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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Ex-Cleveland Fed President Mester sees fewer rate cuts after Trump win
Ex-Cleveland Fed President Mester sees fewer rate cuts after Trump win
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference on Sept.18, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty
The U.S. Federal Reserve could carry out fewer interest rate cuts than previously expected next year should President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed global tariffs take hold, former Fed policymaker Loretta Mester said Tuesday.
Mester indicated that the Fed’s outlook was set to change under the incoming *********** administration’s fiscal plans, and that markets may be right in forecasting fewer than the four cuts previously forecast.
“Next year, the pace of the cuts will be affected by where they’re seeing fiscal policy,” she said during a panel at the annual UBS ********* Conference hosted in London.
“My own view is the market is right, they’re probably not going to have as many cuts next year as was assumed or expected in September,” added Mester, who served as president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve until her retirement earlier this year.
Markets trimmed their forecasts for rate cuts following Trump’s election victory last week, with speculation growing around his tariff proposals and their implications for the world economy.
Trump vowed during his election campaign to revive a trade war that began during his first term in office, saying that he would impose a blanket 10% to 20% ban on all U.S. imports, and a particularly punitive higher rate of 60% to 100% on ******** goods. Economists have warned that such measures could be inflationary.
As a result, markets are now expecting 50 basis points worth of cuts in the first half of 2025, followed by a further 25 basis point reduction in the second half of the year, according to poll median forecasts cited by Reuters. That would take the Fed funds rate to 3% to 3.25% by the end of 2025, slightly below the central bank’s median “dot-plot” projection.
Mester also expects fewer than four cuts next year, though she said she still sees potential for the bank to cut at its next meeting in December.
At that point, policymakers could be expected to provide a “first look” at how the Trump administration’s fiscal proposals will affect their forecasts, Mester said. However, further details of the full fiscal package — and its implications for monetary policy — is not expected until early next year.
“It’s not just going to be tariffs. There’s things going on on immigration, there’s probably going to be things going on on the tax side, and there’ll be spending also,” Mester said.
“All of those together are going to have to inform — ‘has the outlook for the U.S. economy changed?’,” she added.
It comes as concern is growing among global policymakers about the implications of Trump’s fiscal plans, particularly on tariffs.
Governor of the Bank of Finland and ********* Central Bank policymaker Olli Rehn warned Tuesday that the impact of such levies would be “detrimental” to the world economy, but added that Europe needed to be prepared for that eventuality.
“The significant import duties in the verbal pipeline could have detrimental ramifications for the global economy,” Rehn said during the UBS panel.
“A trade war is the last thing we need,” he continued. “If a trade war is to start, the ********* union must not be unprepared as it was in 2018.”
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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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ARKK Set for a Breakout? Why Cathie Woods Fund Could Shine in the 2024 Bull Market
ARKK Set for a Breakout? Why Cathie Woods Fund Could Shine in the 2024 Bull Market
On October 28th my Daily article said this:
Considering the bull market of 2024, Cathie Wood’s fund (she has 6 ETFs) over 2 years and a lot of sideways price action, could now be a potential player.
Remember, ARKK peaked in 2021 at 159.70.
Then ARKK crashed to its trough at 29.43 in 2022.
And while we are still not wowed by the overwhelming underperformance, we do think the fund is worth a look as it takes out the April 2024 highs.
Currently, ARKK outperforms the benchmark .
Momentum has improved, while the price chart is about to have a golden cross.
And even more significant potentially, is that today, ARKK cleared the July 6-month calendar range high (green horizontal line).
The last time ARKK cleared a 6-month calendar range high was in April, when for 2 whole days, it traded above the January range high.
So yes, ARKK needs to prove more.
What must happen next?
ARKK looks okay now, and way better over 54.00.
That is really where the fun begins and where we will get interested in investing.
Currently, ARKK is trading close to $58.00
Now what?
Clearly the recent rally proves 2 things:
Every dog has its day
The charts don’t lie
With that said, ARKK is looking parabolic in everything-momentum, price leadership and price. The July 6-month calendar range is in the rear view mirror.
Now we zoom out.
On the weekly chart, ARKK is at resistance going back to 2022.
Now the rubber meets the road.
With weekly momentum and price still under the 200-DMA (green), that is something to watch clear or fail from.
Leadership versus the is also at resistance.
Hence, we would like to see $54.00 hold, and ARKK go on to trade above $64 then $72.
ETF Summary
(Pivotal means short-term bullish above that level and bearish below)
S&P 500 (SPY) 610 here we come
Russell 2000 (IWM) 227 support 244 the area to clear
Dow (DIA) Another new all-time high
Nasdaq (QQQ) 500 support 530 resistance
Regional banks (KRE) 65 pivotal
Semiconductors (SMH) 260 resistance
Transportation (IYT) 71 now key to hold
Biotechnology (IBB) Looks strong-especially now over 147-150 next level
Retail (XRT) 80 cleared!!!
iShares iBoxx Hi Yd Cor Bond ETF (HYG) 79.50 pivotal
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Congress returns to Washington as GOP prepares to take control
Congress returns to Washington as GOP prepares to take control
Washington — Lawmakers are returning to Washington Tuesday for a lame duck session after Republicans flipped the Senate and appear poised to hold onto control of the House after last week’s elections.
The new Congress will be seated in January, and President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda is expected to be its central focus. Until then, Senate Democrats may make a push to approve their priorities with their remaining days in control of the upper chamber.
