LOS ANGELES – Reality TV star Kim Kardashian and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. are facing a lawsuit alleging the celebrities misled investors in their promotion of a cryptocurrency token.

The lawsuit, filed Jan. 7 in Los Angeles federal court, claims the celebrities touted tokens sold by EthereumMax, or EMAX, in order to boost its price and make themselves a profit “at the expense of their followers and investors.”

“The company’s executives, collaborating with several celebrity promoters … made false or misleading statements about EthereumMax through social media advertisements and other promotional activities,” the lawsuit stated.

According to the lawsuit, Kardashian promoted EthereumMax in a June 2021 post on Instagram, when she had 250 million followers.

“Are you guys into crypto?” she wrote in the post, followed by the disclaimer “this is not financial advice”, but that she wanted to share “what my friends just told me” about the EthereumMax tokens. She included the #AD hashtag to show the post was a paid advertisement, the lawsuit said.

Mayweather promoted EthereumMax on his boxing trunks during a widely viewed fight with YouTube star Logan Paul in June, among other times.

Representatives for Kardashian and Mayweather did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

EthereumMax, the company, was also named in the lawsuit.

“The deceptive narrative associated with the recent allegations is riddled with misinformation about the EthereumMax project,” EthereumMax said in a statement. “We dispute the allegations and look forward to the truth coming out.”

The lawsuit, filed by a New York resident who bought EMAX tokens and lost money, is proposed as a class-action suit for anyone who bought EMAX tokens from mid-May to late June 2021.

The case seeks restitution and disgorgement of profits by the defendants. – Reuters

BRUSSELS, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Russia is set to lay out its demands for security guarantees in Europe to NATO‘s 30 allies on Wednesday, following intense talks with the United States in Geneva that showed the two sides have major differences to bridge.

The NATO–Russia Council at allied headquarters in Brussels is part of a broader effort to defuse the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War, triggered primarily by a confrontation over Ukraine, which the United States says Russia is planning to invade.

Moscow dismisses such claims, though it is massing troops near the Ukrainian border.

NATO diplomats say the Western alliance is ready to negotiate with Moscow on increasing openness around military drills and to avoid accidental clashes that could spark conflict, as well as arms control regarding missiles in Europe.

But the NATO allies say that many of Russia‘s demands, laid out in two draft treaties in December, are unacceptable, including calls to scale back the alliance’s activities to 1990s era levels and promising not to take in new members.

“Let’s be clear: Russian actions have precipitated this crisis. We are committed to using diplomacy to de-escalate the situation,” U.S. envoy to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters on Tuesday evening.

“We want to see … Russia pulling back its forces,” she said of the 100,000 troops stationed near Ukraine.

Bridling at NATO‘s expansion eastward into its old Soviet sphere of influence, the Kremlin sees the U.S.-led alliance’s deterrents and military modernisation as a threat.

Russia staged live-fire exercises with troops and tanks near the Ukrainian border on Tuesday while sounding a downbeat note over prospects for more talks with the United States.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will chair Wednesday’s talks from 0900 GMT with the alliance’s 30 ambassadors and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. The allies are expected to voice concerns about what they say are covert and cyber attacks, as well as electoral interference, on the European Union and the United States.

Russia denies any wrongdoing. – Reuters

SEOUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for boosting the country’s strategic military forces as he observed the test of a hypersonic missile, state media said on Wednesday, officially attending a missile launch for the first time in nearly two years.

On Tuesday authorities in South Korea and Japan detected the suspected launch, which drew condemnation by authorities around the world and prompted an expression of concern from the U.N. secretary-general.

The second test of a “hypersonic missile” in less than a week underscored Kim‘s New Year’s vow to bolster the military with cutting-edge technology at a time when talks with South Korea and the United States have stalled.

After watching the test, Kim urged military scientists to “further accelerate the efforts to steadily build up the country’s strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity and further modernize the army,” KCNA news agency reported.

It was the first time since March 2020 that Kim had officially attended a missile test.

“His presence here would suggest particular attention on this programme,” Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, posted on Twitter.

Unlike some other recent tests, ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun published photos of Kim attending the launch on its front page.

“While Kim probably unofficially attended other tests in the interim, this appearance and its Page One feature on Rodong Sinmun is important,” said Chad O’Carroll, chief executive of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea. “It means Kim is not concerned about being personally associated (with) tests of major new tech. And doesn’t care how the U.S. sees this.”

U.N. Security Council resolutions ban all North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear tests and have imposed sanctions over the programs.

Talks aimed at persuading North Korea to surrender or limit its arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles have stalled, with Pyongyang saying it is open to diplomacy but only if the United States and its allies stop “hostile policies” such as sanctions or military drills.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland called the launches dangerous and destabilising.

“It obviously takes us in the wrong direction,” she said at a regular briefing in Washington on Tuesday. “As you know, the United States has been saying since this administration came in that we are open to dialogue with North Korea, that we are open to talking about COVID and humanitarian support, and instead they’re firing off missiles.”

The European Union on Tuesday condemned the latest North Korean missile launch as a “threat to international peace and security” and called on Pyongyang to resume diplomacy.

‘SUPERIOR MANOEUVERABILITY’

Despite their name, analysts say the main feature of hypersonic weapons is not speed – which can sometimes be matched or exceeded by traditional ballistic missile warheads – but their manoeuvrability, which makes them an acute threat to missile defence systems.

