Some of the biggest car companies in the world are hitting Ctrl-Z on their electric vehicle ambitions as consumer demand lags behind what the industry expected.

Ford announced yesterday that it’s postponing $12 billion in spending on EV manufacturing expansions, including a new battery plant—the second one the company has paused construction on in a little more than a month.

Why? EVs are piling up at dealerships because many people aren’t willing to pay the higher average sticker price, especially now that interest rates have made car loans more expensive. EV sales were up 51% in the first nine months of this year vs. 69% over the same period in 2022, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hazard lights are on

Automakers reading the room—and battery-makers’ warnings—are hitting snooze on their EV initiatives:

• Ford and General Motors abandoned their short-term goals for EV production quantity. Both are in the midst of conceding wage increases to striking auto workers.
• GM also postponed opening its second electric truck plant and mutually canceled a joint venture with Honda that aimed to get millions of under-$30,000 EVs onto the global market.
• Elon Musk is considering delaying the construction of a Tesla “Gigafactory” in Mexico. Hertz, which sources most of its rentable EVs from Tesla, is also slowing the electrification of its fleet.

Fellas, is it woke to own an EV?

Electric vehicles have also become, as Ford CEO Jim Farley recently put it, a “political football.”

Among Americans, only two Republicans own EVs for every five EV-owning Dems, according to research company Strategic Vision. And President Biden’s support for EVs has made them a target for his 2024 presidential opponents. Vivek Ramaswamy said EV buyers have “a psychological insecurity,” while Donald Trump and Mike Pence have both amplified fears that a transition to electric would destroy jobs.

But…this could change as red states build more EV and battery plants. Ford is still planning to open a $5.6 billion EV and battery manufacturing “campus” in Tennessee in 2025.—ML

Israel enters new phase of war against Hamas. Israel’s military ramped up its ground operations and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip last night, knocking out most internet and phone services for the 2.3 million people living in the territory. As a result of the near-blackout, some humanitarian aid groups said they were unable to reach their workers in Gaza, and several media outlets warned they had lost contact with their journalists on the ground. Israel says it is targeting Hamas’s extensive network of tunnels that run under Gaza and on Saturday killed one of the planners behind the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on residents of southern Israel.

The jury heard from SBF. Yesterday, Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand for a second day in his criminal fraud trial, and, unlike the day before, the jury was allowed to listen—but only after the judge ruled in the morning that SBF couldn’t say most of what he wanted to about relying on lawyers’ advice as CEO of FTX. But he did manage to say he did not defraud anyone while acknowledging he made “a number of small mistakes and a number of big mistakes” and “a lot of people got hurt.” He also noted that he bought the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s stadium for FTX because “I didn’t want to be known as the Kansas City Royals of crypto exchanges.”

UAW gets closer to deals with GM, Stellantis. The two automakers have reportedly offered 25% wage hikes over four years to match the tentative agreement the union struck with Ford earlier in the week. Though the two sides continued meeting to hash out details, a deal to end the six-week strike is said to be close between the union and GM. For now, ~28,000 workers from GM and Stellantis are still on strike, and any tentative agreements reached must be approved first by the union’s leaders and then by a majority of its members.

Set up a 401(k), buy a starter home, hope to retire by 65—we’ve heard it all before. But is that traditional financial advice still valid? And should it be?

The Money with Katie Show is a weekly podcast unpacking the biggest questions around millennial money, from the myth of the starter home to the impacts of self-care culture and the beauty industry. See why this illuminating podcast has 5m+ downloads—tune in now.

The mass shooter who killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston, Maine, this week was found dead yesterday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But even as authorities hunted for the suspect, Robert Card, a local firearms instructor with a history of severe mental illness, some began to question whether stricter gun laws could have prevented the carnage.

Maine allows citizens to carry concealed weapons in public without a permit, and almost half of its adult residents live in a gun-owning household, according to the Rand Corporation, but…

• Per the so-called “yellow flag” law Maine passed in 2019, a judge can temporarily take someone’s guns away if police deem that person a threat, though only after they are taken into protective custody by police and evaluated by a medical professional.
• In 2019, the majority of Maine’s lawmakers opposed a stricter “red flag” law, like the ones enacted in 21 states and Washington, DC, which don’t require a medical evaluation before firearms can be seized.

Critics argue the Lewiston tragedy shows that the yellow flag law isn’t enough since a forced detention requirement makes it difficult to use. They also cite the efficacy of red flag measures in other states. However, others question why Card didn’t lose his weapons under existing rules, given that the Army reservist recently spent two weeks in a psychiatric facility after threatening colleagues.

Meanwhile…Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, apologized to his constituents in Lewiston for previously opposing a nationwide ban on assault weapons like the one used in the shooting.—SK

There are few times in this life you’ll hear someone earnestly complain about hearing Céline Dion. But some residents in the New Zealand town of Porirua are desperate for their local government to do something about the “siren battles” that have blared her music through the streets for the last year.

Siren battles are part of an emerging subculture in New Zealand where people wire sirens and loudspeakers onto their cars or bikes and then compete to blast the clearest music. Dion’s songs, which have high treble and little to no bass, are popular choices because they can be turned up without getting garbled. (Reggae is also a fave.)

But residents say the battles, which used to end by 10pm, have started lasting through the night. Porirua’s city council received 106 complaints related to siren battles from October 2022 to March 2023.

Tonight might be louder: Some credit the start of nightly stentorian car concerts to fans who blasted jams during last year’s Rugby League World Cup. And today, New Zealand plays South Africa in this year’s World Cup final to determine the first-ever four-time Rugby World Cup winner. So, prepare for some high notes.—MM

Stat: The old Taylor may not be able to come to the phone right now ’cause she’s dead, but revisiting her past eras has officially made Taylor Swift a billionaire. According to Bloomberg, the success of the Eras Tour (estimated to have added $4.3 billion to the US GDP) helped propel Swift into the rare group of musicians to achieve a net worth above $1 billion almost exclusively from their music. As Bloomberg tells it, Swift has raked in $400 million from music released since 2019, $370 million from concerts and events, $120 million from song streams on Spotify and YouTube, $80 million from royalties—plus $110 million from property ownership. Yesterday’s release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) probably won’t hurt either.

Quote: “Millennials are really feeling the impact of the hiking cycle. Boomers, not so much.”

We do not give financial advice, but the folks at Bank of America do…and they say to snap up stocks that cater to boomers while avoiding ones aimed at millennials. The bank’s number crunchers believe that because high interest rates have enlarged the older set’s savings accounts while squeezing millennials, it makes sense to focus on the likes of cruise lines and American Express while avoiding clothing companies (especially e-commerce ones like Revolve). But, because the younger generations stand to inherit, the head of one financial advisory firm told Bloomberg this strategy was like “skating to where the puck is and not where it’s going.”

Read: Thai Restaurant Near Me: Does gaming Google work? (The Verge)

Watch: How a store in NYC that sells human bones stays in business (and keeps it legal).

Empathize: NASA’s latest picture of Jupiter makes it look like a pretty lonely planet.

Go back in time: Internet Artifacts preserves relics of the web’s weird early days.

Reflect: Music critics weigh in on the state of music criticism.

Add to wish list: Gift yourself next-level listening this season with Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. Experience your fave music like never before with immersive audio and world-class noise cancellation. Turn it up.*

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