In a bid to incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the American government is offering tax credits for eligible buyers as stipulated within the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. However, recent changes in the qualification criteria for these credits have significantly narrowed the options available to consumers.

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“The primary reason for the credit was to get people to switch to electric vehicles,” said Eric Scaringe, principal at certified public accounting firm UHY. “Now, the government wants to make sure EV parts are sourced within the U.S., and specifically deter you from certain countries.”

To qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit in 2024, an EV must meet a series of manufacturing requirements.

The vehicle must undergo its final assembly within the continent North America and source at least 50% of its battery components from the U.S. or countries that hold free trade agreements with the U.S.

Qualifying vehicles are also required to derive at least 50% of the critical minerals which power its battery from domestic and free-trade sources. By 2027, these battery sourcing rules will increase to 80%, potentially limiting choices even further.

“In some cases, vehicles must be ordered and may be delivered in a different tax year than the order,” said Alison Flores, manager for The Tax Institute at H&R Block. “If taxpayer or vehicle eligibility changed, it’s possible the taxpayer may qualify for a lower credit or no credit.”

While increasing the requirement on where EV battery materials can come from may impact the future eligibility of some vehicles, other stipulations could impact the qualification status of more models as early as next year.

Beginning in 2025, vehicles with critical minerals extracted, processed, or recycled by “entities of concern,” namely China, will not qualify.

It will be a difficult ask for automakers, with China currently accounting for 90% of the EV supply chain, according to a Morgan Stanley report.

Starting in 2024, vehicles with any battery components manufactured or assembled in an entity of concern were also made ineligible for tax credits.

The implications of these regulations are already evident, with 24 EV variations that qualified for tax credits last year no longer meeting the criteria.

Prominent options like the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Blazer, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and certain Tesla models are among those affected. Only five EV models and one plug-in hybrid option now remain available to receive the full credit.

This change is disappointing news for consumers who were planning to purchase an EV in 2024, as dealerships gained the ability to provide instant access to tax credits this year. Before 2024, EV buyers had to wait until after filing their taxes to claim the credit.

To adapt to the new rules, automakers and EV battery manufacturers are investing heavily in North American-based infrastructure, totaling more than $40 billion so far.

The Treasury Department has said that “automakers are adjusting their supply chains to ensure buyers continue to be eligible for the new clean vehicle credit, partnering with allies and bringing jobs and investment back to the United States.”

“Automakers may change where they source battery components and minerals from,” said Jordan Argiz, a partner at BDO USA, which provides audit, tax and advisory services to dealerships. “Additionally, more and more foreign brands are building factories in the U.S. to assemble their vehicles.” 

However, building these facilities will take years, leaving car companies with the challenge of making adjustments to their EV offerings in the interim.

“There are still the incentives that we’ll see from automakers as they balance their inventory,” said Elizabeth Krear, vice president of J.D. Power’s EV practice. “There are still automakers that are going to work their supply chains throughout the year to come back into the fold.”

In response to losing tax credit qualification status, General Motors (GM), which experienced a 93% increase in EV sales last year, is offering incentives equal to the full tax credit for its affected vehicles. Ford, whose F-150 EV retained its vehicle credits, is raising prices on some of its electric trucks by $10,000, while also implementing significant production cuts on certain EV models.

Tesla, the leader in global EV sales during 2023, is also adjusting its strategy. The company has indicated on its website that changes will be made to ensure more of their vehicles qualify for tax credits, with the Cybertruck expected to meet the criteria later this year.

Bill Granger, the Australian chef credited with bringing avocado toast to the mainstream, died of cancer at 54 on Christmas Day in a London hospital. His legacy includes cookbooks, television shows and restaurants in multiple countries; but his simple breakfast dish took on a life of its own, often used as an example of millennials’ frivolous spending.

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Affectionately called the “King of Breakfast,” his avocado toast became a staple around the globe after originally selling at his cafe, “bills,” for around $12. He said he created the breakfast dish because of the way he lived as a chef with a family, including his wife and three daughters. 

Expensive toasted bread with smashed avocado soon became a meme for why people in the millennial generation — born between 1981 and 1996 — couldn’t afford to buy a home. 

The fire sparked in 2017 when Australian luxury property developer Tim Gurner blamed smashed avocado toast as the reason young people can’t get into home ownership.

“When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each,” he told “60 Minutes Australia.”

