Author: Grace Johnson

Elon Musk and his company X have agreed to a settlement with former staff. The employees had sued for $500 million in unpaid severance. The agreement appeared in a court filing on Wednesday. Both sides asked the San Francisco appeals court to delay a hearing. They said more time was needed to finish the paperwork. Dispute triggered by mass layoffs The lawsuit followed Musk’s decision in 2022 to cut about 6,000 jobs. That accounted for more than half of the workforce. Many of those dismissed took legal action over the severance packages. So far, X representatives and the employees’ lawyers…

Sony announced it will raise the cost of the PlayStation 5 in the US by about $50 starting Thursday. The Japanese company struggles with rising production costs and a slowing gaming industry. Sony executive Isabelle Tomatis wrote in a blog post that the company faces a “challenging economic environment.” All three versions of the console will be affected. The Pro edition will now carry a retail price of $749.99. Tariffs increase financial strain The price hike comes after tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on several trade partners, including Japan. These policies have sparked fears of higher consumer costs. Tomatis…

The Kremlin has rejected speculation about a near-term summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. At the same time, Donald Trump repeated his call for both leaders to meet and try to end the war in Ukraine. The idea of direct talks gained attention after Trump met Putin in Alaska last week. On Monday, he hosted Zelensky and seven European leaders at the White House. Trump admitted the war would be difficult to resolve. He also warned that Putin might have no interest in stopping hostilities. “We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks,”…

An Australian court has fined airline giant Qantas 90 million Australian dollars for unlawful sackings during the Covid-19 crisis. The company had dismissed more than 1,800 ground staff in 2020. Australia’s Transport Workers’ Union welcomed the decision. It called the fine the largest in history for breaches of industrial relations law. Court delivers a clear warning Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said the penalty must serve as real deterrence. He stressed that employers must know such conduct has consequences. Qantas accepted the ruling and announced it will pay the fine. The company admitted it caused harm to its workers. “We…

A US senator has begun investigating Meta. A leaked internal document reportedly showed that the company’s artificial intelligence allowed “sensual” and “romantic” conversations with children. Internal rules raise questions Reuters reported the document was titled “GenAI: Content Risk Standards.” Republican Senator Josh Hawley called its contents “reprehensible and outrageous.” He demanded full access to the paper and the related product list. Meta dismissed the accusations. A spokesperson said: “The examples and notes in question were erroneous and inconsistent with our policies.” They underlined that Meta enforced “clear rules” on chatbot responses. These rules “prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized…