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      A New Generation of Voters Will Test Angola’s Longtime Governing Party

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      The election may not change the country’s government, but the contest reflects the growing discontent of young voters, many of whom are unemployed.LUANDA, Angola — A new generation of Angolans, many disillusioned with their country’s political system and corruption, will vote for the first time on Wednesday, posing a challenge to a governing party that has traditionally presented its continued dominance as a stable alternative to the country’s bloody past.The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, a liberation army turned political party, is expected to win — as it has in four previous elections. But while the result is unlikely to be a surprise, analysts will be watching the margin closely for signs about the country’s political future. Across southern Africa, historic political movements are falling out of favor among younger urban voters for whom economic obstacles are beginning to outweigh nostalgic rhetoric. In Angola’s capital, Luanda, where streets are named for war heroes, the youths are largely unemployed, as is more than 30 percent of the population.Half the voters in the country are under 35. Those who do find jobs in Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, work mostly in the informal sector, often as food vendors or motorcycle drivers.This generation, disaffected by the governing party, is more willing to speak out.“This will be my first time voting, and I can tell you, I’ve made up my mind really easily,” said Carlos Quitembe, 22, holding up three fingers, a gesture referring to the opposition party’s position on the ballot.Supporters of the Angolan opposition party the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA.John Wessels/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, was the wartime foe of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA. The two parties were born as guerrilla movements that drove out Portuguese colonists in 1975 but turned on each other in a bitter civil war that ended in 2002.UNITA has tried to rebrand itself as a party for urban voters. For the first time, it is led not by a former guerrilla fighter, but by a charismatic former exile, Adalberto Costa Júnior, who returned from Europe and used social media to build his base. Mr. Costa has joined forces with civil society groups, smaller opposition movements and disgruntled members of the governing party on an anticorruption ticket.The opposition has fielded candidates “representing an open mind to build the future, not a partisan proposal but solutions for the big problems Angola has now,” Mr. Costa said in an interview. That coalition, he said, is held together by the need to overhaul the electoral system that favors the dominant party.In Angola’s electoral system, voters cast a single ballot to select their party of choice for provincial and national seats. Card-carrying members of the party decide the list of candidates, and the leader of the winning party becomes president of the country.UNITA’s leader, Adalberto Costa Júnior, joined a coalition on an anticorruption ticket.Paulo Novais/EPA, via ShutterstockPresident João Lourenço is seeking a second term, asking for more time to make good on his 2017 election promises to fight corruption and build the economy. A former guerrilla fighter who later became defense minister, Mr. Lourenço was handpicked by the longtime President José Eduardo dos Santos as his successor. Once in power, Mr. Lourenço turned on Mr. dos Santos, blaming his administration for Angola’s economic malaise. He prosecuted one of Mr. dos Santos’s children for corruption and tried to charge another.But as the economy stagnated, this tactic began to backfire, as people directed their anger at Mr. Lourenço, dismissing his anticorruption efforts as factional fighting instead of real reform. Mr. Lourenço’s party has also leaned on nostalgia for its glory years as a liberation movement, analysts said. After Mr. dos Santos died last month, a fight ensued between some of his adult children and his widow, backed by the government, over where to bury his body.Mr. Lourenço’s office did not respond to numerous requests for comment.His party, which has been in power since 1975, controls the state and its budget. State media spotlights the governing party, while the constitutional court is packed with pro-MPLA justices. This is why Angola’s election is unlikely to be free or fair, said Borges Nhamirre, a consultant with the Institute of Security Studies, headquartered in South Africa.Angolans mourning the death of former President José Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda last week.Paulo Novais/EPA, via ShutterstockA June poll by the Mudei Civic Movement, a citizen-based election monitoring group, found the MPLA trailing by 19 percentage points behind the opposition coalition, while an earlier poll by the continental research group Afrobarometer showed the MPLA winning by its lowest margin yet.In response, a state-owned broadcaster conducted its own poll, which showed the governing party far ahead of its rival. In May, the MPLA majority in Parliament passed a law restricting