Daughter's TikTok moves 2012 book Stone Maidens to No. 1 on ...

For 14 years, Lloyd Devereux Richards got up early, stayed up late and worked weekends to write a book, juggling his passion with a high-demand job as a corporate attorney and raising three kids.

At last, Richards' book, "Stone Maidens," published in 2012. Modest sales followed.

And then on Feb. 8, "Stone Maidens" became an overnight success, all because of a 17-second TikTok that Richards' daughter posted about her dad and his labor of love.

"My dad spent 14 years writing a book," the video described as it showed Richards at work in his attic office. "He worked full time and his kids came first. But (he) made time for his book. He's so happy even though sales aren't great. I'd love for him to get some sales. He doesn't even know what TikTok is."

The video changed Richards' life almost overnight.

Since it was posted, the has amassed a whopping 47 million views.

"Stone Maidens" skyrocketed to Amazon's top-selling serial killer thriller and became its No. 1 seller last week and this, with a high review rating of 4.7 stars. Richards is now in negotiations over his second book, and Hollywood studios are talking to his literary agent about movie deals.

The power of TikTok

When reached by USA TODAY on Thursday, the father-daughter duo were barely keeping up with a flood of interview requests. It's all been so overwhelming but also incredible, Lloyd Richards said.

"It's been a whirlwind," Richards said from his home in Montpelier, Vermont with his daughter by his side. "I'm pretty grateful but I don't understand it really. I just didn't understand the power of TikTok. I'm 74, I just am not aware of those things."

Richards' daughter, Marguerite Richards, said she was fairly new to TikTok when she decided to shoot some video of her dad in his attic, where she has fond memories of watching him working on "Stone Maidens" throughout her childhood.

"I posted it around 7 o'clock on February 7, and when I went to bed I checked and there were like, 200 views in three hours," she said. "So I was like, 'OK, even if just a few people see it and he sold a couple of books that he worked so hard on, that'd be exciting.' And I woke up in the morning and there were 700,000 views. And I was like, 'Oh my God.'"

By the end of the day it hit 4 million views and kept snowballing from there.

'I love you, Dad'

While his daughter watched the views skyrocket, Richards had no idea anything had changed. She hadn't told him about posting it and he doesn't spend much time on the Internet.

When the views reached 15 million, Marguerite decided to film her dad's reaction for another TikTok.

In that video, Marguerite tells her dad how many people had seen the video and showed him some of the comments they had posted about him and the book.

"I bought it, so excited to read it," one user said. "I hope your dad succeeds. He looks like such a nice dad."

Another wrote that they were "ordering!"

"What a precious soul," they wrote. "He deserves all the good coming his way!'"

And another: "I bought it! Just a third through now but I will probably finish tonight because I can't put it down!"

As he read through the comments, Richards began crying. So did Marguerite.

"Because of them you're No. 1," she said through tears. "I love you, Dad."

Visibly overwhelmed, Richards choked out a "Thank you," wiped his eyes, and declared that he was "ready for a nap."

That TikTok has 8 million views, and the account Marguerite created now has more than 330,000 followers.

"It stunned me," Richards said. "People said such wonderful things about my book and I was so overwhelmed. I was happy but I couldn't believe that many people would feel that way so quickly."

"It makes me feel so good," he added. "It's such an uplifting experience."

'Tiktok Dad'

Perhaps the best nugget of joy that's come from their overnight fame is that Marguerite and Lloyd are spending even more time together than usual.

Since the TikTok took off, Marguerite has become his default publicist, fielding interview requests and trying to create more videos for Richards' adoring followers.

It's a good thing she only lives five minutes away.

A self-described daddy's girl, Marguerite is having the time of her life watching his success.

"I would have been excited if even 50 people bought his book," she said. "So I'm just shocked and thrilled. It's like you're having an out-of-body experience. Like, is this really happening?"

Her fierce love for her father comes through in the pair's TikToks. It's so infectious, a lot of their followers have taken to calling Richards their "TikTok Dad."

"They're like, 'Thanks for sharing your dad with us,'" she said. "And the answer is, 'You're welcome.'"

More coverage from USA TODAY

Viral TikTok videos help boost product sales

Joseph Pisani

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Near the Twizzlers and Sour Patch Kids at a New York candy store are fruit-shaped soft jelly candies that earned a spot on the shelves because they went viral on TikTok.

A flood of videos last year showed people biting into the fruit gummies’ plastic casing, squirting artificially-colored jelly from their mouths. Store staffers at the candy store chain It’Sugar urged it to stock up, and the gummies did so well that TikTok became part of the company’s sales strategy. The chain now has signs with the app’s logo in stores, and goods from TikTok make up 5% to 10% of weekly sales.

“That’s an insane number,” said Chris Lindstedt, the assistant vice president of merchandising at It’Sugar, which has about 100 locations.

TikTok, an app best known for dancing videos with 1 billion users worldwide, has also become a shopping phenomenon. National chains, hoping to get TikTok’s mostly young users into its stores, are setting up TikTok sections, reminiscent of “As Seen On TV” stores that sold products hawked on infomercials.

► What's the deal with WitchTok?:We spoke to creators bringing magic to TikTok.

At Barnes & Noble, tables display signs with #BookTok, a book recommendation hashtag on TikTok that has pushed paperbacks up the bestseller list. Amazon has a section of its site it calls “Internet Famous,” with lists of products that anyone who has spent time on TikTok would recognize.

The hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has gotten more than 5 billion views on TikTok, and the app has made a grab-bag of products a surprise hit: leggings, purses, cleaners, even feta cheese. Videos of a baked feta pasta recipe sent the salty white cheese flying out of supermarket refrigerators earlier this year.

► TikTok:Coach to stop destroying damaged returns after TikTok video of slashed purses goes viral

It’s hard to crack the code of what becomes the next TikTok sensation. How TikTok decides who gets to see what remains largely a mystery. Companies are often caught off guard and tend to swoop in after their product has taken off, showering creators with free stuff, hiring them to appear in commercials or buying up ads on TikTok.

“It was a little bit of a head scratcher at first,” said Jenny Campbell, the chief marketing officer of Kate Spade, remembering when searches for “heart” spiked on Kate Spade’s website earlier this year.

The culprit turned out to be a 60-second clip on TikTok posted by 22-year-old Nathalie Covarrubias. She recorded herself in a parked car gushing about a pink heart-shaped purse she’d just bought. Others copied her video, posting TikToks of themselves buying the bag or trying it on with different outfits. The $300 heart-shaped purse sold out.

“I couldn’t believe it because I wasn’t trying to advertise the bag,” said Covarrubias, a makeup artist from Salinas, California, who wasn’t paid to post the video. “I really was so excited and happy about the purse and how unique it was.”

Kate Spade sent Covarrubias free items in exchange for posting another TikTok when the bag was back in stores. (That video was marked as an ad.) It turned what was supposed to be a limited Valentine’s Day purse into one sold year round in different colors and fabrics, such as faux fur.

TikTok is a powerful purchasing push for Gen Z because the creators seem authentic, as opposed to Instagram, where the goal is to post the most perfect looking selfie, said Hana Ben-Shabat, the founder of Gen Z Planet. Her advisory firm focuses on the generation born between the late 1990s and 2016, a cohort that practically lives on TikTok.

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Users trust the recommendations, she said: “This is a real person, telling me a real story.”

