Sources said that if the federal capital is made an independent unit, proposals have been created to introduce a new local tax in Islamabad and the revenue collected will be used on basic services and administrative structure within the city.

Early recommendations are for levies to fund hospitals, schools, colleges and other educational institutions, welfare operations and the administrative framework in Islamabad, sources added. The suggestions are likely to be addressed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team during the upcoming economic review while the new tax could be adopted in the budget of the next fiscal year.

No definitive estimate of amount to be collected has yet been prepared. Sources claimed the planned tax was aimed at generating fiscal room for Islamabad, considering the infrastructure requirements of the city.

The fifth review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) is scheduled to be reviewed in Pakistan’s next round of talks with the IMF. The fifth review is also listed as a program milestone in the IMF program materials.

Sources said that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will prepare tax suggestions in the first instance. These will be laid before the subcommittee created to study the question of taxation in connection with the infrastructure necessary to make of Islamabad an independent unit.

After approval by the relevant subcommittee, the recommendations will be referred to a committee chaired by the minister for planning. After approval there, the plans would be sent to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and then completed after approval by the IMF.

The Ministry of Finance has asked all relevant ministries and agencies to collect the necessary data and reports in preparation for the economic review talks with the IMF.

The relevant ministries will brief the IMF delegation on structural benchmarks and targets for economic reform, sources added. Also reforms in the energy sector will continue to be an important element of the talks and targets relating to circular debt in the electricity and gas industry are also expected to be discussed.

Sources said that if the talks between Pakistan and the IMF were successful it would open the way for the delivery of the fifth tranche under the present loan arrangement. Upon successful completion of the evaluation, the total estimated distribution would be $1.2 billion. Under the fifth tranche, Pakistan is scheduled to receive roughly $1 billion, while another $200 million could be granted to mitigate losses caused by climate change.

According to reports, the planned roadmap also include a new mechanism for the utilization of municipal taxes and distribution of resources. The administrative structure is being put in place and financial affairs are being coordinated with the international lender’s recommendations likely to be part of the effort to make the tax system more effective.

Australian firefighters say they are on alert as temperatures in the southern hemisphere begin to pick up, ​following a devastating fire season in Europe.

Australia is already experiencing ‌a strong El Nino weather event that typically brings with it hotter, drier weather, and an increased risk of wildfires.

“We’re concerned this year that we’ll see increased ​fire risk (versus) prior years,” said Trent Curtin, head of the New ​South Wales Rural Fire Service, the world’s largest volunteer

firefighting ⁠force.Large parts of Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, endured sweltering summers, ​leaving vegetation tinder-dry and fuelling severe wildfires.

Britain had its hottest summer since records ​began, with Italy’s the warmest for 75 years.

“We’re seeing some extraordinary conditions in the northern hemisphere at the moment,” Curtin said.

“They’re experiencing fires that they haven’t seen for a ​couple of decades or maybe never seen before.”

Australia has a long history ​of fighting wildfires, including the 2019 to 2020 Black Summer blazes that destroyed an area ‌the ⁠size of Turkey and killed 33 people.

Authorities frequently conduct hazard reduction burns, where sections of forest are burnt in a controlled manner to reduce the spread of wildfires should they happen.

“For this year we’re alert but not ​alarmed. We’re conscious ​of the fact ⁠that the seasonal outlook is expecting a busier than usual fire season – conditions will be quite dry, hot,” ​said

Alex Capararo, a sector commander for the Forestry ​Corporation of ⁠New South Wales, which manages state-owned land, as he led a hazard reduction burn around three hours north of Sydney.

Peak fire danger season usually starts ⁠in ​mid-October in northern New South Wales and ​in December in southern parts of the state, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Canadian private aircraft maker Bombardier (BBDb.TO) would no longer be allowed to sell its jets in the United States unless it began manufacturing in the nation.STOP SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their items aren’t good enough!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.“If they want our Market, they have to build here, and stop using America as a piggy bank,” he stated.

The post came as a trade battle between Washington and Ottawa escalated, part of the near-global tariff wall in Trump’s second term that has garnered concerns from numerous US trading partners.

Canada will impose a series of retaliatory tariffs on the US on Tuesday.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how Trump would implement the action or what steps he would take to prevent deliveries of Bombardier jets, which have been cleared by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

The planemaker’s jets also meet the United States-Mexico-Canada trade accord that Trump helped implement.

U.S. aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia said he did not think any business jet buyers would cancel Bombardier contracts, and he did not see how Trump could block them from being sold. Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, an aircraft management consulting firm, said most Bombardier private planes are powered by U.S.-made engines from Honeywell aircraft (HONA.O) and GE Aerospace (GE.N).

Aerospace has generally escaped untouched from Trump’s trade battle, with the flow of parts and planes not yet affected by taxes. U.S. aerospace and military has a $109.2 billion trade surplus and exports are up 25% on an annual basis in 2025, according to U.S. trade group Aerospace Industries Association.

Aerospace is as intertwined as the U.S. auto industry, which depends on parts from its northern neighbor.

Bombardier, a rival of U.S. business jet maker Gulfstream Aerospace (GD.N) based in Montreal, with 3,500 American employees, a U.S. footprint of 2,800 suppliers and factories and service centers around the country. The company is also opening its sixth U.S. service center and builds wings for its flagship Global 8000 plane in Texas.

Bombardier stated in a statement Monday nite that it spends more than $2.5 billion annually with U.S. suppliers.The United States is “a place where we will continue to invest in for our people, our customers and the communities we operate in across the country,” the business said.

Bombardier also has a defense subsidiary with a Kansas plant that prepares Canadian-made planes for special-mission missions. Bombardier’s customers operate a fleet of 5,100 aircraft, about half of which are in the U.S. In January, Trump announced the U.S. was decertifying Bombardier Global Express business jets and threatening 50 percent import taxes on all aircraft made in Canada until the country’s regulator certified a number of planes produced by Gulfstream. Neither happened, but during the next month Canada certified a few of Gulfstream planes.

Bombardier said in July that its quarterly sales rose 6 per cent to $2.15 billion from the same three months a year ago, supported by robust demand for aftermarket services.