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Fewer Electric Vehicles Will Qualify for U.S. Tax Credits in 2024

Efforts to fight global warming could suffer a setback next year when new rules reduce the number of electric cars that qualify for a federal tax credit.

The credits, up to $7,500 a vehicle, have helped make electric cars more affordable, bringing the cost of some models below $30,000. Next year, for the first time, dealers will be able to give buyers the credit when they purchase a car, rather than telling them to claim it on their tax returns.

But qualifying for the subsidy will become more difficult on Jan. 1 because of Biden administration rules intended to encourage automakers to manufacture vehicles and parts in North America, while bypassing China. Most automakers are still years away from breaking their dependence on China for batteries and essential materials like refined lithium.

The stricter rules, which stem from the Inflation Reduction Act, throw up another impediment to electric vehicles. Sales of such cars and trucks are already growing less briskly than a year ago because of high interest rates and drivers’ anxiety about finding charging stations.

Electric vehicles are still the fastest-growing segment of the auto industry, and Americans have already bought more than one million this year. Sales will rise another 32 percent in 2024, according to BloombergNEF, compared to 47 percent in 2023. But Ford Motor, General Motors and Tesla have slowed investment as the pace of growth has cooled.

The list of fully electric vehicles that qualify for tax credits was already limited. Under rules that took effect this year, the credit was available only to cars manufactured in North America.

To collect the full credit, carmakers also must meet quotas on how much of their battery components and certain raw materials come from the United States or trade allies. Tesla, General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Rivian and Nissan are the only companies offering electric cars that qualify for the at least a partial credit. Some plug-in hybrid cars from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Jeep and Lincoln also qualify for tax breaks.

New rules kicking in on Jan. 1 add another set of restrictions, disqualifying vehicles containing components made in China or made elsewhere by a firm under the control of the Chinese government.

“If it was already confusing for consumers, it gets even more confusing,” said Kevin Roberts, director of industry insights and analytics at CarGurus, an online marketplace.

Tesla, which accounts for half of all the electric vehicles sold in the United States, has warned on its website that the least expensive Model 3 sedan and a long-range version will no longer qualify after Dec. 31. The cars have a battery made in China. The existing credits lowered the price of the base Model 3 to around $30,000, on a par with similarly equipped gasoline cars like the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord.

The stricter rules will also disqualify Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, which has been eligible for half the credit and was the fourth-most-popular U.S. electric vehicle this year. Ford is still figuring out whether the F-150 Lighting, an electric pickup, will be eligible, a spokesman said.

The rules are complex and could still be modified by administration officials, leading to confusion among industry executives. In the worst case, only a handful of vehicles will qualify.

Volkswagen said it is “cautiously optimistic” that its ID.4 electric sport utility vehicle, made in Chattanooga, Tenn., will continue to get the credit.

General Motors said it is assessing whether its electric lineup, which includes the Chevrolet Bolt and an electric version of the Silverado pickup, will qualify. Nissan, whose electric Leaf is eligible for half of the $7,500 credit, did not respond to a request for comment. Rivian, whose electric pickups and S.U.V.s have qualified, also did not respond.

There is another way drivers can benefit from the credit. Under an exception intended for businesses with vehicle fleets, the Inflation Reduction Act allows dealers to apply the subsidy to leased vehicles and pass it on to customers. That wrinkle has helped Hyundai and other foreign automakers remain competitive even though they do not produce electric vehicles and batteries in the United States.

More than 40 percent of Hyundai’s electric vehicle sales are leases, a spokesman said, up from just 5 percent before new restrictions took effect this year. The same provision in the law has allowed people who lease cars made abroad by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo and Polestar to receive the credit indirectly.

But leasing is not a panacea. Many people prefer to own their cars, and foreign automakers are sore that they have been excluded from the subsidy available to buyers. The electric vehicle credit “is overly complex and unfortunately creating customer and dealer confusion,” Volvo Cars said in a statement.

But the lawmakers who drafted and passed the Inflation Reduction Act have said they wrote it to force carmakers to realign their supply chains. That is happening, but the changes will take some time to bear fruit.

The list of eligible vehicles could grow over the course of 2024 as carmakers ramp up U.S. production to qualify for the credits and other subsidies.

The Korean automaker Kia expects to begin producing the EV9, a seven-passenger electric sport utility vehicle, at a factory in Georgia next year. Those domestically assembled vehicles should be eligible for half the credit, or $3,750, a Kia spokesman said.

Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep, plans to introduce six mass-market electric vehicles in 2024, including versions of the Dodge Charger, Jeep Wagoneer and Ram pickup. The company has not said whether the vehicles will qualify for credits.

Some hybrids, which have internal combustion engines and electric motors, will also qualify if they meet the sourcing requirements and have a battery with a capacity of at least seven kilowatt-hours.

The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid will most likely still be eligible for a $7,500 credit, a company spokesman said, while buyers of the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe and Jeep Wrangler 4xe hybrids are expected to be eligible for up to $3,750.

Market forces are pushing down the prices of electric vehicles, a trend that is expected to continue as carmakers increase production. The average list price of an electric vehicle fell to $63,000 in November from $68,000 a year earlier, according to CarGurus. The average list price of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine was $48,000, the same as in the previous year.

Federal subsidies and loans for battery factories and electric car plants are also helping to lower prices. At some point during the next several years, analysts expect electric vehicles to become less expensive than internal combustion models even without tax credits.

“The long-term trend is going to be one of reducing prices,” Mr. Roberts of CarGurus said. “You are going to see more mainstream vehicles.”

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December 16, 2023
Watches to Match Your Holiday Sweater

“The holidays are meant to be a special time when you bring out your Christmas sweater — and why not your special watch?” asked Summer Anne Lee, a fashion historian and adjunct instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

“Seasonal watches are not over-the-top like the ugly Christmas sweaters,” she said. “But the seasonal aspects of these watches are hard to miss.”

That was the thinking, at least in part, at the Swiss watch brand Maurice de Mauriac.

“We love Christmas sweaters, so we wanted to make Christmas sweater watches that are unique, colorful, warm and comfortable,” said Massimo Dreifuss, who, with his younger brother, Leo, runs the family brand, which was founded in 1997.

