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Google Pixel Phone Deals: Score Unbeatable Prices with Seasonal DiscountsIn this podcast, Motley Fool analyst Tim Beyers and host Dylan Lewis discuss: Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's stepping down and why "GPU" was the key focus of his time at the helm of the company. The multiyear planning cycle that goes into chipmaking, and why we may wind up praising Gelsinger's investment in the foundry business several years from now. How Fastly will have one fewer name to compete with in the content delivery network market, but why it might spell trouble for the business long-term. Then Motley Fool host Ricky Mulvey talks with Dave Hatter, a cybersecurity consultant at Intrust IT, about the "surveillance capitalism model" and where your digital data winds up. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center . To get started investing, check out our beginner's guide to investing in stocks . A full transcript follows the video. This video was recorded on Dec. 02, 2024. Dylan Lewis: The mess at Intel gets messier. Motley Fool Money starts now. I'm Dylan Lewis, and I'm joined over the airwaves by Motley Fool Analyst Tim Beyers. Tim, thanks for joining me. First day back from the Thanksgiving holiday. Tim Beyers: Good to be back. Non-caffeinated today. It's a hot chocolate day, but it's the season. Why not? Dylan Lewis: I would say sugar has its own punch to it. You have some hot cocoa over there. You're getting yourself ready for the holidays. We are back to work today from the holiday break. Over at Intel, CEO Patrick Gelsinger getting ready to step aside, and the chief executive announced that he will be stepping down, ending what I think was probably a pretty disappointing run for a lot of Intel shareholders. A lot of people who, Tim, were looking for this tech giant to really rebound and become a major player in the chip game again. Tim Beyers: I'm a little sad because Patrick Gelsinger is eminently qualified to be CEO of Intel. He is in some ways an Intel lifer. Now, I did leave the company for a period of time, but he has a very long history. He has a technical background. He has lots of semiconductor engineering credentials, and he was coming back with the promise of reestablishing Intel as if not a dominant player, a highly performing player in the chip market, particularly in the server market. That did not happen, Dylan. Over the course of his tenure, AMD has grown its share in the data center, and Nvidia has absolutely exploded it's share. If you wanted to sum up the Intel problem in one word, it would actually be an acronym, and it would be this GPU. It would be graphics processing units because AMD has them. They're nowhere near where Nvidia is, and Nvidia is dominant in them and GPUs have been crucial over the development of high performance computing, particularly in the Data Center over the past several years, and Intel they are a competitor in the server space. It's not like they aren't. They've always been. But they used to be dominant, Dylan and Gelsinger didn't get them back to where they had been, and he really hadn't gotten them close. It's been one of those maybe, like, what could have been type of stories. Dylan Lewis: I want to rewind the clock to early 2021 when he took the CEO role. I went and found the press release that Intel put out when they announced he'd be stepping into that chief executive position. Here's what they said that they were expecting from him. Strong execution on Intel's strategy to build on its product leadership and take advantage of the significant opportunities ahead as it continues to transform from a CPU to a multi architecture XPU company. Tim, we've had three years now to see this play out. There are a lot of things that have gone on in those three years that were outside of management's control, but focusing specifically on what the board was looking for them to do. What do you think about the job that he did? Tim Beyers: I think you have to say two things can be true here. Intel does have more chip sets, more designs outside of its purely traditional x86 CPU chip sets. It does have that. They are starting to compete in some other areas. But have they been successful? Not really. They are still largely driven by the CPU business or what they call the client business and to be honest here, the client computing group, so these are two, three numbers here. In the data center business, that revenue was up, 9%. The client business was down 7%, but just as a total of all products, so 12.2 billion during the quarter, 7.3 billion of that, is the client computing group. It is overwhelmingly, Dylan, the dominant piece of the business. I think if you're measuring what the board asked for, one way to measure it isn't just the number of products, but, like, could you diversify the revenue? Could you get us a bigger share of the data center? I think the answer to that is largely no, even though I think you can fairly concede that Intel is still very much a player in the data center, but it is largely a two horse race for dominance between Nvidia and AMD, and Intel is lagging in third at best. Dylan Lewis: That lagging position has put them in a tough spot both in the marketplace and when it comes to their own financials. You look at their business year over year under the Gelsinger regime, year over year revenue declines in 2022 and 2023 gross profit, less than half of what it was when he took over, he inherited a company making $20 billion in net income and in free cash flow in 2020. Now that business is in the red, there are the natural shifts that happen as a business gets out there and as new tailwinds take over an industry, how much of this do you feel like really sits at his feet versus the very difficult job of moving a humongous ship like Intel and course correcting as the market changes? Tim Beyers: You can't put it all on Patrick Gelsinger and there's a simple reason for that, is that semiconductors is not just a cyclical business, Dylan, it is a roadmap business. You have chip designs that are scheduled like five, six years out. In some ways, Gelsinger comes in, and he is executing on a roadmap that had been established years before he even got there. You can't put it all at his feet and three years is nowhere near enough time. By the way, in the middle of this, I know we're going to talk about it, the foundry business becomes a much bigger part of the story. That's right in the middle of his reign. No, this is not all at his feet, but you only get a certain amount of time, and you do need to figure out how to make your existing product designs more attractive to get what are called design wins. You want to get real design wins in the most advanced servers that are going into the most advanced data centers, and they just weren't doing that. They were really getting out competed by AMD and Nvidia in that part of the business. But I do want to park just for a second on foundry, and we can follow up on this. Those numbers that you cited, it is true that, they have gone from highly profitable to now they are struggling for any profit. The cash flow is not what it once was. They are investing. They've had to invest in new areas of growth and the Number 1 area they're investing in is foundry, and that is incredibly expensive, and it's going to take a long period of time. I do give Gelsinger credit for recognizing that we have to be in this business, and we have to use third party tools. For a long time, Intel ate all of its own cooking in building chips, in placing chips in machines. It was a highly vertically integrated business and the industry moved on to a company you probably have heard of, Taiwan Semiconductor . Some of their own advanced equipment that they were using from, like, ASML , in the Netherlands for extreme ultraviolet lithography. The industry standard, a value chain for creating the most advanced chip sets was evolving outside of Intel, and Intel wasn't leaning into that. Gelsinger deserves credit for saying, look, we have to stop eating just all of our own cooking, and we have to look to where the industry is moving and making moves to take