A modern-day prospector promised rural Imperial thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue – but his plan has set off a firestorm of resistance

Sebastian Rucci zoomed in on a map in late 2024, looking closely at a large block of brown earth. The barren plot sandwiched between sprawling alfalfa fields and sleepy desert suburbs was exactly what he’d been searching for – the perfect place to realize his dream of building the largest artificial intelligence datacenter in California.

The dusty expanse wasn’t an obvious location. It was in the Sonoran desert, just north of the Mexican border, where temperatures regularly rose past 100F (37.8C). Water was scarce in the once-booming agricultural area, which gets its supply from the beleaguered Colorado River. And then, there was the city of Imperial – population 22,000 – to win over. As controversial datacenter projects have sprung up across the US, residents were naturally skeptical of a new, energy-guzzling neighbor.

Elon Musk stunned the world bring Tesla Roadster as it redefines electric supercars with three models. Performance, Thrust and Rocket, claimed acceleration of under 0.59 seconds, and a range exceeding 300 miles.

The electric supercar is targeting acceleration figures as low as 0.59 seconds, while reported configurations promise SpaceX-inspired propulsion, extreme aerodynamic grip and prices that could climb beyond half million dollars. But with production still ahead, some of the most extraordinary claims remain unverified.

The project’s ambitions are huge. Depending on the configuration, Tesla Roadster is being linked with acceleration targets ranging from under 1.6 seconds to below 0.59 seconds, maximum speeds exceeding 230 mph, and experimental propulsion technology designed to deliver force beyond what tires alone can provide.

Tesla Roadster Models

Performance model is presented as the most conventional member of the range, although its advertised acceleration would place it among the most extreme performance cars if achieved under comparable testing conditions.

Thrust version adds a more unusual element: auxiliary propulsion. Reports have cited acceleration figures of around 0.85 seconds, while a demonstration involving thrusters was reportedly associated with a time of 0.81 seconds.

Rocket configuration takes the concept even further, with a claimed acceleration target below 0.59 seconds. That figure would be extraordinary even by the standards of specialized electric vehicles, but it remains a claim requiring independent verification.

The most unconventional feature associated with the Thrust and Rocket configurations is a cold-gas propulsion system inspired by aerospace technology.

Instead of burning rocket fuel, the proposed system releases highly pressurized air through strategically positioned nozzles to generate thrust. This could theoretically provide additional force without relying entirely on the grip available between the tires and the road.

The Thrust configuration has been described as using four rear-mounted nozzles connected to a pressurized-air tank with an estimated capacity of approximately 200 liters.

The Rocket version is reported to feature a much larger arrangement, potentially involving 10 nozzles positioned around the vehicle. Some accounts cite approximately 600 liters of storage capacity and around 250 kilograms of compressed air, with the additional tank reportedly occupying space that would otherwise accommodate a second passenger.

Rocket configuration has attracted attention because of descriptions suggesting that its thruster system could generate forward, upward and rotational movement. The concept has been associated with aerial flips, jumps and controlled landings. Demonstrations discussed in connection with the Roadster have also included inverted-ramp driving, reportedly assisted by an underbody suction system.

300 Miles of Range and Speeds Above 230 MPH

Roadster is also being promoted as a long-distance electric vehicle. Reported targets include more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) of range and a maximum speed exceeding 230 mph (370 km/h) for higher-performance configurations. Elon Musk has also suggested more ambitious speed targets over the longer term.

Some details mentioned higher-specification versions with around one megawatt of power, equivalent to around 1,340 horsepower, and torque figures ranging from roughly 960 to more than 1,032 lb-ft.

The powertrain has been described in some reports as a dual-motor, rear-wheel-drive arrangement. The precise configuration and output figures, however, vary between accounts and should not be assumed to apply to every version.

Tesla has also been associated with a charging target of approximately 15% to 85% in 10 minutes using sufficiently powerful Superchargers. Actual charging times would depend on the final battery, charging curve, charger capability and operating conditions.