On Nov. 11, the brand presented holiday-inspired versions of its L series watches at its boutique and atelier in central Zurich. Red sapphire crystals and red, blue and green tartan bands had been added to the L1 Red Lighting, a time and date model priced at $4,320; the L2 Red Sea, a diver’s watch selling for $5,420; and the L3 Sees Red, a chronograph listed at $5,980.

“We love the color red,” Massimo Dreifuss said. “In these cold times, red is a very strong color — it is about heart, love, family and it is a perfect collection for the Christmas markets where we participate.” The watches, he added, are meant to reflect all the season’s holidays, regardless of their religious or cultural connections.

The watches’ debut was met by smiles from the customers and friends of the brand who had gathered at the big table in the shop, known for its customizable collections and an extensive strap selection.

“This would the perfect watch for — a family man who gets in trouble on Christmas,” the Danish actor Peter Mygind said as he looked at the L3 Sees Red, pausing dramatically midsentence. “He has bought a gift for his wife, but inside it has the wrong name, the name of another woman when the wife opens it. And there the action starts!”

Mr. Mygind, who was to be the face of the brand’s December campaign, is no stranger to Christmas movies, having appeared with Emilia Clarke and Emma Thompson in the 2019 romantic comedy “Last Christmas.”

Nor is he a stranger to Maurice de Mauriac. He was introduced to the brand in 2017 by the Swiss film director Bettina Oberli, and wore one of its watches in the Swiss TV drama “Private Banking,” which Ms. Oberli directed. Two years later, he began collaborating with the brand.

Another guest at the shop was Fabio Don, an Italian architect and watch collector who lives in Zurich. “I love the domed red crystal of the L3,” he said, adding that the tartan strap transmitted the idea of warmth. “But it is wintry, not only for Christmas.”

At $110, Wondrous Winter Wonderland, part of Swatch’s “The Simpsons” collection, is a less expensive Christmas-themed option.

As for seasonal watches in general, Mr. Don said the category was very niche and watchmakers could explore it further. “To have an item that is coming along for a certain time of year, or a season of our life, will also make it a collectible item,” he said.

Looking at some images of recent holiday timepieces, Mr. Don said, “If I need to pick one more specific Christmas watch, Swatch is the funniest one.”

He was referring to Wondrous Winter Wonderland, part of Swatch’s “The Simpsons” collection introduced in November, with a dial showing the yellow TV cartoon family singing Christmas carols in the snow and a red band with gingerbread figures, stars and snowflakes ($110). “It is not expensive, not posh or showing off, and it is funny,” he said. “This watch is really Christmas.”

Snowflakes feature prominently in Caroline Scheufele’s design of Happy Snowflakes, a Chopard timepiece.

Chopard’s Happy Snowflakes watch, an 18-karat white gold timepiece introduced in 2018, features snowflakes of a completely different kind. Its icy effect comes from white diamonds, and the right side of the dial is dominated by a snowflake in mother-of-pearl marquetry. A more subtle snowflake floats above the dial among single diamonds, sandwiched between two sapphire glasses.

Caroline Scheufele, the house’s co-president and artistic director, created the design. “Christmas without snow is not Christmas to me,” she said of Happy Snowflakes, the 25-piece limited edition available at Chopard boutiques ($85,100). “I love skiing, I love the snow — it is one of my favorite elements.”

Ms. Scheufele acknowledged that she is a big fan of Christmas sweaters for the holiday season, when the Scheufeles gather at the family chalet in Lauenen, Switzerland, just outside Gstaad. “I am super traditional about Christmas — and this includes the traditional Christmas sweaters,” she said. “It is the best thing to get warm in front of a cozy fire in a sweater with teddy bear or tartan patterns.”

A teddy bear wearing tartan, with a cocktail in hand, is the dial image on the Ralph Lauren Tartan Tuxedo Polo Bear watch, which is available in stainless steel ($1,750) or 18-karat rose gold ($16,500). The brand has featured the teddy bear in the past.

“It makes sense for a brand like Ralph Lauren to play on the American tradition, the holiday, the party,” Ms. Lee, the fashion historian, said.

In 2021, Konstantin Chaykin, an independent watch maker in Moscow, released a limited-edition Santa Claus watch that emphasized fun rather than luxury. The glasses that framed Santa’s googly eyes were subdials for minutes and hours, and his tongue, which moved behind a smiling mouth, indicated the moon phase. The design belonged to the brand’s collection called Wristmons, short for wrist monsters, and sold out at $19,470.

Michal Dunin, who is the founder of the digital marketing agency WebTalk in Warsaw and an active watch collector, couldn’t hold back a laugh when he looked at an image of the Santa watch during a video call. “It is not for me — even though I am all for the uniqueness of watches that tell a story,” he said. “But it would take a special person to put on such a watch. It kind of speaks of somebody’s character; you need a sense of humor for a watch like that.”

For Anita Porchet, an enamel dial artist, the challenge in creating wintry themes is working with the naturally restrained palette of the season. “You have to bring life to a dial with only a few different colors; you have to work with great subtlety and nuance,” she wrote in an email.

Anita Porchet, an enamel dial artist, worked on the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse 5738/50G-026 “White Egrets.” Working with the season’s restrained color palette can be a challenge. Ms. Porchet wrote in an email.

A recent example of Ms. Porchet’s work is the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse 5738/50G-026 “White Egrets” ($177,419). Her cloisonné enamel dial decoration depicted five egrets, long-necked birds, huddling together as snow fell around them.

She said the technique required creating tiny portions of the images with gold wire, then filling the cavities with glass powder paints and firing the dial at 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit (800 Celsius).

It takes about a week to create such a dial. “But for me, that’s not what’s important,” she said. “What is important is the emotion released by the watch, and that doesn’t depend on the time taken to make the dial.”

As Ms. Lee said, “The Patek is not at all part of the ongoing minimalist and understated luxury movement. No, this is a statement piece for winter — but not only at Christmas. I bet you could still wear it in January.”

