3. Biden boosts EVs, slams oil companies
Speaking of EVs, President Joe Biden on Wednesday awarded $2.8 billion in grants to boost battery production for the vehicles. The funds, which come from Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure law, will go to companies in at least 12 states. The Energy Department said the projects will help develop lithium to supply about 2 million EVs each year, graphite to supply about 1.2 million EVs annually, and nickel to supply about 400,000 EVs every year. On the flip side, with the midterm elections right around the corner, Biden urged oil companies to invest their profits in more production instead of buybacks. Gas prices are well below their peak from earlier this year, but they’re still high, and voters are worried most about inflation and the economy.
4. Ukraine limits power usage
Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s government imposed nationwide limits on power usage as the country tries to recovery from a new wave of Russian air attacks. Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national energy company, said “constant missile attacks are destroying our energy infrastructure, and energy workers need time to restore it.” Elsewhere, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainian men in regions occuped by Russian forces to resist conscription into Vladimir Putin’s military. His comments came after Putin imposed martial law in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine. Read live war updates here.
5. Anarchy in the UK
Even with a new finance minister in place, along with a revamped economic plan, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government is teetering on the edge of complete failure. After just six weeks on the job, Truss is facing pressure from multiple sides to quit after her government plunged UK markets into chaos with its proposals to cut taxes for the wealthy while the nation deals with high levels of inequality and a cost-of-living crisis. Truss told a heated session of Parliament on Wednesday that she was a “fighter, not a quitter.” But then another member of her Cabinet quit, and one member of her Conservative Party said she only has Thursday and maybe Friday to turn things around.
– CNBC’s Sarah Min, Jonathan Vanian, Emma Newburger, Emma Kinery, Holly Ellyatt and Annie Nova contributed to this report.
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