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The uncertainty of the current situation is a real challenge for CISOs. The immediate short-term planning and reaction phase has now passed, and they are faced with a situation that has now stretched over many months. The idea of the ‘new normal’, while perhaps over used in some circumstances, is certainly real for CISOs. In the most extreme cases, some companies are now planning for a 100% remote workforce, with an accompanying impact on security.As a result, concepts like zero trust and SASE will become the norm as CISOs adapt their approach to meet this new - and in some cases, permanent - situation with proactive strategies.4 - What can go wrong?In these circumstances, CISOs are quickly learning about the points of failure that have become more relevant than before. The first is the risks that come by doubling down on old approaches and hoping they scale--the use of VPNs is perhaps the best example.In the near term, scaling VPNs appliances means reactively ‘racking and stacking’ more hardware, which has proved challenging amidst the shift to remote work. The appliances effectively become bottlenecks, leading to performance degradation. This results in unhappy users, whose productivity is impacted at a time when it may be under slightly more scrutiny than usual.Then there’s the issue of balancing productivity with security, where some CISOs lock everything down in an effort to play safe. While the sentiment is understandable, particularly in this unprecedented situation, the results can be counterproductive. Output can decline, users complain, it drives an increase in costs, and it can eliminate the flexibility of components like BYOD - which has been of such great importance to business during the pandemic. This is also unnecessary, given the capabilities that now exist to centralise control for devices and apps.5 - What’s the easy solution?Global organisations grappling with these challenges and the accelerating pace of change brought about by the pandemic need a change of emphasis. Until recently, CISOs were focused on infrastructure, devices, applications, and data that often sat inside the network. Security investment was geared towards that balance of needs, vulnerabilities, and risk. However, users are now outside of the network, working from home. Apps are moving to the cloud - there is less to protect inside the network, yet that’s where much of the investment is still focused.Cloud-first security is a huge part of the ‘new normal’ that CISOs are adapting to, where data sits on servers owned and managed by a third party. In order for businesses to operate, sensitive data needs to be fully protected, no matter where it is being accessed from. As IT moves to an outsourced ‘as a service’ model, everything from managed devices and web security to data protection and visibility requires protection that is built for purpose.Current circumstances have accelerated tech trends that were already established, and CISOs have found their priorities under particular pressure as businesses implement rapid workplace changes. This also offers an opportunity to refocus enterprise security on new imperatives in an era where the domination of cloud computing has just taken another leap forward.Raif Mehmet is Vice President for EMEA at Bitglass, where he oversees the EMEA sales teams and manages the channel throughout the region. Mehmet has extensive experience in bringing disruptive technologies to market within networking and security. Before joining Bitglass in 2019, he held leadership roles at Aryaka Networks and Aerohive Networks.

President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be muted during portions of Thursday’s final presidential debate, an effort by the organizers to avoid the unruly spectacle that played out at the candidates’ first meeting in Cleveland last month.As in the first debate, each candidate will be allotted two minutes of speaking time to initially answer the moderator’s questions. But under a plan announced on Monday by the Commission on Presidential Debates, his opponent’s microphone will be turned off during that period, an attempt to ensure an uninterrupted response.After the candidates finish their two-minute replies, they will be allowed to freely engage with one another for the remainder of the segment. (The debate, to be moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News, is divided into six segments of 15 minutes apiece.)Aides to Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump were notified of the change late Monday. Mr. Trump signaled late Monday that he was not happy about it.Speaking to reporters on Air Force One after a day of campaigning in Arizona, Mr. Trump raised objections to the commission’s plans but confirmed that he would take part in the debate.“I’ll participate, I just think it is very unfair,” Mr. Trump said. “I will participate, but it’s very unfair that they changed the topics and it is very unfair that again we have an anchor who is totally biased.”The commission acknowledged earlier on Monday that both campaigns might be dissatisfied with the new rules. “One may think they go too far, and one may think they do not go far enough,” the commission said in a statement. “We are comfortable that these actions strike the right balance and that they are in the interest of the American people, for whom these debates are held.”The Thursday debate in Nashville will mark the final meeting of the campaign between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden. The debate commission had pledged to curtail the chaos that ensued at last month’s first debate in Cleveland, when Mr. Trump frequently interrupted Mr. Biden and the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News.Mr. Trump and his aides have signaled deep hostility to any outside control of the candidates’ microphones, and the campaign spent Monday waging a daylong assault on the commission and on Mr. Biden. In a letter sent to the commission before the announcement of the new rules, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, said it would be “completely unacceptable” for “an unnamed person” to shut off a candidate’s microphone.“A decision to proceed with that change amounts to turning further editorial control of the debate over to the commission,” Mr. Stepien wrote, going on to baselessly accuse the nonpartisan commission of bias toward Mr. Biden.The commission’s proposal could also create the potential for technical gaffes. Mr. Trump’s voice, for instance, may be picked up by Mr. Biden’s microphone, and vice versa, meaning that an attempted interruption still may be heard, at least faintly, by viewers watching at home.After the Cleveland debate, the commission released a statement saying that “additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues.” But the organizers were slow to agree on any new rules, particularly after a tumultuous week in which an attempt to convert the second debate in Miami into a virtual event prompted Mr. Trump to withdraw. The second debate was eventually canceled, and each candidate held a televised town hall with voters instead.In the letter, Mr. Stepien — who mockingly referred to the nonpartisan commission as the “Biden Debate Commission” in a tweet — claimed the commission had “promised” that the Nashville debate would be about foreign policy and asked for it to discard the six subjects announced last week by the moderator, Ms. Welker. They are “fighting Covid-19,” “American families,” “race in America,” climate change, national security and leadership.It is true that in some campaign years, the third presidential debate has focused on foreign policy. But the debate organizers did not announce such a plan in 2020, saying that the third debate would mirror the format of the first, with six subjects selected by the moderator.A Biden spokesman, T. J. Ducklo, said earlier on Monday that Mr. Stepien sent the letter “because Donald Trump is afraid to face more questions about his disastrous Covid response.”“The campaigns and the commission agreed months ago that the debate moderator would choose the topics,” Mr. Ducklo said in a statement.

Confession time — I’ve yet to make a single game within Dreams. I know, pretty embarrassing right? The thing is, I find Dreams to be at its best when I treat it like an obscure second-hand shop that I’ve discovered down a dingy little ally, tucked away from the beaten path. What exciting trinkets will I discover today? Ah, a game where Kermit the Frog has a machine gun! Oh my, a Sonic game where all the enemies are Sora from Kingdom Hearts! Dreams doesn’t just encourage players to express their creativity; it embraces them to relish in the absurd. For that reason alone, it’s one of my favourite experiences of the year. Oof, Streets of Rage 4 is a bit of a winner, isn’t it? Not only is it a faithful (and canonical) sequel to the original Mega Drive trilogy, it also successfully reinvents it for the modern era. 16-bit sprites are replaced with gorgeous hand drawn illustrations, breathing new life into returning characters and series newcomers. Its soundtrack, composed by multiple artists, is a synth-wave treat that builds upon the tracks found in the original three titles. And the gameplay? Well, that’s where the real magic lies. Primarily unchanged, a few new mechanics result in one of the most satisfying combat systems in the genre. It may have taken 26 years to arrive, but believe me, it was worth the wait. Is Astro’s Playroom the best console pack-in since Wii Sports? It’s certainly up there, but maybe not for the reasons you’d expect. You see, Playroom is Sony’s Super Smash Bros, a celebration of the brand in a way the company has never quite managed to pull off before. Sure, the PS3 had a literal Smash Bros clone in the form of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, but it was missing something that Astro’s Playroom has in abundance. Heart. This is a love letter, one so adoring that it features a photo realistic 3D model of the PSP’s GPS attachment as a collectible. Nothing made me smile as much as Astro’s Playroom in 2020. A sparkling jewel in PlayStation’s crown. Activision has been on a bit of a winning streak recently when it comes to remasters, but none have been treated with as much care as this year’s excellent Tony Hawk collection. As much a celebration of the series as a whole as it is a remake of the original two games, THPS1+2 incorporates features from later titles (such as the essential revert) to create arguably the best skateboarding game ever created. The birdman is back, broski, and he’s radder than ever. Here’s hoping that Activision capitalises on the enormous success of this release with a true sequel as soon as possible. Ghost of Tsushima is at its best when its katanas are safely sheathed. When the roars of invading Mongols are replaced instead by calming bird song, bubbling streams, and the gentle whisper of a guiding wind. In a year as heavy as 2020, gaming’s ability to cater to escapism has never been as warmly welcome. Of all the digital worlds I’ve visited, none have been as pleasurable as the Japanese island of Tsushima. Riding through golden forests, lush fields of blossoming flowers, and alongside coastal cliffs is a near meditative experience, the game’s vibrant art direction resulting in striking vistas that are unlike anything else on PS4. Do yourself a favour. Take a trip to Tsushima, and experience its beauty for yourself. You won’t regret it.