Lawmakers are also facing deadlines on other must-pass legislation, including funding the government, as they lay the groundwork for the new Congress with new-member orientation and leadership elections this week and next.
The new Congress
House Republicans reveled in their victories last week, expressing confidence that they would retain control of the lower chamber in the new year with just a handful of seats to go. Speaker Mike Johnson wrote a letter to colleagues asking for their continued support for his leadership, now that the election has delivered a “mandate” for a unified *********** government.
“If we meet this historic moment together, the next two years can result in the most consequential Congress of the modern era,” Johnson continued, noting that “to truly make America great again, we will need to begin delivering for the people on day one.”
Meanwhile, Democrats continued to hold onto some hopes of flipping the House, to be the only check on *********** political power in Washington. Still, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who leads the Progressive Caucus, acknowledged Monday that Democrats have a “very slim path to the majority.”
“We are going to do our work to help rebuild and to come back from this loss and recalibrate,” Jayapal said at a news conference to introduce the newly elected progressives.
On the other side of the Capitol, ********* Leader Mitch McConnell praised the quality of *********** candidates in Senate races this cycle, saying the day after the election that he’s “never seen a better performance.” With the new majority of at least 52 seats, the outgoing leader argued that Republicans did “pretty well” with narrow majorities during the last administration, citing three new Supreme Court justices and tax reform.
“It’s *******, but I think we were successful before with a narrow majority and I think we will be again,” McConnell said.
Republicans to hold leadership elections
In the Senate, Republicans will vote Wednesday to elect a new leader, since McConnell announced he would step aside earlier this year. A high-stakes race to replace the longest-serving leader in the chamber’s history has been taking place behind the scenes.
GOP Whip John Thune, a South Dakota ***********, and Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas ***********, are considered the front-runners in the race to replace McConnell. But Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida ***********, has seen a surge of support from members of Trump’s orbit — from Tucker Carlson to Elon Musk — that has drawn more attention to the race.
How the outside input weighs on the race ******** to be seen. Senate Republicans will meet behind closed doors and cast secret ballots to elect a new leader, making them less likely to be swayed by outside pressures. But an endorsement of a candidate from Trump himself could change the dynamic. He has already weighed in with a demand about recess appointments.
Meanwhile, House Republicans are also set to conduct leadership elections this week. With a stronger-than-expected showing across the House races, the current leadership slate is expected to enjoy widespread support to remain at the helm of the chamber. But Trump’s selection of GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik to serve as ambassador to the U.N. created another opening in the leadership races.
Lame duck to-do list: funding government, Biden’s judicial nominations
Congress is returning to pressure to avert a government shutdown after lawmakers approved a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through Dec. 20 earlier this year.
The pre-holiday deadline to prevent a shutdown is commonplace for Congress, though it frustrates some House Republicans looking to avoid a vote on a massive spending bill known as an “omnibus.” Johnson said in September that he opposes an omnibus funding package around the holidays, suggesting that he would work to approve the12 full-year spending bills individually after the election. But the new balance of power in Washington next year almost certainly changes the calculus.
House Republicans have so far approved a handful of the full-year spending bills, although they’ve done so on a partisan basis that makes them nonstarters in the Senate. And the upper chamber has yet to vote on any individual spending bills this year. The reality makes another stopgap measure punting a broader funding ****** into the new year likely.
Lawmakers may also address funding for disaster relief following the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the southeastern U.S. earlier this year. And an annual defense policy bill is also a top priority before the year’s end.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are expected to vote on judicial nominations, as President Biden has sought to match or even surpass the total number of judicial confirmations in Trump’s first term. The issue takes on heightened importance for Democrats with another Trump term on the horizon.
Caitlin Yilek
contributed to this report.
Kaia Hubbard
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
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Hill scores as Dolphins beat Rams to end losing run
Hill scores as Dolphins beat Rams to end losing run
Tyreek Hill scores his first touchdown since the opening week of the season, as the Miami Dolphins beat the Los Angeles Rams 23-15 to end a three-game losing streak.
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Hideaki Itsuno, Capcom’s legendary director, will head a new studio
Hideaki Itsuno, Capcom’s legendary director, will head a new studio
·
·
November 12, 2024
Hideaki Itsuno, the name behind the ****** May Cry and Dragon’s Dogma franchises, has a new home. The director has taken up a leadership position at LightSpeed Studios Japan, a subsidiary of the giant Tencent.
Itsuno will use all his expertise to develop new AAA action games. Hideaki spoke about his new challenge in a statement to the press.
“Joining LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS is an exciting new chapter for me. With LightSpeed’s strong development capabilities and global network, I’m looking forward to creating original AAA action games together with the amazing team and building innovative and beautiful experiences for the global community of gamers. We welcome all talented and passionate game developers from around the world to join our vision.”
Based in Osaka and Tokyo, the studio’s idea is to build experiences that reach global audiences. Jerry Chen, president of LightSpeed Studios, had this to say:
“The creation of LightSpeed Japan Studio is a significant step in the expansion of LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS and demonstrates our commitment to bringing the best possible games to our players.”
There’s no doubt that the initiative isn’t messing around, signing one of Japan’s leading game developers. Obviously, we don’t have any more details about Hideaki Itsuno’s next adventure. Knowing the director’s style, we can at least hope for addictive combat.
Are you looking forward to the director’s next project? Tell us in the comments and join the discussion in our forum.
