Eva Hambach/Getty Images

• The e-cigarette company Juul reportedly is in talks with three big tobacco companies about its future.
• The talks with giants like Philip Morris are aimed at securing a possible sale, strategic investment, or other deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Here’s a rundown of the company’s history, from its $38 billion valuation to legal settlements.

Juul is looking for a fresh start.

The e-cigarette maker is talking to some of the biggest names in the tobacco industry, including Altria, Philip Morris, and Japan Tobacco, about options for its future, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. 

The talks were in early stages and covered a range of potential options, ranging from an outright sale to one of the larger companies to licensing deals, distribution deals, or a strategic investment, the Journal reported.

Juul did not immediately respond to a request from Insider for comment.

Over the last several years, Juul has gone from a darling of Silicon Valley to a company beset by legal challenges. It also fell from a valuation of $38 billion in 2018 to just $1 billion last October, according to the Journal.

Scroll down to see Juul’s rise and decline:

2004: At Stanford, the product-design grad students James Monsees and Adam Bowen create the idea for Ploom, Juul’s precursor.

Juul.com / YouTube

Monsees and Bowen have said they were smokers who met on smoke breaks while pursuing master’s degrees in product design at Stanford University. Their thesis presentation, now posted on Juul’s website, describes their product as “the rational future of smoking.”

2007: Monsees and Bowen found the vaporizer startup Ploom in San Francisco.

YouTube / Hyphy SF

By February 2008, Ploom raised $900,000 in venture funding, putting its valuation at roughly $3 million, according to PitchBook.

A 2011 description of the Ploom device, which sold for $75, described it as a heat-not-burn product that could be filled with single-serve refills called “Ploom Pods.” The pods could include tobacco or non-tobacco ingredients, it said.

Aug. 1, 2013: Ploom debuts the Pax with a launch party in San Francisco.Ploom at Robin Thicke’s album-release party in 2013 in New York.

Andrew Toth / Getty Images

After raising close to $5 million, Ploom launched a device called the Pax, a vaporizer for loose-leaf tobacco that could also be used for cannabis.

To debut the device, Ploom hosted a launch party in San Francisco’s trendy Mission District.

At this time, Ploom investors included Japan Tobacco, the maker of Winston and Salem cigarettes, along with the software company Originate and the angel investment group Sand Hill.

 

Feb. 16, 2015: Monsees and Bowen sell the Ploom brand and a vaporizer line to the Japanese tobacco company JTI. They rebrand as Pax Labs.Japan Tobacco Inc.’s president and CEO, Mitsuomi Koizumi, using a Ploom during an interview with Reuters at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo in 2017.

Toru Hanai / Reuters

As part of the deal, JTI said in a statement that Ploom would buy back JTI’s minority stake in the startup.

June 1, 2015: Pax Labs launches the Juul with a party in New York City.

SRITA

Pax introduced the Juul with a launch party in New York City.

A trove of images collected by Stanford researchers suggested that the campaign focused on a young audience. Guests were invited to try Juul’s products free and share selfies on social media, Business Insider reported.

“Juul’s launch campaign was patently youth-oriented,” Robert Jackler, a practicing Stanford physician who was the principal investigator behind the tobacco-image collection, told Business Insider.

2016: Juul sales skyrocket 700%.

An ad on Juul’s website from 2016.

Juul devices gained popularity. Sales rose 700% in 2016, ABC 7 News reported.

July 1, 2017: Monsees and Bowen spin out Juul Labs as an independent company and name former Pax Labs CEO Tyler Goldman CEO.

Pax Labs; Melia Robinson/Business Insider

Goldman came to Pax from the music-streaming startup Deezer then took over Juul Labs.

Nov. 2017: Juul is the best-selling e-cigarette on the market.

Pax Labs

Juul said it’d sold 1 million units. The company also captured a third of the e-cigarette market, according to Nielsen data.

Dec. 11, 2017: CEO Tyler Goldman leaves Juul. The company replaces him with Kevin Burns.Juul’s new CEO, Kevin Burns.

Juul/YouTube

Goldman left Juul to “pursue new entrepreneurial activities.” The company hired Burns from the yogurt company Chobani.

Dec. 2017: Juul raises $112 million in venture funds and adds Nicholas Pritzker to its board, according to PitchBook.The industrialist A.N. Pritzker in 1982. The wealthy Pritzker family owned the chewing-tobacco giant Conwood before selling it to the tobacco giant Reynolds. They also founded and expanded the Hyatt Hotels chain.

AP Photo

The fresh funds came from firms including Tao Capital, Fidelity, and Evolution, according to PitchBook.

Nicholas Pritzker, Tao’s cofounder, joined Juul’s board, CNBC reported. Pritzker is a member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owned the chewing-tobacco giant Conwood before selling it to the tobacco giant Reynolds. The Pritzkers also founded and expanded the Hyatt Hotels chain.

On an undisclosed date, Tao Capital sold its stake in Juul to the hedge fund Tiger Global and Manhattan Venture Partners, PitchBook said.

The venture fund M13, another early Juul investor, sold its shares in the spring of 2018.

This slide has been updated with new information about M13’s investment.

March 2018: Dozens of outlets report that ‘Juuling’ is an epidemic at high schools.A Juul ad from 2016.

Pax Labs

National news outlets including National Public Radio, USA Today, and Business Insider reported that the Juul had a loyal and growing following among young people.

All of the reports said teens were taking to social media to brag about being able to sneak puffs in class or in the bathroom thanks to Juul’s discreet design.

April 2018: Led by Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, the US Food and Drug Administration starts an ‘undercover blitz’ to crack down on sales of the Juul to minors.Scott Gottlieb, then the FDA commissioner.

Reuters

In what the FDA said was the largest coordinated enforcement effort in agency history, the FDA issued more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers who it said were illegally selling Juuls and other e-cigarettes to minors. The FDA found the retailers by conducting what it called “a nationwide, undercover blitz.”

“Let me be clear to retailers,” Gottlieb, then the FDA’s commissioner, said in the statement, “this blitz, and resulting actions, should serve as notice that we will not tolerate the sale of any tobacco products to youth.”

April 2018: Wall Street analysts warn that Juul is starting to encroach on Big Tobacco’s financial terrain and could negatively affect Altria stock.A close-up view of cigarettes on June 10, 2015 in Bristol, England. Health campaigners have asked for a levy on the tobacco industry to help fund anti-smoking measures

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

In a research note, Citigroup analysts warned investors that the Juul was beginning to disrupt tobacco stocks.

The note suggested that the rise of the Juul could bode poorly for tobacco companies — including Altria, British American Tobacco, and Imperial Brands — as sales were falling faster than expected.

“The US tobacco market is beginning to be disrupted by Juul,” the analysts wrote, adding, “We don’t expect underlying cigarette trends to improve much in the rest of 2018.”

May 2018: Juul doubles its staff to 400 people.

Pax Labs

June 2018: San Francisco bans flavored e-cigs like the Juul, prompting an endorsement from Michael Bloomberg.An ad from the California Department of Public Health supporting San Francisco’s ballot measure to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes like Juul.

California Department of Public Health

Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who is CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, called the move “an important step forward for public health” and said it should embolden other cities and states to follow suit.

July 8, 2018: Wall Street analysts say Juul is reviving the formerly comatose e-cig market, which had been slumping since 2014.

AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

In a research note, Morgan Stanley analysts credited Juul with “driving a revival in the US e-cig market,” adding that sales of Juul devices “accounted for almost the entire incremental increase in US e-cig sales as a percent of total cigarette and e-cigarette sales in the last year.”

July 10, 2018: Juul raises $1.2 billion in a round that values the company at more than $16 billion, according to PitchBook.Bowen and Monsees at the Hotel Tortue in December 2018 for Juul’s launch in Germany.

Getty Images / Picture Alliance

The seven investors in the round included a maker of marijuana therapeutics, called Applied Biosciences, along with the the venture firm Bracket Capital, the hedge funds Darsana Capital and E Squared Capital, the investment giant Fidelity, the angel investor Sand Hill, and Tiger, according to PitchBook.

Aug. 21, 2018: Israel bans Juul products, calling them a ‘grave risk to public health’ because of their high nicotine content.A package of the Juul device and flavored Juul nicotine Pods.

JUUL Labs

In a statement, Israel’s Health Ministry said it’s banning the sale and import of Juul devices because they contained more than 20 milligrams per milliliter of nicotine and presented “a grave risk to public health,” Reuters reported.

Sept. 11, 2018: The FDA deepens its crackdown on Juul and other e-cig makers.FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb

Reuters

In a statement, then-Commissioner Gottlieb said the FDA was working on creating a system to “properly regulate” e-cigarettes like the Juul.

He said the aim was twofold: make e-cigarettes available as a less-dangerous alternative for adult smokers, but also keep them out of the hands of young people.

Oct. 2, 2018: The FDA surprises Juul at its headquarters and seizes ‘thousands of pages of documents’ as part of an investigation into its marketing practices.

Reuters/Ronen Zvulun

The agency was running an investigation into whether Juul marketed its products to teens, CNBC said.

The visit was an extension of the FDA’s request in April for materials related to how Juul presented its products and whether they were designed to appeal to kids, according to CNBC.

Oct. 2018: Juul surges in popularity, now accounting for over 70% of the US e-cigarette market, according to Nielsen data.

Reuters / Brendan McDermid

Nov. 13, 2018: Juul stops selling its sweet and fruity flavors at stores, making those varieties only available online.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Juul says it will temporarily stop selling its flavored e-cigarettes in stores.

The move comes on the heels of a similar ban on flavored e-cigs that the city of San Francisco enacted over the summer.

Researchers nearly unanimously praised the move, which they say could help protect young people by making the products less appealing and harder to purchase. Juul’s flavored varieties will still be sold online, the company says.

Nov. 15, 2018: The FDA announces plans to curb flavored e-cig sales after reports that youth vaping has ballooned 78%.A high-school student vaping near a school campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Associated Press

2018: The Federal Trade Commission begins investigating whether Juul marketed its products to minors.Members of the Federal Trade Commission.

REUTERS/ Leah Millis

The Federal Trade Commission began looking into Juul’s use of influencers and other marketing tools to appeal to young people, The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2019.

According to The Journal, the FTC’s investigation began before it started reviewing a deal between Juul and the Marlboro maker, Altria, in December 2018.

Dec. 20, 2018: Altria buys 35% of Juul for $12.8 billion, bumping Juul’s valuation to $38 billion. Gottlieb accuses both companies of backing away from pledges to curb youth vaping.Packs of Marlboro cigarettes on sale.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

In what the Silicon Valley Business Journal called “the biggest investment ever in a US venture-backed company,” Marlboro and the Parliament cigarette maker, Altria, paid $12.8 billion for a third of Juul. That gave Altria more combustible-cigarette market share than the next seven brands combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Juul, which had an annual revenue of about $2 billion at the time, also received a $2 billion bonus from Altria to distribute among its 1,500 employees, CNBC reported. That would have been about $1.3 million a person.

On the heels of the deal, Gottlieb called out both companies, saying they were backing away from previous pledges to fight teen vaping.

 

March 5, 2019: In a surprise announcement, Gottlieb announces he’s leaving his post as FDA commissioner.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Gottlieb attends interview at Reuters HQ in New York

Thomson Reuters

Gottlieb, a well-liked figure who spent just two years steering the country’s top food and drug regulator, said he was leaving in a month to spend more time with his family in Connecticut.

