Navi Ceders

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51226066 It is no secret that Formula 1 racing is a polluting sport, or that its previous owner Bernie Ecclestone wasn't particularly interested in sustainability. But things have changed since the elite motor-racing series was taken over by US media giant Liberty Media in 2017. Last year F1 announced its first ever sustainability plan, with an ambitious goal to make itself "carbon neutral" by 2030. When I meet Yath Gangakumaran - the man responsible for leading the plan - at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he is keen to distance himself from sport's old guard, although he won't comment on Mr Ecclestone's tenure. "Up until 10-15 years ago sport wasn't run in a mature way - typically by ex-players not business professionals. It's become much more professional and is catching up with other industries, and that includes on sustainability." Formula 1's carbon footprint is "material", he says, but it has little to do with the cars, which are among the most fuel efficient on the planet thanks to their lightweight design and innovative hybrid engines. The main problem are the races themselves - 22 in total this year - which require large amounts of equipment, cars and people to be shipped around the world, often by aircraft. In 2019, the sport's 10 teams each notched up an average of 110,000 air miles. Then there is the huge amount of C02 emissions generated by F1's 500 million fans globally who will travel far and wide to see the sport. It makes the 2030 target seem wildly ambitious, but as F1's director of strategy Mr Gangakumaran is bullish: "There is no point just throwing out a target and having it as a marketing gimmick. Ultimately you will be held accountable, and so you should." The former Sky Sports executive, who is only 31, seems sincere, but there are parts of Formula 1's plan that raise questions. First to note is that the plan will only target emissions generated by the activities of the F1 business - which manages the series - and the individual teams who compete. That amounts to some 256,000 CO2 equivalent tonnes per year, according to Liberty Media, which calculated F1's carbon footprint for the first time ever last year. But the plan won't cover emissions generated by fans - the much bigger part of the problem. When they are accounted for, F1's footprint rises to some 1.9 million CO2 equivalent tonnes. "We think it is just too difficult to control what our fans do because they are ultimately their own custodians. So we think it is most appropriate and achievable to focus on what we do have control over," says Mr Gangakumaran. That said, Liberty will encourage fans to use public transport to get to Formula 1 events, or to offset their air travel if they fly. It has also pledged to make races sustainable by 2025, including banning single-use plastics. The sport will also continue to fly its operation around the world, and while Mr Gangakumaran says its absolute carbon footprint will decrease, it will have to rely on some carbon offsetting. This may anger the fiercest environmental campaigners, who view offsetting - for instance, by planting trees to compensate for your emissions - as a cop out. But Mr Gangakumaran says the business will keep it to a minimum and has to be realistic. "We are a global sport and we have fans around the world who want to see F1. That requires travel." The business also plans to spend more on transferring its own sustainable technologies to the wider world - something it has a strong record of. In its 70-year history, Formula 1 has pioneered ground-breaking aerodynamics and efficient brake systems that have found their way into everyday road cars. Other industries have benefited too. Take the way an F1-inspired aerofoil attached to chiller cabinets has cut refrigeration costs by about 15% in some supermarkets. The strip, the result of a collaboration between Williams Advanced Engineering and Aerofoil Energy, was rolled out by Sainsbury's across its 1,400 supermarkets and convenience stores in 2017. Professor Mark Jenkins, an F1 expert at Cranfield University, says Liberty Media's 2030 goal is highly ambitious and should be lauded. "But whether it is achievable is another question." He notes that Formula 1 has increased its number of races from 21 to 22 this year, while Mr Gangakumaran concedes there are plans for several more. Prof Jenkins says: "One of the obvious ways to reduce the carbon footprint would be reduce the number of races. But F1 also needs to increase its sales so there is a tension there." In addition, the sport will introduce a cost cap in 2022 as it looks to even out competition between teams. The three that dominate - Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari - will be hit the hardest. "It will limit what they can spend at a time when they are also being asked to become more sustainable. Is that really wise?" says Prof Jenkins. Liberty Media's contracts with its F1 teams are up for renewal at the end of this year. But Mr Gangakumaran says the firm is in advanced discussions and he is quietly confident the teams will re-sign. He adds that Liberty has factored in the growing number of races into its carbon reduction plan, and that there will only one or two more. Becoming more sustainable could actually save F1 money, he adds. All eyes will be on F1 as it works towards its goal. It also faces stiff competition in the sustainability stakes from events such as the World Cup, which could become carbon neutral by 2022. "You can't say anything is 100% but we wouldn't be putting these targets out there if they weren't ambitious enough or we didn't think we could achieve them," Mr Gangakumaran says. "Most importantly our fans are totally behind us on this."