Elections

The International Monetary Fund said protectionism and new trade wars could weigh on growth.The global economy has managed to avoid falling into a recession even though the world’s central banks have raised interest rates to their highest levels in years to try to tame rapid inflation, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.But the I.M.F., in a new report, also cautioned that escalating violence in the Middle East and the prospect of a new round of trade wars stemming from political developments in the United States remain significant threats.New economic forecasts released by the fund on Tuesday showed that the global fight against soaring prices has largely been won: Global output is expected to hold steady at 3.2 percent this year and next. Fears of a widespread post-pandemic contraction have been averted, but the fund warned that many countries still face a challenging mix of high debt and sluggish growth.The report was released as finance ministers and central bank governors from around the world convened in Washington for the annual meetings of the I.M.F. and the World Bank. The gathering is taking place two weeks ahead of a presidential election in the United States that could result in a major shift toward protectionism and tariffs if former President Donald J. Trump is elected.Mr. Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board tariffs of as much as 50 percent, most likely setting off retaliation and trade wars. Economists think that could fuel price increases and slow growth, possibly leading to a recession.“Fear of a Trump presidency will loudly reverberate behind the scenes,” said Mark Sobel, a former Treasury official who is now the U.S. chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. Mr. Sobel said global policymakers would probably be wondering what another Trump presidency would “mean for the future of multilateralism, international cooperation, U.S.-China stresses and their worldwide ripples, and global trade and finance, among others.”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

Since the pandemic, early voting has become a broadly accepted part of American elections. But it is difficult to glean partisan advantage.With two weeks until Election Day, more than 15 million people have already cast their ballots, the clearest sign yet that voting habits were forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic and that early voting has become a permanent feature of the American democratic process.While many people cast a mail-in ballot or voted early in the 2020 election out of necessity amid a dangerous pandemic, a lot of voters are choosing to vote early in this election, too. Some are taking advantage of new laws that expanded early voting options; others simply favor the process that exploded in popularity four years ago.Many states have set records for the first day of early voting. On Thursday, more than 353,000 ballots were cast in North Carolina, a record for the swing state still reeling from Hurricane Helene. On Friday, nearly 177,000 voters cast a ballot in Louisiana, a record for the deep-red state.The shift has been starkest in Georgia, where voters have set a daily record for in-person early voting nearly every day since polls opened last Tuesday. More than 1.5 million voters have already cast an early ballot in the critical battleground state.The persistent preference of many Americans to vote early — both by mail and in person — comes after the 2020 election prompted a sea change in voting habits for the country. With many fearful of voting in person during the pandemic, 65.6 million people voted by mail that year, and another 35.8 million voted early in person in an attempt to avoid large crowds.Yet as people flood early voting centers this time around, distilling a partisan advantage or what the early vote presages for overall turnout is difficult.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

Kristy was a tropical storm in the North Pacific Ocean Monday evening Mexico Central Time, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. Kristy formed from the remnants of Nadine, an Atlantic tropical storm that hit Belize over the weekend and moved across Central America into the Pacific. The tropical storm had sustained wind […] More

In 1957, Mrs. Mothershed Wair and eight other Black students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School. They faced racist mobs and were escorted by federal troops.Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of nine Black students who became known as the Little Rock Nine for integrating a high school in 1957 during one of the biggest confrontations of the civil rights movement, died on Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock. She was 83.Her death was confirmed by her sister, Grace Davis. No cause was given.In the fall of 1957, nine Black students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School, the country’s first test for school integration after the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision declared “separate but equal” education unconstitutional.In a 2004 oral history interview with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Mrs. Mothershed Wair recalled seeing Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas on television calling on the National Guard to block the students from entering on their first day. “I thought he meant to protect me,” she said in the 2004 interview. “How wrong I was.”The students faced angry, racist mobs that first day, and the soldiers blocked them from entering the school. Mrs. Mothershed Wair also recalled seeing cars with out-of-state license plates near the school.For three weeks, Gov. Faubus defied the federal desegregation order, setting off a crisis across Little Rock. Then President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered federal troops to escort the students to school on Sept. 25. “The army has come into our city to put nine kids in a school?” she said she remembered thinking. “Did that make any sense? Was this not America?”With the 101st Airborne Division accompanying them, Mrs. Mothershed Wair recalled how the mobs that had blocked them from entering school “parted like when Moses stretched out his staff at the Red Sea.”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

Welcome to the TikTok election. Every week, people post tens of thousands of videos on the app that mention Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald J. Trump, including election updates, conspiracy theories and dance routines. Those posts attract hundreds of millions of views — on par with the interest in hit shows like […] More

Barbara Lin finds a creative way to get to the bottom of things.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — Generally speaking, you don’t have to wear pants while solving the daily New York Times Crossword. There are no rules that require it or signs that proclaim “No shoes, no shirt, no solving.” So long as you keep your pantsless puzzling to the privacy of your own home — and I would encourage you to — no one will ever be the wiser.Pants may be required, however, in order to solve today’s crossword, which was constructed by Barbara Lin. You don’t actually need to put them on, but they’ll help you figure out the theme. And now that I’ve made my clothing remarks, let’s dive in.Today’s ThemeYou might say that our four themed entries wear the pants in today’s puzzle: At 17-, 27-, 48- and 62-Across, the letter S has been added to the ends of common expressions to transform them into descriptions of bottoms.At 17A, a pair of [Bottoms decorated with characters from the “Odyssey”?] would be LONG STORY SHORTS. At 62A, the [Request to a custom tailor?] is CUT ME SOME SLACKS. For 27A, do you wear [Close-fitting pajamas?] to bed, otherwise known as SLEEP TIGHTS?I could see myself wearing any of these garments, save for the [Offering in Eilish’s clothing brand?] at 48A — BILLIE JEANS are not my color.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

The group, which seeks to rebalance the global order away from the West, will meet on Tuesday. Here’s a primer.Leaders of BRICS, a group of emerging market nations that represent about half of the world’s population, will meet for a high-profile summit on Tuesday, their first since a major expansion last year.BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This year, the group has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The members will gather for the three-day conference in Kazan, a city in southwest Russia.The summit comes at a high-profile moment for BRICS, which sees itself as a counterweight to the West. World leaders will stand side-by-side with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, despite his pariah status in the West.But there are deep differences between member states, and the bloc has struggled to articulate and define its purpose.Here’s what you need to know:What is BRICS?What holds the group together?What does the Global East want?What about the ‘Global South’?What does China want?Barbara Berasi for The New York TimesWe 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

Trami was a tropical storm in the Philippine Sea Tuesday morning Philippine Time, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said in its latest advisory. The tropical storm had sustained wind speeds of 40 miles per hour.  All times on the map are Philippine Time. By The New York Times What does the storm look like from […] More