What we do in the morning has a major effect on how the rest of our day pans out.Daily morning routines are a key difference behind our productive or mediocre days.These regimes and habits can't counter every problem we face, but there are some healthy habits that we can adopt to alter the course of each day. When it comes to developing morning habits, you cannot miss out on this.Waking up early is important for many reasons.Apart from adding more hours to the day for getting maximum work done, this habit ensures more undisturbed and personal time.People who wake up earlier tend to do things faster. Also when you start early you feel less rushed, which reduces stress. Since it has been at least 6-8 hours since your last sip of water, it is time to hydrate.Aim to drink a full glass of water at the start of your day. It will relax your mind and body immediately.You can add some lemon to a warm glass of water too. This helps in removing toxins and stimulating digestion and metabolism. Making your bed is a chore that makes your space less messy and encourages good sleep hygiene. However, doing it early in the morning can help you psychologically.If you make your bed every morning, you will feel a sense of accomplishment for finishing the first task of the day.It will also encourage you to complete other tasks, one after the other. It is possible that you are not a morning exercise person. But anyone can enjoy a good stretch in the morning.It doesn't necessarily have to be an extensive yoga routine or workout. It can just be a way to get your blood flowing, something like a 10 minute walk.Stretch properly to avoid injury since you might feel stiff in the morning. 'Breakfast in the most important meal of the day' is something we have all heard.A healthy breakfast containing protein, whole grains, and healthy fats can be beneficial in many ways.You will be less hungry throughout the day. You will also be able to focus and concentrate better, and have more energy to carry on your daily work.

NEW DELHI: The Chinese Army released 10 soldiers from their captivity on Thursday, three days after the violent clashes at the Galwan Valley.The sources informed that 10 soldiers were returned back unharmed after the Division Commander level talks. The group of 10 included two officers.As per Army statement, four critically injured soldiers were now stable. While 18 were getting treated in Leh itself, 58 more would join duty in a week or 10 days as they had minor injuries only.Army had clarified during the day that all soldiers were accounted for.THE MASSACRE: After temporarily damming two upper rivulets, PLA laid an ambush for an Indian patrol. When it reached the scene, the Chinese unleashed a torrent of water and then went charging after those who hadn't been swept away, hacking them with these nail-studded iron rods. pic.twitter.com/ikBc1PKF7M— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) June 18, 2020"It is clarified that there are no Indian Troops Missing In Action." said Army.The soldiers were missing since evening of Monday, June 15 when the Chinese Army soldiers attacked the Indian troops and killed 20 of them including the Commanding Officer of the local unit.The Indian soldiers had gone for Patrolling Point 14 to verify the compliance of agreements reached between the Army Corps Commanders of both sides on June 6. The Chinese had to move back from the standoff location.The chinese attacked Indian soldiers with rods and bamboo sticks studded with iron nails. The chinese attacking party was fully prepared with riot gears like the sticks, shield, elbow and knee guards.While the Indian troops had their personal weapon with them but did not breach the agreement of 1996.There was an agreement with China signed in November 1996 that neither side can open fire guns or use explosives within 2 kilometres of LAC. They carry the weapons but barrel is kept pointing down.

While everyone is talking about a very different virus right now, we are also using our computers more than ever to work from home, stay in touch with what's going on, to make video calls, and keep ourselves entertained.And like almost everything right now, we want our tech to be virus free and running at full health.Many people will now be opening up old Macbooks and firing up ancient Macs as they find themselves connecting to work and the outside world via computer screen.But in an age where we expect everything to be lightning quick - from our broadband to our desktop start up speed - what do you do when you find your Mac running on a go slow?So if you want a slick OS on your Mac it's a prudent investment to install a Mac cleaner to get your machine in tip top condition.Years of clutter building up, from old programs and apps, to photos and videos, can make your machine sluggish. Not to mention the myth that Macs can't get viruses or malware - when in fact they are simply less targeted by malicious software that their Windows counterparts.Right now there's a flash sale on one of the leading products, CleanMyMac X.Normally priced at £34.95 for a one year subscription, the discounted price for a short time is £29.95.If you have two Macs to sort, there's an even better deal at £49.95 (instead of £69.90) a year, which is a saving of £19.95You can also buy a one time licence for £76.95.Many questions float around the web regarding these kinds of cleaning apps - mainly because those who need an app to help with this process ( as it is possible to do manually if you have the know-how) are not techy-minded enough to be able to assess their validity.Ukranian tech company MacPaw produces CleanMyMac X. This is praised for being a one-stop utility that removes defunct software and other pointless files while also scanning your machine for malware, managing extensions and checking for updates on your installed apps.MacPaw is one of the most trusted makers of iOS focused products, a completely legit company with software that is Apple verified and safe to install. Apple has scanned its code and found no malicious components, so it is definitely not spyware. Other highly praised Mac cleaners include Disk Doctor which is an award-winning UK product and aims to remove the junk that is slowing down your computer. Meanwhile MacBooster is different because it has a duplicate file remover — an extra option to free up space on MacMany people worry that cleaning applications will delete their beloved photos - but this is not the case. Your pictures are safe - but products such as CleanMyMac will remove unnecessary files associated with Mac’s picture service.To avoid getting malware, you should always download apps directly from the company website (these kinds of cleaning applications are not available in the App Store), and avoid downloading anything from sites such as cnet dot com, macupdate dot com and others.You should always check the DMG files on VirusTotal or with a good antivirus such as Norton, McAfee, or Bitdefender. Even once it is cleaned, your Mac should still have antivirus software to protect it, such as

Do you want to know how to keep your laptop, tablet, or PC virus-proof? Then here are some handy hints and tips to help keep your computer fighting fit in the face of malware.RELATED: 9 SAFETY TIPS TO PROTECT YOUR ONLINE DATA AND PRIVACYAre viruses bad for computers?In short, yes. Computer viruses, a form of malware, replicate and spread after an initial execution (infection) throughout a computer system and tend to either destroy data, slow down syst[em resources, log keystrokes, and myriad other malicious actions.The choice of the term "virus" is not accidental. You can liken it to biological viruses that seriously prevent your body from functioning normally. Computer viruses do the same sort of thing, only digitally on your computer.They replicate relentlessly and damage programs and files alike. The best case is that they slow down your computer, but in the worst case they can completely stop your computer from working.What are some hints and tips to keep your computer virus-free?And so, without further ado, here are some handy hints and tips to keep you computer virus-proof, at least as best you can. The following are in no particular order and are far from exhaustive. This is probably the most important thing you can do to try to keep your computer virus-proof. While it might sound like an obvious move, you'd be surprised how many people don't bother to use one.With such a healthy market of antivirus software out there, you are, as a consumer, spoilt for choice. You also don't really have an excuse not to grab yourself one.Some operating systems, like Windows, do come with one built-in but off-the-shelf packages are usually considerably better for online security and protection.One of the best on the market is the suite of antivirus packages offered by the market veteran McAfee. Long respected in the world of antivirus software, their latest products offer unparalleled protection for your computer.McAfee currently offers three tiers of antivirus software depending on your needs and the number of devices you wish to protect. Their "Family package" protects up to ten devices and costs $89.95 for a single year's protection.This is McAfee's bumper package offer, but you can protect fewer devices for lower annual subscriptions. For example, five devices will cost you $59.95, and a single device's annual protection costs a mere $39.95.Once you've chosen an anti-virus software, make sure you keep it updated regularly to ensure your computer is protected from the latest internet nasties. Source: I a n g g i/FlickrAnother common stumbling block that leaves your computer open to cyberattack, is by not activating your firewall. Operating systems, like Windows, have one built-in and is usually enabled by default -- but do check.Such firewalls tend to work in conjunction with hardware firewalls built into your home broadband's router too."Firewalls provide protection against outside cyber attackers by shielding your computer or network from malicious or unnecessary network traffic. Firewalls can also prevent malicious software from accessing a computer or network via the internet." - us-cert.gov.On Windows, you can check to see if your firewall is on by typing "check firewall" into the start menu and then select "Check firewall status". Three green tick marks mean the firewall is working normally - if not, select each one to turn the firewall on.For macOS, the process is slightly different. Linux, on the other hand, is a world unto itself. Source: Sean MacEntree/FlickrAnother handy tip to keep you computer virus-free is to use the latest version of a web browser. Like any software, browsers can contain bugs that can be exploited by hackers to gain access to your sensitive information.Once this has happened, a hacker can monitor everything you do including accessing your passwords and credit card numbers, etc. For this reason, among others, it is always advisable to get the latest version to ensure these bugs have been addressed.But, it should be noted, that most modern browsers, like Google Chrome, will automatically do this for you. While you are less at risk with macOS and Linux operating systems, Windows is often a prime target for hackers to attempt to bypass its in-built security features. Windows is one of the most po[CENSORED]r OS' for private users and businesses, and this is the main reason it updates so regularly.These are usually installed automatically but only if this feature is activated and properly configured. If you have upgraded to Windows 10, auto-updates will be set as standard and can not be turned off.Yes, it is annoying at times, but rest assured it is to keep you safe and sound. Of course, if you are really concerned about the vulnerability of Windows, you could consider switching gears to another operating system? Source: tommaso79/iStockAnother common way that viruses and other malware get into your computer is via phishing, especially phishing emails. Most are usually pretty easy to spot, but some can be very sophisticated and may even appear to be from a recognizable online service provider asking you for your personal information.The vast majority should be caught by your email applications spam filter, but the odd one will get through from time to time. The most up to date browsers should also warn you if you do click on any links within the email -- not to mention your antivirus software (like McAfee's excellent range of packages).However, any anti-phishing techniques are not foolproof. That is why you should always remain vigilant.According to Microsoft, almost half of all viral infections to their user's computers occur because they clicked on fishy links in emails. Source: Ingus Kruklitis/iStockOne of the easiest ways to infect your computer with a virus, spyware, or other malware is by visiting fishy websites. If you use Google Chrome or have a high-quality antivirus software like McAfee installed, you should be warned if you accidentally do.However, some telltale signs that the site is not to be trusted is that it may ask if it can scan your computer for viruses. If this happens, leave the site immediately.Another tip is to never install any software from a website unless you know exactly what is it for and you requested it to be installed. Some websites will load malicious software under the pretense of allowing you to do this or that, like watching a movie, for example.Always be wary of installing free games that you have found randomly on the web and also be cautious of BitTorrent sites and applications.7. Always consider using a VPN alongside you antivirus softwareAnother great tip is to consider using a VPN. While they are not an alternative to antivirus software, they work as a great companion to them.You can liken the difference to an antivirus being like your computer's shield and armor against malicious software, and a VPN acting like its camouflage. Afterall, nefarious agents (including spying agencies) can't harm or track what they can't find. Good VPNs allow you to surf the internet anonymously by using something called tunneling to not only conceal your IP but also encapsulate and encrypt your data.This not only allows you to bypass governmental bans on sites but also prevents undesirables from learning about your identity or harvesting your data. Good quality VPNs also come with built-in high-end security measures including kill switches that cut off your internet connection should a potential hack occur.Many also come with additional anti-malware measures, like your antivirus software too. Conveniently, some of the best antivirus software on the market, like McAfee, also comes with a VPN (so long as you opt-in to autorenewal) to give you the very best of both worlds.And that's a wrap. These simple, yet effective hints and tips will keep you, your data, and computer as virus-proof as you can possibly be.Save permanently disconnecting your computer from the internet altogether, of course.

