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A federal judge joined critics in questioning Googles controversial $700 million settlement with all 50 US states over anticompetitive Android app store practices pointing out it would only provide small cash payouts to consumers and could protect the company from future lawsuits.

US District Judge James Donato described the Google deal, which would give as little as $2 per eligible user covered in the suit and also included a set of time-limited changes to its app store practices, as a bag of not great for the American public.

It looks to me just as a matter of basic math any single person isnt gonna be getting much, Donato said at a Monday hearing in California federal court, according to Bloomberg.

Donato, who has the final word over whether the proposed $700 million settlement can move forward, also harped on the fact that the agreement would essentially protect Google from facing additional lawsuits over its Play Store practices for seven years.

This seems remarkably broad for the compensation you are proposing to pay for these claims, Donato said.

Additionally, Donato questioned why the deals terms, which first surfaced in December, did not address Googles tactic of charging service fees of up to 30% on major developers within its Play store. The states lawsuit had argued the service fees result in higher prices and less choice for consumers.

Your agreement is telling these 127 million consumers that if they dont like Googles fees they cant sue? Donato reportedly told lawyers for the states.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge gave both Google and the states 30 days to explain why the deal should be approved.

The terms of Googles settlement with all 50 states and millions of US consumers first surfaced in December just days after the company suffered a stunning defeat in a related antitrust case raised by Fortnite maker Epic Games.

As part of the deal, Google contribute $630 million to a settlement fund for consumers who may have overpaid for apps as a result of its Play store practices. The remaining $70 million will go toward covering legal fees and penalties in individual states.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on the judge’s remarks and referred to the company’s blog post on the settlement last December.

“We’re pleased to reach an agreement that builds on that foundation and we look forward to making these improvements that will help evolve Android and Google Play for the benefit of millions of developers and billions of people around the world,” the company said at the time.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was one of the most vocal critics of the settlement describing the terms as an injustice to all Android users and developers and arguing the states could have successfully secured billions in damages had they taken the case to trial.

Donato, the presiding judge in both the Epic Games case and the states case, has been sharply critical of Googles tactics a trend that could haunt the company as both legal battles enter their final stages.

In December, Donato made headlines by publicly blasting Google for what he described as a disturbing effort to destroy key evidence it was ordered to preserve, including employee chat logs, during the Epic Games case.

Donato said he had never seen anything so egregious after viewing disturbing evidence that Google had used an auto-erase feature to delete the internal conversations.

While Google has denied wrongdoing, Donato said the companyswillful and intentional suppression of relevant evidence in this case is deeply troubling to me as an officer of the court.

This conduct is a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice. It undercuts due process. It calls into question just resolution of legal disputes. It is antithetical to our system, the judge added.

Donato said Google would face penalties that would be separate from any final rulings in the Epic case, where the judge is set to determine which business practices Google must discontinue after a jury found it was maintaining an illegal monopoly through its Play Store.

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James Craig: Dentist in Colorado poisoned wife’s protein shakes with cyanide, murder trial hears

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James Craig: Dentist in Colorado poisoned wife's protein shakes with cyanide, murder trial hears

The trial of a dentist accused of murdering his wife by poisoning her protein shakes has begun in the US state of Colorado.

James Craig denies using cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient in over-the-counter eye drops, to kill Angela Craig in a suburb of Denver.

During the trial’s opening statements on Tuesday, prosecutors claimed the 47-year-old was having an affair with another dentist, had financial difficulties and may have been motivated by the payout from his wife’s life insurance.

Angela and James Craig with their six children. Pic: NBC
Image:
Angela and James Craig with their six children. Pic: NBC

Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley told the jury at Arapahoe District Court that the 43-year-old victim – who had six children with her husband – had been suffering worsening symptoms including dizziness, vomiting and fainting.

She died in March 2023 during her third trip to the hospital that month.

Mr Brackley accused Craig of poisoning her protein shakes – then giving his wife a final dose of poison while she was in hospital, and said: “He went in that [hospital] room to murder her, to deliberately and intentionally end her life with a fatal dose of cyanide … She spends the next three days dying.”

Craig, who shook his head at times during the prosecution’s opening statement, has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including first-degree murder, solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit perjury.

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Prosecutors said Craig had tried to make it appear his wife of 23 years had killed herself. His internet history showed he had searched for “how to make a murder look like a heart attack” and “is arsenic detectable in an autopsy”.

