Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates.

Rudyard and Janice open the show with Trump's announcement of auto tariffs which, coupled with the tariffs on steel and aluminum, could cripple the Canadian car sector. Instead of doubling down on a dying industry which is bound to the US, why not invest in an industry like mining that we export to the rest of the world? In the second half of the show Rudyard and Janice turn their attention to Israel, where a budget victory for Bibi has bought him 18 months until the next election. Can he free himself from the right wing ideologues in his coalition? Or will this new sense of security galvanize him to continue prosecuting the war in Gaza?

To support the Friday Focus podcast consider becoming a donor to the Munk Debates for as little as $25 annually, or $.50 per episode. Canadian donors receive a charitable tax receipt.

This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue.

More information at www.munkdebates.com.