Boeing reached a last-minute settlement in one of two lawsuits in this week’s trial in Chicago over a 2019 737 MAX crash that killed 157 people, attorneys announced Wednesday.The agreement leaves a single plaintiff remaining in the first civil trial over the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which began in earnest Wednesday after jury selection wrapped up a day earlier.The litigation centers on how to calculate monetary damages to plaintiffs from Boeing, which acknowledges the need to compensate victims but disputes the amount.Opening statements were pushed back after the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Clifford, announced a settlement involving the relatives of Kenyan-born Mercy Ndivo, who died in the crash aged 28 along with her husband, leaving behind a daughter and her parents.”Our clients are very appreciative of the court allowing them to use its resources to achieve the justice they required,” said Clifford, adding that the settlement amount was confidential.During Wednesday’s proceeding, Ndivo’s father, Frederick Ndivo, approached US District Judge Jorge Alonso and expressed gratitude. Ndivo was joined in the courtroom by his wife and eldest daughter.”We are so grateful,” Ndivo said in court. “We wish the legal system of the United States will continue upholding the rights of the people… the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”The lawsuits stem from the March 10, 2019, flight that crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.Family members of 155 victims filed lawsuits between April 2019 and March 2021, alleging wrongful death and negligence, among other claims.Alonso has been splitting the cases into groups with five or six plaintiffs at a time. In prior rounds, the judge has canceled proceedings after all the cases in a group settled.In addition to Ndivo, Clifford reached settlements with relatives of two other victims, Abdul Jalil Qaid Ghazi Hussein, 38, the father of seven children and Nasrudin Mohammed, 30, who was pregnant with a fourth child.- Remaining litigants -Litigants in the remaining case are the relatives of Shikha Garg of New Delhi, a consultant for the United Nations Development Program who had been traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environmental Assembly.In opening remarks on the case, Shanin Specter, an attorney for Garg’s survivors, described the victim as “beautiful, inside and out.”He painted a picture of an accomplished young woman who had just married her partner of six years, Soumya Bhattacharya, three months before the crash.A photo showed Bhattacharya and Garg on their wedding day, dressed in traditional Indian clothes of red and glittering gold. The two had met while working at the United Nations and were supposed to fly to Kenya together, but Bhattacharya had a work conflict.”It’s one of the biggest remorse in my life that I had not been able to be with her,” Bhattacharya said. He said they wanted to have children together, adding: “We would have been a happy family.” He explained he is now afraid to fly, especially on Boeing-manufactured planes.”She wrote to him that she would call him when she landed,” Specter said. “A phone call that was never made.”- Damages -The jury must award money in four categories including compensating Garg’s lifetime earnings, the trauma she endured before the crash, fair compensation for Bhattacharya’s loss of companionship and the harms associated with his grief.”Mr. Bhattacharya is not here for your sympathy!” Specter said. “He is here for justice.”In his opening statement defending Boeing, attorney Dan Webb did not dispute Boeing’s full responsibility for the accident. He urged the jury to render a verdict that would compensate Garg and her husband, but disputed Specter’s contention that Garg suffered injuries before the crash. “Boeing agrees with Mr. Specter that Boeing should pay significant compensation,” Webb said. “We disagree on the actual amount.”

Donald Trump emerged battered by an election night that was disastrous for his party, after failing to deliver on the promise that secured his second White House term: lowering the cost of living for Americans.Tuesday’s vote was “not expected to be a victory,” Trump told Republican senators a day after elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York handily won by the Democratic opposition.”I don’t think it was good for Republicans,” he added.Steve Bannon, one of the leading architects of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, had foreshadowed the Democratic success: “The warning signs are flashing.””It was a very, very bad night for Donald Trump,” said Robert Rowland, a professor of communication at the University of Kansas.Democratic wins on Tuesday night shared “a common theme: the cost of living,” said Thomas Kahn, a professor of political science at American University in Washington.- Life of a baron -Billionaire Trump, 79, proclaimed Wednesday that the US has “the hottest economy we’ve ever had.”But that sentiment clashes with “the reality that people experience when they go to the grocery store,” Rowland said.Trump has also repeatedly claimed that gas prices are at $2 per gallon ($0.52 per liter), including in a Fox News interview Wednesday, while a tracker by AAA showed the national average at $3.08 — around the same price as a year ago.Polls show Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with the cost of living, along with rising concern over the impact of Trump’s global tariff war.Instead of hammering home messages about rising costs and kitchen-table issues, Trump’s gone “completely off script,” Kahn said.Recent gold-and-marble renovations at the White House and an opulent Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago estate show a US leader out of touch with ordinary citizens, he said.”The American people are suffering…facing these high prices and struggling, they watch Donald Trump live the life of a baron,” Kahn said.Trump also blamed Tuesday’s Republican losses on the federal government shutdown — now the longest ever at 36 days.It has led to hits on social welfare programs, unpaid leave for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and pared back public services.- ‘Kamikaze’ -Far from signaling a willingness to compromise, Trump slammed “kamikaze” Democratic lawmakers and has urged Senate Republicans to force through a budget bill by abandoning a longstanding 60-vote threshold for most legislation.Without the so-called filibuster, Trump and his party would be able to unilaterally pass reforms, including a voter ID law he believes would favor Republicans ahead of next year’s midterm elections.Republican candidates are wary, after seeing voters who supported Trump in 2024 turn to Democratic candidates on Tuesday.Conservatives “have really tied themselves to Trump, but Trump is now underwater,” said Wendy Schiller, a political scientist at Brown University.Republicans now face the problem of “how do they uncouple from Trump,” she said. “What these elections showed is that they’re on the wrong side of these issues, according to a lot of voters.”However, Republican candidates are reluctant to directly oppose Trump for fear of being sidelined by more radical candidates, Rowland said.Trump’s comeback abilities are also unparalleled, considering his White House reelection after a criminal conviction and the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.”Anybody in the past who’s ever counted out Donald Trump loses the bet,” Kahn said.His return to power wasn’t solely due to the unwavering support of his base, but because he was able to attract undecided voters concerned about making ends meet.”He can survive anything except bad economic news,” Rowland said.