Technology
The Rivian R2’s next-gen batteries will be made in the US by LG Energy
Rivian’s R2 vehicles will be powered by batteries made domestically in the US by South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, the company announced in its third quarter earnings report.
Rivian first revealed the new batteries back in March when it announced the R2 as its more affordable electric SUV that would start at $45,000. (It also announced the sportier R3 vehicle.) The cell is called “4695” due to its diameter of 46 millimeters and height of 95 millimeters — larger than Tesla’s 4680 cells.
The battery packs that Rivian uses currently in its R1T and R1S vehicles are assembled at its Normal, Ill. factory using cells manufactured in South Korea by Samsung SDI. Now, the cells will be produced in the US to better comply with tax credit requirements outlined by the Inflation Reduction Act. In a letter to shareholders, Rivian said the cells would be manufactured during their first year at LG’s plant in Queen Creek, Az.
The next-gen battery pack will be lighter, less complex, and cheaper to produce than the current batteries, Rivian said. The company also expects a “meaningful reduction in dollar per kilowatt hour (kWh) at the pack level when compared to the R1 platform.” And because its larger than its R1 batteries, the new packs will contain fewer cells overall, which will make the manufacturing process more efficient. Rivian says it expects the assembly process to improve by 45 percent.
Since the passage of the IRA, automakers have been scrambling to shift EV battery manufacturing to the US to comply with rules requiring domestic production in order to qualify for generous subsidies. And with Donald Trump coming back into office, they will need to work even faster in order to avoid harsh tariffs on imported goods that the incoming president has promised to enact.
Rivian has said the R2 will go into production during the first half of 2026. But with Trump also promising to eliminate Joe Biden’s EV subsidies, the question remains whether struggling EV-only companies like Rivian will be able to stay afloat amidst what’s expected to be a more uncertain market.
Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you’ll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.
Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There’s no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you’re stuck and need to know the answers to today’s Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.
How to play Strands
You start every Strands puzzle with the goal of finding the “theme words” hidden in the grid of letters. Manipulate letters by dragging or tapping to craft words; double-tap the final letter to confirm. If you find the correct word, the letters will be highlighted blue and will no longer be selectable.
If you find a word that isn’t a theme word, it still helps! For every three non-theme words you find that are at least four letters long, you’ll get a hint — the letters of one of the theme words will be revealed and you’ll just have to unscramble it.
Every single letter on the grid is used to spell out the theme words and there is no overlap. Every letter will be used once, and only once.
Each puzzle contains one “spangram,” a special theme word (or words) that describe the puzzle’s theme and touches two opposite sides of the board. When you find the spangram, it will be highlighted yellow.
The goal should be to complete the puzzle quickly without using too many hints.
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s theme is “????✌️☝️✊?”
Here’s a hint that might help you: speaking without words.
Today’s Strand answers
Today’s spanagram
We’ll start by giving you the spangram, which might help you figure out the theme and solve the rest of the puzzle on your own:
Today’s Strands answers
- SHAKE
- CLAP
- POINT
- FIST
- PEACE
- PINCH
- WAVE
- PRAY
Russell Hardy, chief executive officer of Vitol Services Ltd.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SINGAPORE — Vitol is eyeing the metals market with global petroleum demand expected to peak in a decade, signaled Russell Hardy, CEO of Vitol, the world’s largest independent energy trader.
“The petroleum, the oil business, we still think it will reach a peak at some point, about 10 years ahead from where we are today,” Hardy said on Thursday at the Financial Times Commodities Summit in Singapore.
In contrast to the eventual decline of the crude industry, metals business is going to witness a “great deal of growth through the electrification phase,” he added.
“So we quite like the idea of being involved in the bigger metal markets. And the three bigger metal markets are steel and iron ore, copper and aluminum,” he said.
In August, Vitol announced its acquisition of Noble Resources, a Hong Kong-based trader specializing in oil, coal and metallurgical coke, which is used to make iron. Vitol in April poached two metal traders from Mercuria, Reuters reported.
It’s a 10 year ambition, and I’m not going to put any pressure on ourselves to be in a particular place in three years, or five years.
Russell Hardy
CEO of Vitol
Energy trading giants, such as Gunvor and Mercuria, have in recent years been eyeing the metals space as they explore opportunities offered by the shift in favor of clean energy.
Critical minerals such as copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium are key in the manufacturing of EV batteries, electric vehicles, power grids and solar panels — some of the components driving the energy transition ecosystem.
Copper in particular is widely expected to see an exponential demand and a potential shortage. Existing mines and projects under construction will meet only 80% of copper needs by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.
The process of scaling a metals business to the same size as its energy arm would be a long and difficult process, acknowledged Hardy, adding that the metals market is a competitive one and the trading house will have to find its “edge” and “pathway.”
