CAIRO (AP) — Hamas said Saturday that it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, as Egypt intensified efforts to broker a deal to end the months-long war and stave off a planned Israeli ground offensive into the southern city of Rafah.

Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya gave no details of Israel’s offer, but said it was in response to a proposal from Hamas two weeks ago. Negotiations earlier this month centered on a six-week cease-fire proposal and the release of 40 civilian and sick hostages in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Hamas’ statement came hours after a high-level Egyptian delegation wrapped up a visit to Israel where it discussed a “new vision” for a prolonged cease-fire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the developments.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Israel’s new proposal was directly related to Friday’s visit by Egyptian mediators.

The discussions between Egyptian and Israeli officials focused on the first stage of a multi-phase plan that would include a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.

The mediators are working on a compromise that will answer most of both parties’ main demands, which could pave the way to continued negotiations with the goal of a larger deal to end the war, the official said.

There has been growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement on a cease-fire and avert a possible Israeli attack on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the territory.

Israel has been insisting for months it plans a ground offensive into Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where it says many remaining Hamas militants are holed up, despite calls for restraint from the international community including Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States.

Egypt has cautioned an offensive into Rafah could have “catastrophic consequences” on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where famine is feared, as well as on regional peace and security.

The Israeli military has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in southern Israel close to Rafah, and hit locations in the city in near-daily airstrikes.

NEW YORK (AP) — This spring, NBC News, The New York Times and National Public Radio have each dealt with turmoil for essentially the same reason: journalists taking the critical gaze they deploy to cover the world and turning it inward at their own employers.

Whistleblowing isn’t unique to any industry. Yet the contrary outlook baked into many journalists — which can be a central part of their jobs — and generational changes in how many view activism have combined to make it probable these sort of incidents will continue.

In the past few weeks, NBC reversed a decision to hire former Republican National Committee chief Ronna McDaniel as a political contributor following a revolt by some of its best-known personalities. An NPR editor was suspended and then quit after critiquing his company’s willingness to tolerate diverse viewpoints and an internal probe provoked by Gaza coverage ended at the Times.

Journalism as a profession attracts people who are anti-authoritarian, who see themselves as truth-tellers. Many believe the way to make an organization better is by criticizing it, said Tom Rosenstiel, co-author of “The Elements of Journalism” and a professor at the University of Maryland.

“We’re taught to hold power to account,” said Kate O’Brian, president of news for the E.W. Scripps Co.

IT’S IN THEIR NATURE
So was it really surprising to see Chuck Todd, who spent years questioning politicians on “Meet the Press,” do the same to his bosses when there was resistance to putting McDaniel on the payroll? MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Joe Scarborough, Jen Psaki, Nicolle Wallace and Lawrence O’Donnell all joined a protest that was extraordinary for how it played out on the network’s own airwaves.

National Public Radio editor Uri Berliner didn’t receive much internal support for his complaints, but that actually reinforced his point. He said NPR had become too one-sided in promoting a liberal point of view, and that he went public with an essay in another news outlet when his concerns went unanswered by his superiors.

NPR management says he is wrong. But Berliner quickly became a hero among conservatives who hold the same belief.

Journalism history has many examples of meaningful internal protests. Women journalists sued in the 1970s to force The New York Times and The Associated Press to confront gender discrimination. Los Angeles Times journalists exposed a deal their company made to share profits with a sports arena from a special issue. A Chicago TV news anchor quit to protest her station’s hiring of talk show host Jerry Springer as a commentator.

The 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police was a significant moment, forcing news organizations across the country to confront how they covered racial issues, both past and present, often at the prodding of their staff. It also forced a look at a lack of diversity in newsrooms.

There are several reasons why many journalists are more apt now to go public with complaints they may once have kept to sharing with colleagues down at the corner bar. Among them is the likelihood that their outlet is owned by a faraway hedge fund instead of a local family, said Joel Kaplan, associate dean for graduate studies at Syracuse University’s Newhouse communications school and a former Chicago Tribune reporter.

A generational change also has emboldened many young journalists. In his own classroom, Kaplan sees more young journalists questioning traditional notions of objectivity that keep them from expressing opinions. Many believe they have the right to state their beliefs and support causes, he said.

“Now you have journalists that are advocates,” Rosenstiel said. “That reflects something of a culture war that is happening inside of journalism.”

Debates over coverage of the Trump administration had a similar galvanizing effect.

“There are some journalists who say, ‘I’m not interested in covering conservatives because they are not interested in the truth,'” Rosenstiel said.

A BACKLASH TO THE BACKLASH
Some traditionalists, like former Washington Post editor Marty Baron, have despaired over some of these changes. Battles with young staff members over how they express their opinions over social media left him despondent, a factor in his eventual retirement.

“Never have I felt more distant from my fellow journalists,” he wrote about a staff meeting on the topic in his 2023 book, “Collision of Power.”

One of the most prominent thinkers on this issue, journalist Wesley Lowery, has written that some defenders of objectivity are more interested in inoffensiveness and appearance, less so on journalistic rigor.

“In pursuing objectivity, we silence the marginalized,” a Harvard student, Ajay V. Singh, wrote at the height of the debate. “In silencing the marginalized, we tip the narrative of ‘truth’ into the hands of the powerful.”

The New York Times frequently has been at the forefront with journalists questioning their organization. In 2020, the newspaper’s editorial page editor resigned after the newspaper disowned an opinion piece written by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton about Floyd-related protests, following a staff protest. Some Times staff members also have spoken out intensely against the newspaper’s coverage of gender issues.

Its executives, however, appeared to have lost patience with a debate surrounding another contentious issue: the war in Gaza.

They launched an internal investigation into who leaked material to an outside publication, the Intercept, about a podcast based on a late December article about Hamas and sexual violence. The podcast was never done. That angered some staff members who were concerned the Times was striking back against employees for doing something that its own reporters do on a regular basis: write stories based on leaked material.

Yet management of the Times viewed the action as a violation of trust, particularly the sharing of what was essentially drafts of material that never saw the light of day.

“Reporters, editors and producers need to be able to have candid exchanges and disagreements about the best way to tackle a difficult piece of journalism with the understanding that those exchanges will strengthen the story, not become the story,” Joe Kahn, Times executive editor, said in a memo to staff on April 15. He said the probe concluded without determining who leaked the material.

Against this backdrop is another truth: The media itself and how it covers news are issues that interest the public more than in the past, creating the market for just the sort of material that Kahn was talking about — and for this story as well.

Because of the interest, and because of the journalism DNA that courses through the debate, there’s likely to be no shortage of sources for such news, Rosenstiel said.

“Newsrooms,” he said, “are full of people who are often disgruntled.”

BEIJING (AP) — China’s vision of the future of the automobile — electrified and digitally connected — is on display at the ongoing Beijing auto show.

Organizers say that 117 new models are making their debut at Auto China 2024, which runs through May 4. They range from eye-poppingly cutting edge to more subtle novelties.

THE CONNECTED CAR
One of the biggest mob scenes was for the opening day presentation by Xiaomi, a major Chinese maker of smartphones and trendy, affordable smart appliances aimed at younger generations that’s entering the car market for the first time.

Xiaomi announced that it had received more than 75,000 orders in the four weeks since the launch of its first car, the SU7, with a list price of 215,900 to 299,900 yuan ($29,800-$41,400).

Why is a phone company making a car? Analysts say connectivity. Consumer technology companies want to connect the lives of their customers across all their devices — phones, laptops, televisions and now cars.

“It starts with the concept of the third place,” said Beatrix Keim, the China director at German auto research center CAR. “Because nowadays people are at the office, at home and then mainly they’re spending the time in the car.”

The approach works well in China, a highly digital society where e-payments are the norm and the convenience of connectivity trumps privacy concerns for most.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei has ventured into the car business too. Apple explored the idea but dropped it earlier this year.

THE CAR AS LIVING SPACE

Some Chinese makers are taking the idea of a third space to new heights.

Zeekr unveiled the Mix, an electric vehicle with an interior that can transform into a small room while parked. The front seats swivel to face the back ones, with a table in between that a company executive told the crowd could be used to play card games or enjoy a Chinese hot-pot meal.

Stefan Sielaff, the design director of Zeekr, described the Mix as “a nice experiment” focusing on younger families.

“I wouldn’t even call it a car or an MPV or a van,” he said. “It’s more a lifestyle capsule. It’s an iPod on wheels.”

It will be the fifth model for Zeekr, a 2 1/2-year-old premium EV brand of China’s Geely group, a major maker that owns Volvo and has designers in Sweden and Shanghai.

