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San Francisco, Nov 15 (IANS) Amid chaos at Twitter, Elon Musk will face two court cases in the US this week, one defending his $56 billion pay package from allegations by Tesla shareholders and the other is a manslaughter trial set to begin in Los Angeles state for a fatal crash.

Taken together, the twin trials represent a critical test for Musk's multitasking skills, reports The Verge.

The pay package plan, approved by Tesla shareholders, relies on the electric car-maker hitting certain milestones in the next 10 years.

"The CEO is expected to earn the final batch early next year, allowing him to collect an estimated $56 billion, the largest compensation awarded to anyone on Earth from a publicly traded company," according to the report.

The trial will focus on whether the compensation package requires Musk to work full-time at Tesla.

In a separate trial in Los Angeles, Tesla's Autopilot technology was set to be put to a rigorous test on Tuesday.

Driver Kevin George Aziz Riad, 27, is on trial for manslaughter after running through a red light in his black Tesla Model S, slamming into a Honda Civic and killing two people.

Tesla has come under heavy scrutiny on the controversial Autopilot advanced driver assistance system that has allegedly killed many, with both the US federal and state regulators turning up the heat on electric car-maker.

In August, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in California accused Musk-run Tesla of running fake claims about its Autopilot and FSD features.

In September, another Tesla owner sued the electric car maker, saying the company and its CEO Elon Musk are "deceptively and misleadingly" marketing the Autopilot and "Full Self-Driving" software.

Briggs Matsko from California said that he paid a $5,000 premium for his 2018 Tesla Model X to get 'Enhanced Autopilot', which was sold as a precursor to FSD software that now costs $15,000 but is still in Beta phase.

"Plaintiff brings this consumer class action lawsuit to hold Tesla and its representatives, including CEO Elon Musk, accountable for years of making misleading and deceptive statements regarding the company's advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) technology," read the lawsuit.

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San Francisco, Nov 15 (IANS) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced plans to donate most of his $124 billion fortune during his lifetime, at a time when the e-commerce giant is reportedly set to lay off nearly 10,000 workers.

Bezos told CNN that the money will go towards fighting climate change and "supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions".

Bezos' partner, the journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sanchez, said the couple is "building the capacity to be able to give away this money".

Asked by CNN whether he intends to donate the majority of his wealth within his lifetime, Bezos said: "Yeah, I do."

The fourth-wealthiest person in the world, however, declined to identify a specific percentage or to provide concrete details on where it would likely be spent.

The Amazon founder has committed $10 billion over 10 years, or about 8 per cent of his current net worth, to the Bezos Earth Fund co-chaired by Sanchez.

In May this year, Bezos donated $118 million to a nonprofit, but it was unclear to which nonprofit he made the donation.

According to a Securities and Exchange Filings (SEC) filing, Bezos transferred 47,727 shares of Amazon stock to an unnamed nonprofit, worth a total of $118 million based on that day's closing stock price, reports Forbes.

Bezos does most of his philanthropy through gifts of Amazon shares, which the receiving nonprofit is allowed to sell without paying capital gains taxes.

Since the beginning of this year, Bezos has gifted 84,030 Amazon shares worth $233 million to unnamed nonprofits, according to SEC filings.

Bezos is not required to disclose which nonprofits receive his shares, though he tends to publicly announce his large donations sometime after he has transferred the stock, the report said.

In 2021 alone, he gave $100 million to former President Barack Obama's Foundation, as well as to World Central Kitchen's chef Jose Andres and nonprofit founder Van Jones to give to charities of their choice.

He also made a $200 million pledge to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in July last year.

Bezos has also been giving away $100 million per year to organisations helping homeless families as part of his Day One Fund initiative.

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San Francisco, Nov 15 (IANS) Beleaguered Japanese investment firm SoftBank has reportedly written off about $100 million it invested as part of its Vision Fund 2 in now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

According to MarketWatch, the investment is now marked down to zero with SoftBank saying "it would not face a material markdown in the value of its stake".

SoftBank had backed FTX after the startup raised $400 million in January, valuing it at $32 billion.

SoftBank has now disclosed a $100 million venture capital investment in crypto broker FTX.

Softbank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto was quoted as saying that $100 billion Vision Fund invested in FTX "as a minor stake in the company".

"If any case of markdown but still that is very not material for us," Goto said during the company's second quarter (Q2) results.

SoftBank has a history of pouring money in bad startups, like the $18.5 billion investment in WeWork.

