load 'er up The Ars cargo e-bike buying guide for the bike-curious (or serious) Fun and functional transportation? See why these bikes are all the rage. Chris Cona – Apr 9, 2025 6:00 am | 3 Credit: Aurich Lawson | John Timmer Credit: Aurich Lawson | John Timmer Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Are you a millennial parent who has made cycling your entire personality but have found it socially unacceptable to abandon your family for six hours on a Saturday? Or are you a bike-curious urban dweller who hasn’t owned a bicycle since middle school? Do you stare at the gridlock on your commute, longing for a bike-based alternative, but curse the errands you need to run on the way home? I have a solution for you: invest in a cargo bike. Cargo bikes aren't for everyone, but they're great if you enjoy biking and occasionally need to haul more than a bag or basket can carry (including kids and pets). In this guide, we'll give you some parameters for your search—and provide some good talking points to get a spouse on board. Bakfiets to the future As the name suggests, a cargo bike, also known by the Dutch bakfiet, is a bicycle or tricycle designed to haul both people and things. And that loose definition is driving a post-pandemic innovation boom in this curious corner of the cycling world. My colleagues at Ars have been testing electric cargo bikes for the past few years, and their experiences reflect the state of the market: It's pretty uneven. There are great, user-centric products being manufactured by brands you may have heard of—and then there are products made as cheaply as possible, using bottom-of-the-barrel parts, to capture customers who are hesitant to drop a car-sized payment on a bike… even if they already own an $8,000 carbon race rocket. The price range is wide. You can get an acoustic cargo bike for about $2,000, and you start seeing e-bikes at around $2,000 as well, with top-of-the-line bikes going for up to $12,000. But don't think of cargo bikes as leisure items. Instead, they can be a legitimate form of transportation that, with the right gear—and an electric drivetrain—can fully integrate into your life. Replacing 80 percent of my in-town car trips with a cargo bike has allowed me to squeeze in a workout while I bring my kid to school and then run errands without worrying about traffic or parking. It means my wife can take our infant daughter somewhere in the car while I take the bigger kid to a park across town. Additionally, when you buy a car, the purchase is just the start of the costs; you can be stuck with several hundred to several thousand dollars a year in insurance and maintenance. With bikes, even heavy cargo bikes, you’re looking at a yearly check-up on brakes and chain stretch (which should be a $150 bike shop visit if you don’t do it yourself) and a periodic chain lubing (which you should do yourself). A recent study found that once people use cargo bikes, they like their cars much less. And, of course, bikes are fun. No matter what, you’re outside with the wind in your face. Still, like anything else, there are trade-offs to this decision, and a new glut of choices confront consumers as they begin their journey down a potentially pricy rabbit hole. In this article, instead of recommending specific bikes, we'll tell you what you need to know to make an informed decision based on your personal preferences. In a future article, we'll look at all the other things you’ll need to get safely from point A to point B.  Function, form, and evolutionary design Long dominated by three main domains of design, the diversification of the North American cargo bike has accelerated, partially driven by affordable battery systems, interest from sustainability-minded riders, and government subsidies. In general, these three categories—bakfiets, longtails, and trikes—are still king, but there is far more variation within them. That's due to the entrance of mainstream US bike brands like Specialized, which have joined homegrown specialists such as Rad Power and Yuba, as well as previously hard-to-find Dutch imports from Riese & Müller, Urban Arrow, and Larry vs Harry. Within the three traditional cargo bikes, each style has evolved to include focused designs that are more or less suitable for individual tasks. Do you live in an apartment and need to cart your kids and not much else? You probably want a mid-tail of some sort. Do you have a garage and an urge to move your kid and a full wheelset from another bike? A Long John is your friend! Let's take a high-level look at the options. Bakfiets/Long Johns A front-loader from Urban Arrow, called the Family. Credit: John Timmer Dutch for “box bike,” a bakfiets, or a front-loader, is the most alien-looking of the styles presented here (at least according to the number of questions I get at coffee shops). There are several iterations of the form, but in general, bakfiets feature a big (26-inch) wheel in the back, a large cargo area ahead of the rider, and a smaller (usually 20-inch) wheel ahead of the box, with steering provided through a rod or cable linkage. Depending on the manufacturer, these bikes can skew closer to people carriers (Riese & Müller, Yuba, Xtracycle) or cargo carriers (Larry vs Harry, Omnium). However, even in the case of a bakfiets that is purpose-built for hauling people, leg and shoulder space becomes scarce as your cargo gets older and you begin playing child-limb Jenga. We reviewed Urban Arrow's front-loading Family bike here. Brands to look out for:  Riese & Müller Urban Arrow Larry vs Harry Yuba Xtracycle Longtails The Trek Fetch+ 2. Credit: John TImmer If my local preschool drop-off is any indication, long- and mid-tail cargo bikes have taken North America by storm, and for good reason. With a step-through design, smaller wheels, and tight, (relatively) apartment-friendly proportions, long tails are imminently approachable. Built around 20-inch wheels, their center of gravity, and thus the weight of your cargo or pillion, is lower to the ground, making for a more stable ride. This makes them far less enjoyable to ride than your big-wheeled whip. On the other hand, they’re also more affordable—the priciest models from Tern (the GSD, at $5,000, and the Specialized Haul, at $3,500) top out at half the price of mid-range bakfiets. Proper child restraints attach easily, and one can add boxes and bags for cargo, though they are seen as less versatile than a Long John. On the other hand, it's far easier to carry an adult or as many children