Taken together, these claims paint a picture of a vehicle intended to combine extreme acceleration with usable range and rapid charging. Whether all these targets can be achieved simultaneously in a production car remains an open question.

Tesla Roadster Price

Tesla has not announced a final retail price for any of the three configurations. The company indicated a starting price of around $200,000, while Founders Series was associated with a price of around $250,000.

More recent unofficial estimates have suggested that the vehicle could cost between $250,000 and $500,000 or potentially more, depending on the configuration and its specialized equipment. These figures remain speculation rather than confirmed pricing.

Thrust has been described as a limited-release configuration, with some reports indicating a one-reservation-per-customer restriction. Rocket is reportedly available by invitation only, with no public deposit figure established in the information available here.

Tesla identified 2028 as a target for the start of production, according to statements attributed to Musk. A firm schedule for customer deliveries has not been established. The company still needs to bring the vehicle through development, manufacturing preparation and the relevant approval processes. Its final specifications, pricing, equipment and regional availability may change along the way.

Tesla showcases its first flying car Roadster

The post Tesla Roadster: Expected Price, Range and All Models details appeared first on Daily Pakistan English News.

• Google Labs leaders use ominous meeting invites to surprise and thank top staff.
• It's a "secret society" ritual for the most valuable employees, Google Labs chief Josh Woodward said.
• Woodward called the meetings "pretty fun" during an appearance on "Lenny's Podcast."

An unexpected meeting invite with the boss is often the kind of thing that sends employees spiraling. For Google Labs staffers, though, it could mean top brass are about to tell you how great you are.

Speaking on a recent episode of "Lenny's Podcast," Josh Woodward, the vice president of Google Labs, the Gemini app, and AI Studio, described the surprise appreciation meetings as a kind of "secret society" ritual for the team's most valuable employees.

"We'll basically like put an invite on someone's calendar, and we'll just, you know, it looks kind of scary because there's like four or five leaders on the team," Woodward told podcast host Lenny Rachitsky, adding that there's no agenda given.

"And then they show up, and we take turns. We go around the circle, and we just tell them why we appreciate them so much for being on the team," Woodward said.

Woodward called the sessions "pretty fun" and said employees are regularly surprised to learn what the meetings are about.

"I always start the meeting with like, 'This is not a bad meeting. This is a good meeting,'" he said. "Your mind may assume the worst, but we're actually doing the opposite. These are some of the most valuable people."

The surprise recognition meetings are one of the ways Google Labs celebrates the often unflashy work behind its AI products, according to Woodward.

He said the team also has a tradition of handing out quirky awards to employees.

There's the "TPU harvester" award, which consists of a "little miniature rake" from Etsy as well as a cash reward, for staffers who optimize Google's AI chips, known as Tensor Processing Units, Woodward said.

"A few of us wanted to figure out a way to reward people who do the grungy work of efficiency and reclaiming TPUs, harvesting TPUs, so we can build the next features and fuel our growth," he said, adding, "we kind of turned it into this big celebration."

Employees who fix small product flaws or "paper cuts" receive a golden Band-Aid, Woodward said. And those who find surprising ways to push AI models toward new capabilities can become an "LLM whisperer," earning them a giant set of ears and a "really nice" mechanical keyboard.

"We're trying to find like ways to kind of like I don't know encode the value in these like dorky symbols, but that means something," he said, explaining, "We're always coming up with weird stuff like this."

ISLAMABAD – A major telecom development sparked confusion across Pakistani social media, with viral posts suggesting that mobile phones will soon display the names of unknown callers. But there is a difference between what is reportedly happening in India and what has been announced in Pakistan.

Several posts are doing rounds online, prompting questions among mobile users: Will the name of every person calling your phone appear on the screen from November 1, 2026?

