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Showing posts from December, 2024

Musk’s legal battle for his $56bn goes on. Tesla’s board still looks supine | Nils Pratley

The craven stance of Tesla’s board should not be lost in the legal back-and-forth The first time around, judge Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware court of chancery got it right. The $56bn pay package awarded by Tesla to Elon Musk in 2018 was indeed a governance abomination, a stitch-up in which ordinary shareholders weren’t told about the “deeply flawed” process whereby a “superstar ceo” secured wildly over-the-top terms from pliant directors. Her closely argued ruling in January spelt it out in persuasive detail. The company had “inaccurately described key directors as independent and misleadingly omitted details about the process”. Ira Ehrenpreis, the lead director negotiating for Tesla, had a 15-year business relationship with Musk. Another member of the working group regularly went on holiday with Musk’s family. A third was the company’s general counsel and Musk’s former divorce lawyer. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/wb9eijN

The Guardian view on protests in Georgia: resisting a drift into Putin’s orbit | Editorial

The Georgian Dream government’s suspension of EU talks has sparked an existential struggle for democracy In recent years, Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has brazenly pursued a policy of gaslighting an overwhelmingly pro-European population. Rhetorically, it has paid enthusiastic lip service to the national goal of eventual accession to the European Union, an aim that is enshrined in the constitution. In practice, a party founded by the billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili – whose wealth was accumulated in Russia – has been pulling Georgia ever further into the authoritarian orbit of Vladimir Putin. “Foreign agent” legislation passed earlier this year – provoking large protests in Tbilisi – copied and pasted Russian laws designed to curtail the influence of independent civil society organisations. Subsequent restrictions placed on LGBTQ+ rights came from the same playbook. Having awarded EU candidate status to Georgia in 2023, these illiberal moves led Brussels ...

Liz Truss is apparently too mad even for a rightwing US audience | John Crace

Former PM’s speech to the Heritage Foundation declares just about everyone alive be part of a communist conspiracy It was a sight for sore eyes. At least for any speaker who has turned up to an event to discover the organisers easily outnumber the audience. In an anonymous, windowless room in Washington DC, there were just a handful of people seated around a couple of circular tables for the latest session hosted by the rightwing – and conspiracy theory adjacent – US thinktank, the Heritage Foundation. Let’s hope there were rather more watching online. This is Liz Truss’s safe space. America, her last refuge. A nation that regards her 49-day tenure as prime minister a badge of honour rather than a sign of failure. In the UK, no one wants to know Liz any more. The Tory party just wish she would crawl under a stone. She’s the source of much of their embarrassment. Nor could her former constituents wait to see the back of her. Her loss was Norfolk’s gain. But in the US, she still has so...

The Guardian view on Gregg Wallace and the BBC: exposing poor conduct is in the public interest | Editorial

By drawing attention to the troubling behaviour of a male celebrity, Kirsty Wark recalls the spirit of #MeToo Famous men should not take advantage of their status to engage in sexually inappropriate behaviour, or make explicit remarks, at work. If and when this happens, their bosses should ensure that it is stopped. This might seem obvious. But in an interview for BBC News last week, Kirsty Wark , the former Newsnight host, described how when she was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef in 2011, she complained to the production company about the show’s co-presenter Gregg Wallace. She thought a sexualised monologue he delivered early one morning on set was so ill-judged that it made her angry, and worried that staff on short-term contracts would not feel able to object. BBC News also heard from 12 other people making various allegations. That it has taken so many years for these claims to emerge strongly suggests that the impunity enjoyed by celebrities is an ongoing cultural pro...

Fiorentina’s Edoardo Bove taken to hospital after collapsing on pitch

Serie A match halted as Bove treated by paramedics Players form protective barrier around 22-year-old The Fiorentina midfielder Edoardo Bove was taken off the pitch in an ambulance after collapsing shortly after the start of their Serie A match against Internazionale. Sky Sport Italia reported that Bove was transported to the Careggi hospital near the Stadio Franchi in Florence, was breathing on his own and had regained consciousness. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/5rMsw37