(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is looking to get back on Facebook.
Attorneys for Trump, who was banned from Facebook after the Jan. 6 insurrection, have written to executives of Meta requesting a meeting to discuss “prompt reinstatement to the platform,” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by ABC News.
The letter, which is addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and two other executives, claims the ban on Trump’s account “has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” and represents “a deliberate effort by a private company to silence Mr. Trump’s political voice.”
“Moreover, every day that President Trump’s political voice remains silenced furthers an inappropriate interference in the American political and election process,” the letter states.
The letter does not address the reason Trump was kicked off the platform in the first place — it does, however, note that Trump was allowed back on Twitter. Twitter CEO Elon Musk lifted Trump’s ban on the platform in November after putting the decision up to a poll.
He has not used the account despite being unbanned, and has said he plans to stick with TRUTH Social, the platform he founded after being banned from most social media sites.
Trump was removed from Facebook in January 2021, in the wake of the insurrection, over concerns his posts were inciting violence.
The company later said the removal was set to last for two years, at which point it would come under reassessment.
“We therefore write to request a meeting to discuss President Trump’s prompt reinstatement to the platform,” the letter says.
However, even as Trump announced his run for president in 2024, Facebook said in November it did not plan to reinstate him.
(NEW YORK) — Even as U.S. households begin to enjoy relief from inflation woes, a spike in heating bills could crunch budgets this winter due to a rise in natural gas prices.
Nearly half of the nation’s households rely on natural gas for warmth. The price of the fuel surged last year following a jump in demand after extreme weather forced consumers to run heat and air conditioning more than usual, analysts told ABC News.
Exacerbating the greater need for natural gas, the U.S. suffered a dearth of supply as gas exports soared, analysts told ABC News.
Last year, the average price of natural gas reached its highest point since 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, a federal agency that tracks gas data.
The price was expected to climb even further this winter, increasing nearly 30% above where it stood a year prior, according to an EIA projection released in October.
“The prices people are paying for their heating bills right now are up enormously,” Eli Rubin, an analyst with EBW Analytics Group, told ABC News.
The sky-high prices are primarily due to a jump in U.S. gas exports in response to heightened demand from European countries that previously relied on natural gas from Russia, analysts told ABC News.
After Russia invaded Ukraine last February, those nations sought alternative sources of natural gas, including the U.S, they added.
“There was a huge shortage in Europe,” Rubin said.
In turn, the U.S. sent more natural gas for sale on the international market, leaving less available for U.S. consumption. When domestic demand outpaced supply, it sent prices soaring.
“There was a supply crunch,” Clark Williams-Derry, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told ABC News. “Essentially, we were exporting more and more natural gas and importing high prices as a result.”
As U.S. supply faltered, a bout of extreme weather increased the need for indoor air conditioning and heat, causing a jump in demand, analysts said.
Winter storm Uri, for instance, battered Texas with snow and sleet last February, besetting the Southwest with unusually frigid weather. The summer months, meanwhile, brought a string of dangerous heat waves across the U.S.
“We had a cold winter that flipped into a record-hot summer,” said Rubin, of EBW Analytics Group. “We used natural gas to fuel power generation to run everybody’s heat and air conditioners.”
That upward pressure on prices endured through the end of last year. The average price of wholesale gas rose 47% in December compared with the same month a year prior, said Williams-Derry, of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The price of wholesale gas has fallen over the last couple of weeks, however, as a warm spell assuaged fears of a persistent gas shortage, Rubin said.
Still, the recent decline in prices likely won’t offer relief for consumers this winter, since there’s typically a lag between a change in the wholesale price and the amount paid by the end consumer in his or her heating bill, he added.
Looking ahead, however, the outlook for U.S. prices appears bright, since the country is unlikely to experience the massive increase in gas exports that it endured last year, analysts said.
Over the course of this year, the price of natural gas is expected to moderate, offering relief for heat bills by the time next winter arrives, they added.
That rosy prediction requires caveats, of course, Williams-Derry said. A period of erratic weather or another supply crisis akin to the Russia-Ukraine war could send prices rising again, he added.
