The daily business briefing: April 5, 2016

1. Judge approves $20 billion BP oil spill settlement

A federal judge on Monday gave final approval to a $20 billion settlement to end years of litigation over BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In an earlier ruling, the judge, Carl Barbier, said BP was "grossly negligent" in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 workers and resulted in the gushing of 134 million gallons of oil into the sea. The settlement was first announced last July. It calls for $5.5 billion in Clean Water Act penalties, and more for damages and other claims.

The Associated Press

2. California and New York officially adopt $15 an hour minimum wage plans

California and New York on Monday adopted plans to slowly raise their minimum wages to $15 an hour. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a new law calling for yearly hikes starting next year to push the state's minimum from $10 an hour, already the highest state minimum in the nation, to $15 by 2022. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) officially signed a bill into law on Monday to make state minimum wage $15 an hour by 2022. New York's state budget calls for gradually hiking the minimum wage from $9 to $15, starting in New York City in three years.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

USA Today The Associated Press

3. U.S. Treasury moves to curb corporate tax inversions

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday announced new rules to prevent corporate inversions, in which American companies avoid U.S. taxes by purchasing a foreign rival and moving their headquarters address overseas. The latest in a series of attempts to discourage corporate inversions could affect the pending $160 billion merger of Pfizer Inc and Dublin-based Allergan, which would be the largest corporate inversion yet. Allergan shares fell 22 percent in after-hours trading, while Pfizer rose by 3 percent.

Reuters

4. U.S. looks into offshore dealings uncovered in Panama Papers

The U.S. and governments around the world launched investigations Monday into evidence of possible financial wrongdoing in the so-called Panama Papers, more than 11.5 million documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm. Demonstrators gathered outside Iceland's parliament on Monday to call for Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson's resignation after the documents revealed details of an offshore company he and his now-wife set up in 2007. Gunnlaugsson denied he evaded taxes or did anything else wrong.

Reuters The New York Times

5. Twitter scores deal to stream Thursday night NFL games

Twitter beat out Verizon, Yahoo, Amazon, and Facebook to earn the rights to stream Thursday night National Football League games online, the NFL confirmed Tuesday. "There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. Twitter's foray into online programming isn't an entirely unexpected one: The deal would help seal Twitter as a go-to place to watch and react to live events, especially as households increasingly cut cable subscriptions.

Bloomberg NFL