sales have got bigger and better over the years, and at this point they rival Steam’s infamous promotions. Sony, historically, always goes hard over the New Year period, and it’s launched another gigantic January sale this week, including over 1,000 items in total. But did you know there are a handful of titles available for pennies?Timber Tennis Versus, for example – a super simplistic arcade sports games – can be bought for £0.33/$0.45, while Dynamite Fishing: World Games – an explosive alternative to a po[CENSORED]r pastime – can be had for £0.79/$0.99 if you’re a PS Plus subscriber. Puzzle platformer Hopiko costs £0.57/$0.69, and you can get both Party Crashers and Party Golf as a double-pack for as low as £0.94/$1.19.What else? Well, if you’re willing to spend a little more, then the surprisingly excellent Riddled Corpses EX is available for £1.59/$1.99 – we actually really recommend this one – and retro side-scroller My Night Job can be bought for as little as £1.29/$1.59. It just goes on and on: entertaining indie RPG Cat Quest is £1.99/$2.59, destructive racer ONRUSH is £2.24/$2.49, and sci-fi horror SOMA is £2.39/$2.99.Obviously check out the PS Store for all of the deals, but we reckon you could easily pick up ten or so decent games for under £20/$20 – and if you buy your PS Store credit from a retailer like ShopTo in the UK, you’ll actually only be forking out less than £18 in total. Let us know if you’ve spotted any other irresistible discounts on the PS Store.

The Chinese Army released 10 soldiers from their captivity on Thursday, three days after the violent clashes at the Galwan Valley.The sources informed that 10 soldiers were returned back unharmed after the Division Commander level talks. The group of 10 included two officers.As per Army statement, four critically injured soldiers were now stable. While 18 were getting treated in Leh itself, 58 more would join duty in a week or 10 days as they had minor injuries only.Army had clarified during the day that all soldiers were accounted for.THE MASSACRE: After temporarily damming two upper rivulets, PLA laid an ambush for an Indian patrol. When it reached the scene, the Chinese unleashed a torrent of water and then went charging after those who hadn't been swept away, hacking them with these nail-studded iron rods. pic.twitter.com/ikBc1PKF7M— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) June 18, 2020"It is clarified that there are no Indian Troops Missing In Action." said Army.The soldiers were missing since evening of Monday, June 15 when the Chinese Army soldiers attacked the Indian troops and killed 20 of them including the Commanding Officer of the local unit.The Indian soldiers had gone for Patrolling Point 14 to verify the compliance of agreements reached between the Army Corps Commanders of both sides on June 6. The Chinese had to move back from the standoff location.The chinese attacked Indian soldiers with rods and bamboo sticks studded with iron nails. The chinese attacking party was fully prepared with riot gears like the sticks, shield, elbow and knee guards.While the Indian troops had their personal weapon with them but did not breach the agreement of 1996.There was an agreement with China signed in November 1996 that neither side can open fire guns or use explosives within 2 kilometres of LAC. They carry the weapons but barrel is kept pointing down.

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 16 - The COVID-19 emergency has not stopped ANSA producing its annual book of the year's top photos.Indeed, if anything, the story told by PhotoAnsa 2020, is more vital than ever.The pandemic dominates the book, with an image of Army trucks transporting coffins away from coronavirus-devastated Bergamo because the city's funeral facilities were overwhelmed among the most powerful.The are also images of Italians singing on their balconies during the lockdown, the silent streets of Italy's usually bustling city centres and Pope Francis praying for humanity in a deserted St Peter's Square.But the book also features other stories, covering the Black Lives Matter movement and the US presidential election, among other things."Usually books talk about the past, whether it be distant or recent," said ANSA President Giulio Anselmi."But these pages seek to give an account, as faithfully as possible, of a drama that is still taking place". (ANSA).

Japanese carmaker Honda Cars (HCIL) on Wednesday confirmed stopping production at its Greater Noida facility amid slowdown expected in the Indian passenger vehicle market. HCIL will now consolidate its manufacturing operation for vehicles and components at its Tapukara plant in Rajasthan for all domestic sales and exports.“Despite an uptick in sales in the last three months, the current market conditions remain unpredictable for the industry at large. The impact of COVID-19 has pressed us to strengthen our constitution, and to achieve the same, HCIL has decided to consolidate its manufacturing operations by making the Tapukara plant a unified manufacturing base,” said Gaku Nakanishi, President & CEO, HCIL.The decision by Honda comes at a time when the Indian Government has been aggressively trying to attract investment in the manufacturing sector and create jobs. According to reports, Honda employed about 2,000 workers in the manufacturing department of its oldest facility in Greater Noida that had the capacity to produce one lakh cars per annum.“HCIL continues to believe in the resilience of the Indian economy and hope for a quicker recovery of the market. India is an extremely important market in Honda’s global strategy and HCIL is committed to bring its latest and advanced technology models including electrified vehicles in future,” said Nakanishi.This is also not the first time when a foreign automaker has decided to realign its business in the Indian market. In recent times, Ford India also decided to form partnership with Mahindra & Mahindra while Volkswagen has put forward its Skoda brand to stay relevant here. American automaker General Motors, which ceased domestic operations in 2017, is expected to shutter its factory in Maharashtra this week.