“All sorts of things can make the price do funny things, but all else being equal, we can expect an easing of last year’s record prices,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — A customer-service center uses artificial intelligence to identify a caller’s agitation, an insurance company scans voice data to flag illness and raise rates, a five-star restaurant denies a reservation over personal details revealed by the tone on the other end of the line.
Far from science fiction, such scenarios have leapt into the realm of possibility, said Joseph Turow, a professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and author of The Voice Catchers: How Marketers Listen In to Exploit Your Emotions, Your Privacy and Your Wallet.
The rise of voice-assisted products in homes and workplaces has driven a wave of private sector innovation, honing the intake of fast food drive-thru orders, replacing handheld tech typically used by warehouse employees, and refining smart home devices that adapt to a user’s vocal tics, according to privacy experts and advocates who spoke with ABC News.
But voice data collection also fuels targeted marketing based on personal information gleaned from recordings and risks data breaches that could place one’s voice in the hands of cyber criminals aiming to imitate it, they added.
“This has become a real issue as more and more people are using voice-activated devices like Alexa and Siri,” Marc Rotenberg, founder and executive director for the nonprofit Center for AI and Digital Policy, told ABC News. “There’s a ticking time bomb with the collection of voice recordings.”
“These companies gather voice recordings to improve a service,” Rotenberg added. “But their retention of these voice recordings is a real concern for privacy.”
While voice assistants recently arrived in consumers’ pockets and living rooms, the technology goes back more than a half-century.
In the early 1960s, IBM released the Shoebox, a calculator that could do basic arithmetic in response to voice commands. Roughly a decade later, the “Harpy” speech recognition system launched by Carnegie Mellon could identify more than 1,000 words in a user’s voice.
Ultimately, the technology reached an inflection point more than a decade ago, when Apple released Siri as a feature of the iPhone, equipping tens of millions with voice command. Three years later, Amazon came out with Alexa, a voice assistant that could play songs or look up facts in response to a simple utterance. Soon after, Google launched Google Assistant, a voice-recognition feature available on its Android and Google Home devices.
Meanwhile, the technology has grown well beyond a consumer curiosity, as businesses have sought it out to improve operations and marketers have explored secondary uses of voice data. In all, the worldwide voice recognition market surpassed $3.5 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $10 billion by 2028, according to research firm Global Market Insights.
In many cases, businesses deploy voice data because it bolsters productivity or betters the service encountered by a customer, Kristin Bryan, an attorney at Squire Patton Boggs who has worked on litigation involving the collection of voice data, told ABC News.
“Companies are increasingly finding novel ways to use voice technology to reduce human error and streamline operations,” she said.
For instance, a growing number of warehouses in the nation’s vast e-commerce network have replaced handheld tablets with wearable technology that allows employees to record their work through voice commands, freeing up both hands for lifting and sorting products, said Roberto Michel, a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling, a trade publication covering the manufacturing industry.
A survey conducted by the trade outlet last year found that 39% of warehouse companies use voice-assisted technology, an increase from 21% of such businesses who reported adoption of the devices a year prior, Michel said.
The technology “speeds up the order-selection process versus fumbling with a handheld,” Michel said.
However, even ostensibly innocuous uses of voice-assisted technology can trigger privacy concerns, said Turow, of the University of Pennsylvania.
Last week, Amazon-owned grocery chain Whole Foods agreed to pay almost $300,000 to workers in a settlement over allegations that a voice-assisted product used to track worker productivity at a Chicago warehouse had recorded employees’ voices without their consent.
Critics fear that voice-assisted products glean more revealing data than many users realize, allowing companies to profit off of utterances made at home or work through carefully honed advertising or the sale of intimate information.
A consumer’s voice could be used to reveal a wealth of knowledge about him or her, including height, weight, ethnicity, personality traits and possible health issues, said Turow, who spoke to scientists about audio sleuthing for his book on the collection of voice data.
In 2019, Amazon announced the development of “a deep learning model to detect when customers are frustrated” with its voice assistant.
“Alexa can now try to adjust, just like you or I would do,” the company said.
