Business, Financial & Legal - Page 49

The New York City (NYC) Emergency Management Department has released a new public service announcement (PSA) regarding "nuclear preparedness."

The Department notes the likelihood of a nuclear weapon being used to attack NYC or a nearby incident involving such a weapon is low. However, its citizens should be prepared in the event of one. Eric Adams, the mayor of NYC, commended the Office of Emergency Management for the PSA and called himself "a big believer in better safe than sorry." He also referred to NYC as "one of the top terrorist threats," and thus that New Yorkers should always be prepared.

The new PSA advises citizens to enter a building quickly and avoid windows, and they should shut all doors and windows and head for the middle of the building. Removing clothing and showering with soap or shampoo is also advised to clean off radioactive material as quickly as possible. Citizens are then advised to stay tuned to news sources, sign up for Notify NYC, and be alert for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs).

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has backed out of his deal to purchase Twitter, and now the second largest social media company is taking Musk to court.

Musk offered to purchase Twitter for $54.20 a share, or $44 billion in April 2022. This offer was accepted by Twitter less than two weeks after it was announced, which was quickly followed by Musk pointing to Twitter's claim that less than 5% of its total users are bot accounts. As a result of this, the Tesla CEO said the deal was "temporarily on hold" until Twitter provided his team with the correct data to verify the claims.

Twitter responded by providing Musk with the full "fire hose" of Twitter, which was followed by Musk accusing Twitter of a "material breach" by withholding vital information. Fast forwarding to July 8, Musk's legal team informed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he was backing out of the deal and wished to terminate the merger agreement.

Apple designer Jony Ive is officially finished with the company, after leaving back in 2019 to form his own design firm... Apple became one of his biggest clients, until now.

Jony Ive's own design firm is called LoveFrom, with clients that include Ferrari -- and until now, Apple -- but sources close to The New York Times say that Apple and Ive have agreed to end their partnership. The two companies had a multi-year contract, where LoveFrom reportedly made over $100 million.

The contract was up for renewal but it seems both parties didn't want to move on, with The New York Times sources saying that there were executives inside of Apple that were concerned with how much money they were handing over to Ive and his design firm. On top of that, other Apple staffers were pissed that designers were defecting from Apple to LoveFrom, not a good thing for Ive, or Apple.

Four former executives from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have been ordered by a Tokyo court to pay damages in a recent lawsuit.

A civil lawsuit was brought against the company by shareholders for failing to prevent the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, when the now-defunct nuclear power plant was struck by a massive tsunami. The executives have been ordered to pay a combined 13.32 trillion yen ($97 billion) in what is estimated to be the largest compensation payout for a civil lawsuit in Japanese history.

The plaintiffs argued that TEPCO could have avoided the disaster had it listened to the research at the time and taken certain preventative measures. However, the defendants argued that the studies were not credible and the risks were unpredictable. Nevertheless, the court found TEPCO had "an obligation to prevent severe accidents based on the latest scientific and expert engineering knowledge," and the executives failed to heed credible advice.

Reports indicate that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a text message to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal about Twitter's lawyers.

Elon Musk has decided to back of his deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, and now the world's second largest social media company is moving to initiate legal action against Musk in the Delaware court as of Tuesday. Following the pull back from Musk and the lawsuit from Twitter reports are surfacing about text messages between Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Musk regarding lawyers.

According to reports from BusinessInsider, Musk sent text messages to Agrawal and Twitter CFO Ned Segal on June 28 where he stated, "Your lawyers are using these conversations to cause trouble. That needs to stop." Notably, these text messages were in response to Twitter wanting to find out how Musk was planning on financing the $44 billion for the merger. If you are interested in reading more about the recent events between Twitter and Musk, check out the below links.

Bill Gates has announced in a Twitter thread that he will be giving away all of his wealth and that he will drop off the world's richest people list.

Gates explained in a long Twitter thread that he believes many are viewing the world as a place that is growing progressively worse, and to reduce the pace of the worsening/mitigate its impact, Gates will be increasing the spending for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Microsoft founder says that the foundation was created in 2000 with his now ex-wife Melinda Gates and that the board has agreed to increase the foundation spending from nearly $6 billion a year to $9 billion by 2026.

BMW owners have expressed extreme displeasure at the recently unveiled plans from BMW to charge monthly for features such as car seat warming and cruise control.

BMW have already rolled out its new subscription plan in several international markets, with the new service available in the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, and more. The BMW UK website states the following, "Front Seat heating gets things nice and cozy in no time. Activation after purchase is quick and easy." The front seat heating is priced at $18 a month, and that will be what BMW owners will need to pay to access this feature in their own vehicle.

Owners also have the option of paying $180 per year for the heated seats, or $300 a year for a three-year subscription, or $415 for "unlimited access". Heating isn't the only feature that BMW is slapping a monthly subscription on, as the car manufacturer in some markets is charging $42 a month for adaptive cruise control, and $12 a month for the feature that automatically switches off high beams. Furthermore, BMW will charge owners $265 to use Apple CarPlay.

Tesla just fired around 200 people from its Autopilot department, shutting an office down in San Mateo, California, and now Tesla's head of AI has left the company.

Andrej Karpathy, Tesla's head of AI, and one of the key people behind the development of Tesla's industry-leading Autopilot software, announced over Twitter that he is leaving Tesla. Karpathy tweeted: "It's been a great pleasure to help Tesla towards its goals over the last 5 years and a difficult decision to part ways. In that time, Autopilot graduated from lane keeping to city streets and I look forward to seeing the exceptionally strong Autopilot team continue that momentum".

He continued: "I have no concrete plans for what's next but look to spend more time revisiting my long-term passions around technical work in AI, open source and education".

Tesla has reportedly laid off hundreds of employees in its Autopilot department, as well as closing down an office in San Mateo, California.

Bloomberg and TechCrunch have both reported the story, with the teams at the San Mateo office "tasked with evaluating customer vehicle data related to the Autopilot driver-assistance features and performing so-called data labeling. Many of the staff were data annotation specialists, all of which are hourly positions, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information" reports Bloomberg.

Tesla had around 350 staffers in that office before the slashing of staff took place, where some of them have been transferred to nearby offices. 200 people out of its Autopilot team is a big deal for the autonomous side of Tesla, but not overall considering the company hires around 100,000 people across the planet.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is being sued by Twitter over his attempt to back out of his acquisition deal to purchase the company for $44 billion.

Here's a quick synopsis of the events between the two parties so far. In April 2022, Musk moved to purchase Twitter for $54.20 a share, or $44 billion - Twitter accepted this offer in less than two weeks after it was announced by Musk. The following month Musk shined a spotlight on Twitter's claim that less than 5% of its total users accounted for bots/spam accounts. The Tesla CEO even went as far as to announce that the deal was "temporarily on hold" until Twitter provided him with adequate information to confirm Twitter's claims.

Musk's team was unable to confirm the claims from Twitter, and as a result, Musk accused Twitter of a "material breach" by withholding vital information. Twitter followed up on Musk's accusations by providing Musk's team with the full "fire hose" of Twitter data, however, that must have been inefficient as Musk's team told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 8 that he was backing out of the deal and that he wished to terminate the merger agreement.

Elon Musk pulling out of buying Twitter has turned the social networking giant into a "shit show internally", according to a source inside of the company reports Wired.

Twitter employees have been speaking with Wired "on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to talk to the media", with the first saying: "Twitter is a shit show internally; I can confirm that for you right now, without a doubt".

Another said: "there's no strong leadership at the moment", a third source said: "the entire company is running on autopilot". The mess continues, with a fourth source saying: "I expect it is going to be a mess. I'd like to see someone hold Elon's feet to the fire because I think it sets a risky precedent to allow him to meddle so much, drive down the stock, then pull out". Another source added: "We've been told nothing by senior management".

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has moved to exit his acquisition deal to purchase the world's second-largest social media company, Twitter.

Elon Musk officially moved to kill his deal to purchase Twitter over the weekend when Musk's legal team issued a statement that indicated the billionaire would be backing out of the deal over Twitter allegedly making false and misleading representations of the company. Notably, Musk's legal team sent a letter to Twitter's Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde that stated Musk would be at risk of suffering a Company Material Adverse Effect if he followed through with the deal.

When Musk entered into the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, he agreed to pay a $1 billion exit fee if the deal wasn't completed. However, this $1 billion fine could be waived if Twitter is found to have provided Musk with inadequate information regarding the company, its users, and financials - all of which would be used by Musk to get an accurate valuation. Musk agreed to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, and now Twitter is worth approximately $28 billion, following a global market downturn.

Elon Musk has come out with some kinder words about former President Donald Trump, after Trump called the SpaceX and Tesla boss "another bullsh*t artist" at a rally over the weekend.

Musk has the video where Trump calls him out pinned to his Twitter, replying to that tweet about an hour ago. Musk said: "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack - don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency".

He continued, adding: "Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America. If DeSantis runs against Biden in 2024, then DeSantis will easily win - he doesn't even need to campaign".

Elon Musk is on a tweet spree right now, with some comments made about President Trump and his recent comments on Musk being a "BS artist" at a rally in Alaska over the weekend.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has Breitbart's tweet of Trump ripping into Elon Musk calling him "another bullsh*t artist" pinned to the top of his Twitter, replying to the tweet an hour ago saying: "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack - don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency".

Adam Irvin replied, saying: "Hmm. I'm a little surprised this is your take. I say Trump/DeSantis 2024 DeSantis 2028/2032" to which Musk replied: "Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America. If DeSantis runs against Biden in 2024, then DeSantis will easily win - he doesn't even need to campaign".

