Tesla rules out battery swap plans
AMERICAN electric automaker Tesla said it has no plans to swap batteries in the Chinese market following a report by corporate data platform Tianyancha that it added new-energy vehicle battery-swapping facilities to its business.
A Tesla official said the company believes electric vehicle charging is the best way to power its vehicles, and that battery swapping is riddled with problems and not suitable for large-scale use.
In the Chinese NEV market, NIO is involved in the battery swapping business. The company’s EVs can be charged or swap batteries, which is faster.
NIO unveiled its secondgeneration battery swapping station in January, which it expects to deploy in April.
TAKING the stage for the first time since leaving office, former US President Donald Trump called for GOP unity, even as he exacerbated intraparty divisions by attacking fellow Republicans and promoting lies about the election in a speech that made clear he intends to remain a dominant political force.
Speaking on Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was hailed as a returning hero, Trump blasted his successor, Democrat Joe Biden, and tried to lay out a vision for the future of the GOP that revolves firmly around him, despite his loss in November.
“Do you miss me yet?” Trump asked after taking the stage to his old rally soundtrack and cheers from the supportive crowd.
Trump, in his speech, tried to downplay the civil war gripping the party over the extent to which Republicans should embrace him, even as he unfurled an enemies list, calling out by name the 10 House Republicans and seven GOP senators who voted to impeach or convict him for inciting the US Capitol riot on January 6.
He ended by singling out Representative Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, who has faced tremendous backlash for saying Trump should no longer play a role in the party.
While he insisted the division was merely a spat “between a handful of Washington, DC, establishment political hacks and everybody else, all over the country,” Trump had a message for the incumbents who had dared to cross him: “Get rid of ‘em all.”
The conference, held this year in Orlando instead of the Washington suburbs to evade COVID-19 restrictions, served as a tribute to Trump and Trumpism, complete with
a golden statue in his likeness on display.
Speakers, including many potential 2024 hopefuls, argued that the party must embrace the former president and his followers, even after the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
They also repeated in panel that Trump lost his re-election only because of mass voter fraud, even though such claims have been rejected by judges, Republican state officials and Trump’s own administration.
Trump, too, continued to repeat what Democrats have dubbed the “big lie,” calling the election “rigged” and insisting that he won in November, even though he lost by more than 7 million votes.
“As you know, they just lost the White House,” he said of Biden, rewriting history.
It is highly unusual for past American presidents to publicly criticize their successors in the
months after leaving office.
Ex-presidents typically step out of the spotlight for at least a while: Barack Obama was famously seen kitesurfing on vacation after he departed, while George W. Bush said he believed Obama “deserves my silence.”
He delivered a sharp rebuke of what he called the new administration’s first month of failures, especially on immigration and the border.
“Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history,” Trump said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki had brushed off the expected criticism last week.
“We’ll see what he says, but our focus is certainly not on what President Trump is saying at CPAC.”
Aside from criticizing Biden, Trump used the speech to crown himself the future of the
Republican Party, even as many leaders argue they must move in a new, less divisive direction after Republicans lost not just the White House, but both chambers of Congress.
Although Trump has flirted with the idea of creating a third party, he pledged on Sunday to remain part of “our beloved” GOP.
“I’m going to continue to fight right by your side. We’re not starting new parties,” he said. “We have the Republican Party. It’s going to be strong and united like never before.”
Trump did not use his speech to announce plans to run again, but he repeatedly teased the prospect as he predicted a Republican would win back the White House in 2024.
“And I wonder who that will be,” he offered.
“Who, who, who will that be? I wonder.”
FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption yesterday and handed a three-year prison sentence after a court in Paris convicted him for trying to illegally influence a judge during his time in office.
The sentence includes two years suspended, which means it is unlikely Sarkozy will actually go to prison.
He is almost certain to appeal and remains free, with no arrest warrant issued.
The verdict is the latest twist in the tumultuous political career of the 66-year-old who ruled France from 2007 to 2012 and remains a favorite for many on the right.
Yesterday’s conviction is likely to undermine any attempted comeback to front-line politics, an ambition Sarkozy has denied, but which has been promoted by many supporters ahead of 2022 presidential elections.
Only one other French president, Sarkozy’s political mentor Jacques Chirac, was put on trial after leaving office, but he was excused from having to attend his 2011 corruption trial because of ill health.
Chirac received a two-year suspended sentence over the creation of ghost jobs at the Paris city hall to fund his party when he was mayor.
Yesterday’s verdict related to a case of influence peddling and corruption, one of at least four separate investigations into the former leader.
Sarkozy was accused of offering to help a judge obtain a senior job in Monaco in exchange for putting pressure on an inquiry into his campaign finances.
The former president told the court during the trial he had “never committed the slightest act of corruption.”
Prosecutors called for a four-year jail term, serving a minimum of two, and asked for the same punishment for his co-defendants — lawyer Thierry Herzog and the judge Gilbert Azibert.
“The events would not have occurred if a former president, as well as a lawyer, had kept in mind the magnitude, the responsibility, and the duties of his office,” prosecutor JeanLuc Blachon told the court in December.
The graft and influence-peddling charges — among several cases against him — carry a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of 1 million euros (US$1.2 million).