Tesla asks shareholders to restore Elon Musk’s $56bn pay deal
Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm says company believes in ‘big risks for the chance of big rewards’. Tesla has asked shareholders to reapprove a record-breaking $56bn pay package for CEO Elon Musk after a US judge rejected the deal. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm said the board of directors supported the original pay deal and believed in “big risks for the chance of big rewards”. “Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years that has helped to generate significant growth and stockholder value,” Denholm wrote. “That strikes us – and the many stockholders from whom we already have heard – as fundamentally unfair, and inconsistent with the will of the stockholders who voted for it.” Shareholders, who will gather for their annual meeting on June 13, will also be asked to approve a proposal to move the company’s corporate home to Texas. The proposals come on the heels of a difficult period for the electric carmaker. Tesla’s vehicle deliveries fell by 8.5 percent in the first quarter, and the company’s shares have fallen 37 percent so far this year even as the S&P 500 has risen about 6 percent. Musk earlier this week told staff in a memo that the company would lay off more than 10 percent of its global workforce to be “lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle”. Judge Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery rejected Musk’s compensation package in January, finding that the South Africa-born entrepreneur had heavily influenced the deal and granting him such “an unfathomable sum” would be unfair to shareholders. Shares of Tesla fell about 1 percent on Wednesday following the news of the proposed pay package. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 784
As the war enters its 784th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Fighting At least 17 people were killed in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv after it was struck by three Russian missiles. Emergency services said 60 people, including three children, were injured. About 250,000 people live in Chernihiv, which is about 150km (90 miles) north of the capital, Kyiv. One woman was injured by falling debris after Russian forces brought down a done over the Voronezh region. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said air defence also destroyed 14 airborne targets over the southern Belgorod region. No injuries were reported. The BBC reported the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine had topped 50,000. The data was compiled by BBC Russian, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers. Colonel Serhii Pakhomov, acting head of the Ukrainian military’s atomic, biological and chemical defence forces, told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv had recorded about 900 uses of riot control agents on the front line by Russia in the past six months. The gases, banned for use on the battlefield by the international Chemical Weapons Convention, are being used to try and clear trenches, Pakhomov said. Some 500 troops had required medical help after exposure to toxic substances on the battlefield and at least one soldier died after suffocating on tear gas, he added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian military attacked a large Russian airfield at Dzhankoi in the north of occupied Crimea. A series of explosions were reported at the base. There were no reports of damage. Politics and diplomacy US House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House would hold a long-delayed vote on a $60bn aid package for Ukraine on Saturday. The bill, passed by the Senate in February, has been held up amid objections from far-right members of Johnson’s Republican party. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, US President Joe Biden urged Congress to approve the package saying the conflict was at a “pivotal moment”. China said that “a lot of work” would need to be done before a planned peace conference on the Ukraine war could take place in Switzerland. It did not say whether it would attend the meeting, which is expected to take place in June. Russia’s FSB security service arrested four people, accusing them of sending money to Ukrainian armed forces and planning to join the country’s military. France appointed investigating magistrates to run a war crimes investigation into the death of Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, a dual French-Irish national, who was killed covering the war in Ukraine in March 2022. Producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova was also killed when the news team’s vehicle came under fire in Horenka near Kyiv. Correspondent Benjamin Hall was badly injured. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant warned a cyber group known as Sandworm, with links to Russian military intelligence, is emerging as a significant global threat after playing an increasingly critical role in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Sandworm “is actively engaged in the full spectrum of espionage, attack, and influence operations”, Mandiant said. Weapons President Zelenskyy, addressing the European Council by videolink hours after the Chernihiv attack, pleaded for more defence systems. Zelenskyy said Ukraine should enjoy the same cover from aerial attacks as Israel, which was able to intercept a barrage of drones and missiles fired by Iran last weekend. “Our Ukrainian sky, the sky of our neighbours deserves the same level of defence,” he said. “All lives are equally valuable.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other senior German officials pressed fellow European Union members to take action as soon as possible to boost Ukraine’s air defences. On Saturday, Germany announced it was sending an additional Patriot air defence system to Ukraine. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the NATO-Ukraine Council will meet on Friday to discuss ways on how to provide more air defence systems for Kyiv. A crowdfunding initiative launched by a Slovak group on Monday has so far raised 750,000 euros ($798,000) from members of the public. The group, Peace for Ukraine, hopes to raise one million euros ($1.07 million) for the Czech Republic’s initiative to buy ammunition for Ukraine. Slovakia’s government has refused to send military aid to Kyiv. Adblock test (Why?)