“With Frustration Detection, Alexa will recognize positive, negative, and neutral tone for a request. Alexa is not designed to detect distinct emotions like happiness, sadness, anger or surprise,” Amazon Spokesperson Lauren Raemhild told ABC News.
“Customers have several options to manage their Alexa voice recordings, including the option not to save their recordings at all,” she added.
Last June, TikTok updated its privacy policy, expanding data collected by the company to include voice recordings.
Companies that collect voice data could use information to sell products directly to consumers, or pass the data along to advertisers, Turow said.
“As we move into a world where people use voice over typing in their everyday lives, marketers want to know: What can I get out of the voice of this person?” he said.
Rotenberg, of the Center for AI and Digital Policy, warned that the collection of audio data could also result in nefarious actors accessing one’s voice, allowing them to commit fraud or other crimes through impersonation.
A thief deploying the tactic, known as deepfake audio, tricked a Hong Kong-based bank into sending $35 million to a criminal the bank thought was a corporate attorney, Forbes reported last October.
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Lauren Raemhild said the company takes extensive measures to ensure the security of its data.
“Amazon has hundreds of employees dedicated to designing secure products, innovating on security, and finding and fixing vulnerabilities in Amazon services and devices,” Raemhild said. “We employ numerous tactics and features that help keep our devices and customer data secure, for example, rigorous security reviews during development, encryption to protect data, and regular software security updates.”
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment about potential theft and abuse of voice data.
Despite the growing use of voice-assisted technology, laws protecting audio data collection remain limited, according to attorneys and advocates who spoke with ABC News.
The U.S. lacks a federal law governing such data, leaving regulation primarily at the state level. So far, four states have enacted laws pertaining to the collection of voice data: California, Texas, Washington and Illinois, said Bryan, of Squire Patton Boggs.
The strongest law, in Illinois, requires that companies obtain written consent from individuals before collecting such data, and afterward firms are prohibited from selling or profiting off of the information. Companies that violate the law face potential financial penalties.
The effort to limit voice data collection requires urgency, before voice-assisted products become more widely adopted, Turow said.
“Once this has congealed, we can’t do much about it,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — As the Department of Transportation increases its call on airlines to promptly refund passengers, Delta Air Lines is telling some people on social media that it could be months before they see their money returned.
Still, the company insisted to ABC News that it was working “in a timely fashion.”
DOT requires airlines to refund passengers within seven business days if the customer paid by credit card — or within 20 days if they paid with cash or check. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently warned Southwest Airlines, after its holiday season meltdown, that his agency “will use the full extent of its investigation and enforcement authority to ensure Southwest complies with its refund obligations.”
On Sunday, Delta tweeted that it was “months behind” on processing some refunds for canceled flights.
In one response to a user who asked for an update on the status of what they said was a refund request of more than $13,000, a Delta representative tweeted back: “Due to the backlog/ high volume of refunds, the Refund Department is a couple months behind on processing.”
The carrier also tweeted in July and in November that refunds were backlogged, asking customers to allow more than a month for a response.
But Delta this week denied the existence of a backlog in refund requests. In a statement to ABC, the airline said, “As always, we will provide refunds to eligible requesting customers who elect not to travel as the result of a significant delay or cancellation and seek to do so in a timely fashion.”
Although the tweets were sent from the Delta Twitter account and remain posted, it’s unclear if there are delays in customers receiving refunds.
Last year, DOT levied more than $7.25 million in fines against six airlines, including U.S. carrier Frontier, for not providing prompt refunds.
The department has said it would hold all airlines accountable “if there is evidence that they are failing to meet their refund or reimbursement obligations.”
(NEW YORK) — Seventy years and eight generations later, the fabled, mesomorphic Corvette will join the world of electrification with the “E-Ray,” a hybrid sports car that bolts from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds, making it the quickest production Corvette in history.
Chevrolet unveiled the new model on Tuesday, 70 years to the day when the Corvette made its world debut on Jan. 17, 1953, at the Waldorf Astoria in midtown Manhattan, New York.
The $104,295 E-Ray, available as a coupe or hardtop convertible, goes into production later this year at the Bowling Green Assembly facility in Kentucky. The car’s naturally aspirated 6.2L LT2 small block V8 engine is paired with an electric motor that produces a combined 655 horsepower and 595 lb-ft of torque. A 1.9 kWh battery pack is located between the seats.
The advanced electrified propulsion and eAWD system — another first for Corvette — deliver intense straight-line performance: the E-Ray posts a quarter-mile sprint of 10.5 seconds.
“You get awesome, breathtaking acceleration and exhilarating performance even in the snow and ice,” Cody Bulkley, vehicle performance integration engineer on the E-Ray, told ABC News. “By adding the all-wheel drive system into the vehicle, it takes the already powerful mid-engine platform to a whole new level, really elevating the vehicle dynamics and what the car can do.”
Corvette’s European competitors are already courting performance die-hards with a growing number of hybrid supercars. The V6 powertrain in the McLaren Artura produces 671 hp and 531 lb-ft of torque and propels the car to 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds. The Ferrari 296GTB, built with a turbocharged V6 and electric motor, delivers 819 hp. Would Chevrolet swap that mighty V8 for a smaller V6?
“We’re Corvette and we don’t believe in making smaller engines,” Bulkley said. “What makes this car special is that throaty, muscular, LT2 small block engine that’s roaring behind you.”
Corvette product marketing manager Harlan Charles said the E-Ray will not dampen demand for the Stingray model currently on sale. In fact, the E-Ray will likely attract drivers who are in search of a grand tourer-like experience, similar to what Porsche offers in its 911.
“This is a little bit more of a luxury GT version of the Corvette. People still want the performance. You want the Corvette experience, but it’s very comfortable and refined and sophisticated,” Charles told ABC News. “It could be a year-round sports car. More sports car enthusiasts really want to drive their car every day.”
Chevrolet introduced the 670 hp Z06 Corvette ($106,695) in October. A brand spokesperson said production cannot keep up with the record number of orders for the savage, track-focused sports car. Last year 34,510 Corvettes were sold, up 4.4% from 2021.
“These things are flying off the shelf and going above MSRP,” Ivan Drury, senior manager of insights at Edmunds, told ABC News. “Chevrolet knows the demand is there.”
Purists may “cry foul” with Chevrolet’s decision to include AWD, which adds weight to the car, Drury said. Losing the revered V8 engine would have mattered more to loyal customers, he noted.
“There’s something about that V8 rumble … it’s the heart of the vehicle,” he said. “Deviating from that can cause some real backlash.”
Ed Kim, president of automotive research and consulting firm AutoPacific, agreed.
“Corvettes are loud and noisy … they’ve always been about the visceral experience,” he told ABC News. “Performance EVs lack all of that drama.”
Kim credited the measured electrification approach General Motors is taking with the Corvette even as the company aggressively pursues electric vehicles. The Detroit automaker has pledged to offer 30 fully electric vehicles globally by the middle of the decade. At least 40% of GM’s U.S. models will be battery powered by the end of 2025, according to the company.
“We know the future is ultimately electric and the E-Ray is a reasonable way to introduce Corvette to electrification,” said Kim. “The bulk of the power still goes to rear wheels but all-wheel drive adds more stability to the front. Increased acceleration and superior handling cement the idea that electrification is good for performance.”
There are six driving modes — tour, sport, track, weather, my mode and Z-mode — as well as “stealth” and shuttle” modes that allow the E-Ray to function 100% as an electric vehicle. In stealth mode, the E-Ray can travel silently for several miles at speeds up to 45 mph before the V8 engine fires up.
“Stealth mode is a pretty neat feature for the Corvette customer. It’s something we’ve been asked about for a long time,” said Bulkley.
Shuttle mode works at speeds under 15 mph and is not intended for public roads, he added.
“So you can just put the E-Ray in shuttle mode to back up, move the car around. Or if you’re going through a garage, it just gives you a nice way to use the electric systems,” Bulkley said.
