Defence spending, Belfast disorder, EU energy costs and France’s justice backlog show governments struggling to turn urgent public pressure into credible protection, competence, and trust today across Europe.
Bill Pulte
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump appointed a loyalist with no national security experience as head of US intelligence on Tuesday — and said he would also retain his existing jobs overseeing federal housing and mortgage policies.
Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte — who is known for publicly attacking Trump’s political enemies — was named as the acting director of…
In February 2025, Ben Folds resigned his position as Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra in response to Donald Trump taking over the Kennedy Center. It only got worse from there; by the end of the year, it was announced that the historic performing arts establishment was being renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center. Backlash ensued, and just last week a federal judge ordered Trump's…
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Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the exact kind of Democrat I usually criticize. She’s been in Congress for more than 20 years, done nothing particularly remarkable or courageous during that time, did a disastrous job of running the Democratic National Committee in 2016 by pouring gasoline on the Hillary-versus-Bernie fire, and disingenuously suggested that Joe Biden was a…
Israel’s military on Tuesday announced the dismissal of its former top lawyer, months after she resigned amid a scandal involving a leaked video appearing to show soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian detainee.
The case, which sparked international outrage as well as protests within Israel, focused on footage taken at the high-security Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel in 2024.
The…
Israel’s military on Tuesday announced the dismissal of its former top lawyer, months after she resigned amid a scandal involving a leaked video appearing to show soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian detainee.
The case, which sparked international outrage as well as protests within Israel, focused on footage taken at the high-security Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel in 2024.
The…
Students keep the pressure on ruling party in Serbia
Student protesters will take to the streets in Serbia this weekend in the first major demonstrations this year against President Aleksandar Vučić. Students have become a significant political force in Serbia over the last two years: in 2025, then-Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned after anti‑corruption protests led by…
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Donald Trump just wants to let the kids vape.
Eight days after Reynolds American, an American tobacco company with a history of government lobbying, threw $5 million at a Trump-backed super PAC, the Food and Drug Administration moved to ease restrictions on flavored vapes, allowing companies like Reynolds to roll out flavors previously banned because they were too marketable to minors.
The…
ISLAMABAD: Balochistan’s government has told the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that holding a by-election for NA-256 Khuzdar is not possible at present, citing the law and order situation in the district.
During a meeting with ECP officials on Wednesday, the province’s chief secretary and inspector general of police briefed that the “presence of militants, tribal disputes, and the need…
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FEMA is not all right. As the United States faces another summer of extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, the Federal Emergency Management Agency—which coordinates federal disaster response, relief, and preparedness—continues to shuffle through leadership a roster of mostly unqualified Trump loyalists.
This week, Donald Trump nominated Cameron Hamilton to lead the agency, which has not…
Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition is showing visible elite fractures over Iran, Epstein files, and “America First” pledges, but polling suggests his core base remains resilient.
Even Eurovision cannot escape geopolitics
****The world's most-watched live music event kicks off today in Vienna under the theme “United by Music.” Yet the 70th Eurovision Song Contest is facing the largest boycott in its history over Israel's participation. Five countries said they wouldn’t compete, citing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, while Slovenia, Ireland, and Spain will not…
UK’s Starmer tries to save his bacon
After the Labour Party’s disastrous performance in the local elections last Thursday, one that was fully expected, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is clinging onto his position by a thread. In a bid to shore up support, the PM delivered a “relaunch speech” in London on Monday morning, acknowledging voters’ desire for quicker change while reiterating…
ISLAMABAD: Former Nadra Chairman Tariq Malik has been named one of the world’s top 25 identity leaders by US-based company Okta.
The list, by Okta Ventures, the venture investment arm of Okta, is a “diverse compilation of forward-thinking developers, strategists, business leaders, and public servants”.
“The honorees are being recognised for their tireless efforts in software creation, standards…
Last year, Microsoft cancelled an MMO that was in the works at ZeniMax Online Studios, developers of The Elder Scrolls Online, as part of wider layoffs. It was codenamed project Blackbird, and following its canning, ZeniMax Online founder Matt Firor resigned from the company he'd worked at since 2007. Firor's now shed some more light on his feelings about the cancellation of the game he "had…
The Sri Lankan government took control of the island’s cricket board on Wednesday and appointed a nine-member interim administration to carry out “structural reforms”.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the country’s wealthiest sporting body, but it has been plagued by allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
World governing body International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended Sri Lanka for two…
Plus, who writes President Trump's speeches?
The lesson Rep. Mike Kennedy delivered to Republican delegates ahead of Saturday’s convention appeared to contradict recent surveys and multiple weeks of messy scandals: Most members of Congress are trying to do their jobs well.
Despite the poll toplines and polarizing headlines, the former state Senator and practicing family physician said he has been encouraged by the caliber of his new…
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Democrats are once again having hard conversations about their party’s gerontocracy, in the wake of Representative David Scott’s death on Wednesday.
Scott was up for reelection, seeking his thirteenth term in Congress at 80 years old. His health issues on the job were first reported in 2022. He is now the eleventh Democratic member of Congress to die in office since 2020, and his death comes…
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As Donald Trump’s MAGA base sours on him, some of them now think the 2024 assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged.
_Wired_ reports that this conspiracy theory started to take hold after Joe Kent, who resigned from the Trump administration over the Iran war, went on conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s show and asserted without evidence that investigations into the…
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Sebastian Gorka is angling to become the next head of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Gorka, a former Breitbart News editor and conservative radio personality, has served as a deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council since January 2025.
The London-born Hungarian has been a fixture in Donald Trump’s inner circle since 2017,…
The state bureau started getting complaints about one fiduciary just months after the agency awarded her a license, giving her the authority to control the finances and lives of vulnerable people deemed unable to take care of themselves.
• Absence of members from Sindh raises concerns over body’s composition for upcoming meeting to determine water availability
• Federal member from province yet to be appointed despite legal requirement
HYDERABAD: The Indus River System Authority’s (Irsa) Advisory Committee (IAC) will meet on April 7 to determine river water availability for the upcoming Kharif season, in the absence of a…
Early in President Trump’s first term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes, and it felt urgent to track them, to ensure these horrors—happening almost daily—would not be forgotten. Now that Trump has returned to office, amid civil rights,…
NATIONAL Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard testifies along with FBI, DIA and CIA directors during a Senate intelligence committee hearing on worldwide threats.—AFP
**• Director of National Intelligence places Pakistan alongside Russia, North Korea; believes their projectiles could reach ‘homeland’ in future
• Lawmakers told Iran govt ‘degraded’, but remains capable of attacking US, Gulf…
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had dropped charges against five soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee at the high-security Sde Teiman prison, a case that had sparked widespread outrage.
“In light of significant developments since the filing of the indictment in the Sde Teiman case, the military advocate general decided today to order the cancellation of the…
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had dropped charges against five soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian detainee at the high-security Sde Teiman prison, a case that had sparked widespread outrage.
“In light of significant developments since the filing of the indictment in the Sde Teiman case, the military advocate general decided today to order the cancellation of the indictment…
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari approved on Thursday the appointment of PML-N’s Nehal Hashmi as Sindh governor, hours after it was announced that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recommended his appointment to the post previously held by MQM’s Kamran Tessori.
“President Zardari has approved the appointment of Mr Nihal Hashmi as Sindh governor, acting on the advice of PM under Articles 48 and…
Garfield County’s effort to restrict minors’ access to certain graphic novels remains unresolved as new library trustees take office and state law limits censorship. With leadership changes ahead, the future of book policies and board oversight is uncertain.
The world's tightest BFFs have thrown the entire world into chaos. And for what?
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