Many U.S. consumers are increasingly interested in lower-cost Chinese electric vehicles but steep tariffs and political resistance are keeping them out of the market. A recent survey from Cox Automotive found that 40% of respondents support allowing Chinese auto brands into the U.S. market. Reuters reports: While Chinese autos hit the highways of Europe, Latin America and even Canada, the U.S. government has effectively banned the cars with tariffs exceeding 100%, out of concerns over data security and protecting American jobs.
In places like Europe, a number of Chinese EVs sell at prices under $30,000. Some of those cars include amenities like advanced driving assistance software, a built-in mini fridge, and the option to sing karaoke with your fellow passengers. "The technology they offer for those lower price tags was astounding," said Clint Simone, senior features editor for car-shopping website Edmunds, who drove several Chinese vehicles while at the CES trade show earlier this year. [...]

Consumers have some concerns over allowing Chinese car imports, though, including over data security and protecting U.S. businesses, survey results from The Harris Poll as well as Cox show. Rhett Ricart, an Ohio car dealer who sells several brands, including Ford, Chevrolet and Hyundai, said he has no doubt customers would snap up Chinese models if they became available. He and other dealers don't want that to happen yet, according to a recent Cox Automotive survey, which found that just 15% of dealers supported the entry of Chinese auto brands into the U.S., and just 26% trust that they would comply with U.S. safety standards.

Not meeting U.S. safety standards is one reason Chinese EVs cannot yet be owned permanently in the U.S. But those obstacles haven't quieted the buzz. The Cox survey polled 802 U.S. consumers who expect to buy a car in the next two years. Nearly half -- 49% -- rated Chinese cars as having very good or excellent value, and 40% say they support the idea of Chinese auto brands in the U.S. market. Rich Benoit, a car enthusiast whose YouTube videos reviewing Chinese models garner millions of views, said the most compelling feature is the price. "That's what a lot of people are looking for: efficient, quiet and low cost," he said. "They want to 'get to work-- not everyone is a car enthusiast." He's considering buying a BYD model in Mexico and driving it across the border. "That's the only way to get one," Benoit said. "They've been selling in Mexico for years... "I want to own a Chinese EV in America."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone inside and outside his company to eventually have his or her own personal artificial-intelligence agent. He is starting with himself. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta Platforms, is building a CEO agent to help him do his job (source paywalled; alternative source), according to a person familiar with the project. The agent, which is still in development, is currently helping Zuckerberg get information faster -- for instance, by retrieving answers for him that he would typically have to go through layers of people to get, the person familiar with the project said.

[...] Use of AI tools has spread quickly through the ranks at Meta -- in part because it is now a factor in employees' performance reviews. Meta's internal message board is filled with posts from employees sharing new AI use cases they have found and new tools they have built using AI, according to people familiar with the matter. [...] Employees have started using personal agent tools such as My Claw that have access to their chat logs and work files and can go talk to colleagues -- or their colleagues' own personal agents -- on their behalf, the people said. Another AI tool called Second Brain that is somewhere between a chatbot and an agent is also gaining momentum internally, according to people familiar with the matter. Second Brain was built by a Meta employee on top of Claude and can index and query documents for projects, among other uses. On the internal post announcing it to staff, the employee said it is "meant to be like an AI chief of staff."

There is even a group on the internal messaging board where employees' personal agents talk to each other, some of the people said. (Separately, Meta acquired Moltbook, the social-media site for AI agents, and hired its founders in a deal earlier this month.) Meta also recently acquired Manus, a Singapore-based startup that makes personal agents that can execute tasks for its users, and is using the tool internally, some of the people said. Meta recently established a new applied AI engineering organization that is tasked with using AI to help speed up development of the company's large language models. Those teams will have an ultraflat structure of as many as 50 individual contributors reporting to one manager, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. [...] Employees across the company said they have been encouraged to attend AI tutorial meetings several times a week and frequent AI hackathons, and to create their own AI tools to speed up their work.

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Walmart found that purchases made directly inside ChatGPT converted at only one-third the rate of traditional website checkouts, leading it to abandon OpenAI's Instant Checkout in favor of routing users through its own platform. Search Engine Land reports: Starting in November, Walmart offered about 200,000 products through OpenAI's Instant Checkout. Users could complete purchases inside ChatGPT without visiting Walmart's site. Daniel Danker, Walmart's EVP of product and design, said those in-chat purchases converted at one-third the rate of click-out transactions. He called the experience "unsatisfying" and confirmed Walmart is moving away from it.