Instagram, YouTube and other platforms connected people with friends or random funny videos before marketers realized their selling potential. For TikTok, losing the veneer of authenticity as more ads and ways to shop flood the app could be a risk. If ads are “blatant or awkward, it’s more of a problem,” said Colin Campbell, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of San Diego.

Influencers who get paid to shill for brands are getting better at pitching goods to their followers, telling them that even though they get paid, they’re recommending a product they actually like. “They feel like they are our friend, even though they aren’t,” he said.

Channah Myers, a 21-year-old barista from Goodyear, Arizona, bought a pair of $50 Aerie leggings after seeing several TikTok videos of women saying the cross-banding on the waist gave them a more hourglass-like figure. “It’s funny, I shop religiously at Aerie and I had no idea they existed until I saw them on TikTok,” Myers said.

► 'Devious licks':Challenge on TikTok leads to criminal charges against students across US

After those Aerie leggings went viral on TikTok in 2020, the teen retailer expanded the same design to biker shorts, tennis skirts and bikini bottoms, all of which can be found by searching “TikTok” on Aerie’s website. It wouldn’t say how many of the leggings sold.

TikTok, along with other tech companies like Snapchat, is gearing up to challenge Facebook as a social-shopping powerhouse. Shopping on social media sites, known as social commerce, is a $37 billion market in the U.S., according to eMarketer, mostly coming from Instagram and its parent company Facebook. By the end of 2025, that number is expected to more than double, to $80 billion.

Last month, TikTok began testing a way for brands to set up shop within the app and send users to checkout on their sites. But TikTok has hinted that more is coming. It may eventually look more like Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China, where products can be bought and sold without leaving the app — just like you can on Facebook and Instagram.

“Over the past year, we’ve witnessed a new kind of shopping experience come to life that’s been driven by the TikTok community,” said TikTok General Manager Sandie Hawkins, who works with brands to get them to buy ads on the app and help them boost sales. “We’re excited to continue listening to our community and building solutions that help them discover, engage and purchase the products they love.”

That includes The Pink Stuff, a British cleaning product that wasn’t available in the U.S. last year.

► TikTok:A woman on TikTok wasn't afraid to show her death. In the process, she helped others live.

That all changed when videos of people using it to scrub rusty pots and greasy countertops went viral on TikTok, pushing the brand to cross the Atlantic. It launched in the U.S. in January on Amazon, with 1.3 million tubs sold monthly, and is getting calls from major stores wanting to stock it, according to Sal Pesce, president and chief operating officer of the The Pink Stuff U.S.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

A TikTok trend about mouth taping while you sleep can be dangerous

Sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep.

CNN —

The social media platform TikTok has helped spread yet another potentially dangerous idea: taping your lips shut to stop mouth breathing at night.

“If you have obstructive sleep apnea, yes, this can be very dangerous,” said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

Obstructive sleep apnea, which is the complete or partial collapse of the airway, is one of the most common and dangerous sleep disorders: Over 1 billion people between the ages of 30 and 69 are thought to have the condition, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Millions more are undiagnosed, experts say.

“There is limited evidence on the benefits of mouth taping and I would be very careful — and even talk to your health care provider before attempting it,” Dasgupta added.

Yet none of the TikTok videos CNN viewed mentioned the practice might be harmful in any way.

One young woman touts the benefits of beauty sleep as the reason to imprison her lips each night.

“I tape my mouth shut every single day. … Sleeping properly is really important to anti-aging and looking and feeling your best.”

Despite the downsides of painfully losing facial hair or damaging soft tissue around the mouth, another TikTok video recommends “regular old paper tape.”

“I know there’s lots of fancy mouth-taping tapes on the market but you don’t need it. You just need this little square right here across the lip.”

All of this could be written off as silly, except one video appears to breed another as people pick up the challenge. One woman couldn’t even recall why she started taping her mouth at night:

“Truth be told, I don’t know. I saw on TikTok and I can’t remember what the benefits were. But it helps me stay asleep!”

Dangers of mouth breathing

As with many things “discovered” by TikTok presenters, mouth taping isn’t new. People have been searching for years for ways to shut their mouth at night, and with good reason. Mouth breathing can lead to snoring and excessive thirst at night, as well as dry mouth and bad breath in the morning. Over time, breathing this way is linked to gum disease and malocclusion, where the upper and lower teeth don’t align.

In childhood, when the tendency to breathe via the mouth often starts, the condition can lead the child to develop a “mouth breathing face” — a narrowed face with receding chin or jaw, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Children are also at risk for developing obstructive sleep apnea, which has been linked to learning difficulties and behavioral problems in childhood.

Journalist James Nestor allowed scientists to stop up his nose with silicone and surgical tape for 10 days in order to see just what mouth breathing would do to his health. As he described in his book “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art,” the impact was shockingly fast. He developed obstructive sleep apnea, his blood pressure, pulse and heart rate shot up and his blood oxygen levels plummeted, sending his brain into a murky fog.

“We had no idea it was going to be that bad,” Nestor told CNN in 2020. “The snoring and sleep apnea was so dramatic, and it came on so quickly, that everyone was pretty floored.”

Why nose breathing is best

Breathing via the nostrils is healthier, experts say. Fine hairs in your nose called cilia filter out dust, allergens, germs and environmental debris. Nose breathing also moisturizes incoming air, while dry air breathed in through the mouth can irritate the lungs, Dasgupta said.

“Nasal breathing may lower blood pressure by increasing nitride oxide, a compound in your body that can be helpful for keeping your blood pressure under control,” he added.

In addition, breathing through the nose is relaxing, which is why it is often recommended, along with yoga and meditation, as a way to promote sleep.

Check first for sleep apnea

If, however, you decide you do want to give mouth taping a try, don’t tape your mouth horizontally like you’re the hostage of a serial killer — even TikTok users stress that. Just a bit of tape placed vertically over the lips is supposed to work.

One small March study, however, found people who did that just replaced mouth breathing with “mouth puffing,” in which the research participants puffed air in and out of their mouths on each side of the tape.

Overall, the “most important message” is to first be evaluated for obstructive sleep apnea before you try sleeping with your mouth taped, Dasgupta said.

Obstructive sleep apnea has been linked to hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, even an early death. Max Pepper/CNN

“Once obstructive sleep apnea is ruled out completely, then we can call it snoring,” he said. “Also, there are many other options to address snoring beside mouth taping such as nasal strips, nasal dilators and mouth (and) throat and tongue exercises.”

Avoid sleeping on your back as well, a position that encourages the mouth to fall open and the tongue to fall back into the throat. Pushing air past that blockage is what causes snoring.

Mouth breathing is often linked to allergies, colds and chronic nasal congestion. A deviated septum, which is the cartilage that separates your nostrils can also be a cause — a crooked septum can block your airway. Nasal polyps can do the same, Dasgupta said.

Children may have enlarged adenoids, glands behind the nose that are designed to ward off bacteria and viruses. They shrink with age, so this is not a common cause of mouth breathing for adults, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

All of these underlying medical issues can be handled by a visit to an ear, nose and throat doctor or a sleep specialist who can create a personalized treatment plan for you.

“These issues should be addressed and evaluated first before mouth taping. In my opinion taping your mouth shut is not likely to help you sleep better,” Dasgupta said.

Watch Out for This Clever Credit Card Scam | The Motley Fool

Daniel B. Kline

The Motley Fool

While many people regularly check their credit card bills to make sure that all the charges are correct, others can be lax when it comes to looking over their monthly statements. In addition, since many people pay off their credit cards via an automatic transfer, it's easy for small mistakes to slip through.

