The night before I drove the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, I complained to a group of journalists that automakers don’t want to take chances and just build fun, weird cars anymore. About 12 hours later, Mercedes made me eat my words. Outside of all the bombastic extravaganza of the Los Angeles launch, the first true AMG powered exclusively by batteries is a technological triumph that’s as comfortable on the track as it is on the street. And it’s really very good on the track.

Triforce

One of the fundamental problems with EVs is weight. Batteries are heavy, and the old rule about an object in motion tending to stay in motion makes the notion of nimble cornering a difficult engineering problem. Mercedes loves an engineering problem, and after two days behind the wheel of the AMG GT EV, the company has mostly reduced the battery-weight tax that mires EV performance.

On the road and on the track, the vehicle is firmly planted to the roadway. Mercedes says various technologies make this possible. In addition to decades of producing high-performance vehicles, the automaker’s AMG.EA sports-car architecture does a lot of heavy lifting here, constantly adjusting power delivery from the three motors while guiding the Active Ride Control suspension, steering—including up to six degrees at the rear axle—and active aerodynamics to deliver the performance AMG customers have come to expect from a vehicle with the Affalterbach badge on the hood.

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Nintendo reports higher profit but substantially lower Switch 2 sales after it increased console prices.

Despite market conditions making PS5 consoles expensive and hard to get, Sony’s gaming division had a solid quarter.

3M has agreed to pay up to $7.35 billion over nine years to settle claims from as many as 120,000 people who say they were sickened by PFAS-contaminated groundwater near military bases, airports and other locations where firefighting foam was used. The Associated Press reports that 3M “did not admit liability,” noting that the settlement comes on top of the more than $10 billion the company previously agreed to pay U.S. public drinking water systems over PFAS contamination. From the report: 3M chairman William Brown called the settlement a “significant milestone” that substantially reduces uncertainty from the litigation. […] Fred Thompson, an attorney with the Motley Rice law firm that helped negotiate the 3M settlement for the plaintiffs, called it welcome news for “the thousands of victims who have sought answers and accountability for nearly a decade.” He said in a news release that the plaintiffs urgently need help covering mounting medical bills and other costs.

Under the terms of the settlement, the payouts will begin with $50 million this year, followed by yearly payments of more than $1 billion each year from 2028 to 2033. 3M could make additional payments if enough plaintiffs participate. If too few sign on, 3M has the option to cancel the settlement and continue fighting the lawsuit.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A Vietnamese court has sentenced 14 people who worked on the pirate football streaming site Bun Cha TV, handing out the first prison terms we’ve seen since the country’s piracy crackdown began earlier this year. […] Four defendants, including the heads of the content, programming and operations teams, were sentenced to 12 months in prison. Five others received ten months, and two were sentenced to eight months. Notably, three of the site’s commentators were not sent to prison. Their ten-month sentences were suspended. All 14 defendants reportedly admitted the charges and cooperated with the authorities. According to investigators, Bun Cha TV streamed more than 150,000 sports matches and it allegedly made more than 20 billion dong, roughly $760,000, in illegal profits from betting and gambling ads.

The verdict reports don’t mention a total. Instead, they list illegal gains per person or team. The leader of the content team allegedly gained more than 430 million dong, while commentators made from more than 31 million to more than 480 million dong each. The verdict was picked up by Rouse, the law firm that represents the Motion Picture Association in Vietnam. In an article headlined “Strong Vietnam criminal penalties,” published on Lexology on November 3, the firm calls the ruling another victory for Vietnam’s IP landscape.

“The defendants were all sentenced to terms of 8-12 months in prison,” Rouse writes. While Rouse is correct on the length of the terms, it doesn’t mention that three of the sentences were suspended. Instead, Rouse stresses that the ruling is part of a tougher enforcement trend. “This ruling reflects a shift in enforcement strategy by Vietnamese authorities, who are increasingly moving past preliminary domain blocking to deliver criminal convictions against the operators of commercial-scale piracy rings,” the firm notes. “This perhaps reflects the strength of the national crackdown following the USTR pressure in May,” the firm adds. According to the indictment, Bui Ba Hien, who runs a company called S24, allegedly directed employees and collaborators to build and operate Bun Cha TV. However, Hien is not among the 14 defendants named in reports, which also do not identify the affected rightsholders.

“Interestingly, in September, Bac Ninh police issued a wanted notice for a man of the same name, Bui Ba Hien, CEO of esports company Box Vietnam,” reports TorrentFreak. “This person is also charged under the same copyright statute.”

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