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 @ISIDEWITHNewsGermanEuropegovernmentVolkswagenDaily DiscussionEV SubsidiesGermanyIndustry•••4mos ago

Electric Car Sales Plummet 37% in Germany as Slump Deepens

Germany’s electric-vehicle sales slumped in July, extending a broad pullback since incentives ended late last year and undermining automakers’ plans in the EV shift.

Registrations of battery-powered cars fell 37% in Europe’s biggest auto market to 30,762 vehicles compared to a year ago, Germany’s federal motor transport authority KBA said Monday. It’s the biggest drop since December when the German government suddenly scrapped EV subsidies. Sales of vehicles without a plug gained 7%.

The broad EV slowdown across Europe wherever incentives are removed is leaving carmakers like Volkswagen AG wrong footed on production plans while the overall shift is stumbling. Well-off and eco-conscious buyers are more or less tapped out, and the industry’s lack of affordable battery models is cutting mass-market consumers out of the market.

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 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

How do you feel about the reliance on government incentives to encourage electric vehicle purchases?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

Should electric car affordability be a concern for manufacturers, or is it solely the responsibility of the consumer to adapt to market prices?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

What do you think is the major barrier stopping more people from buying electric cars, and how would you propose to address it?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

Considering the environmental impacts, do you believe it's ethical for governments to stop subsidizing electric vehicles, even if it leads to a decrease in sales?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

How important do you believe it is for electric vehicles to become the majority in the automotive market, and what steps would you suggest to achieve that goal?

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…3wks3W

Gallup Poll Bombshell: Over Half of Ukrainians Ready for Peace

More than half of Ukrainians want talks to end the war with Russia, according to the latest Gallup polls released on Tuesday, the war’s 1,000th day. The surveys, conducted in August and October, found that 52 percent of Ukrainians want their nation to negotiate an end to the war in Eastern Europe that has been raging for over two-and-half years. Almost four in 10 Ukrainians, 38 percent, want their military to keep fighting until it wins the war. Some 9 percent did not know or refused to share their opinion on the matter. The outlook of the Ukrainians is different from the period when the invasion began in February 2022. Just months after Russia’s invasion kicked off, around 73 percent of Ukrainians wanted to keep fighting. The support for continued fighting dropped among Ukrainians in 2023 when 63 percent wanted the conflict to continue while 27 percent preferred a negotiated peace, according to the survey. The poll comes as Ukraine fired U.S.-made long-range missiles inside Russia for the first time since the restriction was reportedly lifted by the Biden administration. On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. The support for continuing the war has dropped among Ukrainians across the country, dipping to below 50 percent throughout the nation this year, Gallup noted. The biggest declines were in regions that are far from the front lines. Over half of Ukrainians, 52 percent, agree that Kyiv should be open to making some territorial concessions as part of a cease-fire, according to the poll. Around 38 percent disagreed while another 10 percent did not know.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2 days2D

Israel Sinks Syria's Navy

Israel said Tuesday that it had destroyed Syria’s navy in overnight airstrikes, as it continued to pound targets in Syria despite warnings that its operations there could ignite new conflict and jeopardize the transition of power to an interim government.Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said that the Israeli military had “destroyed Syria’s navy overnight, and with great success.” His remarks appeared to confirm Israel’s responsibility for the destruction documented in the Syrian port city of Latakia, where photos showed the smoldering remains of ships sunk at their dock.Mr. Katz said that Israel’s military “has been operating in Syria in recent days to hit and destroy strategic capabilities that pose a threat to Israel,” although he did not indicate what new or immediate risk Syria’s navy presented to Israel, which has the most powerful military in the Middle East.Israeli warplanes have conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, according to war monitors. Israel has characterized its operations as defensive, saying its military was striking suspected chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria to prevent them from falling “into the hands of extremists.”“From here, I warn the rebel leaders in Syria: Those who follow Assad’s path will end like Assad,” Mr. Katz said.As the Assad government fell to the rebels over the weekend, Israeli ground forces advanced beyond the demilitarized zone on the Israel-Syria border, marking their first overt entry into Syrian territory in more than 50 years. An Israeli military spokesman on Tuesday denied reports that the military was advancing on Damascus. The spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said the military was inside a buffer zone between Israel and Syria and at other points “in order to protect the Israeli border.”Earlier Tuesday, Geir Pedersen, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, called on Israel to halt its “very troubling” military operations there, and said de-escalation was needed. “We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop,” Mr. Pedersen told reporters in Geneva.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…3 days3D