With Flash expiring soon, what should I do to make sure my computer is safe?A: Adobe’s multimedia platform known as ‘Flash’ was an instrumental tool in the evolution of the Internet that brought animation and video capabilities to a text-based world.Some of the most amazing interactive experiences in the early days of the Internet were made possible by Flash – it was probably how you played your first web-based games – but in today’s world, it’s a huge security risk.At one point, it was so po[CENSORED]r that many scams were focused on tricking users into ‘updating’ Flash in order to see salacious videos, which was nothing more than a ploy to sneak malicious code onto your computer.Because of security concerns, most major browsers started disabling or blocking Flash content some time ago while the industry migrated to the more secure HTML5 standard for multimedia coding.Adobe’s support for Flash will end on December 31, 2020 and the Flash Player utility will start blocking Flash content after January 12, 2021.The major browsers will also completely disable Flash from running after the end of the year, so for all intents and purposes, it’s a dead technology.While there may still be some websites that you visit that require Flash to properly function, these should be older websites that likely haven’t been updated for years and likely won’t ever be updated.If you own a website that relies on Flash to properly render, it’s pretty obvious that you’ll need to update the code to reflect the current standards if you want it to be relevant to the rest of the world.Uninstall Flash PlayerDepending upon how old your current system is, you may have the Flash Player utility installed, which should be removed for security purposes.A quick search of your system for ‘Flash Player’ should tell you if the program is installed on either a Windows or macOS computer.If you find it on your Windows-based computer, you can properly remove it by downloading Adobe’s Flash Uninstaller utility for Windows.For macOS users, the uninstall tool will be based on the version of Apple’s operating system that you’re using, so you’ll want to start by determining which version you are running.To do this, click on the Apple icon in the upper left-hand corner, then on ‘About This Mac’ to show the exact version in numeric form (example: 10.14.6).Once you have that, you’ll need to download the uninstaller that’s designed for your version here.Blocking BrowsersYou really don’t need to do anything in your browser, unless you know you manually made Flash available, as they’ve been blocking it by default for some time now.In coming updates, the actual Flash plugin will be completely removed from your browser, so make sure you get the latest updates when they are made available.Old Flash-Based GamesOne of the few remaining uses of Flash/Shockwave was to play old-school web-based games that were developed back in the day.Fortunately, there’s a safer way to play these classic games using BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint web-based game preservation project.

Bosch is developing vehicle computers for all automotive applications.In modern cars, intelligence counts for a lot, and Bosch vehicle computers are there to provide it. These computers, the new all-rounders of automotive electronics, are incorporating ever more functions of individual control units into central, highly powerful electronic modules. For more than a year now, Bosch vehicle computers have been controlling functions such as driver assistance systems and motion in production vehicles. And soon, they will be joined by central computers for cockpit functions and body electronics. When it comes to vehicle computers, therefore, no other company can match Bosch’s broad portfolio, since the supplier of technology and services can offer production-ready computers for every aspect of modern vehicles. And business-wise as well, this is paying off.Bosch has now won orders worth several billion euros for its vehicle computers – 2.5 billion euros’ worth since last summer alone. “Vehicle computers have huge business potential for Bosch. Even now, our high-performance computers mean that automakers view us as one of their leading engineering and technology partners,” said Harald Kroeger, who sits on the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. Vehicle computers are central to Bosch’s efforts to extend its leading role in software-intensive electronic systems. The market for these systems is worth some 20 billion euros, and is set to grow 15 percent annually between now and 2030. To meet this demand, the new Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division and its 17,000 associates will start operations in January 2021. In this unit, Bosch is bringing together its hardware and software engineering for vehicle computers, sensors, and control units for all vehicle domains.Automotive electronics: getting fit for the futureIn the future, high-performance control units will be a must-have for all cars. These central nodes are where all the car’s “nerves” converge. Thanks to their prodigious computing power of several billion operations per second, central computers are even capable of processing the big data needed for automated driving, data-based services, and permanent software updates. According to McKinsey, software’s share in the value of a vehicle will rise from just 10 percent today to 30 percent in the future. This development underscores how important bits and bytes will be for vehicles in the future. And vehicle computers that can handle such software functions and data volumes will therefore soon be a standard feature in all vehicles, whether compacts, premium sedans, or 40-ton trucks. Bosch is developing computers for cockpit and connectivity functions, for driver assistance systems and automated driving, and for the powertrain and body electronics. This means it will be possible to concentrate control over all central vehicle functions in just a handful of high-performance central computers. Take the information domain computer Bosch is developing. In the next vehicle generation, it will assume the tasks done by as many as ten control units. Some vehicles now feature more than 100 control units in total, and this development will allow automakers to significantly reduce this number.“Vehicle computers are the key to significantly reducing the complexity of electronic systems, and to making them as secure as possible,” Kroeger said. Moreover, installing more central high-performance computers will save on wiring, and thus reduce cost, weight, and installation space.In the vanguard of automotive electronicsIn the years ahead, vehicle computers will be entrusted with tasks from different parts of the vehicle – or domains, as the experts call them. When this happens, just one central computer will be responsible for controlling not only vehicle motion, but also body electronics, say. Such central computers will then be all the more powerful: over the past 20 years, the computing power of a control unit originally intended for navigation has grown by a factor of 3,000. This is almost three times the increase predicted by Moore’s law, which states that computing power doubles every two years. The result is that a modern cockpit computer can control not only displays, infotainment, and voice commands, but also the tasks of other domains, such as certain assistance functions. “Bosch vehicle computers will make it possible to master even highly complex driving functions across individual vehicle domains,” said Dr. Mathias Pillin, who will be assuming the position of president of the new Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division from January 2021. The new division’s name is no coincidence. Here, under one roof, Bosch will be pooling its capabilities in software, electrical, and electronic engineering from the domains of driver assistance and automated driving, car multimedia, powertrain, and body electronics.Modular design offers business potentialBosch offers its vehicle computers as a scalable kit that contains the right electronic system, including hardware and software, for all requirements and conditions. The ultimate aim is a software and systems architecture for the entire vehicle, in which all central computers, sensors, and control units are perfectly compatible with each other. For automakers, the benefit of such a modular design is that it gives them extra flexibility when developing vehicle computers for different vehicle models. If, for example, a fundamental architecture has been defined for hardware and software, the computer can be designed along those lines, according to customer wishes.In the case of a premium vehicle, additional functions can be provided by adding extra software modules or special chips to the printed circuit boards. In the case of a compact vehicle, the structure of the vehicle computer can be modified so that it provides central control over basic safety-relevant functions. “Our modular design for vehicle computers and our broad portfolio mean that Bosch can cater to all automakers’ needs,” Pillin said. This design principle also means huge business potential for these high-performance computers, since it will allow Bosch to tap into an enormous market.

Patch 1.05 does not fix the consistent crashing issue that has been present on PS4 and PS5 since Cyberpunk 2077 launched. You can read more about that specific problem by clicking through here.Original Story: The pre-holidays patch that CD Projekt RED promised for Cyberpunk 2077 has just landed, weighing in at a rather large 17.5GB on PS4 (and PS5 via backwards compatibility). Update 1.05 is available to download now on Sony's systems, promising stability and performance improvements as well as bug fixes for major quests. Even the enemy AI has been improved, apparently.As recently reported, the PS4 version Cyberpunk 2077 will continue to be supported despite the fact that it has been delisted from the PlayStation Store. Users who bought the game and are unhappy with their purchase can request a full refund through PlayStation support.Jackie will no longer disappear in The Pickup or The Heist.Fixed an issue preventing players from landing the helicopter in Love like Fire.Fixed an issue with Takemura not calling in Play it Safe.It's no longer possible to trigger the same dialogue twice in Big in Japan.Fixed an issue with Delamain appearing upside down at the end of Don't Lose Your Mind.Saul now correctly reaches the van in Riders on the Storm.Fast travelling before the encounter with Tyger Claws no longer breaks progression in I Fought the Law.Fixed an issue blocking progress in Ghost Town if an autosave made upon Raffen Shiv's arrival was loaded.Fixed an issue with not receiving new calls or messages if Happy Together failed as a result of combat.Elizabeth Peralez stops being excessively insistent with her calls after her job offer is refused.The scene with Misty and Jackie now starts properly after leaving Viktor's clinic.Wakako's dialogues no longer get blocked after finishing Search and Destroy.Walking away from Stefan in Sweet Dreams shouldn't prevent other characters from calling you anymore.Brick’s detonator should now be properly interactable for players to disarm. Or set off. Your call.Elevator doors should now correctly open in The Heist.Saul now correctly gets out of cars in Riders on the Storm.Fixed an issue with not receiving new calls or messages after running too far away from Frank in War Pigs.Jackie now correctly leaves the factory after the combat is finished in The Pickup.Fixed an issue with Militech reinforcements not spawning if driving through the gate too fast in Forward to Death.Skipping time while in the club in Violence no longer results in issues with progression.Fixed issues with starting Gig: Getting Warmer...Fixed an issue with not receiving new calls or messages after Pyramid Song has been abandoned midway.Fixed an issue whereby Delamain core could be already broken when player enters the Core room in Don't Lose Your Mind.Fixed issues with Delamain not appearing or doing nothing outside the Afterlife in The Heist.Fixed an issue with objective getting stuck on "Talk to Viktor" in The Ripperdoc.Fixed an issue whereby it was impossible to talk to the bouncer in front of Lizzie's in The Information.Added description for Don't Lose Your Mind in the Journal.Fixed an issue preventing player from saving, using fast travels, and talking to other NPCs after reloading a save with an active call with Frank in War Pigs.Fixed an issue with Panam not calling about any other matter until I'll Fly Away is completed.Fixed an issue with Dum Dum following V after The Pickup is finished. Improved the reaction times of NPCs taking cover.Corrected the number of shots needed to kill civilians from a distance while in combat.VisualFixed an issue with Delamain's image displayed on top of the current caller during phone calls.V's mouth doesn't stay open after entering the space lock in Where is My Mind.Fixed some UI overlap issues.V appears more modest in the inventory preview after the half year montage.NPCs are faster to appear in the quest area during Stadium Love.Added some warmth to HDR.Fixed T-posing NPCs in Suspected Organized Crime Activity: Just Say No and Gig: Hot Merchandise.Fixed an issue whereby after a braindance it was possible to be stuck in 3rd person view with no head.Silencer icons are no longer displayed with no image in the inventory.UIFixed an issue with weapon crosshair persisting on screen.The inventory menu no longer closes immediately after opening it for the first time after leaving a car.Fixed an issue whereby upon accessing a fast travel terminal the button shown on the top right corner prompting to open the quest journal would not work.