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Indian Researchers Develop Energy-Efficient Method to Create Glass, Could Improve Efficiency of Data Centres
Indian Researchers Develop Energy-Efficient Method to Create Glass, Could Improve Efficiency of Data Centres
A recent discovery at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) offers an energy-efficient method to achieve glassy transformations in indium selenide, a material that could change the face of data storage technology. The study was conducted in a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The research demonstrates that continuous electric current can transform the crystalline structure of indium selenide into glass, using a billion times less energy than the traditional melt-quench process.
Unusual Transformation Mechanism Revealed
The study, published on November 6, 2024, in Nature, details how this crystalline-to-glass transformation in indium selenide occurs. The study claims that unlike conventional processes that require high temperatures and sudden cooling, researchers found that mechanical shocks triggered by continuous electric currents achieved the same result. This discovery eliminates the need for the energy-intensive heating and rapid cooling stages typically used to create glassy phases in materials. Gaurav Modi, former PhD student at Penn Engineering, expressed initial surprise at the finding, noting that a continuous current alone disrupted the material’s structure.
Collaborative Microscale Analysis
IISc’s in situ microscopy tools were used extensively to observe the transformation at both atomic and micrometer scales. Assistant Professor Pavan Nukala from IISc’s Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, with PhD student Shubham Parate, collaborated with Penn Engineering’s Srinivasa Ramanujan Distinguished Scholar, Ritesh Agarwal, to investigate the transformation. By passing electric current through indium selenide, the team discovered that the 2D material’s layers moved against each other, generating small-scale electrical and mechanical shocks similar to seismic activity, ultimately leading to glass formation.
Future Implications for Phase-Change Memory
According to Agarwal, energy requirements have been a limiting factor for phase-change memory devices in widespread applications. This discovery, therefore, has significant implications for the efficiency of data storage technologies in computers and mobile devices. Nukala has indicated that the next steps will involve efforts to integrate these materials with CMOS technology, potentially paving the way for more sustainable memory solutions.
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Realme 14 Pro Lite Said to Be in the Works, Colour Options, RAM and Storage Configurations Tipped
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AMD Ryzen 9800X3D CPU has totally sold out – and a new worry is that fresh stock may not arrive until late December
AMD Ryzen 9800X3D CPU has totally sold out – and a new worry is that fresh stock may not arrive until late December
Ryzen 9800X3D has sold out everywhere, including a big ******* retailer
That retailer, MindFactory, had a fair bit of initial stock, but it’s all gone
The restock estimate from MindFactory is the end of December, worryingly
AMD’s Ryzen 9800X3D has been very well-received, but the problem with the CPU is that keen PC gamers who want to buy the chip aren’t able to – amidst scalping woes – and if a new rumor is right, they could be waiting for quite some time for an opportunity to pull the trigger on a purchase.
Many retailers went out of stock of the Ryzen 9800X3D pretty much straightaway when the processor hit the shelves – certainly online, anyway – although one major ******* retailer, MindFactory, appeared to have a good amount of stock initially.
Not anymore, though, because as VideoCardz spotted, MindFactory has now sold out of the new Ryzen CPU.
The retailer still has pre-orders open, but the expected delivery date for the Ryzen 9800X3D is, worryingly enough, the end of December 2024. In other words, the year might be almost over before a restock takes place at MindFactory, and if that’s the case for a big ********* retailer, could it be true more broadly?
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Analysis: Is there any hope of seeing much Ryzen 9800X3D stock this month?
How is stock for the Ryzen 9800X3D faring in general, then? Very badly. With US retailers, the CPU isn’t available at all currently (some have even dropped the listing for the Ryzen 9800X3D).
In the ***, it’s the same story, though Tom’s Hardware noticed a couple of retailers apparently picking up a little stock yesterday (November 11). We’ve just checked and that’s gone, though, unsurprisingly – even though one of those retailers had jacked up the price above the MSRP (a nauseating tactic, but not unexpected).
A slightly more optimistic glimmer for PC gamers keen to get this CPU is seen with the *** retailer Scan, which is predicting that stock will be back in come November 29. That’s still over two weeks away, though, and the chances of picking up a Ryzen 9800X3D in November appear to be pretty slim, from what we can tell.
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Meanwhile, on eBay, in the US scalpers have the processor on ***** from $640 upwards, a minimum of a third price hike on the CPU’s MSRP, hoping to tempt those who are desperate to get the Ryzen 9800X3D. Whatever you do, just wait – don’t encourage the price gougers, as if they fail to make a profit (or not much of one), they won’t be doing this again.
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2 Chip Stocks Benefitting from OpenAI’s Chip Strategy Expansion
2 Chip Stocks Benefitting from OpenAI’s Chip Strategy Expansion
NVIDIA’s 12-month backlog for its Blackwell chips has OpenAI considering ways to reduce its dependence on NVIDIA’s AI chips.
OpenAI pivoted from its initial plan to build a network of global foundries to working with Broadcom to design AI server chips in-house.
In the meantime, OpenAI, along with Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Oracle, has opted to use AMD’s AI chips.
ChatGPT developer OpenAI had initially planned on building a global network of foundries to produce AI chips but has instead opted to work with several companies in the computer and technology sector. Like Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Google, OpenAI also aspires to produce its own AI chips in an effort to reduce its reliance on NVIDIA (NASDAQ:). NVIDIA’s Blackwell chips are already sold out for the next 12 months, which is a lightyear too long for a wait during the AI revolution. Here are two stocks benefitting from OpenAI’s strategy of developing its own AI chips.