The Japanese VC firm also infused $500 million into digital mortgage lender better.com which laid off thousands of employees under its Indian-origin Co-founder and CEO Vishal Garg.

Crypto exchange FTX has admitted that "unauthorised transactions" have drained hundreds of millions of dollars from its wallets, saying the company has moved many digital assets to a new "cold wallet custodian".

FTX, which last week filed for bankruptcy in the US, did not reveal how much it lost in unauthorised transactions but reports claimed the amount could be as high as $600 million.

--IANS
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By Mukesh Sharma
Doha, Nov 13 (IANS) Doha's Hamad International Airport (HIA) has opened a leafy extension to its airport with thousands of plants just as the country gears up to receive more than a million fans for the FIFA World Cup to kick off on November 20.



The extended section includes a tropical garden located at the centre, named Orchard. It is an indoor tropical vegetation area with a water feature meant to be a focal point for visitors at HIA. With different flora -- the 'orchard' includes over 300 trees and over 25,000 plants sourced from sustainable forests from around the world.

The unique design allows trees and plants to easily adapt to the internal conditions and grow throughout the life of the airport -- with natural light to create a calming ambience and promote a sense of wellbeing to all who venture inside, a statement by the airport said.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said: "We are very pleased to be launching the expansion of Hamad International Airport, an airport that has truly grown to become the ultimate example of a successful, sustainable global facility. HIA continues to impress with its innovative planning, execution and investment -- enhancing its position as the preferred hub for global travellers and reinforcing HIA's position amongst the top leaders of this industry."

Talking about the project, HIA Chief Operating Officer Badr Mohammed Al Meer, said: "We are immensely proud to officially launch our airport expansion. Our growth plan will see us welcome over 58 million passengers annually -- offering global travellers the best services the industry has to offer. From world-class services to endless F&B and retail offerings, the expansion further strengthens our ambition as we look towards maintaining our status as the best airport in the world."

Consisting of one expansive terminal, the two-time world's best airport will enable travellers to seamlessly transfer from one area to another, exploring the wonders that HIA has to offer with its infused warmth and hospitality, a HIA statement said.

The extended airport is designed to significantly reduce waiting time, thanks to the new transfer hall on concourse C (Transfer Hall C). It includes curated Duty Free shops and food and beverage outlets, including first Fendi Cafe and first Ralph's Coffee Shop in an airport. The North node also houses the world's first airport Oreo Cafe.

As part of the expansion, HIA also launched the second airport hotel within its transfer area. Located in the north plaza, the 100-room Oryx Garden Hotel is located moments away from boarding gates.

The airport plans to expand further to augment its capacity to well over 70 million passengers and construct two new concourses within the existing terminal.

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Mexico City, Nov 11 (IANS) Banxico, Mexico's central bank, has raised the key interest rate for the 12th straight time, as risks of accelerating inflation persist in the short and medium term.

The bank's Board of Governors agreed to increase the target for the overnight interbank interest rate by 75 basis points to 10 per cent, effective Friday, according to an official statement.

"While some (inflationary) shocks have shown signs of mitigation, the balance of risks that could impact inflation over the forecast horizon remains biased to the upside," Xinhua news agency quoted the Banxico statement as saying.

"With this action, the monetary policy stance is adjusted to the trajectory required for inflation to converge to its 3 per cent target within the forecast horizon," it said.

Banxico estimated that inflation will close at 8.3 per cent in 2022, while at the end of 2023 it will be at 4.1 per cent.

It added that it will assess the magnitude of upward adjustments to the benchmark rate according to prevailing circumstances at its upcoming meetings.

In June 2021, Banxico began a cycle of raising the key interest rate in view of price increases derived in part from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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San Francisco, Nov 11 (IANS) As Big Tech reels under the global macroeconomic conditions, Amazon is now reviewing its Alexa virtual assistant-driven business as part of a major cost-cutting exercise headed by CEO Andy Jassy, the media reported.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon's entire devices unit has had an operating loss exceeding $5 billion in some recent years.

Amazon is now looking into whether it should "focus on trying to add new capabilities to Alexa," according to the report.

The cost-cutting review includes the devices unit with Alexa, a voice assistant available on a variety of Amazon devices.

"The business has more than 10,000 employees and is a major recipient of investment capital," according to the report.

It appears that the e-commerce giant is considering reducing its investments in Alexa-driven products.

An Amazon spokesperson was quoted as saying that as part of this year's review, "we're of course taking into account the current macro-environment and considering opportunities to optimise costs."