BENGALURU: To hasten the announcement of results, the education department will start evaluation in a select few centres on May 21. Sources in the department said the plan is to complete evaluation of other papers before the Board conducts the English examination on June 18, although there is no official deadline. Supervisors appointed by the Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE), along with evaluation centre-in-charge officials, reported to duty at centres in Hubballi, Davanagere, Belagavi, Mangaluru, Mysuru and Bengaluru, last Saturday.Sources said the amount of time finally taken for evaluation depends on the number of answer scripts, and availability of evaluators to share the burden. As a rule, teachers are allowed to evaluate not more than 24 papers a day.The department is also decentralising the examination centres. “Previously, teachers were expected to go to a particular district to correct their subject papers. For instance, if Mysuru was the centre for evaluating the Economics paper, lecturers from Chamarajanagar, Mandya and Hassan were expected to travel and stay in Mysuru during the course of evaluation. However, this time, teachers are allowed to evaluate in their home districts.”An official will cross-check the marks and upload them on the system from the evaluation centre, the source added.The department has prepared a set of health guidelines for the safety of those involved in evaluation. Officials and staff are expected to get their own masks and sanitiser in transparent bottles, and sanitise their hands regularly. Exemptions are given as per the Covid-19 advisory by the government, and officials and personnel have to inform their higher ups if they live in containment areas. Those under home quarantine or having family members in quarantine, will also be exempted.Transfer PU lecturers now, not mid-year: Forum to govtThe Karnataka State Pre University Lecturers’ Association has written to S Suresh Kumar asking the government to transfer PU college lecturers before the end of May. In the letter, the members laid emphasis on the kin of lecturers, as in most cases, the transferred lecturers’ children find it difficult to join new educational institutions in the middle of the year.‘SSLC test of your efficiency too’Minister for primary and secondary education S Suresh Kumar has written to deputy directors of public instruction (DDPI), urging them to ensure that the exams are conducted with health measures in place. “Make students feel like they are writing the examination in a safe environment. SSLC is a test of your efficiency too,” he said. During his interaction, N S Shraddha Wodeyarapura, a student, said she could not watch DD Chandana as did not have a TV. The minister said he called up the Block Education Officer and asked him to make the necessary arrangements.

Today you are at your best as you might feel happy and at mental peace. You are likely to have a happening day with your friends and family. Bonding with the spouse is likely to increase, which may maintain harmony. Innovations may help your business to grow.VirgoToday you are going to begin your day with positive thoughts. You will be in the winning positions from your opponents and hidden enemies. Your work may be praised by your seniors and might get some new responsibilities in terms of promotions.LibraToday you are going to have a busy day in your personal life. To gain some profit you might explore your extra sources of income. Today you are going to find yourself interested in artefacts, movies, glamour which may improve your creativity. Students may now go ahead towards their aim in terms of career.ScorpioToday you are going to find yourself confused as you may have many options. You might plan to visit your elders for consulting them, before making any important decision. Today you should be careful about your parents' health.SagittariusToday your business plans might get successful and that too with the support of your subordinates. You may have short travels in terms of business and this will give you benefits in near future. You might get involved in social and family get-togethers, which might increase your social network.CapricornToday you may make good plans to get good gain from your investments. You may likely save money by avoiding spending on unnecessary stuff and this will boost your savings.AquariusToday you re going to find stuck at home solving issues related to your siblings or relatives. In the professional front, you may expect some support at work, which may run your work smoothly. Your network will help you in completing your task successfully. With the help of siblings and network, you may plan to start some new venture.PiscesToday you are going to feel low and this might affect your health.You might have a bad day at the professional front. From the late evening, disappointments may convert into happiness. You are advised to avoid rash driving or adventure tours.Posted By: Niharika Sanjeeiv

