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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Matthew Lau: Toronto the Good's continuing downward slide
Toronto, where I have lived my whole life, certainly has high points. There is the financial district, which is the second largest financial centre in North America and home to several good coffee shops. Toronto also features some excellent cuisine. Tyler Cowen, who in 2011 was listed among Foreign Policy's top 100 global thinkers and whose blog with Alex Tabarrok Time magazine ranked third-best financial blog, once concluded after a restaurant tour of Scarborough plus rolls from a Sri Lankan locale and lots of driving around, 'Scarborough is the best ethnic food suburb I have seen in my life, ever, and by an order of magnitude.' With all it has going for it, Toronto really should be a world-class city. But I fear if it continues on its current path, it will instead become an honorary third-world city — certainly with respect to the unreliability of its public transit system, its inept municipal management, its descent into lawlessness and social dysfunction, and its NHL team's dismal playoff performance. On this last point, explanations and proposed solutions vary; for the first three the causes are quite clear. If Milton Friedman's classic 1993 essay Why Government is the Problem were being written today, Toronto could feature prominently in it. The unreliability of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has recently become intolerable. Last Wednesday during evening rush hour the TTC shut down a significant stretch of its Line 1 subway for two and a quarter hours. Just before 5:30 p.m., service was suspended from Lawrence to St. Clair due to a track-level injury at Eglinton (three stations spanning five kilometres of track). Also around that time, northbound passengers at a major interchange, Bloor-Yonge, were kicked off their train, causing significant overflow that took some time to clear. Later the initial service suspension was extended south to include Bloor-Yonge — making seven stops in all. Service was not restored until around 7:45 p.m. This was the second serious subway outage in less than a week: the previous Thursday, a significant part of the other major line was shut down for much of the day due to an oil leakage from a subway work car. Mass public transit chaos has become almost commonplace since last winter. In mid-December, the TTC experienced lengthy shutdowns during the morning rush hour on no less than three days, with varying causes, including a trespasser on the tracks, multiple signal issues and a lost raccoon wandering the rails. Then in February, extensive TTC delays were blamed on snow and ice. In a further demonstration of the City of Toronto's inability to provide basic municipal services, snow piled up everywhere, with some sidewalks taking three weeks to clear. It was later reported that of the city's 59 pieces of winter sidewalk-clearing equipment, nearly half were out of commission on average during the three days of heaviest snowfall. More evidence of a city headed towards third-world status: increased lawlessness. The joke is that TTC really stands for 'Take The Car,' but last year that became the police's recommended phrase for homeowners to tell criminals. Amidst rising car thefts, one police officer suggested homeowners leave car keys at the front door to prevent a home invasion by criminals: just let the criminals take the car. After reaching all-time highs, car thievery now seems to be abating, but there are other trends in the wrong direction. Matthew Lau: Minimum wages are even more harmful than we thought Matthew Lau: Lessons for Canada in Argentina's newly freed markets There has been an explosion of antisemitic hate crimes in Toronto in the past two years. In recent weeks mobs have continued to attack Jewish businesses and block streets, in one case forcing police to divert an ambulance. There are increasingly common news stories of attacks on and vandalism of synagogues and Jewish businesses, and even antisemitism in public schools. Don't get me wrong. It is still possible to live a good life in Toronto. Trudging 20 or 30 minutes every so often, even in snow or rain, because the TTC has again broken down is not that great a hardship for me. I am only a very casual Leafs fan, Sportsnet turfing Don Cherry in 2019 having dulled my hockey enthusiasm, while the sight of empty arenas during the pandemic killed off most of the rest. But for many other Torontonians, the unreliability of the TTC and other municipal services, the hapless Leafs, the increased crime and the growing antisemitism weigh much more heavily. Toronto still has much to offer, but only if these problems are solved. Solid political leadership and better hockey players are needed. Matthew Lau is a Toronto writer. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Will Trump's China policy become more unpredictable after national security shake-up?
Donald Trump 's shake-up of the US National Security Council may be a sign he is increasingly relying on his instinct over expert advice, potentially increasing the unpredictability in Washington's approach to China, diplomatic observers have said. The shake-up could also be 'bad news' for Taiwan , which may find it harder to speak to key people in the White House, they added. The White House dismissed around 100 staff from the council last week – many from the China team – as part of Trump's wider overhaul of the federal government. The NSC swelled to over 300 staff under Joe Biden, but Trump's eventual goal is to reduce it to 50. Earlier this month national security adviser Mike Waltz was removed from his post after sharing classified information through the messaging app Signal and reportedly disagreeing with Trump over some aspects of foreign policy. Alex Wong, another known China hawk and former deputy national security adviser, has also been reassigned to another role, according to The Washington Post.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Now, free the ‘Aam' Maoist
Shubhranshu is a former journalist with BBC. From last 15 years he is working on an experiment to create a model of democratic media in media dark zones in the forests of Central India. He has written a book called Let's call him Vasu: With Maoists in Chhattisgarh. He is recipient of Google Digital Activism award and was named one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. LESS ... MORE Nambala Keshava Rao (Basavaraj) was defeatedat his own game and drowned the party with him. To go back a little, on April 26, 2010, then key leader Ramanna had called me after the attack that killed 76 cops. Triumphant, he shared the list of weapons snatched from security forces. I wasn't interested, more worried about my phone being tapped, and disconnected hurriedly. But at the moment I realised the call signalled a shift in the party – from 'mass line to military line'. Read full story on TOI+ Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Hans India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
India Reaffirms Global Stand Against Terrorism in Slovenia
