Google is bringing its experimental reasoning artificial intelligence model capable of explaining how it answers complex questions to the Gemini app. The Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking update is part of a slew of Gemini 2.0 AI rollouts announced by Google today, including its latest Gemini 2.0 Pro flagship model.This comes as the search giant is expecting to invest $75 billion on expenditures like growing its monotonously named family of AI models this year. Thats a considerable jump from the $32.3 billion on capital expenditures it spent in 2023, with Google now racing to keep up with AI competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and the Amazon-backed Anthropic.Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking will be available in the model dropdown options on the desktop and mobile app starting today, alongside another version of the model that can interact with apps like YouTube, Search, and Google Maps, according to Google. It was introduced in December 2024 and is expected to compete with other so-called reasoning AI models like OpenAIs o1 and DeepSeeks R1. These models work by breaking problems down into smaller, manageable steps, allowing them to think about prompts before offering a solution. The intended outcome is to achieve stronger and more accurate results, but this is often at the expense of taking longer to achieve them.Google is also releasing an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Pro. According to leaks of the preview reported by TechCrunch, the successor to Gemini 1.5 Pro should provide better factuality and stronger performance for coding and mathematics-related tasks. Gemini 2.0 Pro is described as Googles most capable model yet, and will be available to Advanced Gemini app users and people with access to Vertex AI and AI Studio.Gemini 2.0 Flash the latest version of Googles high-efficiency workhorse AI model is also now generally available to developers in AI Studio and Vertex AI following its rollout to Geminis web and mobile apps last week. Lastly, Google is rounding off these updates with the introduction of a new low-cost model called 2.0 Flash-Lite, which the company says matches 1.5 Flash for speed and price while outperforming it on the majority of benchmarks. Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is launching in public preview today on Googles AI Studio and Vertex AI.See More:

Developer Noodle Cat Games has announced Cloudheim, a new multiplayer action-adventure/survival/crafting game due out next year in 2026 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. It boasts a Zelda-like art style and a powerful physics-based combat system.Noodle Cat hopes that the crafting mixes with the multiplayer and the physics-driven team-based combat and gameplay and lead to memorable gameplay sessions. You can take a look at the announcement trailer above and a bunch of first screenshots in the gallery below.Cloudheim - First ScreenshotsIGN will have more on Cloudheim as development progresses.Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

The Switch 2 Nintendo Direct now has a time as well as a date: 6am PT on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. Thats 9am ET and 2pm UK time.Nintendo has said it will use this Nintendo Direct to share a closer look at Switch 2, following its drive-by reveal of the console last month.That reveal offered a look at the Switch 2 form factor, a glimpse at what looks like Mario Kart 9, and teased a potential mouse mode for the new Joy-Con.But there are still a number of unanswered questions about Switch 2, including what the mysterious new Joy-Con button does, how powerful the console is, and what its new ports might be used for.The Nintendo Direct will also, hopefully, give us the full Switch 2 launch lineup of games as well as a release date, which is expected to be at some point between June and September 2025. Fingers crossed Nintendo announces the Switch 2 price, which analysts predict will be $400.We are starting to build a picture of what to expect on Switch 2 in terms of games. There is a long list of rumored third-party titles coming to the console, and in an interview with IGN, Civilization 7 developer Firaxis called Switch 2s apparent Joy-Con mouse mode "definitely intriguing. French video game and accessories maker Nacon, publisher of the likes of Greedfall 2, Test Drive Unlimited, and RoboCop: Rogue City, has said it has Switch 2 games ready to go. The long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong is also rumored to be set for Switch 2. And just this week, EA said Madden, FC, and The Sims would all be a great fit for Switch 2.