Nikki Garcia’s Sister Alludes to “Lies” Amid Artem Chigvintsev Case

“He is my world, and being his father is the greatest blessing in my life,” the 42-year-old continued. “All along, my main concern has been for him. I am committed to continuing to provide him with the love, support, and care he needs as we move forward. I am hopeful that securing an equal custody arrangement will help us move on.”

He continued, “I want to express my deepest gratitude to my family, friends, and legal team for standing by me during this challenging time. Your support has been invaluable, and I am thankful to everyone who believed in me and saw the truth for what it was.”

Artem was initially arrested in Napa on Aug. 29 on a domestic violence charge but was later released on $25,000 bail. 

Following Nikki’s divorce filing—in which she requested legal and physical custody of Matteo—Artem filed his own response on Sept. 13, in which he asked for joint legal and physical custody of their son, plus spousal support from Nikki.

Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic could decrease threat of opioid overdoses: research

A box of Ozempic made by Novo Nordisk is seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024.

Hollie Adams | Reuters

Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic may decrease the risk of opioid overdoses in certain patients, demonstrating its potential as an alternative treatment for opioid use disorder, according to a new study released Wednesday. 

The active ingredient in Ozempic, semaglutide, was associated with a “significantly lower” opioid overdose risk than other diabetes medications in people diagnosed with both Type 2 diabetes and opioid use disorder, said the paper published in JAMA Network Open. 

The results suggest that Ozempic could offer potential as a tool for addressing the ongoing U.S. opioid epidemic, which was declared a public health emergency in 2017. There are currently three effective medications to prevent overdoses from opioid use disorder, but a new alternative is needed because some patients simply don’t use them, said lead study co-author Dr. Rong Xu, a biomedical informatics professor at Case Western Reserve University. 

In 2022, only about a quarter of patients with opioid use disorder received recommended medications for it, and many discontinued treatment within six months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics says opioids are a factor in around 72% of overdose deaths in the U.S. 

The study results also add to mounting evidence that a highly popular class of diabetes and obesity treatments called GLP-1s may have several health benefits beyond regulating blood sugar and promoting weight loss. Novo Nordisk, its rival Eli Lilly and independent researchers have been racing to study those drugs’ potential in patients with chronic conditions ranging from kidney disease and sleep apnea to addictive behaviors such as nicotine and alcohol use.

In the study released Wednesday, researchers from Case Western Reserve University and the National Institutes of Health analyzed the electronic records of nearly 33,000 patients who were prescribed semaglutide or other diabetes medications between December 2017 and June 2023. The study was not funded by Novo Nordisk. 

Around 3,000 people were prescribed semaglutide injections, while the remaining patients received treatments that ranged from insulins to older GLP-1s for diabetes. That includes dulaglutide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s drug Trulicity, and liraglutide, which is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Victoza. 

Researchers monitored how many opioid overdose cases occurred in patients during a one-year period after they stopped treatment with semaglutide or other drugs. For example, there were 42 cases of opioid overdose among a group of patients that received semaglutide, compared with 97 cases among another group that received insulins, according to the study. 

That reflects a 58% lower risk of opioid overdose in patients who took semaglutide, Xu said.  

But Xu noted the study has limitations since it relies on data from electronic health records.

More CNBC health coverage

More research, specifically clinical trials that randomly assign patients to receive semaglutide or other treatments, is needed to confirm how much Ozempic and other GLP-1s can help those with opioid use disorder, according to the study authors. Those randomized studies can also determine whether those treatments are beneficial to the general opioid use disorder population or only certain patients with the condition.

“The extent to which GLP-1 medications could benefit treatment of opioid use disorders and help prevent overdoses is unclear,” Dr. Nora Volkow, lead study co-author and director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement to CNBC. “The preliminary findings from this study point to the possibility that GLP-1 medications may have value in helping to prevent opioid overdoses.”

Xu added that the researchers plan to study semaglutide in patients with opioid use disorder and obesity. 

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Meta unveils $299 Quest 3S VR headset, Orion AR glasses prototype

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Acquired LIVE event at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. 

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Meta announced the Quest 3S, the latest virtual reality headset to come out of the company’s Reality Labs division and a cheaper offering than its predecessor.