as you feel comfortable shoving on the rear bench than it is to squeeze large kids into the bakfiets. We've reviewed several bikes in this category, including the Trek Fetch+ 2, Integral Electrics Maven, and Cycrown CycWagen. Brands to look out for: Radwagon Tern Yuba Specialized, Trek Tricycles The Christiania Classic. Credit: Christiania Bikes America And then we have a bit of an outlier. The original delivery bike, trikes can use a front-load or rear-load design, with two wheels always residing under the cargo. In either case, consumer trikes are not well-represented on the street, though brands such as Christiana and Workman have been around for some time. Why aren't trikes more popular? According to Kash, the mononymous proprietor of San Francisco’s Warm Planet Bikes, if you’re already a confident cyclist, you’ll likely be put off by the particular handling characteristics of a three-wheeled solution. “While trikes work, [there are] such significant trade-offs that, unless you're the very small minority of people for whom they absolutely have to have those features specific to trikes, you're going to try other things,” he told me. In his experience, riders who find tricycles most useful are usually those who have never learned to ride a bike or those who have balance issues or other disabilities. For these reasons, most of this guide will focus on Long Johns and longtails. Brands to look out for:  Christiana Worksman Babboe Which bike style is best for you? Before you start wading into niche cargo bike content on Reddit and YouTube, it’s useful to work through a decision matrix to narrow down what's important to you. We’ll get you started below. Once you have a vague direction, the next best step is to find a bike shop that either carries or specializes in cargo bikes so you can take some test rides. All mechanical conveyances have their quirks, and quirky bikes are the rule. Where do you want your cargo (or kid): Fore or aft? This is the most important question after “which bike looks coolest to you?” and will drive the rest of the decision tree. Anecdotally, I have found that many parents feel more secure having their progeny in the back. Others like having their load in front of them to ensure it’s staying put, or in the case of a human/animal, to be able to communicate with them. Additionally, front-loaders tend to put cargo closer to the ground, thus lowering their center of gravity. Depending on the bike, this can counteract any wonky feel of the ride. An abridged Costco run: toilet paper, paper towels, snacks, and gin. Credit: Chris Cona How many people and how much stuff are you carrying? As noted above, a front-loader will mostly max out at two slim toddlers (though the conventional wisdom is that they’ll age into wanting to ride their own bikes at that point). On the other hand, a longtail can stack as many kids as you can fit until you hit the maximum gross vehicle weight. However, if you’d like to make Costco runs on your bike, a front loader provides an empty platform (or cube, depending on your setup) to shove diapers, paper goods, and cases of beer; the storage on long tails is generally more structured. In both cases, racks can be added aft and fore (respectively) to increase carrying capacity. What’s your topography like? Do you live in a relatively flat area? You can probably get away with an acoustic bike and any sort of cargo area you like. Flat and just going to the beach? This is where trikes shine! Load up the kids and umbrellas and toodle on down to the dunes. On the other hand, if you live among the hills of the Bay Area or the traffic of a major metropolitan area, the particular handling of a box trike could make your ride feel treacherous when you're descending or attempting to navigate busy traffic. Similarly, if you’re navigating any sort of elevation and planning on carrying anything more than groceries, you’ll want to spring for the e-bike with sufficient gear range to tackle the hills. More on gear ratios later. Do you have safe storage? Do you have a place to put this thing? The largest consumer-oriented front loader on the market (the Riese & Müller Load 75) is almost two and a half meters (about nine feet) long, and unless you live in Amsterdam, it should be stored inside—which means covered garage-like parking. On the other end of the spectrum, Tern’s GSD and HSD are significantly shorter and can be stored vertically with their rear rack used as a stand, allowing them to be brought into tighter spaces (though your mileage may vary on apartment living). If bike storage is your main concern, bikes like the Omnium Mini Max, Riese & Müller’s Carrie, and the to-be-released Gocyle CXi/CX+ are designed specifically for you. In the event of the unthinkable—theft, vandalism, a catastrophic crash—there are several bike-specific insurance carriers (Sundays, Velosurance, etc.) that are affordable and convenient. If you’re dropping the cash on a bike in this price range, insurance is worth getting. How much do you love tinkering and doing maintenance? Some bikes are more baked than others. For instance, the Urban Arrow—the Honda Odyssey of the category—uses a one-piece expanded polypropylene cargo area, proprietary cockpit components, and internally geared hubs. Compare that to Larry vs Harry’s Bullitt, which uses standard bike parts and comes with a cargo area that’s a blank space with some bolt holes. OEM cargo box solutions exist, but the Internet is full of very entertaining box, lighting, and retention bodges. Similar questions pertain to drivetrain options: If you’re used to maintaining a fleet of bikes, you may want to opt for a traditional chain-driven derailleur setup. Have no desire to learn what’s going on down there? Some belt drives have internally geared hubs that aren’t meant to be user-serviceable. So if you know a bit about bikes or are an inveterate tinkerer, there are brands that will better scratch that itch. A note about direct-to-consumer brands As Arsians, research and price shopping are ingrained in our bones like scrimshaw, so you'll likely quickly become familiar with the lower-priced direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-bike brands that will soon be flooding your Instagram ads. DTC pricing will always be more attractive than you'll find with brands carried at your local bike shop, but buyers should beware. In many cases, those companies don't just skimp on brick and mortar; they often use off-brand components—or, in some cases, outdated standards that can