HARD NUMBERS: Killer oyster parasite spreads, Canada offers tariff relief, Small batch opioid precursors pose big problem, Moscow says “no” to new US-Russia nuclear treaty

Oysters from Prince Edward Island are displayed in a Toronto market.

Oysters from Prince Edward Island are displayed in a Toronto market.

REUTERS/Chris Helgren

95: An oyster parasite with a kill rate of up to 95% is spreading fast on Prince Edward Island, putting the lucrative industry at risk. Canadian food inspectors say the culprit – called “multinucleate sphere X” or “MSX” – has no effect on humans who eat contaminated oysters, but it shortens the mollusks’ lifespan. Oyster exports are PEI’s third most lucrative industry, bringing in about $24 million annually. Lobsters are in first, at nearly $300 million.

25: Canada is prepared to offer firms relief from a new 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum coming into effect later this month. Ottawa imposed the measure to fight what it says is “dumping” in which China, suffering low domestic demand, exports unsold commodities at ultra-low prices. After Canadian firms warned they won’t be able to adjust their supply chains quickly enough, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government will develop a “framework” in which companies can request relief.

$800: How does so much fentanyl get into the United States? In small packages, according to a Reuters report, which finds that traffickers of the chemicals used to make the drug exploit a US trade loophole that permits packages with a value below $800 to enter the US with minimal inspections. Over a two-year period, a single trafficker profiled in the report ferried small packages arriving from China with enough precursors to make 5 billion fentanyl pills.

2: With just two years until the expiration of the last major nuclear arms limitation treaty between Russia and the US, Moscow may not seek to sign a new treaty at all. Russia last year suspended participation in the 2010 pact, known as the New START treaty, because of frictions with Washington over the Ukraine war. To sign a new agreement under these circumstances, said an unnamed Russian official, “will only entertain the pride of the United States.”

More from GZERO Media

Listen: In seven short weeks, the Trump administration has completely reshaped US foreign policy and upended trade alliances. Will China benefit from US retrenchment and increasing global uncertainty, or will its struggling economy hold it back? On the GZERO World Podcast, Bill Bishop, a China analyst and author of the Sinocism newsletter, joins Ian Bremmer for a wide-ranging conversation about China—its domestic priorities, global administration, and whether America’s retreat from global commitments is opening new doors for Beijing.

German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz speaks to the media after he reached an agreement with the Greens on a massive increase in state borrowing just days ahead of a parliamentary vote next week, in Berlin, Germany, on March 14, 2025.
REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

Germany’s election-winning center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, led by Friedrich Merz, and the Social Democrats have reached a preliminary agreement with the Green Party on a deal to exclude defense spending from the country’s constitutional debt break and establish a dedicated $545 billion fund for infrastructure investments.

A Russian army soldier walks along a ruined street of Malaya Loknya settlement, which was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, on March 13, 2025.

Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

The Russian leader has conditions of his own for any ceasefire with Ukraine, and he also wants a meeting with Donald Trump.

Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University on June 1, 2024.

REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

The court battle over whether the US can deport Mahmoud Khalil, the 30-year-old Palestinian-Algerian activist detained in New York last Saturday, began this week in Manhattan. Khalil, an outspoken activist for Palestinian rights at Columbia University, was arrested Saturday at his apartment in a university-owned building at Columbia University by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and he is now being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.

The Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike on Thursday, targeting a building in the Mashrou Dummar area of Damascus.
(Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto)

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a residential building on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday in the latest Israeli incursion into post-Assad Syria.

Lars Klingbeil (l), Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, and Friedrich Merz, CDU Chairman and Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, talk at the end of the 213th plenary session of the 20th legislative period in the German Bundestag.

Germany’s government is in a state of uncertainty as the outgoing government races to push through a huge, and highly controversial, new spending package before its term ends early this spring.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Republican, speaks as the U.S. vice president visits East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 3, 2025.
Rebecca Droke/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

On Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin redefined the agency’s mission, stating that its focus is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business.”