Perhaps that's not a big deal if it's a one-time mistake -- maybe a restaurant misreading your handwriting. Not checking your credit card bill, however, could potentially let something more nefarious slip through: small charges for subscriptions that recur each month.

What's happening?

If someone steals your credit card number and runs up a huge bill quickly, it will be obvious to you as well as your credit card provider. That still happens, of course, but some thieves are going for a more subtle approach. They obtain access to a stolen credit card number and use it to create accounts at Spotify, Hulu, Netflix, and other similar services.

These charges are less likely to be noticed by the cardholder. In some cases, they're not paying attention and in others, they may also be a customer of the service, paid for on another card or via another method.

Learn more: Best credit cards of 2023

If you have a Spotify subscription and see a charge from the music service on your credit card, it's easy to overlook and for the criminal to get a long-term free ride. That's bad, but it's not the worst thing that can happen, according to ACI Worldwide Senior Fraud Consultant Seth Ruden.

More: Get your tax refund before you file? Here's why it's happening (it's a scam)

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More: Credit scores: Most Americans have not checked it in 6 months

"It's not uncommon for fraudsters to use subscription merchants for testing cards with small transactions before the real high-dollar fraud takes place," he wrote in an email to The Motley Fool. "The cost to use one of these inexpensive merchants doesn't eat into available funds on the card and isn't expected to set off alarms when attempted if the merchant is familiar to the user."

Ruden, who has worked with banks and law enforcement to detect and mitigate financial and cyber-crimes since 2004, also shared some variants of this scam to watch out for. He explained that there are markets where hackers can sell working accounts at services like the ones named above.

"Subscription merchants take many forms, including digital content delivery," he wrote."The likelihood of the merchant being attacked is usually a factor of their product's liquidity, either for sale on a secondary market, or into a different payment channel, like a prepaid debit card. Many stored value products can be resold on secondary markets, online auctions, or P2P exchanges."

What can you do?

Check your credit card bill frequently and be skeptical. Even if you see a charge for a service, product, or website you use, make sure that the cost is correct and that the card you're looking at is the one used to pay that bill.

This is a small-time scam that can either pave the way for a big purchase on your card or slowly add up to a lot of money. The easiest way to fix this is to be vigilant. Make checking your credit card statement something you do often -- at least once a week -- and if you see something, alert your card company.

In most cases, you can do this in your credit card provider's app on your smartphone. Most companies even allow you to report fraudulent or questionable charges right from the app or website.

Having to get a new credit card is a hassle, but it's less of a problem than noticing fraud months later or after it becomes a major charge. A little vigilance goes a long way toward keeping these issues small and stopping them quickly.

Daniel B. Kline has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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Velveeta is staging a comeback | CNN Business

New York CNN Business —

In 2020, something incredible happened in the dairy aisle: Velveeta started flying off the shelves.

Sales of the processed cheese product, which food snobs love to hate, have been in decline for years. Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly stressed-out, homebound people wanted Velveeta for their queso, fudge and extra-cheesy mac and cheese. The sudden interest in the brand presented a rare chance to reintroduce itself to new customers, and to those who hadn’t bought Velveeta in years.

“We recognized that as a great business opportunity,” said Kelsey Rice, senior brand communications manager for Velveeta.

Velveeta wanted to make a big swing, not just to boost sales but to establish itself as part of the culture. “We think Velveeta is an iconic brand, and it should be seen and viewed as such,” she said.

To change its image, Velveeta has had to change the way it talks about itself.

That means fewer commercials about affordable, meltable cheese, and more marketing stunts like cheese-scented nail polish and pricey Velveeta martinis.

The Velveeta Veltini is part of Velveeta's new marketing campaign, La Dolce Velveeta. Velveeta

A cheese star is born

Velveeta was born in 1918, according to the Smithsonian magazine. It was the brain child of a Swiss cheese maker named Emil Frey, who developed the product from cheese scraps while working for the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated in 1923, operating out of Monroe, and was purchased by Kraft (KHC) in 1927, according to the piece.

Asked about the brand’s history, a representative pointed to a 2005 book published by Kraft, called “The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Cheese,” which states that Kraft introduced Velveeta in 1928, a year after funding research at Rutgers University about a processed cheese it was developing.

By the late 1920s, Kraft was calling Velveeta a hit.

“Never in the history of our business have we offered the trade a cheese product that has made such an immediate success as Velveeta,” said a 1929 ad aimed at retailers. “It seems to be a perfect product.”

Velveeta's marketing has evolved over the years. Adobe Stock

Not only was Velveeta “delicious” and “healthful,” the ad continued, but it spread “like butter” and melted easily when cooked.

The brand’s marketing evolved with the times. An ad from the 1940s pointed to Velveeta as a smart war-time ingredient, offering a recipe for Velveeta Pudding with Spanish Sauce, “a hearty main dish that saves you ration points.”

A 1950s ad suggested to young mothers that “while you’re weight-watching, and also trying to get your needed supply of milk nutrients, make your desserts Velveeta and fresh fruit.”

By the 1970s, Velveeta was a global phenomenon. A 1976 New York Times article called Velveeta a “worldwide favorite,” adding that Kraft’s foreign sales grew 12% from 1974 to 1975, thanks in part to the product.

In the following decades, American consumption of processed cheese continued to increase. In 1996, it hit a peak of 8.75 pounds of consumption per capita, according to the USDA. Then things took a turn.

Not a food, but a product

Two decades ago, consumption started to fall. People worried about the health impacts of highly processed foods, and started eating more natural cheese.

To make matters worse for Velveeta, in 2002 the FDA sent a letter to Kraft warning that it could not use the term “pasteurized processed cheese spread” to describe Velveeta because it is made with milk protein concentrate. So Velveeta went from a cheese spread to a cheese product — today, the company still makes Velveeta with milk protein concentrate and calls it a pasteurized recipe cheese product.

As consumer attitudes changed, Velveeta began to evolve its advertising. Commercials showed Velveeta being used to create an easy side dish, like cheese dip suitable for a party, rather than dinner.

Velveeta shells on a supermarket shelf last year. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Even as it changed its marketing approach, Velveeta stuck with a few clear messages. The product is easy to deal with. It’s affordable — Walmart’s website shows a 32-ounce package of Velveeta on sale for about $6.50. And most importantly, it can melt.

Years after processed cheese came on the market, it still melts better than natural cheeses such as cheddar noted Chad Galer, vice president of food safety and product research at Dairy Management Inc., a dairy trade association. Processed cheese contain ingredients that allow it to melt into a type of gel when it heats up, he explained. When natural cheese heats up, oil seeps out, giving it that globby texture.

“We’re trying to make natural cheese melt like Velveeta,” Galer said. “But we haven’t unlocked that yet.”

That unique melting quality has been Velveeta’s advertising focus for most of its life, said Rice. Now, it’s trying something new.

Velveeta nail polish and martinis

In 2018, Velveeta sales fell about 4.5% to $1.1 billion from the year before, according to IRI. In 2019, sales fell again — by about 2.4%.

But, during the pandemic, Velveeta benefited from people’s interest in comfort foods and easy-to-cook meals. In 2020, Velveeta sales surged by nearly 24%.

To take advantage of that movement, the brand developed a new identity. In Rice’s words, “Velveeta exists to make outrageous pleasure a way of life.” The brand updated its logo and launched a new ad campaign, La Dolce Velveeta, to support the change.

