Alpine to use Mercedes engines in Formula 1 from 2026
Alpine to use Mercedes engines in Formula 1 from 2026
In June this year, former Renault F1 team boss Flavio Briatore was appointed executive adviser by Renault chief executive officer Luca de Meo, with a remit to restructure the team.
Briatore has since appointed Briton Oliver Oakes as team principal and told Sky Sports Italia recently that the workforce at the *** base in Enstone, Oxfordshire, had shrunk by 300 people, from 1,150 to 850.
This was in contrast to comments he made in a news conference at the Dutch Grand Prix, when he said he “didn’t want to cut jobs”, while also saying the team “didn’t need so many people”.
An Alpine spokesperson said: “The organisation of the F1 team at Enstone has been under review in order to optimise the resources and put the team in a position to work efficiently and strategically, to quickly recover performance and compete again at the sharp end of the grid.
“As part of that review process, there are areas of the Enstone team that are going under a restructure, with the sole aim of putting the right organisation in place for the team’s future success.”
Alpine started the season as the slowest on the grid but has made significant progress in recent months.
A critical strategic decision during the wet Sao Paulo Grand Prix on 3 November led to Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finishing second and third, behind winner Max Verstappen.
That result vaulted the team from ninth in the constructors’ championship to sixth in one go, a potential gain of about $30m (£23.4m) in prize money if they can retain the place to the end of the season.
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Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40K Show Needs the ‘Months of Shame’ Arc About the War Between Grey Knights and Space Wolves
Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40K Show Needs the ‘Months of Shame’ Arc About the War Between Grey Knights and Space Wolves
The Warhammer 40K universe is growing in popularity, thanks in part to the release of Space Marine 2 and the growing excitement surrounding the upcoming live-action adaptation, spearheaded by none other than Henry Cavill. Fans and players of the grimdark universe are eager to see which part of the expansive lore the TV series will tackle.
Fans of the series are excited to see the TV show adaptation with Cavill’s involvement. | Image Credit: Games Workshop
While the Horus Heresy arc is the obvious choice due to its grand scale and epic storyline, it has already been explored extensively in novels, games, and other media, making it somewhat predictable and, perhaps, too mainstream for a fresh adaptation. Instead, the series would benefit from focusing on a lesser-known but equally captivating chapter of the lore: the war between the Grey Knights and the Space Wolves, particularly the infamous ‘Months of Shame’.
Warhammer 40K Show Should Focus on the ‘Months of Shame’ Arc
It will be more intriguing to see the story of the conflict between the Grey Knights and the Space Wolves. | Image Credit: Saber Interactive
For those who are not familiar with Warhammer 40K lore, the Horus Heresy is arguably the most well-known and widely explored story arc. It shows the rise and fall of Horus Lupercal, the favored son of the Emperor of Mankind, and how his tragic rebellion led to the rise of the massive civil war between the loyalist Space Marines and the traitorous forces of Chaos.
The arc perfectly embodies the universe as it has the themes of brotherhood, betrayal, and ultimate sacrifice. In many ways, it’s the most obvious choice for any adaptation. But with the massive exposure the Horus Heresy already enjoys, is it the right choice for a fresh, groundbreaking series?
Enter the Months of Shame arc, a ******* of bitter warfare between two of the most famous Space Marine chapters: the Grey Knights and the Space Wolves. Unlike Horus Heresy, this conflict is far more personal, morally complex, and rooted in the themes of honor, trust, and betrayal. This conflict showed the deep internal friction that exists within the Imperium.
While both factions didn’t like each other for various reasons, the “Months of Shame” is a pivotal moment in the lore, one that actually saw them going against each other. Highlighting that both chapters represent different ideals and interpretations of duty to the Emperor, and their clashes show that, even among the most elite of the Emperor’s warriors, there is no absolute unity.
Why the Show Would Benefit from a Bold, Unconventional Choice
Fans have high expectations for the show and are eager to see the franchise’s epic lore brought to life on screen. | Image Credit: Saber Interactive
The upcoming Warhammer 40K show, with Henry Cavill at the helm, has the potential to be a groundbreaking adaptation of the franchise. While the Horus Heresy arc is often viewed as the natural choice for such a series, it would be thrilling to see the Months of Shame arc being showcased to the audiences.
This arc revolves around the tension between the Grey Knights and the Space Wolves, which would be a bold and unconventional direction for several reasons. First, it’s an emotionally complex and morally grey story, offering a more intimate and brutal look at the Warhammer 40K universe.
Second, this arc could introduce viewers to more nuanced, character-driven storytelling. Both the Grey Knights and Space Wolves have strong and contrasting personalities. One is righteous zeal who has a genuine ******* to protect the community and the other is ferocious independence, who wants to keep things in order by any means, making for rich character development and tense drama.
With Henry Cavill’s star power and acting range, coupled with this fresh narrative focus, the show could become a truly innovative take on the Warhammer 40K universe. Not only would it bring layers of emotional depth to the story, but it would also offer a unique experience for both longtime fans and newcomers.
In the end, the show has the opportunity to subvert expectations by choosing a narrative that’s more personal, more intimate, and more morally complex than the typical battles for galactic supremacy.
Which arc from the expansive Warhammer 40K lore do you think would make the best fit for the TV series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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What investors need to consider when choosing a dividend-paying fund
What investors need to consider when choosing a dividend-paying fund
Jamie Grill | Tetra Images | Getty Images
For investors who want income, dividends may provide an answer.
Dividends are corporate profits that companies pay to shareholders in the form of either cash or stock.
In comparison to other income-paying investments — such as certificates of ********, bonds or Treasurys — dividends may provide the opportunity for more appreciation, said Leanna Devinney, vice president and branch leader at Fidelity Investments in Hingham, Massachusetts.
“Dividends can be very attractive because they offer the opportunity for growth and income,” Devinney said.
Dividend investment options may come in the form of single company stocks or dividend-paying funds, like exchange-traded funds or mutual funds.
More from ETF Strategist
Here’s a look at other stories offering insight on ETFs for investors.
With individual stocks, it’s easy to see the dividend a company may offer in exchange for owning its share, Devinney said. Notably, not all companies pay dividends.
However, dividend-paying funds like ETFs or mutual funds may provide a broader exposure to dividend securities, often at lower costs, she said.
For investors who are considering putting a portion of their portfolios in dividend-paying strategies to fulfill their income-seeking goals, there are some things to consider.
What kind of dividend-paying fund fits my goals?
Generally, there are two types of dividend funds from which to choose, according to Daniel Sotiroff, senior analyst for passive strategies research at Morningstar.
The first group focuses on high dividend yield strategies. Dividend yield is how much a company pays in dividends each year compared to its stock price. With high-yield strategies, the investor is trying to get higher income than the market generally provides, Sotiroff said.
High-yield dividend companies tend to have been around for decades, like Coca-Cola Co., for example.
Alternatively, investors may opt for dividend growth strategies that focus on stocks expected to consistently grow their dividends over time. Those companies tend to be somewhat younger, such as Apple or Microsoft, Sotiroff said.
To be clear, both of these strategies have trade-offs.
“The risks and rewards are a little bit different between the two,” Sotiroff said. “They can both be done well; they can both be done poorly.”
If you’re a younger investor and you’re trying to grow your money, a dividend appreciation fund will likely be better suited to you, he said. On the other hand, if you’re near retirement and you’re looking to create income from your investments, a high-yield dividend ETF or mutual fund is probably going to be a better choice.
To be sure, some fund strategies combine both goals of current income and future growth.
How expensive is the dividend strategy?
Another important consideration when deciding among dividend-paying strategies is cost.
One dividend fund that is highly rated by Morningstar, the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, is well diversified, which means investors won’t have a lot of exposure to one company, he said. What’s more, it’s also “really cheap,” with a low expense ratio of six basis points, or 0.06%. The expense ratio is a measure of how much investors pay annually to own a fund.
That Vanguard fund has historically provided a yield of about 1% to 1.5% more than what the broader U.S. market offers, which is “pretty reasonable,” according to Sotiroff.
While investors may not want to add that Vanguard fund to their portfolio, they can use it as a benchmark, he said.
“If you’re taking on higher yield than that Vanguard ETF, that’s a warning sign that you probably have exposure to incrementally more volatility and more risk, Sotiroff said.
Another fund highly rated by Morningstar is the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF, which has an expense ratio of 0.06% and has also provided 1% to 1.5% more than the market, according to Sotiroff.
Both the Vanguard and Schwab funds track an index, and therefore are passively managed.
Investors may alternatively opt for active funds, where managers are identifying companies’ likelihood to increase or cut their dividends.
“Those funds typically will come with a higher expense ratio,” Devinney said, “but you’re getting professional oversight to those risks.”
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Russian doctor jailed for spreading ‘fakes’ about army
Russian doctor jailed for spreading ‘fakes’ about army
A Russian court has sentenced a Moscow paediatrician to five and a half years in a penal colony, state news agency TASS says, after the mother of one of her patients publicly denounced her for comments she made about Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Prosecutors last week requested Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, be jailed for six years for spreading “fakes” about the Russian army.
More than 1000 people have been criminally prosecuted in Russia for speaking out against the war, according to rights project OVD-Info, while about 20,000 have been detained for protesting.
Buyanova’s case is part of a wider trend in Russia of people denouncing each other for alleged political *******.
