Albany business-as-usual is steadily killing New York's future, with the destruction of the state's public schools a prime example — and if Kathy Hochul is anything, she's the face of go-along-to-get-along with Albany's ways.
Editorial: As well as the raft of small, short-term measures to give households ‘breathing space’, the chancellor offered grounds for optimism that the Burnham government is determined to fix the economy – and rebuild national security
A new report from the House Judiciary Committee warns that Gotham DAs are downgrading charges for illegal-immigrant criminals in order to help them avoid deportation.
Editorial: The prime minister has called for an ‘honest conversation’ about EU membership – and his government is already in talks to allow Europeans to travel, live, study and work in the UK. It is a leap of faith that bodes well for closer alignment
THE fact that high officials from the Makkah defence pact partner states — Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye — were in Tehran on Monday made global headlines, and with good reason. At a time when the clouds of war are once again hovering over the Gulf, the meeting sent a strong message that regional states with often competing agendas can come together and discuss their issues at the negotiating table. The event was also significant as the Makkah alliance has been seen as an alternative defence arrangement vis-à-vis Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’.
Pakistan was represented by the chief of defence forces, while significantly, Saudi Arabia sent its defence minister, a brother of the crown prince. This shows that Riyadh accorded the highest priority to the meeting. The official Iranian readout said the participants pledged to “continue the dialogue … for peace and security in the region.”
The event is also further proof of Pakistan’s constructive efforts in the diplomatic arena, as the meet-up was held after the CDF — who was in Tehran last week — suggested it.
All regional states are wary of possible fresh US/Israeli attacks on Iran, and the Tehran meeting must be seen in this framework. Moreover, Saudi Arabia has likely reached out to Iran to get the Islamic Republic to use its connections with Yemen’s Houthi Ansarallah group to stop its attacks on the kingdom. Riyadh is also concerned about Iranian retaliation in the face of a renewed Israeli and American attack.
Perhaps Yemen can be the first area for the Makkah pact allies and Iran to discuss. A fresh push for peace should be made that envisages an immediate ceasefire supplemented by an end to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, and a lifting of the Saudi-led blockade on Houthi-held areas in Yemen. Both Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as other regional powers, should advocate a negotiated settlement to the Yemeni civil war.
Beyond Yemen, the fact that the US and Israel are preparing for fresh aggression against Iran could spoil efforts for a regional entente. This is why all participants of the Tehran meeting must clearly say that they oppose attacks on Iran or any other regional state.
Iran and the Makkah pact states should also pledge not to let external actors use their soil to launch aggression against each other. In fact, while inviting Iran to join the Makkah alliance may not be practical at this juncture, regional states can at least agree to a common non-aggression framework. That would send a powerful message to external actors that seek to destabilise the region.
States of the region are making sincere efforts to prevent a return to war. It is time Washington and Tel Aviv read the writing on the wall and abandoned their destructive plans.
La izquierda, con el Gobierno al frente, arrancó este periodo preelectoral con un discurso en el que justificaba y comprendía los escraches y los altercados contra los partidos de la oposición y especialmente contra algunos de sus dirigentes más destacados como Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Se esgrimió desde el poder una pose colaboracionista con aquellos que emplearon la violencia de mayor o menos intensidad, pero violencia al fin y al cabo, para acosar al adversario y que no pudiera desarrollar su agenda política en libertad. Hasta el punto de haber consentido la ocupación ilegal de espacios públicos como el de la Puerta del Sol con las voces sanchistas alentando estas conductas antisistema contra la convivencia. La agitación y la propaganda son características en la tradición de la izquierda para tensionar escenarios políticos y electorales desfavorables y pescar en la revuelta lo que no consigue con un desempeño limpio y propositivo. La historia más reciente está repleta de estas operaciones de desestabilización profundamente antidemocráticas. Ni la polarización ni el muro son elementos sobrevenidos, sino la parte esencial de los planes de Sánchez para dividir a los españoles y vencer al precio que sea y con los medios que resulten precisos. Y es exactamente lo que está ocurriendo en estos días en distintas ciudades de nuestro país, sometidas a una virulenta embestida que solo se entiende desde la entera responsabilidad del Ejecutivo que, primero, actuó para crispar el clima ante el 29N y ahora no quiere o no puede garantizar el orden público, la libertad en las calles, el patrimonio público y la propiedad particular. El relato, porque siempre hay un relato para cada crisis con este régimen, se limita, como es habitual, a culpar a la derecha y en concreto a Núñez Feijóo de los estallidos violentos en las calles como si fuera una personalidad influyente entre los embozados reconocibles por no ser recién llegados. En este punto, hay que tener siempre presente que los ministros y los cargos socialistas que sueltan estas simplezas no cuidan la vergüenza ni el respeto por la inteligencia de la gente. El monopolio de la violencia en una democracia corresponde a las autoridades y no hay excusas para que el ciudadano que paga religiosamente sus impuestos sea abandonado y desprotegido por la incompetencia o el tacticismo electoral, o ambos, del Ejecutivo y sus cómplices. Ni Sánchez ni sus coaligados quieren una campaña limpia y por esa razón no hay propuestas sobre la mesa ni se abordan los problemas de la gente. Se vuelcan en señalar a la derecha como los partidos del odio en contraposición con el partido sanchista del amor. Odio es la palabra con la que el presidente adjudica etiquetas morales, abre trincheras y se permite la infamia de dividirnos entre buenos y malos españoles. La izquierda juega con fuego. Veremos si no termina quemándose.
