Business, Financial & Legal - Page 48

In 2017 Mark D'Amico from New Jersey and his then-girlfriend Katelyn McClure set up a GoFundMe page for a homeless man Jonny Bobbit.

Bobbit, D'Amico, McClure.

The GoFundMe page was titled "Paying it Forward" claimed that Bobbit helped a stranded McClure and filled up a gas can with his last $20 and that the couple wanted to raise money for Bobbit to pay the good deed forward. The campaign took off on social media and raised much more than the $10,000 goal, with the couple saying they were planning on helping Bobbit rent a home and purchase a reliable car, while also claiming that any leftover funds would be for charity. The campaign soared past the $10,000 mark and reached a whopping $402,706.

President Donald Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago has just been raided by the FBI, with FBI agents searching his home and reportedly finding classified material in 15 boxes at his mansion in Florida.

The FBI raid was first reported by Florida Politics, confirming that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had raided and searched President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate as "part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence" reports Florida Politics, the author: Associated Press.

The raid was confirmed by multiple outlets and personalities in the US, with the investigation seeking whether the former president kept classified documents at his personal residence. Trump's attorney, Christina Bobb, said that the FBI did indeed seize documents: "President Trump and his legal team have been cooperative with FBI and DOJ officials every step of the way. The FBI did conduct an unannounced raid and seized paper".

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has sat down for an interview where he explained the backlash he received from the US government over smoking weed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Musk recently sat down with the Full Send Podcast to discuss various topics, and throughout the interview, the Tesla CEO recounted the backlash he experienced for smoking weed on the Joe Rogan Experience episode #1169 in 2018. Musk said that he "got a lot of backlash" as the drug is "still federally illegal", which resulted in him being required to have many random drug tests to "prove that I'm not a drug addict".

Musk was asked who required him to have these drug tests, and he replied by saying, "the federal government because SpaceX has federal government contracts, and it's still illegal federally, so SpaceX competitors were like 'why aren't you doing anything.'" Notably, Musk said the government randomly drug tested him "for everything" over the course of a year and that the overall consequences of that action weren't good for him or SpaceX as the whole company was also required to have random drug tests.

Elon Musk has responded to reports claiming that he is going to build his own private airport in the state of Texas.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has taken to Twitter to refute the claims from mysanantonio.com that wrote that Musk is developing a plan to construct a private airport near Bastrop. The publication cites reports that the idea is in a conceptual phase, with there being no official timeline for its construction laid out. Now, Musk has taken to Twitter to respond to the rumors by simply saying they are "untrue."

Musk explains in a tweet that the Tesla facility is "5 mins" from the Austin International airport and that it would be "silly to build another private airport". The world's richest man did poke some fun at the Austin International airport by writing that it needs to add another runway due to the speed of Austin growing fast with many individuals, companies, and businesses rushing to the growing location.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned US president Joe Biden: "Those who play with fire will only get burnt. Hope the U.S. side can see this clearly" when it comes to Taiwan.

In a phone call on Thursday that lasted over two hours, Xi Jinping said that China firmly opposed separatist moves toward "Taiwan independence" and interference by external forces and that China would never allow any room for "Taiwan independence" forces in whatever form.

Xi Jinping added: "The position of the Chinese government and people on the Taiwan question is consistent, and resolutely safeguarding China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity is the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people. The public opinion cannot be defied. Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this. The US should honor the one-China principle and implement the three joint communiques both in word and in deed".

Elon Musk has commented on the recent announcement from the Biden administration, which offered to exchange a Russian arms dealer for WNBA player Brittney Griner.

Griner was arrested in February and has remained detained in Moscow following airport officials allegedly discovering vape cartridges containing hash oil in her luggage. The Biden administration then offered to release Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the "merchant of death," to the Kremlin in exchange for Griner and Paul Whelan, a former marine accused of espionage having safe passage back to the US.

In response to these announcements and many of the reports that came out about the possible exchange, Musk took to Twitter on Sunday to voice his opinion on the matter. The Tesla CEO called for authorities to "maybe free some people in jail for weed here too?" and added a meme that stated the following; "People in the US in jail for weed while the government trades a Russian war criminal to free a woman's basketball player in jail for weed". According to Reuters, no deal has been confirmed between the US and Russia.

Intel recently posted its Q2 2022 results and in the words of MarketWatch "investors try to parse through the wreckage of its disastrous second quarter".

AMD has been doing some serious damage to Intel's data center market share, where Intel missed $1.6 billion in revenue from its very, very important data center business. The reason? Intel is blaming the "macroeconomic environment" and some "internal execution" issues... execution issues that we've been hearing a lot about lately.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said during the call: "We were well into the quarter and we saw the market characteristics change quite suddenly. We wanted to be in a position that we had a thoughtful view of what the market was for the future".

