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Weather: Sunny. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs around 90. Southwest winds around 5 mph, increasing to northeast 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain 20 percent. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening. Lows in the upper 60s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village: The city’s only farmers’ market is open every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at European Village, 101 Palm Harbor Pkwy, Palm Coast. With fruit, veggies, other goodies and live music. For Vendor Information email [email protected]
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students: 9:30 to 10:25 a.m. at Grace Presbyterian Church, 1225 Royal Palms Parkway, Palm Coast. Improve your English skills while studying the Bible. This study is geared toward intermediate and advanced level English Language Learners.
Al-Anon Family Groups: Help and hope for families and friends of alcoholics. Meetings are every Sunday at Silver Dollar II Club, Suite 707, 2729 E Moody Blvd., Bunnell, and on zoom. More local meetings available and online too. Call 904-315-0233 or see the list of Flagler, Volusia, Putnam and St. Johns County meetings here.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from noon to 3 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
Notably: In an interview with NHK Television in Tokyo on Nov. 11, 1983 (Veterans Day), Ronald Reagan was asked about Soviet-American relations and nuclear weapons. Part of his answer veered into fairy tales, as Reagan’s grasp of the world often did: “Once upon a time,” he said, as if he were recalling a Grimm tale, “we had rules of warfare. War is an ugly thing, but we had rules in which we made sure that soldiers fought soldiers, but they did not victimize civilians. That was civilized. Today we’ve lost something of civilization in that the very weapons we’re talking about are designed to destroy civilians by the millions. And let us at least get back to where we once were — that if we talk war at all, we talk it in a way in which there could be victory or defeat and in which civilians have some measure of protection.” I don’t know that civilized is the word he mean t to use, or should have used, when describing anything about war. By those standards, World War I, its trench warfare, its chemical weapons, its casualties (half a million at the first battle of the Marne, 700,000 at Verdun, 1 million at Gorlice-Tarnów, 1.1 million at the battle of the Somme, 2.2 million in the Brusilov offensive) was “civilized.” Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Shiloh: all “civilized.” Napoleon’s Austerlitz, Leipzig, Borodino, the Moscow siege, Waterloo, all “civilized,” since (with the exception of the siege) all these battles involved combatants almost exclusively. Even if by his definition of civility, we accept the notion that soldiers will kill soldiers and that rules can make the slaughter “civilized,” Reagan seemed to think that like so much in his worldview, war could be segregated, its effects beyond the battlefield non-existent. Obviously, not the case. But his claim that war could be “civilized” takes its moral framework from the same perverted ideas of civility and honor that saw dueling as a civilized way of settling scores. What’s war, if not a duel on a massive scale? And what’s a duel, if not an abrogation of all morals and civility behind a mask presuming both? To the question immediately preceding the one about Soviet-American relations, Reagan had said: “This is too dangerous a world to just be careless with words or deeds.” Exactly nine months later, he was joking about nuking the Soviet Union.
—P.T.
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The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
May 2025
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Scenic A1A Pride Meeting
Friday Blue Forum
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Peps Art Walk Near Beachfront Grille
For the full calendar, go here.
“My approach to deficit reduction is entirely different, and it’s no secret. We should reduce deficits first and foremost by continuing our economic growth and by reducing wasteful government spending.”
—Ronald Reagan, in a radio address from Rancho del Cielo, his vacation ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif., Aug. 4, 1984. During Reagan’s two terms, the national debt grew from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion.
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don miller says
the cartoon left out storing classified info in the garage and various offices around the northeast not attended to daily by an elderly gentleman too forgetful to defend himself at a trial. surely just an oversight and not bias.
Miller light says
the cartoon left out storing classified info in the bathroom and various rooms around the resort attended to daily by the elderly gentleman (and guests) smart to know better and also smart enough to not defend himself at a trial… not that he needed too, since “the fix” was in… surely just an oversight and not bias.
Sherry says
@ not biased don. . . the cartoon also forgot about storing boxes and boxes classified documents in a bathroom where there is some public access, AND then “lying” about it/trying to hide them/refusing to return them/saying they can be unclassified by just “thinking” about it. Yeah. . . “you’re” not the least bit biased!
The trouble is ole Hegseth is still currently putting our national security at extremely high risk and your lord and master trump seems to be doing NOTHING about it!
Pogo says
@Visit Washington D.C.
… and see the capitol:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-aligned-club-ultra-rich-200951768.html
Ray W, says
The EIA recently devoted one of its The Energy Mix articles to what it describes as a “new phase” in the battery industry.
Here are a few bullet points from the article:
– In 2024, annual battery demand passed the 1 terawatt-hour (TWh) threshold.
– The average price to purchase an EV battery pack dropped below $100 per kilowatt-hour in 2024, a threshold thought as key to batteries fully competing with conventionally powered vehicles.
– Refined lithium prices have dropped 85% from a high established in 2022. While the drop in lithium prices alone helped reduce EV battery costs, “rapid advances in the battery industry itself are also supporting price declines.”
– “… [G]lobal manufacturing capacity reached 3 TWh in 2024, and the next five years could see another tripling of production capacity if all announced projects are built.”
– “These trends point to a battery industry entering a new phase of its development. While markets used to be regionalized and small, they are now global and very large, and a range of technological approaches is giving way to standardization. Looking ahead, economies of scale, partnerships along the supply chain, manufacturing efficiency, and the capacity to bring innovations swiftly to market will be crucial to compete. This will likely result in greater consolidation across the sector, which is simultaneously being reshaped by government-driven efforts to geographically diversify battery supply chains.”
– China manufactures over 75% of the world’s supply of batteries and battery prices in that country dropped almost 30% over the past year. Chinese battery prices, on average, are 20% lower than the price for batteries made in North America and 30% less expensive than those built in Europe. Chinese-made EVs now cost less than conventionally powered counterparts.
– Four factors define the price advantage gained by Chinese manufacturers:
1. Chinese battery manufacturers have scaled up production faster and more efficiently than competitors, leading to higher manufacturing yields. This concentration of battery manufacturing came from “extensive manufacturing know-how”, leading to the “rise of giant manufacturers such as CATL and BYD, which have centralised expertise in the battery sector and driven innovation.”
2. Supply chain integration, from acquisitions by one company, plus close cooperation among leading firms, brings “faster innovation and a decline in manufacturing costs. … The Chinese battery ecosystem covers all steps of the supply chain, from mineral mining and refining to the production of battery manufacturing equipment, precursors and other components, as well as the final production of batteries and EVs.”
3. “Chinese producers have prioritized lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), a cheaper battery chemistry. Initially thought to be unsuitable for electric cars due to their lower energy density, years of research and development by Chinese producers have honed LFP batteries, which now cover nearly half the global EV market after more than tripling their share within the past five years. Today, they are about 30% less expensive than their main competitor, lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NMC) batteries, while still offering competitive ranges for EVs.”
4. As almost 100 Chinese companies produce EV batteries, “fierce competition” yields lower prices, as Chinese firms cut profit margins in their efforts to maintain or gain market share.
– U.S. battery manufacturing capacity has nearly doubled between 2022 and 2024, reaching 200 GWh in 2024. Another 70 GWh of manufacturing capacity is under construction. A smaller volume of battery demand for stationary applications exists in the U.S., with demand increasing 60% over the past two years.
– Morrocco, with large phosphate reserves crucial to LFP battery production, is positioned to become a future battery and car component production hub, due to an already existing vehicle manufacturing industry and free-trade agreements with both Europe and the U.S.
– Indonesia, possessing half the world’s nickel reserves, began producing graphite anodes and EV batteries in 2024.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Battery breakthroughs are announced nearly every day. So many different battery chemistries. So many different manufacturing methods. Ford recently claimed a breakthrough in a previously neglected battery chemistry known as “Lithium Manganese Rich”, which Ford claims will be even cheaper to produce than are LFP batteries and be far more energy dense, to boot.
The EIA claims that the battery production sector is entering a new phase. That might be right, but there seems to be no end to the changes that are coming.
I will type this over and over again.
LFP battery chemistry was invented in the U.S. by American university researchers. A factory was built to manufacture LFP batteries for EV use. Car companies ignored the product and the company building it went bankrupt. A Chinese company bought the rights to the invention and developed it further. Now, LFP batteries comprise half of the world’s EV battery sector, which was 17 million vehicles last year, more than all the new vehicles sold in the U.S. American car companies are now paying the Chinese company for the right to use its technology. A multi-billion-dollar potential American manufacturing sector was just thrown away by the blind among us, to be bought up by a foreign company for pennies on the dollar.
Ford’s CEO says Ford once looked backwards at the emerging EV market. He is right. He asserts that America’s Big Three carmakers wasted billions of dollars and multiple years developing EVs using already existing technologies, instead of spending the money on developing new technologies. No more. Ford no longer intends on making mistakes that come from looking backwards; it intends to look forward from now on.
Automotive industry journals and other related publications are filled with stories about how the Chinese government attempted to catch up with American and European internal combustion engine technology. In 2008, after decades of trying, the government accepted defeat and shifted its focus to developing EVs.
That year, BYD built its first EV. European and American manufacturers virtually ignored the EV sector. Over 17 years, BYD became the fourth largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, almost all by producing better and cheaper EVs; it now makes more vehicles than Ford. BYD’s lowest price vehicle, the Seal, sells for as little as $7,800, after a recent price cut.
Ray W, says
Earlier this week, Reuters published an article about Xpeng’s release of its $49,231 “upscale” X9 minivan at a Hong Kong cruise-ship terminal immediately prior to the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show. The EV features a built-in refrigerator, a drop-down screen to “entertain rear-seat passengers”, and automated driving features. But the display that drew the largest crowd at the unveiling was Xpeng’s flying car and the six-wheeled transport it built to carry it.
Here are a few bullet points from the article:
– Xpeng debuted its initial EV in 2018. In seven years, it has become one of China’s larger automakers, selling 190,000 vehicles in 2024 in the “higher end segment” of the industry. In 2023, Volkswagen bought a 5% interest in the company for its technological AI potential. Like Tesla, Xpeng plans to develop a robotaxi and “humanoid robots.”
– According to a Jato Dynamics market expert, “Xpeng is among the Chinese EV startups best positioned to thrive as the industry moves from the ‘electrification’ era to ‘smartification.'”
– Xpeng has yet to turn a profit in the “hypercompetitive” Chinese EV sector. The Jato Dynamics market expert, Bo Yu, said:
“They’re [Xpeng] not profitable because they’ve invested in a lot of new things, but their profitability is improving. … They’ve started in-house development of AI and self-driving, and the flying car isn’t just show – they really believe in it.”
– Xpeng remains “committed to its goal of turning a profit this year.”
– Jato Dynamics data shows 169 domestic and foreign brands currently “fighting it out” in the Chinese automotive marketplace, both internal combustion and EV, with only 14 carmakers having a 2% or greater share of the market. In the EV sector, 86 brands offered 327 models for sale last year.
– Expeng’s President told reporters:
“In the past two decades, we can see that only a few companies are performing well. … I’m very concerned about Chinese automakers … I think in the end, only 10 will survive. … You have to possess capabilities in AI, in software, in technology and in manufacturing. … The players that can possess this full-stack capability will have a greater chance of survival.”
– Xpeng entered 30 new foreign markets in 2024, with plans to enter another 30 countries this year. Its founder says the company has to balance technological breakthroughs with cost control. One way to help with that balance is expanding into foreign markets, or “globalization”, where Chinese companies have more “pricing power.”
– A supply chain consultant with Tidalwave Solutions, Cameron Johnson, told reporters that President Trump’s protectionism could backfire on U.S. carmakers:
“Chinese firms have the best automotive connected technology in the world, and foreign firms need it to be competitive around the world, especially as Chinese brands go global.”
– BYD is the most profitable of China’s EV makers, having sold 4.2 million vehicles last year, up sevenfold since 2020.
– Chery and Geeley, Chinese firms that originally made gasoline-powered vehicles before shifting to EV’s, also are profitable.
– Li Auto, specializing in “premium extended-range hybrids”, turns a profit, as does Leapmotor, a company selling “lower-cost cars” that share vehicle platforms; it builds almost all of its vehicles’ components, a process called vertical integration.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Deepal, Changan Group’s mid- to high-end EV brand formed in 2022, released its flagship full-sized SUV model, the S09, priced in five variants from $32,900 up to $42,900.
Its dual motor, 4-wheel drive variant has 485 HP, with an LFP battery offering 106-miles of range before the 1.5-liter turbocharged range extender engine-powered generator starts up. It comes with a 10-liter-capacity heated or cooled storage box, with temperature options ranging from -6 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees Celsius.
For younger passenger, the EREV comes with an “intelligent assistant” complete with creative functions and an interactive dialogue capability.
Make of this what you will.