Hong Kong might have grown accustomed to treating seasonal influenza as a temporary inconvenience rather than a public health menace as the virus comes and goes every year. But with a lower vaccination uptake and a raging and longer-than-expected summer outbreak this year, the same business-as-usual response is hardly the right defence. Members of the public, especially high-risk groups, should waste no time coming forward for the jabs as local health authorities put the city on alert.
Officials...
El cambio climático se hace presente con extrema dureza. Ya no es una amenaza futura que hay que combatir desde ahora, sino que se ha convertido en un problema actual de primera magnitud. Este último verano, el más cálido de la historia, ha provocado en Europa al menos 35.000 muertes más por las olas de calor y los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos que han afectado a todo el continente, incluida España. Ante esta nueva realidad la Comisión Europea pretende establecer una cultura de prevención y gestión de riesgos climáticos. Ayer se presentó la primera iniciativa legislativa comunitaria sobre resiliencia climática, con objeto de obligar a los estados a adaptarse a la aceleración del calentamiento global.
If ever enacted, proposals by Marine Le Pen and the AfD leader, Alice Weidel, to hollow out EU institutions would be a continental act of self-harm
Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, Marine Le Pen was in a predictably celebratory mood. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, she told one interviewer, was the first breach in the “Brussels Wall”. Ms Le Pen’s Front National party was at that point committed to taking France down the same path, given the chance. But as the UK’s self-inflicted economic wounds became a cautionary tale for the rest of Europe, the notion of Frexit was put on ice.
Instead, Ms Le Pen now hopes to lead far-right allies in hollowing out the EU from within. This month, both she and the leader of Alternative für Deutschland, Alice Weidel, outlined their visions of a “Europe of nations” in which EU institutions would be stripped of both cash and power. Ms Weidel’s “new deal for Europe” would abolish elections to the European parliament, and seek German opt-outs in areas such as migration, defence and common borrowing. Ms Le Pen’s party, now called National Rally, proposes slashing French contributions to the EU budget by 60% over a five-year presidential term, and ending the role of Brussels in proposing common policies for the 27 member states.
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THE government’s plan to distribute 500,000 Chromebooks to students over two years could help narrow Pakistan’s digital divide. The devices, which will come with MiFi internet connectivity, are meant for students handpicked under the scheme. In a country where access to computers and reliable internet still depends heavily on family income and location, that matters.
A student who cannot afford a laptop should not be locked out of online learning, digital skills or job opportunities. But the value of the scheme will depend on how it is carried out. The state should publish clear eligibility criteria, ensure that poorer students are not crowded out by those who already have devices, and explain how the refurbished Chromebooks will be procured, tested and distributed.
The total cost should also be disclosed, along with safeguards against political influence in selecting recipients and suppliers. There should also be a plan for repairs, replacement and technical support. A device that stops working after a few months, or cannot connect reliably outside major cities, will do little to close the gap it was meant to address.
More importantly, access to hardware is only one part of Pakistan’s education problem. A Chromebook cannot compensate for weak teaching, poor literacy, overcrowded classrooms or schools without dependable electricity and internet access. Nor will handing out devices automatically improve learning. Teachers need training to use digital tools well, students need access to useful content, and schools need systems that can blend technology with ordinary classroom instruction.
