Last Updated:November 03, 2024, 16:42 IST

The executives filed a lawsuit in March, alleging that Musk cut them off before they could formally step down, thus denying them their agreed-upon severance packages.

A judge ruled that former Twitter top executives could pursue their claims that Elon Musk fired them precisely at the time of the acquisition’s closing to sidestep severance obligations. (File Photo)

Elon Musk has encountered a legal setback in his efforts to avoid paying severance to Twitter’s former senior executives, who were dismissed during his 2022 acquisition of the company. On Friday, a judge ruled that former CEO Parag Agrawal and other top executives could pursue their claims that Musk fired them precisely at the time of the acquisition’s closing to sidestep severance obligations.

The executives filed a lawsuit in March, alleging that Musk cut them off before they could formally step down, thus denying them their agreed-upon severance packages. They referenced Musk’s statement to biographer Walter Isaacson, where he expressed urgency in closing the deal to avoid a “$200 million differential in the cookie jar between closing tonight and doing it tomorrow morning.”

Alongside Agrawal, former legal head Vijaya Gadde, ex-CFO Ned Segal, and former general counsel Sean Edgett claim they are owed one year’s salary and unvested stock awards valued at the acquisition price.

This lawsuit adds to Musk’s extensive legal challenges related to employee compensation following his Twitter takeover, now rebranded as X Corp. After Musk implemented large-scale layoffs, many affected employees filed claims for unpaid severance, asserting that Musk had breached compensation agreements.

In July, Musk and X Corp. won a class-action lawsuit in which former employees sought $500 million in severance under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. However, in a separate arbitration case in September, a former employee was awarded unpaid severance, which could set a precedent for similar claims.

U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney, overseeing the case, also denied Musk’s motion to dismiss a related claim by Nicholas Caldwell, a former “core tech” general manager who is seeking $20 million for lost severance.

Last Updated:November 02, 2024, 16:22 IST

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says we are working with all relevant departments and agencies to sensitise Indian companies on applicable export control provisions.

The US has imposed sanctions on 275 individuals and entities, including 15 from India, for allegedly supporting Russia’s military-industrial base. (US Embassy in India)

In the wake of the US imposing sanctions on several individuals and entities, including from India, for allegedly supporting Russia’s military-industrial base, the MEA Saturday said New Delhi is in touch with Washington to clarify issues.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in response to a query during his weekly briefing, also said India has a “robust legal and regulatory framework” on strategic trade and non-proliferation controls.

“We are also a member of three key multilateral non-proliferation export control regimes,” he added.

“In keeping with India’s established non-proliferation credentials, we are working with all relevant departments and agencies to sensitise Indian companies on applicable export control provisions as also inform them on new measures being implemented that could impact Indian companies in certain circumstances,” Jaiswal said.

The US has imposed sanctions on 275 individuals and entities, including 15 from India, for allegedly supporting Russia’s military-industrial base.

The US Department of Treasury said in a statement on Thursday that companies from China, Switzerland, Thailand, and Turkiye have also been slapped with sanctions for supplying Russia with advanced technology and equipment that it desperately needs to support its war machine.

In addition to disrupting global evasion networks, this action also targets domestic Russian importers and producers of key inputs and other material for Russia’s military-industrial base, the statement said.

Jaiswal on Saturday said, “We have seen these reports of US sanctions.”

“We are also in touch with the US authorities to clarify issues,” he added.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump battled for holdout votes over the penultimate weekend of campaigning across US swing states, with Michelle Obama to join the Democrat onstage before the Republican nominee hosts an eyebrow-raising rally in New York.

With just 10 days left in a bitterly contested presidential race, the rivals converged on Saturday on Michigan, one of the three “Blue Wall” states — along with Wisconsin and top prize Pennsylvania — that Democrats see as critical to election day victory on Nov 5.

Polls show a dead heat in the final days of the race, and with more than 38 million people nationwide already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding whether to elect the country’s first-ever woman president, or its oldest commander in chief.

Part of Harris’s strategy is to peel moderate Republicans away from an increasingly vituperative Trump, who continues to demean some Americans as the “enemy”. The ex-president still refuses to accept his defeat at the polls four years ago and is expected to reject the result if he loses again, potentially pitching the United States into chaos.

For Republican A.D. Jefferson, a 62-year-old laborer attending Harris’s rally in Houston, the Trump turmoil is too much. “I just think she’s less controversial,” he told AFP. “I’m a Republican, but I feel like Trump is just too chaotic for me.”