CEO Shooting Suspect Had Manifesto That Criticized Healthcare Companies

A man is being held for questioning in connection with last week’s killing of a health insurance executive in Midtown Manhattan, the police said.The man being questioned was identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, the police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said at a news briefing. He was identified in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., after an employee recognized him and called the authorities at about 9:15 a.m. on Monday.Mr. Mangione was carrying identification with his name on it, along with fake I.D., according to law enforcement officials.Mr. Mangione showed the police the same fake New Jersey identification that the man believed to be the gunman presented when he checked into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Nov. 24, a senior law enforcement official saidWhen Mr. Mangione was approached in Altoona, he had a gun, a silencer and other false identification cards similar to those they believe the killer used in New York, according to one of the law enforcement officials and a person briefed on the investigation. The gun was described as possibly being a so-called ghost gun, assembled from parts purchased online.Mr. Mangione was also carrying a handwritten manifesto that criticized health care companies for putting profits above care, according to two law enforcement officials.Mr. Mangione is in custody on local charges, the official said, possibly related to presenting the fake identification to the police. He has not been arrested or charged in connection with the killing.New York police investigators are traveling to Altoona, in western Pennsylvania, about 280 miles from the city, according to one of the law enforcement officials.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…23hrs23H

Border Bombshell: 8 Million New Arrivals Under Biden

The immigration surge of the past few years has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing the great immigration boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to a New York Times analysis of government data.Annual net migration — the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving — averaged 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Total net migration during the Biden administration is likely to exceed eight million people.That’s a faster pace of arrivals than during any other period on record, including the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, when millions of Europeans came to the United States. Even after taking into account today’s larger U.S. population, the recent surge is the most rapid since at least 1850.The numbers in the Times analysis include both legal and illegal immigration. About 60 percent of immigrants who have entered the country since 2021 have done so without legal authorization, according to a Goldman Sachs report based on government data.The combined increases of legal and illegal immigration have caused the share of the U.S. population born in another country to reach a new high, 15.2 percent in 2023, up from 13.6 percent in 2020. The previous high was 14.8 percent, in 1890.Several factors caused the surge, starting with President Biden’s welcoming immigration policy during his first three years in office. Offended by Donald J. Trump’s harsh policies — including the separation of families at the border — Mr. Biden and other Democrats promised a different approach. “We’re a nation that says, ‘If you want to flee, and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come,’” Mr. Biden said during his 2020 presidential campaign.After taking office, his administration loosened the rules on asylum and other immigration policies, making it easier for people to enter the United States. Some have received temporary legal status while their cases wend through backlogged immigration courts. Others have remained without legal permission.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…41mins41m

Elizabeth Warren Walks Back Murder Comments

Congressional Democrats broadly denounced the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Friday morning, after Republicans started accusing Sen. Elizabeth Warren of excusing violence.“No one's condoning this,” said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.). “Violence never is the right answer for anything. And it was a horrible murder, a tragic loss for his family.” Warren this week condemned the shooting, but added that people “can be pushed only so far.”"We'll say it over and over," Warren said on MSNBC’S “The ReidOut.” " Violence is never the answer. This guy [Luigi Mangione] gets a trial who's allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth, but you can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands."In a statement to POLITICO, Warren said, “Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.” Top Republicans denounced Warren's comments and the walked-back rhetoric, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) calling it “inappropriate and dangerous.”Some House Democrats asked about the incident on Thursday pivoted the conversation to discuss policy options on health care or gun safety.“I don't really know that this is really a space that Congress normally weighs in on,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). “But at the end of the day, I think it’s an opportunity, because now people are talking about health care and to talk about the fact that this industry has honestly not been as helpful as it could be.”“Violence is never the answer,” said Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.). “We know that there are people suffering, there’s great challenges in healthcare. There's great challenges, and people have, in fact, been wronged, but a process of governance is the way to address that, not violence.”And Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) who denounced the murder, said the killer should be prosecuted and that “I do know that allegedly a ghost gun was used, and we should also ban ghost guns. There's no reason for them beyond the streets.”

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