The government should therefore set measurable goals for the scheme: whether students use the devices regularly for learning, whether their digital skills improve, and whether this leads to better educational outcomes. Independent evaluation would help determine if the programme deserves expansion. There is also a case for giving students in remote and low-income areas greater weight, since they stand to benefit most from access they currently lack.
Pakistan has launched laptop schemes before; what matters now is whether this one produces more than a distribution ceremony. Technology can widen opportunity, but only when it is tied to good teaching, reliable connectivity and clear educational purpose.
Editorial: All the signs are that John Healey’s first Budget on Wednesday will be a very modest event indeed. Without precise measures to bring down the cost of living, it could leave the government looking rudderless
THE proposed merger of the Privatisation Commission and the Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A) into a single institution is a sensible move. It will end the duality of functions and provide a more coherent framework for mobilising private capital to manage public assets and develop physical infrastructure for which the state has limited resources to spare.
Although the two bodies operate under separate laws, their mandates intersect in bringing private capital and expertise into areas dominated by the state. A unified entity could offer a common platform for evaluating these options.
Privatisation involves transferring ownership or control of state assets, while public-private partnerships (PPPs) allow governments to enlist private capital for projects they cannot finance. Both approaches require sound financial assessments and clear risk allocations.
With Pakistan facing persistent fiscal constraints, the state cannot afford to finance loss-making enterprises indefinitely. Private investment can help ease these pressures, but it is not an end in itself. Poorly structured transactions can leave the state with inadequate returns or costly contractual obligations.
The proposed legislation envisages four public funds to support privatisation and PPP transactions. These instruments could help prepare viable projects and attract investment. However, they must not become vehicles for subsidising commercially unsound ventures. Government guarantees and liabilities should be disclosed and assessed before deals are approved.
The proposed legal protections for serving and former officials acting in good faith also require careful rethinking. Officials should be protected against frivolous litigation when making decisions in the public interest. Such protection must not, however, become immunity from accountability.
Making PPP agreements accessible as public documents is also positive. Public scrutiny is particularly important when private investors enter long-term arrangements that may impose financial obligations on taxpayers and successive governments.
The new arrangement offers an opportunity to improve the management of state assets and infrastructure investment. Its success will depend on securing fair value for public property, attracting credible investors and ensuring that partnerships deliver tangible benefits.
The bill proposes a majority-independent board with private-sector representation to strengthen commercial decision-making. Its effectiveness will require transparent appointments, relevant expertise, political independence, clear performance benchmarks, strong accountability, and enforceable conflict-of-interest rules to ensure effective governance.
The state must now ensure that commercial discipline, transparency and accountability guide its implementation.
Tal vez, el principal desafío al que se enfrenta la sociedad española sea recuperar el normal funcionamiento de las instituciones del Estado, cuya neutralidad, salvo en el caso de la Justicia, está en tela de juicio por la acción de un Gobierno que no ha tenido el menor reparo a la hora de colonizar espacios públicos que, por definición, deben representar a todos los ciudadanos. Ejemplos como el CIS o el Tribunal Constitucional son los más escandalosos, pero existen otros muchos casos en los órganos de control estatales, en el Congreso y en la Fiscalía General del Estado igualmente alarmantes. De ahí que convenga dar la bienvenida al pacto electoral alcanzado para el Senado entre el Partido Popular y VOX por cuanto no sólo puede neutralizar el acuerdo similar firmado entre el PSOE y el llamado Frente Amplio, es decir, el pacto del socialismo con la ultraizquierda, sino que pueda dar al centro derecha español la mayoría de tres quintos en la Cámara Alta, imprescindible para abordar el proceso de regeneración y vuelta a la institucionalidad al que se ha comprometido con los ciudadanos Núñez Feijóo. Podrá haber electores en ambas formaciones a quienes disguste el acuerdo alcanzado, esencialmente, porque frente a las insidias de la izquierda VOX y el PP son formaciones diferentes, con posiciones ideológicas nada coincidentes en materias sensibles como el modelo territorial, las políticas de género o la posición ante la UE, pero creemos que la gran mayoría de sus votantes entenderán que nos hallamos ante un bien superior, el interés general de los españoles, que, además, no compromete ideológicamente a los firmantes del pacto más de lo que pueda condicionar la minoría