WSJ What’s News - China’s BYD Surpasses Tesla as the Top Global EV Seller

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Edition for Jan. 2. Chinese automaker BYD takes the EV crown after Tesla’s sales slide. Plus, President Trump threatens to intervene as protests in Iran turn violent. And the WSJ’s James Fanelli surveys the challenges facing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as his promises of change meet reality. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China's BYD becomes the world's biggest EV maker after Tesla sales drop for the second straight year. Plus, as protests in Iran turn violent, President Trump threatens to intervene, and promises of change meet reality as New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani takes office. A big challenge is finding out where to get the money. He wants to see taxes raised on the city's wealthiest. and also raise taxes on corporations. But he needs to get allies up in the state to go along with it, and that's going to be tough. It's Friday, January 2nd, 2026.

I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in your feed once a day over the holidays with the top headlines and business stories moving the world today. There is a new holder of the title of World's Biggest EV maker, and it's not Tesla. China's BYD says it's sold over 2.5 million battery electric vehicles last year, a 28% annual jump, while Tesla sales dropped 9%, its second consecutive annual slide, to 1.64 million cars. Tesla, which saw its sales dented by the end of U.S. federal subsidies and flagging European demand, is now pivoting its business toward robotics and autonomous vehicles

like the cybercab robo-taxie, which doesn't have a steering wheel. Other major American automakers are rethinking their EV plans, and BYD itself faces big competition from Chinese rivals like Gile and Leap Motor. Global markets are kicking off the year on a strong note with a familiar trend powering gains. AI, as chip players, Nvidia, Intel, and Micron rallied. Furniture and home goods sellers like Wayfair and William Sonoma are also climbing after the Trump administration delayed tariff increases on furniture and kitchen cabinets by a year.

They had been set to go into effect on New Year's Day. In other trade news, the U.S. is rethinking proposed tariffs on Italian pasta that exporters feared could have forced it out of American stores. The U.S. Commerce Department had promised anti-dumping duties of 92 percent that could kick in as early as this month, triggering a lobbying push by Italy's government, which had sought to position. itself is one of the Trump administration's closest allies in Europe. Instead, a range of revised tariff rates will top out at 13.9 percent, according to an industry representative and Italy's foreign ministry. The Trump administration is preparing to pull National Guard troops out

of L.A., Chicago, and Portland, Oregon. The announcement comes after the administration suffered a loss at the Supreme Court last week in litigation over troops in Chicago, a rare defeat for the president on an issue of executive power. The White House didn't comment on whether troops would remain in Washington, D.C., Memphis, and New Orleans. And the Justice Department is shifting away from prosecuting certain white-collar crimes. Dave Michaels covers law enforcement for the Wall Street Journal, and he looked at the DOJ's changing priorities under Trump. The number of foreign bribery prosecutions has fallen a lot,

and that's obviously partly due to the fact that President Trump ordered a six-month pause. on all foreign bribery cases. In past years, the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission, which shared this authority to enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, have combined to bring about 33 new cases every year against either companies or individuals. In 2025, the Justice Department brought six new cases and the SEC brought zero. The Trump administration has very intentionally tried to shift toward enforcement that really fits the president's priorities. They are now trying to, for instance, bring cases against businesses

accused of dodging or underpaying tariffs or that are accused of making protection payments to drug gangs that have been designated as terrorist organizations. Coming up, President Trump warns Iran against attacking protesters as demonstrations turn violent. and a look at the challenges awaiting Zoran Mamdani as he takes over as New York City mayor. That and more after the break. President Trump is threatening to intervene if Iran tries to shoot demonstrators in protests that have run for nearly a week.

Clashes between protesters and police have already resulted in the war. the deaths of several people and hardliners in Iran are warning of a harsher crackdown. It's not clear what action Washington might take. The U.S. has imposed sanctions during prior periods of unrest. Journal Middle East correspondent Benoit Foucahn says international sanctions over Iran's nuclear program have led to the widespread economic problems that are sparking the demonstrations. The biggest issue for the regime is the sanctions that are basically derailing its economy and threatening his political stability,

are set to continue unless it takes a very drastic turn, which is agreeing to stop enrichment of uranium for its nuclear program. So far, there has been no compromise on that front. President Trump has pushed back against scrutiny of his health, telling the journal that he regrets undergoing a CT scan in October because it drew attention to the issue. Trump, who has been photographed with makeup concealing bruises on his hand, also admitted taking more aspirin than his doctors recommend, which he said is causing

him to bruise easily. Trump denied that he struggles to hear and denied falling asleep at recent White House events, saying he's always gotten by on little sleep. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. That was New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani in his inaugural address yesterday, where thousands of his supporters came out in the cold to celebrate his taking office. The journal's Jim Fennelly is here to discuss the challenges facing the 34-year-old Democratic Socialist who's promised to make America's largest city more affordable.

Jim, you write that kind of right out of the gate. here, the learning curve of the New York City bureaucracy is likely going to present an immediate hurdle. Everyone will be looking to see how he does running a city that has 300,000 workers, is expected to provide garbage pickup, keep the schools open, and to have the streets plow when it snows. So there's a lot to do beyond just him wanting to enact some of his big policies. He just has to keep the city humming as he does that. Mom, Donnie's got a pretty expansive wish list for the city. I think it's fair to say.

And a number of these items in particular command a pretty high price tag. Talk us through a little bit about what he wants to fund and what his plans are for doing so. The top points are freezing rent and just basically driving down the high cost of living in the city and develop or expand free child care. He wants free child care from basically age zero to age five. and he also wants to implement a free city bus system. His campaign put out estimates of what it would cost during the mayoral race and the free child care would cost about $6 billion annually.

The free bus system would cost about nearly $800 million a year. A big challenge is finding out where to get the money. He wants to see taxes raised on the city's wealthiest and also raise taxes on corporations. But he needs to get allies up in the state to go along with it. And that's going to be tough. State lawmakers are uneasy about raising taxes. Governor Kathy Hochle has said she opposes raising income taxes, but she signaled an openness to perhaps increasing corporate taxes. But also the city's budget is about $116 billion. And just from talking to people who deal with the budget,

they said that there's room there for him to maybe move some money around in that budget to help pay for some of those costs as well. One challenge you write that maybe the mayor may not have to deal with has to do with Washington, a crisis he may be diffused in recent months. That's right. After Mamdani was elected in early November, a few weeks after that, Mamdani reached out to Trump and went down to Washington, D.C., and it was a surprisingly congenial sit down. But at the same time, Mom Doni got into office by vowing to stand up to the federal government when it came to immigration enforcement. So, you know, if there's some kind of showdown, things could change. A lot to watch. I've been speaking to the journals, Jim Finnelli, Jim, thanks so much.

Thank you so much. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow, look out for our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News in Markets. On Sunday, we'll be discussing President Trump's 2026 agenda with WSJ White House correspondent Natalie Andrews and Washington coverage chief Damian Palletta. That's in What's News Sunday, and we'll be back with our regular show on a regular

schedule on Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Pierre BNMA and Julie Chang with supervising producer Tali Arbell. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Jessica Fenton is our technical engineer. Aisha al-Muslim is our development producer. Chris Zinsley

is our deputy editor. And Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. Have a great weekend, and thanks for listening.