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 preview our upcoming 2025 autumn mainstage Munk Debate on the Two-State Solution taking place on December 3rd in Toronto. What can we expect from the team of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, who believe Israel's future depends on pursuing two states for two people? Can the team of Ayelet Shaked and Micheal Oren make a compelling case that it is in Israel's best interest not pursue this path? Rudyard explains how we landed on this debate and these speakers. In the second half of the show Rudyard and Janice turn to Chinese-American relations following Trump's trade meeting this week with Xi Jinping. The US backed down on a range of tariff threats and most importantly on high tech exports to China. Why did Trump agree to this? There is a codependency between these two superpowers that will only break when either China is able to manufacture advanced AI chips or the US breaks China's monopoly on critical rare earth minerals. Does Trump have the patience and resolve to stay the course? And how should Canada pursue its own trade relationship with China in order to protect our interests and specifically the struggling auto sector?

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