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    Justin Trudeau’s Accusations Spotlight Reach of India’s Intelligence Agencies

    The Canadian prime minster’s accusation of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh nationalist signifies a sharp escalation in diplomatic tensions between India and Canada.The accusation by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, that the Indian government orchestrated a campaign to threaten and kill Sikhs on Canadian soil has cast a spotlight on the potential reach of India’s shadowy intelligence network, which has been known to operate mainly in South Asia.Mr. Trudeau’s allegations have surprised many in diplomatic circles, who say that countries are typically reluctant to air allegations of espionage and assassinations against foreign intelligence services.India’s neighbors — especially its archrival, Pakistan, with which it has fought multiple wars — are well acquainted with Indian covert operations, which are widely understood to have involved targeted airstrikes and assassinations on foreign soil.But because of the public way Canada has laid out its case, the wider world is now getting a glimpse of how diplomats, spies, bureaucrats and police officers who work in Indian intelligence likely operate, and how senior government officials may direct their activities.Mr. Trudeau’s strongly worded statements on Monday escalated a diplomatic row between the two countries that had been brewing for more than a year, over the killing of a Canadian Sikh citizen in Canada.The Canadian authorities said on Monday that they believe six diplomats were part of a broad criminal network, spread across the country, involved in intimidation, harassment and extortion aimed at Canadian Sikhs, as well as homicides.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

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    Chinese Automakers Show Force at Paris Auto Show

    Weeks after Europe imposed additional tariffs on electric vehicles made in China, the country’s car companies were defiant at France’s leading auto event.China’s ambitions to become a force in the European car market were on full display this week at the Paris Auto Show, where a record number of the country’s automakers unveiled cutting-edge electric models despite a recent European Union decision to impose anti-subsidy tariffs on their vehicles.At the event, designed to showcase Europe’s top automakers, the displays that drew some of the biggest crowds were those from the likes of BYD, Leapmotor and Xpeng, which boasted how the speed of their technological advances — including the use of artificial intelligence — would help them compete with, or even surpass, their European rivals in the electric vehicle revolution.Europe has an ambitious goal of fully transitioning to electric vehicles by 2035, and the continent’s biggest carmakers — among them Renault, Stellantis, BMW and Volkswagen — all put forward new models aimed at appealing to European consumers. But Beijing is also eager to get in on that game, with the nine Chinese automakers at the Paris show appearing undeterred by what they view as protectionist efforts to slow their advance.BYD, which made its European debut at the show two years ago, displayed seven models, which its officials said used electric and hybrid technology that surpassed that of its European rivals.At the BYD stand, a large-screen video displayed landmarks from around the world, from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It was a visual reminder of the company’s ambition to make a Chinese car appealing to Western buyers.The BYD Yangwang U8 at the Paris Auto Show. BYD displayed seven models, which its officials said used electric and hybrid technology that surpassed that of its European rivals.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesWe 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

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    Walgreens Says It Will Close 1,200 Stores

    The pharmacy giant said it would close the stores over the next three years and plans to “redeploy” the majority of the workers at the closed stores.Walgreens plans to close about 1,200 stores over the next three years, its parent company said on Tuesday, in an effort by the struggling pharmacy giant to cut costs and change focus.The chain, which is owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, announced the closures in its latest quarterly earnings report, released on Tuesday.The closures will allow Walgreens to “respond more dynamically to shifts in consumer behavior and buying preferences,” Tim Wentworth, the chief executive of Walgreens Boots Alliance, told investors during an earnings call on Tuesday.There are more than 8,000 Walgreens stores in the United States, Mr. Wentworth said, and about 6,000 of those stores were profitable.“While the decision to close the store is never an easy one, we feel confident in our ability to continue to serve our customers,” Mr. Wentworth said, “and we intend to follow our historic practice to redeploy the majority of the work force in those stores that we closed.”About 500 of the closures will take place in the current fiscal year, which runs through September 2025, but the company did not say where they would occur.The company reported an operating loss of nearly $1 billion in the three months through August, roughly twice as much as the loss in the same period last year. Its stock price jumped more than 10 percent in early trading on Tuesday, as the results were slightly better than analysts had expected.Walgreens said in June that it would most likely close a significant amount of stores as part of a plan to turn around its business in the United States. At the time, Walgreens said spending by lower-income consumers in particular was lagging, driven by high inflation and depleted savings. The closures announced on Tuesday include 300 stores that had previously been approved to shut under that plan.Mr. Wentworth said that the company was also making changes to how it stocks its stores, by being “more selective” with the brands it carries, as well as expanding its own brands. This, he said, would enable the company to be “a destination for categories for which we believe we are uniquely positioned to lead, like health and wellness and, specifically, women’s health.” More

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    Trump Leans On Creative Bookkeeping to Keep Up in Cash Race