The commissioner had made a name for himself as both a vocal critic of e-cigarette startups like Juul and a speedy approver of new pharmaceutical drugs.

In a resignation letter, Gottlieb wrote that one of his accomplishments at the FDA was taking actions against “bad actors that put Americans at risk.”

March 13, 2019: Gottlieb announces a crackdown on flavored e-cig sales.

Reuters / Mike Segar

Roughly a week after announcing his departure from the FDA, Gottlieb released a plan to crack down on flavored e-cigarette sales at gas stations, pharmacies, and convenience stores. The plan would also crack down on websites without buffers against youth purchases, such as age-verification software or quantity limits.

April 3, 2019: The FDA says it’s looking into a ‘potential safety issue’ related to seizures tied to vaping.

Shutterstock

In a statement, Gottlieb said his agency had seen reports suggesting that a small number of e-cigarette users (35 cases from 2010 to early 2019) had experienced seizures after vaping.

By August, the FDA said it had received 127 reports — but noted that the new figure might simply mean more people were coming forward, not necessarily that cases were increasing.

Gottlieb also noted that seizures were known as possible side effects of nicotine poisoning and said the agency would continue exploring whether there was a connection.

April 8, 2019: Democrats in the US Senate launch an investigation into Juul’s deal with Altria as well as its social media and advertising practices.Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Sergio Flores/Getty Images

Eleven Democratic senators, including the party whip Dick Durbin and the presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, wrote a letter to Juul demanding that the company answer questions about its advertising practices and its deal with Altria, CNBC reported.

June 13, 2019: The US House of Representatives announces an investigation of Juul’s marketing and the Altria deal.Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are sworn in on the House floor January 3, 2017.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

House Democrats launch their own investigation into Juul, Fortune reports.

July 16, 2019: Juul’s CEO apologizes to parents of teens addicted to its vaping products.

CBS This Morning

In a CNBC documentary, Juul Labs CEO Kevin Burns issued an apology to parents of teens who were addicted to the company’s vaping products.

“First of all, I’d tell them that I’m sorry that their child’s using the product,” Burns said.

July 25, 2019: Officials in Wisconsin warn of eight cases of severe lung disease in teens who’d vaped. It’s unclear what kinds of products or substances are involved.Simah Herman, 18, on September 19 with a photo of her former vaping devices in Los Angeles. Herman was in a medically induced coma and treated for pneumonia and lung-disease from vaping.

Reuters / Lucy Nicholson

In July, Wisconsin’s chief medical officer wrote a memo to healthcare providers warning them about a cluster of sick adolescents who had used e-cigarettes. Chest X-rays of the teens revealed similarities in lung damage, he says. 

The following month, the CDC released an emergency notice about 30 cases of vaping-related lung illness in Wisconsin. 

In mid-August, officials reported the first death tied to vaping-related lung illness: an adult in Illinois. 

By September, the CDC and the FDA said there had been 530 confirmed and probable cases of the mystery illness since June. Seven people died. The investigation is ongoing, and officials have yet to find a substance or brand that’s common among all the cases.

Aug. 16, 2019: Juul raises $785 million in equity and debt financing from Proioxis Ventures, according to PitchBook.

Melia Robinson/Business Insider

The funds will be used to speed Juul’s expansion overseas, according to PitchBook. The figure brings the company to $14.2 billion in funds raised.

Aug. 29, 2019: Bloomberg says Juul devices were involved in three reports of seizures linked to vaping.

Brendan McDermid / Reuters

In three reports submitted to the FDA, people said they or their children had used a Juul before experiencing seizures, Bloomberg News reported. Bloomberg obtained the reports through a public records request.

In two of the three reports, the FDA wasn’t able to officially confirm that a Juul device was involved, according to Bloomberg.

Aug. 29, 2019: Juul’s CEO warns people against using Juuls and says vaping’s long-term health effects are unknown.Juul’s new CEO, Kevin Burns.

Juul/YouTube

In an interview with CBS, Burns said anyone who wasn’t already using nicotine, the addictive drug in Juul, should not start.

“Don’t vape. Don’t use Juul,” Burns told CBS.

Sept. 9, 2019: The FDA slams Juul for portraying its e-cigs as ‘totally safe’ and marketing them to kids at schools.An ad showing a plate of food suggesting that users “save room for Juul.”

Juul

In a warning letter, the FDA said Juul wrongly painted its e-cigarettes, known in the industry as ENDS, as safer than cigarettes and marketed them intentionally to young people.

“Referring to your ENDS products as ‘99% safer’ than cigarettes, ‘much safer’ than cigarettes, ‘totally safe,’ and ‘a safer alternative than smoking cigarettes’ is particularly concerning because these statements were made directly to children in school,” the FDA letter said.

“Our concern is amplified by the epidemic rate of increase in youth use of ENDS products, including Juul’s products,” the letter added.

Sept. 17, 2019: Juul sales are halted in China for unclear reasons.An employee at a Tmall logistics center in Suzhou, China.

Thomson Reuters

A selection of flavored Juul products that went up for sale on two online Chinese marketplaces, JD.com and Tmall, were removed within a week, The Wall Street Journal reported. Both retailers declined to say why.

Juul had long been planning to launch in China, where more than 300 million people smoke, according to the World Health Organization. Its nicotine refills, or Juul Pods, are manufactured in Shenzhen, China.

Sept. 18, 2019: India bans vaping, citing the “impact of e-cigarettes on the youth.”

Reuters / Neil Hall

India outlawed the production, sale, import, and advertising of e-cigarettes, citing the need to stop the “impact of e-cigarettes on the youth,” BuzzFeed News reported. Penalties include jail time and fines of up to $7,000.

