Two Sessions meeting in China begins amid slowing economic growth

US carmakers are struggling to sell electric vehicles while the Chinese market powers ahead because their products are inferior, according to one of the world’s biggest battery materials manufacturers.

Mathias Miedreich, chief executive of Umicore, said sales of Chinese electric cars were surging in contrast to the US due to better performance and affordability.

“They are simply good cars and people buy them,” he said in an interview, referring to Chinese vehicles. “The American ones [producers] seem to struggle to bring good electric vehicles [to market].”

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Hello and welcome to the working week.

US presidential election primary season reaches a peak this week, as delegates in 15 states vote for Republican and Democrat candidates on Super Tuesday. Will this be the moment when Nikki Haley stands down? You can get the latest polling data and news by subscribing to the excellent new US Election Countdown newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday by clicking here. If you want more beamed to your digital device, sign up to the US election channel on WhatsApp.

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies have lashed out at senior minister Benny Gantz for an upcoming visit to the White House, in a sign of growing strains within Israel’s war cabinet and in its relations with Washington.

Gantz, a former defence minister who joined Netanyahu’s coalition in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, said he told the prime minister on Friday of his plans to see senior US officials so that the two could “co-ordinate messaging”.

But in an indication of Netanyahu’s displeasure, the Israeli embassy in Washington was ordered to boycott Gantz’s meetings, according to one person familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s allies accused Gantz of acting like a “Trojan horse” against Israeli interests.

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