EU carmakers ‘days away’ from halting work as chip war with China escalates
Carmakers in the EU are “days away” from closing production lines, the industry has warned, as a crisis over computer chip supplies from China escalates.The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) issued an urgent warning on Wednesday saying its members, which include BMW, Fiat, Peugeot and Volkswagen, were now working on “reserve stocks but supplies are dwindling”.“Assembly line stoppages might only be days away.We urge all involved to redouble their efforts to find a diplomatic way out of this critical situation,” said its director general, Sigrid de Vries.Another ACEA member, Mercedes, is now searching globally for alternative sources of the crucial semiconductors, according to its chief executive, Ola Källenius.
The chip shortage is also causing problems in Japan, where Nissan’s chief performance officer, Guillaume Cartier, told reporters at a car show in Tokyo that the company was only “OK to the first week of November” in terms of supply.Beijing banned exports of Nexperia chips near the start of the month in response to the Dutch government’s decision to take over the Netherlands-headquartered company on 30 September and suspend its Chinese chief executive after the US flagged security concerns.Last week car companies in the UK, EU and Japan, including brands such as Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen and Volvo, said the ban on exports from Nexperia factories in China could halt production lines.“The industry is currently working through reserve stocks but supplies are rapidly dwindling.From a survey of our members this week, some are already expecting imminent assembly line stoppages,” de Vries said.
The Nexperia chip ban was a blow to Europe’s car sector, which has already been hit by President Xi Jinping’s decision to reintroduce controls on exports of rare earth exports as part of the escalating trade tensions with the US.Xi and Donald Trump are expected to sign off on a trade agreement when they meet on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea on Thursday.The proposed deal would pause the export ban on the crucial minerals for a year, but it is unclear if this will also cover deliveries to the EU.Rare earths, in particular magnets, are used across the car industry for window, door and boot openings, while chips are critical to all electronics in vehicles, ranging from dashboard functions to ignition and transmission systems.De Vries said while alternative suppliers for chips existed, it could take “months to build up additional capacity”.
She said the “industry does not have that long before the worst effects of this shortage are felt”,A high-level delegation from Beijing will arrive in Brussels on Friday for talks but there are fears the diplomatic tools deployed by the EU in the past months are not as effective as the hardballing used by the US and China,Andrew Small, a senior fellow and China expert at the German Marshall Fund, an American thinktank, said: “I think the EU needs a fix super-quickly on Nexperia and there are hopes that there may be some progress on that this week,”Small believes China’s attitude to the EU has changed since April, when it learned that hardballing the US got results,“This is all part of a new strategy where China is repeatedly now taking steps that bring European industry and other industries around the world to the point of choking them off,” he said.
“It is no longer that Europe is collateral damage, it is China targeting Europe and I think people are beginning to understand that now.”De Vries said: “We know that all parties to this dispute are working very hard to find a diplomatic solution.At the same time, our members are telling us that part supplies are already being stopped due to the shortage.”The Dutch government seized control of Nexperia on 30 September, citing lapses in governance.On 4 October, the Chinese ministry of commerce blocked exports of the chipmaker’s products out of China.
While most of Nexperia’s semiconductors are produced in Europe, about 70% are packaged in China before distribution.A spokesperson for Wingtech, Nexperia’s Chinese owner, said the chip shortage was self-inflicted and “a result of the ill-considered measures by the Dutch government”, which had “jeopardised global business continuity”.The company’s Chinese arm has taken steps towards independence and has resumed selling products to domestic Chinese customers.The sources said the Dutch government believes it can negotiate a resolution with China that will restore the company to a unified Dutch-Chinese structure.
Man who won damages over Richard III film calls for more regulation of fact-based drama
A university executive who won damages over his portrayal in Steve Coogan’s film The Lost King has urged Ofcom to strengthen regulation of fact-based drama, after what he described as a three-year “anxious, stressful and hurtful” ordeal.Richard Taylor, formerly deputy registrar at the University of Leicester, sued Coogan as well as the film’s production company, Baby Cow, and the distributor Pathé over his portrayal in the 2022 film about the discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park.The parties reached a settlement requiring damages, a clarification to appear on the film, and an undertaking not to repeat the defamatory claims. A judge had found Taylor was shown in an “unrelentingly negative and defamatory” light.Taylor said Ofcom needed “clearer guidance” to stop similar misrepresentations happening in future
Jon Stewart on Trump’s taunts of an illegal third term: ‘We know he’s thought about it’
Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s taunts about an illegal third presidential term and his demolition of the East Wing of the White House.From his Monday night post on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart assessed the threat of Trump attempting to run for a third term as president, which is illegal under the 22nd amendment to the constitution.Asked by reporters for his thoughts on comments by Steve Bannon that he had a plan for such a campaign, Trump answered: “I would love to do it ..
Steve Coogan says Richard III film was ‘story I wanted to tell’ as he agrees to libel settlement
Steve Coogan has said his film about the discovery of the remains of Richard III was “the story I wanted to tell, and I am happy I did” after he and two production companies agreed to pay “substantial damages” to settle a high court libel claim over the film’s portrayal of a senior university administrator.Richard Taylor, deputy registrar at the University of Leicester at the time of the find, sued Coogan, his production company Baby Cow, and Pathe Productions for libel over his portrayal in the 2022 film The Lost King, which follows the amateur historian Philippa Langley and her search for the king’s skeleton.Taylor’s lawyers had asserted previously that he was portrayed in the film as “devious”, “weasel-like” and a “suited bean-counter”.Judge Lewis had ruled previously that the film portrayed Taylor as having “knowingly misrepresented facts to the media and the public” about the find, and as being “smug, unduly dismissive and patronising”, which had a defamatory meaning.The case was due to proceed to trial, but lawyers for Taylor read an agreed statement to the court on Monday saying the parties had settled the claim
‘We were fitted with remote control penises’: Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke on Kevin and Perry Go Large
We’d done Kevin and Perry on Harry Enfield and Chums and thought it would be fun to make a Wayne’s World-y thing while we still had the impetus of the TV programme. I went on holiday and Dave Cummings, who’d written for Harry Enfield and Chums, did the first draft. I came back and took over. A month later, it was all happening. It was really quick
From White Teeth to Swing Time: Zadie Smith’s best books - ranked!
How do you follow a smash hit like White Teeth, which, as everyone now knows, sold for a six-figure sum while the author was still at university, and turned Zadie Smith into a literary superstar and poster girl for multiculturalism at 24? With a novel about a pot-smoking Chinese‑Jewish autograph hunter, the dangers of fame and the shallowness of pop culture, of course.The Autograph Man begins in full wisecracking throttle with three boys in the back of a car on their way to watch a wrestling match between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks at the Royal Festival Hall. As 12-year-old Alex-Li Tandem gets Big Daddy’s autograph (the start of an obsession), his own daddy drops dead from a brain tumour. Unfortunately, the rest of the novel doesn’t quite live up to the prologue. The critical heavyweights of the time didn’t pull their punches: “A poky, pallid successor” (Michiko Kakutani, who had rapturously reviewed White Teeth, in the New York Times), “cartoonish” and full of “misplaced ironies and grinning complicities” (James Wood in the LRB)
Ardal O’Hanlon: ‘I fell asleep on stage once – I could hear someone doing my material, got annoyed and woke up’
What’s the longest word you can make out of the letters A-R-D-A-L-O-H-A-N-L-O-N in 30 seconds?“Anal” springs to mind, because I was doing a show in Limerick in Ireland and the stage manager genuinely thought my name was Anal. He called me over the Tannoy [PA system]: “Could Anal please come to the stage door?” But there must be a bigger word than that. I’m usually good at Countdown. This is quite annoying. This is how I define myself – by my ability to conjure up words from random letters
Lib Dem members criticise ‘trans-exclusionary’ rule change for party elections
Kemi Badenoch smiles from the stump as she heads towards oblivion | John Crace
Ministers to delegate some public appointments in attempt to cut delays
No 10 refuses to say if ethics adviser saw proof Reeves’s rental breach was ‘inadvertent’
Tories will not deport legally settled people, Badenoch clarifies
Boris Johnson tells Tories to stop ‘bashing green agenda’ or risk losing next election