Wednesday Night #2306

The news of our dear friend Alan Hustak’s death was greeted with shock. Most of his friends did not know he was ill.
One of our earliest reactions was to wonder who would write the obituary that would do justice to our dear friend whom David dubbed “the man who writes about dead people”.
Former Gazette copy editor and Alan’s long-suffering colleague, Jim Withers, has met the challenge with the brilliant tribute: Hustak, we have a problem!
“That was a common cry of copy editors dealing with Montreal Gazette reporter Alan Hustak.
Alan, who died May 21 in Saskatchewan at age 82, was legendary when it came to leaving a minefield of typos throughout his news copy. Misspelling names – especially in obituaries – was his specialty.
In one obit, he’d spelled the name of the deceased three ways, something I only noticed when it occurred to me that the dearly departed appeared to be listed as the same person delivering the eulogy. Another time, Alan wrote a news brief about a 118-year-old man being stabbed while hanging around a pool hall when it actually turned out to be an 18-year-old. Easy catch, but I missed others. Copy editors referred to this as being Hustakked.”

News and Social Media
Presumably no-one who shares our planet has missed the epic news noise surrounding Stephen Colbert’s finale on CBS. Stephen Colbert’s Last Show: Laughing Well Is the Best Revenge – The “Late Show” cancellation was a disappointment. But a surreally lovely final episode turned it into a cancellebration. A great show marking a sad occasion primarily for CBS as there is no doubt that Stephen Colbert and his multi-talented friends will be a major Phoenix story.

Pope Leo v AI
Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical (See Long reads)
Pope Leo XIV presented his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” in which he outlined his desire to protect human dignity and agency in an age when technology threatens to replace people in many professional and social roles. He presented it alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, a major A.I. developer, in a symbolic gesture of dialogue between leaders of the spiritual and technological worlds. Mr. Olah, who is not Catholic, praised the pope’s initiative, acknowledging that companies like his own need moral guidance to avoid being swayed by “a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing.”
Anthropic Billionaire Cofounder Joins Pope Leo, Warns AI Job Losses Will Spark “Moral Imperative Of Historic Proportions”

Inspired by the Commencement address given by Connecticut’s Senator Chris Murphy during a reunion visit to Wesleyan University, Byron Haskins writes In a World being flooded with AI ignorant savantism … We should strive to be more human.

U.S./Iran/Israel
As the situation changes from day-to-day, hour-to-hour, and sometimes minute-to-minute, it seems a waste of time to comment on ‘current’ events in the U.S.-Iran conflict.
The latest news as we prepare for Wednesday Night: Trump says Iran and Oman will not control Strait of Hormuz, deal remains elusive
Trump’s comments came after Iranian state TV reported an agreement that would restore commercial shipping through the strategic waterway, with Iran and Oman jointly managing traffic.
Iran and the Forever War Trap
In Trying to Avoid a Quagmire, America Found a Dead End
Lawrence D. Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London.
(Foreign Affairs) Over the weekend, Trump insisted that a deal to end the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz was “largely negotiated” and nearly done. Iranian officials also suggested that they were close to agreeing to a memorandum of understanding with the United States that would stop fighting on all fronts and lift a U.S. naval blockade. The terms of this new agreement, however, were unclear and it seemed that the two sides remained far apart on important issues, likely including Iran’s willingness to make immediate concessions about its nuclear program. That uncertainty has now turned into doubt. On May 25, U.S. forces struck targets in the south of Iran, spurring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to promise retaliation, with future negotiations and the ostensible cease-fire now in the balance.
Thanks to Peter Frise for 12 Weeks of Crisis: A Full Recap of the Strait of Hormuz Blockade (See Long reads/videos below for link)
[In the 24 May] episode of What’s Going on With Shipping, host Sal Mercogliano recaps the first 12 weeks of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz blockade. As we reach the three-month mark, we look back at how the situation evolved from initial disruptions and insurance cancellations to a full-blown “Schrödinger’s Strait” scenario with competing blockades and a global supply chain in disarray.
Has the global shipping industry reached a breaking point, or is a resolution finally in sight?

It is impossible to draw up a list of the deplorable (yes, thank you Hillary!) acts perpetrated by the Trump regime, however these items are particularly egregious. 

Trump admin shutting key US researchers out of global virus response talks, documents and sources reveal
(CNN) Key officials responsible for leading US research on infectious disease threats have been barred from speaking directly with the World Health Organization — effectively shutting some of them out of the global discussions on virus outbreaks,

Of all the mean-spirited, despicable, petty actions of the Trump regime, this has to be one of -if not THE- worst
HUD Moves to Limit Assistance Animals for Disabled Tenants
Housing officials were told to exclude emotional support animals and tighten the definition of a service animal when granting accommodations for disabled tenants.
The memo to housing officials on assistance animals presented emotional support animals as a loophole to circumvent a landlord’s pet policies, asserting that “an entire industry has emerged to convert pets into emotional support animals.”
The memo concluded that “while requests to waive pet policies for animals trained to perform specific disability related services are presumptively reasonable, requests to waive pet policies for untrained” emotional support animals “are not.”

National Park Entrance Fees Are Funding Trump’s D.C. Projects
The administration is spending at least $67 million worth of fees paid by visitors to national parks on fixing D.C. fountains and the Reflecting Pool.

Events
The Yellow Door Choir and Director Roxanne Martel present Songs of the Canadian Experience
Friday, 29 May  and Saturday, 30 May 30 at 7:30 PM.
The Unitarian Church, 5035 de Maisonneuve West. Metro Vendôme
For more information: 514-488-1107
Music stretching across Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific coasts tells our peoples’ stories in song.
Like Gilles Vigneault’s “Mon Pays,” many songs in this concert describe the land, sea, and sky–the challenging climate, the hopes and dreams of many peoples. Two songs by Stan Rogers tell stories of endurance: Newfoundland fishermen fighting to survive in “Make and Break Harbour” and prairie farmers struggling to make a living in “The Field Behind the Plow”. In ”The Ballad of Peter Amberly”, a poem written in 1881, a young PEI lumberjack tells of dangers and death in the woods by the Miramichi.
Admission at the door, suggested at $25
Our charity partner for these concerts is the NDG Community Council,

Thursday, 28 May and Thursday, 4 June
Author Mark Abley, a much-needed voice of insight and sanity, and always a great read, is launching his latest book, Numb: The Politics of Overwhelm, on 28 May at 7 p.m. at Librairie Pulp Books and Café at 3952 rue Wellington, Verdun. The following Thursday, June 4, he’ll be in conversation with fellow gifted wordsmith Bryan Demchinsky from 12:30 to 1 p.m. at the Atwater Library as part of its Lunchtime Series.

Saturday, 20 June
Announcing the Paul Wells Road Show: Toronto!
Ticket sales are now open to everyone for a big show in the big city (That would be Toronto)
The Paul Wells Show Live in the Green Sanderson Hall at Hugh’s Room, 296 Broadview Avenue
Show at 8pm, Doors at 7pm
Tickets $60+ in advance, $67+ at the door
With Mayor Olivia Chow for a discussion about the challenges facing Canada’s biggest city and  panel to follow up, with Mark Carney’s former chief of staff Marco Mendicino, former top Conservative staffer Jason Lietaer, and the editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star, Nicole MacIntyre,