The device will go on sale on Oct. 15 and will retail starting at $299, down from the $499 starting price for 2023’s Quest 3. The device can be used to watch movies, as well as run VR fitness apps and gaming, Meta said Wednesday at its Connect event at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The company positioned the headset as a multitasking computer, putting it in competition with Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro headset that launched in February.

In addition to the Quest 3S, Meta on Wednesday also showcased its latest prototype of augmented-reality smart glasses and announced a flurry of new features for its Meta AI chatbot.

Meta’s previous Quest devices are the bestselling VR headsets, with millions shipped thanks to heavy marketing and a lower price than many competitors, but those efforts have yet to spark a cultural phenomenon or a mainstream software ecosystem around VR. Including its acquisition of Oculus in 2014, Meta has poured more than $65 billion in expenses into its hardware efforts.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended the company’s spending as a strategic initiative to prevent Apple from controlling future hardware platforms.

Although there was hope among VR developers that Apple’s entry into the market would spur a wave of new apps and users, Apple hasn’t revealed sales for its headset and reports say that sales have been in small volumes, under 1 million units, partially due to its high price.

What it does

A Meta representative said the “S” in Quest 3S stands for “start” — as in getting started with VR.

Many of the new Meta features that the company discussed for the $299 Quest 3S have counterparts on Apple’s Vision Pro, including a mode that allows for the device to be used on an airplane and another that simulates a large movie theater inside the headset.

Meta highlighted improved “passthrough,” the term used to described when a VR headset uses cameras and sensors on the outside of the device to display live real-time video inside the headset. That function is intended to make users feel like they are looking through a display and allows them to interact with the real world while keeping the headset on. For the Quest 3S, Meta added a dedicated button to turn on passthrough.

The company has emphasized the ability of the Quest 3S to multitask and run apps, positioning it as a computing device, instead of a game console.

“All the things you can do with a general purpose computer, Quest is the full package,” Zuckerberg said.

In demos provided Tuesday, Meta showcased the device running as many as four apps at one time on floating screens inside the headset, including a YouTube video, a browser, Amazon Music and Meta’s app store. Meta says the headset can handle six windows. But the demo experience was not smooth. The Amazon Music app crashed, window controls would disappear and Meta’s controllers would fall asleep after a few minutes if the user wasn’t pressing buttons.

Besides the Quest 3S, Meta also announced a price cut for last’s year Quest 3, bringing the price of the 512GB version down from $650 to $500. The Quest 3 has more advanced lenses and a superior screen with a higher resolution than the Quest 3S.

Additionally, Meta said it will discontinue the Quest Pro, its $999 headset launched in 2022 that never gained much momentum.

Eventually, glasses

Meta Orion AR glasses prototype

Meta

Zuckerberg’s justification for spending so much on VR and AR is his belief that the technology will eventually end up in lightweight, transparent glasses that overlay computer graphics and information onto the real world.

Investing in VR software and hardware are early steps toward those glasses, which could take as much as a decade to develop, Zuckerberg has previously said.

Zuckerberg showed off an early concept of what those glasses could look like on Wednesday. The thick, black-framed prototype, called Orion, won’t be sold to consumers, but Meta says they will be used internally as the company continues working toward the consumer glasses it hopes to one day sell.

“This is where we are going,” Zuckerberg said.

Meta hopes the next version of Orion will be available to consumers as the company’s first full AR glasses, Zuckerberg said without giving a timetable for when that may be.

Zuckerberg said the device revealed on Wednesday was Meta’s first “fully-functioning” prototype of the glasses, and would be physically tethered to a small “puck.” Zuckerberg also said that it would take advantage of a wrist-based interface, which came out of stems from the company’s 2019 acquisition of CTRL-Labs.

Zuckerberg said that Orion enables users to play games, multi-task with multiple windows. and videoconference with people around the world represented by a realistic avatar.

Meta’s Orion prototype comes a week after Snap announced its fifth-generation Spectacles AR glasses. Those thick-framed glasses will only be made available to developers, who must commit to paying $99 a month for one full year if they want to build AR apps for the device.

