WASHINGTON — US President Donald J. Trump’s administration asked the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to swiftly hear a bid to preserve his sweeping tariffs pursued under a 1977 law meant for emergencies after a lower court invalidated most of the levies that have been central to the Republican president’s economic and trade agenda.

The Justice department appealed an Aug. 29 ruling by a federal appeals court that the President overstepped his authority in invoking the law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), undercutting a major Trump priority in his second term.

The administration asked the court to fast track its review by deciding whether to take up the case by Sept. 10 and holding arguments in November. The court’s new term begins on Oct. 6.

“The stakes in this case could not be higher,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in a written filing.

“The President and his cabinet officials have determined that the tariffs are promoting peace and unprecedented economic prosperity, and that the denial of tariff authority would expose our nation to trade retaliation without effective defenses and thrust America back to the brink of economic catastrophe,” Mr. Sauer added.

Lawyers for small businesses challenging the tariffs are not opposing the government’s request for a Supreme Court hearing. One of the attorneys, Jeffrey Schwab of Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement they were confident they would prevail.

“These unlawful tariffs are inflicting serious harm on small businesses and jeopardizing their survival. We hope for a prompt resolution of this case for our clients,” Mr. Schwab said.

The levies are part of a trade war instigated by Mr. Trump since he returned to the presidency in January that has alienated trading partners, increased volatility in financial markets and fueled global economic uncertainty.

Mr. Trump has made tariffs a pillar of US foreign policy, using them to exert political pressure and renegotiate trade deals and extract concessions from countries that export goods to the United States.

The litigation concerns Mr. Trump’s use of IEEPA to impose what he calls “reciprocal” tariffs to address trade deficits in April, as well as separate tariffs announced in February as economic leverage on China, Canada and Mexico to curb the trafficking of fentanyl and illicit drugs into the US.

IEEPA gives the President power to deal with “an unusual and extraordinary threat” amid a national emergency and had historically been used for imposing sanctions on enemies or freezing their assets. Prior to Mr. Trump, the law had never been used to impose tariffs.

Mr. Trump’s Department of Justice has argued that the law allows tariffs under emergency provisions that authorize a president to “regulate” imports or block them completely.

The appeals court ruling stems from two challenges, one brought by five small businesses that import goods, including a New York wine and spirits importer and a Pennsylvania-based sport fishing retailer. The other was filed by 12 US states — Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont — most of them governed by Democrats.

The Constitution grants Congress, not the President, the authority to issue taxes and tariffs, and any delegation of that authority must be both explicit and limited, according to the lawsuits.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, agreed, ruling that the President’s power to regulate imports under the law does not include the power to impose tariffs.

“It seems unlikely that Congress intended, in enacting IEEPA, to depart from its past practice and grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs,” the appeals court said in its 7-4 decision.

The appeals court also said that the administration’s expansive view of IEEPA violates the Supreme Court’s “major questions” doctrine, which requires executive branch actions of vast economic and political significance to be clearly authorized by Congress.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a declaration filed with the Justice department’s appeal, urged the Supreme Court to move quickly, asserting that the appeals court’s decision undermines Mr. Trump’s ability to “conduct real-world diplomacy and his ability to protect the national security and economy of the United States.”

The New York-based US Court of International Trade, which has jurisdiction over customs and trade disputes, previously ruled against Mr. Trump’s tariff policies on May 28.

Another court in Washington ruled that IEEPA does not authorize Mr. Trump’s tariffs, and the government has appealed that decision as well. At least eight lawsuits have challenged Mr. Trump’s tariff policies, including one filed by the state of California. — Reuters

SEOUL — After Kim Jong Un met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, North Korean staffers carefully wiped off items touched by the country’s supreme leader, in what analysts say is part of a suite of security measures to counter foreign spies.

Even with the appearance of budding friendship between Kim and Putin, footage on Wednesday showed the reclusive state’s extraordinary measures to conceal any clues about Mr. Kim’s health.

In a post on Telegram, Kremlin reporter Alexander Yunashev shared video of Mr. Kim’s two staff members meticulously cleaning the room in the Chinese capital where Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin met for more than two hours.

