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☆ Saudi, UK ministers agree to study combat air cooperation -Saudi agency
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 1 (Reuters) - Saudi and British defence ministers have agreed to study future co-operation on combat air capabilities and potential industrial projects, the Saudi state news agency reported. Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace met in Riyadh on Wednesday and signed a "declaration of intent regarding the participation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Future Air Capabilities Program (FCAS)", it said. FCAS is an acronym widely used for next-generation fighter projects known as Future Combat Air Systems, including the British-led Tempest programme which was recently expanded to include Japan under a new framework called Global Air Combat Programme. It said identifying industrial participation projects and joint research and development projects were also included. The British Defence ministry said the statement of intent signed in Riyadh would initiate a "Partnering Feasibility Study to explore how we can best position our decades long combat air relationship for the future".

☆ Union Pacific CEO to step down as hedge fund presses for change
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 26 (Reuters) - U.S. railroad Union Pacific (UNP.N) on Sunday said it expects to name a successor to assume the position of chief executive officer replacing Lance Fritz in 2023. "Union Pacific has been my home for 22 years and I am confident that now is the right time for Union Pacific’s next leader to take the helm. The announcement comes after U.S. hedge fund Soroban Capital Partners in a letter on Sunday called for Fritz to be replaced. Union Pacific in a statement said as part of the board's succession planning process it has considered shareholder input and will continue to do so, adding it has been actively engaging with Soroban Capital since 2017. Reporting by Rhea Binoy and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc (BX.N) Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman took home about $1.26 billion in pay and dividends for 2022, a regulatory filing showed. Schwarzman received more than $1 billion in dividends from his Blackstone shares and $253.1 million in compensation, filing showed on Friday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) slashed compensation for CEO David Solomon by 29% to $25 million for 2022, while JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) CEO Jamie Dimon's total compensation was unchanged at $34.5 million. Schwarzman owns about 230 million shares in Blackstone according to a filing from February, and the company paid $4.40 in annual dividend, filings showed. Blackstone ended the quarter with $974.7 billion of total assets under management and declared a quarterly dividend of 91 cents per share.

☆ Stellantis CEO Tavares' 2022 pay fell 14% to $15.7 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Stellantis (STLAM.MI) CEO Carlos Tavares' 2022 pay fell 14% to 14.9 million euros ($15.71 million), the maker of Fiat, Ram and Peugeot vehicles said in a filing on Friday. Tavares did not receive a retention bonus in 2022, compared with a bonus of about 2 million euros in 2021, the filing showed. Over 90% of Tavares' pay came from variable components after the company posted industrial free cash flows of 10.8 billion euros last year, well above the maximum target of 8.1 billion euros. Stellantis also achieved cash synergies of 7.1 billion euros during the period, far exceeding the 5 billion euros by 2024 target. Last year, Tavares' compensation of around 17.4 million euros drew an angry response from some trade unions, which urged politicians to take measures to cap executive salaries.

☆ Stellantis CEO Tavares' 2022 pay fell 14% to $15.7 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

☆ Google tests blocking news content for some Canadians
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 22 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google is rolling out tests that block access to news content for some Canadian users, the company confirmed on Wednesday, in what it says is a test run of a potential response to the government's online news bill. "We're briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users. We run thousands of tests each year to assess any potential changes to Search," a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. A spokeswoman for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said Canadians will not be intimidated and called it disappointing that Google is borrowing from Meta's playbook. Tech giants need to be more transparent and accountable to Canadians," the spokeswoman said.

The Adani Group has denied any wrongdoing. "Depending on the outcome of the MSCI review, we could see more pressure on select Adani group stocks." "This determination has triggered a free float review of the Adani Group securities." Adani Group did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. They accuse his government of giving undue favours to the Adani Group, a charge denied by the government and the company.

"Depending on the outcome of the MSCI review, we could see more pressure on select Adani group stocks." "MSCI has determined that the characteristics of certain investors have sufficient uncertainty that they should no longer be designated as free float ... This determination has triggered a free float review of the Adani Group securities," it added. Adani group did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS), Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS) and Adani Power (ADAN.NS) were each down 5%, while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) were down nearly 2.9%.

☆ MSCI reviews Adani Group securities amid sell-off crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"This determination has triggered a free float review of the Adani Group securities." Adani Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Adani Group has rejected the criticism and denied any wrongdoing. MSCI said the Adani review would be carried out as part of its regular February review. The index provider said in late January it was seeking feedback from market participants as the sell-off crisis engulfed Adani.