Someone eats ice cream out of an ice cream cone in the La Dolce Velveeta commercial. Velveeta

Then came the stunts.

In June, Velveeta started selling a cheese-scented nail polish. More recently it unveiled the Veltini — a Velveeta martini made with cheese-infused vodka and sold at some restaurants, or online.

The nail polish got some good reviews. The Veltini… not so much.

One Washington Post writer who ordered the drink at a restaurant said it looked “like a deranged cheese monster, with olives as beady eyes and a dripping Velveeta cheese rim as a lopsided mouth.” The Today Show’s Hoda Kotb tried it on air, reluctantly, and was not a fan. “Yuck,” she said, “No, girl, no.” Her co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, said it wasn’t bad.

Bad reviews don’t really matter for Velveeta, which is often the butt of the joke.

“Overall, we’re really pleased with the way the world has received the Velveeta Veltini,” said Rice. The most important thing is to get people to think about Velveeta again.

When brands make splashy marketing moves, “people pay attention,” said Bob Samples, executive-in-residence at Western Michigan University, where he teaches students about food and consumer goods marketing. “They go to the store, they remember the name, they buy it.”

So far, Velveeta seems to be holding onto that pandemic boost. After dipping 1.1% in 2021, sales are up 3.2% through July of this year, according to IRI.

The way Samples sees it, Velveeta went from benefiting from pandemic trends to the high inflationary environment. Because Velveeta has a long shelf life, it may be more appealing now, as people try to avoid food waste to save money, he said.

Plus, new ad campaign or not, people know what they’re getting when they buy Velveeta.

“People know what to expect,” Samples said. There’s a “comfort feeling that goes with that.”

What's up with the investigations of and lawsuits against Donald ...

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story ran in May.

Washington CNN —

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly nearing a decision on when to announce a 2024 bid to return to the White House, but his legal troubles continue to build – not just with the recent FBI search at Mar-a-Lago.

Multiple federal and state investigations are ongoing regarding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, his handling of confidential documents and his family business.

Civil lawsuits accusing Trump of defamation and spurring on US Capitol rioters also remain on the docket.

Here’s an updated list of notable investigations and lawsuits:

White House documents: Did Trump mishandle classified material?

The search warrant executed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday sent shockwaves through the legal and political worlds and shows the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the handling of classified information is accelerating.

After days of misinformation on the right about the search, fueled by Trump and his allies, Attorney General Merrick Garland broke his silence on Thursday and announced that the department had filed in court a request that the search warrant and property receipt from the search be unsealed.

The Justice Department has been instructed by the court to confer with Trump about its request to unseal certain warrant documents from the FBI Mar-a-Lago search and to tell the court by 3 p.m. ET on Friday if he opposes their release. On Truth Social late Thursday night, Trump said he would “not oppose the release of documents,” adding, “I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents.”

The National Archives, charged with collecting and sorting presidential material, has previously said that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago – including records that may have been classified. In June, federal investigators served a grand jury subpoena and took away sensitive national security documents.

Then, according to sources who spoke to CNN, prosecutors developed evidence that there were potentially classified documents with national security implications remaining at the property and suspicions that Trump’s team wasn’t being entirely forthcoming. That led the FBI to come in on Monday and remove more boxes from the property.

The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the investigation, reported on Thursday that classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items sought by authorities. CNN has not independently confirmed the report.

Any unauthorized retention or destruction of White House documents raises a red flag under a criminal law that prohibits the removal or destruction of official government records, legal experts tell CNN.

Before the search, CNN revealed earlier this month that Trump lawyers and the DOJ were in direct communication regarding his efforts to shield conversations he had while he was president from federal investigators in the department’s January 6 probe.

January 6 and overturning the election: House select committee and Justice Department

The House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack has uncovered dramatic evidence of Trump’s actions before and on January 6, especially efforts to use the levers of government to overturn the election.

As CNN’s Jeremy Herb wrote:

“Over the course of the two months’ worth of hearings, the committee tapped into the hundreds of taped depositions, as well as key witnesses who testified live, to present a devastating case that Trump sought multiple avenues to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election even after he was told he lost, that the former President knew ahead of time January 6 could turn violent, and that he chose not to act when his supporters attacked the Capitol and put the lives of lawmakers – not to mention his own vice president – in danger.”

During the hearings, fingers were pointed at GOP lawmakers and Trump allies who may have tried to help overturn the election and Trump White House officials who failed to stop the former President’s actions.

And dramatically, testimony from a former White House aide described hearing an account of a Trump demand to be driven to the Capitol on January 6 – an account in which Trump was said to have lashed out at Secret Service agents when he was told no.

The Justice Department is watching – and has an investigation of its own – so while there’s an outstanding question if the committee will recommend any charges for DOJ, it’s not a requirement for the feds to act if the committee does make a referral.

Ex-aide was told Trump became irate when stopped from going to Capitol 03:04 - Source: CNN

2020 Election: Efforts to overturn Georgia results

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis is overseeing a special grand jury investigating what Trump or his allies may have done in their efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.

Willis, a Democrat, has informed all 16 of the individuals who signed an “unofficial electoral certificate,” which was ultimately sent to the National Archives in late 2020, that they may be indicted in the probe.

The investigation may be drawing closer to Trump as well. Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is scheduled to appear before the grand jury on August 17.

The probe was launched last year following Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he pushed the Republican to “find” votes to overturn the election results.

Willis has also been digging into Trump’s calls with Raffensperger and another official in the Secretary of State’s office; presentations Giuliani made before state lawmakers that were riddled with election falsehoods; a phone call between South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Raffensperger; and the sudden resignation of Byung “BJay” Pak, the US attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, is looking at an aspect of a plot to put forward fake GOP electors from seven states.

Fake certificates were created by Trump allies in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico, who sought to replace valid presidential electors from their states with a pro-Trump slate.

Hear why Trump is targeting a Wisconsin GOP lawmaker 02:21 - Source: CNN

Trump Organization: NY AG criminal and civil investigation

Trump this week took the Fifth at his deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation of his namesake business in response to hundreds of questions.

The investigation is nearing the end and James’ office said it needed to question the Trump family to determine who had responsibility for the financial statements at the center of the investigation. Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump also recently were deposed and did answer questions. Eric Trump was questioned in 2020 and declined to answer more than 500 questions.

James, a Democrat, has previously said her office uncovered “significant” evidence “indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage and tax deductions.”

The investigation also includes the role of the company’s long-time appraiser Cushman & Wakefield. (The company denies any wrongdoing.)

Trump has decried the investigation as politically motivated.

“When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and the Fake News Media, you have no choice” but to invoke the Fifth Amendment, Trump said Wednesday.

Trump Organization: NY DA criminal investigation

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg inherited that office’s probe into Trump’s businesses, but it has slowed significantly.

Prosecutors were focusing on the accuracy of the Trump Organization’s financial statements when seeking financing, people familiar with the matter have told CNN.

Earlier this year, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, two senior prosecutors on the team, resigned after Bragg informed them that he wasn’t prepared to move forward with criminal charges, CNN’s Kara Scannell reported.

A special grand jury hearing evidence in the case expired in April, but a new one could be seated in the future.

Bragg has maintained the investigation is ongoing and prosecutors are reviewing new evidence. He said he will issue a public statement or an indictment when it’s completed.

Personal finances: Litigation with niece Mary Trump

Trump and his niece Mary are in court over her cut of a 2001 family settlement.

In 2020, Mary Trump sued Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired judge, and the executor of her late uncle Robert Trump’s estate, alleging “they designed and carried out a complex scheme to siphon funds away from her interests, conceal their grift, and deceive her about the true value of what she had inherited.”

Meanwhile, the former President is suing his niece and The New York Times in New York state court over the disclosure of his tax information.

Defamation: Suit over Trump’s denial of rape claims by E. Jean Carroll

Magazine writer E. Jean Carroll alleged Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid 1990s and defamed her when he denied the rape, said she was not his type and alleged she made the claim to boost sales of her book.

Trump and the Justice Department say Trump was a federal employee and his statements denying Carroll’s allegations were made in response to reporters’ questions while he was at the White House. They argue the Justice Department should be substituted as the defendant, which, because the government cannot be sued for defamation, would end the lawsuit.

A federal judge denied that effort. DOJ and Trump appealed the ruling, and no decision has been made.

Trump lost an attempt to countersue earlier this year.

Michael Cohen: Claims of retaliation against Trump and Barr

Trumps’ former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is suing Trump, former Attorney General William Barr and others, alleging they put him back in jail to prevent him from promoting his upcoming book while under home confinement.

Cohen was serving the remainder of his sentence for lying to Congress and campaign violations at home, due to Covid-19 concerns, when he started a social media campaign in summer 2020. In retaliation, Cohen says he was sent back to prison and spent 16 days in solitary.

A hearing was held in early August on Trump’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit; a ruling has not yet been issued.

Tax returns: Will Congress see them?

Democratic lawmakers are still trying to get hold of Trump’s tax records from the Internal Revenue Service.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with a House Ways and Means Committee request – originally made in 2019 – to obtain the returns, upholding a ruling from a Trump-nominated district court judge.

But Trump can appeal to the full circuit court or to the Supreme Court, and so far he has not shied away from throwing all legal arguments forward to prevent his tax records from being released to Congress or state investigators.

January 6: Lawsuits by police officers

Several members of the US Capitol Police and Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police are suing Trump, saying his words and actions incited the riot. Their cases were merged with a similar case filed by Democratic lawmakers.

The various cases accuse Trump of directing assault and battery; aiding and abetting assault and battery; and violating local Washington, DC, laws that prohibit incitement of riots and disorderly conduct.

A federal judge in February said Trump’s statements to his supporters before the riot are “the essence of civil conspiracy,” and lawsuits by the police officers have been allowed to proceed. Trump is challenging the judge’s ruling in a federal appeals court.

Trump and his top advisers have not been charged with any crimes. Trump and others who are sued have argued they are not responsible for the actions of the people who stormed the Capitol.

Peter Strzok lawsuit

Former top FBI counter-intelligence official Peter Strzok, who was terminated by the FBI in 2018 after the revelation of anti-Trump texts Strzok exchanged with a top lawyer at the bureau, Lisa Page, has sued DOJ alleging he was improperly terminated. Strzok is now seeking to depose Trump for the case, though the judge has not said yet how she’ll rule on a DOJ request to block the deposition.

Strzok and Page were constant targets of verbal attacks by Trump and his allies as part of the larger ire Trump expressed toward the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation. Trump repeatedly and publicly called for Strzok’s ouster until Strzok was fired in August 2018.

Biden has until mid-October to determine whether he will assert executive privilege and hinder Strzok’s effort to obtain testimony from Trump.

Tesla, GM buyers would get EV tax credits again under Democrats ...

CNN —

Under a new green energy bill agreed to by Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin, automakers like Tesla and General Motors would regain the ability to offer federal tax credits to customers who buy their electric vehicles.

Hurdles to the bill’s passage remain, but if it becomes law it could cut the price of electric cars for many Americans, which are relatively more expensive than gasoline vehicles, by reviving tax credits for some manufacturers’ vehicles and introducing a new one as well.

Under current regulations, buyers of electric vehicles get a $7,500 tax credit when purchasing an electric vehicle, but that full credit is limited to the first 200,000 electric vehicles sold by any given manufacturer. After that, the tax credit amount is reduced over the subsequent year and finally phased out altogether. The tax credits, and the cap on sales, also apply to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

The proposed legislation would remove the 200,000 vehicle-per-manufacturer cap, in a win for some of the biggest names in the EV market. Automakers like Tesla and GM that have already sold more than 200,000 electric cars can no longer offer the tax credits, essentially raising the price of their vehicles compared to competitors. Other automakers are close to losing access to the credits, too. Toyota, for instance, can currently only offer reduced tax credits.

“We remain hopeful that Congress will advance legislation to address energy and economic security that includes a modification to the EV tax credit removing the per-[automaker] cap,” said GM spokesman Matt Ybarra. “We will review the draft text and look forward to working with Congress on these provisions that would ensure a level playing field for all [automakers].”

The proposed legislation would put more limits on the vehicles that qualify for the credits, though. For instance, there are requirements for the vehicles and batteries to be manufactured, at least in large part, in North America. At least 50% of the battery components must be made in North America, which rises 10% a year to 100% of battery components by 2029.

Also, there are limits on income for buyers to quality for the tax credits. They can have taxable income of no more than $300,000 annually for those filing jointly, or $150,000 for those filing as individuals.

Also, there are price caps on the vehicles that will qualify. For plug-in trucks, vans and SUVs, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price must be no more than $80,000; for all other types of vehicles, like sedans and sports cars, the price limit would be $55,000.

Rules that distinguish between different vehicles types, for purposes of Environmental Protection Agency regulations, can be somewhat opaque, however. This allows automakers to make vehicles that may appear similar to a wagon but actually qualify legally as SUVs. The Subaru Outback, for instance qualifies as an SUV thanks, in part, to its higher-than-ordinary ride height, despite its perception among some as a wagon. The Honda HR-V and Nissan Rogue Sport, on the other hand, are classified by the EPA as compact wagons. The bill calls for the creation of rules that would be similar to those used by the EPA.

One of the most important changes, though, is that EV buyers wouldn’t have to wait until they file their taxes to get the tax credit, said Sam Abuelsamid, an electric vehicle analyst with Guidehouse Insights. Instead, the incentive would be treated like a rebate and applied at the time of purchase at the dealer, he said.

“By taking it off the top, you can actually lower your monthly payment,” he said.

The bill also includes a tax credit for the purchase of a used electric vehicle. Currently, tax credits are only offered for a new EV, something that critics have argued favors the wealthy who can afford expensive brand new vehicles. Under the bill, buyers of previously-owned electric vehicles would be eligible for a $4,000 credit or 30% off the cost of the vehicle, whichever is less. But there are caveats here, too. Used EVs can only cost a maximum of $25,000 to qualify for a tax credit, and only if it’s sold by a licensed car dealer; it must also be the first time the car has been re-sold.

These new tax credit rules, if passed into law, would expire in 2032.

Toyota and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new legislation. Tesla generally does not respond to media inquiries.

The creator of the viral Black fetus image will have his illustrations ...

CNN —

An illustration of a Black fetus in the womb went viral last December with many people commenting on social media that it was the first time they had seen a depiction of a dark-skinned fetus or pregnant woman.

The attention came as a surprise to Chidiebere Ibe, the Nigerian first-year medical student who created the image, and describes it as “just one of my drawings to advocate for diversity in medical illustrations.”