The Mix will go on sale in China by the end of June, the company said. Its selling price has not been announced.

THE HYBRID APPROACH
An EV boom in China that started three years ago has eaten into the market for gasoline-powered cars, but they are not dead yet.

So says Chery Automobile Co., China’s biggest exporter, which told its auto show audience that it would continue to develop gasoline cars as well as EVs and hybrids.

Its EXEED Yaoguang C-DM, a hybrid SUV launched last month, was one of four vehicles it highlighted — two hybrids and two EVs.

The Yaoguang SUV sells for 159,800 to 225,800 yuan ($22,000-$31,000) in China and is also aimed at overseas markets, a company news release said.

Hybrids, which have lagged EVs in China, are now seen as a growth opportunity. Last year, 2.6 million new hybrids were sold in China, about half the number of EVs. Together, they accounted for 36% of the market.

THE LUXURY TANK
Chinese EV maker BYD, known for its low-cost battery technology and cars, is also going after the high-end market in China, defined as 1 million yuan ($140,000) and up.

Its Yangwang brand introduced the latest version of the U8, a monster of an off-road SUV that was launched last September and is designed for survival in rugged conditions. It comes with a satellite phone in case a driver gets stuck beyond cell phone range.

The U8 is built on a platform that enables it to turn on the spot, like a tank. It’s priced at 1.1 million yuan ($150,000). For 100,000 yuan ($13,800) more, buyers can add a built-in drone system.

A SIMPLER APPROACH
Volvo, the Swedish brand now under Geely, offered an answer for those overwhelmed by technology.

“The current EV market is marked by a prevalent trend of excess and addition,” said Roger Yu, Volvo’s managing director for sales in greater China.

He introduced the EX30 electric SUV as a user-friendly vehicle with a sophisticated sound system and a tablet screen that are both easy to use.

“By subtracting for ease of use and adding for safety, Volvo aims to give users the clearest interface, the most user-friendly operation, and the most reassuring intelligent experience,” he said of the in-car screen.

The company announced that the EX30 would sell in China for 210,000 to 260,000 yuan ($29,000-$36,000).

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the hope of brokering a cease-fire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, two officials said. At the same time, it warned that a possible Israeli offensive focused on Gaza’s city of Rafah — on the border with Egypt — could have catastrophic consequences for regional stability.

Egypt’s top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, is leading the delegation and plans to discuss with Israel a “new vision” for a prolonged cease-fire in Gaza, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the mission freely.

As the war drags on and casualties mount, there has been growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement on a cease fire.

Friday’s talks will focus at first on a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.

The hope is that negotiations will then continue, with the goal of a larger deal to end the war, he said.

The official said mediators are working on a compromise that will answer most of both parties’ main demands.

Hamas has said it will not back down from its demands for a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops, both of which Israel has rejected. Israel says it will continue military operations until Hamas is defeated and that it will retain a security presence in Gaza afterwards.

Ahead of the talks, senior Hamas official Basem Naim told The Associated Press “there is nothing new from our side,” when asked about the negotiations.

NEW YORK (AP) — Rooting for Donald Trump to fail has rarely been this profitable.

Just ask a hardy band of mostly amateur Wall Street investors who have collectively made tens of millions of dollars over the past month by betting that the stock price of his social media business — Truth Social — will keep dropping despite massive buying by Trump loyalists and wild swings that often mirror the candidate’s latest polls, court trials and outbursts on Trump Social itself.

Several of these investors interviewed by The Associated Press say their bearish gambles using “put” options and other trading tools are driven less by their personal feelings about the former president (most don’t like him) than their faith in the woeful underlying financials of a company that made less money last year than the average Wendy’s hamburger franchise.

“This company makes no money. … It makes no sense,” said Boise, Idaho, ad executive Elle Stange, who estimates she’s made $1,300 betting against Trump Media & Technology stock. “He’s not as great a businessman as he thinks. A lot of his businesses go belly up, quickly.”

Says Seattle IT security specialist Jeff Cheung, “This is guaranteed to go to zero.”

As of Friday morning, a month since Trump Media’s initial public offering sent its stock to $66.22, it has plunged to $38.49. An AP analysis of data from research firms FactSet and S3 Partners shows that investors using puts and “short selling” have paper profits so far of at least $200 million, not including the costs of puts, which vary from trade to trade.

