Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 1

SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO and founder Elon Musk and his partner Grimes welcomed a baby boy into the world of May 5, shocking the world by naming their son "X Æ A-12". But in the words of Hillary Duff, that is so yesterday.

Grimes was recently asked on her Instagram if she and Elon had changed their sons names because of California laws, with a fan asking: "What is the baby's new name". Grimes replied: "X Æ A-Xii".

Why did Grimes and Musk change their son's name? Because California law dictates that official names can only be spelled using the 26 letters available in the English alphabet, hyphens, and apostrophes. Grimes replied to another comment, saying: "Roman numerals. Looks better tbh".

Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, has said to reporters this past Sunday that the United States has been infected by a "political virus".

BBC reports that tensions between the United States' Washington and China's Beijing have become more escalated as the virus has continued to ravage the country. On top of that, President Donald Trump has laid the blame of the virus at the feet of the Chinese government, escalating tensions even further. Now, China's top diplomat has said that the United States needs to "stop wasting time and stop wasting precious lives" in its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr. Wang spoke at an annual news conference during China's parliamentary session and said, "some political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage" and that they are trying to "push our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War". Mr. Wang went to the defense of China, saying, "Aside from the devastation caused by the novel coronavirus, there is also a political virus spreading through the US. This political virus is the use of every opportunity to attack and smear China. Some politicians completely disregard basic facts and have fabricated too many lies targeting China, and plotted too many conspiracies."

There's no doubt that China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak could have gone a lot better, but is it as bad the Chernobyl disaster?

According to Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, who spoke to Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press", yes it is. Here's what he said, "The cover-up that they [China] did of the virus is going to go down in history along with Chernobyl". He also stated that this story will be so big that "We'll see an HBO special about it in 10 or 15 years from now". If you aren't sure what Chernobyl was, back in 1986 there was a nuclear disaster in Ukraine, read more about it here or check out the TV show that was recently made here.

O'Brien was also asked about how relationships are between China and the US in regards to the current trade deal, and O'Brien stated, "we're in a very different world" from when talks first began. O'Brien did say that the US is after good relations with the Chinese people and their government, but unfortunately, "we're seeing just action after action by the Chinese Communist Party that makes it difficult". O'Brien also said, "With respect to the trade deal, we'll see if they live up to it, but we're dealing in a new world now with corona."

Monday, May 25 is Memorial Day in the United States, and to celebrate, Origin PC has special Memorial Day savings that anyone needing a new gaming laptop or desktop might want to take advantage of. The company is offering hundreds of dollars in rebates in the form of discounts or reward cards on certain machines, free shipping, and bonus digital games.

Origin PC is offering its EVO16-S and NT-16 laptops with $200 discounts and free shipping. The same discounts are available on the EVO17-S and NT-17. Buyers who opt for an Eon15-X or an NS-15 will get $100 off, three months of free Xbox Game Pass for PC, and free ground shipping.

Shoppers who opt for any Origin PC gaming laptop will get free US ground shipping. Some desktop gaming computers are available with $100 Visa reward cards, free US ground shipping, bonus digital games, and more. The bonus digital games include Red Dead Redemption 2, among others.

Facebook seems to be going all-in with remote working, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying that the social networking giant has plans to "aggressively" ramp up hiring for remote workers.

The social networking company will also be taking applications for workers who want to permanently work from home, joining Facebook's current flock of 48,000 staff. An internal survey run by Facebook saw that 40% of its employees were interested in working from home, indefinitely.

Facebook says that within the next 5-10 years it will have up to 50% of its workforce working remotely. Zuckerberg told The Verge: "We're going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale". Financially, there are benefits of work-from-home (WFM), with Zuckerberg adding: "That means if you live in a location where the cost of living is dramatically lower, or the cost of labour is lower, then salaries do tend to be somewhat lower in those places".

As of late, there has been a stir about a second stimulus check coming, and just recently, the Democratic House passed the HEROES Act, which could bring that second check to American's. But how realistic is it?

Its quite well known that Republicans are very hesitant at a second multi-trillion-dollar stimulus check rolling out American's, but now the gap between the two parties' opinions has become even wider as the topic of illegal immigration has been brought into play. The previously mentioned HEROES Act that was passed by the Democratic House includes stimulus checks for immigrants, regardless of their legal status. Now, that request hasn't sat too well with the Republicans.

According to White House economic advisor Peter Navarro who spoke on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos, "Nancy Pelosi basically lost me with that package when she has $1,200 checks for illegal immigrants. And it just goes downhill from there". Navarro then continues on to say that we need to continue on with the monetary stimulus that has been rolled out, and that there is billions of dollars "coursing through the system right now." Navarro does say that "we may need more", but that he is going to let his superiors decide whether or not that is a good idea.

Intel has made a killer acquisition today with the company acquiring Rivet Networks, the company behind Killer NIC networking products.

Killer-branded NICs are pretty kick ass, and can be found inside of the best laptops from the likes of Alienware, Dell, HP, and others. Any gamer will know that Killer NIC-powered gaming rigs have gaming-focused features that keep lag at a minimum, network prioritization for your games, and more.

Intel has been competing against Rivet Networks for a while now, but this now ends now that Intel owns the company and all things Killer. We should see future Intel chipsets and platforms (laptops, NUCs) with Killer-infused networking connectiviy (be it wired, or Wi-Fi).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has now got dedicated staff ready to answer anyone's calls regarding the stimulus checks that are being rolled out.

According to a new post on the IRS website, the IRS has now added 3,500 telephone representatives that will be there to answer any questions regarding the Economic Impact Payments, or stimulus checks everyone is expecting. The IRS does remind everyone that most of the common questions can be answered by simply heading to the IRS website, and even some questions will get robotic answers if you decide to call.

Here's what the website states, "Answers for most Economic Impact Payment questions are available on the automated message for people who call the phone number provided in the letter (Notice 1444)". It should be noted that if you gave the IRS your direct deposit information, then the payment of up to $1,200 for individuals, or $2,400 for married couples, plus an extra $500 for each eligible child, will be given to you electronically. If you didn't give the IRS your direct deposit information, the check will be sent out in the mail. If you are after anymore information regarding the checks, follow this link here.

It might not seem like it, but Disney has had a gigantic shake up internally in the last few months -- having its ex-CEO Robert Iger stepping down in February 2020, and now its head of streaming has left for TikTok.

Disney has lost its Head of Streaming to Chinese video giant TikTok (where influencers can make $1 million per post -- more on that here), with Kevin Mayer leaving as the boss of Disney's Direct to Consumer & International division. Mayer was recently passed over for the position of CEO when Iger stepped away suddenly, with now-CEO Bob Chapek replacing him.

Just as Disney+ is beginning its streaming dominance, and days away from the huge launch of HBO Max -- it loses its head of streaming to... TikTok. There's another few reasons why this is big: Mayer has been with Disney for over a decade, joining Disney in 1993 -- but left the company for Playboy.com, and then returned to Disney to run many websites for the company that eventually led him to strategic planning at Disney.

The coronavirus pandemic has most certainly changed the technology world and other industries all around the globe. Many events that would normally take place with hundreds or even thousands of people in the same location have been canceled and made digital-only. One example from Apple is it canceling its in-person WWDC event in favor of a completely digital WWDC 2020. Apple has now announced that it has purchased a virtual reality startup called NextVR.

NextVR is a startup that's focused on broadcasting major events in virtual reality. While Apple has confirmed the purchase, it hasn't said what exactly it plans to do with the company. An Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg, "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

It seems like current services offered by NextVR are being shut down with all content on the company's website removed and a message that says the company is "heading in a new direction" left in its place. Apple has been pushing into augmented and mixed reality, and claims to have the world's largest AR platform with hundreds of millions of AR-enabled devices and apps on the App Store.