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 start the show talking about the blowup of the bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk which took place in spectacular fashion over twitter. Was Elon's performance a genuine show of dismay at a congressional spending bill that flies in the face of all the cost cutting initiatives he was pursuing with DOGE? Or Is this a man having a nervous breakdown in public? And how will this breakup affect support from other tech billionaires and fracture the MAGA coalition? In the second half of the show Rudyard and Janice turn to the surprise Ukrainian drone attack that targeted Russian air bases hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers thousands of km away from the border of Ukraine. What will Putin's response be to this brazen attack? How will the use of cheap weapons to destroy expensive weapons change the face of warfare? And finally, how will the loss of some of its military capacity affect Russia's war with Ukraine and its relationship with NATO?

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.

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