Juul busted over advertising to kids
On Tuesday, the AP reported that Juul agreed to a deal in which it would pay $440 million as part of a settlement to 33 states following two years of investigation. The settlement culminated in Connecticut where CT Attorney General William Tong announced the settlement in conjunction with the 33 other states and Puerto Rico. Juul still faces numerous lawsuits from nine other states as well as litigation from individuals affected by the company.
State investigations revealed that Juul marketed its products to underage teens through launch parties and social media posts made for the under-age demographic.
The money from the investigation will be paid out over a period of 6 to 10 years, of which $16 million will go towards prevention and education. This announcement follows a turbulent summer for the Juul company after the FDA banned all Juul products from going to market.
Britain’s New Prime Minister
On Monday, Britain selected a new Prime Minister to replace outgoing PM Boris Johnson. Johnson was driven out of office by Conservative Party leaders because of his administration’s scandalous reputation and low approval ratings.
Truss enters the office with historically low expectations, with only 12% believing that she will be a good prime minister, according to Bloomberg. Many have noted her similarity to previous popular Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, with many photo ops and appearances mirroring some of Thatcher’s most famous photos, according to NBC News.
Truss was Johnson’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. In this capacity she manages the international relations of Britain and meeting with foreign leaders. She will be the third woman to head the British government following Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1990 and Theresa May from 2016 to 2019.
Hurricane Danielle first of a calm season
The hurricane season has been slow this year, with no major storms forming in the Atlantic. This changed last week when on Friday when Tropical Storm Danielle strengthened to a hurricane, the first of the season to do so, according to NPR.
It has been a historically quiet season with no major storm formation during the entirety of August. The last time this occurred was in 1997 when there was only one major hurricane. Since 1950, there have only been three similar hurricane seasons on record.
Experts warn that while this year’s hurricane season might be more calm, it shouldn’t be expected to be the norm, with climate change fueling more storms and that the storms that do form will be stronger, according to NPR.
Republicans push for Midterms
Republican senatorial hopes have been grim over the summer with Pennsylvania senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz seeing five point deficits against opponent John Fetterman, Arizona candidate Blake Masters seeing a four point deficit to opponent Mark Kelly, and toss ups in unlikely states such as Wisconsin and Georgia where the margin between candidates was less than one point, FiveThirtyEight stated.
NBC News reported that Republicans plan to “bombard” airwaves with ads for senate candidates just 10 weeks before the election. Republicans plan to tie Democratic candidates to Joe Biden and inflation, with a heavy emphasis on cultural issues such as school curriculum and immigration.
In August, Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell signaled to lower Republicans expectations for Senate control, saying that a flip of the house was more likely than a flip in the senate.
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,”
Mitch McConnell, Republican senate leader
According to NBC News, this new strategy is seen as a reset for Republicans going into the final stretch of the campaign, but many experts believe that it may be too late.
I think there’s nothing wrong with e-cigarettes, but not when teenagers and kids start to use them. Personally, I order e-cigarettes from E-Zigaretteria.ch/ quite often, and I started to feel way better than when I was smoking cigarettes, but I still think it’s unacceptable for kids to use something like that.