advantage of where things we haven't invented could benefit us and our customers. I think what you said before about turning the Titanic is right. This is like turning the Titanic. You really are. You're turning a ship that is massive, just in terms of what it is and it was headed for an iceberg, and it probably has grazed the iceberg, but we're not going to know if it's going to get to safe shores for a while. Unfortunately, Gelsinger is not going to get to see whether or not it happens, except as an outsider. Dylan Lewis: Well, next up at the wheel will be co-CEOs in the interim, David Zinsner, the CFO of the company, and MJ Holthaus, the general manager of their client computing group. As you noted, you don't just get to set the agenda. You inherit the roadmap that had been set out before you and back in September, Gelsinger had laid out the plan for Intel. Building on the momentum of foundry, creating a more competitive cost structure, delivering savings, refocusing on the strong x86 franchise and building out their AI strategy. Do you still feel like that is the agenda for Intel, or are you expecting a major course correction from the interim CEOs that we see? Tim Beyers: I wouldn't be surprised if there's some big shift of dollars toward making bigger investments in GPUs. But I would be surprised if a lot of that changes. They really need to double down and get better with the x86 architecture, because x86 is everywhere, and so much software is built on x86. Remember, they're not doing x86 alone. AMD is a big proponent of x86. Together, they started a consortium. That has a lot of the major computer makers involved in this, Dylan to improve how x86 works in systems, how you encode for x86. That'll be interesting. We'll see if something comes of that to make better x86 chips, but I do think we'll see more of that. But the big one is going to be foundry. Neither of these two is going to back off the foundry business. That is going to be the major area of investment because it's been absolutely nowhere in delivering for Intel as a company. It will be Gelsinger set it up as we are going to make this an independent subsidiary of Intel. That's going to happen, no matter who comes in. That's going to happen because it must happen. If you want to compete to manufacture chips, you must be an independent provider. Intel is doing that. They're going to make the chip foundry an independent provider, and they are investing heavily to create the most advanced manufacturing processes they can create inside those factories. What they call it is 18A. In other words, manufacturing at 1.8 nanometers, which is for perspective- Dylan Lewis: Quite small. Tim Beyers: Really small. That's super advanced chip sets. But they just don't have the customers there yet, but they do have a signature customer in AWS. They've got a signature customer. They've got these investments. That is a bet that they just need to see that out. I do like that we're going to see the CFO here because there's going to be a lot of smart capital allocation required. That's going to be step 1 to getting on the right path here in the post-Gelsinger era. Dylan Lewis: We're going to stay in the lane of tech, and I'm thrilled that we have a Tech 2 for here with you on the show today, Tim. Shares of Fastly up over 20% in the past week largely on the news that competitor Edgio has filed for bankruptcy, which leaves Fastly and competitor Akamai as two of the main players in the content delivery network space. This is not exactly a market I am super familiar with, but Tim, I know that this is a company you follow relatively closely. What do you make of this news with a competitor going away and maybe there being a little bit more of that pie for Fastly? Tim Beyers: It had to happen. I really know nothing about Edgio, but this is a bare knuckles, low margin. It's a terrible business. It really is, Dylan, let's be honest. We can be real here. This is a terrible business. Fastly, when I had made an initial recommendation of this, it wasn't because this business was great, the core business. It's that they were moving to another business that was higher margin where it looked like they had an advantage and I was stone cold wrong about that. They've really been struggling since. Seeing the market shrink because it's a bad, low margin market is, that's objectively good for Fastly. It's good for Akamai. Where does this leave them? It probably leaves them picking up scraps that are low margin scraps, but maybe gives them a slight edge in pricing power because there are fewer providers now. One way to get pricing power is your competitors go away and leave you as the sole supplier. They won't be. Akamai is a huge company. But it does give them a little bit of an advantage. To just explain what content delivery is. A content delivery network is the road network. It's the super highway above the streets. If the streets is the core Internet, the super highway is the content delivery network. You get places faster because you get on the on ramp, and boom, off you go, no more stoplights. That's what a content delivery network is and Fastly is very good at this. They don't have many of these super highway networks, but they have enough, and they do have some good customers who have been with them for a while. But you might imagine that super highways and toll roads are like, that's great. If you can get people on the toll roads, you just can't charge very much for the toll roads. It's a low margin business. What you want to do is have stops or ways to take it at, like, special tunnels or through ways that people can pay a lot extra to go through. That's what Fastly was trying to do with what's called edge computing. They haven't got there yet. Akamai is a specialist in these super highways. They do some other things as well. They're a big company. They're growing slower. It's the first company I recommended in Motley Fool Rule Breakers. I'm sad to say I gave up on it way too soon. The first recommendation was a winner. The second one wasn't, and I don't own it anymore. But it's the first real winner I had at The Fool, Dylan, so I'm glad to see they're still around. Dylan Lewis: Tim, having just driven from Washington, DC to New Jersey for the holidays, I will contend that there is a business in super fast highway tolls. Maybe just not digital ones. Paying plenty to make that trip. But as you know, it's a much lower margin business on the digital side. I think one interesting wrinkle for me with this is I understand some of the enthusiasm for Fastly shareholders. Tim Beyers: Sure. Dylan Lewis: But Akamai secured Edgio contracts in content delivery and in cybersecurity as part of the bankruptcy court proceedings. They also have some licensing rights related to some of the company's patents, as well. It feels like perhaps the short-term competitive environment for FAS gets a little bit easier, but they are now going up against even stronger competitor who, as you noted before, much larger than they are and I think, have a little bit more of a diversified business, as well. Tim Beyers: They do. They've been competing against Akamai for years, and just their network design is different. They would argue better. Akamai would argue not better. If you're a tech, you can choose which one is better. One is Akamai really started by just putting servers everywhere there was an Internet service provider. They just flooded the market everywhere with servers. Fastly said, what we'll do. We'll just go to the fastest points, and we'll put our equipment there, so if we're at the fastest peering points, we don't need to be everywhere if we're at the fastest points. We're good. It's just a different network design. It'll be interesting to see. I think for a lot of this, Dylan, when you're talking about moving content quickly, the way Akamai started just for perspective, here, it was, hey you know what? We want to show streamed movies. In order to show stream movies, we should have copies of those movies close to where people are going to click the "Play button." That's really what it was. Just creating copies, throughout the world. Whenever somebody like in ====Des Moines