Category World News

Mark Zuckerberg and current and former directors and officers of Meta Platforms have agreed to settle claims seeking $8bn for the damage they allegedly caused the company by allowing repeated violations of Facebook users’ privacy.

Zuckerberg and his counterparts reached the agreement on Thursday with shareholders who brought the lawsuit.

The parties did not disclose details of the settlement, and defence lawyers did not address the judge, Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery. McCormick adjourned the trial just as it was to enter its second day, and she congratulated the parties.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Sam Closic, said the agreement just came together quickly.

Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who is a defendant in the trial and a Meta director, was scheduled to testify on Thursday.

Shareholders of Meta sued Zuckerberg, Andreessen and other former company officials, including former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, in hopes of holding them liable for billions of dollars in fines and legal costs the company paid in recent years.

The Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5bn in 2019 after finding that it failed to comply with a 2012 agreement with the regulator to protect users’ data.

The shareholders wanted the 11 defendants to use their personal wealth to reimburse the company. The defendants denied the allegations, which they called “extreme claims”. Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021. The company was not a defendant.

The company declined to comment. A lawyer for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This settlement may bring relief to the parties involved, but it’s a missed opportunity for public accountability,” said Jason Kint, the head of Digital Content Next, a trade group for content providers.

Zuckerberg was expected to take the stand on Monday and Sandberg on Wednesday. The trial was scheduled to run through the end of next week.

The case was also expected to include testimony from former Facebook board members Peter Thiel, Palantir Technologies co-founder, and Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix.

Longstanding concerns

Meta investors alleged in the lawsuit that former and current board members completely failed to oversee the company’s compliance with the 2012 FTC agreement and claim that Zuckerberg and Sandberg knowingly ran Facebook as an illegal data harvesting operation.

The case followed revelations that data from millions of Facebook users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump’s successful US presidential campaign in 2016. Those revelations led to the FTC fine, which was a record at the time.

On Wednesday, an expert witness for the plaintiffs testified about what he called “gaps and weaknesses” in Facebook’s privacy policies, but would not say if the company violated the 2012 agreement that Facebook reached with the FTC.

Jeffrey Zients, a former board member, testified on Wednesday that the company did not agree to the FTC fine to spare Zuckerberg legal liability, as shareholders allege.

On its website, the company has said it has invested billions of dollars into protecting user privacy since 2019.

The trial would have been a rare opportunity for Meta investors to see Zuckerberg answer probing questions under oath. In 2017, Zuckerberg was expected to testify at a trial involving a lawsuit by company investors opposed to his plan to issue a special class of Facebook stock that would have extended his control over that company. That case also settled before he took the stand.

“Facebook has successfully remade the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ scandal about a few bad actors rather than an unraveling of its entire business model of surveillance capitalism and the reciprocal, unbridled sharing of personal data,” Kint said. “That reckoning is now left unresolved.”

Meta stock was down 0.4 percent for the day as of 11am in New York (15:00 GMT) and 3.1 percent over the last five days.

Three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur is taking a break from competitive tennis, the 30-year-old said in a social media post.

Tunisia’s Jabeur, the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final, has struggled with her form in recent months, failing to get past the third round of a major this year.

The two-time Wimbledon finalist’s campaign came to a disappointing end at the All England Club last month as she retired from her first-round clash against Viktoriya Tomova, unable to continue after a long medical timeout.

The former world number two suffers from asthma and experienced breathing difficulties at this year’s Australian Open.

Jabeur, often called the “minister of happiness” for her cheerful personality, said she was not feeling truly happy on the court.

“For the past two years, I’ve been pushing myself so hard, fighting through injuries and facing many other challenges. But deep down, I haven’t truly felt happy on the court for some time now,” she said in a statement.

“Tennis is such a beautiful sport. But right now, I feel it’s time to take a step back and finally put myself first: to breathe, to heal, and to rediscover the joy of simply living.”

Jabeur, married to former fencer Karim Kamoun, has also been open about her wish to start a family.

“Thank you to all my fans for understanding. Your support and love mean the world to me. I carry it with me always,” she added.

Authorities in Bangladesh have imposed heavy security measures to prevent a repeat of further political violence, after clashes between security forces and supporters of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left four people dead and more than 50 injured.

Hundreds of police were deployed Thursday to the site of a planned rally in Faridpur by the National Citizen Party (NCP), a new political party formed by students who spearheaded the unrest that ousted longtime leader Hasina last year, local media reported. Their presence underlined the volatile political tensions that remain in the divided country nearly one year on from the mass protests that toppled Hasina from power.

On Wednesday, an NCP rally in Gopalganj district, Hasina’s ancestral home and a stronghold for her support base, erupted in violence when supporters of her Awami League party tried to disrupt the event.

Four people were killed and more than 50 were injured in the violence, local media reported, citing police.

