Aurelia Butler

(Reuters) -A federal judge on Wednesday approved a settlement worth $626 million for victims of the lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan, in a case brought by tens of thousands of residents affected by the contaminated water.”The settlement reached here is a remarkable achievement for many reasons, not the least of which is that it sets forth a comprehensive compensation program and timeline that is consistent for every qualifying participant,” U.S. District Judge Judith Levy said in a 178-page order.Earlier this year, the judge gave preliminary approval https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-michigan-flint-water-idUSKBN29Q2WZ to a partial settlement of lawsuits filed by victims of the water crisis against the state.Flint’s troubles began in 2014 after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River from Lake Huron to cut costs. Corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes, contaminating the drinking water and causing an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.The Flint water crisis was one of the country’s worst public health crises in recent memory. The case became emblematic of racial inequality in the United States as it afflicted a city of about 100,000 people, more than half of whom are African-Americans.The contamination prompted several lawsuits from parents who said their children were showing dangerously high blood levels of lead, which can cause development disorders. Lead can be toxic and children are especially vulnerable.Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was charged in January https://www.reuters.com/article/us-michigan-flint-water-idUSKBN29J1CG with two counts of willful neglect of duty over the lead-poisoning of drinking water in Flint.Payouts from the settlement approved on Wednesday will be made based on a formula that directs more money to younger claimants and to those who can prove greater injury. Michigan’s attorney general has previously said that the settlement would rank as the largest in the state’s history.”Although this is a significant victory for Flint, we have a ways to go in stopping Americans from being systematically poisoned in their own homes, schools, and places of work”, Corey Stern, a counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement after the judge’s order on Wednesday. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday the World Trade Organization cannot return to its prior status quo and needs “an infusion of energy, dynamism and vision,” to revamp its rules for a rapidly changing global economy.Tai told reporters in Washington a return to the prior status quo of the WTO’s dispute settlement system would not work for the United States, as the system needs to help resolve trade disputes rather than stringing them out for decades, she said.The United States has rendered the WTO’s Appellate Body inoperable by blocking the appointment of new judges. Washington over several administrations has complained that the body has exceeded its authority by making new trade rules in its decisions.Tai said it was unclear how or whether the Appellate Body would fit into a redesign of the dispute settlement system, but members needed to “be honest” and articulate what they want it to achieve.Trade ministers from the 164 WTO countries are due to converge on Geneva at the end of November for the body’s 12 ministerial meeting, to try to bring to a conclusion negotiations to curb fisher fishery subsidies and discuss potential reforms to the 26-year-old institution.Tai called the meeting a “laboratory” for seeing how new leadership at the WTO and in some key economies can change the organization’s dynamics. “I think that we need to be very bold here. Just restoring the WTO to where it was four years ago, five years ago, is not actually going to bring back the energy that we need, frankly, for a world economy that is changing very quickly,” Tai said.Tai also said she did not intend to bring a new U.S. proposal on COVID-19 intellectual property waivers to the Geneva meeting, but would continue to work through text-based negotiations towards such waivers to allow more widespread production of vaccines in developing countries.Tai announced in May https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/biden-says-plans-back-wto-waiver-vaccines-2021-05-05 that the Biden administration supports negotiations for vaccine intellectual property waivers, but acknowledged that this may not guarantee vaccine access. “We’re going to bring our best game” on the vaccine waiver negotiations. “Right now, it is trying to facilitate something that is going to work, and that’s going to be meaningful, and that can be accepted by the WTO,” she said. More

(Reuters) – Shoppers could be looking at an expensive Christmas as supply chain snafus force companies to make and deliver their latest higher margin electronic gadgets to market faster, leaving fewer cheaper options to put under the tree.Top electronic brands are using their best resources to navigate a chip shortage that has curtailed the production of goods across pricing ranges because of logistic issues, a tight labor market and closed factories due to pandemic lockdowns in parts of Asia.Various websites are showing that cheaper products have longer wait times for delivery, while expensive items are available sooner.”If vendors choose which device models they want to manufacture when they have limited access to chips then they’ll generally go to the higher end, as they can better maximize their profits,” ABI Research analyst Filomena Iovino said. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) have hoisted bright red banners on their websites telling online shoppers to get their holiday presents for delivery as soon as possible on some of their newer, more expensive products.An $800, 11-inch iPad Pro can be delivered as soon as Nov. 17, but the cheaper and newer $330 entry-level iPad could take nearly a month or more.Similarly, a $1,759 Hermes Apple Watch 7 will reach customers by early December, but the $400 Apple Watch will take longer.Samsung (KS:005930) will also ship the latest $1,900 Galaxy Z Fold a week sooner than the $1,200 S21 Ultra. Both are loaded with the latest 5G chips.Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Inc, which makes high-end 5G-enabled chips for Apple and many top Android phones, said its customers were focusing on the premium and high-tier devices.”Since there are less of the cheaper phones, the cheaper phones aren’t going to be as discounted as we normally see,” said Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst with research firm Canalys.While global smartphone shipments declined due to component shortages in the third quarter, strong shipments of mid-to high-end smartphones drove record third-quarter revenue of over $100 billion, according to Counterpoint https:// Smartphones are expected to be priced at an average of $410 this holiday quarter, up from $376 in the prior quarter and $395 last year. Average selling prices of laptops are expected to jump 8% to $830 for the holiday quarter, according to IDC.GoPro Inc, which last quarter shifted production to focus on high-margin action cameras, said earlier this month that consumers were buying cameras at the top end of its line-up priced more than $300. Even laptop makers, who rely on factories in Asia for a majority of their components, have shifted production of the cheaper 11″ Chromebooks to higher-end 14″ and 15″ variants, IDC analyst Bryan Ma said. “It works during a supply-constrained environment since consumers don’t have any other choice … So when supply eventually catches up to demand, manufacturers can put more production toward lower-end products to appeal to more price-sensitive users,” Ma said. More