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December 16, 2023
Pharmacies Shared Patient Records Without a Warrant, an Inquiry Finds

Law enforcement agencies have obtained the prescription records of thousands of Americans from the country’s largest pharmacy chains without a warrant, a congressional inquiry found, raising concerns about how the companies handle patient privacy.

Three of the largest pharmacy groups — CVS Health, Kroger and Rite Aid — do not require their staff members to contact a lawyer before releasing information requested by law enforcement, the inquiry found. The other five — Walgreens, Cigna, Optum Rx, Walmart and Amazon — said that they do require a legal review before honoring such requests.

The policies were revealed on Tuesday in a letter to Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, from Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Representatives Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Sara Jacobs of California, all Democrats.

The inquiry began in June, a year after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion and cleared the way for Republican-controlled states to enact near-total bans on the procedure. Reproductive health advocates and some lawmakers have since raised privacy concerns regarding access to birth control and abortion medication.

“Although pharmacies are legally permitted to tell their customers about government demands for their data, most don’t,” the lawmakers wrote. “As a result, many Americans’ prescription records have few meaningful privacy protections, and those protections vary widely depending on which pharmacy they use.”

The inquiry found that the pharmacies receive tens of thousands of legal requests annually for their patients’ pharmacy records. However, the letter said, the companies indicated that a vast majority of the requests were submitted in connection with civil litigation.

In July, nearly 50 Democratic members of Congress wrote to Mr. Becerra to urge the Health and Human Services Department to expand regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, that would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant to gain access to medical records and would require that patients be notified when their records are requested.

Since then, lawmakers have been digging into the disclosure practices of major pharmacy chains.

During the congressional inquiry, CVS, Kroger and Rite Aid “indicated that their pharmacy staff face extreme pressure to immediately respond to law enforcement demands and, as such, the companies instruct their staff to process those requests in the store,” Mr. Wyden, Ms. Jayapal and Ms. Jacobs wrote in their letter to Mr. Becerra.

“Americans’ prescription records are among the most private information the government can obtain about a person,” the lawmakers wrote. “They can reveal extremely personal and sensitive details about a person’s life.”

It went on to urge the Health and Human Services Department to strengthen the regulations under HIPAA “to more closely align them with Americans’ reasonable expectations of privacy and constitutional principles.”

“Pharmacies can and should insist on a warrant, and invite law enforcement agencies that insist on demanding patient medical records with solely a subpoena to go to court to enforce that demand,” the letter said.

In a statement, a CVS spokeswoman said that the company’s “processes are consistent with HIPAA” and that its pharmacy teams are trained to “appropriately respond to lawful requests.”

“We have suggested a warrant or judge-issued subpoena requirement be considered and we look forward to working cooperatively with Congress to strengthen patient privacy protections,” the spokeswoman, Amy Thibault, said.

The Health and Human Services Department has already taken steps to add language to HIPAA that would protect data involving reproductive health. In April, the department’s Office for Civil Rights proposed a rule that would bar health care providers and insurers from turning over information to state officials who are trying to prosecute someone for seeking or providing a legal abortion.

Michelle Mello, a professor of law and health policy at Stanford, said that requiring a warrant instead of a subpoena for the release of pharmacy records would “not necessarily preclude concerns” about privacy. She also said that notifying patients about record disclosures, which the lawmakers said “would be a major step forward for patient transparency,” would likely occur only after the fact.

While Professor Mello said most pharmacy records should be kept private, she said that targeting pharmacy employees, who could be found in contempt of court for not complying with a law enforcement demand for records, adds another layer of complexity.

“It’s not fair to put the onus on them to be found in contempt of court and then fight that,” she said.

But efforts by congressional Democrats to shore up HIPAA reveal a longstanding misconception about the health care privacy law, which was signed into law in 1996, she said.

“People think HIPAA has broader protection than it does,” Professor Mello said. “It wasn’t designed to enable health care providers to resist very misguided, in my view, attempts to enforce laws that impact patients in a negative way.”

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December 16, 2023
Lead Levels in Children’s Applesauce May Be Traced to Cinnamon Additive

With dozens of children across the United States suffering from lead poisoning, federal regulators are now investigating whether the culprit is cinnamon that was added to some popular applesauce pouches, and if lead had been added somewhere along the global supply chain, either to enhance the spice’s reddish color or to add weight.

In November, the Food and Drug Administration announced a national recall of three million pouches of cinnamon applesauce made in Ecuador and sold at dollar stores and other outlets under the WanaBana, Schnucks and Weis brand names.

Concern about the poisoning cases, affecting as many as 125 children, has highlighted a broader gap in F.D.A. food oversight. There is no federal requirement to test for lead in food made domestically or imported into the United States. In this case, a North Carolina health department investigation pinpointed the source of contamination after receiving reports of high levels of lead readings in children’s blood tests.

That the levels of lead in children’s blood tends to be the first line of detection for lead in food is “effectively using kids as canaries,” said Tom Neltner, senior director of safer chemicals at the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group. He said that the F.D.A. has not set enforceable limits for lead in food, much less in spices.

“What this shows is a breakdown in the agency, and an industry that has to be fixed,” Mr. Neltner said.

Jim Jones, the F.D.A.’s food division director, said in an interview with Politico that the lead contamination appeared to be an “intentional act.”

On Friday the F.D.A. said one theory it is exploring is the potential “that the cinnamon contamination occurred as a possible result of economically motivated adulteration.” In simpler terms, that explanation could mean that the company producing the cinnamon used additives to make the spice more appealing and commercially profitable.

The agency emphasized that its inquiry was not finished and included other theories.

Food safety experts said the addition of lead has long been a concern in spices with a reddish hue.

“If you’re selling spices by the pound or ton, you’re going to get a better price for lead-weighted or lead-colored spice,” said Charlotte Brody, national director of Healthy Babies Bright Futures, which advocates the removal of toxins from baby food. “But you’re also going to poison children.”

Tests for lead in children’s blood are required in some states and cities but are voluntary in most areas, Mr. Neltner said. When elevated levels are found, lead in paint is often assumed to be the culprit, he said, adding that investigations as careful as the one in North Carolina are exceptional.