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Warning: spoilers for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV finale, and comic book continuation plots.For a lot of people, Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended in 2003 with series finale Chosen. After a season-long battle with The First and its subterranean army of stocky Turok-Han, the Scooby Gang saved the world by changing Slayer lore forever. No longer would one girl stand alone against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness; now, thered be a whole bunch. Using a mystical scythe, Willow had magically hacked the source of Slayer power to bestow super-strength on every Potential around the world. Multiple slayers: no waiting.The world of Buffy continued on TV for another year over on LA-set spinoff Angel (which resurrected James Marsters Spike after hed sacrificed himself to take down The First in the Buffy finale) and then in 2004, that show came to its own apocalyptic conclusion.Afterwards, and throughout Buffy and Angels televisual run, comic book spinoffs had been retelling TV stories and inventing new ones, but none were considered canon. That all changed in 2007 when Dark Horse published the first official continuation of the TV show story, a canonical comic book series produced and co-written by original series creator Joss Whedon, and titled Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight. Comic book seasons Nine, Ten, Eleven, and a shortened Twelve followed, along with the Angel and Faith, and Angel and Spike After the Fall spinoffs, to name just a few. All of these stories kept continuity with the TV shows, and fed into and crossed over with one anothers worlds, which leaves the question: with a Buffy revival pilot reportedly nearing commission at Hulu with the involvement of Sarah Michelle Gellar, would a return to Buffy on TV acknowledge the canonical comic book stories, or skip em? After all, the comics wouldnt be the only thing this non-Whedon revival project would be pretending didnt exist. Theres a decent argument for the proposed new show skipping comics continuity, and many would tell you it contains the words Dawn, Xander, Giant and Giles trapped inside the body of his 12-year-old self and Spike flies a spaceship now.Perhaps thats unfair. Dawn and Xanders romance, and the Dawn-gets-turned-into-a-giant-who-has-to-live-in-a-castle-stable story werent popular, but they were surrounded by fun stuff, from Harmonys reinvention as a reality TV star who becomes a spokesperson for vampires everywhere, to Andrew growing into his role as the next Giles, to the returns of Oz, Amy, Warren, Anya (sort of), DHoffryn, Jonathan (again, sort of) and more.The canon comics were zany might be the right word. Magic played a huge role, as did time travel. There were two new species of vampire (zombie ones and sunlight-resistant bat ones), several Big Bads not all of whom turned out to be rogue slayers or magically possessed allies. The US governments subtext-heavy segregation of magical people provided some decent drama too.The real reason for a revived Buffy TV show to ignore comics continuity though, is that there is so much of it. Five collected volumes plus multiple spinoffs is an unfeasible amount to try to work in to a new show, the majority of whose audience may not even have known of the comics existence. Far better to go from the TV shows finale and for writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face, Agents of SHIELD, Haven) and director Chloe Zhao to build anew from there.It was a solid ending, after all. The TV series concludes with Sarah Michelle Gellars character surveying the crater that was once Sunnydale. Asked by Faith how it feels to no longer be the one and only chosen and instead having to just live as a person, in a damn-near perfect final moment, Buffy smiles, and the credits roll. Had Buffy known that her next move was robbing a Swiss bank and going to Tibet while her little sister shacked up with her best pal, she might not have looked quite so peaceful.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Buffy the Vampire Slayer is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

Over the course of the last 40 years, Ke Huy Quan has done many things: worked with some of the greatest movie stars of all-time like Harrison Ford and Michelle Yeoh; starred in bonafide classics across multiple decades; studied martial arts with Tan Tao-liang and action stunt choreography under Corey Yeun; and won an Oscar.Still, the thing hes been consistently asked over all that time, and across so many projects, remains the same: when are we getting a Goonies sequel? Well, 40 years after that original Richard Donner classic was released, Quan still doesnt have a definite answer, but when we catch up with the actor in Beverly Hills on the eve of the premiere to his next film, Love Hurts, he cant stop smiling about achieving the next best thing: a Goonies reunion in his first feature as the lead actor on the poster.It was emotional for Gable in the movie but also for me personally, too, to share the screen with Sean Astin after 40 years, Quan muses with a smile of genuine satisfaction. Indeed, Love Hurts sees Quan and Astin both play pals in a nondescript American small town where Quans Marvin Gable is the most popular realtor on the block. Hes also a reformed ruthless assassin, not that his real estate boss Cliff (Astin) realizes this in their chummy sequences.Says Quan, When we shot our scenes together that day, Jeff Cohen, aka Chunkwho is also my entertainment lawyercame to visit, and he was watching the monitor the whole time, and I felt like I was a kid again. The actor