Beyonce, then Michelle

Fresh off a high-energy rally in Texas with pop icon Beyonce to highlight Republican restrictions on abortion, Harris heads to Kalamazoo, Michigan where she will court voters by deploying one of the Democratic Party’s most popular emissaries: former first lady Michelle Obama.

Her husband Barack Obama had joined Harris on Thursday for a rally in Georgia.

Harris, 60, campaigns on Sunday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the largest city in the largest of the swing states likely to determine the outcome of the presidential election under the US electoral college system. She will go from neighborhood to neighborhood across the city persuading residents to cast their ballot, as she targets historically Black and Latino districts.

Trump, who swept the three Blue Wall states in his shock victory in 2016 only to see Joe Biden reclaim them for Democrats four years later, is strategizing that clawing back one or more of the trio and winning the other so-called Sun Belt swing states would propel him back into the White House.

With just a few thousands votes possibly the difference between victory and defeat in the tightest of swing states, Trump holds rallies on Saturday in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where a robust ground game and relentless barnstorming of the battlegrounds could prove decisive.

They follow the release late Friday of the extended, three-hour interview that Trump taped for the Joe Rogan Experience, America’s most popular podcast. He is seeking to woo Rogan’s massive, largely male audience, as the Republican candidate hunts for viral moments that tap into his everyman appeal.

The Trump show

Then on Sunday night, Trump performs a campaign quirk: rallying his supporters in Madison Square Garden, the iconic arena in the heart of Democrat-heavy New York.

Analysts have pondered why Trump is campaigning in his native New York despite virtually no chance of flipping the state.

The brash billionaire and onetime reality television star may be keen to orchestrate a spectacle and demonstrate he can fill an arena in a Democratic bastion.

But critics, including Trump’s 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, have noted that Madison Square Garden was also the scene of a 1939 pro-Nazi rally organized by a group supportive of Adolf Hitler.

“She said it’s just like the 1930s,” Trump said at a Friday rally in Michigan, referring to Clinton’s remarks a day earlier on CNN. “No it’s not, no. This is called ‘Make America Great Again’.”

The weekend campaigning follows a heated row over accusations that the Republican ex-president has been running to be an authoritarian leader, following claims by Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, echoed by Harris, that Trump is a “fascist” who cannot be trusted with power again.

The US and Canada sent warships through the Taiwan Strait, with China issuing a warning on Monday, claiming such actions “undermine” peace in the region.

According to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, which operates in the Asia-Pacific, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) and the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) conducted a “routine” transit of the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.

The US 7th Fleet’s statement said the warships navigated through a “high seas corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial waters of any coastal state.”

The voyage was also described as demonstrating the two nations’ “commitment” to “upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,” the statement added.

Rejecting any “assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedom of navigation, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air,” the US military emphasized that the international community’s rights in the Taiwan Strait “should not be restricted.”

However, China’s military warned that the passage of the US and Canadian warships “disrupted the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.”

Li Xi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), stated that China is “on high alert at all times and resolutely safeguards national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability.”

Li added that naval and air forces organized by the command “closely followed and monitored the vessels’ passage through the strait, addressing the situation in accordance with laws and regulations.”

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry also confirmed the voyage, stating that the warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait from south to north on Sunday. The Taiwanese armed forces “maintained full control over the surrounding sea and airspace, with the situation remaining normal,” it said on the social media platform X.

US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was accused by Ankara of organising a failed 2016 coup, has died in exile in the United States aged 83, his movement and the Turkish government said Monday.

Turkish-born Gulen, who had lived in the United States since 1999, was once a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the two became bitter enemies.

“Our intelligence sources confirm the death of the leader of the FETO organisation,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a press conference, using Turkiye’s term for Gulen’s once-influential Hizmet movement.

Turkiye’s TRT public television said the preacher, who had lived in Pennsylvania for a quarter of a century and was stripped of his Turkish nationality in 2017, died in hospital overnight.

In a message on X, Gulen’s website Herkul, which is banned in Turkiye, said he died on “October 20”, pledging to share details about his funeral.

Gulen moved to Pennsylvania in 1999, ostensibly for health reasons, and from there he ran Hizmet which, at the time, had a sprawling network of public schools on every continent.

In 2013, he had a major falling out with Erdogan and three years later the Turkish strongman accused him of plotting to overthrow him, dubbing Hizmet “the Fethullah Terror Organisation” (FETO).

Some 250 people died on July 15, 2016, when a rogue military faction tried to overthrow Turkiye’s government using warplanes and tanks, with Erdogan blaming Gulen supporters within the military.

“This organisation has become a threat rarely seen in the history of our nation,” Fidan said, accusing its followers of “being used as a weapon against their own country”.

