Melanie Phillips: The West’s pragmatic fallacy

When people are called pragmatic, it’s meant to imply reasonableness, the ability to compromise, occupying the sensible middle ground.

That compliment may often be justified. However, as the obverse of principle, pragmatism has also been the West’s progressive undoing.

US President Donald Trump is an arch pragmatist. His “art of the deal” is based on beating down the other side through negotiations in which he plays a superior hand.

Corey Smith: China and Qatar Give Billions to US Universities – What Do They Get?

When authoritarian governments have access to American campuses.

Five hundred and twenty-seven colleges and universities have accepted foreign gifts and contracts for a total of $62.4 billion – that we know about. China has given more than $4 billion to US universities, and it’s only the fourth highest on a list displayed on the Department of Education’s new online portal. It shows how much money American universities have received from foreign gifts and contracts, part of President Donald Trump’s effort to ensure these institutions are transparent about funds from outside the country. Getting universities to disclose information, however, is the easy part.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 21/8/24

How big bucks are paid to cut red tape – and to polish the press statements that tell us about it

Regulation Minister David Seymour has proudly announced his Ministry has published an Economic Analysis Issues paper as part of the ongoing agricultural and horticultural products regulatory review.

The analysis is part of the regulatory review’s mission to identify unnecessary red tape and make things easier for growers and producers around New Zealand.

Geoffrey Miller: Does New Zealand need to up its game with World Cup host Qatar?

As the FIFA World Cup gets underway in Qatar, it is worth looking at the state of New Zealand’s wider relationship with the host nation.

While New Zealand often likes to think of itself as a small country, it comfortably outranks Qatar in both size and population.

In terms of area, Qatar is just over twice the size of the greater Auckland region. And the Gulf state’s population – at just under 3 million – makes New Zealand’s own 5 million figure seem generous.

But as the World Cup shows, size is no obstacle to Doha’s ambitions.