The E-Ray’s 1.9 kWh battery is charged through regenerative braking and coasting as well as normal driving. Selecting the Charge+ feature also maximizes the battery’s state of charge. The E-Ray is 3.6 inches wider than the Stingray and its “frunk” space is not impacted by the electric motor, which is located over the front axle.
Kim expects the E-Ray will win over Corvette purists who may be more reluctant to accept electrification.
“Because of the level of performance this thing offers — and it’s the first electrified Corvette — this will be one of those cars that sells at crazy markups and have long waitlists,” he said.
Harlan would not say when a fully electric Corvette would be built: “Someday in the future, perhaps.”
E-Ray customers can choose among 14 exterior colors including new hues like “Riptide Blue,” “Cacti” and “Pearl Nickel.” The twisted five-spoke star design on the lightweight alloy wheels is exclusive to the car. Customers have even more interior color, trim and seat choices in the E-Ray.
The car’s torque and thrust from the electric motor and eAWD system were immediate and bracing even on a short jaunt around Manhattan’s packed streets. Bulkley gleefully listed off the car’s capabilities as this reporter buckled up in preparation.
“It’s a thrill to drive,” Bulkley said as he mashed the accelerator.
We returned and the red E-Ray, unbadged before its official debut, sat patiently on West 24th Street. Few, if any New Yorkers, realized they were looking at the future of Corvette.
(NEW YORK) — Electricity bills are a fact of life for many Americans, but with energy prices expected to rise in many parts of the country, you may be looking for a way to keep those costs in check.
The average American household spent $121 per month, or $1,452 per year, on energy bills in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration.
While some projections expect rising energy rates this winter, as prices for fuels like natural gas increase, there are ways to offset those increases by making your home more energy efficient.
So what can you do? Here are three tips to help keep your bills down:
Tip #1: Schedule a home energy audit
One of the best ways to start figuring out how to save on your energy bills is to bring in an expert to check out your home.
Local utility companies, private firms, and even some government agencies offer this service, called an energy audit or energy assessment. In the audit, an expert will look for opportunities to reduce energy use in your home, ranging from replacing old lightbulbs with more efficient LED options, testing for air leaks in your doors and windows that allow heat to escape or cold air in, or recommending which appliances to replace with newer, more efficient alternatives.
In some cases, the energy auditor could install some of those swaps with no additional cost at the time of the audit.
The Department of Energy has information on how to find a certified energy assessment in your area, or you can check with your local utility company.
Tip #2: Reduce your energy use
Reducing your home’s energy footprint may seem intimidating but there are simple steps that can help limit wasted energy in your home. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program says homeowners could save up to $400 a year by taking steps to be more energy efficient, although the amount will vary depending on the size and energy use of the home.
Many of the options involve taking steps to ensure your household isn’t powering electronics when they aren’t needed or allowing cold air to leak into the home, making it harder to keep it warm.
Installing a smart or programmable thermostat is one way to help save 10% on your energy bills by allowing you to automatically turn down the temperature at night or when no one is home, according to the Energy Department.
Replacing traditional light bulbs with LED bulbs can also save the average homeowner $225 a year, the department says.
Other examples include sealing gaps around windows and doors and using smart power strips to prevent electronics like printers or video game systems from using electricity when they’re turned off.
If you’re in the market for appliances like a new dishwasher, refrigerator, or even a water heater or furnace, appliances with the Energy Star label are certified to use less energy and be more efficient in the long run.
If you’re looking to make bigger changes to your home like buying new appliances, replacing windows, or even installing solar panels, the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last August, includes updated tax credits and rebates this year to help with some of those costs. In some cases, upgrading to newer, more efficient appliances or systems to keep your home warm can cut back on your energy use and ultimately, your bills.
A heat pump, for example, is an electric system that can replace both an air conditioner and heater and is considered three to five times more efficient than a traditional furnace fueled by natural gas, according to the nonprofit Rewiring America. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, consumers who install a heat pump will be eligible to claim a tax credit for up to 30% of the cost, up to $2,000.