Like most foods consumed in the United States, the various ingredients in the applesauce pouches came from and were manufactured in different parts of the world before landing on store shelves. The cinnamon applesauce pouches were manufactured in Ecuador by Austrofood, but its supply of cinnamon was provided by another company, Negasmart.

This week, the F.D.A. said that it was conducting an on-site inspection of Austrofood’s manufacturing facility in northern Ecuador, and was collecting samples of the cinnamon used in the recalled products. Austrofood did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The F.D.A. said that Ecuadorean authorities had told U.S. regulators that Negasmart’s cinnamon had higher levels of lead than those allowed by Ecuador and that the company is currently engaged in a process to determine who was responsible for the contamination. Negasmart did not respond to a query for comment.

Ms. Brody said the F.D.A.’s notices and company statements on the recall so far have left a major question unanswered: Which company shipped the cinnamon, which is typically imported from Asia, and where else is it used?

“Are we getting contaminated cinnamon from other companies?” she asked. “We need to know.”

The F.D.A. said last month that it was screening cinnamon imports from “multiple countries for lead contamination,” and had no indication that the contamination extended beyond the recalled applesauce pouches. It added that as of Nov. 30, the screenings had not turned up any shipments with “higher levels of lead.”

The F.D.A. policies on lead in food consumed by children are less rigorous than government standards for the cribs that they sleep in, Ms. Brody said. Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of lead, which can damage their nervous systems, affecting growth, learning and speech development.

In 2017, the F.D.A. set recommendations for the amount of lead in children’s candy after regulators in California discovered popular candies from Mexico that had been tainted either by lead that seeped from the bright wrappers or from the chili powder used in some of the treats.

And earlier this year, the agency proposed maximum limits for lead in baby foods like mashed fruits and dry cereals, after years of studies that showed many processed products contained high levels of lead. The draft guidance, which would not be mandatory for food manufacturers to follow, has not yet been finalized.

The agency has asked Congress for more power to address the problem, according to its legislative proposals for 2024. The requests include authority to set binding contamination limits in food, noting that under current law, “F.D.A. has limited tools to help reduce exposure to toxic elements in the food supply.”

In its congressional request, the agency also pointed out that the food “industry is not required to test ingredients or final products” meant to be consumed by infants or children, and sought authority to require food makers to test for toxic elements.

New York State enforces a lead limit in spices, which has spurred a number of product recalls in recent years.

California is following New York’s lead, taking a more aggressive stance around testing for heavy metals, especially in baby food. Starting in January, manufacturers of food meant for children under 2 years will need to test a sample of each product once a month for arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. Manufacturers will also be required to share the results with California health regulators, if requested.

In January 2025, baby-food makers will be required to publicly post the results of their testing.

Weis Markets, which pulled the affected cinnamon applesauce pouches from its shelves in late October, said in a statement that it was the manufacturer’s responsibility to test the applesauce pouches for “multiple items” and to “certify the products are wholesome and unadulterated.”

Weis said another company, Purcell International in California, which imported the applesauce pouches from Ecuador, was also responsible for testing the safety of the product. Purcell did not respond to an email seeking comment.

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December 16, 2023
Hayden Hurst’s season over after concussion, amnesia diagnosis [Updated]

Updated Dec. 15: The Carolina Panthers are putting Hayden Hurst on injured reserve, ending the tight end’s season.

Draymond Green punches Jusuf Nurkic | Does his bad behavior outweigh the good?

Carolina Panthers tight end Hayden Hurst officially entered concussion protocol nearly a month ago. Now, according to his father Jerry, the 30-year-old has been diagnosed with post-traumatic amnesia.

The elder Hurst revealed that his son received the diagnosis from an independent neurologist, and added to the post on X: “Slow recovery, don’t know when he’ll be back. Prayers appreciated!”

The Cleveland Clinic notes that post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) is one of the more uncommon symptoms of concussions. PTA can affect one’s memory, state of consciousness, motor skills, and behavior among other things.

On Thursday, Hayden posted for the first time since suffering the concussion to clarify his injury status.

“I appreciate everyone reaching out & checking on me,” Hurst wrote. “I suffered a pretty nasty concussion against the Bears a few weeks ago & don’t remember up to 4 hours after the game. Scary situation but the Panthers have been incredible walking me through this process.

“While it was scary, it is NOT career-ending. I’m starting my return to play this week, so fingers crossed I make it back for the last few weeks! God Bless & Keep Pounding!!!!”

Is it worth sacrificing your body — and more importantly, your mind — to be the 17th-highest-paid tight end in the league? Hurst will be 32 years old when he likely hits the open market again. Only six tight ends in the league are currently above the age of 32. Three of them hit free agency this offseason. One of them is Taysom Hill, a tight end-quarterback-running back hybrid. One is Travis Kelce.

This isn’t a position with longevity, especially for receiving-style tight ends like Hurst. The Carolina Panthers are a directionless franchise who aren’t doing much to help their players — especially on offense.

Deadspin has spoken to concussion experts before. In the wake of Tua Tagoviola’s head trauma last season, Chris Nowinski, the co-founder, and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said the Miami Dolphins’ QB shouldn’t play again in 2022.

After such a scary and impactful injury, why would Hurst choose to subject himself to this again?

Hurst has secured life-changing wealth for you and your family, and there isn’t much left for you to earn. How much is his long-term cognition worth to him?

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December 16, 2023
Vera Molnar, Pioneer of Computer Art, Dies at 99

Vera Molnar, a Hungarian-born artist who has been called the godmother of generative art for her pioneering digital work, which started with the hulking computers of the 1960s and evolved through the current age of NFTs, died on Dec. 7 in Paris. She was 99.

Her death was announced on social media by the Pompidou Center in Paris, which is scheduled to present a major exhibition of her work in February. Ms. Molnar had lived in Paris since 1947.

While her computer-aided paintings and drawings, which drew inspiration from geometric works by Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee, were eventually exhibited in major museums like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, her work was not always embraced early in her career.

“Vera Molnar is one of the very few artists who had the conviction and perseverance to make computer-based visual art at a time when it was not taken seriously as an art form, with critics denouncing the emergent form since they did not believe that the artist’s hand was evident in the work,” Michael Bouhanna, the global head of digital art at Sotheby’s, wrote in an email.

Ms. Molnar in fact began to employ the principles of computation in her work years before she gained access to an actual computer.

In 1959, she began implementing a concept she called “Machine Imaginaire” — imaginary machine. This analog approach involved using simple algorithms to guide the placement of lines and shapes for works that she produced by hand, on grid paper.

She took her first step into the silicon age in 1968, when she got access to a computer at a university research laboratory in Paris. In the days when computers were generally reserved for scientific or military applications, it took a combination of gumption and ’60s idealism for an artist to attempt to gain access to a machine that was “very complicated and expensive,” she once said, adding, “They were selling calculation time in seconds.”

Still, she later said in an interview with the art curator and historian Hans Ulrich Obrist, “In 1968 we thought that everything was possible, and all you have to do is knock on the doors and the doors open.” Even so, she was met with skepticism from the head of the computer lab.

“He gave me a look,” she said, “and I had the feeling that he was considering whether he should call for a nurse to sedate me or lock me up.”

Making art on Apollo-era computers was anything but intuitive. Ms. Molnar had to learn early computer languages like Basic and Fortran and enter her data with punch cards, and she had to wait several days for the results, which were transferred to paper with a plotter printer.

One early series, “Interruptions,” involved a vast sea of tiny lines on a white background. As ARTNews noted in a recent obituary: “She would set up a series of straight lines, then rotate some, causing her rigorous set of marks to be thrown out of alignment. Then, to inject further chaos, she would randomly erase certain portions, resulting in blank areas amid a sea of lines.” Another series, “(Des)Ordres” (1974), involved seemingly orderly patterns of concentric squares, which she tweaked to make them appear slightly disordered, as if they were vibrating.

Over the years, Ms. Molnar continued to explore the tensions between machine-like perfection and the chaos of life itself, as with her 1976 plotter drawing “1% of Disorder,” another deconstructed pattern of concentric squares. “I love order, but I can’t stand it,” she told Mr. Obrist. “I make mistakes, I stutter, I mix up my words.” And so, she concluded, “chaos, perhaps, came from this.”

Viewers of her work were not always entranced. Ms. Molnar recalled one exhibition at which visitors would, she joked, “look to the side so as not to get some kind of terrible eye affliction from looking at them.” She eventually spoke out, telling a skeptical visitor that computers, like artworks, were made by intelligent humans, and that therefore “the most human art is made by computer, because every last bit of it is a human invention.”

“Oh my, the reactions I got!” she said. “But I survived, you know.”

Vera Gacs was born on Jan. 5, 1924, in Budapest. She found early artistic influence from an uncle who was a “Sunday painter,” as she put it in a 2012 interview.

“I went to his house to admire him; he painted clearings, undergrowth with dancing nymphets,” she said. “The smell of the oil paint, the little green and yellow leaves, enchanted me.” Her uncle gave her a wooden box of pastels, which she used to draw evening sunsets at the family’s country house near Lake Balaton.

Ms. Molnar went on to study art history and aesthetics at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, where she met her future husband, François Molnar, a scientist who at times collaborated with her on her work.

Mr. Molnar died in 1993. Information about survivors was not immediately available.

After Ms. Molnar graduated in 1947, the couple moved to Paris, where she began her art career and found herself mingling in cafes with prominent abstract artists, like Victor Vasarely, Fernand Léger and Wassily Kandinsky, who also brought a geometric sensibility to their work.

By the early 1960s, she was enough of a recognized figure in the art world to join with François Morellet, Julio Le Parc, Francisco Sobrino and others to form the influential collective Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel, which sought to incorporate science and industrial materials into the making of art.

Her career continued to expand in scope in the 1970s. She began using computers with screens, which allowed her to instantly assess the results of her codes and adjust accordingly. With screens, it was “like a conversation, like a real pictorial process,” she said in a recent interview with the generative art creator and entrepreneur Erick Calderon. “You move the ‘brush’ and you see immediately if it suits you or not.”

Ms. Molnar acquired her first personal computer in 1980, allowing her to “work as I wanted and when I wanted,” she told Mr. Calderon. “It was great to go to bed at night and hear the computer and the plotter working by themselves in the workshop.”

While the art world was slow to fully recognize Ms. Molnar’s work, her reputation has grown in recent years with the explosion of digital art. In 2022, she exhibited at the Venice Biennale, where she was the oldest living artist shown.

Earlier this year, she cemented her legacy in the world of blockchain with “Themes and Variations,” a generative art series of more than 500 works using NFT technology that was created in collaboration with the artist and designer Martin Grasser and sold through Sotheby’s. The series fetched $1.2 million in sales.

“I have no regrets,” she said in a 2017 video interview. “My life is squares, triangles, lines.”

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December 16, 2023
Brandon Staley, Chargers GM fired after embarrassing loss

Following a historic loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the Los Angeles Chargers fired head coach Brandon Staley and GM Tom Telesco, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Chargers fan goes viral, but was she a plant?

“I want to thank Tom and Brandon for their hard work, dedication, and professionalism, and wish both them and their great families nothing but the best,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement. “These decisions are never easy, nor are they something I take lightly – especially when you consider the number of people they impact.

“We are clearly not where we expect to be, however, and we need new vision. Doing nothing in the name of continuity was not a risk I was willing to take. Our fans have stood strong through so many ups and downs and close games. They deserve more. Frankly, they’ve earned more. Building and maintaining a championship-caliber program remains our ultimate goal. And reimagining how we achieve that goal begins today.”

Giff Smith and JoJo Wooden have been named the interim head coach and GM, respectively.

Thursday night’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders is one of the most embarrassing defeats in recent memory. The Chargers’ 63 points allowed were the most in franchise history, and their 42-point deficit was the franchise’s third-largest margin of defeat. To add insult to injury, the loss knocked Los Angeles’ playoff odds down to less than one percent, according to the New York Times.