More than 11,000 evacuated in northern Indonesia as Ruang volcano erupts
Exclusion zone extended, flights disrupted as Ruang sends ash and smoke more than two kilometres into the sky. More than 11,000 people have been told to evacuate and air travel in region has been disrupted after a volcano in northern Indonesia erupted multiple times. Mount Ruang, located in in North Sulawesi Province, first erupted at 9:45pm (13:45 GMT) on Tuesday sending billowing clouds of smoke and ash high into the sky. After four more eruptions on Wednesday, Indonesia’s volcanology agency raised the alert level for the 725-metre (2,379-foot) high mountain to four, the highest on the scale. They also widened the exclusion zone around the crater from four kilometres (2.5 miles) to six kilometres (3.7 miles). More than 800 people were evacuated initially from Ruang to nearby Tagulandang Island, which is located more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of the provincial capital, Manado. But officials said on Thursday morning that more people would need to be evacuated as a result of the widening exclusion zone, and would be taken to Manado. “At least 11,615 residents who are in the risk area must evacuate to a safe place,” Abdul Muhari, the head of the disaster agency’s disaster data, communications and information centre was quoted as saying by the Kompas newspaper. Officials also worry that part of the volcano could collapse into the sea and cause a tsunami as it did during a previous eruption in 1871. Video footage showed flows of red lava streaming down the mountain, reflected in the waters below, and billowing clouds of grey ash above Ruang’s crater. Important Travel Update: Malaysia Airlines has suspended several flights to/from KL International Airport (KUL) to Sabah and Sarawak today, 18 April 2024 due to the volcanic eruption at Mount Ruang, Indonesia. Our priority is your safety. We’re closely monitoring the situation… — Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) April 18, 2024 Muhammad Wafid, the head of Indonesia’s geological agency, earlier said Ruang’s initial eruption sent an ash column two kilometres (1.2 miles) into the sky, with the second eruption pushing it to 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles). Aviation authorities announced the closure of Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado until at least Thursday evening “due to the spread of volcanic ash which could endanger flight safety”. The airport has connections to countries including China, Singapore and South Korea. There was also significant disruption to flights to and from Kota Kinabalu International Airport in neighbouring Malaysia. Kota Kinabalu is on the northern tip of Malaysian Borneo, just over 1,100 kilometres (688 miles) to the northwest of Ruang. The volcanology agency said activity had increased at Ruang after two earthquakes in recent weeks. Indonesia, which sits along the ‘Ring of Fire’, a horseshoe-shaped series of tectonic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean, has 120 active volcanoes. In 2018, the eruption of Indonesia’s Anak Krakatoa volcano triggered a tsunami along the coasts of Sumatra and Java after parts of the mountain fell into the ocean. Hundreds of people were killed. Adblock test (Why?)
