By Jessie Yeung, and CNN’s Beijing bureau

(CNN) — China is banning hidden door handles on all cars sold in the country, becoming the first country in the world to target the feature – which was popularized by Tesla but has for years drawn concern over safety risks.

The hidden door handles are a signature feature of Tesla’s vehicles, and the ban comes as Elon Musk’s company reports declining worldwide sales and struggles with fierce competition in China, its second-biggest market.

On the outside, electric door handles sit flush against the side of the door, requiring a user to press down on the handle to release the lever; from the inside, riders press a button to open the door again.

Though Tesla is the company best-known for this type of door handle, other electric vehicle makers in China have adopted similar designs, including some models by heavyweights Xiaomi and Aion.

The new policy, which does not single out any specific company, now demands that all cars sold in China must have a mechanical release feature for both interior and exterior door handles.

In a statement released Monday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology cited “the inconvenience with operating the exterior door handles and their inability to open after an accident,” and laid out specific requirements for how these handles should function.

Exterior door handles should have enough space for a hand to operate its mechanical release from any angle. And interior handles should be “clearly visible from the corresponding occupant’s position,” it said.

The new rules come into effect on January 1, 2027.

CNN has reached out to Xiaomi, Aion, and Tesla for comment on the new regulations.

The feature has previously come under heavy scrutiny, both in China and elsewhere.

Last September, Tesla said it was looking into redesigning the way to open its car doors in an emergency, after several accidents where passengers were reportedly killed or severely injured in burning vehicles because rescuers could not open them.

Other Tesla owners have reported having to break their own car windows after buckling their children in and then being unable to get in the car again, according to an investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

An investigation by Bloomberg found 140 incidents of people being trapped in their Teslas due to problems with the door handles, including several that resulted in horrific injuries.

Tesla cars do have a manual door release inside the vehicle, for when the regular handles fail.

Similar problems have cropped up in China. Xiaomi saw its stock value tumble last year after a fatal crash involving its sedan killed three people in March – with local media and government-affiliated outlets reporting there had been issues unlocking the car door.

Afterward, the Chinese government tightened rules around the marketing and testing of driver-assistance features.

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Por Piper Hudspeth Blackburn y Samantha Waldenberg, CNN

El presidente Donald Trump pidió a los republicanos que “nacionalicen el voto” en una entrevista que se emitió este lunes, mientras su administración presiona para revisar las reglas básicas electorales antes de los cruciales comicios intermedios de este año

“Los republicanos deberían decir: ‘Queremos tomar el control, deberíamos tomar el control de la votación, la votación en al menos 15 lugares. Los republicanos deberían nacionalizar la votación’”, declaró Trump a Dan Bongino, exsubdirector del FBI, en una aparición en un podcast.

Los comentarios del presidente se producen menos de una semana después de que el FBI allanara una oficina electoral en el condado de Fulton, Georgia, que durante mucho tiempo ha sido un eje central de las afirmaciones infundadas de Trump de que su derrota en 2020 ante Joe Biden fue fraudulenta.

El allanamiento estaba relacionado con un esfuerzo del Departamento de Justicia para incautar registros electorales e investigar presuntos casos de fraude electoral en el condado, según informó anteriormente CNN.

“Tenemos estados muy corruptos que cuentan los votos. Tenemos estados que gané y que demuestran que no gané”, manifestó Trump. “Ahora verán algo en Georgia, donde lograron obtener las papeletas con una orden judicial; verán resultados interesantes”.

La directora de Inteligencia Nacional, Tulsi Gabbard, afirmó que el propio Trump le indicó que fuera a Atlanta para la controvertida búsqueda.

Como muestra de su implicación e interés en la investigación, Gabbard puso al presidente al teléfono con algunos de los agentes del FBI involucrados en la búsqueda, según dos fuentes familiarizadas con la llamada. Una de ellas afirmó que la conversación consistió en una breve charla motivadora.

Las elecciones son dirigidas por funcionarios estatales y locales, y el Gobierno federal solo tiene un papel limitado. Pero eso no ha impedido que Trump intente reformar la forma en que se llevan a cabo las elecciones.

El año pasado, firmó un decreto que busca exigir a los votantes que presenten prueba de ciudadanía estadounidense al registrarse para votar en las elecciones y prohibir a los estados contabilizar las papeletas de voto por correo que lleguen después del día de las elecciones.

Si bien esta medida ha sido parcialmente bloqueada en un tribunal federal, los no ciudadanos ya tienen prohibido votar en las elecciones federales.

En varias ocasiones, Trump se ha comprometido a cambiar la forma en que se ejerce el sufragio en el país, centrándose en métodos que, según él, falsamente conducen al fraude electoral.

En agosto, el presidente afirmó que iba a “liderar un movimiento” para eliminar el voto por correo y se comprometió a firmar un decreto que lo prohibía, además de las máquinas de votación. Finalmente, no firmó lo hizo.

El presidente también dio inicio a una inusual campaña de redistribución de distritos a mediados de la década, destinada a ayudar a los republicanos a ganar escaños adicionales en la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos en las elecciones de mitad de período de noviembre.

El Departamento de Justicia, que ha amplificado las acusaciones de que inmigrantes indocumentados se han infiltrado en las elecciones estadounidenses sin pruebas independientes, ha demandado a dos docenas de estados para obtener registros electorales completos, incluyendo información personal co

Por Jackie Wattles, CNN

Una prueba crucial del imponente cohete del Sistema de Lanzamiento Espacial de la NASA está en marcha, lo que marca uno de los pasos finales antes de que el vehículo impulse a cuatro astronautas al espacio profundo por primera vez desde que finalizó el programa Apolo hace más de cinco décadas.

La misión podría despegar el 8 de febrero.

La prueba práctica, llamada “ensayo general húmedo”, implica llenar los tanques del cohete con más de 700.000 galones de combustible súper refrigerado.

A las pocas horas de la prueba, la NASA experimentó fugas de hidrógeno, un problema que también afectó al cohete SLS durante su primera ronda de ensayos generales en 2022, antes del vuelo de prueba sin tripulación de Artemis I. Finalmente, la misión despegó unos seis meses después de que la NASA intentara por primera vez un ensayo general con agua.

Mantenido a menos 423 grados Fahrenheit, el hidrógeno licuado, que es el combustible principal que impulsa el cohete SLS, es notoriamente voluble debido a su diminuta estructura molecular que hace que la sustancia sea difícil de contener.

Sin embargo, las fugas no impidieron que la NASA cargara completamente el cohete SLS el lunes. A las 18:00, hora de Miami, la agencia espacial informó que el vehículo había entrado en “modo de reabastecimiento”, durante el cual el cohete solo se carga con el combustible suficiente para llenar los tanques, ya que pequeñas cantidades de propulsores se evaporan.

La agencia ahora está trabajando en la “secuencia de cuenta regresiva terminal, que incluye operaciones de lanzamiento simuladas y verificaciones de preparación final”, según la NASA.

Sin embargo, justo antes de las 10:00 p m., hora de Miami, la NASA reveló otro problema. Un “equipo de cierre” —un grupo de trabajadores vestidos con monos que visitan la plataforma de lanzamiento para cerrar la escotilla de la nave espacial— detectó un problema con una válvula que se “ventiló accidentalmente”.

La NASA indicó que el grupo aún necesitaba al menos una hora más para finalizar su trabajo.

En total, se espera que el ensayo incluya un repaso de la cuenta regresiva el día del lanzamiento, excepto que durante la prueba, el reloj se detendrá a menos de un minuto del final.

El lunes, la NASA estaba contando regresivamente para una ventana de lanzamiento ficticia de cuatro horas que se abrió a las 9:00 p.m., hora de Miami.

El desarrollo de esta prueba ofrecerá pistas sobre cuándo la NASA podrá lanzar la misión Artemis II, lo que podría ocurrir dentro de varias ventanas de lanzamiento entre principios de febrero y finales de abril.

En el lanzamiento, se espera que Christina Koch, Victor Glover y Reid Wiseman de la NASA, así como Jeremy Hansen de la Agencia Espacial Canadiense, viajen a bordo del cohete SLS antes de que su nave espacial Orión se separe y comience un viaje para circunnavegar la Luna.

La NASA confirmó el 23 de enero que los miembros de la tripulación habían entrado en cuarentena en Houston como preparación para su vuelo espacial. Los astronautas se mantienen aislados rutinariamente antes del despegue para prevenir enfermedades.

Se espera que la tripulación llegue a su sitio de lanzamiento en Florida, en el Centro Espacial Kennedy, después de que se complete el ensayo general húmedo.

Aunque los astronautas no aterrizarán en la superficie lunar para esta misión, su viaje los llevará más profundamente dentro del sistema solar que cualquier otro ser humano, superando el récord que los astronautas del Apolo 13 establecieron en 1970.

Antes del despegue, la NASA busca someter el cohete SLS a un ensayo general limpio y húmedo.

Antes del primer vuelo del cohete —la misión de prueba no tripulada Artemis I en 2022—, se realizaron Read more

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Samantha Waldenberg, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting” in an interview that aired Monday, as his administration pushes to overhaul election ground rules ahead of the pivotal midterm races later this year.