one could accuse Audi of scrimping on choice when it comes to the A3. Hatchback, saloon or cabriolet; petrol or diesel; plug-in hybrid with 201bhp or 242bhp; five trim levels; hot RS or warmed-over S… Save for a dog-friendly Avant in fuschia, there is literally something for everyone.The most recent to launch is this 40 TFSIe Sportback and the clue as to how this is partly powered lies in the ‘e’: electricity. Yes, this is a plug-in hybrid and has a 1.4-litre petrol engine producing 148bhp and an electric motor adding an additional 107bhp and 243lb ft. All in, it’s good for 201bhp and 258lb ft, the latter from a usefully low 1550rpm.The 0-62mph sprint takes 7.6sec, so not quite up there with the Mercedes-Benz A250e, but then the Merc does have more muscle, at 258bhp. A truer Audi rival to the Stuttgart car will arrive next year in the form of the 45 TFSIe.The Audi’s electric motor remains where it was on the last plug-in A3, integrated into the six-speed dual-clutch gearbox housing. Powering the front axle, either solely or in conjunction with the petrol engine, the electric motor on its own is good for an 87mph top speed and a range of up to 40 miles (our S line trim should manage 37 miles).The 13kWh battery is located under the back seat, but don’t go thinking that means the boot floor is at a normal height. The fuel tank has been shoved back there, so the boot remains an adequate but not cavernous 280 litres. For reference, the regular diesel A3 has 380 litres, thanks to a fuel-tank-free boot - quite the difference.Elsewhere inside, it’s the clichéd Audi design and build quality. There’s a touchscreen… obviously… but there is a physical button down by the stubby gearlever that lets you control volume, skip forward/back and mute. If I’m honest, I never used it. The steering wheel controls are far easier. Maybe the dashboard one is just for passengers.The heater is also controlled with buttons and the way they’ve crafted the screen, climate control buttons, vents and dials together is lovely. It’s a harmonious place to spend time and you can tell designers have obsessed over the little details. Even the door handles look crafted. The car starts automatically in electric mode. Although the claimed range is 37 miles, ours read only a theoretical 25 with a full battery. Maybe blame the time of year and the cold weather. However, in reality, we managed to eke out a couple of extra miles of electric only, so it wasn’t all bad news.AdvertisementFind an Autocar reviewLatest DrivesAudi A3 TFSIe 2020 UK first drive review - hero frontAudi A3 Sportback 40 TFSIe 2020 UK reviewMercedes S-Class S500 2020 (LHD) UK first drive review - hero frontMercedes-Benz S-Class S500 4Matic L 2020 UK reviewNissan GT-R Nismo 2020 UK first drive review - hero frontNissan GT-R Nismo 2020 UK reviewBMW 5 Series M550i 2020 UK first drive - hero frontBMW 5 Series M550i 2020 UK reviewDacia Sandero TCE 90 2021 UK first drive review - hero frontDacia Sandero 1.0 TCE 90 2020 UK reviewView all latest drivesBack to topThe electric motor is as you’d expect - smooth, full of torque and perfectly happy to live with other traffic up to the national speed limit. The regen braking is strong, but not so much that you can one-pedal this A3. You will need to touch the brakes.It’ll stay in EV mode under all but the hardest acceleration and, when the petrol engine is running, it does a really good job of filling in the torque gaps. This is not a slow car and feels faster than the 201bhp would suggest.When the battery does eventually run out, the petrol engine kicks in incredibly smoothly, to the point that you have to check whether the green EV dash light has gone out. So far, so good.Here’s the but. The smoothness of that electric motor does throw up a few issues. The first one is road noise. The A3’s tyres aren’t massive (225/40 R18) but the chunter you hear as the car passes over the UK’s broken Tarmac is in stark contrast to the whisper-quiet motor.The same criticism can be levelled at the ride quality. It’s not uncomfortable, per se, but the suspension bobbles away over sharp bumps. And we all know how many of those we’ve got on UK roads.In isolation, none of these is a huge issue. But combined, and given how smooth the powertrain is, it leaves the car feeling a bit confused as to what it really wants to be. So much is right with this A3. The design of the interior is spot on (leaving aside any gripes around a touchscreen) and the quality is as good as ever. Quite how Audi keeps turning out interiors like this is beyond comprehension.The way the plug-in hybrid integrates with the petrol engine is largely flawless as well, adding a useful element to an already impressive line-up of A3s. If only the ride and road noise could be improved: they’re too harsh for what is otherwise a relaxing car.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition (Android, iOS, PS4 [reviewed], Switch) Developer: Square Enix Publisher: Square Enix Released: August 27, 2020 MSRP: $29.99 Previously, on this review of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition, my Clavat caravaner completed his fourth year of travels, meeting some new friends and enemies along the way. And while his caravan is capable of holding three other adventurers, he completed his journeys alone. But riding solo on the road can get lonely, so for the second half of his quest to rid the world of miasma, he wanted to find a friend he could travel with.Oh, if only it were that simple.Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition My one goal for the second half of this Crystal Chronicles Remastered review was to team up with one or more players and tackle a few of these dungeons. I've read in other reviews the online co-op system is less than desirable, featuring several critical issues that negatively impact the experience. I wanted to see for myself if it really was this bad or if these reviewers were making a mountain out of a molehill.So at the first dungeon in my fifth year, I tried to team up with other players. A message popped up telling me this feature wasn't available. This was on Friday, August 28. I logged out of the game and jumped on Fall Guys to make sure it wasn't an issue with my internet. Having no problems connecting there, I jumped back onto Crystal Chronicles and tried to take it online again, and again the game told me the feature wasn't available. Rather than wait until it came back on, I decided to keep going with the game and try to connect with other players before going into each dungeon.So Friday night, I completed five dungeons without being able to connect. On Saturday, every time I tried to take my game online, I was greeted by the same message about the feature not being available. I logged on Twitter to see if it was undergoing maintenance, but there was no messaging about it. So once again, I was left to explore these dungeons solo. Finally, on Sunday, I accidentally beat the game. Seriously, I accidentally beat the game. I didn't even know the final dungeon was the final dungeon until some young girl started spouting some gibberish about memories like she fell out of the first draft of a Kingdom Hearts script. I had no intention of seeing those credits roll until I had a chance to try out co-op, but it just didn't happen. For three solid days, every time I attempted to connect, I was told the feature wasn't available. So I can't tell you what the online is like or confirm if it's as problematic as others say it is.What I can tell you is, as a solo adventure, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition is tedious. The fun I found in the first half of the game dissipated in the second half as enemies started soaking up damage when I returned to a dungeon for a third or fourth visit. Or, I'd find my way to a location I hadn't yet raided and absolutely decimate any monsters that opposed me. I was at once too strong and too weak to find an entertaining middle-ground.So, I beat the game by myself, never once able to connect with another player, making do with a control scheme envisioned for an entirely different input device, and I started to ask why this game was remastered rather than undergoing a full-fledged remake. Because this is a lousy choice for a remaster. Any other game in the Crystal Chronicles sub-series is a better candidate than this one as they don't have nearly the amount of baggage the original carries with it. Very few titles made the most out of the GameCube-Game Boy Advance link cable back in the early aughts. Besides The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure and Pac-Man Vs., most games used the cable to unlock content, or gave access to mini-games or rudimentary two-player modes. Crystal Chronicles, in its original iteration, was designed around the link cable. It wasn't an afterthought; it was the only thought. Square -- rather, The Game Designers Studio -- created a title where groups of players would travel from their hometown together as a caravan, a party system with real people. As an action RPG with a more-cumbersome-than-it-should-be menu system, having the Game Boy Advance act as your controller was vital to keep the action moving on the screen.When you remove that unique control setup, you're left with a game that really doesn't work without some massive changes. Playing solo and being able to pause the action whenever you go into your bag is a fine band-aid, but it's a non-starter for local co-op. The last thing you'd want is for everyone to stop playing while you fetch a striped apple out of your bag. The developers could have aimed for a split-screen option or reworked the controls so players wouldn't have to worry about diving into their bags so much, or I don't know, let us play with bots. But they didn't. Instead, local co-op was dropped, and there are no wireless co-op or LAN options, leaving players with an online mode that, from my experience, isn't available.I imagine Square Enix will get the online working consistently in due time, negating a huge chunk of this review. But even if it does someday become consistently available, I worry it won't greatly improve on the final product. Too much of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition is tied to an experience that is no longer available. The moment in time that made the GameCube original possible has long passed, and trying to capture that nostalgia with so many missing pieces, is a fool's errand.[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.] CPU: Info CPU SPEED: Dual Core CPU RAM: 4 GB OS: Microsoft Windows 7.1/8/8.1/10 VIDEO CARD: Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities PIXEL SHADER: 4.0 VERTEX SHADER: 4.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 3 GB

If the latest and last Opinion Poll is any indication, Labour Party will form a government in coalition with the Greens when counting ends on Saturday, October 17, 2020.Poll ResultsThe Colmar-Brunton Poll, conducted for TV One News, released at 6 pm, found Labour in a commanding position at 46%, although down by 1%. The Green Party has moved up (by 2%) to 8%, to secure 11 seats in the next Parliament.National Party, the main Opposition, dropped by 1% to 31%, securing 40 seats. Its main ally, ACT Party, remained steady at 8%, equating to 10 seats.New Zealand First edged up 1% to reach 3%, while New Conservative moved up by 1% to reach 2%.The Opportunities Party dropped to 1% (down 1%), Maori Party is at 1% and Advance New Zealand remains at 1%.The Poll was conducted between October 10 and 14, 2020. The Survey had 1005 eligible voters polled by landline (403) or mobile phone (602). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level. For Party Support, percentages were rounded up or down to whole numbers. The data has been weighted to align with Stats New Zealand po[CENSORED]tion counts for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and mobile or landline access. The Poll saw the biggest rise of the Green Party since 2017. Earlier this year, the Party was below the threshold of 5%. With tonight’s results, the Greens will be strong contenders to be Labour Party’s Coalition Partner in the next government.The Green Party has risen to its highest level since just before the last election. It comes after the party had earlier this year fallen below the 5% threshold line needed to get into Parliament. The result would mean the Greens would bring in 11 MPs into Parliament.The Party’s Co-Leader Marama Davidson said that the Poll was encouraging.It could bring in new MPs such as activist Teanau Tuiono, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, Auckland Action Against Poverty’s Ricardo Menéndez March and Greenpeace Campaigner Steve Abel.“It speaks to people understanding our plans and our vision. The stronger our party vote, is the bigger the chance of getting across a version of the six priority plans that we have put up,” she said. Ms Arden is the most preferred Prime Minister, with her rating rising to 55% (an increase of 5%), while Ms Collins fell to 20% (down by 3%) since the past week.TV One News said that Labour and National dipped slightly in the Poll, meaning that Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party must rely on the Greens to form a government.“Labour still has a strong lead of 15% over National. More than 1.5 million people have already cast their ballot but the Parties are scrambling to pick up votes before the booths close on Saturday night,” the TV Channel said.The results were released just an hour before the final TVNZ Leaders’ Debate between Ms Ardern and Ms Collins tonight (at 7 pm) on TV One.Party Leaders’ commentsMs Ardern said that she was pleased with the steady support that her Party was received.Commenting on the rise of the Green Party, she said that she “would not read too much into those numbers of the minor Parties.”Ms Collins dismissed the Poll saying that the only Poll that matters is the one on election night.“But people have been saying to me, ‘I want to help National, which way should I vote?’ Easy, just two ticks blue. I bank on undecided voters giving their votes to National. We just keep going and we keep being positive and we have an absolute chance,” she said.NZ First leader Winston Peters said that there was “a surge on” with the Party’s result increasing.“There is a whole lot of undecided voters. People need insurance so that the stability that we have had in the last three years, we will get for the next three years,” he said.ACT Leader David Seymour said that his Party was the best Party for holding them all accountable.“We have been the most principled opposition for the last three years,” he said.Details of the previous TV One News Colmar-Brunton Poll can be read here.

