Elections

Diecinueve meses después de ingresar en cuidados paliativos, el presidente número 39 llega al siglo de vida el martes. ¿Su deseo de cumpleaños? Votar una vez más por el Partido Demócrata.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Cuando Jimmy Carter ingresó en cuidados paliativos en su casa de Georgia el año pasado, su familia y amigos pensaron que solo le quedaban unos días de vida. Más de 19 meses después, el martes cumple 100 años y es el primer presidente de la historia de Estados Unidos que alcanza el centenario.El último capítulo de la ya extraordinaria historia de Carter está resultando ser uno de asombrosa resistencia. Este agricultor de maníes convertido en estadista mundial ha superado a lo largo de los años un cáncer cerebral, se ha recuperado de una fractura de cadera y ha sobrevivido a sus adversarios políticos. Y ahora está estableciendo un récord de durabilidad presidencial que puede ser difícil de batir.Aunque frágil y generalmente confinado en su modesta casa de Plains, Georgia, Carter no solo se ha negado a rendirse a la inevitabilidad del tiempo, sino que se ha animado en los últimos meses, según sus familiares. Ha vuelto a fijar su atención un poco más, diciendo a sus hijos y nietos que tiene un nuevo hito que quiere alcanzar: no su cumpleaños, que profesa no importarle mucho, sino el día de las elecciones, para poder votar por la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris.“Es un regalo”, dijo Josh Carter, uno de sus nietos, hablando de los últimos meses. “Es un regalo que no sabía que íbamos a recibir”.Carter ya había superado a todos sus predecesores para convertirse en el presidente más longevo, pero algunos de quienes han experimentado su terca irascibilidad a lo largo de las décadas dijeron que no les sorprendía que se acercara a su segundo siglo.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 vehicle was returning from a field trip and caught fire outside Bangkok. Rescuers were still searching for bodies in the wreckage.The authorities believe the fire occurred after a tire exploded, causing the bus — which was filled with children and schoolteachers — to lose control and hit a barrier.Chalinee Thirasupa/ReutersA bus filled with schoolchildren and teachers caught fire just outside Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people.There were 23 bodies found on the double-decker bus, Police Lt. Gen. Trairong Phiwpan, chief of the Police Forensic Science Office, told reporters. Nineteen other people were injured, a doctor told reporters.Rescue workers were still trying to recover the bodies from the wreckage on Tuesday evening, according to Thailand’s interior minister, Anutin Charnvirakul. He did not give an official death toll.Photographs showed the bus was completely charred by the fire. Mr. Anutin added that the bus was powered by compressed natural gas, a fuel that makes vehicles more prone to fire compared with diesel.The driver fled the scene, Mr. Anutin said.The bus was one of three that were carrying children and teachers from the province of Uthai Thani, which is northwest of Bangkok. They were returning from a school field trip to the ancient temples of Ayutthaya. The school’s students range in age from 4 to 15 years old.The episode occurred at about 12:30 p.m. on a road in Pathum Thani on the northern outskirts of the capital. The fire happened after a tire exploded, causing the bus to zigzag and hit a barrier, according to Pornprapa Aundonkloy, a teacher who was on another bus. The interior minister provided a similar account.When the other bus arrived at the scene, two young students jumped off the bus, Ms. Pornprapa told local reporters. She carried them and said their bodies were swollen from the fire.Ms. Pornprapa said that only the front door of the bus could open. “If the back door could open, more children would have survived,” she added.The fire happened so quickly that teachers onboard could not grab their phones, according to the Royal Thai Police’s acting national police chief, Police Gen. Kittirat Panpetch. Several teachers could get out through the door, but some students were forced to jump through the windows.“The rest were probably shocked and couldn’t come out,” General Kittirat said. “We are in the process of checking who are those children.”Dr. Anocha Takham, a surgeon from PatRangsit Hospital, said the facility received three female patients, including a child whose corneas were burned.Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was teary as she spoke about the incident and said the government would cover all medical costs and compensation.“As a mother, I would like to express my deepest regrets to the families of those killed,” she said.Ryn Jirenuwat More

