A federal jury has awarded $49.5 million to the family of a 24-year-old global nonprofit worker killed in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 Max jet in Ethiopia while traveling to her first major assignment. The verdict, reached last Wednesday after a trial in federal court in Chicago, resolves one of the last remaining wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the disaster that killed all 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Samya Stumo, who grew up in Sheffield, Massachusetts, had recently joined a nonprofit focused on strengthening health systems in developing countries. A 2015 graduate of the…
Author: Awais
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s sweeping demands for confidential transgender patient information from Rhode Island’s largest hospital that provides gender-affirming care to minors. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy’s Wednesday ruling is the latest setback for the U.S. Department of Justice, where at least seven other federal courts have agreed to quash or limit the expansive civil subpoenas sent to more than 20 doctors and hospitals last summer. McElroy’s decision also echoed similar concerns raised by judges surrounding the expansive scope of the subpoenas, describing the Justice Department as having “immense prosecutorial authority and discretion” but no longer…
The enhanced premium tax credits established by the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act significantly expanded Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace affordability, driving enrollment to record highs. When those enhancements expired at the end of 2025, premium payments rose sharply for many enrollees, particularly those with incomes above 400% FPL who had been newly eligible for subsidies under the enhanced credits. This analysis draws on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and state-based Marketplace (SBM) Open Enrollment reports, as well as KFF survey data and individual market enrollment…
Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act continues to erode as some customers struggle to make premium payments, with the declining numbers churning market uncertainty for insurers. In response, insurers are likely to raise rates again next year, following this year’s larger-than-typical hikes. Sign-ups were already down in January by about 1.2 million from last year’s record enrollment. For this year, enrollees then faced premiums that increased, on average, by 26%. On top of that, subsidies that help people purchase coverage shrank or vanished. Now experts are watching how many of the approximately 23 million people who enrolled will fail to…
Pollution from coal-fired power plants that can block sunlight is significantly cutting global solar output, and potentially causing an overestimation of climate progress, according to a new study. Aerosols — tiny particles released from the burning of fossil fuels as well as natural sources like volcanoes — reduced global solar generation by 5.8% in 2023, researchers from the University of Oxford and University College London said in a study published in Nature Sustainability Friday. That’s equivalent to about 111 terawatt-hours of electricity, which is on par with the annual power generation of 18 medium-sized coal plants. The effect is most…
The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to commercial shipping, with maritime traffic reduced to a trickle and dominated by Iranian-linked vessels. There were few notable foreign-affiliated movements amid reports of Iran’s Bitcoin-backed insurance program for shipping companies willing to transit the waterway. Shipping traffic dipped over the weekend as daily transits fell from about 11 on Saturday to eight on Sunday, tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Among those vessels, the only non-Iranian transits were an empty inbound South Korean-linked supertanker Aram, also known as Cameroon Prosperity, and an outbound liquefied petroleum gas carrier Al Barrah, managed by Saudi…
Standard Chartered will eliminate more than 7,000 jobs over the next four years as it seeks to replace “lower-value human capital” with technology, becoming one of the top names in finance to target headcount cuts using artificial intelligence. The London-headquartered lender on Tuesday cited AI as a driver to make its operations slimmer in its goal to increase profitability and tackle competition. StanChart said it would cut 15% of its corporate function roles by 2030, which, according to a Reuters calculation, would result in more than 7,000 redundancies out of its more than 52,000 staff in such roles. “It’s not…
Oak Global, the specialist Lloyd’s underwriting company, is in the catastrophe bond market as a sponsor for the first time seeking protection from the capital markets through a $75 million 144A issuance of Arthur Re Ltd. – Quercian Re 2026-1 cat bond notes, Artemis understands.This is the first catastrophe bond that will benefit Oak Reinsurance Syndicate 2834, which is a syndicate focused on reinsurance opportunities that was launched for the 2025 underwriting year and is operated by specialist underwriter in the Lloyd’s market Oak Global. This offering is being issued by Arthur Re Ltd., which we understand to be an…
Transcript AI Usage Disclosure: This transcript was created with assistance from AI tools. It was reviewed and edited by KFF Staff. Chip Kahn: In our first three episodes, we covered the strategic landscape, the question of whether AI represents a true paradigm shift in healthcare and a real application at the frontline with Aidoc. This conversation steps back from technology to ask what all of it means for the patient in the bed, and the physician at the bedside. Our guest is Bob Wachter. He has spent 30 years thinking about what happens at the point of care. He chairs the Department of Medicine…
The builder of the Dali cargo ship and Baltimore city officials are welcoming the U.S. government’s bringing of criminal charges against the ship’s manager for the deadly and costly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024. Shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) contends that the criminal charges brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) last week against Synergy Marine Group correctly assign responsibility and are consistent with findings of the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB concluded that a loose wire was to blame for power outages that eventually led to the allision. HHI maintains…
Truckmaker Volvo Group on Monday agreed to a $197 million settlement with the California Air Resources Board over alleged violations of the state’s heavy-duty engine regulations. The settlement resolves allegations that Volvo failed to properly disclose auxiliary emission control devices in over 10,000 of its 2010-2016 model year heavy-duty engines in California that resulted in emissions in excess of regulatory limits, CARB said. Volvo will pay $13 million in civil penalties, $71 million to CARB’s Air Pollution Control Fund, spend $108 million on California emissions‑reduction projects and reimburse $5 million of CARB’s costs, the truckmaker said. Related: California Accelerates Work…
A Yakima insurance agent and an unauthorized insurance company are barred from doing business in Washington after Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer issued cease-and-desist orders in April. Those were two enforcement actions during the first quarter in which Kuderer issued fines totaling $167,000 for insurance law violations. Kuderer’s office investigated Carol E. Perez, the licensee for Perez Insurance Inc. in Yakima, for accepting premiums from a consumer but not forwarding those payments to an insurer for a policy. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner said it revoked her license and the agency’s license after a pair of complaints and her failure…
The numbers aren’t all in, but it looks like Progressive is now the biggest private passenger auto insurer, based on an analysis from S&P Global Market Intelligence that shows Progressive muscling past State Farm. S&P GMI estimates Progressive’s U.S. private auto insurance direct written premiums for the 12 months ended March 31 totaled about $70.2 billion, roughly $1.5 billion more than the $68.7 billion tallied for State Farm over the same period—marking the first time since World War II that State Farm hasn’t been the top dog. In calculating Progressive’s trailing-12-month private direct premiums written, S&P GMI estimated results for…
Corporations facing high-profile negligence lawsuits have been known to request a bench trial—held before a judge only and without the risks of plaintiffs’ lawyers playing on the emotions of a 12-person jury. But in West Virginia, the pharmacy benefits manager and mail-order pharmaceutical giant known as Express Scripts went the other route. The company demanded a jury in a lawsuit brought by 120 local governments that charged the PBM had contributed to the oversupply of opioid drugs that have plagued many residents. “While purporting to represent the interests of their residents, (the West Virginia cities and counties) strain mightily to…