1. Broadcom: Co-Developing OpenAI’s First AI Chip
OpenAI has been hiring many hardware engineers from the Google Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) team, its AI chip development arm. These engineers have historically worked with Broadcom (NASDAQ:) in developing Google’s TPU, an AI accelerator chip specifically designed for machine learning tasks, including neural networks and deep learning.
Bringing over those engineers would make it no surprise they would encourage OpenAI to work with Broadcom for its custom AI chip. OpenAI needs its AI server chips to handle massive AI workloads; Broadcom has the experience and history of making custom AI accelerators specifically for hyperscalers, which also include Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:).
OpenAI would be a lucrative contract that further bolsters its AI accelerator business. Open AI also plans to outsource the chip production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:) as they produce most of the AI chips on the market.
Broadcom shares initially took a 15.8% haircut when it reported its Q3 2024 EPS of $1.24, barely beating consensus estimates by 2 cents. Revenues surged 47.3% YoY to $13.07 billion versus $12.98 billion consensus estimates. The disappointment came from its downside guidance for Q4, with revenues expected at around $14 billion versus $14.11 billion consensus estimates.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan commented, “Broadcom’s third-quarter results reflect continued strength in our AI semiconductor solutions and VMware (NYSE:). We expect revenue from AI to be $12 billion for fiscal year 2024 driven by Ethernet networking and custom accelerators for AI data centers.”
2. AMD: MI300 AI Chips May Not Be Mr. Right, But They Are Mr. Right Now
While NVIDA’s AI chips are backlogged, sources claim that OpenAI has decided to use Applied Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) AI chips in the meantime. Even if NVIDIA is the proverbial “Mr. Right” when it comes to AI chips, AMD is the “Mr. Right Now” due to the availability of their MI300 chips, also produced by Taiwan Semi. OpenAI is already using AMD Instinct MI300 GPUs in its Microsoft (NASDAQ:) Azure infrastructure. Microsoft was one of the first major hyperscalers to adopt MI300 GPUs. AMD plans to start producing its MI325 AI chip at the end of 2024 in time for its 2025 launch. It claims to offer up to 1.3x more performance than NVIDIA’s GPUs. Oracle (NYSE:) has also adopted MI300X in its Oracle Cloud.
While AMD was left in the dust by NVIDIA in the data center GPU wars, it is making some headway just because its chips are available while NVIDIA’s are not. In its Q3 2024 report, it earned 92 cents per share, which was in line with consensus estimates. Revenues rose 17.6% YoY to $6.82 billion, firmly beating the $6.71 billion consensus estimates.
AMD’s market share gain is shown in the 25% sequential and 122% YoY growth in its Data Center segment revenue of $3.5 billion. This was primarily driven by its AMD Instinct GPU processors and AMD EPYC CPU sales. Its CPU sales continued to gain market share at data centers, citing it has become the CPU of choice for the modern data center. Meta Platforms has deployed over 1.5 million EPYC CPUs throughout its data centers, as well as deployed MI300X to power its inferencing infrastructure.
AMD CEO Lisa Su commented, “Turning to our Data Center AI business, Data Center GPU revenue ramped as MI300X adoption expanded with cloud, OEM and AI customers. Microsoft and Meta expanded their use of MI300X accelerators to power their internal workloads in the quarter. Microsoft is now using MI300X broadly for multiple co-pilot services powered by the family of GPT 4 models.”
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New York judge expected to issue crucial presidential immunity ruling in Trump “hush money” case
New York judge expected to issue crucial presidential immunity ruling in Trump “hush money” case
The judge who presided over President-elect Donald Trump’s ********* trial, Juan Merchan, is expected to issue a ruling Tuesday that could either turn the case on its head or put Trump on a collision course with sentencing.
The long-awaited ruling, on whether evidence shown at trial should have been shielded from jurors, due to presidential immunity, could have profound consequences for the case.
Trump was the first former president ever to be convicted of *******. On Nov. 5, he also became the first person with a ********* record ever to be elected president.
Trump’s lawyers vowed the day a unanimous jury found him guilty of felonies in May to ****** his conviction. They were given an extraordinary opportunity not long after when the Supreme Court ruled former presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts. The decision said evidence related to Trump’s work as president could not be used at trial.
Trump’s legal team, which is led by Todd Blanche, seized on the landmark ruling, demanding Trump’s conviction be set aside, and his sentencing canceled. They argued jurors should never have heard testimony related to Trump’s communications with former White House communications director Hope Hicks, or his former executive assistant and director of White House Operations Madeleine Westerhout.
Prosecutors argued in response that the Supreme Court ruling didn’t apply to evidence shown at trial. They also said the material protested by Trump’s lawyers were “a sliver of the mountains” of evidence the jury considered.
The jury ultimately concluded that Trump committed 34 felonies in signing off on a scheme to cover-up reimbursements to Michael Cohen, his former attorney and fixer. Cohen had paid $130,000 to ****** film star Stormy Daniels, days before the 2016 presidential election, to buy her silence about an alleged ******* encounter with Trump years early. The agreement has often been referred to as a “hush money” deal.
Trump insists he is not guilty of falsifying business records — the charge he was convicted on — and has vehemently denied Daniels’ story.
The Supreme Court’s decision in July was the latest curveball in a case that dates back to 2018, when the Manhattan District Attorney’s office first began investigating the “hush money” deal.
Trump, amid his first term as president, fought the investigation as it expanded into a wide-ranging probe of his finances. The case’s first landmark Supreme Court ruling came in 2020, when the nation’s highest court ruled the Constitution does not preclude a state ********* subpoena of a sitting president. The ruling allowed the Manhattan District Attorney, then Cyrus Vance Jr., access to Trump’s tax returns.