This isn’t the first time Meta publicly revealed a prototype of a future devices or research projects to signal to investors and employees where VR and AR technology is headed. The Orion glasses are an improvement on Project Nazare, prototype smart glasses that Zuckerberg announced in 2021, when the company changed its name from Facebook.

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are powered by a Qualcomm chip. Qualcomm, Samsung and Google are working on smart glasses, according to Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Meta does sell a pair of glasses with a built-in camera in partnership with EssilorLuxottica called Ray-Ban Meta, which start at $299. While these glasses don’t have any displays, they do have tiny speakers that allow the device to play music or interact with Meta AI, the company’s voice assistant.

As part of Wednesday’s event, Meta announced new Meta AI features for its Ray-Ban smart glasses.

For example, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses will be able to detect when a user is looking at a sign in Spanish and, if asked, can translate in the user’s ear, a new improvement, Meta said. The camera can scan QR codes, and it can also extract information like book titles out of photos it takes.

Another new capability for the glasses is the ability to remember facts like where the user parked. 

Li-Chen Miller, the vice president of product in charge of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, told CNBC that when she travels, she uses the glasses to take photos of her hotel room door, and later, she asks Meta AI to recall the number. 

Zuckerberg is excited about the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which have sold more than 730,000 units in their first three quarters, according to market researcher IDC. In July, he told investors that they were “a bigger hit sooner than expected.”

Last week, EssilorLuxottica and Meta announced that they had extended their partnership to develop more smart glasses.

AI that speaks

Zuckerberg also introduced improvements to its Meta AI chatbot that will allow people to interact with it using their voice instead of written text.

Users will now be able to have natural voice conversations with Meta AI, which is accessed through Meta apps like Messenger and Instagram. Users will be able to perform actions using their voice, such as telling Meta AI to take a photo by talking to their smartphone.

For Meta AI’s new feature, the company is using computer-generated voices from celebrities including Awkwafina, Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key and Kristen Bell.

The new Siri-like Meta AI voice feature will be available over the next month for U.S., Canadian, Australian and New Zealand users of WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.

The feature comes one day after rival OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, announced an advanced voice feature for people who pay its premium service.

The company said that the new chatbot features are based on Meta’s AI model, Llama. The company also announced a newer version of Llama, called Llama 3.2. This updated model can understand both images and text, an upgrade from its predecessors which generated responses to people’s written prompts.

WATCH: Meta chatbot to use celebrity voices

Novo Nordisk CEO testifies at Senate over weight reduction drug costs

Novo Nordisk‘s top executive faces a Senate grilling on Tuesday over the high prices of the company’s weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic, as demand for both injections soars in the U.S. 

Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told lawmakers at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, D.C that he wants to work with them on policy solutions that will help patients access affordable medicine. But he did not explicitly vow to slash prices for its popular treatments. The testimony comes roughly five months after Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who chairs the Senate panel, opened an investigation into the Danish drugmaker’s pricing practices. 

“All we are saying, Mr. Jørgensen, is treat the American people the same way that you treat people all over the world,” Sanders said during the hearing Tuesday. “Stop ripping us off.”

He noted that Novo Nordisk has raked in nearly $50 billion in sales from Wegovy and Ozempic, with most of that revenue coming from the U.S. Sanders contends that Novo Nordisk charges Americans substantially higher prices for its blockbuster drugs than it does for patients in other countries. Before insurance, Ozempic costs nearly $969 per month and Wegovy costs almost $1,350 per month in the U.S. 

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jorgensen’s hearing before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on U.S. prices for the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 24, 2024. 

Piroschka Van De Wouw | Reuters

Meanwhile, both treatments can cost as little as under $100 for a month’s supply in some European countries, according to a release from the committee. Ozempic costs just $59 in Germany, while Wegovy costs $92 in the U.K.

Sanders also said last week that the CEOs of major generic pharmaceutical companies have told him that they could sell a version of Ozempic for less than $100 a month at a profit. There are currently no generic alternatives to Ozempic available in the U.S. 

Sanders added that he received commitments in writing from all of the major pharmacy benefit managers – middlemen who negotiate drug rebates with manufacturers on behalf of insurers – that they would be able to expand coverage of Wegovy and Ozempic if Novo Nordisk reduced their list prices.

Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk argues that it has spent billions to research, develop and expand manufacturing for the treatments and is funneling more money into researching their potential to treat other obesity-related health conditions. That investment has extended and improved the lives of millions of Americans, which helps reduce the health-care costs associated with obesity and diabetes, according to written testimony from Jørgensen.

Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jorgensen testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on U.S. prices for the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 24, 2024. 

Piroschka Van De Wouw | Reuters

During the hearing, Jørgensen said the company has fought to secure public and private insurance coverage for the medications.

He also in part blamed the “complex U.S. healthcare system” for making it difficult for patients to access affordable prescription drugs, noting that “no single company alone can solve such vast and complicated policy challenges.”

Jørgensen promised that Novo Nordisk will “remain engaged and work with this committee on policy solutions to address the structural issues that drive up costs.”

Sanders asked Jørgensen if Novo Nordisk could commit to substantially reducing the list prices of Wegovy and Ozempic.

While Jørgensen did not explicitly vow to slash prices, he said “anything that will help patients get access to affordable medicine, we’ll be happy to look into.”

But Jørgensen contended that lowering prices could have consequences. He said Novo Nordisk cut the U.S. list price of certain insulin products last year, which caused some of them to be excluded from certain formularies, or lists of medications covered by insurance.

“So I have a bit of concern how this could play out,” he said.

Sanders and other lawmakers, health experts and insurers have warned that the insatiable demand for Novo Nordisk’s drugs and similar weight loss and diabetes treatments from rival Eli Lilly could potentially bankrupt the U.S. health-care system unless prices drop.

More CNBC health coverage

Both drugmakers make GLP-1s, which mimic hormones produced in the gut to tamp down a person’s appetite and regulate their blood sugar. Eli Lilly’s weight loss injection Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro similarly cost around $1,000 per month before insurance and other rebates.

In a release, the Senate Health Committee said it would cost the U.S. $411 billion per year if half of all Americans took weight loss drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. That’s $5 billion more than what Americans spent on all prescription drugs in 2022. 

Medicare spent $4.6 billion on Ozempic in 2022 alone, according to health policy research organization KFF. 

Other insurers and employers have implemented strict requirements to control weight loss drug costs, or have dropped coverage of those treatments altogether. Many health plans cover GLP-1s for diabetes, but not for weight loss. The federal Medicare program doesn’t pay for weight loss treatments unless they are approved and prescribed for another health condition. 

The hearing comes as the Biden administration and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle try to rein in health-care costs in the U.S., in part by pressuring the pharmaceutical industry and drug supply chain middlemen. On average, Americans pay two to three times more than patients in other developed nations for prescription drugs, according to a fact sheet from the White House.

Notably, Ozempic will likely be subject to the next round of price negotiations between manufacturers and Medicare — a key provision of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that aims to lower costs for seniors. Wall Street analysts say Ozempic will likely be eligible for negotiations by the time the next round of drugs is selected in 2025, for price changes that will go into effect in 2027.

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John Fetterman Obliterates JD Vance

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was asked about Trump’s running mate JD Vance blaming Democrats for the Trump assassination attempts, and he destroyed Vance.

Transcript via Meet The Press:

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me ask you about another topic, this second apparent assassination attempt against former President Trump

this week. This is what his running mate, JD Vance, had to say in the wake of it. Take a look.

[BEGIN TAPE]

SEN. JD VANCE:

The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump, in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. Somebody’s going to get hurt by it.

[END TAPE]

KRISTEN WELKER:

Senator, what’s your response to Senator JD Vance?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN:

I don’t know. Who’s actually listening to what Vance says? It’s been months already. No one’s really listening to him anymore. You know, he has developed a kind of reputation to say dumb things, pointless things, and offend everybody. And he’s been picked as the most unpopular pick in history. But no one’s listening to him. I’m certainly not. And here we are right now.

KRISTEN WELKER:

To the substance of his charge, though, he’d say, “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this blank out.” How do you respond to that specific part of what he says?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN:

Now, that’s absolutely absurd. Every Democrat condemned the assassination attempts, and I did as well, too. And you know, they’re talking about eating the dogs and saying outlandish kind of things. Now, let’s just have a serious conversation about this election, not talking about the kind of empty kind of rhetoric from somebody like JD Vance.

Video:

John Fetterman on JD Vance, “No one’s really listening to him anymore. He has developed the reputation for saying dumb things, pointless things and offend everybody and he’s been picked as the most unpopular pick in history and no one’s listening to him.” pic.twitter.com/aFhgXGR4Xa

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 22, 2024

Sen. Fetterman was correct. JD Vance is always performance for the audience of one that is his running mate. Vance is saying foolish and absurd things because he is a shameless person who is a part of a currently failing campaign.

No on has done more damage to themselves and their future than JD Vance in this campaign. Vance is now a creepy weird joke, and even though he will probably run for the Republican nomination in 2028, JD Vance is likely done as a national political figure.

To comment on this story, join us on Reddit.

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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FTC sues drug middlemen for allegedly inflating insulin costs

Lina Khan, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee at the Rayburn House Office Building on May 15, 2024 in Washington, DC. 

Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday sued three large U.S. health companies that negotiate insulin prices, arguing the drug middlemen use practices that boost their profits while “artificially” inflating costs for patients. 

The suit targets the three biggest so-called pharmacy benefit managers, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx, CVS Health’s Caremark and Cigna’s Express Scripts. All are owned by or connected to health insurers and collectively administer about 80% of the nation’s prescriptions, according to the FTC. 

The FTC’s lawsuit also includes each PBM’s affiliated group purchasing organization, which brokers drug purchases for hospitals and other health-care providers. The agency said it could recommend suing drugmakers Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk in the future as well over their role in driving up list prices for their insulin products.

A UnitedHealth spokesperson said the suit “demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of how drug pricing works, noting that Optum RX has “aggressively and successfully” negotiated with drug manufacturers.

A CVS spokesperson said Caremark is “proud of the work” it has done to make insulin more affordable for Americans, adding that “to suggest anything else, as the FTC did today, is simply wrong.”

And, a spokesperson for Express Scripts said the suit “continues a troubling pattern from the FTC of unsubstantiated and ideologically-driven attacks” on PBMs. It comes three days after Express Scripts sued the FTC, demanding that the agency retract its allegedly “defamatory” July report that claimed that the PBM industry is hiking drug prices.

PBMs sit at the center of the drug supply chain in the U.S. They negotiate rebates with drug manufacturers on behalf of insurers, large employers and federal health plans. They also create lists of medications, or formularies, that are covered by insurance and reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions. The FTC has been investigating PBMs since 2022. 

The agency’s suit argues that the three PBMs have created a “perverse” drug rebate system that prioritizes high rebates from drugmakers, which leads to “artificially inflated insulin list prices.” It also alleges that PBMs favor those high-list-price insulins even when more affordable insulins with lower list prices become available. 

The FTC is filing its complaint through its so-called administrative process, which initiates a proceeding before an administrative judge who would hear the case.

“Millions of Americans with diabetes need insulin to survive, yet for many of these vulnerable patients, their insulin drug costs have skyrocketed over the past decade thanks in part to powerful PBMs and their greed,” Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. 

“The FTC’s administrative action seeks to put an end to the Big Three PBMs’ exploitative conduct and marks an important step in fixing a broken system—a fix that could ripple beyond the insulin market and restore healthy competition to drive down drug prices for consumers,” Rao continued. 

Roughly 8 million Americans with diabetes rely on insulin to survive, and many have been forced to ration the treatment due to high prices, according to the FTC.

The White House has no comment on the FTC’s suit, but has “made clear that no one should pay higher prices because of corporate greed,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Saturday.

President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act has capped insulin prices for Medicare beneficiaries at $35 per month. That policy currently does not extend to patients with private insurance.

The Biden administration and Congress have ramped up pressure on PBMs, seeking to increase transparency into their operations as many Americans struggle to afford prescription drugs. On average, Americans pay two to three times more than patients in other developed nations for prescription drugs, according to a fact sheet from the White House.

More CNBC health coverage

The FTC said it remains “deeply troubled” by the role insulin manufacturers play in higher list prices, arguing that they inflate prices in response to PBMs’ demands for higher rebates. Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk control roughly 90% of the U.S. insulin market.

For example, Eli Lilly’s Humalog insulin had a list price of $274 in 2017, a more than 1,200% increase from its $21 list price in 1999, according to the FTC.

