Aurelia Butler

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    China’s Economic Plan Is Light on Detail as Trade War Intensifies

    The country’s top leaders set an optimistic growth target but gave few hints of how to achieve it as their export-led strategy is challenged by rising tariffs on Chinese goods.For months, China has promised to help its people spend more to turn the economy around, while taking few concrete measures.On Wednesday, the country’s top leaders pledged to “vigorously” boost spending but once again offered limited details and little money to back it up.The government’s budget and annual work report, released on the most important day in China’s political calendar, during the meeting in Beijing called the National People’s Congress, set an optimistic target of 5 percent growth but gave scant indication of how the economy would get there without another surge in exports this year. China’s reliance on trade for growth faces fresh challenges as the United States and many other countries have raised tariffs on Chinese goods.“The headwinds remain very strong on growth: The property market hasn’t stabilized and consumer confidence remains low,” said Tao Wang, chief China economist at UBS. “Now we have a fresh wave of tariffs and who knows what else will come. Policy needs to do the heavy lifting.”Here are some key takeaways from China’s budget — and what it means for one of the world’s biggest economies.Beijing to consumers: Spend, spend, spend!China is one of the few places in the world with deflation, an economic condition in which many prices are falling. That might sound appealing to Americans struggling with hefty bills for groceries and other expenses, but it can be a crippling problem: Many companies and households have seen their earnings shrink in recent years. Deflation also raises the cost of debt payments and encourages consumers to put off purchases on the expectation of prices being lower in the future.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Gaming Out Trump’s Next Tariff Moves

    In his address to Congress, the president made clear that his new trade levies were here to stay, acknowledging it might create “a little disturbance.” Analysts forecast what that might look like.President Trump’s tariffs have jolted global markets and the business world, but he has given no indication he’ll retreat on the levies.Doug Mills/The New York Times“A little disturbance” For months, the debate gripping board rooms, Wall Street and world capitals was whether to take President Trump at his word on tariffs. For a while, the markets rallied as if he were just bluffing.He wasn’t. In an address before Congress last night, Trump said that tariffs would protect American jobs and enrich the nation. He also acknowledged that “there will be a little disturbance. But we’re OK with that.”What might a “a little disturbance” look like? DealBook has taken on the task of gaming out what could happen next. (A warning to free-trade advocates: this could be tough reading.)More tariffs are coming, trade experts say. Few countries, or companies, will be spared. For example, if the tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China stick, then Europe will be next. Such a scenario is “unavoidable,” George Saravelos, the global head of FX Research at Deutsche Bank, said in a research note on Tuesday. European companies are already bracing for the next wave.“Trump has appeared to be less amenable to carve-outs in this second term,” David Seif, chief economist for developed markets at Nomura, told DealBook. That could bode poorly, he added, for Britain, whose prime minister, Keir Starmer, met with Trump at the White House last week where a trade deal was discussed. “I don’t think Keir Starmer should just feel safe right now,” Seif said.Expect more market turmoil. “These tariffs would represent a major negative global growth shock, sufficient to push many economies into recession,” Saravelos wrote, adding that it’s time to stop thinking of them as a negotiating tactic. (The recessionary risk for the United States may be remote, but concerns are growing about the tariffs’ potential stagflationary effects.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Suggests Black Lives Matter Plaza Will Be Painted Over

    The announcement came just a day after a Republican congressman introduced legislation threatening to withhold millions in federal funds from the city unless the street mural was removed.The mayor of Washington, D.C., suggested on Tuesday night that the giant Black Lives Matter mural that was painted in the summer of 2020 on a street within view of the White House would be painted over.The announcement from the mayor, Muriel E. Bowser, about “the evolution of Black Lives Matter Plaza” came just a day after Andrew Clyde, a Republican congressman from Georgia, introduced legislation threatening to withhold millions in federal funds from the city unless the giant yellow words were removed from the street and the plaza renamed.In a post on X, the mayor said that the plaza would instead be part of a citywide project in which students and artists would create new murals to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday.The Black Lives Matter mural “inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” wrote Ms. Bowser, a Democrat. “The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.”The mural was painted on the morning of June 5, 2020, just days after federal authorities used chemical spray and smoke grenades to clear protesters so that President Trump could walk to a historic church near the White House and pose for photographs holding a Bible.At the time, cities across the country were convulsing with demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd. Ms. Bowser and Mr. Trump quarreled throughout that week, with the Washington mayor meeting with protesters and urging the president to pull federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops out of the city.Since Mr. Trump’s return to office, the city’s vulnerability has become glaringly clear. Republican lawmakers have introduced numerous bills aimed at the city, including one that would eliminate home rule entirely — a power to elect local government that city residents have had for more than 50 years.Washington’s self-government is limited as it is, with all local legislation subject to congressional oversight and much of the criminal justice system, including judges and prosecutors, in the hands of the federal government. But Mr. Trump has championed a complete federal takeover of the city.He has already gotten involved in city matters, including in one case that sparked protests and outrage in the fall of 2020. Within days of taking office, Mr. Trump pardoned two police officers who had been convicted of conspiracy and obstructing justice in the death of a young Black man who died after a police chase. More

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    Trump Officials Mark Hundreds of Federal Properties for Potential Sale