The borough’s next district attorney, Alvin Bragg, took up the case but narrowed its focus, bringing it back to the “hush money” deal. On March 31, 2023, a grand jury made Trump the first ever former, and future, president indicted for *******.
Trump’s seven-week trial began just more than a year later, on April 15. The jury returned his conviction after a day and a half of deliberations.
Trump, sullen but defiant, walked out of the courtroom and in front of cameras just steps away immediately returned to his campaign for the presidency.
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Graham Kates
Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering ********* justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at *****@*****.tld or *****@*****.tld
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Indian cricket superstars land in Perth, take over iconic WACA Ground
Indian cricket superstars land in Perth, take over iconic WACA Ground
Western Australia’s traditional home of cricket is in lockdown as it is taken over by India for a top-secret training camp in Perth ahead of The West Test.
India and its superstars, including Virat Kohli, touched down in Australia in groups between Sunday and Tuesday, escaping fierce scrutiny from their home country in the wake of an historic clean-sweep by New Zealand on the subcontinent.
Their guard is up in Perth like never before as they ramp up preparations for a blockbuster five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
The WACA Ground nets, normally open for viewing by the public, have been covered in ****** tarps so they are not visible from the street.
The West *********** understands WA Cricket staff members have been banned from using their mobile phones outside their offices, filming inside the ground and from using certain areas of the precinct.
A training session was cancelled on Tuesday morning, with further sessions set for the WACA Ground nets on Wednesday and Thursday.
A three-day intra-squad warm up match scheduled to be played from Friday to Sunday is now closed to the public after the squad’s governing body, the Board for Cricket Control in India, intervened.
Even Cricket Australia officials were left in the dark about the arrival of the Indian team ahead of the first of five Tests which begins on Friday week at Optus Stadium.
It’s the highest level of security around a visiting sporting squad since English Premier League giant Manchester ******* toured in 2022.
“There’s been a lot of work in the background to make sure we were ready for them,” new WA Cricket chief executive John Stephenson told The West.
“We’ll have staff on hand to ensure we ******** it well, and we’re looking forward to hosting the three days behind closed doors.”
India put in place similar security measures when they were based in Perth ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup, but they did make two practice games against a WA invitational team open to the public on that tour.
On that trip, Crown Perth stood down a contractor after an employee allegedly filmed themselves in Kohli’s hotel room.
Kohli posted the video alongside a long statement expressing his outrage at the “fanaticism and absolute invasion of privacy”.
Camera IconThe India Cricket Team arrive at the WACA ground to train. Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper/The West ***********
The batting star, likely on his final Test tour of Australia is among his country’s biggest celebrity figures and is adored to the point where his movements are limited by loitering fans.
The lockdown comes just days after Kohli vented his frustration with photographers in Mumbai, asking them not to take pictures of his children with his wife, Bollywood superstar Anushka Sharma.
Video footage shows Kohli telling the paparazzi: “Udhar camera nahi karna (Don’t point your cameras there).”
Adding to the tension around the first Test is a war of words between new India coach Gautam Gambhir and *********** legend Ricky Ponting.
The batting great put the heat on Kohli to return to form in this series and said he was staggered by his poor recent record.
The call left Gambhir furious and the former Indian opener hit back.
Camera IconThe Indian cricket team practising in the nets at The WACA. Rishabh Pant. Credit: Ian Munro/The West ***********
“What does Ricky Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? He should be talking about Australia,” he said.
“Look, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are still passionate about the game and want to achieve more.
“They are hungry for success and have done exceptionally well for the country over the years.”
On Tuesday night, Ponting told 7NEWS he would shake Gambhir’s hand “if he came my way” in Perth, but said the pair “have history” that dates back to their playing days.
The group training in Perth this week does not include Test captain Rohit Sharma, who has remained in India as he awaits the birth of his child.
Sharma is in doubt for The West Test at Optus Stadium from November 22. Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah would captain in his absence.
Camera IconRishabh Pant (left) and Shubman Gill. Credit: Jackson Flindell/The West ***********
But the call for the veteran batter to stay home has sparked a call from Indian legend and Channel 7 expert Sunil Gavaskar for him to be stripped of the leadership.
“It is important for the captain to play the first Test match,” Gavaskar told Indian media.
“It’s different if he is injured, but if he is not available, then the deputy leader will be under a lot of pressure.
“I have been reading that Rohit Sharma might not play the first two Tests of the Australia series.
“I feel that in that case the selection committee should appoint Jasprit Bumrah the captain of the side for the entire Australia tour, and tell Rohit Sharma that you will participate as a player in this series.”
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#Indian #cricket #superstars #land #Perth #iconic #WACA #Ground
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‘Thank you Sakurai!’ – Smash Bros creator teaches cosplayer how to properly unsheathe Link’s sword
‘Thank you Sakurai!’ – Smash Bros creator teaches cosplayer how to properly unsheathe Link’s sword
Kirby and Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai recently helped a cosplayer who was struggling to use Link’s sword properly.
As reported by Automaton, ********* cosplayer Sakigake posted a video of himself dressed as Link in Breath of the Wild.
In the video, Sakigake attempts to unsheathe his sword, but because of the length of the sword and the position of the scabbard on his back, he can’t stretch his arm out far enough to take the sword out.
“I can’t do it,” Sakigake wrote on X. “I will practice”.
