All US state attorneys general agree to $7.4 billion Purdue Pharma settlement
June 16 (Reuters) - The attorneys general of all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and four U.S. territories have agreed to a $7.4 billion settlement with bankrupt drugmaker Purdue Pharma, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said on Monday.
Purdue's payment is intended to resolve thousands of lawsuits alleging that its pain medication OxyContin caused a nationwide opioid addiction crisis.
Platkin said members of the Sackler family, who own Purdue, have confirmed their plan to proceed with the settlement.
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Telegraph
16 minutes ago
- Telegraph
WhatsApp's newest update will only leave customers feeling disgruntled
A corner of your online social world will soon get a little more annoying. Meta says it is going to cram more advertisements into WhatsApp, although not directly into our private chats. Instead, a new tab will appear on the smartphone app, which businesses will use to push paid messages, according to the US tech giant. Fair enough, you might think. The app is free to use, generating a huge amount of consumer surplus, but still costs Meta money to run, particularly with 1.5 billion of us now using it to share videos and make calls. Meta has struggled to monetise WhatsApp since Facebook, as it was, acquired it for $19 billion in 2014, or $42 per user, back when far fewer people used it. Facebook also had to settle out of court with BlackBerry, who alleged that the company had stolen its innovative messaging technology. So it must do something. But getting something for free is a very mixed blessing. Since we're not actually paying customers, we can't take our money elsewhere. The competitive dynamics that spur product improvement are absent here. Think how little Instagram or YouTube have innovated, unless faced with competition from a TikTok or a Snap. It took Facebook a decade before it allowed us to change the default WhatsApp wallpaper from green – which is more time than it took for America to send a man to the moon. WhatsApp has previously angered users with its new AI feature which it previously described as 'entirely optional' – even though it cannot be removed from the app. The Meta AI blue circle with pink and green in the bottom of your chats screen can't be suppressed. It triggers a chatbot designed to answer questions, but it has drawn criticism from users who don't want it and cannot remove it. WhatsApp performs a basic communications utility, and would have been one if not for the remarkable stupidity of the incumbent telecommunications companies. Even when privatised, these giants retained the risk averse mentality of the state owned telecoms they once were. They reacted with suspicion to 'over the top' internet services like WhatsApp and Skype. Even though their engineers were building an all-internet core, the beancounters and executives couldn't let go of their legacy business models, which racked up lucrative profits from termination fees, video charges and picture messages. Once they decided they had to compete with OTT services, they couldn't agree how to. So instead of making a little, indirectly, they got nothing. And they must still carry all the traffic we generate, to boot. The absence of digital property rights also means we can't price our personal data – and with no free market where it can be traded, the price is set by the incumbent middleman, which is Google and Meta. So don't grumble when you see an ad pop-up when you're in a chat – that's what a broken market looks like, run by tech giants who have become as complacent as the telecoms they usurped.
The Sun
25 minutes ago
- The Sun
Minnesota ‘assassin' found with ‘hit-list' of 70 names & addresses including Squad member Ilhan Omar and Jeff Bezos' ex'
THE man accused of fatally shooting a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband allegedly had a hit list with 70 names after being caught by police. Vance Boelter, 57, is accused of shooting and killing Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home on Saturday, along with injuring Senator John Hoffman and his wife in another shooting. 9 9 9 9 9 During the search for the suspect, investigators found a fake police vehicle that Boelter allegedly used to pose as a police officer to carry out the shootings. Inside the car, police found a cache of weapons, including at least three AK-47 assault rifles and a manifesto with the names and addresses of other public officials. There were about 70 names in the manifesto, some of which were abortion rights advocates, said law enforcement officials. Boelter was arrested near his home in Green Isle on Sunday night after a brief manhunt. He has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, according to Hennepin County court records. LIST OF DEATH Named on the list were Senator Amy Klobuchar and "squad member" Rep. Ilhan Omar, reported The Minnesota Star Tribune. Others include Congresswoman Kelly Morrison, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, and Jeff Bezos' ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott. Some doctors who worked for Planned Parenthood were on the list, as well as several abortion clinics, including one that is scheduled to open in Omaha, Nebraska. Former congressman Dean Phillips claimed in an X post that he was on the list as well, writing, "I extend heartfelt gratitude to Minnesota's law enforcement professionals," after Boelter's arrest. "Now, we must take steps to prevent political violence before it's too late." Vance Boelter's car found as cops continue to hunt for 'fake cop' suspect who 'shot dead Melissa Hortman' in Minnesota The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans confirmed that investigators found the manifesto in a press briefing, saying the documents "gives some indications" on a possible motive. "This is not a document that would be like a traditional manifesto that's a treatise on all kinds of ideology and writings, Evans said. He called it a notebook "with a lot of lawmakers and others ... as opposed to a succinct document." "I don't want the public to have the impression that there's this long manifesto that's providing all of this information and details and then associated with names," he added. "It's much more about names." NIGHT OF TERROR Boelter was named as a suspect on June 14 after of Hortman and Hoffman. Hortman and her husband, Mark, were pronounced dead at their Brooklyn Park home. Timeline of Minnesota's shooting Vance Boelter has been arrested for the targeted shootings of Minnesota lawmakers Rep. Melissa Hortman and Sen. John Hoffman. Below is a timeline of events: Saturday, June 14 2 am - Cops receive a phone call about a shooting at Hoffman's house. Cops call nearby officers to proactively check Hortman's home because it's close by in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. 