WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Canadian planemaker Bombardier should stop selling jets in the United States unless it builds them there, a threat issued hours before Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs on American goods took effect and without an accompanying executive order or tariff schedule.

“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. “Their products aren’t good enough! Over 50% of their revenue comes from the United States — They live off American Buyers, American Companies, American Airports, and American Service — All while Canada blocks our GREAT American Banks, and Companies, throughout the U.S.A.” He added: “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank.’” The post closed with a string of slogans: “BUY AMERICAN. FLY ON AMERICAN AIRLINES. ENJOY AMERICAN LIQUOR AND BEVERAGES. SAIL ON LAKE AMERICA. AMERICA FIRST!“

The White House did not immediately describe how a sales ban would work. Civil aircraft already flying in the United States are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration on safety grounds, not by presidential social-media posts. No new duty on Bombardier airframes was published with the message. The gap between the all-caps line and a legal instrument is the first fact of the story.

The second is timing. Canada’s counter-tariffs — 15% to 50% on hundreds of U.S. products, framed in Ottawa as a dollar-for-dollar answer to earlier U.S. levies — were set for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Prime Minister Mark Carney told CBC News there were no last-minute calls scheduled with Trump and no deal to announce. Talks had collapsed late last month. Trump’s Bombardier post landed in that vacuum.

Bombardier answered without naming the president. “Bombardier values its great partnership with American companies and its U.S. employees,” the Montreal company said. “Our plan is to continue to invest in our people, our customers and the communities in which we operate across the country.” It said it employs workers in more than 20 states, with sites in Kansas, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, Delaware, California, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. Wings for its Global-series business jets are built in Red Oak, Texas. Flight-control parts come from the Los Angeles area. The firm said about 2,800 American businesses in 47 states sit in its supply chain and that it spends more than $2.5 billion a year with those partners. A new facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is planned later this year. About 55% of Bombardier’s $9.6 billion in 2025 revenue came from the United States, according to the company.

That U.S. footprint produced the first Republican pushback. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, where Bombardier keeps its American headquarters and builds special-mission aircraft, said he contacted the administration. “The presence of Bombardier in Wichita supports a local workforce of more than a thousand employees, who contribute their talent and expertise to our nation’s defense and aerospace capabilities,” Moran wrote. He said he wanted the president aware of workers at the plant and in the Kansas supply chain.

Quebec’s economy minister, Christopher Skeete Fréchette, took the opposite tack from Ottawa’s silence in the first hours. “I will not respond to provocation with provocation,” he wrote. “Quebec will not allow anyone to dictate where our companies must produce in order to access a market.”

Trump has aimed at the same company before. On Jan. 29 he wrote that because Canada had “wrongfully, illegally and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700 and 800 Jets,” the United States was “hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all Aircraft made in Canada” and would impose a 50% tariff on Canadian-built aircraft if the Gulfstream files were not cleared. Neither the blanket decertification nor the 50% aircraft tariff materialized in that form. Canada certified several Gulfstream models in February. A White House official told Reuters in January that Trump was not talking about stripping certificates from jets already in service.

The history is longer. In Trump’s first term the Commerce Department imposed a nearly 300% duty on new Bombardier C Series airliners after Boeing alleged Canadian subsidies. The U.S. International Trade Commission unanimously rejected the tariff in 2018. Boeing did not appeal. Airbus later took a stake in the program, now the A220, and Bombardier left commercial aviation to concentrate on business jets — Globals, Challengers — whose customers are corporations and wealthy owners concentrated in the U.S. market Trump now says they must earn by moving final assembly.

Gulfstream, a General Dynamics unit based in Savannah, Georgia, is the American rival in that cabin. Certification delays in Canada were real; they were also temporary. U.S. banks and companies operate in Canada, contrary to the broadest reading of Trump’s “blocks” line. The narrower, documented fight is over who signs off on which business jet, how fast, and whether that process is safety review or industrial policy.

Enforcement options, if the administration wants more than a post, run through familiar tools: tariffs under trade statutes, procurement rules for government and contractor fleets, or pressure on FAA bilateral processes that other countries would treat as politicizing airworthiness. Each has costs. A duty on completed Canadian jets would hit U.S. buyers who already order Globals with Texas-built wings. A ban on new deliveries would strand a service network at American airports that Bombardier says it staffs. Kansas and Texas workers are not an abstraction in that ledger.

For Canada the company is a national champion that no longer makes airliners but still anchors Montreal aerospace. For Trump it is a symbol in a wider argument that access to U.S. customers should require U.S. factories. He has applied that template to autos, steel and pharmaceuticals. Business jets are a smaller trade flow with a louder customer class. Owners who write checks for a Global 8000 also donate and vote in the states where Bombardier already pays people.

