Behind the clash is a new Biden administration effort to block Chinas access to sensitive technologies.

Lunar dreams Intuitive Machines set for second landing, looking to build a lunar economy "You just can't trash everything associated with the Moon and go to Mars." Eric Berger Jan 9, 2025 10:55 am | 2 A view of the second Intuitive Machines lander on Wednesday. Credit: Eric Berger A view of the second Intuitive Machines lander on Wednesday. Credit: Eric Berger Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreFive years ago, a small company in Houston named Intuitive Machines had just 30 employees, a couple of 3D printers, and a few soldering irons.Oh, and it had some big dreams. The company's founders wanted to open a business on the Moon.On Wednesday morning, when I drove into the company's new headquarters at Spaceport Houston, there were no spaces to park in a lot filled with hundreds of cars. Inside, the offices were buzzing. And a large integration hangar was packed with hardware: two lunar landers, two lunar rover mock-ups, a hopper, and other spaceflight vehicles.This is what can happen when NASA strikes the right balance with the commercial space industry.In May 2019, NASA issued the first three awards as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program to pay private companiesin this case, Astrobotic, Orbit Beyond, and Intuitive Machinesto deliver scientific payloads to the lunar surface. It's been a long road since then. Astrobotic's first mission a year ago failed on the way to the Moon. Orbit Beyond dropped out. But Intuitive Machines largely succeeded, putting its Odysseus lander on the Moon, albeit sideways, after its altimeter failed. For the first time ever, a private company successfully made a soft landing on the Moon.Now, it's going to try again.To the Moon in a week"For us, it's been a real journey," said the chief executive of Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, as we stood a few feet away from the company's second lunar lander, which will soon be shipped to a launch site in Florida. "In February of 2023, we went public, and that was a huge milestone for us in terms of growing up. In February 2024, we landed on the Moon, and everything has changed since then. And here we are again, ready to launch our second mission in February 2025."The company's lander, named Athena, is presently scheduled to lift off on a dedicated Falcon 9 rocket at the end of February, Altemus said. The current launch date supports a lunar landing about a week later, on March 6 or 7, near the South Pole of the Moon. The goal is to have about 10 days in sunlight before the lunar night sets in.With programs like the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program, or CLPS, NASA is attempting to stimulate a lunar-based economy. No one is sure whether such an economy will actually develop, but NASA has had success previously in fostering an economy in low-Earth orbit. The lunar CLPS program is a clever attempt by the space agency to solve the chicken-and-egg conundrum when it comes to the Moon. Lander companies like Intuitive Machines could not be sure any private companies actually wanted stuff delivered to the Moon. And private industry was unsure of building payloads and businesses without knowing a lander delivery service would exist.NASA stepped in and said it would be an anchor customer, buying about a dozen of lunar landing missions, each carrying several hundred pounds of cargo, to the Moon. For several million dollars, private companies could send payloads along to test new ideas.Lots of goodies on boardNASA's efforts seem to be working. There are a handful of larger NASA payloads onAthena. These include a NASA-supplied drill that will attempt to drill about 1 meter below the surface and look for water ice and other volatiles with a mass spectrometer.Additionally, there is a "hopper" funded by NASA and developed by Intuitive Machines. Named "Grace" Hopper after the mathematics pioneer, the hydrazine-fueled drone will "hop" into a nearby crater, potentially giving NASA its first detailed look inside a permanently shadowed region of a lunar crater. If this works, it will be exceptionally cool. Future hoppers are expected to have a range of about 15 miles (25 km).Some of the commercial payloads include "Freedom" from Lonestar Data Holdings as part of an effort to establish a physical data center beyond Earth; an autonomous rover developed by Lunar Outpost; a cellular network demo mission from Nokia that will relay communications from the rover and a hopper back to the Athena lander; and a small rover built by the Japanese Dymon corporation.Finally, there are some interesting payloads tagging along with the spacecraft to the Moon but not landing there. These include a small orbiter for NASA called Trailblazer, which seeks to map the distribution of water on the Moon. Additionally, the space mining company AstroForge is flying its Odin spacecraft, which will separate from Athena and seek to make the first-ever flyby of an asteroid by a commercial spacecraft.All in all, it's an incredibly fun mission. But Intuitive Machines has to deliver. And if Athena can successfully reach the lunar surface, it will send a strong signal to the commercial space industry in the United Statesand around the worldthat the Moon is open