3:35 am - Police arrive at Hortman's home and find a car that looks like a cop car in her driveway. Officers see the suspect, dressed as a cop and wearing a latex mask, leaving the Hortman's house. Cops exchange gunfire with the suspect, who runs back into the home and leaves out the back door on foot. 7:11 am — A shelter-in-place warning is issued for three miles around Brooklyn Park. 7:35 am - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz posts on social media that he's been briefed on the shootings. 9:30 am - Walz and cops give the first news conference on the shootings and confirm the Hormans' deaths. 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Daily Mail
31 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Luxury retailers warn Trump ban on foreign students could tank sales
Luxury retailers in Boston have warned that Donald Trump 's crackdown on international student visas threatens to destroy their most lucrative customer base and possibly tank sales of fine jewelry, Maseratis and $28,000-a-month apartments. Wealthy international students who think nothing of dropping thousands on flashy cars and designer jewelry could soon be gone, as reported by the Boston Globe. The wealthiest among the 82,000 international students pump a staggering $4 billion into Massachusetts annually. During Chinese New Year this January, luxury jeweler Bulgari on Newbury Street saw business boom. Students from Shanghai and Chengdu flocked to buy diamond-and-gemstone 'Serpenti' collection pieces starting at $3,300 for dainty viper earrings. 'If something is trending or popular, many of the international students want it,' Michelle Jiang, former client advisor at Burberry , Barney's, and Chanel in Boston told the Globe. 'They don't think much of it before buying.' The massive spending is spread across Boston - including fleets of Maseratis parked along Commonwealth Avenue. Students sport $1,000 Balenciaga sneakers to class, before dining at the city's most exclusive restaurants including Yvonne's, Trade, and Contessa. Foreign families also routinely purchase million-dollar condos for their children, only to abandon them completely when studies end. Brett DeRocker, partner at First Boston Realty, revealed that two-thirds of his high-end rental properties at the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, and One Dalton are rented to international students. Working professionals occupy apartments starting at $2,700. But the $28,000-a-month penthouse at the top of his portfolio houses a single family with multiple children studying locally. 'When you all of a sudden start to think about a force of individuals who fuel the housing market with no way to replace them, what happens?' DeRocker told the outlet. 'Will there be a pullback in home values? 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'We do think it could affect things to not have those people come into the country or into Boston,' Farahani told the outlet. The impact extends beyond luxury goods to the restaurant business. Allston has transformed into an unofficial Koreatown over the past decade with hot pot, fried chicken, and boba spots. When trendy boba chain HeyTea -which operates 3,000 locations in China - opened on Harvard Avenue in January students from China lined up around the block. 'They would both have a lot less customers and revenue if these mandates go into effect,' Alex Cornacchini, executive director of Allston Village Main Streets warned. High-end boutiques are also expecting business to crash. Foreign students routinely purchase Dior saddle bags and Le Labo perfume in Boston because they're cheaper than back home, a luxury retail executive told the outlet. 'A good portion of the stability in luxury retail in Boston is sustained with the consistency of the student population,' the executive said. 'It's like the tide. You know it's going to come in at this time, and go out at this time. If we were to start to see a cap on how many international students are coming from any university, that is going to have severe repercussions.' This comes after Trump banned foreign nationals from studying at Harvard University as he continues to clash with the Ivy League institution. The president issued an executive order in early June entitled Enhancing National Security by Addressing Risks at Harvard University, which suspends the school's student visa program - calling it a 'privilege granted by our government, not a guarantee.' He also doubled down on his claims that the school violated federal law and argued it is important to limit international students for national security reasons on the same day he restricted travel from a dozen countries. 'The Federal Bureau of Investigation has long warned that foreign adversaries and competitors take advantage of easy access to American higher education to, among other things, steal technical information and products, exploit expensive research and development to advance their own ambitions and spread false information for political or other reasons,' the executive order states. 'Our adversaries, including the People's Republic of China try to take advantage of American higher education by exploiting the student visa program for improper purposes and by using visiting students to collect information at elite universities in the United States.' Harvard has nearly 6,800 international students, making up more than 27 percent of its enrollment in the past academic year, according to the BBC. About one-third of those international students are from China, and Trump has previously accused the Ivy League school of 'coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party,' claims he reiterated in the executive order. Trump further said that Harvard failed 'to identify and address misconduct by those foreign students' amid his crackdown on universities that allowed antisemitic protests on campus during the war in Gaza.