polling, forcing polling agencies to pay large sums of money as purported assurance of their legitimacy. The voters’ roll is also packed with the names of dead people, opposition groups and civil society groups say. “My brother and I were shocked to find out that our father, who died nine years ago, is registered to vote,” said Adérito Malungo, who plans to vote in Luanda.Any demonstrations in the face of these irregularities are likely to face a bloody crackdown, according to scenarios mapped out by security analysts, as the military and the police are firmly controlled by MPLA loyalists. Results will begin trickling in within the first 24 hours after the vote, but it is unclear when the final tally will be announced.Unlike in previous years, Angolans in the capital seem more willing to talk about their political choices ahead of the election. On a weekday afternoon in Luanda, Mr. Quitembe and two friends — all preparing to vote for the first time, all unemployed and all under the age of 30 — discussed their options.“Right now, I would rather have been working if someone had kept his promise to create 500,000 jobs for the youth,” said Martins Lourenço, 21, referring to the president’s 2017 election promise.The port of Luanda. Angola’s state oil company has been plagued by years of mismanagement, analysts say.John Wessels/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBut the president maintained some support.“Things are pretty bad right now and I know it, but I think we should give the benefit of the doubt and keep JLo,” said Arminda Kisanga, 28, using the president’s nickname. “These weren’t easy years for him up there.”Mr. Quitembe scoffed at the party’s promises of reform. “Do you truly believe these guys stopped looting our money?” he asked, laughing. “They only changed some people; it’s all the same.”Angola’s economy has dipped in and out of recession since Mr. Lourenço took over the reins of the party in 2017 and then the country a year later. Under Mr. dos Santos, Angola experienced a postwar boom propelled by oil and diamond exports. The country went on an infrastructure-construction spree, building megaprojects like a new Parliament, often with loans from Chinese banks. As new skyscrapers appeared on Luanda’s skyline, slums around the city grew, creating an economically unequal society where the vast majority of the population lived below the poverty line.The vast majority of Angola’s population lived below the poverty line.John Wessels/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesLast year, Angola’s public debt was 110 percent of its gross domestic product, said Francisco Paulo, a Luanda-based economist. Years of mismanaging the state oil company meant that Angola missed out on the profits other oil producers reaped after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Paulo said. Recently built roads and bridges have fallen into decay, driving up the cost of goods, as transportation has become more expensive, particularly in rural areas. Mr. Lourenço’s previous election promises to root out corruption and overhaul the economy have not been fulfilled.“In terms of the economic outlook, there is no reason for people to vote for the M.P.L.A. again,” Mr. Paulo said.But many have benefited from the party.Nova Cidade de Kilamba, a housing project just outside Luanda, was once a feather in the government’s cap. In the decade since it opened, the project has fallen into decay.Still, some like Maura Gouveia, a 26-year-old engineering student and a resident of the project, said she trusted the stability of the party.“I vote for continuity,” she said.Experts say that Angola’s election is unlikely to be free or fair.John Wessels/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images More

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      The Idea That Letting Trump Walk Will Heal America Is Ridiculous

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      The main argument against prosecuting Donald Trump — or investigating him with an eye toward criminal prosecution — is that it will worsen an already volatile fracture in American society between Republicans and Democrats. If, before an indictment, we could contain the forces of political chaos and social dissolution, the argument goes, then in the aftermath of such a move, we would be at their mercy. American democracy might not survive the stress.All of this might sound persuasive to a certain, risk-averse cast of mind. But it rests on two assumptions that can’t support the weight that’s been put on them.The first is the idea that American politics has, with Trump’s departure from the White House, returned to a kind of normalcy. Under this view, a prosecution would be an extreme and irrevocable blow to social peace. But the absence of open conflict is not the same as peace. Voters may have put a relic of the 1990s into the Oval Office, but the status quo of American politics is far from where it was before Trump.The most important of our new realities is the fact that much of the Republican Party has turned itself against electoral democracy. The Republican nominee for governor in Arizona — Kari Lake — is a 2020 presidential election denier. So, too, are the Republican nominees in Arizona for secretary of state, state attorney general and U.S. Senate. In Pennsylvania, Republican voters overwhelmingly chose the pro-insurrection Doug Mastriano to lead their party’s ticket in November. Overall, Republican voters have nominated election deniers in dozens of races across six swing states, including candidates for top offices in Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin.There is also something to learn from the much-obsessed-over fate of Liz Cheney, the arch-conservative representative from Wyoming, who lost her place on the Republican ticket on account of her opposition to the movement to “stop the steal” and her leadership on the House Jan. 6 committee investigating Trump’s attempt to overturn the presidential election to keep himself in office. Cheney is, on every other issue of substance, with the right wing of the Republican Party. But she opposed the insurrection and accepted the results of the 2020 presidential election. It was, for Wyoming voters, a bridge too far.All of this is to say that we are already in a place where a substantial portion of the country (although much less than half) has aligned itself against the basic principles of American democracy in favor of Trump. And these 2020 deniers aren’t sitting still, either; as these election results show, they are actively working to undermine democracy for the next time Trump is on the ballot.This fact, alone, makes a mockery of the idea that the ultimate remedy for Trump is to beat him at the ballot box a second time, as if the same supporters who rejected the last election will change course in the face of another defeat. It also makes clear the other weight-bearing problem with the argument against holding Trump accountable, which is that it treats inaction as an apolitical and stability-enhancing move — something that preserves the status quo as opposed to action, which upends it.But that’s not true. Inaction is as much a political choice as action is, and far from preserving the status quo — or securing some level of social peace — it sets in stone a new world of total impunity for any sufficiently popular politician or member of the political elite.Now, it is true that political elites in this country are already immune to most meaningful consequences for corruption and lawbreaking. But showing forbearance and magnanimity toward Trump and his allies would take a difficult problem and make it irreparable. If a president can get away with an attempted coup (as well as abscond with classified documents), then there’s nothing he can’t do. He is, for all intents and purposes, above the law.Among skeptics of prosecution, there appears to be a belief that restraint would create a stable equilibrium between the two parties; that if Democrats decline to pursue Trump, then Republicans will return the favor when they win office again. But this is foolish to the point of delusion. We don’t even have to look to the recent history of Republican politicians using the tools of office to investigate their political opponents. We only have to look to the consequences of giving Trump (or any of his would-be successors) a grant of nearly unaccountable power. Why would he restrain himself in 2025 or beyond? Why wouldn’t he and his allies use the tools of state to target the opposition?The arguments against prosecuting Trump don’t just ignore or discount the current state of the Republican Party and the actually existing status quo in the United States, they also ignore the crucial fact that this country has experience with exactly this kind of surrender in the face of political criminality.National politics in the 1870s was consumed with the question of how much to respond to vigilante lawlessness, discrimination and political violence in the postwar South. Northern opponents of federal and congressional intervention made familiar arguments.If Republicans, The New York Times argued in 1874, “set aside the necessity of direct authority from the Constitution” to pursue their aims in the South and elsewhere, could they then “expect the Democrats, if they should gain the power, to let the Constitution prevent them from helping their ancient and present friends?”The better approach, The Times said in an earlier editorial, was to let time do its work. “The law has clothed the colored man with all the attributes of citizenship. It has secured him equality before the law, and invested him with the ballot.” But here, wrote the editors, “the province of law will end. All else must be left to the operation of causes more potent than law, and wholly beyond its reach.” His old oppressors in the South, they added, “rest their only hope of party success upon their ability to obtain his goodwill.”To act affirmatively would create unrest. Instead, the country should let politics and time do their work. The problems would resolve themselves, and Americans would enjoy a measure of social peace as a result.Of course, that is not what happened. In the face of lawlessness, inaction led to impunity, and impunity led to a successful movement to turn back the clock on progress as far as possible, by any means possible.Our experience, as Americans, tells us that there is a clear point at which we must act in the face of corruption, lawlessness and contempt for the very foundations of democratic society. The only way out is through. Fear of what Trump and his supports might do cannot and should not stand in the way of what we must do to secure the Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      La democracia está bajo amenaza en todo el mundo

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      EE. UU. no está solo en cuanto a la presión que sufren las normas e instituciones democráticas. Según un estudio reciente, ahora hay más democracias que decaen que en cualquier otro momento del último siglo.Estados Unidos no es el único país que enfrenta presión contra sus reglas e instituciones democráticas. De acuerdo con datos de V-Dem, un instituto de monitoreo con sede en Suecia, en la actualidad, más que en ningún otro momento del siglo pasado, hay otras democracias en deterioro, e incluso hay algunas que están muy cerca de la autocracia. Los datos demuestran que, al parecer, esta tendencia, que lleva más de una década, va en aumento y está afectando tanto a las democracias bien establecidas como a las endebles.Este es una revisión de algunos de los acontecimientos más recientes.KeniaPese a ser considerada una de las democracias más sólidas de África, Kenia ha tenido que enfrentar turbulencias continuas. En ocasiones, los políticos han aprovechado la polarización en cuestiones étnicas y geográficas, sobre todo durante las elecciones. Esto ha dado origen a una serie de crisis, violencia comunitaria y ataques a instituciones como los órganos judiciales.Las reñidas elecciones de este mes han supuesto una prueba más para la democracia keniana, ya que un asesor sénior del candidato perdedor ha insinuado que quizá su campaña impugnará los resultados por considerarlos fraudulentos.“La democracia en nuestro país, Kenia, está actualmente en un territorio muy hostil”, señaló en un evento de marzo en Washington D. C. William Ruto, el candidato ganador de las recientes elecciones.Sri LankaEsta democracia multiétnica y diversa en términos religiosos ha sido cuestionada desde que el hermano del exdictador Mahinda Rajapaksa subió al poder en las elecciones de 2019. Desde hacía mucho tiempo, la familia Rajapaksa había sido acusada de abuso de poder y de denigrar a las minorías del país, lo que incrementó el temor de que Sri Lanka pudiera volver a la autocracia.Este verano, las protestas por los problemas económicos terminaron en un asalto al palacio presidencial por parte de los manifestantes. El presidente Gotabaya Rajapaksa renunció, pero designó como su sustituto a uno de sus aliados, el cual, con la aprobación del Parlamento, más tarde se convirtió en el presidente oficial. Esto ha dejado en un punto muerto el conflicto entre los manifestantes y la influencia de la dinastía Rajapaksa.Hungría“Este nuevo Estado que estamos construyendo es en un Estado iliberal”, declaró el primer ministro Viktor Orbán en 2014.Desde entonces, Orbán, quien se presenta como la vanguardia de la derecha populista a nivel mundial, ha reconfigurado el sistema judicial, la Constitución y las normas electorales a modo de fortalecer su mandato. También ha usado los medios de comunicación, tanto estatales como privados, para atacar a sus opositores mediante la divulgación de desinformación y discursos nacionalistas.Orbán ha planteado estas medidas como algo necesario para defender a Hungría de la influencia corruptora de la diversidad racial, la migración no europea y la Unión Europea. Aunque, debido al descontento con el mandatario, los partidos de oposición han repuntado, Orbán sigue contando con una importante base de apoyo.BrasilEl presidente Jair Bolsonaro, quien elogia la figura de Donald Trump como un modelo político, desde hace mucho tiempo ha tachado de corruptas a las instituciones democráticas de Brasil. También ha expresado muy buenas opiniones de la dictadura militar de derecha que gobernó el país de 1964 a 1985.Bolsonaro ya está cuestionando la legitimidad de la contienda presidencial de Brasil que se celebrará en octubre, para la cual ha quedado rezagado en las encuestas. Incluso ha conseguido la ayuda de algunos dirigentes militares que han planteado dudas sobre la integridad de las elecciones.Aunque no se sabe si Bolsonaro en verdad intentaría impugnar o rechazar una derrota, sus provocaciones han aumentado las inquietudes del mundo por la estabilidad de la democracia más poblada de Latinoamérica.FilipinasEn los seis años de la presidencia de Rodrigo Duterte en Filipinas, atestiguamos el encarcelamiento de enemigos políticos y periodistas, la propagación generalizada de desinformación en favor de Duterte y una ola de violencia ocasionada por grupos paramilitares que dejó miles de personas muertas.Duterte, un férreo populista, se posicionó como defensor de la democracia frente a sus opositores, a quienes describía como amenazas internas para el país, y obtuvo el apoyo de sus bases a pesar de sus excesos mientras ocupó el cargo.Aunque dejó la presidencia por voluntad propia cuando terminó su mandato en mayo, los ciudadanos eligieron a un nuevo presidente, Ferdinand Marcos, hijo, que los grupos de derechos humanos temen que continuará con el mismo estilo de gobierno. El nuevo Marcos es hijo de un exdictador del país. Su vicepresidenta, Sara Duterte, es la hija de Rodrigo Duterte.IndiaBajo el mandato de Narendra Modi, el primer ministro de India desde 2014, un drástico incremento del ultranacionalismo hindú, que suelen apoyar los aliados de su gobierno, ha dividido a la sociedad del país.Los aproximadamente 200 millones de musulmanes del país han sufrido marginación política y, en muchos casos, una letal violencia religiosa, lo que ha sido ignorado en varias ocasiones por los funcionarios. Los periodistas críticos viven bajo una creciente presión del gobierno y de los medios de comunicación cada vez más nacionalistas.El gobierno de Modi reprimió con violencia la región en disputa de Cachemira y, el año pasado, respondió con dureza a una ola de protestas de los agricultores indios, lo que aumentó el temor de que su gobierno estuviera volviéndose cada vez más coercitivo.TurquíaEn sus casi 20 años en el poder, Recep Tayyip Erdogan ha reconfigurado la democracia turca para convertirla en un vehículo de su poder personal. Erdogan, quien era visto como una fuerza de liberalización, ha restringido las libertades políticas y centralizado el poder de manera tan drástica que ahora casi todos lo consideran un dictador.Después del intento de golpe de Estado en su contra en 2016, el gobierno de Erdogan arrestó a 100.000 personas y despidió a 150.000 empleados del gobierno, lo cual consolidó su poder. Sin embargo, sigue existiendo algo de democracia, puesto que en 2019 los grupos de oposición destituyeron al aliado de Erdogan de la poderosa alcaldía de Estambul y esperan lograr más triunfos.PoloniaPolonia, que solía ser la mayor historia de éxito de la era poscomunista en Europa del Este, ahora se enfrenta a una fuerte polarización política. El partido de derecha en el gobierno ha querido subordinar a su voluntad al sistema judicial y a los medios de comunicación, que siempre han sido independientes. También arremetió contra la Unión Europea, la cual ha puesto en duda que los dirigentes polacos estén defendiendo el Estado de derecho.En los últimos meses, la preocupación por la democracia polaca ha disminuido un poco. Los dirigentes polacos han querido reparar sus vínculos con la Unión Europea, incluso en los temas de la democracia, como una manera de combatir lo que ven como la amenaza de Rusia para Europa. No obstante, los grupos de derechos humanos afirman que la democracia polaca casi no ha revertido su retroceso.El SalvadorEste pequeño país de Centroamérica había establecido una democracia débil después de su dolorosa guerra civil, que terminó en 1992, pero dejó heridas sin sanar.En 2019, un joven desconocido, Nayib Bukele, ganó la presidencia con la promesa de un cambio. Sin embargo, ya en el cargo, ha restringido los derechos básicos, despedido a los jueces, encarcelado a miles de personas sin cumplir con el debido proceso y desplegado al ejército. Bukele alega que son medidas de emergencia para combatir la delincuencia.No obstante, aunque los grupos de derechos humanos y los observadores internacionales están alarmados, Bukele se ha vuelto muy popular, lo que nos recuerda que, en el mundo actual, a los futuros dictadores con frecuencia se les elogia mientras van en ascenso.VenezuelaEl país, que alguna vez fue la democracia más antigua y la economía más rica de Sudamérica, ha caído en una zona de desastre económico, en la que la mayor parte de la población padece hambre y está gobernada por lo que, en general, se considera una dictadura.Los estudiosos de la democracia a menudo sostienen que este país es representativo de la manera en que las democracias tienden a deteriorarse en la actualidad: con lentitud, socavadas desde el interior por populistas electos que tachan de ilegítimos a los opositores y a las instituciones y cuyas medidas iniciales pueden ser muy populares.El dirigente responsable de gran parte de este deterioro, Hugo Chávez, murió en 2013. Su sucesor, Nicolás Maduro, ha llevado a cabo represiones letales contra los manifestantes y ha ejercido un control férreo de los tribunales y las legislaturas.República Checa y EsloveniaCuando, en 2017, el populista y multimillonario magnate de los medios de comunicación Andrej Babis se convirtió en primer ministro de la República Checa, hubo temor de que siguiera el camino hacia el iliberalismo ultraconservador marcado por Orbán en Hungría. Cuando la vecina Eslovenia eligió a su propio populista de derecha, aumentó la preocupación de que se formara un bloque de países que acabaran con la Unión Europea desde el interior.Aunque Babis sí condujo poco a poco a su país en esa dirección, al final fue derrotado en las elecciones de 2021, ya que varios partidos de oposición se aliaron contra él, pues lo calificaban como una amenaza para la democracia checa. Al año siguiente, los electores eslovenos expulsaron a su gobierno populista. Ambos países fueron un ejemplo de que todavía, en ocasiones, se pueden disipar las dudas en torno a la democracia.Max Fisher es reportero y columnista de temas internacionales con sede en Nueva York. Ha reportado sobre conflictos, diplomacia y cambio social desde cinco continentes. Es autor de The Interpreter, una columna que explora las ideas y el contexto detrás de los principales eventos mundiales de actualidad. @Max_Fisher • Facebook More

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      Arkansas violated the Voting Rights Act by limiting help to voters, a judge rules.

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      A federal judge ruled that Arkansas violated the Voting Rights Act with its six-voter limit for those who help people cast ballots in person, which critics had argued disenfranchised immigrants and people with disabilities.In a 39-page ruling issued on Friday, Judge Timothy L. Brooks of the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, Ark., wrote that Congress had explicitly given voters the choice of whom they wanted to assist them at the polls, as long as it was not their employer or union representative.Arkansas United, a nonprofit group that helps immigrants, including many Latinos who are not proficient in English, filed a lawsuit in 2020 after having to deploy additional employees and volunteers to provide translation services to voters at the polls in order to avoid violating the state law, the group said. It described its work as nonpartisan.State and county election officials have said the law was intended to prevent anyone from gaining undue influence.Thomas A. Saenz is the president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represented Arkansas United in the case. He said in an interview on Monday that the restrictions, enacted in 2009, constituted voter suppression and that the state had failed to present evidence that anyone had gained undue influence over voters when helping them at the polls.Read More About U.S. ImmigrationA Billion-Dollar Business: Migrant smuggling on the U.S. southern border has evolved over the past 10 years into a remunerative operation controlled by organized crime.Migrant Apprehensions: Border officials already had apprehended more migrants by June than they had in the entire previous fiscal year, and are on track to exceed two million by the end of September.An Immigration Showdown: In a political move, the governors of Texas and Arizona are offering migrants free bus rides to Washington, D.C. People on the East Coast are starting to feel the effects.“You’re at the polls,” he said. “Obviously, there are poll workers are there. It would seem the most unlikely venue for undue voter influence to occur, frankly.”Mr. Saenz’s organization, known as MALDEF, filed a lawsuit this year challenging similar restrictions in Missouri. There, a person is allowed to help only one voter.In Arkansas, the secretary of state, the State Board of Election Commissioners and election officials in three counties (Washington, Benton and Sebastian) were named as defendants in the lawsuit challenging the voter-assistance restrictions. It was not immediately clear whether they planned to appeal the ruling.Daniel J. Shults, the director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, said in an email on Monday that the agency was reviewing the decision and that its normal practice was to defend Arkansas laws designed to protect election integrity. He said that voter privacy laws in Arkansas barred election officials from monitoring conversations between voters and their helpers and that this made the six-person limit an “important safeguard” against improper influence.“The purpose of the law in question is to prevent the systematic abuse of the voting assistance process,” Mr. Shults said. “Having a uniform limitation on the number of voters a third party may assist prevents a bad actor from having unlimited access to voters in the voting booth while ensuring voter’s privacy is protected.”Chris Powell, a spokesman for the secretary of state, said in an email on Monday that the office was also reviewing the decision and having discussions with the state attorney general’s office about possible next steps.Russell Anzalone, a Republican who is the election commission chairman in Benton County in northwestern Arkansas, said in an email on Monday that he was not familiar with the ruling or any changes regarding voter-assistance rules. He added, “I follow the approved State of Arkansas election laws.”The other defendants in the lawsuit did not immediately respond on Monday to requests for comment.In the ruling, Judge Brooks wrote that state and county election officials could legally keep track of the names and addresses of anyone helping voters at the polls. But they can no longer limit the number to six voters per helper, according to the ruling.Mr. Saenz described the six-voter limit as arbitrary.“I do think that there is a stigma and unfair one on those who are simply doing their part to assist those who have every right to be able to cast a ballot,” he said. More

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      Your Tuesday Briefing: Political Turmoil in Pakistan

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      Plus the Philippines reopens schools and China raises interest rates.Good morning. We’re covering political turmoil in Pakistan and schools reopening in the Philippines.An expert on Pakistani politics said Imran Khan was “clearly an order of magnitude stronger” than when he was ousted as prime minister. Sohail Shahzad/EPA, via ShutterstockPolitical tensions swell in PakistanImran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, was charged under the country’s antiterrorism act on Sunday. He is trying to stage a political comeback after he was ousted from power in April following a no-confidence vote.The charges followed a rally in Islamabad, the capital, where Khan condemned the recent arrest of one of his top aides and vowed to file legal cases against police officers and a judge involved in the case. Police said the comments amounted to an illegal attempt at intimidation.The charges represent a drastic escalation of the power struggle between Pakistan’s current government and its former leader and could set off a fresh round of public unrest and violent street protests.Analysis: Khan’s rallies have drawn tens of thousands, and his party has scored recent victories in the most populous province, Punjab, and the economic hub, Karachi. But experts say he and his supporters face a mounting crackdown aimed at curtailing their electoral successes.Details: Pakistan’s media regulatory authority imposed a ban on the live broadcast of Khan’s speeches on news television channels. Several journalists and talk show hosts, who are sympathetic to Khan, say they have been threatened by the state authorities.Classes opened across the Philippines yesterday.Aaron Favila/Associated PressThe Philippines reopens schoolsMillions of children in the Philippines returned to in-person classes yesterday, ending one of the world’s longest pandemic-related shutdowns.“We could no longer afford to delay the education of young Filipinos,” said Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also the education secretary.The lost time will be hard to make up: Even before the pandemic, the Philippines had among the world’s largest education gaps, with more than 90 percent of students unable to read and comprehend simple texts by age 10, according to the World Bank.Read More on the Coronavirus PandemicNew Guidelines: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened its Covid-19 guidance, saying those exposed to the virus no longer need to quarantine.A Sweeping Rebuke: Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that her agency had failed to respond quickly enough to the coronavirus pandemic and needed to be overhauled.Back to School: New York City’s Education Department has rolled back most Covid restrictions ahead of the start of school on Sept. 8, reflecting a wider shift toward learning how to live with the virus.A Century-Old Vaccine: The results of clinical trials, launched in the early days of the pandemic, involving an old tuberculosis vaccine offered hope that it could provide a measure of universal protection against infectious diseases.Covid-19 may have only worsened divides. Even though the country offered online instruction during the pandemic, many students lacked access to computers or the internet.Pandemic: As other countries sent students back to classrooms, government officials and parents hesitated. They feared that schoolchildren could bring the virus to homes crowded with multiple generations of family members, potentially overtaxing a creaky health care system.Details: Schools in the Philippines have long suffered from teacher shortages, and only some schools are currently in-person five days a week. The country plans to fully reopen all of its roughly 47,000 schools by November.A dried-out riverbed of the Jialing River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River.EPA, via ShutterstockDrought roils China’s economyChina’s central bank announced that it would cut its five-year interest rate yesterday, an effort to bring a little relief to the country’s huge construction and real estate sector.The rate cut comes as record-high temperatures and a severe drought have crippled hydropower and prompted the shutdown of many factories in west-central China, an industrial base.Sichuan Province, for instance, normally generates more than three-quarters of its electricity from huge dams. The summer rainy season usually brings so much water that Sichuan sends much of its hydropower to cities and provinces as far away as Shanghai.But an almost complete failure of summer rains this year has meant that many dams now cannot generate enough electricity even for Sichuan’s own needs, forcing factories there to close for up to a week at a time and triggering rolling blackouts in some commercial and residential districts.Fallout: Sichuan’s three main rivers feed the Yangtze River, so hydropower cutbacks have also started to affect downstream areas, like the city of Chongqing and adjacent Hubei Province.Details: The central bank cut the rate by 0.15 percentage points yesterday, to 4.3 percent, and said that it was reducing a one-year interest rate by 0.05 percentage points, to 3.65 percent.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificSouth Korean howitzers took positions near the border with North Korea yesterday.Ahn Young-Joon/Associated PressThe U.S. and South Korea began their largest joint military drills in years yesterday, The Associated Press reports.More than 5,000 farmers protested in New Delhi, Reuters reports. They are pushing for minimum price guarantees and government accountability.Today, Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, plans to release a report on Scott Morrison’s secret ministerial roles, Reuters reports.A woman in South Korea may be the relative of two children whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand, The Independent reports.Bangladesh is closing schools for another day during the week and taking other measures to save energy, Reuters reports. The country shut down its diesel-run power plants after the war in Ukraine drove up fuel prices.Chinese censors changed the end of the new “Minions” film before releasing it, Reuters reports. In this version, police catch a rebel, and Gru, a main character, promotes family values.The War in UkraineHere are live updates.Daria Dugina, a Russian nationalist commentator.Tsargrad.Tv, via ReutersRussia blamed Ukraine for the killing of Daria Dugina, 29, an ultranationalist commentator. The allegation could not be verified. Kyiv denied involvement.Dugina’s father, who is a prominent supporter of the invasion, called for revenge.Moscow said that Dugina, not her father, was the target of the car bomb and said a suspect had fled to Estonia. The brazen attack recalled historical assassinations.What’s next: Tomorrow is Ukraine’s Independence Day — and the six-month mark of the war.What Else is HappeningDr. Anthony Fauci has advised seven presidents and spent more than half a century at the National Institutes of Health.Doug Mills/The New York TimesDr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser, plans to step down in December.Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, has suggested that he would dispute election results if he lost in October. But the political establishment believes he lacks support to stage a coup.Eric Adams vowed to bolster nightlife around New York City. But the mayor mostly visits one pricey restaurant, run by friends with troubled pasts.A Morning ReadCarmen Abd Ali for The New York TimesAs more looted art returns to Africa, countries have wrestled with the right way to display it.Benin may have found an answer: More than 200,000 people have come to a free exhibition of pieces that were plundered by French colonial forces in the 19th century and returned last year.ARTS AND IDEASWill New Zealand change its name?New Zealand, known by some as Aotearoa.Jim Huylebroek for The New York TimesIn the 1600s, the Dutch named the land now known as New Zealand for Zeeland, a western province of the Netherlands. It was intended as a companion name for “Hollandia Nova” or “New Holland,” as Australia was then known.Nearly four centuries later, a petition before Parliament asks that the country be called “Aotearoa,” which loosely translates from Maori as the “land of the long white cloud.” The Maori have used Aotearoa to refer to the country for decades, if not centuries. It is widely believed to be the name bestowed by Kupe, a Polynesian navigator — and is, increasingly, what New Zealanders and their lawmakers call their home.For now, a wholesale change seems unlikely: Polls suggest voters prefer “New Zealand” or a hybrid “Aotearoa New Zealand.” But the debate speaks to a changing climate: Amid culture war debates, Maori names are gaining traction. In 2009, New Zealand’s politicians voted against creating a holiday for Matariki, the Maori New Year. In June, it was observed nationally for the first time.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookTanveer Badal for The New York TimesKimjang, the act of making kimchi, connects Koreans across the diaspora. Eric Kim offers a recipe.What to ReadFour new books re-examine World War II.ArtMichael Heizer’s “City,” a mysterious land art megasculpture, was revealed after 50 years.Now Time to PlayPlay today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: “Guacamole ingredient” (five letters).Here are today’s Wordle and today’s Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — AmeliaP.S. Chang Che is joining The Times from SupChina to cover technology in Asia.The latest episode of “The Daily” is about a U.S. coal miner on strike.You can reach Amelia and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. More

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      in Elections

      Partial Recount in Kansas Affirms Vote on Abortion Rights

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      A hand recount in nine Kansas counties affirmed the overwhelming rejection of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment by the state’s voters on Aug. 2.The recounted results differed from the initially reported results by fewer than 65 votes out of more than 556,000 cast in those counties, an error rate of about 0.01 percent.“As we expected, the recount again confirmed the Aug. 2 landslide victory for freedom,” said Ashley All, a spokeswoman for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the main group that opposed the amendment. “Kansans across the political spectrum voted to protect the constitutional rights of women to make private medical decisions about abortion.”The recount was requested by Melissa Leavitt, a Kansas resident, and its more than $100,000 cost was funded in large part by Mark S. Gietzen, an anti-abortion activist who is the chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life.An email sent to an address associated with Ms. Leavitt was not returned. Reached for comment on Monday, Mr. Gietzen continued to suggest that the vote counts were wrong, but said he did not have time to share details or evidence on a phone call because he was busy writing a lawsuit that he planned to file later in the day.The original results reported in the nine counties showed 365,568 votes against the amendment and 190,847 votes for it. The recounts showed 365,511 votes against the amendment (57 fewer than originally reported) and 190,853 for it (six more than originally reported). Such small discrepancies can be caused by a number of factors, including unclear marking of ballots.The recount “proves once and for all that there is no systemic election fraud in our state’s election process,” the Kansas secretary of state, Scott Schwab, a Republican, said in a statement. “Kansans should be confident that these results put to rest the unfounded claims of election fraud in our state and know that our elections are secure and that their vote counted.”Statewide, the amendment lost by more than 160,000 votes. Typically, recounts in statewide races result in shifts of a few hundred votes at most.The nine Kansas counties that were required to perform recounts account for more than half of the ballots cast statewide in the amendment vote. They are Johnson County, which includes Kansas City suburbs and is the state’s largest; Sedgwick County, which includes Wichita; Shawnee County, which includes the capital, Topeka; Douglas County, which includes Lawrence, home to the University of Kansas’ flagship campus; and Crawford, Harvey, Jefferson, Lyon and Thomas Counties. More