اہم خبر:

*یکم نومبر سے موبائل پر کال کرنے والے کا نام بھی نظر آئے گا، حکومت کا بڑا فیصلہ*

موبائل صارفین کے لیے ایک اور اہم اور بڑی خبر! محکمہ ٹیلی مواصلات (DoT) نے فیصلہ کیا ہے کہ یکم نومبر 2026ء سے ملک بھر میں کال کرنے والے کے نام کی شناخت (Caller ID) کی سہولت نافذ کی جا رہی ہے۔

اس نئی سہولت کے تحت اب موبائل فون پر آنے والی کال کے دوران صرف نمبر نہیں بلکہ کال کرنے والے شخص کا اصل نام بھی اسکرین پر دکھائی دے گا۔

اس اقدام کا مقصد نامعلوم نمبروں (Unknown Numbers) سے آنے والی کالوں کی شناخت کو آسان بنانا اور شہریوں کو غیر ضروری و فرضی کالوں سے محفوظ رکھنا ہے۔

تمام ٹیلی کام کمپنیوں کو جدید ٹیکنالوجی پر اس سہولت کی جانچ اور نفاذ مکمل کرنے کی ہدایات جاری کر دی گئی ہیں۔

— Nakam Larki (@NakamLarki) October 17, 2026

It is actually being done in India, where authorities are preparing to introduce a system that displays a caller’s registered name alongside their phone number. However, there is no verified evidence that Pakistan has announced a similar nationwide requirement for the same date. The distinction has become increasingly important as the news spreads across borders, often without identifying the country or government authority behind the reported decision.

According to the reports referenced in the circulating claim, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a circular on October 13, 2026, directing telecom operators to implement a service known as Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) from November 1. The reported initiative involves major Indian telecom companies, including Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

The system is intended to help mobile users identify callers whose numbers are not saved in their contact lists, potentially making it easier to recognise suspicious calls and reduce telephone fraud.

Under reported CNAP arrangement, the name displayed on a recipient’s phone would depend on whether the incoming number is saved and where the call originates.

• If the caller’s number is already stored in the phone, the saved contact name will appear as usual.
• For an unsaved domestic call in India, the name registered in the telecom operator’s subscriber database is reportedly expected to appear.
• Unsaved international calls are reportedly expected to display an “International Call” label.
• The initial rollout is reported to cover 4G and newer networks, including 5G.
• Implementation for 2G, 3G and landline connections is expected to be considered separately.

The objective is to give users more information about incoming calls and help them make informed decisions before answering unfamiliar numbers.

Pakistani Social Media Users Confused

The issue has gained attention in Pakistan after versions of the news began circulating in Urdu. Some posts use headlines along the lines of “From November 1, the caller’s name will also appear on mobile phones” without clearly mentioning that the reported announcement concerns India.

This development can give readers the impression that a similar change is about to take effect across Pakistan. The key detail is the identity of the issuing authority.

India’s Department of Telecommunications, commonly known as DoT, is an Indian government department. Pakistan’s telecom regulator is the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). A directive issued by India’s DoT does not automatically apply to Pakistani mobile networks.

As of October 17, 2026, the information provided with the viral claim does not establish that the PTA has issued a comparable nationwide order requiring Pakistani mobile operators to display callers’ registered names from November 1.

No corresponding PTA notification has been identified in the material supplied for this fact-check.

This means claims that the feature will definitely launch across Pakistan on that date remain unsubstantiated.

Mobile users in Pakistan should not assume that Jazz, Zong, Ufone, Telenor or other operators will automatically begin displaying the registered names of unknown callers because of the reported Indian rollout.

Any such change in Pakistan would need to be confirmed through an official announcement or directive from the relevant Pakistani authority.

The post Callers’ Names to appear on Mobile Screens from November 1 in Pakistan? appeared first on Daily Pakistan English News.

Whether it was youngsters proving their skills or state sabotage, Europe’s most hacked country was left with a mountain of waste after food began cooking in freezers

Shortly before midnight last Sunday, the digital thermostats controlling hundreds of supermarket cold aisles across France began to flicker and rise.

In a “bizarre and unprecedented” cyber-attack, hackers had remotely overridden the temperature settings on thousands of freezers, fridges and chiller cabinets pushing them from as low as -27C (-16.6F) to well over 50C (122F).