Juul had been planning to launch in India, home to more than 106 million smokers — second only to China — by the end of 2019.

Sept. 23, 2019: The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into Juul.

REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California were conducting a criminal investigation of Juul. Further details, such as the focus of the investigation, were not available, and Juul didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Several other investigations are ongoing, including an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission focusing on whether Juul marketed to teens and an FDA investigation focused on marketing, outreach, and Juul’s uniquely high nicotine content.

Sept. 24, 2019: Juul reportedly prepares to scale back its staff.A woman exhaling a puff of vapor from a Juul e-cigarette.

Associated Press / Craig Mitchelldyer

Juul began preparing to restructure its staff as it faced slower sales resulting from increasing reports about the mysterious vaping-related lung illness, the proposed US ban on flavored e-cigarettes, and a variety of other investigations, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The company employs roughly 3,900 people, according to The Journal, up from the 200 it had in 2017.

For now, Juul plans to hire less aggressively and start outlining plans to cut some jobs, according to The Journal, but will still continue to expand.

 

Sept. 25, 2019: CEO Kevin Burns steps down and is replaced by longtime tobacco executive K.C. Crosthwaite.Former Juul CEO Kevin Burns.

CBS This Morning

Crosthwaite was most recently chief growth officer at Altria, and has worked in tobacco for more than 20 years.

In announcing the change, Juul also said it would suspend US advertising and some lobbying efforts. Crosthwaite said he would “strive to work with regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders, and earn the trust of the societies in which we operate.”

Oct. 7, 2019: A crop of school districts across three states sues Juul.

Shutterstock

Four school districts sue Juul in what appears to be the beginning of a trend.

The districts include Three Village Central in New York, La Conner in Washington, Olathe in Kansas, and Francis Howell in Missouri. In separate suits filed on Monday, the districts argue that Juul created a public nuisance by intentionally marketing to kids; misrepresenting its products’ nicotine content; and endangering teens’ health, according to public documents that Business Insider viewed.

Cindy Ormsby, an attorney for the Missouri case, told the Riverfront Times that the Francis Howell lawsuit is “part of a coordinated package of litigation filed by school districts across the country, each dealing with a similar crisis of students addicted to nicotine.” 

In September, Kansas City school district Goddard became one of the first to announce that it was preparing a lawsuit against Juul.

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages and legal fees.

Oct. 17, 2019: Juul extends its ban on sweet and fruity flavors to include online sales.

SRITA

Juul announces that it is stopping online sales of its mango, fruit, cucumber, and cream varieties. Last fall, the company temporarily banned sales of those varieties in stores. As of Oct. 17, those flavors can’t be purchased in-person or online.

In a statement, Juul says it “will continue to develop scientific evidence to support the use of these flavored products.”

Oct. 28, 2019: Juul reportedly plans to cut 500 jobs before year’s end. Its chief marketing officer departs the following day.

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images

Juul looks to eliminate roughly 500 jobs by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The cuts are part of a company-wide reorganization effort, according to the journal, and will involve anywhere between 10-15% of Juul’s total workforce. 

“As the vapor category undergoes a necessary reset, this reorganization will help Juul Labs focus on reducing underage use, investing in scientific research, and creating new technologies while earning a license to operate in the US and around the world,” KC Crosthwaite, Juul’s new CEO, said in an emailed statement provided to Business Insider.

The following day, the Journal reports that Juul’s chief marketing officer is departing.

“Craig Brommers, an incredibly talented marketing executive, has asked to transition out of Juul Labs in the coming months so that he can pursue opportunities with other companies,” a Juul spokesperson told the Journal.

The spokesperson also said that as a result of Brommer’s departure, the CMO position would be cut.

Oct. 29, 2019: Juul names a new chief financial officer after its existing CFO asks to leave.

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Juul appoints Guy Cartwright its new chief financial officer after CFO Tim Danaher asks to leave the company, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Cartwright previously served as managing director of the investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners LP, and joined Juul in July, according to the Journal. Danaher had served as Juul’s CFO since 2014.

Oct. 31, 2019: Marlboro maker Altria, which owns a third of Juul, slashes the value of its stake in the company. Juul is now valued at $24 billion instead of $38 billion.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Marlboro maker Altria, which last December purchased a 35% stake in Juul for $12.8 billion, cuts the value of its investment in the company by $4.5 billion.

The move reveals that Juul is now worth $24 billion, down from $38 billion.

On a conference call, Altria cited unexpected market shifts like regulatory crackdowns abroad and a proposed US flavor ban.

“We’re not pleased to have to take an impairment charge on the Juul investment,” Altria CEO Howard Willard said on the call. “We did not anticipate this dramatic a change in the e-vapor category,” he added.

November 7, 2019: Juul stops selling mint flavored options, leaving only menthol and tobacco flavored refillable cartridges.A screenshot shows 2015 advertising for Juul products displayed in a print magazine

Reuters

Juul announces it will stop selling mint-flavored refillable cartridges, or Juul pods. 

In a press release, the company said it would immediately stop accepting orders for the mint-flavored pods from retail partners and stop selling mint-flavored pods online.

According to the release, Juul’s decision was based partially on new research  which suggested that mint and mango were the most popular flavors among high school students who Juul.

“These results are unacceptable,” Juul Labs CEO KC Crosthwaite said in the release, adding, “that is why we must reset the vapor category in the US and earn the trust of society by working cooperatively with regulators, Attorneys General, public health officials, and other stakeholders to combat underage use.”

2020: Amid the pandemic, Juul lays off 40% of its workforce in April, 2020. It then lays off over half of its remaining staff, resulting in about a further 1,000 employees being cut.Shopkeepers stand inside a Juul shop at a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, December 30, 2019.

REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana

2021: By 2021, Altria slashes its valuation for Juul to $5 billion, while Juul itself asserts it was worth $10 billion. Two years prior, the company was valued at $38 billion.A hand with a cigarette is seen in front of displayed logos of Philip Morris and Altria in this picture illustration

Reuters

September 30, 2021: The CDC and FDA releases a study that finds that over 2 million middle-and-high-school students in the US were using e-cigarettes.

Eva Hambach/Getty Images

The study found that eight in 10 of those students used flavored e-cigarettes.

“These data highlight the fact that flavored e-cigarettes are still extremely popular with kids,” said Mitch Seller, the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “And we are equally disturbed by the quarter of high school students who use e-cigarettes and say they vape every single day.”

February, 2022: A judge rules that Altria can keep its investment in Juul.FILE – In this Dec. 20, 2018, file photo Juul products are displayed at a smoke shop in New York. The company that makes Marlboro cigarettes will take a $4.1 billion hit from its investment in Juul. Altria took a 35% stake in the e-cigarette company at the end of 2018 at a cost of almost $13 billion. The Richmond, Va., company on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020 cited burgeoning legal cases that it expects to grow. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Associated Press

An administrative judge ruled that Altria didn’t break antitrust laws by taking a 35% stake in Juul. The Federal Trade Commission had sued in 2019, and can still appeal the ruling. 

June 23, 2022: The FDA bans Juul from selling and distributing its e-cigarette products in the US, and also orders that all products currently in the market be removed.

Markets Insider

Altria’s stock plunged 10% on news of the ban. The FDA did briefly prohibit Juul products in the US, though an appeal of the decision forced the agency to put its decision on hold.

December 6, 2022: Juul agrees to settle roughly 5,000 lawsuits that accused the company of marketing its products to teens and children.

Julia Naftulin

Juul got an equity investment to pay for the settlement costs, though the financial terms were not disclosed, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

January 25, 2023: Juul executives were in discussions with major tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, and Altria, the Wall Street Journal reported.Close-up of logo for e-cigarette or vape company Juul on glass window of convenience store in San Ramon, California, December 6, 2019.

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The talks included multiple possibilities, including an outright sale of Juul as well as strategic investments and licensing and distribution deals, the Journal reported.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call and Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• The GOP wants to remove Ilhan Omar from a committee over years-old comments seen as anti-Semitic.
• Two Republicans have said they won’t vote for the resolution, which is expected in the coming weeks.
• George Santos, who has lied about being the Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, is undecided.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s continued service on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs may ultimately be decided, in part, by George Santos.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is poised to hold a vote in the coming weeks on a resolution that would remove the Minnesota Democrat from the committee, citing comments she made years ago about Americans’ support for Israel.

But two Republicans — Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — have said they will oppose the effort.

And Santos — who has admitted to lying about his purported Jewish background by claiming that he was simply saying “Jew-ish” — told Insider at the Capitol on Wednesday that he had not decided how he’ll vote on the matter.

“That’s a good question,” said Santos. “I don’t know.”

Santos, currently battling allegations that he once performed in drag in Brazil, was then interrupted by a man filming with his cellphone who asked the Long Island congressman who he thinks will win this season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

“I have not watched this season of Drag Race,” Santos replied. 

As he boarded an elevator, Santos re-affirmed that he hadn’t decided how he would vote on Omar.

“Not yet. No,” he said. “But we’ll get back to you, we’ll get back to you.”

McCarthy can only lose a handful of Republican votes on the resolution in a closely divided House, and several other Republicans have said they’re undecided. Democrats are expected to remain unanimous in voting to keep Omar on the committee.

That makes Santos’s decision on the matter pivotal to Omar’s future.

Santos, who once claimed to be a “proud Jew” and the descendant of Holocaust survivors, owned up to lying about that aspect of his background after reporting revealed it to be a fabrication. Some fellow Republicans have cited that lie in particular as they’ve called for him to resign from Congress.

The effort to block Omar from serving on Foreign Affairs is part of a broader effort by McCarthy to deny committee seats to Democrats, in part as retribution for a duo of bipartisan votes that removed Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committees over violent rhetoric during the last Congress.

McCarthy also officially rejected the appointments of Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday, accusing Schiff of lying to the public ahead of former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment and pointing to Swalwell’s brief association with a Chinese spy.

As House Speaker, McCarthy has the unilateral ability to reject Jeffries’s picks for any select committee but must subject votes for the Foreign Affairs Committee to a full floor vote.

McCarthy and other Republicans have pointed to comments that Omar made about Israel during her first term, when she insinuated that American support for the Jewish nation was primarily rooted in money. Many members of Congress, including some Democrats, said the comments were anti-Semitic.

Omar apologized at the time, and on Wednesday, she called the effort to remove her from the committee was a “political stunt.”

—Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) January 25, 2023

US Air National Guard/Staff Sgt. Joseph Pagan

• US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones deployed to Greece during the final weeks of 2022.
• Operating from Larissa air base, the drones will keep an eye NATO’s borders in southeastern Europe.
• The deployment comes as NATO grapples with the war in Ukraine and with tensions between Turkey and Greece.

Late last year, the US deployed MQ-9 Reaper drones to Greece’s Larissa Air Base.

The deployment came amid Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine, which has raised tensions throughout Europe, but the drones also arrived in Greece as that country and Turkey, both of which are NATO allies, wage a war of words over their longstanding territorial and political rivalries.

Their dispute has raised a new challenge for the US and for its NATO allies, as their leaders try to maintain the alliance’s support for Ukraine and manage a new period of conflict with Russia.

Predator in the skies

US Air Force airmen do pre-flight checks on an MQ-9 at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam in May.

