By ALEXA ST. JOHN

DETROIT (AP) — Chinese automakers have been making inroads around the world with growing sales of their high-tech, stylish and affordable electric vehicles. That has had competitors concerned even before Canada this week agreed to cut its tariffs on Chinese EVs in exchange for concessions on Canadian farm products.

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Experts now say an easier path into Canada could be a big boost for Chinese carmakers looking to dominate the global market — particularly as their domestic market weakens. That poses a threat to other auto manufacturers, particularly American companies.

U.S. officials acknowledged that in remarks at an assembly plant for Jeep-maker Stellantis in Toledo, Ohio on Friday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Chinese Communist Party invests in its auto industry to “control this industry.”

“Why? They want to take over the auto industry. They want to take away these jobs,” Duffy said. As far as the Canadian trade deal, he added: “They will live to regret the day they partner with China and bring in their vehicles.”

Others say the shift is inevitable.

“This is telling us that Chinese automakers continue to be really popular, and are doing better and better, and not just something that’s sold in global markets that are more marginal or less important to U.S. automakers,” said Ilaria Mazzocco, deputy director and senior fellow with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

What makes Chinese vehicles stand out?

Chinese-made vehicles are high-quality, stylish and inexpensive, experts say.

“It’s clear that the vehicles made by Chinese brands come at a very competitive cost, but are also technologically quite desirable,” Mazzocco said. “They tend to be connected vehicles, so they have a lot of additional software capabilities that consumers seem to like. But the price point and the competitiveness are really big selling points.”

These vehicles can cost as little as $10,000 to $20,000; in the U.S., new vehicles are running close to $50,000 on average, and EVs even more so.

Chinese companies also have unique advantages as far as auto manufacturing and production, efficiency and making vehicles lighter, which helps extend an electrified vehicle’s driving range.

“They’ve found a way to make small and mid-sized cars — cars that people want — at a reasonable price,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president at AutoForecast Solutions. “These are the segments where GM and Ford and almost everybody else have abandoned.”

Many automakers have discontinued smaller vehicles in favor of higher-margin, large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks that are far more profitable.

So why are Chinese EVs such a threat to U.S. automakers and others?

Much of the global auto market is electrifying, an ideal opportunity for advanced Chinese automakers to capitalize on. China saw 17% growth in plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles in 2025, according to data released by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence this week, and Europe saw a 33% increase.

Meanwhile, U.S. sales of electrified cars grew just 1% last year. As the rest of the world advances, U.S. automakers have weakened their once-ambitious, multibillion dollar electrification plans, instead opting for more efficient hybrid electric and gasoline vehicles amid the Trump administration’s shift away from EV-friendly policy.

That shift threatens U.S. automakers’ competitive edge in the coming years. As is, Tesla lost its crown as the world’s bestselling electric vehicle maker last year, delivering only 1.64 million vehicles in 2025 to Chinese rival BYD’s 2.26 million.

FILE – Tesla vehicles are displayed at the AutoMobility LA Auto Show, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Trump administration policy slashing emissions rules at a time when Chinese companies are advancing quickly has experts worried for the future of American car manufacturers.

Chinese automakers will have to meet standards required for the Canadian auto market for the latest trade arrangement to be successful — standards that are similar to those in the U.S. — which is likely to incentivize Chinese auto manufacturing investment in Canada.

They’ll also have to establish which segment of the market they are targeting there: Higher-end vehicles, or less-expensive ones that sell at higher volumes.

Regardless, “It brings it home to what is needed to compete globally,” said Mark Wakefield, global automotive market lead at AlixPartners. The firm predicts Chinese brands will account for 30% of the global market by 2030.

“They’ve already started in Europe. They started in South America. Now Mexico and Canada,” Wakefield said. American carmakers “don’t want to end up as a Brazil with your ethanol-based cars that aren’t sellable anywhere else in the world and … like Britain or Australia that used to matter in the auto world, and no longer really matter.”

Why have others sought to regulate Chinese EV-makers’ expansion?

Countries have attempted to regulate Chinese EVs from entering their markets for several reasons.

“China has become this overwhelming machine making inexpensive vehicles. And the fear is that if you give them an inch, they’re going to take a mile,” Fiorani said. “The other issue is technology. These vehicles are data centers… and the idea that a state-owned company in China could have access to where a high portion of drivers are going gives them leverage for all kinds of outlets.”

The European Union hiked tariffs on Chinese EVs last year, though the two have been resolving that at the start of this year.

In 2024, former President Joe Biden set a 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars. Canada matched that import tax on the vehicles until this week. And even with an annual import cap, Canada cutting its tariffs this week means those companies are another step closer to U.S. soil. The Mexican auto market has welcomed Chinese EVs, with massive growth last year.

“The advance of Chinese manufacturers is inevitable. It will happen eventually. Everybody is negotiating to put up the roadblocks to figure out: What data is being processed, how much market share you’re going to allow Chinese manufacturers to have?” Fiorani added.

“There are a lot of guardrails that have to be put up, but eventually they’re going to make their way into all Western markets.”

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was ready to restart U.S. mediation efforts between Egypt and Ethiopia with an eye toward resolving long-standing issues of water sharing from the ⁠Nile River.

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Washington-led mediations began during Trump’s first term, but they effectively collapsed in 2020, when Ethiopia withdrew — though some discussions later continued under the African Union.

Ethiopia formally inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD, last fall. As Africa’s largest dam, it is located on the Blue Nile near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan and is meant to produce more than 5,000 megawatts, doubling Ethiopia’s electricity generation capacity.

Ethiopia sees the dam as a boon to its economy. But Egypt opposed its construction, arguing that it would reduce the country’s share of Nile River waters — which it almost entirely relies on for agriculture and to serve its more than 100 million people.

On Sept. 4, before the dam’s inauguration, Tamim Khallaf, spokesperson for the Egyptian foreign ministry, said Ethiopia built the dam “unilaterally without any prior notification, proper consultations, or consensus with downstream countries, thereby constituting a grave violation of international law and posing an existential threat.”

Trump posted on his social media site a letter he sent to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, saying: “I am ‍ready to ‍restart ⁠U.S. ‌mediation between ⁠Egypt ‍and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the ⁠question of ‘The Nile Water Sharing’ once ‌and for all.”

“My team and I understand the significance of the Nile River to Egypt and its people,” Trump wrote.

The president frequently boasts about ending eight wars around the world, though that claim is exaggerated. Egypt and Ethiopia are already on his list of wars he resolved, with Trump maintaining he stopped a conflict that might have led to fighting over issues that included the dam known as GERD.

Trump recently told Fox News that one of the ongoing conflicts that has continued despite his claiming to have stopped it — between Thailand and Cambodia — should actually count more than once.

“I did put out eight wars, eight and a quarter, because, you know, Thailand and Cambodia started going at it again,” he told Sean Hannity last week. The implication was a flare-up in the conflict made it an extra 1/4 of a war — something to watch for as he pushes mediation efforts again in Ethiopia and Egypt.

The St. Thomas women’s hockey team took one on the chin against the No. 1 squad in the land with a 5-1 loss to Wisconsin at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena Friday afternoon.

Chloe Boreen, assisted by Cara Sajevic and Keara Parker, scored the Tommies’ lone goal of the game at 10:28 of the second period.

Unfortunately for the hosts, Wisconsin preceded Boreen’s goal with two scores in the first period and three more in the third to win by four goals.

Tommies goalkeeper Julia Minotti had a busy day in net, making 40 saves. St. Thomas put 14 shorts on Badgers netminder Ava McNaughton.

With the loss, the Tommies fell to 10-13-0 overall on the season, 5-12-0 in WCHA play. Wisconsin continues to lead the conference with a 20-1-2 overall record, 14-1-2 in the circuit.

The two teams play again at 2 p.m. Saturday in St. Paul.

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By DAVE COLLINS

The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is suing his AI company, saying its Grok chatbot allowed users to generate sexually exploitive deepfake images of her that have caused her humiliation and emotional distress.

Ashley St. Clair, 27, who describes herself as a writer and political strategist, alleges in a lawsuit filed Thursday in New York City against xAI that the images have included a photo of her fully dressed at age 14 that was altered to show her in a bikini, and others showing her as an adult in sexualized positions and wearing a bikini with swastikas. St. Clair is Jewish. Grok is on Musk’s social media platform X.

Lawyers and media contacts for xAI did not immediately return emails seeking comment Friday. On Wednesday, following global backlash over sexualized images of women and children, X announced that Grok would no longer be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing, in places where that is illegal.

St. Clair said she reported the deepfakes to X after they began appearing last year and asked that they be removed. She said the platform first replied that the images did not violate its policies. Then it promised to not allow images of her to be used or altered without her consent, she said.

St. Clair said the social platform then retaliated against her by removing her premium X subscription and verification checkmark, not allowing her to make money from her account, which has 1 million followers, and continuing to allow degrading fake images of her.

“I have suffered and continue to suffer serious pain and mental distress as a result of xAI’s role in creating and distributing these digitally altered images of me,” she said in a document attached to the lawsuit. “I am humiliated and feel like this nightmare will never stop so long as Grok continues to generate these images of me.”

She also said she lives in fear of the people who view the deepfakes of her.

St. Clair is the mother of Musk’s 16-month-old son, Romulus. She lives in New York City, where she filed the lawsuit in state Supreme Court. She is seeking an undisclosed amount of damages for alleged infliction of emotional distress and other claims, as well as court orders immediately barring xAI from allowing more deepfakes of her.

Later Thursday, lawyers for xAI transferred the lawsuit to federal court in Manhattan, asking a judge to hear the case there. And the same day, xAI also countersued St. Clair in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, alleging she violated the terms of her xAI user agreement that requires lawsuits against the company be filed in federal court in Texas. It is seeking an undisclosed money judgment against her.

X is based in Texas, where Musk owns a home and his electric automaker Tesla in headquartered in Austin.

Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer for St. Clair, called the countersuit a “jolting” move that she had never seen by a defendant before.

“Ms. St. Clair will be vigorously defending her forum in New York,” Goldberg said in a statement. “But frankly, any jurisdiction will recognize the gravamen of Ms. St. Clair’s claims — that by manufacturing nonconsensual sexually explicit images of girls and women, xAI is a public nuisance and a not reasonably safe product.”

In its announcement on Wednesday, X said it was implementing other safeguards on Grok including limiting image creation and editing to paid accounts, which it said would improve accountability. It said it had zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity and unwanted sexual content, and it would immediately remove such content and report accounts involved in child sex abuse materials to law enforcement.