Hurricane Michael, Nikki Haley, Taylor Swift: Your Wednesday Briefing

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Panama City Beach, Fla., on Tuesday. Hurricane Michael has prompted fears of a devastating storm surge that could reach 13 feet in some areas.CreditCreditBrendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Mary Hui

Oct. 10, 2018

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Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

A monstrous storm approaches

Michael strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane overnight and is expected to make landfall in Florida today as the fiercest tropical cyclone to hit the mainland U.S. this year. We have live updates here.

Emergency declarations have been issued for parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and the authorities ordered tens of thousands to evacuate.

After striking Florida, Michael is expected to veer northeast through Georgia and the Carolinas before heading into the Atlantic on Thursday night. We’re tracking the storm’s projected path here.

• Political winds: The hurricane arrives less than four weeks before statewide elections in Florida, and the candidates’ response could make or break their standing.

• Stark forecast: After a recent U.N. report on climate change, there is a strong sense that urgent action is needed. With a new round of negotiations set for December, the next months will be crucial.

Who will represent U.S. on the world stage?

President Trump said he was considering five candidates to replace Nikki Haley, who announced on Tuesday that she would resign as ambassador to the U.N. at the end of the year.

On the shortlist are Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser; and Richard Grenell, the American ambassador to Germany. The president also said that his daughter Ivanka Trump “would be incredible, but it doesn’t mean I’d pick her.”

Ms. Haley, a Republican former governor of South Carolina, was an early and frequent critic of Mr. Trump, but he appointed her weeks after his election and she has been one of few high-profile women in his inner circle.

• High turnover: Ms. Haley will add to a long string of major departures from the Trump administration.

Nikki Haley has been an outspoken and often forceful envoy who emerged as something of a star amid the dysfunction of the president’s first national security team.CreditSamuel Corum for The New York Times

Trump goes on the offensive

An emboldened President Trump took a victory lap at a raucous Iowa rally Tuesday night, slamming Democrats as the party of “unhinged” and “wacko” radicals who are “too dangerous to govern.”

Mr. Trump may be trying to turn the tables, portraying his opponents the way they have described him, in the belief that it could drive more of his supporters to vote on Nov. 6.

• Could deep-red Texas go blue? The state’s Senate race is unexpectedly close, and white evangelical women could swing it in Beto O’Rourke’s favor.

• “Happy Voting!”: With a single Instagram post to her 112 million followers, Taylor Swift appears to have sent last-minute voter registrations soaring.

• Election season: Sign up for The Campaign Reporter for the latest on the races.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh takes the bench

“We wish you a long and happy career in our common calling,” Chief Justice John Roberts said on Tuesday, welcoming his new colleague to the Supreme Court.

In a first for the court, all four of Justice Kavanaugh’s clerks are women. They all graduated from top law schools and worked as clerks for conservative federal judges.

• Readers’ voices: We asked what lessons could be passed on from the Kavanaugh confirmation battle, and 40,000 women across the political divide replied.

The Daily Poster — Image
Listen to ‘The Daily’: Who Is Believed and Who Is Blamed?
How women are talking about gender, politics and power in the wake of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

“It’s like ‘Pulp Fiction’ ”

That’s how a Turkish official described what happened to the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who Istanbul says was assassinated and dismembered on orders from the highest levels of the Saudi royal court.

The Saudi government says Mr. Khashoggi left its consulate on Oct. 2 and is not in its custody. Here’s what we know about his disappearance.

• Investigating a poisoning: Bellingcat, a group founded in 2014, gave a briefing on Wednesday about the identity of a second suspect in the poisoning of a former Russian spy. The group’s work signals a new frontier for internet activism and intelligence work.

• More subversion: Through spycraft and stealthy diplomacy, U.S. intelligence agencies scored a victory against Russian disinformation campaigns by giving secret evidence to Greece.

Business

• Farmers, automakers and other businesses are feeling the effects of the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs.

• SpaceX and other privately owned rocket companies are increasingly using a launch hub near Los Angeles. People in Southern California can expect to see more sky-lit spectacles.

• Rappler, a start-up in the Philippines, is working with Facebook to stamp out misinformation. It’s struggling to keep up.

• U.S. stocks were mixed on Tuesday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets today.

Smarter Living

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

• “Time realists” look at a task and break it down. Here’s how to do it.

• The fastest way to charge your phone (and keep it charged).

• Recipe of the day: Baked romanesco broccoli with mozzarella and olives is a great vegetarian main.

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A meat-free dish with meaty black olives.CreditEvan Sung for The New York Times

Noteworthy

• A shady past is revealed

The owner of the company that operated the stretch limousine involved in a crash that killed 20 in upstate New York has a complicated history as a fraudster-turned-F.B.I. informant.

• Taco diplomacy

Pati Jinich, a cookbook author and host of the award-winning PBS show “Pati’s Mexican Table,” wants Americans to appreciate more of her native cuisine than Taco Bell.

• “I come from nowhere”

Andy Warhol was probably referring to Mikova, the tiny village in Slovakia where his parents were born, when he said that.

Its 100 or so residents once perceived the artist as a “bit of a weirdo,” but they’ve warmed to his legacy.

• Photo finish in playoffs

The Boston Red Sox are headed to the American League Championship Series after beating the New York Yankees, 4-3, in Game 4 on Tuesday. We look at how they won, inning by inning.

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The Red Sox held off a ninth inning charge from the Yankees to seal victory.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times

• In memoriam.

Will Vinton, 70, was a Claymation pioneer who created iconic figures like Gumby and the California Raisins.

• Best of late-night TV

End-of-the-world proclamations in a U.N. climate report made for some dark punch lines from Trevor Noah and Jimmy Kimmel.

• Quotation of the day

“One of the things about looking at the world through a feminist lens is that we are already in a dystopia.”

— Leni Zumas, author of “Red Clocks,” part of a growing canon of female-written dystopian fiction.

• The Times, in other words

Here’s an image of today’s front page, and links to our Opinion content and crossword puzzles.

• What we’re reading

Anna Holland, a London-based editor, recommends this essay from Afar: “A friend’s Instagram posts from her travels in Africa had me dreaming of going on my own safari. But this blind man’s account of his trip through Zimbabwe has me longing not only to see an elephant in the wild but also to hear the ground squish as it lumbers by.”

Back Story

Print isn’t dead.

In fact, it’s throwing one of its biggest annual parties this week.

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The Frankfurt Book Fair can trace its origins back some 800 years.CreditBoris Roessler/EPA, via Shutterstock

The Frankfurt Book Fair kicks off today, bringing hundreds of thousands of people in publishing and related fields together for days of wheeling, dealing, seeing and being seen.

The tradition dates back some 800 years — long before Johannes Gutenberg turned out Europe’s first printed page in 1454.

Frankfurt was a flourishing medieval commercial center. In 1240, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II decreed that no one should harass travelers to its autumn fair, where wine, gold, horses and more were bought and sold.

Handwritten manuscripts began selling there, a forerunner to the book trade. Frankfurt held its earliest recorded book fair in 1462.

Then, as now, it was a place where people mingled and ideas flowed.

Henri II Estienne, a Frenchman, praised the fair in 1574 for bringing together so many scholars.

The effect, he said, was a modern-day Athens: “In reality, it should be happening in that city where once bloomed the most celebrated intellectual life in all of Greece.”

The Frankfurt Book Fair’s guest of honor this year is the nation of Georgia, and 90 new translations of Georgian books are planned to mark that occasion.

Nancy Wartik wrote today’s Back Story.

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