Its no secret that Volkswagen has been facing a huge slump in sales in Europe and China, forcing it to close plants in Germany.But unlike other European automakers who have stuck to producing high-end electric vehicles (EVs), the German automaker keeps on reaffirming its commitment to bringing affordable EVs to market, including in the U.S.Recommended VideosAnd that commitment starts with VWs most affordable EV model to date, the ID.2. Volkswagen remains committed to launching the EV by the end of 2025 or early 2026, Kai Grnitz, head of tech development, told Autocars at the Los Angeles Auto Show.RelatedLast year, the automaker launched the ID.2all concept, promising an entry-level EV with prices starting under $27,000.For long-time VW fans, the EV is being promoted as being spacious as a Golf and affordable as a Polo. Its also expected to allow up to 279 miles on a full battery.The design and the interior of the ID.2 promises a trip down memory lane, including driver displays straight out of the VW Beetle and Golf eras.In addition, an ID.2 SUV is slated to be unveiled in September 2025, while a GTI version is also being developed.Meanwhile, its clear that Volkswagen wants to hammer in that affordable is the keyword for its EV strategy. VW CEO Larry Blume has also hinted at a sub-$22,000 EV to be released after 2025. All in all, the automaker says its planning to release eight new affordable EVs by 2027.The price of batteries is one of the main hurdles to reducing EV production costs and lowering sale prices. To that end, VW is developing its own unified battery cellin several European plants, as well as one plant in Ontario, Canada.Yet, now that Chinese-made EVs, known as global leaders in terms of affordability, are facing 100% tariffs both in North America and Europe, only a few automakers seem to be interested in selling ever-cheaper EVs in the U.S.General Motors has already put out its Chevy Equinox EV ata price of $27,500, including federal tax credits.Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently put a floor on expectations for a regular Tesla model ever selling for $25,000.Editors Recommendations

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What's that smell? After Russian ship docks to space station, astronauts report a foul smell Cosmonauts aboard the Russian segment of the station donned protective equipment. Eric Berger Nov 24, 2024 6:12 pm | 25 A Progress spacecraft is seen departing the space station in February 2023. Credit: NASA A Progress spacecraft is seen departing the space station in February 2023. Credit: NASA Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreIt should have been a routine mission to ferry about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the International Space Station, but when Russian cosmonauts opened the hatch to a cargo spacecraft on Saturday, they got a surprisea toxic smell."After opening the Progress spacecraft's hatch, the Roscosmos cosmonauts noticed an unexpected odor and observed small droplets, prompting the crew to close the Poisk hatch to the rest of the Russian segment," NASA said in a statement on Sunday.According to the space agency, air scrubbers and contaminant sensors on board the orbiting laboratory monitored the stations atmosphere following the observation of the aberrant smell. By Sunday, flight controllers in Mission Control in Houston determined air quality inside the space station was at normal levels.However, the US space agency may be slightly downplaying the seriousness of the event. According to Anatoly Zak of Russian Space Web, a reliable independent website, the smell was "toxic" and prompted the Russian cosmonauts to immediately close the hatch leading to the Progress spacecraft that launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday.Russian space program faces ongoing challengesZak reported that the cosmonauts aboard the Russian segment of the station donned protective equipment, and activated an extra air-scrubbing system aboard their side of the facility. On the US segment of the station, NASA astronaut Don Pettit said he smelled something akin to "spray paint."As of Sunday afternoon, NASA said there were no concerns for the crew, and that astronauts were working to open the hatch between the Poisk module and the Progress spacecraft. Attached to the space station in 2009, Poisk is a small element that connects to one of four docking ports on the Russian segment of the station.It was not immediately clear what caused the foul odor to emanate from the Progress vehicle, however previous Russian vehicles have had leaks while in space.Most recently, in February 2023, a Progress vehicle attached to the station lost pressurization in its cooling system.Facing financial and staffing pressures due to the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, the main Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, has faced a series of technical problems as it has sought to fly people and supplies to the International Space Station in recent years.Eric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 25 Comments Prev story

