Elections

Elon Musk has said that the vehicle will add trillions to Tesla’s stock market value and that those who don’t believe him should sell their shares.Tesla on Thursday plans to unveil a product that Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, has said will add trillions of dollars to its stock market value and fuel its growth.The product is a prototype of a self-driving taxi. And it will be shown at an invitation-only, evening event at the Warner Bros. studio in Los Angeles. Mr. Musk has promised that the cab, which he calls the Robotaxi, will be able to ferry passengers to any destination without human intervention, a feat that other companies have achieved in just a few places like Phoenix and San Francisco.Mr. Musk’s supporters and fans believe that the Robotaxi will open a lucrative line of business that will more than make up for Tesla’s recent struggles in the electric car market, where it has lost market share to more established carmakers. Mr. Musk has said people will be able to purchase Robotaxis for personal use and earn extra money by allowing the vehicles to ferry passengers, the automotive equivalent of listing a home on Airbnb.“An autonomous taxi platform will unlock a multitrillion-dollar market,” Tasha Keeney, director of investment analysis at ARK Invest, an asset management firm that owns shares in Tesla, said in a statement.But other analysts and autonomous driving experts are skeptical that Tesla can perfect the technology and make a profit from it anytime soon.A car capable of functioning as a self-driving taxi “is still several years away, and numerous technological hurdles, safety tests and regulatory approvals are still standing in the way,” Garrett Nelson, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, said in a note this week.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

In the hands of skilled novelists, the stories of an heiress, a prime minister and a literary mystery woman are brought to life.There’s plenty of historical drama in Robert Harris’s latest novel, but the events that led Britain into the carnage of World War I serve mainly as a backdrop for the intimate maneuverings in PRECIPICE (Harper, 464 pp., $30). At its center is the actual clandestine liaison between the country’s 61-year-old prime minister, Herbert Asquith, and a 26-year-old aristocrat, Venetia Stanley, who became his sounding board and confidante as he faced mounting hostilities both within his government and throughout Europe.Harris notes at the outset that all the letters from Asquith quoted in his text are authentic documents. Around them Harris has deftly sketched his own portrayals of Asquith, Stanley and their social circle, adding invented correspondence from Stanley to Asquith as well as an invented Special Branch detective who finds himself deep in an “off the books” investigation after copies of classified Foreign Office telegrams — meant to be distributed only to a few select ministers — start turning up in decidedly insecure locations. Going undercover at the Stanleys’ Welsh estate, then covertly reading Venetia’s mail, he becomes an increasingly uncomfortable voyeur, disturbed by the Asquith letters’ “bizarre mixture of secret military intelligence and passionate declarations of love.” Will he be tempted to intervene? Or will Venetia, sensing the danger of her position, take action on her own?Independence is the double-edged sword of Peggy Guggenheim’s existence: seemingly granted by her inherited fortune but denied by the expectations surrounding the Guggenheim name and her own insecurities. At least that’s the impression you get from PEGGY (Random House, 384 pp., $29), a sympathetic first-person narrative left unfinished at her death in 2022 by Rebecca Godfrey and completed by her friend Leslie Jamison.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

Crickets chirped. Frogs croaked. Mosquitoes feasted on people who ventured outside to marvel at the clear sky and eerie calm.In Sarasota, Fla., the roaring, 120-mile-per hour winds of Hurricane Milton abruptly subsided at about 8 p.m., as the storm’s center began to make landfall nearby. It was a jarring difference from the hours before and after, when the sounds we heard were like bowling pins crashing, or a jet engine accelerating for takeoff.Inside my hotel, windows moaned and shrieked in the wind. Ceiling vents rattled and vibrated.The hotel was packed mostly with people who had been ordered out of evacuation zones. They gathered in the lobby late into the night — it was the only spot with lights powered by a generator — and watched warily as water crept under sandbagged doors.Sharing stories of hurricanes past, and gathering to peer out the windows into the darkness, were the only things keeping them occupied, and distracted from worrying about the homes they had left behind.I grew up in New England and have covered blizzards and nor’easters for decades, as well as the recent epic flooding in Vermont. But I had never experienced a hurricane in Florida.One thing was the same: the persistent uncertainty, down to the last hours, about how bad it would be and where the worst impact would be felt. Nothing had prepared me, though, for the raw intensity of the experience — the long, anxious hours of listening in the dark to a raging wall of weather.The minutes I spent outside as the hurricane’s massive eye passed over were as unforgettable as the total eclipse I witnessed in northern Maine in April — an interval of sheer wonder at the mystery and power of the natural world, in which everything else, fear included, briefly falls away.By daybreak on Thursday, the howling winds had subsided, and people began to venture outside to see what the storm had left behind. The wind uprooted trees, stripped sections of metal-sided buildings, and tossed yachts onto the edge of Bayfront Drive along the waterfront.By 8 a.m., residents were emerging to breezy conditions and clearing skies to walk dogs and begin clearing limbs and branches. More