無理でした練習します pic.twitter.com/I2W1Ka0UXq
— サキガケ (@sakigake_cos) November 11, 2024
Noticing the video, Sakurai offered his advice by sharing a tip that he noticed Sakigake wasn’t doing.
Sakurai explained that in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, the development team added an animation where Link pulls the scabbard down with his other hand, giving him enough room to sheathe the sword in it.
“In Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Link pulls the scabbard down when sheathing his sword,” Sakurai explained. “That alone wasn’t quite enough to reach the desired position, but I think that’s about as far as we can go when it comes to matching the action and equipment from the original.”
When Link sheathes his sword in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, he pulls the scabbard down with his other hand so it can fit in. In other Zelda games, where he doesn’t pull it down, Link’s wrist twists at an impossible angle to fit the sword in.
“Thank you Sakurai-san”, Sakigake replied. “I’ll use Smash Bros Ultimate as a reference next time and try to make it look cool.”
“I reacted to your post because of my experience considering a solution to the same problem,” Sakurai added. “Great cosplay!”
Sakurai recently ended his YouTube channel after two years of publishing in-depth videos explaining how game development works.
In the final normal episode of his YouTube series, Sakurai posted a tribute to his former boss, the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
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#Sakurai #Smash #Bros #creator #teaches #cosplayer #properly #unsheathe #Links #sword
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With 60% off, this Philips Hue bundle is one of Amazon’s best early ****** Friday deals ever
With 60% off, this Philips Hue bundle is one of Amazon’s best early ****** Friday deals ever
Amazon has launched its first batch of early ****** Friday deals, and this is easily one of the best – especially if you’ve been thinking of starting a Philips Hue smart lighting setup. For a limited time, you can get two Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) speakers and a Philips Hue bulb for only £48.98 (was £123.97). To put that into context, you would pay £49.99 for just one Echo Dot right now.
The Echo Dot (5th Gen) currently holds the number one spot in our guide to the best smart speakers, and the Hue system takes our award for the best smart lights, making this package a great starting point for a new smart home setup. Adding more devices in future will be a piece of cake, and the two speakers will allow you to control them with simple voice commands from anywhere in your home.
Today’s best Philips Hue/Amazon Echo deal
The Philips Hue light you’re getting in this bundle is a B22 (bayonet fitting) warm white bulb. Unlike some Hue bulbs, this can’t be set to different colours, but it does support remote control and smooth dimming. You don’t need a Philips Hue Bridge connectivity hub to use it, either – the Philips Hue Bluetooth app allows you to control it from your phone or (most importantly) with your new Echo speakers. For more details, take a look at our guide to Philips Hue Bridge: what is it and how important is it for your Hue smart lights.
If you want to expand your smart home setup even further, our roundup of the best ****** Friday Ring doorbell deals will help you find all the best discounts on the whole range of Ring devices, including cameras and sensors.
More of today’s ****** Friday sales in the ***
Amazon: up to 68% off toothbrushes and TVs
AO: savings on games consoles and appliances
Argos: up to 50% off toys, Lego, TVs and gifts
Boots: up to 50% off Dyson, *****-B and Philips
Currys: early deals on TVs, appliances, laptops
Dell: laptops, desktops, monitors from £299
Dyson: up to £150 off
Ebay: up to 50% off refurbished tech
EE: up to £600 off Samsung and Apple
John Lewis: up to £300 off appliances and TVs
LG: £1,000 or more off TVs and appliances
Samsung: up to £600 off TVs, phones and tablets
Very: up to 30% off phones, appliances & clothing
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#Philips #Hue #bundle #Amazons #early #****** #Friday #deals
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3 “Made in America” Stocks to Benefit From the Trump Presidency
3 “Made in America” Stocks to Benefit From the Trump Presidency
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has pre-emptively bolstered “Made in the USA” stocks, while ******** stocks collapsed in anticipation of more import tariffs to come.
The Trump administration will seek to bolster the U.S. supply chain for steel, semiconductors, and automobiles.
Critics argue that imposing more tariffs will end up costing U.S. consumers more for products, driving up inflation.
The return of the Trump administration to the White House in 2025 has caused many U.S. stocks to surge pre-emptively on positive sentiment, while ******** stocks collapsed on fears of more trade tensions and tariffs to come. During his reelection campaign, Trump suggested imposing a 60% tariff on goods produced in China and 20% on everything else. Trump even threatened farming machinery giant Deere & Company (NYSE:) with 200% tariffs on anything they produce in Mexico to force them to keep its production in the U.S.
As the markets try to anticipate his actions based on his previous administration’s policies, stocks that fit certain themes are already seeing the early money flow. The core theme of the Trump administration has been and will continue to be “Made in America,” which focuses on bolstering U.S. manufacturing and creating jobs. Here are three stocks spread across the auto/tires/trucks, computer and technology, and basic materials sectors that are already benefiting from the Trump presidency.
1. General Motors: Automobiles Made in the U.S.A. and Protected By Tariffs
The country’s largest car manufacturer, General Motors (NYSE:), saw its stock surge 7% to 52-week highs after a Trump victory was called. Trump has had a firm stance on protecting U.S. automakers from foreign competition, especially cheaper foreign-made vehicles from China, which already face a 100% tariff on electric vehicle (EV) exports.
Import tariffs on vehicles and auto parts end up making non-********* vehicles more expensive for consumers, creating a more favorable market for General Motors’s products and its top four ********* brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac.
