In addition, GM will adopt Teslas connector, the plug that links an electric vehicle to a charging station.

GM joins Ford in shifting its electric vehicles to work with about 12,000 of Teslas roughly 17,000 chargers, and both Detroit automakers are pushing to make Teslas connector the industry standard. GM CEO Mary Barra and her Tesla counterpart, Elon Musk, made the announcement Thursday during a Twitter Spaces conversation.

Their discussion comes two weeks after Ford CEO Jim Farley joined Musk to announce that Fords electric vehicles would gain access to much of Teslas EV-charging network, the largest in the nation. Farley also said Ford would switch to Teslas connector rather than go with the connector used by the rest of the industry.

Before the opening bell Friday, shares of Tesla Inc. jumped 6% and appeared headed for a new high for the year. General Motors Co. rose 4%, and Ford Motor Co. rose more than 1%.

At first, GM and Ford EV owners will need an adapter to hook into the Tesla stations, which have their own connector. But both GM and Ford will switch to Teslas North American Charging Standard connector starting with new EVs produced in 2025.

Tesla has about 17,000 Supercharger stations in the U.S. There are about 54,000 public charging stations in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy, but many charge much more slowly than the Tesla stations.

Like Ford, we see this as an opportunity to expand access to charging, Barra said, adding that GM hopes the rest of the industry will move to the Tesla charging connector, which is different from the CCS connector used on most other EVs.

Musk said that GM and Tesla vehicles would have an even playing field at the charging stations.

We will provide support equally to both, he said. The most important thing is we advance the electric vehicle revolution.

Financial details of the agreement between the two companies were not released Thursday, but GM spokesman Darryll Harrison said GM isnt paying Tesla.

Tesla will get better utilization of their network and all the new charging revenue, which will help them expand the network further, Harrison said. There are other opportunities both companies can take advantage of as a result of the agreement.

Details of how customers would gain access are still being worked out. GM EV owners may have to pay a monthly charge to access Teslas charging network, or they could pay for each use. Current GM owners probably will need to buy the adapter, Harrison said.

Teslas supercharger network is a huge competitive advantage for the company based in Austin, Texas, which sells more EVs than anyone else in the U.S. Chargers often are located near freeways to enable long trips, where most fast-charging plugs are needed, and generally theyre more reliable than other networks.

But opening access to EVs from GM and Ford, which rank a distant second and third in U.S. EV sales, will make it easier for those owners to charge while traveling. It also could rankle some Tesla owners who already are jockeying for space at some of the busier Supercharger stations, largely in California.

Barra said joining Teslas network would almost double the number of chargers available to GM electric vehicle owners.

At the end of the day, were looking at whats best for our customers, Barra said. We arent the only company that comes up with good ideas.

Mike Austin, an electric vehicles analyst for Guidehouse Insights, said GM joining the Tesla network is a huge step toward making Teslas connector the industrywide standard.

It seems like theres a lot of momentum going the way of the North American Charging Standard, for sure, he said.

If other large EV makers such as Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen and Nissan, also switch connectors, Tesla would get a large amount of revenue from its chargers, Austin said.

Still, Tesla appears to be holding back at least part of its network for use only by Tesla owners, he said. The risk, he said, is that Tesla owners could have to wait for access to a plug.

Tesla owners are used to not having to wait, he said.

The Tesla connector and cord are much lighter and easier to handle than the CCS system used by the rest of the auto industry, Austin said.

Earlier this year, the White House announced that at least 7,500 chargers from Teslas Supercharger and Destination Charger network would be available to non-Tesla electric vehicles by the end of 2024. But the rollout thus far has been slow.

On the final day of evidence, attorney David Sherborne grilled former Daily Mirror royal correspondent Jane Kerr, whose byline appears on several of the 33 articles cited by Harry as examples of unlawful intrusion by publisher Mirror Group Newspapers.

The lawyer suggested to Kerr that some of the information in her stories came from phone hacking.

It absolutely didnt, Kerr said with a touch of anger.

Ive never intercepted a voicemail. I wouldnt even know how, Kerr added. She also denied knowing about lawbreaking by any freelance journalists or private investigators employed by the newspaper.

Kerr acknowledged in her written witness statement that Morgan, who edited the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004, would occasionally direct or inject information into a story without her knowing the source.

Asked by Sherborne about quotes in one story, she said: I cant say for sure where I got them from, because I cant remember. Its possible Piers gave them to me.

Morgan has denied knowing about phone hacking at the Mirror, and the company is contesting Harrys claims. Mirror Group has previously paid more than 100 million pounds ($125 million) to settle hundreds of unlawful information-gathering claims, and printed an apology to phone hacking victims in 2015.

Harry, who flew from his home in California to testify earlier in the week, was not at the High Court on Thursday. He spent a day and a half in the witness box on Tuesday and Wednesday answering questions about his claim that British tabloids had unlawfully snooped on his life throughout his childhood and young adulthood.

He alleges that the Mirror newspapers hacked phones, bugged vehicles and used other illicit methods to obtain personal information they splashed as royal scoops. He said the intrusion poisoned relations with friends, teachers and girlfriends and even caused friction with brother Prince William and led to bouts of depression and paranoia.

Mirror Group Newspapers has apologized for one instance in which it hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Harry, which was not among the claims he has brought. It either denies or does not admit his claims.

Harry, 38, is one of four claimants whose lawsuits against Mirror Group Newspapers are being heard together at the High Court in London. Hearings are due to last until the end of June, with the judge, Timothy Fancourt, likely to deliver his ruling several weeks later.

Harry left royal life in 2020, citing unbearable media scrutiny and alleged racism toward his wife, Meghan, and is on a mission to reform the British media. He is also suing two other newspaper publishers over alleged hacking.

While her past employer went on to make the mistakes that eventually led to its historic collapse, the 43-year-old later took over as the boss of Greystone. 

There the former Goldman Sachs managing director didnt even last four months before jumping ship again, as the real estate finance firm announced in December she had sought new opportunities in the financial sector. 

Now it emerged that the Princeton-educated Erkan has been appointed the first woman to run the central bank of Turkey (CBRT) as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reshuffled his cabinet at the start of a third term in office.

There Erkan will need every skill she acquired while earning her doctorate in financial engineering as she faces one of the toughest tasks in international finance aroundstaving off an impending currency collapse in Turkey triggered by Erdoğan himself. 

His decision to keep stimulating the economy in the face of soaring inflation prompted both international investors and indeed the countrys own citizens to flee the lira. Erdoğan even argued the best way to cool off consumer prices was to maintain borrowing costs at as low a rate as possibleindeed it became his signature economic policy.

The first, and only, question media and investors should ask Turkeys new central bank governor is this: Do you believe higher interest rates lead to higher inflation?, wrote Turkish political commentator and Erdoğan critic Can Okar on Friday.

Lira-ization strategy unveiled to urge Turks not to dump their own currency

The CBRT has instead blamed Turks themselves for painfully high inflation, most recently measured at an annual 44% in April according to Erdoğans own officials. Specifically, it accuses them of thwarting the central banks price stability mandate by preferring to buy and hoard gold, cryptocurrencies, the U.S. dollar or other governments fiat currency.

In the week before Turkeys second-round election on May 28, Turkish Lira fell around 1% against US Dollar. In the week since then, its fallen 16%. Its good when a currency falls if it needs to. Its not good when that fall is postponed until after a political turning point pic.twitter.com/dmlC7JV7KQ

Robin Brooks (@RobinBrooksIIF) June 7, 2023

The lira, abbreviated as TRY, fell into such disrepute among its citizens that the CBRT was forced last year to launch a dedicated lira-ization strategy to encourage the country to use their own legal tender rather than rely on others. 

The aim is to gradually increase the weight of TRY-denominated items in the assets and liabilities of households, companies and the banking sector, so that the financial system as a whole becomes centered on the Turkish lira, the outgoing CBRT governor, Şahap Kavcıoğlu, wrote in December.

Its hard to blame Turks for wanting to abandon their currency. Thanks to Erdoğans mismanagement of the economy, the lira weakened by 44% versus the dollar in 2021 and a further 30% last year. 

As a result, the shortfall in its current account ballooned to a record $10 billion in January as imports soared. The country was forced to temporarily limit the purchase of gold, a popular store of value, the following month.

Currency reserves exhausted

In order not to further alarm voters ahead of Mays all-important presidential election, the CBRT plundered the countrys foreign currency holdings needed to finance its yawning trade deficit just to prop up the lira. 

In the process, net international foreign exchange reserves actually dipped into negative territory for the first time in the 21 years that Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have run Turkey. 

With its coffers depleted and Erdoğan safely returned to power, the CBRT has allowed the lira to resume floating freelyand the result has been devastating. 

Since winning the election, the lira has been in free fall, plummeting by more than 15%.

The job of rebuilding trust in the currency now falls to Erkan.

After departing two CEO-level jobs in ten months, she will hopefully want to last longer this time, but she shouldnt get all too comfortable settling down in her new job. 

The post of central bank governor is a notoriously fraught and contentious one that comes with a built-in ejector seat for Erdoğans political convenience. 

The AKP has its sights set on municipal elections next March, and the greatest trophy would be defeating Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, the most popular political opponent of Erdoğan. 

If that means more interest rate cuts to boost growth, no onenot the financial markets and certainly not Erkanwill stop him.