The FTC said all drugmakers should “be on notice that their participation in the type of conduct challenged here raises serious concerns.”

An Eli Lilly spokesperson said the FTC’s suit concerns “aspects of the U.S. health care system that we have long been advocating to reform.” They added that the company last year became the first to cap out-of-pocket costs for all of its insulins at $35 per month for people with private insurance. Eli Lilly also cut some insulin list prices by up to 70%.

Sanofi last year announced a similar $35 monthly price cap for its most commonly prescribed insulin. Novo Nordisk last year also said it would slash the list prices of some of its popular insulins by up to 75%.

A spokesperson for Sanofi said the company has not seen and will not comment on the FTC’s complaint against PBMs. But the French drugmaker agrees with the FTC’s claim that PBMs have “leveraged their position as powerful industry middlemen and have exploited rebates…to benefit themselves while increasing costs for patients and payers at the same time.”

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said the company is “committed to ensuring patients have affordable access to their medicines, including insulin.” Novo Nordisk does not control the prices patients pay at the pharmacy in the “complex U.S. healthcare system,” the spokesperson noted, pointing to the company’s insulin savings card programs.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct a quote from the FTC.

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Good friend Reacts To Iman Shumpert & Amber Rose

Teyana Taylor‘s close friend, D’ Asia Nicole, has shared a strong reaction to the recent photos of Taylor’s ex-husband, Iman Shumpert, and Amber Rose.

RELATED: Teyana Taylor & Iman Shumpert Have Reportedly Finalized Their Divorce

Teyana Taylor’s Friend Reacts To The Photos Of Iman Shumpert & Amber Rose

On Thursday, September 19, Nicole stepped into The Shade Room’s comment section to share her thoughts on Shumpert and Rose’s recent link-up. Additionally, Nicole’s comments appeared to be directed toward Shumpert.

“This is so funny to me…” Nicole commented. “because when we were on that boat on New Years Eve you & your friend villainized me for peeping the sneaky s**t that was going on while Teyana & her kids were on the same boat… and I was right!”

Nicole explained that Shumpert allegedly tried to “cry a river” on Taylor’s phone the next day.

“My friend has been nothing but graceful this whole time but you played a f*****g game,” she added. “Teyana I’m sorry that I got this deep but I’m tired of taking the high road. You’ve done everything in your power to save this man and his image.”

Before concluding her thoughts, Nicole tagged Rose’s Instagram account.

“@amberrose I wish you would deny it for these blogs because I recorded the whole conversation! & yall making excuses about him being single but he was good & married when this s**t started. Corny asf!” she wrote.

Social Media Reacts

Social media users reacted to Nicole’s sentiments and apparent airing out of Shumpert and Rose’s actions in The Shade Room’s comment section.

Instagram user @melo__mulan wrote, “Go awf FRIEND!!! This the type of friend I can go to the top with! She’s a real one! ❤️👏…”

While Instagram user @vadiahub added, “A best friend never forgets.”

Instagram user @theskyenicole wrote, “Some of yall NEVER had a real & true friend and it shows 😂🤦🏽‍♀️”

While Instagram user @tonybaker added, “Your REAL friends be READY to go OFF.”

Instagram user @melanin_m0nr0e wrote, “Unpopular opinion: Don’t ever bring up my personal business. Idc who’s right or wrong-that’s out of line and not her business to address.”

While Instagram user @nenefavors added, “Whenever a black woman says something is ‘funny’ before talking about something s**t peeped…it ain’t finna be funny 😂”

Instagram user @applegotthejuice wrote, “OK BEST FRIEND 👏👏👏👏👏👏 CUZ SOME PPL REALLY STILL HAVE REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL FRIENDS!!!!”

While Instagram user @blossom_beat added, “At least she @ her and wasn’t talking in riddles 🤷🏾‍♀️”

Instagram user @thequeenofcompton wrote, “Teyana i know you are a virtuous woman but wiz khalifa is fine sis😂💯 Tit for tat tf”

While Instagram user @mrs_deal23_ added, “To the people saying it shouldn’t matter, get a husband, have to divorce him over infidelity, suspect he was messing with a certain woman, and divorce him only to see them pop out together to confirm your suspicions first before you speak on how or why it matters!”