The game capped off an abysmal stretch for the Chargers’ defense. In Staley’s three years as head coach, the Chargers defense never finished higher than 19th in defensive EPA/Play and 21st in defensive DVOA. In 2023, Staley’s defense finished with the fifth-worst explosive passing rate allowed despite running a two-high scheme specifically designed to eliminate explosive passes.

It wasn’t for a lack of talent acquisition, either. Staley had two All-Pro defensive talents in edge rusher Joey Bosa and safety Derwin James. Telesco then tried his best to add marquee defensive talent each season, bringing in linebacker Khalil Mack via trade and cornerback J.C. Jackson on a five-year, $82 million contract. Jackson played all of seven games before getting traded back to New England, while the serviceable 32-year-old edge rusher Mack is expected to cost the Chargers a cap hit of $38.5 million in 2024.

In Staley’s inaugural season, the Chargers missed the chance at a playoff berth because of Staley’s clock mismanagement in a Week 18 game against the Raiders. In 2022, Los Angeles blew the third-largest lead in NFL playoff history. The Chargers will now likely fail to make the playoffs once again.

The rookie contract window for Justin Herbert ends this season, with his market-setting contract kicking in in 2024. According to OvertheCap, the Los Angeles Chargers currently sit $42.2 million over the 2024 cap threshold, the third-least projected cap space in the league.

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December 16, 2023
New York City Is Offering Free Online Therapy to Teens: Will It Work?

For the past month, New York City has been inviting teenagers to participate in one of the biggest experiments in the country aimed at helping struggling adolescents: a program offering free online therapy to all residents ages 13 to 17.

The city has entered a three-year, $26 million contract with Talkspace, one of the largest digital mental health care providers. After a parent or legal guardian signs a consent form, teenagers can exchange unlimited messages with an assigned therapist and receive one 30-minute virtual therapy session each month.

The rollout of the program, NYC Teenspace, on Nov. 15 took many in the city’s large mental health care community by surprise. In interviews, providers hailed the effort for having made mental health care available to teenagers who otherwise might not have had access.

But many also worried about whether the limited treatment Teenspace offers will meet the needs of teenagers who have more complex issues. And some questioned why the city was partnering with a for-profit provider like Talkspace, which is the target of a class-action lawsuit filed by a former client.

“Conceptually, this could be a game changer,” said C. Vaile Wright, senior director of the Office of Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association. “This could absolutely revolutionize access to care.”

But, she added, the “devil is in the details.” It remains unclear whether digital providers can “realistically meet capacity,” and set appropriate expectations around response times and informed consent procedures, she said, “so there aren’t unintended consequences if someone is disappointed or even harmed by this model of care.”

Dr. Ashwin Vasan, New York City’s health commissioner, acknowledged in an interview that the city was “taking a risk here” by embracing teletherapy at this scale. But, he added, given the alarming levels of distress among teens, the “cost of inaction is much higher.”

In New York City public schools, there is one guidance counselor for every 272 students. In addition, a report released this month by the state attorney general’s office surveyed 13 health plans and found that 86 percent of the mental health providers listed as in-network were actually “ghosts,” meaning that they were unreachable, not in-network or not accepting new patients.

“What we wanted to do was create the easiest low barrier, democratized access to help that we could,” Dr. Vasan said. “This is free of charge. It’s in the palm of your hand. We’re very much empowering the young person to be comfortable asking for help, and to do that independently of any adult, other than the initial parental consent.”

So far, about 1,400 teenagers, or less than 1 percent of the more than 400,000 eligible adolescents, have signed up.

At a webinar on the program this month, city parents were shown head shots of the available therapists — an array of young, dynamic faces, some with dreadlocks or hijabs. Teenspace’s smartphone sign-up page also flashed on the screen: “You get free therapy through NYC Health department!”

Parents typed questions to a chat window.

“Is text therapy effective?”

“Can students remain anonymous?”

“Is this free or not?”

The arrival of Teenspace comes amid a wave of similar partnerships across the country. An analysis published this month by The Associated Press found that 16 of the largest U.S. public school districts are offering online therapy sessions.

In February, Los Angeles County signed a two-year, $24 million contract with Hazel Health, which offers virtual health care to more than 160 school districts nationwide. The Los Angeles partnership will deliver teletherapy services for up to 1.3 million public school students in grades K-12.

Few areas of the country have a larger mental health work force than New York City does, and some advocates questioned the city’s decision to partner with a for-profit company at a time when city agencies are being asked to slash their budgets.

“Choosing to privatize this while simultaneously forcing deep cuts across the social sector (and beyond) does not make any sense to me,” said Matt Kudish, chief executive of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City.

Steven DiMarzo, president of the New York Mental Health Counselors Association, said digital platforms typically offer relatively low pay and push their employees to meet “unrealistic expectations.” He said he had heard nothing about Teenspace until a reporter contacted him, but was “concerned” about the quality of care it would provide.

Other experts questioned the level of treatment Teenspace offers adolescents.

Dr. Zachary Blumkin, senior clinical director of the Psychiatry Faculty Practice Organization at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, hailed the spirit behind the initiative as “pretty amazing.” But he said he had seen no evidence that a monthly therapy session and text exchanges would offer a substantial benefit for teens with mental illness.

“One concern is, this could be kind of a Band-Aid over a gushing wound, and that could make things worse,” he said. As a provider who treats adolescents, he said, “this is not a level of intervention that I would feel comfortable providing.”

As teletherapy has become more prevalent in recent years, digital providers like Talkspace and BetterHelp have sometimes been criticized for care that falls short of traditional psychotherapy.

“The whole point of these platforms is scale,” said Livia Garofalo, a researcher at the nonprofit research institute Data & Society, who studies telehealth. “That is their jam; we need to scale it up. And in the process there are compromises that both the therapist and the client have to accept.”

In March, a school administrator, Naomi Weizman, filed a class-action lawsuit against Talkspace in a federal court in California, charging that the company “creates the false impression that Talkspace has a large enough network of therapists to meet demand,” and then unilaterally enrolls clients in automatically renewing payment plans.

