In landmark case, Oklahoma is first state to sue an opioid manufacturer all the way to trial as judge orders orders company to pay $572m
An Oklahoma judge has found Johnson & Johnson liable in a lawsuit claiming the giant drug maker helped fuel the deadly opioid epidemic in the state.
Oklahoma is the first state to sue an opioid manufacturer in court all the way to trial.
Continue reading...Leaders put on a show of common endeavor with awareness that meeting could be a lot worse next year when Trump will be circus master
If next year’s G7 summit turns out to be a branding event at a Trump golf resort in Florida, with Vladimir Putin as de-facto co-chair, the old guard among America’s allies will look back on this year’s meeting in Biarritz with some nostalgia.
Related: Trump defends bid to host G7 at his Miami resort: 'I don't care about money'
Continue reading...Donald Trump has insisted he is not seeking to profit from the US presidency after revealing a resort he owns in Miami is in the running to host the next G7 summit in 2020. Trump claimed it had cost him '$3bn to $5bn' to be president and suggested hosting the event at his Trump National Doral Miami resort would not make him any money, before reeling off a list of facts about the property
Continue reading...Donald Trump was “crazy like a fox” when he floated the idea of buying Greenland because the move would secure vital strategic interests for the US, a leading presidential ally in the Senate insisted on Monday.
Related: Trump’s bid to buy Greenland shows that the ‘scramble for the Arctic’ is truly upon us
Continue reading...World leaders offer $20m now plus reforestation plan, but critics want major policy shifts
The G7’s pledge of $20m (£16m) to douse the fires in the Amazon has been dismissed as “chump change” by environmental campaigners, as concerns grow about political cooperation on deforestation and other climate issues.
The summit host, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told reporters he would try to deal with the long-term causes by creating an international alliance to save the rainforest, with details of a reforestation programme to be unveiled at next month’s UN climate meeting in New York.
Continue reading...Tamir Rice, Terence Crutcher and Ramarley Graham were all killed by police officers. The Guardian meets the women, men and children who lived with them, raised them, called them brother or father or son, and hears how they now live with the grief of their loss
Continue reading...Investors seek safe havens such as US treasuries and gold as the superpower standoff shows no sign of being resolved
Shares in Australia and across Asia Pacific have fallen sharply amid a new flare-up of US-Chinese trade tensions.
Despite a senior Chinese leader saying Beijing wanted to resolve the dispute with “calm negotiations”, indices were deep in the red on Monday.
Continue reading...Opponents fighting to stop the project say the fragile river cannot sustain such a large draw
The crystal blue waters of Ginnie Springs have long been treasured among the string of pearls that line Florida’s picturesque Santa Fe River, a playground for water sports enthusiasts and an ecologically critical haven for the numerous species of turtles that nest on its banks.
Soon, however, it is feared there could be substantially less water flowing through, if a plan by the food and beverage giant Nestlé wins approval.
Continue reading...US president reportedly asked more than once about why military could not bomb hurricanes
Donald Trump has reportedly suggested on more than one occasion that the US military should bomb hurricanes in order to disrupt them before they make landfall.
According to US news website Axios, the president said in a meeting with top national security and homeland security officials about the threat of hurricanes: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”
“They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”
Continue reading...US president argues Putin should be included in discussions on Iran, Syria and North Korea
Donald Trump has rowed with his fellow G7 leaders over his demand that Russia be readmitted to the group, rejecting arguments that it should remain an association of liberal democracies, according to diplomats at the summit in Biarritz.
The disagreement led to heated exchanges at a dinner on Saturday night inside the seaside resort’s 19th-century lighthouse. According to diplomatic sources, Trump argued strenuously that Vladimir Putin should be invited back, five years after Russia was ejected from the then G8) for its annexation of Crimea.
Continue reading...A Los Angeles county deputy lied when he said he was shot in the shoulder while standing in a sheriff’s station parking lot last week and will face a criminal investigation, authorities said.
“The reported sniper assault was fabricated” by deputy Angel Reinosa, assistant sheriff Robin Limon said at a news conference on Saturday.
Continue reading...Visit comes during summit at which policy on Iran has been one of most contentious issues
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has made a surprise appearance in Biarritz meeting Emmanuel Macron, in the midst of a G7 summit where western policy towards Iran has been one of the most contentious issues.
On Sunday evening, Zarif posted a picture on Twitter of his meeting with the French president and the foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, reportedly in the office of the Biarritz mayor, across the road from a building where G7 leaders had been meeting. The Iranian foreign minister said he had also provided a briefing for British and German officials.
Continue reading...Joe Walsh, a talk radio host and former congressman, said on Sunday he would challenge Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.
Related: Something rotten? Trump's state over Denmark at heart of a madcap week
Continue reading...French president Emmanuel Macron has said he hopes to convince world leaders to pull back from trade war and heal growing divisions at the G7 summit in Biarritz, despite signs that will be a daunting task.
Related: Boris Johnson prepares for Biarritz balancing act with Donald Trump
Continue reading...Analysts say sending a warship to patrol the Strait of Hormuz risks binding Australia to an incoherent and inflammatory US foreign policy
Australia’s announcement this week that it will join US-led freedom of navigation operations patrolling the Strait of Hormuz brings the number of American allies willing to contribute to America’s latest Middle East sortie to just three.
The increasing tensions in the narrow, but critical, strait are almost universally regarded as an avoidable, US-created crisis, the result of Washington tearing up the Iran nuclear deal.
Continue reading...Philadelphia ceremony honors John Pierre Burr, prominent member of black society now recognised as son of founding father
John Pierre Burr, one of two children the former vice-president Aaron Burr is said to have fathered with a servant from India, was officially memorialized as a descendant of the founding father at a ceremony in Philadelphia on Saturday.
The elder Burr was the vice-president to Thomas Jefferson between 1801 and 1805 but is perhaps best known for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, an act which made him the villain in a hit Broadway musical.
Continue reading...The Trump administration is planning to open a US consulate in Greenland for the first time in decades, amid increased strategic and economic interest in the Danish territory.
Related: Sorry, Mr Trump – Greenland’s no go. But can I interest you in our little island? | Jack Bernhardt
Continue reading...Prince Andrew has commented on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, saying he did not “see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to [the] arrest and conviction” of the deceased financier.
Related: 'Boorish and self-centred': little love for Prince Andrew over Epstein links
Continue reading...Case appears to be first allegation of a crime committed in low Earth orbit
Nasa is investigating a claim that an astronaut accessed the bank account of her estranged partner while she was living on the International Space Station (ISS).
The case appears to be the first allegation of a crime committed in low Earth orbit, according to the New York Times.
Continue reading...Emissions of a likely carcinogen emitted by a nearby plant have been recorded at levels hundreds of times above the safe limit
Local officials in Reserve, Louisiana, are examining the prospect of removing pupils from an elementary school situated a few hundred feet from a chemical plant that presents the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxins anywhere in America, the Guardian has learned.
The Fifth Ward elementary school, which educates close to 500 students aged up to 10 years old, has become a focal point in environmental activism in Reserve after emissions of a likely carcinogen, chloroprene, emitted by the nearby plant have been recorded at the school at levels hundreds of times above the safe limit recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
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