Elon Musk has some rather simple advice for improving the quality of your sleep, with a simple tweet: "For improved quality of sleep, raise head of your bed by about 3" or 5cm and don't eat 3 hours before bedtime". That's all.

MrBeast replied, tweeting "anyone want to explain why these two things help to me" to which Musk replied: "Good chance you're experiencing at least mild acid reflux at night, affecting quality sleep without consciousness awareness". MrBeast replied again, saying "ah, interesting. I currently sleep 9 hours a night and I've been trying to get it down without reducing my energy levels/brain function so maybe this will help".

As someone who also strives for good sleep, I invested over the years into an adjustable bed with a really awesome mattress, and some high-quality pillows and quilt. Hell, I've even got a weighted blanket -- which I absolutely love on some nights, and even my two daughters love weighted blankets -- which helps the quality of your sleep.

A federal grand jury has indicted a Florida man who, where over the last 8 years, had been selling fake Cisco hardware and pulled in over $1 billion from government agencies, hospitals, schools, and... even the military.

Onur Aksoy, aka Ron Aksoy, aka Dave Durden, was busted selling fake Cisco equipment from suppliers in both China and Hong Kong, importing tens of thousands of products from 2014 to 2022. The US Department of Justice says that he had at least 19 companies in New Jersey and Florida, at least 15 Amazon storefronts, at least eBay storefronts, and multiple other entities that collectively, are called the "Pro Network Entities".

The US Department of Justice explains that the man "imported tens of thousands of fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco networking devices from China and Hong Kong and resold them to customers in the United States and overseas, falsely representing the products as new and genuine. The operation allegedly generated over $100 million in revenue, and Aksoy received millions of dollars for his personal gain".

I'm sure you've heard by now, but Elon Musk is no longer buying Twitter... after a huge kerfuffle over the world's second-largest social networking site, Twitter is now suing Elon Musk.

Twitter has lawyered up, hiring Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP to sue Elon Musk after the SpaceX and Tesla CEO pulled out of the $44 billion acquisition deal. The news is coming from Bloomberg, which is reporting that the social networking giant will file its lawsuit early this week, while Musk has secured Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP (which is the firm that successfully defended Musk against an ongoing shareholder lawsuit after a failed attempt to take Tesla private in 2018).

Twitter stock isn't doing well, where a week ago it was sitting at the $38 to $39 mark, but has dropped to $36 recently... we'll see how this week goes for the company, and I'm sure it's not going to go down well at all. I'm sure all those nasty "right-wing" and "alt-right" peeps around the world will get blamed, somehow.

President Donald Trump held a rally in Ankorage, Alaska over the weekend where he had some choice words to say about the world's richest man: Elon Musk. President Trump called Elon Musk a "bullshit artist" for backing his opponents during the 2016 and 2020 elections, at the rally speech.

President Trump said: "Nah, he's got himself a mess. You know, he said the other day, 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican.' I said, 'I didn't know that, he told me he voted for me.' So he's another bullshit artist, but he's not gonna be buying it. He's not gonna be buying it. Although he might later, who the hell knows what's gonna happen. He's got a pretty rotten contract. I looked at his contract, not a good contract. But he's not...Sign up for Truth".

President Trump continued: "I tell you what - Elon... Elon is not gonna buy Twitter! Where did you hear that before? From me. From me".

Elon Musk, the world's richest individual, has moved to exit his deal to purchase Twitter, according to recent reports.

Reports have surfaced regarding Elon Musk's legal team that has sent a letter to Twitter's Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, where it stated that Musk is terminating the $44 billion merger agreement to purchase Twitter. Musk's legal team writes that the deal has been terminated over Twitter making false and misleading representations of the company.

Musk's legal team states that due to Twitter's alleged misrepresentation of its company, Musk would be at risk of suffering a Company Material Adverse Effect. This news isn't surprising, considering that Musk's team was unable to determine if Twitter's total number of bot/spam accounts exceeded Twitter's officially estimated 5%. In response to Musk's legal letter, the chairman of Twitter's board of directors, Brett Taylor, stated that Twitter is still committed to closing the deal with the Tesla CEO.

The European Parliament voted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2022, to label some natural gas and nuclear power projects as "green."

The change will allow such projects to receive subsidies and cheap loans amounting to billions of euros. The decision aims to help transition the European Union (EU) from relying on fossil fuel imports from Russia, as a consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The EU banned the majority of coal and oil coming from Russia but continued to allow gas. However, Russia reduced its gas flow into the EU, which supplied roughly 40% of all of the EU's gas before the invasion began.

The EU has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Natural gas is being touted as a "bridge fuel" to transition the EU from more coal-sourced power, which produces more carbon dioxide, on the way to adopting more renewable energy sources. The EU's decision also considers the shorter-term impact on people's cost of living, as energy prices soar following sanctions on Russia and its exports.