In addition to the heat pump tax credit, the legislation also expanded tax credits that cover up to 30% of the cost of installing solar panels, and installing new energy efficient doors, windows, or insulation.
The Inflation Reduction Act’s programs will provide up-front rebates worth hundreds of dollars to help low- and middle-income Americans. The programs will be run by each state and are expected to launch later this year.
(NEW YORK) — Artificial intelligence isn’t just making inroads in technology. Soon, AI may replace human beings in jobs as evidenced by one company that has created two AI interns.
Kyle Monson, co-founder of the digital marketing company Codeword, appeared on ABC News’ daily podcast “Start Here” to talk about the creation of AI interns Aiden and Aiko, who will be assisting in editorial and engineering. Their creation comes amid the sensation of the artificial intelligence-driven program ChatGPT, which has gone viral for responding to user prompts, utilizing Shakespeare and poetry in their efforts to recreate human interaction.
Monson spoke about the implications of these digital hires that mirror humans and if there is a potential to erase human intelligence.
START HERE: If you’ve ever been an intern, you know there’s a lot of thankless work involved. But perhaps no intern has ever been asked to do as much as these ones. Is it true that your interns don’t get to take any time off?
Kyle Monson: That’s a great question. Yeah, they’re there when we need them. They are hustling and grinding all the time.
START HERE: That’s Kyle Monson from this digital marketing company called Codeword and this taskmaster has two subordinates that only exist digitally.
Monson: We figured why not bring on some non-human resources to go along with our human resources? Yeah, we brought on two. We’re calling them AI interns. Their names are Aiden and Aiko.
START HERE: So maybe in recent days you’ve heard of this thing called ChatGPT. It’s basically this piece of software that can teach itself to understand human questions, scour the internet for relevant info, and deliver an intelligible answer. It’s like Siri, but if Siri could write a five-paragraph essay on command. Well, this company has decided to use this type of technology to create two artificial intelligence interns.
Their first assignment was naming themselves; they came up with Aiden and Aiko. Both start with the letters A-I, get it? One will be a writer for the editorial team, one will work in engineering. What would they do?
Monson: What do any interns do? I don’t know. We’re going to figure that out. There’s actually quite a lot. There’s a lot of support that Aiko can do for writers and editors, for instance, especially in the marketing context, tone analysis, for instance, research on the industry, and news roundups.
START HERE: What was fascinating, how many times Kyle said they’re treating them like any intern because the most common thing among interns is that they’re inexperienced, unproven. As a result, Aiden and Aiko will not be blindly given big assignments. Their work won’t be seen directly by clients, since they can make embarrassing mistakes. While computer systems have taken care of data entry for a long time, part of the assignment here for Codeword is to figure out whether these systems can help a creative field.
Are you worried that Aiko might plagiarize things? Or Aiden? When you ask them about stuff, are they going to get you in trouble?
Monson: That’s a really good question, as well. We’re not going to put them to work doing public facing assignments.
START HERE: The obvious question here is whether the “hiring” of these interns came at the expense of young, hungry, human tech workers just out of college. Are entry-level jobs going to become irrelevant? I decided to ask the interns about this directly. They haven’t been given voices yet – although creepily, they do have computer-generated faces – so Kyle volunteered to read Aiden’s response to my question.
Monson: Here’s how Aiden responded: “Artificial intelligence is already being used in marketing and other areas of the information economy, and it has the potential to significantly improve efficiency and effectiveness. However, it is unlikely that AI will completely replace human intelligence in these areas.”
START HERE: And yet even that didn’t reassure me. This is like an essay. How long did it take Aiden to write this?
Monson: Like 0.6 seconds.
START HERE: One of the big challenges for teachers, just in recent weeks, is knowing whether their students’ essays were written by humans or by ChatbotGPT.
Kyle says he usually skims cover letters from college kids, but if job applicants are now asking AI to do their work for them, it’ll be tough to hold that against. After all, candidates and management now have the same intern.
(NEW YORK) — Electric vehicle company Tesla slashed the price of its cars across global markets as much as 20%, the automaker announced on Thursday night.