OVD-Info has recorded 21 such ********* prosecutions in the more than two and a half years since the start of the conflict.
Eva Levenberg, a lawyer for the rights group, told Reuters a further 175 people had faced lower-level administrative cases for “discrediting” the Russian army as a consequence of people informing on them, and 79 of these had been fined.
Reuters has requested comment from the Russian Justice Ministry about the OVD-Info data and the use of denunciations to support prosecutions, including Buyanova’s.
The case against her was personally launched in February by the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious *******.
It was prompted by a complaint from a mother of a seven-year-old boy who had taken him to see Buyanova at her clinic.
The boy’s father, from whom the woman was divorced, had been ******* while fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The woman, Anastasia Akinshina, recorded a video in which she said that Buyanova had referred to her child’s father as a “legitimate target of Ukraine”.
The video was posted by Mash, a Telegram channel with about 3 million subscribers.
Buyanova denied making the statements.
She was placed in pre-trial detention in April.
A group of Russian doctors wrote an open letter in Buyanova’s defence, calling the denunciation a “disgrace”.
A petition for her release has garnered more than 6000 signatures.
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[REDACTED] Review | TheSixthAxis
[REDACTED] Review | TheSixthAxis
TSA writes: Redacted takes the world of The Callisto Protocol, smashes it together with Hades and brings a distinctive characterful twist to the Roguelike action.
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TechScape: Will Elon Musk ***** a third of the US government? | Elon Musk
TechScape: Will Elon Musk ***** a third of the US government? | Elon Musk
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. In this week’s newsletter: Elon Musk and Donald Trump want to create a “Department of Government Efficiency”, crypto wins big across the board, and a modern equivalent of Lysistrata takes hold on TikTok. Thank you for joining me.
Trump, president-elect of the US, said he wants to appoint Musk, the world’s richest man, as the country’s “secretary of cost-cutting” to reduce bureaucracy in the federal government by an order of $2tn, roughly a third. Trump announced in September that he would create a “Department of Government Efficiency”. Musk had pushed for the idea and has since relentlessly promoted it, emphasizing the acronym for the agency: Doge, a reference to a meme of an expressive Shiba Inu. Trump said the agency will be conducting a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government, and making recommendations for drastic reforms”.
In a video posted on X two days after the election, Trump said he would “immediately re-issue my 2020 executive order, restoring the president’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats”. He wants to “clean out the deep state”. His promises echo his slogan on The Apprentice: “You’re fired!” Project 2025, an influential and controversial blueprint for Trump’s second term, lays out ways to make bureaucrats fireable.
The billionaire does not seem to be under illusions of what will happen after his proposed cuts.
Musk has extensive experience slashing corporate spending and he’s promised to cull federal payrolls in much the same way. He cut staff at X, formerly Twitter, by 80% after buying it in 2022, a move he said prevented a $3bn shortfall, but has not otherwise paid off. Revenue is in steep decline and advertisers have absconded, making a comeback seem unlikely. As the CEO of SpaceX, though, he has garnered a reputation for launching rockets more cheaply than competitors by negotiating with suppliers and keeping operations lean.
The billionaire does not seem to be under illusions of what will happen after his proposed cuts, admitting that reducing spending “necessarily involves some temporary hardship”. Americans do want to spend less – of their own money. Do they want austerity and less financial assistance from the federal government? Do they want the world’s richest person admonishing them to cut their expenses?
Musk has already asked Trump to appoint SpaceX employees to top government positions, the New York Times reports. The president-elect promised to ban bureaucrats from taking jobs at the companies they regulate. Such a rule would seem to bar SpaceX’s lieutenants from the Pentagon’s door. But the president-elect has never shied away from cronyism. The two are not trying to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest: Musk’s role in the government will be structured so that he can maintain control of his companies, the Financial Times reports.
In his first term, Trump and his team struggled to fill the thousands of government appointments needed to run the federal government. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said the administration never fully recovered from its ******** to find those appointees. Perhaps adding Musk to the equation is meant to prevent a repeat of such laggardliness. In an extreme version of the new administration, Trump and Musk simply eliminate any position for which they can’t find a friendly appointee. In John Kennedy Toole’s Pulitzer-winning 1980 novel A Confederacy of Dunces, the ****** hero, tasked with organizing an intractable pile of files at his new job, eradicates the company’s mess. Ignatius J Reilly is no genius of organization, though; he is just throwing cabinets full of records away. It is easy to imagine Trump and Musk following his example.
What will stand in Musk’s way, however, is one of his sworn enemies: labor law. Tesla is the only major US carmaker that does not employ a unionized workforce. The billionaire CEO wants to keep it that way. Federal government employees, by contrast, enjoy strong employment protections that would hinder Musk’s slash-and-***** approach to cost-cutting and possibly render it impossible. For all the different companies he runs, Musk has little experience managing public sector employees. He may find them less pliable lions than he is used to taming.
Read more about the remarkable four months that saw Elon Musk go from refusing to endorse a candidate to becoming perhaps the most powerful man in ********* politics after Donald Trump. And read more about how a second Trump term could enrich Musk.
Crypto companies poured $135m into US elections – what did they get for it?
Crypto companies spent $10m to ******* Katie Porter, a proponent for more stringent cryptocurrency laws, in the California senate primary. Porter lost. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
Quite a lot, it seems. In 48 races that saw donations by cryptocurrency’s biggest Pac, Fairshake, every candidate backed by the industry has won, Bloomberg reports. More than 60% of that cash supported Republicans or opposed Democrats, per Bloomberg.
The industry placed its biggest bet in Ohio, where *********** Bernie Moreno faced off against popular incumbent Democratic senator Sherrod Brown. Moreno received $40m from cryptocurrency companies. Brown chaired the Senate banking committee and wanted tighter regulation on digital currency. Earlier this year, crypto companies spent $10m to ******* Katie Porter, a proponent for more stringent cryptocurrency laws, in the California senate primary. Porter lost. Protect Progress, another pro-crypto Pac, spent $10m each on Senate races in Arizona and Michigan where crypto wasn’t much of an issue. Both its favored candidates had voted in support of the industry on key bills, though.
In addition to the long-term benefits of a friendly, less restrictive regulatory environment, the crypto industry has made immediate financial gains. Bitcoin is trading at record highs, breaking $75,000 late Tuesday night.
Fairshake did not make a contribution in the presidential race but stands to benefit from its outcome anyway. Trump sells his own cryptocurrency now and supports the industry with his full throat, reversing his position on crypto from his first term. Musk has acted as a hype man for cryptocurrency, particularly Dogecoin, years before it was popular. (Harris neither embraced nor rejected the crypto.)
Musk especially seems amenable to one of crypto’s highest priorities – the ******* of Gary Gensler, the securities and exchange chair.
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Coinbase, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, gave Fairshake $25m. Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, wrote the day after the US election: “DC received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end your career.” He may be right. The industry is second in political contributions only to fossil fuel companies, according to the consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.
This week on my iPhone
In the wake of Trump’s victory, 4B is on ********* women’s minds. Composite: Getty Images; TikTok; Guardian Design
I’m watching a dystopian coffee shop comedy on Instagram and reading about why the South Korean 4B movement – a modern, real-life Lysistrata – is going viral on TikTok. My colleague Alaina Demopoulos writes:
The basic idea: women swear off ************* marriage, dating, **** and childbirth in protest against institutionalized misogyny and ******. (It is called 4B in reference to these four specific no-nos.) The mostly online movement began around 2018 protests against revenge ***** and grew into South Korea’s #MeToo-esque feminist wave.
In the wake of Trump’s victory, she writes, 4B is on ********* women’s minds.
Read the full story here.
The wider TechScape
AI companies are psyched for less red tape. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
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****** Ops 6 Gets A Free Bundle For Veteran’s Day
****** Ops 6 Gets A Free Bundle For Veteran’s Day
From today, ****** Ops 6 players can redeem a free bundle celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Call of Duty Endowment (C.O.D.E.), a non-profit foundation that helps veterans in the US and ***. The C.O.D.E. Anniversary bundle is being released on the 11th, which marks Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in the ***.
The bundle contains a themed animated emblem, a sticker, and the “Strong Salutes” animated calling card. ****** Ops 6 players will receive the bundle automatically when they log in, and will be able to claim it any time until December 31st. The bundle will also come to Warzone when Season 1 goes live on November 14.
The anniversary is also being celebrated in ****** Ops 6 with a themed deployment timer celebrating C.O.D.E.’s 15 years of veteran impact.
The Call of Duty Endowment is also giving away a custom themed Xbox in a sweepstakes contest that opens on November 12. Check the contest page here for more details when it launches.
The Call of Duty Endowment is a non-profit organization co-founded by former Activision head Bobby Kotick, along with veteran General James L. Jones Jr. The foundation works to help place veterans in high-quality jobs, and now works with veterans in both the US and ***. Since the organization was founded on November 11, 2009, it has helped 140,000 veterans into high-quality careers.
Call of Duty has had a number of C.O.D.E.-themed packs in the past across various titles, with the proceeds going towards the Endowment.
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Our favorite productivity mouse, Logitech’s MX Master 3S drops to $78 for a limited time
Our favorite productivity mouse, Logitech’s MX Master 3S drops to $78 for a limited time
A favorite productivity mouse for some of Tom’s Hardware’s editors, the MX Master 3S is a comfortable, ergonomically designed mouse that has improved over several generations of the MX Master mouse range. This version of the MX Master is the 3S and comes with quiet switches that don’t annoy you or your colleagues while you’re busy clicking away doing your work. Today’s deal features not only the MX Master 3S mouse, but also a free travel case for the mouse, there are a few hoops to jump through to get this deal, but luckily nothing too taxing.