comunista al PSOE o, hay que insistir en ello, los acuerdos vergonzantes alcanzados por el sanchismo con el partido de los herederos de ETA. Hablamos, además, hay que insistir en ello ante la excitación artificial de la propaganda de la izquierda, de un compromiso electoral firmado entre dos formaciones democráticas, enmarcadas en el ordenamiento jurídico constitucional y que en ningún caso han tratado de imponer sus políticas fuera del juego democrático, realidad que no siempre ha estado presente en algunos de los partidos que ha venido conformando la mayoría de investidura. Y, por supuesto, desde la experiencia de la gestión compartida en los populares y VOX en los gobiernos autonómicos de Castilla y León, Aragón, Andalucía y Extremadura, en donde ningún ciudadano ha visto peligrar ni el menor de sus derechos. Queda una larga carrera electoral por delante que las izquierdas precisan que sea lo más bronca posible para movilizar a unos votantes atónitos ante el espectáculo de la corrupción, la ineficiencia y el sectarismo que ha presidido los años de gobierno del presidente Pedro Sánchez, que tratará de aprovechar el acuerdo del centro derecha en el Senado para demonizar al adversario. Sinceramente, creemos que es un capítulo ya superado.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, con una remontada histórica, se ha impuesto en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales en Brasil, superando al ultraderechista Flávio Bolsonaro, que había ganado la primera ronda por dos puntos de ventaja. Será su cuarta presidencia –segunda consecutiva– y, si la acaba, habrá gobernado el país más poblado de Sudamérica durante 16 años.
Two years after the Novi Sad tragedy gave birth to a youthful political movement, Sunday’s remarkable election has taken the country into a new era
This weekend it will be two years since the collapse of a shoddily constructed train station canopy in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad. The tragedy, killing 16 people, was swiftly attributed to state corruption and failures of regulation, sparking student-led protests across the country.
Some of those demonstrators dared to imagine that they could become the catalyst for a democratic revolution.
Ten suspected criminals killed in Karachi police ‘encounters’ in two days should trouble anyone concerned about public safety and the rule of law.
Seven died in separate incidents on Thursday and another three on Friday. In each case, police reported armed resistance, exchanges of fire, and the recovery of weapons.These accounts may be accurate, but cannot be accepted without scrutiny. Officers confronting armed criminals have every right to defend themselves and others.
Karachi’s residents, long exposed to street crime and violent robberies, deserve protection. Yet the frequency of these so-called encounters raises questions about how operations are conducted and whether suspects are given an opportunity to surrender.
Whether the police actions were legitimate or unlawful can only be established through credible investigations. There must be forensic examination of weapons, independent verification of police accounts, and proper documentation of injuries and evidence.
Such scrutiny should be routine whenever police gunfire causes death, regardless of the victim’s alleged criminal history. Otherwise, the public must rely entirely on the version offered by those who pulled the trigger. The concern extends beyond Karachi.
In Punjab, where the Crime Control Department faces allegations of staged encounters, the political response has exposed a dangerous willingness to equate police killings with justice. After a suspect in the killing of a teenage worker in Multan died in an alleged encounter, PML-N lawmaker Hina Parvez Butt celebrated it as “justice served immediately”. She deleted the post but defended her remarks as public sentiment.
Anger over a child’s murder is understandable. But an elected representative ought to know that public outrage cannot substitute for a trial, and that a police killing is not a judicial verdict. Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari criticised the comments, though the issue is larger than one politician’s embarrassment.
Governments must make clear that police performance will be judged by crimes prevented, offenders lawfully arrested, and cases successfully prosecuted, not bodies counted. Independent inquiries into disputed encounters should publish findings and establish responsibility if unlawful force is proved. Police officers need training, equipment and supervision that make arrest a realistic option where possible. A force that can shoot but cannot build a case offers little lasting security. The police are duty-bound to protect lives. They do not have a licence to kill.
THE announcement of an indicative wheat price of Rs4,500 per 40 kilograms may have come too late for Sindh farmers, but it is welcome as far as it goes. That is not far.
The figure is Rs1,000 higher than last year’s and, by the government’s account, reflects rising production and fuel costs. It is also Rs500 short of what farmers demanded. And there is no word on who will buy the grain or when.
An indicative price is a signal, not a guarantee. Since April 2025, when the government dropped the support price and suspended large-scale procurement, farmers have been promised a market-based system that would serve them better. It has not.
