Shutdown watch: Musk rallies opposition against bill to fund government – Axios
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UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was assassinated in New York City allegedly by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, who was arrested 5 days after the December 4 assassination at a McDonald’s in Altoona, PA, where he was found to have incriminating evidence on him, including the 3D-printed gun used in the killing.
Mangione is claiming he was set up, though many on the American left are convinced he is the killer, and for that he is being celebrated as a hero. Allegedly, Mangione killed Thompson due to the company’s policy of “deny, delay, and die,” to assure paying customers don’t get paid off when they actually get ill. The killer left three bullet cases at the scene that said Delay, Deny, Defend, which is also the title of a book about the health insurance industry’s unethical practices of denying coverage to save money.
UnitedHealth CEO Confronts Flawed System After Tragic Killing – kawsachunnews.com
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In an opinion piece for the New York Times on Friday, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty critiqued the current for-profit U.S. healthcare system, stating it “does not work as well as it should” and that it was a system “no one would design on purpose.” These comments emerged while his industry faced significant public outrage after the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.
Witty mentioned that his company, which is the parent organization of UnitedHealthcare and the largest private insurer in the country, is “ready to work with anyone—as we have always done—including healthcare providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments, and others to find ways to improve the quality of care and reduce costs.”
However, skeptics are questioning Witty’s commitment to transforming an industry that his company has significantly shaped and from which it has profited immensely. Witty was the top-earning healthcare executive in the U.S. last year, and since the Affordable Care Act was passed, 40% of the private insurance industry’s total profits have gone to UnitedHealth Group.
The $24.6 billion merger between food giants Albertsons and Kroger was shut down by a Federal Judge. The action triggered a lawsuit by Albertsons against Kroger, alleging Kroger didn’t do enough to prepare itself for a merger that would meet legal and regulatory requirements.
Tom Moriarity, Alberton’s general counsel, said of the suit, “Kroger’s self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons’ shareholders, associates and consumers. We are disappointed that the opportunity to realize the significant benefits of the merger has been lost on account of Kroger’s willfully deficient approach to securing regulatory clearance.”
Albertsons sues Kroger after Oregon, Washington judges block $24.6 billion merger – salemreporter.com
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Excerpt:
On Wednesday, the day after a federal judge in Oregon and a state judge in Washington blocked a merger between two supermarket giants, Albertsons canceled the $24.6 billion merger agreement and sued Kroger.
The grocery chain, which owns 24 Albertsons locations and 97 Safeway stores in Oregon, sued Kroger in the Delaware Court of Chancery, alleging the larger grocer didn’t do enough to secure regulatory approval for its 2022 agreement to buy Albertsons.
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by seven states including Oregon and the District of Columbia, sued to block the merger in U.S. District Court in Oregon earlier this year, and a federal judge in Portland temporarily halted the merger Tuesday. A state judge in Washington state also blocked the merger from proceeding there. Both judges agreed with federal regulators and state attorneys general that the merger would lead to reduced competition and harm both customers and grocery workers — customers with higher prices and lower-quality goods and workers with lower pay.
The complaint Albertsons filed in the Delaware court isn’t yet public, but the company said in a press release that Kroger “willfully breached” the merger agreement by ignoring feedback from regulators, refusing to divest assets needed for antitrust approval or find stronger buyers for divested assets and failing to cooperate with Albertsons.
While President-Elect Donald Trump has expressed interest in saving TikTok from the pending ban should it fail to be sold to an American interest, a Federal Appeals Court has denied TikTok’s latest attempt to appeal the ban. The case is sure to reach the Supreme Court unless Trump can save TikTok.
It should be noted that TikTok exploded in America AFTER the CCP-controlled company was allowed to purchase an American app, music.ly, a fact that in and of itself warrants investigation into possible acts of treason and sedition being committed by whoever approved such sale in the first place.
Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US- AP News
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A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok as soon as next month, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law — which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — and rebuffed the company’s challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
In what might be a futile action, Biden’s Department of Justice is continuing to pursue its antitrust suit against Google, now demanding it sell off its Chrome operation, among other things, to take it out of the status of being what the DOJ is deeming an “illegal monopoly.” Trump is expected to stop the proceedings once he takes office.
DOJ seeks forced sale of Chrome, other big changes at Google in monopoly case – The Washington Post– www.washingtonpost.com
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The Justice Department is seeking to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser and make other major changes to remedy its illegal search monopoly, prosecutors told a Washington court Wednesday, setting a marker in the landmark case before the incoming Trump administration makes its own determinations about how to proceed.
Microsoft Teams has announced plans to create a voice-cloning feature that will let you “speak” multiple languages IRL using the sound of your own voice. This means you can have a Teams meeting with people who speak multiple languages yet will hear everyone in their own native voices. This is almost a digital “speaking in tongues.”
Microsoft Teams To Translate Your Speech To Foreign Language In Real-Time During Calls With Voice Cloning Feature – ABP Live
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Microsoft said, “Imagine being able to sound just like you in a different language. The Interpreter agent in Teams provides real-time speech-to-speech translation during meetings.”
