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Smart Manufacturing And Mobility Leaders: Adapt With Tech In 2025 Asset-intensive industries like manufacturing and transportation quickly feel the pain when energy prices rise, raw materials are harder to access, or borrowing money for capital projects becomes more expensive. They were hit by all of those and more in 2024, forcing leaders to focus even more than usual on managing costs and improving efficiency. In the mobility sector, the seemingly inevitable transition from fossil fuels to electrification slowed in many countries, as a combination of declining subsidies, high up-front costs, patchy infrastructure, and looming tariffs made buyers pause. We don’t anticipate any dramatic improvement in the global macroeconomic situation in 2025, but we see plenty of opportunity for leaders across manufacturing and mobility to use technology to adapt to the tricky environment in which they and their customers find themselves. For 2025, we predict that: Over 25% of big last-mile service and delivery fleets in Europe will be electric. It’s hard to miss frequent headlines about a dramatic fall in sales of electric vehicles during 2024, especially in Germany and some other European countries. There’s a lot to unpack about the short- and longer-term trends at play, but this wobble in the car market masks a good news story in the electrification of larger fleets of small vans. One-third of DPD’s last-mile fleet in the UK is fully electric, rising to 90% in cities like London. UK energy company British Gas aims to electrify its entire van fleet in 2025. Amazon operates more than 1,000 electric vans in Germany (and over 15,000 in the US). Across the continent, parcel delivery firms, utility companies, and local governments operating large fleets of small vans over relatively short distances see electrification as an opportunity to manage costs while lowering carbon emissions. Less than 5% of the robots entering factories and warehouses will walk. Investors, analysts, journalists, bloggers, and sci-fi fans just love geeking out about robots that walk, but the compelling use cases for their legs are less common — or obvious — than most of these individuals believe. ANYbotics and Boston Dynamics offer four-legged robotic dogs for inspection, safety, and mapping use cases; Agility Robotics’ bipedal robots can be seen in some Amazon warehouses; and Boston Dynamics, Figure, and Tesla have all tested their humanoid robots in automotive plants. These robots have a wow factor, but they may not have the best form factor for addressing industry’s dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks. We should all focus more on the task we’re trying to complete and less on how cool the robots look. Save Up To 75% With The Best Black Friday Clothing Deals That Are Still Running 10 Unofficial Hoka Cyber Week Sales You Don’t Want To Miss A major carmaker will make significant cuts to its digital team. The automotive sector is struggling to cope with electrification, fast-moving new entrants to the market, and the rise of the “software-defined vehicle,” which more tightly integrates hardware and software within the car. Established carmakers invested billions of dollars in building digital practices that were meant to help transform 20th-century excellence in physical engineering into 21st-century excellence in digital engineering. On balance, it’s not going particularly well. General Motors announced plans to cut 1,000 employees from its software and services division this year, and its competitors are likely to follow suit. Cars are becoming more connected and more digital, and they’re able to add new features with over-the-air updates. Ecosystems underpin the future of mobility, and today’s carmakers must adapt to a future in which they might not create — or even control — the digital experiences within their cars. Download our complimentary Predictions guides, which cover our top predictions for 2025 across a variety of areas. Get additional complimentary resources, including webinars, on the Predictions 2025 hub . This post was written by VP, Principal Analyst Paul Miller and it originally appeared here .The fifth round of the Champions League is in the bag, just three rounds remaining before we discover who is through to the last 16, who is going to endure a nervy playoff battle and whose European season is over. This week brought thrilling results: Manchester City blowing a three-goal lead against Feyenoord , Bayer Leverkusen and Arsenal running up the goals in impressive fashion and missed penalties by superstars at both ends in Liverpool's win over Real Madrid. Here's our pick of the best players, lining up with a back three to celebrate the impressive results from Leverkusen and Inter: Not exactly a vintage week for the men between the sticks, was it? Thibaut Courtois was among the few Real Madrid players who could leave Anfield with his head held high but he might feel he could have done better for Liverpool's opener. Given that no one was both faultless and busy, we're going to have to go for a compromise candidate. An exceptional 87 minutes from Riznyk weren't undone just because his cleansheet and then Shakhtar's points were snatched away by Malik Tillman (more on whom later) and Ricardo Pepi. I mean, what do you even want him to do about those goals, which followed 10 saves, the best of which were quite excellent? Even that first goal he conceded was millimeters from an outstanding save, Riznyk hurling himself low to his left to meet Tillman's impudent low free kick. The second? There could have been two goalkeepers between the sticks and they weren't getting close. The third seemed specifically designed to ruin Rizynk's night, a PSV leg doing just enough to divert the ball in totally the opposite direction, leaving Pepi with a tap in. Sometimes goalkeepers do their bit and still end up having a bad night. In such circumstances, it's worth highlighting what they did right. Yes, we're immediately playing fast and loose with the formation. Look, there are a load of strikers and attacking midfielders I've got try to get in. Conor, you're just going to have to work it out. Given how successfully you took to dealing with the best forward on the planet (if we can still call Kylian Mbappe that), I'm pretty confident this won't be beyond you. After all, what a reducer that was in the second half. MAC ALLISTER FINISHES A LOVELY MOVE FROM LIVERPOOL TO HIT