☆ Musk says Turkey to re-enable full Twitter access 'shortly'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Twitter Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a tweet on Wednesday that the company had been informed by the government of Turkey that full access to the social media platform in the country will be re-enabled "shortly". The Netblocks internet observatory, which tracks connectivity across the globe, said earlier on Wednesday that Twitter access had been restricted two days after a major earthquake killed thousands in southern Turkey and northern Syria. "Twitter has been informed by the Turkish government that access will be re-enabled shortly," Musk tweeted, without providing further details on timing. Turkish people have taken to Twitter since the earthquake to post information about loved ones they cannot reach, reports of collapsed buildings in the area and coordination for aid. Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The potential sale includes High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which Kyiv has praised for their battlefield successes such as destroying Russian warehouses and command posts. The package includes 18 HIMARS launchers, 45 of the 185-mile (297-km) range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles and more than 1,000 Guided Multiple Rocket Launch System (GMLRS) rockets. The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the potential sale on Tuesday. In May, Poland requested an additional 500 HIMARS launchers from the United States, but, according to Polish media, Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) said it was possible to offer around 200. In October, Poland signed an agreement to buy 288 Chunmoo rocket launchers from South Korea.

☆ Crypto.com to cut 20% jobs as industry rout deepens after FTX collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 13 (Reuters) - Crypto.com said on Friday it would be reducing about 20% of its workforce, as cryptocurrency exchanges face industry-wide challenges brought on by the collapse of FTX last year. A source told Reuters last week that Genesis, too, had cut jobs, equating to 30% of its workforce. Th recent FTX collapse "significantly damaged trust in the industry," Crypto.com Chief Executive Officer Kris Marszalek said in a statement. The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX was the biggest in string of big crypto-related failures in 2022. It sparked a cryptocurrency rout and has left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses of billions of dollars.

☆ Singapore's Crypto.com to cut global workforce by 20%
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Jan 13 (Reuters) - Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com said on Friday it had decided to reduce global workforce by approximately 20%. The announcement comes after Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O) said on Tuesday it would cut about 950 jobs, or 20% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring plan. Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi AichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Seattle public schools blame tech giants for social media harm in lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The lawsuit says the companies' actions have been a substantial factor in causing a youth mental health crisis. Students with mental health issues perform worse, causing schools to take steps including training teachers to identify and address such symptoms, hire trained personnel, and create additional resources to warn students about the dangers of social media, the complaint said. In 2021, U.S. lawmakers accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of pushing for higher profits at the expense of children's mental health following testimony by whistleblower Frances Haugen. "We make money from ads, and advertisers consistently tell us they don't want their ads next to harmful or angry content. And I don't know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed."

☆ Ant Group says no plan for IPO, focusing on business optimisation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 8 (Reuters) - China's fintech giant Ant Group has no plan to initiate an initial public offering (IPO), it said on Sunday in an emailed statement to Reuters. "Ant Group has been focusing on its business rectification and optimisation, and does not have a plan for an IPO," the company spokesperson said. Ant Group said on Saturday that its founder Jack Ma no longer controls the company after a series of shareholding adjustments that saw him give up most of his voting rights. China's domestic A-share market requires companies to wait three years after a change in control to list. Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Shanghai and Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru;Editing by Elaine HardcastleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Meta set to make decision on Trump’s return to Facebook - FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 1 (Reuters) - Facebook owner Meta Inc (META.O) is preparing to announce whether it will allow former U.S. President Donald Trump back on to Facebook and Instagram, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The social media giant had previously said it will decide by Jan 7 whether to allow the former president to return. However, that decision is now expected to be announced later in the month, the newspaper said, citing a person familiar with the matter. The development comes after Elon Musk, Twitter's new owner, revoked a permanent ban on Trump in November last year on the social media platform after polling users. Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Neil FullickOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Crypto exchange Kraken to stop operations in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 28 (Reuters) - U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken said on Wednesday it would cease its operations in Japan next month, citing the current market conditions in the country and a weak crypto market globally. Kraken will deregister from the Financial Services Agency (JFSA) as of Jan. 31, by which time clients would have to withdraw their fiat and crypto holdings, it said in a statement. Kraken said it is fully funded to ensure that all affected clients could withdraw their assets in a timely manner. Last month, Kraken said it would reduce its workforce by 30%, or about 1,100 employees, as tough market conditions had crippled demand for digital assets. Bitcoin, the pre-eminent cryptocurrency, has lost 60% of its value this year, while the wider crypto market has shrunk by $1.4 trillion, squashed by the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX empire, Celsius and supposed 'stablecoins' terraUSD and Luna.

☆ University of California academic workers end weeks-long strike
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Academic workers at UC San Diego walk out as thousands of employees at the University of California campuses have gone on strike in an effort to secure improved pay and working conditions in San Diego, California, U.S., November 14, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoDec 23 (Reuters) - University of California (UC) academic workers ended a nearly six-week strike on Friday that unions described as the biggest work stoppage ever at a U.S. institution of higher education. Thousands of academic workers went on strike at UC campuses throughout the state on Nov. 14, forming picket lines and staging noisy protests to demand better wages for teaching assistants and others. Some 48,000 academic workers represented by the United Auto Workers will return to work in January after the winter break, union leaders said, after ratification votes by large majorities of two fractious UAW bargaining units. The thousands of striking academic workers began voting this week on whether to ratify the deal with the University of California.

☆ TSMC in talks with suppliers over first European plant - FT
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 23 (Reuters) - Chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC)(2330.TW) is in advanced talks with key suppliers about setting up its first potential European plant in the German city of Dresden, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The Taiwanese firm's talks with several materials and equipment suppliers are focused on whether they can also make the investments required to support the plant, the report said, adding that if it presses ahead with a Dresden plant, it would focus on 22-nanometre and 28-nanometre chip technologies. TSMC has maintained it had not yet made a decision on a plant in Europe, but that no options were being ruled out. Earlier this month, TSMC said it would more than triple its planned investment at its new Arizona plant to $40 billion, among the largest foreign investments in U.S. history. The company expects its Phoenix factories to create 13,000 high-tech jobs, including 4,500 under TSMC and the rest filled by suppliers.

☆ Factbox: More than 800,000 without power in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 24 (Reuters) - More than 800,000 homes and businesses were without power in the eastern half of the United States and Texas as winter storms battered much of the country, according to data from PowerOutage.us. U.S. utilities were working to restore power after the storms moved on from their service territories but some were still dealing with high winds. The greatest numbers of outages were in New England in the northeast, with 248,162 customers without power in Maine, followed by New Hampshire, New York, Virginia and North Carolina. Nearly half of the 50 U.S. states counted more than 10,000 customers with outages due to the storms. The utility with the most outages was Central Maine Power with 188,861 customers without power.

☆ Blaze kills 22 in Russian home for elderly
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 23 (Reuters) - A fire ripped through an old people's home in Russia's Siberia region, killing 22 people, investigators said on Saturday. The blaze gutted the second floor of the building, which was not officially registered as a home for the elderly, but was out by the early hours when rescuers finished combing the rubble in Kemerovo city, state media and emergency services said. Many homes for the elderly operate without authorisation in Russia, officials said, meaning they were considered private property and not subject to inspections. Kemerovo saw one of the deadliest fires in Russia of recent times when a blaze swept through the upper floors of the "Winter Cherry" shopping centre in 2018, killing 64 people. Reporting by Ron Popeski, Rhea Binoy and Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Chris Reese, Edmund Klamann and Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Elon Musk restores Twitter accounts of journalists but concerns persist
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the billionaire's plane. A Twitter poll that Musk conducted later also showed that a majority of the respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now," Musk said in a tweet on Saturday. A Reuters check showed the suspended accounts, which included journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, have been reinstated. Musk accused the journalists of posting his real-time location, saying it amounted to providing "basically assassination coordinates" for his family.

☆ Musk says will restore recently suspended journalists' Twitter accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Saturday he will reinstate the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended in a controversy over publishing public data about the billionaire' s plane. "The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now," he tweeted. loadingReporting by Eva Mathews and Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Tesla plans to announce Mexico EV plant as soon as next week -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 16 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is finalizing plans to build an electric vehicle assembly plant in an industrial area of northeastern Mexico and may announce the factory as early as next week, Bloomberg News reported late Friday. The plant will be located in Santa Catarina in Monterrey city, the capital of Nuevo Leon state in Mexico, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. It is unclear what models Tesla would produce in the Mexican factory or when it would begin production, Bloomberg said. Two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters in October that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk was considering investing in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas. Musk held a meeting in the state with Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia along with other local officials, and Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, one of the sources said.

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