Former President Donald J. Trump said again on Wednesday night that he would not agree to a second debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, as the noon Eastern time Thursday deadline for his response to CNN’s proposed debate approached.Ms. Harris had accepted CNN’s offer to debate on Oct. 23. Fox News had also extended an offer on Wednesday for a debate this month.Mr. Trump insisted on his social media site that Ms. Harris wanted a “rematch” because she lost their first meeting, despite polls that suggested otherwise, finding that most respondents thought Ms. Harris had performed better. He also repeated his suggestion that it was too late to debate again because voting had already begun, though debates in past presidential elections have often been held in mid- to late October.Mr. Trump also claimed that he was “leading in all swing states,” even though polling averages show him leading in some and Ms. Harris leading in others, with the race very close in all of them.Mr. Trump had expressed reluctance to debate Ms. Harris in the first place, and said shortly after that meeting that he wasn’t inclined to do it again. He turned down the CNN debate last month, and indicated that even the friendly terrain of Fox News was unlikely to entice him, even as Ms. Harris has sought to goad him into another face-off. More

The authorities are resorting to a politically unpopular move as they scramble to raise funds for the grueling military effort against Russia.The Ukrainian Parliament voted on Thursday to approve its biggest tax hike since Russia’s full-scale invasion began more than two years ago, resorting to a politically unpopular move to raise funds for its grueling war effort.The bill increases a tax on personal income that raises money for military expenditure, raising the rate to 5 percent, from 1.5 percent. It also retroactively doubles taxes on bank profits, to 50 percent for this year, and raises taxes on the profits of other financial institutions to 25 percent, from 18 percent, among other provisions.The tax rise approved on Thursday will help to fund a $12 billion military spending increase for this year. Yaroslav Zhelezniak, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy, called it a “historic tax increase.”The move is likely to hit hard in Ukraine, where people have already seen their economic well-being plummet because of the war. But the authorities argue that they have no choice if Ukraine is to sustain its fight against Russia, which has ramped up its own military expenditure. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is expected to ratify the bill in the coming days.Oleksii Movchan, a member of Mr. Zelensky’s party and the deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on economic development, acknowledged that the bill was “unpopular.”“We will be hated, but we don’t have any other option,” he said. “It’s about our survival in this war.”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

Known for its pop-up stores — and its army of seasonal workers — Spirit Halloween will try its hand at a longer run and a bigger holiday.For many fall enthusiasts, the season’s start is marked by the arrival of autumn leaves and apple picking. For others, it is marked by the emergence of the Borg-like retail empire that is Spirit Halloween, a Halloween goods purveyor that opens more than 1,500 locations across North America, only to shutter them in the days after Halloween.The script has remained constant: Spirit Halloween outlets appear in strip malls, and just about any abandoned storefront, selling vast inventories of costumes, wigs, vampire fangs, fake blood, devil pitchforks and ghoulish animatronics. Year after year, its stores create a dependable seasonal economy for thousands of workers before disappearing as quickly as they materialized.But this week, Spirit, which was founded in 1983, announced that it intends to test the waters of the Christmas season, too, with the introduction of a new retail concept, “Spirit Christmas.” Ten test locations will open across the Northeast, starting on Oct. 18 with a store in Mays Landing, N.J., which will be followed in November with outlets in locations like Albany, Poughkeepsie and Erie.At these locations, Spirit’s Grim Reaper-like mascot will be replaced with a winking Santa, and its stock will be replaced with gingerbread houses, wrapping paper, ugly sweaters, elf hats, reindeer ears and stocking stuffers. Locations will also offer family photo ops with resident bearded Santas.“Spirit Christmas is a new concept for us, and we’re hopeful it will resonate with our customers,” Kym Sarkos, Spirit’s executive vice president, said in a statement. Her statement added that customers will be able to wander through a “life-sized gingerbread village, where you can mail your letter to Santa at the North Pole and find out whether you’ve been naughty or nice.”The storefronts change, but the Spirit Halloween signage remains the same.Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn recent years, as Spirit Halloween’s seasonal retail empire has grown, the ephemerality of its business structure has made it the subject of endless parody. In the recent season premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” the sketch show aired a prerecorded spot that poked fun at Spirit Halloween’s impending, yet ultimately temporary, emergence.In the skit, an employee played by Heidi Gardner walks through the aisles of a busy Spirit store while she tells viewers about the company’s seasonal aid to depressed local economies around the nation.“Since 1983, Spirit Halloween has been helping our struggling communities by setting up shop in every vacant building in the country for six weeks,” she says. “And then bouncing.”After the skit aired, Spirit shot back at “Saturday Night Live” in a post on X.“We are great at raising things back from the dead @nbcsnl,” Spirit’s social team wrote alongside a photo of a Spirit costume package titled “Irrelevant 50-year-old TV show.” The package’s description noted that the outfit came with “Dated references,” “Unknown cast members” and “Shrinking ratings.”The joke landed well online, and now the company will find out if its customers are interested in having Spirit stick around through the holiday season. More