The woman, who worked at an airport that is one of Europe’s largest cargo hubs, is accused of passing along “flights, freight and passengers” related to arms exports.A 38-year-old Chinese woman living in Germany has been arrested on accusations of supplying China’s intelligence services with sensitive information on Germany’s weapons exports. It is the latest spying-related arrest amid increasing worry in Germany about intelligence gathering by China and Russia.Germany’s federal prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday that the woman, identified only as Yaqi X. in keeping with strict privacy rules, worked at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany. She is accused of passing along information about “flights, freight and passengers” related to arms exports, as well as information on employees of a German weapons manufacturer, the statement said.The airport, roughly 90 miles southwest of Berlin, is one of Europe’s largest cargo hubs, handling over 1.5 million tons of freight each year. The authorities said that Ms. X. worked for a logistics company that operates out of the airport.The authorities said she also had close links to a Chinese man, identified as Jian G., who was arrested in Germany in April and accused of being a spy in Germany and Brussels.The police arrested Ms. X. on Monday and searched her apartment in Leipzig and her workplace at the airport.Berlin has become concerned with the number of active spies in Germany since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine as well as intelligence gathering by China, Germany’s largest trade partner.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

Percival Everett’s “James,” Salman Rushdie’s “Knife” and Diane Seuss’ “Modern Poetry” are among the honorees. Winners will be announced next month.This year’s finalists for the National Book Award include the novel “James,” by Percival Everett, a retelling of the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of an enslaved man, “Knife,” by Salman Rushdie, a memoir about the stabbing attempt on his life and his recovery, as well as books translated from Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and French.The National Book Foundation announced its 25 finalists on Tuesday for awards across five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. The winners of the National Book Award, among the most prestigious literary prizes in the United States, will be announced in November.The fiction finalists also included Miranda July’s “All Fours,” about a 45-year-old artist whose road trip is cut short for a torrid affair. ’Pemi Aguda’s “Ghostroots,” a debut short story collection set in Lagos, Nigeria, was also on the list, as was “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar, a book about addiction, grief and art, and “My Friends,” by Hisham Matar, which follows three Libyan exiles living in Britain.In the nonfiction category, Kate Manne’s “Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia” explores weight stigma in different facets of society, including health care and employment. “Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church,” by Eliza Griswold, who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, documents the rise and fall of a progressive Christian church. In “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling,” Jason De León embeds with human smugglers. Deborah Jackson Taffa examines her Native identity and her family’s history of displacement in “Whiskey Tender.”The poetry finalists include Diane Seuss, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the same category in 2022, and m.s. RedCherries, who was nominated for her debut poetry collection, “mother,” which is about an Indigenous child who is adopted by a non-Indigenous family. Anne Carson’s “Wrong Norma” is made up of prose poems and drawings about everyday life. Fady Joudah’s collection “[…]” is about Palestinians and the horrors of war, and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s “Something About Living” is about the erasure of Palestinian history.In translated literature, Bothayna Al-Essa’s “The Book Censor’s Library” is set in a dystopian future. It was translated from Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain. “Taiwan Travelogue,” by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King, is about a Japanese writer and her relationship with her Taiwanese interpreter. “Where the Wind Calls Home,” by Samar Yazbek, translated from Arabic by Leri Price, is told through a 19-year-old soldier who is trying to survive the Syrian Civil War. “The Villain’s Dance,” by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, was translated from French by Roland Glasser and “Ædnan” by Linnea Axelsson was translated from Swedish by Saskia Vogel.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

A gay couple embraced inclusion after buying an English rugby team. To their surprise, the fans bought in, too.Kaue Garcia and Ryan O’Neill had owned a sports team for no more than six months when they decided the time was right to shake things up. What they needed more than anything else, they felt, was a drag queen.They were not entirely sure what the reaction would be. Keighley Cougars, the English club they had bought almost as an act of mercy, was not an obvious place to start pushing boundaries.Keighley is an old textile town, surrounded by the windswept moors of Yorkshire’s Brontë Country. The scars of postindustrial decay remain livid here: spectacular scenery that houses some of the most deprived areas in England. And the Cougars play Rugby League, an especially brutal iteration of a famously bruising discipline.Largely the exclusive preserve of old pit towns in northern England and northeastern Australia, Rugby League involves 26 musclebound players charging into each other at full speed for 80 minutes. Think N.F.L.-level collisions, but without all the helmets and padding. It is a tough game, played by tough people, in tough places.The plan hatched by Mr. Garcia and Mr. O’Neill, then — to arrange a Pride-themed day at Keighley’s stadium, and to employ a drag queen as the pregame entertainment — seemed ambitious.“We were worried nobody would come,” Mr. O’Neill said. His husband feared an even more stinging rebuke. “We’d put a drag queen on the middle of the field, have a big party, and everyone would just disappear,” Mr. Garcia said.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 legislation, which would weaken federal environmental reviews for certain semiconductor manufacturing projects, has divided Democrats.More than two years ago, President Biden signed a law that aimed to ramp up the nation’s production of semiconductors by offering generous subsidies and tax credits to companies. Since then, chip manufacturers have invested billions of dollars into new plants across the country.But industry groups, along with federal officials, have long warned that lengthy federal environmental reviews could delay manufacturing projects for months or years, which could slow the country’s ability to scale up its chip manufacturing capacity.In the coming days, Mr. Biden is set to sign a bill that would weaken federal environmental reviews for certain semiconductor manufacturing projects that receive subsidies through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. The bill, which has divided Democrats, underscores the challenges facing Mr. Biden as he tries to advance his economic agenda alongside his ambitious climate goals.The legislation would exempt qualifying chip projects from reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which requires federal agencies to assess the potential environmental effects of proposed major federal actions before they can proceed. The House passed the bill last week, and the Senate unanimously passed it in December.Proponents say the legislation would help to expedite the construction of chip manufacturing facilities, which would strengthen the U.S. economy and help to reduce the nation’s dependence on other countries for critical chips that can power items as varied as smartphones, cars and weapons systems. They say that projects will still have to comply with various federal, state and local environmental regulations and permitting requirements.Democrats who oppose the bill, however, say it would allow companies to skirt an important step aimed at reducing potential harms to the environment and workers. They argue that taxpayer-funded projects should be subject to a more holistic federal environmental review process, which would allow for more transparency and community input.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

