Nation and world news in brief for October 24

CDC advisers recommend expanding pneumococcal vaccine

(Reuters) — Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday recommended expanding the use of vaccines to adults between 50-64 years to protect against pneumococcal disease.

The CDC currently recommends all children younger than 5 and all adults 65 years or older get vaccinated for the disease.

Vaccination is also recommended for some children and adults with certain conditions.

The agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 14 to one in favor of expanding the vaccine’s use to all adults aged 50 years or older.

Earlier in the day, the CDC’s work group backed the use of the vaccine in the same cohort of adults.

The CDC director needs to sign off on the recommendation before the vaccines can be made available.

OnlyFans user sentenced to five years in child abuse case

(Reuters) — A man accused of selling sex videos of a 16-year-old Florida girl on the adults-only website OnlyFans pleaded no contest to child abuse.

Ethan Diaz, 22, of New Jersey reached the plea agreement in a Florida court in September and was sentenced to five years in prison followed by five years of supervised probation, according to court documents.

He was given credit for more than a year of time served. Diaz was ordered not to use OnlyFans and to have no contact with the victim during his probation.

Reuters reported on Diaz’s case in an investigation in July that documented dozens of complaints in U.S. police and court records that child sexual abuse material appeared on OnlyFans. The complaints cited more than 200 explicit videos and images of children, including some adults having oral sex with toddlers.

Authorities said Diaz met the girl online and enticed her into producing sexual content of herself to be sold on OnlyFans.

Boeing workers resoundingly reject new contract and extend strike

SEATTLE (NYT) — Boeing’s largest union rejected a tentative labor contract Wednesday by a wide margin, extending a damaging strike and adding to the mounting financial problems facing the company, which hours earlier had reported a $6.1 billion loss.

The contract, the second that workers have voted down, was opposed by 64% of those voting, according to the union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The union represents about 33,000 workers, but it did not disclose how many voted Wednesday.

The vote is a setback for Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg. Earlier Wednesday, in remarks to workers and investors, Ortberg said Boeing needed to undergo “fundamental culture change” to stabilize the business and to improve execution. Ortberg delivered that message alongside the company’s quarterly financial results, which included the loss of more than $6.1 billion.

Nearly 25 million votes already cast as Harris, Trump hit battleground states

PHILADELPHIA/ZEBULON, Georgia (Reuters) — With millions of U.S. voters already heading to the polls, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Wednesday will seek support from undecided voters at a televised town hall in battleground Pennsylvania, while Republican Donald Trump swept through Georgia.

Nearly 25 million voters have cast ballots, either through in-person early voting or mail-in ballots, according to tracking data from the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

Several states, including the battlegrounds of North Carolina and Georgia, set records on their respective first day of early voting last week.

American Airlines fined record $50M over treatment of disabled passengers

(Reuters) — The U.S. Transportation Department on Wednesday said it was fining American Airlines a record $50 million for its treatment of disabled passengers, including failing to provide some with adequate assistance and mishandling wheelchairs.

The fine is 25 times larger than the previous highest airline penalty for disability protection violations, setting a “new precedent” for future enforcement, the department said.

“The era of tolerating poor treatment of airline passengers with disabilities is over,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “By setting penalties at levels beyond a mere cost of doing business for airlines, we’re aiming to change how the industry behaves.”

Under the terms of a settlement, American will pay $25 million over three years and was credited with $25 million for investments to address the issues and goodwill compensation to impacted passengers.

US watchdog orders Goldman Sachs, Apple to pay $89 million over consumer failures

(Reuters) — Corporate giants Goldman Sachs and Apple will pay $89 million for violations of consumer protection laws in their joint credit card business that affected hundreds of thousands of people, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Wednesday.

In a partnership to finance Apple customers’ purchases through the Apple credit card that Goldman is now seeking to unwind, the two companies allegedly mishandled transaction disputes and misled iPhone purchasers about whether their purchases were in fact interest-free, according to the agency.

In addition to penalties and consumer redress, Goldman will face restrictions on its ability to issue new credit cards, the announcement said.

Rohit Chopra, the director of the agency, said the alleged misconduct had caused “real harm to real people.”

“This led to wrongful charges, mishandled disputes and damaged credit reports,” he told reporters, noting that the purchase of an Apple device was often a major expense for families.

Harvey Weinstein’s NYC sex crimes cases to be consolidated into 1 trial, judge rules

NEW YORK (TNS) — Harvey Weinstein’s Manhattan sex crimes cases will be tried at the same trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.

At a brief hearing, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber granted a request from the district attorney’s office to consolidate a recently filed charge against Weinstein with the 2018 case they are retrying. Weinstein’s lawyers had opposed the effort.

Prosecutors last month announced a new indictment against the disgraced Hollywood producer, accusing him of first-degree criminal sexual act for allegedly assaulting an unnamed woman between April and May 2006.

DA Alvin Bragg’s office in May said it would retry Weinstein on first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape charges after the New York Court of Appeals threw out his 2020 conviction and subsequent 23-year sentence based on testimony permitted by the trial court judge concerning allegations for which he was not charged.

The older case concerns accusations Weinstein raped former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and sexually assaulted former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006.

Weinstein, 72, who was recently diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, according to his attorneys, denies all allegations.