US Air Force/Airman 1st class Christa Anderson

For security reasons, the US Air Force did not disclosed how many Reapers were deployed to the base, but local media has reported eight drones are now operating there.

The Reaper, which can be piloted remotely or fly autonomously, has a maximum endurance of 27 hours and can reach altitudes of 50,000 feet. The drone has “a unique capability” to perform strike missions, gather information, and track “high value” targets, the US Air Force says, and it played a prominent role in the war in Afghanistan.

Larissa Air Base, located in central Greece near the Aegean Sea, “is a strategic location” and the base, which was recently upgraded to accommodate the Reapers, will allow the drones “to easily support both the eastern and southern flanks of NATO,” a spokesman for US Air Forces in Europe told Defense News. (Flight trackers have also reported a US-made RQ-4B Global Hawk landing at Larissa, suggesting the base can support even larger drones.)

The deployment was not in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the spokesman added, but their placement there “does support deterring and avoiding conflict with Russia.”

A US Air Force F-15C at Larissa Air Base in May 2021.

US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Alex Fox Echols III

NATO has in recent years paid more attention to its southeastern frontier, where it borders conflicts in the Middle East and increasingly contentious activity in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Since Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, the alliance has also heightened its attention on its eastern flank.

Both trends have raised Greece’s profile, especially for the US.

Supplies meant for Ukraine are often unloaded at the Greek port of Alexandroupolis and sent via rail through Bulgaria and Romania. The same network supports US deployments to the Black Sea region.

The US presence in the region has also increased considerably, with numerous US-Greek exercises, more shipments of US troops and equipment through Greece, and the deployment of more US assets to Greek bases.

The Reaper deployment and increased US-Greek military cooperation are made possible by an updated comprehensive defense agreement signed in October 2021, which also includes a mutual defense clause.

A complicated alliance

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Istanbul in March 2022.

Xinhua via Getty Images

The US’s enhanced presence in Greece comes at a time of heightened tensions between Greece and Turkey, which have roiled the alliance and frustrated the US in particular.

Greece and Turkey clash over a number of issues, including the ethnically divided island of Cyprus, maritime delineation zones, and energy exploitation rights in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

They have come close to war numerous times in recent decades, and current tensions have increased after Turkey called into question Greece’s sovereignty over islands in the Eastern Aegean. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has even threatened to attack Greece. The verbal sparring has raised concerns about the first open conflict between members of NATO.

Turkey, whose relationship with the US has deteriorated over a number of issues, has also been critical of the US-Greece relationship, particularly of their expanding military exchanges.

“The American military bases in Greece are so many that they cannot be counted,” Erdogan said a month after the US and Greece signed their updated cooperation agreement, adding that, “Greece has practically become an outpost of America.”

A US Army M1A2 tank is unloaded in Alexandroupolis in July 2021.

US Army/Andre Cameron

Turkish public opinion toward the US is also affected by American deployments to Greece, Ioannis Grigoriadis, an associate professor at Turkey’s Bilkent University, told Insider.

“Amidst discussions about a ‘truly independent’ Turkish foreign and security policy, such developments can further reinforce an anti-American sentiment that has struck roots in Turkish public opinion in the last 20 years,” Grigoriadis said.

Greece and Turkey will both hold national elections in the spring, leading some to see their statements as electoral posturing. Efforts to defuse the situation are underway, according to Greek reports.

The US had tried to remain neutral in Greece and Turkey’s disputes and intervened on occasion to prevent a full-scale conflict, but now Washington faces a very difficult situation in trying to support Athens and manage tensions with Ankara, according to Ryan Gingeras, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

“For Washington, maintaining peace may come down to two unfavorable choices,” Gingeras wrote this month. The US could pressure Greece to “cede aspects of its sovereignty” and even abandon their mutual defense cooperation agreement, or the US could act as the “de facto guarantor” of Greece’s sovereignty, which could entail planning for a conflict with Turkey — and raise questions about the integrity of NATO.

Constantine Atlamazoglou works on transatlantic and European security. He holds a master’s degree in security studies and European affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. You can contact him on LinkedIn.

Pekic/Getty Images

• If you’re job hunting in this shaky economy, your résumé needs to sparkle.
• Your résumé should highlight your experience and showcase the skills that employers seek.
• It should also be tailored to the job posting so that the employer can see what you offer.

When you’re job hunting in a softening economy, having a terrific résumé becomes all the more important.

Your résumé needs to tell your prospective employer who you are, what you’ve done, and what you can do in the future. Especially as data suggests there might be increased competition for jobs.

Roughly two-thirds of American workers are considering changing roles this year, according a  LinkedIn survey of more than 2,000 US employees conducted in December. And while the job market  looks strong for now— as of November, there were 1.7 job openings per unemployed person — the overall economic picture remains hazy. Most CEOs are bracing for a downturn amid layoffs in some industries, while other economic data, like job growth, suggests the US could avoid a recession in 2023. 

Rebecca Pay has built a business — Pay for Precision — helping people write their résumés. She said résumés today should have a touch of personality and tell a clear story about how your experience qualifies you for the position.

“Writing CVs can be tough. That’s why I’ve got a business,” Pay told Insider. “Writing about yourself is the hardest thing.”

Some advice may be intuitive, like brainstorming with colleagues and using concise language when describing your work, Pay said. Other advice is different from what it was five years ago: Pay said most people should keep their résumé formatting simple unless they’re in graphic design or art.

It’s also become more normal to have a break in your résumé — a LinkedIn survey from last March found that nearly half of 7,000 employers considered candidates with career breaks to be an untapped talent pool. 

Insider spoke with career experts about their advice for résumé writing in this uncertain climate. 

