
PARTLY FACETIOUS: The West has much to learn from us about the criticality of forms
'We all have our own perspective on…'
'And he said that…'
'OK I know where you are going with this, granted that US policy on Israel first has not changed and is not expected to change because of the Israel lobby and this is in spite of growing disenchantment within President Trump's supporters for giving billions of aid and military hardware to Israel when normal Americans are struggling to make ends meet and…'
'I can relate to that, I mean irrespective of whether there is a democratic system in place or an autocratic one or as we are increasingly seeing globally a demauto (democratic plus autocratic) system in place — defined as elected by the people and following policies of the influential, shutting down criticism through…'
'I hope this is not an oblique reference to Forms 45 and 47?'
'The West has much to learn from us about the criticality of forms.'
'Don't be facetious.'
'Excuse me, but our system has withstood the challenges posed by time, but reports suggest that the US system is under threat from within, though I reckon it will take another decade or so…'
'Would there be any Gazans left alive, I mean at the rate Israel is killing Gazans?'
'That's a good question but when I mentioned President Trump complaining that no one had thanked him for giving, I don't recall now, around 40 million-dollar food aid to Gaza…'
'Which clearly is not reaching them, so who is…'
'Please get some perspective. The question you need to ask is who in the world is…'
'Who is pocketing this aid? Well, maybe the US-Israeli run Food Foundation…'
'Shush, the question is why did not a single Western media outlet representative ask President Trump the question as to the success of the aid — how many have received……'
'That would require an independent audit, and I am not sure…'
'Why don't we send our Auditor General (AGP) for that purpose.'
'But then what will we do…'
'He is contributing to climate degradation in Pakistan – he publishes voluminous reports and recommendations which are roundly ignored, that's wastage of paper and paper comes from trees……'
'Don't be facetious.'
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Business Recorder
13 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
Moscow awaits ‘important' Trump envoy visit before sanctions deadline
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said Monday it was anticipating 'important' talks with Donald Trump's special envoy later this week, ahead of the US president's looming deadline to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow if it does not make progress towards a peace deal with Ukraine. Trump confirmed a day earlier that Steve Witkoff will visit Russia, likely on 'Wednesday or Thursday', where he is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin. Despite pressure from Washington, Russia has continued its onslaught against its pro-Western neighbour. Three rounds of peace talks in Istanbul have failed to make headway on a possible ceasefire, with the two sides appearing as far apart as ever. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support. Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week urged his allies to push for 'regime change' in Moscow. Trump's deadline is set to expire on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday it considered the talks with Witkoff to be 'important, substantial and helpful' and valued US efforts to end the conflict. Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow, before Trump's efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt. Top Trump aide accuses India of financing Russia's war in Ukraine When reporters asked what Witkoff's message would be to Moscow, and if there was anything Russia could do to avoid the sanctions, Trump replied: 'Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.' Nuclear stand-off The visit comes after Trump said that two nuclear submarines he deployed following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev were now 'in the region'. Trump has not said whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the exact deployment locations, which are kept secret by the US military. Russia, in its first comments on the deployment, urged 'caution'. 'Russia is very attentive to the topic of nuclear non-proliferation. And we believe that everyone should be very, very cautious with nuclear rhetoric,' the Kremlin's Peskov said. Ukrainian drone attack sparks fire at railway station in Volgograd region, Russia says The chief of staff to Zelenskyy on Monday backed Trump's actions. 'The concept of peace through strength works,' Andriy Yermak wrote on social media. 'The moment American nuclear submarines appeared, one Russian drunk – who had just been threatening nuclear war on X – suddenly went silent,' he added. Trump has previously threatened that new measures could mean 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption. Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said Friday that he wants peace but that his demands, dismissed by Kyiv as 'old ultimatums', for ending his nearly three-and-a-half-year offensive were 'unchanged'. Russia has frequently called on Ukraine to effectively cede control of four regions Moscow claims to have annexed, a demand Kyiv has called unacceptable. Putin also wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO. Zelenskyy visits troops Russia fired a record number of drones at Ukraine last month, AFP analysis of Kyiv's air force data showed, escalating its attacks as peace talks stalled. Kyiv has also said it will intensify its air strikes against Russia in response. Both sides said Monday they had downed dozens of enemy drones overnight in the latest barrage. Separate Russian strikes on the southern Zaporizhzhia region, part of which it controls, killed four people, Ukrainian officials said Monday. One more was killed by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region. Zelenskyy was visiting troops at the front in the Kharkiv region, he said, posting a video of him awarding soldiers with medals and walking through bunkers. Russia is seeking to establish what it calls a 'buffer zone' inside the Kharkiv region along the Russian-Ukrainian border. Zelenskyy also said Sunday that the two sides were preparing a prisoner exchange that would see 1,200 Ukrainian troops return home, following the latest round of talks in Istanbul last month.


Business Recorder
43 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
Trump says will name new economics data official this week
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Monday that he would pick an 'exceptional replacement' to his labor statistics chief – after ordering her dismissal as a new report showed weakness in the US jobs market. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump reiterated – without immediately providing evidence – that an employment report released last Friday 'was rigged.' He alleged that the official had manipulated data to diminish his administration's economic accomplishments. 'We'll be announcing a new (labor) statistician some time over the next three-four days,' Trump earlier told reporters. He added Monday: 'I will pick an exceptional replacement.' US job growth missed expectations in July, figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Friday, and sharp revisions to hiring figures in recent months brought them to the weakest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump renews attacks on Fed chair after rates held again Shortly afterwards, Trump ordered the removal of Erika McEntarfer, the department's commissioner of labor statistics. Trump told reporters Sunday: 'We had no confidence. I mean the numbers were ridiculous.' Trump added that the same official, just before the 2024 election, 'came out with these phenomenal numbers on (Joe) Biden's economy.' He claimed those job numbers were 'a scam.' The United States added 73,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent, the Department of Labor reported. Hiring numbers for May were revised down from 144,000 to 19,000. The figure for June was shifted from 147,000 to 14,000. This was notably lower than job creation levels in recent years. During the pandemic, the economy lost jobs. The employment data points to challenges in the labor market as companies took a cautious approach in hiring and investment while grappling with Trump's sweeping – and rapidly changing – tariffs this year. White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett defended McEntarfer's firing in an NBC News interview Saturday. Asked if the president was prepared to fire anyone who reports data he disagrees with, Hassett said: 'Absolutely not. The president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers they are more transparent and more reliable.' Trump's decision was criticized as setting a 'dangerous precedent' by William Beach, who previously held McEntarfer's post at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The National Association for Business Economics condemned her dismissal, saying large revisions in jobs numbers 'reflect not manipulation, but rather the dwindling resources afforded to statistical agencies.' McEntarfer, a labor economist, had been in the commissioner role for just over a year after being confirmed by the US Senate in January 2024.


Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Trump's submarine comments prompt Kremlin warning on nuclear tensions
Russia said on Monday that everyone should be "very, very careful" about nuclear rhetoric, responding to a statement by US President Donald Trump that he had ordered a repositioning of US nuclear submarines. In its first public reaction to Trump's comments, the Kremlin played down their significance and said it was not looking to get into a public argument with him. Trump said on Friday he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be moved to "the appropriate regions" in response to remarks from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev about the risk of war between the nuclear-armed adversaries. "In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty. This is an ongoing process, that's the first thing," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "But in general, of course, we would not want to get involved in such a controversy and would not want to comment on it in any way," he added. "Of course, we believe that everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric." The episode comes at a delicate moment, with Trump threatening to impose new sanctions on Russia and buyers of its oil, including India and China, unless President Vladimir Putin agrees by Friday to end the 3-1/2-year war in Ukraine. Putin said last week that peace talks had made some positive progress but that Russia had the momentum in the war, signalling no shift in his position despite the looming deadline. Trump has said he may send his envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia on Wednesday or Thursday. Witkoff has held long conversations with Putin on several previous visits but failed to persuade him to agree to a ceasefire. The Kremlin declined to say if his latest proposed trip was taking place at Moscow's request, and did not say what it hoped might emerge from it. "We are always happy to see Mr Witkoff in Moscow and we are always happy to have contacts with Mr Witkoff. We consider them important, meaningful and very useful," Peskov said. Online spat Trump, who frequently promised to end the war within 24 hours while campaigning for the US presidency last year, has spoken admiringly of Putin in the past but voiced increasing frustration with him of late. Russia has stepped up the ferocity of its bombing attacks on Ukrainian cities, while three brief sessions of direct peace talks in Turkey have yielded no progress beyond exchanges of prisoners and war dead. Some security analysts in both Russia and the West have criticised Trump for escalating an online spat with former president Medvedev - an arch-hawk whose statements are frequently designed to shock and provoke - to the point of publicly discussing US nuclear deployments. Peskov, however, said Russia did not see Trump's statement as marking an escalation in nuclear tension. "We do not believe that we are talking about any escalation now. It is clear that very complex, very sensitive issues are being discussed, which, of course, are perceived very emotionally by many people," he said. Peskov declined to answer directly when asked whether the Kremlin had tried to warn Medvedev to tone down his online statements. "The main thing, of course, is the position of President Putin," he said.