Still, amateur traders, mostly risking no more than a few thousand dollars each, say the stock is too volatile to declare victory yet. So they are cashing in a bit now, letting other bets ride and stealing a glance at the latest stock movements in the office cubicle, at the kitchen table or even on the toilet.

There have been plenty of scary moments, including last week when DJT, the ex-president’s initials and stock ticker, jumped nearly 40% in two days.

“I don’t know which direction the stock is going,” says Schenectady, N.Y., day trader Richard Persaud while checking his iPhone amid the surge. “It’s so unbelievably overvalued.”

Many who spoke to the AP say knowing their bets have helped slash the value of Trump’s 65% stake in half is an added political benefit. If some of their predictions are right, they may able to someday push it to zero, making it impossible for him to tap it to pay his hefty legal bills or finance his GOP presidential campaign.

They have a long way to go. Trump’s stake is still worth $4 billion.

Normally, investors betting a stock will fall, especially a gutsy breed of hedge fund traders called “short sellers,” will do plenty of homework. They’ll pore over financial statements, develop expertise in an industry, talk to competitors, and even turn to “forensic accountants” to find hidden weaknesses in the books.

No need in Trump Media’s case. It’s all there in the Sarasota, Florida-based company’s 100-page financial report: A firehose of losses, $58 million last year, on minuscule revenue of $4 million from advertising and other sources.

The losses are so big, as Trump Media’s auditor wrote in the report, they “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”

A short seller’s dream? Or is it a nightmare?

Amateur trader Manny Marotta has two computer screens at home, one for work, the other showing DJT stock’s movements where he can gauge how much he’s up or down.

It wasn’t looking so good earlier this week.

The legal writer from suburban Cleveland had been up about $4,000 on “put” options purchased over the past few weeks. But the screen that morning was showing investors, presumably rich ones, buying large volumes of DJT shares, pushing up the stock once again.

“My options are worth less with every passing minute,” says Marotta, adding about DJT: “It’s being manipulated. It’s insane.”

Waiting for the stock to drop is especially painful to “short sellers,” who pay a fee to borrow shares owned by others. The idea is to quickly sell them on a hunch then they will be able to buy the same number of them later for much cheaper before having to return them to the lender. That allows short sellers to pocket the difference, minus the fee, which is usually nominal.

In DJT’s case, the fee is anything but nominal.

It was costing 565% a year at one point earlier this month, meaning short sellers had only two months before any possible profits would be eaten up in fees, even if the stock went to zero. It’s a rate so off the charts, that only three other stocks in recent memory have exceeded it, according to data from Boston University’s Karl Diether and Wharton’s Itamar Drechsler, who have studied short selling back two decades.

Add in massive buying by Trump supporters who see it as a way to support their candidate, and losses could multiply fast.

“It’s scary,” says Drechsler, who likens buyers of Trump’s stock to unwavering sports fans. “It is everything that you hope that the stock market is not.”

Trump Media spokeswoman Shannon Devine said the company is in a “strong financial position” with $200 million in cash and no debt, and said the AP was “selecting admitted Trump antagonists.”

Another danger to the stock is a “short squeeze.” If the price rises sharply, it could set off a rush by short sellers who fear they’ve bet wrongly to return their borrowed shares right away and limit their losses. And so they start buying shares to replace the ones they borrowed and sold, and that very buying tends to work against them, sending the price higher, which in turn scares other short sellers, who then also buy, setting off a vicious cycle of price hikes.

“If DJT starts rallying, you’re going to see the mother of all squeezes,” says S3 Partners short-selling expert Ihor Dusaniwsky, who spent three decades at Morgan Stanley helping investors borrow shares. “This is not for the faint of heart.”

And if that wasn’t enough, there is a final oddball feature of DJT stock that could trigger an explosion in prices, up or down.

“Lock up” agreements prohibit Trump and other DJT executives from selling their shares until September. That leaves the float, or the number of shares that can be traded each day by others, at a dangerously tiny 29% of total shares that will someday flood the market. That means a big purchase or sale on any day that would barely move a typical stock can send DJT flying or crashing.

The float is smaller than that of most other notoriously volatile stocks. At their smallest levels, AMC, GameStock and Shake Shack each had more than double the float.

