Nation and world news in brief for December 18

Grubhub to pay $25M for misleading customers and restaurants

(Reuters) — Grubhub settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Tuesday for allegedly misleading customers about order fees, adding restaurants to its platform without their consent and deceiving drivers about pay.

The settlement requires Grubhub to cease the practices and pay $25 million. The agencies sought a $140 million judgment against the company, but reduced it to what Grubhub is able to pay, they said. If Grubhub is found to have misrepresented its financial position, the full penalty will apply.

A Grubhub spokesperson said on Tuesday that, “while we categorically deny the allegations made by the FTC, many of which are wrong, misleading or no longer applicable to our business, we believe settling this matter is in the best interest of Grubhub and allows us to move forward.”

The food delivery platform hid fees until the last minute, misled Grubhub+ subscribers to believe they can avoid fees, and blocked some customers from using their gift card balances, according to the lawsuit.

‘Tens of thousands’ may be dead, Mayotte hospital worker says

PARIS (Reuters) — Tens of thousands of people could have died in Mayotte after a devastating cyclone and doctors are also bracing for a surge in disease, a dental surgeon at the islands’ only hospital said on Tuesday.

Three days after Cyclone Chido tore through the French overseas territory off East Africa, the hospital’s emergency department has not seen large numbers of injured, leading them to fear the worst, Naouelle Bouabbas said.

“The fact that we don’t see that many injured from the cyclone when everything has collapsed makes us think that all these people are still buried and are dead,” she told Reuters in a video call from the islands.

“We expect thousands, tens of thousands would not surprise me,” said Bouabbas, when asked about a possible death toll, adding there was no infrastructure in place yet to remove people from the rubble.

Authorities have said hundreds or even thousands could have died, but only 22 deaths had been confirmed on Tuesday morning, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of the capital Mamoudzou, told French radio.

The Red Cross said on Tuesday that about 100,000 people were unaccounted for, including about 200 of its volunteers, after the cyclone battered the islands with 200 kph (124 mph) winds in the worst storm in 90 years.

Russian prosecutors seek jail terms for Navalny’s lawyers

LONDON (Reuters) — Russian prosecutors have demanded prison terms of nearly six years each for three lawyers who represented Alexei Navalny, an ally of the late opposition leader said on Tuesday.

Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser are accused of taking part in an extremist organisation. They were arrested in October 2023 and added the following month to an official list of “terrorists and extremists”.

Navalny, who died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February, was himself convicted of extremism and other charges, all of which he denied. Prosecutors say the lawyers passed information to and from Navalny while he was in prison.

Navalny’s ally Ivan Zhdanov posted on the Telegram messaging app that prosecutors were seeking penal colony sentences of 5 years and 11 months for Kobzev, 5 years and 10 months for Liptser and five years and six months for Sergunin.

Navalny’s widow Yulia, in a YouTube video published last week, described the three accused men as political prisoners.

“They have not committed any crimes,” she said. “They are in prison for simply doing their job, which any lawyer should do with any prisoner: preparing a defence strategy, discussing issues of detention in prison, writing complaints, filing lawsuits.”

The lawyers’ trial has been conducted behind closed doors at the request of prosecutors, citing an unspecified security threat if it were held in public. The verdict is expected shortly.

In polarized America, 41% of Americans have favorable view of Trump, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — About two in five Americans view U.S. President-elect Donald Trump favorably, fewer than when the Republican was on the cusp of his first presidential term, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

Some 41% of respondents in the three-day poll, which closed on Sunday, said they viewed Trump favorably, while 55% viewed him unfavorably as his Jan. 20 inauguration approached.

That was down from Trump’s 51% favorability rating in December 2016 after his stunning victory in that year’s election, even though for months he had garnered ratings around 40%. The post-election boost carried into the initial months of his 2017-2021 term.

The absence of a bounce this year — his favorability ratings have hovered around 40% in recent months — could be a sign of deepening political polarization between Republicans and Democrats. In December 2016, about a quarter of Democrats viewed Trump favorably. This month, only about one in 10 did so.

Reported drones include aircraft and stars: US officials

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Many of the reported drone sightings that have gripped the U.S. appear to be of commercial, hobby and law enforcement drones as well as aircraft or stars, U.S. officials said on Tuesday as they moved to bolster areas with more detection capabilities.

Fewer than 100 of the more than 5,000 reported sightings in New Jersey and other northeastern U.S. states merit an investigation, officials at the U.S. Defense Department, U.S. Homeland Security Department, FBI and FAA said.

The sightings, which began in mid-November, have created a social media frenzy. A Facebook group entitled “New Jersey Mystery Drones — let’s solve it” had nearly 75,000 members as of Monday, with people posting theories ranging from extraterrestrials to foreign actors.

U.S. officials reiterated that there was no security or personal safety risk from the spate of reported drone activity.

Gilgo Beach accused serial killer Rex Heuermann charged with 7th slay

(TNS) — Accused Long Island Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged with a seventh murder in a new indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Heuermann is now accused of killing Valerie Mack between Sept. 1 and Nov. 19, 2000, the superseding indictment released in Suffolk County Criminal Court says. Mack’s remains were discovered in the Gilgo Beach area in 2011.

Mack is the seventh woman Heuermann has been accused of killing since his arrest in July.

Mack was initially known as Jane Doe #6. Her torso was discovered in Manorville in 2000. Her head, hands and right foot were found near Gilgo Beach in 2011.

Uber, its CEO donate $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund

(Reuters) — Uber Technologies and its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi each donated $1 million to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday.

The ride-hailing firm joins a list of several large businesses that have sought to build a positive relationship with the incoming Trump administration after he won the election in November.

The donations by Uber and Khosrowshahi were first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier in the day.

Amazon.com and Meta Platforms are donating $1 million each to the fund, spokespersons for the respective companies said last week.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a personal donation of $1 million to the inaugural fund, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed last week.