The Current

Cuba is still recovering from a major blackout this past week as it continues to grapple with severe fuel shortages, rolling blackouts, and dwindling supplies of essentials. The country has long suffered from economic woes. But the situation has grown far worse since the U.S. deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, cut off Venezuelan oil to Cuba, and threatened other countries with tariffs if they send fuel. That's all on top of President Donald Trump's threats to Cuba itself. It all stands in stark contrast to the relationship that Canada has long had with the Caribbean nation. A new CBC documentary explores that history and the efforts Canadians are making today to help a country in crisis.

Brig.-Gen. Christopher Horner, commander of 3 Canadian Space Division, explains why Canada is interested in cementing the ability to launch its own satellites from a spaceport on home soil — and why, for the military in particular, it's a matter of security and sovereignty.

After facing their worst-ever election result less than a year ago, the federal NDP are electing a new leader at their party convention in Winnipeg this weekend. Two-party veterans — former B.C. MP Libby Davies and former Saskatchewan cabinet minister Pat Atkinson weigh in on the competing visions of frontrunners Avi Lewis and Heather McPherson.

Baseball is back! After a shorter-than-usual off-season, the Blue Jays return to the Rogers Centre, kicking off the MLB season. So what does the team have in store, and what challenges lie ahead as the team eyes a return to the World Series? Acclaimed Blue Jays announcer Dan Shulman and his son Ben, also a play-by-play commentator, but for radio, walk us through what we can expect.

We're just over a month away from the 30th season of the WNBA and there are going to be some big changes in the league this year. Players signed a historic new collective bargaining agreement that's giving them an almost 400% salary increase. Savanna Hamilton, sports journalist and host of the women's sports podcast, Cinderella Stories Podcast, breaks down what this moment means for the league.

Playwright Ava Alavi moved from Iran to Canada shortly before Mahsa Amini was arrested and beaten for allegedly violating Iran's headscarf law. Amini's death and the movement that followed inspired Alavi's new play, "Sound," which premiered at Ottawa's Undercurrents Festival in early February. Alavi shares how creating geopolitical theatre helps her deal with what's happening back home.

Millennials were the first generation to grow up with the internet. Now, some are looking at their parents and questioning how much time they are spending on it. Sherry Bagnato, 67, and her Matthew Cira, 33, talk about how this is playing out in their family. And McMaster University professor Nicole Dalmer, who studies aging alongside technology, says for many older adults, using these devices is more seamless than people expect.

The Supreme Court of Canada is hearing arguments about a Quebec law that, among other things, forbids teachers from wearing religious symbols at work. We hear from political science professor Daniel Beland about why secularism or "laïcité" has become such a central political fight in Quebec. We also hear from Eric Adams, constitutional law professor at the University of Alberta.

Montreal is the gourmet capital of Canada, and the cookbook author and former restaurant critic Lesley Chesterman is an evangelist for the food culture of her hometown. For decades, she has been writing about what makes Montreal food great, from the bagels and smoked meat to the restaurants, markets, patisseries and cheese shops. Now, she wants you to cook like a local.We talk to her about her new book, A Montreal Cookbook: Recipes and Reflections From My Kitchen.

A CBC investigation reveals how RCMP spies surveilled, infiltrated and wiretapped legitimate political Indigenous organizations in the 1970s. "It just never leaves you," says Dene leader and former NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi. CBC reporter Brett Forester walks us through the story.

Justice Lise Maisonneuve weighs on what needs to change in sports in Canada so that athletes can feel safe. Plus, Adam van Koeverden, the federal Secretary of State for Sport on the government's role.

Two pilots died when an Air Canada Express jet crashed into a fire truck. Former air traffic controller Michael McCormick says more than one thing likely went wrong and investigators will look at everything from the weather to control tower staffing to communication.

For the past four decades, world renowned biologist Nalini Nadkarni has risked her life studying trees. In 2015, she fell from a 50-foot bigleaf maple tree in the Olympic Peninsula. She tells The Current host Matt Galloway what her recovery from that catastrophic fall taught her about resilience and trees.

Kassy Zanjani in Vancouver found out she had been secretly recorded on a stranger's Meta smart glasses after seeing a video of herself on social media. It's a growing trend that's seeing men approaching women in public and recording their encounters for viral content. New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac talks about his reporting that Meta is considering integrating facial recognition technology into the glasses. University of Ottawa law professor Teresa Scassa talks about concerns around privacy in public spaces and whether our privacy laws are doing enough to protect Canadians.

Canada's Auditor General Karen Hogan lays out her latest report findings, which detail lags in RCMP recruitment and gaps in sharing information around international students who have been flagged for potentially not complying with study permits.

With the legalization of sports betting in Canada, and much of the United States, watching your favourite team has changed. If you don't partake, you're bombarded with ads, and if you do, it's likely changed the way you view and cheer on your team. But it's changed the game for players, officials, and sports journalists too. Author Danny Funt on his new book Everyone Loses, The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling.

A new study shows the number of young Canadians treated for self-harm has more than doubled in the last 25 years. Montreal filmmaker Alex Anna talks about her own experience with self-harming and how it shaped how she saw herself as a teen.

Stuck ships, wrong ports, and higher costs: war in the Middle East is causing headaches for worldwide supply chains. New York Times reporter Peter S. Goodman explores the mounting impacts on supply chains that remain highly integrated.

CBC's investigative program, the fifth estate--has spent months looking into two Canadian platforms and the role they play in monetizing hate--under the banner of free speech. Rumble and Entropy both promote themselves as cancel-free spaces and have attracted extremist voices--that many say spew harmful content that may lead to real world harm.

Millions of people in Cuba are still without electricity after the country's power grid collapsed on Monday. It comes as the U.S. has an oil blockade in place in the country and as President Trump says he would consider “taking Cuba.” The CBC's Jorge Barrera is in Havana and tells us how the blackout has been impacting people's lives there. Plus Sebastián Arcos, the interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, talks about what comes next at this pivotal moment for the country.

New research from the University of Lodz in Poland seems to show that some birds get healthier if they use cigarette butts in their nests.

The Canadian Pediatric Society says "risky play" is good for kids' mental, physical and social health — even if it might result in injury. In an interview from January, we hear what's behind this new advice, why ”incredibly boring playgrounds” are part of the problem, and why parents might need to just take a deep breath.

From old cellphones and chargers to fridges and washing machines, Canadians are getting rid of more old technology than ever. We speak with two Canadian researchers who study electronic waste to find out how we should be dealing with the rise of e-waste, why it's so hard to make our technology last longer, and the unseen costs, before our favourite devices even make it into our homes.

Father James Martin is known around the world for giving voice to Catholics who are often excluded from their church, including those in the LGBTQ community. In his new book “Work in Progress” he writes about how he found faith in the margins and why his most important life lessons came working as a busboy in a busy small town restaurant.

Is British Colombia's push to recruit American doctors actually easing the strain on the healthcare system, or just offering a short-term fix? We look at what's driving physicians to move, how the recruitment process really works, and if this approach is addressing the deeper, long-standing issues in Canadian healthcare.

Josh Wardle made puzzling cool with his enormously popular word guessing game Wordle. Now he has a new puzzle called Parseword that aims to make cryptic crosswords more accessible. The common thread in his games from his early days at Reddit until now -- connection.

The war between the US, Israel, and Iran is driving up the price of oil and sending shockwaves around the world -- especially in Asia, which relies heavily on oil from the Middle East. But the ongoing oil crisis is also highlighting our global overdependency on fossil fuels. We speak with a reporter in Bangladesh about the situation in Asia, and Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist and a professor at the University of Alberta, about whether this is the moment that forces world leaders to rethink where they get their energy from.