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59584975 US lawmakers investigating the January Capitol riot say they will hold former Trump chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in criminal contempt. The House Select Committee said it had "no choice" but to seek charges over his refusal to comply with its inquiry. Mr Meadows had previously provided the bipartisan panel with information, but said this week he would not co-operate. On Wednesday, he sued the committee members, seeking to nullify subpoenas they issued. The suit alleges that "overly broad and unduly burdensome" subpoenas sent to Mr Meadows violate legal protections for senior advisors to a president, and charge the committee with using excessively broad subpoenas to obtain his phone records. Mr Meadows will be the third ex-Trump aide to be held in contempt by the panel. In a letter sent to Mr Meadows on Tuesday, committee chairman Bennie G Thompson objected to Mr Meadows' argument that the information lawmakers wanted from him was protected by executive privilege - a legal principle that protects many White House communications from being shared. "There is no legitimate legal basis for Mr Meadows to refuse to cooperate with the Select Committee," wrote Mr Thompson, who is a Democratic representative for Mississippi. Mr Meadows had said initially he would appear before the House panel this week, and had already provided the committee with some 6,000 pages worth of documents, including messages from his personal phone. In one exchange from 6 November 2020, Mr Meadows discussed appointing alternate electors (people who cast the official votes for president) in certain states, which effectively undermined some of the presidential election results. "I love it," Mr Meadows wrote in a message to a Congress member. Also included in the text messages is an exchange "between Meadows and an organiser of the January 6th rally", Mr Thompson wrote. But after the committee said they would file formal criminal contempt charges, Mr Meadows filed a lawsuit against Mr Thompson, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans. Mr Meadows' about-face comes during the release of his memoir, which includes revelations about his former boss, particularly about the time Mr Trump had Covid-19. The disclosures have reportedly angered the former president. In his book, Mr Meadows wrote that Mr Trump was "mortified" by the events of 6 January. Donald Trump had urged his former aides to reject any requests to testify in front of the House panel, claiming executive privilege exempts them from cooperation. The House committee will next vote to hold Mr Meadows in contempt. If the House of Representatives upholds with charge, the case will be referred to the Justice department, which has the final say on bringing charges.

This week marks the beginning of Germany's biennial Internationale Automobil Austellung - or International Motor Show. Traditionally, it is a chance for the country to parade the enduring strength of its own car industry, while welcoming the biggest brands from around the world. But this year's event, held in the Bavarian city of Munich, promises to be very different. And that is not just because it is taking place as the pandemic still rages and the car industry appears to be an increasingly-tempting target for politicians keen to show off their environmental credentials. For a start, this year's show won't just be about cars. Organiser, the German Automotive Industry Association, insists the focus is instead being placed on 'climate neutral mobility'. The city of Munich itself will open up roads and public spaces to allow visitors to try out new concepts in sustainable transport. And cycling brands such as Specialized, Scott and Canyon will take their place in the exhibition halls alongside the likes of Porsche and Mercedes. When the Covid pandemic hit early last year, major international trade fairs such as the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the Geneva International Motor Show were cancelled at short notice. Such events, which brought together thousands of people from all around the world, were simply untenable during a period of lockdowns, closed borders and quarantine restrictions. Munich is the first attempt to re-establish a high-profile motor show in Europe. Indeed, it is the first major international event in Germany since the country eased its lockdown restrictions. But making a success of it won't be easy. That's because even before the pandemic, the future of the traditional auto industry showcase was already hanging in the balance. The last IAA was held in 2019. Back then, it was the Frankfurt Motor Show, an event held on a grand scale. Each of the three major German manufacturers had a giant pavilion pretty much to themselves. Further vast halls housed companies from across the globe - all with their no-expense-spared displays of four-wheeled fashion. But frankly, for anyone who attended, the event was a form of purgatory. The show was simply too big. It took 20 minutes simply to get from one end of the showground to the other. It was always hot, stuffy and very noisy - leaving attendees, like myself, with a thumping headache and impressive blisters. But more importantly, it was becoming far too expensive. A large stand at any of the international auto shows costs millions - and many of the major manufacturers have decided it's not worth the money. Big name absences became commonplace, both at Frankfurt and at the Paris Motor Show. By 2019, after an event that was - embarrassingly - disrupted by climate activists, the organisers decided it was time for a change. They ditched Frankfurt, which had hosted the show since the 1950s, and head to a new city. Munich, on the banks of the Isar river, was chosen - but then came Covid. The pandemic wreaked havoc within a motor industry that was already grappling with huge change. Governments, especially those in Europe, have been setting ambitious deadlines for eliminating the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. Emissions limits have been cut right back, and manufacturers have been rushing to develop electric vehicles. At the same time, the pressure is on to make cars ever more connected, and ever more automated. And all of that comes at a hefty price. Manufacturers were