** They’re ugly as sin, but new U.S. postal delivery trucks are rolling into service. Once fully deployed, they’ll represent one of the most visible signs of the agency’s 10-year, $40 billion transformation led by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who’s also renovating aging facilities, overhauling the processing and transportation network, and instituting other changes.
** Boeing waited to learn Thursday whether 33,000 aircraft assembly workers, most of them in the Seattle area, are going on strike and shutting down production of the company’s best-selling planes.
** Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis will spend $406 million retooling three Michigan factories so they can build electric vehicles or battery parts to support a strategy of making vehicles powered by both gasoline and batteries.
** The cost of electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries plunged by an impressive 90% between 2008 and 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, per recent reporting by CleanTechnica. Better materials, enhanced designs, more efficient manufacturing processes, and ramped-up production all contributed to the marked decline.
** A Canadian man pleads guilty to charges related to shooting at an electric substation and pipeline infrastructure in the Dakotas.
** A California judge strikes down Los Angeles’ oil and gas drilling ban, saying the state has jurisdiction over most of the industry’s operations.
World
** Afghanistan said this week work would begin on a $10 billion gas pipeline traversing South Asia as officials joined dignitaries in neighbouring Turkmenistan to celebrate its completion on that side of the border.
** The Kremlin said this week that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was right to want a thorough investigation into a 2022 attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines despite what it said were attempts by some Western powers to hush up what really happened.
** China’s commerce ministry has warned the country’s carmakers of the risks of making auto-related investments overseas at a recent meeting, said two people briefed about the matter, as they seek global expansion to counter slowing growth in their home market.
** India’s cabinet has approved a scheme to spend 109 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) on incentives for the adoption of electric vehicles in its efforts to curb pollution and move towards cleaner fuels.
** South Korean police have arrested two former Samsung executives suspected of leaking Samsung secrets worth $3.2 billion to China. The authorities reported that one of the arrested suspects, 66-year-old Mr. Choi, set up a joint venture building chips in China alongside some local officials and served as its CEO (via Bloomberg).