There is a growing cohort of younger Canadians being diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Now, the Canadian Cancer Society is calling for the screening age to be lowered from 50 to 45. Dr. Shady Ashamalla is a surgical oncologist at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, specializing in colorectal cancer and Miranda Fidler-Benaoudia, an epidemiologist at the University of Calgary, on the effects of cancer on young people.

Scientists say a proposal to launch a million satellites into Earth's orbit is short-sighted, and highlights the need for more regulations as companies look to capitalize on space. We hear from Aaron Boley, Co-director at the Outer Space Institute and professor at UBC, about how having so many satellites in space can contribute to space junk and impact Earth's atmosphere.

Do you speak Irish? Young people are picking up Ireland's native language, both inside the country and here in Canada. The Current's Padraig Moran asks some Gaeilgeoirs what they love about Irish, why they want to learn it — and why they say it's definitely not a dead language.

The Prime Minister was in Norway last weekend, meeting with Nordic leaders to discuss strengthening defense capabilities in the Arctic. It came off the back of Carney announcing a $35 billion plan to boost defense and infrastructure in Canada's north. Andrea Charron, Director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Defense and Security Studies, discusses where this funding is going and why closer ties with our Arctic neighbours is important. Natan Obed, President of Canada's national Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, talks about how this money will impact northern communities.

After decades of mystery, an investigation by Reuters, spanning from Ukraine to New York, may have just revealed the street artist Banksy's identity. Reporter Blake Morrision, talks about his investigation and if knowing who the artist is changes our relationship with his work.

Every few years, something magic happens in baseball: an eccentric mix of top major league stars and amateurs passionately pursuing the sport get the chance to suit up and represent their country on the international stage. Michael Clair, writer for MLB.com, shares some of this year's most delightful storylines, from the espresso-guzzling Italians to a Canadian team that got farther than ever before.

CBC's Chief Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault reports from Saudi Arabia on how the U.S.-Israel war with Iran is reverberating throughout the region; plus foreign policy experts Bessma Momani and Roland Paris reflect on an eventful and tumultuous year for Prime Minister Mark Carney on the world stage, and assess how he's positioning Canada.

Bringing back a landline, buying a flip phone, setting strict screen time limits. With growing research showing the harm associated with smartphone and social media use, parents are rethinking how they let their kids use devices. But is an all or nothing approach the answer?

Dr. Joss Reimer was a voice of calm for Manitobans during the pandemic and now she will bring that approach to a national stage as Canada's Chief Public Health Officer taking over from Dr. Theresa Tam.

Mark Arendz lost his left arm in a farm accident when he was seven. Now, the Para nordic skiier from PEI is one of Canada's most decorated Para athletes. With four races down and three to go in Milano Cortina, he reflects on how he's changed as an athlete since his Paralympic debut in Vancouver 2010. And what it's been like, for the first time, to have his younger brother by his side as his coach.

A Nova Scotia man has been acquitted of some charges, after creating sexually explicit images of his classmates. CBC Reporter Blair Rhodes tells us more about the case, and Dalhousie law professor Suzie Dunn explains how the current gap in the law makes it hard to get convictions, when it comes to distributing AI-generated images.

From hunting for a mythical treasure, to solving the mystery of life in the universe -- why some people are driven to dedicate their lives to unachievable goals, and what that commitment to optimism means to the rest of us.

It's spring travel season. Maybe the part you're least looking forward to is the flight. Meet people who embrace what some of us hate about flying -- the meals, the bumps and the middle seat.

Getting a good night's rest can be hard. A sleep expert helps you navigate advice from mouth taping to melatonin to cognitive shuffling and more. Aric Prather, author of The Sleep Prescription: 7 Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest, on what works, what doesn't, and why we might need to reconsider our attitudes to sleep.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree condemned the Toronto shootings at three synagogues and has committed $10 million in security funds. Law professor Michael Geist says he welcomes the funding but leaders everywhere in Canada need to speak out more against antisemitism.