also facing mounting bills as a result of the pandemic. Initially, they were forced to close factories and dealerships; then disruptions to the supply chain made it hard to recover lost ground. What is happening in Munich this week, then, is an attempt to reinvent the motor show itself, at a time when many within the industry are questioning whether such events are luxuries they can no longer afford. "Put it this way", one executive recently told me, "if you've already set aside several million Euros to attend a show, then it's easy to get the board to sign off on it. But if that budget has been diverted elsewhere, it's very difficult to get it back". As a result, in Munich, many of the World's largest carmakers will be conspicuous by their absence. There will be no General Motors, no Ford, no Toyota, and no Stellantis, which makes Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall, Fiat and Alfa Romeo vehicles, among others. Instead, the line-up is dominated by the three big German makes, Volkswagen, Daimler-Benz and BMW. They'll be joined by Renault, Hyundai, the Chinese manufacturer Great Wall, and the luxury electric vehicle specialist Polestar. But the organisers insist this is not a problem. The focus of the show has been changed dramatically, from a petrolhead's dream of the latest, sleekest and fastest four-wheeled machinery, to something designed to encompass all aspects of mobility - with tech companies, startups and bicycle manufacturers also being invited in. "Mobility is one of society's foremost topics," explains Hildegard Mueller, the President of the German Automotive Industry Association "People all over the world are seeking better solutions to their mobility needs. The main focus will be solutions on the path to climate neutrality". But some things will not change. The manufacturers who are at the show are still planning to unveil plenty of new cars, though many of them will be electric; and we will still see plenty of futuristic 'concepts', fantasy cars created from the fevered imaginations of engineers given a licence to think big thoughts about the future. But the thing we're likely to hear less of this time is the 'sharing economy'. A few years ago, auto industry executives were convinced that fewer and fewer people would be buying private cars. Shared-use models would be all the rage, with people only using cars when they needed them. That idea hasn't wholly gone away - the rush to develop and commercialise self-driving taxis is still on, for example - but there's an acceptance too that the pandemic has made people aware that private transport does still retain some distinct advantages. Individual mobility has suddenly become a lot more valuable. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58457834

Existing vaccines should still protect people who contract the Omicron variant from severe Covid cases, a World Health Organization (WHO) official says. It comes as the first lab tests of the new variant in South Africa suggest it can partially evade the Pfizer jab. Researchers say there was a "very large drop" in how well the vaccine's antibodies neutralised the new strain. But the WHO's Dr Mike Ryan said there was no sign Omicron would be better at evading vaccines than other variants. "We have highly effective vaccines that have proved effective against all the variants so far, in terms of severe disease and hospitalisation, and there's no reason to expect that it wouldn't be so" for Omicron, Dr Ryan, the WHO's emergencies director, told AFP news agency. He said initial data suggested Omicron did not make people sicker than the Delta and other strains. "If anything, the direction is towards less severity," he said. The new South African study - which has not yet been peer-reviewed - found the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be up to 40 times less effective against Omicron than the original Covid strain. But Omicron's ability to escape vaccine antibodies is "incomplete", said Prof Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute, who led the research. He said the results, based on blood tests from 12 people, were "better than I expected of Omicron". Prof Sigal said vaccination, combined with previous infection, could still neutralise against the variant. That suggests boosters may bring a significant benefit. Scientists believe previous infection, followed by vaccination or a booster, is likely to increase the neutralisation level and will probably protect people against severe disease. More data on how well the Pfizer jab works against Omicron is expected to be released in the coming days. There is no significant data yet on how the Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and other jabs hold up against the new variant. Omicron is the most heavily mutated version of coronavirus found so far. It was first identified in South Africa, where there is now a surge in the number of people catching Covid multiple times. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said early signs suggested Omicron could be more transmissible than the current Delta strain. But Omicron's ability to cause severe disease is not yet clear. Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, said early evidence suggests Omicron could be more transmissible but less severe. There have been more than 267 million cases and more than five million deaths around the globe since the pandemic started in 2020, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Some drop-off is not surprising. The amount seen in this small study is in the ballpark of what scientists were expecting given the substantial mutations that Omicron has compared with original Covid that the vaccines were designed to fight. What these early lab results still can't tell us is what it truly means in terms of how well existing vaccines work in protecting people around the globe. Neutralising antibodies - which latch on to the virus to stop it infecting our cells - are just one part of the immune response to Covid. Jabs, or past infection, also trigger T cells that help protect us against the virus. The picture will become clearer in the coming weeks as we gather more data from around the world on how many people are catching Omicron, how sick they are getting and whether they were vaccinated or not. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59573037

