Susan Ormiston

Canada is one of the most urban countries in the world, yet our cities have a weak mayor system that impedes long-term planning and funding for big projects like transportation and housing, the CBC’s Susan Ormiston says.

Low oil prices are creating cracks in Canada’s economy, as Finance Minister Joe Oliver prepares to balance the federal budget. Household debt is at a record high as the creation of full time jobs slows.

They are called “turnaround” workers: those who left Newfoundland for fortunes in Alberta’s oil patch for weeks at a time, returning with plump paycheques. Many aren’t getting called back as the oil crisis ripples across Newfoundland.

“Refugee movements are not the cause of terrorism,” says Antonio Guterres, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Ukraine army faces a “formidable foe” in eastern Ukraine, says the commander of the Canadian Forces training mission. It is the kind of multifaceted insurgency that is also teaching the Canadian Army some new tactics.

Moscow kicked off the 100-day countdown to the world hockey championships this week with a ceremonial pickup game in Red Square. CBC’s Susan Ormiston spoke to some of the hockey celebrities who took part about the Canada-Russia rivalry and the pressure on Team Russia to win back the gold at this yea…

Another week of damaging doping revelations is hobbling Russia’s efforts to restore its blackened sporting reputation in time for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia grew even darker Friday when a Ukrainian lawyer was killed “in a violent way, and finished off with a fiream.” He had been defending a Russian citizen captured in eastern Ukraine.

John Kerry’s most recent mission to Moscow centred on Syria, but the visit by the U.S. secretary of state also ushered in a warm front and was interpreted as a softening of the often-hostile rhetoric between the United States and Russia, the CBC’s Susan Ormiston writes.

CBC News goes backstage during the opening week of Cirque du Soleil Russia’s Varekai in Moscow.

Cirque du Soleil Russia has just finalized a deal for a new $50-million theatre opening in 2019 in Moscow to house its shows and other entertainment, even as the country’s economy continues to struggle.

On Monday, as some venues are torn down and others scaled back for the financially hobbled Paralympics in September, the bills will be tallied and the legacies measured.

In her first interview since her release from Iran’s notorious Evin prison, retired Concordia University professor Homa Hoodfar describes her terrifying experience and what it’s like to be home.

Families and friends of Flight 302 victims are in Ethiopia at the invitation of the airline to mark the anniversary of the crash that claimed the lives of 157 people, including 18 Canadians.

After fleeing war more than a month ago, some Ukrainians are returning to their country’s east, fatigued from life in shelters and contemplating a future they can’t predict. CBC’s Susan Ormiston and Turgut Yeter spent a day and night on the train to hear their stories.

The world’s coral reefs are endangered from warming oceans, disease and heavy human use. Piece by piece, a group of scientists is working to save the reefs from the edge of extinction.

People on both sides of the Hamas-Israel conflict agree it will lead to profound shifts in attitudes, and how Israelis and Palestinians perceive their future and each other.

In Tel Aviv, traumatized survivors of the Kfar Aza kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 recently gathered in a seaside park to fly kites to bring attention to the 18 hostages from their community presumed captive in Gaza. The longing for peace the residents once had has been displaced by anxiety and worry for those still missing.

Hosting the UN’s biggest climate talks allows the United Arab Emirates to showcase its transition from petrostate to emerging green-energy powerhouse. But as COP28 opens in Dubai, its national oil company is also rushing to expand oil and gas production, leading some to question its commitment to meeting climate targets.

Wildfires in the normally humid, tropical Amazon rainforest have been supercharged by a disastrous combination of elevated temperatures, historic drought and deforestation. In Roraima State, in northern Brazil, the number of fires in February were more than five times the average.