Despite Gulen’s death, Turkiye would continue “the fight against this organisation, which poses a national security problem”, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc wrote on X.

Ally turned enemy

Once an ally who helped Erdogan when he became prime minister in the early 2000s, Gulen’s ties with him became strained in 2010.

Three years later, Gulen became persona non grata when a corruption scandal engulfed the Turkish premier’s inner circle.

Erdogan blamed Gulen and later began accusing him of terror links although the preacher repeatedly insisted his movement was merely a network of charitable and business institutions.

Things worsened after the coup, with the authorities prosecuting more than 700,000 people and handing a life sentence to some 3,000 Gulen followers for their alleged involvement in the putsch.

Bayram Balci, a researcher at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-Po) told AFP that the death of the once-charismatic preacher would have little impact in Turkiye.

“Since the break with Erdogan in 2010 and especially after the attempted coup in 2016, Gulen’s image has been very bad. Few people hold him in high esteem,” he told AFP.

There was no chance Ankara would allow Gulen’s body to be repatriated for burial, and he would likely be buried near his home in Pennsylvania, he said.

Hizmet is “no longer the big movement that it once was” with its influence much reduced and its vast network of schools now only mainly operating in Germany, the US, Nigeria and South Africa.

Turkiye still regularly rounds up Gulen followers and demands their extradition from countries where his network is active.

Turkish security sources quoted by the private NTV broadcaster said very few people were expected to attend Gulen’s funeral and that his body would likely be buried in the US at a location which would be kept secret.

Pak-Turk schools

In 2019, Turkiye’s Maarif Foundation formally assumed the management of all educational institutions in Pakistan previously linked to Gulen’s organisation.

There were 28 Pak-Turk schools in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore that were handed over to the foundation.

The Supreme Court had previously instructed the government to declare Gulen’s organisation a terrorist group and ordered the handing over of the schools to the Maarif Foundation.

Turkiye had established the Maarif Foundation in 2016 after a coup attempt. It was tasked with taking over the administration of overseas schools linked to Gulen’s organisation. It also establishes schools and educational centres internationally.

However, the students of Pak-Turk schools and their parents protested against the government for handing over their teachers to Turkiye and later the schools to the foundation.

 

Biden administration officials have discussed capping sales of advanced AI chips from Nvidia and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities.

The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for certain countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials are focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people said.

Deliberations are in early stages and remain fluid, the people said, noting that the idea has gained traction in recent weeks. The policy would build on a new framework to ease the licensing process for AI chip shipments to data centers in places like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Commerce Department officials unveiled those regulations last month and said there are more rules coming. 

The agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, declined to comment. Nvidia, the market leader for AI chips, also declined to comment, as did Advanced Micro Devices. A representative for Intel, which also makes such processors, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council declined to comment on the talks but pointed to a recent joint statement by the US and UAE on artificial intelligence. In it, the two countries acknowledged the “tremendous potential of AI for good,” as well as the “challenges and risks of this emerging technology and the vital importance of safeguards.”

Setting country-based caps would tighten restrictions that originally targeted China’s ambitions in Artificial Intelligence (AI), as Washington considers the security risks of AI development around the world. Already, the Biden administration has restricted AI chip shipments by companies like Nvidia and AMD to more than 40 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia over fears their products could be diverted to China. 

At the same time, some US officials have come to view semiconductor export licenses, particularly for Nvidia chips, as a point of leverage to achieve broader diplomatic goals. That could include asking key companies to reduce ties with China to gain access to US technology — but the concerns extend beyond Beijing. 

“We will have to have a conversation with countries around the world about how they plan to use these capabilities,” Tarun Chhabra, senior director of technology at the National Security Council, said at a forum in June without naming specific nations. “If you’re talking about countries that have a really robust internal surveillance apparatus, then we have to think about: How exactly will they use these capabilities to supercharge that kind of surveillance, and what will that look like?” 

There’s also the question of how global AI development could affect American intelligence operations, said Maher Bitar, another NSC official. “What are the risks not just on human rights grounds, but also in terms of the security and the counterintelligence risks to our personnel around the world?” Bitar said at the same event.  

It’s unclear how leading AI chipmakers would react to additional US restrictions. When the Biden administration first issued sweeping chip regulations for China, Nvidia redesigned its AI offerings to ensure it can keep selling into that market.

If the administration moves forward with country-based caps, it may prove difficult to deliver a comprehensive new policy in the final months of President Joe Biden’s term. Such rules could be challenging to enforce and would be a major test of US diplomatic relationships. 

