NYC’s public-schools system is now officially a $45 billion scandal factory

At least some Trump administration folks, for example, keep falling for Moscow’s claims that Ukraine is about to collapse: It proved untrue over a year ago, when insiders first suggested it to us, and it’s not so now. Nor has Vladimir Putin shown any real goodwill by freeing Stephan Hubbard, an American imprisoned and tortured on trumped-up charges, nor by going along with First Lady Melania Trump’s local ceasefire around Oleshky. Putin can (and will) grab more hostages as he pleases; the pause at Oleshky doesn’t help Kyiv, just allow some innocents to escape the front. Meanwhile, Washington has recently waived Graham Act sanctions and suspended diesel sanctions on Moscow without the Kremlin giving in on anything. Putin’s ill will is on permanent display in his relentless terror-by-air campaign deliberately targeting Ukraine’s civilian population, including a focus on knocking out power so as many innocents as possible freeze this winter. President Donald Trump may be “determined to bring an end” to the Ukraine war, as special envoy Jared Kushner put it Monday, but Putin is the one who started it nearly five years ago and has refused to seriously entertain any peace short of his victim’s surrender.

If Republicans are to recover from last week’s disaster, Team Trump needs to show greater flexibility here. Yet the prez just chose Stephen Miller, a fierce deportation hardliner, as chief of staff: Can he loyally get on the boss’ new page, and stay there? Trump’s admission is a positive sign, and (who knows?) might lead to a bipartisan deal on immigration reform — if Democrats can drop their own maximalist demands, such as amnesty for all and reopened borders.

‘I saw him as a crude means to reach disillusioned younger people with left-wing politics’, he writes,” so “ ‘I was willing to overlook, or just not look into, his history of problematic behaviour / statements, including sexism.’

New York needs a far stronger state Republican Party or its long decline will only accelerate — and that clearly requires empowering the Empire State GOP’s best young blood.

You could not ask for a more loyal gatekeeper — one dedicated to forwarding Trump’s core agenda without pride or prejudice — nor a hand more deft at balancing attack and defense, conflict and cooperation.

Diary of disturbing disinformation and dangerous delusions This threat “Whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court and entangle him in legislative razor wire” — Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Wednesday

You can’t let Iran have a . . . nuclear weapon or everything that you see here someday might not exist.”

Good: “Modest losses” would have deceived them into “believing they could continue on the same path.” Iconoclast: Democrats’ Coming Civil War “The Great Democratic Crack-Up starts now,” notes The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik, after months when “anger and divisions have been bubbling up — the uber-progressive left pushing back against what it views as a feeble and feckless Democratic leadership, the leadership trying to hold things together.”

House Speaker-to-be Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) offered his own olive branch, vowing: “We are ready, willing and able to find bipartisan common ground with the other side of the aisle” to “bring about meaningful change.”

The American people sent a clear message that they don’t want to squander blood and money fighting foreign conflicts that have caused harm to the American economy, and that politicians will be held accountable for false promises (“In the deep blue seize,” Nov. 4).