REAL MADRID EARLY IN THE SECOND HALF ⚡ pic.twitter.com/7iYRlrN9Vg And the assist. The assist! Weighted with precision, one pass took two players out of the game while ensuring that Alexis Mac Allister could take the ball in stride and squirm a shot away before Raul Asensio got across to cover. There are few better compliments you can offer in this context than to say it was an assist Trent Alexander-Arnold would have been proud of. Well, you have to have someone from Inter in your backline. The Italian giants look like they have that most vital component of Champions League contenders, an elite-level defense. A record of five cleansheets from as many games would be remarkable whoever the opponents were but the 2023 finalists have already held out against Manchester City, Arsenal and an RB Leipzig side who desperately needed anything to save their European season. Inter held them utterly at arm's length, just seven shots worth a combined 0.15 xG. Such defensive excellence is the sort of collective effort that rarely fits comfortably into a pick your best players format. So, sorry Alessandro Bastoni and Hakan Calhanoglu, but it's De Vrij for me -- his clearances and interceptions snuffing out what pressure RB Leipzig were able to apply on the Inter goal. A week where so many teams conceded three-plus goals doesn't make it easy to pick out the best defenders. Either your team were so dominant that you didn't have to do a lot of defending or, well, you conceded half a dozen goals. Then again, if anyone can be forgiven for conceding a few goals it's the Feyenoord defense, in which Hancko and his teammates got a clearing boot on a fair few of the many crosses and cutbacks that Manchester City hurled into their area. Following up 88 of the most demanding minutes you can ask of a defender with a lung-busting run into the penalty area to flick home the equalizer was all the more impressive. FEYENOORD COME BACK FROM 3-0 DOWN TO STUN MANCHESTER CITY 😱 pic.twitter.com/HWB2NGMOjN Arguably the best individual performer across this week, Llorente's dominance from right back ensured that Atletico Madrid were able to run up an almighty score in Prague, something that could count for a great deal when the final places in the top eight are handed out. Most immediately apparent were the two assists, Llorente busting a gut to be in place to one-two with Julian Alvarez before slipping the ball to Angel Correa towards the death, giving the Argentine plenty of work to do it must be said. Atletico were dominant enough that they didn't need Llorente to excel defensively but he did that too with four tackles won from four, six of seven successful duels and eight ball recoveries. Not too shabby at all for a player making his first start since late September. Pick your favorite: the audacious free kick that just had enough to kickstart the comeback or the absolute howitzer that seemed to swing one way and then the other to draw PSV level in the most thrilling game of a barnburner of a match week? For pure vision, this author's preference is for the opener, not least because a bit of guile was absolutely going to be required to defeat a goalkeeper as obdurate as Shakhtar's. Even those who thought Crvena zvezda were a fair wedge better than their record didn't see that coming! Then again, you look at their side and it's hard to see why they shouldn't be able to at least give it a go against a side like Stuttgart. On an evening where everyone in red excelled, it was hard to pick a star man but UEFA's technical panel opted for former Milan man Rade Krunic. "He made a significant impact, showcasing a clinical left-foot finish to give his side the lead, plus creating the fourth goal with a decisive line-breaking pass on the counterattack," they said. Who are we to argue? Look, we could really just hive off a spot in this XI for the remainder of this season and put Florian Wirtz's name on it. The figurehead of Bayer Leverkusen was his customarily excellent self in the 5-0 drubbing of Salzburg. You could, however, say the same about Grimaldo, as joyous a watch as there has been in European football over the last 15 or so months. Let him drift off his flank for even an instant and he is going to take a shot. By the final whistle at the BayArena, he'd taken seven of them, the pick of them a delicately lofted free-kick that Alexander Schlager swiftly concluded wasn't even worth diving for. Alejandro Grimaldo with a BEAUTY of a freekick 🤩 pic.twitter.com/5USnytTjVN With half an hour played, Grimaldo had added an assist too, a smart pass inside to Wirtz that speaks to the connection these two have on the Leverkusen left. The latter is often the one who gets the most glowing praise from their collective efforts. There's no harm shining the light on Grimaldo for once. If Arsenal didn't have Odegaard, could they have really hoped to eviscerate a much-heralded Sporting opponent in anything like the manner they just did? Whether or not the Norwegian is his side's very best player is the sort of fruitless debate Gooners can savor but after his last two games, Odegaard has the best case to be this team's ceiling raiser. "He is an unbelievable player and the day he returned, there was a big smile on my face," Bukayo Saka said of his captain. A "top three" midfielder in Europe, according to William Saliba. They know how good Odegaard is. Sporting just found out in the cruelest of fashions. There are worse times to deliver your first senior goal than a Champions League tie where your side can all but guarantee a spot in the knockout playoffs (at least). Not bad timing for the second goal either. Both spoke to qualities it tends to take much more than 20 years to develop, lurking in the right spots for a cutback while being prepared to gamble that mistakes and rebounds would fall his way. What is it about Gian Piero Gasperini and strikers? The likes of Duvan Zapata, Luis Muriel and Ademola Lookman have hardly looked like superstars before arriving at Atalanta, nor did Retegui when he departed Genoa with nine goals to his name in all competitions last season. Already this term he has 14 in 19 games, two of which came as Young Boys were brushed aside at the Wankdorf Stadium. Retegui's first goal was that of an outstanding center forward, timing his run perfectly to break the Young Boys offside trap and whipping a ferocious finish across goal, the ball bending elegantly into the side-netting. The second was no less impressive, a great first touch off Charles De Ketelaere before the 25-year-old took a breath and rolled it home. This is the output of a high-grade striker. Was Retegui that before Gasperini got his hands on him?The Audible: Bill Belichick and the new college football landscape
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BEIRUT (AP) — Insurgents' stunning march across Syria accelerated Saturday with news that they had reached the suburbs of the capital and that government forces had withdrawn from the central city of Homs. The government was forced to deny rumors that President Bashar Assad had fled the country. The loss of Homs is a potentially crippling blow for Assad. It stands at an important intersection between Damascus and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian leader’s base of support and home to a Russian strategic naval base. The pro-government Sham FM reported that government forces took positions outside Syria’s third-largest city, without elaborating. Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian troops and members of different security agencies have withdrawn from the city, adding that rebels have entered parts of it. The capture of Homs is a major victory for insurgents, who have already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama , as well as large parts of the south, in a lightning offensive that began Nov. 27. Analysts said Homs falling into rebel hands would be a game-changer. The rebels' moves around Damascus, reported by the monitor and a rebel commander, came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern part of the country, leaving more areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions, led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations. In their push to overthrow Assad's government, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian army. For the first time in the country's long-running civil war, the government now has control of only three of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Latakia and Tartus. The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.” Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad's chief international backer, said he feels “sorry for the Syrian people.” In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands went to Syria's border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country. Many shops in the capital were shuttered, a resident told The Associated Press, and those still open ran out of staples such as sugar. Some were selling items at three times the normal price. “The situation is very strange. We are not used to that,” the resident said, insisting on anonymity, fearing retributions. “People are worried whether there will be a battle (in Damascus) or not.” It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege. The U.N. said it was moving noncritical staff outside the country as a precaution. Assad's status Syria’s state media denied social media rumors that Assad left the country, saying he is performing his duties in Damascus. He has had little, if any, help from his allies. Russia, is busy with its war in Ukraine . Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up Assad's forces, has been weakened by a yearlong conflict with Israel. Iran has seen its proxies across the region degraded by regular Israeli airstrikes. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria. Pedersen said a date for talks in Geneva on the implementation a U.N. resolution, adopted in 2015, and calling for a Syrian-led political process, would be announced later. The resolution calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with U.N.-supervised elections. Later Saturday, foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, along with Pederson, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha Summit to discuss the situation in Syria. No details were immediately available. The insurgents' march Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents were in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. Opposition fighters were marching toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta, he added. A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces had begun the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. HTS controls much of northwest Syria and in 2017 set up a “salvation government” to run day-to-day affairs in the region. In recent years, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group’s image, cutting ties with al-Qaida, ditching hard-line officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance. The shock offensive began Nov. 27, during which gunmen captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama , the country’s fourth largest city. Opposition activists said Saturday that a day earlier, insurgents entered Palmyra, which is home to invaluable archaeological sites had been in government hands since being taken from the Islamic State group in 2017. To the south, Syrian troops left much of the province of Quneitra including the main Baath City, activists said. Syrian Observatory said government troops have withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces. The Syrian army said in a statement that it carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints came under attack by “terrorists." The army said it was setting up a “strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area,” apparently to defend Damascus from the south. The Syrian government has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since conflict broke out in March 2011. Diplomacy in Doha The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey, meeting in Qatar, called for an end to the hostilities. Turkey is a main backer of the rebels. Qatar's top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticized Assad for failing to take advantage of the lull in fighting in recent years to address the country’s underlying problems. “Assad didn’t seize this opportunity to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people,” he said. Sheikh Mohammed said he was surprised by how quickly the rebels have advanced and said there is a real threat to Syria’s “territorial integrity.” He said the war could “damage and destroy what is left if there is no sense of urgency” to start a political process. ____ Karam reported from London. Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report. Bassem Mroue And Zeina Karam, The Associated Press
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