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/realme-gt-2-pro-launch-announcement-december-9-specifications-features-snapdragon-8-gen-1-2641043 Realme GT 2 Pro announcement is taking place on Thursday, December 9, the Chinese company announced on Weibo on Tuesday. The new Realme phone is already confirmed to have Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC that was unveiled earlier this month. It is also claimed to be the company's “first-ever ultra-premium flagship” that could be designed to take on top-end models from companies including Xiaomi. The announcement may, however, not reveal complete details about the Realme GT 2 Pro and just give a glimpse of its features ahead of the official launch. Through a teaser posted on Weibo, Realme revealed the announcement date of the Realme GT 2 Pro. It does not clearly indicate anything on the launch plans, though Realme VP Madhav Sheth recently suggested a December announcement in the works.Realme may take some time in launching the Realme GT 2 Pro in the market, though the company is likely to reveal some of its details during the announcement planned for later this week. This move could particularly be planned to compete against Motorola that is launching the Moto Edge X30 in China on Thursday itself and is marketing the model as the first smartphone to come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. The Moto Edge X30 is also going on sale in the Chinese market later this month. In addition to Realme, Xiaomi is in the race of being the fastest manufacturer to launch its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 flagship under the Xiaomi 12 series. The Beijing-based company has, however, not yet revealed any exact launch details. The Realme GT 2 Pro is reportedly in plans to debut early next year. Meanwhile, some recent reports suggested that the phone may come with 125W fast charging and feature a 120Hz display. Some renders suggesting the design of the Realme GT 2 Pro also indicated that the phone may come with a vertical camera bar at the back.Official details about the Realme GT 2 Pro are yet to be announced. But in the meantime, we can expect some fresh teasers and marketing materials coming from Realme to create some hype before the formal launch.Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth joins Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast for an exclusive wide-ranging interview, as he talks about the 5G push, Make in India, Realme GT series and Book Slim, and how stores can improve their standing. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-software-modules-effective-excess-thermal.html After nearly two years of data collection and software development, EU-funded project, EMB3Rs, is almost ready to reveal the best ways that industry can re-use excess thermal energy. In October 2021, EMB3Rs partners from across Europe gathered in Portugal, at Lisbon-based Information Systems business, PDMFC, to learn how the platform's all-important software modules will be integrated to the open source tool. These modules will be crucial to mapping the supply and demand of thermal energy from different stakeholders and will also determine the cheapest option to connect potential users. PDMFC is responsible for integrating the modules to the platform and also ensuring the software interoperates seamlessly. As PDMFC researcher, David Fernandes, highlights: "Module integration is almost complete and soon, the user will be able to simply define their initial conditions and then receive a user-friendly result." EMB3Rs initially comprises four key modules that have been programmed to handle different types of energy-related technical and economic data. A GIS module will find the best and cheapest way to connect different heat sources and sinks while a Techno-Economic module can find the least cost option for using excess thermal energy across an entire energy supply chain. Meanwhile, the Market module calculates an overall economic analysis of a potential energy system, depending on market types such as centralized or peer-to-peer (P2P) conditions. And then a Business Model module will allow platform users to explore the financial, environmental and risk implications of any energy set-up. On top of these four energy data-crunching modules, a simulation manager module coordinates how the modules interoperate as a user runs his or her energy simulation while a reporter module organizes the output for the end-user. "The user will want to configure a simulation, run it and then examine the results without caring what has been going on between the platform and the modules," says Fernandes. To program the modules, partners from a range of case studies have been busy collecting vast amounts of project data from digging costs and energy flows to local energy tariffs and regulatory framework information. For example, industry-focused case studies, including an industrial park in Greece and cement plant in Portugal, have supplied data from potential providers and users of excess energy. Meanwhile, network-focused case studies have provided data from heating and cooling, and district heating networks, in Sweden, Portugal and the UK. In the final pieces of the data puzzle, a super-user case study from the Portuguese Energy Agency adene has provided data from hundreds of thousands of commercial building and households to explore what happens to the platform when a user wants to analyze massive volumes of data. And a market-focused case study from the Technical University of Denmark has collected data associated with P2P relationships between the different energy market players. Troubleshooting module communication At the time of writing, data collection and development of all software