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Teslashareholders are voting to approve a $56 billion pay package for Elon Musk and to move the electric vehicle maker’s legal home to Texas, Musk said on social media platform X on Wednesday, adding that passage wasby wide margins.

A yes vote gives the electric carmaker more ammunition in a Delaware court, where a judge voided the 2018 pay package plan, which at the time was the largest in US corporate history, saying the board was “beholden” to CEO Musk.

It also marks a massive win for Musk and the board, who have put their credibility on the line to gain shareholder approval, despite opposition from major investors Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).

“Thanks for your support!!” Musk said in his post on X.

The result will be announced at a meeting at Tesla’s headquarters in Texas on Thursday at 4:30 pm ET.

A person familiar with the preliminary voting tally said a combination of big institutional investors and retail investors got the “yes” result over the line.

Shareholders, however, are allowed to change their vote up to the start of the annual meeting.

Tesla shareholders also cast ballots on other proposals including the move of its legal headquarters from Delaware to Texas, as well as the re-election of two board members: Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch.

Some investors viewed the vote on Musk’s pay as a test of confidence in his leadership.

While he is undoubtedly Tesla’s driving force, and is credited with much of its success, the company has recently seen slowing sales and profits.

Tesla’s stock has lost nearly 60% of its value from its peak in 2021, when Musk started selling billions of dollars’ worth of his stake partly to help finance his purchase of Twitter, sparking concerns that he would be spread too thin.

He now runs six firms, including rocket-builder SpaceX, social media giant X – formerly Twitter – and the artificial intelligence firm xA1, which Musk created in 2023.

Musk’s outspokenness and knack for creating controversy have also weighed on Tesla’s reputation and sales.

Tesla stocks ended up 3.9% on Wednesday, a day before the shareholder meeting.

Shareholders, led by major institutional investors, call such compensation far too generous for a leader who is splitting his time between six companies and is now presiding over falling sales and a strategic upheaval at Tesla.

The pay package would enable Musk to strengthen ownership “at the expense of diluting the value of those belonging to other shareholders,” Marcie Frost, CEO of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System said earlier Wednesday.

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Tesla has been drumming up support for Musk’s pay package, especially from retail investors, who make up an unusually high percentage of its ownership base but who often do not vote.

Company executives have posted messages on X, saying Musk is critical to Tesla’s success.

Tesla has run social media ads, and Musk has promised a personal tour of Tesla’s factory in Texas to some shareholders who cast votes.

The board said the world’s richest person deserves the package, because he hit all the ambitious targets on market value, revenue and profitability.

The pay package is also needed to keep Musk devoted to Tesla, the board said, even though the Delaware judge said the 2018 pay plan failed to make sure that Musk committed a substantial amount of time to Tesla.

Musk has threatened to build AI and robotics products outside Tesla, if he fails to gain enough voting control, which requires the 2018 pay package to be approved.

Donald Ball, a Tesla shareholder earlier this month filed a lawsuit challenging the upcoming shareholder vote, saying a ratification of the pay package should be void because Musk has “engaged in strong-arm, coercive tactics to obtain stockholder approval.”

The same package was previously rejected by a Delaware judge who invalidated it as an “unfathomable sum” granted by a conflicted board with close personal and financial ties to its top executive.

The board held the shareholder vote as a way to bolster its appeal of the ruling, in which the judge cited the board’s failure to fully inform shareholders before approving the pay package in 2018.

“Even if the shareholders do approve the old package, it is not clear that the Delaware court will allow that vote to be effective,” said Adam Badawi, a law professor who specializes in corporate governance at the University of California Berkeley.

Musk has to wait months or years to get his pay package restored as appeals wind their way up to Delaware’s Supreme Court.

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World

Two bridges collapse in Russia – as seven people killed and dozens injured

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Two bridges collapse in Russia - as seven people killed and dozens injured

Seven people have been killed and dozens are injured after two bridges collapsed in Russia overnight.

A train derailed after a bridge collapsed on to it in the Bryansk region, killing the driver and six others.

Some 69 people were injured in the crash, with the train travelling from Moscow to Klimov at the time.

Earlier, local authorities blamed “illegal interference” for the incident.

Later, a bridge collapsed in Russia’s Kursk region while a freight train was passing over it.

Local officials said one of the train’s drivers was injured in the crash.

When a bridge collapsed in the Kursk region, part of the train fell down onto the road, and a fire started. Pic: RIA/Telegram
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The scene of the train crash in Kursk region. Pic: RIA/Telegram

Russia’s Baza Telegram channel, which often publishes information from sources in the security services and law
enforcement, reported, without providing evidence, that the bridge in Bryansk was blown up, according to initial information.

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There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Since the start of the war that Russia launched more than three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes, and covert raids by Ukrainian forces into the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine.

Photo: Official Telegram channel of the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor's Office
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Pic: Moscow Transport Prosecutor’s Office

Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said: “Everything is being done to provide all necessary assistance to the victims.”

Emergency workers are at the scene of the train derailment, attempting to pull survivors from the wreckage.

Russia’s federal road transportation agency said the destroyed bridge passed above the railway tracks where the train was travelling.

Images from the scene show passenger cars ripped apart and lying amid fallen concrete from the collapsed bridge.

Other footage on social media appeared to be taken from inside vehicles which narrowly avoided driving onto the bridge before it collapsed.

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World

At least 21 killed in Gaza as they went to receive aid, Red Cross hospital says

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At least 21 killed in Gaza as they went to receive aid, Red Cross hospital says

At least 21 people have been killed in Gaza as they went to receive aid from an Israeli-backed foundation, according to a nearby hospital run by the Red Cross.

The hospital, which received the bodies, said another 175 people had been wounded in the incident in Rafah on Sunday morning.

The Associated Press also reports seeing dozens of people being treated at the hospital.

Witnesses have said those killed and injured were struck by gunfire which broke out at a roundabout near the distribution site.

The area is controlled by Israeli forces.

Ibrahim Abu Saoud, an eyewitness, said Israeli forces opened fire at people moving toward the aid distribution centre.

“There were many martyrs, including women,” the 40-year-old man said. “We were about 300 meters (yards) away from the military.”

Abu Saoud said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who he said had died at the scene. “We weren’t able to help him,” he said.

The Gazans had been trying to receive aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – an American organisation backed by both the US and Israeli governments.

It operates as part of a controversial aid system which Israel and the US claims is aimed at preventing Hamas from siphoning off assistance.

Israel has not provided any evidence of systematic diversion, and the UN denies it has occurred.

Earlier, Hamas-linked media had also reported more than 20 deaths in Rafah, saying they were as a result of an Israeli strike on an aid distribution point. Israel is yet to comment.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution of aid has been marred by chaos, and multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the delivery sites.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, risking yet more mass displacement in the territory.

Before Sunday, at least six people had been killed and more than 50 wounded, according to local health officials.

The foundation says the private security contractors guarding its sites did not fire on the crowds, while the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots.

The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the hospital’s claims.

In an earlier statement, it said it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early on Sunday “without incident”. It dismissed what it referred to as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos”.

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UK

UK to build weapons factories and buy thousands of missiles in £1.5bn push to rearm

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UK to build weapons factories and buy thousands of missiles in £1.5bn push to rearm

The UK will buy up to 7,000 long-range missiles, rockets and drones and build at least six weapons factories in a £1.5bn push to rearm at a time of growing threats.

The plan, announced by the government over the weekend, will form part of Sir Keir Starmer’s long-awaited Strategic Defence Review, which will be published on Monday.

However, it lacks key details, including when the first arms plant will be built, when the first missile will be made, or even what kind of missiles, drones and rockets will be purchased.

The government is yet to appoint a new senior leader to take on the job of “national armaments director”, who will oversee the whole effort.

Andy Start, the incumbent head of Defence Equipment and Support – the branch of defence charged with buying kit – is still doing the beefed-up role of national armaments director as a sluggish process to recruit someone externally rumbles on.

Keir Starmer and  Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak to the press as they attend a presentation of Ukrainian military drones.
Pic: Reuters
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Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a presentation of Ukrainian military drones. Pic: Reuters

Revealing some of its content ahead of time, the Ministry of Defence said the defence review will recommend an “always on” production capacity for munitions, drawing on lessons learned from Ukraine, which has demonstrated the vital importance of large production lines.

It will also call for an increase in stockpiles of munitions – something that is vitally needed for the army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to be able to keep fighting beyond a few days.

Sky News will launch a new podcast series on 10 June based around a wargame that simulates an attack by Russia against the UK to test Britain’s defences

“The hard-fought lessons from [Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them,” John Healey, the defence secretary, said in a statement released on Saturday night.

“We are strengthening the UK’s industrial base to better deter our adversaries and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad.”

Army Commandos load a 105MM Howitzer in Norway.
Pic: Ministry of Defence Crown Copyright/PA
Image:
Army Commandos load a 105mm Howitzer in Norway. Pic: Ministry of Defence/PA

The UK used to have a far more resilient defence industry during the Cold War, with the capacity to manufacture missiles and other weapons and ammunition at speed and at scale.

However, much of that depth, which costs money to sustain, was lost following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when successive governments switched funding priorities away from defence and into areas such as health, welfare and economic growth.

Even after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and a huge increase in demand from Kyiv for munitions from its allies, production lines at UK factories were slow to expand.

A reaper drone in the Middle East as part of Operation Shader. Pic: Ministry of Defence
Image:
A reaper drone in the Middle East. Pic: Ministry of Defence

Sky News visited a plant run by the defence company Thales in Belfast last year that makes N-LAW anti-tank missiles used in Ukraine. Its staff at the time only worked weekday shifts between 7am and 4pm.

Under this new initiative, the government said the UK will build at least six new “munitions and energetics” factories.

Energetic materials include explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics, which are required in the manufacturing of weapons.

There were no details, however, on whether these will be national factories or built in partnership with defence companies, or a timeline for this to happen.

There was also no information on where they would be located or what kind of weapons they would make.

King Charles  visiting HMS Prince of Wales as the Royal Navy finalises preparations for a major global deployment to the Indo-Pacific this spring.
Pic: PO Phot Rory Arnold/Ministry of Defence/PA
Image:
King Charles visits HMS Prince of Wales. Pic: PO Phot Rory Arnold/Ministry of Defence/PA

In addition, it was announced that the UK will buy “up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons for the UK Armed Forces”, though again without specifying what.

It is understood these weapons will include a mix of missiles, rockets and drones.

Sources within the defence industry criticised the lack of detail, which is so often the case with announcements by the Ministry of Defence.

The sources said small and medium-sized companies in particular are struggling to survive as they await clarity from the Ministry of Defence over a range of different contracts.

One source described a sense of “paralysis”.

The prime minister launched the defence review last July, almost a year ago. But there had been a sense of drift within the Ministry of Defence beforehand, in the run-up to last year’s general election.

The source said: “While the government’s intentions are laudable, the lack of detail in this announcement is indicative of how we treat defence in this country.

“Headline figures, unmatched by clear intent and delivery timelines which ultimately leave industry no closer to knowing what, or when, the MOD want their bombs and bullets.

“After nearly 18 months of decision and spending paralysis, what we need now is a clear demand signal from the Ministry of Defence that allows industry to start scaling production, not grand gestures with nothing to back it up.”

As well as rearming the nation, the government said the £1.5bn investment in new factories and weapons would create around 1,800 jobs across the UK.

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