New Delhi/Ljubljana: An all-party Indian parliamentary delegation led by MP Kanimozhi and including Dakshina Kannada MP Captain Brijesh Chowta is currently visiting Slovenia to bolster India's diplomatic stance against terrorism and expose Pakistan's duplicity on the issue at global platforms. After concluding its engagements in Russia, the delegation arrived in Ljubljana, where it held a series of high-level meetings with senior officials of the Slovenian government and Parliament. The Indian Ambassador to Slovenia, Amit Narang, received the delegation and briefed them on the growing strategic ties and mutual cooperation between India and Slovenia, particularly in matters of counter-terrorism. In a significant meeting with H.E. Predrag Baković, Chair of the Foreign Policy Committee of Slovenia's National Assembly, and Mirslav Gregorič, Head of the Slovenia-India Parliamentary Friendship Group, the Indian MPs conveyed India's policy of 'zero tolerance' towards terrorism. They also expressed concerns about Pakistan's continued support to terror networks, highlighting the need for unified global pressure against such actions. The delegation later met with H.E. Vozko Volk, Secretary for National and International Security and National Coordinator at the Prime Minister's Office, followed by discussions with Ms. Barbara Žvokelj, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. During these deliberations, Slovenia unequivocally condemned the recent Pahalgam terror attack and extended its support to India's strong and principled stance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership in combating terrorism. Slovenian leaders expressed their willingness to strengthen bilateral cooperation and assured India of continued support in international forums. The Indian delegation's visit to Slovenia is seen as part of a broader diplomatic effort to rally international opinion and build solidarity against state-sponsored terrorism, especially in the context of recent attacks targeting Indian security personnel and civilians.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Lammy is endangering our national security
When David Lammy, our gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary, talks about 'egregious actions and rhetoric', as he did when condemning Israel's actions in Gaza, he could equally be talking about his own unimpressive track record since taking up residence in King Charles Street. His history of uttering gratuitous insults about US president Donald Trump, whom he famously dubbed ' a neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath ' in 2018, has effectively made him persona non grata within the Trump administration's inner sanctum. The disinclination of serious players, such as secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, was clearly evident last month when they pulled out of the London Ukraine conference Lammy had organised. This left the foreign secretary in the ignominious position of having to withdraw from his own conference. Then there is his hapless handling of the Chagos Islands sell-out, where the dire national security implications of placing a prized military asset like Diego Garcia at the mercy of hostile states like China, Russia and Iran seems to have passed him by. Lammy's commitment to supporting a politically motivated attempt to prosecute Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes has caused a major rift in UK-Israel relations, with the Israeli premier declining to meet with Britain's foreign secretary when he visited Jerusalem last year. Few will be surprised by Lammy's decidedly underwhelming performance at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office given that he has struggled under the illusion that Libya in North Africa borders Syria in the eastern Mediterranean. Then there was the time when he congratulated Azerbaijan for forcing more than 100,000 Armenians to flee their homes in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a clear-cut case of ethnic cleansing if ever there was one. Even by his own pitiful standards, Lammy's egregious track record puts him on course to become the country's worst foreign secretary in living memory, on a par with the equally ineffectual Robin Cook, whose devotion to his so-called 'ethical foreign policy' rendered his contribution to world affairs largely irrelevant. Lammy's decision, therefore, to jump on the anti-Zionist bandwagon by suspending trade talks with Israel over its 'intolerable' military operations in Gaza is entirely in keeping with his world view. Rather than condemning the real architects of Gaza's misery, the Iranian-backed Hamas jihadis who started the conflict with their murderous October 7 assault on Israel, Lammy has gone for the easy option. Joining forces with such luminaries of global diplomacy as Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Lammy accused the current Israeli government of isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world through its efforts to destroy Hamas. The fact that Israel is fighting against an organisation that is proscribed in the UK because of its terrorist activities appears lost on Lammy, as is Hamas's obvious delight that the British Government has decided to publicly lambast one of its closest allies in the Middle East. Instead, the Foreign Secretary feels more at home siding with other dedicated anti-Israel activists, such as the governors of King's College, Cambridge, who have decided to divest from arms companies in protest, in part, at Israel's continued military offensive in Gaza. What Lammy and his ilk fail to understand is that, given the determination of Hamas and its Iranian backers to destroy the Jewish state, the Israelis have little alternative other than to maintain their military campaign in Gaza. Given the existential threat Israel faces from Hamas and its backers, perhaps Lammy should consider what other country would allow a terrorist organisation that had perpetrated the worst atrocity in its history to continue operating on its doorstep? But that would be to indulge in statesmanship, a quality as far removed from Lammy's skill set as his grasp of geography. So, rather than holding Hamas to account for committing murderous acts of terrorism, the British Government now finds itself in the invidious position of castigating a key ally for seeking to defend the Israeli people from suffering further acts of Islamist-inspired terrorism. By adopting such a fundamentally flawed policy towards the Gaza conflict, moreover, Lammy is inadvertently placing our own security in jeopardy. By ignoring the threat posed by a sophisticated terrorist organisation like Hamas, London is sending a message to other Islamist-inspired entities, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, that it has no interest in curbing their activities. It is surely no coincidence that, at the same time that Lammy decided to pick a fight with Israel, the security services are reporting a marked upsurge in Iranian terror activity in the UK. In terms of safeguarding the security of the British people, focusing our efforts on confronting Iran would make far more sense, with designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the group responsible for overseeing Tehran's anti-Western operations, a good place to start. If Lammy were to concentrate his efforts on denouncing Iran as a pariah state, as opposed to Israel, then people might start to take him seriously, and not as the joke he is today.