modules is complete, and PDMFC researchers have been working closely with developers to integrate all software to the EMB3Rs platform so that each module can analyze data in a standardized way. As Fernandes points out: "Integration is almost complete, but we only recently realized that the modules are all 'talking somewhat differently.'" "This is not a problem and we have been studying the inputs and outputs of the modules so we can find the middle-point between, say the techno-economic and market modules, to ensure processing takes place quickly," he adds. As part of these activities, Fernandes and colleagues have developed so-called wrappers that developers can add to their modules. These wrappers standardize the code for communication between modules to ensure seamless interactions between each other and the platform. However, according to Fernandes, standardizing communications between modules is not the biggest challenge that he and his PDM colleagues have faced. Instead, scaling the EMB3Rs platform to analyze more and more data for more and more users has been a trickier task. "It's one thing running one simulation at a time on a desktop but what if you have 100 or even 1000 simulations at any single time? This is when scalability becomes very important," he says. Fernandes and colleagues dealt with this issue by assessing how much processing power a module needed for any particular task. "Once we understood this we could see if there was any task that was stealing the available server resources," explains Fernandes. "Even once module integration is completely finished we'll continue to run more tests to work out how much we can scale platform simulations using a single server." In the future, more servers may be an option, but for the time being simulations continue apace. An initial platform simulation has already looked at the functions of each module using dummy data. And data analysis from EMB3Rs platform developer and partner, Portugal-based INEGI, has also confirmed that the data being generated by case studies is suitable for future platform simulations. "We've been testing the platform manually, step by step, but now we are working on automating the simulations so each module receives the inputs and provides the outputs that the user wants," says Fernandes. "This will take around a month but then the user will be able to 'click' a button and watch as everything happens." Hopes for industry Without a doubt EMB3Rs project partners are excited. For example, Aristotelis Botzios and George Goumas from the Greece-based Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) have been collecting heating and cooling data from businesses at the Volos Industrial Park in Greece and residents in the nearby town of Agios Georgios, since May 2020. Botzios and Goumas hope that future EMB3Rs simulations will confirm the economic and technical viability of their proposed heat-exchange system between the industrial park and town so they can then bid for pilot study funds from Greece's Energy and Environment Ministry. "Everything is going well so far," highlights Goumas. "We've had great results on the integration of our data and now we are looking forward to the simulation results." Botzios concurs, saying: "With these simulation results we'll get an idea of the size of works that needs to be done, cost information and also what sort of financial policy or subsidies that may be needed to make this all possible." "The EMB3Rs platform is going to be useful for any industrial park," he adds. "You'll be able to enter just basic data and see if your [project] is viable." Importantly for users, EMB3Rs has also been designed as a modular platform so in the future, software developers will be able to integrate additional, different modules to the open source tool. "I see EMB3Rs as the kind of platform that is going to grow," says Fernandes. "As more and more more people use it, then of course the tool will also grow in complexity but the platform is certainly stable enough for this growth to take place… this is a pretty interesting project for us."

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-starts-shipments-of-mi210-pcie-cards According to a tweet from an engineer working on the LUMI supercomputer, AMD has quietly begun shipments of its Instinct MI210 PCIe card for high-performance computing (HPC). The accelerator can be used inside both servers and workstations, and will compete against Nvidia's A100 PCIe as AMD's new flagship accelerator card. Perhaps the most interesting thing, however, is that AMD yet has to formally confirm the actual specifications of the product. From the tweet we can surmise that AMD has already started shipments of the Instinct MI210 PCIe cards to interested parties, according to George Markomanolis, an engineer from the CSC – IT Center for Science in Finland, where the 0.55 ExaFLOPS LUMI supercomputer is being built. Apparently, the MI210 has been announced at a live event, so it is only a matter of time before AMD releases its official specifications. As it turns out, the Instinct MI210 has little to do with the dual-GCD Instinct MI250X, according to George Markomanolis. The compute GPU card has 104 compute units, which translates into 6656 stream processors, and 64GB of HBM2e memory. Given the specifications of the product, it looks like it uses only one GCD and therefore is not meant to achieve extreme performance. Meanwhile, with 64GB of memory and CDNA 2 architecture, the MI210 can indeed offer a formidable combination of performance and capabilities compared to AMD’s own Instinct MI100 or Nvidia’s A100 PCIe cards. By contrast, the flagship Instinct MI250X accelerator with 128GB of HBM2e memory features 14,080 stream processors and 47.9 FP64 TFLOPS performance, comes in an open accelerator module (OAM) form-factor, and consumes up to 550W, according to rumors. At present it is impossible to tell how fast AMD's Instinct MI210 is. Meanwhile, it will certainly be interesting to see how AMD's MI210 stacks up against Nvidia's A100 PCIe GPU.

