Health

Why the Case MattersIt’s unusual for so many states to come together to sue a tech giant for consumer harms. The coordination shows states are prioritizing the issue of children and online safety and combining legal resources to fight Meta, just as states had previously done for cases against Big Tobacco and Big Pharma companies.“Just like Big Tobacco and vaping companies have done in years past, Meta chose to maximize its profits at the expense of public health, specifically harming the health of the youngest among us,” Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general, said in a statement.Lawmakers around the globe have…

A group of 41 states and the District of Columbia filed suit on Tuesday against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, contending that the company knowingly used features on its platforms to cause children to use them compulsively, even as the company said that its social media sites were safe for young people.“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” the states said in their lawsuit filed in federal court. “Its motive is profit.”The accusations in the lawsuit raise a deeper question about behavior: Are young people becoming…

The institute founded by President George W. Bush issued an urgent call on Wednesday for Congress to renew the global AIDS program known as PEPFAR, a centerpiece of Mr. Bush’s foreign policy legacy that has become a victim of abortion politics on Capitol Hill.PEPFAR — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — has saved an estimated 25 million lives since Mr. Bush founded it 20 years ago. The $6.9 billion program, which must be reauthorized by Congress every five years, has long had bipartisan support and is often cited as a powerful example of America’s moral leadership in the…

Donlin M. Long, a pioneering neurosurgeon whose brain research helped millions of patients manage pain and who collaborated on the invention of an implantable pump to deliver insulin to people with diabetes, died on Sept. 19 near Gettysburg, Pa. He was 89.The cause was complications of a fall he suffered while fly-fishing for trout in a stream near his weekend home, his daughter Dr. Kimberly Page Riley said. Dr. Long was a resident of North Baltimore and chairman of the neurosurgery department at Johns Hopkins University for 17 years.In addition to the insulin pump, Dr. Long, as an expert in…