Christian Zionism — the belief that the modern state of Israel fulfills biblical prophecy — has existed as a theological concept for well over a century. But in the past couple decades its political power and influence in the United States has surged, with many of Donald Trump's closest political allies among its adherents.

Today we're taking a look at the theological roots of Christian Zionism, how it became a political force in America, and its impacts on U.S.-Israel policy.

Our guest is Daniel Hummel, the author of Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations. 

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

This summer is on track to being the second-worst wildfire season in Canadian history. It started earlier than usual with emergencies declared in the spring in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and is hitting locales that aren't typically fire-prone like Vancouver Island and Atlantic Canada. Meanwhile, fires from neighbouring provinces gave parts of southern Ontario some of the worst air quality in the world.

So what does this mean for the Canadian summers of our childhood, spent mostly carefree and outdoors? What needs to be done for us to adapt to the prospect of more fires and heat to come — especially for kids growing up in this new reality? Denise Balkissoon, executive editor of The Narwhal, joins us to talk about how to navigate the ambient dread of our country's changing climate.

Denise published a piece today about this in the Narwhal, which you can read here: www.thenarwhal.ca/seasonal-depression-summer-climate-change/

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

Over the last few days, US President Donald Trump has hosted a series of high-stakes talks to further the effort to end the war in Ukraine.

First, on Friday, there was the summit in Alaska — Russian president Vladimir Putin’s first time in the US in nearly 20 years. Then on Monday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White House for his first time since his brutal confrontation with Trump in February. This time, he was accompanied by a group of European leaders, including French president Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Land swaps and security guarantees were all discussed — but are we any closer to actually seeing an end to the war in Ukraine? What is Ukraine being asked to give up in exchange for peace? And where do things stand with the war now? We’re joined by Francis Farrell, reporter with The Kyiv Independent. 

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

It was a chaotic weekend for anyone flying with Air Canada. The airline canceled hundreds of flights after 10,000 flight attendants walked off the job. Less than 12 hours later, federal jobs minister Patty Hajdu had ordered them back to work — but the union took the unusual step of defying that order and continuing the strike.

The main sticking points for the union had been wages and "ground work" — that is, pay for time spent working when the plane is not moving, which most airlines don't do. But now, some experts argue it's become the latest example of the federal government rushing to tip the scales in labour disputes and undermining the bargaining process.

CBC senior business reporter Anis Heydari explains how the situation got so messy, and why other airlines across North America — and their workers — are so invested in the outcome.

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

This week, Canada's housing department released a document with more details on the Liberal government's plans to scale up affordable housing in the country. It's now seeking feedback from the public about it.

Back in March, Prime Minister Carney vowed that his government would double the number of homes built annually in Canada to nearly half a million. This would be done through an entity called Build Canada Homes, which would spur construction with a focus on affordability and a 'made in Canada' approach.

But these plans are coming together in a challenging environment. A new report from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) forecasts a drop in housing starts over the next few years. That's against a backdrop of rising costs and other factors that are squeezing developers.

So, can Carney's plan work, and can it work fast enough?

Mike Moffatt, a founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative at the University of Ottawa and the co-host of the Missing Middle podcast, joins the show.

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

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history. Among those killed was Anas Al-Sharif — one of the last remaining reporters in Northern Gaza, and one of the most recognizable media voices in the strip.

In July, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that the public smear campaign against him, led by the Israeli military, was part of an effort to manufacture consent to kill him. Just weeks later, this past Sunday, he and three colleagues were killed in a targeted Israeli strike near a Gaza City hospital. 

The Israeli military has publicly admitted to the killing, calling Anas an operative connected to Hamas’ military wing: a charge that those who know him, along with organizations like the United Nations, deny.

Sharif Kouddous is the Middle East editor at Dropsite News, and a longtime reporter on and in the region. He joins us today to talk about the killing of Anas Al-Sharif, who refused to leave Gaza, his home, despite months of threats against his life, and the cost of journalism in Gaza.

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

National Guard troops descended on Washington D.C. after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Monday to take back the nation's capital and clear the streets of what he calls "crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor". It comes after the President spent the better part of the last week taking aim at D.C.'s leadership, homeless population and how crime there is "out of control" – a statement that stands in sharp contrast to official figures showing that violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low. Since then, in addition to deploying the National Guard, Trump has also taken control of the district's police force.

Given that crime is on the decline in D.C., what is this takeover really about? And what could it signal to other cities in Trump's crosshairs? Alex Shephard from The New Republic joins us to make sense of it all.

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

35 years ago, the Kanien'kehá:ka of Kanehsatà:ke squared off with the Canadian army to defend their territory, culminating an armed standoff now known as the Oka Crisis, or the Siege of Kanehsatà:ke.

Now, some community members worry that same territory is being threatened by an out-of-control boom of unregulated cannabis megastores with alleged connections to organized crime. And a governance crisis exacerbated by that siege in 1990 has left the community with no clear way of resolving the growing tensions.

CBC investigative reporter Jorge Barrera — who has covered the community extensively — explains how the deep history of Kanehsatà:ke has led to this pivotal moment, and what it could mean for its future.

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

Last month, RCMP charged four people for their alleged involvement in a plot to forcibly take land north of Quebec city in what Mounties called an incident of "ideologically motivated violent extremism". Three of the men were denied bail last week.

The accused, they charged, had planned to create an anti-government militia, but even more startling: two of the four people charged by RCMP are active members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

While it's the first time an active member of the Canadian Armed Forces has faced terrorism-related charges, extremism in the military isn't new.

Jonathan Montpetit, a senior Investigative Journalist with CBC News, chronicles the Forces' uneven track record on extremism, and how deeply this issue has infiltrated the ranks over the years.

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

Bad Bunny, one of the most-streamed artists on the planet, is in the middle of his 30-concert residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico titled No me Querio Ir de Aqui, or "I don't want to leave here". Much like his latest album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, it is both a celebration of Puerto Rican culture and heritage but also a statement against the political and economic forces that have worked against the well-being and livelihoods of people on the island.

With Petra Rivera Rideau, Associate Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and the author of Remixing Reggaeton: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico, we take a look at the message of Bad Bunny's album and concert residency, the political and historical context behind the work and how he fits into a generation of young Puerto Ricans hungry for change.

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

Alberta's Battle River-Crowfoot is about as safe a riding as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre could hope for as a place to regain a seat in the House of Commons in a byelection later this month. But he's facing pushback from some locals who feel they're being used as a means to an end by someone who won't represent their interests in Ottawa. The riding is also the latest target of the Longest Ballot Committee protest movement — including one dinosaur-obsessed candidate, Nicola Zoghbi, who promises to move the national capital to Drumheller and rename the riding "Raptor River-Crowfoot."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing growing pressure to secure some sort of trade deal with the United States after Donald Trump made good on a promise of 35 percent tariffs on all Canadian imports not covered by CUSMA. How much political runway does Carney have left?

CBC Ottawa senior reporter Aaron Wherry breaks down both of these stories.

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

Later this month, OpenAI is expected to release the latest version of ChatGPT – the groundbreaking AI chatbot that became the fastest growing app in history when it was launched in 2022.

When Sam Altman first pitched an ambitious plan to develop artificial intelligence, he likened it to another world changing, potentially world destroying endeavor: the Manhattan Project, in which the U.S. raced to build an atomic bomb.

The sales pitch he made to Elon Musk worked. Altman was promised a billion dollars for the project and was even given a name: OpenAI.

In a new book, “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares of Sam Altman’s OpenAI,” tech journalist Karen Hao chronicles the company’s secretive and zealous pursuit of artificial general intelligence.

Today, Hao joins the show to not only pull back the curtain on the company’s inner workings through its astronomical rise and very public controversies, but also on the very real human and environmental impacts it has had, all in the name of advancing its technology.

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

Since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s health ministry, over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. Recently, the ministry also began reporting a new kind of toll: deaths by starvation. 180 people, including 93 children, are now reported to have died from hunger. This comes after months of Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained that “there is no starvation in Gaza”. But his statements stand in stark contrast to a large body of evidence from aid agencies, verified images and eyewitnesses.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a growing number of Israelis protesting the crisis in Gaza. Along with these demonstrators, we’ve also seen a number of teenage Israelis who are publicly refusing the draft.

They’re choosing prison time rather than fighting a military campaign they oppose in Gaza, and speaking out publicly against what they see as a moral crisis.

Soul Behar Tsalik is one of them. He shares what led him to that decision, the cost of dissent, and how Israelis are reacting to the world’s attention on the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

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

What does a reporter do when they receive a cold call from one of the most horrific serial killers in Canadian history?

The killer: Clifford Olson, who murdered at least eleven children in the 1980s. The reporter: Arlene Bynon, who recorded her jailhouse calls with Olson for years. Alongside legendary journalist Peter Worthington, Arlene spent hundreds of hours on the phone with Olson. It was kept secret from his prison guards; he wasn't allowed to speak to the media.

In Calls From a Killer, from CBC’s Uncover, Arlene unearths secrets that have been buried for decades. 

More episodes of Calls from a Killer are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/1rPEb1

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced plans to officially recognize Palestinian statehood in September — if certain criteria are met — marking a radical departure on Canada’s position in the region.

Evan Dyer is a reporter with the CBC’s parliamentary bureau. He joins the show for a discussion about this landmark moment in Canadian foreign policy, the status of Canadian arms sales to Israel, and the implications that the creation of a Palestinian state could have.

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

Late last week, the UK government implemented a new set of rules from its Online Safety Act to keep children away from quote, “harmful and age-inappropriate content”.

Companies ranging from pornography websites, social media platforms, and large search engines will need to comply by building guardrails that would prevent children from accessing porn, or material that promotes self-harm or eating disorders, for example.

This includes age verification, along with changes to algorithm settings so that they’re not recommending content that’s considered harmful to kids.

For many children’s safety advocates this is a step in the right direction. But others have concerns about civil liberties, privacy and censorship.

Samantha Cole is a journalist with 404 Media. She’s been covering how similar online safety rules have been playing out in the U.S.

Samantha was also the host of CBC Understood’s The Pornhub Empire, a four part series on the biggest porn website in the world.

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

The U.S. federal immigration law enforcement agency — ICE — is offshoring migrants incarcerated in the U.S. to detention camps in Africa. In at least one of these cases, migrants were told they would be transported to a domestic detention facility and instead were taken to a prison located nearly 10,000 KM away from the U.S.  

This decision to deport groups of people in American prisons, against their will, to detention camps in nations they have never visited marks a radical and unprecedented shift in American policy. Legal experts say it might well be unconstitutional. 

Hamed Aleaziz is an immigration reporter with The New York Times and joins us for a conversation about the offshoring of immigration detention, the future of the migration crisis, and the two facilities at the centre of Trump's immigration detention plan: 'American Siberia,' and 'Alligator Alcatraz.'

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

A New York City billionaire and conservative talk radio host. Two of the most vocally antivax members of Donald Trump's administration. Protesters associated with the "Freedom Convoy" that occupied downtown Ottawa in 2022. What do they have in common?

They all want to save a herd of more than 400 ostriches on a small farm in rural B.C.

Earlier this year, Universal Ostrich Farms was ordered to cull their remaining birds after an outbreak of avian flu killed dozens of them. But the farm has been fighting the government's order in court, claiming the ostriches' antibodies are crucial for research into alternatives to traditional vaccines.

Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, a reporter with Canada's National Observer, explains why the farm's story has spread so widely through the right-wing media ecosystem, finding so much synergy with vaccine skepticism, climate denial, and other conspiracy theories about shadowy bids for global control.

When the Trump administration announced earlier this month that it was dropping its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and would not be releasing any further "Epstein files," it was already an unpopular decision among the MAGA faithful — many of whom Donald Trump won over by leaning into conspiracy theories about pedophilic political elites.

In the weeks since, the rift has only widened. New revelations have come to light about Trump's relationship with Epstein, and what Trump knew about what was in the files and when. Trump has been on the defensive, calling the reports fake. But it doesn't appear to be working, with some of Trump's staunchest supporters saying they now feel "betrayed."

Anna Merlan, a senior reporter with Mother Jones who covers disinformation, explains why the Trump administration can't seem to make the Epstein files go away.

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

A trial that was seven years in the making came to its conclusion with all five former Hockey Canada players found not guilty of sexual assault.

Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote were acquitted in a London, Ontario courtroom by Justice Maria Carroccia.

McLeod was also found not guilty of being a party to a sexual assault. All five had pleaded not guilty.

The Athletic’s senior enterprise writer Dan Robson explains the decision and its implications.

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