Pakistan parliament elects Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister
Pakistan’s parliament elected opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister, ending weeks of political turmoil since former cricket star Imran Khan lost the support of lawmakers and tried to prevent a no-confidence vote by pushing for fresh elections.
A total of 174 lawmakers in the 342-seat National Assembly voted in favor of the younger brother of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif. The new leader will have to focus on securing about $3 billion left from an International Monetary Fund loan needed to bolster the economy where reserves are enough for a couple of months of imports and the rupee recently touched a record low.
“This is the first time a no-confidence has succeeded,” Sharif said in a speech after his election. “Truth has won.”
Before Sharif was elected, dozens of lawmakers from Khan’s party resigned in a move to pressure the new ruling party and its allies to call for elections. Khan was voted out just after midnight on Sunday following a long and drawn out no-confidence debate that saw several adjournments and speeches from his associates in parliament decrying the move as a conspiracy driven by the U.S.
Being part of Monday’s vote “would be tantamount to giving legitimacy to an illegitimate government being imposed on us,” said Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s former foreign minister from Khan’s party. “We are all announcing our resignation today.”
Sharif said his incoming government would investigate Khan’s much-hyped allegations of “foreign intervention” in his ouster.
—Bloomberg News
California public school enrollment spirals downward
LOS ANGELES — California public school enrollment has dropped for the fifth year in a row, a decline of 110,000 students as K-12 schools struggle against pandemic disruptions and a shrinking population of school-age children, among other factors.
California enrollment stood at 5,892,240, a 1.8% decline, according to state data released Monday.
Large urban districts accounted for one-third of the drop. While public school enrollment has experienced a downward trend since 2014-15, the state warned that COVID-19 disruptions have largely contributed to the most recent enrollment drops. In March 2020 the pandemic shuttered campuses in California and across the country, forcing schools into distance learning, many for nearly a year.
The fall 2021 drop follows a huge enrollment hit during the 2020-21 school year, when the state announced a decline of 160,000 students, the largest drop in 20 years.
The state Department of Education is hoping to boost enrollment in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten classes and is providing districts with support to reach families of chronically absent students during the pandemic, when absenteeism has worsened. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the nation, nearly half of all students have been chronically absent, a Times analysis found.
Statewide, the largest drops by grade level were among first-, fourth-, seventh- and ninth-graders. By race, the state saw the largest drop in enrollment among white students, a group that declined by 4.9%. They are followed by Black students at 3.6%, Asian students at 1.9% and Latino students at nearly 1%.
The decline is not unique to Los Angeles or California.
—Los Angeles Times
Fire that killed girl in Baltimore intentionally set, police say
BALTIMORE — A fire that left a child dead in a Southwest Baltimore rowhome Friday evening was intentionally set, and the death has been ruled a homicide, police said Monday morning.
Police identified the child as a female, but officials said her name and age have not yet been determined.
She was found on the lower level of a rowhome on Vancouver Road in the Beechfield neighborhood, officials said. Firefighters responded to the scene around 6 p.m. Friday.
After a ruling from the medical examiner, Baltimore police said homicide detectives are investigating the case.
Police spokesman Detective Vernon Davis said investigators are interviewing potential witnesses.
He was unable to confirm whether the child and others lived at the address where she was killed. He said additional testing will allow investigators to determine her age and identity.
—The Baltimore Sun
Disney gave Florida GOP $125,000 over ‘don’t say gay’ law
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Walt Disney Co. donated $125,000 to the Republican Party of Florida at the beginning of this year’s legislative session, according to new filings with the state.
That session ended last month with Disney as public enemy number one for many Republicans after CEO Bob Chapek announced his opposition to the so-called “don’t say gay” bill.
Chapek paused all political donations in Florida in March after taking heat from LGBTQ groups for his relative silence on the bill, which was later signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The law prohibits classroom instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in grades kindergarten through three or in a manner that is not “age appropriate” for higher grades. Republicans say it protects parents’ rights, but opponents have criticized it as intentionally vague and targeting the gay community.
Before this year, Disney had given about $55 million to Republicans, Democrats and political committees in the state over the past 28 years, including about $5 million in 2020 and more than $2 million in 2021, state records show.
Before the pause this year, in addition to the Florida GOP contribution Disney also gave $25,000 to the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign.
—Orlando Sentinel