without warning Survivors mark 20th anniversary of deadly 2004 tsunami NatGeo's documentary, Tsunami: Race Against Time, revisits the devastating disaster that killed nearly 230,000 people. Jennifer Ouellette Nov 24, 2024 9:33 am | 5 The 2004 tsunami flooded sea-front houses, destroying everyone in its path in Maddampegama, Sri Lanka. Credit: The Associated Press/Gemunu Amarasinghe The 2004 tsunami flooded sea-front houses, destroying everyone in its path in Maddampegama, Sri Lanka. Credit: The Associated Press/Gemunu Amarasinghe Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreIn the wee hours of December 26, 2004, a massive 9.2 earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean, generating an equally massive tsunami that caused unprecedented devastation to 14 countries and killing more than 230,000. Twenty years later, National Geographic has revisited one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history with a new documentary: Tsunami: Race Against Time. The four-part series offers an in-depth account of the tsunami's destructive path, told from the perspectives of those who survived, as well as the scientists, journalists, doctors, nurses, and everyday heroes who worked to save as many as possible.Geophysicist Barry Hirshornnow with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diegowas on duty at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii that day (3 PM on Christmas Day local time). His pager went off, indicating that seismic waves had set off a seismometer in Australia, and Hirshorn rushed to the control room to locate the quake's epicenter with his colleague, Stuart Weinstein.They initially pegged the quake at 8.5 magnitude. (It was later upgraded to 8.9 and subsequently to a whopping 9.2 to 9.3 magnitude.) But despite its strength, they initially did not think the quake would generate a tsunami, at least in the Pacific. And such events were incredibly rare in the Indian Ocean.Hirshorn and Weinstein also lacked any real-time sea level data that would have told them that a massive amount of water had been displaced by the movement of two key tectonic plates (the India and Burma plates). Four hours later, the first tsunami waves hit Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, leaving a path of destruction and death in their wake. Geophysicist Barry Hirshorn on the lack of an tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean. Credit: National Geographic What sets this new documentary apart is the emphasis on the survivors' harrowing stories. Veteran surfer David Lines, for example, was living in Banda Aceh at the time with his wife Nurma. They managed to outrun the tsunami by car, but Nurma lost 30 family members. Journalist and videographer Denny Montgomery faced a similar situation, racing against time to rescue his mother. Zenny Suryawan watched his family get swept away by the tsunami, surviving by clinging to debris. A young mother in Khao Lan was separated from her infant son and had nearly given up hope when she finally found him alive at a nearby hospital.Brothers Theo and Louis Mullanthen 11 and 15 years old, respectivelywere on holiday with their parents in Khao Lan, Thailand when the tsunami hit. The brothers tried to hold hands and run to safety, but were swept away and separated. They later reunited, but lost both parents in the disaster. Several tourists and beachgoers ended up stranded on a day trip to Emerald Cave in Ko Muk Thailand, including Olivia Soo and her entire family, who were still inside the cave when the tsunami hit; her mother later succumbed to her injuries. In Sri Lanka, the tsunami hit a southbound coastal train and knocked it off its rails in what became one of the deadliest train disasters of all time. Eranthie Mendie lost her mother on that train.There are also plenty of inspiring stories of everyday heroes rising to the occasion at great risk to themselves. For instance, a group of locals helped rescue an infant from the water in Banda Aceh. Cut Putri recalled filming the raging tsunami from the second floor of her home and helping save a man who was washed into the house the force of the flow. A police lieutenant risked his life to set on a jet ski to rescue the Emerald Cave tourists, including Olivia Soo and her family. A bellboy in a Thai hotel rescued several hotel guests from the rushing waters, while a tourist in Phuket rescued an elderly man whose wife had been swept away. And a Sky News cameraman named Phil Hopper helped rescue a young boy in Indonesia who survived on his own for 21 days in the aftermath of the tsunami. Survivors walk across debris in the aftermath of the tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Hotli Simanjuntak Survivors walk across debris in the aftermath of the tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Hotli Simanjuntak Water and debris surround Banda Aceh's Grand Mosque. Hotli Simanjuntak Water and debris surround Banda Aceh's Grand Mosque. Hotli Simanjuntak Charles "Chip" McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, cut his Christmas holiday short when the devastation hit. National Geographic/Brandon Widener/Nick Kubrick Charles "Chip" McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, cut his Christmas holiday short when the devastation hit. National Geographic/Brandon Widener/Nick Kubrick Water and debris surround Banda Aceh's Grand Mosque. Hotli Simanjuntak Charles "Chip" McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, cut his Christmas holiday short when the devastation hit. National Geographic/Brandon Widener/Nick Kubrick A resort in Phuket, Thailand, on January 11, 2005leveled by the December 26 tsunami. The Associated Press/Richard Vogel A survivor clears debris from a destroyed building in Sri Lanka. The Associated Press/Ed Wray Holiday houses destroyed on Phi Phi Island, Thailand. Picture-Alliance/dpa/The Associated Press Hundreds of lanterns are released during a January 19, 2005, memorial service in southern Thailand. The Associated Press/Apichart Weerawong Then there were the overwhelmed doctors and hospital stuff working tirelessly to save as many victims as they could. A nurse and her doctor husband were on a research boat when they heard about the tsunami; that boat quickly became a makeshift hospital for the injured in Koh Phi Phi. Cici Romain was on holiday with his girlfriend, Rachel Hearson, and the two were separated by the waters. He used his minimal medical experience to lead a triage station with fellow survivors while Hearson searched for him.From a scientific standpoint, there were several factors that contributed to the devastation of the 20024 tsunami. NOAA had just deployed six Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoys, but only three were operational. So the scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, including Hirshorn, had no real-time sea level data, and hence no way of knowing that tectonic plate movement in the Indian Ocean had triggered a powerful tsunami. So Hirshorn and his colleagues failed to release an early warning to the affected areas. Most notably, there was no warning system in place for Indonesia, Thailand, the Maldives, and Sri Lankaonly in the Pacific Basin. Even if the scientists had been able to issue an early warning, there was nobody to send it to.Also, back in 2004, scientists typically estimated a tsunami's strength by the magnitude of the triggering earthquake. That turned out to be incorrect: a bigger earthquake does not necessarily produce a bigger tsunami. It also requires huge amounts of data in order to model tsunamis correctly and there isn't much time to do so when seconds matter. The tragedy fueled global investment in tsunami research. There are now 60 DART buoys worldwide and with more data, tsunami models can run in seconds, before a tsunami can hit, thereby saving many lives. Barry Hirshorn explains why an 8.5 quake is so much more powerful than an 8 magnitude quake. Credit: National Geographic We're come a long in the last 20 years, according to Hirshorn. "This event produced a revolution in seismology," he told Ars. "Now we can say that we have a magnitude towards the beginning. There's more and more stations. So instead of an eight-minute page like we had back then, we have a page at two or three minutes. Plus we're supposed to always have someone now on duty at the warning center who's supposed to be in the operations room. They will come in, locate the earthquake, using much more data, better results to estimate the magnitude."Hirshorn is one of several scientists who worked to develop a new method of estimating magnitude that incorporates Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data as well as seismic data. "It's called a focal mechanism," he said. "So we'll know if we're dealing with a strike slip, sideways-slipping earthquake, or a tsunami-producing thrust event that moves water above the upward bound plate. That information is critical to add to the magnitude. It's being implemented now. This method will tell you that it's a 9.1 within two minutes. Instead of waiting for 24 hours to know it's greater than a nine, they'll know in five minutes."The tsunami models are also much better because there is so much more data. "They give you much more accurate results and they've been modified so they can tell you what's going on when they hit dry land," said Hirshorn. "It's always been a little difficult to determine how far a tsunami is going to 'run up' onto the coast given certain coastal bathymetry." Hirshon was on duty at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii when the 20024 earthquake hit. Credit: National Geographic/Charlie Laing/Alec Davy The other major