Amazon's shares went up by over 4 per cent on Thursday after the report about the cost-cutting review came out.

Once part of our private lives as virtual assistants, more than 35 smart speaker models have now been discontinued (as of April 2022), 46 brands haven't released a new smart speaker since 2019 and 34 companies haven't released a new smart speaker since 2018.

Although Amazon-branded smart speakers grew 33 per cent during the second quarter (Q2) compared to last year, other brands like Google and Apple were down 31 per cent and 57 per cent, respectively, according to global market research firm Omdia.

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San Francisco, Nov 11 (IANS) Leading crypto exchange Coinbase will lay off more employees soon in a fresh round of job cuts, as the world of crypto faces another existential threat after the FTX collapse, the media reported.

The layoffs were announced internally and the company is likely to sack around 60 employees in its recruiting and institutional onboarding teams, reports The Information.

The cuts will take place as the broader cryptocurrency industry is in chaos due to the ongoing FTX saga which has alarmed investors and caused cryptocurrency values to sink further.

Crypto exchange FTX Founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told investors that he needed emergency funding to cover a shortfall of up to $8 billion due to withdrawal requests received in recent days.

Leading crypto exchange Binance has also pulled out of the FTX acquisition deal.

Even before the FTX problems, Coinbase had tried to control costs, as declining crypto trading volumes were hurting this year's revenue, the report said.

In June this year, the crypto exchange company had announced to lay off 18 per cent of its workforce, or about 1,100 jobs amid the economic downturn.

Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder had said that while the company tried its best to get this just right, in this case, it was clear that it had over-hired.

Now, the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange has brought yet another round of threats to the crypto industry as a whole amid Bitcoin and other crypto values dropping further.

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San Francisco, Nov 11 (IANS) Elon Musk has put Twitter at risk of billions of dollars in fines, a company lawyer has warned, as chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, chief information security officer Lea Kissner, and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty have all quit in the fresh wave of resignations.

In a note posted to Twitter's Slack and seen by The Verge, an attorney on the company's privacy team said that Musk has shown that his only priority with Twitter users is how to monetise them.

"I do not believe he cares about the human rights activists. the dissidents, our users in un-monetisable regions, and all the other users who have made Twitter the global town square you have all spent so long building, and we all love," the lawyer wrote.

"Everyone here should also know that our CISO, Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Compliance Officer ALL resigned last night. This news will be buried in the return-to-office drama. I believe that is intentional," he added.

Twitter's privacy and security teams are in turmoil after Musk's changes to the service superseded its data governance processes.

The lawyer, whose identity was not revealed, "heard Alex Spiro (current head of Legal) say that Elon is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because Elon puts rockets into space, he's not afraid of the FTC".

Musk's new legal department is now asking engineers to aceself-certify" compliance with FTC rules and other privacy laws, according to the lawyer's note, the report mentioned late on Thursday.

In a statement, an FTC spokesperson said that the agency was "tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern".

"No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them," said the FTC spokesperson.

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Mumbai, Nov 11 (IANS) Indian stock markets opened on a high note on Friday morning.

The Sensex of the BSE opened at 61,311.02 points and touched a high of 61,574.40. The Sensex touched a low of 61,311.02 points.

The Sensex had previously closed at 60,613.70 points.

The Sensex is trading at 61,591.10.64 points up by 977.4 points or 1.61 per cent.

On the other hand, the broader 50-scrip Nifty at National Stock Exchange opened at 18,272.35 points after closing at 18,028.20 points.

The Nifty is trading at 18,287.75 points in the morning.

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Jaipur, Nov 7 (IANS) At a meeting held for organising the first of its kind international handicraft expo in Jodhpur on Monday, it has been decided that the event will be organised from March 20-23 next year at the Trade Facilitation Centre, EPCH, in Jodhpur, said S.L. Paliwal, General Manager, District Industries Centre, Jodhpur.

The expo will be called 'Rajasthan International Expo' and the products to be showcased will include the handicrafts manufactured in Jodhpur, furniture, agro processing related products, stone processing products, textiles, engineering products, steel utensils etc.

Foreign buyers will be invited to this fair by the Rajasthan Export Promotion Council (REPC), which will connect with the Indian embassies and high commissioners in Europe, America, Central Asia and Australia.

Industrialists and exporters were called at the meeting for suggestions and feedback.

Sunil Parihar, independent director of Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO), said, "The tradition of organising international expo started in Jodhpur and hence people will contribute with heart and soul to make it successful."

--IANS
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