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The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to restrict thousands of lawsuits claiming Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, had a duty to warn consumers about potential cancer risks from its popular weed killer Roundup. The case before the Supreme Court began in St. Louis, Missouri, where a resident named John Durnell, who had used Roundup for decades and was later diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, sued Monsanto under Missouri state law for not putting a warning label on its product. But because the federal Environmental Protection Agency found no cancer risk in its assessment of Roundup, the court has ruled against Durnell.
"The ruling essentially says that only the EPA can make a determination that something is harmful to us and has to carry a warning label," explains reporter Nate Halverson, who has been documenting health and environmental harms allegedly linked to Roundup, as well as efforts to hold Monsanto accountable. In his reporting, Halverson found that scientific studies cited by the EPA in its Roundup assessment were "ghostwritten" by Monsanto itself — and "that ghostwritten information has now made its way into the Supreme Court's decision."
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"This is a victory 10 years in the making," a White House official said after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could end deportation protections for some migrants.
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The death toll from twin earthquakes that hit Venezuela Wednesday night is expected to reach into the thousands as rescuers continue to search for bodies trapped in the rubble. Hospitals are rapidly reaching a breaking point, and thousands of survivors have been left homeless. Reporter Andreína Chávez's building was one of the countless residences in Venezuela's capital Caracas and its surrounding region that were damaged by the massive quakes. Chávez was on the street when the earthquakes struck, and says she "saw at least three buildings partially collapse right in front of [her]."
As Venezuelans band together to find survivors, the country is calling for international support and resources to step up critical rescue and recovery efforts. "We weren't prepared for a disaster of this magnitude," says Chávez. "Venezuela is a country that has been under U.S. sanctions … as well as a country that has an infrastructure that is very deteriorated. We have public services that are very deteriorated, and all of that has been something that has really added to this tragedy."
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