Since the now infamous interview, social media millennials have used the opportunity to poke fun at the breakfast that is supposedly holding them down. 

The picture, of course, is more complicated than simply overspending on breakfast items to fuel the day. 

The median sales price for homes in the U.S. is up more than 450% over the last 40 years, from $78,000 in 1984 to $431,000 in 2023. 

Meanwhile, wages are up roughly 260% over the same period; from $16,000 in 1984 — according to the Social Security Administration — to $58,000 in 2023, according to analysis from ZipRecruiter. 

Despite the data, talkers outside of the millennial and Gen Z generations, like Dave Ramsey, will continue to take issue with the millennial love for the creamy fruit. 

Another factor at play limiting home ownership is the $1.7 trillion in student loan debt held by Americans, according to a 2019 report by the Federal Reserve. The central bank found student loans alone can realistically be blamed for more than 20% of the overall drop in homeownership among young adults. 

The Fed added, however, that the “central cause” for the decline is tighter lending standards following the 2008 housing crisis, which is still in effect to this day. 

More recently, rising interest rates over the last two years have pushed mortgage rates from around 3% to as high as 8%, severely affecting buying power. 

Rising rent has also taken a toll on the all-too-important down payment. Rent has increased nearly $400 per month nationwide, or 24%, since January 2020, according to Rent.com. 

Despite concerns over his lasting legacy, Bill Granger never bought into the idea that his creation was the cause of the millennial housing crisis. 

“As my father said, ‘It’s always been impossible to buy a house. Always!'” he told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2020.

It’s the day Disney tried for decades to avoid: Mickey Mouse entered the public domain on Jan. 1. However, before appropriating Disney’s iconic mascot, know that the only free-for-all is the specific version from 1928’s “Steamboat Willie.”

Each year, copyrights expire on a new set of works. Individual copyrights are protected for the creator’s life plus 70 years. Meanwhile, corporate-owned works like “Steamboat Willie” remain intact for 95 years from initial publication.

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“Copyright, by design, lasts for a limited time,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke Center for the Study of Public Domain.

Jenkins also writes an annual column for “Public Domain Day,” sharing the latest set of works.

“While the copyright is active, it gives the authors, the rights holders, exclusive rights to make copies and to adopt the works,” Jenkins added. “And that’s a very good thing because it provides economic incentives that spur creativity. But after the term expires — when those works go into the public domain — that’s a great thing too, because that means those works can inspire future creators.”

Disney’s piece in question was originally set to enter public domain in 1984. However, the House of Mouse lobbied for a 20-year extension to the copyright term, which Congress granted in the 1970s. In 1998, Congress passed another piece of legislation known as “The Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” which added 20 years to the protection of Disney’s global ambassador and other works.

Only the “Steamboat Willie” version of Mickey — the pupilless mouse with a long tail and a nose that looks more like a rat’s — will enter the public domain. Any more modern versions remain protected under copyright law, as Disney frequently modernizes the mouse and updates the terms.

In 2022, another icon of purity entered the public domain: Winnie the Pooh from A.A. Milne’s original stories. But once again, this protects future iterations, specifically those used by Disney.

“It’s the original Winnie the Pooh as you encounter that charming little bear in the book from 1926, which has many of, not just the visual character, but the personality attributes. You know, the humility, the love of honey, the always being there for his friends,” Jenkins said.

Shortly after making his debut in the public domain, the honey-loving bear was given the horror treatment in “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” The film featured Christopher Robin’s return to the Hundred Acre Wood where Pooh and Piglet have become murderous psychopaths.

This marked the first time Pooh wasn’t made for kids, but a South Florida teacher screened it for their fourth grade classroom anyway. Students asked for the teacher to stop airing it and those who felt traumatized met with a school-provided mental health counselor.

That is the nature of public domain: Once the copyright term expires, anyone has access to the intellectual property to reimagine it however they like.

“Everything that’s been spawned by Shakespeare, you’ve got ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead’ from Hamlet; or you have ‘West Side Story’; or you have ’10 Things I Hate About You’ and ‘Romeo Must Die’ and ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ — the whole point of the public domain is it enables all these reimaginings,” Jenkins said.

But it’s not unfettered access. There are still several limitations, especially when balancing the distinction between copyright and trademark law.

“I can make my own animation off of it, but I can’t go around slapping Mickey Mouse the character on a backpack or a lunchbox or a pair of pajamas, because people would think it was Disney-licensed merchandise,” Jenkins said.

