(VOR News) – Boeing’s Chief Financial Officer, Brian West, recognised that the worker strike, which started just after midnight on Friday, will negatively impact aircraft deliveries and “put the recovery of the company in jeopardy.”

This state of affairs resulted from the industrial workers’ massive walkout and rejection of a new labour contract that the corporation was offering.

Resuming talks in order to “reach an agreement that is good for our people, their families, and our community” is Boeing’s primary goal at the moment, according to West. This is the main goal that wants to accomplish.

Boeing’s stock fell by nearly four percent on Friday after the company announced that it would be going on strike.

Fitch Ratings has warned that an extended strike may increase the likelihood of a downgrade, which could raise the cost of borrowing money. Moody’s has placed all of Boeing’s credit ratings under review for the possibility of a downgrade. Every one of Boeing’s credit ratings is being reviewed by Moody’s.

Boeing’s debt is rising and will get worse.

Regarding Boeing’s ability to meet its goal of producing 38 737 Max aircraft per month by the end of the year, West did not provide any confirmation. West withheld any information pertaining to this attempt. According to Sheila Kahyaoglu, an aerospace analyst at Jefferies, Boeing might lose up to 1.5 billion dollars in the event of a thirty-day strike.

A tentative labour deal was put out by Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers as a possible fix. A twenty-five percent pay raise spread over four years is also part of the agreement, along with adjustments to healthcare and retirement benefits.

Conversely, employees demanded a forty percent salary rise, claiming the offer was inadequate in light of the rising cost of living. They were also asking for an increase in the offer.

Ninety-six percent of workers supported the strike, which started on Friday just after midnight, while ninety-four point six percent of workers opposed the idea.

The production of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft, which are produced in Renton, Washington, and are sold to a wide range of consumers, is anticipated to be impacted by the strike.

“The strike will have an impact on production and deliveries as well as our operations, and it will put our recovery in jeopardy,” West declared in a statement. West wrote his statement in reaction to the walkout.

Boeing’s future goal is to cut cash outflows, he said.

The objective that will be pursued is this. Additionally, Kelly Ortberg, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Boeing, will work hard to mend the company’s relationship with the union.

Boeing, which has already been coping with a number of production problems and safety concerns, is anticipated to encounter more difficulties as a result of the strike.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decided in January to stop from increasing the production of its Max aircraft due to a door plug leak that occurred on a virtually new Boeing 737 Max 9.

Additionally, Boeing had to work to raise its quality and safety standards since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) increased the number of inspections conducted at its operations.

Inspectors would stay at installations for the duration of the strike, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday. The most recent strike by machinists took place in 2008, and it caused a work halt that lasted about two months.

SOURCE: BPM

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TikTok Heads To Court Over US Law That Could Lead To A Ban On The Popular Platform

Walgreens To Pay $106M To Settle Allegations It Submitted False Payment Claims For Prescriptions

The United States government and TikTok will face off in federal court on Monday, as oral arguments begin in a pivotal legal issue that may determine whether or not a popular social media platform used by nearly half of all Americans will continue to operate in the country.

Attorneys from both parties will appear before a panel of judges at the federal appeals court in Washington. TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, are appealing a US law that mandates them to cut ties or face a ban in the US by mid-January. The legal dispute is expected to reach the United States Supreme Court.

The measure, signed by President Joe Biden in April, marked the end of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government views as a national security danger due to its ties to China. However, TikTok claims the rule violates the First Amendment, while others contend it echoes crackdowns witnessed in totalitarian regimes around the world.

TikTok Heads To Court Over US Law That Could Lead To A Ban On The Popular Platform

In court documents filed this summer, the Justice Department emphasized the government’s two main concerns. First, TikTok captures massive amounts of user data, including sensitive information about viewing patterns, which may fall into the hands of the Chinese government if coerced. Second, the United States claims that the proprietary algorithm that drives what users view on the app is susceptible to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to mold information on the platform in ways that are difficult to detect.

TikTok has frequently stated that it does not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government and that the government’s worries have never been proven. In court documents, attorneys for TikTok and its parent business said that members of Congress attempted to punish the platform based on propaganda they thought to be on TikTok. The corporations also stated that divestiture is impossible and that the app will be forced to close by January 19 if the courts do not intervene to prevent the law.

“Even if divestiture were feasible, TikTok in the United States would still be reduced to a shell of its former self, stripped of the innovative and expressive technology that tailors content to each user,” the businesses claimed in a legal brief they submitted in July. “It would also become an island, preventing Americans from exchanging views with the global TikTok community.”

Opponents of the bill argue that a prohibition would disrupt the marketing, retail, and lives of many diverse content providers, some of whom sued the government in May. TikTok is paying the legal fees for that litigation, which the court has clubbed with the company’s complaint and another filed in favor of conservative creators working with a nonprofit called BASED Politics Inc.