South Korean memory chipmakers must secure new United States licenses by year-end to keep shipping top-end American tools to their Chinese factories, after the Trump administration scrapped blanket permits last year. To win the permits, SK Hynix and Samsung must promise to build or expand factories in the US. SK Hynix’s one-year license to ship […]

The post SK Hynix needs a Trump 2027 deal to expand its Dalian NAND fab appeared first on Asia Times.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates running for the House of Representatives and endorsed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani are all but guaranteed to win their general elections this November, but that does not mean the midterm drama is over in New York. In the state's 17th congressional district, which includes the lower Hudson Valley, Democratic challenger Cait Conley, a combat veteran who served on the Biden administration's National Security Council, could unseat incumbent Republican congressman Mike Lawler in one of the most consequential races of the midterms. 

The highly contested purple district voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election while reelecting Lawler for his second term. Now, Lawler is attempting to win a third term as support for President Donald Trump wanes ahead of the midterms. As of Friday, The Cook Political Report lists the race, which could determine control of the House, as a toss-up. 

If elected, Conley would have far more in common with the "Badass Women" coalition of security state and military veterans than with DSA types (think more Sen. Elissa Slotkin from Michigan than Darializa Avila Chevalier). As Judge Street Journal's Timmy Facciola notes, "Conley's candidacy is testing the viability of a tactful centrism that rebukes left-wing positions like abolishing ICE or restricting weapon shipments to Israel." Lawler is also vying for moderates, pitching himself as "one of the most bipartisan members of Congress" and emphasizing his willingness to break with Trump occasionally while still welcoming Trump's support. 

While Lawler and Conley certainly are not pure MAGA acolytes or DSA members, both have leaned into a tech-critical position, much like that of more radical populists like Lina Khan or Steve Bannon, revealing how pervasive anti-tech sentiment has become in mainstream politics. 

This tech skepticism was on full display during an October 14 debate, when each candidate made the case for why they were the most equipped to regulate AI, insisting that the industry needs guardrails. 

Conley said members of Congress do not want to regulate AI because "they want to look out for their billionaire and trillionaire backers like Elon Musk, who is pouring over $260 million into this midterm election." She then added that Musk backed Lawler in his 2024 race. 

Lawler then accused Conley, who previously consulted for Primer AI, of being "the AI candidate for the AI industry."

While Lawler and Conley disagree on specific data center regulations (Conley supports Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul's data center moratorium while Lawler supports local zoning control over data centers), neither wants to pitch themselves as an explicitly pro-data center candidate. During the debate, Conley claimed that, "On Mike Lawler's watch there have been five data centers built in Rockland County." Lawler has said that he had no say in the decision to build the data centers, and during the debate, he pointed out that the facilities were built for financial services. Lawler also attempted to attack Conley over data centers, slamming her in an ad for saying "we need data centers." Regardless of the candidates' specific policies on data centers, their attacks on one another demonstrate that cheerleading hyperscale data center development is a political liability. In their district, data center has presumably become a dirty term. 

The candidates' tech-skeptical rhetoric did not end with unchecked data center development. After the debate, Reason asked both candidates about their positions on age-verification laws for social media and AI, since such regulations raise significant privacy and censorship concerns by age-gating the internet. Unsurprisingly, both Lawler, who voted for the controversial KIDS Act, and Conley, who has proposed stricter age verification for AI tools, parroted platitudes about why such online safety regulations are necessary to protect children. 

"We have watched how social media is literally hurting the mental health of children," Conley told Reason. "And when you talk about the power of AI and what that power could do, we have to regulate this." 

Lawler gave a similar response, telling Reason that he respects free speech but that protecting children "is paramount." 

This bipartisan consensus over social media regulation has long been brewing in Congress. The mainstream political conversations about AI and data centers, however, are relatively new this midterm election cycle. And it appears both Lawler and Conley have figured out which way Americans' sentiment toward AI is leaning, and they have waged their campaigns accordingly. 

The post Nobody Wants To Be the Pro-Tech Candidate in This New York Race That Could Flip the House appeared first on Reason Magazine.

We all know Elizabeth Holmes is a villain. 