“It’s possible sometimes to have trademark rights, which is a different kind of law over characters,” she continued. “And they don’t expire after a set term the way copyrights do. They last for as long as someone is using that character as a brand.”

If the number of products featuring the famous mouse is any indication, Disney isn’t worried about losing that trademark. As for the public domain, the company itself has greatly benefitted from that arrangement since its inception.

“‘Snow White,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Cinderella,’ ‘The Three Musketeers,’ ‘Christmas Carol,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ all of these Disney movies were based on public domain works,” Jenkins said.

Disney told The Associated Press in December that ever since Mickey Mouse’s first appearance, “People have associated the character with Disney’s stories, experiences and authentic products. That will not change when the copyright in the ‘Steamboat Willie’ film expires.”

Pooh’s springy friend Tigger also joins Mickey Mouse in the public domain this year, but Jenkins says one of the best things about a copyright running out isn’t the headline-grabbing works.

“One of the most exciting things for me about the public domain is all of those works that no one’s thinking about, no one’s heard of, that have been completely forgotten after 70, 80, 95 years,” Jenkins said. “Those are the works where the barriers to access have been removed and they’re waiting to be rediscovered.”

There’s a lot of speculation about third-party and independent candidates running in the 2024 presidential election. People want to know who may run, and when they’ll announce. 

Independent candidates have some time to launch a campaign. The earliest state filing deadline is in March, but in most states the deadline is June, July or August because they’re not tied to the Republican and Democratic primary and caucus schedule.

Who could run? 

There’s already one independent candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He was running as a Democrat but decided to go on his own when it was clear he couldn’t win the nomination over President Biden. 

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V. 

Retiring Sen. Joe Manchin is fueling speculation that he may make a bid for the White House. Jan. 12, Manchin is set to appear at “Politics and Eggs” in New Hampshire, an event considered a must for presidential candidates.

Manchin said he would absolutely consider running but first wants to see if there’s an appetite for moderates like him. 

“I’m not even in that frame of mind to where you have to pick where you’re going to run from and this and that,” Manchin said when asked if he’d consider running as a Democrat. “I’m saying, I want to make sure there’s a movement. Maybe I’m by myself, maybe I’m in the minority. Maybe the people don’t think it’s not that bad. Everyone I hear from thinks it’s that bad.”

Polling reveals that Americans do think it’s that bad.

A recent AP/NORC poll found that most Americans would not be happy with a Trump-Biden rematch. Of those respondents, 56% of U.S. adults said they would be dissatisfied if Biden were the Democratic nominee and 58% said the same for Trump. 

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY 

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump and joined the Jan. 6 investigative committee after the 2020 election, said she will do whatever she can to stop Trump from winning again. That includes the possibility of launching a third-party bid. However, she said she wouldn’t do it if she thought it would help Trump. 

Here’s what Cheney said about Trump winning the Republican nomination: 

“If he does then all of us across party lines have to come together to defeat him next November,” Cheney said of Trump winning the Republican nomination. “And there are a whole range of things we need to do to think anew about nonpartisanship, about voting for the Constitution, not for whatever political party people may be part of. I think it matters that much.”

No Labels 

The No Labels organization is also considering nominating a candidate.

No Labels hasn’t committed to entering a candidate into the race yet, but if the group does, it’ll hold a virtual nominating convention.

The group said America is hungry for another option and that it could offer a “unity ticket” with one Democrat and one Republican. 

No Labels also said it has the data that proves a unity ticket could beat Trump and Biden with 34% support and get enough electoral votes to win. The group said it will be on the ballot in 27 states by the end of the year.

Imagine driving a new electric vehicle (EV) but spending only $10,000 on your new ride. This is a reality in China. In the United States, however, Americans spend an average of over $53,000 on buying an EV — more than double where the median asking price stands for Chinese consumers.

It is possible these cheaper vehicles may become available to U.S. drivers in the future, but several issues stand in the way before that can happen. For starters, the rivalry between Washington and Beijing has put the industry in a challenging position.

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“To look at the situation with the U.S. and China, their relations are at their worst and 50 years,” said Michael Dunne, CEO of ZoZo Go, which delivers investment advisory services to auto-tech industry companies in the U.S. and China. “Should the U.S. become over-reliant on Chinese with [EV] batteries, it’d be so simple for the Chinese to say, ‘Sorry, we don’t have enough supply for you.'”