Governments around the world are in a quest for so-called sovereign AI — the ability to build and run their own AI systems — and that pursuit has become a key driver of demand for advanced processors, according to Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang. Nvidia’s chips are the gold standard for data-center operators, making the company the world’s most valuable chipmaker and the top beneficiary of the AI boom.

China, meanwhile, is working to develop its own advanced semiconductors, though they still trail the best American chips. Still, there’s concern among US officials that if Huawei Technologies Co. or another foreign maker one day offers a viable alternative to Nvidia chips — presumably with fewer strings attached — that could weaken the US ability to shape the global AI landscape.

Some US officials argue that’s only a distant possibility, and that the Washington should adopt a more restrictive approach to global AI chip exports given its current negotiating position. Others warn against making it too difficult for other countries to buy American technology, in the event China gains ground and captures those customers. 

While officials have debated the best approach, they’ve slowed high-volume AI chip license approvals to the Middle East and elsewhere. But there are signs things could get moving soon: Under the new rules for shipments to data centers, US officials will vet and preapprove specific customers based on security commitments from both the companies and their national governments, paving the way for easier licensing down the road.

© 2024 Bloomberg LP

अमेरिका की चेतावनी के बाद ईरान ने इजरायल पर हमला बोल दिया है. ईरान ने 100 से ज्यादा मिसाइलें दागी हैं. ऐसे वीडियो सामने आए हैं जिनमें आसमान में सैकड़ों मिसाइलें देखी जा सकती हैं. हमले के बाद इजरायल में हर तरफ सायरन की आवाज गूंज रही है. इजरायली सेना ने बताया कि ईरान ने बैलिस्टिक मिसाइल से हमला किया है. इजरायल के लोग बंकरों में छुप गए हैं.

इजरायली सेना के मुताबिक, सभी लोगों को सुरक्षित स्थानों पर भेज दिया गया है. सेना ने बताया कि लाखों लोगों को बम शेल्टरों में भेज दिया गया है. सोशल मीडिया पर हमले की कुछ तस्वीरें भी सामने आ रही हैं, जिसमें देखा जा सकता है कि इजरायली मिसाइल से उसे इंटरसेप्ट किया जा रहा है और ईरानी अटैक को हवा में ही बेअसर किया जा रहा है.

इजरायल पर हमले के बाद आया ईरान का बयान
इजरायल पर बैलिस्टिक मिसाइल से हमले करने के बाद ईरान की तरफ से बयान जारी किया गया है. ईरान की सरकारी मीडिया के हवाले से बताया जा रहा है कि ईरान ने चेतावनी दी है कि अगर इजरायल ने जवाबी कार्रवाई की तो तेहरान की प्रतिक्रिया “अधिक विनाशकारी होगी.” इजरायल की तरफ से एक्स पोस्ट में शेयर किए जा रहे वीडियो देखा जा सकता है कि तेल अवीव, यरुशलम तक में रॉकेट हमले हुए हैं.

अमेरिका का बयान
ईरान के मिसाइल हमले के बीच अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति जो बाइडेन का भी बयान सामने आया है. राष्ट्रपति बाइडेन ने एक एक्स पोस्ट में कहा कि इजरायल को ईरानी मिसाइल हमलों से बचाने और क्षेत्र में अमेरिकी सेना की रक्षा करने में मदद करने के लिए तैयार है.

डेड सी, तेल अवीव के आसपास गिरी मिसाइलें 
इजरायली सेना अपने नागरिकों से कहा है कि ईरान की तरफ से मिसाइल दागे जा रहे हैं. सेना ने एक बयान में कहा, “आप अगले आदेश तक सुरक्षित क्षेत्र में रहें.” बताया जा रहा है कि ईरान की मिसाइलें और शार्पनेल डेड सी, देश के दक्षिण इलाके और तेल अवीव के आसपास शेरोन क्षेत्र में गिरी हैं लेकिन किसी हताहत की जानकारी नहीं है.

इस हमले के बाद ईरान ने पहली बार बयान जारी किया है. इसमें कहा गया है कि ये हमला इस्माइल हानिया और नसरल्लाह की शहादत का बदला लेने के लिए किया गया है. ईरानी अधिकारी ने न्यूज एजेंसी रॉयटर्स को बताया कि इजरायल पर मिसाइल दागने का आदेश ईरानी के सर्वोच्च नेता खामेनेई द्वारा दिया गया है.

वहीं ईरान की आर्मी यूनिट आईआरजीसी ने बयान जारी करते हुए कहा, इस्माइल हानिया, सैय्यद हसन नसरल्लाह और शहीद निलफोरूशन की शहादत के जवाब में हमने कब्जे वाले क्षेत्रों को निशाना बनाया. अगर इजरायल ईरान के ऑपरेशन का जवाब देता है, तो उसे विनाशकारी हमलों का सामना करना पड़ेगा. महत्वपूर्ण सैन्य स्थलों को निशाना बनाया गया है. यह हमलों की पहली लहर है.

इस हमले को लेकर अमेरिका ने पहले ही चेतावनी जारी कर दी थी. अमेरिका ने कहा था कि अगर ईरान हमले करता है तो इसके गंभीर परिणाम भुगतने होंगे. ईरान के मिसाइल हमले के बीच अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति जो बाइडेन का भी बयान सामने आया है. राष्ट्रपति बाइडेन ने एक एक्स पोस्ट में कहा कि इजरायल को ईरानी मिसाइल हमलों से बचाने और क्षेत्र में अमेरिकी सेना की रक्षा करने में मदद करने के लिए तैयार है.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 0.2% in August 2024, matching the increase seen in July.

Over the past 12 months, the index grew by 2.5% before seasonal adjustment.

The primary driver of the increase was a 0.5% rise in the shelter index, while the food index grew by 0.1%. The energy index saw a decline of 0.8% during the same period.

The CPI for all items, excluding food and energy, increased by 0.3% in August, driven by rises in airline fares, motor vehicle insurance, and shelter.

The index for used cars and trucks fell by 1%, contributing to the moderation of the overall increase.

Over the last 12 months, the CPI excluding food and energy rose by 3.2%, with the shelter index accounting for over 70% of this increase.

The food index showed minimal growth, rising 0.1% in August, while the energy index fell by 4.0% over the last year.

Notably, gasoline prices dropped by 10.3%, although electricity prices increased by 3.9% over the same period.

These CPI changes reflect a relatively stable inflation environment as the U.S. economy continues to adjust following recent economic fluctuations.

US Index futures dipped in recent trading

In recent trading, US index futures dipped, with S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, and Dow industrials showing moderate declines.

Treasury yields continued to fall, and the 10-year yield approached a 15-month low.

Oil prices rebounded by 2% after recent lows.

The Japanese yen strengthened following hints of potential rate hikes by the Bank of Japan, leading to a drop in the Nikkei 225.

European and Asian stocks were mixed, with Stoxx Europe 600 steady, and both the Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declining.

Following Usman Nurmagomedov’s dominant victory at Bellator Championship Series 4, Khabib Nurmagomedov wasted no time in praising his younger cousin, hailing him as one of the top lightweight fighters in the world.

“I think Usman is right now one of the best lightweights in the world. I was before, now it’s our brother Islam [Makhachev], and Usman is next. This is dynasty,” Khabib remarked.

Usman Nurmagomedov successfully defended his lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Alexander Shabliy in the main event of Bellator Championship Series 4, held at San Diego’s Pechanga Arena.

The fight, largely lacking in action and high drama, saw Nurmagomedov (18-0, 1 NC) outpoint his Russian compatriot with precise strikes, earning the victory with scores of 50-45, 49-46, and 49-46.

“He was incredibly tough,” Nurmagomedov, 26, said post-fight. “I’m happy with the win and hope to defend my title next in Dubai.”

Former Bellator featherweight champion AJ McKee, who was watching from cageside, is a potential next opponent for Nurmagomedov, provided he overcomes Paul Hughes in October.

Nurmagomedov, the younger brother of UFC bantamweight Umar and cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib, is also a teammate of reigning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.

This marks his second successful title defense since claiming the lightweight belt in November 2022. His October 2023 victory over Brent Primus was ruled a no contest following a positive drug test for a banned substance in a prescription medication.

Shabliy (24-4), who came into the fight with an unbeaten streak of nine matches, including a win over former Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Pitbull, proved a tough challenge but was hesitant to engage.

This reluctance ultimately cost him his first shot at the world title.

Known for his striking versatility at Eagle MMA, Nurmagomedov frequently switched stances and attacked with a variety of offensive maneuvers.

Shabliy, however, remained defensively sound, countering effectively when Nurmagomedov closed the distance, though his attempts lacked frequency to sway the judges.

Nurmagomedov continued to press forward in the second round, but Shabliy’s defense held, keeping him out of danger.

The third round saw Nurmagomedov landing more kicks and a clean uppercut, although the audience grew restless with the lack of action.

The bout’s biggest moment came in the fourth round, when Nurmagomedov landed a left head kick and secured a takedown, maintaining control for the final moments of the round.

In the final round, both fighters remained cautious, leading to a smattering of boos from the crowd as the bout concluded with little offensive activity.