The midterm calendar sits behind the industrial one. Moran’s note is a reminder that “build here” collides with “jobs already here” when the plant is in Wichita. Carney’s tariffs are a reminder that Ottawa will answer sector by sector. Trump’s January threat faded when Canada moved the Gulfstream files. Monday’s threat arrived with no order attached.

What exists on the record is the post, the company statement, the Kansas senator, the Quebec minister, and a tariff war that started at midnight. Bombardier already builds wings in Texas and special-mission aircraft in Kansas. Trump says that is not enough. Until an agency publishes a rule, American buyers can still take delivery of a Canadian-branded jet that rolled through American shops — and Canadian customs can still collect on U.S. goods that crossed the same border the other way.

VAUGHN, ONT. — Canadian sprinkle producer Spectra Confectionery Ltd. has opened a new facility in Mississauga, Ont.

The facility expands the company’s capabilities by 40% while creating a stronger foundation for innovation, customer service and continued expansion into the US market, Spectra said.

Spectra has grown to become the largest Canadian manufacturer of toppings for baked foods, snack foods and ice creams since its founding in 1996. The toppings are naturally colored, sugar free and uniquely shaped. Spectra also works closely with bakeries and snack producers across the United States.

Every development strategist in Asia and the Pacific knows the arithmetic. Public budgets cannot cover the region’s infrastructure and social needs, so private capital must fill the gap. 

What gets less attention is why that capital so often stays on the sidelines even when the need is obvious, and the projects are sound.

A recent essay from the Asian Development Bank, written by financial management officer Deewas Khadka, makes the case plainly. Investors do not fund a project because it is important. They fund it because they trust the numbers behind it. 

When that trust is absent, even a technically excellent power plant, road or water system can struggle to find backers.

Why the “boring” part of finance matters most

Before capital moves, three conditions usually need to be satisfied: a project must be bankable, its risks must be identifiable, and the environment around it must be dependable. 

It is the third condition that gets waved through as a formality, and it is the one Khadka argues deserves the closest scrutiny. 

Reliable financial reporting and independent audits are what allow investors to believe that the people managing a project can account for its resources and report results honestly.

This is easy to dismiss as a back-office concern. It is not. Accounting standards define what must be disclosed. 

Audits test whether that disclosure can be believed. Strip either one out, and investors are left pricing uncertainty instead of risk, which almost always means demanding higher returns or simply walking away.

The hidden cost of weak financial trust

The clearest evidence of this problem shows up in ordinary lending behavior. In many developing markets, banks still lend against land and buildings rather than against a company’s actual financial performance, because collateral feels safer than a balance sheet. 

That habit quietly excludes smaller businesses that lack property to pledge but have viable, revenue-generating operations. 

These are often the firms most responsible for local employment and innovation, and they are also the ones locked out by a system that does not trust financial statements enough to lend against them.

The gap between law and practice compounds the problem. Many countries have adopted international accounting standards in legislation. 

Far fewer have made those standards work in practice. Audits in some markets have become a compliance ritual rather than genuine independent scrutiny, and financial statements fall short of what they claim to represent. 

Reform on paper does not automatically produce trust in the field, and businesses that need financing the most often see the least benefit from it.

Five fixes worth taking seriously

Khadka’s essay outlines a practical agenda for governments willing to treat this as a priority rather than a technicality:

Reporting obligations should scale with risk, so large companies and banks face full requirements while smaller firms face proportionate ones, preserving scrutiny without burying small business in paperwork.

Financial information should be genuinely accessible. A report filed away and never seen again helps no one. Central filing systems and digital, open reporting make information usable by lenders, regulators and tax authorities alike.

The accounting and auditing profession should be funded and staffed like infrastructure, because universities, professional qualifications and continuing education are what make standards function rather than merely exist on paper.

Reform needs a clear owner. Too many countries support better reporting in principle while responsibility for delivering it is scattered across agencies with no single body accountable for results.

And countries should diagnose their own weaknesses honestly, using tools such as the World Bank’s Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes to identify where trust is strong and where it is not, then build a plan with real deadlines and accountability behind it.

A public good, not just an investor courtesy

The value of credible financial reporting extends well beyond any single deal. Reliable accounting records help tax authorities collect revenue they are owed. 

They give journalists, lawmakers and citizens the ability to follow public money. They give regulators the evidence they need to catch abuse before it spreads. 

A country that neglects its reporting and audit systems is not only less attractive to foreign capital. It is also weakening the domestic institutions that accountability depends on.

