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      China’s Latest Security Target: Halloween Partygoers

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      Last year, the Shanghai government said Halloween celebrations were a sign of “cultural tolerance.” This year, the police rounded up people in costume.Social media videos verified by The New York Times showed police in Shanghai escorting away people dressed in costumes.The police escorted the Buddha down the street, one officer steering him with both hands. They hurried a giant poop emoji out of a cheering dance circle in a public park. They also pounced on Donald J. Trump with a bandaged ear, and pushed a Kim Kardashian look-alike, in a tight black dress and pearls, into a police van, while she turned and waved to a crowd of onlookers.The authorities in Shanghai were on high alert this past weekend, against a pressing threat: Halloween.Officials there clamped down on Halloween celebrations this year, after many young people turned last year’s festivities into a rare public outlet for political or social criticism. People had poured into the streets dressed up as Covid testing workers, to mock the three years of lockdowns they had just endured; they plastered themselves in job advertisements, amid a weak employment market; they cross-dressed, seizing the opportunity to express L.G.B.T.Q. identities without being stigmatized.At the time, many on Chinese social media celebrated the revelries as a joyous form of collective therapy. The Shanghai government even issued a news release saying the celebrations were proof of the city’s “cultural tolerance” and the “wisdom of its urban managers.”“There is an absence of festivals in China solely dedicated to the simple pleasures of having fun,” it said. “Halloween has filled the void.”But the authorities have grown increasingly restrictive toward personal expression in recent years, including seemingly apolitical expression. They are also wary of impromptu crowds, especially after the anti-lockdown protests in 2022. And so, for all their praise last year, this year they seemed determined to prevent a repeat.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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      ¿Trump es un fascista? El alcalde de Nueva York esquiva la pregunta

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      Dos días después del evento de Trump en el Madison Square Garden, Eric Adams se notó visiblemente molesto ante las preguntas sobre el expresidente y dijo que había que “bajar la retórica”.El extraño noviazgo político entre el alcalde de Nueva York, Eric Adams, y el expresidente Donald Trump ha dado otro giro extraño.Dos días después de que Trump diera lo que sería su alegato final de campaña en el Madison Square Garden —un mitin que se convirtió en un desfile de insultos, agravios y discursos de odio—, le preguntaron a Adams si quería replantear su postura.¿Seguía manteniendo su afirmación de que Trump no era un fascista?Adams, quien es demócrata, se negó a dar una respuesta directa. Desestimó pregunta tras pregunta, describiéndolas como “humillantes”, “tontas” e “insultantes”.“Con todo lo que le está pasando a los neoyorquinos de a pie, nos estamos haciendo preguntas como si alguien es un fascista o si alguien es Hitler”, dijo el alcalde el martes en su rueda de prensa semanal en el Ayuntamiento. “Eso es insultante para mí y no voy a participar en eso.“Todo el mundo tiene que bajar la retórica porque, después del día de las elecciones, tenemos que seguir siendo los Estados Unidos y no los Estados divididos”.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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      Dozens Killed in Israeli Strikes in Eastern Lebanon, Lebanese Officials Say

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      Israeli airstrikes on Monday killed at least 60 people in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon, Lebanese officials said, in what appeared to be the deadliest barrage of strikes in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah escalated last month.At least 58 others were injured in the attacks according to Lebanon’s health ministry, which reported the death toll. Most of the airstrikes were concentrated in Baalbek district, a patchwork of farmlands and villages in the valley that is home to a city of the same name. Hezbollah holds sway in parts of the district, one of Lebanon’s most underdeveloped regions, which borders Syria.Israel’s military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure. On Tuesday, Israel’s military said its forces had engaged in “joint aerial and ground operations” against “terror infrastructure sites” in Lebanon, but it did not mention the Bekaa Valley.While Israeli airstrikes have rained down across the valley over the past month, residents described the barrage of strikes on Monday night and Tuesday morning as the most intense they had experienced. The strikes also hit within the city of Baalbek — an urban center that has been largely spared in Israel’s recent air campaign — stoking unease that a rare pocket of relative safety in the district was no longer.“They were the most powerful strikes we’ve had here,” said Ibrahim Bayan, a deputy of the mayor of Baalbek city. “We thought the strikes wouldn’t stop until they had leveled all of Baalbek.”At around 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Mr. Bayan began to hear the thud, thud, thud of airstrikes raining down on the hills surrounding the city, he said. Then at around 7 p.m., his house shook and some of his windows shattered after strikes hit within the city limits. Mr. Bayan said he had barely slept the rest of the night as the booms of strikes and the roar of ambulance sirens echoed across the city. More

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      Autumn in New York Has Been the One of the City’s Driest Ever

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      It’s been 29 days since Central Park has seen measurable rain.On Saturday, Sarah Antebi, a 19-year-old sophomore at Barnard and Columbia, paused for a moment while running through Central Park to take in the fall foliage at the lake. It’s unusually resplendent for this time of year, with many of the trees just starting to turn orange and yellow.Like many New Yorkers, she was torn between enjoying the sight and feeling a sense of unease at how unusually warm and dry autumn has felt this year.“All my friends are like, ‘We just want it to be fall,’” she said. “We just want to wear our sweaters.”October is historically a fairly dry month, but the city has never quite seen an October like this. As of Tuesday morning, Central Park had gone 29 days without measurable rain, the second-longest dry streak in records that date back to 1869, Bill Goodman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in New York confirmed. If no rain falls before midnight on Halloween, October would be the driest calendar month in the city’s history.And if the city makes it all the way through Election Day without measurable rain — something forecasts suggest is likely — it will beat the current record for a dry streak: 36 days, set in October and November 1924.(For rain to be considered measurable, the rain gauge at Belvedere Castle in Central Park must detect one-hundredth of an inch or more. The last time it did that was Sept. 29, when 0.78 of an inch fell.)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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      ‘Hatred and Vitriol’ at the Trump Rally in New York