An increase of over 10% in the prevalence of hearing loss in the English over 50s may not be age-related, a new study by University of Manchester researchers has shown.Instead the study, published in BMC Geriatrics, found hearing loss could be linked to social and lifestyle differences in the north and south of the country.The 74,699 people with hearing loss interviewed in 8 waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2002–2017, analysed by the team had similar age profiles over time.The number of people with hearing loss increased by 10% over 15 years, however, the mean age of the people analysed stayed the same.However, over the same period, the samples had markedly different hearing outcomes in terms of where respondents lived. Deprivation and alcohol misuse related to hearing loss were much more prevalent in the north, suggesting a possible hearing north south divide.Dalia Tsimpida, who led the study, said a socio spatial approach is crucial for planning sustainable models of hearing care based on actual need, and for reducing hearing health inequalities.Local estimates of hearing loss prevalence in England are currently based on projected po[CENSORED]tion age demographics and audiological data solely collected from Nottingham and Southampton in the 1980s.However the study is the first to investigate geographical patterns and trends of hearing loss based on a representative cohort of older adults and not through po[CENSORED]tion age projections.“This study shows for the first time that the increasing trend in hearing loss prevalence is not related to the ageing of the po[CENSORED]tion, as widely believed, but potentially to social and lifestyle changesDailia TsimpidaMs Tsimpida, Research Associate in the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research said: “Hearing loss has been labelled as something which is more likely to affect the elderly. However, this study shows for the first time that the increasing trend in hearing loss prevalence is not related to the ageing of the po[CENSORED]tion, as widely believed, but potentially to social and lifestyle changes.“We don’t know why that might be – and this study does not and cannot imply a biological causality.“But nevertheless, this is a significant milestone in hearing research and a breakthrough that gives us considerable insight into what is actually happening.“The survey is representative of the English older po[CENSORED]tion; the findings provide a good representation for England as a whole.”Ms Tsimpida’s study is co-authored by her supervisors Dr Maria Panagioti, Professor Evangelos Kontopantelis and Professor Darren Ashcroft.The Research Associate in the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research added: “These findings have important implications for health policy and planning for health services in England based on actual needs and not on the age of the po[CENSORED]tions through projections.“People need to receive the full range of quality healthcare services that meet their needs; the current focus on age profiles alone is not suitable for planning sustainable models of hearing care.“The Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) who are currently responsible for the NHS audiology services in England should take into consideration socioeconomic factors and modifiable lifestyle behaviours for hearing loss, along with their spatial patterning in England.“More informed modelling may have influenced North Staffordshire CCG’s 2015 decision to cease the free provision of hearing aids for people with mild or moderate hearing loss: an area where hearing loss burden is now one of the greatest in England”.A copy of the paper Regional Patterns and Trends of Hearing Loss in England: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and Implications for Health Policy is

2021 will surely be an action-packed year for the Indian automobile industry. While several new car launches have already been planned, there are arrival rumours of some much-anticipated models. Aiming to the strengthen its market, Ford India is reported to bring in four new products including the Ranger Raptor double-cab performance pick-up, Foucs maxi hatchback, Focus ST hot hatch and new-generation Figo hatchback. One must note there is no official word on the same.The Ford Ranger Raptor pickup is one of the most capable off-roading models in the company’s global product lineup. Built on the ladder frame chassis, the performance-oriented pickup will be offered with a 2.0L, 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine that’s good enough for 213bhp and 500Nm. It will be matched to a 10-speed automatic gearbox, a Terrain Management system with 6 modes and 4WD drivetrian system. It’s likely to hit Indian roads in the second half of 2021. The American carmaker might also introduce the Focus and Focus ST in India sometime next year. In international markets, the Focus is being offered with multiple EcoBoost petrol and EcoBlue diesel engines. Here, the model might come with the 125PS, 1.0L, 3-cylinder EcoBoost petrol and 160PS, 2.0L turbo petrol engine options. Powering the Ford Focus ST will be a 2.3L turbo petrol unit that can be had with either a 6-speed manual or a 7-speed automatic gearbox. The motor has been tuned for making power worth 280PS and 420Nm of torque.The new-generation Ford Figo will arrive by the end of next year. If reports are to be believed, the hatchback might receive Mahindra’s new 1.2L mStallion turbocharged petrol engine with direct injected technology. The new gasoline unit delivers a peak power of 129bhp and 20Nm of torque. This will make it the most powerful petrol hatchback in the country. Significant changes will also be made inside and outside of the hatchback.

A security breach of Proctortrack, the software Western University uses to monitor student exams remotely, is adding new fuel to a debate raging on campus over privacy concerns about the program.Proctortrack allows students to be monitored to prevent cheating while they take exams at home using their own computers. The program is in widespread use at Western with most in-person exams all but impossible due to COVID-19 restrictions.To use the program, students set up an account and their identity is verified moments before they take the exam using face-recognition technology. The software uses the computer's camera to monitor the exam-taker and flag any behaviour that might be cheating, such as opening a web browser to research answers or get help from someone inside the room.On Thursday morning, students at Western's Ivey Business School received an email notifying them of a "data breach" at Proctortrack. The email said Western is seeking more details from the company, but "at this time, they have said there is no impact to Ivey students."Rahul Siddharth is CEO of Verificient technologies, the New York-based company that developed and licenses Proctortrack. He said the incident wasn't a "data breach" but a "security breach."He said on Wednesday one of the company's servers in Europe was accessed by a "prankster" who attained access by masquerading as a Verificient employee. The hacker contacted some Proctortrack clients and sent communications to them. Siddharth said the breach was caught within a few hours and the servers were quickly frozen."Our logs show there has been no data breach on the servers," said Siddharth in an interview with CBC News. "Student data has never left Canada. It's still on their servers. We just froze that data. Canadian students don't need to worry."In a statement emailed to students Thursday night, Western said Verificient told the university the company will suspend service for seven to 10 days while it reviews the breach."Western takes the data protection and privacy of its students very seriously and will not be proceeding with the use of Proctortrack until we are confident that it is safe to do so," Western's statement says.Student refuses to install software on computerCole Davison is one of the students in the Ivey program who received the email alert on Thursday. However, the data breach didn't affect him because he'd refused to download the software on his computer due to privacy concerns."It's disappointing that this happened," said Davison. "I want to know what data was leaked and how we can be impacted."He also said the company hasn't been upfront about the incident.A statement posted on Verificent's website announced a security breach, but didn't say which clients were affected."I don't think there's been enough transparency here," said Davison.Even if student data wasn't taken, the security breach will create headaches for Western in what has already been a topsy-turvy year trying to continue normal operations amid the pandemic.University of Regina students worried anti-cheating software will invade privacyConcerns over privacy and data collectionThe incident comes as some critics raise privacy concerns about the software. Some have expressed concern about allowing Proctortrack to access their computer's camera. They also wonder what happens to the data the company collects.Siddharth said data used to verify a user's identity before an exam is typically not kept more than 60 days afterward.Meanwhile, a petition continues to circulate calling on Western to stop using Proctortrack, something Davison supports.However, Siddharth said the software has allowed institutions like Western to maintain the integrity of their programs and keep them running during the pandemic."Without this kind of software, you'd have lives on hold," he said.