The image started a discussion about a lack of representation in these illustrations – images that are mostly found in textbooks and scientific journals to show medical pathologies and procedures.

Ibe, 25, who is creative director at the Association of Future African Neurosurgeons, has now been invited to have some of his illustrations published in the second edition of a handbook designed to show how a range of conditions appear on dark skin.

“Mind the Gap: A clinical handbook of signs and symptoms in Black and Brown Skin,” was first published in 2020. Co-author Malone Mukwende, a medical student in London, wrote over email that “Chidiebere’s work … unearths some of the biases that exist in medicine in plain sight that we may not be aware of. Representation in healthcare is imperative to ensure that we do not allow implicit biases to cultivate in our heads.”

Ibe, who earned a chemistry degree in Nigeria and is now studying medicine in Ukraine, only began his medical illustrations in 2020. He has already created images depicting anatomy and a range of conditions, such as the skin disorder vitiligo, cold sores, a chest infection and spinal injuries, all in Black people.

Medical student and illustrator Chidiebere Ibe. Chidiebere Ibe

Ibe says that a lack of illustrations of skin conditions in Black skin makes it hard for medical students to diagnose them. Mukwende hopes that together they can create “the blueprint for the world” in terms of what diverse medical textbooks should look like and that “Mind the Gap” will be known as “the go-to textbook for representation of a variety of skin tones.”

A “big gap” in representation

Dr. Jenna Lester, an assistant professor in the department of Dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco, describes Ibe’s illustrations as “incredible.”

Lester is director of the university’s Skin of Color program, which provides a space for Black, Asian, Latinx and indigenous people to understand conditions that affect them and become more comfortable seeking care. She says she realized that there was a “big gap” in representation in dermatology back when she was a student, and a lecturer told the class a certain condition would look different in dark skin, but not how the condition would appear. Lester says that she is “grateful” that now “people are actually responding and recognizing it as a big problem and making changes to address it.”

Chidiebere Ibe started creating medical illustrations in 2020, and depicts a range of conditions and anatomy, all in Black people. Chidiebere Ibe

“I think it’s important to increase representation across the board because … who knows what young mind this inspires when they see themselves represented in this way, who might be inspired to go into science or become a physician or nurse or something like that, by seeing themselves depicted in these illustrations?” she adds.

Studies have shown this lack of diversity. A 2014 study by researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia examined gender bias in anatomy textbooks and found that of more than 6,000 images with an identifiable sex published between 2008 and 2013 in 17 textbooks, the vast majority were White and just over a third were female. About 3% showed disabled bodies and 2% featured elderly people.

Covid-19 has exposed healthcare disparities

In some Western countries, people of color have been disproportionately affected by the Covid pandemic. Research by the CDC found that racial and ethnic minority groups have had higher rates of hospitalization and emergency care for Covid-19 than White people in the US.

Lester says that “Covid-19 has highlighted a lot of issues of disparities, and that has led us to think about disparities and all the ways that they show up, including in dermatology.”

The vast majority of images in anatomy textbooks are of White people. Ibe is working on a textbook on birth defects in children, which he says will be illustrated with Black skin images. Chidiebere Ibe

Lester co-authored a research letter published in the British Journal of Dermatology in May 2020 which found that scientific articles describing the skin manifestations of Covid-19 “almost exclusively show(ed) clinical images from patients with lighter skin,” with no published photos of the manifestations in dark skin. It noted that this may make it more difficult for dermatologists and the public to identify the virus.

This is compounded by the issue of some medical equipment not working as effectively on people with darker skin tones. Pulse oximeters, which measure a patient’s oxygen level by using light and a sensor to detect the color of the blood, and which have been increasingly used during the pandemic, have been found to provide less accurate readings on darker skin. If they are not calibrated for darker skin tones, the pigmentation could affect how the light is absorbed.

“It’s not just about the skin conditions,” says Ibe. “It’s just about giving everybody the value that they deserve. Black, White, Asian – let’s all have equal healthcare that we deserve.”

A network of African medical illustrators

Despite making up an eighth of the world’s population, Africa accounted for less than 1% of global research output between 2012 and 2016. Even in Nigeria, White skin images dominate the medical literature, says Ibe. His goal is to help remedy that by setting up a network of African medical illustrators.

Ibe plans to become a pediatric neurosurgeon and is also working on a textbook on birth defects in children, which will be illustrated with Black skin images.

“I want it to be a norm that whenever a person searches online for a particular skin condition, a particular health challenge, that the first pop-ups are Black illustrations or are illustrations of people of color,” he says.

Getting your Covid booster and flu shot at the same time: everything ...

CNN —

Fall and winter are around the corner, which means not only is it time to get your flu shot, but US health officials are urging everyone who is eligible to get their updated Covid-19 booster, too.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the updated Covid-19 vaccine boosters this month, after the US Food and Drug Administration’s authorization. The updated Pfizer/BioNTech booster is authorized for people 12 and older, and Moderna’s is authorized for 18 and older.

At the same time, health officials stress the recommendation to get your seasonal flu vaccine. Some disease forecasters worry that the upcoming flu season could be a tough one for North America, as nations in the Southern Hemisphere that already had their flu seasons – like Australia and New Zealand – saw higher-than-average peaks in cases. So, the United States could see flu make a comeback while Covid-19 is still circulating at higher levels.

Barring any new and concerning coronavirus variants, some officials predict that the updated Covid-19 shots could be the start of recommended boosters for Americans each year, similar to how updated annual flu vaccines are given.

“For a majority of Americans, one shot a year will provide a very high degree of protection against serious illness, and that’s what we’ve got to be focused on,” Dr. Ashish Jha, White House coronavirus response coordinator, told CNN last week. “Maybe for some high-risk people – the elderly, the immunocompromised – they may need protection more than once a year, but for a majority of Americans, that’s where it is, and I think that’s a really good place to be.”

Where and when to get Covid-19 booster and flu shot

The updated Covid-19 vaccine booster and seasonal flu vaccines are available at most pharmacies, doctor’s offices and health care clinics.

Not only are US health officials encouraging people to get both shots this year, some local public health departments are planning to schedule joint vaccine clinics, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

“Jurisdictions are going to be standing up joint flu and Covid vaccine clinics and other opportunities for people to get both their flu vaccine and their Covid updated booster together,” Freeman said, adding that there is “no problem at all” with getting both shots at or around the same time.

The hope is for joint clinics to make it more convenient and accessible for people to get their vaccinations – but not everyone might be interested or even eligible to get both vaccines at the same time. Plus, some say it’s still early to get a flu shot.

A single dose of the updated Covid-19 booster is recommended at least two months after the initial vaccine series or your most recent booster.

“Now, suppose you’ve recovered from Covid – and many people of course have had Covid this summer – wait three months, at least,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He added that it’s important to get your booster as soon as you are eligible.

“It’s clear that whether you’re vaccinated or you’ve had Covid, if you get this booster, you will get much higher levels of antibody and they are thought to help us get more prolonged protection,” he said. “The other thing that happens is that the immune system responds more broadly, and it looks as though we will get more broad coverage against other variants.”

As for the flu shot, the recommended timing of vaccination for this flu season is similar to last season, according to the CDC’s website.

“For most people who need only one dose for the season, September and October are generally good times to get vaccinated,” according to the CDC, adding that while “ideally” it’s recommended to get vaccinated by the end of October, vaccination after October can still provide protection during the peak of flu season.

