Russian artillery fire down nearly 75%, US officials say, in latest sign of struggles for Moscow
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its 11th month, US and Ukrainian officials tell CNN that Russia’s artillery fire is down dramatically from its wartime high, in some places by as much as 75 percent.
Potentially classified documents found in Biden Center closet, White House says
Personal lawyers for President Biden discovered “a small number of documents with classified markings” in the locked closet of an office Biden used at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington from 2017 to 2019, White House special counsel Richard Sauber said Monday. The roughly 10 documents were discovered Nov. 2 and handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration on Nov. 3, Sauber said.
The National Archives referred the matter to the Justice Department, and Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned U.S. Attorney John Lausch in Chicago to review what’s in the potentially classified documents and how they ended up in the Penn Biden Center, CBS News reports.
Lausch is one of two U.S. attorneys appointed by former President Donald Trump that Biden kept on after his inauguration. (“The other is Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who is leading an investigation into the president’s son, Hunter Biden,” CBS News notes.) His review is reportedly near completion, and then Garland will decide whether the incident merits a criminal investigation.
Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by Garland, is investigating some 300 classified documents found in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last August. “While the Biden case has obvious echoes of the Mar-a-Lago investigation, the details provided by Biden’s lawyer on Monday suggest key differences that could factor heavily in whether the Biden documents become a criminal matter,” The Washington Post reports.
The main difference is that the Mar-a-Lago files were seized in a raid months after the National Archives had requested, and a federal grand jury had subpoenaed, documents Trump had improperly retained from his presidency. Smith is looking into obstruction of justice and destruction of records charges along with ones pertaining to mishandling of classified material.
In Biden’s case, “the documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives,” Saubert said. “Since that discovery, the president’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”
House Republicans nevertheless vowed to investigate the matter and criticized the White House for not informing voters of these documents before the November midterm elections.
Senior citizens won’t pay more than $35 a month for insulin as new drug provisions kick in
Senior citizens and other Medicare enrollees can now get a break on the cost of their insulin. They won’t pay more than $35 a month for each insulin prescription that’s covered by their Medicare Part D plan. And they won’t be subject to a deductible for insulin.
Why car sales are falling in the U.S.
GM has reclaimed its title as America’s top carmaker. A year after Toyota topped the domestic car sales charts — the first time a foreign company did that — Detroit returned to the top of the heap. But the victory comes during a tough year for the U.S. auto industry. “Supply chain issues, high interest rates, and low inventory meant that 2022 was a difficult year for car sales,” Jalopnik reports. In fact, when all the sales are tallied up, 2022 might end up being the worst year for American car sales in more than a decade: Roughly 13.7 million new vehicles were sold, down about 8 percent. Why are car sales down? And how did GM get its sales crown back? Here’s everything you need to know:
How did GM reclaim the top sales position?
This is partly a GM victory and partly a Toyota loss. GM’s sales did improve during 2022 — a growth of 2.5 percent from the previous year, according to Reuters — but Toyota’s sales fell by nearly 10 percent. Why? A year ago, Toyota won the race because it had stockpiled parts and chips after the Japanese tsunami of 2011, a decision that allowed it to weather the 2021 supply chain crisis better than its rivals. But in 2022, Reuters reports, “Asian brands were hit hardest” by the rising cost of raw materials and the ongoing shortage of computer chips that have affected the entire industry. GM “was able to better meet strong demand for cars and trucks despite industry-wide supply disruptions.”
Why are car sales falling overall?
Those supply chain problems are making it hard for automakers to meet demand — and they’re making cars more expensive. “U.S. consumers forked out an average of $45,622 for a new vehicle in September 2022, up $3,462 compared with the previous year,” J.P. Morgan researchers report. “This marked the fourth highest price of any month on record.” And rising interest rates have made it more expensive for would-be buyers to borrow money to buy those increasingly expensive vehicles, The New York Times reports. For the last decade or so, “low rates from the Fed … made those attractive offers for zero-percent financing and 72-month loans possible, but with the higher rates, it’s a pretty unfriendly market for people buying a car,” one analyst told the paper.
Does that mean there’s still a car shortage?
Because of the supply shortages, new car dealerships haven’t had many new cars to sell during the last couple of years. Some dealership lots were nearly barren of inventory to sell. The good news? That issue may be easing up. Kelly Blue Book reports that “America’s new car dealers ended November with about 1.64 million cars in their inventory. As recently as July, they barely had 1 million in stock.” Most car dealers like to keep about a 60-day supply of new vehicles, but “over the past year, some automakers have seen their average fall as low as seven days.” As of November, the average is closer to 53 days.
What does all this mean for car prices?
Here’s the feedback loop: The rise in prices helped slow sales. Now the slowing of sales may lead to lower car prices. “The slowdown in sales, combined with a rise in inventory, has led to a softening in prices,” GOBankingRates reports via Yahoo Finance. Analysts say that new car prices could drop by as much as 5 percent in 2023. But it’s used car buyers who should see some relief after a year of big price spikes: “Pre-owned” vehicle prices could decline by as much as 20 percent. “We’ve already seen prices start to fall on older cars and they’ll continue to ease in 2023,” said Pat Ryan, CEO of car shopping app Copilot. “Part of the decline is due to economic uncertainty, but it’s primarily consumer resistance to those prices.” One J.P. Morgan analyst adds: “There are some glimmers of normalization, with prices finally easing somewhat, though conditions remain far from normal.”
What’s next?
Probably continued slow sales. “Sales figures are expected to remain well below pre-pandemic levels,” Jalopnik reports, although analysts say the number of new cars sold could rise to around 17 million. But the Detroit Free Press reports that industry experts “look for 2023 to deliver a dose of normalcy to consumers” and may restore some incentives to lure buyers back into the showrooms. Electric vehicles might see the biggest boost. Investors Business Daily notes that “tax credits of up to $7,500 should buoy demand for electric vehicles in 2023.” (The tax credits go only to U.S.-made cars, “benefiting Tesla, GM and Ford at the expense of most foreign automakers.”) Everything depends on the state of the economy, though. If a recession hits, car sales in America will have another tough year.
FDA approves new Alzheimer’s drug that moderately slows disease
This post was originally published on this siteAn experimental Alzheimer’s drug that moderately slows cognitive decline was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday. The drug, called lecanemab, was granted conditional approval based on a study finding it reduced levels of a protein called amyloid from the brains of people with early-stage […]
US imposes sanctions on Iranian officials connected to drone program
The US Treasury on Friday imposed sanctions on officials tied to an Iranian defense manufacturer that designs and produces drones which have been used by Russia in the war in Ukraine, as well as the director of “the key organization responsible for overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile programs.”
McCarthy Vows Progress Ahead of 12th Speaker Vote
This post was originally published on this site As the House of Representatives entered a fourth day without electing a speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), who has failed to achieve a majority vote on 11 ballots so far, told reporters on Friday he expects to make progress toward convincing Republican holdouts to elect him […]
US electric vehicle sales surge in 2022, gain on Tesla
This post was originally published on this siteU.S. electric vehicle sales jumped by two-thirds in 2022 as sales for the overall auto industry dropped, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Fully electric vehicles jumped in popularity last year, making up 5.8 percent of all vehicles sold in 2022, an increase from 3.2 percent in 2021, […]
Beer Sales Drop as Consumers Balk at Higher Prices
This post was originally published on this siteU.S. demand for beer fell at the end of last year after a strong run of defying inflation.
Live updates: Jobs report is out today. The latest on stock market, unemployment rate and more
This post was originally published on this siteThe latest news on what the December jobs report data means for the Federal Reserve, the unemployment rate and the chances of a recession.
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