The move aims to bolster demand as Tesla faces falling sales amid recession fears and heightened competition, some analysts and investors said.
The U.S. price cuts on top-selling cars – such as the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover – came in between 6% and 20%, according to an analysis from Reuters. The basic Model Y now costs $52,990, a sharp decline from $65,990, Reuters found.
The price cuts add to the savings that U.S. customers will receive from a $7,500 federal tax credit that took hold for many electric vehicles at the outset of the year.
CEO Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in late October, has drawn scrutiny over his apparent focus on the social media platform.
“It’s no secret that demand for Tesla is starting to see some cracks in this global slowdown for 2023,” Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull and managing director of equity research at Wedbush, said in a research note on Friday.
“We believe this was the right strategic poker move by Musk & Co. at the right time,” he added.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A disappointing sales report released last week showed that Tesla fell short of Wall Street expectations for car deliveries over the final three months of 2022.
Shares of Tesla have fallen more than 45% since Musk took over Twitter less than three months ago. Tesla’s stock fell more than 2% in early trading on Friday in response to the price cut.
Despite the immediate negative reaction in trading, Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, a prominent Tesla investor, praised the company’s move.
“I expect Tesla will sell out of inventory and have a long order book with the price cuts AND government credit now for the Model Y,” he said in a tweet. “I think this is the right move.”
Previously, Musk has attributed the falling stock price to rising interest rates, which typically benefit savers who stand to gain from an uptick in the interest yielded by accounts held at banks.
Musk has defended his actions at Twitter as part of an aggressive effort to rescue the company from financial peril, which he described in a Twitter Spaces interview last month as an “emergency fire drill.”
“That’s the reason for my actions,” he added. “They may seem sometimes spurious or odd or whatever.”
Musk said in December that he will resign as head of Twitter when the company identifies a successor.
The price cuts mark the second such announcement by Tesla. The company said in December that it would offer $7,500 discounts on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered in the U.S. that month.
Tesla remains the top seller of EVs in the U.S., but its lead has slipped in recent months as competitors offer a host of affordable alternatives, a S&P Global Mobility report showed in November.
The company held a 65% market share of newly registered electric vehicles in the U.S. through the third quarter 2022, a drop from 71% in 2021 and 79% in 2020, the report found.
Ives, of Wedbush, said the price cut announced on Thursday could increase global sales this year by as much as 15%.
“This is a clear shot across the bow at European automakers and U.S. stalwarts (GM and Ford) that Tesla is not going to play nice in the sandbox with an EV price war now underway,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s namesake family real estate firm was sentenced to the maximum allowable fine Friday in New York following its conviction on 17 counts, include a 13-year scheme to defraud.
The company will pay a fine of just over $1.6 million.
While a prosecutor, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass, conceded the amount is a fraction of the company’s earnings, he called the scheme it was convicted of “far-reaching and brazen.”
“The sheer magnitude of this fraud merits the largest financial sanction authorized by law,” Steinglass said. “The defendants cultivated a pervasive culture of fraud.”
Judge Juan Merchan imposed the maximum sentence and scolded the defense for continuing to blame the company’s accountant for the fraud.
“It’s not what the evidence has showed and it’s not what the jury found,” Merchan said.
He gave the company 14 days to pay.
The verdict, delivered Dec. 6, held the Trump Organization liable for the criminal conduct of some of its top executives, mainly Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer who was sent to jail on Rikers Island earlier this week for arranging nearly $2 million of his compensation off the books.
Trump himself was not charged and the company’s defense attorneys said he did not know about the scheme. However, his name came up dozens of times, mainly on defense examination of witnesses.
Defense attorney Michael van der Veen said in his closing statement that jurors “heard no evidence in this case that Mr. Trump or any of his children were aware of anything improper.”
Prosecutors said the former president sanctioned fraud. They showed the jury checks Trump signed and a memo he initialed
“This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not true,” Assistant District Attorney Josh Steinglass said during his closing statement.
Prosecutors said the Trump Organization arranged for Weisselberg and other company executives to receive part of their compensation in perks, like private school tuition and car payments, to evade taxes. In doing so, prosecutors said the executives had some intent to help the company pay less in salaries, bonuses and payroll taxes.