“It’s a 10 year ambition, and I’m not going to put any pressure on ourselves to be in a particular place in three years, or five years,” he said, while emphasizing that oil and gas remain “really important” business units for the trader.
Vitol saw a slew of bumper profits in recent years on the back of Europe’s energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Google Store offers a plethora of accessories for Pixel products, even from third-party manufacturers. However, until now, it has yet to sell third-party bands for its smartwatches. That just changed with the inclusion of the Spigen Rugged Band for Pixel Watch devices in the Google Store. Plus, there’s a new silicone bumper designed for the Google TV Streamer.
The Spigen Rugged Band for Pixel Watch devices now available in the Google Store
The Spigen Rugged Band is available in both 41mm and 45mm sizes. While the name mentions that it’s designed for the Pixel Watch 3, the 41mm version is compatible with the Pixel Watch 2 and the original Pixel Watch. The band features a sporty design reminiscent of Casio watches. Spigen says the new band has “carbon fiber accents and a matte finish.”
The band uses a traditional “slide and lock” adjustment system based on holes and a hook. The brand claims that this ensures an ideal fit for any situation. Spigen also boasts that the band is sturdy and flexible, so it should hold up to rough use for a long time without any issues.
The new Spigen Rugged Band for Pixel Watch devices is available in a sober black color for $34.99 from the Google Store. Interestingly, it’s also available on Amazon for a lower price ($24.99). Spigen hasn’t confirmed if it will release more colors in the future.
A bumper to protect your Google TV Streamer too
Spigen also released a silicone bumper for the Google TV Streamer. The accessory will be quite useful in case of accidental drops thanks to the built-in rubber perimeter. It does not cover the top of the device, presumably to prevent any interference with wireless signals. Plus, there’s a lanyard and adhesive that will make it simple for you to mount the device behind your TV or on any vertical surface.
Unlike the band for Pixel Watch devices, the bumper is available in two colorways: hazel and porcelain. You can purchase the bumper, officially called the “Spigen Silicone Fit,” from both the Google Store and Amazon. Again, the price on the Google Store is significantly higher at $39.99 compared to Amazon’s $29.99.
While Activision has been striving to its notoriously huge Call of Duty games so they take up less storage space, you may still need more room on your console. That’s true even if you have the with 2TB of built-in storage. Games can quickly fill an internal SSD and if you’re an Xbox Series X/S gamer, Seagate’s expansion card is perhaps the way to go.
The 2TB variant is on sale at the minute. It has dropped to . That’s $160 off the regular price.
Seagate
Seagate’s expansion card is one of the best options for expanding your Xbox Series X/S storage. A 2TB version has dropped to $200, its lowest price to date.
Look, proprietary storage stinks, but the choice for Series X/S owners looking for more space is largely between Seagate’s Storage Expansion Card and WD’s Black C50. It’s possible to store Series X/S games on a regular external drive, but you’ll need to move them to internal storage or an expansion card anyway to actually play them. If you don’t want to deal with shifting large files around and waiting for transfers to complete, or you don’t want to delete and download games more than is necessary, an expansion card is the way to go.
Seagate’s version is one of our picks for the . The 2TB version should give you ample space — at least until you start filling it up with all of the huge Call of Duty games that have .
Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.
ByteDance’s new AI tool, X-Portrait 2, transforms still photos into realistic video animations of famous movie scenes with uncanny detail, raising questions about the future of AI-driven animation and digital content creation.Read More
Apple is showing some love to Android users by finally displaying their message reactions correctly. Now when an Android user reacts to an RCS message from an iOS user, the selected emoji will appear in line with the message bubble on iOS — instead of archaically appearing as a separate line like this: “💀 to ‘that wasn’t supposed to happen.’”
The Verge sent test messages and emoji reactions between iPhones running iOS 18.1 and different Android phones, confirming both devices now display reactions as intended. It’s unclear when this change happened or whose side — Google or Apple — had to make adjustments to get it working.
When RCS first launched widely on iOS in September, message reactions from Android users still weren’t being displayed correctly on the iPhone, even though they worked the other way around. We reached out to both companies for comment but did not hear back before publication.
Apple’s quiet improvement to RCS messages comes as a surprise. Apple for years ignored Google’s campaign to get the company to adopt the standard, ultimately complying only after a mix of pressure in both China and the EU. Basic support for RCS was included in iOS 18.
Within the Messages app, Apple officially supports the basic RCS standard known as the RCS Universal Profile. Emoji reaction support is part of RCS version 2.7, which should also include the ability to edit a sent message — but we could not make that work on iOS. Of course, Apple will keep as many exclusive features as possible for its blue bubble iMessage service, at least as long it isn’t forced to change.
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