be had for pennies on the dollar. By that, I mean seven-speed drivetrains mated to freewheel hubs that are cheap to source for the manufacturer but could seriously limit parts availability for you or your poor mechanic. And let’s talk about your mechanic. When buying online, you’ll get a box with a bike in various states of disassembly that you’ll need to put together. If you’re new to bike maintenance and assembly, you might envision the process as a bit of Ikeaology that you can get through with a beer and minimal cursing. But if you take a swing through /r/bikemechanics for a professional perspective, you’ll find that these “economically priced bikes” are riddled with outdated and poor-quality components. And this race to a bottom-tier price point means those parts are often kluged together, leading to an unnecessarily complicated assembly process—and, down the line, repairs that will be far more of a headache than they should be. Buying a bike from your local bike shop generally means a more reliable (or at least mainstream) machine with after-sales support. You'll get free tune-ups for a set amount of time and someone who can assist you if something feels weird. Oh yeah, and there are exploding batteries. Chances are good that if a battery is self-immolating, it’s because it’s (a) wired incorrectly, (b) used in a manner not recommended by the manufacturer, or (c) damaged. If a battery is cheap, it's less likely that the manufacturer sought UL or EU certification, and it's more likely that the battery will have some janky cells. Your best bet is to stick to the circuits and brands you’ve heard of. Credit: Chris Cona Bikes ain’t nothin’ but nuts and bolts, baby Let's move on to the actual mechanics of momentum. Most cargo bike manufacturers have carried over three common standards from commuter and touring bikes: chain drives with cable or electronically shifted derailleurs, belt-driven internally geared hubs (IGH), or belt-driven continuously variable hubs (CVH)—all of which are compatible with electric mid-drive motors. The latter two can be grouped together, as consumers are often given the option of “chain or belt,” depending on the brand of bike. Chain-driven If you currently ride and regularly maintain a bike, chain-driven drivetrains are the metal-on-metal, gears-and-lube components with which you’re intimately familiar. Acoustic or electric, most bike manufacturers offer a geared drivetrain in something between nine and 12 speeds. The oft-stated cons of chains, cogs, and derailleurs for commuters and cargo bikers are that one must maintain them with lubricant, chains get dirty, you get dirty, chains wear out, and derailleurs can bend. On the other hand, parts are cheap, and—assuming you’re not doing 100-mile rides on the weekend and you’re keeping an ear out for upsetting sounds—maintaining a bike isn’t a whole lot of work. Plus, if you’re already managing a fleet of conventional bikes, one more to look after won't kill you. Belt-driven Like the alternator on your car or the drivetrain of a fancy motorcycle, bicycles can be propelled by a carbon-reinforced, nylon-tooth belt that travels over metal cogs that run quietly and grease- and maintenance-free. While belts are marginally less efficient at transferring power than chains, a cargo bike is not where you’ll notice the lack of peak wattage. The trade-off for this ease of use is that service can get weird at some point. These belts require a bike to have a split chainstay to install them, and removing the rear wheel to deal with a flat can be cumbersome. As such, belts are great for people who aren’t keen on keeping up with day-to-day maintenance and would prefer a periodic pop-in to a shop for upkeep. IGH vs. CVH Internally geared hubs, like those produced by Rohloff, Shimano, and Sturmey Archer, are hilariously neat things to be riding around on a bicycle. Each brand’s implementation is a bit different, but in general, these hubs use two to 14 planetary gears housed within the hub of the rear wheel. Capable of withstanding high-torque applications, these hubs can offer a total overall gear range of 526 percent. If you’ve ridden a heavy municipal bike share bike in a major US city, chances are good you’ve experienced an internally geared hub. Similar in packaging to an IGH but different in execution, continuously variable hubs function like the transmission in a midrange automobile. These hubs are “stepless shifting”—you turn the shifter, and power input into the right (drive) side of the hub transfers through a series of balls that allow for infinite gear ratios throughout their range. However, that range is limited to about 380 percent for Enviolo, which is more limited than IGH or even some chain-driven systems. They're more tolerant of shifting under load, though, and like planetary gears, they can be shifted while stationary (think pre-shifting before taking off at a traffic light). Neither hub is meant to be user serviceable, so service intervals are lengthy. Electric bikes Credit: Chris Cona Perhaps the single most important innovation that allowed cargo bikes to hit mainstream American last-mile transportation is the addition of an electric drive system. These have been around for a while, but they mostly involved hacking together a bunch of dodgy parts from AliExpress. These days, reputable brands such as Bosch and Shimano have brought their UL- and CE-rated electric drivetrains to mainstream cargo bikes, allowing normal people to jump on a bike and get their kids up a hill. Before someone complains that “e-bikes aren’t bikes,” it’s important to note that we’re advocating for Class 1 or 3 pedal-assist bikes in this guide. Beyond allowing us to haul stuff, these bikes create greater equity for those of us who love bikes but may need a bit of a hand while riding. For reference, here's what those classes mean: Class 1: Pedal-assist, no throttle, limited to 20 mph/32 kmh assisted top speed Class 2: Pedal-assist, throttle activated, limited to 20 mph/32 kmh assisted top speed Class 3: Pedal-assist, no throttle, limited to 28 mph/45 kmh assisted top speed, mandatory speedometer Let's return to Kash from his perch on Market Street in San Francisco: The e-bike allows [enthusiasts] to keep cycling, and I have seen that reflected in the nature of the people who ride by this shop, even just watching the age expand. These aren't people who bought de facto mopeds—these are people who bought [a pedal-assisted e-bike] because they wanted a bicycle. They didn't just want to coast; they just need that slight assist so they can continue to do the things they used to do. And perhaps most importantly, getting more people out of cars and onto bikes creates more advocates for cyclist safety and walkable cities. But which are the reliable, non-explody standards? We now have many e-bike options, but there are really only two or three you’ll see if you go to a shop: Bosch, Shimano E-Drive, and Specialized (whose motors are designed and built by Brose). Between their Performance and Cargo Line motors, Bosch is by far the most common option of the three. Because bike frames need to be designed for a particular mid-drive unit, it’s rare to get an option of one or another, other than choosing the Performance trim level. For instance, Urban Arrow offers the choice of Bosch’s Cargo Line (85 nm output) or Performance Line (65 nm), while Larry vs Harry’s eBullitt is equipped with Shimano EP6 or EP8 (both at 85 nm) drives. So in general, if you’re dead set on a particular bike, you’ll be living with the OEM-specced system. In most cases, you’ll find that OEM offerings stick to pedal-assist mid-drive units—that is, a pedal-assist motor installed where a traditional bottom bracket would be. While hub-based motors push or pull you along by making the cranks easier to turn (while making you feel a bit like you’re on a scooter), mid-drives utilize the mechanical advantage of your bike’s existing gearing to make it easier to pedal and give you more torque options. This is additionally pleasant if you actually like riding bikes. Now you get to ride a bike while knowing you can take on pretty much any topography that comes your way. Now go ride That's all you need to know before walking into a store or trolling the secondary market. Every rider is different, and each brand and design has its own quirks, so it's important to get out there and ride as many different bikes as you can to get a feel for them for yourself. And if this is your first foray into the wild world of bikes, join us in the next installment of this guide, where we’ll be enumerating all the fun stuff you should buy (or avoid) along with your new whip. Transportation is a necessity, but bikes are fun. We may as well combine the two to make getting to work and school less of a chore. Enjoy your new, potentially expensive, deeply researchable hobby! 3 Comments

Nuclear reactors could someday power a chemical plant in Texas, making it the first with such a facility onsite. The factory, which makes plastics and other materials, could become a model for power-hungry data centers and other industrial operations going forward. The plans are the work of Dow Chemical and X-energy, which last week applied for a construction permit with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency in the US that governs nuclear energy. It’ll be years before nuclear reactors will actually turn on, but this application marks a major milestone for the project, and for the potential of advanced nuclear technology to power industrial processes. “This has been a long time coming,” says Harlan Bowers, senior vice president at X-energy. The company has been working with the NRC since 2016 and submitted its first regulatory engagement plan in 2018, he says. In 2020, the US Department of Energy chose X-energy as one of the awardees of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which provides funding for next-generation nuclear technologies. And it’s been two years since X-energy and Dow first announced plans for a joint development agreement at Dow’s plant in Seadrift, Texas.   The Seadrift plant produces 4 billion pounds of materials each year, including plastic used for food and pharmaceutical packaging and chemicals used in products like antifreeze, soaps, and paint. A natural-gas plant onsite currently provides both steam and electricity. That equipment is getting older, so the company was looking for alternatives.   “Dow saw the opportunity to replace end-of-life assets with safe, reliable, lower-carbon-emissions technology,” said Edward Stones, an executive at Dow, in a written statement in response to questions from MIT Technology Review. Advanced nuclear reactors designed by X-energy emerged as a fit for the Seadrift site in part because of their ability to deliver high-temperature steam, Stones said in the statement. X-energy’s reactor is not only smaller than most nuclear plants coming online today but also employs different fuel and different cooling methods. The design is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, which flows helium over self-contained pebbles of nuclear fuel. The fuel can reach temperatures of around 1,000 °C (1,800 °F). As it flows through the reactor and around the pebbles, the helium reaches up to 750 °C (about 1,400 °F). Then that hot helium flows through a generator, making steam at a high temperature and pressure that can be piped directly to industrial equipment or converted into electricity. The Seadrift facility will include four of X-energy’s Xe-100 reactors, each of which can produce about 200 megawatts’ worth of steam or about 80 megawatts of electricity. A facility like Dow’s requires an extremely consistent supply of steam, Bowers says. So during normal operation, two of the modules will deliver steam, one will deliver electricity, and the final unit will sell electricity to the local grid. If any single reactor needs to shut down for some reason, there will still be enough onsite power to keep running, he explains. The progress with the NRC is positive news for the companies involved, but it also represents an achievement for advanced reactor technology more broadly, says Eric Cothron, a senior analyst at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit think tank. “It demonstrates real-world momentum toward deploying new nuclear reactors for industrial decarbonization,” Cothron says. While there are other companies looking to bring advanced nuclear reactor technology online, this project could be the first to incorporate nuclear power onsite at a factory. It thus sets a precedent for how new nuclear energy technologies can integrate directly with industry, Cothron says—for example, showing a pathway for tech giants looking to power data centers. It could take up to two and a half years for the NRC to review the construction permit application for this site. The site will also need to receive an operating license before it can start up. Operations are expected to begin “early next decade,” according to Dow.