Though the government’s primary justification for the statute is public, major portions of its court papers contain classified information that has been redacted and concealed from public access. The firms have requested that the court reject the secret files or appoint a district judge to sift through the data, which the government has resisted since it will cause a delay in the case. If permitted into court, legal experts believe the secret documents could make it practically difficult to know some of the elements that could influence the final decision.

In one of the redacted statements submitted in late July, the Justice Department claimed TikTok received direction from the Chinese government regarding content on its site, but did not provide any other information about when or why those occurrences occurred. Casey Blackburn, a senior US intelligence official, said in a legal declaration that ByteDance and TikTok “have taken action in response” to Chinese government orders “to censor content outside of China.” Though the intelligence community had “no information” that this had occurred on TikTok’s platform in the United States, Blackburn stated that it “may” happen.

In a separate court filing, the DOJ stated that the US is “not required to wait until its foreign adversary takes specific detrimental actions before responding to such a threat.”

However, the corporations contend that the government might have adopted a more customized approach to addressing their concerns.

More than two years ago, during high-stakes negotiations with the Biden administration, TikTok submitted the government with a 90-page draft agreement that allowed a third party to supervise the platform’s algorithm, content moderation processes, and programming. TikTok claims to have spent more than $2 billion voluntarily implementing some of these steps, including putting U.S. user data on Oracle-controlled servers. However, a settlement was not struck since government officials effectively walked away from the bargaining table in August 2022.

Due to TikTok’s scale and technical complexity, justice officials claim that compliance with the draft agreement is difficult or would need enormous resources. The Justice Department also stated that the best way to address the government’s concerns is to cut ties between TikTok and ByteDance, given the porous relationship between the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises.

However, some experts have questioned whether such a move would hasten the so-called “decoupling” between the United States and its strategic foe, especially since other China-founded enterprises, such as Shein and Temu, are also making a major mark in the West. Last Monday, the Biden administration proposed rules that would restrict duty-free products exported straight from China.

TikTok Heads To Court Over US Law That Could Lead To A Ban On The Popular Platform

ByteDance has openly said that TikTok is not for sale. Despite this, several investors, like former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and millionaire Frank McCourt, have announced offers to buy the platform. However, even if such a transaction were to materialise, it would most likely be devoid of TikTok’s vaunted algorithm, raising concerns about the platform’s ability to serve up the type of personally tailored videos that users have grown to demand.

The political alignments on the topic are playing out in unexpected ways.

The measure, which passed with bipartisan support in Congress, sparked opposition from several progressive and Republican politicians who expressed worries about handing the government the authority to block a platform used by 170 million Americans. Former President Donald Trump, who attempted to prohibit TikTok while in office, is now opposed to a ban because it would benefit its competitor, Facebook, a platform Trump continues to criticise since his 2020 election loss.

In court, free speech and social justice organisations have filed amicus papers in support of TikTok, alleging that it violates users’ First Amendment rights and suppresses minority community speech by interrupting a tool that many of them use to fight for causes online. Some libertarian groups with ties to ByteDance investor Jeff Yass have also submitted briefs in defence of the company.

Meanwhile, more than 20 Republican solicitors general, former national security officials, and China-focused human rights organisations have backed the Biden administration in its request that the court preserve the statute.

SOURCE | AP

Washington — Walgreens has agreed to pay $106 million to settle lawsuits alleging that the pharmacy giant made bogus payment claims to government health care programs for prescriptions that were never filled.

The settlement announced on Friday resolves cases filed in New Mexico, Texas, and Florida on behalf of three former Walgreens drugstore employees. The claims were brought under the False Claims Act’s whistleblower clause, which allows private parties to file a case on behalf of the United States government and share in the money recovered, according to the Justice Department.

Walgreens To Pay $106M To Settle Allegations It Submitted False Payment Claims For Prescriptions

Between 2009 and 2020, the pharmacy chain was accused of filing fake payment claims with Medicare, Medicaid, and other government health care programs for prescriptions that were completed but not picked up.

According to the settlement agreements, they cooperated with the inquiry and upgraded its electronic management system to avoid similar errors in the future.

The company stated in a statement that due to a technical problem, the business accidentally billed some government programs for a limited number of prescriptions that consumers filed but did not pick up.

Walgreens To Pay $106M To Settle Allegations It Submitted False Payment Claims For Prescriptions

“We corrected the error, reported the issue to the government, and voluntarily refunded all overpayments,” Walgreens stated.

In negotiating the settlement, the company did not admit legal liability in the instances. ____ This story has been amended to state that the cases were launched by private individuals rather than the US Justice Department.

SOURCE | AP