1. Try some writing exercises 

Eli Joseph, a faculty member at Columbia University and New York University, takes an unusual approach to résumé writing. In his book, “The Perfect Rejection Résumé,” he helps people document how they failed and what they learned. While you shouldn’t give this to a hiring manager, it’s an exercise in thinking about your experience in a different light. 

Then, switch it up. Write a résumé where you completely praise yourself, jotting down all the personal, professional, and technical things you’re proud of each week. After looking at your experience and skills from these opposite perspectives, you can incorporate lessons from both into the final product.

2. Focus on a summary section

Both Joseph and Pay said the summary section is one of the most critical parts of your résumé. This section, which typically sits at the top of your CV, should be between 100 and 150 words and written in the first person. 

Pay said this was a place to add your voice, instead of being overly formal. This is where you tell a story about how your qualifications equip you for the position you want.

“Work out what you uniquely offer,” Pay said. “Why would they pick you for the job as opposed to someone else?”

3. Update your skills

The types of skills employers look for have changed in recent years. According to a survey last year of 205 recruiters and hiring managers by Zety, an online résumé builder app and career website, soft skills are increasingly important to hiring managers. Teamwork, communication, and time management were among the most in-demand soft skills.

Be specific about how you’ve used your skills in the past, said Joseph. For instance, perhaps you’ve showcased and honed your communication skills with speaking gigs and presentations. 

Technical skills are also important to employers. And artistic skills like writing or design can be worth highlighting to show that you’re well rounded, he said.

“It brightens up your résumé and it lets employers know that you’re productive in an organization,” Joseph said.

4. Tailor your résumé to each posting 

Pay and Joseph agreed that you should change your résumé for each job application. These are often small tweaks in the skills section and the summary, that speak to how your experience would lend itself to the job.

“No application should be the same because no opportunity is the same,” Joseph said. “We need to add some flavor, and the best way to do that is to come up with as many ideas as possible so that you can make changes on the résumé for opportunities in the future.” 

This story originally published on August 9, 2022.

NurPhoto/Contributor/Getty Images

• Artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has seen massive popularity since its public release in November.
• Executives at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, told Fortune they’re shocked by its popularity and that taking it to the public was kind of a last resort after earlier hiccups.
• “I’ll admit that I was on the side of, like, I don’t know if this is going to work,” OpenAI president Greg Brockman told Fortune.

If you’re surprised how quickly ChatGPT has taken off, you’re not alone. Even executives at OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot, are shocked by its popularity.

In a Fortune article published Wednesday, executives at the company said they weren’t sure what to expect when they released it in November. 

“I’ll admit that I was on the side of, like, I don’t know if this is going to work,” OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman told Fortune.

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, added to Fortune, “This was definitely surprising.” 

Brockman told the magazine that the idea to release ChatGPT for public use a few months ago was a bit of a last resort after OpenAI ran into some initial hurdles with the AI chatbot. For one thing, beta testers didn’t know what to ask ChatGPT about in the first place, Brockman told Fortune, and an effort to create chatbots that were experts in certain areas flopped.

In the end, ChatGPT amassed more than 1 million users in the first five days since its release, according to Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.

Altman has cautioned, however, that for all of its possible benefits, artificial intelligence can be susceptible to dangerous misuses.

“The bad case — and I think this is important to say — is like lights out for all of us,” Altman said in a recent interview with StrictlyVC’s Connie Loizos. “I’m more worried about an accidental misuse case in the short term…So I think it’s like impossible to overstate the importance of AI safety and alignment work. I would like to see much, much more happening.”

(NewsNation) — As federal regulators look for ways to secure our country’s power substations from physical attacks, legislators in North Carolina are taking matters into their own hands.

“This is a nationwide issue. It’s not going away,” said State Rep. Ben Moss, R-N.C. “And as you see in North Carolina, it is becoming more and more frequent.”

NewsNation obtained a draft bill proposed by Moss — whose district includes Moore County.

In early December, vandals shot two Duke Energy substations, causing a widespread blackout that left more than 40,000 customers in the dark, some for days.

Just last week, someone hit another substation with gunfire, this time in Randolph County, North Carolina.

“Just picture yourself for days without energy. You don’t have food, you can’t go buy gas, you can’t live your normal life,” Moss said.

His bill would require around-the-clock security at substations in the state.

North Carolina isn’t the only state to deal with attacks on the power grid. In recent months, power facilities in Oregon, Florida and Washington have also become targets.

In Morton, Washington, police said someone with a pickup truck used a crowbar and chain to cause a blackout in parts of the county that lasted for several hours.

Moss said legislators need to come up with something that’s feasible and cost-effective to make sure the grid is safe.

“As we wait for the federal government to maybe hand down some different suggestions or regulations, I think North Carolina needs to get ready to lead the front and say, Hey, we want to make sure our grid is secure,” Moss said.

In a statement, the FBI told NewsNation “at this time, we have not determined that a single individual or group is responsible or that incidents in different cities are linked. The FBI remains vigilant and works closely with our law enforcement partners on a daily basis to detect, disrupt and dismantle any threats that may emerge.”

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) on Wednesday said it would triple its share buyback program to $75 billion, the oil industry’s most ambitious shareholder payouts to date, as high oil and gas prices pad profits.

The oil industry has been facing calls from investors and the White House to put last year’s record quarterly earnings from sky high energy prices into more drilling, acquisitions, or to reduce prices for consumers.

Chevron and Exxon Mobil are preparing to report record annual profits for 2022, nearly $100 billion combined. Those unprecedented earnings led analysts at Citi on Wednesday to ask whether Chevron and Exxon could use the proceeds to buy rivals such as Europeans BP, Shell or TotalEnergies.