The defense argued the executives never intended to benefit the company and said the scheme the executives hatched was motivated solely by personal greed.
The trial revealed potentially embarrassing details about Trump, including nearly $1 billion in operating losses Trump reported over a two-year period in 2009 and 2010.
Trump’s outside accountant also testified that Trump reported losses each year for eight years from 2009 to 2018, some of the same years Trump was touting his business acumen on reality television and on the campaign trail.
“This was a case about greed and cheating. In Manhattan, no corporation is above the law,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at the time the verdict was announced last month. “For 13 years the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes.”
In addition to the fine, the Trump Organization faces potential collateral consequences that could be more severe if banks call in loans or business partners cancel contracts due to internal clauses that prohibit doing business with felons.
(LONDON) — The appointment of an oil executive as head of the United Nations’ COP28 climate conference on Thursday sparked backlash from environmental organizations.
The Office of the United Arab Emirates’ Special Envoy for Climate Change announced Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as the president-designate for the 2023 climate change conference, which will take place in Dubai over two weeks in November and December.
Al Jaber is chair of the UAE government-owned renewable energy company Masdar and has served as the UAE’s climate envoy twice, a statement from the special envoy said.
He is the first CEO to ever serve as COP president, “having played a key role in shaping the country’s clean energy path,” according to Al Jaber’s office.
The president of the conference is confirmed by the delegates to the conference when it begins.
But the announcement Thursday over the appointment of a top oil executive to lead the most important climate conference of the year was quickly met with disapproval by some environmental policy experts and activists who called for the CEO to step down from his role leading one of the biggest oil companies in the world.
Al Jaber’s nomination is “devastating blow to the climate negotiations at a critical moment in history,” Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, told ABC News.
He must resign from the oil company he presides over in order to obtain a seat at COP, not to mention the presidency, Berman said.
“The nomination of Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is a clear example of the fox watching the hen house,” Berman said. “The oil and gas companies are not going to design their own demise.”
The appointment of Al Jaber to lead COP28 is “egregious” and “could potentially impede the sole purpose of the meeting,” Delta Merner, head of the Science Hub for Climate Litigation at the Union for Concerned Scientists, told ABC News.
“During COP27, we saw a 25% increase in fossil fuel interest direct participation in the meeting, this is a trend we need to move away from for meaningful progress, not embrace through leadership choices,” Merner said. He agreed that Al Jaber should step down from his role overseeing the production of fossil fuels.
Catherine Abreu, founder and executive director of environmental nonprofit Destination Zero, told ABC News, “An oil company CEO cannot be the kind of President that COP28 needs.”
“A person tasked with making the most profit possible from oil and gas extraction can’t be the same person tasked with landing the most ambitious outcome possible from a climate conference,” Abreu said.
Al Jaber’s appointment “sets a dangerous precedent” and risks the credibility of the UAE, Tracy Carty, global climate politics expert with Greenpeace, said in a statement.
“Greenpeace is deeply alarmed at the appointment of an oil company CEO to lead the global climate negotiations,” Carty said.
Carty continued, “There is no place for the fossil fuel industry in the global climate negotiations.”
Tasneem Essop, executive director for the Climate Action Network International, described Al Jaber’s appointment as a “conflict of interest.”
“He cannot preside over a process that is tasked to address the climate crisis with such a conflict of interest, heading an industry that is responsible for the crisis itself,” Essop said.
Every year, the country hosting the U.N.’s Conference of the Parties, from which COP gets its name, nominates someone — typically a veteran diplomat — to chair the talks.
“This will be a critical year in a critical decade for climate action,” Al Jaber said in a statement. “The UAE is approaching COP28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition.”
“The announcement further highlights the UAE’s regional leadership in climate action and its role as a global advocate for clean energy,” the Office of the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change added. “The UAE is home to three of the largest and lowest-cost solar projects in the world and has invested more than $50 billion in renewable energy projects across 70 countries, with plans to invest a minimum of $50 billion over the next decade.”