“The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” Trump told Dan Bongino, the former deputy director of the FBI, in a podcast appearance.

The president’s comments come less than a week after the FBI searched an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, which has long been a centerpiece of Trump’s baseless claims that his 2020 loss to Joe Biden was fraudulent. The search was related to a Justice Department effort to seize election records and search for alleged voter fraud in the county, CNN previously reported.

“We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes. We have states that I won, that show I didn’t win,” Trump said. “Now you’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order, the ballots, you’re going to see some interesting things come out.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Trump himself directed her to go to Atlanta for the controversial search. In a sign of his involvement and interest in the probe, Gabbard put the president on the phone with some of the FBI agents involved in the search, according to two sources familiar with the call, with one source saying the conversation consisted of a brief “pep talk.”

Elections are run by state and local officials, with the federal government playing only a limited role. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from attempting to revamp how elections are conducted.

Last year, he signed an executive order seeking to require voters to show proof of US citizenship when registering to vote in elections and prohibit states from counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. While it’s been partially blocked in federal court, non-citizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections.

On several occasions, Trump has pledged to change how the country votes, zeroing in on methods he falsely claims lead to fraudulent voting. In August, he said he was going to “lead a movement” to end mail-in ballots, and vowed to sign an executive order banning them, in addition to voting machines. He did not end up signing the order.

The president also kicked off a rare mid-decade redistricting campaign intended to help Republicans win additional US House seats in November’s midterm elections.

The Justice Department, which has amplified claims that undocumented immigrants have infiltrated US elections, without independent evidence, has sued two dozen states for full voter rolls, including personal information such as Social Security numbers and home addresses.

Some Democratic election officials have moved to prepare for potential federal government intrusion in the midterms. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told CNN late last month that he and his colleagues have discussed a range of moves, from seeking to protect voters from interactions with federal law enforcement at polling places to navigating the administration’s push for access to personal i

By Billy Stockwell, CNN

(CNN) — Norway’s usually private royal family is again under intense public scrutiny this week as the rape trial of the crown prince’s stepson begins days after a tranche of newly released Epstein files appear to link the crown princess to the late sex offender.

Marius Borg Høiby, 29, has been charged with 38 counts, including rape and repeated abuse of his former partner. The alleged violence includes repeatedly striking his girlfriend in the face, choking her, making threats and destroying her property, according to indictment documents seen by CNN.

If convicted, Høiby could face more than 10 years in prison, according to Norway’s public broadcaster NRK. The charges also include six counts of non-consensual sexual filming or photography, as well as drug related and driving offenses, documents show.

Defense attorney Petar Sekulic said late last year in response to the indictment that Høiby “denies all charges of sexual abuse, as well as the majority of the charges regarding violence.” Høiby will “present a detailed account of his version of events before the court,” Sekulic added.

CNN has contacted Høiby’s lawyer for further comment.

Høiby, the stepson of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, is outside Norway’s line of royal succession because he was born before his mother, Mette-Marit, married Haakon and became a princess in 2001.

Høiby will appear Tuesday in Oslo District Court for the start of a trial expected to last seven weeks, in what experts say is an unprecedented moment for a royal family known for its projection of stability. The trial also follows the latest release on Friday of more Jeffrey Epstein files by the US Justice Department, which include scores of emails between Epstein and Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

Ahead of his trial, Høiby was arrested on further charges Sunday evening including making threats involving a knife and breaching a restraining order, police prosecutor Andreas Kruszewski said Monday. CNN has approached Høiby’s lawyers for comment on the most recent charges.

While shocked by the allegations, Norwegians will be following the trial mostly out of concern for the broader family, which is generally well-liked and led by the popular “grandfather figure” of King Harald, royal experts say. Harald has been king of Norway since 1991 and is Europe’s oldest monarch.

“Most people understand that (Høiby) is not a working royal and that the case is a personal and legal matter, not an institutional one,” Tove Taalesen, a royal correspondent for news outlet Nettavisen, told CNN ahead of the trial.

Taalesen, who worked for more than a decade at the country’s royal palace, said the crown prince’s handling of the case has been widely interpreted in Norway “as deliberate and strategic.”

“By expressing love for Marius while simultaneously stepping back from the legal process and public commentary, he has set clear boundaries. This has likely helped limit broader reputational damage,” she said.

One such boundary: neither Haakon nor the crown princess are intending to be present in the courtroom, according to the royal house – a clear sign of the family’s efforts to distance themselves publicly from the case.

Haakon last week issued a rare statement asserting that Høiby is “not a member of the Royal House of Norway and is therefore autonomous.”

“We care about him, and he is an important member of our family. He is a citizen of Norway and, as such,