Victims shot

Footage from Gopalganj showed pro-Hasina activists armed with sticks setting upon police and lighting vehicles on fire as NCP leaders arrived in vehicles at the party’s “March to Rebuild the Nation” event commemorating the uprising against Hasina.

More than 1,500 police, along with army and border guard personnel, were deployed to respond to the violence, the Dhaka Tribune reported, citing a police report. Armed personnel carriers were seen patrolling the streets as security forces responded to the unrest.

The English-language Daily Star, citing Gopalganj civil surgeon Abu Sayeed Md Faruk, named the four dead as Dipto Saha, Ramzan Kazi, Sohel and Emon. The newspaper reported that hospital staff had said that eight others were being operated on for bullet wounds.

Home Affairs adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said that 10 police personnel were also injured in the violence, local media reported. He added that 25 people had been arrested over the unrest.

The streets of Gopalganj were quiet on Thursday, with shops closed and few vehicles on the road, the Dhaka Tribune reported, as authorities imposed a curfew on the district in response to the violence.

Divided nation

The violence in Gopalganj has underlined the volatile divisions that remain in Bangladesh nearly a year after Hasina was forced to resign, fleeing to exile on a helicopter to India, as the interim government struggles to ensure security.

Wednesday’s clashes drew promises of a harsh response from the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus that has governed the country since Hasina’s ouster last August.

Yunus said in a statement Wednesday that the attempt by Hasina’s supporters to disrupt the NCP rally was “a shameful violation of their fundamental rights”, and warned that the violence would “not go unpunished”.

The government said on Thursday that it had established a committee to investigate the violence, which would be chaired by Nasimul Ghani, senior secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, and report its findings within two weeks.

Blame traded

Despite its promises to crack down on those responsible, Yunus’s government has faced criticism for failing to deliver security in the divided country.

Hasina’s Awami League party, which authorities banned in May, posted a number of statements on social media platform X condemning the violence, including one saying that all the gunshot victims were supporters of the party. It blamed the interim government for the deaths and injuries.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of two parties, alongside the Awami League, that have traditionally dominated Bangladeshi politics, also criticised the government on Thursday over the violence, saying it had failed to maintain law and order.

Meanwhile, the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party condemned the attacks on the NCP and announced protests of its own.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal indicted Hasina and two senior officials over alleged crimes against humanity linked to a deadly crackdown on protesters during the uprising against her rule. In a separate, earlier ruling, Hasina – who lives in self-imposed exile in India – was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison for contempt of court by the tribunal.

France has officially handed over its two remaining military bases in Senegal, leaving the onetime colonial power with no permanent presence in either West or Central Africa.

France returned Camp Geille, its largest base in Senegal, and its airfield at Dakar’s airport in a ceremony on Thursday attended by top French and Senegalese officials, including Senegalese Chief of the General Staff Mbaye Cisse and General Pascal Ianni, the head of the French forces in Africa.

The pullout ends the French army’s 65-year presence in Senegal and comes after similar withdrawals across the continent as former colonies increasingly turn their backs on the nation that once ruled them.

France’s withdrawal from Senegal also comes as the Sahel region faces a growing conflict. The violence across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger is threatening Gulf of Guinea nations to the south.

About 350 French soldiers, who had primarily been tasked with conducting joint operations with the Senegalese army, are now leaving the country, marking the end of a departure process that began in March.

General Cisse said the handover marked “an important turning point in the rich and long military journey of our two countries”.

France is “reinventing partnerships in a dynamic Africa”, Ianni said. “We are turning a page in the military history of our two countries, … a very special relationship and one essential for the countries of the region.”

After storming to victory in elections last year by promising dramatic change, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye demanded France withdraw its soldiers by 2025.

However, unlike the leaders of other former French colonies such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which are run by military governments, Faye has insisted that Senegal will keep working with Paris.

After gaining independence in 1960, Senegal became one of France’s staunchest African allies, playing host to French troops throughout its history.

Faye has also urged France to apologise for colonial atrocities, including the massacre on December 1, 1944, of dozens of African troops who had fought for France in World War II.

With governments across Africa increasingly questioning France’s military presence, Paris has closed or reduced the numbers of its soldiers at bases across its former empire.

In February, France handed back its sole remaining base in Ivory Coast, ending decades of French presence there.

The month before, France turned over the Kossei base in Chad, its last military foothold in the Sahel region.

Coups in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali from 2020 to 2023 have swept military strongmen to power. Their governments have collectively ejected 4,300 French soldiers. All three countries have cut ties with France and turned to Russia instead for help in fighting the Sahel’s decade-long unrest.

The Central African Republic, also a former French colony to which the Kremlin has sent mercenaries, has likewise demanded a French pullout.

Meanwhile, the French army has turned its base in Gabon into a camp shared with its Central African host.