In an argument, captured on home surveillance video, his wife also accused him of suggesting to hospital staff that she was suicidal.

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Ryan Brackley, a lawyer for the prosecution, delivers his opening arguments during the murder trial for James Craig, accused of killing his wife, at the Arapahoe District Court, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Centennial, Colo. (Stephen Swofford via Denver Gazette, Pool)
Image:
Ryan Brackley claimed James Craig administered poison to his wife while she was in hospital. Pic: Denver Gazette/ AP

After Craig’s arrest in 2023, prosecutors alleged that he had offered a fellow prison inmate $20,000 (£14,993) to kill the case’s lead investigator and offered someone else $20,000 to find people to falsely testify that Angela Craig planned to die by suicide.

Craig’s attorney, Ashley Whitham, told the jury to consider the credibility of those witnesses, calling some “jailhouse snitches”.

Ms Whitham argued that the evidence didn’t show that he poisoned her, instead seeming to suggest she may have taken her own life.

Ashley Whitham, a lawyer for the defence, delivers her opening arguments at the murder trial for James Craig, accused of killing his wife
Image:
Ashley Whitham, defending Craig, argued that the evidence didn’t show that he poisoned his wife. Pic: Denver Gazette/AP

She described Angela Craig as “broken”, partly by Craig’s infidelity and her desire to stay married, since they were part of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints.

Hospital staff had said Craig had been caring and “doting” while Angela Craig was in the hospital, said Whitham.

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The defence argued prosecutors had overdramatised Craig’s financial problems and dismissed the prosecution’s suggestion that Craig was motivated to kill because of an affair he was having with a fellow dentist from Texas.

“That’s simply not the case,” Whitham said, adding that Craig had many affairs over the years that his wife knew about. “He was candid with Angela that he had been cheating.”

The trial continues.

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Politics

Michigan town puts pre-emptive curbs on crypto ATMs

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Michigan town puts pre-emptive curbs on crypto ATMs

Michigan town puts pre-emptive curbs on crypto ATMs

The town of Grosse Pointe Farms has no crypto ATMs, but has regulated them anyway, requiring registration, warnings and limits on kiosks.

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Technology

Chip giant ASML says it can’t confirm that it will grow in 2026

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Chip giant ASML says it can't confirm that it will grow in 2026

An icon of ASML is displayed on a smartphone, with an ASML chip visible in the background.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

ASML reported second-quarter earnings that beat estimates with the its key net bookings figure ahead of consensus.

However, the chip equipment giant missed analyst expectations for revenue guidance in the current quarter and warned of the possibility of no growth ahead.

Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the second quarter:

  • Net sales: 7.7 billion euros ($8.95 billion) versus 7.52 billion euros expected
  • Net profit: 2.29 billion euros vs 2.04 billion euros expected

In its own previous forecast issued in April, ASML had said it expected second-quarter net sales of between 7.2 billion euros and 7.7 billion euros. In a pre-recorded interview posted on ASML’s website, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said the beat was due to revenue from upgrading currently deployed machines as well as tariffs having a “less negative” impact than anticipated.

Analysts anticipated net bookings — a key indicator of order demand — would come in at 4.19 billion euros over the April-June stretch. ASML reported net bookings of 5.5 billion euros.

ASML is one of the most important semiconductor supply chain companies in the world. It makes extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, which are required to manufacture the most advanced chips in the world, such as those designed by Apple and Nvidia.

Companies like Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. are customers of ASML.

2026 warning

Like many companies in the semiconductor industry, ASML has been grappling with uncertainty created by U.S. tariff policy.

The company forecast third-quarter revenue of between 7.4 billion euros and 7.9 billion euros, which was shy of market expectations of 8.3 billion euros.

ASML said it expects full-year 2025 net sales to grow 15%, narrowing its guidance from a previously announced forecasts of between 30 billion euros to 35 billion euros.

However, the Dutch tech giant was less certain about the outlook for 2026.

“Looking at 2026, we see that our AI customers’ fundamentals remain strong,” ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said in a statement.

“At the same time, we continue to see increasing uncertainty driven by macro-economic and geopolitical developments. Therefore, while we still prepare for growth in 2026, we cannot confirm it at this stage.”

The Veldhoven, Netherlands-headquartered company has released its next generation EUV tools known as High NA, which stands for high numerical aperture. These machines, which are larger than a double-decker bus and can cost more than $400 million each, are key to ASML’s future growth plans.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more.

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