While the market contracts in response to Trump's aggressive tariff strategy, one niche segment may have a narrow opening: small California winemakers. New Africa/Shutterstock 2025-04-09T10:41:01Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Donald Trump's aggressive tariff strategy has caused the market and consumers to recoil in shock. While the market contracts, one niche segment may have a narrow opening: regional winemakers. Some producers may see a renaissance as consumers look for alternatives to their imported favorites. Alcohol consumption is down across the board, and President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff strategy has struck a hard blow to the US economy, causing the market and consumers to recoil in shock. However, 2025 may not be a total loss for one niche segment in the booze industry.Small California winemakers are waiting with bated breath to see if they could be one of the few lucky winners of Trump's unconventional trade policy."There's a potential upside for us here," Nicholas Miller, the vice president of sales and marketing for Miller Family Wine Company, told Business Insider. "The US wine industry has been in a cycle of being severely oversupplied for the last couple of years — but that's also been when there's a big global market coming in." As the largest global consumer market for wine, the US is among the most desirable locations for any producer looking to sell their goods, Miller said. Hence, the market has, in recent years, been oversaturated by imported wines. But Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs slapped blanket 10% fees on any goods imported into the country — 20% from major wine importers like Italy and France — and Miller said that could "level the playing field" for domestic vintners."If tariffs do indeed slow down imports and make them less competitive, I can see that there would be an upside for domestic wines in that case," Miller said.Industry insiders told Business Insider that ultra-premium wine producers likely won't see the same potential benefits from Trump's tariff plan that lower-tier producers might because too much of their business lies in exports, which have been disrupted. The wealthiest buyers also"For the high-end collector, the wine connoisseur, someone with a high wine IQ, for them, those flavors are not fungible," Miller said. "Their favorite is not replaced by a domestic wine just because it's the same price point."Similarly, bottom-tier suppliers may lose some business because the lowest-income households could simply stop buying any wine, as it's a luxury they don't need amid the economic turmoil. Still, mid-range varietals, like those abundant in California, have a narrow opportunity to gain ground, both in direct sales and tourism to the region."I feel like if people are pulling their purse strings because of their worries about the economy, then they would typically — and we saw this certainly during COVID but for other different reasons — choose to come to Santa Barbara County versus taking European vacations," Scott Bull, owner of Sustainable Wine Tours in Santa Barbara, California, told BI. "If we're talking about wine enthusiasts in general, we've seen they will turn to the California market to visit their local backyard rather than taking these extravagant trips."A boon for mid-market producersCalifornia produces an average of 81% of total US wine, employs 1.1 million Americans, and generates $170.5 billion in annual economic activity across the country, according to data from the Wine Institute. The famous Napa Valley, located northeast of San Francisco, is a major tourism draw, as is Santa Barbara County on the Central Coast and the Southern California wine region of the Temecula Valley. "For us, certainly during COVID, and we're hoping maybe again now, is that we got the Los Angeles market and all these other people who typically would go overseas to look for those fine wines, instead coming into our backyard," Bull said. "And they realize that we have some extraordinary wines here that really offer the same type of quality or even higher quality, and that really offer everything they're looking for, from Burgundy to Bordeaux varietals. And so I think this could be that new introduction point."Of course, Trump's tariffs do not mean it's all smooth sailing for mid-range producers. They still have to contend with the rising costs of imported goods they rely on for production — barrels, corks, and glass for their wine bottles are all seeing significant price jumps — and their export businesses are on the rocks."The tariffs have also killed any chance of exporting for domestic wine producers," Mike Officer, cofounder of Carlisle Winery, an ultra-premium Sonoma County zinfandel producer, told Business Insider. "After California, Canada and Denmark were our largest distribution channels. Those markets no longer exist for us."Still, Trump's tariffs still represent a window of opportunity for some regional winemakers."I do think, potentially, the sweet spot is for that mid-market producer," Miller said. "For the largest players in central California, there also could be an opportunity open up the market where previously they were getting undercut."The opportunity may not be limited to California winemakers. Other regional consumer goods, often regarded as modest luxuries compared to mass-produced big-brand products or fancy artisan imports — like Hawaiian coffee — could also see an increase in consumer interest amid Trump's burgeoning trade war.Alexandre Bossard, the general manager of Kauai Coffee, told BI the current global trade dynamics represent "both challenges and opportunities" that Hawaiian coffee growers are monitoring closely.And while it's too soon to know exactly how it will all shake out, California's regional winemakers are cautiously optimistic that they can avoid the worst impacts of Trump's trade war."It actually levels the playing field in a way that I think could be great for us," Bull said. Recommended video