The crop now being sown is the third to go into the ground without a floor. Punjab’s experience this April shows what happens when a procurement price is announced without a mechanism to enforce it. The province tried to revive buying through bank-backed private aggregators. The banks doubted the scheme’s viability, and the aggregators bought only 160,000 tonnes against a target of 2.5m tonnes. Prices fell anyway.
A price no buyer is obliged or financially equipped to pay is only a number. Growers seem to have grasped this before the government did.
Consumers, meanwhile, are not being spared. Over five years the price of wheat has gone up by 150pc, and that rise goes straight to the price of flour. Punjab has used the price as its only tool instead of working on the cost of farm inputs, which the federal government’s policies have kept high.
Flour in cities is selling for Rs160-190 per kilogram, which is hard on poor households. Even the government’s stocks are expensive. Sindh began selling government wheat this month at Rs12,500 per 100kg, or Rs5,000 per 40kg. That is more than the prime minister has offered farmers.
The test of wheat reform is not whether the government can step out of the market. It is whether the system that replaces government buying shares the risk fairly among farmers, traders, millers, banks, and the state, keeps flour affordable, and protects the country’s food supply.
For now, farmers carry most of the risk while everyone else looks after their own interests. With sowing already underway, the government should say in plain terms what it will buy, through which agency, with what money, and by when. It should adapt its imports to that plan. It should look at the cost of fertiliser and other inputs, instead of relying on price alone. And it should help poor households directly, instead of keeping flour cheap for all by squeezing the grower.
A price announcement with no buyer behind it will not persuade anyone to sow, and a market that works for only one side is not worth defending.
Pedro Sánchez está en pleno acelerón electoral y la colosal maquinaria del poder se ha desperezado para contrariar a las encuestas. Es una carrera de fondo la que conducirá al 29N, pero Moncloa ha entendido bien que las sensaciones de la calle no invitan a perder un minuto. Y en ello están, con los cientos de asesores a cargo del dinero público tirando de todos los faroles y los comodines posibles en un juego de tahúres en los que se conducen con maestría. La narrativa oficialista no para de colar por todos los altavoces disponibles, que son demasiados, que están recortando distancias con la derecha y que de nuevo el milagro de 2023 sucederá. De momento, Pedro Sánchez ha puesto en valor la alternancia como un instrumento intrínseco y benéfico de la democracia representativa, pero con una salvedad. Siempre que el damnificado no sea él, porque en ese caso resultaría nefasta. Ha llegado a decir que si por circunstancias ajenas a la razón, dado el fenomenal bagaje de su mandato, la derecha recibiera el respaldo de votos suficiente para gobernar, el país retrocedería medio siglo. Lo que el presidente transmite a los españoles sin que se le mueva un músculo es que él sabe y solo él lo sabe lo que es bueno para esta vieja nación y sus ciudadanos y que él y solo él se encuentra en condiciones de evitar que la gente se autolesione con un sufragio a todas luces equivocado. Sabemos que existe una parte de la opinión pública que se escandaliza o se irrita cuando defendemos que reflexiones como las expuestas por Sánchez responden a perfiles y psicologías autoritarias y caudillistas, rotundamente incompatibles con la democracia y sus principios. Y si solo fuera retórica, al menos habría controversia, pero conocida la obra y el historial del presidente, el talante despótico es manifiesto. En todo caso, sentencias de esa índole y la campaña más sucia que recordamos puesta en marcha por Moncloa alimentan la incertidumbre sobre el escenario posterior al 29N y sobre si Sánchez lo aceptará y respetará como el demócrata que no ha sido hasta ahora. Porque para los intereses de la izquierda y, de manera más específica, para los suyos, la cosa no pinta bien, aunque es cierto que todavía queda un trecho notable. La alternancia que él denuesta cuaja con intensidad en el sentir de los votantes. La encuesta de NC Report que publicamos hoy resulta concluyente en este sentido. El PP sería el partido ganador con 141/143 escaños, con el PSOE, muy retrasado, y 100/102. El castigo rotundo al sanchismo es compartido por sus socios del Frente Amplio, que se quedarían en unos paupérrimos 8/9 y de Podemos, a un paso de ser extraparlamentario. El mandato popular es indiscutible cuando se comparan bloques. El de la derecha, con un Vox muy sólido (64/66), alcanzaría 206/210 diputados, mientras que la izquierda tendría 130/137. El cambio se acerca, pero es obligado no confiarse y seguir con rectitud e inteligencia. Con Sánchez de por medio hay que aguardar lo peor.
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