clicks "Play", the server that is, like five miles away is going to be the one that serves that content. That's the idea here, and that's a commodity business now. But you're not wrong. We'll see how this plays out. It's maybe a more friendly market, but it's still a commodity market. Dylan Lewis: To wrap us here, I came to you with two tech underdog stories with Intel and with fastly today. Are either of them interesting for you as potential turnarounds? Tim Beyers: Intel for sure is absolutely interesting to me. Fastly, if they ever find their way into really building a highly competitive edge computing product, I will get interested again. I still own shares. I haven't sold yet. But Intel, with that foundry business, I haven't done a firm valuation, so take this with a grain of salt here, Dylan. But just eyeballing it, I think most investors would agree that if you buy Intel today, you're getting the foundry business for close to free, because it doesn't do anything yet. If it ever does do something, then there's real value there. But it's value that Intel has to build. It's highly speculative, but it's at minimum, an interesting speculation, because they're not going anywhere. Dylan Lewis: Coming up, we're sticking with Tech. What's your data work? Ricky Mulvey talks with Dave Hatter, a cybersecurity consultant at Intrust IT, about the surveillance capitalism model, where your digital data winds up, and which companies take better care of your privacy than others. Ricky Mulvey: Dave Hatter is a cybersecurity consultant for Intrust IT and someone who is concerned about the amount of data that Big Tech is harvesting from him, me, and you. Is that fair description for you, Dave? Dave Hatter: That is an excellent description, Ricky. I'm very concerned about it. Ricky Mulvey: There was a quiet story last month that you sent over to me, and I think it's interesting to talk about. This is from Cyber News, reporting that there is a bug in Google's Pixel 9 phone, it's new phone that makes it say basically that users cannot say no to Google's surveillance, and the researchers found "The Pixel device continuously sends personally identifiable information, including the email address, phone number, and location to various Google endpoints, including device management, policy enforcement and face grouping." The phone is sending this stuff about every 15 minutes. Why is this a big deal? I got Google maps on my phone. It knows where I'm at. Dave Hatter: Yes, Ricky. First off, understand that I've been in the business for more than 30 years, spent most of it as a software engineer and have built some of these types of systems myself. My big issue with all of this is not so much that it's happening. It's that the average user, A, does not give informed consent. Let's face it. As well as I do. People don't read the 80 pages of privacy in terms of service and all that stuff. They just click "Yes" because they want to use their devices. If everyone had a complete and full understanding of what they were signing up for and chose to do it anyway, I'd be a lot less concerned about. Then the second part of that, why you as a person should be concerned is, since you probably don't really understand what they're collecting, how often they're collecting it, who they're sharing it with, how it's being monetized for their benefit, at your expense, potentially, it's the downstream impacts of how this can be used against you. There are all, "AI companies" out there now who buy and sell this data from data brokers, plug it into their algorithms, and then claim to be able to do things like look at your data and determine, would you be a good renter? Would you be a good employee? Would you be a good insurance risk?" There are companies out there using this data and that's being collected about you in ways that you don't know. There's no transparency or visibility into it, so when you get denied for a credit or application, or you get denied for a job or for an apartment you want to rent, you won't even know why. At least with a credit score, you have some visibility into it, or some transparency. You can dispute things on your credit record. Here, you have no visibility, and as we get more and more technology in our lives, as everything becomes software driven, and software is embedded into it, and there's enormous value in collecting this data. Of course, there's only going to be more of it, which creates an ever larger and more detailed and granular profile of you that people can use. Those are the fundamental reasons why I care about this. Ricky Mulvey: We've gone from a phone taken in email address and phone number to dark credit scores, Dave. [laughs] At a baseline, I think Google would say that they need it for, what is it? Car crashes. We can track. You've been in a horrible accident. Dave Hatter: They always have legitimate reasons, and I'm not even disputing that some of the services that require your location data aren't legitimate and provide value. If you've been in a car crash and your phone can report that, could it save your life or the lives of your family? Yes possibly. Again, I'm not necessarily against these things per se. It's the fact that people don't really understand what they're signing up for. I always encourage people to check out like Mozilla's Privacy Not Included. Mozilla makes the Firefox browser. They have a website called Privacy Not Included where they dig into the privacy aspects of software and services and such. I think if most people took a look at that, the expose they did last year on modern cars, and the unbelievable amount of information any new model car is collecting about you, stuff that has nothing to do, I get that there are sensors in cars, and that they provide value to you because they make the car operate better or whatever. But almost every major car manufacturer is collecting all the information out of your infotainment center, you connect up your phone, they got all that. They're collecting all stuff about you. Again, do you really understand what's being collected? Do you really understand if they're potentially listening to the conversations you're having in the car? No, and that's my problem. It's the lack of transparency. It's the fact that people are not giving informed consent to this incredibly detailed granted or data collection. Ricky Mulvey: Smart TVs are also similar where they're watching to see when you tune out and when you tune back in sometimes. You mentioned data brokers. How is Google monetizing this data? Dave Hatter: When you look at a company like Alphabet , the parent company of Google or Meta , the parent company of Facebook, and you look at where most of their revenue comes from, which is all public because they're publicly traded companies, what you're going to find is the vast majority of their revenue comes from basically collecting your data and then using it to provide services to you or selling that data. For example, think about it. Other than Pixel phones and the Android operating system, what can you buy from Google? Almost nothing. Now you can pay for some of their services if you want to move out of the freemium model into higher tiered stuff, Google workspace and that thing. But generally speaking, the free stuff is a surveillance capitalism model. You're not paying with money, you're paying with data. You are their product, not their customer. Again, I'm not necessarily against that. It's the trade off that people don't understand. They collect enormous amounts of data about you. The more of their services you use, the more data they collect. Again, same thing for Meta. What can you buy for Meta almost nothing. You can pay to advertise on their services, but mostly you use their free products. They collect your data. They use that to sell you ads, and they sell that data potentially to data brokers, and other similar services, and obviously generate billions of dollars a year primarily from your data. Ricky Mulvey: I think, at least in the case of Facebook Meta specifically, people understand that trade off. They go on Instagram and they see their friends photos, and then there's also an understanding that that comes