She promised a radical new technology—bloodwork performed in a countertop-sized machine from a single droplet taken from your finger. She was young, photogenic, and self-possessed; she dressed like Steve Jobs. Her invention would disrupt the $60 billion bloodwork industry, bringing cheap, frictionless health monitoring to the masses. Or it would have, if it worked. Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors of nearly $500 million; she's currently serving an 11-year prison sentence. Holmes has been written about extensively, and her story was turned into an Emmy-winning Hulu series starring Amanda Seyfried. She is an avatar of Big Tech mendacity, a cautionary tale as much as a person.

Everyone knows the story. You would think there is nothing left to say. But you'd be wrong. 

Just before she entered prison, Holmes invited documentarians Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim to live with her, her boyfriend Billy Evans, and their two young children in their beachfront San Diego rental unit, promising them full access, complete transparency. The result is this year's most entrancing documentary, You Can See Everything. When the camera captures Billy in the shower, the movie delivers on its titular promise; you, uh, really can see everything. 

Yet what you cannot see is who Holmes really is. The mystery of the era's most famous fraudster is the movie's central riddle: Is she cynical, calculating, a stone-cold liar and psychopath? Or is she something stranger—a damaged and delicate person who genuinely believes her lies, or at the very least, genuinely believes the stories she tells herself to justify those lies after the fact?

Fielder and Holmes seem uncertain themselves; the movie is, in part, their own attempt to wrestle with their own ambivalence, their own inability to come to a conclusion. It's a hall of mirrors about the infinite unknowability of a person, even given unfettered access. 

The documentarians do not absolve her of her villainy; the movie is not an attempt to excuse her fraud or build a case for her innocence. But they offer something exceptionally rare in this era of simplistic hero and villain narratives: genuine and deeply felt empathy for someone on whom the culture (not to mention the legal system) has cast final judgment. In the process, they have given us one of the strangest, most unsettling, and most poignant films of the year. You Can See Everything is a small miracle of a movie. 

It's sometimes said that the most compelling villains don't believe themselves to be villains. They have an internally coherent story to tell that excuses their actions, makes them the heroes in their own minds. Fielder and Oppenheim have given Holmes, and viewers, the gift of allowing Holmes a measure of psychological complexity. You don't see into her mind, because that's impossible. But you see that the story she tells herself is different from the story the world tells us about her. It's surprisingly kind and generous; it's also tricky as hell—to the point where you, the viewer, might wonder if you're the one being tricked. 

Halfway through, the movie takes a meta-turn that I won't spoil, entering into high-concept territory in an attempt to more deeply explore what art and images can reveal about a human psyche. It's formally audacious, often funny, and actually justifies the three-hour running time. I've never seen anything quite like it.  

The exercise left me just as unsettled as the documentarians seem to be themselves; uncertain about Holmes and her motives, and nearly as uncertain about Fielder and Oppenheim, two talented filmmakers who appear to be questioning not only the nature of their chosen form, but of reality, especially psychological reality, themselves. There are times when You Can See Everything borders on magical realism, except the magic comes from the complexity of human nature and storytelling, as if Gabriel García Márquez had written a story about a man with a camera that could see into souls. It's dizzying, dazzling, a sort of postmodern Rashomon of perspective shifting.

As I left the theater, in something of a daze, I found myself thinking of a line from the great Saul Bellow novel The Adventures of Augie March, "Nobody should be a mystery intentionally. Unintentionally is mysterious enough." In the case of Holmes, it's impossible to tell which it is. All we can say is this supposedly one-note Big Tech villain, like perhaps everyone, is better understood as some kind of mystery, even to herself. 

The post The Elizabeth Holmes Documentary <i>You Can See Everything</i> Is an Act of Radical Empathy appeared first on Reason Magazine.

TSMC expects overseas manufacturing to reduce its consolidated gross margin by nearly two percentage points in 2026, with the impact widening to three to four points later in its expansion program. The company plans to spend $60 billion to $64 billion on capital expenditure this year. Its latest outlook calls for fourth-quarter revenue of up […]

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