Briefly

UNITED STATES

Meta ordered to pay $25b to New Mexico

A New Mexico judge ruled on Wednesday that Meta must pay $25 billion to the state after a jury found last month that the social media giant had deceived users in a case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The penalty comes a couple of months after Meta agreed to pay $18 billion to settle claims brought by 48 other states, including allegations tied to Cambridge Analytica. Meta slammed the case as "a tax on speech". Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm found to have improperly harvested personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising.

DPRK

ROK warned against meddling in project

A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Thursday warned the Republic of Korea not to interfere in the DPRK's fortification project along the southern border, the Korean Central News Agency reported. Kim Yo-jong, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, made the remarks in response to an ROK criticism from Kim Byung-joo, a special presidential adviser for defense policy, the report said. Kim Yo-jong stressed the DPRK's strong resolve to press ahead with the border project, which she said is a "work of repairing the fence".

CHINA DAILY-XINHUA