General Motors is outperforming U.S. competitors like Ford Motor (NYSE:), who are just starting to regain some footing after finally beating its Q3 EPS estimates by 2 cents. General Motors crushed its latest third quarter of 2024, reporting EPS of $2.96, beating analyst estimates by 58 cents. This marks the third consecutive quarter of 35 cents+ EPS beats. Revenues grew 10.5% YoY to $48.76 billion, crushing analyst estimates for $44.67 billion by an eye-watering $4.09 billion.
General Motors raised the lower end of its full-year 2025 EPS estimates to a range of $10.00 to $10.50, up from $9.50 to $10.50 versus $9.97 consensus estimates. Automotive free cash flow was raised to the $12.5 billion to $13.5 billion range, up from $9.5 billion to $11.5 billion.
2. Intel: Semiconductors Made in the U.S.A. Supported by the CHIPS Act
********* semiconductor giant Intel (NASDAQ:) has been suffering for several years now as competitors like NVIDIA (NASDAQ:) dominate the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market. While major chip makers like NVIDIA, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:), Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:) outsource their chip production overseas to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:), Intel continues to produce them in their domestic fabrication (fabs) foundries.
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 seeks to bolster the domestic semiconductor supply chain to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers for national security and economic competitiveness. It includes $52 billion in subsidies and incentives for chip makers to build and expand fabs in the U.S.
Intel was awarded up to an additional $3 billion under the CHIPS Act to construct four foundries in the ******* States. This was in addition to the $8.5 billion awarded in March of 2024.
Payments are expected to start at the end of the year. Intel needs all the help it can get as it continues to struggle. The company lost 46 cents per share in its third quarter of 2024. Revenues continued to contract as they fell 6.3% YoY to $13.3 billion. ****** margin fell 27.8 points to 18%. The company is undergoing a $10 billion cost reduction plan, which includes reducing headcount by over 15% of its workforce or 15,000 jobs. However, the company did provide some upside guidance for Q4 as it expects a positive EPS of 12 cents versus 8 cents, consensus estimates, and a non-GAAP ****** margin improvement of 39.5%. Shareholders are looking forward to the spin-off of its foundry business in 2025.
3. Nucor: Galvanizing the *********-Made Steel Supply Chain
As one of the largest domestic steel producers, Nucor (NYSE:) was a major benefactor of Trump’s previous administration policies. The imposition of 25% tariffs on imported steel was a boon to the company as it made foreign steel more expensive, reducing competition.
Critics argue that this enabled U.S. steel manufacturers to bump their prices without competition. This fanned the flames of inflation, driving up higher prices for the U.S. consumer, from construction to appliances and vehicles. While major trading partners like Mexico were able to gain exemptions, their status may face more scrutiny with the new Trump administration.
Nucor is also a direct beneficiary of domestic infrastructure spending, which has bipartisan support for rebuilding America’s infrastructure. Bridges, highways, and construction projects all bolster the demand for steel. Not all domestic steelmakers will benefit from Trump’s return to the White House. The proposed acquisition of ******* States Steel (NYSE:) by Japan’s Nippon Steel Co. would almost certainly be blocked by Trump. Trump wants to ensure a 100% ********* supply chain for all essential goods.
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Hearing of Executive Vice-President-designate Raffaele Fitto | News
Hearing of Executive Vice-President-designate Raffaele Fitto | News
In his opening remarks, Mr Fitto stated his intention to respond to demographic challenges and to give opportunities to everyone, and in particular young people, so they can stay and thrive in their home regions. He committed to using the so-called “place-based approach” to better address local needs and to working closer together with local authorities.
Answering MEP questions on the future of cohesion policy, Mr Fitto said that it needs to be simplified and more flexible, and that the administrative burden must be reduced. For the first time, the Commission has a dedicated portfolio for simplification, he added. However, simplification cannot mean reduced transparency or scrutiny, Mr Fitto argued. He underlined the important work of the ********* Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the ********* Anti-****** Office OLAF in making sure that EU funds go where they are supposed to.
Strong role for local authorities
Discussing the future of cohesion policy, MEPs quizzed Mr Fitto on whether simplification would mean centralisation. They asked if he will defend “cohesion policy as we know it”, where people and regions have a strong role. Mr Fitto committed to advancing solutions that leverage the specialised knowledge of local actors, and are flexible enough to accommodate different local needs. At the same time, he wants to develop targeted approaches to local industrial policy and leverage the potential of tourism.
In response to questions about efforts to strengthen rural regions suffering from depopulation and brain drain, Mr Fitto underlined the importance of high quality work, local administrative capacity, infrastructure – including digital – and public services in every region. He further committed to supporting talent development and employment opportunities and to accelerating the implementation of the Just Transition Fund.
Solutions for island regions and cities
On support for islands, Mr Fitto pointed to his record working on the topic as an MEP, and said that coordinated efforts involving transport, agriculture, fisheries and tourism policy will be needed.
Mr Fitto also announced his intention to develop a comprehensive policy agenda for cities, including housing, digitalisation and social inclusion. Citizens who live in the EU’s eastern border regions also need the EU’s maximum support, he said.
MEPs also raised the issue of the rule of law and Mr Fitto’s previous record on Article 7 votes. Mr Fitto committed to respecting the rule of law as a fundamental EU principle, and said he has already contributed to the EU’s rule of law dialogue in his previous role as an EU Affairs Minister.
Press point
At the end of the hearing, the Chair of the Committee on Regional Development held a press point outside the meeting room: watch it here.