Ensuring high quality levels in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is critical to preventing underperformance and even safety risks. Benjamin Sternkopf, Ian Greory and David Prince of PI Berlin examine the prerequisites for finding the 'sweet spot' between a battery's cost, performance and lifetime.The proliferation of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in a wide range of applications has moved the technology clearly into the public eye. Debate about various battery types, their properties, cost and performance have become po[CENSORED]r topics in private and professional discussions.However, most of these discussions tend to put an excessive emphasis on the chemistry of the cells in the batteries. For example, whether a lithium iron phosphate battery is safer than a lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt battery. In truth, battery performance is affected by not just one, but up to five primary factors: cell chemistry, cell geometry, manufacturing quality, matching technology to application, and system integration.Cell chemistry is considered to be the “tip of the iceberg”. It is the most visible characteristic, but the actual performance of battery systems in real-world applications seldom depends to a large degree on the cell chemistry. More often it is one of the other five factors.Manufacturing quality is one of the most critical factors, but also least discussed. The cause for this is likely that cell chemistry and geometry can easily be discussed based on the multitude of information available in the public domain. Matching of the most suitable battery chemistry to the application is a topic that can be simulated and discussed with modern computing tools. Manufacturing and manufacturing quality, however, is typically an in-house secret of each manufacturer – and often exposes clear differences between manufacturers even when using the same chemistries. There is little incentive for manufacturers to have details about their manufacturing processes published in any form.What is a “battery energy storage system”?The term BESS, or battery energy storage system, refers to a system that is more than just a battery. For a battery to function efficiently it needs additional components. A BESS typically includes a power conversion system, otherwise known as an inverter, which includes bi-directional power electronics used to charge and discharge the battery simultaneously. A power control system informs the inverter when to charge and discharge batteries. Additional cooling and fire-fighting systems are installed to prevent and contain any thermal related events. And finally, auxiliary power supplies as well as a storage container are needed to support and house the overall system.Due to the complexity of a complete BESS, this article focuses on the batteries and their manufacturing only. For real-world projects, it is advised to keep in mind that the battery is only one part of the overall system. The other components and the interactions between them need to be evaluated with the same care to achieve high levels of BESS performance and safety. Before examining how battery cells are manufactured, it is good to understand how a battery rack is organised. Battery cells are similar in design to cell phone or laptop computer batteries, except that they are much larger. Cells are combined into a cell block using either a serial or parallel connection. Cell blocks are assembled into modules with communication ports to measure temperature and voltage. These modules are then connected within a rack, which provides the serial connection for battery modules. The battery rack will also include an upstream control system known as switchgear, which provides current sensors and communication protocols. It is important to note that this arrangement is based on IEC standard terminology and some may use different terminology.Design of a battery cellThe purpose of a battery is to move electrons from the anode to the cathode while discharging the battery. This is accomplished by having lithium-ions, positively charged particles, moving through a microporous separator that is filled with an electrolyte, which prevents the passage of electrons. This process is sandwiched between a negatively charged copper collector and a positively charged aluminum collector. It is important to have homogenous surfaces to allow the lithium-ions to pass through easily.Manufacturing of a batteryAt first glance, a battery has cells, modules and strings – which makes it similar to a PV panel. However, major differences become obvious when comparing the individual cells. A PV cell operates according to the quantum photovoltaic effect; a battery cell relies on chemical reactions. The operating principle of a battery is more like a chemical process engineering plant, and as a result the manufacturing processes differ significantly.Unlike PV cells, lithium-ion battery cells need to be monitored individually for voltage, current and temperature for safety and performance reasons. The quality and accuracy of the battery management system plays an equally important role in the performance and safety of the overall battery system. That means all processes related to the manufacturing of the corresponding electronics need to be managed similarly to the production of a PV inverter.Making a high performance, safe battery system is not rocket science, but it does require extensive diligence. The main challenge is in creating a three-dimensional structure (a round or prismatic cell) out of a largely two-dimensional structure (layers of foil).As an example, a common 50MWh BESS will have a surface area in the magnitude of 500,000 square meters (i.e. approximately 5,000,000 square feet) of electrode pairs. That’s equivalent to the area of 70 soccer fields. If the BESS were coupled to a 50MWp PV power plant, the surface area of the battery cells would be larger than the surface area of the PV panels charging them.To manufacture these cells, it is critical to create this surface with extreme precision. A common benchmark is that the maximum deviation of surface thickness should not exceed 1% to 2%. If a manufacturer exceeds this, the battery runs a higher risk of becoming a safety hazard and suffering accelerated performance degradation.The manufacturing of a battery can generally be separated into four major steps:1. Initial quality control and electrode production2. Cell stack assembly3. Drying, electrolyte filling, formatting, ageing, and sorting4. Assembling cells into a batteryCover Image: The manufacturing quality of lithium-ion batteries is a key determinant of lifetime performance. Image: PI Berlin.This is the opening extract of an article which appears in full in the latest edition of our quarterly technical journal, PV Tech Power (Vol.24), in 'Storage & Smart Power', the dedicated section contributed by the team at Energy-Storage.news. The full article looks at each of the different manufacturing steps in detail, as well as discussing other critical factors in decision-making such as warranties and testing. To download the entire article as an individual paper, or to subscribe to or download the entire 108-page book

In response to a federal policy that discourages the use of government aid, District 4 Councilmember Nancy Navarro and four Maryland legislatures hosted a family resource fair at the Wheaton Recreation Center on Dec. 7.The fair provided information to families about how to take advantage of the government, small business and nonprofit services in the county. It offered a food pantry, flu shots and medical screenings for attendees.Navarro joined with State Delegates Jared Solomon, Emily Shetty and Al Carr and District 18 state Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher to hold the fair in Wheaton. For her, the fair was an opportunity to show the value and purpose of the co-located library and recreation center, which opened in September.“Wheaton really is a microcosm of the world,” said Navarro. “We do have the highest percentage of the Latino po[CENSORED]tion in this area, and so it is so important to be able to bring information and resources to the community.”In 2017, the county executive office cited Wheaton as one of the six most food insecure areas in the county. Solomon was inspired to hold the fair to address the food insecurity in his district as the federal government raises restrictions on the resources it is willing to provide.“It started out making sure that people had the resources they needed to be able to get food on their tables for their kids and their families,” Solomon said, “families who may have a little bit of difficulty getting everything they need for the holidays.”On Dec. 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a proposal to mandate work requirements for able-bodied adults under the age of 50 without dependents to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program.The department predicts about 750,000 people will lose SNAP benefits as a result. It is expected to go into effect in April 2020.Amanda Nesher, food security program manager for the Montgomery County Food Council, hosted a table that offered a list of more than 70 food assistance providers such as the Manna Food Center or small churches that regularly give out free food.The fair included a pop-up food pantry, where attendees could pick up vegetables and canned goods. Jennifer Renkema, the director of the food pantry at Silver Spring Christian Reformed Church, suggested the pantry after learning about Solomon’s plans to hold the fair.“If they’re going to do a resource fair, they ought to have a food pantry,” Renkema said.The pantry partnered with Manna Food Center and the Capital Area Food Bank to carry food for at least 144 households at the fair.As a choice pantry, the pop-up allowed attendees to take whatever they like, however much they want. Choice pantries, Renkema said, reduce waste and provide dignity to families as they are allowed to choose what fits their own diets.“If you’re really struggling to make ends meet, don’t spend your money on food that you can get for free, and you can save that money for your electricity or your medicine,” Nesher said.The need for resources, Nesher said, comes from a number of reasons, such as limited English proficiency, a lack of transportation or immigration status, all of which make it challenging to get the help families in need to find food and housing.Nesher said that families also often do not believe they need food assistance programs. But if you’re skipping meals or exclusively eating fast food because it’s cheaper, that’s food insecurity.Along with SNAP, the Trump administration has also increased restrictions on green cards and zeroed in on undocumented immigration, discouraging immigrant communities from using government resources.“With all the hateful things coming out of Washington and all the scare tactics about the resources that are available,” Solomon said, “we wanted people to know that the resources are here, that they shouldn’t be afraid to use them.”Haja Cande, an attendee at the fair, hoped to talk to someone at the fair regarding housing, as being a homeowner was a “big goal” for her and her family. The fair’s resources did not disappoint.“I’m very much impressed,” Cande said. “Everyone has been just so amazingly wonderful, kind and open. This is something I’ll definitely come to again.”Solomon also encouraged families to register to vote and take census forms home to fill out, both of which were available at the fair.“The only way that we get the resources that we need for our community is by having a full and complete census, and making sure that people understand how important that is.”

GUANGZHOU, China, Oct. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The 128th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), also its second virtual showcase, kicks off on October 15. 26,000 exhibitors from 50 exhibition sections have brought more than 2.358 million products across 16 categories to the 10-day event, of which 691,500 products are making their debuts. Xu Bing, Spokesperson of the Canton Fair and Deputy Director General of China Foreign Trade Centre, said that against the backdrop of massive changes in economic development and pandemic control both domestically and internationally, Canton Fair will play its role as an open platform for businesses to access international markets and to facilitate the stability of foreign trade supply and industrial chain.Register at https://fbuyer.cantonfair.org.cn/en/account/new-buyer/registerfor more opportunities.This year's Canton Fair digital platform includes 60,000 booths showcasing cutting-edge products and future living scenarios enabled by innovative ideas and technologies. This e-platform also features exhibits, business match-making, virtual exhibition halls, live streams, news & events, services, cross-border e-commerce zone, to enable 24-hour visits and business negotiation.The Fair will introduce 120 live streams from over 100 leading Chinese companies, presenting the latest quality products that are the result of their constant commitment to innovation targeting to create a brighter future for all.In the kitchen appliance exhibition section, built-in, multi-functional household and kitchen appliances have adopted cutting-edge technologies to provide consumers with a friendly kitchen experience. At the same time, premium new products such as furniture, ceramics and carpets feature upgrades in functionality, materials, craftsmanship and style. These products can create a more comfortable, customizable and smarter lifestyle for global consumers.Sustainable development is another highlight of this year's Canton Fair. Companies in the textile exhibition section have applied advanced technology to use environmental-friendly recycled raw materials in their new fashion products, displaying their commitment to environmental protection.To help business find trading partners and target products without having to leave their home, Canton Fair will utilize its digital platform to connect suppliers and buyers with supporting services that cover product design and trade supporting, financial, logistics, inspection, certification and customs. By working together with its partners, Canton Fair will help global businesses do business just at their fingertips amid the current economic challenges.SOURCE Canton Fair