Front Burner

From U.S President Donald Trump suspending most travel from Europe, to major sports leagues suspending their seasons — efforts to slow down the COVID-19 pandemic are ramping up. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch talks to host Jayme Poisson about whether Canada is doing enough.

A trial has begun in Amsterdam for the murder of the 298 people killed in 2014 in the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash over Ukraine. But the four men charged are still at large, and although Russia has been implicated in the downing of the plane, the Putin government has denied any responsibility. CBC's Chris Brown joins Jayme Poisson to talk about the victims' families' search for justice – and why the stakes are so high for Russia.

What does it mean that WHO is now calling COVID-19 a pandemic? And what’s behind the idea of “flattening the curve”? Plus, Prime Minister Trudeau has announced measures to fight the outbreak, including $1 billion in spending. So is Canada doing enough? We’re joined by CBC senior health writer Adam Miller to explain all that and to break down the latest news.

The temperature of the federal Conservative leadership race has just been cranked up by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Kenney stepped out of Alberta’s legislature to give an unambiguous endorsement of Erin O’Toole, and a jab at rival candidate Peter MacKay. Vassy Kapelos, the host of CBC’s Power & Politics, joins us to discuss why Kenney is taking sides and how it might influence the race.

It was a historically bad day for global markets. The twin factors of COVID-19 and a collapse in the price of oil led to widespread panic and one of the worst days in the stock market in years, with consequences still to come. What just happened, and why are people freaking out? Manulife global chief economist Frances Donald is here to explain.

In Canada, domestic violence has reached crisis levels. But in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a radical domestic abuse intervention project is showing the way forward, and how to save countless lives. Katie Nicholson joins Jayme Poisson to explain the “Blueprint for Safety” program and how it’s protecting victims of domestic violence.

COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have reached double digits. As efforts to contain the coronavirus in the U.S. continue, certain factors make it even more difficult. First, there's a shortage of test kits. Then there's the question of cost for patients. We look at the U.S. public health response with Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist who built her career studying pandemics.

What happens when your fragile parenthood dream is not in your control? In the second part of our series on surrogacy in Canada, we look at how the surrogacy industry affects parents. The costs can reach more than $100,000. There’s a fear that they’re breaking the law. The pressure to not rock the boat is high. Jayme talks to Chris Glover and Chelsea Gomez about the ways surrogacy is not working for parents.

As infertility rates go up in Canada, desperate couples are turning to surrogacy. But a new investigation reveals that because there are few federal regulations on the surrogacy system, the process isn’t working for everyone. Jayme Poisson speaks with Chris Glover and Chelsea Gomez, who spent months investigating surrogacy in Canada, in the first of a two-part series.

That photo you posted to Instagram? It might be a part of Clearview AI’s massive database of some 3 billion images, all scraped from the internet. The facial recognition app has experts worried about privacy overreach. Canadian police forces first said they’re not using Clearview — until it turned out they are. Toronto Star reporters Wendy Gillis and Kate Allen have followed this story closely, and they’re here to talk implications.