NPR editor resigns after accusing US outlet of liberal bias
Uri Berliner quits broadcaster days after being suspended over essay accusing network of lacking viewpoint diversity. A senior editor at a public broadcaster in the United States who accused his employer of liberal bias, igniting heated debate about standards in journalism, has resigned. Uri Berliner, an editor with National Public Radio (NPR), announced his resignation on Wednesday just over a week after he published an essay accusing the outlet of being fixated on race and identity and lacking “viewpoint diversity”. “I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. I don’t support calls to defund NPR. I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,” Berliner said in a resignation letter posted on X. “But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.” My resignation letter to NPR CEO @krmaher pic.twitter.com/0hafVbcZAK — Uri Berliner (@uberliner) April 17, 2024 NPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Berliner’s resignation came after NPR on Friday slapped the editor with a five-day suspension without pay in response to his essay calling out the network. In the essay published in The Free Press, Berliner argued that the outlet had lost the public’s trust by putting a progressive slant on coverage of major news stories, including the COVID-19 pandemic and claims that Donald Trump colluded with Russia. “There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed,” Berliner wrote. “It’s frictionless – one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line.” Berlinera also cited voter registration data that he said showed there were 87 Democrats and no Republicans on staff at the outlet’s Washington, DC, headquarters. Berliner’s essay promoted public pushback from NPR employees, including recently-appointed CEO Katherine Maher, whose own views came under scrutiny after conservatives surfaced old tweets expressing progressive views. “Asking a question about whether we’re living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions,” Maher said in a memo to staff that was also published online. “Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.” Adblock test (Why?)
Photos: Iran shows military might as tensions with Israel soar
As regional tensions run high, Iran has paraded drones, missiles and soldiers to show it is ready for a response from Israel after launching an unprecedented attack on its archenemy. Iran carried out its first-ever direct attack on Israel at the weekend in response to an April 1 air strike on the consular building of Iran’s embassy in Syria. Iran’s attack “brought down the glory of the Zionist regime [Israel]”, President Ebrahim Raisi said at a military base on the outskirts of Tehran on Wednesday. “This operation showed that our armed forces are ready,” he said in a speech to the regular army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for Army Day, a national holiday. Wednesday’s parade saw the Iranian armed forces showcase a range of military equipment, including drones and long-range ballistic missiles. Among them were multiple versions of the Ababil, Arash and Mohajer drones as well as the Dezful medium-range ballistic missile and S-300 air defence missile system. Raisi reiterated warnings against “the slightest act of aggression” by Israel, saying it would lead to “a fierce and severe response”. Israel has said it will respond to the weekend attack with military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying Iran will not get off “scot-free”. The Israeli army said most of the projectiles fired by Iran were shot down with the help of the United States and other allies and the attack caused only minimal damage. Iran hailed the attack as “successful” and said it “achieved all its objectives”, including inflicting damage to an airbase and intelligence centre that it said was used by Israel to carry out the strike in Damascus. On Wednesday, Iran’s air force commander, Hamid Vahedi, warned Iran’s enemies against making a “strategic error”. “We are 100 percent ready on all aerial fronts,” he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. In his speech, Raisi also hit out at countries that had “sought to normalise relations” with Israel. “These countries are now humiliated in front of their own people, which constitutes a strategic failure for the regime” of Israel, he said. In 2020, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalised relations with Israel as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, vehemently criticised by the Palestinians. Egypt and Jordan signed peace accords with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively. Iran insisted its attack on Israel was limited and carried out in “self-defence” after the strike on its consular building. It said it had informed the United States and given a 72-hour warning to neighbouring countries before the attack. Adblock test (Why?)
World’s coral reefs face global bleaching crisis
NewsFeed A mass bleaching event caused by high ocean temperatures is threatening the survival of coral reefs around the world. It is the fourth such event on record, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its partners to declare this a global crisis. Published On 17 Apr 202417 Apr 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
James to headline another US ‘Dream Team’ at the Paris 2024 Olympics
Thirty-nine-year-old LeBron James will team up with a host of other top NBA players to go for gold at the Paris games. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer LeBron James and reigning most valuable player Joel Embiid headline an all-star lineup named to the United States men’s basketball team for the Paris Olympics. James, who has won two Olympic golds and a bronze but sat out the last two Games, will be joined by Los Angeles Lakers teammate Anthony Davis, Phoenix Suns three-time Olympic champion Kevin Durant and Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, USA Basketball announced on Wednesday. Also named to the squad were Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat), Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns), Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), Tyrese Haliburton (Indiana Pacers), Jrue Holiday (Boston Celtics), Kawhi Leonard (LA Clippers) and Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics). All 12 members of the Paris “Dream Team” have been NBA All-Stars and include four recipients of the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and six NBA champions. “I’m grateful to these 12 men for their commitment to represent USA Basketball,” said USA Basketball men’s national team Managing Director Grant Hill in a statement. “The United States is home to some of the best basketball players in the world and I appreciate the vast interest in being part of this roster. “We have the utmost respect for the level of competition we will face this summer. The Olympics represent the pinnacle of sport and the world will be watching the USA as we play in the toughest basketball tournament in history.” The US will play in Group C with Serbia, South Sudan and the winner of a qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico on August 3. The Paris Olympics are scheduled for July 26 to August 11. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 783
As the war enters its 783rd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Fighting Ukraine’s Air Force said air defence systems destroyed nine Russian drones launched over several eastern and southern regions. The Institute for the Study of War, a United States-based think tank, said Russian troops on the front line were “breaking out of positional warfare and beginning to restore maneuver to the battlefield” because of US delays in providing military assistance to Ukraine. The think tank warned Ukrainian troops would not be able to hold their current lines “without the rapid resumption of US assistance, particularly air defense and artillery”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed into law a new mobilisation bill to address severe troop shortages. The new law includes measures to toughen penalties on draft dodgers and incentivise conscription but no plan to demobilise long-serving soldiers on the front line. The changes come into effect in one month. Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said almost 37,000 people, including military personnel, were unaccounted for since Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country began in February 2022, warning the actual figure may be “much higher”. Ukraine and the Red Cross had also identified about 1,700 people “illegally detained” by Russia, Lubinets said. Politics and diplomacy On a visit to Beijing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked Chinese President Xi Jinping “to exert pressure on Russia so that [President Vladimir] Putin finally calls off his insane campaign, withdraws his troops and ends this terrible war”. Xi did not appear supportive of a Ukrainian-led peace summit to be held in June, however, saying any peace conference needed to be recognised by both sides and have equal participation. A Ukrainian man who says he was detained at work and tortured by Russian occupying forces filed a war crimes case in Argentina, the Reuters news agency reported. In the filing, the man accuses one named person, two identified by their call signs or military insignia, and others who are unnamed, of using electrocution and unlawful imprisonment as forms of torture in mid-to-late 2022. Russia denies committing war crimes in Ukraine. Russia’s FSB security service said it detained a man it accused of trying to kill a former officer in Ukraine’s main security service (SBU) who lives in exile in Moscow. The FSB alleged Kyiv had ordered the man to kill Vasily Prozorov, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the SBU, who told Russian news agencies he had passed sensitive information to Russia’s intelligence services since 2014. Prozorov’s car exploded in a suspected car bombing in Moscow last week. Weapons Zelenskyy said Ukraine “ran out” of defensive weapons to defend the Trypilska thermal power plant (TTPP), one of the biggest electricity suppliers to the Kyiv region, which allowed it to be destroyed by Russian missiles on April 11. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said 20 countries had pledged enough to buy 500,000 artillery shells for Ukraine under a Czech-led international fundraising drive to buy ammunition for the Ukrainian army. Adblock test (Why?)
Canada’s Trudeau government asks rich to pay more in pitch to Gen Z
Budget proposes higher capital gains taxes and billions in spending on education, housing, jobs and mental health. Canada will ask the wealthy to pay higher taxes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government seeks to shore up flagging support among young voters ahead of an election expected next year. Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said in the annual budget announcement on Tuesday that the wealthiest Canadians should pay more, while billions of dollars would be invested in education, housing, jobs and mental health services. The budget proposes 53 billion Canadian dollars ($38bn) in new spending over five years, much of it directed towards Millennials and Generation Z in the form of affordable housing, student grants and loans, rent subsidies and work placement programmes. Under the proposals, capital gains over 250,000 Canadian dollars ($180,804) would be taxed at 66.7 percent, up from 50 percent, raising nearly 20 billion Canadian dollars ($14.5bn) in revenue over five years. Freeland said the opportunity for young people to build a comfortable middle-class life had “always been the promise of Canada”. “But today, Millennial and Gen Z Canadians can get a good job, they can work hard, they can do everything their parents did and more, and too often the reward remains out of reach,” she said. “They look at their parents’ lives and wonder: ‘How will I ever be able to afford that?’” Freeland acknowledged that the tax hike would prompt some pushback but said the increase would ensure the wealthiest pay their fair share. “But before they complain too bitterly, I would like Canada’s 1 percent – Canada’s 0.1 percent – to consider this: What kind of Canada do you want to live in?” she said. The Business Council of Canada (BCC) slammed the proposed budget as “good politics to some” but “bad economic policy for all.” “Wealth redistribution is not wealth creation and the spending measures introduced today will saddle Canadians with debt without encouraging the strong and sustained economic growth they deserve,” BCC President and CEO Goldy Hyder said in a statement. The budget will need the backing of the left-leaning New Democratic Party, which is keeping Trudeau’s minority government in power, to pass through parliament. Trudeau’s Liberal government is badly trailing the Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, ahead of general elections due to be held by the end of October 2025. Trudeau, who has led Canada since 2015, has seen his popularity severely dented amid widespread discontent over the cost of living and housing. In a poll by Nanos Research released in January, two in three Canadians said that Trudeau was doing a poor job of addressing the problem of unaffordable housing. Trudeau earlier this month announced plans to build nearly 3.9 million houses by 2031 to close the yawning gap between housing supply and demand. Adblock test (Why?)
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers worst bleaching on record
The 2,300km (1,429-mile) reef is in its fifth mass bleaching event since 2016 with aerial surveys showing the scale of damage. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which stretches for some 2,300km (1,429 miles) off the country’s northeastern coast, is suffering its worst bleaching event on record. The extent of the bleaching was revealed in aerial surveys after the government agency tasked with the reef’s management confirmed early last month that the reef had been hit by its fifth major bleaching event since 2016. The bleaching, when corals expel the colourful microscopic algae that live in their tissues in an effort to survive, was triggered by an increase in water temperatures that began in December last year. “This prolonged heat exposure has caused mass bleaching of coral reef communities observed within all three regions of the Great Barrier Reef,” the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said in an update on its website on Wednesday. “The combination of aerial and in-water surveys in 2024 confirm a mass bleaching event, with prevalent and extreme bleaching observed at multiple reefs in all 3regions of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.” The agency said it surveyed a total of 1,080 reefs and 79 percent of them showed some level of coral bleaching. Some 49 percent of surveyed reefs showed high to extreme levels of bleaching, it said, with the worst-affected areas in the central and southern parts of the World Heritage-listed reef. In the southern region, thermal stress was the highest recorded from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite since it began operations in 1985, the agency said. Across that area, bleaching prevalence ranged from high (31-60 percent of cover bleached) to extreme (more than 90 percent of cover bleached). Only 3 percent of surveyed reefs were not bleached. Coral reefs are living organisms and the Great Barrier Reef is considered one of the most species-rich habitats on earth. It is home to hundreds of types of coral, 1,500 fish species and 4,000 different molluscs. Reefs also provide protection for coastal communities and are natural carbon sinks. Climate change is the biggest threat to their survival because of their sensitivity to heat. “Only the strongest and fastest possible actions to decrease global greenhouse gas emissions will reduce the risks of thermal stress on the Reef and limit the impacts from climate change on the Great Barrier Reef,” the marine park authority said. Corals can recover from bleaching and the agency said the full impact of the event would not be known for some time. It added that in-water surveys would continue. Adblock test (Why?)