Canada matters International relations, defense and foreign policy
Wednesday has been a hyperactive day in Canadian international relations, with announcements about aluminum, LNG, aircraft and submarines
No surprise: Guilbeault walks
John Stackhouse, head of RBC’s Economics and Thought Leadership group, posted on LinkedIn
“As Canada turns more to Europe — witness the big announcements today with Sweden and Germany — Ireland will be a key partner. And not just because so many of us have roots there. We’re both relatively small, globally-minded nations that have long served as valuable gateways to our continents.” …
Brett House joined Canada’s National Venture Capitaland Private Equity Conference (Invest Canada 26) to share his insights on the macro conditions for investment in Canada. If we are lucky, perhaps he will join us next WN 3 June alongside Peter Berezin.
Chris Roper forwarded The Defence Bank, Linguistic Hypocrisy, and Sovereigntist Denial –The “fear campaign” isn’t what you might think by Patrick Déry with the comment “Another example of journalists picking up on our discussions at WNS i.e., on the Defence Bank . Well written and comprehensive article of the type that he produces consistently. Worth circulating”.
This follows on Andrew Caddell‘s column of last week: Quebec offers few incentives in the NATO defence bank competition
If Quebec fails to bring the defence bank to Montreal, it’ll have no one to blame but itself.
It is such a pleasure to see Bob Rae and Stéphane Dion liberated from their government appointments and free to speak their minds on topics on which they are both knowledgeable and passionate. Currently they include preoccupation with Alberta’s separation threats.
Stéphane Dion (Guest Column): Danielle Smith’s Question Does Not Trigger The Clarity Act
Bob Rae: Notes from the Citadel: Alberta, Canada, and the Lessons of History

MUST READ –
MIGS Releases New Report on Beijing’s Interference Operations Across the G7
The Montreal Institute for Global Security is pleased to announce the release of its new report, Guarding the G7: Countering Beijing’s Interference Operations.
Congratulations to Marie Lamensch and Kyle Matthews, authors of the report that examines how the Chinese Communist Party conducts foreign influence and interference activities across G7 democracies through the United Front Work Department and a broad network of affiliated organizations and intermediaries operating across political, economic, academic, media, and societal sectors.

Varia
Harrison Ford Encourages ASU Graduates to ‘Go Change the World’ in Passionate Commencement Speech See link to text in Long reads.

Colbert heads to Middle-earth
Colbert has confirmed that he is co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings” movie for Warner Bros. alongside his son, Peter McGee.
Colbert announced the project in March alongside Peter Jackson, the director of the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies, saying the movie would draw from “the six chapters early on in ‘The Fellowship’” that Jackson did not adapt in the original trilogy.

Russians Are Thriving on This Thai Island, but the Scene Feels Fleeting
Thousands who fled Russia after the invasion of Ukraine have built an enclave in Phuket. An air of impermanence hangs over their community.

Dog shoots woman with shotgun at Nebraska convenience store
Police responded to reports of gunfire at store in town of Scottsbluff, and found the culprit to be a dog

Long Reads/videos
Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical
The document marks a powerful foray by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church into the debate about the misuse or overuse of artificial intelligence.

Iran and the Forever War Trap
In Trying to Avoid a Quagmire, America Found a Dead End

Thomas L. Friedman: It’s Crow, Mr. Trump, Not Lobster
“Trump launched this war of choice with the transformational goal of regime change,” Robert Litwak, an arms control expert and the author of “Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy,” told me. “He is on the verge of ending it through a transactional deal that will be a variant of the agreement Obama negotiated in 2015, and Trump recklessly jettisoned in 2018, that constrained Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
Such a transactional deal leaving the regime in power will be anathema to the pro-Trump hard-liners “who define the threat from Iran as deriving from the character of its regime,” Litwak added. …

12 Weeks of Crisis: A Full Recap of the Strait of Hormuz Blockade
What’s Going on With Shipping host Sal Mercogliano recaps the first 12 weeks of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz blockade. (video)

MAGA Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, Doesn’t Know Where Canada’s “Anti-American” Mood Came From. Let Me Explain – I’ll Use Small Words, Pete.
Hoekstra sat down with Radio-Canada’s Laurence Martin at the embassy in Ottawa this past week and delivered a performance so dense with self-pity and so allergic to facts that it deserves its own genre.

Arizona State Commencement Speech 2026
Actor Harrison Ford delivers the commencement address at Arizona State University. Read the transcript here.