Seattle trader Cheung sees DJT’s freak characteristics as a reason to bet against the stock, not shy away. When the lock-up period ends, he predicts, the ex-president will indeed sell his shares, spooking the market and sending the price down sharply. And even if he doesn’t, other insiders whose lock-ups expire will fear he will do so and will move fast to get a good price before it falls.

“The first one to sell out is going make to most, ” Cheung says. “Everyone is going to sell.”

Still, he doesn’t want to lose money in the interim, so Cheung is offsetting some of his “put” bets with the purchase of “calls.” The latter are also derivatives, but they do the opposite, paying off when the stock rises. Cheung hopes that whichever makes money, the puts or the calls, he will make enough with one to more than make up for the loss of the other.

If all of this seems too complicated, there is a far simpler way to make money betting against Trump.

Offshore, casino-style betting sites are taking wagers on the 2024 election, and some have even made President Joe Biden the favorite.

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s auto safety agency is investigating whether last year’s recall of Tesla’s Autopilot driving system did enough to make sure drivers pay attention to the road.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted on its website Friday that it has concerns about the December recall of more than 2 million vehicles.

The agency pushed the company to do the recall after a two-year investigation into Autopilot’s driver monitoring system, which measures torque on the steering wheel from a driver’s hands.

The fix involves an online software update to increase warnings to drivers. But the agency said in documents that it has found evidence of crashes after the fix, and that Tesla added updates that weren’t part of the recall.

“This investigation will consider why these updates were not part of the recall or otherwise determined to remedy a defect that poses an unreasonable safety risk,” the agency wrote.

A message was left early Friday seeking comment from Tesla.

NHTSA said that Tesla reported 20 crashes that apparently happened after the recall remedy was sent out. The agency has required Tesla and other automakers to report crashes involving partially and fully automated driving systems.

The agency said it will evaluate the recall, including the “prominence and scope” of Autopilot’s controls to address misuse, confusion and use in environments that the system is not designed to handle.

It also said that Tesla has stated that owners can decide whether they want to opt in to parts of the recall remedy, and that it allows drivers to reverse parts of it.

The Associated Press reported shortly after the recall that experts said it relied on technology that may not work.

LONDON (AP) — An asylum seeker from Morocco who went on a vicious rampage following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the Israel-Hamas war was convicted Thursday of murder for stabbing a 70-year-old man in the streets of an English seaside town.

Ahmed Alid, 45, stabbed Terence Carney six times on Oct. 15 in the center of Hartlepool minutes after he hacked at a sleeping housemate while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic.

The attack came eight days after Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7 and Alid told police he had done it “for the people of Gaza.” He swore he would have killed more if he had a machine gun and other weapons, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford said in Teesside Crown Court.

Alid was also convicted of attempted murder for the attack on Javed Nouri, who shared the house in northeast England with him and other asylum seekers. Alid was upset Nouri had converted to Christianity.

Housemates told police that Alid began carrying a knife after watching TV coverage of the Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent bombing of Gaza.

Alid laughed when he saw footage of killings by Hamas, alarming his housemate, Nouri told police.

“Every time they would kill somebody, he would praise God,” Nouri said. “I was very upset from that night and I have seen something terrible and frightening in his eyes.”

Nouri had complained to housing officials, the Home Office and police and Alid was warned he could lose his housing.

Alid told police he justified killing an innocent man because Britain helped create the “Zionist entity” of Israel and Israel had “killed innocent children.”

“They killed children and I killed an old man,” he said.

During his interview with two women detectives, Alid became agitated and attacked them. A panic button in the interview room, however, didn’t work properly and other officers only intervened after Alid’s defense lawyer phoned an emergency number for help.

He was convicted of additional counts for assaulting the officers.

Alid had denied the charges against him. Although he acknowledged the stabbings, he said he had no intent to kill or cause serious harm.

Sentencing is scheduled May 17.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Smokers in Minneapolis will pay some of the highest cigarette prices in the country after the City Council voted unanimously Thursday to impose a minimum retail price of $15 per pack to promote public health.

The ordinance not only sets a floor price. It prevents smokers and retailers from getting around it by prohibiting price discounts and coupons, which several tobacco companies circulate online to lure customers and reinforce brand loyalty. The minimum price also applies to four-packs of cigars. Distribution of free samples is prohibited.

Consumer prices are expected to run even higher after taxes are figured in. While retailers will get to keep the extra money paid by smokers, the higher prices are expected to snuff out at least some of their sales. E-cigarettes, which have grown in popularity, were left out because their prices vary too widely.