The chair’s backrest and armrests were scrubbed and a coffee table next to Mr. Kim’s chair was also cleaned. Mr. Kim’s drinking glass was also removed.

“After the negotiations were over, the staff accompanying the head of the DPRK carefully destroyed all traces of Kim’s presence,” the reporter said, referring to North Korea.

After talks in the room, Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin left for a tea meeting and bid a warm farewell to each other.

As during previous foreign trips, Mr. Kim packed his own toilet on a signature green train that took him to Beijing to hide health clues, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported, citing South Korean and Japanese intelligence agencies.

Such measures are standard protocol since the era of Mr. Kim’s predecessor, his father Kim Jong Il, said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert with the US-based Stimson Center.

“The special toilet and the requisite garbage bags of detritus, waste and cigarette butts are so that a foreign intelligence agency, even a friendly one, does not acquire a sample and test it,” Mr. Madden said.

“It would provide insight into any medical conditions affecting Kim Jong Un. This can include hair and skin tags,” he said.

In 2019, after a Hanoi summit with US President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Kim’s guards were spotted blocking the floor of his hotel room to clean the room for hours, and taking out items including a bed mattress.

Mr. Kim’s team has been spotted meticulously cleaning items before he uses them as well.

During his 2018 meeting with then South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean security guards sprayed a chair and a desk with sanitizer and wiped it down before Mr. Kim came to sit.

Before he sat at another summit with Mr. Putin in 2023, his security team wiped his chair down with disinfectant, and vigorously checked to make sure the chair was safe, with one of the guards using a metal detector to scan the seat, video footage showed. — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA — When Indonesian driver Rizky Azhar received a food delivery order from Malaysia, he was surprised by both the location and the accompanying note, which said the plate of smoked beef with rice was for him.

The order was part of a surge in food purchases from other Southeast Asian countries for motorcycle taxi and delivery drivers in Indonesia, a show of solidarity for week-long protests around income inequality and generous perks for lawmakers.

The protests spread across the country when delivery driver Affan Kurniawan was run over and killed by a police vehicle in Jakarta, placing the low wages and income precarity of ride-sharing drivers at the heart of the demonstrations.

President Prabowo Subianto has said the police and military would stand firm against the protests, which have occasionally turned violent after Affan’s death and left 10 people dead.

But the images of students and workers on the streets have attracted a wave of solidarity, with people across Southeast Asia ordering food for delivery drivers and sharing the screenshots on social media.

Over 1,100 kilometers (701.5 miles) from the Indonesian capital, Ayman Hareez Muhammad Adib decided to show his support, using the ride-hailing and food delivery app Grab to place the order that ended up with Rizky.

“The calls tell us all to contribute to what’s happening in Indonesia… to show support by sending food,” the 23-year-old Kuala Lumpur resident said.

The orders are usually accompanied by a note that reads the drivers can take the food or give it to their families.

Rizky received a similar message from Ayman on a slow Wednesday, when several schools and offices were shut in Jakarta over the protests.

“We were surprised that in recent days, some foreign nationals have shown concern for us,” he said.

On a major Jakarta street last week, hundreds of motorcycle drivers flanked a vehicle carrying Affan’s body to the cemetery. Most worked for Grab and Gojek, operated by Indonesia’s biggest tech company GoTo.

Grab has seen an uptick in orders from overseas for delivery within Indonesia over the past week, a spokesperson told Reuters, declining to say by how much or from which countries.

Tyas Widyastuti, Grab’s director of mobility and logistics, said the orders came mostly from Southeast and East Asia.

A GoTo spokesperson said the company’s “Treat Your Driver” feature “has been welcomed by customers during this period as a gesture of solidarity with driver-partners” without specifying whether orders had been placed from overseas.

Motorcycle taxis are ubiquitous across Indonesia, including in the capital Jakarta, known for some of the world’s worst traffic congestion.

In recent years, drivers have routinely protested low pay, lack of employment security and unfair practices by ride-sharing companies. GoTo and Grab have defended their business practices. — Reuters