Senator JD Vance of Ohio and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota opened the first day of voting in Arizona on Wednesday with a spree of campaign events across the state, zeroing in on a crucial swing state after their debate last week.Arizona, with its 15 Electoral College votes, has no clear favorite in the presidential race — even as polls there show a slight lead by former President Donald J. Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump won the state by a significant margin in 2016, and President Biden won the state in 2020 by less than 11,000 votes — a narrow victory that both campaigns highlighted as evidence that every vote in the state will matter this year.The two vice-presidential candidates fanned out in the morning from luxury hotels near Phoenix and Tucson, and their motorcades crisscrossed desert highways to campaign in the two urban centers. Mr. Vance first held a rally in Tucson before attending a town-hall event hosted by the Conservative Political Action Conference in Mesa, near Phoenix. Mr. Walz visited a Veterans of Foreign Wars post and met with tribal leaders on tribal land, near Phoenix, before holding a campaign rally in the evening at a high school gym in Tucson.Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance said little of each other — instead directing their attacks at each other’s running mates — even as the two came close to crossing paths in Phoenix. Mr. Vance flew from Tucson to Phoenix in the midafternoon, and his campaign jet was parked nearby as Mr. Walz boarded his own campaign jet for the short hop to Tucson later that day.Senator JD Vance greeting supporters at a campaign event in Tucson, Ariz., on Wednesday.Grace Trejo/Arizona Daily Star, via Associated PressGov. Tim Walz, also in Tucson on Wednesday, at a campaign rally at Palo Verde High Magnet School.Kelly Presnell/Arizona Daily Star, via Associated PressSpeaking to supporters at an outdoor rally in sweltering heat at the Tucson Speedway, Mr. Vance urged Arizona residents to vote early, saying that “the best way to make sure your voice is counted is to make sure it’s counted early.” The appeal contradicts the messaging by his running mate, Mr. Trump, who continues to stoke doubts about mail voting.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

Storm surge along the western Florida coast began to pick up as daylight dwindled and Hurricane Milton came ashore with its heavy rains and damaging winds, bringing the threat of major flooding.Flood gauges showed rapidly rising water levels on the coast at Fort Myers and Naples Bay shortly after Milton’s center arrived on land near Sarasota. Forecasters warned of the life threatening surge, which was expected to reach up to 13 feet in some areas, like Boca Grande on the far edges of the western coast.The term storm surge describes the dramatic, higher-than-expected rise in water levels brought on by a storm, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.“The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” forecasters had earlier warned.In Tampa Bay, officials issued a flash flood emergency, a rare alert used when flooding is expected to inflict catastrophic damage and pose a severe threat to human life.Storm surge has been a particular point of emphasis with this hurricane among officials as it’s been responsible for dozens of deaths in storms past. In 2022, for example, 41 deaths during Hurricane Ian were attributed to storm surge.Images on social media taken before Milton’s arrival showed signs of the deluge to come, with water beginning to lap over sidewalks and roadways. Some videos showed the light from buildings reflecting brightly off the water against the darkness of night as it rushed over streets and into buildings. More