Author: NY TIMES

Sometimes, the many numbers included in the government’s monthly jobs report come together to paint a clear, coherent picture of the strength or weakness of the U.S. labor market.This is not one of those times.Instead, the data released by the Labor Department on Friday was a mess of conflicting signals. It couldn’t even agree on the most basic of questions: whether the economy is adding or losing jobs.The report showed that employers added 272,000 nonagricultural jobs in May, far more than forecasters were expecting. That figure is based on a survey of about 119,000 businesses, nonprofit organizations and government agencies.But…

On a hilltop next to a vast limestone quarry in England’s East Midlands, a crowd of about 60 people gathered last Thursday evening to witness the lighting of a beacon to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Amid the drab parkas and pullovers was a figure in a striking red coat: Natalie Fleet, the Labour Party’s candidate for Parliament, wearing her party’s campaign color.She turned up late, having hiked up in heels. But she mixed easily, chatting with a 17-year-old high school student, Georgia Haslam, about her desire to get more young women engaged in politics.“It was reassuring…

Stock markets offered a preview of how investors might react to a potential drop in the number of new jobs added in May when they rallied this week after other signs that the labor market continues to cool.The S&P 500 has risen 1.4 percent this week, and the 10-year government bond yield, which underpins borrowing costs across consumer and corporate debt, has fallen 0.2 percentage points — roughly the same as a typical cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.Investors added to bets on how soon the Fed could lower interest rates after data on Tuesday showed job openings…

Towering over Kyiv for six decades, Hotel Ukraine has witnessed some pivotal moments in Ukraine’s recent history.Crowds gathered on the square in front of the 14-story hotel to celebrate the fall of the Soviet Union. Popular uprisings on what was later called Independence Square toppled Ukrainian leaders. Today, blue and yellow flags cover lawns near the hotel, serving as a reminder of the many lives lost in the war between Ukraine and Russia.Now, Hotel Ukraine is up for auction as part of an effort to sell off some large state assets to help fund the military and bolster an economy…

President Biden is presiding over a job-creation boom that would have gotten almost any of his predecessors re-elected in the postwar era.But it may not be enough to win Mr. Biden a second term because of a simple truth about America’s post-Covid economy: Voters appear to care far more about high prices right now than they do about plentiful work.That’s why Friday’s surprise, blockbuster jobs report was not seen by analysts as a full success for the president as he ramps up his campaign for November. Some economists worried that the hot pace of employment and wage growth would help…

The terrifying stories are sprawled across local newspapers and recounted in hushed tones at tea stalls and bus stands: another day, another brutal death during an armed robbery in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.Last Wednesday, a car mechanic was shot dead by muggers trying to steal his phone. The day before, robbers in two separate incidents killed a secondhand shoe seller who refused to hand over his phone and a businessman who had just withdrawn cash from a bank. A few days earlier, robbers killed a 27-year-old mechanical engineer, stealing his phone, cash and motorcycle.Across Karachi, Pakistan’s economic powerhouse, the rate…

The European Central Bank cut its key interest rate to 3.75 percent from 4 percent on Thursday, the first time it has cut rates since 2019. The bank’s move marked a divergence from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is maintaining high interest rates in the face of stubborn inflation.Like central banks around the world, the E.C.B. had raised interest rates over the past two years to fight a surge in inflation, which began as the global economy rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic.The E.C.B. started raising interest rates in July 2022, a few months after the Fed, ending its era of…

Hezbollah said on Tuesday that Israeli forces killed one of its commanders in a strike in southern Lebanon, stoking concerns about escalating the conflict on another Israeli front.The commander, Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, was among the highest-ranking Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon who Israel has killed since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel set off war in the Gaza Strip and inflamed tensions along Israel’s northern border.Mr. Abdallah’s role in Hezbollah was not immediately clear. But the group has not referred to a dead fighter as a “commander” since January, when Wissam Hassan al-Tawil, a commander in…

On the face of it, there is little logic in calling an election from a position of great weakness. But that is what President Emmanuel Macron has done by calling a snap parliamentary election in France on the back of a humiliation by the far right.After the National Rally of Marine Le Pen and her popular protégé Jordan Bardella handed him a crushing defeat on Sunday in elections for the European Parliament, Mr. Macron might have done nothing. He might also have reshuffled his government, or simply altered course through stricter controls on immigration and by renouncing contested plans to…

When The New York Post first reported in 2020 about a laptop once used by Hunter Biden — which the paper said contained incriminating evidence against him and his father, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was running for president — it set off a firestorm.Many national news outlets raised questions about the existence of the laptop and the claims about its contents, while major social media platforms limited posts about The Post’s coverage. Conservatives said those reactions were evidence of liberal censorship.Many of the claims made by The Post in its coverage of the laptop, in which the publication sought…