Trust cannot be legislated, only earned

The uncomfortable conclusion is that none of this can be manufactured by decree. Trust is built slowly, through years of consistent reporting and institutions that behave the way they claim to. There is no ribbon cutting for a more rigorous audit regime, which is precisely why governments tend to underinvest in it.

But the logic Khadka lays out is hard to argue with. Development needs will keep growing faster than public budgets. 

Private capital will not arrive simply because a project deserves it. It arrives when risk can be measured, and institutions can be believed. 

For governments across the region serious about closing their financing gap, credible financial reporting is not a technical afterthought to development strategy. It is the foundation the rest of the strategy stands on.

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Retail footwear veteran Genesco Inc. is shuttering more than two dozen underperforming stores as part of a broader push to reduce its physical footprint, cut overhead and boost overall profitability.

The Nashville-based parent company of Journeys, Johnston & Murphy and U.K.-based Schuh closed 25 retail stores during its second quarter of fiscal 2027. 

With three new openings, the net reduction brought its total store fleet down to 1,186 – a 5% drop in total retail space from the same period last year. The quarterly cuts were led by teen retailer Journeys, Schuh and Johnston & Murphy, with 17, six and two closures, respectively. 

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Mimi Vaughn, president and chief executive officer of Genesco Inc., stands for a photograph in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020. (Eilon Paz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Genesco says its reduced square footage is part of a deliberate operational pivot. Net sales dropped 3% to $530 million, but management cited store closures, reduced promotional discounting and license transitions as intentional moves that sacrificed top-line revenue to secure healthier margins.

Genesco is the parent company of Journeys, Johnston & Murphy and U.K.-based Schuh. (Eilon Paz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The lower store count and a disciplined pull-back on price cuts helped adjusted gross margins expand 140 basis points to 47.2%.

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Meanwhile, flagship brand Journeys posted a 2% gain in comparable sales, marking its eighth consecutive quarter of growth, while Johnston & Murphy comparable sales grew 4%. Genesco also significantly cleaned up its balance sheet, slashing total debt from $71 million a year ago to $15.8 million.

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Genesco says its reduced square footage is part of a deliberate operational pivot. (Eilon Paz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Beyond shutting doors, the retailer is aggressively targeting operational costs. A company-wide efficiency push – fueled by store remodeling, automation, and AI integration – is projected to save between $40 million and $50 million through fiscal 2029.

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With strong back-to-school demand lifting Journeys’ sales to mid-single-digit growth in August, Genesco raised its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to the high end of its $2 to $2.40 per share range. For investors, the company’s 25 store closures represent a tactical trim, exchanging sheer size for a leaner, higher-margin operation.

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Researchers at the University of Bath say the biggest barriers are not material scarcity but current systems and policy

The UK could meet its housing targets by building houses using straw, according to a new study.

According to researchers at the University of Bath, Britain could build 300,000 new homes each year by swapping high-carbon building materials for straw without running out of supply.

The UK produces around 9.9 million tonnes of straw every year – far more than would be needed as a construction material to meet the government’s targets.

The study found that agricultural straw – a co-product of cereal farming – could replace high-emission materials such as concrete and steel, while storing carbon in buildings.

Despite being a renewable and low-carbon building material, very little straw is currently used in British construction. In the UK, less than 20 new homes a year are built with straw.

It is mainly used as livestock bedding and feed, or ploughed back into fields to improve the soil. It’s also used for energy generation, horticulture, and sometimes mushroom cultivation.

“The key barrier to adopting straw houses is not the availability of the raw material, but the need for stronger supply chains, clearer regulation, and greater acceptance in the construction industry,” the University of Bath said.

The study shows that scaling up straw construction could cut emissions from building construction while also storing between 1.8 and 3.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Researchers analysed how straw is currently used and tested multiple scenarios for redirecting its supply into construction.

They found that diverting straw from other sectors, such as reallocating the supply from bioenergy or industrial uses, would provide enough material to build up to 300,000 low-rise buildings, and just 60 per cent of the straw left in fields would be needed to satisfy this demand.

Growing more straw on currently unused land could supply enough material for around 163,000 homes, with diversion from other industries needed to meet housing targets, the study said.

The research found barriers include a lack of established supply chains between farms and building sites; a limited pool of specialised builders familiar with straw-based construction; and slow uptake due to builders, lenders and insurers looking to minimise the risk of alternative materials.

“The findings suggest that straw provides a clear opportunity for the UK to cut construction emissions while accelerating homebuilding significantly; however, coordinated policy support, regulation and market incentives are needed to unlock straw’s true potential,” the University of Bath added.