with sponsored content and ads as well, especially YouTube. I'm watching a video. I know that it's tracking the videos that I'm watching and serving the up ads probably based on my interests. In fact, it asks me, is this ad relevant to you? I always say no, but it's pretty clear that that's going on. I understand the trade off that I'm making. I know you got a bond to pick with Alphabet and Google. But is Apple any different? We talked about the Google Pixel phone collecting all this data, and Apple has made part of their branding. We're all about privacy. We're putting user privacy at the center. It has a better reputation, but you're deeper into this world than I'm. Do you think that reputation around privacy is well earned? Dave Hatter: I think it's partially well earned, and here's why. Yes, Apple is collecting your data. Same for Microsoft , but if you look at of all the big tech companies that are out there, they all have their issues. I'm not a fan of any of them to a large extent, but when you look at a company like Apple, for example, or Microsoft, their business model is different. Apple, is in the hardware and software business primarily. Now again, I'm not going to pretend like they're not collecting your data, Ricky. They certainly have the capability, and I'm sure they are, but at the moment, their business model is not fundamentally driven by your data. They're selling you hardware and software. Microsoft more software based. Yes, they're collecting your data. Could they turn around and sell it at some future point? Would my opinion on Apple and Microsoft change potentially depending on that? Yes, but at the moment, and again, there's some privacy washing going on on both of their parts as well. But generally speaking, I feel strongly and I feel safe to say that, Apple is a much more privacy friendly company, primarily because their business model is different. They're not incentivized to collect and sell your data to generate all their revenue. They're selling you products. Ricky Mulvey: They've been doing this for a few decades now and protected data well so far. I hope the Lindy Effect stays in action. [laughs] The longer they protect data, the longer that they will. Tim Cook's done a pretty good job there. You mentioned data brokers, and I want to make it clear for listeners who don't know. We've talked about Google and how they're monetizing that end. I think people are less familiar with data brokers. One of them is Experian , which is also in the credit reporting business that has something like you mentioned where you can see your credit score and they track that and sell that to different lenders and things. But how else are these data brokers making money? Who are they selling my personal information to? Dave Hatter: Well, in my mind data brokers are a big part of the problem that we have with privacy and security today. Let me connect up a dot and then come back and try to answer your question specifically. Just in the last couple of months, we've seen some gigantic data breaches, companies like National Public Data and MC squared. These are background check companies that are buying your data, you're giving your data up when you go through a background check, and think about this for a second. If you've gone through a background check process, and I'm sure everyone that's watching this has at some point for a job or something, think of the incredibly sensitive information that you're given up, places you've lived, places you've worked, your family members, lots of sensitive information. Then when they buy and sell this data with other companies and build ever larger, ever more grandiar profiles about not only does that data have intrinsic value to people that want to sell you things or people that want to persuade you. It has really enormous value to bad guys because if your data gets leaked, whether it's stolen or inadvertently leaked or whatever, and now I have all of this sensitive data about you. It makes it really easy to impersonate you from an identity theft standpoint, and/or to impersonate an agency or organization you've worked with in the past to send very realistic and very authentic phishing emails, texts, etc. One of the reasons why this data broker thing and this data collection troubles me so much is, once it's out there, 23andMe . They're not a data broker, but a lot of people gave up their DNA data. They're potentially going to go out of business. What's going to happen to the data? The very You can't get new DNA, Ricky? What's going to happen to that data when they go out of business. When you think about these sometimes shadowy third party companies that many people have never heard of buying and selling data between each other, selling it to third party companies that have some end use in mind, whether it's advertising to you or whatever it is, then they go out of business. They sell it to someone else. Even if you sign up for something, and you have fully informed consent and you understand what you've bargained for, when that company goes out of business, what happens to your data? There's this shadowy network of hundreds of companies around the country and because there's no National Privacy Law at this point, many of them, while they may be impacted by the 18 states that have some privacy law, it's a real patchwork quilt of varying regulations and varying penalties. To a large extent, it's like the Wild West out there. They can do whatever they want with this data. It's hard for you to know what they have. It's hard for you to get it erased. It's hard for you to make changes to it if it's incorrect. As more and more of that moves around from one company to another about you, again, it could be incorrect. You can't see it. You don't know that you're potentially being penalized as a result of data that might not even be correct. Again, I know a lot of this probably sounds crazy to many people, but when you look at the totality of the incredible amounts of information and very detailed grandeur things like going back to Google Maps. If you turn that on on your phone, basically, if you can go into your Google history and look at the map, and you'll find, like, every place you've been for a long time. There's all different ways this stuff can be used against you. Ricky Mulvey: Listeners, this is the first in a two part conversation with Dave Hatter. We'll play the second part later this week. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so buy or sell anything based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows the Motley Fools editorial standards, is not approved by advertisers. Motley fool only picks products personally recommend a friends like you. As always, thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.
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Modi Govt’s ‘calibrated erosion’ of Election Commission’s integrity: Kharge on election rule Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday (December 22, 2024) hit out at the government for tweaking an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents, alleging it is part of the Modi government’s “systematic conspiracy” to destroy the institutional integrity of the Election Commission. India can never permit others to have a veto on its choices: EAM Jaishankar External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Saturday (December 21, 2024) India can never permit others to have a veto on its choices and will do whatever is right in the national interest and for the global good without being intimidated to “conform”. In a video message for a function in Mumbai, he said when India is etched more deeply in global consciousness, its repercussions are truly profound. Ancient stepwell unearthed in Chandausi in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district A stepwell, approximately 125 to 150 years old and covering an area of 400 square metres, was unearthed during excavation in the Laxman Ganj area of Chandausi here, an official said. Excavation at the site began on Saturday (December 21, 2024), said Krishna Kumar Sonkar, the Executive Officer of Chandausi Nagar Palika. Pegasus spyware case verdict in U.S.: Will Supreme