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Sony Group Corp.'s PlayStation division is planning a new subscription service to compete with rival Microsoft Corp.'s po[CENSORED]r Xbox Game Pass, according to people familiar with Sony's plans and documents reviewed by Bloomberg. The service, code-named Spartacus, will allow PlayStation owners to pay a monthly fee for access to a catalog of modern and classic games, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak to the press about the plans. The offering will likely be available on the smash hit PlayStation 4, which has sold more than 116 million units, and its elusive successor, the PlayStation 5, which launched more than a year ago but is still difficult to buy due to supply chain issues. When it launches, expected in the spring, the service will merge Sony's two existing subscription plans, PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. Currently, PlayStation Plus is required for most online multiplayer games and offers free monthly titles, while PlayStation Now allows users to stream or download older games. Documents reviewed by Bloomberg suggest that Sony plans to retain the PlayStation Plus branding but phase out PlayStation Now. Details on Spartacus may still not be finalized, but documentation reviewed by Bloomberg outlines a service with three tiers. The first would include existing PlayStation Plus benefits. The second would offer a large catalog of PlayStation 4 and, eventually, PlayStation 5 games. The third tier would add extended demos, game streaming and a library of classic PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP games. A representative for PlayStation didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Although the PlayStation has outsold the Xbox in recent years, Sony has lagged behind Microsoft on the subscription front. With this new structure, Sony will look to compete with an Xbox feature that has been po[CENSORED]r and lucrative. Microsoft's Game Pass, which is often dubbed the Netflix of video games, has more than 18 million subscribers. It allows users to pay $10 to $15 a month for unlimited access to several hundred games. Xbox has built its overall strategy around the service in recent years, putting all of its internally published games on Game Pass as soon as they're released. Xbox has also made big acquisitions, such as Bethesda Softworks last year for $7.5 billion, with the goal of bolstering the Game Pass library.Sony is also putting resources into expanding its efforts in cloud gaming, the people familiar with the plans said. Microsoft's xCloud game streaming service became widely available earlier this year. https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/playstation-subscription-service-spartacus-launch-ps-plus-now-xbox-game-pass-2636806

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-software-industrial-robots-sensitivity-precision.html Eureka Robotics, a tech spin-off from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), has developed a technology, called Dynamis, that makes industrial robots nimbler and almost as sensitive as human hands, able to mani[CENSORED]te tiny glass lenses, electronics components, or engine gears that are just millimeters in size without damaging them.This proprietary force feedback technology developed by NTU scientists was previously demonstrated by the Ikea Bot which assembled an Ikea chair in just 20 minutes. The breakthrough was first published in Science in 2018 and went viral on the internet when it could match the dexterity of human hands in assembling furniture. NTU Associate Professor Pham Quang Cuong, Co-founder of Eureka Robotics, said they have since upgraded the software technology, which will be made available for a large number of industrial robots worldwide by Denso Wave, a market leader in industrial robots, which is part of the Toyota Group. Clients purchasing the latest robots sold by Denso Wave will have an option to include this new technology as part of the force controller, which reads the force detected by a force sensor on the robot's wrist and applies force accordingly: Apply too little force and the items may not be assembled correctly while applying too much force could damage the items. Mastering touch sensitivity and dexterity like human hands has always been the holy grail for roboticists, says Assoc Prof Pham, as the programming of the force controller is extremely complicated, requiring long hours to perfect the grip just for a specific task. "Today, Dynamis has made it easy for anyone to program touch-sensitive tasks that are usually done by humans, such as assembly, fine mani[CENSORED]tion, polishing or sanding," explains Assoc Prof Pham, who is also the deputy director of the Robotics Research Centre at NTU's School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. "These tasks all share a common characteristic: the ability to maintain consistent contact with a surface. If our human hands are deprived of our touch sensitivity, such as when wearing a thick glove, we would find it very hard to put tiny Lego blocks together, much less assemble the tiny components of a car engine or of a camera used in our mobile phones."Hiroyasu Baba, FA/Robotics Business Unit Product Planning Department, Manager of Denso Wave, said: "Due to its high basic performance and openness, DENSO robots are the preferred choice by companies and universities with advanced initiatives in the field of robotics. NTU Singapore and Eureka Robotics have also been using DENSO robots for this reason. "Because of this relationship, joint development began naturally, and we were able to launch this product smoothly. The technology, which will be installed in DENSO robots, is a technology for force feedback, which is becoming more and more important in the practical use of robotics. Thanks to the development capabilities of Eureka Robotics, the system is advanced, yet easy to use and light enough to be integrated into our standard robot controllers."Known as Force Sensor Robust Compliance Control, the new software powered by Dynamis requires only a single parameter to be set—which is stiffness of the contact, whether it is soft, medium, or hard. Despite its simple set-up, it has been shown to out-perform conventional robotic controllers which required an enormous amount of expertise and time to fine-tune. Dynamis is a complex artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm developed by Assoc Prof Pham and his former Ph.D. student, now Co-founder and CTO of Eureka Robotics, Dr. Hung Pham. This backbone technology was further improved and was first deployed in Eureka's custom-built robots, such as Archimedes, which can handle fragile optical lenses and mirrors with human-like dexterity, now used by multiple companies worldwide. Current robots in the market have either high accuracy but low agility (where robots perform the same movements repeatedly such as in a car factory), or low accuracy but high agility (such as robots handling packages of different sizes in logistics). By