Chevron’s disclosure signaled it will allocate a big chunk of those profits to reward shareholders. The industry last year was one of the top sectors in the S&P 500 index after trailing the broader market for years.

The White House last year criticized oil producers for distributing cash to shareholders instead in investing in production to reduce energy prices for consumers. It also pressed oil producers to raise investments in renewable energy.

The U.S. oil producer also raised its quarterly dividend by 6% to $1.51 per share. The $75 billion buyback program has no expiration deadline. It replaces the board’s previous repurchase authorization of $25 billion from January 2019 until March 31 this year.

Spanish authorities said they were investigating what they called a possible “terrorist” incident after a machete-wielding man attacked several people at two churches in the southern port city of Algeciras, killing at least one person.

The man attacked clergymen at two different churches – San Isidro and Nuestra Senora de La Palma, around 300 metres (1,000 feet) apart – just after 8pm on Wednesday evening in downtown Algeciras, a spokesperson for the city said. A source at Madrid’s High Court said the incident was being investigated as terrorism.

Police said the attacker had been arrested, and a police source shared footage showing two officers escorting a man in a hooded sports top in handcuffs through a police station. Police have not released details of his name or nationality. Local media, including El Pais newspaper, said he was a 25-year-old Moroccan.

The man who was killed was Diego Valencia, a sacristan at the Nuestra Senora de La Palma church, while the titular priest of the parish church of San Isidro, Antonio Rodriguez, was among the injured and is in serious condition, the Algeciras city spokesperson said.

An unknown number of others were also injured. El Mundo newspaper reported that four people were hurt in the attack.

Police said the suspect first entered the San Isidro church and attacked Rodriguez. A statement by the Algeciras Salesians said Rodriguez, 74, had been celebrating Eucharist when he was attacked.

The assailant then went into the Nuestra Senora de La Palma church where he damaged property before attacking Valencia, who fled the church but was chased by the suspect, who inflicted further, fatal injuries on him outside, police said in a statement.

The parish priest at Nuestra Senora de La Palma, Juan Jose Marina, told broadcaster SER the suspect went straight for Valencia after the mass had finished, suggesting he might have believed Valencia was the priest.

“Possibly, this death was meant for me and it found him instead,” said a tearful Marina.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences to the victims of the “terrible attack” on his Twitter account, while the secretary general of Spain’s Episcopal Conference, Francisco Garcia, spoke of his “great pain” on hearing the news.

“These are sad times of suffering, we are united by the pain of the victims’ families and for the Cadiz Diocese,” he said on Twitter.

Jose Ignacio Landaluce, the mayor of Algeciras, has declared a day of mourning in the city for Thursday and a rally outside Nuestra Senora de La Palma church at midday.

Earlier on Wednesday, two people were killed and several others injured when a 33-year-old stateless Palestinian man attacked them with a knife on a regional train travelling between Kiel and Hamburg in northern Germany, authorities said.

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An immigrant farm worker accused of shooting seven people to death near San Francisco, some of them his co-workers, made his first court appearance on Wednesday after he was charged with murder in California’s second deadly gun rampage in recent days.

Chunli Zhao, 66, the lone suspect in Monday’s massacre at two mushroom farms in the seaside town of Half Moon Bay, was formally presented with seven counts of premeditated murder and a single count of attempted murder lodged in a criminal complaint filed by local prosecutors.

Zhao, handcuffed and garbed in a red jumpsuit, was ordered held without bond during a brief hearing before a judge in San Mateo County Superior Court in nearby Redwood City, California. He was assigned two private defense lawyers, but no plea was entered.

The next court proceeding in the case was set for Feb. 16.

A Mandarin-language translator was provided for the defendant, who according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe is a Chinese citizen who has resided in the United States for at least 10 years.

After the hearing, Wagstaffe told reporters outside the courthouse that prosecutors have not yet determined Zhao’s precise immigration status, or whether he entered the country legally.

The prosecutor said authorities do have an idea about the suspect’s motives but declined to share that with reporters.

The district attorney also said Zhao was “cooperative with sheriff’s detectives” who initially interviewed him through a Mandarin interpreter following his arrest and gave “a complete statement.”

Still, the expectation is that he will enter a not-guilty plea as the proceeding progress, “and we want to make sure this man gets a fair trial,” Wagstaffe said.

In addition to the eight felony counts it contains, the 10-page criminal complaint alleges “special circumstances” accusing Zhao of “personally and intentionally” shooting to kill.

California law declares that defendants convicted of murder with “special circumstances” can be eligible for the death penalty, but Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. The state has not executed a condemned inmate since 2006.

Otherwise, the maximum sentence carried by the charges is life in prison without the possibility of parole, Wagstaffe said.

Later on Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native, planned to travel to the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, site of the first of the recent deadly rampages. She was expected to meet with some families of the 11 people who were fatally shot in a dance hall on Saturday night by a gunman who later took his own life.

Coming in quick succession, the two shootings left California reeling from one of the bloodiest spates of mass gun violence in decades in a state with some of the strictest firearm laws in the country.

Authorities said that each of the two killing sprees represented the single greatest loss of life from a single act of violence in Los Angeles and San Mateo counties, respectively.

Asked if investigators believed the Half Moon Bay killings were a “copy-cat” crime, inspired by the shooting rampage in Monterey Park two days earlier, Wagstaffe said flatly, “No.”

Zhao was taken into custody on Monday evening outside a sheriff’s station, where police said he had driven shortly after the attack on farm workers.

The precise motive for the shooting remained unclear. Zhao had been employed by one of the growers, Mountain Mushroom Farm, and had resided at the property along with some other employees, according to a spokesperson for California Terra Gardens, which owns the farm. Authorities said early evidence indicated the bloodshed stemmed from a workplace grievance. The second crime scene, Concord Farms, is about a mile away.

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