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Tesla’s 2025 compensation for Musk hits $158 billion


The vast majority of the figure represents an accounting-driven valuation tied to the 2025 CEO Performance Award, a 10-year equity package approved by shareholders last year, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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No shares under that award had vested as of the filing date, and any shares that do vest are subject to an offset of $334.09 per share unless Musk elects to pay that amount in cash. Musk walked away from 2025 with nothing in realized pay — Tesla cleared none of the required market-value or operational benchmarks — and has collected no salary from the automaker for several years.
About $26.1 billion of the reported total represented the grant date fair value of a separate interim award the Tesla board approved for Musk in August. That award was forfeited in its entirety in April 2026, following the reinstatement of a 2018 compensation package, according to Bloomberg.Tesla acknowledged in the filing that there may be a “significant disconnect” between the reported compensation figure and the value Musk may ultimately realize. The company noted the figures “rely on assumptions and projections made pursuant to accounting rules and which are not necessarily indicative of the actual value that was or may be realized.”
To put the disclosure in perspective, the median annual total compensation for Tesla employees other than Musk in 2025 was $62,786. This results in a pay ratio of 2,522,203 to 1. Based on realized compensation, the ratio was 0 to 1. As of December 31, 2025, Tesla had 135,623 qualifying employees, with about 43% working outside the U.S.
The 2025 CEO Performance Award is structured so that Musk stands to collect only if Tesla’s stock price rises substantially and the company clears a series of operational milestones. Among the targets required to unlock the maximum value: Tesla’s market capitalization would need to reach $8.5 trillion, a threshold that, if cleared along with all other milestones, would push the award’s total value to $1 trillion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Through Thursday, Tesla shares had dropped roughly 15% on the year, a period during which the S&P 500 advanced more than 5%.

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Zero Turn Mowers at Tractor Supply Co.


Zero-turn riding mowers feature hydrostatic transmissions or transaxles, which control their wheels independently, letting them pivot in place (rather than move) to turn. This allows them to mow an area faster, saving you time and effort.

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South Caucasus News

Spirit Airlines at risk of closure​


Spirit had been talking with the White House about a potential $500 million bailout in exchange for warrants for a 90% stake in the company, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

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The struggling ultra-low-cost airline had been working toward becoming solvent again by this summer, drastically shrinking its network, selling aircraft, and renegotiating its debt, after a failed merger with JetBlue and two bankruptcies since 2024.

But rising jet fuel costs from the Iran war, generally about 40% of a carrier’s operating costs, strained the Daria Beach-based carrier’s plans.

It’s unclear if final talks were over Friday afternoon or when Spirit flights might stop. The airline’s available funds were expected to run out within a matter of days, CBS News reported.

“We’re looking at Spirit. If we can help them, we will, but we have to come first,” Trump told reporters before leaving for an appearance in The Villages. “If we could do it, we’d do it, but only if it’s a good deal this weekend, because they haven’t gotten a deal looking at it,” adding that he expected an announcement sometime Friday.”

“We gave them a final proposal,” he said.

Some of Spirit’s creditors objected to the terms of the bailout, The New York Times reported, since they would be left in a worse financial position if Spirit eventually failed. “Some Republican lawmakers were also opposed to a government bailout of Spirit,” the Times said.

When will Spirit Airlines shut down?

As of the afternoon of May 1, the Spirit website is still selling tickets.

The carrier has not reported a profit since 2019, the Times said. Since last April, the number of Spirit flights has shrunk by more than half, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm.

This could leave some Florida travelers in the lurch, especially at Spirit’s main hub at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The White House has reached out to other airlines to discuss how to accommodate people who have Spirit tickets and could be stranded if the airline stops operating. United Airlines said it was preparing to support Spirit customers if the rival shuts down. 

It is unknown at this point when the planes will be grounded and operations will end.

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Pathogen-sharing conflict causes WHO to delay pandemic treaty​


The talks are focused on a system intended to ensure countries quickly share pathogens that could cause pandemics while receiving fair access to vaccines, tests and treatments that result from their use, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

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Known as the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex, it governs how countries share data and samples of pathogens that pose public health risks and seeks to ensure equitable access to vaccines and treatments.

Without agreement on PABS, the pandemic accord, which is intended to help the world respond more effectively to future pandemics in the wake of COVID-19, cannot come into effect.

The World Health Assembly adopted the Pandemic Agreement in May 2025 to strengthen global prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemics.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said progress had been made but urged countries to keep working with urgency, saying the next pandemic was “a matter of when, not if.”

The outcome will be presented to the World Health Assembly later in May. The assembly will be asked to allow negotiations to continue, with any agreement to be submitted to the next assembly in May 2027 or earlier at a special session in 2026.

Member states agreed to set aside this section when adopting the main treaty last year after negotiations proved contentious.

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Ex-Florida congressman convicted in Venezuela lobbying scandal​


Prosecutors said Venezuela’s state-run oil company hired Rivera’s consulting firm for a $50m (£37m) fee to lobby members of Congress to help improve US relations with Venezuela, News.Az reports, citing BBC.

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The six-week trial saw testimony from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a friend of Rivera’s, as well as Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, both of whom said they had no idea of Rivera’s lobbying.

Defense lawyers had said the lobbying was for a US subsidiary of the oil company, not the Venezuelan government.

Rivera, who served in Congress from 2011 to 2013, was ordered to be detained after prosecutors argued he posed a flight risk. He showed little emotion when the verdict was read, according to US media outlets.

Jurors also convicted Rivera’s associate, political consultant Esther Nuhfer.

Federal prosecutors in Florida said Rivera and Nuhfer engaged in a “secret political influence campaign”, receiving a $50m contract for three months of work on behalf of a US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, which is also known as Citgo.

“As long as the money kept coming in, they didn’t care from where,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said of the defendants during closing arguments.

Prosecutors alleged that, in 2017 and 2018, at the behest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, Rivera and Nuhfer attempted to lobby Rubio – then still a senator and former housemate of Rivera’s – as well as Kellyanne Conway, a prominent former White House advisor.

The lobbying came as relations between the two countries were tense during President Donald Trump’s first administration, when he imposed sanctions on Venezuela.

Defense lawyers for Rivera and Nuhfer argued that the pair did not need to register as foreign agents because their contract was with a US-based subsidiary of a Venezuelan state company.

An attorney for Rivera also said that his client was actually focused on trying to oust Maduro rather than improve US-Venezuela ties.

“He was working every possible angle to get Nicolás Maduro out,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said during closing arguments, according to the Associated Press. “There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations.”

In January, Trump launched a military strike in Venezuela leading to the capture of Maduro, who is awaiting trial alongside his wife in New York on drug-related charges.

Rubio, who was not implicated in the wrongdoing, testified during the trial that he was close friends with Rivera but was unaware he was working as a lobbyist.

“He’s someone I’ve known for a long time,” Rubio told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, in an interview before the trial. “We’ve worked closely together but not on this, and there’s not a single person claiming otherwise.”

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Critical gap in Moscow’s defense: Putin’s residence is also under threat



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Putin seeks sanction relief from Trump for Ukraine ceasefire


The Kremlin is reportedly trying to strike a deal with the Trump administration that would see a relaxation of U.S. sanctions on Russia, with Moscow offering the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine as leverage, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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According to reporting by RBC-Ukraine, which cites a well-informed source within the Ukrainian government, one possible scenario is that a temporary truce could be used as a pretext for the partial lifting of sanctions.
The reported proposal involves a short-term cessation of hostilities-perhaps lasting for a week-during which the Russian side expects the U.S. to remove some restrictions.
“America would get headlines about calm on the front lines, while Putin would gain partial sanction relief and substantial financial benefits,” the source told RBC-Ukraine.
The source emphasized there would be no meaningful security guarantees for Ukraine under such an arrangement and noted the Ukrainian government finds this scenario unacceptable.
These alleged discussions are linked to U.S. domestic politics, particularly the upcoming Congressional elections, according to the source.
As a precedent, the source pointed to Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly promised to release some political prisoners in exchange for a gradual easing of U.S. sanctions, but failed to implement real political changes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with Bloomberg, has previously suggested that such scenarios might be possible. Zelensky stated that Russia might propose a ceasefire in exchange for lifting restrictions on select companies or restoring Russian banks’ access to the SWIFT system.

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Add a shared mailbox to Outlook mobile – Microsoft Support


After the account setup process completes, the shared mailbox will display in your account list in Outlook for iOS or Outlook for Android. To remove a shared mailbox, go to Settings > Accounts. Then tap on the shared mailbox and select Delete Account.

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South Caucasus News

«Пояс и путь»: Китай делает ставку на Азербайджан



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South Caucasus News

Ukrainian UAVs hit Russian Buk-M3 air defense system, munition depots, positions in Russia, Bakhmut