Good morning. NATO handed Donald Trump a headline-friendly victory with a one-page pledge – more on that below, along with Ottawa’s $1-billion loan to buy Chinese ferries and Rob Carrick’s parting financial advice. But first:

• Harvard and U of T reach a contingency plan for international students to take courses in Canada
• Potential fraud has been identified in a travel nursing company’s billings, Newfoundland’s Auditor-General finds
• The Trump administration will give its first classified briefing on Iran strikes to Congress

NATO leaders carefully stage-managed yesterday’s Hague summit to ensure Donald Trump remained on board. There were concessions to the U.S. President’s attention span: just a single main session, instead of the usual three, and a scaled-back joint communiqué that fit on one page. There was lots of flattery: Trump scored the rare honour of staying at the Dutch royal palace, while Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda proposed the alliance adopt the new motto “Make NATO Great Again.” There was…more flattery, I guess, when Secretary-General Mark Rutte cheered Trump’s recent foul-mouthed outburst about Israel and Iran. “Daddy sometimes has to use strong language,” Rutte told reporters, with a pump of his fist.

And it worked! NATO members agreed to boost defence spending to 5 per cent of their GDP by 2035, and Trump pronounced the summit a historic success. “When I came here, I came here because it was something I’m supposed to be doing, but I left here a little bit differently,” he said at a closing press conference. “I watched the heads of these countries get up, and the love and the passion that they showed for their countries was unbelievable.” The defence commitment, Trump insisted, is a “big win for Western civilization.”

That commitment breaks down into two parts. Core military spending, including weapons, equipment and troops, will reflect 3.5 per cent of the GDP. Defence-related investments, such as intelligence, cybersecurity and infrastructure, will make up the other 1.5 per cent. At his own press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Mark Carney positioned Canada’s pledge – the biggest jump in military spending since the Second World War – as better protection for our sovereignty and interests. Its price tag will work out to an additional $50-billion a year, nearly double Ottawa’s existing defence budget.

Or will it? On closer inspection, there’s a key word missing from that brief NATO communiqué – and it leaves member states some wiggle room. The unanimously approved statement says that “allies,” rather than “all allies,” agreed to the 5-per-cent spend. The language represents a compromise between Rutte and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who argued that his country can hit its military commitments with just 2.1 per cent of the GDP. “This key change reflects our position: Not all allies are bound to the 5-per-cent target,” a Spanish press release declared.

Other countries were quick to pick up what Spain was putting down. “The Slovak Republic is capable of meeting NATO’s requirements even without a substantial increase in defence spending to 5 per cent,” Prime Minister Robert Fico posted on social media. Slovakia currently devotes 2 per cent of its GDP to defence. Belgium (1.3 per cent) and Luxembourg (1.29) proved similarly wishy-washy about reaching the new target. “There are no special treatments for any member state,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said. “If the interpretation of Spain is correct, anybody can interpret the text in the same way.”

Perhaps that is why, at yesterday’s press conference, Trump reserved his ire for this particular ally. “I think Spain is terrible, what they’ve done,” he said. The President swiftly threatened to make Spain pay twice as much for any trade deal signed with the U.S. It’s unclear how he intends to do that; the European Union negotiates as a bloc. No matter. “I’m going to do it myself,” Trump promised. “They’ll pay more money this way.”

But he’s battling the clock here. NATO states, remember, have a full decade to meet the new spending goal. “This increase will happen at a measured pace,” Carney told the press yesterday. The leaders also agreed to reassess that 5-per-cent commitment in 2029, four years from now, when the White House will (presumably) have a different occupant. A reporter wondered if Trump was the reason NATO chose that date. Carney began fighting a smile before she finished her question. “Will he be out of office?” the Prime Minister said, his eyebrows pulling together. “Oh. I didn’t realize that. Okay.” Then he suggested that 2029 was simply a natural time to review.

School’s out for summer this week – including at Big Tancook Elementary, among Canada’s last one-room schoolhouses, located off the coast of Nova Scotia’s Mahone Bay. (Student body? Five.) Read more here about the efforts to keep this island school afloat.

At home: The federal infrastructure bank provided a $1-billion loan so BC Ferries could buy four Chinese-made ships – something Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland failed to mention when she criticized the purchase last week.

Abroad: U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new, handpicked immunization panel will scrutinize the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines.

Off the picket line: DHL Express Canada has reached a tentative deal with its workers after months of negotiations and a strike lasting more than two weeks.