Court conduct further inquiry, asks Surjewala Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala on Sunday (December 22, 2024) claimed that the Pegasus spyware case verdict in the U.S. proved how 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted and asked if the Supreme Court would now conduct a further inquiry in view of the judgment. Tripura remained backward during Left rule, BJP brought development: Amit Shah Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday (December 22, 2024) hit out at Left parties for turning Tripura into a “backward” State during their 35-year rule and said it could witness progress only after the BJP assumed power in 2018. Israeli strikes kill 17 Palestinians in Gaza, hospital in northern Gaza ordered to evacuate Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 17 Palestinians , eight of them at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, medics said, as the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of a hospital in the north. Palestinian medics said eight people, including children, were killed in the Musa Bin Nusayr School that sheltered displaced families in Gaza City. China calls Taiwan a ‘red line’, criticises new U.S. military aid to island The Chinese government protested Sunday (December 22, 2024) the latest American announcements of military sales and assistance to Taiwan, warning the United States that it is “playing with fire”. U.S. President Joe Biden authorised Saturday (December 21, 2024) the provision of up to $571 million in Defense Department material and services and military education and training for Taiwan. Two Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent ’friendly fire’ incident: U.S. military Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down Sunday (December 22, 2024) over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S. military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Published - December 22, 2024 05:43 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp RedditFIVE people have reportedly been charged over Liam Payne's death in Argentina. One of these people included the pop star's pal Roger Nores and hotel staff local reports have claimed. Two of these people have been remanded in custody, according to Argentinian news site Infobae. Liam's pal Rogelio, who said he left the hotel around an hour before the musician horror plunge, was reportedly charged with negligent homicide. He has allegedly been banned from leaving the country. Earlier this month he reportedly refused to answer questions over Liam's death. He denied claims he abandoned Liam before he fell from his balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina . Businessman Nores told a documentary that Liam was “in good spirits and perfectly balanced” on the day he died. Braian Paiz, a waiter who allegedly admitted to doing drugs with the singer was charged with supplying narcotics for payment. Ezequiel Pereyra, a hotel employee, was also reportedly charged with supplying drugs. Managers of the CasaSur Palermo hotel, Gilda Martín and Esteban Grassi, have allegedly been charged with manslaughter. These five people have reportedly been summoned to appear at an Argentine court. Liam died on October 16 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina. He had been in the country to renew his US visa having relocated to Florida with his girlfriend, American influencer Kate Cassidy . Kate had returned home early after feeling homesick, a few days before he plunged to his death in Buenos Aires. The toxicological exams revealed traces of alcohol, cocaine and prescribed antidepressants’ in his body at the time of death. Shortly before his death, Liam was seen "behaving erratically", and witnesses claimed he had to be carried back to his room after smashing his laptop. The autopsy found that he’d died from external bleeding and multiple injuries following his fall from the third-floor balcony of the CasaSur hotel in the smart neighbourhood of Palermo. Liam's funeral was held in November in his hometown of Amersham, and saw his family and friends, including his former bandmates, in attendance. SHOCKED friends, family and fans have paid heartbreaking tributes to Liam as news of the singer's death circulated across the world. Harry Styles’ mum Anne was among the first from One Direction's camp to share her reaction, posting a photo of Liam and writing 'Just a boy...' alongside a broken heart emoji. Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden shared an image of the pair together with the words: "Such an awful tragedy. "Sending love to his family and all those who loved him." X Factor star Olly Murs told fans he was "devastated" and "lost for words". He wrote on social media: “Liam shared the same passions as me, the same dreams so to see his life now end so young hits hard, I’m truly gutted and devastated for his Family and of course his son Bear losing a dad x". Liam Gallagher said he was "very sad" and told his followers on X: "Life is precious Kids, you only get to do it once, go easy." Former X Factor presenter Dermot O’Leary has also expressed his shock and spoke on This Morning today. He said: “I remember him as a 14 year old turning up to audition on The X Factor, and blowing us away singing Sinatra. He just loved to sing. “He was always a joy, had time for everyone, polite, grateful, and was always humble.” BBC Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball reacted to the "devastating news" on her show today and told fans she hugged her own son Woody tight this morning. JLS band member Marvin Humes reflected on his memories with the singer, sharing: "I first met Liam in 2008 with the JLS boys whilst auditioning for X Factor..he was 14 years old.. "We instantly clicked and looked at him as a little brother..that year it worked out for us but not for him and then 2 years later he went back to audition and One Direction was born..the rest is history.. "Absolutely heartbroken by the tragic news..Liam you wanted to be a global superstar and you did it bro..just can’t believe that things have ended this way..it’s shocking..my thoughts and prayers are with all your family and friends brother..RIP." Niall Horan's brother Greg shared an emotional tribute to Liam, praising him as a "top young man". He added: "You will be forever missed. Liam, words can’t describe how much I want to grab my brother and mind him now while the world shows their memories of you and him and the boys. "My heart goes out to your family parents and sisters and your son Bear and your 1D brothers. "10th October we met and we started out that evening as 5 families into one big one 1D family thank you for all the laughs bro watch down on all your family and mind them lots of love kiddo x x x 1D 4 LIFE x x x" German DJ Anton Zaslavski , otherwise known as Zedd , has taken to X with a devastated statement. The producer, who worked with Liam on his 2017 hit Get Low, wrote: "RIP Liam... I can’t believe this is real...absolutely heartbreaking..." American singer, Charlie Puth , who was friends with Liam and also collaborated with him on a song called Bedroom Floor, has posted a series of Instagram stories dedicated to him. Alongside photos of the two of them together in their younger days, Charlie wrote: "I am in shock right now. Liam was always so kind to me. "He was one of the first major artists I got to work with. I can not believe he is gone... "I am so upset right now, may he rest in peace. I am so sorry..." Irish singer duo Jedward also took to social media, saying: "RIP Liam Payne. Condolences to friends and family." In another tweet, they added: "Sending strength to Cheryl and his son Bear. And all the One direction Family. RIP Liam Payne." American media personality Paris Hilton shared: "So upsetting to hear the news of Liam Payne passing. Sending love and condolences to his family & loved ones. RIP my friend." ITV weather presenter Alex Beresford shared a news video about Liam's tragic death on Instagram, adding: "Can't believe this! RIP Liam." For the latest news on this story keep checking back at Sun Online, where we will bring you live updates as soon as they happen, before anyone else.