The minimum price will be effective as soon as Mayor Jacob Frey signs the measure, which he’s expected to do within the next few days.

Evalyn Carbrey, a senior public health specialist with the city, said at a committee hearing last week that staff research indicates that Minneapolis’ minimum will be the highest in the country. Staff determined that cigarettes typically had been selling in Minneapolis for $11 to $13.50 a pack. The change puts Minneapolis ahead of New York City, which set its minimum at $13 in 2018.

“I’m excited that this council is taking this public health crisis seriously because that’s what it is,” said the author of the ordinance, Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw.

Council President Andrea Jenkins said the price of cigarettes was one reason why she quit smoking eight years ago, and that she hopes the new minimum will encourage more people to stop or never start.

“If you travel around the country, New York City — you can’t buy your pack of cigarettes for under $18. Chicago, $17. Some places, Los Angeles, I think they’re up to 20 bucks,” Jenkins said.

Penalties will range from a $500 fine for a first violation to license suspensions and revocations for repeat offenders.

“If it helps even one person stop using tobacco, one person use less tobacco, or one person stopped from starting tobacco use, that’s worth it to me,” Council Member Linea Palmisano said. “I know it’s easy for me to sit up here and say that, as a nonsmoker, but it’s the truth. The only way we’re going to break our dependence on tobacco is if we make some really hard changes.”

BEIJING (AP) — Global automakers and EV startups unveiled new models and concept cars at China’s largest auto show on Thursday, with a focus on the nation’s transformation into a major market and production base for digitally connected, new-energy vehicles.

Toyota and Nissan both announced tie-ups with major Chinese technology companies as they strive to meet customer demand for AI-enabled online connectivity in cars, from social media apps to autonomous driving features.

Electric vehicles accounted for about a quarter of all auto sales in China last year. Hybrids, which have trailed EVs, are expected to be a growing segment going forward.

China’s largest EV maker, BYD, showed off two “dual-mode” plug-in cars that can run either solely on electricity or as hybrids. The other is a hybrid off-road SUV from its luxury Yangwang brand in the 1 million yuan-plus ($140,000) range.

WATCH: China's largest auto show opened in Beijing with the biggest names showing off their latest electric vehicles, underlining how the world's largest auto market is already in an all-electric state of mind, and isn't looking back https://t.co/X7Ky8zxW2N pic.twitter.com/9ZAPPtRmuF

— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) April 25, 2024

“China’s EVs, represented by (BYD’s) Qin and Han series, have successfully realized the large-scale replacement of traditional fuel cars, and this trend is irreversible,” said Lu Tian, the head of sales for BYD’s Dynasty models. The cars are named after former imperial dynasties.

An executive from Chery, a more traditional Chinese maker, offered a more moderate perspective. Li Xueyong, a deputy general manager, said they envision a future of 40% fuel vehicles, 30% hybrids and 30% electric. The company plans to develop both fuel-powered and new-energy cars.

BYD has been expanding rapidly into overseas markets, launching its low-priced Dolphin Mini, sold as the Seagull in China, in Latin American markets this year.

It’s building a factory in Brazil on the site of a former Ford plant that closed when the U.S. maker left the country. Two other Chinese automakers including Chery already have factories in Brazil.

BYD accounted for 41% of EV sales in Brazil in the first three months of this year, though the overall number is still relatively low.

In Mexico, Chinese vehicles went from about 2.6% of the market in 2021 to 19.2% in the first quarter of this year. Most of those were gasoline-powered vehicles, as there are few charging stations and the cost of electricity makes it expensive to do so at home.

Chinese makers are making inroads in Europe too, raising concern in some countries that they pose a potential threat to European automakers and jobs. The EU is weighing whether to impose tariffs on China-made EVs because of government subsidies that drove the industry’s growth.

A proliferation of EV makers, encouraged by tax breaks as well as green-energy subsides, has prompted a fierce price war that is expected to lead to a shakeout and consolidation of the industry in the coming years.

For foreign players aside from American EV maker Tesla, it has challenged them to accelerate the development of new electric car models to stay competitive in the world’s largest auto market.

“No other region of the world has a transformation of the automotive industry that is as fast-paced as in China,” Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume said Wednesday at an event previewing its appearance at the auto show.