Television host Funky Dineva wrote:

“He’ll be dating Larsa Pippen next Chile…”

Neither Teyana Taylor nor Amber Rose have publicly reacted to Nicole’s comments. However, on Friday, September 20, Shumpert took to his Instagram Story to repost a video about keeping a smile on one’s face when people try to bring you down.

Check out the clip Shumpert reposted below.

More Details About Iman Shumpert & Amber Rose’s Recent Outing

As The Shade Room previously reported, photos of Shumpert and Rose chilling beachside in Miami surfaced on Thursday, September 19. In the flicks, Rose is seen sporting a black halter top swimsuit while Shumpert rocks white swim trunks.

Additionally, the pair were photographed lounging on beach chairs and were apparently joined by two friends. The photos did not show the pair holding hands or kissing. However, they were reportedly seen leaving the beach together.

RELATED: What’s Tea? Iman Shumpert & Amber Rose Spotted Together In Miami (PHOTOS)

What Do You Think Roomies?

Elon Musk’s X and Starlink face each day fines in Brazil for ban evasion

Elon Musk, left, and Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Reuters (L) | Getty Images (R)

Elon Musk’s X faces steep daily fines in Brazil for allegedly evading a ban on the service there, according to a statement from the country’s supreme court Thursday.

The fines imposed by Brazil’s supreme court amount to $5 million in Brazilian reals, about $920,000, a day. The court said it would continue to impose “joint liability” on Starlink, the satellite internet service owned and operated by SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace venture.

The suspension of X in Brazil was initially ordered by the country’s chief justice, Alexandre de Moraes, at the end of August, with orders upheld by a panel of justices in early September. The court found that under Musk, X had violated Brazilian law, which requires social media companies to employ a legal representative in the country and to remove hate speech and other content deemed harmful to democratic institutions. The court also found that X failed to suspend accounts allegedly engaged in doxxing federal officers.

X recently moved to servers hosted by Cloudflare and appeared to be using dynamic internet protocol addresses that constantly change, enabling many users in Brazil to access the site. In a previous setup, the company had used static and specific IP addresses in Brazil, which were more easily blocked by internet service providers at the order of regulators.

Musk, who owns X, formerly known as Twitter, has been lashing out at de Moraes for months and continued to do so after the order was issued. He’s characterized de Moraes as a villain, comparing him to Darth Vader and Harry Potter character Voldemort. He has also repeatedly called for de Moraes to be impeached.

Brazil previously withdrew money for fines it levied against X from the accounts of X and Starlink at financial institutions in the country. The new fines will begin as of Sept. 19, with the court calculating a total based on “the number of days of non-compliance” with its earlier orders to suspend X nationwide.

While Musk presents himself as a free speech absolutist, X has acquiesced to requests to remove profiles and posts in countries including India, Turkey and Hungary.

Musk and X may be in the process of complying with Brazil’s takedown orders as well. Correio Braziliense, a Brazilian publication, reported on Wednesday that X has started blocking accounts as per suspension orders issued by the country’s supreme court.

Among the apparently banned accounts were those of some internet influencers who are reportedly being investigated for spreading misinformation and promoting attacks against democratic institutions in Brazil. 

X said it wasn’t intending to restore access for Brazilian users.

“When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to provide service to Latin America was no longer accessible to our team,” a company spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday. “To continue providing optimal service to our users, we changed network providers. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users. While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil.”

Brazil’s national telecommunication agency, Anatel, has been ordered by de Moraes to prevent access to the platform by blocking Cloudflare as well as Fastly and EdgeUno servers, and others that the court said had been “created to circumvent” a suspension of X in Brazil.

A Cloudflare spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that the company isn’t “enabling or preventing blocking,” adding that “many of Cloudflare’s customers choose to use dedicated IPs, which is not unique in the industry.” 

Before the suspension, X had an estimated 22 million users in Brazil, according to Data Reportal.

WATCH: X is a financial ‘disaster’

Small enterprise optimism hits 11-year low as inflation fears will not go away

A man checks the label of a vitamin jar at a Costco Wholesale store in Colchester, Vermont, on April 3, 2024.

Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images

Small business confidence hit its lowest level in more than 11 years for March as proprietors worried that inflation is still very much a problem.

At a time when other data points show inflation receding, the National Federation of Independent Business reported Tuesday that its survey showed a reading of 88.5, down nearly a point from February and the lowest since December 2012.

A quarter of all respondents reported that rising costs were the biggest problem.

“Small business optimism has reached the lowest level since 2012 as owners continue to manage numerous economic headwinds,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said. “Inflation has once again been reported as the top business problem on Main Street and the labor market has only eased slightly.”

A quarter of all respondents cited inflation, and in particular higher input and labor costs, as their most pressing issue. A net 28% reported raising average selling prices for the month and 33% planned additional price hikes, according to seasonally adjusted data.

As part of those escalating costs, a net 38% said they raised compensation, up 3 percentage points from the February reading that was the lowest since May 2021. The Labor Department on Friday reported that average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in March and 4.1% from a year ago.

The survey comes with other indicators showing that inflation, while not eradicated, is at least receding.

A Commerce Department measurement of personal consumption expenditures prices put the annual inflation rate at 2.5% in February. The measurement, which the Federal Reserve uses as its main inflation gauge, showed a 2.8% level when excluding food and energy, which policymakers prefer as a better sign of longer-run trends.

The consumer price index, a more widely watched figure by the public, will be released Wednesday and is expected to show a 3.4% headline rate and 3.7% on core. Fed policymakers target 2% annual inflation.

Inflation expectations have been fairly well-anchored in recent months. A New York Fed survey on Monday showed respondents for March expected a 3% rate over the next year, unchanged from February. The three-year outlook rose slightly but the five-year expectation decreased.

However, the survey did show a big jump in the expectations for rent increases — by 8.7% over the next year, a 2.6 percentage point surge from February. Declining shelter inflation is at the core of the Fed’s thesis that inflation will continue to ebb toward the central bank’s 2% target, allowing for interest rate cuts later in the year.

Fed survey respondents also said they expect prices to rise substantially for most other major components. They see gas prices up 4.5% in the next year and food up 5.1%, both 0.2 percentage points higher than the February survey.

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Trump Media inventory slips on eve of merger lockup expiration

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump looks down on the day he attends a press conference at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Sept. 13, 2024.

David Swanson | Reuters

Shares of Trump Media closed Wednesday at a new post-merger low, on the eve of the expiration of “lockup” restrictions that have barred the Truth Social owners’ insiders, like majority shareholder Donald Trump, from selling their stakes.

Trump Media stock fell 3.22% on relatively light trading, to close at $15.62 a share. At Wednesday’s closing stock price, the company had a market capitalization of $3.126 billion.

Trump Media made its market debut on the Nasdaq in late March, after a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

Trump and others who received stock in the company before it went public were not allowed to sell any of these shares for approximately 180 days, under the common IPO provision called a lockup agreement.

For Trump Media, the lockup period expires on Thursday.

Last week, shares shot up as much as 25% after the Republican presidential nominee said he had “absolutely no intention of selling” any of his nearly 57% stake in Trump Media.

The stock ultimately closed up 11% on Friday. But since then, it has been on a steady decline.

At Wednesday’s closing stock price, Trump’s stake in the company was worth roughly $1.8 billion. On paper, this amounted to nearly half of Trump’s personal net worth of $3.9 billion, as tallied by Forbes.

Shares of Trump Media closed down more than 6% on Tuesday, the day after a Delaware judge ruled that Trump Media has breached a contract with an early investor that helped the company go public.

The judge ruled that Trump Media must grant the investor, ARC Global, with a larger share of its stock than it had previously intended. ARC Global currently holds a %4.77 stake in Trump Media, which it would likely be free to sell once the lockup expires Thursday.

Shares fell Monday as well, closing the day nearly 4% down, one day after Trump was the target of an apparent second assassination attempt.

The downwards move Monday contrasted with the stock’s jump on July 15, the first trading day after after Trump survived an assassination attempt.Trump Media shares shot up more than 30% that Monday.

Shares are now down more than 61.66% since the July assassination attempt, which was also their most-recent high. The stock is down 76.5% overall since the merger in March.

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