Democrats have hammered former President Donald J. Trump and Senator JD Vance of Ohio, his running mate, over Project 2025, a conservative policy plan that pledges a radical transformation of the federal government.At the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday, Mr. Vance will spar with Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Mr. Walz has repeatedly sought to tie Mr. Vance to the project, while Mr. Vance has tried to distance himself from it.“If you’re going to take the time to draw up a playbook, you’re damn sure going to use it,” said Mr. Walz in August about the Trump campaign’s attempts to downplay Project 2025. While he and Ms. Harris frequently pin the project on Mr. Trump, the former president did not author it and, after Democratic attacks, disavowed it.The document, totaling about 900 pages, details extreme executive-branch overhauls, such as plans for disbanding several federal departments including the Education Department, rejecting the concept of abortion as health care, undoing environmental regulations and criminalizing pornography. It also proposes ending protections for many civil-service roles so they may be filled with appointees loyal to the president — a notion backed by both Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance.House Democrats attended a hearing about Project 2025 last week. Democrats have attacked the Republican ticket over the project. Will Oliver/EPA, via ShutterstockProject 2025 was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and created as a blueprint for the next Republican president, though Mr. Trump has his own platform called Agenda 47. But many of his allies and former officials from his administration helped author Project 2025, and there is considerable overlap between its proposals and Mr. Trump’s plans for a second term.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

Israel has invaded Lebanon three times before. On each occasion, it said its aim was to secure its northern frontier and stop militants from launching attacks across the border. And each time, the invasion had unforeseen consequences and achieved less decisive results than Israel’s military planners and political leaders anticipated.The invasions helped fuel the destabilization of Lebanon, a country whose myriad religious sects, including Shia and Sunni Muslims, Christians and Druze, fought a 15-year civil war that drew in Syria and caused huge destruction before it ended in 1990. Lebanon has suffered from shaky governments, occasional violence and political assassinations. It currently faces a debilitating economic crisis.“The invasions served to widen the wedge between Lebanon’s political communities, and as they are linked to the country’s sects this has only worsened sectarian tension and fueled the country’s political divisions,” said Lina Khatib, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a London-based research organization.As Israel invades for a fourth time, here is a brief look at the history of its previous invasions.1978: Three-Month InvasionIsrael invaded southern Lebanon in March 1978, under Prime Minister Menachem Begin, partly in response to an attack by Palestinian militants based in Lebanon who landed by sea and commandeered a bus on a coastal road north of Tel Aviv, leaving 35 Israelis and an American dead. Israeli forces captured territory up to the Litani River, a few miles from Israel’s northern border.Israel withdrew in June, handing control of the ground it had taken to a Lebanese Christian militia and a United Nations peacekeeping force that had been established under a United Nations Security Council resolution. Lebanese officials said 1,200 people died in the invasion. Israel said it had killed 350 Palestinian militants and lost 34 of its own soldiers.The invasion did not solve Israel’s security problems on its northern border and some critics of Mr. Begin argued that Israel had squandered international goodwill by devastating a string of villages in southern Lebanon. Other commentators noted that Arab leaders, despite voluble rhetoric, provided little practical or military assistance to the Palestinians during the fighting.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