A motion by Talkspace to dismiss the class claims in the lawsuit was denied last week. The judge in the case, P. Casey Pitts, dismissed two elements of Ms. Weizman’s claims, including a request for an injunction that would halt the platform’s subscription plan.

John Reilly, the chief legal officer of Talkspace, said on Monday that the allegations in the claim were not accurate. “We work to connect members with providers as quickly as possible, and they are typically connected to a therapist within one to two days,” he added.

Dr. Vasan said the city “went through a long and quite detailed due diligence” as it considered digital providers, and opted for Talkspace in part because of its size and focus on New York.

Dr. Jon R. Cohen, the chief executive of Talkspace, said the company stood out because it is based in New York City and could match teenagers with a therapist “within hours.” Talkspace is also “an incredibly inexpensive, affordable platform,” he added.

Dr. Vasan said the health department expected to analyze and update the service as it grows, adding therapists if necessary and streamlining referrals for teens who need more intensive services.

“We can make those adjustments over time,” Dr. Vasan said. “And this is going to be some rigorous learning that we’re going to be undergoing. And I just want to reiterate that last point — I wish I knew all the answers in advance, but I think the cost of inaction is greater.”

After teenagers verify that they are between the ages of 13 and 17, they must provide a parent’s email address, and, except in rare exceptions, their parents or guardians must sign and return a consent form. After signing up, they can use the platform’s self-guided exercises, or opt for therapy.

The teens share their presenting problem and preference for a provider’s gender, and will then be matched with one of Talkspace’s New York State-licensed therapists, which number about 500.

Right now, only 40 percent identify as specialists in adolescent care, but a company spokesperson said the training in the specialty, led by a Talkspace clinician, is being offered to any therapist who is part of the Teenspace program.

In addition to the monthly video session, clients can send an unlimited number of text, audio or video messages to their therapist, but the response will not be immediate. Typically, providers communicate at least once or twice daily during their working hours, “depending on the cadence and preference of the teen,” a Talkspace spokesperson said.

The providers cannot prescribe medicine. “The guts of this program is therapy,” Dr. Cohen said. He declined to disclose the metrics outlined in the NYC Teenspace contract, but said “one of the benchmarks is to get teens to use it.”

Teenagers who are in crisis are directed to call 988 or another help line instead of using the app. As an added precaution, the company uses artificial intelligence to scan text conversations for indications that a client is at risk for self-harm and then alerts the therapist, who decides what to do next.

Talkspace struggled financially after going public in 2021, but its business-to-business revenue, which is derived from partnerships with cities as well as companies, has been a bright spot in its financial reports.

In 2020, Hillary Schieve, the mayor of Reno, Nev., announced a $1.3 million, one-year contract with Talkspace to provide care free of charge for citizens. Usage was relatively low — around 3,100 of the city’s roughly 250,000 residents used the service — and the city did not renew the contract.

In an interview, Ms. Schieve said she was satisfied with the mental health services provided to individuals, but disappointed by the company’s efforts at promoting the service.

“They failed there pretty miserably,” she said, adding that she would advise cities partnering with digital providers to pay platforms based on the number of clients served.

“I don’t think they will get their money’s worth, though I hope they do,” said Ms. Schieve, who, as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has made mental health an area of focus. “I want cities to be cautious when working in this space.”

When asked about the promotion in Reno, Dr. Cohen, the Talkspace chief executive, responded that “we all would have liked to see better utilization.” He added that in New York City, “we are concentrating a significant amount of our efforts right now to get the word out.”

Dr. Garofalo, the telehealth researcher, said the quality of the experience on Teenspace is particularly crucial because it will, in many cases, be a young person’s first encounter with mental health care.

“This is your chance to maybe convince someone they need help, or would benefit from talking to someone,” she said. “What if there is case management that needs to be involved? It’s a monumental task they have set for themselves.”

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December 16, 2023
Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge to Abortion Pill Access

The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would decide on the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, the first major case involving abortion on its docket since it overturned the constitutional right to the procedure more than a year ago.

The Biden administration had asked the justices to intervene after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit favored curbing distribution of the drug, mifepristone, appearing skeptical of the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of the pill in recent years. In its ruling, the panel said that the pill would remain legal, but with significant restrictions on patients’ access, including prohibiting the medication from being sent by mail or prescribed by telemedicine.

The move sets up a high-stakes fight over the drug that could sharply curtail access to the medication, even in states where abortion remains legal. It could also have implications for the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration, which approved the pill more than two decades ago.

The Supreme Court is now in the unusual position of ruling on abortion access even after its conservative majority declared that it would leave that question to elected officials. Until the court issues a decision, the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug remains in place, delaying the potential for abrupt limits on a medication that is used in more than half of all pregnancy terminations in the United States.

The Supreme Court did not set a date for argument but is expected to issue a decision by the end of its term, in late June. That means a ruling could arrive at the heart of the campaign season, during which abortion is expected to be a centerpiece of Democratic platforms.

Abortion rights groups welcomed the court’s decision to hear the case.

“The stakes are enormous in post-Roe America,” Nancy Northup, the president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy organization, said in a statement.

Alliance Defending Freedom, the group that is representing those challenging the F.D.A.’s authority, said in a statement that the court would help settle whether “the F.D.A. has harmed the health of women and undermined the rule of law by illegally removing every meaningful safeguard from the chemical abortion drug regimen.”

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the battle over abortion has largely played out in the states, where it remains a potent political and legal issue.

More than a dozen states have enacted bans or restrictions, and Democrats have seized on the fallout from the ruling to galvanize voters at the polls, even in conservative-leaning states. In Texas, a woman sought an emergency court order to receive an abortion but ultimately was denied by the state’s Supreme Court and left the state to undergo the procedure. And in Ohio, voters in November soundly approved a ballot measure that enshrined a right to abortion in its constitution. The success of similar campaigns has inspired efforts in Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

The justices had discussed the case at their Friday conference, the private meeting among the nine. They will hear two consolidated cases challenging more recent changes the F.D.A. made starting in 2016 to expand distribution of the drug, F.D.A. v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, No. 23-235, and Danco Laboratories v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, No. 23-236.

In asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, lawyers for the Justice Department described the ruling by the appeals court as unprecedented in questioning the expert judgment of the F.D.A. Such a decision, they added, “would threaten to severely disrupt the pharmaceutical industry and prevent F.D.A. from fulfilling its statutory responsibilities according to its scientific judgment.”

Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy organization that has brought cases for clients opposed to abortion and gay and transgender rights, represents the challengers. In a brief, lawyers for the group argued that the Supreme Court did not need to weigh in, calling the appeals court decision a “modest decision” that “merely restores the common-sense safeguards under which millions of women have taken chemical abortion drugs.”

The tangled showdown over the future of the pill reflects how medication abortion has become the next major battlefront for conservative groups.

The case began in November last year, when an umbrella group of anti-abortion medical organizations and a few doctors filed a lawsuit describing the F.D.A.’s approval as flawed and questioning the safety of the drug.

Many studies of mifepristone have found it to be highly safe and effective, and years of research have shown that serious complications are rare. Fewer than 1 percent of patients need hospitalization, medical experts have said.

The drug, the first in a two-part regimen, has been used by more than five million people in the United States and is approved for use in dozens of countries. Under the current F.D.A. regulatory framework for mifepristone, it has been regulated more strictly and studied more strenuously than most other drugs.

The group filed its challenge in the Panhandle city of Amarillo, Texas, where only one federal judge hears civil lawsuits filed there, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who is a longtime opponent of abortion.

In April, Judge Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary ruling invalidating the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug. Days later, a panel of three judges in the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, struck down part of his ruling, allowing the drug to remain on the market but with restrictions.

The Justice Department was among those that sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court, which temporarily paused any changes to the drug’s availability as an appeal made its way up through the lower courts.

A different three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit ruled in August that the F.D.A.’s original approval of mifepristone should remain in place, as should its approval of a generic version in 2019.

But it rolled back regulations governing the pill, to before 2016. In the years since, the agency made changes that broadened access to the drug. Under those pre-2016 rules, mifepristone must be prescribed only by a doctor and picked up in person. Patients also had to visit a doctor three times during the abortion process.

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December 16, 2023
Morning Person? You Might Have Neanderthal Genes to Thank.

Neanderthals were morning people, a new study suggests. And some humans today who like getting up early might credit genes they inherited from their Neanderthal ancestors.

The new study compared DNA in living humans with genetic material retrieved from Neanderthal fossils. It turns out that Neanderthals carried some of the same clock-related genetic variants as do people who report being early risers.

Since the 1990s, studies of Neanderthal DNA have exposed our species’ intertwined history. About 700,000 years ago, our lineages split apart, most likely in Africa. While the ancestors of modern humans largely stayed in Africa, the Neanderthal lineage migrated into Eurasia.

About 400,000 years ago, the population split in two. The hominins who spread west became Neanderthals. Their cousins to the east evolved into a group known as Denisovans.

The two groups lived for hundreds of thousands of years, hunting game and gathering plants, before disappearing from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago. By then, modern humans had expanded out of Africa, sometimes interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

And today, fragments of their DNA can be found in most living humans.

Research carried out over the past few years by John Capra, a geneticist at the University of California, San Francisco, and other scientists suggested that some of those genes passed on a survival advantage. Immune genes inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans, for example, might have protected them from new pathogens they had not encountered in Africa.

Dr. Capra and his colleagues were intrigued to find that some of the genes from Neanderthals and Denisovans that became more common over generations were related to sleep. For their new study, published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution, they investigated how these genes might have influenced the daily rhythms of the extinct hominins.

Inside the cells of every species of animal, hundreds of proteins react with each other over the course of each day, rising and falling in a 24-hour cycle. They not only control when we fall asleep and wake up, but also influence our appetite and metabolism.

To explore the circadian rhythms of Neanderthals and Denisovans, Dr. Capra and his colleagues looked at 246 genes that help to control the body clock. They compared the versions of the genes in the extinct hominins to the ones in modern humans.

The researchers found over 1,000 mutations that were unique only to living humans or to Neanderthals and Denisovans. Their analysis revealed that many of these mutations probably had important effects on how the body clock operated. The researchers predicted, for example, that some body-clock proteins that are abundant in our cells were much scarcer in the cells of Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Next, the scientists looked at the small number of body-clock variants that some living people have inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans. To see what effects those variants had on people, they probed the UK Biobank, a British database holding the genomes of half a million volunteers.

Along with their DNA, the volunteers provided answers to a long list of health-related questions, including whether they were early risers or night owls. To Dr. Capra’s surprise, almost all the ancient body-clock variants increased the odds that the volunteers were morning people.

“That was really the most exciting moment of the study, when we saw that,” Dr. Capra said.

Geography might explain why the ancient hominins were early risers. Early humans lived in Africa, fairly close to the Equator, where the duration of days and nights stays roughly the same over the course of the year. But Neanderthals and Denisovans moved into higher latitudes, where the day became longer in the summer and shorter in the winter. Over hundreds of thousands of years, their circadian clocks may have adapted to the new environment.

When modern humans expanded out of Africa, they also faced the same challenge of adapting to higher latitudes. After they interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans, some of their descendants inherited body-clock genes better suited to their new homes.

All of these conclusions, however, stem from a database limited to British people. Dr. Capra is starting to look at other databases of volunteers with other ancestries. If the links hold up, Dr. Capra hopes ancient body clocks can inspire some ideas about how we can adapt to the modern world, where circadian rhythms are disrupted by night shifts and glowing smartphones. These disruptions don’t just make it hard to get a good night’s sleep; they can also raise the risk of cancer, obesity and a host of other disorders.

Michael Dannemann, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Tartu in Estonia who was not involved in the new study, said one way to test Dr. Capra’s variants would be to engineer various human cells in the lab so that their genes were more like those of Neanderthals and Denisovans. Then scientists could grow clusters of the cells and watch them go through their daily cycles.

“This step forward not only advances our knowledge of how Neanderthal DNA influences present-day humans,” he said, “but also offers a pathway to expanding our understanding of Neanderthal biology itself.”

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December 16, 2023