Head to Logitech’s website to get this limited-time deal on Logitech’s MX Master 3S mouse for just $78 – reduced from the usual $99 MSRP. This is a great price for this productivity mouse favorite, and it also comes with a free travel case with this offer. To get the $78 total you first have to add the mouse (pick your favorite ******) to the Cart. You’ll notice that a free MX Travel Case has been added, and then while in the Cart add the “Complimentary Subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud” for $20 off the total.
The MX Master 3S is not only the daily driver for some of our editors but was originally awarded an Editor’s Choice Award when we reviewed the Logitech MX Master 3S. Featuring a mouse wheel that can switch between a ratcheted feel or a smooth feel, customizable buttons, amazing comfort, and great build quality.
There’s plenty of connectivity, with the MX Master 3S able to connect to up to three different devices via either Bluetooth or the proprietary Logitech Logi Bolt USB receiver that comes with it. The MX Master 3S is of course a wireless mouse, but when it comes to recharging the mouse you can still keep going while the mouse charges over its USB-A to USB-C cable.
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Trump-Driven Rally: Position Your Portfolio with These 2 Sectors
Trump-Driven Rally: Position Your Portfolio with These 2 Sectors
Defensives are out, animal spirits are in… again. Or so the latest rotation among US equity sectors suggests, based on a set of ETFs through Monday’s close (Nov. 11).
The () has reversed in recent days while prices have surged for communications services () and financials (), which are now neck and neck as the top-performing equity sectors year to date.
What’s changed? Donald Trump’s election victory last week.
“The stock market loved the election outcome. But there is nervousness in the bond market. It’s more worried about the size of deficits and the possibility of inflationary tariffs,” says David Kotok, co-founder and chief investment officer at investment management firm Cumberland Advisors.
Ark Invest CEO/CIO Cathie Wood wrote on X yesterday: “Deregulation (defanging the SEC, FTC, and others), government spending cuts (making room for the private sector), tax cuts, and a focus on technologically enabled innovation are likely to turbocharge the US economy more powerfully than during the Reagan Revolution.”
Meanwhile, Yardeni Research president Ed Yardeni predicts the will surge by two-thirds by the end of the decade.
“We’re just seeing a more pro-business administration coming in that undoubtedly will cut taxes,” Yardeni tells Yahoo Finance. “And not only for corporations but also for individuals. Lots of various kinds of tax cuts have been discussed. And in addition to that, a lot of deregulation.”
Changes in sector leadership appear to be on board with the bullish attitude adjustment. The Communication Services Select Sector SPDR ETF Fund (XLC), which holds the consumer-driven likes of Meta (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Netflix (NASDAQ:), gapped up in recent days and is now up a sizzling 34.2% this year, fractionally ahead of financials (XLF) and well ahead of the broad market () and utilities (XLU).
What could go wrong? A the top of the list of troublemakers: fiscal and inflationary headwinds may dent if not derail some of Trump’s plans for policy.
“The top priority is extending the Trump tax cuts and the signature part of his program. I think that should be easy to pass in Congress, particularly if the Republicans control the House as well,” says former Donald Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
The challenge is that tax cuts and other policy priorities that Trump advocates – raising tariffs and deporting millions of immigrant workers – could juice inflation. Add in heightened concerns about the US government’s deepening budget deficit and it’s fair to say that Trump and Republicans face a tricky path next year in terms of reaction in the bond market, which is growing concerned about inflation and fiscal risk.
Another potential concern for the market is the politicalization of monetary policy. Trump believes he should have a degree of influence over the Federal Reserve.
“I think I have the right to say, ‘I think you should go up or down a little bit [for interest rates,’” the president-elect said at the Chicago Economic Club last month. “I don’t think I should be allowed to order it, but I think I have the right to put in comments as to whether or not the interest rates should go up or down.”
For the moment, the stock market is paying little if any attention to the recent pop in Treasury yields. The has increased 70 basis points since mid-September to 4.31%. That’s still well below the 5% peak for this cycle to date reached in late-2023. But if the benchmark rate continues to approach its previous high, the bond market could take away the punch bowl at the stock market’s party.
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British-******* painter ***** aged 93
British-******* painter ***** aged 93
Frank Auerbach, the British-******* painter who fled ***** Germany as a child, has ***** aged 93, his representatives have announced.
Considered one of the greatest painters of his age, Auerbach ***** peacefully at his home in London on Monday morning.
Geoffrey Parton, the director of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, said: “We have lost a dear friend and remarkable artist but take comfort knowing his voice will resonate for generations to come.”
Auerbach’s acclaimed career spanned seven decades and his works were displayed at major galleries around the world.
Born in Berlin in 1931, Auerbach came to England in 1939, arriving in London as a ******** from ***** Germany as one of six children sponsored by the writer Iris Origo.
From 1948 to 1955 he studied at St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London.
Frankie Rossi Art Projects said Auerbach had lived and worked in the same north London studio since 1954, and worked on his art 364 days a year.
His first retrospective exhibition was held at London’s Hayward Gallery in 1978 and Auerbach was awarded the Golden Lion prize at the 1986 Venice Biennale.
Earlier this year, another exhibition of his work, The Charcoal Heads, was staged at the capital’s Courtauld Gallery.
Auerbach was known for his portraiture, along with street scenes of Camden in north London, where he was based.
In its obituary, the Telegraph remembered him as “an artist of remarkable intensity whose use of thick paint gave his work the quality of sculpture”.
“All his work was abstracted reality, with the energy of the artist written across the surface in broad, thick swathes of paint, often applied straight from the tubes.”
He once estimated that 95% of his paint ended up in the bin, and told the Guardian: “I’m trying to find a new way to express something… So I rehearse all the other ways until I surprise myself with something I haven’t previously considered.”
The painter is survived by his son Jacob Auerbach.
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How to unlock Maelstorm in ****** Ops 6 & Warzone
How to unlock Maelstorm in ****** Ops 6 & Warzone
Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 and Warzone are getting a new Shotgun in Season 1 known as the Maelstorm, which looks to dominate close-quarters combat with rapid-*****.
Here’s how you can unlock the new Maelstorm Shotgun when it arrives in the Season 1 update for ****** Ops 6 and Warzone.
How to get Maelstorm in BO6 & Warzone
We don’t know the exact unlock requirement for the Maelstorm in ****** Ops 6 and Warzone, but the Shotgun will be a reward for an event that will arrive in the mid-season update according to the official CoD blog.
We expect the mid-season update to arrive around December 12, 2024, as seasons tend to be about 8 weeks long, and so that date is the halfway point from the season’s start (November 14) to its end, which could be January 9. This is just guess work, so take it with a pinch of salt, as some Call of Duty seasons have been a week shorter or longer in the past.
Players will likely have to complete some sort of challenge or progress through a reward tracker in order to unlock the ****, so as soon as we know the exact unlock requirement and event details, we’ll be sure to update this piece with all the details.
Credit to Activision.
Maelstorm details
The Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 Maelstorm is a fully automatic Shotgun with 3 mags and 10 shots per mag. It has 34 ******* levels to progress through, which will unlock the ****’s attachments. The ******* can be kitted out with a varity of attachments – Optic, Muzzle, Barrel, Underbarrel, Magazine, Rear Grip, Stock, Laser, ***** Mods.
It lacks in power, but it more than makes up for that with its fully automatic ***** rate. You’ll want to get up close and persol with the Maelstorm, as it has a lot of recoil and a large spread, but once you’re in its effective range, it can be absolutely devastating.
Well, there you have it, that was everything we know so far about the new Maelstorm Shotgun arrving in ****** Ops 6 and Warzone Season 1. Speaking of new guns, the Saug and Krig C are two new weapons arriving in the new season’s Battle Pass, meaning you can unlock them right away. Be sure to sign up to the weekly Insider Gaming newsletter for all the latest ****** Ops 6 guides.
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Neos, Vorboss enhance enterprise fibre connectivity for London
Neos, Vorboss enhance enterprise fibre connectivity for London
Business connectivity provider Neos Networks has struck a deal with Vorboss to offer its customers competitive high-capacity last-mile connectivity options in London, and address growing demand for affordable and reliable high-capacity connectivity in the metropolitan area.
Neos Networks claims to offer the ***’s largest business-dedicated network, with over 600 points of presence and 90 datacentres nationwide, delivering high-capacity critical connectivity for businesses encompassing telecoms and energy to banking and emergency services.
Part of the Fern Trading Group, and advised by Octopus Investments, Vorboss owns and manages its own fibre network across central London and offers connections up to 100Gbps. It has invested £250m to build a fibre network connecting businesses across the *** capital.
The deal will see Vorboss offer Neos Networks customers Ethernet services up to 10Gbps. In January 2024, Neos announced a major upgrade of its Managed Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) service to provide capacities up to 10Gbps as standard. Previously available up to 1Gbps, the upgrade was intended to provide a fully managed, enterprise-grade fibre offering for *** organisations grappling with ever-increasing bandwidth demand and the need for reliable access to the internet.