Instant Checkout was designed to let users complete purchases directly inside ChatGPT without visiting a retailer's website. However, earlier this month, OpenAI confirmed it was phasing out Instant Checkout in favor of app-based checkout handled by merchants. Walmart will embed its own chatbot, Sparky, inside ChatGPT. Users will log into Walmart, sync carts across platforms, and complete purchases within Walmart's system. A similar integration is coming to Google Gemini next month. In other Walmart-related news, the retailer announced plans to roll out "digital price tags" to all U.S. stores by the end of the year.

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Digital twins of leaders may be plausible as novelty acts, but not really welcome

Imagine that your boss is too busy to show up at that meeting you called so she sends a bot of herself instead. With a digital twin, even your company's CEO - the one who spends all his time on the corporate jet - could make an appearance at your powwow about the break room coffee machine. But would you want them there?…

In 2018 kocht de Oekraïense Amerikaan Radvinsky het Britse platform dat zich nooit expliciet als sekssite wilde profileren, maar gaandeweg steeds meer vereenzelvigd werd met het imago als etalage voor adult artiesten.

Het ministerie ontdekte het lek vorige week donderdag; maandag blokkeerde het de toegang tot systemen „voor een aantal primaire processen”. Om welke systemen het gaat, zegt het ministerie niet; wie er achter de inbraak zitten, is evenmin bekend.

De Italianen hebben de hervorming van de rechterlijke macht verworpen, in een referendum waarbij de nee-stem duidelijk zegeviert. „Meloni is haar magic touch kwijt”, reageerde oud-premier Renzi.

Van verpakkingen en textiel tot verf en medicijnen: de wereldeconomie is niet alleen gebouwd op olie als brandstof, maar ook als grondstof. Toch werken stijgende grondstofprijzen minder snel door in de productprijs. Vier producten op petroleumbasis uitgelicht.

• Squad will be based at five-star Inn at Meadowbrook

• ‘We chose a hotel where you can open the window’

Thomas Tuchel believes England can create a home from home in Kansas City this summer to push their dream of World Cup glory. The manager is on board with the Football Association’s choice of an intimate boutique hotel for the squad – with training facilities 20 minutes away – and says they hope to fly in and out of Kansas City for matches throughout their stay at the finals.

The FA has been attracted by how Kansas City, which straddles the states of Kansas and Missouri, is located in the centre of the United States, thereby mitigating travel distances to games. It is also happy with the accommodation and training base that has been secured.

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Solange Tremblay was ejected over 100 metres from the plane after collision at LaGuardia airport, her daughter says

• Two pilots killed after Air Canada jet collision at LaGuardia in New York

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A flight attendant on the Air Canada Jazz flight that collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport on Sunday survived in what her daughter called a “complete miracle”, when she was ejected more than 100 metres from the plane while still strapped to her seat.

The CRJ-900 jet, operated by Jazz Aviation, collided with a fire truck as it landed, killing both the pilot and co-pilot. Nine people were sent to the hospital with injuries, including Solange Tremblay, a flight attendant.

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Victories in Paris and Marseille suggest a united left can reclaim centre-ground voters. But the end of Macronism is leaving a complex political landscape

In 2002, divisions on the left allowed Jean-Marie Le Pen to shock France by reaching the run-off in that year’s presidential election. Lionel Jospin, the defeated Socialist candidate in the poll, would subsequently recall the humiliation to remind progressives of the need for unity in the face of the far-right threat. Mr Jospin’s death, announced on Monday, has overshadowed the weekend’s local election results. But as they are pored over for clues to a seismic presidential contest that Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, believes she can win next year, it is clear that alliances – or their absence – will shape that race too.

In Paris and Marseille, Socialist candidates won handsome mayoral victories at the head of a broad left grouping that included Greens and Communists, but not Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left France Unbowed party (LFI). Emmanuel Grégoire’s second-round victory in Paris was particularly impressive, given that it was achieved against both a united right opposition and the LFI candidate, who refused to stand down. Outside the biggest conurbations, however, progressive outcomes were less stellar. Traditional strongholds such as the city of Clermont Ferrand, where Socialists and Greens made local alliances with Mr Mélenchon’s party, were lost to a mildly resurgent centre-right.

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The US president claims progress in talks with Iran, but uncertainty persists. Meanwhile, Israel advances West Bank annexation under cover of a crisis

It must be tough for Donald Trump: starting a war with Iran, but finding it terribly inconvenient to finish it before collecting a shiny prize from Benjamin Netanyahu or sharing a stage with China’s Xi Jinping. In war, as in peace, timing is everything. With the global economy teetering on fears of an uncontrolled escalation in attacks on electricity, oil and gas installations in the Gulf, Mr Trump revealed that he was having such “productive” conversations with Tehran that there would be a five-day pause in US strikes on “Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure”. The trouble is that Mr Trump’s talks may not exist. Tehran denies having them.