Microsoft has unveiled plans to introduce a voice-cloning feature in Teams that will allow users to replicate their voices for communication in multiple languages during meetings. Announced at Microsoft Ignite 2024, this innovative tool, called Interpreter in Teams, offers real-time speech-to-speech translation. Starting in early 2025, Teams users will have the ability to simulate their voices in up to nine languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.
This feature aims to enhance multilingual collaboration and bridge communication gaps in virtual meetings.
Thousands of UK Farmers are descending on London to protest the proposed draconian inheritance tax, which farmers say will essentially deprive today’s farmers the ability to transfer their farms to their children.
The far-left Labour government is proposing an inheritance tax starting in April 2026 on agricultural assets worth more than one million pounds. The percentage would be set at 20 percent and would mean 2/3 of British family-owned farms would not be transferred to the next generation.
Watch: UK Farmers protest against New inheritance tax– www.louderwithcrowder.com
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Excerpt:
Farmers are protesting in the UK because the government believes they are entitled to the hard work of generational farmers for reasons that will never make sense.
According to the BBC:
Thousands of people have protested in London over changes to inheritance tax for farmers announced in the Budget.
From April 2026, inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m, which were previously exempt, will be liable to the tax at 20% – half the usual inheritance tax rate.
– YouTubewww.youtube.com
President-Elect Donald Trump confirmed the “rumor” that he will be declaring a national emergency on day one, and he will use the military to deport the most dangerous illegal aliens while also using the military to combat the drug cartels on the border.
The main argument against deporting illegals comes from the MSM, who makes the argument that without illegal aliens “who will pick the crops?” The apologetic is not unsimilar to the argument made in favor of keeping slavery in America before the Civil War. Former Senior Trump Official Ken Cuccinelli thinks “using the military” will drive illegal migrant numbers “into the dirt.”
Intel has announced losses of more than $16.6 billion in the last fiscal quarter. The loss is the highest ever for the 56-year-old company. The biggest losses came from $15.9 billion in charges resulting from lowered company asset value, and $2.8 billion that came from the cost of firing over 15K workers.
Intel Posts $16.6 Billion Quarterly Loss, Its Biggest Ever – The New York Times
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Intel on Thursday posted the biggest quarterly loss in its 56-year history, as the onetime highflying chip maker struggles to turn itself around.
The Silicon Valley company said its loss for the third quarter totaled $16.6 billion, a result of $15.9 billion in charges to reflect lowered valuations of company assets and a $2.8 billion restructuring charge associated with cutting more than 15,000 workers.
Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s chief executive, had ordered the restructuring in August in response to shrinking profit margins caused by the costs of catching rivals in manufacturing technology and little success in the booming market for artificial intelligence chips, among other factors.
Jeff Bezos continues to purge himself of the project that made him the international billionaire superstar he is today. Since July of this year, Jeff Bezos has unloaded more than $4.4 billion worth of Amazon stock, which includes the most recent purging of $1.4 billion. So far, he has unloaded more than $2.7 billion worth of Amazon stock in November alone.
Jeff Bezos Sells $1.2 Billion Worth of Amazon (AMZN) Stock – GuruFocus.com
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Excerpt:
Recently filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveal that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has sold Amazon (AMZN, Financial) shares valued at $1.2 billion. These transactions took place on two separate days, increasing his total stock sales for November to $2.7 billion.
Since July, Bezos has sold a total of $4.4 billion worth of Amazon shares. These sales are in line with a trading plan he submitted in March of this year.
The 16th BRICS Summit completed on Thursday, October 25. It was conducted this year in Kazan, Russia. At the meeting, the prevailing theme was “this is the end American hegemony and the beginning of a multipolar world order.” It was highlighted by the Kazan Declaration, which included 13 provisions that will allegedly create “a more just and democratic world order.”
This summit, more than any other since, garnished worldwide MSM and alternative media attention, and it serves as an “alterative” to anyone currently in the American orbit to consider a more “lucrative” (allegedly) option.
BRICS Summit highlights ‘Twilight of US Hegemony’, marks ‘official launch of Multipolar World Order’ – IOL
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Excerpt:
Thursday marked the fourth and final day of the 16th Summit of the BRICS bloc, held this year in Kazan, Russia.
Packed with dozens of high-level meetings and bilateral talks and summarized in a 134-point joint declaration, the summit also had plenty of symbolic meaning, which observers unpacked for Sputnik.
“The BRICS Summit in Kazan is undoubtedly one of the most important global political and diplomatic events of this year as it brought together the leaders of the expanded BRICS family for the first time,” Professor Alexis Habiyaremye, a senior researcher with DSI/NRF, South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg, told Sputnik, summarizing the summit’s results as the long-anticipated event reached its final day.
“The grouping has now become the global growth engine and its economic muscle is by any measure stronger than that of the old hegemonic grouping. One can say that it’s the official launch of the multilateral world order, the twilight of the US hegemony,” Habiyaremye said.
The Kazan Declaration, published Wednesday and featuring 134 provisions aimed at “creating a more just and democratic world order,” “enhancing cooperation for global and regional stability and security,” “fostering economic and financial cooperation” and “strengthening people-to-people exchanges for social and economic development.”