for business.What comes next?One thing Altemus wanted to speak about Wednesday was the renewed interest in Mars by the incoming Trump administration. "There's been a lot of churn about what this administration is going to do," he said. "But you just can't trash everything associated with the Moon and go to Mars. That doesn't make any sense from a national security standpoint."The next Trump administration is expected to have a renewed focus on Mars, fueled in part by Trump's interests as well as those of SpaceX founder Elon Musk. However, the next administration is also likely to value private companies that are already delivering on spaceflight, which includes Intuitive Machines and other participants in the CLPS program. In addition to Athena's launch in February, another CLPS missionFirefly's Blue Ghost landercould fly as early as January 15 on a Falcon 9 rocket.NASA's Artemis plan to send humans back to the Moon serves a couple of purposes, including not just commercial development but also reaching the South Pole before China's space program, which has set a date of its first astronaut landing by 2030. As part of that, Altemus believes the space agency should extend the CLPS program for another decade (it began in 2018) with a second phase starting in 2028. This would support medium-sized landers capable of sending a ton or two of cargo to the lunar surface and buttress NASA's human plans."I'm talking to anybody I can about what that looks like," he said. "You need that regular cadence of missions to keep learning and getting smarter about landing on the Moon as a country. It improves our supply chain, and it improves our pipeline of talent. It also gives us a better understanding of the conditions in the environment around the Moon.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. 2 Comments

will trump kill it off? Winners and losers as the EV tax credit rules change for 2025 27 EVs now qualify for the tax credit, up from 24 in 2024. Jonathan M. Gitlin Jan 9, 2025 10:30 am | 29 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe list of electric vehicles that qualify for the IRS clean vehicle tax credit has changed with the arrival of the new year. No longer linked to battery capacity, the credit of up to $7,500 is now tied to the sourcing of battery componentseach year, an increasing amount must be extracted or refined in the US (or a free trade partner) to be eligible. The total number of eligible EVs has actually increased in 2025, from 24 last year to 27 this year, but a number of automakers' products have also dropped off the list in the process.The $7,500 tax credit is split into two components. $3,750 is available if the battery components are made or assembled in the US. The other half now requires that 60 percent of the critical minerals in the batterythings like lithium, nickel, and so onbe extracted or refined in the US (or by a free trade partner). Last year, this threshold was 50 percent; next year, it will increase to 70 percent.Additionally, national security concerns mean that no EV is eligible if any of its battery components are manufactured by a "foreign entity of concern," which means any company with direct links to the governments of China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia. While the latter three have no domestic EV production they're trying to sell in the US, that obviously does not apply to China, which heavily subsidizes its domestic car makers to allow them to export their vehicles at rock bottom prices to undermine local industry in other regions.Winners and losersGenesis' GV70 Electrified now qualifies for the full EV tax credit, as do Hyundai's Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9, and the Kia EV6 and EV9. But those appear to be the only newly qualified EVs for 2025. And the Tesla Cybertruck joins the list as well.Many more OEMs have lost eligibility, however. The Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV have both fallen off the list as General Motors has ended production of those models. Nissan is still building the Leafin Smyrna, Tennessee, in factbut for 2025, it too loses tax credit eligibility. Volkswagen's ID.4 similarly drops off the list, as do the Rivian R1S and R1T, which last year were eligible for half of the credit. Tesla also appears to have lost eligibility for the Model Y rear drive, but not other Model Y variants.And now, only one plug-in hybrid EV still qualifiesthe Chrysler Pacifica PHEV minivan. Last year, the partial tax credit was available for the Ford Escape plug-in hybrid, the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe and Jeep Wrangler 4xe, and the Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring; this year, none qualify.Will the tax credit even exist in six months?While those changes affect purchasing a new clean vehicle, due to a loophole, the restrictions do not apply to leased EVs. This means leasing is still probably the preferred route to go, especially for buyers who may plan on replacing their car in a few years.Whether or not that option will exist by the end of the year remains to be seen. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly made well-known his opposition to clean energy and EVs, and his close advisor Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is also publicly in favor of ending the clean vehicle tax credit, going on record to state that the effect would be far more deleterious to rival companies than Tesla.Killing off the tax credit will require the action of Congress, howeverthis cannot be done by executive action. But it is widely believed that Republicans in Congress will use the budget reconciliation processwhich is immune to filibusterto wipe out this part of the tax code.Jonathan M. GitlinAutomotive EditorJonathan M. GitlinAutomotive Editor Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 29 Comments