Next steps
The committee chair and political group coordinators will meet without delay after the hearing to assess the performance and qualification of the Commissioner-designate. Based on the committee recommendations, the Conference of Presidents (EP President Metsola and political group chairs) is set to conduct the final evaluation and declare the hearings closed on 21 November. Once the Conference of Presidents declares all hearings closed, the evaluation letters will be published.
The election by MEPs of the full college of Commissioners (by a majority of the votes cast, by roll-call) is currently scheduled to take place during the 25-28 November plenary session in Strasbourg.
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Shell wins appeal against landmark ruling to cut emissions
Shell wins appeal against landmark ruling to cut emissions
STORY: Shell has won an appeal against a landmark climate order for it to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The appeals court in The Hague dismissed the 2021 ruling that Shell must cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, relative to 2019 levels.
That included emissions caused by the use of its products.
The case had been brought Friends of the Earth Netherlands, known as Milieudefensie.
But presiding judge Carla Joustra said Shell was already on its way to meet required targets for its own emissions.
“Shell has set a specific reduction target for scope 1 and 2 that means its scope 1 and 2 emissions will be reduced by 50% by 2030 compared to 2016. Furthermore, it follows from the documents provided by Shell that it had already achieved a 31% reduction by 2023. So Shell is already doing what Milieudefensie is claiming from it. Milieudefensie’s claim regarding scope 1 and 2 is therefore not admissible.”
The Dutch court did say, however, that the oil giant has a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect people from global warming.
It said Shell was already on its way to meet required targets for its own emissions.
And it said that it was unclear if demands to reduce emissions caused by the use of its products would help the ****** against climate change.
The ruling coincides with the COP29 U.N. climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.
On the agenda is a continuation of last year’s talks about transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Shell Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan welcomed the decision, saying Shell believed it was “the right one for the global energy transition, the Netherlands and our company.”
Milieudefensie said it was disappointed about Shell’s victory and would continue its ****** against large polluters.
“This really touches me. This should have been the moment of a real breakthrough in the ****** against dangerous climate change. That didn’t happen today, but the ****** against dangerous climate change is a marathon, not a sprint, and the race has only just begun.”
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My Nintendo Store Reveals Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Pre-Order Bonuses & Bundle (***)
My Nintendo Store Reveals Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Pre-Order Bonuses & Bundle (***)
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD’s 16th January 2025 release date might still feel like a long way off, but the new year is rapidly approaching and Nintendo is getting the hype train a-moving with a first look at some pre-order bonuses.
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#Nintendo #Store #Reveals #Donkey #Kong #Country #Returns #PreOrder #Bonuses #amp #Bundle
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Ultrawide monitors will be some of the hottest products this ****** Friday – and MSI has just launched one with cutting-edge OLED tech
Ultrawide monitors will be some of the hottest products this ****** Friday – and MSI has just launched one with cutting-edge OLED tech
The new monitor was first announced in August, after its predecessor’s launch in 2024
MSI’s MGP 491CQPX includes a range of improvements, notably its refresh rate and ClearMR certification
Its previous model (MGP 491CQP) is now on ***** ahead of ****** Friday
MSI launched an impressive super ultrawide gaming monitor earlier this year, which we delve deeper into in our MPG 491CQP review, opening the gateway for more competition among the best ultrawide monitors on the market this ****** Friday. Now, we have more good news: an enhanced version of this has just launched, the brand-new MPG 491CQPX QD-OLED Super Ultrawide Gaming Monitor, which comes with a host of upgrades across the board.
While it maintains the 49-inch display size and 5120×1440 resolution, the advantages over the previous CQP model include a 240Hz refresh rate, 0.03ms GtG response time, HDMI 2.1 ports, 98W *** (power delivery), and a superior ClearMR 13000 motion clarity certification from VESA, the display industry standards body.
With 49 inches of ultrawide screen real estate, the MPG 491CQPX is as luxurious as it gets for PC gamers. (Image credit: MSI)
OLEDs may be great at providing the best image quality for displays, but this doesn’t stop the possibility of unwanted blur, especially in fast-paced games. The aforementioned CQP 144Hz model offered a ClearMR 8000 certification, but with this improvement to VESA’s 13000 rating, blurry pixels in-game will be reduced significantly.
The next-gen QD-OLED panel from MSI (which was used in the 491CQPX’s predecessor) promises enhanced ‘sub-pixel arrangement’ which should produce sharper images and better text (a notable point of contention for some people with OLED monitors).
QD-OLEDs are well-known for their ability to provide the best contrast and deep ****** levels, all while utilizing a wider ****** gamut compared to LCD displays, so this combination is a huge benefit for users.
So, what about *****-in? How much will it cost?
Whilst we currently have no info on its cost, looking at the MPG 491CQP’s price ($1099/ £1098.95 / AU$1,699), it’s fair to say that it will be priced close within its range. The good news is if you’re in the ***, you can get your hands on the previous model for just £799 at Scan thanks to the ****** Friday ***** – a pretty good deal, right?
Both the old and new models utilize MSI’s OLED Care 2.0 software – it’s no secret that OLEDs are prone to *****-in, which can quickly become frustrating. Similar to the display care tools found in Dell’s Alienware AW3423DWF gaming monitor, OLED Care 2.0 sends you a pop-up to shift and refresh pixels on your display after about four hours of continuous use to protect your monitor from *****-in.
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Despite its necessity, this sort of automated maintenance is one of the biggest downsides of owning an OLED display, but the benefits easily outweigh this. If you’re willing to take this in stride (or just don’t use your PC for more than four hours at a time), the CQPX will ultimately take your gaming experience to new heights.
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