The 80th UN General Assembly was meant to be the world’s grand stage for diplomacy and cooperation, but what unfolded was closer to a travelling circus. Leaders arrived not with solutions but with scripts written for domestic applause. The world is facing urgent crises — from Gaza’s devastation

Shehbaz Sharif’s performance at the UN General Assembly this year was a textbook example of Pakistan’s foreign policy in action — loud, theatrical, and hollow. Standing at the world’s most important diplomatic forum, the Prime Minister of a debt-strangled country declared that Pakistan had downed seven Indian jets, glorified Operation Sindoor, thanked China, Turkey, Iran