“The ideal time is during the month of October and maybe the first couple of weeks of November – and the reason I say that is, particularly for older people and people who are frail, that will help their protection extend well through February into March, and that’s when flu often peaks in the United States in February,” Schaffner said. “Everyone ages 6 months and older should get influenza vaccine.”

As for children younger than 12, who are not eligible for the updated Covid-19 booster, Schaffner said parents should focus on getting their youngsters vaccinated with the primary series or booster they can get now.

“I would say, maintain the current schedule,” he said. “Because it’s quite clear the original still does a good job in protecting us against hospitalizations and more severe disease.”

Schaffner added that some people have asked him whether the Covid-19 vaccine protects against flu or vice versa. They do not.

“You do have to get both vaccines,” he said. “The Covid vaccine will not protect against flu. The flu vaccine will not protect against Covid.”

Bracing for possible Covid-19 surge

Last week, the Biden administration announced its plan to manage Covid-19 this fall as there is the potential for an increase in infections, in part due to waning immunity from vaccines and infection.

“Additionally, as the weather gets colder and people spend more time indoors, contagious viruses like COVID-19 can spread more easily,” the announcement says. “And, as we saw last fall with the emergence of Omicron, we must continue to stay prepared for the possibility of a potential new variant of concern.”

The White House continues to call on Congress to pass additional funding for Covid-19 response, having asked for an updated $22.4 billion last week. GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said that passing that funding would be “a very hard lift.”

The administration’s plan to manage Covid-19 this fall includes focusing on encouraging updated booster vaccinations and making them easy to access, as well as ensuring that people have easy access to at-home rapid tests and treatments. That includes the purchase of 100 million additional at-home rapid tests from domestic manufacturers, the White House said.

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The US Department of Health and Human Services “will launch a paid media campaign aimed at increasing COVID-19 vaccination, with a focus on those over age 50, as well as Black, Hispanic, rural, Asian American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native audiences through TV, radio, digital and print outlets.”

The administration is also boosting “easy access to Covid-19 testing and treatments” but warned, “While the lack of additional COVID-19 funding from Congress puts constraints on what we are able to do, the Administration will do everything in its power to ensure that tests and treatments remain widely available and easy to access, and will encourage Americans to use them.”

Electric vehicle sales hit a tipping point in 2022 | CNN Business

CNN —

Next time you’re circling a full parking lot, try to remember what you saw in it just a couple of years ago. Things are different, now. There are a lot more electric vehicles and they aren’t just Teslas anymore, either.

“It’s not your eyes tricking you,” said Matt Degen, an editor at Cox Automotive, a company that owns a number of auto-related websites and firms. “For the longest time, the majority of the EVs on the road were Teslas, and they still get the lion’s share of sales, but they’re now hardly the only game in town.”

Electric vehicles accounted for 5.6% of all new vehicles sold last year, according to Kelley Blue Book. That may not sound like a lot, but as recently as 2019 that figure was just 1.4%. Based on the experience in other global markets – particularly Norway – 5% market share seems to be an important tipping point for wider adoption, said BloombergNEF researcher Corey Cantor. Other markets, such as China and Europe overall, have shown similar trends, according to data provided by BloombergNEF. Bloomberg includes plug-in hybrids in its count of “electric vehicles,” but a large majority are purely battery-powered models.

It’s unclear exactly why 5% seems to mark the point where EV sales really take off. It could be that it marks the level at which something begins to seem normal. The overall US market share for Hyundai, for example, is about the same as the market share for electric vehicles, according to Cox Automotive, and buying a Hyundai doesn’t seem like anything weird or unusual. It’s getting to be the same for electric vehicles: It’s no longer uncommon to see them on the roads which makes it easier to consider getting one.

Now, electric vehicles just need to become easier to buy.

“I think now the demand is definitely there,” said Cantor. “It’s just been more a supply side problem of automakers not being able to ship enough.”

A problem with supply, not demand

The global auto industry has been dealing with parts supply problems that have slowed production of all sorts of vehicles. But a number of electric models have also proven to be popular beyond what their manufacturers were prepared for.

The Mustang Mach-E, which hit the market in in 2021, was the first electric vehicle to take a notable chunk of Tesla’s still-dominant EV market share. Ford is still struggling to make enough to meet demand. Every one of the more than 150,000 Mach-Es that Ford has produced so far was built for a specific customer order, with none being made just to fill dealer lots, said Darren Palmer, Ford’s vice president of electric vehicle programs.

“We could sell it out at least two or three times over,” he said. “We have held back from launching more global markets because we’re completely sold out.”

Since then, Ford also came out with the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of the best-selling vehicle in America, the F-series pickup truck. Ford is already expanding the new Dearborn, Michigan, factory where the Lightning is built, pouring more concrete to stretch floor space even while trucks are being assembled inside.

More price points

The variety of EVs available for sale has also been increasing.

In 2019, there were 11 EV models selling more than 1,000 units, according to Kelley Blue Book. This year, there were 26. Hyundai and Kia, which already had EVs on the market – albeit not terribly exciting ones – came out with the radically designed Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6. Rivian rolled out the R1T truck and R1S SUV. And General Motors saw a huge run of sales for its Bolt EV and Bolt EUV once they returned to the market following a battery fire recall. Luxury brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Genesis and Volvo have also added EVs to the market.

“There’s different segments, there’s different price levels,” said Degen. “It’s not just having to spend $50,000 or $100,000 on an EV anymore.”

Less expensive electric vehicles are also getting better with longer driving ranges and faster charging, said Tony Quiroga, editor-in-chief of Car and Driver. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, which has a starting price around $41,000, earned Car and Driver’s Electric Vehicle of the Year award this year.

“It’ll go from 10% to 80% on a fast charger in 18 minutes,” Quiroga said, “which is something that only the luxury brands were doing.”

Unclear impact of Inflation Reduction Act

The even greater variety of electric vehicles coming onto the market next year, combined with easing of production problems that hampered overall auto production this year, should help EV sales climb even more – though there some unknowns.

Take gas prices, for example. The spike in costs to fuel up at the pump earlier this year “drove people to to become aware of the [electric] vehicles even if they weren’t thinking about them before,” said Jessica Caldwell, an industry analyst with Edmunds.com.

But gas prices have also fallen significantly in recent months, which could reduce the urgency some drivers feel to make the switch to electric in 2023.

The impact of the Inflation Reduction Act is also still unclear. The act, passed this year, changes the rules around which electric vehicles are eligible for consumer tax credits. It places limits on the price of the vehicle and on the income of buyer; there are also requirements designed to promote domestic production of electric vehicles and their batteries.

The key question isn’t just how many EV models will qualify but which ones, said BloombergNEF’s Cantor.

“So, if a Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt, and the Tesla Model Y, and a Ford Mach-E and an F-150 Lightning all qualify, those are high volume vehicles,” he said.

Given their popularity and already high sales, incentive rules could help push EV sales significantly higher.


Liverpool 7 Man Utd 0: 'welcome to Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool 2.0 ...

To put it simply, Liverpool’s 7-0 win over Manchester United was an annihilation. Jürgen Klopp’s side put on a masterclass at Anfield yesterday, scoring six goals in the second half as they condemned the Red Devils to the joint-heaviest defeat in their history.

In what was a tight first-half, Liverpool broke the deadlock two minutes before the break through Dutch forward Cody Gakpo. But in the second period, Klopp’s men delivered the “complete performance” with Darwin Núñez (two), Gapko’s second, Mohamed Salah (two), and Roberto Firmino leaving United “overwhelmed at a joyous Anfield”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. With his brace, Salah also became Liverpool’s record Premier League goalscorer. The Egyptian has now scored 129 goals in 205 league appearances.

For Liverpool, the victory puts them within three points of the top four – they also have a game in hand on fourth-placed Tottenham. For United, the lows of this shocking defeat came just a week after the highs of ending their six-year trophy drought when lifting the Carabao Cup at Wembley.

‘The strike force awakens’

Since becoming Liverpool manager in 2015, Klopp has led the club to success and completed the “full set” of major trophies: Premier League (2019-20); FA Cup (2021-22), League Cup (2021-22), Uefa Champions League (2018-19), Uefa Super Cup (2019), and Fifa Club World Cup (2019).

Despite the trophy haul, in recent seasons Klopp’s first Liverpool team has looked “aged” and it has been “reasonable to ask whether he was equipped to build another”, said Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian. One game is “nowhere near enough to assert that a new Liverpool is being born”, but it felt a “lot closer at the final whistle than it had at kick-off”.

The front three – Gakpo, Núñez and Salah – all scored twice, but “the goals were only part of it”. The trio had a “coherence and a zip” that has “been rare this season”. While there is “clearly still work to be done”, there is the sense that a front three of Salah, Núñez and Gakpo “could represent a viable future”.

Welcome to Klopp’s “Liverpool 2.0” – “the strike force awakens”, said Chris Bascombe in The Telegraph. The Reds have endured a “turbulent season”, but the reinvention of Gakpo and Núñez “assumes their status in a new era”, while Salah has reprised his role as the “ultimate goalscoring weapon”.

Grealish looks for big finish to tough first season at City

AP

To some, he was a luxury signing, adding unnecessary competition in a squad that had a more pressing concern elsewhere.

To others, his arrival was important in bringing, over time, a new dimension to the team’s attacking play.

Seven months on and still there’s no clear winner in the debate over whether Manchester City was right to spend a British-record fee of $135 million to sign Jack Grealish from Aston Villa in the offseason.

The next few weeks, however, could help to sway things one way or the other.

Firstly — and City manager Pep Guardiola won’t like this — let’s look at the stats.

Grealish has featured in 17 of City’s 27 English Premier League games this season, setting up two goals and scoring two himself — in a 5-0 win over Norwich and then in a 7-0 thrashing of Leeds.

In all competitions, it’s four goals in 26 games as part of the attack of one of the most lethal teams in European soccer.

Grealish has said he should be doing better — “at first,” he said a few weeks before Christmas, “I thought I’d have more of the ball, get more assists and goals but it doesn’t work like that at all" — though Guardiola has suggested it would be a “mistake” for the England international to read too much into the numbers.

“Statistics are just a bit of information that we have,” Guardiola said this week, “but there are players that make the team play good and are not in the statistics.”

Grealish has always been one of those players. He’s never been a prolific scorer — netting 32 goals in 213 appearances for Villa, his boyhood club — but more of a creator and an instigator of attacks, pulling defenders out of position to open up space for teammates.

And he has done that for City, if not so glaringly as he did for Villa, where he didn’t encounter as many teams operating with packed defenses.

Publicly, Guardiola is happy with his big summer signing.

“We didn’t buy him to score 45 goals,” the City manager said. “He doesn’t have that quality but he has another one.

“He’s playing good, really. I would tell you if he’s not playing good, but that’s not the case.”

And City hasn’t exactly regressed with Grealish. The team leads the Premier League and is on course to retain the title, even if a rejuvenated Liverpool is pushing hard sitting six points behind with a game in hand. City is all but through to the Champions League quarterfinals and also will be in the draw for the FA Cup quarterfinals on Thursday.

It was a career-changing move for Grealish, who came from being a big fish in a small pond at Villa to operating as one of the many stars of an elite, trophy-chasing side. Dealing with the expectations stemming from the price tag should be factored in, too.

But perhaps the most telling question heading into the Manchester derby against United on Sunday is whether Grealish has established himself as part of City’s best team. And coming toward the end of his first season at Etihad Stadium, that’s still open for debate.

He has started in City’s biggest league games this season, against Liverpool away and twice against Chelsea, and at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

Yet, currently, he might be behind Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez in the fight for a place in City’s ideal front three, even if Guardiola mostly takes a horses-for-courses approach.

City fans might only see the best of Grealish from next season. And there's still a chance he comes alive in the final 2 1/2 months of this campaign when all the big titles are on the line. That, after all, is why he joined City.

The technically excellent goal he scored against Peterborough in the FA Cup on Tuesday was a demonstration of his undoubted ability.

But the feeling is inescapable that Guardiola made a mistake in prioritizing the transfer of yet another versatile attacker in Grealish over a center forward such as Harry Kane, who City looked into signing from Tottenham but wasn’t prepared to pay enough.

Just as Kane is hitting his best form this season — see his stunning individual performance in the 3-2 win over City last month — Grealish is still scratching around for his.

Should City get caught by Liverpool in the Premier League title race and fail again to win the Champions League for the first time, the focus invariably will be on how City went into a season without a premium, out-and-out goalscorer to make the difference in tight, big matches.

Instead, Guardiola indulged himself in bringing in Grealish, a player he didn't really need.

That's the narrative that could ultimately shape City's season.

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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

Liverpool takes control of Champions League semifinal after ...

CNN —

Liverpool produced an impressive performance to beat Villarreal 2-0 in its Champions League semifinal first leg on Wednesday.

Jurgen Klopp’s side was at its devastating best to take full control of the tie, striking twice in the second half to take a healthy advantage into the second leg in Spain next week.

Despite all its possession and chances, Liverpool needed a fortuitous goal to break the deadlock – Jordan Henderson’s cross was deflected over goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli in the 53rd minute.

But once ahead, Liverpool started purring and had doubled its lead 133 seconds later and this time there was no luck involved.

Sadio Mane timed his run to perfection and poked his effort under the goalkeeper after latching onto a pass from his partner in crime Mohamed Salah.

The pair were in brilliant form against a Villarreal side that looked exhausted at full-time after a brutal evening in a boisterous Anfield Stadium.

Sadio Mane scores Liverpool's second goal. Catherine Ivill/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

Despite his team’s impressive showing, manager Jurgen Klopp was keen to play down the importance of the first-leg result with another 90 minutes left to play in the tie.

“We know we go there and it will be a tricky atmosphere for us and different from tonight,” he said.

“Their players, you saw it, they fight with all they have and what I like is that everybody could see that we fought with all we have.

“It’s always the same. If they beat us with a result that brings them to the final, then they deserve it and if not then we deserve it.”

‘Best team I’ve ever seen in a red shirt’

But not everyone was as understated as Klopp, with former players and pundits eulogizing over this Liverpool team, which is chasing an unprecedented quadruple this season of the Champions League, FA Cup and Premier League title, to add to the League Cup it has already won.

Former Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand put rivalries aside to argue this was the best Liverpool team he had seen.

“They’re relentless. We can talk about how great they are individually but it’s the way they press teams, the energy, the effort, the application. You sit here and just marvel at it,” he said, working as a pundit on BT Sport.

The club’s former striker Michael Owen agreed, saying: “It was just total, total dominance from Jurgen Klopp’s men. As Rio said, it’s the best team I’ve ever seen in a red shirt.”