Enterprise Networking Market Trends and Forecast 2024-2031: Future Business OpportunitiesGovernment to block incinerators that do not contribute to green plansWith The Game Awards out of the way, I'm awarding Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth my own personal Game of the Year. That's thanks to its impressive reimagining of Final Fantasy 7's open fields, iconic story, and memorable cast – along with its place in the series' bigger picture. As the middle volume in a larger trilogy, it's difficult for a title like Rebirth to hit new heights while simultaneously juggling the major plot twist of the first title's ending with the will-it-or-won't-it speculation about that moment from the original – one of the most famous scenes in gaming history. Many middle volumes struggle to maintain momentum as they move through the tricky traditional structure of middle acts. Everything sucks at the start, and it's gonna get worse before the end. But, the best of them? The Empire Strikes Backs and The Two Towers? Those ones handle this beautifully by turning large scale conflicts into personal ones, and that's exactly what Rebirth does as it expands the relatively narrow world from 2020's Final Fantasy 7 Remake into a pseudo-open world, while closely examining the mental and emotional toll of saving the world. It's intensely personal in a way that exceeds Rebirth, and even the original, giving life and purpose to Cloud's companions in a way that's only abstractly hinted at in the 1997 original. For many fans – me included – it's also a reminder of what Final Fantasy used to be when it was less concerned with appealing to a wide mainstream audience, instead designed first and foremost to appease existing fans and the creators themselves. Party up For almost two decades, from its initial release in 1987 to 2000's Final Fantasy 4, the series had a very distinct identity, but since the release of Final Fantasy 5, which threw away most of what had come before—introducing a new combat system, world design, plot structure, and even UI/font—the series has struggled to really convince fans what it means to be a Final Fantasy game. "Final Fantasy is not what it once was, culturally, but it can still be there from a quality perspective," PC Gamer's Marc Normandin argued in a feature that catalyzed my thoughts on the problematic fluidity of Final Fantasy's modern identity. "Square needs to take a lesson from the thriving franchises around it and figure out just what Final Fantasy is supposed to be, like Falcom has with Trails, like Sega has with Like a Dragon. Each of their sequels push their respective envelopes without betraying expectations." I see a series that's struggling to understand its identity – a series that was mired by doldrums for nearly a decade as Square Enix 's ambitious, but ultimately fatal, Fabula Nova Crystallis series floundered, eventually culminating in a clearly rushed release for Final Fantasy 15. Then came 16, a return to the series's epic fantasy storytelling roots, but a vast departure gameplay-wise, sandwiched between two beloved entries in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, further throwing the series' identity in flux. While it felt more technically polished than 14, it lacked the mechanical depth and more methodical RPG elements that drew many fans to the series in the first place, while also lacking the sophistication of the character action games it drew inspiration from – trying to appeal to everyone, but satisfying few. Final Fantasy 16 and Rebirth paint a dichotomous image of a series in flux, both at war and in conversation with its past. But to find its future, Final Fantasy can look to its past for all the answers. Revolution or evolution? Modern Final Fantasy has an apocryphal reputation for redefining itself entirely with each new entry –but this wasn't actually the case for most of the series dating back to its second entry. Rather than revolution – as we see nowadays – Final Fantasy experimented in ways that were more evolutionary by taking the base successes of the previous titles and tweaking or building on them, rather than throwing everything out and starting from scratch. In a 1990 interview , series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi said, "It feels weird to talk about it this way, but when you compare Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, in a lot of ways I think it's easier to imagine how the Final Fantasy game will be, you know?" If you asked a group of fans what they expect from the next Dragon Quest, he continued, you'd get a variety of answers. "But with Final Fantasy we've always put an emphasis on strong visuals." From its inception, Sakaguchi saw Final Fantasy as an opportunity to experiment, but his ultimate goals were to create gaming experiences that rivaled the narrative and visual splendor of film. Nowadays, most fans would consider Dragon Quest to be far more same-y from title to title compared to Final Fantasy – but from their inception both series had specific structural and technological underpinnings that helped them feel cohesive across releases. In a separate interview that same year, Sakaguchi further explained his philosophy for change and evolution in the series: "In terms of the gameplay systems, I want FF4 to be a completely different game. That's one of the staples of the Final Fantasy series, that we change things up every game. FF3's job system was popular, but that doesn't mean we want to make a sequel that upgrades that with like 50 jobs or something. We don't like doing 'upgrade version' style sequels. Our staff would become completely bored if we had to work like that. "The 'Final Fantasy' title is a general title for this world that is more-or-less united by things like the crystals and the shared items and magic. That's why we don't mind changing up the game systems every time. Sequels that only change the story and nothing else are boring, right? I hope players will enjoy experiencing a new Final Fantasy world each game." This stands out, however, because comparing Final Fantasy 3 to 4, it's easy to see Sakaguchi's increased emphasis on story and drama, but the underlying game systems are functionally similar. FF4 replaces FF3's job system with a more linear character progression system and a far more complex and melodramatic plot. Final Fantasy 5 improved upon 3's job system, and retained its more straightforward plot. Final Fantasy 6 took 4's narrative success and bifurcated it into dozens of smaller, interconnected stories. And, well, you get the point. This style of iterative experimentation essentially defined the series for its first nine entries. Each game experimented in its own way, but not so dramatically that it changed the overall experience very much. And the presiding feeling with each title is that you were playing something that felt like a piece of a cohesive whole. You explored a world, you got into random battles, you waited for your ATB meter to charge, and then you selected your action from a menu that barely changed from the first title to the sixth. They felt like Final Fantasy. By relying on existing frameworks and series traditions, Square Enix was able to release six mainline Final Fantasy games between 1991 and 2000. Final Fantasy 10, which followed just a year later, marked the series first major departure from that structure, and it was followed by an MMORPG (Final Fantasy 6), and two of the series most divisive and troubled entries (Final Fantasy 7 and 13), both of which experienced significant delays. Eight years separated 10 and 13, and it would be another seven years before 15. Perhaps not surprisingly, this started almost immediately after Sakaguchi left Square Enix, handing the series off to other creators. With the increasing costs and timelines associated with AAA development – especially for series like Final Fantasy that have focused on being top-tier cinematic experiences from the beginning – it doesn't seem like a stretch to suggest that the opportunity cost of Square Enix throwing everything out with the bathwater when it starts a new Final Fantasy title from scratch has hurt the series's reputation as a genre leader. So, what can Final Fantasy learn from its past success to return to form? Back to the future With Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's successful reimagining of the series' golden age, I'd like to see Square Enix return entirely to the series' origins to help define its future. Experimentation within Final Fantasy used to be iterative and focused, rather than wholesale reinvention with each new title. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's beautiful open world exploration, vibrant towns and natural landscape is a template for new worlds and stories. Its combat is a perfect blend of the popular ATB battles found in Final Fantasy 4 through 9, with the freneticism we're told is essential for mainstream success these days – though I'm skeptical, given the recent success of games like Metaphor: ReFantazio and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Take this obviously successful and well-liked template and use it for the next mainline Final Fantasy title – exactly as Square's going to do with the third and final volume in the Remake trilogy. Iterate and improve existing success, maybe even over a couple of mainline titles released on a quicker and more consistent schedule, and lean into the creativity awarded by constraint. Starting with a blank drawing board can offer wild, inventive outcomes, but it also comes at the increased risk of dead ends, spiraling scope creep, and a lack of prior lessons learned. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the best game of the year because it took a well understood success – the original's explosive middle act – and worked with established systems, instead of trying to redefine everything from the get go. It was an experienced team, who'd worked together for a long time on Remake, using familiar tools, workflows, and ideas, and nailing the iteration. This, just like Final Fantasy games of the past, could be just the recipe for the series' return to being an undisputed leader in the genre it helped popularize. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was just one of the titles we chose for our best games of 2024 ranking
Falcons QB Cousins is looking to avoid interceptions, have bounce-back game in Minnesota homecoming
Hollywood is mourning one of their own. Olivia Hussey Eisley, star of the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, has died. She was 73. “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Olivia Hussey Eisley, who went peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones on December 27th,” read a post shared on the actress’ Instagram page. “Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her.” The message continued, “Olivia lived a life full of passion, love, and dedication to the arts, spirituality, and kindness towards animals. Olivia leaves behind a loving family- her children, Alex, Max, and India, her husband of 35 years David Glen Eisley, and grandson, Greyson, and a legacy of love that will forever be cherished in our hearts.” Olivia was born in 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to an Argentine dad, tango singer Andrés Osuna, and British mom, Joy Hussey. The actress spent most of her childhood in her mom’s native England and began her acting career as a teenager, appearing in plays before making her onscreen debut on the TV show Drama 61-67. At age 15, she landed her big break playing Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The movie won two Oscars and both Olivia and Leonard Whiting won Golden Globes for their leading performances. In 2022, she and the fellow British actor sued the movie’s production company, Paramount Studios, alleging they were filmed in the nude for the film without their knowledge while they were minors. A Los Angeles judge dismissed the case in 2023, ruling that found their depiction could not be considered child pornography and that the pair filed their claim too late, NBC News reported. In addition to Romeo and Juliet, Olivia is known for her role in the 1974 holiday slasher film Black Christmas. She also played Mary in the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth and starred in the 1979 movie Death on the Nile and the 1990 miniseries It, based on Stephen King’s hit novel. In 1997, Olivia guest starred on Boy Meets World as Topanga’s Aunt Prudence. Throughout the ’90s and aughts, the actress completed a lot of voiceover work on shows such as Batman Beyond and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Olivia’s last role was in the 2015 film Social Suicide. In the film, which is inspired by Romeo and Juliet, she and Leonard play the parents of a character portrayed by her real-life daughter India.New Delhi, Dec 22, 2024- The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has sought reforms in India’s Priority Sector Lending (PSL) framework to enable the setting up of more Development Finance Institutions (DFI) to provide funds to new and emerging sectors such as digital infrastructure, green initiatives, healthcare, and innovative manufacturing. “The current Development Finance Institutions like SIDBI and NABFID have their roles cut out as they have earmarked sectors to finance. Therefore, CII has suggested setting up of a high-level committee to look at the revision of Priority Sector Lending norms and also explore the need for any new DFIs to cater to some of the new and emerging sectors,” the CII said in a statement on Sunday. Despite its massive success, the PSL framework requires regular recalibration to remain relevant. This recalibration is essential to ensure that the financial resources are optimally distributed, in harmony with our vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, the statement said. For instance, while agriculture contributes 14 per cent of the GDP today, its PSL allocation remains at 18 per cent, unchanged from when its GDP share exceeded 30 per cent. Similarly, sectors like infrastructure and innovative manufacturing lack adequate PSL focus despite their potential to drive economic growth, it added. India’s economy has evolved rapidly over the past few decades, with employment focus shifting to newer sectors because of increased education levels in the society and higher disposable incomes, the statement said. The PSL is a vital policy tool in India, aimed at ensuring that key sectors crucial to the nation’s development receive adequate financial support. Mandated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), PSL obligates banks to allocate a specified proportion of their loans to sectors such as agriculture, education, housing, and small industries. The framework ensures equitable credit distribution, contributing to the socio-economic growth of underserved areas. CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said: “Sectors like agriculture have reduced contribution to GDP from 30 per cent in the 1990s to about 14 per cent now. Hence, it is time that the Priority Sector Lending (PSL) framework be reviewed every 3-4 years to align based on emerging priorities and PSL allocations should be in line with GDP contributions and sectoral growth potential. For instance, we could look at the inclusion of Emerging and High-Impact Sectors, including digital infrastructure, green initiatives, healthcare, and innovative manufacturing.” The industry chamber has, therefore, recommended inclusion in PSL of sectors like green energy projects, electric vehicles, and climate-resilient agriculture along with sectors like digital technologies, artificial intelligence and healthcare innovation. The CII has further pointed out that besides the above sectors, Infrastructure and manufacturing are poised to make substantial contributions to India’s economic growth. It said that its recommendation is that of transition to outcome-based metrics, where the focus needs to shift from absolute lending targets to measurable developmental outcomes, ensuring impact-driven credit distribution.(Agency)Stock market today: Wall Street gains ground as it notches a winning week and another Dow record
Seahawks to activate S Rayshawn Jenkins back to active roster for Sunday's game
Germany’s struggling economy needs urgent action to boost its competitiveness, Deutsche Bank’s DBKGd.DE CEO said on Wednesday as he called for structural reforms, less regulation and lower taxes on companies. “Germany needs to adjust its business model,” Christian Sewing told the FT Global Banking Summit in London. “It is urgent we take action,” he said, flagging the likelihood of further job losses in Germany’s auto industry and adding that February’s snap election could provide the opportunity for a reset. The German economy has been dogged by intensifying competition from abroad, weak demand and an industrial slowdown. To boot, a budget row brought down the country’s three-way coalition last month, leaving Europe’s largest economy in political limbo until a snap election on Feb. 23. The OECD on Wednesday cut its forecast for German economic growth next year. Sewing, who has headed Deutsche Bank since 2018, said via video that the company would invest 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) annually to increase automation as it tries to keep a lid on costs and improve its technology. Deutsche’s 2010 acquisition of Postbank resulted in glitches that locked customers out of their accounts, and a long-running tech integration only concluded last year. The Frankfurt-based lender has seen its shares gain 35% in 2024, outperforming a European banking index .SX7P, after a run of quarterly profits and a rebound in its investment banking business. But its stock remains below levels hit after the global financial crisis in 2008-2009, and the lender has forecast higher bad loan provisions as the domestic economy weakens. Deutsche’s rival Commerzbank CBKG.DE has been at the centre of speculation about a return of European banking consolidation after Italy’s UniCredit CRDI.MI snapped up a stake, triggering widespread opposition in Germany to any hostile takeover. Sewing said his lender was “staying out” of the Commerzbank-UniCredit situation and was focused solely on itself, given Deutsche had “only actually seen 60% to 65% of our potential”. Banking consolidation in Europe was “a logical trend”, he said, but the lack of a banking union remained a hindrance to dealmaking. “I do believe before the real wave starts we need further foundations met,” he said, adding it remained “very hard” for Deutsche Bank to shift liquidity from one country to another in Europe despite being in 14-15 markets. Bankers have repeatedly called for euro zone-wide capital and deposit rules to replace national requirements. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Editing by Sinead Cruise and Christina Fincher)Vincent Kompany 's Bayern Munich will look to bounce back from defeat when they welcome Heidenheim to Allianz Arena on Saturday in their 13th Bundesliga game of the season. The Bavarians were beaten 1-0 by Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday in the DFB-Pokal, though they are first in the top flight with 30 points, but their opponents are third last in 16th place with just 10 points and lost 4-0 against Eintracht Frankfurt in the league on December 1. © Imago While their exit from the DFB-Pokal will no doubt be disappointing considering Bayern failed to win any trophy last season for the first time in 12 years, Kompany should not necessarily be blamed given goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was sent off in the 17th minute. The hosts drew 1-1 with Borussia Dortmund on November 30 last time out in the Bundesliga, a match in which Bayern produced three of their five big chances in the second half after struggling to create much in the first half. Following the draw, Kompany said that he was pleased by his players' reaction in the second 45 minutes, telling reporters: "I thought the first 10-15 minutes weren't too bad but then we lost momentum, made mistakes and lost the ball too easily. We didn't show our best level. In the second half we showed up quickly and created many chances to score." To the league leaders' credit, the draw was the first time they had dropped points in the top flight in their last six matches, and they are still unbeaten in the league in their 12 most recent games having won nine and drawn three in that period. The Bavarians have scored 37 goals and conceded on just eight occasions in the Bundesliga, and these are the best records in the entire division. Bayern's loss in the DFB-Pokal was their first at home in any competition since succumbing 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund in late March, with the club winning 11 and drawing two in that time. © Imago As for Heidenheim, they started their 2024-25 campaign in positive fashion considering they triumphed in their first five games, as well as seven of their first nine. However, the away team have only achieved victory in two of their subsequent 11 matches, losing eight and drawing one. Boss Frank Schmidt will no doubt be concerned that his side have lost their last four fixtures, but he can have no complaints about their a 4-0 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt given the Eagles created five big chances and restricted his team to just one. In their past seven Bundesliga matches, Schmidt's side have failed to score on four occasions while being beaten six times. Heidenheim's form on the road in the league has been poor given they have lost their last three away games, as well as three of their past four away from home in all competitions. © Imago The hosts' talisman Harry Kane will be out of action until late December, so perhaps Kompany will field a frontline of Leroy Sane , Jamal Musiala and Kingsley Coman behind Thomas Muller . Midfielder Joao Palhinha is set to be absent until January, so expect Bayern to select a double pivot consisting of Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka . In defence, Kompany may start a back four of Raphael Guerreiro , Dayot Upamecano , Kim Min-jae and Alphonso Davies in front of Neuer, who will not serve his suspension in the league. Heidenheim have concerns about the fitness of midfielders Julian Niehues and Luka Janes , while forward Marvin Pieringer is not likely to appear again until February 2025 due to an achilles tendon injury. Schmidt may start a midfield trio of Niklas Dorsch , Lennard Maloney and Jan Schoppner ahead of centre-backs Patrick Mainka and Benedikt Gimber . Paul Wanner , Mikkel Kaufmann and Leo Scienza are likely to be trusted to lead the visitors' attack. Bayern Munich possible starting lineup: Neuer; Guerreiro, Upamecano, Kim, Davies; Kimmich, Goretzka; Sane, Musiala, Coman; Muller Heidenheim possible starting lineup: Muller; Traore, Mainka, Gimber, Fohrenbach; Dorsch, Maloney, Schoppner; Wanner, Kaufmann, Scienza Kompany will expect a strong reaction from his players given the team are winless in their last two, and considering their exceptional home record, it would be surprising if they dropped points again on Saturday. Additionally, Heidenheim are in poor form and have struggled to find the back of the net in recent games, so the hosts should come into the clash as clear favourites. For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here .
Kuwait City, Dec 22 (PTI) India and Kuwait on Sunday elevated their relationship to a strategic partnership after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held extensive talks with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah that focused on giving new momentum to the overall bilateral ties. In their meeting at the majestic Bayan Palace here, the two leaders especially deliberated on boosting cooperation in areas of information technology, pharmaceuticals, fintech, infrastructure and security. Modi thanked the Emir for ensuring the well-being of over one million Indians in Kuwait while the Kuwaiti leader expressed appreciation for the contribution of the community in the development journey of the Gulf nation. In a post on 'X', Modi described his meeting with the Emir as "excellent". "Excellent meeting with His Highness the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah. We discussed cooperation in key sectors like pharmaceuticals, IT, FinTech, Infrastructure and security," he said. "In line with the close ties between our nations, we have elevated our partnership to a strategic one and I am optimistic that our friendship will flourish even more in the times to come," he added. On his arrival at the Bayan Palace, Modi was given a ceremonial welcome and received by Kuwaiti Prime Minister Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. The Indian prime minister arrived here on Saturday on a two-day trip - the first to this Gulf nation by an Indian prime minister in 43 years. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the talks between the prime minister and the Emir focused on exploring ways to take India-Kuwait ties to "new heights". In their discussions, Modi and the Kuwaiti Emir recalled the strong historical and friendly ties between the two countries and reaffirmed their full commitment to further expanding and deepening bilateral cooperation. The prime minister thanked the Emir for ensuring the well-being of over one million strong Indian community in Kuwait, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. It said Modi appreciated the new initiatives being undertaken by Kuwait to fulfill its 'Vision 2035' and congratulated the Emir for the successful holding of the summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) earlier this month. The GCC is an influential grouping comprising the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. The total volume of India's trade with GCC countries stood at USD 184.46 billion in the financial year 2022-23. Modi also expressed his gratitude for inviting him on Saturday as a 'Guest of Honour' at the opening ceremony of the Arabian Gulf Cup. The Emir reciprocated Modi's sentiments and expressed appreciation for India's role as a valued partner in Kuwait and the Gulf region, the MEA said in a statement. It said the Kuwaiti leader looked forward to a greater role and contribution of India towards the realisation of Kuwait's 'Vision 2035'. The prime minister also invited the Emir to visit India. The Gulf nation is among India's top trading partners, with bilateral trade valued at USD 10.47 billion in the financial year 2023-24. Kuwait is India's sixth largest crude supplier, meeting 3 per cent of the country's energy needs. Indian exports to Kuwait reached USD 2 billion for the first time, while investments by the Kuwait Investment Authority in India exceeded USD 10 billion. The last Indian prime minister to visit Kuwait was Indira Gandhi in 1981. India is among the top trading partners of Kuwait. The Indian community is the largest expatriate community in Kuwait. (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
