Once President-elect Trump takes office in January, his administration will quickly move to end the tax credit of up to $7,500 that made it cheaper for Americans to buy electric vehicles, according to several media reports.

To make electric cars less competitive with gas-powered cars (which is the Trump administration’s goal), the removal of the incentive “could derail the trajectory of EV sales in the United States,” the head of insights for Edmunds.com, Jessica Caldwell, wrote in a note last week. That trajectory was already on a downward trend due to the high prices of EVs and a lack of charging infrastructure nationwide.

An auto industry trade group, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, called on Congress prior to the election to keep the tax credits around since they are “critical to cementing the US as a global leader” in auto production.

But that trade group doesn’t represent Tesla, the biggest EV seller in the United States by a longshot.

And Tesla wants them to end

Take it from the CEO himself. Following the initial Reuters report that Trump would move to eliminate the credits, Musk posted on X, “In my view, we should end all government subsidies, including those for EVs, oil and gas.”

Why would that be?

Tesla has a dominant position over EV automakers in the US, and removing the credit would further entrench that lead by hammering the competition. In a July earnings call, Musk said the credit removal would be “devastating” for Tesla’s rivals but only hurt it “slightly.”

Tesla sells its EVs at a sizeable profit, while competitors like Ford and GM lose money on every EV they sell. Making EV production less economical would dent Tesla’s margins but could force its legacy automaker peers to stop churning out EV models entirely (even with the tax credit in place, Ford idled production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup through the end of the year).

Looking ahead…because the tax credits are included in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Trump can’t remove them without an act of Congress. But Republicans, who will control both chambers next year, can get it done without Democratic votes through a process known as reconciliation (which Democrats used to pass the IRA).—NF

Jake Paul handles Mike Tyson; Netflix can’t handle the demand. The YouTuber defeated the much older former heavyweight champion in an underwhelming fight on Friday that Netflix said was viewed in 60 million households. Fight promoter Most Valuable Promotions said gate receipts for the bout, which took place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, exceeded $18 million, a record for a boxing gate outside of Nevada. While Tyson and Paul went the distance, the same could not be said for Netflix. Downdetector received more than 500,000 reports of users having problems with the livestream; outages began at 8pm ET and lasted until 2am. That may be concerning for football fans looking forward to watching two NFL games on Netflix on Christmas Day without buffering issues.—DL

Trump nominates oil and gas champion for energy secretary. The president-elect chose Chris Wright, the CEO of oil-field services company Liberty Energy, to serve as the next energy secretary. Wright is one of the pioneers of the American fracking revolution and has been an outspoken booster of fossil fuels, at one point renting out billboards to attack North Face for deciding not to do an apparel partnership with an oil and gas company. In a video post to LinkedIn last year, Wright said, “There is no climate crisis and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.” As the head of the Energy Department, he would not only oversee the country’s energy policy, but also its nuclear arsenal.—NF

Biden authorizes Ukraine to use long-range missiles against Russia. Yesterday’s decision came hours after Russia launched a massive drone and missile strike against Ukraine, and not long after reports came down that North Korea could send as many as 100,000 troops to support Russia in the Kursk region. Russia’s biggest airstrike in three months focused on Ukraine’s power grid, threatening to leave the country without heat as winter approaches. Officials said the attacks killed at least seven people.—DL

Disney, the company that has previously acquired Marvel and Lucasfilm, is adding more heroes to its creative stable: ESPN and ABC will be the new home of TNT’s Inside the NBA beginning next year, per the Wall Street Journal.

The future of the beloved studio show with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley was in doubt, with TNT parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) losing its NBA broadcasting rights after this season. But thanks to a new agreement between WBD and ESPN—terms were not disclosed—conversations about Galveston can continue on Disney’s airwaves.

How we got here: Back in July, WBD airballed its bid to win an NBA broadcast rights package against ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. WBD alleged in a lawsuit that the NBA violated its current contract by awarding games to Amazon and failing to offer WBD a chance to match the winning bid. Both sides reached a settlement that includes international broadcast rights for WBD in Europe and Latin America, as well as the Inside the NBA licensing deal.

And now the bad news: The show won’t air regularly on ESPN and ABC like it does on TNT, per the Washington Post. Instead, it will only be broken out for big events throughout the season and the playoffs.—DL

It might take more than good grades and being three-time president of the anime club to get accepted into Harvard. A report from the Harvard Crimson discovered that one in 11 Harvard students has come from just 21 US high schools since 2009.

Twelve of the 21 schools are private; nine are public. Of those nine, four are selective magnet schools, four are located in highly affluent suburbs, and the other is Cambridge Rindge and Latin, which is a stone’s throw from Harvard Yard. A spokesperson for Harvard told the Crimson, “Harvard College admits students not high schools.”—DL

The G20 summit begins in Brazil: Top world leaders, including the US’ Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron, China’s Xi Jinping, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will meet in Rio de Janeiro for a two-day summit to try and form consensus around pressing geopolitical issues. The G20 is the first major gathering of leaders since the election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to enact policies that put “America first” over international cooperation. Speaking to Biden before the summit, Xi said he’s prepared to work with Trump to improve US–China relations.

Nvidia, Walmart highlight earnings week: Analysts are expecting Nvidia, the world’s largest publicly traded company, to show quarterly sales of ~$33 billion, up 10% from the previous quarter and 83% year over year, but they also warn the mind-blowing growth of the chipmaker could begin to slow. Reports this week from Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, and other retailers will offer a peek at consumer health.

Wicked and Gladiator II will battle it out at the box office: It’s not exactly Barbenheimer, but a pair of highly anticipated big-budget films will hit theaters on Friday. The Paul Mescal-led sequel to 2000’s Gladiator has a reported budget north of $300 million and is said to have no shortage of beautiful, wonderful historical inaccuracies. Meanwhile, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are taking the smash Broadway hit Wicked to the big screen in what is the first of a two-part film adaptation. It will also mark the end of a marketing campaign that’s been so over-the-top that few would mind if someone dropped a house on it.

Everything else…

• The 58th annual CMA Awards hosted by Luke Bryan, Peyton Manning, and Lainey Wilson are on Wednesday.
• The Washington Spirit will face Orlando Pride in the NWSL championship on Saturday.
• The Grey Cup between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts will take place on Sunday. It’s Winnipeg’s fifth straight appearance in the CFL title game.