Changing diapers is a fact of life for new parentsIan Allenden / Alamy Stock PhotoParents arent easily disgusted, but only once their child has started eating solids. The level of disgust that parents experience seems to change over time, which could have evolved to both protect their child and prime their immune system.Disgust probably evolved as a way to avoid pathogens, such as those in faeces or vomit, as a sort of behavioural immune system, says Hannah Berg at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who wasnt involved in the new research.Read

The division between light and dark over the north pole of Mercury, viewed from the BepiColombo spacecraftESA/BepiColombo/MTMThese pictures of Mercurys pockmarked surface are the last well see before the BepiColombo mission begins orbiting the solar systems innermost world in late 2026.Since launching in 2018, the joint European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft has flown by Mercury six times, using each successive approach to reduce its speed and adjust its flight path to make it easier to get into orbit. While the missions main scientific instruments havent yet been put to use, the spacecrafts monitoring cameras have given us some of the clearest views weve ever had of the Swift Planet. AdvertisementThe European Space Agency (ESA) has now released three of the most captivating images from BepiColombos most recent flyby on 8 January, taken from around 300 kilometres above Mercurys surface as it flew over the planets north pole and northern regions.It meant getting up at 5.30am, but once close-up images started to appear in our shared folder, it was worth it, says David Rothery at the Open University, UK. We had studied some simulated views in advance and used these to devise our imaging strategy, but what we saw was better than expected.The image above, taken over the planets north pole, shows the clear division between sunlight and darkness on Mercury, which researchers call the terminator line. Mercury has some of the hottest temperatures in the solar system where sunlight falls on its scorched surface, but it also has some of the coldest, in craters that are permanently shadowed by their rims. Voyage across the galaxy and beyond with our space newsletter every month.Sign up to newsletterSome of these shadowed crater regions can be seen lying along the terminator line in the image. It was great looking down on Mercurys north pole, and even seeing the sunlit tip of the central peak inside the crater Tolkien, whose floor is in permanent shadow, says Rothery.Scientists have found some evidence that these cratered regions contain frozen water. One of BepiColombos main mission objectives is to discover whether that water really exists, and how much there is.The vast volcanic plains on Mercury known as Borealis PlanitiaESA/BepiColombo/MTMMercury also contains an expansive volcanic plain known as Borealis Planitia, which BepiColombo spied on its flyby. Researchers think these plains were formed from vast lava flows more than 3 billion years ago that flooded existing craters, some of which can be seen in the above image. Most of these flooded plains are smooth, with a few impact craters that must have been formed more recently.The Caloris Basin, which at 1500 kilometres wide is Mercurys largest crater, appears as a semi-circular patch of lighter-coloured ground extending from the horizon towards the bottom left of the image. Scientists hope to learn more about how this crater, the Borealis Planitia and the solidified lava flows between are connected once BepiColombo starts orbiting the planet.Nathair Facula, thought to be a remnant of Mercurys largest ever volcanic eruption, is seen as a bright patch in this imageESA/BepiColombo/MTMThe bright region near the top of the planet in this image is called Nathair Facula, and researchers think it is the remnant of Mercurys largest ever volcanic eruption. The centre of the region is a 40-kilometre-wide volcanic vent, which appears to have been the source of at least three huge eruptions that spewed volcanic material for hundreds of kilometres.[Nathair Facula] was right on the verge of what we expected to be able to make out, but having published on it based on images from the previous NASA mission to Mercury, it was exciting to glimpse it again, says Rothery. It is a very important science target for several of BepiColombos instruments when we get into orbit, because it offers our best chance to work out what it is about Mercurys composition that has allowed explosive volcanic eruptions to continue through much of the planets history.Topics:

CommentFeedback has found a contender for the 2025 Reverse Nominative Determinism gong: the scientific journal Intelligence 8 January 2025 Josie FordAn intelligent approach?Feedbacks ears always prick up when we see a publication with a self-aggrandising title. So we latched with interest onto a social media post by Rebecca Sear, a demographer at Brunel University London, who noted that publisher Elsevier has chosen new editors for Intelligence.Intelligence, you see, is a scientific journal that publishes studies that make a substantial contribution to an understanding of the nature and function of intelligence. Feedback cannot verify that the editors have been changed, because the journals About page hasnt been updated, but it did advertise for a new editor-in-chief in January 2024. There has been a report that most of the editorial board has resigned in protest at the appointment of the new editor(s), but since that report appeared on a far-right website, Feedback is disinclined to believe it without further evidence.Hang on, readers may be thinking. How did we get from a scientific journal replacing its editors to a far-right website? The thing is, intelligence research has sometimes been misused to justify claims of racial superiority, especially during the eugenics movement of the early 20th century. And Intelligence has published research that your racist uncle might quote approvingly.AdvertisementSomeone at Elsevier appears to have noticed. The Guardian has reported the publisher was reviewing papers by the late Richard Lynn, who claimed to have found variations in IQ between countries including in papers in Intelligence.This is all getting a bit dark, so lets move swiftly forward to the other issue with Intelligence: its apparent lack of its supposed defining trait. Sear highlighted a paper with the innocuous-seeming title Temperature and evolutionary novelty as forces behind the evolution of general intelligence.Its thrust is that, when some Homo sapiens populations first migrated outside Africa, they encountered all sorts of novel conditions, like different climates. This prompted them to evolve a greater level of intelligence. What this means for African populations is left to the reader to infer.If this all sounds like something from the bad old days of Victorian science, Feedback regrets to inform you that this paper was actually first published online in 2007. However, if you swallow your nausea and look closer, a true delight emerges.The first issue is that the author calculates the distances populations travelled as the crow flies. You cant use straight-line distances as even a first approximation for the history of human migration, which involved people journeying to the far north-east of Asia, crossing into North America and onwards to the southern tip of South America.But it gets better. In the same sentence, the papers author says he calculated the distance using the Pythagoras theorem. Readers will recall that Pythagoras theorem only applies to flat planes and doesnt work for curved surfaces. Yes, this study about the racial origins of intelligence is built on the assumption that Earth is flat.With immense academic restraint, a 2009 rebuttal suggested this study might be questionable. Other psychologists brought the problem to the journals attention, only to be told that their critiques were wholly negative and nitpicking. The paper remains live.Accordingly, Feedback would like to nominate the journal Intelligence for the 2025 Reverse Nominative Determinism Award.Forty lashesNew Scientist reporter Karmela Padavic-Callaghan highlights a paper about why eyelashes are curly, which they describe as silly enough to be Feedback material. Rude: this is a deeply serious column about serious things.The research is mostly about the physics of eyelashes, explaining how they transfer water away from our eyes so we can still see when it is raining. This process depends on a hydrophobic curved flexible fiber array with surface micro-ratchet and macro-curvature. There is a lot of stuff about adhesion forces and the importance of the curvature of the lashes for water drainage.And then we get to the discussion section where, as Karmela drily notes, the authors go into aesthetic advice. You see, modern beauty standards encourage women to use mascara to extend and fix eyelashes, which compromises the protective functions. But fear not, the solution is at hand: as a tip, for people with sparse eyelashes, hydrophobic curved false eyelashes could offer a practical solution for enhancing appearance while preserving eye protection. Could a patent possibly be pending?Feedback wonders whether the authors have any advice for middle-aged writers whose eyebrows grow too long, causing them to look like a macaroni penguin unless regularly trimmed. For a friend.Worst to-be-read pile everFeedback has somehow got onto the mailing list for Spines, a tech company aiming to disrupt the publishing industry through the power of artificial intelligence.By using AI to do the editing and other jobs previously done by skilled and salaried humans, Spines aims to publish 8000 books in 2025. To which Feedback says, yes please. When one looks at the structural problems in the publishing industry, such as the dire fact-checking standards in non-fiction output, one can only conclude that what we really need is a deluge of even more books of an even lower quality.Got a story for Feedback?You 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.

Saving $2 trillion would be a "best-case outcome" for DOGE, Elon Musk said on Wednesday.Musk said DOGE has a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion, and that would still be an "epic outcome."The Tesla chief had previously said that his commission would save "at least" $2 trillion.Elon Musk cast doubt on his previous promise that President-elect Donald Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" would save the government $2 trillion."I think we'll try for $2 trillion. I think that's like the best-case outcome," Musk told political strategist Mark Penn during a Wednesday evening chat on X on Wednesday.In October, Musk said that DOGE would save the government $2 trillion. Some federal budget experts immediately questioned whether it would be possible to make such significant cuts, especially given that Trump has promised not to touch programs like Social Security and Medicare.Musk said that he thinks that panel has a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion."But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage," Musk told Penn. He added that he thinks the commission has a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion."If we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and free up the economy to have additional growth, such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation. So that, I think, would be an epic outcome," Musk continued.Musk did not specify in October what cuts he planned to make to achieve that target, which would involve slashing government spending by nearly a third. The federal government spent $6.75 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year.Musk, however, still told Penn on Wednesday that he thinks the government remains "a very target-rich environment for saving money.""It's like being in a room full of targets. Like you could close your eyes, and you can't miss," he added.Republican lawmakers have moved quickly to support DOGE's efforts. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia will lead their respective chamber's work with the panel.The Tesla CEO's influence has soared since Trump's victory. In recent weeks, Musk played a leading role in helping kill sweeping legislation to fund the federal government briefly increasing the risk of a shutdown.Earlier Wednesday, Trump waived off concerns about Musk's political moves in Europe. The Tesla CEO has repeatedly criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and called for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, a Trump ally, to step aside. Musk has also endorsed Germany's far-right AfD party ahead of elections next month. Top leaders have pushed back in response."You mean where he likes people that tended to be conservative? I don't know the people," Trump told reporters during a wide-ranging news conference. "I can say Elon's doing a good job. Very smart guy."Musk and President-elect Donald Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.Trump will be sworn into office on January 20.

I took my 14-year-old daughter on a trip to India. When we arrived, she realized she couldn't access TikTok for our trip. At first, she panicked, but then she realized she didn't need TikTok to stay connected. Recently, I took my 14-year-old daughter on a once-in-lifetime trip to India. When we landed, I was excited to see the Taj Mahal and embark on a safari for a chance to see one of the country's famed Bengal tigers.My daughter was also elated when we landed in India but for a much different reason. After a long flight, she looked forward to connecting to WiFi to see what she had missed. However, her joy quickly turned to despair when she discovered that TikTok was banned in India due to national security concerns posed by the Chinese-owned app, concerns shared by the United States that may lead to a national ban later this month.In contrast, I was thrilled. I spent years trying to limit my daughter's access to TikTok. At times, this caused my daughter to crumple in tears, insisting that she was the only one without access to the creator's "everyone" was following. Eventually, I lightened up, but I still question that decision.I was happy that for the next two weeks, the government of India and I were perfectly aligned on this issue. They could be the bad guys in my teenager's eyes instead of me.My daughter wasn't convinced she could live without TikTokAfter a few minutes without TikTok, my daughter declared, "I can't do this. I am getting on a plane and going home right now." I reminded her that a TikTok ban is looming in the United States and that a world without the app might be her new reality. While challenges are still pending, the app could disappear as soon as January 19th in the United States.I reasoned that our two weeks in India might be her chance to ease out of using the app and see what life is like without TikTok. That would make the transition easier if the TikTok ban goes through at home, I reasoned. She didn't find my logic compelling, but since I told her she would have to pay for her own ticket home, she decided to make the best of it and stay.She asked her friend for updatesAt first, my daughter brought up how unfair it was that she could not access TikTok several times a day. I gently teased her that skincare and fashion trends wouldn't change before we got home. She was not amused, but I was happy not to be the bad guy in this scenario. My daughter texted her best friend, who had the good fortune to still have access to TikTok back home, to ask what she was missing. Her friend shared news about some new reels she thought my daughter would like, but nothing earth-shattering. Gradually, my daughter stopped asking and stopped complaining.She realized she could live without TikTokAfter our first week in India, I asked my daughter how her TikTok detox was going. She snapped back that she hadn't been on her phone that much. I gave her a wry smile and asked if she thought there was a connection. My daughter was adamant that the two were unrelated, but I wasn't convinced.We were busy in India. However, I think that my daughter did not feel as compelled to reach for her phone because the pull of TikTok which can be harmful to teens, according to the company's documents was absent.She found substitutesA TikTok-less world didn't end my daughter's obsession with her phone. She told me that she started watching Instagram reels instead, which she enjoyed more than she thought she would.We talked about what she would do if a TikTok ban were enacted in the US. Although my daughter was emphatic that she did not want that to happen, she told me that she would follow her favorite creators on Instagram but would cut some others loose. As a parent, I wonder if it'd make her reassess her relationship with social media, too. I am not naive. I know that it's unrealistic to expect any teenager to abandon social media entirely. I know that if TikTok is banned in the United States, my daughter will fill the gap with other apps, which is what happened in India. However, I still feel comforted knowing that those apps will not pose the same threats as TikTok.Nevertheless, I am glad that the two weeks my daughter spent without TikTok showed her that she can survive in a world without TikTok.

Business Insider spoke to sneakerheads about which pairs to invest in versus styles you can skip.Runners like Asics and New Balance are back and have taken advantage of collaborations.Nike Dunks are too mass-produced and aren't worth the purchase.Whether you're buying your second or 20th pair of sneakers, it's important to know what you're spending your money on.Michael Portone, the founder of Chicago-based shoe business Endless Supply, says sneakers are like stocks. Just as the stock market has peaks and valleys, the sneaker industry uses the laws of supply and demand to determine a shoe's value. That also means designs, colorways, and brands are always coming in and out of style.Business Insider spoke with three sneaker enthusiasts also called "sneakerheads" about which pairs they think are worth investing in and what styles they'd skip right now. Here's what they said.Asics is acing the sneaker industry You can't go wrong with a pair of Asics Gel-Kayano sneakers. monicalo/Shutterstock Portone, who has 14 years of experience in the sneaker industry, told BI that there's been a recent resurgence in running shoes, especially from Asics. Based on past and current trends, he sees the brand as a good investment.If you want something unique that still has staying power, collaboration lines like GD x Asics are a good place to start."Collaboration is really key in today's day and age," Roberto Ansani, a manager at one of Portone's Endless Supply locations who's been in the sneakerhead community for 12 years, said.However, if you're all about the classics, he said the brand's Gel-Kayano and Gel 1130 lines are rising in popularity particularly because they have aesthetic similarities to Balenciaga's sneaker but for a far lower price.New Balance is back in a big way New Balance's 9060s have gotten popular. LUCKY4UU/Shutterstock New Balance has been around since the early 20th century and is a staple in many sneakerheads' closets.Although it's probably best known for its "dad shoes," the brand has successfully made a name for itself in the modern sneaker game largely thanks to collaborations, like its JJJJound line."We're just seeing the demand go up," Ansani told BI.He named 9060 and 2002r as some of the most high-demand models in New Balance's arsenal.Reebok's Club C is a flexible design You can dress a Reebok Cluc C up or down. Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock Kevin Woods, who founded the curated Chicago vintage shop The Pop Up with his wife in 2019, has been invested in sneakers since his adolescence in the 1980s.If you're looking for a more affordable (under $100) sneaker that pairs well with items across your wardrobe, he recommends Reebok's Club C design."That's a shoe where I don't have to baby it," Woods told BI. "I can wear it and wear it and wear it, and then once they get messed up, I can get another pair of C's."Saucony is keeping its fans happySaucony's runners aesthetic attracts a wide base of shoppers."Certain brands have really leaned into comfort and stability things that shoes are meant to do anyway," Woods said of the classic brand.The sneakerhead highlighted the Starcow X Saucony ProGrid Omni 9 as particularly valuable. The mustard-color sneaker has a retro vibe with all the modern comforts of a running shoe.If you're looking for a similar style outside of the collab, try the original ProGrid Omni 9, which has the same silhouette in different colorways.Supreme Air Force 1s remain in high demand Supreme has a collaboration with Nike Air Force 1. Christophe Decaix/Shutterstock It's hard to ignore Supreme when discussing trends worth investing in. The streetwear brand has become famous for its exclusive releases, minimalist aesthetic, and frequent collaborations, which attract a wide audience of customers.Ansani said the Supreme Air Force 1 collab is consistently popular, even when the supply of it is high.The sleek, black design makes them well-suited for a "going out" sneaker if you're not looking to keep them in pristine condition for your at-home display.On the other hand, America's Cup by Prada may have been a passing fadAnsani told BI that some high-end brands are falling behind when it comes to updating their models."Certain designer brands are sticking to their heritage too much," he said. "It's them being stuck in their ways and unable to adapt with the market."One of the best examples may be America's Cup by Prada. The sneaker was once well-loved, but it no longer holds that same value in today's market especially with its original price hovering close to $1,000 a pair.This follows the broader theme in the fashion world of high-end brands losing out to the "quiet luxury" aesthetic. Consumers just aren't looking for shoes that scream their price tags with flashy logos and easy-to-spot designs.Nike Dunks are too mass-produced Nike Dunks are pretty much ubiquitous in the sneaker world. phil_berry/Shutterstock Low-top Nike Dunks brought a new aesthetic to the sneaker world in the 1980s. The brand gave its skateboarding clientele who had been chopping off the top of the brand's Jordan sneakers exactly what they wanted.Although Portone said the shoe had been trendy for a few recent years, Nike responded by mass-producing it in almost every color.Unfortunately, that high supply with a dwindling demand quickly tanked the sneaker.

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On Tuesday, after a ferocious Santa Ana windstorm blew through Southern California, a severe brush fire broke out in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, burning at least 1,000 structures and forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate as of Thursday morning. Another large brush fire broke out near Pasadena around the same time, killing at least two people. Together the two blazes threatened some of the most valuable homes and businesses in the United States. The damage from the Palisades Fire alone could exceed $10 billion, according to a preliminary estimate from JP Morgan.If this estimate holds true, it will test insurers commitment to a market that has been teetering on the verge of collapse for the better part of a decade now. Over the past five years, California has become a poster child for what climate-fueled weather disasters can do to a states home insurance market. Following a rash of historic wildfires in 2017 and 2018, insurance companies have fled the state, dropped tens of thousands of customers in flammable areas, and raised prices by double-digit percentages.Until recently, elected officials have taken few major steps to address the crisis. But late last month, after more than a year of drafting, Californias insurance commissioner unveiled a set of reforms that he claimed will bring companies back into the fold as they take effect this year. This is a historic moment for California, said Ricardo Lara, the states insurance commissioner, when he revealed the rules in December. With input from thousands of residents throughout California, this reform balances protecting consumers with the need to strengthen our market against climate risks.The rules come after months of debate among state insurance officials, lawmakers, insurance companies, and consumer advocates. The biggest change is that California will now require many insurance companies to do more business in what the state calls distressed areas, the fire-prone scrubland and mountain regions where insurers are now hiking prices and dropping customers. Companies will soon have to ensure that their market share in these areas is at least 85 percent of their total statewide market share in other words, if a company controls 10 percent of the states insurance market, it must control at least 8.5 percent of the market in fire-prone areas. This mandate should push big companies like State Farm and Allstate to pick up customers theyve dropped in flammable regions like the mountainous north of the state. Some companies have already begun to offer new policies in burned areas in anticipation of the states new rules: the insurance company Mercury announced last week that it will be the first insurance company in the state to offer new policies in Paradise, California, which was destroyed in the catastrophic 2018 Camp Fire. The move recognizes the towns work to mitigate future fires by clearing trees and hardening homes.The requirement to expand coverage, coupled with recent announcements from companies like Mercury, should give consumers hope that competition and options will be returning, said Amy Bach, the head of insurance customer advocacy group United Policyholders, in a statement.In return for this added coverage, the state is making a few big tweaks that will allow insurers to pass on the price of fire risk to their customers. California is the only state in the country that doesnt allow insurance companies to use forward-looking catastrophe models when they set prices. It also prohibits companies from factoring in the rising costs of reinsurance, the insurance purchased by insurance companies to ensure theyre able to pay out big claims.These two restrictions have kept prices artificially low for years, and also prevented insurers from planning for climate change impacts, creating a de facto subsidy for homeowners in risky areas. This addresses the major stumbling blocks that companies have been identifying for a decade, so thats a positive, said Rex Frazier, the president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, the states leading insurance trade group. This trade-off has some residents in fire-prone areas worried. Insurance companies might now have to offer more policies in flammable zones, but they also have more latitude to increase prices. Im not optimistic that it will improve the experience of the consumer, as the insurers can now pass certain costs onto consumers, which Im expecting will result in higher premiums, said Jason Lloyd, who moved to mountainous Lake County last spring. He and his wife came to the area because they wanted to be closer to his wifes family, but when they made an offer on a home, they learned that they would have to pay more than $8,000 a year for insurance, or else go to the California FAIR Plan, a state-run insurance program that offers minimal coverage. Beachfront homes are devastated by the Palisades fire in Malibu, California. Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesLloyd and his wife later bought another home in Hidden Valley Lake, a town that has taken ambitious steps to reduce flammable vegetation, but their insurance premium is still more than $4,500 a year, more than triple what it was on their last home in Kansas. Lloyd is worried that his insurance company will hike his price further under the new rules.Other states across the West, such as Colorado and Oregon, are also seeing insurance coverage gaps emerge after big wildfires, though their problems are less acute than those in the Golden State. In Colorado, for instance, officials just recently established a state fire insurance backstop like Californias FAIR Plan, since its only in the past few years that customers there have been dropped en masse. Californias grand bargain with the insurance industry provides a blueprint for those other states: If you want to address coverage gaps, you need to give insurers broader authority to set prices. Even this might not be enough. The past few years have seen a reprieve from major wildfires like the ones that struck in 2017 and 2018, but this weeks blazes in the Los Angeles area could cause billions of dollars of damage, on par with an event like the Camp Fire.Joel Laucher, a former regulator and fire insurance expert at the consumer advocacy organization United Policyholders, said the damage from the Los Angeles blazes could lead to further price hikes and more availability gaps.These are going to be major losses, certainly, he told Grist. Certain areas are definitely going to have new challenges, to the degree that insurers are going to be able to charge to the rate they believe those areas deserve to pay. Laucher said insurance companies may not decline to renew as many policies as they might have under previous state rules, but they could still avoid selling policies in some of the affected areas.Frazier, of the insurance trade group, voiced similar concerns. He said another round of monster blazes on the scale of 2017 and 2018 could drive the insurance industry away from the state once again, despite the commissioners reforms. If we were to have a couple more unprecedented years, all bets are off, he told Grist. 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: