RBC to mobilize $1.4 billion to back Canada's next global technology champions and advance nation-building efforts - The Globe and Mail

After fires devastated parts of the Amazon rainforest in 2023–24, researchers collaborated with firefighters, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders to produce guidance on how to tackle future blazes. Credit: Apolline Guillerot-Malick/SOPA Images/LightRocket/GettyClimate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts have all contributed to current national and global instability. In this age of polycrises, politicians and policymakers often need to make fast decisions. Scientists in academia can struggle when asked for research to support those decisions, often because their institutions are not set up to provide authoritative knowledge for rapid decision-making. The sprint to solve coronavirus protein structures — and disarm them with drugsOne high-profile exception to this offers a blueprint for how to mobilize and do high-quality research reliably in a crisis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers in academia and industry, working with policymakers, together solved the protein structures of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in record time; conducted fast, randomized controlled trials to test drugs; and quickly developed vaccines that subsequently gained rapid approval.

The sweeping federal financial assistance rule proposed by the Office of Management and Budget is on hold. The reprieve may be an opportunity for the rule to fizzle. Once the world’s envy, American science faces what looks to many like a dystopian future. Political appointees, not peer reviewers, could have the last word on awarding research grants. Once-independent investigators could need explicit government approval to use federal money to collaborate with colleagues abroad, attend conferences, or publish papers. That scenario may become reality in the US if the Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance, proposed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), goes into force. The proposal goes far beyond science; it would affect all entities that receive federal money—children’s programs like Head Start, towns and municipalities, Medicaid, food stamps, hospitals, and more. Scientists and scientific societies have been vocal in opposing the proposed rule. Originally set to go into effect on 1 October, the rule is on hold. The stopgap federal budget bill passed in early September by Congress has delayed its implementation through at least 11 December.

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Here’s your NYT Strands hint for today, plus the spangram and all of today’s Strands answers for puzzle No. 959 on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. Today’s Strands theme was tricky. It helps to be a runner. Read on for all the answers.