In 2023, as part of an effort to combat this problem, the White House introduced additional rules to keep China out of the American EV market. This included an Internal Revenue Service block on all foreign-made electric vehicles from receiving tax breaks granted to the industry under the Inflation Reduction Act.

American car companies are also now prevented from accessing these incentives if they use materials or parts from China.

That move was in addition to a 2018 Trump administration imposed tariff of more than 27% on cars made in China — a policy that has continued under President Joe Biden. The current administration has even considered raising the tariffs already in place.

However, tensions between the U.S. and China pose additional geopolitical challenges for the Biden administration’s push to electrify, with Beijing controlling 90% of the EV supply chain, according to a Morgan Stanley report. That has translated to China being responsible for over half of global EV sales and nearly two-thirds of the world’s EV production in 2023.

“What happens in China will not stay in China,” said Bill Russo, CEO of advisory firm Automobility. “If you have that kind of supply chain, that kind of position on the chess board, then why wouldn’t you take that internationally? There’s a difference between people’s allegiances to their country and what they buy at the store. One thing that’s absolutely universal is people buy affordability.”

Beijing has propped up its electric vehicle industry with numerous state subsidies, totaling around $130 billion since 2016. As a result, Chinese consumers have their choice of 235 different EVs, including some of world’s cheapest electric models. Out of the 51 options available to Americans, the least expensive costs more than twice its Chinese counterpart.

“The Chinese have been very aggressive in motivating the purchase of electric vehicles, which represent a much higher percentage of new vehicle sales in China than they do in the United States,” said John Quelch, a former associate in research at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and fellow of the Harvard China Fund.

On top of tax and trade policies, safety regulations are another issue keeping these cars away from the U.S.

Most Chinese vehicles have not been engineered to comply with American safety standards, adapting to which can be an expensive process. An industry study found that differing auto safety regulations in the U.S. and European Union (EU) force automakers to spend over $2 billion annually.

Even if Chinese car manufacturers could overcome these costs, there remain numerous expenses associated with building a retail network accessible to Americans, although, this could be the first domino to fall.

According to the Financial Times, three major Chinese EV companies are planning to spend billions on new factories in Mexico. The news has reportedly worried U.S. officials that this could open a backdoor for Chinese EVs into the American auto market.

“China has a bigger manufacturing scale than all other countries,” Biden said. “And they’re using that scale to make these batteries not just in China, but they’re making them in Germany and in Mexico, and now exporting those electric vehicles around the world with sites on the American market, and they think they’re gonna win.”

Executives with Ford Motor Company have expressed similar concerns regarding China, saying the U.S. is still “not quite yet ready” to compete with Beijing when it comes to electric vehicles.

“[China] developed very quickly, and they developed them in large scale. And now they’re exporting them,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford. “They’re not here but they’ll come here we think, at some point, we need to be ready.”

In Europe, where tariffs on Chinese-made EVs are much lower, car markers are expected to collectively lose more than $7 billion in profit by 2030 due to China’s growth in the market.

“I can announce today that the commission is launching an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in September. “Global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars. And their prices kept artificially low by huge state subsidies. This is distorting our market.”

While getting more electric vehicles on American roadways is a major goal of the current administration, it is clear that tapping into China’s robust and affordable supply would be a complicated process.

Members of Congress consistently work three to four days a week in Washington, D.C., and fly back and forth to their home states on taxpayer dime. On Thursday mornings, there is usually a line of over 100 cars in front of the Capitol, a telltale sign that the exodus from Washington is about to begin. 

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As an example, here’s the House schedule for the week of Dec. 11: 

Monday, Dec. 11 – The House met at 2 p.m. for legislative business and votes were postponed until 6:30 p.m. That gives everyone a chance to use their Monday to fly into Washington and not arrive until the real business starts at 6:30.

Once they take that vote, representatives usually leave for their Washington residence. 

Thursday, Dec. 14 – The House convened at 9 a.m. and had its first and last votes at 10:05 a.m. That was the end of Congress members’ week. 

The Senate wasn’t around much longer. Its final vote of the week began at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 14. Members didn’t reconvene until Monday, Dec. 18, with their first vote at 5:30 p.m. 

This is how Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., outlined the schedule for Straight Arrow News. 

“So fly in, fly out days, you know because we’re only here, call it maybe 10 days, 10 nights a month, 11 nights a month,” Moskowitz said. “You know, we’re running around, we don’t all serve on the same committees. Some people are giving speeches on the floor, the floor’s empty, no one’s here when they’re doing that.”

Straight Arrow News asked lawmakers if they think they should stay in Washington longer. 

“I do,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said. “America does, we should. I say we got a project, let’s stay until we get it finished.”

“I think we should stay until the job’s done,” Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., said. “But you can’t stay here indefinitely and you can see that tempers flare and then you get less done. So there’s a balance out there.”

Tempers can certainly flare. One example was when Republicans left for the weekend after Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted as speaker and they still had not chosen a nominee to replace him.

Some lawmakers contend that consistently leaving has a negative effect on bipartisanship. 

“It inhibits our ability to make relationships across the aisle because we don’t get to spend enough time up here getting to know people,” Moskowitz explained.  

There are approximately 37 working moms in Congress, including Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who flies back and forth from California to take care of her kids.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., can often be seen walking the halls with her baby. 

“So I actually bring my son back and forth with me,” Luna told Straight Arrow News. “But I think that it’s really important that members do spend more time back home actually working for their constituents. [Because] you can get caught up here, but guess what, we don’t represent Washington, we represent our district. So more time back home.”

Members often still work on the road. They read bills and meet directly with constituents to learn about their need from the government.

Most members say they should stay in Washington longer. So why don’t they? 

“I don’t know the exact fix, but what I do know is that we are not spending enough time as a body together to figure out who we all are and figure out how we can work together,” Moskowitz said.  

“Getting everybody to agree on that is the key because as you can see, this is like herding cats,” McCormick said.  

The money to pay for all these trips comes out of the member’s representational allowance, which is used to pay for travel, staff, equipment and other official expenses. The allowance ranges from over $1.84 million to nearly $2.09 million, with an average of about $1,928,100, depending on how far away the member lives from Washington. 

Americans are expected to spend $143.6 billion on their pets by the end of 2023, according to the American Pet Products Association. Meanwhile, 89% of pet owners say they are going to dig into their pocketbooks to maximize the best friend’s holiday joy. Here are five furry holiday spending trends in this week’s Five For Friday. 

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#5: Clothing

Two-thirds of American households own pets and a third of them will buy holiday clothing for those pets, according to SoFi.

The most popular clothes are holiday sweaters, followed by collars, harnesses and hats. That’s not even accounting for holiday costumes, but for a more understated look, you can always go for a classy holiday bowtie.

It’s easy to think of dogs and cats the most in this category, but there is also a robust market for dressing guinea pigs. 

#4: Travel

AAA says 115 million Americans will hit the road for the holidays and that means making plans for your furry friends. According to SoFi, 35% of pet owners budget for taking their pets with them.

It’s not too difficult if traveling by car, but airlines can charge $100-$200 each way for pets to tag along, according to Progressive.

For the 26% that will board animals this season, it can run them an average of $45 per night, according to Rover.

It’s always free if you can hand them off to friends and family, but that might cost you in goodwill, depending on their behavior. 

#3: Grooming

Just like human children, you have to make sure your pet looks good for get-togethers. Thirty-eight percent of pet parents budget for grooming.

No one wants a smelly dog running around the house when your family is visiting. Beyond a haircut and bath, a nail trim is always helpful.

The average trip to an animal spa day runs $50-$125. To knock out grooming and travel, some places that handle boarding can also pamper your pet so they are nice and clean when you get home. 

#2: Photos

If you own a pet, you probably have a camera roll filled with pictures of that precious animal. According to SoFi, 45% of owners budget for including their pet in holiday photoshoots.

Millennials have gotten into sending out holiday cards and with the increase in pet ownership since the pandemic, furry friends are becoming the stars of those cards.

If you go through all the trouble of buying holiday clothes and getting them groomed, you might as well professionally document it for everyone you know.

#1: Gifts

So it’s clear people are somewhat obsessed with their pets. SoFi says 70% will buy a gift for them, with 27% spending more than $100 on pet gifts.

The most popular gifts are treats, followed by fun toys and then clothes, according to USA Today Blueprint.

Unlike the 4-year-old in your life, this baby can’t scream displeasure after getting something to wear rather than a toy. 

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to halt the removal of the Confederate memorial scheduled to take place this week at Arlington National Cemetery. Judge Rossie Alston Jr. is waiting to hear more from both parties before he makes a decision about extending the order past Wednesday, Dec. 20.

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“The removal will desecrate, damage and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and impede the Memorial’s eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places,” the organization Defend Arlington said in its suit. 

Why is the statue being removed? 

In 2022, an independent commission recommended to Congress that the statue be taken down as part of an effort to remove Confederate names from military bases and assets. However, the statue wasn’t put there merely to honor the Confederacy.

Why was it erected? 

The statue was erected during Reconstruction in an effort to aid reconciliation between the North and South. 

When former President William McKinley kicked off his Peace Jubilee in Atlanta, Georgia, after the Spanish-American war, he stated, “In the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in the care of the graves of Confederate soldiers.”

On June 6, 1900, Congress appropriated $2,500 to have Confederate soldiers reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery. Ultimately, more than 400 Confederate soldiers were buried in a designated section called Section 16.

Arlington National Cemetery describes the statue as “a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy” containing “highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” That includes a depiction of an enslaved woman holding a white officer’s infant and an enslaved man following his owner to war. 

Arlington’s official historical record also shows the statue and the interment of Confederate soldiers was intended to show the South that America was one nation. Even if this Confederate memorial is removed, reminders of America’s complicated history will remain.

Robert E. Lee’s history at Arlington

Arlington was built on the former property of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. His home remains there to this day as a memorial that honors him for “his role in promoting peace and reunion after the Civil War,” according to the National Park Service.

Lee abandoned the property after Virginia seceded from the Union, and the U.S. government confiscated the estate. An Army general authorized the property for use in military burials, partly hoping to deter Lee from ever returning. 

Down the hill from Lee’s old mansion lies Section 27 — the designated resting place for Black people and poor white people from 1864 until 1948, when former President Harry S. Truman desegregated the armed forces with an executive order. 

Approximately 5,300 “colored troops” and African American “freedpeople,” as identified by Arlington Cemetery, were buried there.

For these reasons and more, Arlington considers itself to be a microcosm of American history. 

The AP contributed to this report.

Libraries are so last century. These days, the answers people search for are found on the internet. Google showed off its trending topics of 2023, but the search engine isn’t the only game in town. The Wikimedia Foundation says people viewed Wikipedia pages 84 billion times this year. Here are the top 5 most-popular themes in this week’s Five For Friday.

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#5: Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is having a monster year, culminating with her being named Time’s Person of the Year (with three covers to choose from). Her Eras Tour was the most in-demand concert of 2023, with an average ticket price of $1,088, according to StubHub.

The tour spawned a movie that had fans dancing in the aisles and became the highest grossing concert film of all time. Swift’s romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce even boosted NFL ratings. Swift’s Wikipedia page was viewed 19 million times this year, which put her at No. 12 overall. 

#4: Movies

The Barbie movie may have beaten Oppenheimer at the box office over the summer, but people searched the Oppenheimer Wiki far more. It was No. 5 in page views for 2023, while the page for J. Robert Oppenheimer, the subject of the film and “father of the atomic bomb,” came in at No. 7. The two combined for more than 54 million total views.

The other half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Barbie, hit No. 13 this year. Hindi-language thrillers Jawan and Pathaan also beat out Barbie, with the eighth and 10th most-viewed pages. The two films are India’s fifth- and sixth-biggest movies of all time. 

#3: Cricket

Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world, but this is the first time it has hit Wikipedia’s top-25 list. The sport had a big showing. The 2023 Cricket World Cup, which Australia won for a record sixth time, was the third most-viewed page of the year, with 38 million views.

The overall Cricket World Cup page came in at No. 6. The Indian Premier League showed up at No. 4, while this specific season, which was won by the Chennai Super Kings, showed up at No. 9.

#2: Deaths in 2023

The year in deaths is a perennial favorite on Wikipedia, albeit a morbid one. The 2023 list of deaths has more than 42 million page views.

The most independently-searched page was actor Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing on “Friends” and passed away in October. Perry’s page came in at No. 17, while the daughter of Elvis and ex-wife of Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie Presley, who passed away in January, came in at No. 22. 

#1: ChatGPT

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the fastest-growing consumer app in history and has the most-viewed Wikipedia page of the year at just shy of 50 million. It’s no wonder, considering you have to look up whether generative AI can take your job or get you in legal trouble. Remember when Wikipedia was known for not being a great research source? Now we have to worry about young people using ChatGPT to cheat in school.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman didn’t make the list this year, despite being fired and rehired in a single week. He was still named Time’s CEO of the Year, so he has that. 

Climate activists around the world have been employing increasingly disruptive tactics to draw awareness toward environmental abuses they believe pose a threat to the planet. Their methods, which have included blocking traffic, occupying vessels and defacing art, have been met with varying responses from law enforcement, lawmakers and the general public.

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“We’ve tried every other method before,” said Alex De Koning, a spokesperson for the activism group Just Stop Oil. “Voting, running for office, petitions, petitions, and none of them have been effective. So, we needed to step up and create massive resistance.”

Activists argue that the urgency of the environmental crisis demands more drastic measures, citing a report from the United Nations that warns of irreversible damage to the Earth’s climate without immediate action.

“To stay below the target set in the Paris Agreements and thereby minimizing the risks of setting off irreversible chain reaction beyond human control, we need immediate, drastic, annual emission cuts unlike anything the world has ever seen,” said climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The U.N.’s data outlines potential consequences such as more frequent and damaging heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, tropical storms and unrecoverable losses in ecosystems. Worsening health conditions and shrinking access to food, water, and housing are also anticipated.

“In short, the report shows that the emissions gap is more like an emissions canyon. A canyon littered with broken promises, broken lives and broken records,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “All of this is a failure of leadership, a betrayal of the vulnerable and a massive missed opportunity.”

However, as the severity of protest tactics has escalated, so has the response from authorities. In both the United States and abroad, laws have been enacted with an aim of discouraging these types of demonstrations.

To deter protestors by enforcing harsher penalties, 21 U.S. states have adopted critical infrastructure protection laws, with many using language drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a lobbyist group funded by fossil fuel companies.

“These defenders are basically trying to save the planet, and in doing so save humanity,” said Mary Lawlor, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights defenders. “These are people we should be protecting, but are seen by governments and corporations as a threat to be neutralized. In the end it’s about power and economics. What’s clear is that states learn from each other”

Elsewhere, members of Parliament in the United Kingdom have passed legislation granting police new powers to combat protests and activism, along with increased potential punishments for participants. Meanwhile, Australia has faced scrutiny from Human Rights Watch, accusing the country of disproportionately punishing climate protesters.

“Peaceful protesters can face up to two years in prison. Legislation rammed through parliament by lawmakers that increases fines for protest activity to tens of thousands of dollars,” said Sophie McNeill, an Australia researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Activists attending a protest can be charged for the costs of police and emergency services. Unfortunately, this is happening right now in Australia.”

Beyond legal consequences, activists have also encountered violent repercussions from their protests.

In November, environmentalists protesting the construction of a new law enforcement training compound in Atlanta, dubbed “Cop City,” faced tear gas and flash-bang grenades from police. Activism groups claim that the facility’s development poses a threat to hundreds of acres of the nation’s largest urban forest.

“We have the highest percentage of tree canopy of any major metropolitan area in America. Our canopy is the main factor in ensuring Atlanta’s resiliency in the face of climate change,” said activists with Defend The Atlanta Forest in a statement. “The Atlanta Police Department seeks to turn 300 acres of forest into a tactical training compound featuring a mock city. This project was announced to the shock of community members who had been given no opportunity to weigh in on the proposal. The entire process has been shadier than the forest itself.”

The ongoing dispute has led to the arrest and charging of dozens of individuals who campaigned against Cop City, with some facing charges as domestic terrorists.

Earlier this year, tensions escalated further when an environmentalist was shot and killed by police during a demonstration. Law enforcement officials maintain that the individual in question was armed and had fired upon responding officers, leading them to respond with lethal force. This incident marked the first time in modern U.S. history that a fatal officer-involved shooting occurred as a result of climate activism.

The threat of violence against protestors has not come solely from interactions with law enforcement either. In November, amid anti-mining protests in Panama, a motorist fatally shot two people taking part in a demonstration that involved blocking a section of the Pan American Highway.

A report from the nonprofit Global Witness indicated that between 2012 and 2022, nearly 2,000 environmental and land-defense activists were killed, averaging one death every two days. With 2023 is set to be the warmest year on record, the urgency felt by environmentalists for action is high, even as it raises concerns about potential clashes between activists and those opposing their methods.