If real, they would be a welcome de-escalatory step. They are also an admission that Mr Trump’s threat risked consequences more damaging than its intended target. But it also means that after markets close on Friday, Mr Trump could return to “bombing our little hearts out”. It is as unsurprising as it is grotesque that the US president would speak so lightly of potentially killing hundreds of civilians. Neither is Mr Trump likely to have been telling the truth in claiming “major points of agreement” in talks with Iran, including commitments on nuclear weapons and the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.

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Perrine gained notoriety for a naked TV role and was acclaimed for her roles opposite Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Jeff Bridges

Valerie Perrine, who was Oscar nominated for her performance in Bob Fosse’s 1974 Lenny Bruce biopic and played Lex Luthor’s girlfriend in the Richard Donner Superman films, has died aged 82.

Writing on Facebook, the film-maker Stacey Souther announced her death, saying: “It is with deep sadness that I share the heartbreaking news that Valerie has passed away.”

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Trump administration announces deal with TotalEnergies to redirect investment in wind to oil and gas instead

As a fuel crisis triggered by the war in Iran drives up global fossil fuel prices, the Trump administration has announced it will pay French energy major TotalEnergies $1bn to kill plans to construct wind farms off the US east coast.

The deal is the latest blow to the US offshore wind industry, which has faced repeated disruptions to multi-billion-dollar projects under Donald Trump.

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DEN HAAG (ANP) - Asielkinderen zullen alleen bij uitzondering worden opgesloten na de invoering van het migratiepact, verzekerde asielminister Bart van den Brink (CDA) maandag in het debat hierover. Hij reageerde daarmee op zorgen uit de linkse oppositie over het kabinetsplan om het mogelijk te maken asielzoekers met kinderen in bepaalde gevallen op te sluiten in een detentiecentrum in Zeist terwijl ze hun asielprocedure afwachten.

Dat kan na de invoering van het pact op 12 juni gebeuren bij asielgezinnen die via Schiphol zijn binnengekomen en op basis van hun herkomstland weinig kans maken op een verblijfsvergunning.

Normaal gesproken gaan gezinnen naar Ter Apel, zegde de minister toe. "Alleen als om zwaarwegende redenen anders moet worden besloten", moeten ze naar Zeist. Dat is het geval als er wordt getwijfeld of de ouders wel echt de ouders zijn, er sprake is van mensensmokkel of als er een gevaar is voor de openbare orde of veiligheid.

MIAMI (ANP) - Tennisser Daniil Medvedev is na zijn finaleplaats in Indian Wells al in de derde ronde uitgeschakeld op het masterstoernooi van Miami. Francisco Cerúndolo uit Argentinië versloeg de als negende geplaatste Rus in drie sets: 6-0 4-6 7-5.

Medvedev, die vorige week de titel op Indian Wells moest laten aan de Italiaan Jannik Sinner, verloor zijn eerste vier opslagbeurten en stond na minder dan een halfuur met 6-0 2-0 achter. De Rus kwam echter knap terug en won de tweede set met 6-4. In de derde set verloor Medvedev net als de Argentijn een keer zijn opslagbeurt, maar op het eerste matchpoint van Cerúndolo sloeg de Rus een dubbele fout.

Ook Félix Auger-Aliassime strandde in de derde ronde. De als zevende geplaatste Canadees verloor in drie sets van de Fransman Terence Atmane: 3-6 6-1 3-6.

LONDEN (ANP/AFP) - Het Britse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken heeft de Iraanse ambassadeur ontboden om vermeende spionage in Londen. Het Verenigd Koninkrijk spreekt van "roekeloze en ontwrichtende acties" van het Iraanse regime.

Vorige week werden twee Iraniërs, van wie er een ook de Britse nationaliteit had, in Londen aangeklaagd omdat ze voor de Iraanse inlichtingendienst zouden werken. Ze worden ervan beschuldigd de Joodse gemeenschap in de Britse hoofdstad te hebben bespioneerd. De twee zouden onder meer verkenningswerk hebben gedaan bij een synagoge, een mogelijk doelwit van een aanslag.

Het contact met de Iraanse inlichtingendienst zou afgelopen zomer hebben plaatsgevonden, dus ver voor het begin van de huidige oorlog tussen Iran, Israël en de Verenigde Staten. Het VK wil niet worden meegesleurd in die oorlog, maar de regering heeft wel toestemming gegeven aan de Amerikanen om Iraanse raketlanceerinstallaties aan te vallen vanaf Britse bases.

Russia has increasingly turned to universities as a fresh source of recruits as enlistment numbers dwindle and war casualties soar.