Public satisfaction with the NHS is at a record low. Just 24% of respondents to the British Social Attitudes survey, which has been conducted since 1983, said they were happy with the health service. The most common problems cited were staff shortages and waiting times for appointments. Six construction workers who were on Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge are presumed dead, after the structure collapsed when a container ship crashed into it early Tuesday morning. The vessel lost power and issued a distress call moments before the collision; contaminated fuel is suspected to have played a part in the incident. Lego has requested that a California police department stop superimposing its products on to mugshots. Police in Murrieta, near Los Angeles, have been releasing edited photos of suspects in non-violent cases with yellow “minifigure” heads, to preserve their right to anonymity.

It’s time we stopped pandering to pensioners

The news is dominated by stories about “old people retaining their perks”, says Sarah Ditum in UnHerd. Take the “Waspi women”, who claim to have lost out when the government raised the female state pension age to match that of men. Campaigners are asking for “an eye-watering £10,000 each” – but of course, British pensioners “are used to being indulged”. This week, Jeremy Hunt confirmed that the “triple lock” – which guarantees that the state pension rises annually by wage growth, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest – would be retained in the next Tory manifesto. It’s an “astonishingly generous settlement”, and one that has proved immune to austerity economics. The reason is straightforward: “older people get what they want because there are a lot of older people and they tend to vote”.

Meanwhile, children are taught in schools “that are literally falling apart”. That’s if they’re taught at all – many were disastrously cut off from their education during lockdown, “in order to protect older people from Covid”. When they enter employment, they’ll then have to fund a standard of living for pensioners they’ll never be offered themselves. Why? Because the British birth rate of 1.49 means we have an ageing population with fewer and fewer workers; eventually, “economic logic dictates that old-age perks will become unsustainable”. A society that relies on young people “should treat them well”. There can be “no surer way to break down the generational contract holding society together” than the old continuing to hoard their wealth and political power.

The Tories have spent their time in office “hoovering up powers” for the government, at the expense of other institutions, says Bagehot in The Economist. But they’ve put “surprisingly little thought” into the consequences of this “unshackled state” falling into Labour’s hands. If Keir Starmer gets into No 10, he’ll be able to exploit Tory-made laws which allow the government to amend legislation “with little parliamentary oversight”. And thanks to Brexit, Labour won’t be constrained by EU law – the party’s plan to put VAT on private school fees, for example, would be impossible under the bloc’s tax rules.

Germany’s beloved sausage dogs could soon be banned in their native country because of their inherent health problems, says The Times. The federal government is considering a new law that would ban breeds with traits deemed “pathological”, such as spinal problems associated with the long back and short legs of the dachshund. A “symbol of Teutonic stubbornness”, the dinky dogs were deliberately bred into their distinctive shape so that they could burrow and hunt.

South Africa is no friend of the West

“South Africa held hands with Hamas in January,” says The Wall Street Journal, and charged Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice. The previous month, the ruling African National Congress party hosted three members of the terrorist group in Pretoria, including Hamas’s representative in Iran and a member of its political bureau in Gaza. South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor, an architect of the country’s anti-Israel approach, has told citizens who serve in the Israeli army: “When you come home, we’re going to arrest you.” So it’s perhaps no surprise that US lawmakers are taking a moment to reassess America’s relationship with “our non-friends in Pretoria”.

The South African government claims it is non-aligned, but a new bipartisan bill working its way through the US Congress notes that the country has a “history of siding with malign actors”. When foreign minister Pandor was in Washington last week, she was asked at an event whether Iran was an authoritarian regime. “I don’t know whether they are an authoritarian regime,” she said. “I don’t have that definition in my logbook.” Pretoria has also been “cultivating relationships with US adversaries”. In February last year, the country hosted joint naval exercises with China and Russia. South Africa, and particularly the ANC, have long benefited from the “halo effect” of Nelson Mandela and the country’s fight against apartheid. But that goodwill has been squandered. Congress is right to “put Pretoria on notice”.

Most nuclear states name their weapons using codes or bland acronyms, says South Asian Voices: the US has the B61 nuclear bomb and the THAAD missile defence system. But India and Pakistan take a different tack. To shape public perceptions, particularly among “low-literacy” sections of their populations, the two nations choose names invoking religion, culture and history. Pakistan’s missiles include Hatf, a word for “death” derived from the name of Prophet Mohammed’s sword, and Ra’ad, meaning “thunder”, which symbolises the Islamic concept of divine punishment. The Indian arsenal includes Agni Prime, named after the Vedic fire god, and Astra, meaning “a weapon created by God that can destroy the whole world”.

They’re Alan Titchmarsh’s jeans, says The Guardian, which have been censored in North Korea on account of being “a symbol of US imperialism”. Since the early 1990s, only tourists have been allowed to wear denim in the communist country. But Titchmarsh’s wholesome horticulture series, Garden Secrets, seems to be permitted, having been shown on state TV since 2022. Episodes are typically edited down to 15 minutes, with Titchmarsh’s jeans blurred and North Korean narration nearly drowning out his “dulcet Yorkshire tones”. “It is not clear how, or if, the regime acquired the rights to Garden Secrets.”