Neos and Vorboss said they shared both an operational and cultural alignment, focusing on high-bandwidth services and fast lead times. They added that they are contributing to the ***’s digital infrastructure goals by enhancing the country’s core network capacity and reach. In particular, they asserted that through their partnership, they are increasing the availability of high-capacity backhaul and last-mile connections in the capital, which will help the *** government’s nationwide broadband coverage target.
“We’re excited about our collaboration with Vorboss, which builds on our long-standing commitment to delivering high-capacity, reliable connectivity across the ***,” said Neos Networks CEO Lee Myall.
“By combining our extensive nationwide network with Vorboss’s advanced London infrastructure, we’re increasing the options for businesses demanding top-tier connectivity. This deal allows us to extend our reach in the capital, providing more organisations with access to the robust, secure networks they need.”
Neos Networks customers can now access the Vorboss network on its Livequote platform to clearly see the prices of available services that meet their requirement.
“Enabling the London last-mile for Neos will pitch our network directly against the legacy players in London and will show just how strong we are in performance, delivery timeframes, and value,” said Vorboss CEO Tim Creswick. “The Neos Livequote portal is a great tool for giving a transparent view of the services available, and we look forward to competing on that basis.”
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Tuesday’s biggest Wall Street analyst calls like Nvidia
Tuesday’s biggest Wall Street analyst calls like Nvidia
Here are Tuesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Loop initiates NXP Semiconductor as buy The firm said it’s bullish on the semiconductor company. “We are initiating coverage of NXP Semiconductor (NXPI) with a Buy rating and $300 PT. Like other automotive-levered semiconductor companies/stocks, NXPI has been a consensus short since the end of 2023, or once automotive tier-ones began bringing down days of inventory held.” Loop initiates On Semiconductor as buy Loop said the chipmaker has a “low valuation.” “Like most automotive levered semiconductor names, ON has been a consensus short since late 2023, or once automotive tier-ones began bringing down days of inventory held. This occurred against a backdrop of flattening light vehicle production.” Mizuho reiterates Nvidia as buy Mizuho said it’s bullish heading into earnings on Nov. 20. “Reiterating Outperform, raise ests/PT to $165 (prior $140) as NVDA ******** our Mizuho Top Pick, dominating the AI accelerator market.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Walmart as overweight Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock to $89 per share from $82 ahead of earnings next week. “Stock should remain supported provided that WMT continues to penetrate high-income cohorts, leverage critical mass in eCommerce and further propel the high-margin Advertising/Marketplaces flywheel.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Tesla as overweight Morgan Stanley said it’s sticking with the stock heading into a Trump administration. “As we look ahead to FY25 (and over the next 4 years), we expect to see TSLA’s TAM [total addressable market] aperture expand to far wider domains, many of which are not included in buy-side or sell-side financial models for the company.” Morgan Stanley upgrades International Flavors to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said in its upgrade of International Flavors that the fragrance and spice company is undervalued. “We believe the recent share-price pullback is a very good opportunity to re-enter the shares, as we are more positive than the market on 4Q/FY25 growth. Upgrade to Overweight.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Viking to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it sees an attractive entry point for the cruise company. “We upgrade VIK to OW with ~10% upside to our revised $49 12-m PT. VIK has rallied recently but lagged peers, resulting in more attractive relative valuation.” Redburn Atlantic Equities initiates Nvidia as buy Redburn said in its initiation of the stock that it has a “competitive moat.” ” Nvidia is particularly well positioned. It has the largest installed base of highparallelism processors (graphics processing units – GPUs), a dominant software interface (Compute Unified Device Architecture – CUDA) and the largest installed base of application libraries.” Citi downgrades Ross to neutral from buy Citi said it sees too much uncertainty for the off-price retail store. “We are downgrading ROST from Buy to Neutral. After having more time to digest the upcoming mgmt transition at ROST (with a CEO coming from outside the off-price industry), the combination of a mgmt change (that brings increased uncertainty to the story) and a relatively high multiple we no longer view the risk/reward as favorable.” Citi upgrades C.H. Robinson to buy from neutral The firm said the shipping company’s valuation is more reasonable now. “Upgrade CHRW, CNI; focus on value and quality with more muted expectations — Against the backdrop of elevated valuations and lofty investor expectations, we prefer to focus on areas that have diversified macro exposure and where valuations appear more reasonable.” Deutsche Bank upgrades Sentinel One to buy from hold Deutsche said the cyber security company is well positioned. “We are upgrading shares of SentinelOne to Buy from Hold as we believe the company is not only benefitting from positive organic momentum, but also some disruption within the endpoint market post July 19.” Bank of America adds Wells Fargo to the US1 list The firm added the stock to its top picks list. “We are adding Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) to the US 1 list.” Wells Fargo upgrades Twilio to overweight from equal weight Wells said the cloud communications company is ******* on all cylinders with exposure to AI. “View TWLO as a derivative call on AI agents, front office, and dig. transf. given positioning as a pick-and-shovel in the build cycle, further supported by TWLO’s dev mindshare & re-focused efforts on capturing the ISV [independent software vendors] channel, incl. AI natives.” Leerink upgrades Bristol Myers to outperform from market perform Leerink says it likes the biotech company’s pipeline. “We are upgrading BMY shares from Market Perform to Outperform and raising our PT from $55 (7.5x ’25E EPS of $7.29) to $73.” MoffettNathanson reiterates Meta and Alphabet as buy The firm said both stocks are underappreciated. “Over the recent long run, both Alphabet and Meta have been incredible strong stocks to own due to an enviable combination of double-digit compounding earnings growth and reasonable relative valuations. We have been pleased to recommend both.” Bank of America reiterates Apple as buy The firm said it’s sticking with its buy rating on the stock. “We maintain Buy on Apple given margin expansion from silicon roadmap and growth in Services, with rev for Mac expected to increase +8% y/y in C24.” Deutsche Bank downgrades Okta to hold from buy The firm said value creation is still “several quarters away” for the IT identity access services management company. “Aligning with our most recent thinking and inputs from the field, we are downgrading shares of Okta to Hold from Buy. While not an explicit call on F3Q results, feedback on Okta has been more mixed of late and we think the path to realizing value here may still be several quarters away, perhaps making it more interesting deeper into next year.” D.A. Davidson reiterates Snowflake as buy The firm added the stock to its “Gold Trophy” best ideas list. ” Snowflake is the leading cloud data warehousing platform, allowing its customers to run analytics on data that is stored within their database. As more enterprises shift their data to the cloud from on-premise servers, Snowflake offers their customers the ability to gain valuable insights into their data in an easy, and intuitive manner.”
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Camilla returns to public duties after chest infection
Camilla returns to public duties after chest infection
Queen Camilla is set to return to public duties after missing weekend events commemorating the ******* Kingdom’s war ***** because she was recovering from a chest infection.
Camilla, 77, plans to attend a reception for the finalists in the annual Booker Prize for fiction writing on Tuesday but will spend less time with guests than originally planned.
She is also scheduled to attend a reception for the television and film industry but will cut that one short too.
The Queen has pulled out of an appearance at the premiere of the film Gladiator II on Wednesday night as doctors advise Camilla to focus on her recovery.
King Charles’ spouse was advised against joining other members of the royal family at a Festival of Remembrance on Saturday at London’s Royal Albert Hall in London and the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph war memorial, a major event for the royals.
The events are held every year on the weekend before Armistice Day to honour those who ***** serving the *** in the world wars and all the conflicts that have followed.
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Silent Hill 2 Creature Designer Shares One Detail About Iconic Monster That Makes It All The More Horrifying
Silent Hill 2 Creature Designer Shares One Detail About Iconic Monster That Makes It All The More Horrifying
Silent Hill 2 was released in 2001 and recently just got a very successful remake. Recently, Masahiro Ito, the game’s art director, confirmed that the creature’s origin is rooted in reality within the game’s universe. Silent Hill 2’s Pyramid Head ******** one of the most chilling and memorable creatures in survival horror history.
Image Credit: Bloober Team
Ito confirmed that Pyramid Head wasn’t merely a figment of protagonist James Sunderland’s imagination but instead originated from a painting within the game. This revelation has put to rest years of speculation among fans, suggesting that James’ encounters with the creature were influenced by something tangible
Silent Hill 2‘s Pyramid Head Just Got a Whole Lot Creepier
Pyramid Head’s introduction in the original 2001 release of Silent Hill 2 ******** one of gaming’s most disturbing moments. As James searches for his deceased wife in Silent Hill, he encounters the image of Pyramid Head in the town’s Historical Society building.
Absolutely the former. Coz it exists in the real in the game.
— 伊藤暢達/Masahiro Ito (@adsk4) November 8, 2024
The painting’s depiction of an ************ with a rusted helmet and blood-soaked blade has gotten fans talking about whether it was a product of James’ mental state or if it truly existed within the haunted town. Ito’s confirmation that the painting is “real in the game” has finally put these questions to rest.
Fan speculation around Pyramid Head has taken many forms over the years. Some suggest that the creature, bound to the town’s ancient history as an ************, is more than just James’ personal tormentor. If Pyramid Head exists independently within Silent Hill’s reality, it raises unsettling possibilities: could it manifest for others?
I wanted to depict that Pyramid Head is trying to remove the visions from James’ mind. Those mean L-Figure, BHNurse, etc. PH trys to make him face to the fact by that. This means his conflict in his mind. He still afraid to face to it at that time so he shoots a **** in the closet [Hidden Content]
— 伊藤暢達/Masahiro Ito (@adsk4) May 20, 2020
Pyramid Head’s design itself is rich with symbolism. The character’s helmet, shaped like a pyramid, is a deliberate choice to evoke pain and torment. The rigid, angular design reflects James’s mental state and his self-imposed punishment.
This is the Kind of Depth That Players Love
Image Credit: Bloober Team
Pyramid Head’s legacy extends far beyond Silent Hill 2. The character has appeared in other games, movies, and even crossovers, evolving into a franchise mascot despite his roots in a deeply personal story.
Comment byu/trunks2003 from discussion insilenthill
The wider Silent Hill franchise has incorporated Pyramid Head into various forms of media, including films and spin-off games, cementing his role as an iconic horror figure. Some people believe that Pyramid Head should be exclusive to James’s story.
The 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2 by Bloober Team reintroduced Pyramid Head to modern audiences, offering a visually stunning yet equally terrifying rendition of the monster.
Comment byu/Brandonzam12 from discussion insilenthill
In the climactic moments of Silent Hill 2, James faces two Pyramid Heads in a symbolic battle for self-acceptance. After this confrontation, the Pyramid Heads impale themselves, signaling that James no longer requires their punishing presence.
This act of self-destruction suggests that James has come to terms with his actions and can move forward. It is a moment of catharsis for the character and a testament to Pyramid Head’s role as a manifestation of guilt and punishment.
Pyramid Head is no longer merely a reflection of one man’s guilt. He is a part of Silent Hill’s twisted reality, capable of haunting anyone who dares to confront their darkest secrets within the fog.
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Gregg Wallace has 17% body **** after weight loss: What’s normal?
Gregg Wallace has 17% body **** after weight loss: What’s normal?
Gregg Wallace has revealed he has just 17% body **** after a five-stone weight loss.
The MasterChef co-host has been open about his weight loss journey, after his doctors told him that at 17 stone he was at high risk of a heart *******.
In an Instagram Reel (video) filmed in a gym, the presenter stretched and flexed his muscles alongside the caption: “60 years old, 12 stone, less than 17% ****.”
Body **** percentage refers to the total amount of your body weight that is comprised of ****. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) explains that the higher the percentage, the more it can “increase your chance of heart and circulatory *********”.
Doctors recommended to the BBC that women have a body **** percentage below 32% and men under 25%, so Wallace is well below the average. Elite male athletes can typically have between 6 and 13% body ****, while elite female athletes have around 14 to 20%, according to Livestrong.
In order to measure your own body ****, you can use a guide outlining various methods that the BHF has put together or use a weighing scale that offers this insight into your health metrics.
Everyone needs body **** in order to be healthy and having too little can be as detrimental as having too much, in order for the body to physically function properly.
Wallace lost weight without following a strict diet. Instead, he told OK!, he made healthy swaps to his existing diet.
“When I was looking at the calorie content of a bowl of cockles and a plate of oysters, I realised it was virtually non-existent,” he said, “And then I looked at the calorie content of a piece of cod that I cooked in the pan as opposed to a piece of cod from the fish and chip shop, and realised that I could eat about nine fillets of cod for the equivalent of a fried one.”
The presenter has been open about his relationship with his weight and the fact that he had tried “all the diets under the sun” in the past, but “none of them” worked.
Wallace has also candid spoken about his doctor’s encouragement to lose weight due to the health risks of being overweight. Speaking to Michael Ball on BBC Radio 2 in February, he said: “I was getting really big. And there’s a picture of me and my lovely mate John Torode in India. He looks lovely and I’m big – my shirt is hanging over my trousers, I wasn’t happy.
“At the same time, my doctor did a blood test and he said ‘We need to do something Mr Wallace. This blood test sample, your cholesterol is through the roof. You’re in for some big illness here.’ Those two things combined – being unhappy with how I looked and then the doctor telling me I was going to have a big heart ******* – I started looking very closely at how I was living.”
Read more about Greg Wallace and weight loss:
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DIG VR Review – Duuro Plays
DIG VR Review – Duuro Plays
Duuro says: “DIG VR succeeds in creating a uniquely satisfying VR experience. There’s something genuinely relaxing about methodically completing excavation tasks while listening to the radio and taking in the cheerful atmosphere. The game strikes a careful balance between accessibility and simulation, even if it sometimes leans too heavily toward the latter.”
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#DIG #Review #Duuro #Plays
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Police cloud project raises data protection concerns despite legal reforms
Police cloud project raises data protection concerns despite legal reforms
Nine police forces are seeking to replace their common records managements system (RMS) with a cloud-based alternative – but despite upcoming changes to the ***’s data laws, experts say the strong likelihood of a US-based hyperscaler winning the contract presents continued risks.
Under the ***’s current data regime, moving sensitive police records to one of the US cloud giants introduces major data protection issues. However, the government’s recently proposed data reforms – which would most likely eliminate many of these risks by allowing routine transfers to hyperscalers – could jeopardise the ***’s ability to retain its law enforcement data adequacy with the EU, while issues around data sovereignty would still persist.
Known as Connect, the current RMS is provided to the nine forces – including Kent, Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Warwickshire and West Mercia Police – by software supplier NEC through the Athena programme, which allows the forces involved to collect, collate, interrogate and share intelligence by deploying a common instance of the RMS.
Although the procurement – flagged to Computer Weekly by public sector IT market watcher Tussell – is only at the planning stage, a future contract award notice has already been set for 7 April 2025 (with a start date November 2025), and will have an estimated total value of £100m. The planned tender will aim to support core policing functions such as case management, custody, intelligence, and investigation.
However, experts say there is a “strong possibility” the new RMS will be hosted on hyperscale public cloud infrastructure, which would open up the data to a number of risks under current data protection rules, including the potential for remote access to that data, its onward transfer to a non-adequate jurisdiction (i.e. the US, where the vast majority of hyperscalers are based), and being subject to US surveillance laws.
They added that the risks were particularly acute given the poor track record of forces and regulators when it comes to data protection due diligence for law enforcement systems.
To avoid falling into the same situation with the new cloud-based RMS, the experts made a number of suggestions about the steps the forces’ should be taking now as data controllers, before the procurement progresses further down the line.
While the government’s new Data Use and Access Bill (DUAB) is set to the change legal rules around law enforcement processing in a way that would unequivocally allow routine data transfers to hyperscalers, the experts say doing so could still risk the ***’s ability to retain its law enforcement adequacy with the ********* Union (EU) when it comes up for renewal in June 2025.
They say the measure would represent a divergence from how law enforcement bodies within the bloc are allowed to process data, and highlighted further issues around data sovereignty arising from the use of hyperscalers that would still persist even if the government’s proposed data reforms are made law.
Computer Weekly contacted the forces involved about the data protection concerns raised around the use of hyperscalers in law enforcement.
“The pre-market engagement is designed to inform the forces of the types of technical solutions and innovation in the market to inform our specification and procurement approach in 2025,” said a Bedfordshire Police spokesperson. “The data protection issues raised will be paramount in our consideration and our final specification will include the data protection requirements necessary to ensure legal compliance and protection of sensitive data.”
Computer Weekly also contacted the Home Office about every aspect of the story. A government spokesperson responded: “The processing of police data must prioritise security. Even where internationally owned cloud providers are used, there are measures put in place to mitigate potential threats and risk.”
Ongoing police cloud concerns
According to a document drafted by two of the nine Athena forces – which was sent to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in November 2022 as it investigated the merger of different RMS suppliers – there is a pressing need to improve the information flows between different police forces.
“In an ideal world, each RMS (or instance of an RMS) would allow, through an API or other interface or form of interworking, information to flow between police services,” it wrote.
However, despite Athena forces highlighting the “benefit of police Ssrvices having interconnected RMS throughout the *** through true cloud-provision and APIs”, there are long-standing issues with the use of hyperscale cloud infrastructure by *** policing and ********* justice bodies.
Since Computer Weekly revealed in December 2020 that dozens of *** police forces were processing more than a million people’s data unlawfully in Microsoft 365, data protection experts and police tech regulators have openly questioned various aspects of how hyperscale public cloud infrastructure has been deployed by *** policing, arguing that they are currently unable to comply with strict law enforcement-specific rules ***** out in the DPA.
At the start of April 2023, Computer Weekly revealed the Scottish government’s Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC) service – contracted to body-worn video provider Axon for delivery and hosted on Microsoft Azure – was being piloted by Police Scotland despite a police watchdog raising concerns about how the use of Azure “would not be legal”.
Specifically, the police watchdog said that there were a number of other unresolved high risks to data subjects, such as US government access via the Cloud Act, which effectively gives the US government access to any data, stored anywhere, by US corporations in the cloud; Microsoft’s use of generic, rather than specific, contracts; and Axon’s inability to comply with contractual clauses around data sovereignty.
Computer Weekly also revealed that Microsoft, Axon and the ICO were all aware of these issues before processing in DESC began. The risks identified extend to every public cloud system used for a law enforcement purpose in the ***, as they are all governed by the same data protection rules.
The risks identified [from DESC] extend to every public cloud system used for a law enforcement purpose in the ***, as they are all governed by the same data protection rules
In June 2024, Computer Weekly then reported details of discussions between Microsoft and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), in which the tech giant admitted it cannot guarantee the sovereignty of *** policing data hosted on its hyperscale public cloud infrastructure.
Specifically, it showed that data hosted in Microsoft infrastructure is routinely transferred and processed overseas; that the data processing agreement in place for DESC did not cover ***-specific data protection requirements; and that while the company may have the ability to make technical changes to ensure data protection compliance, it is only prepared to make these changes for DESC partners and not other policing bodies because “no one else had asked”.
The documents also contain acknowledgements from Microsoft that international data transfers are inherent to its public cloud architecture, and that limiting transfers based on individual approvals by a police force – as legally required under DPA Part 3 – “cannot be operationalised”.
Although the ICO released its police cloud guidance in the same set of freedom of information (FoI) disclosures – which highlights some potential data transfer mechanisms it thinks can clear up ongoing legal issues – data protection experts questioned the viability of the suggested routes on the basis the mechanisms are rooted in the GDPR rather than the law enforcement-specific rules contained in Part 3, and that is it not clear if they can in fact prevent US government access.
Connect itself has also run into data protection issues. In August 2024, for example, Computer Weekly reported that the Met Police went ahead with its deployment of Connect – which is separate to any deployments made by Athena forces – despite multiple “issues of concern” being raised over data protection and weaknesses in its search functionality.
According to a scrutiny report by the Mayor’s Office for Police and ****** (Mopac), dated 19 July 2022, Connect’s audit capabilities do not “fully replicate the audit capability of legacy systems”, to the point where it would be operating in contravention of the *** Data Protection Act 2018’s logging requirements around, for example, the collection and alteration of data.
“This is not MPS specific but is a national issue – the ICO [Information Commissioner’s Office] are aware of these issues at a national level and with [West Midlands], who have gone live,” it said. “MPS have suggested, as part of the government consultation on data protection law, that this section of the DPA 2018 is revised.”
Computer Weekly also revealed that Connect was around £64m over budget at that point, while officers and staff had raised more than 25,000 support requests in its first four months of operation.
Connecting to hyperscalers
According to a public sector technology procurement expert – who wished to remain anonymous due to their ongoing involvement in the procurement of cloud systems – the use of hyperscale public cloud providers is the “default position” of the *** ********* justice sector, adding that it’s “almost 99.9% certain” the new RMS will be moved onto hyperscale infrastructure.
They added that this is particularly concerning given invasive US surveillance laws that open up the possibility of US government access to the data.
“You can architect a system within an inch of its life to do whatever, but…if they’re headquarter to the US, they’re subject to US law,” they said, highlighting both the Cloud Act and Executive Order 12333, which grants powers of covert direct access to US intelligence agencies, as examples of these surveillance practices.
The anonymous source further highlighted a research paper by a group of academics from Queen Mary University London, which analyses how US laws could provide access to ********* data held by ********* hyperscalers: “It shows even if they cracked data transfer issues and so on, this executive order is always going to be the elephant in the room, because it’s the one that allows the US Secret Services back doors into all the systems.”
While the paper itself only analyses use of hyperscale public cloud under GDPR, and not the more stringent Law Enforcement Directive (LED) or the ***’s DPA Part 3 applicable to Athena data, it makes clear that even under the less restrictive data protection regime of *** GDPR, it is extremely difficult to make use of these systems compliant with relevant laws.
“In this paper, we analyse whether organisations established in the EU can use US cloud providers (including their ********* subsidiaries) as processors under the GDPR. US law enforcement and intelligence agencies can compel cloud providers subject to US jurisdiction to disclose customer data. This obligation to disclose under US law does not have a basis in EU or Member State law,” it said.
“As a result, disclosure to the US government might breach the GDPR, including: the requirement that a processor only processes personal data on the controller’s instructions; the requirement of a lawful basis; and the principle of purpose limitation. In addition, in some cases, the disclosure might involve unlawful international data transfers. Thus, it is challenging to use US providers for the processing of ********* personal data in compliance with the GDPR.”
Unlike the Cloud Act that can be used to compel data disclosures, the paper notes the legal implications for EO 12333 are slightly different, in that it rests on the security services ability to adversarially access the data via clandestine technical means, and therefore does not require the active involvement of cloud providers.
However, according to Owen Sayers – an independent security consultant and advisor on DPA Part Three compliance, with more than 25 years of experience in delivering secure solutions to policing – whether or not cloud providers are active participants, and whether or not the US government does utilise the Cloud Act to gain access to *** data, the transfers would be unlawful anyway as *** law lays down a series of specific steps that must be followed for each and every transfer of a specific piece of personal data under Part Three.
The fact that the British government, let alone a police authority, doesn’t have control over its own data is shocking
Timothy Clement-Jones, House of Lords
“These steps are not being followed, and Microsoft have made clear that they cannot be followed (actually, they’ve said, ‘Impossible to operationalise’). Because the steps ***** down in the DPA 2018 Part 3 are not and cannot be followed, that is one of the main reasons why the processing being done on these clouds is in breach of *** law,” he said.
“It makes zero difference at all if the US government bogeyman tries to use Cloud Act to look at the data or not, as the data was illegally transferred regardless of Cloud Act.”
Commenting on the ***’s lack of sovereignty and control over its sensitive policing data due to the use of hyperscalers, ******** Democrat peer Timothy Clement-Jones said it “creates major public mistrust” in how people’s data is being handled.
He added that the lack of guarantees from hyperscalers about preventing US government access opens up the possibility of more data being accessed overtime as political developments there push things in a more authoritarian direction: “We’re bad enough in terms of praying in aid ‘national security’ whenever we want to do something different, like with the last data protection bill, but the Americans are even worse than we are really… they’re ultra-national security sensitive.”
Clement-Jones also criticised the *** government’s reliance on Microsoft and AWS for cloud services, and further highlighted issues with supplier lock-in: “Trying to get into the *** cloud market is like breaking into Fort Knox because you have these vendor lock-in tactics. I brought those to the attention of the [Competition and Markets Authority] CMA, and they’ve assured me that they’re going to deal with all that.
“But the fact that the British government, let alone a police authority, doesn’t have control over its own data is shocking.”
For Mariano delli Santi, legal and policy officer at the Open Rights Group (ORG), these legal difficulties can be sidestepped by simply choosing cloud service providers that do not fall under US jurisdiction, which would also mean not procuring from those firms’ EU or *** subsidiaries or holding companies. He added that encryption could also offer a measure of protection for sensitive policing data, but only if the holders of the encryption keys are not obliged to cooperate with the US government.
The necessary due diligence
While the ICO said in its police cloud guidance that the ***’s international Data Transfer Agreements (IDTA) or the Addendum to the ********* Union’s Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) can be relied on to make restricted law enforcement transfers to cloud service providers, it added that they would need to conduct a Transfer Risk Assessment (TRA) beforehand to ensure there is an equivalent level of data protection when it is sent offshore.
In the case of DESC, the ICO has confirmed that it has not been advised on whether a TRA has been completed by either Police Scotland, Microsoft, or any of the other partners, and has not been provided with copies. Computer Weekly has sent out FoI requests for these documents.
According to the procurement expert Computer Weekly spoke with, the TRA process should take into account a number of aspects, including the nature of the data being transferred; the kind of risks attached to it from a data protection perspective; what protections the data is being provided with, both at transit and at rest; and the ultimate transfer destination.
“You then get into things like supporting service on a follow the sun model. Even if data is in the ***, if the [technical] support comes from outside and it touches the data, it’s considered the data transfer by the ********* Data Protection Board and by the ICO,” they said, noting that it is not clear to them from the ICO guidance if a TRA should be a one off assessment, or something that is conducted each and every time data is transferred offshore.
However, Sayers clarified that the IDTA’s suggested by the ICO have no relevance to Part Three provisions, and that TRA’s – which “are also of dubious legal value” – would certainly have to be conducted case-by-case basis for each piece of data transferred.
“To use Hyperscale platforms lawfully, a police officer needs to establish it’s strictly necessary to send each specific piece of personal data offshore, confirm public interest overrides any data subjects rights for that data, give specific instructions to the cloud provider as to how the data must be handled, and then make a report on all these things to the ICO,” he said. “That’s impractical and obviously inefficient, so in practice they just use the cloud platform but don’t do these assessments.”
An FoI response from the ICO in July 2023 backs this suggestion up, indicating that only 148 legal notifications of transfers by law enforcement agencies were in the previous five years, while in the same ******* most *** police forces moved their core IT services to Microsoft cloud.
“Given the rate of adoption, we should have seen tens of thousands of these notifications at the very least,” said Sayers.
Outside of the TRA, Nicky Stewart – a former Cabinet Office IT chief and senior adviser to the recently launched Open Cloud Coalition (OCC) – said that police data controllers will need to complete a range of further due diligence measures before finalising the procurement process for the cloud-based Athena replacement.
This includes writing contracts that explicitly reference Part Three requirements, which Stewart says would have to include a definition of data sovereignty that the ICO agreed with, as well as be “very clear about what the consequences of breaching that would be”, adding that policing bodies would “effectively have to make it a [contract] termination event”.
She added: “There will probably be a prime contractor sitting between the hyperscaler and the police, so they would have to construct it [the contract] in such a way as to effectively obligate that prime contractor to switch hosting providers.
“You’d also have to write the contract in such a way that the consequences of not switching would be more expensive and more painful to the prime contractor than staying. Ideally, the obligation has to be strong enough that the prime contractor…[will look at the cost of switching] and not go with that provider in the first place.”
On the barriers of switching, delli Santi noted that if policing bodies cannot walk away from their hyperscaler contracts for any reason – whether that be due how data is stored, idiosyncrasies in how the software operates, or a lack of flexibility in the systems that makes it difficult to migrate data out – it puts the companies “in a much stronger position against you, because they know you can’t walk away”.
Ultimately, this means there is little incentive to change the systems to be fully compliant with *** data rules.
Clement-Jones, a lawyer by background, said that “putting together standard clauses in these circumstances is pretty straightforward”, but added that direction is needed from the centre to ensure police forces know how to manage these issues.
Conflicting priorities
“In very many cases, the public sector either doesn’t acknowledge that there are other cloud providers, or even recognise that there’s an industry around that,” said Stewart, adding that it is “absolutely a case” of conflicting imperatives within policing that mean data protection and sovereignty is put to one side in favour of efficiency and accessibility.
Stewart offered two explanations of why this was the case: one being cost (“the reason why data is held offshore is often because it’s cheaper”), and the other being that data hosting decisions are in the hands of cloud engineers, who will often prioritise data resilience or availability over the data protection compliance implications of those decisions.
Clement-Jones agreed that there were conflict imperatives around between sovereignty and data protection on the one hand, and efficiency and data accessibility on the other: “I’ve been told people don’t care about sovereignty.”
Highlighting the global CrowdStrike outage in July 2024, he added that the idea of pitting sovereignty against operational efficiency or accessibility is “ludicrous”, especially given the effect the CrowdStrike issue had on Microsoft’s systems globally.
For delli Santi, while the legal, contractual and technical issues are worth paying attention to, what’s more pressing is that the *** government in particular seems to be avoiding political questions around data sovereignty and technological dependency on US infrastructure.
“There is a lot of focus worldwide about the issue of tech and data sovereignty. In the EU, for instance, technological sovereignty and strategic independence have become top of the list political priorities. This includes the development of domestic digital infrastructure to reduce reliance on US firms for things related to both the economy or delivery of public services,” he said.
What happens if the US goes south and you have all your police data in a country ruled by Donald Trump?
Mariano delli Santi, Open Rights Group
“Countries like Brazil are also trying to break away from strategic dependence on foreign technology. India has been doing this for a very long time with the so-called India Stack. What strikes me is that this is nowhere to be found in *** government policies.”
He said that, in essence, dependence on US technological providers “means you’re paying rent” on your own capabilities, and further noted that many US tech firms have a track record of extracting ever-increasing volumes of money once they have public sector clients locked in, adding: “They know you’re a ********.”
On the perceived conflict between sovereignty and efficiency, delli Santi said that relying on big tech IT providers in this way creates inefficiencies through a lack of autonomy: “Being dependent on fundamentally big foreign [tech] monopolies constrains your ability to pursue your own policies. In a sector like law enforcement, you might want more freedom to determine what you do domestically.
“Something that ought to be emphasised is that this is a national problem. You’re basically outsourcing law enforcement to certain degrees, to people you have very little control over and people you’re creating a dependency on, which means sooner or later they will do something you don’t like and you can’t do anything about it.
“What happens if the US goes south and you have all your police data in a country ruled by Donald Trump?”
A changing data protection landscape
Despite the concerns around current police processing in the cloud, the *** government’s new DUAB – introduced to Parliament on 23 October 2024 – is set to change the law enforcement data protection rules, including altering the transfer requirements in a way that would likely enable the processing that experts say has been taking place unlawfully on these cloud systems up until now.
“The intention is to put non-*** processors (principally hyperscalers) on the same broad legal footing as overseas law enforcement organisations,” said Sayers, adding that the bill would enable *** Competent Authorities (i.e. policing bodies) to send data overseas to offshore processors with minimal restrictions.
“The bill actually puts overseas processors above overseas law enforcement processors in the respect that it completely removes obligations to record what data is transferred to them, inform the ICO or make any assessments as to whether a particular transfer is safe and consider the data subjects rights in advance of sending the data.”
Sayers added that while these and other changes to Part Three would be directly contradictory to EU law, potentially leading to a number of scenarios where the *** loses its law enforcement data adequacy, the most likely outcome would be the CJEU finding that the *** regime falls far below EU standards and thus moves to block *** data transfers.
He further added that individual member states may also deem *** laws to be too divergent from their own domestic laws to continue to send data: “There are 27 Member States, each with their own version of DPA Part 3 to consider – therefore, the chance of some of these doing so is high.”
Although one of the main issues with the Met’s implementation of Connect was that it was unable to meet the statutory logging requirements of Part Three, the DUAB as introduced will also seek to remove these requirements by allowing police to access personal data from police databases during investigations, without having to manually record the “justification” for the search.
The removal of police logging requirements, however, could represent a further divergence from the EU’s Law Enforcement Directive (LED), which requires logs to be kept detailing how data is accessed and used.
“The logs of consultation and disclosure shall make it possible to establish the justification, date and time of such operations and, as far as possible, the identification of the person who consulted or disclosed personal data, and the identity of the recipients of such personal data,” it said.
Computer Weekly previously contacted DSIT about the removal of the logging requirements and whether it believes this measure represents a risk to the *** being able to renew its LED adequacy decision in April 2025, but DSIT declined to comment on the record.
Commenting on the DUAB, Clement-Jones said that the removal of police logging requirements was “egregious”, adding that if the law changes to allow police data transfers to, and processing in, infrastructure not owned or controlled by *** bodies, it could “absolutely” be a problem for the ***’s LED adequacy retention.
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Post-Election Manufacturing *****: 3 Stocks Analysts Are Eyeing
Post-Election Manufacturing *****: 3 Stocks Analysts Are Eyeing
New evidence, through price action and volume, supports the momentum and potential value in the industrial and manufacturing sector.
Three stocks give investors enough evidence to consider taking on a bullish view of these names, and institutional investors agree.
Wall Street analysts agree with this view, seeing double-digit upside rallies in these three stocks.
Price action in the stock market is usually one of the best signs of what’s about to come, and all price action is driven by volume. With these two fundamental factors at play, investors can safely assume that a lot of attention was headed to those in the industrial and manufacturing sectors after the ******* States presidential election results.
Investors can directly point to the Industrial Select Sector SPDR® Fund (NYSE:) and its 6.2% rally over the past week for confirmation. These are supposed to be the dull and steady stocks of the economy, so why is there so much price action all of a sudden? The reasoning may come from the 24-month contraction in the manufacturing PMI index, which is now an underwater volleyball waiting to pop out under the right circumstances.
The right circumstances could benefit some stocks more than others, which is why today’s list is more important than ever for investors to consider in their buy lists. Those like Deere & Company (NYSE:), ******* States Steel Corporation (NYSE:), and Cummins (NYSE:) have their own fundamental tailwinds playing behind them to deliver a potential market-beating performance.
1. Deere Stock Gets a Boost as Wall Street Analysts Project Massive Upside
Even though Deere stock trades at 94% of its 52-week high already, some Wall Street analysts still think it could deliver an additional double-digit rally in the coming months. Today’s consensus price target of $420.7 calls for up to a 6.8% upside in this large-cap stock.
However, there are those willing to take the risk and place an outlier price target above the consensus to reflect the economic and fundamental realities of both Deere stock and the underlying industry. Those at Truist Financial (NYSE:) call for up to $496 valuations on Deere stock, a significant upside of as much as 26% from where the stock trades today, not to mention a new 52-week high.
Another gauge for investors to consider in this bullish sentiment in Deere stock is the decline in the company’s short interest, which plummeted by 11.2% during the past month alone. This bearish capitulation can be seen as the withdrawal of short sellers in the face of the high possibility of a new rally for the stock.
According to trends in the agricultural sector, Deere is positioned at the front and center of a new cycle that will call on its products and services to enable it to take place. This could also be why those at the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board decided to boost their holdings in Deere stock by as much as 11.6% as of November 2024.
This new allocation brought the group’s investment to a high of $559.9 million today, giving investors another bullish leg to stand on in the coming quarters.
2. New Interest in U.S. Steel Stock Could Trigger a Fresh Double-Digit Rally
After the merger offer from ********* steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp (TYO:) fell through in the past, investors were confirmed that the industry was so cold that no deals would be completed at compressed valuations. This also meant that insiders were willing to wait for a more realistic valuation.
This is where ******* States Steel stock comes into play for this potential new manufacturing upturn. Considering that the stock now trades at a low 0.8x price-to-book (P/B) ratio today, there is a 20% discount to the company’s book itself, a valuation that might soon recover on the improving industry fundamentals, but that’s not all.
Other peers in the material sector trade at an average 3.6x P/B multiple while not being as big of a legacy name as ******* States Steel.
This means that the stock is potentially set up for a more than tripling if the valuations come close to the industry norm, and today’s fundamental and industry tailwinds could be the bridge between these two prices.
Then there is the fact that the stock trades at only 82% of its 52-week high, giving it enough room to catch up to its previous high. The 7.8% rally in the past week alone is a testament to what could come for the stock in the coming months.
3. Rising Business Activity Points to Big Gains for Cummins Stock
If the industrial sector is going to see the type of activity that the price action suggests, then transportation activity in trucking and rail will be called upon to make all the demand work. This is where Cummins stock, a diesel engine maker, comes into play.
This might be one of the trends behind Citigroup (NYSE:) analysts’ decision to boost Cummins stock’s price target to $375 a share and reiterate a Hold rating. Cummins stock would have to reach a new 52-week high to prove these new views right.
A similar trend is happening in this stock as well. Given the 7.7% decline in Cummins stock’s short interest over the past month, bearish capitulation means that the future is starting to tilt in favor of higher prices and bullish investors ahead.
Some institutional buyers came into the scene to replace the bears who had left their short positions behind.
Swiss National Bank decided to boost its holdings in Cummins stock to a high of $131.4 million as of November 2024, another gauge of bullish sentiment in the stock.
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Trump expected to nominate Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary
Trump expected to nominate Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary
Washington — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his nominee for Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, two sources familiar with the transition discussions confirm to CBS News.
CNN first reported the development, which comes as Trump makes a slew of announcements for nominations for top roles in his incoming administration. Noem, a *********** governor, had been among a list of possible running mates for Trump earlier this year. But questions swirled about her political future after she detailed in her new book a story about ******** her dog decades ago, sparking intense criticism, as well as claims that appeared to be false about meeting Kim Jong Un.
Noem, 52, is serving a second term as governor of the Mount Rushmore State, where she gained national attention following a refusal to employ a mask mandate policy in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic. When she took office in 2019, she became the first woman to serve as governor of South Dakota.
The president-elect has announced a number of nominees and appointments since winning a decisive victory in the 2024 election last week.
Tom Homan‘s name had previously been floated for DHS secretary, according to multiple sources familiar with the transition discussions. Trump announced that Homan will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration. Chad Wolf, the former acting DHS Secretary under Trump’s first administration, is another name that had been raised by Trump insiders as a top contender for DHS secretary, according to two sources close to the transition.
Major Garrett
Major Garrett is CBS News’ chief Washington correspondent. He’s also the host of “The Takeout,” a weekly multi-platform interview show on politics, policy and pop culture.
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Apple won’t launch a smart ring, says Oura CEO: ‘It’s hard to do’
Apple won’t launch a smart ring, says Oura CEO: ‘It’s hard to do’
The Oura Ring 4.
Courtesy: Oura
LISBON — Apple will not introduce a smart ring, the CEO of health-tech firm Oura told CNBC, despite speculation the iPhone giant may be considering a move into this product category.
Samsung’s smart ring debut earlier this year has put the product firmly in the spotlight, with one analyst predicting earlier this year that Apple could launch its own smart ring in 2026.
But Tom Hale, CEO of Oura — which has been developing smart rings since the company was established in 2013 — said he doesn’t think Apple will enter the space.
“I think they [Apple] are unconvinced about the value of having a ring and a watch together and they’re not interested in undercutting the Apple Watch as a business,” Hale told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
“I think they’re probably keeping a close eye on Samsung and a close eye on us, but it’s hard to do this product category right.”
Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple has put a large focus on health applications through the Apple Watch and related services.
A smart ring is a type of wearable device full of sensors that can give the wearer information about things like their health, activity and sleep. They are lightweight and have a long battery life which fans say make them ideal for wearing all day, including when sleeping, versus a smartwatch that may be less comfortable and so removed more often.
“Apple is very much a focused company. They’re like: ‘We’ve put our bet on the watch. We’re gonna make the watch our platform,'” Hale said.
Oura recently launched its next-generation Oura Ring 4 as competition in the wearable sector ramps up.
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LG’s new display stretches from 12 to 18 inches
LG’s new display stretches from 12 to 18 inches
Today’s edition of things I suddenly really really need comes courtesy of LG Display. The company has developed what it claims to be the first display capable of stretching up to 50 percent. The screen is able to expand from 12 inches to 18 inches and can bend, twist and stretch — basically the Bop It of the tech world. LG Display unveiled another model in 2022, which stretched from 12 inches to 14 inches — about 20 percent longer.
So, how did it go from 20 percent to 50 percent stretch capabilities? According to the company, “By applying a number of new technologies, such as improving the properties of a special silicon material substrate used in contact lenses and developing a new wiring design structure, LG Display improved the panel’s stretchability and flexibility, exceeding the original national project’s target of 20 percent elongation.”
The free-form screen technology, as LG Display calls it, has full red, green and blue ****** with a resolution of 100ppi. The display also uses a micro-LED light source smaller than 40 micrometers, allowing the screen to be stretched over 10,000 times. The company claims it should still have high quality images even if it undergoes an external shock or is in more extreme temperatures than normal.
Unfortunately for me (though certainly good for my wallet), the stretchable display is currently just a prototype. However, it could be used for flexible items like clothing, car panels and more in the future.
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AWS storage: Key storage options in the Amazon cloud
AWS storage: Key storage options in the Amazon cloud
Amazon Web Services (AWS) pioneered mass market, large-scale and cost-effective cloud storage when it entered the market back in 2006.
The hyperscaler’s Simple Storage Service (S3) set out to make storing data in the cloud as simple as possible, at least for end users. As Amazon CTO Werner Vogels commented on S3’s 15th anniversary in 2021: “It”s ironic because what we were trying to do – store data on the internet, and do it really well – was not so simple…For customers, it had to be ‘simple’, but designing and building S3 wasn’t.”
S3 is designed to provide storage functionality, without the bells and whistles of competing online services. But it was also designed to work equally well as the storage component for other services or applications. As a result, S3 is now the centre of a family of file, block and object cloud storage products.
AWS: Storage options
Since 2006, S3 has grown significantly. In 2021, there were 100 trillion objects in S3 buckets and that figure will have grown significantly since.
S3 is based on object storage, but AWS now offers a range of other options. For file, these include Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), Amazon FSx, and Amazon File Cache.
Amazon Elastic Block Store serves the needs of AWS block storage users, while the hyperscaler provides a range of specialist options. These include DataSync to connect AWS instances and on-premise storage, Snow for hybrid and edge applications, AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery and AWS backup.
Glacier – technically part of S3 – provides long-term data archiving.
Object storage and archiving: Amazon S3
Amazon S3 provides a range of storage classes. These include S3 Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Standard and S3 Express One Zone, as well as S3 for infrequent access in standard and one zone formats.
For longer-term storage and archiving, AWS offers S3 Glacier with instant or flexible retrieval, or deep archiving.
AWS Outposts provides object storage for on-premise environments, but using S3 application programming interfaces (APIs).
Each S3 class has its own data access levels, costs and geographic locations. S3 Intelligent-Tiering aims to optimise customer storage budgets by automatically moving data between AWS’s three low latency access tiers.
S3 provides 11-nines data durability, with data stored across three availability zones by default.
Pricing starts at $0.024 per GB per month for the first 50TB (based on Europe/London pricing), falling to $0.022 per GB for more than 500TB. Intelligent tiering ranges from $0.024 per GB per month, again for the first 50TB, for the frequent access tier, down to $0.005 per GB for Archive Instant Access. There is a small automation and monitoring charge of $0.0025 per 1,000 objects for Intelligent-Tiering.
Amazon S3 performance supports “at least 3,500 requests per second to add data and 5,500 requests per second to retrieve data”, according to Amazon.
Block storage: EBS
Amazon Elastic Block Store supports high-performance workloads including databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Microsoft technologies.
EBS can be provisioned as General Purpose, Provisioned IOPS for high performance, Throughput Optimised for large data volumes, and Cold HDD for infrequent access and cold data workloads. Throughput Optimized is hard disk-based; EBS io2 Block Express volumes run on SSDs and support 256,000 IOPS and 4,000 MBps of throughput per volume.
Pricing ranges from $0.0928/GB per month (based on Europe/London) for general purpose SSDs and $0.0058 for provisioned IOPS (after a 3,000 IOPS free allowance) to $0.053 per GB per month of provisioned storage for Throughput Optimized HDDs and $0.0174 per GB per month for Cold HDDs.
EBS also provides snapshots in standard and archive tiers at an additional cost.
File storage: EFS and FSx
For file storage, AWS offers EFS in standard, cost-optimised and archive tiers. Standard is based on SSDs with “sub-millisecond latency performance”. Standard is designed for active data workloads, Infrequent for data accessed “only a few times each quarter” and Archive for a few times a year.
Infrequent Access and Archive tiers have tens of milliseconds latency; for EFS archive the minimum storage duration is 90 days.
Performance for OpenZFS and Windows File System is up to 21 GBps of throughput and more than a million IOPs for frequently accessed, cached data.
Costs are $0.33 per GB per month for Standard (Europe/London, regional, multi-AZ), $0.02/GB for Infrequent Access and $0.01 for Archive. However, there are separate charges for access. For Standard these are $0.03/GB for reads and $0.07 for writes, with tiering charges where that is used. One Zone (Single-AZ) fees are lower.
With FSx, AWS allows customers to choose between four file systems: NetApp ONTAP, OpenZFS, Windows File Server and Lustre.
Pricing depends on the exact file system and usage. Taking ONTAP as an example, these are made up of provisioned SSD storage, IOPS (three IOPS are included for each GB of storage), capacity pool usage and throughput capacity. Firms can also opt for backups and SnapLock (snapshot) copies on a pay-as-you-go basis.
AWS offers pricing calculators for each of the file systems.
Along with object, block and file, AWS provides a range of more specialist backup, archiving and data migration services, as well as the ability to link storage services together. FSx for Lustre, for example, can be linked to S3 for big data processing.
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