Japan got a new leader on Tuesday. Ishiba Shigeru was sworn in as prime minister after winning the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership race. For Mr Ishiba it is the fulfilment of a longstanding ambition: his previous four bids for the party leadership, stretching back to 2008, failed.

Mr Ishiba has a reputation as a gadfly within his party. But among the general public, he has consistently ranked as the country’s most popular politician. The son of a long-serving politician from Tottori, a rural part of western Japan, he has positioned himself as a champion of Japan’s forgotten regions. He also has a keen interest in defence and security, having served as defence minister. The LDP hopes that Mr Ishiba will help improve the party’s image, which has been tarred by a recent financial scandal. His first test comes soon. He plans to hold a snap general election on October 27th.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will probably not debate each other again, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more televised rumbles before election day. J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, the Republican and Democratic vice-presidential candidates, will face off on Tuesday night to cap off a cycle of unusually significant debates.

Mr Vance is the most unpopular vice-presidential choice in recent history. American voters like Mr Walz better. Mr Vance will thus hope to use the debate to put his opponent on the defensive and raise his own low favorability ratings. Mr Walz, who generally avoids questions from the media, will face a grilling in front of perhaps his largest audience in this election. Running-mates generally have little effect on the outcome of a presidential election and their debates tend to be forgettable. Tuesday’s event could prove to be an exception.

Last week most economists expected the European Central Bank to leave rates on hold at their next meeting in October, after lowering them for the second time this year in September. But a string of data releases has shifted that view. A preliminary estimate of the euro zone’s annual inflation rate for September, released on Tuesday, showed that inflation fell below the ECB’s 2% target for the first time since 2021, to 1.8%.

Meanwhile, the economy is slowing. The release of a widely-watched purchasing-managers index for the euro zone showed that manufacturing fell at its fastest pace in 2024 in September. Sentiment dropped to its lowest level since November 2023.

Although services inflation remains stubbornly high—it has hovered around 4% since last November—the latest inflation data will probably be enough to prompt the ECB to go for another rate cut to ward off a recession.

Port workers on America’s east coast went on strike on Tuesday. Talks between the dockers and the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents terminals and carriers, broke down in June. The International Longshoremen’s Association, the union representing port workers, fears port automation and wants a wage increase of nearly 80%.

The strike will shut five of the ten busiest ports in North America, from Texas to Maine. It will disrupt the delivery of billions of dollars’ worth of consumer goods during peak shipping season. The value of containerised imports at the 36 ports amounted to $588bn last year.

Companies have been preparing for months for a possible shutdown. A study found that inventory held by American retailers is around $18bn higher than would be expected on current economic growth rates. That has caused congestion, and re-routed trade to America’s west coast. Considerable damage has already been done.

Claudia Sheinbaum will be sworn in as Mexico’s first female president on Tuesday. The 62-year-old former mayor of Mexico City has a tough job ahead of her. The power of drug gangs and other criminal groups makes Mexico even harder to govern than most big countries. Ms Sheinbaum will also be wary of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He is one of Latin America’s most popular leaders and remains the linchpin of Morena, the party to which both of them belong. In September Morena appointed his son, Andrés López Beltran, to a senior position.

Ms Sheinbaum was Mr López Obrador’s favoured successor, and she will probably continue many of his policies, such as expanding cash transfers to poor people. But she is also likely to be more business-friendly and to take a more technocratic approach to governing than did her mentor. One flashpoint could be Pemex, the state-owned oil company. She has pledged to push a transition to clean energy, which may involve giving Pemex less financial help. But she may be hamstrung by Mr López Obrador’s loyalists.