even got photos of three former Goonies, who fans might recognize as Mikey, Chunk, and Data, together once more on a film set.Will we ever get a Goonies sequel? Quan ponders aloud. I dont know, but before that happens, this movie is this little tease.The movie is also a kind of culmination to a lifetime of lessons in and around the film industry for Quan, whose professional career began at the tender age of 12 on the set of Steven Spielbergs Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In that time, hes had a mercurial relationship with the movie business, which invited him in to make an indelible impression as a child in films like Indiana Jones and Goonies, but for much of his adult life kept Quan at arms length, even when he worked as a stunt coordinator and second-unit director in the 2000s.That obviously changed with Everything Everywhere All at Once, the genre-bending emotional epic from the Daniels. The galaxy-brained swing won many folks involved, including the Daniels and Quan, Oscar gold. We were there, too, when that movie had its world premiere at SXSW and were among the first to welcome Quan back to a life in front of the camera, although he tells us now that even after shooting that sci-fi/martial arts hybrid which showed off his physical prowess, he had no expectation a few years later he would be leading his own martial arts comedy like Love Hurts.I remember that night well [and] I was just so happy and so grateful to be part of that journey [on] Everything Everywhere, says Quan. It was my first time back as an actor, and when we premiered Everything Everywhere at SXSW, and seeing myself for the first time on the screen after so many years, it was very incredible but also emotional for me. I was just so happy to have a job.Quan says he didnt think he could be an action star until he got the script for Love Hurts. But those pages represented a big moment for Quan, who finally gets to be the first name on the production call sheet and posterand for a project that plays to his strengths in terms of physicality, humor, and even sweetness. Aye, Quans Gable is a surprisingly kind-hearted killer! And his journey to this pointwith opportunities to see how legends like Harrison Ford, Michelle Yeoh, or Jamie Lee Curtis handle stardomhas prepared him to understand what it means to be the lead actor, or simply a leader, on a film set.I saw how they did it, Quan says of Ford and Yeoh. When they walk onto the set, they make sure that everybody feels loved and welcome, and feel that no matter what you were doing, what position you were in, that your contribution in the movie is just as important as theirs. So for me, stepping onto the set of Love Hurts, I wanted to emulate that, I wanted to make sure that everybody, we all felt like a big family, and to me making a movie is a huge privilege and it should be fun.The lesson seemed to stick for Quan and his collaborators as well. This includes another Oscar winner in Ariana DeBose, who plays a femme fatale with a complicated past in Love Hurts. But before she portrayed Rose to Quans Gable, DeBose also won her own Oscar and a slew of other awards for West Side Story, which provided her with the opportunity in 2023 to hand out many of the same prizes to Quan for Everything Everywhere.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!I can safely say that its so nice to have been on a set and had my beliefs about a person affirmed, DeBose says about working with Quan on Love Hurts. Sometimes that doesnt happen, but he is everything that you want him to be. Hes charming, hes lovely, hes just so generous. And we worked from a place of mutual admiration and respect, and it made for a really fun sandbox, and we could take some really big risks, whether it be in a fight sequence or just in a scene, and feel safe to do it together.It was a chance for them to both lead a different kind of action movie, one which promises to give audiences a kick just in time for Valentines Day.Love Hurts opens on Friday, Feb. 7.

Country LivingCountry Living editors select each product featured. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Why Trust Us?Just this weekend, I found myself down an internet rabbit hole looking for spring home decor. As the editor of Country Living, I have a few secret sources up my sleeve for fun seasonal finds that won't break the bankthat is, when I'm not shopping for antiques. For example, I've found that the online home section of Urban Outfitters always has fun country-approved surprises such as these charming-as-can-be cafe curtains, this country toile shower curtain, this Delft cat bath mat, and these retro fruit-themed sheets. I also like to poke around sites like Pottery Barn Teen, which often has on-trend, unique-but-not-overtly-youthful pieces at a not-too-grownup price tag. For example, this turned wood bed caught my eye, as did this cute lamp. Anyway, after some digging around for deals, I am now adding H&M to my list of resources for affordable home decor. Their spring collectionfeaturing everything from pretty speckled pottery to ruffle- and scallop-edge tea towels to eyelet table linensspeaks to my country-loving heart. Below, I've rounded up some of my favorite finds for your own shopping pleasure. Forgive the long list: I was going to stop at 12 but then I just kept going because the finds were *too good* not to share. RELATED: 1H&M Ruffle-Trimmed Cotton Seat Cushion$15 at H&MCredit: H&MI'm debating sprucing up my outdoor dining chairs with these 15 x 15-inch cushions that are available in three colors. (I'm leaning toward the green, but the pink is so happy!) They'd also be a cute addition to woven barstools indoors.2H&M 2-Pack Napkins$15 at H&MI aspire to be the sort of human who has a drawer of table linens arranged by color. This set, with its scalloped embroidery, feels straight out of a high-end home goods store. It also comes in a matching table runner and water-repellant place mats!Advertisement - Continue Reading Below3H&M Speckled-Glaze Stoneware Serving Plate$25 at H&MCredit: H&MWill I ever tire of speckled stoneware? I don't think so. The site has every piece you can imaginemugs, baking dishes, you name itbut this 14-inch-long tray may be the biggest bargain of them all. (Wouldn't it make a fun addition to a 4th of July table?)4H&M Stoneware Lemon Squeezer$20 at H&MCredit: H&MPresenting the prettiest lemon squeezer in all of the land. Stock up on a couple and you'll be all set for summer hostess gifts. Or make homemade lemonade with your new lemon squeezer, then serve it from this pretty coordinating pitcher.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below5H&M 2-pack Cotton Tea Towels$10 at H&MCredit: H&MI love the combination of nubby no-nonsense materials with the sweet ruffled edge. 6H&M Ruffle-Trimmed Cushion Cover$10 at H&MCredit: H&MI aspire to own an English country house, which is maybe why I have a thing for ruffles. At just $10, this pillow cover is a very economic way to pep up a porch swing. (It's also available in this lively color combo.)Advertisement - Continue Reading Below7H&M 2-Pack Scalloped-Edge Tea Towels$15 at H&MCredit: H&MPrefer your tea towels with a kick of color and a scalloped edge? Here ya go. 8H&M Water-Repellent Tablecloth$25 at H&MCredit: H&MAlso available in a pretty rosy pink, this 55- by 94-inch cotton tablecloth in a sophisticated chintz conveniently comes with a water-repellant coating.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below9H&M Cotton Canvas Shopper$20 at H&MCredit: H&MI will always love an understated canvas carryall and this roomy tote is perfect for hauling farmers' market finds or transporting gardening supplies. (If your mom has a green thumb, fill it with new tools and gift it for Mother's Day.)10H&M Lemon-Shaped Stoneware Serving Plate$25 at H&MCredit: H&MI'm not particularly into fruit-themed serving-ware (a tad too kitschy for my tastes) but this 11-inch-long lemon tray feels more sophisticated, like it belongs on a table in Provence.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below11H&M Large Storage Basket$50 at H&MCredit: H&MMade of rattan, this large 12- by 23-inch basket would be so pretty on a kitchen counter or used as an Easter basket alternative.12H&M 4-pack Bow Napkin Rings$10 at H&MCredit: H&MOkay we all know the bow trend has gotten slightly out of control but I'll admit I'd still tie one on, especially at this price. (Available in three colors)Advertisement - Continue Reading Below13H&M Mango Wood Cutting Board$25 at H&MCredit: H&MAs much as we love a weathered antique cutting board, they can be quite pricey. With its irregular edging and angled handle, this one feels like one you'd find at a French brocante.14H&M Large Stoneware Serving Plate$30 at H&MCredit: H&MLettuce- and cabbage-ware lovers, take note that the H&M site is stocked with everything from serving trays (shown) to pretty dinner plates and bowls featuring this iconic shape and texture. Now you'll just need a pine hutch to display it all.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below15H&M Frill-Trimmed Cotton Cushion Cover$18 at H&MCredit: H&MI swear I will buy anything with a ticking stripe. 16H&M Broderie Anglaise Tablecloth$40 at H&MCredit: H&MThis tablecloth is so pretty and breezy that I'm debating turning a pair of them into curtains. Or, if you prefer something a little more casual, then snag the table runner version. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below17H&M 6-Pack Spiral Taper Candles$20 at H&MCredit: H&MPerfect for Valentine's Day or any day, these matte 11-inch tapers bring whimsy to the table. (Also: We should all be eating more dinners by candlelight.)18H&M Rattan Bowl$35 at H&MCredit: H&MIt's almost planting season, and your soon-to-be homegrown produce deserves to be put on a pedestal.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below19H&M Round Jute Rug$35 at H&MCredit: H&MYou can never go wrong with a round jute rug. 20H&M Straw Pendant Lamp$139 at H&MCredit: H&MThis casually cool light fixture would add nice texture to a kitchen or bathroom in a waterfront setting. Rachel BarrettRachel Barrett is the Editor-in-Chief of Country Living. She can't pass up a vintage seascape, drives an '89 Woody Wagoneer (that is, when it'll start), and hopes to buy you a lemonade at a future Country Living Fair.

Disney has long been planning to launch a new flagship ESPN streaming serviceseparate from the existing ESPN+ streamerand its fall launch is fast approaching. Today during Disneys quarterly earnings report, CEO Bob Iger teased what to expect from the new ESPN service and confirmed its launch timing.New ESPN streamer will live inside existing app, include all current cable and streaming contentThe Walt Disney Company today released its quarterly earnings across all segments of the business. As part of its reporting, the companys execs highlighted the new standalone ESPN streaming service coming later this year.Here are the details:ESPNs flagship offering that will launch in early fall has been and remains our priority, Iger and Johnston said. And we expect the elevated product and content experience which will all be housed within the ESPN app will be a digital destination for sports fans unlike anything available in the marketplace today, with the full suite of ESPNs networks and ESPN+, and highly interactive and personalized features.There are a variety of key tidbits to glean here, including:Launch Timing: Confirmation of an early fall launchlikely late August or early September, ahead of the NFLs returnApp: The new streamer will live inside the existing ESPN app, not a brand new appContent: Subscribers will gain access to the full suite of ESPN networks and ESPN+, making it a true all-in-one offeringFeatures: Phrasing is especially vague, but the service will offer highly interactive and personalized featuresWhat hasnt been outlined yet is pricing, but that probably wont be revealed until closer to the fall debut.Recently, Disney added a dedicated ESPN tile to its Disney+ app. Right now, this tile features some free content for Disney+ subscribers, as well as ESPN+ content if you have that service too.Its likely that after the new ESPN streaming service launches, youll be able to access its full contents from that Disney+ tile too. Or, of course, in the dedicated ESPN app.ESPN+ has long been an oddity in that its name is misleadingrather than giving you ESPN plus extra content, its an entirely separate service that does not include standard ESPN. When Disney is able to finally launch this new ESPN service, though, cord cutters will be able to get the full ESPN experience via streaming.Are you interested in the new ESPN streaming service? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.Best iPhone accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Were expecting to see an M5 chip powering this years MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro. That chip has now entered mass production, according to a new supply-chain report.Not much is known about it for sure, though it is expected to have enhanced AI performance, and its also been suggested that it may have a somewhat different design to previous M-series chips M5 chip for three 2025 productsWere expecting to see the M5 chip used for 2025 models of the:MacBook ProiPad ProVision ProOf these, the most significant may be the Vision Pro, as the chip is expected to bring Apple Intelligence features to the spatial computer something not available on the existing M2-powered model. Thats not because the M2 chip cant run AI, but rather than the chip isnt powerful enough to simultaneously take care of all the visionOS processes and Apple Intelligence on top. The rest of the hardware design is expected to remain largely or wholly unchanged.The MacBook Pro may get a significant power boost through a new chip packaging process, according to a Ming-Chi Kuo report late last year.One of the key elements of Apples A-series and M-series chips is the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design which tightly integrates all the components within a single package. This includes both CPU and GPU.But a new report suggests that the M5 Pro chip may take a different approach of having more separated CPU and GPU in order to improve performance and boost production yieldsIn particular, this could boost AI performance.However, those considering an upgrade from an older MacBook Pro model may want to hold out for the 2026 model, which is rumored to be in line for a total redesign that will see it get thinner and lighter.Now in mass productionETNews reports that the M5 chip is now in mass production.Apple has started mass production of the next-generation semiconductor chip M5. It is a semiconductor installed in Apples core products such as the Mac series and iPad. It is understood that Apple has introduced new process technology to enhance artificial intelligence (AI) performance.The report suggests that production has begun with the base M5 chip, with the M5 Pro, Max, and Ultra variants to follow.In addition to boosted performance, the chip is also reported to run cooler, meaning that it will be able to run at full power for longer periods before thermal throttling kicks in.Image: Michael Bower/9to5MacAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

"You can't design a study of humans without using at least one of these terms."Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware that the United States' federal government is lurching toward an unabashed oligarchy, with the Trump administration actively cutting through agencies with an extremely regressive agenda.One of those agencies is the National Science Foundation (NSF), which previously supported research and education in the fields of science and engineering through publicly-funded grants.That now all seems poised to change. A week ago, one of Trump's many executive orders seemed to freeze all NSF grants, to the shock of the academic community.That pause subsequently got walked back, butthe Washington Post reports that teams there are now combing through any active research involving a secret list of words, to inspect whether it falls afoul of Trump's draconian new crackdown on anything even close to identity and diversity.The partial listflags terms and phrasesincluding "equity," diverse groups," "under served," along with some identity-based demographic nomenclature such as "LGBT," "Indigenous community," "Black and Latinx," as well as "BIPOC." Others, like "sense of belonging," are downright baffling.As if those weren't broad enough, the"These keywords could show up in the text of ANY grant involving human participants," wrote Dr. Darby Saxbe, a USC professor who published the list. "You can't design a study of humans without using at least one of these terms, which means that biomedical, brain, social science research is now on ice in the USA."The list also comes with a "decision tree" for reference by the employees conducting the reviews, showing them how to sort work into categories of acceptable and unacceptable a process that sounds an awful lot like the "thought crime" described by George Orwell in the iconic 1949 novel "1984."Last year, the NSF reported distributing some $9 billion in grant money, supporting over 350,000 researchers, teachers, and students. While that's a massive boon for the scientific research community, it's chump change compared to the national federal budget of $6.9 trillion or just over a tenth of one percent of the nation's total expenditures.If Trump and co. wanted to target ineffective use of government funds, he might set his sights on the US Armed Forces, which together accounts for roughly $1.5 trillion in federal resources, the most of any G7 nation.You'd be forgiven, then, for wondering what the justification for going after such a tiny agency could possibly be. After all, the NSF is by all accounts a global leader in scientific research literally setting the global standards of the WHO's Drinking Water Safety and Treatment guidelines, for example. As witheverything this administration has shown us so far, the point is to debase Trump's stated enemies."The goal seems to be to create chaos, demoralize researchers, and undermine science and research," Dr. Saxbe told this publication. "The keywords are so broad that they would apply to any research conducted with humans, including neuroscience, child development, economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. It is already having a chilling effect on the science community."The release of censored phrases, which so-far has not been acknowledged by the agency, is likewise in contradiction with previous instructions for grant proposals, furthering the confusion."The NSF... was charged by the US Congress in 1980 with the goal of 'broadening participation,' eg, by training a more diverse scientific workforce," Saxbe explains. "All NSF grants are required to have language about 'Broader Impacts,' or how this work will benefit society, for example by providing opportunities to trainees from diverse backgrounds.""In other words," she says, "anyone who follows directions in a grant proposal is going to get flagged for 'DEI language.'"As NSF grant-writing forms a major cornerstone to STEM research, it remains to be seen what broader implications this will have for the research community going forward. Unfortunately, this is likely just a taste of things to come as Trump and his merry band of cost cutters continue to ravish the critical agencies governing our country.Share This Article

Consumers don't want to be associated with Tesla.Tesla TankTesla sales are falling off a cliff in key markets around the world as its CEO Elon Musk continues working overtime to tank not just his own reputation but that of his embattled carmaker.Sales in California fell almost eight percent in the fourth quarter of last year and are down 12 percent overall for the year, as Bloomberg reports. Annual registrations for the company's best-selling vehicle, the Model 3, slide by over a third in the state. (As a harbinger of the trouble, Tesla posted its first yearly sales drop in over a decade last month.)Similarly, the EV maker's performance is down in almost every single European market, with year-over-year sales dropping over 63 percent in France as Musk has threatened to upend the continent by throwing his weight behind a political party linked to neo-Nazism in Germany.Even in Sweden and Norway, key markets for the company, Tesla is losing significant market share, as Reuters reports despite car sales overall soaring there.While it's unclear exactly how much Musk's bizarre and polarizing behavior is contributing to Tesla's woes, surveys show it's definitely a factor, with consumers choosing alternatives rather than driving a "giant red MAGA hat."Naz-EVA recent survey showed that the proportion of Swedes viewing Tesla in a positive light slid to an abysmal 11 following Trump's inauguration, according to Reuters. It's a significant change of heart, considering Tesla's Model Y was the most-sold car in both Sweden and Norway last year.Another survey by brand reputation analytics firm Caliber, reviewed by Bloomberg, also showed that Tesla's reputation dipped to its lowest levels since at least 2023 in November and January.Meanwhile, EV alternatives including those by Honda and Hyundai are starting to really eat into Tesla's market share, with strong end-of-year sales.In short, it's not surprising to see consumers abandon Tesla's brand, which has been dragged through the mud by the troubling behavior of its CEO.Apart from Tesla's tanking reputation, investors have long warned that the EV maker's lineup is starting to look stale, despite the launch of a divisive and extremely problems-prone pickup truck in late 2022. Musk has bet big on the development of a "robotaxi," which given the sorry state of the company's driver assistance software, likely won't be ready for deliveries for quite some time.Overall, Tesla has now slid to the fourth most valuable car brand globally, according to a recent Brand Finance report, with Japanese carmaker Toyota claiming the number one spot.Share This Article