advance in the last two decades is much, much better and faster finite fault solutions, per Hirshon. "The tendency is to think of an earthquake as a point source, which is a bad assumption, especially when you're close to it," he said. "When you get close enough to an earthquake, if you're like, for example, Sumatra, maybe you're 50 or 100 kilometers away from the trace that slipped, but it slipped over a thousand kilometers. It slipped over a length the size of California. You're getting your tsunamis not from that point, but from all the points along the fault that slipped. That kind of information is very helpful and with the GPS data combined with the seismic data, we're getting this information within 10 minutes."Hirshorn admits that marking the 20th anniversary of such devastation is deeply sobering, but finds solace in the fact that such milestones tend to make people more receptive than usual to helpful messaging concerning safety. While earthquake early warning systems have come online the US along the west coast, he has some advice for people living in coastal areas prone to earthquakesand hence risk of tsunamis."The earthquake early warning should get to you before the shaking, but if you don't get that, take the shaking as your warning," Hirshorh said. "But remember the shaking may not be strong, so look for duration. If it's not strong and you're there on the coast, look for long periods that last 30 seconds or more. If you feel that again, go inland. It might be real, it might not be, but there's a chance, so just head inland and start walking uphill. I'm not dissing warning systems, but if you've got an earlier warning, why not take it and potentially save your life?"Tsunami: Race Against Time premieres on National Geographic on November 24, 2024, and will also stream on Disney+.Tsunami: Race Against Time provides a 360-degree view into the heart-stopping events of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 5 Comments Prev story

Feedback is in awe of the authors of a new study in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, and how they handled requests from peer reviewers 20 November 2024 Josie FordRevenge on refereesOur news colleagues Jacob Aron and Michael Le Page have drawn Feedbacks attention to a post on social media site BlueSky, which highlighted a scientific paper in awed tones.The study in question was recently published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. There are seven authors. It is about the ways hydrogen atoms can infiltrate certain metal alloys and make them brittle. It focuses on calculating exactly where the hydrogen atoms place themselves in the crystal structure of the metal, in order to understand the mechanism of this embrittlement.At this point, you may be wondering what this piece of research is doing in Feedback. Well, the introduction concludes with the following paragraph: As strongly requested by the reviewers, here we cite some references [[35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43], [44], [45], [46], [47]] although they are completely irrelevant to the present work.AdvertisementFor anyone who hasnt worked in academia, the best way we can explain this is that the authors are being gloriously petty. Their article has been examined by anonymous peer reviewers, who (among other suggestions) have urged them to cite the 13 older studies in the list. The authors, left with no choice but to insert the supposedly irrelevant studies, have refused to incorporate them into their actual text, but instead included them while simultaneously drawing attention to their irrelevance.Or, as BlueSky user @Dave n=2dsin :protein: put it: Absolute shots fired. By the way, kudos to @Dave n=2dsin :protein: for having a username that pushed New Scientists font to its limits and sent Feedback to a search engine. The little equation in the middle is, we discovered, Braggs law, which describes how crystal lattices scatter incoming waves.Anyway, once Feedback had stopped having flashbacks to our brief time in academia, in which this kind of thing happened to us but we didnt have the nerve to kick back in print, we did our due diligence and looked up all 13 references.All are concerned with alloys and other composite materials, but none of them seems to be about hydrogen embrittlement. Most are so technical that Feedback was rather defeated in our attempt to fully comprehend them: any readers more familiar with composite materials are welcome to weigh in at the usual address. Still, even with our poor understanding, none of the references seems directly relevant.However, Feedback did notice something curious. Again and again, the same authors appear in the 13 studies author lists and one author was involved in all of them.Feedback doesnt want to put on a tinfoil hat, especially if it has been embrittled by hydrogen. But we wonder if we might have identified the anonymous peer reviewer. Our question now is: how did this get into print? Did the editors not notice the prank or did they allow it for reasons of their own? Enquiring minds want to know.A fishy taleSpeaking of taking ideas from colleagues, assistant news editor Sam Wong flagged an intriguing study in Water Resources Research. This journal is not, we confess, one of Feedbacks daily reads, but we seem to have been missing out.The study is about the biblical miracle of loaves and fishes, in which Jesus apparently fed 5000 people using five loaves and two fish. The authors propose a naturalistic explanation: a seiche or standing wave. The idea is that waves blowing over a lake sometimes create a standing wave, causing deep water to rise to the surface. In Lake Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee from the Bible, this deep water is low in oxygen so if it rises to the surface, it can cause fish to asphyxiate en masse.The authors document two such events in Lake Kinneret in 2012. They also note that they seem to be quite rare: there hasnt been one since 2012. That means most people may not have been aware of the possibility, especially if they had travelled to listen to a charismatic speaker and lacked local knowledge.Feedback is adding this to the long list of scientific explanations for apparent supernatural events, like the manna from heaven being crystallised honeydew from scale insects and the tendency of infrasound to cause spooky sensations that can be interpreted as hauntings. We have also removed our tinfoil hat, as we worry it might act as a conductor for a divine lightning bolt.Moon of UranusNews reaches us from the front of this issue that Voyager 2s visit to Uranus in 1986 came when the planet wasnt its usual self, thanks to a gust of solar wind. As a result, many of our ideas about Uranus will have to be rethought and some believe it is even possible there is life on one or more of its moons.Life on Uranus, you say? Actually, life on Uranuss moon? We hope it isnt Klingons. Or as writer Tess Stenson put it: NASA, get your ass to Uranus.Feedback spent more time than we should trying to think of puns, but our slate has been wiped clean. Some bright spark, conscious of jokes about the planets name, decided to name all Uranuss moons after Shakespeare characters, choosing respectable names like Rosalind and Oberon. This does mean we can rule out life on one of the moons: Juliet is definitely lifeless, there was a play about it. Meanwhile, astronomers urgently need to find some more satellites so Uranus can be orbited by Bottom.Got a story for Feedback?Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or New Scientist, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HYConsideration of items sent in the post will be delayedYou can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This weeks and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.

Tech titan Marc Benioff says we're near the "upper limits" of LLM use in AI advancement.In a podcast, the Salesforce CEO said the future of AI lies in agents that work autonomously."'Terminator'? Maybe we'll be there one day," Benioff said, referencing the 1984 film about a cyborg assassin.Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, in an episode of The Wall Street Journal's "Future of Everything" podcast, said he thinks the future of AI advancement lies in autonomous agents not the large language models used to train bots like ChatGPT."I actually think we're hitting the upper limits of the LLMs right now," Benioff said.Over the last several years, Benioff said, we've all "got drunk on the ChatGPT Kool-Aid," leading the average consumer to believe that AI is more powerful than it is and that LLMs are key to advancement in the technology. But there is a burgeoning use of artificial intelligence autonomous agents, which can be deployed to conduct tasks independently, such as executing sales communications or marketing campaigns that he says will be more significant than LLMs have been for companies trying to become more efficient and transform the world of work.Salesforce offers prebuilt and customizable AI agents for clients seeking to automate customer service tasks. OpenAI is closing in on a launch date for its own agents, which Bloomberg reported will be able to complete assigned tasks like writing code or booking travel.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said he believes we'll all eventually be working alongside agents and "AI employees.""We have incredible tools to augment our productivity, to augment our employees, to prove our margins, to prove our revenues, to make our companies fundamentally better, have higher fidelity relationships with our customers," Benioff said. "But we are not at that moment that we've seen in these crazy movies and maybe we will be one day, but that is not where we are today."Benioff said the general public has learned about the power of AI agents from movies like the 1984 film "Terminator," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and about a cyborg assassin, and the 2002 hit "Minority Report," about police preemptively arresting would-be criminals using AI-powered technology to detect crime before it occurs.Benioff said there are some industry insiders and AI evangelists who suggest the tech, which hasn't yet evolved too far beyond LLMs, is capable of feats like curing cancer or solving climate change but not only is that overstating what the technology can do, he said, it's misleading to people who could benefit from it through applications in which it is currently useful."This idea that these AI priests and priestesses are out there telling the world things about AI that are not true is a huge disservice to these enterprising customers who can increase their margins, increase their revenues, augment their employees, improve their customer relationships," Benioff said.He added: "Yes, you can do all of these things with AI, but this other part that we are all living in 'Minority Report?' No, we're not there yet. Maybe we'll be there one day. 'Terminator?' Maybe we'll be there one day. 'WarGames' I hope we will never be there."In the 1983 film "WarGames," starring Matthew Broderick, a high school student hacks a military supercomputer, activating the country's nuclear arsenal and risking World War III.Representatives for Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

AI requires enormous amounts of energy, threatening global net zero goals.Tech giants may use fossil fuels short-term, raising concerns about clean energy commitments.AI is also ushering in an era of nuclear power, however, which is cleaner.The rapid development of AI is likely to affect global net zero goals in both positive and negative ways.Tech companies are investing in nuclear power plants to fuel AI data centers. Many of these power plants generate power through nuclear fission, which is considered cleaner than fossil fuels and more reliable than wind or solar power.Silicon Valley investors, meanwhile, are investing innuclear fusion, a still-nascent technique for generating power that fuses the nuclei of atoms. It could generate even more energy than fission, with fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less radioactive waste.Some industry leaders believe that nuclear energy might be the only reliable way to meet the demands of the AI revolution."AI requires massive, industrial-scale amounts of energy," Franklin Servan-Schreiber, the CEO of nuclear energy startup Transmutex, previously told Business Insider. "Only nuclear power will be able to supply this massive energy demand in a reliable manner."However, developing a reliable network of power plants is still a long-term goal that will necessitate huge investment and government support.As of August 2023, there were only 54 nuclear power plants operating in the United States, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Companies like Amazon and Google have struck deals with companies building smaller, modular reactors that are faster to roll out than traditional reactors. However, the money is still "a drop in the bucket" compared to the billions these companies will ultimately need, physicist Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, DC, told Nature.In the meantime, tech giants may turn to fossil fuels to meet their short-term energy needs."Tech is not going to wait 7 to 10 years to get this infrastructure built," Toby Rice, the CEO of natural gas producer EQT, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "That leaves you with natural gas."Rice told the Journal that at a recent energy conference, he was repeatedly asked two questions: "How fast can you guys move? How much gas can we get?"According to the Financial Times, last week, at the UN COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Big Tech companies flew under the radar more than usual. Many opted out of displaying in the conference's business area, known as the green zone. Some attendees speculated that the surge in energy use for AI data centers has put the tech industry's clean energy commitments under scrutiny."If our industry starts getting treated similar to oil and gas, the public relations to counter that are going to be very expensive," said Kevin Thompson, chief operating officer at Gesi, a business group focused on digital sustainability, told the FT.Data centers now powered by a mix of natural gas, coal, and renewable energy sources are expected to rise from a current rate of 3 %to 4% of US power demands to 11% to 20% by 2030, according to a report from McKinsey.AI leaders, however, hope the intelligence revolution will inevitably lead to an energy revolution."My hopes and dreams is that, in the end, what we all see is that using energy for intelligence is the best use of energy we can imagine," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, after receiving an honorary degree last week.

With the GOP regaining control of Congress, Republicans are looking to slash health care spending, specifically eyeing Medicaid cuts and work requirements. While those fights are almost certainly going to garner a lot of coverage, its important to also pay attention to some of the less splashy policies also on the chopping block.These might not be major programs. You might not have even heard of some of them. But Americas social safety net relies on a patchwork of many different, sometimes low-profile, subsidies that many of us take for granted. Some of these programs might only appear in spending bills as a small line item that few people notice, and that makes it just that much easier for lawmakers to slowly but surely dismantle our social safety net.Heres one example: For millions of families, a spike in health care costs might be around the corner because crucial subsidies are set to expire at the end of next year. Some families will see their premiums rise by thousands of dollars; others might lose their insurance altogether. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act, which included a provision that enhanced the premium tax credit a piece of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that subsidized the cost of premiums for some lower- and middle-income families. The Biden-era enhancements, which essentially expanded the number of people who qualify for the tax credit, were originally set to expire at the end of 2022, but Congress extended them through 2025 when it passed the Inflation Reduction Act. (For families at or slightly above the poverty line, the enhanced tax credit subsidizes the full premium. For people making more than 400 percent of the poverty line people who were previously ineligible for this subsidy it caps their premiums to 8.5 percent of their income.)The enhanced premium tax credits contributed to a record number of insured people in the United States. In February 2021, before Congress expanded the premium tax credits, 11.2 million people were enrolled in health coverage through ACA marketplaces. By 2024, that number shot up to 20.8 million people.There are many reasons for the dramatic increase in marketplace coverage including the fact that millions of people were disenrolled from Medicaid coverage after Covid emergency measures lapsed and had to turn to other forms of insurance, including the marketplace but the enhanced premium tax credit played a critical role. Its expansion was the main reason so many more people were able to enroll in health care coverage from the ACA marketplace, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.If Congress allows the enhanced premium tax credits to expire, millions of people will see a noticeable rise in out-of-pocket expenses. Many will likely lose their coverage, and thats without considering how much more will be at stake if Medicaid gets slashed as well. For low-income families, particularly those who live just above the poverty line, that could be a nightmare. Whos at risk of seeing higher costs?The enhanced tax credits didnt overhaul the health care system, and you probably dont remember hearing candidates talk about them much, if at all, during the election. But they proved to be a crucial, if small, improvement to the system already in place, and had immediate and tangible results when it came to getting more people insured.The premium tax credit improvements really led to huge pocket savings for people $700 [per year] on average, said Gideon Lukens, a senior fellow and director of research and data analysis at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). They were really the primary reason that marketplace enrollment increased and the uninsured rate fell to an all-time low.As of now, around 93 percent of people enrolled through the ACA marketplace receive a premium tax credit. But if these tax credit expansions arent extended or made permanent, 3.4 million people could lose their insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Urban Institute similarly estimates that 4 million people could lose their insurance if Congress doesnt act in time.According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Black and Latino people benefited most from the enhanced premium tax credit, so they will likely be disproportionately affected by cuts. Marketplace enrollment among Black people, for example, grew by 186 percent after the enhanced premium tax credit went into effect, and for Latino people, it grew by 158 percent. By contrast, marketplace enrollment for other racial groups grew by 63 percent during the same period. More than 19 million people will likely see higher premiums without the enhanced tax credit. Many families could see costs go up significantly, especially if they have moderate incomes or have older members, who already have to pay higher premiums. A 60-year-old couple making $82,000 a year, for example, could see their monthly premiums triple, which means they would owe an additional $18,400 out of pocket, according to the CBPP report.The GOP will be responsible for deciding whether the enhanced premium tax credits should expire or be extended. Given the success of the tax credits leading to a record-high enrollment rate it would be a mistake to let the enhancements lapse.While the GOP might not necessarily be so eager to expand social programs it tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act during Donald Trumps first term the benefits of the enhanced premium tax credit are extremely tangible, and if theyre gone, millions of Americans will quickly notice. That could give Democrats room to put pressure on Republicans to strike a deal that, ideally, would make these enhancements permanent. So while lawmakers should fight tooth and nail to minimize or avoid cuts to major programs like Medicare or Medicaid, they should also remember that these small adjustments are worth fighting for as well, including things like the enhanced premium tax credit or, say, what people can buy with food stamps, these provisions still lower the cost of living for millions of families.As Republicans regain control of Congress and the White House, its easy to lose hope that any meaningful antipoverty efforts will happen at the federal level. But while elections have consequences, they also arent permanent. Thats why, over the coming months, Ill be focusing on what antipoverty policies states across the country are experimenting with experiments that could one day be replicated at the federal level when its more politically feasible. Have you benefited from state or local programs that you think would be a good model for the rest of the country? If so, Id love to hear from you. Please email me at abdallah.fayyad@vox.com.One more thingMeet the 2024 Future Perfect 50! Voxs third annual celebration of the individuals who are imagining and building a better future includes people who are fighting global poverty.This story was featured in the Within Our Means newsletter. Sign up here.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: