New at Debating Canadian Defence: An irritated take on the latest fighter review rumours. open.substack.com/pub/philippe...

The entire business model of American R1 universities is not viable without restoration of federal funding, & every individual institution pretending it can solve this problem alone is also not viable. University presidents need to be speaking out, collectively & loudly about this, in DC, right now.

This month the Ontario govt announced the completion of a $600 million battery storage facility with 250MW capacity in Napanee. It was touted as being “capable of powering 250,000 homes.” Now a 250MW data centre is being proposed in Napanee. What an incredible coincidence.

Once again: German universities were the envy of the world before the Nazis rose to power and took an ideological wrecking ball to the entire enterprise. If you want to know how long it took for German universities to recover… they haven’t.

> @javierblas.bsky.social

A timely piece, as the fourth anniversary of the WTO's 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement (Fish 1) approaches, on why concluding the second phase (Fish 2) is important for small countries such as the Pacific nations. And a timely warning that the in-built time-bomb is ticking. #LowyInstitute

Canada prices carbon far below the damage it causes The latest from the Globe's business commentary, by Paul Kershaw: www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

Canadian dairy policy a focus for US lobbies in USMCA review insidetrade.com/daily-news/d...

For 88% of countries, “invisible” trade barriers like regulations and administrative procedures cost exporters more than tariffs. @unctad.bsky.social estimates that aligning rules across countries can cut trade costs by 15-30%! #TradeFactOfTheMonth

Some IMF skepticism about industrial policy, contra World Bank? Industrial Policy Is Adapting to Crises, but Remains Hard to Implement Effectively www.imf.org/en/blogs/art...

White House proposes new rules giving political appointees final approval on research grants. These proposed Office of Management and Budget regulations would render the federal research grant review process opaque. | Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com/article/whit...

My Trade Secrets today. Trump's renegotiation of USMCA is going to be another dead-end zero-sum attempt to crowbar more of the supply chain for conventional cars into the US. The real action is in EVs, which thanks to his bizarre prejudices is largely passing the US by. as.ft.com/r/009ea6fd-5...

I’m sorry, but Germans buying a west coast LNG project (which was in the works under Trudeau) does not disprove Trudeau’s “infamous” claim questioning of the business case for an LNG terminal on the east coast. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

Canada's bitumen is disadvantaged in a carbon-constrained world because it's costly and carbon-intensive to extract. US attacks on Iran render cheaper OPEC crudes less appealing though. But with increasingly low-cost renewables, how high a democracy premium will the world pay - and for how long?

great story about the long shadow of the Raj and the Indian elite who emulated the departed Brits. I think that there were comparable clubs across the subcontinent (I played squash at the Dhaka club nearly 50 years ago.) I wonder what has happened to the others?

New paper finds "After the first year of war...82% of each square kilometer of the Gaza Strip had been damaged at least once and that 67.9% of its built-up area has been destroyed." "Our results show that more than 3/4s of Gaza’s economy has been destroyed since the start of the conflict"

Big let down, to be honest

Tyre is the fifth largest city in Lebanon (Edinburgh is that in UK). Tyre is the oldest inhabited city in the world. Tyre was allocated to the Tribe of Asher (One of the 10 tribes of Israel). Israel destroying its own history, I no longer care. But also everyone else’s. Disgusting scum

Great interview with Steve Verheul with interesting detail on USMCA negotiations, and this important observation on what's coming in the "review": www.theglobeandmail.com/business/rob...

Andrei Sulzenko nails it:

Carney picks Swedish early-warning aircraft tech over U.S. bidders www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

I have been quietly but implacably awaiting Cornyn’s downfall since the day he posted this - just as people were starting to die and frantic experts were begging everyone to take the virus seriously.

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WTO news story on last week's Goods Council meeting. Several interesting topics: eg, trade concerns, and the multilateral system. "Most delegations that spoke reaffirmed support for the WTO or the multilateral trading system, though views differed on how to adapt it to current challenges."

US–Bangladesh ART (Agreement on Reciprocal Trade) Art. 5.3 commits the US to a mechanism allowing 🇧🇩 textile & apparel products to enter the US market at a zero reciprocal tariff rate. (Volumes linked to 🇧🇩 purchases of US-produced cotton & man-made fibre.) 1/2 asianews.network/the-cotton-c...

"Brace yourselves,” said Kenyan opposition politician Fred Matiang’i. “The worst is about to come.”

Should we care about far away outbreaks of infectious disease? by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0fc7a92... via @theglobeandmail.com

Opinion: The war could end with Tehran more confident, more hardline and with new resources to rebuild its nuclear programme. ft.trib.al/FaVZ7fu

PM Carney: "In these separation issues it is often advanced that 'Vote for this and we will strengthen our hand.' That is a very dangerous bluff. I saw firsthand what happened in the UK, they're still trying to undo what people didn't think they were voting for but what they ended up having."

Honestly, one of the funniest tweets I've ever seen.

You don't usually rely on Iran's Fars News Agency for unvarnished truth-telling, but we can make an exception in this case.

"Detroit Once Ruled Canada’s Car Industry. Trump’s Tariffs May End That." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/w... Seems it's already over, tbqh: "Last year, 1.2 million vehicles came out of Canadian plants, about three-quarters from Toyota and Honda."

Talking about a fortress is different than talking about free trade. Does the choice of words constrain room to manoeuvre? Joel Baum: Fortress North America is replacing free trade in Canada’s lexicon policyoptions.irpp.org/2026/05/fort...

Can’t wait to watch all the people who criticized the JCPOA and excoriated Obama for “pallets of cash” try to sanewash Trump giving Iran even more cash for a worse deal than the JCPOA.

Great and sobering.piece on what AI might mean for universities by @rorytruex.bsky.social rorytruex.substack.com/p/will-ai-br...

Here's the thing. From a business perspective, rejoining would be much better than the gradual alignment/ next stage. Why? Because every change (rules/regulations) is expensive and a waste of the company's time/money. Even if it's a positive change. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The American-led negotiations in Ukraine prolonged the war by encouraging Putin. The Russians dangled ludicrous business"deals" in front of Witkoff and Kushner who were too gullible to understand that they were being manipulated. Good to hear the US has abandoned this failed policy.

How to win a trade war (and influence people) My new essay for the FT: as.ft.com/r/19d4135a-c...

Another day, another bad take on oil and gas from the Globe and Mail -- this time from Tony Keller. Let's dig in. 🧵 www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

Corey Hogan, the Liberal MP for Calgary Confederation, responds to Premier Smith's announcement. x.com/coreyhoganyy...

Governments around the world spend more than USD 2 trillion annually on environmentally harmful subsidies. 💵 🛢️ Reforming these subsidies is crucial for closing the nature finance gap and protecting biodiversity. 🌱 Learn more in our guide ➡️ https://bit.ly/43iDusb

There are days when I miss being an editor. I loved writing headlines. Whoever did this, I hope they took the rest of the day off.

For @nybooks.com I wrote about why the US effort to use economic warfare has backfired, leaving it ever more isolated. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

"Permanent war as a governing condition is not only bad for the region, even on its own terms it offers Israel little in the long run. Tranquility produced by rubble is not peace. It is only an interval before more rubble is required."

Okay, I’ll be the (possibly rare) person who cares a lot about climate change and doesn’t think the industrial carbon pricing agreement is necessarily terrible.

Here's BC Premier David Eby's response to the pipeline MOU #bcpoli