Photos released by state media appeared to show the same type of missile and warhead that was first tested last week, analysts said.

“The test-fire was aimed at the final verification of overall technical specifications of the developed hypersonic weapon system,” KCNA reported.

After its release from the rocket booster, a hypersonic glide vehicle made a 600 km (375 mile) “glide jump flight” and then 240 km of “corkscrew manoeuvering” before hitting a target in the sea 1,000 km away, the report said.

South Korean officials had questioned the capabilities of the missile after the first test last week, saying it did not appear to demonstrate the range and manoeuverability claimed in a state media report and featured a manoeuverable warhead rather than an actual glide vehicle.

On Tuesday, however, South Korea said the second test appeared to show improved performance, with the missile reaching top speeds up to 10 times the speed of sound (12,348 km per hour / 7,673 miles per hour), although they did not comment on its manoeuverability.

“The superior manoeuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle was more strikingly verified through the final test-fire,” KCNA said. – Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and top health officials on Tuesday defended the government’s response to the unrelenting pandemic as daily U.S. COVID-19 cases reached a new high, largely fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Biden, who has been accused of focusing on vaccinations at the expense of testing and support for struggling healthcare systems, told reporters on Tuesday he was “confident we’re on the right track” to fight the pandemic.

A surge in cases and hospitalizations has forced Americans to cancel travel plans, shuttered entertainment venues, and scrambled plans for students and teachers to return to school and workers to go back to the office.

The heads of the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the protracted battle against the virus has made clear the need for easier access to testing, better therapies and a vaccine more widely effective against a range of variants.

Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner, acknowledged the agencies’ challenges in dealing with the pandemic after two years, especially amid Omicron, but said the focus now needed to be on the current surge.

“I don’t think prior approaches reflect what’s going on right now. I think it’s hard to process what’s actually happening right now, which is most people are going to get COVID,” she told a Senate committee hearing. “And what we need to do is make sure the hospitals can still function, transportation, other essential services are not disrupted while this happens. I think after that will be a good time to reassess how we’re approaching this pandemic.”

Dawn O’Connell, assistant Health and Human Services secretary for preparedness and response, said at the same hearing that the administration was working on shipping out the 500 million at-home COVID-19 tests ordered by Biden. The first batch goes out later this month and the rest in the next 60 days.

Democratic and Republican senators at the hearing lamented testing woes and other problems even as they vowed support for the agencies and the fight ahead, including the possibility of more funds.

The United States reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total for any country in the world. Omicron was estimated to account for 98.3% of total new coronavirus cases circulating in the country as of Jan. 8, the CDC said Tuesday.

A closely watched projection from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington estimates that number is far higher due to the likelihood that many more infections go undetected, either because people are without symptoms or do not have access to testing.

As a result, the IHME model suggests that the U.S. surge fueled largely by Omicron may have already hit a daily peak of more than 6 million cases, and could drop significantly from that point by the end of this month. But disruptions to health systems, schools and businesses might not resolve quickly even as infections decrease.

‘GLIMMER OF HOPE’

After a surge of COVID-19 cases that overwhelmed some hospitals in New York state, Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that the tide might be turning.

While daily new infections remain high with 48,686 new cases reported on Monday, Hochul said the downward trajectory offered a “glimmer of hope.”

“Looks like we might be cresting over that peak,” the governor said at a news conference.

In Chicago, the seven-day average of cases showed indications of a decrease last week, dropping 8% since the week prior that saw 5,200 cases, city data showed.

The Omicron surge led to a tense standoff between city officials and the union representing most of the city’s public school teachers that canceled classes for a week.

Teachers reached an agreement on COVID-19 safeguards with the district on Monday, and the system’s 340,000 students are due back to school on Wednesday.

The walkout began with a union vote to reinstate virtual instruction and a push for more rigorous safety protocols, including wider testing, as the Omicron variant spread. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has pushed to keep schools open, citing, among other factors, how remote learning disproportionately affects minority students.

While most U.S. public school districts have reopened their campuses for the new year, education systems in some major cities have opted for online learning or delayed back-to-classroom plans due to staff shortages, in some cases caused by COVID illnesses.

In New York City, some students, wrapped in winter coats to protect them against freezing weather, staged a walkout on Tuesday over COVID-19 concerns in schools. – Reuters

Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday it is reducing its U.S. sales staff as it expects doctors and other healthcare providers to want fewer face-to-face interactions with sales people after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

The move comes as the company is expected to announce more than $80 billion in revenue in 2021 on strong sales of the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE . That would be record sales for a pharmaceutical company, according to Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla.

“We are evolving into a more focused and innovative biopharma company, and evolving the way we engage with healthcare professionals in an increasingly digital world,” the company said in a statement.

“There will be some changes to our workforce to ensure we have the right expertise and resources in place to meet our evolving needs.”

The company did not specify how many sales jobs it was cutting.

A source familiar with the matter said Pfizer was eliminating a few hundred positions. The company also plans to create new positions in different areas for around half those jobs, the source said.

According to a document seen by Reuters, Pfizer believes that doctors and other healthcare professionals will want around half of their interactions with drug companies to be remote in the future.

Pfizer’s revenue is expected to climb even higher this year and is projected to top $100 billion, according to analyst estimates.

Around half of the company’s 2022 sales are expected to come from the COVID-19 vaccine and its new oral COVID-19 treatment, Paxlovid.

The vaccine and Paxlovid are being sold directly to governments in the near-term. – Reuters