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      More from our inbox:What My Gut SaysThe Benefits of Electric CarsDonald Trump at Madison Square Garden.Kenny Holston/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “At the Garden, a Vivid Display of MAGA Fury” (front page, Oct. 29) and “The Pain of a Son’s Death, Worsened by Politics” (front page, Oct. 29):As I read these two articles, I wondered again where Trumpism has put its compassion. The first was about Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, which included unbelievable amounts of hatred and vitriol. The second told the story of the Springfield, Ohio, family who lost a son in a school bus accident involving a Haitian driver and has since faced heckling and threats for objecting to the politicization of the accident.I cannot vote for a party that voices that much hatred and talk of violence. Where is the compassion? Where is the love, mercy, justice, humility?Kent OlsonSioux Falls, S.D.To the Editor:Even eight years ago I would have been astonished if anybody at a Trump rally were to dispense the kind of raw racist hatred that was heard at Madison Square Garden, but I was not astonished this time. Donald Trump and his minions have put down the dog whistle and have picked up an industrial-strength bullhorn. Why? Because they know that it will resonate with a large section of the American population.We have to stop living in denial: The majority of Americans are not racist, but racism is not a fringe movement; it infects many millions. Mr. Trump would not be beating the drum so hard if this were not true.The disheartening hard truth is that whoever is in the White House, racism remains a national cancer. How can we battle it? I wish I had an answer, but I know this much: As a starting point, it is imperative that we acknowledge that the malignancy exists.David EnglishActon, Mass.To the Editor:What a coincidence. Sunday was also the 50th anniversary of the national day of solidarity with Puerto Rican independence, also held at Madison Square Garden, which drew nearly 20,000 people.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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      ‘Ragtime’ Crushed Brandon Uranowitz’s Dream. Now It’s Healing His Wounds.

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      Nearly 30 years after being let go from the Broadway-bound show, this Tony Award winner is taking a lead role in a new revival at City Center.In 1997, Brandon Uranowitz was a 10-year-old from West Orange, N.J., who dreamed of being on Broadway. He got one small foot in the door that year when he replaced Paul Dano as the wide-eyed little boy Edgar in the musical “Ragtime” during its premiere in Toronto.A year later, “Ragtime” opened on Broadway, and the musical — about three families navigating America at the turn of the 20th century, based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel — featured most of the Toronto cast, a powerhouse roster that included Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Peter Friedman, Marin Mazzie and Lea Michele. But Uranowitz wasn’t chosen to make the move. (Alex Strange was cast in the role instead.)That disappointment remains an “open wound,” Uranowitz, 38, said.“It was just, see ya, thanks for coming,” he added. “It felt unfinished.”Uranowitz, center, and other cast members during a rehearsal for the show, which begins performances on Wednesday.Amir Hamja for The New York TimesUranowitz eventually got to Broadway, making his debut in the short-lived musical “Baby It’s You!” and later appearing in “Falsettos,” “An American in Paris” and other shows. Last season, he won a Tony Award for his role in Tom Stoppard’s play “Leopoldstat.”Starting Wednesday, Uranowitz hopes to finally close that open wound when “Ragtime” is revived, not on Broadway but at City Center, where Lear DeBessonet’s new production is to begin performances. And Uranowitz, returning to the show for the first time since his Toronto run, will play the Jewish immigrant father-protector Tateh, the role for which Friedman received a Tony nomination.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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      Could the Vote Be Contested Again? 5 Threats to a Smooth Election

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      Litigation, disinformation and battles over certifying the vote all have the potential to complicate the process.For the past four years, Donald J. Trump has been proclaiming the American electoral process “rigged,” decrying events that displease him as “election interference” and laying the groundwork to contest another loss at the polls.It follows the playbook from his loss in 2020, when the former president weaponized disinformation and exploited perceived weak points or vagueness in election law in an attempt to overturn results.At the same time, lawmakers and election officials have been trying to shore up the electoral system against another potential attempt to subvert a presidential election. Federal laws regarding the Electoral College were changed. There is stronger case law to knock down specious legal claims, and Mr. Trump is no longer sitting in the Oval Office with the levers of government in his grasp.But even with a national effort to reinforce the country’s democratic institutions, a smooth path to picking the next president still requires the good faith buy-in of its citizens, candidates and political parties. Absent that, there are a number of ways that the next few weeks — both before and after the polls close — could be rocky.Here is a look at some possibilities:Elizabeth Young, an assistant state attorney general representing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, argued an election-related case before members of Georgia’s Supreme Court last month.Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated PressA flood of litigationAlready, more than 187 election-related lawsuits have been filed, including at least 116 seeking some restrictions to voting and 68 filed by those seeking to expand or protect voting, according to data from Democracy Docket, a Democratic-aligned group that tracks election cases. The cases represent an extraordinary inundation of litigation before the election.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