    Donald J. Trump’s political operation has been taking extraordinary measures in a bid to stay financially competitive with Vice President Kamala Harris, deploying aggressive and creative accounting strategies that test the legal limits of how far a candidate can go to offload the core costs of running for president.The most startling example is the official payroll of the former president’s campaign committee.He had only 11 people on it, as of August.That is a tiny fraction of the more than 200 people Mr. Trump had on his campaign payroll four years ago and the more than 600 people on Ms. Harris’s campaign payroll in August, federal records show.The reason Mr. Trump now has so few on the payroll is that he is shuffling costs from his campaign committee to other accounts allied or shared with the Republican Party. The goal of the seemingly arcane accounting maneuver is to free up millions of dollars, which would otherwise be locked up in party and fund-raising accounts, to spend on television ads for Mr. Trump.And the shifting of payroll is just one piece of the financial puzzle.Mr. Trump has also not been using his campaign committee to pay for many of the big rallies that are the signature events of his campaign, according to two people with knowledge of his accounting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. Instead, the Trump team is, for accounting purposes, treating those events as fund-raisers by including backstage photo lines for contributors or donor round tables.Mr. Trump and Senator JD Vance of Ohio greeting supporters backstage before a campaign rally in Asheboro, N.C., in August.Doug Mills/The New York TimesWe 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

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    Profits Leap at Goldman Sachs as Banks See Steady Economy

    The investment bank earned more than expected in the latest quarter, a theme for other big banks, too.Goldman Sachs on Tuesday reported a monster jump in its third quarter earnings, reaping $3 billion in profits — far higher than what Wall Street analysts had expected.How did the investment bank do it? The steadying economic environment helped — but so did a financial maneuver employed by Goldman’s chief executive, David M. Solomon, a few weeks ago.In early September, Mr. Solomon publicly sounded the alarm, saying many aspects of the bank’s business were stumbling in the third quarter. He warned that the bank’s upcoming earnings might disappoint.They didn’t — not at Goldman nor the two other major banks that reported results on Tuesday.Up first, a billion-dollar beatGoldman pulled in nearly $13 billion in revenue during the third quarter, over $1 billion more than projections. The bank’s $3 billion in quarterly profit was roughly equal to what it pulled in during the previous quarter, despite Mr. Solomon’s warning last month that profits might not hold up as well as they had in the first half of the year.A bank executive, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, said that trading activity — a core part of any investment bank — came in stronger than expected in September, the same period that the Federal Reserve announced a large cut in interest rates.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

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    With Trump Facing Threats, Security and Politics Intersect as Never Before

    He has been the target of two would-be assassins in a matter of months. The intelligence agencies have told him that Iran is still threatening to kill him, and Iranian hackers got into the email accounts of his aides.Those developments have left former President Donald J. Trump and his staff fearful, frustrated and dependent for the candidate’s safety on federal agencies at the heart of what Mr. Trump has long portrayed as a hostile “deep state.”But Mr. Trump and his team have also seized on his predicament for political ends, suggesting without evidence that the situation is at least partly the fault of the Biden-Harris administration for being unwilling to provide him the protection he needs to travel the country freely and meet voters on his terms.Mr. Trump approaches Election Day as simultaneously a subject of federal prosecution, a candidate who has threatened to fire much of the federal bureaucracy and a target dependent for information and protection on the same agencies likely to endure his retribution should he take office again.Interviews with people close to Mr. Trump and officials across the federal government reveal how deeply unnerved the Trump campaign has been by the assassination attempts and the Iranian threats and hacking — and how the American security apparatus has responded.At the same time, as Mr. Trump attacks and politicizes the agencies charged with both investigating the threats and protecting him, officials in the Biden White House and at the Secret Service worry that he is laying the groundwork to blame them should he lose the election.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

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    Paris Is Rising as an Art Market Hub, With Some Way Left to Go

    Sotheby’s opened a new salesroom and international collectors are arriving for the inaugural Art Basel Paris fair. But visiting is one thing; buying is another.“This is the Mona Lisa of handbags,” said Aurélie Vassy, Sotheby’s head of handbag and fashion sales in Europe, as she unlocked a glass display case and proudly revealed a battered black leather Birkin.“The first in the world, made for Jane Birkin. It’s the beginning,” said Vassy, pointing out the design features of the bag, specially made by Hermès for the Anglo-French singer and actress in 1984. Three years earlier, Birkin had found herself sitting next to the chief executive of the luxury brand on a flight from Paris to London and had sketched the design on the back of a sick bag.This precious fashion icon, on loan from the collection of the pre-owned luxury dealer Catherine B, was one of the star exhibits at the opening of Sotheby’s new salesroom in the Avenue Matignon district of Paris on Saturday. The auction house will hold Surrealism and modern art sales on Friday, just days after the inaugural edition of the Art Basel Paris fair begins in the newly renovated Grand Palais.Aurélie Vassy, Sotheby’s head of handbag and fashion sales in Europe, with the very first Birkin bag.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesThe Paris art scene is expanding. After Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union, a procession of international gallerists established spaces in the French capital, expecting its underperforming art market to revive at London’s expense.When Art Basel took over the management of Paris’s flagship October fair in 2022, this nurtured hope that the city’s art scene would become a magnet for international collectors. (It ran the fair for a couple of years from a temporary location under the ungainly name “Paris+ par Art Basel” before rebranding for this year’s edition.)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