deploying this technology, robotics engineers can now imbue robots with both High Accuracy and High Agility (HAHA) on a large scale, paving the way for industrial applications that were previously very difficult or impossible to implement, such as handling and assembly of delicate, fragile objects such as optical lenses, electronics components, or engine gears. To be equipped with the Force Sensor Robust Compliance Control capability, the large number of robots already running on Denso Wave's RC8 controllers will only be required to perform a simple software update from December 2021 onwards, while newly shipped RC8 controllers will come packed with the software available for activation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59514800 Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global has announced plans to take its shares off the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and move its listing to Hong Kong. The firm has come under intense pressure since its US debut in July. Within days of the initial public offering (IPO) Beijing announced a crackdown on technology companies listing overseas. Earlier on Thursday the US market watchdog unveiled tough new rules for Chinese firms that list in America. "Following careful research, the company will immediately start delisting on the New York stock exchange and start preparations for listing in Hong Kong," the company said on its account on Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging network. In a separate English language statement Didi said its board had approved the move, adding: "The company will organise a shareholders meeting to vote on the above matter at an appropriate time in the future, following necessary procedures." At the end of June, Didi - China's answer to Uber - raised $4.4bn (£3.3bn) in its New York IPO. However, trading was muted on the first day as investors weighed concerns over tensions between Washington and Beijing, and issues raised by US regulators over some Chinese firms' financial reports. Within days China's internet regulator ordered online stores not to offer Didi's app, saying it illegally collected users' personal data. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it was investigating the firm to protect "national security and the public interest". In response Didi said in a statement: "The company will strive to rectify any problems, improve its risk prevention awareness and technological capabilities, protect users' privacy and data security, and continue to provide secure and convenient services to its users." Didi also warned that the removal of its app from Chinese stores would have an adverse impact on its revenues. Like many other Chinese technology companies Didi has also come under pressure from regulators in the US and Europe. On Thursday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said it had finalised rules that would mean US-listed foreign companies can be delisted if their auditors do not comply with requests for information from regulators. The law was passed in 2020 after Chinese regulators repeatedly denied requests from US authorities to inspect the the accounts of Chinese firms that list and trade in the US. Meanwhile in August, a company source told the BBC that it had halted plans to launch in the UK and continental Europe. It had been planning to roll out services in Western Europe, including major British cities. Japan's SoftBank is Didi's largest single investor with a stake of more than 20%. It is also backed by Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent. Uber also owns a stake in the firm as a result of Didi taking over Uber China in 2016. Didi Global shares have lost more than 40% of their value since their US market debut. From Alibaba to Tencent, Chinese technology companies have been under scrutiny at home and abroad. The country's ride-hailing giant Didi has been at odds with Chinese regulators for months. It shocked investors when Beijing removed Didi from app stores just a few days after the firm went public on Wall Street in late June, accusing it of violating data security rule. Beijing has also announced rules to protect the rights of the millions of ride-hailing drivers, in a move aimed to underpin the sector's growth. But Chinese companies have also been closely watched by American regulators. Didi said it is preparing to list in Hong Kong, and shareholders of its US listed shares will be able to convert their holdings to those on another stock exchange. The company is also preparing to relaunch its apps in China by the end of the year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59093300 Swedish car company Volvo is now valued at more than $22bn (£16bn) after its shares jumped in the first hours of trading of its market debut. Volvo, majority-owned by Chinese firm Geely, offered up shares in a slice of the company on the Stockholm stock exchange on Friday. Shares jumped from an initial 53 Swedish crowns to 65 crowns on Friday. Volvo boss Hakan Samuelsson said funds from the float would help it achieve its goal to be fully electric by 2030. US automotive giant Ford sold Volvo to Geely for $1.8bn in 2010, which helped turn around the Gothenburg-based brand's fortunes as it rode the wave of po[CENSORED]rity of SUVs. Geely will remain the largest single shareholder in the carmaker after the public listing. "Our industry is changing and we strive to lead that transformation. That is why Volvo Cars has an ambitious strategy to become fully electric by 2030," Mr Samuelsson said on Friday. "Today's listing will help us get there," he added. Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets, said: "Volvo's stronger-than-expected first day of trading illustrated that there was good investor demand for the company's electric vehicles plan. "That being said, the initial valuation was at the lower end of estimates, largely over concerns about the global semiconductor shortage.". He said Volvo's valuation was "pretty decent, even if it does pale into insignificance when compared to Tesla".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59528857 Brazil's Supreme Court has opened an inquiry into comments made by President Jair Bolsonaro wrongly claiming that Covid-19 vaccines may increase the chance of contracting Aids. The comments, made during a social media livestream in October saw him temporarily banned from Facebook and YouTube under their fake news policies. Mr Bolsonaro has frequently cast doubt over the effectiveness of vaccines. He is already facing a separate inquiry into his handling of the pandemic. During the livestream on 24 October, Mr Bolsonaro claimed that reports "suggest that people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are developing Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids) much faster than expected". The assertion has been strongly rejected by scientists and medical experts. The embattled president, who has refused to get vaccinated himself, has defended the comments and claimed that he was simply quoting from an article in a magazine.On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Mr Bolsonaro had "used the modus operandi of mass dissemination schemes in social networks" which called for further investigation. Mr de Moraes instructed Brazil's top prosecutor, Augusto Aras, to try to establish whether the president's comments are linked to a group of his supporters who are currently being investigated for the large-scale production of fake news. The group, known in local media as the Office of Hate, has spread misinformation throughout the pandemic and has called for a military coup that would give Mr Bolsonaro, a former army captain, unlimited powers to rule the country. Investigations into the group have already seen the arrest of a number of the president's allies, including Roberto Jefferson, the head of the right-wing Brazilian Labour Party. Mr Bolsonaro has come under heavy pressure in recent months and faced a number of political crises that have dented his po[CENSORED]rity. In October, Brazilian senators voted to recommend charging him over his response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A special Senate investigative panel backed a report calling for charges to be filed against the president, including crimes against humanity. Mr Bolsonaro has maintained he is "guilty of absolutely nothing". Brazil's death toll from Covid-19 is the second highest in the world, behind the United States. More than 615,000 people have died, and 22.1 million have been infected with the virus, although there are fears the true numbers are far higher. In March, as deaths spiked, the president told Brazilians to "stop whining" and downplayed the threat of the virus, as the health system was crippled by the crisis.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59462585 The Omicron variant could add pressure to a chronic shortage of microchips used in car manufacturing, the boss of car giant Nissan has warned. Makoto Uchida said it was too early to say when normal deliveries, and therefore finished cars, would resume. "I can't give you a date. This new variant could add pressure to that, so how well we react is going to be crucial," he told the BBC. Products from cars, washing machines and smartphones rely on computer chips. Some factories had to close when the pandemic first struck in 2020, leading to a backlog in production in microchips, also known as semiconductors. The impact was exacerbated by soaring demand, with people working from home needing laptops, tablets and webcams to help them do their jobs. "We have a semiconductor shortage as an industry and how we recover from that is critical," Mr Uchida told the BBC. Japan has banned incoming flights from abroad in response to the international alarm over the omicron variant first detected in South Africa. Mr Uchida's comments come as Nissan announced its vehicle electrification strategy, which includes the proposed introduction of 23 electrified models by 2030, and the ambition that by 2026, 75% of the companies European sales will be electric vehicles. Earlier this year, Nissan announced a £1bn investment to turn its Sunderland plant in the UK into a hub for electric vehicle production. Its targets for China and the US are much less ambitious. Nissan hopes that 40% of the cars it sells in China will be electric or hybrid by 2026, while it only expects to hit that same proportion in the US by 2030 given slower consumer take-up. The company did not set a target date for the elimination of combustion engines. At the recent COP26 climate summit, Nissan, along with Toyota, VW and BMW, refused to join Ford and Volvo in signing a pledge to phase them out by 2040. Nissan is also investing more money in developing solid state batteries, which the industry hopes will ultimately prove more efficient than the current industry standard lithium-ion batteries. Mr Uchida said Nissan remained committed to its alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi, which was the brainchild of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn who is now living in exile in Beirut having been smuggled out of Japan while awaiting criminal prosecution on charges of financial crime. Mr Ghosn strenuously denies the charges.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59503517 Health officials say the new coronavirus variant Omicron has now become dominant in South Africa and is driving a sharp increase in new infections. Some 8,500 new Covid infections were registered in the latest daily figures. That is almost double the 4,300 cases confirmed the previous day. Omicron has now been detected in at least 24 countries around the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). South Africa was the first country to detect the highly mutated new variant. Its National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has said more than 70% of all the virus genomes it sequenced last month have been of the new variant. India, Ghana, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the latest countries to have confirmed their first cases of Omicron. Others including the UK, US and Germany have also seen people infected by the new variant. Many questions about Omicron remain to be answered, including how much protection current vaccines provide. The WHO has categorised it as a "variant of concern", and says early evidence suggests it has a higher re-infection risk. Earlier this week, countries around the world restricted travel from southern Africa as details of the spread emerged. This prompted South Africa's foreign ministry to complain that it was being punished - instead of applauded - for discovering Omicron. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa also said he was "deeply disappointed" by the travel bans, which he described as being unjustified. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later warned that blanket Covid measures were penalising southern Africa. The rate of new infection is expected to increase in what is now the beginning of the fourth wave in South Africa, and the national health department says there has also been a slight increase in hospital admissions. As with previous variants, the full picture will not become clear until "people get so sick that they need to go to hospital" which is generally "three, four weeks later," says Prof Salim Abdool Karim of the Africa Task Force for Coronavirus. "But the feedback we're getting from the ground is that there's really no red flags - we're not seeing anything dramatically different, what we're seeing is what we are used to," he told the BBC's Newsday programme. Most of the people who have been hospitalised in South Africa had not been vaccinated against coronavirus, according to the NICD. There are no vaccine shortages in the country, and Mr Ramaphosa has urged more people to get jabbed, saying this remains the best way to fight the virus. About 36% of South African adults have so far been fully vaccinated - far more than the 6% average recorded across the African continent as of October, but lower than the latest European average of 54%.