On Thursday, a federal lawsuit was filed that alleges gunshot detection technology that uses artificial intelligence wrongfully imprisoned the plaintiff Michael Williams.

The gunshot detection technology that has been thrown into question is developed by the company ShotSpotter, which deployed numerous microphones around the city, which are paired with an AI system that is capable of determining when a gunshot has been fired. Once that system detects the appropriate sound, it notifies local police. In Williams' case, Chicago police used audio recordings by ShotSpotter as critical evidence against Williams, who was charged with murder in 2020 for allegedly shooting a man inside his vehicle.

Now, Williams, along with the human rights advocacy group The MacArthur Project, is looking to recover damages from the city of Chicago, as well as reparations for loss of income, legal bills, and the mental anguish caused by being imprisoned. The lawsuit alleges that police put "blind faith" into the gunshot detection system, with Engadget reporting that police didn't even confirm a motive for Williams and that he was imprisoned with only two pieces of evidence - a video of a car that lacked any audio and a ShotSpotter alert.

Officials have announced the destruction of a combat helicopter reportedly worth $16 million - one of the best combat helicopters the nation has at its disposal.

The announcement comes from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, which stated that Ukrainian troops have successfully destroyed a Russian Ka-52 helicopter. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense took to Twitter to announce the victory, writing that Ukrainian warriors of the 25th Paratrooper Brigade shot down a Russian combat helicopter with MANPADS or Man-portable air-defense systems (surface-to-air missiles).

Notably, the Ka-52 helicopter is one of Russia's biggest assets in its invasion as it's able to provide support for both ground and air troops. Furthermore, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense released an estimation of Russia's losses for its war, with Ukrainian estimates putting Russian troop losses at 39,000, tank losses at 1,704, armored personnel vehicles at 3,920, artillery systems at 863, rocket systems at 252, anti-aircraft systems at 113, aircraft at 221, helicopters at 188, boats at 15 and vehicles at 2,803.

Elon Musk is laughing his ass off at the BS rumors that he slept with Google co-founder Sergey Brin's wife, Nicole Shanahan.

He laughed at them from the start, where he explained over email to the New York Post: "I wouldn't get on my knees and beg for anyone". In the last 24 hours, The Wall Street Journal wrote beyond fake news (getting away with it using the word "alleged", total BS in the words of the SpaceX and Tesla CEO that he got on his knees and begged for Brin's forgiveness.

Musk is refuting the smears and lies in mainstream media that started with The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, CNN, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, and countless others that he slept with Brin's wife. Musk said: "Nicole and Sergey's divorce has absolutely nothing to do with me".

Twitter has released its Q2 2022 earnings results, and despite growth in average monetizable daily active users (mDAUs), the company has blamed Elon Musk for its falling revenue.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been blamed for Twitter's reduction in revenue following his bid to purchase the world's second-largest social media platform for $44 billion and then his pull out of the deal. According to Twitter's Q2 2022 results found here, Twitter's revenue for its second quarter was $1.18 billion, but its expenses for the same time frame was $1.52 billion. The company reported net losses of $270 million, and of that $270 million, $33 million is related to the "pending acquisition" from Musk.

Notably, Twitter's Q2 2022 results indicate that the company has gained more mDAUs, with a growth of 16.6% compared to Q2 2021 - hitting 237.8 million globally. Twitter claims that its decline in revenue can be attributed to the uncertainty surrounding the company and the claims from Musk that more than 5% of its mDAUs are bot/spam accounts. These claims from Musk have resulted in Twitter being a less attractive prospect for advertisers, according to the company.

Elon Musk has come out denying the allegations that he slept with wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, saying that the story is "total bs".

Musk tweeted that the story is "total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night! I've only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic". In a follow up tweet, Musk added "haven't even had sex in ages (sigh)".

In my article covering the claims that Elon slept with Nicole Shanahan, Sergey Brin's at-the-time wife, I opened the article with "the takedown of Elon Musk continues". So, that was a correct statement: the sexual assault allegations that Elon dubbed "Elongate", and now "BS" in the words of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself, is a takedown. Daily stories of how bad Tesla, SpaceX, and other Musk-owned or operated companies... but the continued assault on Musk is giving me the same vibes as the mainstream media hate and BS stories about President Donald Trump between 2016-2020.

TSMC leads the world in semiconductor manufacturing, so much so that China has been licking its lips to engage in war -- destroying trillions in wealth, creating most likely a world war, the death of thousands if not millions -- just to take the company.

But now, news is breaking that China's largest chipmaker -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) -- has copied chip designs for 7nm manufacturing technology from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The news is coming from Taiwanese press, stating that SMIC's 'new' 7nm process design has been ripped apart by TechInsights with some interesting... insights into SMIC's design process, or lack thereof, I guess.

TSMC is already making the most advanced silicon on the planet, with mass production of 3nm already underway inside of TSMC labs, the Taiwanese semiconductor Godzilla is claiming that SMIC is copying their 7nm designs.

Update: Elon Musk himself has said that this is BS, you can read more about that here.

The takedown of Elon Musk continues, after setting Twitter on fire exposing that most of their users are actually bots and bullshit, now news is breaking that Musk had an affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin filed for diverse from his wife Nicole Shanahan last month, with Brin valued at $93 billion this is a very, very big deal. But now we have some new information on why the billionaire Google co-founder is leaving his wife: SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk slept with his wife.

During a call with Tesla investors, the company's CEO, Elon Musk, teased when the Cybertruck is expected to be shipped out to buyers.

Elon Musk has been teasing the release of the Cybertruck for quite some time now, with the Tesla CEO previously stating that the design for the vehicle is "locked" and that the production timeline has been moved to early 2023. Now, Musk spoke to Tesla investors on a call and said that he hopes that Tesla can begin delivering the Cybertruck to buyers sometime in the "middle of next year".

Notably, the Cybertruck was announced in 2019, and since then, Tesla has been forced into delaying its production until 2022, which was then pushed back to the current production date estimation of 2023. Musk revealed during an interview that Tesla is undergoing hardships with its production line and is suffering from major cash hemorrhaging as Tesla factories struggle to produce vehicles.

Netflix is now pushing out its password-sharing hand slap to customers in 5 different Latin American countries, which will see them paying between $1.70 and $2.99 per month.

The company will be requesting customers pay a fee to use their Netflix accounts in an additional house, with Netflix customers from Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic needing to cough more money up per month. If users are using their Netflix account for more than 2 weeks outside of their primary residence (the address of your Netflix billing account).

Netflix announced the news on their website, with Netflix apps on smartphones, tablets, and laptops won't be affected if you're on vacation. It's just for those using it for over 2 weeks, outside of your primary residence... in a bid for Netflix to claw back more money after bleeding on the stock market (and a tiny 200,000+ customers lost in Q1 2022, and an expected 2M+ in Q2 2022).

Russia has fined Google hundreds of millions of dollars for refusing to censor Ukraine war content on its platform.

A Russian court has ruled that Google will be fined $377 million for failing to remove content about the Ukraine war that Russia considers to be "fake" or "prohibited content". This isn't the first time Russia has fined Google for the content on its platform, as the nation fined Google in December 2021 for what it claimed to be a "systematic failure to remove banned content." Notably, Facebook and Instagram were also fined approximately $27 million.

According to Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor's press release regarding the fine, the Russian court pointed to YouTube being the platform where the "fake" news is being spread and how Google failed to stop the spread of misinformation or restrict access to the "prohibited content". At the moment, Google is available in Russia, but judging by the nation's past decisions to ban platforms that don't agree with Russian principles (Facebook was banned in March), it may not be long before Google is also banned.

A court has ruled in favor of Twitter for expediting the trial date for the social media company's lawsuit against Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk moved to terminate his merger agreement with Twitter, and in response, the world's second-largest social media company is taking Musk to court. Twitter filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery that claimed Musk must follow through with the merger agreement at the stated price of $54.20 a share, or $44 billion. Twitter's lawsuit also stated that the court should expedite the trial given its nature and how merger agreements being in limbo can impact the company negatively.

Musk fired back at Twitter with a filing that pushed for the court to reject Twitter's request to expedite the trial date, citing the need for a substantial amount of time to analyze and interpret the treasure trove of user data that Twitter provided Musk's team - to review the company's process for identifying bot/spam accounts. The filing requested that the trial get pushed back to on or after February 13, 2023. That request has now been denied by the Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick.

Elon Musk is once again tweeting about the world not being overpopulated, with the SpaceX and Tesla CEO tweeting: "Earth is basically empty of humans".

In a reply to a tweet from Tim Urban, which explains: "Population density thread because you and I both know you have nothing better to do. Let's start with this cool way to visualize population density, by @undertheraedar. The height of each spike displays the population density in that location".

Musk replied, tweeting: "Earth is basically empty of humans".

Netflix reports its second quarter of subscriber losses in a row for its Q2 period.

Netflix subscriber losses have more than quadrupled over Q1, new earnings reports have confirmed. The streaming giant lost 969,000 subscribers in its Q2 period, its largest reduction in subscribers to date. From January - June 2022, Netflix subscribers have dropped by over 1.1 million across the globe.

The company also says that its ad-based plans may be years away, and that it will continue experimenting with its paid sharing plans which require users to pay an extra fee to share their Netflix subscriptions with users in other households.