for updates in the war on Iran, cutting through the fog of war and getting a real sense of the extent of damage and military activity in the region isn't easy. For some, the answer is open source intelligence: pouring over satellite images, flight radars, news updates, social media posts, and just about any kind of data someone can get their hands on.And while OSINT investigations have worked their way into common practice for newsrooms all over the world, it's also increasingly popular among amateurs or “OSINT cowboys” with sophisticated AI-coded dashboards streaming constant real life info so that they can monitor the situation as closely as possible and even place bets on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. But how accurate are these OSINT reports? And what happens when watching for war updates becomes gamified?Tyler McBrien, the managing editor at Lawfare, joins us to talk about the piece he wrote on this topic for The Baffler.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As Ottawa prepares to tighten bail laws across the country, we take a documentary look at how the issue has become a focal point of Canadian anxiety around crime and ask what might change with Bill C-14, legislation the Prime Minister has called “arguably the most aggressive tightening of the criminal code seen in decades.”For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Tuesday U.S. president Donald Trump took back his appeal for help to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, and called out his NATO allies for largely ignoring his request.Iran's blockade of the chokepoint between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman has effectively cut off commercial shipping. This has halted the flow of nearly 20 per cent of the world's oil supply, caused fuel prices to surge, and sent shockwaves through the global economy.As the Israel and U.S. war on Iran continues, today we're asking whether the U.S. can open the Strait on its own, why allies are so reluctant to help, and if diplomacy — not military might — will be the key to unlocking the shipping route. Guest host Jason Markusoff speaks with Aaron Ettinger, professor of political science at Carleton University.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

“If we lose the midterms, we're going to jail.” That's Steve Bannon's warning to Republicans: a call to act urgently, to “seize the institutions,” and prevent what he calls another stolen election. It's a sentiment shared by Donald Trump, who has said the midterms must be won in order to avoid impeachment. He's also suggested that if elections are run “properly,” his supporters will not have to worry about voting again. In recent months, the FBI has raided an election facility in Georgia, The White House has proposed decertifying voting machines and limiting mail ballots, officials have proposed nationalizing parts of election administration, and some in Trump's orbit have called for a military presence at every polling station across the country. The list goes on.Our guest is David A. Graham. He's a staff writer at The Atlantic who has done a lot of reporting on Trump and election interference.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

One of the most brutal fronts in the escalating war in the Middle East right now is in Lebanon. Israel's ground troops have crossed the border into the south of the country, and the bombing campaign continues in cities like Beirut. Israel says its mission is to root out and defang Hezbollah and to carve out a security buffer zone in the south. According to Lebanon's Health Ministry, at least 850 people have been killed, including over a hundred children. Around 800 thousand people are now internal refugees, fueling a crisis the current government is struggling to handle. Beirut-based journalist Rania Abouzeid has covered political upheaval, human rights and conflicts in the Middle East for more than two decades. She spoke to host Jayme Poisson about how the conflict in Lebanon got to where it is, and where it could be headed.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts