Bill Ford says loss of federal funding could 'imperil' Marshall battery factory
Ford Motor Co. Executive Chair Bill Ford, speaking at the Mackinac Policy Conference, sounded the alarm on the potential for Washington to do away with production tax credits that support the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries.
The disappearance of the credits would threaten Ford Motor's investment in a Marshall plant. "If it doesn't stay, it will imperil what we do in Marshall," Ford said on May 29.
'We made a certain investment based upon a policy that was in place. It's not fair to change policies after all the expenditure has been made,' he said.
The tax bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this month could bar lucrative tax credits for batteries produced using Chinese technology. Ford's factory, now under construction, would make battery cells using tech from Chinese battery giant CATL.
The Senate still must deal with the bill, which Democrats oppose and has drawn criticism from some fiscally conservative senators.
Ford received a reduced incentive package from Michigan last year for the battery plant after it cut expected production there to match slowing demand for electric vehicles. Since the automaker announced the plant in 2023, it has drawn scrutiny from some lawmakers for its ties to the Chinese company.
More: Ford, Michigan cut $750M in planned public support for Marshall site, other EV projects
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bill Ford: Loss of tax credits could 'imperil' Marshall battery plant
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She says zoosadists often hide their proclivities from their families and friends. 'They are leading a double life, because they have this whole other life that they completely keep separate from everything else that they're doing,' Edwards said. Some have threatened physical violence against activists who try to expose their secret lives. Phaedra, a US-based independent animal rights activist who asked to go only by her first name, said she was doxxed – the process of revealing someone's real identity – and targeted by anonymous accounts, after highlighting graphic torture content on X to prompt censors to take them down. Phaedra says she also tried to alert Chinese and US officials. As revenge, some of the abusers used Phaedra's photograph from her X account to create deepfake pornography of her – and one even used a photo of her as a child alongside dead cats and a sign that read 'I'm coming for you Phaedra.' 'They've said that they'll come and skin my dog, they're going to kill my pets and family,' Phaedra said. In December 2024, she also received death and rape threats via X. At one point, she was terrified – thinking they'd find out where she lived and come through her bedroom window – but added that she's 'not afraid of them anymore.' Chen, the undercover volunteer, said most people he encounters in the groups are lonely men who feel left behind by society, which suggests they are also searching for connection within these groups – bonded by their unspeakable hobby. He described them as 'incels' – involuntary celibates – who feel rejected by women and therefore get sexual pleasure from hurting an animal that most women love. Activists say some consumers are also drawn to this content because the screams of a cat sound similar to those of women, or children – prompting fears that the behaviors in this online underworld could develop into the abuse of humans. 'They're becoming more elaborate with what they're doing, and far more methodical,' Lara from Feline Guardians said. 'This will only get worse.' For example, Chen said in 2024, a sickening mission emerged to target an app called 'Street Cat,' which livestreams stray cats or those in shelters for cat enthusiasts to watch. The networks hacked into the app's servers to obtain the locations, and they offered a bounty to anyone who could catch a cat, cut them into pieces, then throw the remains in front of the livestream cameras. Street Cat declined to comment to CNN. In the US, Feline Guardians also found evidence of a crossover between cat torture and neo-Nazi groups, including one private Telegram group called 'The Eternal Reich' with more than 600 members, which mixed torture content with videos of abuse against women and posts on far-right ideology. One member posted a photo of himself holding two dead cats in front of an American flag. Social media companies have come under pressure for not doing enough to prevent the proliferation of this sort of extreme, and in most places, illegal content. 'The platforms are social media networks, mainly end-to-end encrypted platforms such as Telegram,' Lara said. 'Also, these videos are being shared on other social media platforms like X, Instagram and Facebook.' Often potential consumers are recruited directly by the torture rings via a direct message. If they have commented on a graphic video on YouTube or Facebook, they might receive an invitation to free-to-join Telegram groups with thousands of members. Those who want more depraved content, or want to order something specific, can join smaller, more extreme Telegram groups. 'It definitely needs to be restricted, and a lot of it can and should be restricted by the social media provider,' Edwards said. 'The challenge is we don't have a cohesive way of attacking it.' Edwards said in most countries legislation is too weak and inadequate to fit the extent of these crimes, and that law enforcement should be pushing tech companies to do more. CNN sent multiple requests for comment to the tech giants on their approach to this issue. 'Content that promotes or glorifies violence is explicitly forbidden,' a Telegram spokesperson said, and 'any groups, channels or users found distributing violent content are immediately banned.' Hundreds of moderators using AI tools are removing 'millions of pieces of harmful content each day,' the spokesperson said. In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced sweeping changes to Facebook's online moderation policies, including reducing fact-checking while acknowledging more harmful content would appear as a result of the changes. Meta declined to comment to CNN other than to point to their policies which include removing some content that is 'particularly violent or graphic.' X – which also reduced vetting following Elon Musk's takeover of social media network Twitter in 2022 – did not respond to CNN's questions on this issue. In China – which has some of the world's most tightly-controlled internet restrictions – censors rarely remove any cat torture content, Chen said. 'In most situations there is no supervision of this,' Chen said. 'China's censorship of political content and pornography is very strict, but with animal abuse, basically no threshold has been set.' Multiple cases of cat abuse in China have been reported by state media in the past few years, but most alleged that the perpetrators did not face any legal consequences. Other countries with animal cruelty legislation have made multiple arrests of cat torturers in recent years – including the US, Canada and Turkey. In the UK, two teenagers were recently charged with causing animal suffering, after a pair of kittens were found dead and mutilated in north-west London on May 3. The local police also wrote a letter to schools in the area, warning them of an increase in reports of young people committing acts of cruelty towards animals. In Turkey – which is known for its abundance of street cats – five members of a cat torture network were arrested in January 2024 for 'abusing cats and engaging in organizational propaganda.' More arrests were made in February and September last year, including one for 'torture of a kitten.' 'In Turkey, within these groups, there are up to 15,000 members, possibly even more,' Lara said. 'So these networks are spreading, and they mimic what the same networks in China have been doing.' The Turkish Interior Ministry did not respond to CNN's request for comment. Activists say the role of legislation and enforcement is critical to shutting these networks down. High-profile cases in recent years include a monkey torture ring originating in Indonesia which was exposed and dismantled in 2023. British man Adam Britton was also jailed in August 2024 for torturing and sexually abusing dozens of dogs in Australia and sharing the videos on Telegram. Peter Li, an associate professor of East Asian politics at the University of Houston-Downtown and a China policy specialist for Humane Society International, says China is the only major industrialized country that does not have comprehensive anti-cruelty laws. 'It's time that China adopts an anti-cruelty law,' Li said, though he conceded that it was 'a politically challenging issue.' Li said multiple proposals have been submitted over the past two decades to China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress, but they have never progressed – partly due to fears they could impede the farming industry, and due to a cultural lack of concern for animal welfare among China's older generation. But with the growing number of pets in China – totalling more than 120 million in urban areas alone – the pressure to legislate for the protection of animals, especially from younger pet owners, will likely only increase. Beyond the suffering of animals, Li says there are also 'broad social consequences' for allowing this trend to spiral. 'You would encourage copycat behaviors,' Li said. 'Most of the audience are young people, and (they) would be desensitized.' In 2024, Chinese state media reported at least four separate cases of university students allegedly torturing cats. China Daily, the country's official English-language newspaper, reported in May that 'incidents of students being punished for torturing animals have been on the rise.' The article said the alleged offenders had been punished, but didn't specify what punishment they'd received, beyond at least two expulsions. 'Simply expelling the students cannot solve the problem,' Wang Wenda, director of students' psychological health at Xinhua College of Ningxia University, was quoted as saying. 'They might not only hurt animals but also people if they do not get proper guidance and help.' Links between cruelty to animals and to humans – documented by multiple global studies – could ultimately drive law enforcement in China – and elsewhere – to take the issue more seriously. 'It starts off with cat torture,' said Lara. 'There have been multiple cases of people who go off to commit other crimes, such as serial killers, but also those that we don't hear of – abuse within the home (and) maybe children.' 'There is a crossover here, and so they're just acting out a fantasy through cats.' For campaigners, there's no choice but to keep going, despite the huge impact on their own mental health. 'It's definitely changed the way that I view the world,' said Lara. 'I believe that I have taken on something which I am committed to for the rest of my life, until this changes.' On May 18, Lara helped to organize global protests calling for an end to cat torture, held in more than 20 major cities around the world. Chen said he had sought medical support for his mental health, but he'll keep logging on every night because each sickening video takes him closer to a potential arrest. He said he'll watching in the hope of ending the depravity, because 'someone has to do it, right?' Madalena Araújo, Isil Sariyuce contributed reporting Story Editors: Hilary Whiteman, Jerome Taylor Video: Vina Salazar, Alex Dicker, Dan Hodge, Martin Bourke, Kevin Broad Data and Graphics Editor: Lou Robinson Illustration and Motion Designer: Alberto Mier Visual Editor: Mark Oliver