    The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it could sell hundreds of federal properties around the country, including offices for the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.Officials at the General Services Administration, an agency that manages the federal government’s real estate portfolio, originally said they had identified more than 440 properties that they could “dispose of” in an effort to ensure that “taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space.”By Tuesday evening, however, the list of buildings deemed “not core to government operations” had been trimmed to 320 properties, removing a number of high-profile buildings, many of them in Washington, D.C.Federal Properties That Could Be Sold More

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    NYT Crossword Answers for March 5, 2025

    Rebecca Goldstein gives us a witty jump scare.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — “Is this a crossword which I see before me, the pen toward my hand?” OK, so that’s not exactly what Macbeth said, but it’s the reference that sprang to mind as I started in on today’s crossword, constructed by Rebecca Goldstein, which is chock-full of spectral sightings in a certain estate.Let’s solve this grid bravely together, shall we?Today’s ThemeIt’s time for a tour through the rooms of Ms. Goldstein’s HAUNTED MANSION (62A/66A), where everyday expressions reveal various scary locations.First, we have the [Blowout victory, metaphorically]: a BLOOD BATH (20A). Speaking of water features, how about this [Marvel superhero portrayed by Ryan Reynolds]: a DEADPOOL (7D). Tackle your terrifying work tasks inside the [Commercial property left mostly vacant by hybrid work arrangements], also known as a ZOMBIE OFFICE (25D). And finally, we’ll stop for a bite of frights in the GHOST KITCHEN (28D) — a [Restaurant offering delivery and pickup only].Tricky Clues14A. The [Source of a pulse] in a person would be the heart, but this clue is after a pulse used for navigational purposes: SONAR.34A. Remember: A question mark in a clue is essentially a wink. The [Device for taking notes] refers not to the kind of notes you’d take in a classroom, but to bank notes. The answer is ATM.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Canadians and Wayne Gretzky: Anatomy of a Relationship on Thin Ice

    In tense political times, can “The Great One” be both a Trump supporter and a beloved hero in Canada? Some want him to pick a side. (Preferably the one to the north.)Where have you gone, Wayne Gretzky? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.In the meantime, a statue of Gretzky would have to do. The puck would drop soon, and outside the main doors to the arena, fans of the Edmonton Oilers swirled around the life-size bronze facsimile of Wayne Gretzky, Canada’s recently tarnished bigger-than-life hero.“I’d like him to be a little more Canadian,” said Rob Munro, a 43-year-old Oilers fan in a 1980s-era Mark Messier jersey. “I’m not anti-Gretzky, by any stretch. It’s just disappointing.”Mr. Gretzky, now 64, has long been frozen as an ideal — the ideal athlete, icon and Canadian. “The Great One,” he is still called, having led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup titles in the 1980s. He has stood as a national avatar for talent and decency for decades. “A true champion and gentleman of dedication and character,” reads a plaque at his bronze skates.Now Mr. Gretzky stands, silently, as a case study for what happens when heroes disappoint — and how quickly even the strongest allegiances can shift when stirred by Trumpian politics.“You were a great Canadian, but now you are not,” said Matthew Iwanyk, chief operating officer and host of Edmonton Sports Talk. “That is the majority sentiment you will get from Edmontonians.”Wayne Gretzky led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup titles in the 1980s, establishing himself as the greatest player in the history of the National Hockey League. David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated, via Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Justice Dept. Signals It Will End Challenge to Idaho Abortion Ban

    The Trump administration is poised to roll back a Biden-era legal effort to blunt the effects of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.The Justice Department plans to drop a Biden-era challenge to Idaho’s law banning abortion in nearly all circumstances, a move that could end access to most abortions for women in the state whose pregnancy poses serious health risks, according to a court filing on Tuesday.The decision represents one of the first major steps under President Trump to roll back former Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s efforts to blunt the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.The Trump administration plans to “dismiss its claims in the above case, without prejudice” as early as Wednesday, a lawyer with the department’s civil division wrote in an email to lawyers for the state’s largest hospital system.The action would effectively lift a federal appellate court’s hold on parts of the near-total ban, which was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature in 2020 in anticipation of the nullification of the national right to an abortion.Excerpts from the government’s email were included in a request in Federal District Court by the Boise-based St. Luke’s Health System for a new temporary freeze to give it time to adjust to the law, which bans all abortions other than those required to prevent a woman’s death, or in certain cases of rape or incest.Hospitals in Idaho need the temporary delay “to train their staff about the change in legal obligations” and to arrange logistics “to airlift patients out of state” if they require an abortion rendered illegal in Idaho, wrote Wendy J. Olson, a lawyer for the system.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Justices can find these speeches to Congress to be a trial.

    Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. makes a point of going to the State of the Union address. But he does not enjoy it, once calling it “a political pep rally.”He was there again on Tuesday, accompanied by Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, both appointed by President Trump; Justice Elena Kagan, appointed by President Barack Obama; and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who retired in 2018.“I’m not sure why we are there,” Chief Justice Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said in 2010, adding: “The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court, according to the requirements of protocol, has to sit there expressionless, I think, is very troubling.”But the chief justice has continued to attend, while other members of the court have long ago stopped going. Justice Clarence Thomas, who has said that he could not abide “the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments,” has not gone for more than a decade.Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. called the addresses “very political events” and “very awkward,” adding, “We have to sit there like the proverbial potted plant most of the time.”He did speak, sort of, in 2010 in response to President Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United campaign finance decision, then just a few days old. He mouthed the words “not true.” He has not been back since.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More