“This market has become something of a fitness center for us,” he said. “We have to work harder and faster to keep.”

Other automakers expressed similar sentiments. Japan’s Nissan sent many top executives to the Beijing auto show to feel first-hand the pace of change in China, company President Makoto Uchida said.

Nissan was going to sign a memorandum or understanding with Baidu, a Chinese search engine and AI company, later Thursday. Uchida said Nissan needs to meet the needs of Chinese customers and the speed at which the market is changing.

“If we cannot do these two aspects, it will very difficult to keep our business in China,” he said.

Toyota announced a tie-up with Tencent, the maker of the widely-used WeChat messaging and e-payment app.

Volvo, the Swedish brand bought by China’s Geely group, stressed a simpler approach to the digitalization of its cars.

Likely aiming at a somewhat older audience, the company said its new EX30 electric SUV has an audio system and tablet screen that are easy to operate and uses sustainable fabrics in its interior.

“We believe that technology should be measured by its utility, not just its novelty,” said Xiaolin Yuan, Volvo’s Asia-Pacific head.

The EX30 will sell for 210,000 to 260,000 yuan ($29,000 – $36,000) in China, the company announced.

American brands at the show included Lincoln, Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet. Ford presented a muscular look tied to its history, telling the story of the Mustang and Bronco – which it described as a “sports utility vehicle” when it was launched in 1966 — and showing the latest versions of those models.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births fell last year, resuming a long national slide.

A little under 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, according to provisional statistics released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about 76,000 fewer than the year before and the lowest one-year tally since 1979.

U.S. births were slipping for more than a decade before COVID-19 hit, then dropped 4% from 2019 to 2020. They ticked up for two straight years after that, an increase experts attributed, in part, to pregnancies that couples had put off amid the pandemic’s early days.

But “the 2023 numbers seem to indicate that bump is over and we’re back to the trends we were in before,” said Nicholas Mark, a University of Wisconsin researcher who studies how social policy and other factors influence health and fertility.

Birth rates have long been falling for teenagers and younger women, but rising for women in their 30s and 40s — a reflection of women pursuing education and careers before trying to start families, experts say. But last year, birth rates fell for all women younger than 40, and were flat for women in their 40s.

Mark called that development surprising and said “there’s some evidence that not just postponement is going on.”

Rates fell across almost all racial and ethnic groups.

The numbers released Thursday are based on more than 99.9% of the birth certificates filed in 2023, but they are provisional and the final birth count can change as they are finalized. For example, the provisional 2022 birth count appeared to show a dip, but ended up being higher than 2021’s tally when the analysis was completed.

There could be an adjustment to the 2023 data, but it won’t be enough to erase the “sizeable” decline seen in the provisional numbers, said the CDC’s Brady Hamilton, the new report’s first author.

Experts have wondered how births might be affected by the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed states to ban or restrict abortion. Experts estimate that nearly half of pregnancies are unintended, so limits to abortion access could affect the number of births.

The new report indicates that the decision didn’t lead to a national increase in births, but the researchers didn’t analyze birth trends in individual states or dissect data among all demographic groups.

The new data does raise the possibility of an impact on teens. The U.S. teen birth rate has been falling decades, but the decline has been less dramatic in recent years, and the drop seems to have stopped for teen girls ages 15 to 17.

“That could be Dobbs,” said Dr. John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health and pediatrics. Or it could be related to changes in sex education or access to contraception, he added.

Whatever the case, the flattening of birth rates for high school students is worrisome and indicates that “whatever we’re doing for kids in middle and high school is faltering,” Santelli said.

More findings from the report:

—From 2022 to 2023, the provisional number of births fell 5% for American Indian and Alaska Native women, 4% for Black women, 3% for white women and 2% for Asian American women. Births rose 1% for Hispanic women.

—The percentage of babies born preterm held about steady.

—The cesarean section birth rate rose again, to 32.4% of births. Some experts worry that C-sections are done more often than medically necessary.

—The U.S. was once among only a few developed countries with a fertility rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace itself — about 2.1 kids per woman. But it’s been sliding, and in 2023 dropped to about 1.6, the lowest rate on record.

Surveys suggest many U.S. couples would prefer to have two or more kids but see housing, job security and the cost of child care as significant obstacles to having more children.

“There’s something getting in the way of them being able to achieve those goals,” Mark said.