Donald Trump has been angry about trade for nearly half a century — and throughout all that time, he’s kept on making the same complaint.The problem, he says, is that the US has trade deficits with other countries. He believes that, if we buy more from a country than they buy from us, the other country is “beating” us. And he wants to “beat” them instead.On Sunday, Trump said he’d told foreign leaders seeking tariff relief that “we’re not going to have deficits with your country.” He added: “To me, a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or at worst, going to be breaking even.”To most in the economic and policy communities, this thinking seems downright bizarre in a way that goes beyond typical protectionism.There’s a range of views on whether the US’s overall trade deficit with the rest of the world is too high, or whether it’s nothing to worry about. There’s also a range of views about whether the US needs to do much more to “decouple” from Chinese manufacturing due to national security concerns, and whether the US should do more to promote manufacturing jobs at home.Trump’s obsession with bilateral trade deficits — his idea that if the US has a trade deficit with any significant trading partner, it is somehow losing — is the really weird thing. But it’s driving his administration’s policy.Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff levels for particular countries were determined, at the president’s request, by the relative size of the trade deficit the US has with each country. That’s why poor countries like Vietnam that have become manufacturing hubs for exports to the US got hit hardest. Trump’s trade deficit obsession also explains why he’s been beating up on allied or friendly countries, like Canada — even though that hurts efforts to build a global coalition against China.Economists have many objections to Trump’s trade deficit fixation. It ignores that Americans benefit from buying things made in other countries. Trump’s thinking is so zero-sum that he ignores that trade can allow countries to specialize and let everyone produce more than they would have otherwise. His trade deficit fixation is specifically about goods, and he regularly ignores numbers showing a big US advantage in exports of services.But let’s put aside those objections and accept at face value Trump’s apparent objective: to get the US to have trade surpluses with as many countries as possible. It may not sound so bad — we’ll just make and sell more stuff, or buy less of their stuff. There are, however, some deeper problems inherent in this concept.The problems with Trump’s trade deficit strategyIn theory, there are two ways the US can reduce its bilateral trade deficit with a particular country. We can increase our exports to that country, or we can decrease our imports from that country. Trump hopes his tariffs can make one or both of these happen. Tariffs make imports from other countries more expensive, meaning, in theory, Americans will buy less of them. His hope is that, with foreign goods newly expensive, we will begin manufacturing more things at home again — both for our own use, and to be exported and sold abroad.But things are not exactly so simple, and such a strategy will face several problems.1) The supply chain problem: Supply chains are globally interconnected, so US-based manufacturers currently use many imported parts and materials to make their products. Those parts and materials are now being hit by Trump’s tariffs, and getting more expensive. So the price of the US-made products will go up too.It’s unclear how the math for all this will shake out. But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said last week that he’d spoken to a US car company that told him that the tariffs on all their imported parts might actually hurt them more than foreign car companies hit with a singular tariff on US car sales.Trump is aware of this concern, and in 2020 he mused that he wants all supply chains to be in the US, which would make the country fully independent of the global trading system. That would be even more massively disruptive, difficult, and expensive — bringing a truly monumental shock to the economy and a collapse of Americans’ living standards.2) The workforce problem: If the US is suddenly going to start manufacturing many more things that we currently buy abroad, a lot more people are going to work in manufacturing. And not just of cars and high-end electronics — we’re talking garments, toys, and simpler appliances like toasters. (As well as agricultural products, since tariffs are being put on those imports too.)Who is going to work in all these manufacturing jobs? It isn’t meant to be unauthorized immigrants, since in theory they are being deported. Generally, if a company has trouble attracting workers, it would have to offer higher wages. But the more a company spends on labor costs, the more it will have to raise prices, which will make US exports less competitive. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has suggested robots will simply do much of the US manufacturing work. That reminds me of the joke about how the economist stranded on a desert island would open a can: He’d just say, “assume I had a can opener.” Lutnick is assuming many highly advanced robots.3) The confidence problem: If the US president set new high tariff levels and could guarantee that they were permanent, that could be very economically damaging, but at least businesses would be able to plan accordingly. Trump’s chaotic policy rollout, and its reliance on poor-quality analysis, has only deepened uncertainty about market conditions in the US in the future. And if businesses feel uncertain — and like Trump can and will throw their business model into chaos on a whim — they’re going to delay making big new investments in US-based manufacturing.4) The currency problem: A major factor affecting the strength of any country’s exports is the strength of that country’s currency. Currently, the US has a strong dollar. That strong dollar is good for Americans purchasing lots of foreign-made goods — but it makes it more expensive for foreigners to purchase US-made goods.This is why some Trump policy rationalizers, like Council of Economic Advisers chair Stephen Miran, have previously argued that the ultimate endgame of Trump’s trade war has to be a global accord to weaken the value of the dollar. Before joining Trump’s administration, Miran wrote a paper theorizing that such a global agreement could be called the “Mar-a-Lago Accord.” But Trump himself has said conflicting things about whether he’d like the dollar to be strong or weak. And will Americans actually be happy about getting a weaker currency that will reduce their ability to purchase foreign-made things?See More:

Nintendo doesn't tend to add a number to its consoles, and it's now been revealed that the Switch 2 system almost had a very different name that fans had joked about years agoTech10:38, 09 Apr 2025Will Switch 2 be 'Super'?(Image: PA)At a special Nintendo Direct event on April 2, the company finally revealed the Switch 2. Alongside the console's specs, we got confirmation that Switch 2 will be able to play upgraded versions of existing Switch games, Mario Kart World will cost a whopping £75, and what that mysterious 'C' button does.In fact, one of the things that wasn't a surprise was the console's name (having been revealed all the way back in January), but as covered in an "Ask the Developer" interview, the Switch 2 was almost called something very different – something fans had suspected years ago.‌Article continues belowHere's all we learned.Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders are now open at most UK online stores(Image: AFP via Getty Images)Asked how the team came to call the console by its name, Switch 2 Producer Kouichi Kawamoto revealed it could have been called the Super Nintendo Switch.‌"There were a lot of ideas for the name, and we really struggled to find the right one," he admitted."We even considered ideas like “Super Nintendo Switch.” However, Super NES, which came out after the NES, couldn’t play NES games."Since Switch 2 can play Switch games, it didn't feel right to use the same naming convention as Super NES. Switch 2 is a new system with improved performance, but we'd like players who get their hands on it not to focus on the specs, but rather to think of it as the latest system developed by Nintendo.‌"So, in the hope that it becomes the new standard for Nintendo Switch, we named it Nintendo Switch 2."The console launches on June 5Reddit threads dating back years had the Switch's successor pegged as being the Super Nintendo Switch, but it's interesting to hear how Nintendo came to the decision.‌Fans will remember there being some confusion over the naming of the Nintendo Wii, but it went on to sell by the bucketload until everyone and their Nan was playing bowling in their living room.Its successor, the Wii U, was a big disappointment, with some industry commentators putting its lack of success down to confusion about whether it was a new console or just a super-charged Wii – so it's perhaps not too much of a surprise to see Nintendo go all-in with the big number in the console's name.It also acts as a fun reminder that naming a console isn't as easy as it seems – unless you're Sony, of course.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

Why Nintendo games never see a price cut explained: ‘This isn’t Ubisoft’ Adam Starkey Published April 9, 2025 11:17am Updated April 9, 2025 11:17am Mario Kart World – don’t expect to see a price cut (Nintendo) Former Nintendo employees have revealed the company’s approach to pricing their games, amid the furore around the cost of Switch 2 titles. Last week’s Nintendo Switch 2 blowout may have delivered big game reveals and other surprises, but the conversation around the console since has been dominated by the price of its games. While the console is priced fairly reasonably at £395.99, the £74.99 physical price for Mario Kart World has become a bone of contention. The conversation around the issue has been amplified by US President Donald Trump’s recent wave of tariffs, which caused Nintendo to delay pre-orders in the US and Canada, as it assesses the possibility of a price increase for the hardware. The outrage around Mario Kart World’s price partially stems from how Nintendo rarely reduces the price of its games after launch. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, former employees at Nintendo have provided insight into the company’s rationale on the topic. Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, who previously worked at Nintendo as PR managers for over 10 years, discussed Nintendo’s approach to pricing games on the Kit & Krysta podcast, where they described the company as the polar opposite to other publishers like Ubisoft. ‘We did see, in the last stretch of our tenure at Nintendo, them get really obsessed and fixated on the value of the Nintendo product,’ Ellis said. ‘We would sometimes get approached, like ‘Can we do a giveaway of this product? Can we get five copies and we’ll do a giveaway to our community’. And if we’d ever take those [requests] to Japan for example, for them to consider it, we would often get a long lecture – especially in the last couple of years that we were there, like: ‘Nintendo products have immense value, we must always respect that immense value’. He added: ‘This is why these things don’t go on sale. The value is the value and we [Nintendo] are seriously into that concept of ‘respect the value of what this thing is that we have made, because it is very special.’ Ellis then joked, ‘This isn’t Ubisoft’, as Yang replied: ‘It’s not like the Ubisoft situation where I always tell myself, ‘If I wait a month, will this get cheaper?’ As a Nintendo customer, fan, I feel like all of us are conditioned to [be like], ‘If I want to buy this, I might as well buy this now, because it’s not going to go on sale’.’ ‘It’s a Nintendo tax,’ Ellis added. ‘You could always say, them looking at it [like], ‘what we made was $60. A lot of those other games that are $60 are junk. They don’t have the Nintendo level of quality or polish or attention, so we do need to distinguish how premium this thing is through the pricing, and you will come to understand that’.’ Prior to the Switch generation, Nintendo used to discount its best-selling games after a few years through the Player’s Choice or Nintendo Selects label. It’s unclear why this stopped after the Wii U and 3DS consoles, but this renewed focus on ‘Nintendo value’ might have something to do with it. Even before that though Nintendo has been worried about the general value of video games becoming devalued, with former president Satoru Iwata warning that the rise of mobile games was in danger of making it seems as if no title was worth more than a few pounds. And that was before the advent of live service games. ‘If you lower the price over time, the manufacturer is conditioning the customer to wait for a better deal,’ said Iwata in the book As Iwata by Hobonichi. ‘Of course, this doesn’t mean that I’m against lowering prices entirely, but ‘I’ve always wanted to avoid a situation where the first people to step up and support us feel punished for paying top dollar.’ The Ubisoft comparison is apt because the company seems to have fallen into exactly the trap that Iwata describes, as most gamers now expect their games to be heavily discounted after only a few months. This came to a head with Star Wars Outlaws, which was released only a few months before Black Friday – when it did indeed see substantial discounts. More Trending The game’s relative failure partially contributed to the company’s current financial turmoil, although Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which launched last month, has performed much better. To hammer the point home, Star Wars Outlaws, which launched in August last year, is currently 50% off on the PlayStation Store seven months later. By comparison, most Nintendo Switch first party games are still the same price they were eight years ago, which has done nothing to hurt their sales given Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for example, is one of the best-selling video games of all time, with close to 70 million copies sold. If you’re looking to pick up Mario Kart World at a cheaper price, your best bet is the £429.99 Switch 2 bundle with a digital copy of the game. Pre-orders are up now at select retailers, with the console set to launch on June 5, 2025. The Switch 2 launches in June (Nintendo) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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OLA Palermo Mixed Use Project/ ODASave this picture!© Alan Karchmer•Buenos Aires, Argentina Architects: ODA Area Area of this architecture project Area:  160000 ft² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2025 Photographs Photographs:Alan KarchmerMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Buenos Aires -- ODA is proud to announce the unveiling of its first large-scale mixed-use project in Buenos Aires: OLA Palermo. ODA is converting a decaying parking structure into a public park and Class A office building, replacing the concrete shell with cafés, restaurants, retail, an open-air promenade, offices, and a sheltered parking lot. Located in between the racecourse and the popular park "El Rosedal de Palermo," OLA Palermo will act as an iconic new civic space and an important point of connectivity for the city, re-linking the area that today finds itself divided by this very land plot.Save this picture!Save this picture!The government of the City of Buenos Aires granted the concession of the property known as Ámbito Gigena, for a period of 15 years to the developer BSD Investments. "We have an abandoned concrete infrastructure that does not speak at all with its surroundings nor is useful for the city and its inhabitants," explained the architect and urban planner Álvaro García Resta, secretary of Urban Development of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. For this reason, the goal is to transform the three-story building into a "multi-purpose development."Save this picture!Save this picture!Capitalizing on the unique location situated on the edge of the active park, the adaptive reuse project completes the park loop by carrying the green path up the side of the building to the landscaped roof and ramping down the other side, connecting back to the park. The rooftop provides a continuation of the public park, complimented by a commercial brewery, as well as private terraces for office tenants, positioning the project as a key juxtaposition of the public and surroundings, creating organic curves that erode away the edges of the existing parking structure.Save this picture!"This project is a great example of a public-private partnership to create a truly unique typology that will benefit the city and its citizens for decades to come," said ODA founder Eran Chen. "These types of partnerships are the future. It's ambitious and takes bravery and bold leadership on all fronts, but when this is completed we will have a park that will become an icon for the city, and quite possibly the coolest office building in the southern hemisphere."Save this picture!Save this picture!This sustainable design recycles 80% of the original structure to create 160,000 square feet of building that bridges the two previously separated neighborhoods. Gigena will include more than 40,000 SF of public terrace and open green spaces carved with pedestrian paths and a 250-car park. The ultimate work and meeting place, the building offers 360-degree views with easy access to the main highway, making it an easy commute and desirable destination.Save this picture!Last year, the Buenos Aires head of government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, toured the site with García Resta and the Minister of Economic Development and Production, José Luis Giusti. OLA Palermo is named after the Argentine jockey Gigena, who died while running a race in 1912. "The treatment given to these open-air gardens is that of a wild landscape with native flora. But it won't be a park made to contemplate, it will be a dynamic area, to stroll and explore ", says García Resta, "The healthiest city is that which has a balanced mixed use of its public space. Where only one thing happens and not many, the number of people making use of these shared spaces is restricted."Save this picture!Save this picture!The design team includes ODA as design architect, with Aisenson studio as executive architect, ODA and Inscape Landscape as landscape architects, BSD Investments, a renowned developer with projects in Argentina and the United States, and Coinsa, a leading firm with a proven track record in Argentina of more than 7,000,000 SF built work.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this office MaterialsGlassConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on April 09, 2025Cite: "OLA Palermo Mixed Use Project/ ODA" 09 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028842/ola-palermo-mixed-use-project-oda&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Are you joining the bandwagon of canceling subscription services this year? Awesome. We found a lifetime cloud storage solution that replaces your pricey Google Drive or Dropbox subscription fees with a one-time payment! Instead of paying $10+ every single month, you’ll pay just once to own 2TB of storage for life with FolderFort. Normally, this cloud storage deal costs $229.99, but this week, you can get it for just $109.97 with code SECURE2TB at checkout. That means it’ll pay for itself in less than a year. Get to know your new cloud space FolderFort offers the same core functions as most cloud services: upload your files, photos, or videos via your web browser, then access them from any device. The only big difference is that it doesn’t require a monthly or yearly payment plan—just one low price for lifetime access.  For the data-hungry: 2TB of cloud storage translates to roughly 400,000 images, 600 hours of HD video, or over two million documents (depending on file size). You’ll likely run out of things to upload before you run out of storage. FolderFort also includes collaborative tools that grant you access to specific folders and files. It even gives each person you invite 1GB of their own private storage—handy for teams, families, or shared projects. If you want to cut out a subscription fee forever, you need this FolderFort 2TB lifetime subscription. Get it while it’s $109.97 with code SECURE2TB at checkout (reg. $229.99). StackSocial prices subject to change. FolderFort 2TB Cloud Storage Pro Plan: Lifetime Subscription See Deal What makes this deal special Cloud storage subscriptions are notoriously sticky—once you’re invested in a platform like Google Drive or Dropbox, switching feels like a chore. But this lifetime cloud storage plan offers a rare opportunity to break free without sacrificing functionality. For less than a year’s worth of fees elsewhere, you get permanent access to 2TB of space you own outright. It’s a smart long-term investment that finally makes escaping the monthly payment loop practical.

Nature, Published online: 08 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01041-yThe US is against the world on sustainable development

A scientist who was working on plague-causing bacteria caught the disease despite using weakened strains that were deemed noninfectious.